"The forcible removal, in the form of a tribute, of children of the Christian subjects from their ethnic, religious and cultural environment and their transplantation into the Turkish Islamic environment with the aim of employing them in the services of the palace, the army, and the state, whereby they were on one hand to serve the sultan as slaves and freedmen on the other to form the ruling class of the state."(Menage)
This was the Devshirme that was instituted to fill the corridors of power in the realms of the Ottoman Sultan. It stayed in force for around three hundred years during the apogee of the Ottoman Empire. This paper explores the ways it worked, the history of the institution, reasons for its implementation and justifications put forward to defend it.
THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DEVSHIRME.
“…there are two sorts of Turks, one of these is composed of native born of Turkish fathers, and the other of renegades, who are sons of Christian fathers, taken violently in the depredations which his fleets and galleys are accustomed to make on Christian territories, or levied in his own territory by force of arms and from subjects and non-Muslim taxpayers (carzeri) of the signor….”
This is a report by Gianfransesco Morosini – a Venetian by birth, but a resident in Istanbul from 1582 to 1585 – on the methods of recruitment to fill the governing circles. The levy or collection mentioned was an integral part of recruitment into the government at that time. This was noted by Western observers as early as 1483, when Bartholomew de Jano reported that the Sultan would take one in ten boys:
“From ten to twenty years, whom he would make his special slaves and shield bearers and, what is worse, Saracens.”
So how was this system of Devshirme, meaning “to collect” set up and carried out?
From each Kada criers would be sent to the surrounding villages, they would tell the local children to gather, accompanied by their father and the local priest. To miss this could result in severe punishment for the father. There they would be met by a Janissary officer- usually a yaya-bashi – who would have a katib with him, a berat of authorisation and a good supply of uniforms. The Devshirme was levied on the Sultan’s authority alone, and were assed against certain “tax units” consisting of a number of villages, the burden being on average of one to every forty households.
The Janissary officer who was responsible for the tax had strict guidelines to follow. Boys were sought out who were hardy, trainable subjects, unmarried and between the ages of fourteen to twenty, though this was often variable. There was a list of children that were to be exempt, based on social situations and physical irregularities. In general it was only levied on country folk as they were seen as hardier and less sophisticated and thus easier to educate and train. The two registers would be filled with all the details, one of the tomes would go with the janissary and the other would accompany the surudju – drover – and the group of 100-150 children to Istanbul, in an attempt to cut out any ancillary practices between the sanjak and Istanbul. Or else if a boy disappears:
“…reference to the register will show who he is and where he comes from, so that he can easily be recovered.”(Imber)
Once the boys reached Istanbul, they were officially given the title of Kul – slave of the Sultan. Next they were put through tests to determine their suitability, this was carried out by the Aghas of Rumelia and Anatolia, who were accompanied by their staff, and a surgeon who would examine and circumcise the boys. The sciences of Physiognomy and phrenology were then applied to determine their capabilities. The best were sent to the palace for an education at the palace school and a career in the government or other such offices, the strongest of them in the gardens. Most of the other boys were to end up being subsumed into the janissary corps. They would initially be sold to Turkish farmers in Anatolia to enable them to learn the Turkish language (the linga Franca of the corps and government) and Islamic ways. Whilst all the time accustoming the lad to physical labour and hardships. Here they would stay until there was a vacancy in the barracks of Istanbul, allowing them to join the barracks of the novices, and only then the full janissary corps.
A HISTORY OF THE DEVSHIRME/ KULLAR SYSTEM.
As odd as it might seem to us today to have slaves running the government and staffing the standing army, this was not the case in the middle ages and especially so in the Ottoman realm, there was a long precedence of slaves being employed and empowered within governing circles. In ancient Iran the Aechminid rulers employed large slave armies, this occurred also under the rulers of the Abbasid Empire and the later Sultans of Iran and Egypt, the Turk (Seljuk) and Mongol rulers had also used captives in their armies. The Mamluk rulers were themselves of slave origin.
The term Devshirme was used in the early sources for the “collection” of one fifth of a part of prisoners obtained from the Dar al-Harb area, attributable to the time of Murad I:
“Take one fifth of the prisoners coming from raids, and if someone does not have five prisoners, take twenty five akches for each prisoner.”(Imber)
The one captive that was selected for the Sultan from the five was to be used in the formation of the “new corps”, the janissaries.
