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{{Short description|Ottoman child levy and enslavement}}
{{Social structure in the Ottoman Empire sidebar}}
[[File:Janissary Recruitment in the Balkans-Suleymanname.jpg|thumb|304x304px|Illustration of an Ottoman official and his assistant registering Christian boys for the devshirme. The official takes a tax to cover the price of the boys' new red clothes and the cost of transport from their home, while the assistant records their village, district and province, parentage, date of birth and physical appearance. Ottoman miniature painting, 1558.<ref>{{cite web |first=Matrakci |last=Nasuh |url=http://warfare.netau.net/Ottoman/Suleymanname/Janissary_Recruitment_in_the_Balkans.htm |title=Janissary Recruitment in the Balkans |year=1588 |work=Süleymanname, Topkapi Sarai Museum, Ms Hazine 1517 |access-date=20 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181203143244/http://warfare.netau.net/Ottoman/Suleymanname/Janissary_Recruitment_in_the_Balkans.htm |archive-date=3 December 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Finkel">{{cite book |last1=Finkel |first1=Caroline |title=Osman's dream : the story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1923 |date=2007 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-02396-7 |page=325}}</ref>]]

'''Devshirme''' ({{langx|ota|دوشیرمه|devşirme|collecting}},{{efn|occasionally "devishirme"}} usually translated as "child levy"{{efn|name=name-greek-armenian|Known as 'collection of children' or 'child-gathering' in: {{langx|grc-x-medieval|παιδομάζωμα|Paedomazoma}}; {{langx|hy|Մանկահավաք|Mankahavak′}}.}} or "blood tax"{{efn|Known as 'blood tax' in: {{langx|ro|tribut de sânge}}; {{lang-hbs-Latn-Cyrl|Danak u krvi|Данак у крви}}, {{langx|mk|Данок во крв|Danok vo krv}}, {{langx|bg|Кръвен данък|Kraven Danak}}.}})<ref>Ingvar Svanberg and David Westerlund, Islam Outside the Arab World, Routledge, 1999, p. 140</ref> was the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] practice of [[Conscription|forcibly recruiting]] soldiers and bureaucrats from among the children of their [[Balkan]] Christian subjects and raising them in the religion of [[Islam]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hain |first1=Kathryn |title=Devshirme is a Contested Practice |url=https://epubs.utah.edu/index.php/historia/article/download/629/491/0 |website=utah.edu |publisher=University of Utah |access-date=13 June 2020}}</ref><ref name="Gelvin">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K0QRrgEACAAJ|title=The Modern Middle East: A History|author=James L. Gelvin|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016|isbn=978-0-19-021886-7|page=80}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Hanson|first=Victor Davis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XGr16-CxpH8C|title=Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power|date=2007-12-18|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-42518-8|language=en}}</ref> Those coming from the Balkans came primarily from [[nobility|noble]] Balkan families and [[rayah]] classes.<ref name="cali">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A0mWfovlJ9cC|title=The Balkans in Transition|editor1=Charles Jelavich |editor2=Barbara Jelavich |publisher=[[University of California Press]]|year=1963|page=68|quote=Politically, it meant that the devshirme class, composed primarily of descendants of the Balkan noble and rayah classes}}</ref><ref name="visions">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q8iXDwAAQBAJ|title=Visions of Empire How Five Imperial Regimes Shaped the World|author= [[Krishan Kumar (sociologist)|Kumar, Krishan]]|editor=|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|year=2019|isbn=978-0-691-19280-2|page=68|quote=Lowry shows that not only Christian peasants but large numbers of the Byzantine-Balkan aristocracy were recruited into the Ottoman ruling elite}}</ref> It is first mentioned in written records in 1438,<ref name="nicolle" /> but probably started earlier. It created a faction of soldiers and officials loyal to the [[Ottoman Sultan|Sultan]].<ref>{{cite book|title=A History of the Modern Middle East|author=William L. Cleveland|date=4 May 2018|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-97513-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CUhaDwAAQBAJ&q=devshirme+loyal&pg=PT66}}</ref>  It counterbalanced the Turkish nobility, who sometimes opposed the Sultan.<ref name="brewer">{{cite book|title=Greece, the Hidden Centuries: Turkish Rule from the Fall of Constantinople to Greek Independence|author=David Brewer|page=51|quote=The outsides would owe their position, and their continuance on it, solely to the Sultan, and so be more reliably loyal than Turks subject to influence from court factions.}}</ref><ref name="feroz">{{cite book|title=The Making of Modern Turkey|author=Ahmad Feroz|page=1820|publisher=[[Routledge]]|quote=From the very beginning, the relationship between the ruler and his Turcoman allies was fraught with tension which undermined all attempts by the sultan to create a strong state. With the conquest of the Balkans, the sultan found that he could lessen his dependence on his Turcoman notables by creating a counter-force from among the Christians in the newly conquered territories.}}</ref>

The system produced a considerable number of [[grand vizier]]s from the 15th century to the 17th century. This was the second most powerful position in the Ottoman Empire, after the sultan. Initially, the grand viziers were exclusively of Turk origin, but after there were troubles between Sultan [[Mehmed II]] and the Turkish grand vizier [[Çandarlı Halil Pasha the Younger]], who was the first grand vizier to be executed, there was a rise of slave administrators (''devshirme''). They were much easier for the sultans to control, compared to [[Freedom|free]] administrators of Turkish aristocratic extraction.<ref name="somel">{{cite book|last=Aksin Somel|first=Selcuk|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tBoyoNNKh78C|title=The A to Z of the Ottoman Empire|page=67|publisher=[[Scarecrow Press]]|year=2010|isbn=978-0-8108-7579-1|quote=The disappearance of this dynasty [ [[Çandarlı family]] ] was symptomatic with the rise of the class of slave administrators, who were much easier for the sultan to control than free administrators of noble origin.}}</ref> The devshirme also produced many of the Ottoman Empire's provincial governors, military commanders, and [[divan]]s from the 15th to the 17th century.<ref name="BuntCleveland2010">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hnzxzqau3a8C|title=A History of the Modern Middle East|author1=William L Cleveland and Martin Bunt|author2=William L. Cleveland|date=July 2010|publisher=ReadHowYouWant.com|isbn=978-1-4587-8155-0|page=115}}</ref> Sometimes, the devshirme recruits were castrated and became [[eunuchs]].<ref name="duindam">{{cite book|author=[[:nl:Jeroen Duindam|Duindam, Jeroen]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5ky2CgAAQBAJ|title=Dynasties A Global History of Power, 1300–1800|page=196|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=2016|isbn=978-1-107-06068-5|quote=Dikici, 'Making of Ottoman court eunuchs', makes clear that white eunuchs could be recruited among devshirme boys, with the pages and their eunuch supervisors coming from the same background. They were sometimes castrated in the palace, whereas the harem's black eunuchs were more often castrated in their region of origin.}}</ref> Although often destined for the [[Ottoman Imperial Harem|harem]], many eunuchs of devshirme origin went on to hold important positions in the military and the government, such as grand viziers [[Hadım Ali Pasha]], [[Sinan Borovinić]], and [[Hadım Hasan Pasha]].

