TURKISH JANISSARY

Janissaries (tur. Yeniceri - new army) are selected Turkish infantry units, which were first formed in the first half of the fourteenth century. Initially, soldiers for these units were recruited by a forced captive among Christian boys from families in the Balkans, who later underwent strenuous military training and converted to Islam. With time, children of Muslim families were also admitted to the Janissary units. Janissary units, especially in the period from the fourteenth to the mid-sixteenth century, were barracked away from civilian life and were constantly subjected to military exercises, creating a kind of a specific military brotherhood. In the initial period of their existence, the Janissaries were incredibly brave, disciplined and even fanatically devoted to the Sultan soldiers. Over time, with the loosening of discipline, they began to play the infamous role of a destabilizing factor in political life in the Ottoman Empire. Initially, they were armed with bows and white weapons (e.g. scimitars, sabers or spears), and from the mid-16th century also with muskets. The Janissaries were instrumental in contributing to the Turkish successes in the battles of Varna (1444) or during the siege of Constantinople in 1453, but also in numerous campaigns by Suleiman the Magnificent in the first half of the 16th century. The formation was dissolved in 1826 by Sultan Mahmud II.