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Amsterdam University Press Chapter Title: On the Ottoman janissaries (fourteenth-nineteenth centuries) Chapter Author(s): Gilles Veinstein Book Title: Fighting for a Living Book Subtitle: A Comparative Study of Military Labour 1500-2000 Book Editor(s): Erik-Jan Zürcher Published by: Amsterdam University Press. (2013) Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wp6pg.7 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms This book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Funding is provided by Knowledge Unlatched Pilot. Amsterdam University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Fighting for a Living This content downloaded from 75.104.89.241 on Mon, 27 Jan 2020 04:32:48 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms On the Ottoman janissaries (fourteenth-nineteenth centuries) Gilles Veinstein The janissaries are probably one of the most famous military corps in world history. Nevertheless, they were only a part of the Ottoman army and not even the most numerous one. At any period in the Ottoman history, they coexisted with a series of other military units, some of them created earlier (hence the name of yeni çeri, meaning “new troops”), others emerging in later times. All of these corps were of different natures as regards their modes of recruitment, the status of their members, their specif ic role in war, their method of remuneration, and so on. I shall concentrate on the corps (ocak) of the janissaries.1 Over several centuries, they were both a cause of terror and a source of admiration for the West, but they were also a danger for the Ottoman rulers themselves, due to their tendency to rebel. Beyond these stereotypes, one has to keep in mind that they did not offer only one face during all their long history. On the contrary, they were in a process of constant change, especially as far as their recruitment sources and military value were concerned. Origins The janissaries were established in the second half of the fourteenth cen- tury, probably under the reign of Sultan Murad I (there is some discussion on this point as well as on the origins of the corps in general, which remain somewhat obscure).2 1 General works on this corps include: Weissman, Les janissaires; Uzunçarşılı, Osmanlı devleti teşkilâtından kapu kulu ocakları; Murphey, Ottoman Warfare, 1500-1700, pp. 43-49, “Yeni çeri”; Veinstein, “Le janissaire et l’islamologue”. Among the main sources that I shall refer to, I would also like to mention Petrosian, Mebde-i kanun-i yeniçeri ocagı tarihi; Petrosian gives the Russian translation and the facsimile of the manuscript of St Petersburg, cited below as Kavânîn; for the Turkish edition of another copy of this work, see Akgündüz, “Kavânîn-i yeniçeriyân-i dergâh-i âli”. On this work, see Fodor, “Bir Nasihatname olarak ‘kavanin-i yeniçeriyan’”. 2 Palmer, “The Origin of the Janissary”; Papoulia, Ursprung und Wesen der Knabenlese im osmanischen Reich, pp. 74ff. (reviewed by I. Beldiceanu-Steinherr in Revue des études islamiques, 36, 1 (1968), pp. 172-176); Beldiceanu-Steinherr, “La conquête d’Andrinople par les turcs”; Kaldy- Nagy, “The First Centuries of the Ottoman Military Organization”. This content downloaded from 75.104.89.241 on Mon, 27 Jan 2020 04:32:48 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 116 GiLLEs vEinstEin From the beginning, the janissary corps was an infantry unit and a standing army (which not all the infantry components of the Ottoman army were). Furthermore, its members were not free men. They were slaves, even if of a particular kind: they were slaves of the sultan (kapı kulu, hünkâr kulu). I shall return to the origins of these slaves. Initially, they were not allowed to get married.3 Later, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, this ban would be abolished by Sultan Selim I. From then on, there would be two kinds of janissaries, married ones and bachelors. Only the latter would continue to live in the rooms (oda) of the barracks. There is no doubt that this change was of great consequence for the nature of this army. In any case, it remained common for the janissaries to be attracted to young boys and, more particularly, according to certain sources to young Jewish boys.4 Of course, it is always better not to generalize in such matters. Evolution If we try to define their military role more precisely, we must underline the fact that it evolved signif icantly over time. The janissaries were not, at the beginning, the most eff icient part of the army nor the true instrument of the Ottoman conquest that they would become later on. Initially, they were mostly imperial bodyguards who aimed to protect the sovereign and to give a public image of his power and wealth during ceremonies, very much in the ancient tradition of the slave guards of the Muslim princes.5 The janissaries never lost this part of their duties. Testimonies from different periods are