Ottoman officials would take male Christian children, aged 7 to 20, from [[Eastern Europe|Eastern]], [[Southern Europe|Southern]] and [[Southeastern Europe]], and relocate them to Istanbul,<ref name="Cox2002">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U765FGDfbPoC|title=The History of Serbia|author=John K. Cox|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2002|isbn=978-0-313-31290-8|page=29}}</ref> where they were converted, circumcised, assimilated and trained to serve in the Janissary infantry corps or for palace duties.<ref name="Clarence-Smith 2020 p. 49">{{cite book |last=Clarence-Smith |first=W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vGXXDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT49 |title=Islam and the Abolition of Slavery |publisher=Hurst |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-78738-415-6 |page=49}}</ref> Devshirme were rarely sold, though some could end up as slaves in private households.<ref name="Clarence-Smith 2020 p. 49" /> The fact that they were taken forcibly from their parents made the devshirme system resented by locals.<ref name="bbc">http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/slavery_1.shtml#section_4; "''...and point out that many Christian families were hostile and resentful about it—which is perhaps underlined by the use of force to impose the system.''".</ref> However, revolts were rare, with the exception of a revolt against the devshirme in Albania in 1565.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Malcolm |first=Noel |url=http://archive.org/details/kosovoshorthisto0000malc_m3s3 |title=Kosovo : a short history |date=1998 |publisher=London : Macmillan |isbn=978-0-333-66612-8 |pages=96}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Goodwin |first=Godfrey |url=http://archive.org/details/janissaries0000good |title=The Janissaries |date=1997 |publisher=London : Saqi |isbn=978-0-86356-049-1 |pages=40}}</ref> Ordered to cut all ties with their families, some managed to use their positions to help their families.<ref name="gunpowder">{{cite book|title=Islamic Gunpowder Empires: Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals|author=Douglas E Stresusnd|page=83}}</ref> Muslims were not allowed into the system (with some exceptions), but some Muslim families smuggled their sons in anyway.<ref name="autogenerated1">{{cite book|title=Introduction ṭo Islamic Civilization|editor=R. M. Savory|year=1976|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge}}</ref> According to Speros Vryonis, "The Ottomans took advantage of the general Christian fear of losing their children and used offers of devshirme exemption in negotiations for surrender of Christian lands. Such exemptions were included in the surrender terms granted to Jannina, Galata, Morea, Chios, etc. Christians who engaged in specialized activities important to the Ottoman state were exempted from the devshirme on their children by way of recognition of the importance of their labors for the empire. Exemption from this tribute was considered a privilege and not a penalty."<ref name="auto5">{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6kzPHAAACAAJ | title=Seljuk Gulams and Ottoman Devshirmes | last1=Vryonis | first1=Speros | year=1965 }}</ref>

Many scholars consider the practice of devshirme as violating [[Islamic law]].<ref name=autogenerated2>{{cite book|title=Back from Barbary : captivity, redemption and French identity in the seventeenth-and eighteenth-century Mediterranean|author=Gillian Lee Weiss|publisher=Stanford University|year=2002|page=32|quote=Many scholars consider that the "child levy" violated Islamic law.}}</ref><ref name=nicolle /><ref name="nicolle2">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Devshirme System |encyclopedia=Middle East Conflicts from Ancient Egypt to the 21st Century: An Encyclopedia and Document Collection |date=2019 |editor=Spencer Tucker |pages=353 |author=David Nicolle}}</ref> [[David Nicolle]] writes that enslavement of Christian boys violates the ''[[dhimmi]]'' protections guaranteed in Islam,<ref name="Mikaberidze2011">{{cite encyclopedia|editor=Alexander Mikaberidze|author=David Nicolle|encyclopedia=Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical Encyclopedia &#91;2 volumes&#93;: A Historical Encyclopedia|title=Devshirme System|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jBBYD2J2oE4C&pg=PA273|date=22 July 2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-59884-337-8|pages=273–|quote=This effectively enslaved some of the sultan's own non-Islamic subjects and was therefore illegal under Islamic law, which stipulated that conquered non-Muslims should be demilitarized and protected}}</ref> but [[Halil İnalcık]] argues that the devshirme were not slaves once converted to Islam.<ref name="auto">Halil Inalcik, "Ottoman Civilisation", p. 138, Ankara 2004.</ref>{{efn|name=slave-or-voluntary|Historian [[James L. Gelvin]] writes that "[t]his process of recruitment (''devshirme'') remains a sore spot in Balkan historiography: while many contemporary Turks prefer to look at the process of recruitment as purely voluntary, the word kidnapping is not unknown in histories written by Greek scholars."<ref name="Gelvin" />}} The boys were given a formal education, and trained in science, warfare and bureaucratic administration, and became advisers to the sultan, elite infantry, generals in the army, admirals in the navy, and bureaucrats working on finance in the Ottoman Empire.<ref name="Finkel" />  They were separated according to ability and could rise in rank based on merit. The most talented, the ''ichoghlani'' (Turkish ''iç oğlanı'') were trained for the highest positions in the empire.<ref name="gunpowder" /> Others joined the military, including the famed [[janissaries]].<ref>Basgoz, I. & Wilson, H. E. (1989), The educational tradition of the Ottoman Empire and the development of the Turkish educational system of the republican era. Turkish Review 3(16), 15.</ref>

The practice began to die out as Ottoman soldiers preferred recruiting their own sons into the army, rather than sons from Christian families. In 1594, Muslims were officially allowed to take the positions held by the ''devshirme'' and the system of recruiting Christians effectively stopped by 1648.<ref name=nicolle>{{cite encyclopedia|title = Devshirme System |editor= Alexander Mikaberidze | encyclopedia = Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical Encyclopedia | author= David Nicolle| volume = 1 | pages = 273–4 | date = 2011}}</ref><ref name="Sugar2012">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gYsVCgAAQBAJ |title=Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Rule, 1354–1804|author=Peter F. Sugar|date=1 July 2012|publisher=University of Washington Press|isbn=978-0-295-80363-0|page=56}}</ref> An attempt to re-institute it in 1703 was resisted by its Ottoman members, who coveted the military and civilian posts. Finally, in the early days of [[Ahmet III]]'s reign, the practice of devshirme was abolished.  In modern times, the Devshirme is considered to fall within the definition of [[genocide]].<ref name="Baer">{{cite book | last=Baer | first=M.D. | title=The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs | publisher=Basic Books | year=2021 | isbn=978-1-5416-7377-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RSAbEAAAQBAJ | access-date=2025-01-17 | page=47}}</ref><ref name="Lemkin">{{cite book | last=Totten | first=S. | last2=Theriault | first2=H. | last3=von Joeden-Forgey | first3=E. | title=Controversies in the Field of Genocide Studies | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2017 | isbn=978-1-351-29499-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZmRQDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA99 | access-date=2025-01-18 | page=99 | quote=Lemkin specifically cited the Ottoman Turkish Empire to illustrate another recurring theme in the history of genocide: "The children can be taken away from a given group for the purpose of educating them within the framework of another human group, racial, national or ethnical" (quoted in Docker, 2008, 12).}}</ref>

