Devshirmeh
Encyclopedia
Ottoman Turkish language
The Ottoman Turkish language or Ottoman language is the variety of the Turkish language that was used for administrative and literary purposes in the Ottoman Empire. It borrows extensively from Arabic and Persian, and was written in a variant of the Perso-Arabic script...
دوشيرمه, Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
παιδομάζωμα, Paedomazoma - collection of children; , Mankahavak
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
: tribut de sânge; Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
: Danak u krvi, Slovene
Slovenian language
Slovene or Slovenian is a South Slavic language spoken by approximately 2.5 million speakers worldwide, the majority of whom live in Slovenia. It is the first language of about 1.85 million people and is one of the 23 official and working languages of the European Union...
: Krvni davek, Serbian
Serbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
: Данак у крви / Danak u krvi, Macedonian
Macedonian language
Macedonian is a South Slavic language spoken as a first language by approximately 2–3 million people principally in the region of Macedonia but also in the Macedonian diaspora...
: Данок во крв / Danok vo krv, and Bulgarian
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
: Кръвен данък/ Kraven Danak - blood tax) was the practice by which the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
recruited boys, forcibly, from Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
families, who were selected by skilled scouts to be trained and enrolled in one of the four imperial institutions: the Palace, the Scribes, the Religious and the Military. Although the primary objective of the devshirmeh system was to select and train the ablest children for leadership positions, either as military leaders or as high administrators to serve the Empire converting to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
was mandatory to stay in the system. The devshirme candidates were not supposed to be orphans, or the only child in their family (to ensure the candidates had strong family values); they must not have already learned to speak Turkish or a craft/trade. The ideal age of a recruit was between 10 and 20 years of age. Although they recuited much younger boys. As the devshirmah were recruited to rise up to the grand vizier status, many Christian parents were bribing scouts to take their children.
Nevertheless, the devşirme system was locally resented and was resisted, even to the point of disfiguring their sons. This system as explained by Kara Khalil Chendereli, founder of the Janissaries, "The conquered are slaves of the conquerors, to whom their goods, their women, and their children belong as lawful possession..", indicates the clear opinion of an Ottoman official regarding devsirme. There were however cases of Christian parents bribing officials to take their children.
History
The Ottoman Empire, beginning with Murad IMurad I
Murad I was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, from 1361 to 1389...
, felt a need to "counteract the power of (Turkic) nobles by developing Christian vassal soldiers and converted kapıkulları as his personal troops, independent of the regular army." The elite forces, which served the Ottoman Sultan directly, were divided into two main groups: cavalry and infantry. The cavalry was commonly known as the Kapıkulu Süvari (The Cavalry of the Servants of the Porte) and the infantry were the popular Yeni Çeri (transliterated in English as Janissary), meaning "the New Corps".
At first, the soldiers to serve in these corps were selected from the slaves captured during warfare. However, the system commonly known as "devşirme" was soon adopted: in this system children of the rural Christian populations of the Balkans were conscripted before adolescence and were brought up as Muslims. Upon reaching adolescence, these children were enrolled in one of the four imperial institutions: the Palace, the Scribes, the Religious and the Military. Those enrolled in the Military would become either part of the Janissary corps, or part of any other corps. The brightest were sent to the Palace institution (Enderun
Enderun School
Enderun School which meant "inner most" was a free-boarding school for the Christian Millet of the Ottoman Empire, which recruited students via Devshirme - an enculturation system of the Christian youngsters for learning the characteristics of the Islamic society and the unique culture of the...
), and were destined for a career within the palace itself where the most able could aspire to attain the very highest office of state, that of Grand Vizier
Grand Vizier
Grand Vizier, in Turkish Vezir-i Azam or Sadr-ı Azam , deriving from the Arabic word vizier , was the greatest minister of the Sultan, with absolute power of attorney and, in principle, dismissable only by the Sultan himself...
, the Sultan's immensely powerful chief minister and military deputy.
