Janissary
, member of an elite corps in the standing army of the
Ottoman Empire
from the late 14th century to 1826. Highly respected for their
military
prowess in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Janissaries became a powerful political force within the Ottoman state. During peacetime they were used to garrison frontier towns and police the capital,
Istanbul
. They
constituted
the first modern standing army in Europe.
The Janissary corps was originally staffed through
dev?irme
, a system of tribute by which Christian youths were taken from the
Balkan provinces
, converted to
Islam
, and drafted into Ottoman service. Subject to strict rules, including celibacy, they were organized into three unequal divisions (
cemaat
,
bolukhalkı
, and
segban
) and commanded by an
a??
. In the late 16th century the celibacy rule and other restrictions were relaxed, and by the early 18th century the original method of recruitment had been abandoned, opening the ranks to Muslim Turks. The Janissaries were known particularly for their
archery
, but by the 16th century they had also become a
formidable
firepower
contingent
.
The supreme prowess and
discipline
of the Janissaries allowed them to become increasingly powerful in the palace. From the reign of
Bayezid II
(1481?1512), they regularly required
sultans
to provide extra pay in exchange for the support of the corps. The maintenance costs of the armed forces proved increasingly unaffordable for the empire, however, and augmented the growing tensions between the Janissaries and the
sultan
. An attempt by
Osman II
(1618?22) to discipline them and cut their pay led to his execution at their hands. They frequently engineered palace coups thereafter. In one instance, they conspired with court officials and overthrew
?brahim
for his sheer incompetence in governance.
In the early 19th century the Janissaries resisted the adoption of European reforms by the Ottoman army. Their end came in June 1826 in the so-called
Auspicious Incident
. On learning of the formation of new, Westernized troops, the Janissaries revolted. Sultan
Mahmud II
declared war on the rebels and, on their refusal to
surrender
, had cannon fire directed on their barracks. Most of the Janissaries were killed, and those who were taken prisoner were executed.