== History ==
The devshirme (from the Turkish word meaning 'to collect')<ref name="Itzkowitz 2008 p.50">{{cite book |last=Itzkowitz |first=Norman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aapbAAAAQBAJ |title=Ottoman Empire and Islamic Tradition |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-226-09801-2 |series=}}</ref> came up out of the {{Transliteration|ota|[[Slavery in the Ottoman Empire|kul]]}} system of slavery that developed in the early centuries of the Ottoman Empire, and which reached this final development during the reign of Sultan [[Bayezid I|Bayazit I]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=İnalcık |first1=Halil |title=Ottoman Civilization |last2=Renda |first2=Günsel |publisher=Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Culture |year=2004 |edition=2nd |location=Ankara |pages=138 |oclc=62151678}}</ref> The {{Transliteration|ota|kul}} were mostly prisoners from war, hostages or slaves that were purchased by the state. The Ottoman Empire, beginning with [[Murad I]], felt a need to "counteract the power of (Turkic) nobles by developing Christian vassal soldiers and converted {{Transliteration|ota|[[kapıkulu]]}} as his personal troops, independent of the regular army."{{sfn|Shaw|1976|p=27}} This elite force, which served the Ottoman Sultan directly, was called {{Transliteration|ota|Kapıkulu Ocağı}} (The Hearth of the Porte Servants).{{efn|{{Transliteration|ota|Kapıkulu}} has meaning of more a 'paid servant' rather than a slave, as word's meaning shifted over years. The word {{Transliteration|ota|'kul'}} has there meanings in Turkic: 'slave', 'servant' and 'male [biological] son'; thus, in this context, they were treated as and called 'servants' through the word {{Transliteration|ota|kul}}, with {{Transliteration|ota|köle}} being the actual term used to describe literal slaves (mostly domestic house slaves).}} They were divided into two main groups: cavalry and infantry.{{efn|More classifications, such as the artillery and cannon corps, miners and moat diggers and even a separate cannon-wagon corps were introduced later on, but the number of people in these groups were relatively small, and they incorporated Christian elements.}} The cavalry was commonly known as the {{Transliteration|ota|Kapikulu Sipahi}} (The Cavalry of the Servants of the [[Ottoman Porte|Porte]]) and the infantry as the [[Janissary|janissaries]] ({{Transliteration|ota|Yeni Çeri}}, meaning "the New Corps"). The devshirme conscripts were set apart from the janissaries in that they were not a cavalry group, rather exclusively infantry.

At first, the soldiers serving in these corps were selected from the slaves captured during war. However, a new system commonly known as devshirme was soon adopted. In this system, children of the rural Christian populations of the Balkans were conscripted before adolescence and were brought up as Muslims. Upon reaching adolescence, these children were enrolled in one of the four imperial institutions: the palace, the scribes, the Muslim clergy, and the military. Those enrolled in the military would become either part of the [[Janissary]] corps (1363), or part of another corps.{{sfn|Shaw|1976|pp=112–129}} The most promising were sent to the palace school ({{Transliteration|ota|Enderûn Mektebi}}), where they were destined for a career within the palace itself and could attain the highest office of state, [[Grand Vizier]], the Sultan's powerful chief minister and military deputy. In the beginning of the Ottoman Empire, this office was held only by Turks. However, after there were problems between sultan [[Mehmed II]] and the Turkish [[Çandarlı Halil Pasha the Younger]], who became the first grand vizier to be executed, there was a rise of slave administrators devshirme. They were much easier to control for the sultans, as compared to free administrators of Turkish noble origin.<ref name="somel" /> They were also less subject to influence from court factions. From the very beginning, the Turcoman were a danger that undermined the Sultan's creation of a strong state. Thus, the establishment of this class counterbalanced the Turkish nobility, who sometimes opposed the Sultan.<ref name="brewer" /><ref name="feroz" /><ref name="somel" />

An early Greek source mentioning devshirme ({{Transliteration|el|paidomazoma}}){{efn||name=name-greek-armenian}} is a speech by Archbishop [[Isidore Glabas]], made on 28 February 1395, titled: "On the abduction of children according to sultan's order and on the Future Judgment". The speech includes references to the violent Islamization of children and their hard training in the use of dogs and falcons.<ref>Papadopoulos I. Stefanos, "Account of paedomazoma in Thessaloniki during the first occupation of the city by the Turks, ... ", Thessaloniki, 1992, pp. 71–77 (Παπαδόπουλος Στέφανος Ι., Μνεία παιδομαζώματος στη Θεσσαλονίκη κατά την πρώτη κατοχή της πόλης από τους Τούρκους, Χριστιανική Θεσσαλονίκη ... (11ος-15ος μ.Χ.), Θεσσαλονίκη 1992, σ. 71–77) (in Greek).</ref>

A reference to devshirme is made in a poem composed {{circa|1550}} in Greek by Ioannes Axayiolis, who appeals to Emperor [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V of Germany]] to liberate the Christians from the Turks. The text is found in the {{lang|la|Codex Vaticanus Graecus}} of 1624. In another account, the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Chios|Roman Catholic bishop of Chios]] in 1646 writes to the director of the Catholic Greek Gymnasion of Rome asking the latter to accept Paulos Omeros, a 12-year-old boy from Chios, to save him from the devshirme.<ref>[http://lsparnas.gr/page_flip/box5A_004-2/resources/PDF_File.pdf Zoras Th. Georgios, "Some accounts on Paedomazoma", Parnassos, vol. 4, 2 (1962), pp. 217 –  (Ζώρας Θ. Γεώργιος, "Μαρτυρίαι τινές περί το Παιδομάζωμα"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123011036/http://www.lsparnas.gr/page_flip/box5A_004-2/resources/PDF_File.pdf |date=23 January 2021 }} (in Greek). On the Axayioli poem, pp 217–221. On the letter of bishop of Chios, pp 221–223. Original letter in Italian.</ref>

The recruitment of children took place every three to four years and at times even annually, according to the needs of the Sultan. The largest loss of children coincided with the peak of Ottoman expansion in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries under the rule of Selim I and Suleiman the Magnificent.<ref name="auto4">A. E. Vacalopoulos. ''The Greek Nation'', 1453–1669, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers University Press, 1976, p. 41; Vasiliki Papoulia, The Impact of Devshirme on Greek Society, in ''War and Society in East Central Europe'', Editor—in—Chief, Bela K. Kiraly, 1982, Vol. II, pp. 561—562.</ref>

== The life of the devshirme ==
According to historian [[William Gervase Clarence-Smith]], Christian children were taken by Ottoman officials, every four to seven years, their age ranging from 7 to 20.<ref name="Clarence-Smith 2020 p. 49"/> Those younger than 8 were called {{Transliteration|ota|şirhor}} (nursling) and {{Transliteration|ota|beççe}} (child).{{Clarify|date=June 2020}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ortaylı |first1=İlber |title=Türklerin Tarihi 2 |date=2016 |publisher=Timaş Yayınları |isbn=978-605-08-2221-2 |pages=71}}</ref> One for every forty households was chosen,<ref name="Itzkowitz 2008 p.50" /> they had to be unmarried and once taken were ordered to cut all ties with their family.<ref name="Clarence-Smith 2020 p. 493" >{{cite book | last1=Clarence-Smith | first1=W.G. | last2=Clarence-Smith | first2=W.G. | title=Islam and the Abolition of Slavery | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2006 | isbn=978-0-19-522151-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nQbylEdqJKkC}}</ref>

