Janissary
The Janissaires (in Turkish “Yeni Çeri”, literally “new militia”) are, with the apogee of the Ottoman Empire, the elite of the Infanterie. The janissaries were dreaded Western armies because they handled as well the Mousquet as the saber. Created in 1334 by Orhan, the second Othoman sultan, the body of the janissaries was exclusively made up Christian children, either prisoner of war, or recruited in the tribes at a rate of a son on five. This practice was called Devchirmé (" cueillette" in Turkish). The janissaries could thus come Greek families, Bulgarian, Serb, Russian, ukraniennes, Rumanian, Albanian, Bosnian, Hungarian, Armenian or géorgiennes. The creation of this army corps janissary answers ambiguities concerning the application of the Charia and realities of the Othoman conquest started under Orhan. If the charia prohibits the reduction in slavery of children and Moslem men, the Christian slaves, captured very young, trained and Islamized circumvent the dogmatic problem. Moreover the Othoman army heiress of the turco-Mongolian military traditions did not have a infantry, the janissaries thus formed the backbone of the army and proved their value, in particular with the Bataille of Nicopolis in 1396 against the Hungarian crusade.
This recruitment made it possible the Empire to reinforce its army while weakening its potentially unsubdued Christian subjects. By doing this, the Othomans took large risks which will be to them very expensive thereafter. The perfect example was the case of Gjergj Kastrioti, known as the Skenderbeg (Albanian national hero) which, graded Turkish army high but resulting from Albanian family, succeeds in gathering all the Albanian janissaries within the Turkish army, and held head with the Othomans lasting more than 25 years. Thereafter, the Albanians expensive paid this resistance during the resumption of Krujë (capital of Albania at the time) by Ottamans. The Othomans obliged by the force the majority of the Albanians to becoming Moslems, even if they never managed to convert all the Albanians (the Albanians, catholics and orthodoxe before the Othoman conquest, are Moslem today to 70%). A counterexample is Vlad III Empaleur Dracula which massacred thousands of Turks for, says one, to be avenged for his passage in this militia.
The janissaries quickly acquired a role of “Praetorian Garde”, with the related political implications, in particular in the crises of succession. They became a capacity within the Court of the sultan, and the reforms decided by the sultan never touched their privileges. When the sultan Selim III wanted to remove them, he was assassinated. The will of the sultan Mahmud II to modernize its army involved a rebellion of the janissaries. The sultan made them carry out (1826) and their institution was dissolved.
Were the janissaries present in Algérie where, by marriage with indigenous women, they gave rise to the community of the Kouloughlis (of the Turkish Köl O? ul : wire of slave).
Their symbolic system and their ranks were associated with the kitchen; the officers carried a ladle in their cap, the crowned soup tureen was révérée (infidels touching it being carried out for sacrilege, to reverse it being sign of revolt), and the sultan was called " father nourricier". The banner of the janissaries was surmounted with a gold hand holding a specimen of the Coran writes by the caliph Osman.
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