available showing that they made a strong impression on ambassadors and other foreign visitors with their splendid, brightly coloured uniforms and their perfect discipline when they entered the second yard of the Topkapı Palace for off icial receptions.6 They continued to be bound by a close personal tie to the sultan, under whose direct patronage they always remained. One small manuscript in the Vienna Library is interesting in painting a vivid picture of the close relationship between the sultan, in this case Suleyman the Magnif icent, and his janissaries: on the janissaries’ side, they hold the deepest reverence which did not prevent them from making repeated and excessive f inancial 3 According to a proverb, a married man is not a kul for the sultan: Kavânîn, fol. 10v. 4 See, for instance, Capsali, Seder Elyahu Zuta, I, p. 82. 5 Bosworth, “Ghulâm”, parts I, “The Caliphate” and II, “Persia”. 6 See, among many examples, Fresne-Canaye, Le voyage du Levant, p. 62. This content downloaded from 75.104.89.241 on Mon, 27 Jan 2020 04:32:48 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms on thE ot toMan JanissariEs (FourtEEnth-ninEtEEnth cEnturiEs) 117 demands; on the sultan’s side, there is an authority which, under certain circumstances, may become unyielding, but which also gives rise, at other times, to a smiling humour, almost friendly, and even at times indulging in jokes.7 The importance of the janissaries in the military f ield would increase dramatically, in connection with two factors: f irst, they became a decisive tool in siege warfare, thanks to their specif ic ability to act as a monolithic and compact block in the f inal assault. The second and probably even more decisive factor was, following the example of the Balkan armies, the progressive adoption of f irearms, more precisely the musket (tüfeng), instead of traditional weapons, in particular bows and arrows, starting from the beginning of the f ifteenth century. In the Ottoman rulers’ mind, the use of this new and revolutionary weapon was intended to remain the monopoly of the janissaries, in connection – one can imagine – with their status as a standing army under the direct supervision of the sovereign, which gave better opportunities for both training and control. An instruc- tor in chief (ta’limhânecibaşı) was appointed by the sultan. In fact this monopoly quickly became obsolete, and f irearms circulated among much larger sections of the population, partly because of quarrels between the various members of the Ottoman dynasty.8 The number of janissaries equipped with firearms (tüfenkli, tüfenk-endâz) began to increase under the reign of Mehmed II, and this continued under the subsequent reigns. As for the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent, it is not clear whether the tüfenk-endâz were more numerous or even whether the use of tüfenk was generalized among the janissaries. The same sultan was also famous for having expanded the state arms factories. In any case, the adoption of f irearms was the Ottoman response to the military evolution of its enemies, especially the Habsburg troops, who proved to be terribly eff icient with their excellent guns made in Germany. We have no details on the process of the adoption of f irearms and we know nothing about the reception of this innovation by the troops, who had already demonstrated their corporatist mind as well as their propensity to mutiny.9 It remains striking in this respect that, as late as the year 1551, Suleyman considered it necessary to request the aga, the head of the janis- 7 Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Turkish Manuscripts, no. 1815, Kânûnâme-i Sultân Süleymân (Flügel, III, p. 250) [henceforth, Kânûnnâme]. 8 Turan, Sehzâde Bayezid Vak‘ası, pp. 83-96; İnalcık, “The Socio-Political Effects of the Dif- fusion of Fire-Arms in the Middle East”. 9 We cannot consider the success of this change of arms as obvious if we bear in mind what the Habsburg ambassador, Busbecq, wrote about the failure of the vizier Rustem Pasha when This content downloaded from 75.104.89.241 on Mon, 27 Jan 2020 04:32:48 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 118 GiLLEs vEinstEin saries, to train his men, so that – the sultan says – “they will become experts in the use of the musket”.10 Equally striking is the fact that the sultan is said to have been anxious, at each of his visits to the barracks of the janissaries, to see all the off icers shooting, according to their hierarchical order, in the training area, luxuriously laid out by the same sultan.11 In this context, the act of shooting appears both as a game and as a kind of rite, expressing the close relationship between the sultan and his slaves. At this stage of their evolution, the janissaries were no longer only the personal escort of the sultan. They also became the main factor in the Ottomans’ military superiority. They took part in all the main campaigns, both on land and at sea, even