Christian parents undeniably resented the forced recruitment of their children,<ref name="bbc" /><ref name="Mansel 2011 p. 26">{{cite book |last=Mansel |first=P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LrnvC98bNSoC&pg=PT26 |title=Constantinople: City of the World's Desire, 1453–1924 |publisher=John Murray Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-84854-647-9 |page=26 |access-date=2020-06-24}}</ref> as a result they would beg and often seek to buy their children out of the levy. The Balkan peasantry tried to evade the tribute collectors, with many attempting to substitute their  children in Bosnia.<ref>Ottoman Empire and Islamic Tradition, Norman Itzkowitz, p. 49</ref> Many sources (including [[Paolo Giovio]]) mention different ways to avoid the devshirme such as: marrying the boys at the age of 12, mutilating them or have both father and son convert to Islam.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Detrez |first1=Raymond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hywaBgAAQBAJ&q=devshirme |title=Historical Dictionary of Bulgaria |date=18 December 2014 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4422-4180-0}}</ref> Conversion to Islam was used in [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]] to escape the system.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} In Albania and Epirus the practice led to a Christian revolt where the inhabitants killed the recruiting officials in the year 1565.<ref name="Clarence-Smith 2020 p. 493" /> In [[Naousa, Imathia|Naousa]], after killing the recruiting officials the parents fled to the mountains but were later caught and executed in 1705.<ref name="Bostom 2010 p.559 ">{{cite book | last=Bostom | first=A.G. | title=The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims | publisher=Prometheus Books | year=2010 | isbn=978-1-61592-017-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ju8xJ5JBXgsC }}</ref>

Any parent who refused to have their child taken as a slave was put to death, and children who attempted to resist being taken from their families as janissaries by fleeing would lead to the Turks arresting and then torturing their parents to death (Many children who attempted to flee on their own returned after hearing of their parents torture). Such was the case of an Athenian boy who returned from hiding to save his father's life but chose to die himself rather than abandon his faith and convert to Islam.<ref name="auto4"/> A firman in 1601 gave strict orders to Ottoman officials to kill any parent that resisted:<ref name="auto5"/>
{{Blockquote
|text=To enforce the command of the known and holy fetva [fatwa] of Seyhul [Shaikh]-Islam. In accordance with this whenever some one of the infidel parents or some other should oppose the giving up of his son for the Janissaries, he is immediately hanged from his door-sill, his blood being deemed unworthy.|}}

Sources show that it was not rare for the older youth to attempt to preserve their faith and some recollection of their homeland and their families. For instance, [[Stephan Gerlach]] writes:<ref>{{cite book|author=D.A. Zakythēnos|title=The Making of Modern Greece: From Byzantium to Independence | publisher=Rowman and Littlefield|year=1976|isbn=978-0-87471-796-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zoKgAAAAMAAJ}}</ref>
{{Blockquote
|text=They gather together and one tells another of his native land and of what he heard in church or learned in school there, and they agree among themselves that Muhammad is no prophet and that the Turkish religion is false. If there is one among them who has some little book or can teach them in some other manner something of God's world, they hear him as diligently as if he were their preacher.|}}

Greek scholar [[Janus Lascaris]] visited Constantinople in 1491 and met many janissaries who not only remembered their former religion and their native land but also favored their former coreligionists. The renegade Hersek, the sultan's relative by marriage, told him that he regretted having left the religion of his fathers and that he prayed at night before the cross which he kept carefully concealed.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qwIoAAAAYAAJ | title=Bibliographie hellénique | last1=Legrand | first1=Emile | year=1885 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://savvidis-store.gr/en/products/the-history-of-turkish-occupied-greece-four-volumes/ | title=The History of Turkish-Occupied Greece (Four volumes) }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q-N9U-O4u4oC | title=De Turcarum moribus epitome, Bartholomaeo Georgieviz, peregrino, autore | year=1558 | publisher=apud J. Tornaesium }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=emprvwEACAAJ | title=Istoria tou neou ellenismou: Tourkokratia 1453-1669. Oi agones gia ten piste kai ten eleytheria | last1=Vakalopoulos | first1=Apostolos E. | year=1961 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J2-2zQEACAAJ | title=Istoria tou neou ellenismou | last1=Vakalopoulos | first1=Apostolos E. | year=1974 }}</ref>

In his memoir, Konstantin Mihailović (1430–1501), a Serbian who was abducted in his youth and marched away by the Turks, saw nothing “prestigious” or “lucrative” about becoming a janissary. “We always thought about killing the Turks and running away by ourselves among the mountains,” he writes, “but our youth did not permit us to do that.” Once when he and a group of other boys broke free and escaped, “the whole region pursued us, and having caught and bound us, they beat us and tortured us and dragged us behind horses.”<ref name=auto3>{{cite book | last1=Michałowicz | first1=K. | last2=Soucek | first2=S. | last3=Stolz | first3=B.A. | title=Memoirs of a Janissary|pages=50–51 | publisher=Markus Wiener Publishers | year=2010 | isbn=978-1-55876-531-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AFHwwAEACAAJ}}</ref>

It is said that: "Even those personally chosen by the Sultan found nothing admirable about their lot." After Ottoman Sultan [[Mehmed II]] took eight Christian youths into his service, they made a pact to assassinate him by night, saying “If we kill this Turkish dog, then all of Christendom will be freed [from Ottoman tyranny]; but if we are caught, then we will become martyrs before God with the others.” When their plot was exposed, and Mehmed inquired what caused them to “dare attempt this,” they responded, “None other than our great sorrow for our fathers and dear friends.” He had the children slowly tortured over the course of a year before beheading them.<ref name="auto3"/>

On the other hand, since the devshirme could reach powerful positions, some Muslim families tried to have the recruiters take their sons so that they could achieve professional advancement.<ref>{{cite book |author=Traian Stoianovich |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lKVzCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA201 |title=Balkan Worlds: The First and Last Europe |date=May 2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-47615-3 |page=201 |author-link=Traian Stoianovich}}</ref> Sometimes people of both religion, or family in great needs, attempted to bribe scouts to take their children.<ref>{{cite book |title= Bosnia: A Short History |last= Malcolm |first= Noel |author-link= Noel Malcolm |year= 1996 |publisher= Papermac |location= London |isbn= 0-333-66215-6 |page= 46 }}</ref> The boys were forced to convert to Islam.<ref>''The New Encyclopedia of Islam'', ed. Cyril Glassé, (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), 129.</ref>

In [[Epirus]], a traditional folk song expressed this resentment by cursing the Sultan and admonishing against the kidnapping of boys:<ref name="Merry Greenwood Press 2004 p. 197">{{cite book|last=Merry|first=B.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q-lr20SuvfIC&pg=PA197|title=Encyclopedia of Modern Greek Literature|author2=Greenwood Press|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-313-30813-0|page=197|access-date=2020-06-24}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|text=<poem>Be damned, O Emperor, be thrice damned
For the evil you have done and the evil you do.
You catch and shackle the old and the archpriests
In order to take the children as Janissaries.
Their parents weep and their sisters and brothers too And I cry until it pains me;
As long as I live I shall cry,
For last year it was my son and this year my brother.
</poem>|author=|title=Anonymous song protesting the collecting of young boys to be made slaves of the Ottoman Empire|source=<ref name="Bator Rothero 2000 p. 43">{{cite book | last1=Bator | first1=R. | last2=Rothero | first2=C. | title=Daily Life in Ancient and Modern Istanbul | publisher=Runestone Press | series=Cities through time | year=2000 | isbn=978-0-8225-3217-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k1thG1smoSMC&pg=PA43 | access-date=2020-06-24 | page=43}}</ref>}}

The Tübingen manuscript written by Andre Argyros and John Tholoites and given to Martin Crusius in 1585 shows what the Christian parents thought of the Janissaries:<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ju8xJ5JBXgsC | isbn=9781615920174 | title=The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims | date=29 December 2010 | publisher=Prometheus Books }}</ref>
{{Blockquote
|text= You understand, then, my lords and Christian gentlemen, what sorrow the Greeks bear, the fathers and the mothers who are separated from their children at the prime of life. Think ye of the heartrending sorrow! How many mothers scratch out their cheeks! How many fathers beat their breast with stones! What grief these Christians experience on account of their children who are separated from them while alive, and how many mothers say, “It would have been better to see them dead and buried in our church, rather than to have them taken alive in order to become Turks and abjure our faith. Better that you had died!”|}}

