Janissary
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A janissary 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 w
Agha of the Janissaries and a Bölük of the Janissaries by Lambert Wyts, 1573
Agha of the Janissaries, commander of the Janissary Corps, in 1768
Portrait of a Janissary with a firearm (before 1657)
The Janissary Agha leading the corps, 1658.
Devshirme
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Devshirme was the Ottoman practice of forcibly recruiting soldiers and bureaucrats from among the children of their Balkan Christian subjects and raising them in the religion of Islam. Those coming fr
Janissary
…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…
Illustration of an Ottoman official and his assistant registering Christian boys for the devshirme. The official takes a tax to cover the price of the boys' new red clothes and the cost of transport from their home, while the assistant records their village, district and province, parentage, date of birth and physical appearance. Ottoman miniature painting, 1558.
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