Janissaries: Origins of the Ottoman Elite Infantry (c. 1363)

The Janissaries were the standing infantry of the Ottoman sultans, created in the reign of Murad I, traditionally around 1363. Paid in cash, trained full time and loyal only to the ruler, they are often described as the first permanent infantry force in Europe since Roman times. Over the next century and a half they became the steady core of the armies that carried Ottoman rule across the Balkans and Anatolia, and in 1453 into Constantinople.

Background: a frontier state in need of soldiers

In the early 14th century the Ottomans were one of several Turkish principalities, or beyliks, in western Anatolia. Their armies were made up of tribal horsemen and frontier raiders, who fought for plunder and land grants and could not be kept in the field for long. Under Orhan (ruled c. 1324–1362) the state began to raise paid foot soldiers, but these early units were neither permanent nor reliable.

The crossing into Europe changed the scale of warfare. After the Ottomans gained a foothold at Gallipoli in 1354, they took Adrianople (Edirne) in the 1360s and began to fight fortified cities and well-armed Balkan princes. A sultan who wished to control his own frontier lords also needed troops that owed him alone their loyalty. A permanent infantry recruited from outside the Turkish aristocracy met both needs.

The founding under Murad I

Ottoman chronicles of the 15th century link the founding of the corps to the pencik, the sultan’s right to one-fifth of all prisoners of war. Tradition credits the idea to the religious scholar Kara Rustem and to Candarli Kara Halil, later Kara Halil Hayreddin Pasha, the first grand vizier of the Candarli family. Young male captives taken in the Balkan wars were assigned to the sultan, converted to Islam and trained as his foot guard.

The exact date is not known. Many works give c. 1363, while others place the formal organisation of the corps in the 1370s or 1380s. The name yeni ceri, “new soldier”, was rendered in European languages as Janissary. It reflected how new this kind of force was in the Ottoman world.

The devshirme levy

As the supply of war captives proved irregular, the state turned to a more systematic method, the devshirme, or “collection”. The earliest clear evidence for it is a sermon of 1395 by Isidore Glabas, Metropolitan of Thessaloniki, lamenting the seizure of Christian children. By the 15th century it had become a regular levy, held every few years.

Officials visited Christian villages, mainly in the Balkans and later also in Anatolia, and selected boys usually aged between about eight and eighteen. Only sons, married boys and the children of townsmen were normally exempt, and Muslims were excluded, with the exception of Bosnian Muslims later on. The boys were registered, converted to Islam and sent to live with Turkish farming families in Anatolia, where they learned Turkish and hard physical work.

After this period they entered the corps of novices (acemi oglanlar) and then, as vacancies arose, the Janissary corps itself. The most promising boys were chosen instead for the palace school, where they were educated for service at court. Many later governors, admirals and grand viziers began life in this way, which made the devshirme both a heavy burden on Christian families and, for some, a route to great power.

Life and organisation of the corps

The Janissaries were the sultan’s slaves (kul) in a legal sense, but they were also a privileged elite. They received regular pay every three months, clothing and rations, and were exempt from most taxes. In this early period they were forbidden to marry or to take up a trade while in active service, and they lived in barracks in the capital.

The corps was organised in units called ortas, each commanded by officers whose titles came from the kitchen, such as the “soup maker” (corbaci). The great cooking cauldron of each unit was a symbol of its identity, and overturning the cauldrons became the traditional sign of a Janissary revolt. The whole corps was led by the agha of the Janissaries.

The Janissaries were closely associated with the Bektashi order of Sufi dervishes, whose leaders acted as their spiritual patrons. They wore a distinctive tall white felt cap with a long flap hanging behind. At first they fought mainly as archers and with hand weapons, but they adopted firearms in the 15th century and became famous for disciplined musket fire in the 16th.

The Janissaries in battle to 1500

The corps was still small in the 14th century, but it played an important part in Ottoman victories. At the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 and at Nicopolis in 1396, the infantry in the Ottoman centre held firm (at Nicopolis behind a line of sharpened stakes) while the cavalry decided the battle. At the Battle of Ankara in 1402, when much of Bayezid I’s army collapsed or changed sides, the Janissaries fought around the sultan to the end.

At the Battle of Varna in 1444, King Wladyslaw III of Poland and Hungary charged toward Murad II’s position and was killed among the Janissaries guarding the sultan. This moment turned a battle that had been going badly for the Ottomans into a decisive victory. Four years later the corps again played a central part at the second Battle of Kosovo in 1448.

Under Mehmed II the corps reached a new level of importance. In the final assault on Constantinople on 29 May 1453, the sultan sent the Janissaries forward last, and they broke through the exhausted defenders. In the decades that followed they fought against Venice, Hungary, the Aq Qoyunlu ruler Uzun Hasan at Otlukbeli in 1473 and the Mamluks.

Power and politics

A loyal standing army could also become a political force. In 1446, during the brief first reign of the young Mehmed II, the Janissaries rioted in Edirne over their pay in what became known as the Bucuktepe revolt. Their unrest helped bring Murad II back to the throne.

When Mehmed II returned to the throne in 1451, the Janissaries again pressed for a pay rise, and by the accession of Bayezid II in 1481 a large cash gift to the corps at the start of each reign had become customary. This custom gave the Janissaries a powerful voice in successions. By 1500 the pattern that would mark later Ottoman history was already visible: an army indispensable in war that could also pressure the sultan in peace.

By the numbers

Myths and facts

A common belief holds that all Janissaries were taken from their families as small children. In fact, the early corps was formed largely from prisoners of war, and devshirme recruits were often teenagers rather than infants.

Another misconception is that the Janissaries made up most of the Ottoman army. Even at their height they were only a minority of the sultan’s forces. The provincial cavalry, the sipahis, who held land grants called timars, provided far larger numbers in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Timeline

• 1354: The Ottomans gain a foothold in Europe at Gallipoli.
• c. 1363: Traditional date for the founding of the Janissary corps under Murad I.
• 1389, 15 June: First Battle of Kosovo; Murad I is killed but the Ottomans win.
• 1395: Isidore Glabas, Metropolitan of Thessaloniki, preaches against the levy of Christian boys.
• 1402, 20 July: The Janissaries stand by Bayezid I at the Battle of Ankara.
• 1444, 10 November: Wladyslaw III is killed attacking Murad II’s Janissaries at Varna.
• 1446: The Bucuktepe revolt over pay in Edirne.
• 1453, 29 May: The Janissaries lead the final assault on Constantinople.
• 1826, June: Mahmud II abolishes the corps.

Why it matters

The Janissaries gave the Ottoman sultans a disciplined, permanent infantry at a time when most European rulers relied on short-term feudal levies and mercenaries. This advantage helped turn a small frontier principality into an empire spanning two continents. The devshirme system that fed the corps also shaped the Ottoman ruling class for centuries, and remains one of the most debated institutions of the Ottoman past.