Janissaries are a very interesting part of the Ottoman Empire. Taken from farm towns all over the Ottoman Empire, these young men, preferably ages 15-18 were initially very important to the growth of the Ottoman empire. They viewed the Sultan as a father figure and were brought to the capital of the Empire to be housed, trained, and paid to perform a vast array of services to the kingdom.
The area that I would like to address about these Janissaries is the fact that they were only taken from farming, rural communities. I understand that the Ottomans believe that men of these areas were much stronger and this is why they ignored urban communities. However, wouldnt the Ottomans want to collect from the greatest number possible? As I understand it, Janissaries were not only trained as soldiers, but also men of government and trade. I would think that eduation systems are much better in the urban communities closer to the government establishments. Therefore, couldnt the Ottomans find men for more positions if they included urban areas?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This is a really interesting thought that had not crossed my mind. Since the Ottomans could only collect young Christian man to serve as Janissaries, perhaps the largest Christian populations were in rural areas. If that was the case, then targeting those places would be the most effective way to round up large numbers of recruits.
ReplyDeleteIt may also be true that education systems were not necessarily better in urban areas, and that the best (or only) way to become educated was to become a Janissary. From what we have learned so far it does not seem that the Ottomans were short of Janissaries; conversely, it appears that when they shifted from the established devshirme process, that is when problems with the Janissaries began to arise.
It's amazing to see after learning about the Jannissaries in class that they were never completely sucessful in over throwing the powers to be. Around the mid 1500's Jannissaries numbered in the hundreds of thousands.
ReplyDeleteAnneliese, I understand what you are saying, and perhaps the Ottomans were far from a shortage of Jannissaries. However, when the Jannisaries were at the height of their success with the Ottoman Empire, I thought it may have been interesting to wonder what could have been if the the Ottomans drafted from an even larger pool. This because as we know, Jannisaries were not only soldiers but political figures as well.
ReplyDelete