Janissaries

Origins

The Janissaries were the household infantry of the Ottoman Empire. Their Turkish name, yeniçeri, means "new soldiers." Tradition dates the corps to the reign of Sultan Murad I in the 1360s or 1370s. At first it was filled with prisoners of war, from the sultan's customary share of one captive in five. What began as a bodyguard grew into one of the first standing, salaried, uniformed infantry forces in Europe since Roman times, long before most of its Christian rivals had anything similar.

Organization & Training

For most of the corps' history, recruits came through the devşirme, a periodic levy of Christian boys, mostly from the Balkans. The boys were taken from their families, converted to Islam, and sent to work on Turkish farms to learn the language before years of training. The best went into palace service; most became Janissaries. They were the sultan's slaves in law, which meant they owed loyalty to him alone rather than to any noble family, and in their great centuries they were forbidden to marry.

The corps' culture was distinctive. Units were called ortas, and the great copper cooking pot was the regimental standard. Officers had kitchen titles, and overturning the pots was the signal for revolt. The Bektashi Sufi order was the corps' spiritual home, and the mehter military band, with its kettle-drums and shawms, marched with them. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries their discipline was the empire's edge.

Weapons & Equipment

The first Janissaries were archers. They were early and enthusiastic adopters of gunpowder during the Gunpowder Revolution, and by the sixteenth century most carried the Matchlock Musket, a long-barreled handgun, which they fired in volleys from behind wagons, ditches and field works. For close combat they carried sabers such as the Ottoman Kilij, axes, and later the forward-curved Ottoman Yatagan. They wore little armor, relying on firepower and discipline instead. Their tall white felt cap, the börk, made them easy to recognize.

Notable Actions

Janissaries were at the heart of the army that took Constantinople in 1453. At Chaldiran in 1514, their musket volleys from behind chained wagons broke the cavalry of Safavid Persia. The Mamluk Sultanate fell to similar tactics in 1516 and 1517. Under Suleiman the Magnificent they fought at Belgrade in 1521, Rhodes in 1522 and Mohács in 1526, and they led the unsuccessful siege of Vienna in 1529. Janissaries also served as marines aboard the galleys, and many died at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.

Legacy

Privilege spoiled the institution. From the late sixteenth century the corps grew far larger, sons of Janissaries were enrolled, and many members became shopkeepers and craftsmen who drew pay but rarely drilled. Janissary revolts deposed and even killed sultans, including Osman II in 1622, and blocked army reform. In June 1826 Sultan Mahmud II provoked a revolt and crushed it with loyal artillery, shelling the barracks with thousands inside. The Ottomans called this the "Auspicious Incident." For more than four centuries, though, the drums of the Janissaries announced the arrival of one of the most professional infantry forces in Europe or Asia.

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