A janissary (UK: JAN-iss-ər-ee, US: -err-ee; Ottoman Turkish: یڭیچری, romanized: yeñiçeri, IPA: [jeˈɲit͡ʃeɾ̞i], lit. 'new soldier') was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops. They were one of the first modern standing armies, and perhaps the first infantry force in the world to be equipped primarily with firearms, adopted during the reign of Murad II (r. 1421–1444, 1446–1451). The corps was established under either Orhan or Murad I, and dismantled by Mahmud II in 1826.
Janissaries began as an elite corps made up through the devşirme system of child levy enslavement, by which Christian boys, chiefly from the Balkans, were taken, levied, subjected to forced circumcision and forced conversion to Islam, and incorporated into the Ottoman army. They became famed for internal cohesion cemented by strict discipline and order. Unlike typical slaves, they were paid regular salaries. Forbidden to marry until retirement (typically in their 40s) or engage in trade, their complete loyalty to the Ottoman sultan was expected. By the 17th century, due to a dramatic increase in the size of the Ottoman standing army, the corps' initially strict recruitment policy was relaxed. Civilians bought their way into it in order to benefit from the improved socio-economic status it conferred upon them. Consequently, the corps gradually lost its military character, undergoing a process that has been described as "civilianization".
The Janissary Corps were a formidable military unit in the early centuries, but as Western Europe modernized its military organization and technology, the Janissaries became a reactionary force that resisted all change within the Ottoman army. Steadily the Ottoman military power became outdated, but when the Janissaries felt their privileges were being threatened, or outsiders wanted to modernize them, or they might be superseded by their cavalry rivals, they would rise in rebellion. By the time the Janissaries were suppressed, it was too late for Ottoman military power to catch up with the West. The Janissary Corps was abolished by Mahmud II in 1826 in the Auspicious Incident, in which 6,000 or more Janissaries were executed.
The Janissary Corps was formed in the 14th century, either during the rule of Murad I (r. 1362–1389), the third sultan of the Ottoman Empire, or during the time of Murad's father, Orhan (r. c. 1324 – 1362). The Ottoman government instituted a tax of one-fifth on all slaves taken in war, and from this pool of manpower the sultans first constructed the Janissary corps as a personal army loyal only to the Ottoman sultan.
From the 1380s to 1648, the Janissaries were gathered through the devşirme system of child levy enslavement, which was abolished in 1648. This recruitment of Janissary troops was achieved through the enslaving of dhimmi peoples (i.e., non-Muslims), predominantly Balkan Christians. Jews were never subject to devşirme; however, there is evidence that Jews tried to enroll into the system. Jews were not allowed to join the Janissary Corps, and so in suspected cases the entire batch would be sent to the Imperial Arsenal as indentured laborers. Ottoman documents from the levy of the winter of 1603–1604 from Bosnia and Albania wrote to draw attention to some children as "possibly being Jewish" (şekine-i arz-ı yahudi). According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, "in early days, all Christians were enrolled indiscriminately. Later, those from what is now Albania, Bosnia, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria and Hungary were preferred." The Bektashi Order became the official religious and spiritual institution of the Janissaries in the 15th century.
The Janissaries were kapıkulları (sing. kapıkulu), "door servants" or "slaves of the Porte", neither freedmen nor ordinary slaves (köle). They were subjected to strict discipline, but were paid salaries and pensions upon retirement and formed their own distinctive social class. As such, they became one of the ruling classes of the Ottoman Empire, rivalling the Ottoman Turkish aristocracy. The brightest of the Janissaries were sent to the palace institution, Enderun. Through a system of meritocracy, the Janissaries held enormous power, stopping all efforts to reform the military.
According to military historian Michael Antonucci and economic historians Glenn Hubbard and Tim Kane, the Turkish administrators would scour their provinces (but especially the Balkans) every five years for the strongest sons of the European Christians. When a non-Muslim boy was recruited under the devşirme system of child levy enslavement, he would first be sent to selected Ottoman Turkish families in the provinces to learn Turkish, subjected to forced circumcision and forced conversion to Islam, and to learn the customs and culture of Ottoman society. After completing this period, acemi ("new recruit") boys were gathered for training at the Enderun acemi oğlan ("rookie" or "cadet") school in the capital city. There, young cadets would be selected for their talents in different areas to train as engineers, artisans, riflemen, clerics, archers, artillery, and so forth. Most were of non-Muslim origin because it was not permissible to enslave other Muslims.
It was a similar system to the Iranian Safavid, Afsharid, and Qajar-era ghilman, who were drawn from converted Circassians, Georgians, and Armenians, and in the same way as with the Ottoman Janissaries, who had to replace the unreliable ghazi. They were initially created as a counterbalance to the tribal, ethnic, and favoured interests the Qizilbash gave, which make a system imbalanced.
In the late 16th century, a sultan gave in to the pressures of the Corps and permitted Janissary children to become members of the Corps, a practice strictly forbidden for the previous 300 years. According to paintings of the era, they were also permitted to grow beards. Consequently, the formerly strict rules of succession became open to interpretation. While they advanced their own power, the Janissaries also helped to keep the system from changing in other progressive ways, and according to some scholars the corps shared responsibility for the political stagnation of Istanbul.
Greek historian Dimitri Kitsikis in his book Türk Yunan İmparatorluğu ("Turco-Greek Empire") states that many Bosnian Christian families were willing to comply with the devşirme because it offered a possibility of social advancement. Conscripts could one day become Janissary colonels, statesmen who might one day return to their home region as governors, or even Grand Viziers or beylerbey ("governor generals"). Some of the most famous Janissaries include George Kastrioti Skanderbeg, an Albanian feudal lord who defected and led a 25‑year Albanian revolt against the Ottomans. Another was Sokollu Mehmed Paşa, a Bosnian Serb who became a Grand Vizier, served three sultans, and was the de facto ruler of the Ottoman Empire for more than 14 years.
The Janissary corps was distinctive in a number of ways. They wore unique uniforms, were paid regular salaries (including bonuses) for their service, marched to music (the mehter), lived in barracks, and were the first military corps to make extensive use of firearms. A Janissary battalion was a close-knit community, effectively the soldier's family. By tradition, the Ottoman sultan himself, after authorizing the payments to the Janissaries, visited the barracks dressed as a Janissary trooper, and received his pay alongside the other men of the First Division. They also served as policemen, palace guards, and firefighters during peacetime. The Janissaries also enjoyed far better support on campaign than the other armies of the time. They were part of a well-organized military machine, in which one support corps prepared the roads while others pitched tents and baked the bread. Their weapons and ammunition were transported and re-supplied by the cebeci corps. They campaigned with their own medical teams of Muslim and Jewish surgeons and their sick and wounded were evacuated to dedicated mobile hospitals set up behind the lines. By the mid-18th century, they had taken up many trades and gained the right to marry and enroll their children in the corps and very few continued to live in the barracks. Many of them became administrators and scholars in other branches of government service.