[[Stephen Gerlach]] gives the case of a Greek Mother from [[Panormus (Ionia)|Panormus]] in Anatolia who had two boys and begged God every day to take them away because she would soon be forced to give up one of them. The distress expressed here was motivated not only by religious considerations, but also by the low opinion the Byzantines held for Turks (whom they called barbarians).<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2853347 | jstor=2853347 | title=Isidore Glabas and the Turkish Devshirme | last1=Vryonis | first1=Speros | journal=Speculum | year=1956 | volume=31 | issue=3 | pages=433–443 | doi=10.2307/2853347 | s2cid=164148319 | url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://anemi.lib.uoc.gr/metadata/f/1/e/metadata-162-0000029.tkl | title=Anemi - Digital Library of Modern Greek Studies - Tagebuch der vonzween Glorwurdigsten Romischen Kaysern Maximiliano und Rudolpho ... / Stephan Gerlachs }}</ref>

In desperation the parents would appeal to the Pope and western powers for help. A petition of the [[Albanians]] of [[Himarë]] in the year 1581, addressed to the Pope reads: "Holiest father, if you could convince him and save us and the children of Greece, that are taken every day and are turned into Turks, if you could only do this, God may bless you. Amen”.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qajNileHeuoC | title=Monumenta spectantia ad unionem Ecclesiarum Graecae et Romanae, majorem partem e sanctioribus Vaticani tabulariis, edita ab Augustino Theiner et Francisco Miklosich | year=1872 }}</ref>

In 1456 Greeks living on the western coast of Anatolia appealed to the Knights Hospitalers of Rhodes for help.<ref name="auto5"/>
{{blockquote|We, who do dwell in Turkey ... inform your lordship that we are heavily vexed by the Turk, and that they take away our children and make Muslims of them ... For this reason we beseech your lordship to take council that the most holy pope might send his ships to take us and our wives and children away from here, for we are suffering greatly from the Turk.}}

The children were taken from their families and transported to Istanbul. Upon their arrival, they were [[Forced conversion|forcibly converted]] to Islam, examined and made to serve the empire. The system produced infantry corps soldiers as well as civilian administrators and high-ranked military officials."<ref>A History of the Modern Middle East Cleveland and Buntin p.42</ref> Their village, district and province, parentage, date of birth, and physical appearance was recorded. [[Albertus Bobovius]] wrote in 1686 that diseases were common among the devshirme and that strict discipline was enforced.<ref>Nicolas Brenner. Serai Enderun; das ist inwendige beschaffenheit der türkischen Kayserl, residentz, zu Constantinopoli die newe burgk genannt sampt der ordnung und gebrauschen so von Alberto Bobivio Leopolitano. J. J. Kürner. 1667. Search under Bobovio, Bobovius or Ali Ulvi for other translations. French version exists, and fragments exist in C.G. and A.W. Fisher's "Topkapi Sarayi in the Mid-17th Century: Bobovi's Description" in 1985.</ref> Although the influence of Turkic nobility continued in the Ottoman court until [[Mehmet II]] (see [[Çandarlı (2nd) Halil Pasha|Çandarlı Halil]]), the Ottoman ruling class slowly came to be ruled exclusively by the devshirme, creating a separate social class.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zürcher |first=Erik |title=Arming the State |publisher=LB Tauris and Co. Ltd. |year=1999 |isbn=1-86064-404-X |location=United States of America |pages=5}}</ref> This class of rulers was chosen from the brightest of devshirme and handpicked to serve in the palace institution, known as the [[Enderûn]].{{sfn|Shaw|1976|pp=115–117}} They had to accompany the Sultan on campaigns, but exceptional service would be rewarded by assignments outside the palace.{{sfn|Shaw|1976|p=117}} Those chosen for the scribe institution, known as {{Transliteration|ota|kalemiye}}, were also granted prestigious positions. At the religious institution, [[İlmiye]], all orthodox Muslim clergy of the Ottoman Empire were educated and sent to provinces or served in the capital.{{sfn|Shaw|1976|pp=132–139}}

The children were subjected to a draconian training system: “They make them drudge day and night, and they give them no bed to sleep on and very little food.” They were allowed to “speak to each other only when it is urgently necessary” and were made to “pray together without fail at four prescribed times every day.” As “for any little offense, they beat them cruelly with sticks, rarely hitting them less than a hundred times, and often as much as a thousand. After punishments the boys have to come to them and kiss their clothing and thank them for the cudgelings they have received. You can see, then, that moral degradation and humiliation are part of the training system,” writes 16th century Italian diplomat [[Giovan Francesco Morosini (cardinal)]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1W8rAwAAQBAJ | isbn=9781442606234 | title=The Crusades: A Reader: Second Edition | date=January 2014 | publisher=University of Toronto Press }}</ref> They were “degraded to the level of animals” and showed a “dog-like devotion to the sultan”, writes Vasiliki Papouli. Many possibly suffered from Stockholm Syndrome.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.zvab.com/Polis-Nationalstaat-vergleichende-%C3%9Cberbauanalyse-Anschlu%C3%9F-Aristoteles/17472213595/bd | title=Polis und Nationalstaat. Eine vergleichende Überbauanalyse im Anschluß an Aristoteles (= Sammlung Luchterhand, Band 93). Mit Widmung des Autors an den Philosophen Prof. Michael Theunissen von Tomberg, Friedrich: (1973) &#124; Graphem. Kunst- und Buchantiquariat }}</ref><ref name="auto4"/>

[[Jean-Baptiste Tavernier|Tavernier]] noted in 1678 that the [[janissary|janissaries]] looked more like a religious order than a military corps.<ref>[[Jean-Baptiste Tavernier|Tavernier]].  Nouvelle Relation de L'ınterieur du Serrial du Grand Seigneur. 1678, Amsterdam.</ref>{{Page needed|date=June 2020}} The members of the organization were not banned from marriage, as Tavernier further noted, but it was very uncommon for them. He went on to write that their numbers had increased to a hundred thousand but only due to a degeneration of regulations, with many of them in fact being "fake" janissaries, posing as such for tax exemptions and other social privileges. He noted that the actual number of janissaries was in fact much lower. Shaw writes that their number was 30,000 under [[Suleiman the Magnificent]].{{sfn|Shaw|1976|p=121}} By the 1650s, the number of janissaries had increased to 50,000, but by this time, the devshirme had largely been abandoned as a method of recruitment.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ágoston |first=Gábor |date=2014 |title=Firearms and Military Adaptation: The Ottomans and the European Military Revolution, 1450–1800 |journal=Journal of World History |volume=25 |pages=118 |doi=10.1353/jwh.2014.0005 |s2cid=143042353}}

* {{cite book |last=Kunt |first=Metin İ. |title=The Sultan's Servants: The Transformation of Ottoman Provincial Government, 1550–1650 |date=1983 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=0-231-05578-1 |place=New York |pages=76 |ref=none}}</ref>