The precise date for the first implementation of the Devshirme is not known as there is much discussion over the sources and their reliability. It is suggested that the term ‘pencik oglani’ was used till around 1493. That the Devshirme was instituted around the end of the fourteenth Century has been suggested by a firman relating to the time of Evrenos Bay, an important Ghazi and land holder in the early years of the invasion of the Balkans. This date’s implementation of the Devshirme to around the 1380s as it exempts certain locals from the ‘pencik oglani’.
Other evidence puts it in the late fourteenth Century, seen in a letter of Colluccio di Salutati of 1397:
“Decem vel duodecim annorum pueros ad militiam rapiunt”
And slightly earlier in 1395 you can hear Isidore Glabas, the Metropolitan of Thessalonica talking of:
“The seizure of the children by the decree of the Amir.”
The 1430 letter of Sinan Pasha to the Ioannians granting them exemption to the Devshirme indicates that Murad II reintroduced it after the battle of Ankara in 1402 and the subsequent interregnum/civil war. During the 15th Century there was little call for the Devshirme as the supply of slaves from other sources was abundant at this time. During the 16th century factors led to the drying up of these other sources, after the victory of Mohacs, and the establishment of a puppet king, leading to the realm’s incorporation into the world of dar al-Islam, the slave raids into Hungary stopped.
So the Devshirme of this time was supplied by the dhimmis of Rumelia, and it is commonly agreed that it was confined to this area in its initial stages. The Devshirme was imposed only on certain groups, some never having to undergo the ‘collection’. These groups and areas that did not face the ‘collection’ included the Jews, Moldova, Walachia and the Armenians for a while. The predominant source of the Devshirme was therefore Rumelia (and later Anatolia) mainly Slavs and Albanians. There was though one Muslim group that asked for the Devshirme to be implemented upon them. This was the Bosnians who had converted en-mass to Islam at the time of the conquests. The annual levy was variable, with certain sources putting the figures between 800 and 12,000 a year. In general the implementation was ad-hoc and according to need, and was open to abuse for their own ends by the officers implementing it.
The Devshirme as a systematic exploitation of the Empires minorities finally came to an end in the 17th century, being ‘absolutely abrogated’ by Sultan Ahmed III. Seen in the demands of the janissary leader Bektash Agha:
“That henceforth the ‘yearly’ collection of children should be abolished, and only the children of janissaries be admitted ‘for the service of the ‘Grand Signor’.”
There were then only very infrequent collections, the last known attempt being recorded in Greece in 1705.
THE DETERMINANTS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE KULLAR SYSTEM.
The Kullar system and the Devshirme can be seen in two lights necessitating their implementation, firstly the political and secondly the religious.
THE POLITICAL.
The fourteenth century saw a change in the way the Ottoman realms were governed. This came about with the institutionalising of fratricide by Murad I on his ascension to the throne in 1362. The other major factor was the increasing importance and strength of the marcher lords, who ruled as vassals of the Ottoman Sultan. Therefore Murad I had managed to increase his own authority without any of his brothers around, but found it curtailed by the semi-independent rule of these local dynasties. The answer to this dilemma was therefore to base all power within the palace, and to staff the echelons of government with persons loyal to the Sultanate, this was to be done via the Kullar system:
“Being all slaves by condition, and slaves of a single lord, from whom alone they hope for greatness, honour, and riches, and from whom alone on the other hand they fear punishment, chastisement and death, what a wonder that in his presence and in rivalry with each other they will do stupendous things.”(Lybyer)
So according to Postel, the good treatment they received from their enemy led to deep gratitude and boundless devotion. Each Kul (slave servant) had no family ties or property that could necessitate alternative devotions. Being taken into the Devshirme so young enabled them to be inculcated with wholly Ottoman ideals and thoughts. An Ottoman source of the 17th century alludes to what would have occurred if Muslim Turks were allowed to gain positions of power:
“If they were to become slaves of the Sultan, they would abuse this privilege. Their relatives in the provinces would oppress the reaya and not pay taxes. They would oppose the Sanjak Beyis and become rebels.”(Inalcik)
Therefore the Kullar and Devshirme systems allowed the Sultan to be the absolute head of every aspect of government, to rule in complete authoritarian style.
