Christians were required to pay a capitation tax (called the haratsh), from which Mussulman inhabitants of the same provinces were exempt. But the most cruel and degrading burden laid upon them was the tribute of children which went to maintain the famous institution of the janissaries.[1] A tithe of the young population, one boy in five, was demanded by the government. Every two or three years government officers went through the towns and villages selecting the healthiest and strongest boys to be trained for service as soldiers of the sultan. They were taken quite young, and carefully educated in Mohammedanism. The institution was a unique characteristic of the Ottoman Empire. It was originated by Orkhan, about the year 1329, but organised much more thoroughly by his son and successor Murad, who has therefore been generally regarded as its founder. By this means the sultans were able to maintain a strong fighting force unattached to the pashas and unaffected by local interests, a rigorously disciplined and highly trained standing army absolutely subject to the imperial authority.
This, then, was the secret of the power of the Ottoman Empire when at its zenith it boasted of ruling three continents. At the time of the fall of Constantinople the number of janissaries was 12,000; under Suleiman the Legislator it rose to 40,000. But in later times these janissaries themselves became a menace to the weakened central authority, exercising their power for their common interests like the Roman armies under the feebler emperors. In the year 1566 they obtained from Selim ii. the right to make recruits of their own children. Thus they became a self-contained caste. At last the decline of the Greek population of the empire, which was the chief tax-producing element, rendered the serious drain upon it involved by the tribute of children disastrous to the finances of the State. At the same time the growing turbulence of the janissaries made them a constant source of anxiety to their master.
During the reign of Mohammed iv. (a.d. 1649-1687)
- ↑ See Kyriakos, p. 9 ff.
