The Islamic World to 1600

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The word, Janissary, is an English derivative of the Turkish yeni cheri, or "new troops," which is what the Ottomans called this elite military corps. Following the 1361 capture of the Byzantine city of Adrianople by the Ottomans - who renamed it Edirne and made it their capital in 1366 - Orhan formed the Janissaries out of his prisoners of war. The Ottomans later began adding other new recruits to the corps, by conscripting Christian boys from conquered territories. One estimate claims they took one in five male children from Greek homes to serve in the Janissary corps, for example. These recruits were given military training and introduced to Islam, and were given the task of protecting the life of the Sultan. Some of the recruits were able to ascend to the Ottoman administration as well, and a handful even became Grand Vizier.

The Janissaries were the first standing army in Europe, and through the Ottoman wars of conquest in the 14th and 15th centuries, they became one of the most formidable military forces in the world. By the 16th century they had become so powerful that they were able to influence the succession of the Sultanate, which they did on several occasions.

Their frequent revolts and refusal to permit any sort of military reform in the later Ottoman period eventually led to their downfall, however. Their failure to suppress a Greek insurrection in 1820, combined with another Janissary revolt in 1826, led Sultan Mahmud II to dissolve the corps.

Return to Ottoman Empire: Empire Building, 1301-1402