The life of the devşirme
Although the influence of Turkic nobility continued in the Ottoman court until Mehmet II (see Çandarlı HalilÇandarli (2nd) Halil Pasha
Çandarlı Halil Pasha was a highly influential Ottoman grand vizier under the Sultans Murat II and, for the first years of his reign, under Mehmet II . He was a member of the Çandarlı Family, considered to have contributed nearly as much as the ruling Ottoman dynasty to laying the foundations of...
), the Ottoman ruling class slowly came to be ruled exclusively by the Devşirme, creating a separate social class. This class of rulers was chosen from the brightest of Devşirme and hand-picked to serve in the Palace institution, known as the Enderun. They had to accompany the Sultan on campaigns, but exceptional service would be rewarded by assignments outside the palace. Those chosen for the Scribe institution, known as Kalemiyye were also granted prestigious positions. The Religious institution, İlmiyye, was where all Orthodox clergy of the Ottoman Empire were educated and sent to provinces or served in the capital.
Tavernier
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier was a French traveller and pioneer of trade with India, and travels through Persia , most known for works in two quarto volumes, Les Six Voyages de Jean-Baptiste Tavernier and diamond merchant for some important diamonds of the century...
noted in 1678 that the Janissaries
Janissary
The Janissaries were infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops and bodyguards...
looked more like a religious order than a military corps. The members of the organization were not banned from marriage, as Tavernier further noted, but it was very uncommon for them. He goes on to write that their numbers had increased to a hundred thousand, but this was because of a degeneration of regulations and many of these were in fact "fake" Janissaries, posing as such for tax exemptions and other social privileges. He notes that the actual number of Janissaries was in fact much lower (Shaw writes that their number was 30,000 under Suleiman the Magnificent
Suleiman
Suleiman is the main transliteration of the Arabic name, , the name means "man of peace" and corresponds to the English name Solomon.The word may also be transliterated as Sulaiman, Suleman, Soliman, Sulayman, Süleyman, Sulejman, Sleiman, Sleman, Solyman or Seleman...
). Recruits were sometimes gained through voluntarily accessions, as some parents were often eager to have their children enroll in the Janissary service that ensured them a successful career and comfort.
Albertus Bobovius wrote in 1686 that diseases were common among the devşirme and strict discipline was enforced.
The BBC notes the following regarding the devsirme system: "Although members of the devshirme class were technically slaves, they were of great importance to the Sultan because they owed him their absolute loyalty and became vital to his power. This status enabled some of the 'slaves' to become both powerful and wealthy."
According to Cleveland, the devşirme system offered "limitless opportunities to the young men who became a part of it." However, according to Dr. Basilike Papoulia, "...the devsirme was the 'forcible removal', in the form of a tribute, of children of the Christian subjects from their ethnic, religious and cultural environment and their transportation into the Turkish-Islamic environment with the aim of employing them in the service of the Palace, the army, and the state, whereby they were on the one hand to serve the Sultan as slaves and freedmen and on the other to form the ruling class of the State." Accordingly, Papoulia agrees with Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb and Harold Bowen, authors of Islamic society and the West, that the devsirme was a penalization imposed on the Balkan peoples since their ancestors resisted the Ottoman invasion. Minorsky states, "The most striking manifestation of this fact is the unprecedented system of devshirme, ie. the periodic conscription of 'tribute boys', by which Christian children were wrung from their families, churches, and communities to be molded into Ottoman praetorians owing their allegiance to the Sultan and the official faith of Islam."
Ethnicity of the devşirme, and exemptions
The devşirme were collected once in every four or five years from rural provinces in Balkans, and only from non-Muslims. The devşirme levy was not applied to the major cities of the empire, and children of local craftsman in rural towns were also exempt, as it was considered that conscripting them would harm the economy.In early days all Christians were enrolled indiscriminately; later those from Albania and Bosnia were preferred. Bernard Lewis
Bernard Lewis
Bernard Lewis, FBA is a British-American historian, scholar in Oriental studies, and political commentator. He is the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University...
points that the core of the "Ottoman Janissaries were Slavic and Balkanic origin, mostly Albanian."
Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
were exempt from this service and until recently Armenians
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
were thought to have been exempt also. However, Armenian colophons from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries and foreign travelers of the time indicate that Armenians were indeed not spared from the devşirme.
What is certain is that Devşirme were primarily recruited from Christians in the Balkans. However, Bosnian Muslims were also recruited and sent directly to serve in the Palace, under groups called "potor".
Decline of the devşirme class
The devshirme declined in the 16th and 17th Century due to a number of factors, including the inclusion of free Muslims in the system. After 1568 the 'boy harvest' was only occasionally made. In 1632 the Janissaries attempted an unsuccessful coup against Murad IVMurad IV
Murad IV Ghazi was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1623 to 1640, known both for restoring the authority of the state and for the brutality of his methods...
, who then imposed a loyalty oath on them. In 1648 the devşirme-based recruiting system of the Janissary corps formally came to an end; attempts to reintroduce the old system failed due to the resistance of the new Turkish members of the Janissary corps in 1703, who wanted the coveted posts exclusively for their own families. The Janissary corps was officially abolished by Sultan Mahmud II
Mahmud II
Mahmud II was the 30th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1808 until his death in 1839. He was born in the Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, the son of Sultan Abdulhamid I...
in 1826 with the Auspicious Incident
The Auspicious Incident
The Auspicious Incident was the forced disbandment of the centuries-old Janissary corps by Ottoman sultan Mahmud II in June 1826....
.
The response of society
The practice as to JanissaryJanissary
The Janissaries were infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops and bodyguards...
soldiers was motivated by the desire to create an elite class of warriors loyal only to the Sultan, rather than to individual Ottoman nobles.
There are accounts of Muslim families attempting to smuggle their offspring into the levy, which was strictly forbidden. Although the devshirme made boys the Sultans' state slaves it led to a highly privileged position in Ottoman society, but inevitably led to their conversion to Islam. The system also had specific limits on who and how many could be taken. The seizure of sons whose absence would cause hardship and difficulties was not permitted.
Another aspect is that recruiting personnel for the military and administration counterbalanced the grip of the old Turkish nobility, which was largely channeled into education, law, Muslim religion and the provincial cavalry, in the spirit of division of tasks and rights of the millet
Millet (Ottoman Empire)
Millet is a term for the confessional communities in the Ottoman Empire. It refers to the separate legal courts pertaining to "personal law" under which communities were allowed to rule themselves under their own system...
system which increased the cohesion of the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural empire.
See also
- CasteCasteCaste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...
system - Cantonist recruitment in Russia
- Culture of the Ottoman EmpireCulture of the Ottoman EmpireThe culture of the Ottoman Empire evolved over several centuries as the ruling administration of the Turks absorbed, adapted and modified the cultures of conquered lands and their peoples...
- MamlukMamlukA Mamluk was a soldier of slave origin, who were predominantly Cumans/Kipchaks The "mamluk phenomenon", as David Ayalon dubbed the creation of the specific warrior...
- Millet systemMillet (Ottoman Empire)Millet is a term for the confessional communities in the Ottoman Empire. It refers to the separate legal courts pertaining to "personal law" under which communities were allowed to rule themselves under their own system...
- JanissaryJanissaryThe Janissaries were infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops and bodyguards...
- Łapanka
Sources and External Links
- "Devsirme" in "Encyclopaedia of the Orient"
- Website on the Ottoman empire - original German version; here its Janissary page (to be further exploited)
- Papoulia, B.D., Ursprung und Wesen der “knabenlese” im Osmanischen Reich. München, 1963 (in German, title means 'origin and nature of the 'boy harvest' in the Ottoman Empire)