In Hungary, at the Battle of Mohács, in 1526, an Ottoman Turkish army destroyed a combined force of Hungarian, Croatian, Bavarian, Polish, and Holy Roman Empire troops.  Outnumbering their foe by almost two to one, the Turks nonetheless inflicted nearly ten casualties for every one they took during the bloody engagement.  At the center of this crushing victory stood a corps of professional soldiers that came to symbolize the might of the Sultan, the Janissaries.

This infantry corps would rack up an incredible string of victories, forming the hardened, immovable core around which the nimble Turkish cavalry maneuvered.  Yet far more interesting, perhaps, than their long list of accomplishments is the genesis of this proud Ottoman Corps.

The Janissaries were instituted as a separate army unit under the reign of Sultan Murad I, in the 1380s.  The sultan was entitled to one-fifth of all the spoil taken by a conquering Ottoman force, including slaves, mainly young Balkan boys.  This pool of young male slaves provided an opportunity, and Sultan Murad decided to make the most of it.  He took a number of these boys, had them educated in the Turkish language and customs, saw to it they converted to Islam, and then enrolled them in a separate and very special program of military education and training designed to create a small, elite force loyal only to him.

These young adolescents were originally drawn from Greece and Albania, but would eventually be abducted as well from Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, and Serbia as Ottoman forces swept ever westward.  The practice of abducting Christian boys and forcing them into the Janissary Corps ended by the middle of the 17th Century.  Eventually, however, the need for manpower to defend the greatly expanded Ottoman Empire increased, and recruitment regulations were relaxed allowing native-born Turks, Muslims, and even the children and grandchildren of Janissaries to join the elite unit.  

Each Janissary was technically the property of the reigning sultan, but graduation into a Janissary unit at the end of training—generally around the age of 24—bestowed a social status well above that of other slaves throughout the empire.  To drive that point home, each Janissary received a salary as well as a stipend to cover the cost of meals, weaponry, and ammunition.  Retired and discharged Janissaries even received a pension.   

The education provided Janissary cadets—characterized by absolute discipline—included not only training in handheld weapons, but also artillery, engineering, and clerical duties, a significant investment in the education of what were still slaves.  In return, a Janissary was expected to be absolutely loyal to the sultan . . . and to remain celibate for the duration of his training.  Yet despite that minor downside, Janissary battalions, or Ortas, were like families to the abducted slave troops, and their cohesion, and esprit de corps, was legendary.

The first such troops—the only infantry unit in an Ottoman Turkish army of light cavalry—were reportedly armed with the far-shooting Turkish recurve bow.  Yet the Janissaries took to firearms as soon as these became available, forming the first standing army of musketeers in Europe.  By the mid 16th Century, the Janissaries were considered expert in the use of firearms and their lopsided victory at Mohács was achieved using 2,000 musketeers deployed in nine successive ranks that maintained a non-stop rain of volley-fire on the enemy force.  This may have been the first use of such tactics in Europe, and only the second in the world after the Battle of Nagashino, Japan, in 1575.

The Janissary Corps grew over the years as the need for a professional, disciplined infantry force became clearer with each new campaign.  Remaining at around 10-20,000 troops for the first two hundred years of their existence, the Corps was greatly expanded beginning in the mid-17th Century, reaching a size of about 68,000 by the year 1700.

Their performance in battle was generally what one might expect from such a Spartan approach to building soldiers.  Janissaries fought in every major Ottoman battle from their inception until their disbandment in 1826, that’s 400 years of continuous service and intermittent fighting.  Notable campaigns included the successful siege of Constantinople in 1453, the defeat of Egypt’s famed Mamluks in 1517, and multiple wars against both Austria and Hungary. 

In addition to bows and muskets, Janissaries carried axes and kilijis, a curved scimitar, for hand-to-hand combat.  They also mastered the use of early hand grenades and small hand cannons.  Janissaries also fielded specialist teams of explosive experts, engineers skilled at sapping enemy walls, and sharpshooters.  All of which was quite beyond the capability of the majority of foes the Ottomans would face for much of the Janissaries’ lifespan.

With the relaxing of regulations regarding who could enter the Corps came an unsurprising decline in effectiveness.  By the mid-16th Century, rich Turks bought their sons’ way into the Janissaries in order to secure growing social benefits and the Corps found itself slowly watered down.  No longer willing to subject themselves to the unit’s legendary discipline, or even to live in the Janissary barracks, by the 17th Century Janissaries began to break the centuries-old rules, taking wives and engaging in trades.  Yet their status within the government had risen on the wings of 400 years of service, making older and retired Janissaries powerful advocates resisting modernization, a key element in the decline of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1826, frustrated by the Janissaries’ stubborn resistance to much needed modernization, Sultan Mahmud II decreed the establishment of a new army, built along European lines.  As expected, the Janissaries rebelled and marched on the palace, precipitating a bloody fight in the streets, but the sultan was waiting for them . . . with artillery.  In the aftermath, 4,000 Janissaries lay dead, the rest exiled or later executed, and the corps was officially disbanded in what came to be known as the Auspicious Incident.

These slave soldiers, taken against their will from Christian families and forced to serve in the army of a foreign, Muslim sultan, had left their mark on the military history of Europe, Asia, and North Africa.  Their incredible cohesion, brutal discipline, and consistent, professional use of arms had led the Ottomans from central Anatolia to Constantinople, Vienna, Cairo, Algiers, and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.  They also left their mark on the empire they served, greatly contributing, ironically, to its downfall.

Yet for a very long time, four full centuries of human conflict, word that Janissaries stood amongst the enemy ranks filled many a soldier with dread.  The Sultan’s elite corps of slave infantry served the Turks well, allowing them to knock hard on the fortified door of Western Europe.  And, with just a little more luck at Vienna, they might have changed the very course of European history.

M. G. Haynes 

* Picture of Janissaries in action attributed to: deadliestfiction.wikia.com