According to Cleveland, the devshirme system offered "limitless opportunities to the young men who became a part of it."<ref>Cleveland, William L. "A History of the Modern Middle East. 3rd Edition." p. 46</ref> Basilike Papoulia wrote that "the devishirme was the 'forcible removal', in the form of a tribute, of children of the Christian subjects from their ethnic, religious and cultural environment and their transportation into the Turkish-Islamic environment with the aim of employing them in the service of the Palace, the army, and the state, whereby they were on the one hand to serve the Sultan as slaves and freedmen and on the other to form the ruling class of the State."<ref>''Some Notes on the Devsirme'', '''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies''', Vol. 29, No. 1, 1966, V.L.Menage, (Cambridge University Press, 1966), 64.</ref> Accordingly, Papoulia agrees with [[Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb]] and Harold Bowen, authors of ''Islamic Society and the West'', that the devshirme was a penalization imposed on the Balkan peoples since their ancestors had resisted the Ottoman invasion.<ref>''Some Notes on the Devsirme'', '''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies''', Vol. 29, No. 1, 1966, V.L.Menage, (Cambridge University Press, 1966), 70.</ref> [[Vladimir Minorsky]] states, "The most striking manifestation of this fact is the unprecedented system of devshirme, i.e. the periodic conscription of 'tribute boys', by which the children of Christians were wrung from their families, churches, and communities to be molded into Ottoman praetorians owing their allegiance to the Sultan and the official faith of Islam."<ref>''Shaykh Bali-Efendi on the Safavids'', '''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies''', Vol. 20, No. 1/3, 1957, V. Minorsky, (Cambridge University Press, 1957), p. 437.</ref> This system as explained by [[Çandarlı Kara Halil Hayreddin Pasha]], founder of the Janissaries: "The conquered are slaves of the conquerors, to whom their goods, their women, and their children belong as lawful possession".<ref>Lybyer, Albert Howe, ''The Government of the Ottoman empire in the time of Suleiman the Magnificent'', (Harvard University Press, 1913), pp. 63–64.</ref>

== Status under Islamic law ==
According to scholars, the practice of devshirme was a clear violation of [[sharia]] or Islamic law.<ref name="autogenerated2" /><ref name="nicolle" /><ref name="nicolle2" /><ref>{{cite journal|title=Devs̱ẖirme and s̱ẖarī'a|author=Paul Wittek|journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London|volume=17|issue=2|year=1955|pages=271–278}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Mikaberidze|first=Alexander|author-link=Alexander Mikaberidze|title=Conflict and Conquest in the Islamic World: A Historical Encyclopedia &#91;2 volumes&#93;: A Historical Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jBBYD2J2oE4C&pg=PA273|year=2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-59884-337-8|page=273|quote=This effectively enslaved some of the sultan's own non-Islamic subjects and was therefore illegal under Islamic law, which stipulated that conquered non-Muslims should be demilitarized and protected.}}</ref><ref>{{New Cambridge Medieval History|volume=6|chapter=The Rise of the Ottomans|first=I. |last=Kunt|page= 860}}</ref>  [[David Nicolle]] writes that since the boys were "effectively enslaved" under the devshirme system, this was a violation of the {{Transliteration|ar|[[dhimmi]]}} protections guaranteed under Islamic law to [[People of the Book]].<ref name="Mikaberidze2011" /> The practice of devshirme also involved forced conversions to Islam.<ref name="nicolle2" /> This is disputed by Turkish historian [[Halil İnalcık]], who argues that the devshirme were not slaves once converted to Islam.<ref name="auto" />{{efn|name=slave-or-voluntary}}

Some scholars point out that the early Ottoman Empire did not care about the details of sharia and thus did not see any problems with devshirme.<ref>{{cite book|author=F .E Peters|title=The Monotheists: Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Conflict and Competition, Volume II: The Words and Will of God|page=122|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]}}</ref> During this time, the Ottomans believed that the [[Qanun (law)|Qanun]], the law enacted by the Sultan, superseded sharia even though the latter was treated with respect.<ref name=Zubaida /> The devshirme was just one example in which the Sultan's wishes superseded the sharia (another example is that Ottoman sultans set maximum interest rates even though sharia [[riba|totally prohibits interest]]).<ref name=Zubaida>{{cite book|author=Sami Zubaida|title=Law and Power in the Islamic World|page=115|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic}}</ref> [[James L. Gelvin]] explains that Ottoman [[qadi|jurists]] were able to get around that injunction with an extraordinarily creative legal manoeuvre by arguing that although Islamic tradition forbade the enslavement of Christians, Balkan Christians were different because they had converted to Christianity after the advent of Islam.<ref name="Gelvin" /> (This was true of most rural Christians in the Balkans, but not the Greeks.)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ménage |first=V. L. |date=2012 |editor-last=Bearman |editor-first=P. |title=Devs̲h̲irme |url=https://referenceworks.brill.com/display/entries/EIEO/SIM-1807.xml |website=Encyclopaedia of Islam New Edition Online (EI-2 English) |publisher=Brill |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_1807|url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[William Gervase Clarence-Smith]] points out that the reasoning is not accepted in the [[Hanafi]] school of law, which the Ottoman Empire claimed to have practiced.<ref name ="Clarence-Smith">{{cite book|title=Islam and the Abolition of Slavery |author=William Gervase Clarence-Smith|pages=38–9}}</ref>

Contemporary Ottoman chroniclers had mixed opinions on the practice. An Ottoman historian of the 1500s, [[Mustafa Âlî]], admitted that devshirme violated sharia but was allowed only out of necessity.<ref name ="Clarence-Smith" /> Others argued the Muslim conqueror had the right to one fifth of war booty and could thus take the Christian boys;<ref name="Hathaway 2005 p. ">{{cite book | last=Hathaway | first=J. | title=Beshir Agha: chief eunuch of the Ottoman imperial harem | publisher=Oneworld Publications | series=Makers of the Muslim World Series | year=2005 | isbn=978-1-85168-390-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e35pAAAAMAAJ | page=4}}</ref> however, Islamic law allows no such booty from communities that had submitted peacefully to conquest and certainly not from their descendants.<ref name ="Clarence-Smith" />

== Ethnicity of the devshirme and exemptions ==
The devshirme were collected once every four or five years from rural provinces in [[Eastern Europe]], [[Southeastern Europe]] and [[Anatolia]]. They were mainly collected from Christian subjects, with a few exceptions. However, some Muslim families managed to smuggle their sons in anyway.<ref name=autogenerated1 /> The devshirme levy was not applied to the major cities of the empire, and children of local craftsmen in rural towns were also exempt, as it was considered that conscripting them would harm the economy.{{sfn|Shaw|1976|p=114}}