“He gave it its unity, its vigour, and its propelling force. Although his despotic power was limited in many directions, it knew no limits with regard to the members and the mechanisms of this institution. The person, the fortune, the property and the life of every member lay in his hands.”(Lybyer)
This gave the ruler great power, but it also needed a strong hand to keep it in line. This was mirrored in the army and the elite janissary corps:
“Out of the lands of Shirk the Monarch levied this army, which wholeheartedly came to the aid of Islam upon the battlefield.”(Ménage)
The implementation of the janissary corps (according to Idris Bitlisi) was during the time of Orhan (1326-1362) and came about due to the unsuitability of Turks for infantry duty:
“…the Yaya grew to be a large body and committed all kinds of misdeeds in the field and in the cantonments, and Orkhan Beg was anxious to bring them into order and discipline…he decided that in the future they would not form this branch of the army from children of the Turks, but instead levy children of the infidel….”
Though this can be seen as partly mythic, and a propaganda exercise against the Turks (C. Imber).
THE RELIGIOUS FACTOR.
Demographics and missionary zeal also played no small part in the formulation of the Devshirme. Inducements of power were offered to those who converted. There were no forced conversions to Islam (at first) but it was made obvious that the candidate could not advance until they had at least nominally accepted Islam. The missionary zeal was strong within the Empire, as can be seen in a letter of Mehmed II:
“Our Empire is the home of Islam; from father to son the lamp of our empire is kept burning with the oil from the hearts of infidels.”
The sincerity of the converted was always suspected, but as long as they were outwardly respectful there would be no problems. The janissaries and the Bektashiyya sect with whom they were associated from their founding, were at time viewed as heretical, at times going as far as rioting to force the Sultan (Bayezid II) to reopen the wine shops in Istanbul. Some Turks saw the conversions as a positive influence for the Empire and the religion of Islam:
“When they become Muslims, they become zealous for the religion, and an enemy to their family and dependents.”(Imber)
JUSTIFICATION OF THE DEVSHIRME.
There have been many proposals put forward to justify the Devshirme, some tenable and others not. It has been argued that it was prepared by custom and necessity, with it being customary since pre-conquest times, and the necessity being that their commitment demanded the implementation, before as a conquering race they were led to exhaustion, which would lead to them losing power relatively against their subject peoples. Therefore it was validated by custom and necessity (‘ada and darura), and via analogy from the pencik (one fifth booty).
But the levy of children was not only contrary to the shari’a, but also to custom. It has been suggested that the Turks of Western Anatolia at this time had a limited and lazy understanding of the shari’a, the Ottoman jurists viewing the whole affair as a legal oversight.
Idris Bitlisi’s justification came through a faulty reading of the shari’a:
“For since most of those infidel lands were conquered by force (be-‘anwa), that is, in war, and those infidels, both men and women, by reduction to bondage became slaves….”
The Ottomans might have at this instance replaced their Hanafi law with the Shafi’i conception. This laid out a differentiation with the ahl al-kitab (people of the book), those Christians who changed faith after the time of the prophet, were thus exempt from protection as a dhimmi group:
“I shall accept it as long as I do not learn that you or your forefathers have been converted to your religion after the prophet only; if I were to learn this, then I shall accept no longer the jizya from you, and you will be offered the choice between Islam and death.”(Wittek)
CONCLUSION.
The Kullar system and Devshirme allowed the Sultans to rule and dictate a social structure that was kept in a permanent state of fluidity. By not allowing any of the ruling class to become established they secured their despotism and absolute rule. Though there were precedents of slaves being used to equip an army, the creation of an administration of household slaves was an Ottoman invention.
Though its positive aspects far outweigh the negatives, these negatives were not insignificant. There was a tension created between Turkish Muslims and the Kullar, landholders must have viewed it as a bane, for it entailed the loss of many hardy peasants. The Christian views were mixed, yet there is evidence that many sought to avoid it. But in the end it could have done more good to the Christian subject than harm, as the neo-Muslim Viziers and soldiers that they became turned out to be a strong voice in the call for tolerance within the Empire, periodically shielding the dhimmi populations from the fanaticisms fanned by the ulama.
Therefore the system was vital in the rise of the Ottoman Empire and its continued excellence, the demise of the system coincided with the demise of the Ottoman Empire as a real and growing power. This demise of the Kullar and Devshirme systems was often cited by sources contemporary to this demise as the reason behind their troubles.
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