Janissaries

Janissaries [Turk.,=recruits], elite corps in the service of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). It was composed of war captives and Christian youths pressed into service; all the recruits were converted to Islam and trained under the strictest discipline. It was originally organized by Sultan Murad I. The Janissaries gained great power in the Ottoman Empire and made and unmade sultans. By 1600, Muslims had begun to enter the corps, largely through bribery, and in the 17th cent. membership in the corps became largely hereditary, while the drafting of Christians gradually ceased. In 1826, Sultan Mahmud II rid himself of the unruly (and by now inefficient) Janissaries by having them massacred in their barracks by his loyal Spahis .

Janissaries Elite corps of the Ottoman army, founded in the 14th century. The Janissaries were a highly effective fighting force until the 17th century, when discipline and military prestige declined. They were abolished by Mahmud II in 1826.

Janissaries (Turk., yeni cheri, ‘new troops’). Corps of highly trained Muslim soldiers who were raised from the devshirme, Balkan boys who, by levy, were compelled to become Muslims. They existed from the 14th cent. (8th cent. AH) to the 19th (13th).