According to [[Bernard Lewis]], the janissaries were mainly recruited from the Slavic and Albanian populations of the Balkans.<ref>{{cite book|author=Lewis, Bernard|title=Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry|publisher=Oxford University Press|year= 1992|url=https://archive.org/details/raceslaveryinmid0000lewi|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/raceslaveryinmid0000lewi/page/65 65]|isbn=978-0-19-505326-5 }}</ref> According to the [[Encyclopædia Britannica]] and the [[Encyclopaedia of Islam]], in the early days of the empire, all Christians were enrolled indiscriminately. Later, those from [[Albania]], [[Bosnia]] and [[Bulgaria]] were preferred.<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Janissaries |volume= 5 | pages = 151–152}}</ref><ref>Encyclopaedia of Islam (Leiden Grill, 1967–97), vol. 4, art. 'Devshirme'. p 151.</ref> What is certain is that devshirme were primarily recruited from Christians living in the Balkans.<ref name="Stiles66">Andrina Stiles, 'The Ottoman Empire: 1450–1700' (Hodder & Stoughton, 1989), p. 66.</ref><ref>Perry Anderson (1979). Lineages of the Absolutist State. Verso. p. 366</ref> Since Muslim Bosnians were the only Muslim ethnic group allowed to be recruited, an armed guard was required to lead the Bosnians on their way to Istanbul to avoid any Turkish boys from being smuggled into their ranks.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lewis |first=Raphaela |url=http://archive.org/details/everydaylifeinot00raph |title=Everyday life in Ottoman Turkey |date=1988 |publisher=New York, NY : Dorset Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-88029-175-0 |pages=25 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Jews]] were exempt from this service. [[Armenians]] are also believed to have been exempt from the levy by many scholars,{{efn|Shaw states that the reason for the exemption may have been the recognition of both people as a separate nation (none of the Balkan ethnic groups were recognized as such) or that both Jews and Armenians lived mostly in the major cities anyway.<ref>Shaw 1976, p. 114</ref>}}{{efn|Albertus Bobovius, who was enslaved by [[Crimean Tatars]] and sold into the palace in the 17th century, reported that both Armenians and Jews were exempt from the devshirme levy. He wrote that the reason for the exemption of Armenians was religious in that Armenian Gregorian Church was considered the closest to Christ's (and therefore Muhammed's) teachings.}} although a 1997 publication that examined Armenian [[Colophon (publishing)|colophons]] from the 15th to the 17th centuries and foreign travelers of the time concluded that Armenians were not exempt.<ref>Kouymjian, Dickran (1997). "Armenia from the Fall of the Cilician Kingdom (1375) to the Forced Migration under Shah Abbas (1604)" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times, Volume II: Foreign Dominion to Statehood: The Fifteenth Century to the Twentieth Century''. [[Richard Hovannisian]] (ed.) New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 12–14. {{ISBN|1-4039-6422-X}}.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|language=hy|author-link=Manvel Zulalyan|last=Zulalyan|first=Manvel|url=https://arar.sci.am/dlibra/publication/187429/edition/170162/content|script-title=hy:«Դևշիրմե»-ն (մանկահավաքը) Օսմանյան կայսրության մեջ ըստ թուրքական և հայկական աղբյուրների|trans-title=Devshirme (child-gathering) in the Ottoman Empire according to Turkish and Armenian sources|journal=[[Patma-Banasirakan Handes]]|volume=2-3|year=1959|pages=247–256}}</ref> Boys who were orphans or were their family's only son were exempt.<ref name="Stiles66"/><ref name="auto1">{{cite journal |last=Taskin |first=U. |year=2008 |title=Klasik donem Osmanli egitim kurumlari|trans-title=Ottoman educational foundations in classical terms |journal=Journal of International Social Research |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=343–366|language=tr}}</ref>

Well-known examples of Ottomans who had been recruited as devshirme include [[Skanderbeg]], [[Sinan Pasha]] and [[Sokollu Mehmed Pasha]].

=== Unifying factor ===
The diversity of the devshirme also served as a unifying factor for the Ottoman Empire. Greeks, Armenians,{{Clarify|reason=stated above Armenians were exempt|date=June 2020}} Albanians, and other ethnicities would see that the Sultan was Turkish, but his viziers were Albanian, Bulgarian, Greek and other ethnicities. The ethnic diversity in high-level and powerful positions of the Ottoman Empire helped to unite the diverse groups under its jurisdiction. They also prevented a hereditary aristocracy from forming but held sway over the Sultan themselves and practically formed their own aristocracy.<ref name="Barkey1">{{cite book |last1=Barkey |first1=Karen |title=Empire of difference : the Ottomans in comparative perspective |date=2008 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-71533-1}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=June 2020}}<ref name="Kopper">{{cite web |last1=Kopper |first1=Paul |title=The Devshirme System, a Necessary Evil |url=https://www.academia.edu/29083160 |website=Academia.edu |publisher=American Military University |access-date=8 April 2020}}{{Rp}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=June 2020}}

== Devshirme in the Ottoman Palace School ==
[[File:Enderun1.jpg|thumb|230px|Enderûn pyramid]]
The primary objective of the [[Topkapı Palace|Palace School]] was to train the ablest children for [[leadership]] positions, either as [[Pasha|military leaders]] or as [[Vizier|high administrators]] to serve the [[Ottoman Empire|Devlet]].<ref>Basgoz, I. & Wilson, H. E. (1989). The educational tradition of the Ottoman Empire and the development of the Turkish educational system of the republican era. Turkish Review 3(16), 15.</ref> Although there are many resemblances between [[Enderun School|Enderûn]] and other palace schools of the previous civilizations, such as those of the [[Abbasid Caliphate|Abbasids]], the [[Seljuk Turks|Seljuks]]<ref>Van Duinkerken, W. (1998). Educational reform in the tanzimat era (1839–1876): Secular reforms in tanzimat (Unpublished masters thesis, McGiIl University). Retrieved from http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca:1801/webclient/StreamGate?folder_id {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120328130036/http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca:1801/webclient/StreamGate?folder_id |date=28 March 2012 }} =0&dvs=1248070802480~852</ref>{{Page needed|date=June 2020}} or the [[Renaissance|contemporary European]] palace schools, Enderûn was unique with respect to the background of the student body and its [[meritocracy|meritocratic]] system. In the strict draft phase, students were taken forcefully from the [[Rayah|Christian population of the Empire]] and were converted to [[Sunni Islam|Islam]]. [[History of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire|Jews]] and [[Romani people|Roma]] were exempted from devshirme and so were all [[Islam|Muslims]].

Those entrusted to find those children were scouts, who were specially-trained agents, throughout the [[Balkans]]. Scouts were recruiting youngsters according to their talent and ability with school subjects, in addition to their personality, character and physical perfection. The Enderûn candidates were not supposed to be [[orphans]] or the only child in their family to ensure that the candidates had strong family values. They also had to not have already learned to speak [[Ottoman Turkish language|Turkish]] or a [[craft]] or trade. The ideal age of a recruit was between 10 and 20 years of age.<ref>Taskin, U. (2008). Klasik donem Osmanli egitim kurumlari – Ottoman educational foundations in classical terms. Uluslararasi Sosyal Arastirmalar Dergisi – The Journal of International Social Research 1, 343–366.</ref>{{Page needed|date=June 2020}} Mehmed Refik [[Bey|Beg]] mentioned that a youth with a bodily defect, no matter how slight, was never admitted into palace service,<ref name="auto2">Miller, B. (1973). The palace school of Muhammad the Conqueror (Reprint ed.). NY: Arno Press.</ref>{{Page needed|date=June 2020}} since [[Ottoman Turks|Turks]] believed that a strong soul and a good mind could be found only in a perfect body.<ref name="DIA-E">Ipsirli, M. (1995). Enderûn. In Diyanet Islam ansiklopedisi  (Vol. XI, pp. 185–187). Istanbul, Turkey: Turkiye Diyanet Vakfi.</ref>

The selected children were dressed in red so that they could not easily escape on their way to [[Constantinople]]. The cost of the devshirme service and their clothes were paid by their villages or communities. The boys were gathered into cohorts of a hundred or more to walk to Constantinople, where they were [[khitan (circumcision)|circumcised]] and divided between the palace schools and the military training. Anyone not chosen for the palace spent years being toughened by hard labor on farms in [[Anatolia]] until they were old enough [[janissary|for the military]].<ref>Katheryn Hain, [http://utahhistoricalreview.com/devshirme-is-a-contested-practice/%20KatherynHain%20(2012) Devshirme is a Contested Practice(2012)]{{dead link|date=September 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}, Historia: the Alpha Rho Papers, vol. 2,  p. 167, 168.</ref>

The brightest youths who fit into the general guidelines and had a strong [[primary education]] were then given to selected [[Sunni Islam|Muslim]] families across [[Anatolia]] to complete the [[enculturation]] process.<ref>Horniker, A. N. (1944). The Corps of the Janizaries. Military Affairs 8(3), 177–04.</ref><ref name="auto2" /><ref name="DIA-E" /> They would later attend schools across Anatolia to complete their training for six to seven years to qualify as ordinary [[military officer]]s.<ref>Ilgurel, M. (1988). Acemi Oglani. In Diyanet Islam ansiklopedisi (Vol. I, pp. 324–25). Istanbul, Turkey: Turkiye Diyanet Vakfi.</ref> They would get the highest salaries amongst the [[pasha|administrators of the empire]] and very well respected in public.<ref>Akarsu, F. (n.d.) "Enderun: Ustun yetenekliler icin saray okulu". Retrieved from http://fusunakarsu.com/articles/ENDERUN_ustun_yetenekliler_icin.html{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

== Eunuchs ==
White [[eunuchs]] were sometimes recruited from among the devshirme.<ref name="duindam" /> Unlike the black eunuchs, who were usually castrated in their place of origin, the devshirme were castrated at the palace. The palace eunuchs who supervised them often came from the same background as the devshirme (the Balkans).<ref name="duindam" /> A considerable number of eunuchs of devshirme origin went on to hold important positions in the government and the military, and many of them became [[grand vizier]], like [[Hadım Ali Pasha]], [[Sinan Borovinić]], [[Hadım Hasan Pasha]], [[Hadim Mesih Pasha]] and [[Hadım Mehmed Pasha]]. Others, like [[Sofu Hadım Ali Pasha]], [[Hadım Şehabeddin]], [[Battle of Krbava Field|Hadım Yakup Pasha of Bosnia]], [[Siege of Eger (1552)|Hadım Ali Pasha of Buda]], [[Hadım Suleiman Pasha]] and his namesake [[Hadım Suleiman Pasha (governor of Rumelia)|Hadım Suleiman Pasha]], became prominent admirals and generals.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jefferson|first=John|title=The Holy Wars of King Wladislas and Sultan Murad: The Ottoman-Christian Conflict from 1438–1444|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FpvqWWpUYSoC&pg=PA84|date=17 August 2012|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-21904-5|page=13}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Orientalski otdel|title=Inventory of Ottoman Turkish documents about Waqf preserved in the Oriental Department at the St. Cyril and Methodius National Library: Registers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4TPYAAAAMAAJ|year=2003|publisher=Narodna biblioteka "Sv. sv. Kiril i Metodiĭ"|page=243|isbn=9789545230721 |quote=Sehabeddin Pasa, devshirme conscript.}}</ref>

== Decline ==
According to the historian Cemal Kafadar, one of the main reasons for the decline of the devshirme system was that the size of the janissary corps had to be expanded to compensate for the decline in the importance of the [[sipahi]] cavalry forces, which itself was a result of changes in early modern warfare such as the introduction of firearms and increased importance of infantry.<ref name=autogenerated3>Cemal Kafadar. "The Question of Ottoman Decline." Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review, vol. 4, no. 1-2, 1997–1998, pp. 52</ref> Indeed, the janissary corps would soon become the empire's largest single military corps.<ref name=autogenerated3 /> As a result, by the late 16th century, the devshirme system had become increasingly abandoned for less rigid recruitment methods, which allowed Muslims to enter directly into the janissary corps.<ref name=autogenerated3 />

In 1632, the janissaries attempted an unsuccessful coup against [[Murad IV]], who then imposed a loyalty oath on them. In 1638<ref>Hubbard, Glenn and Tim Kane. (2013). Balance: The Economics of Great Powers From Ancient Rome to Modern America. Simon & Schuster. p. 152. {{ISBN|978-1-4767-0025-0}}</ref> or 1648, the devshirme-based recruiting system of the janissary corps formally came to an end.<ref>{{cite book |last=Zürcher |first=Erik |year=1999 |location=London and New York |title=Arming the State |publisher=LB Tauris and Co. Ltd. |page=80|isbn=1-86064-404-X }}</ref> In an order sent in multiple copies to authorities throughout the European provinces in 1666, a devshirme recruitment target of between 300 and 320 was set for an area covering the whole of the central and western [[Balkans]].{{sfn|Murphey|2006|pp=44–45}} On the accession of sultan [[Suleiman II of the Ottoman Empire|Suleiman II]] in 1687, only 130 janissary inductees were graduated to the janissary ranks.{{sfn|Murphey|2006|p=46}} The system was finally abolished in the early part of [[Ahmet III]]'s reign (1703–1730).{{sfn|Murphey|2006|p=223}}

After Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798, there was a reform movement in Sultan [[Selim III]]'s regime to reduce the numbers of the askeri class, who were the first class citizens or military class (also called janissaries). Selim was taken prisoner and murdered by the janissaries. The successor to the sultan, [[Mahmud II]], was patient but remembered the results of the uprising in 1807. In 1826, he created the basis of a new modern army, the [[Asakir-i Mansure-i Muhammediye]],<ref name = Kinross456>Kinross, pp. 456–457.</ref> which caused a revolt among the janissaries. The authorities kept the janissaries{{which|reason=The "Auspicious Incident" article states that the leaders were killed but does not say what happened to the others.|date=December 2016}} in their barracks and slaughtered thousands of them.<ref>Hubbard, Glenn and Tim Kane. (2013). Balance: The Economics of Great Powers From Ancient Rome to Modern America. Simon & Schuster. p. 153. {{ISBN|978-1-4767-0025-0}}</ref> That development entered the [[Ottoman history]] annals as the [[Auspicious Incident]].

== See also ==
* [[Slavery in the Ottoman Empire#Ottoman slavery in Central and Eastern Europe|Ottoman slavery in Central and Eastern Europe]]
* [[Mamluk]]
* [[Ghilman]]
* [[Black Guard]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist|30em}}

== References ==

=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|30em}}

=== Sources ===
* {{cite web|first=Matrakci |last=Nasuh |url=http://warfare.atwebpages.com/Ottoman/Suleymanname/Janissary_Recruitment_in_the_Balkans-Suleymanname.htm |title=Janissary Recruitment in the Balkans |year=1588 |work=Süleymanname, Topkapi Sarai Museum, Ms Hazine 1517|ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Shaw |first=Stanford |author-link=Stanford J. Shaw |year=1976 |location=Cambridge |title=History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Volume I |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=0-521-21280-4 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofottoman00stan }}
* {{cite book|last=Murphey|first=Rhoads|title=Ottoman Warfare, 1500–1700|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A-yOAgAAQBAJ|year=2006|orig-year=1999|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-36591-2 }}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite news|title=Islam and slavery: The persistence of history|url=https://www.economist.com/news/international/21661812-islamic-states-revival-slavery-extreme-though-it-finds-disquieting-echoes-across|newspaper=The Economist|date=22 August 2015}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category|position=left}}
{{Wiktionary|devshirme|position=left}}

{{Ottoman Empire topics}}
{{Adopt}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}

[[Category:Devshirme| ]]
[[Category:Military of the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Slaves in the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Persecution of Christians in the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Persecution of Greeks in the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Culture of the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Society of the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Education in the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:Military slavery]]
[[Category:Ottoman slave trade]]
[[Category:Anti-intellectualism]]