THE ORIGIN OF THE JANISSARIES

BY J. A. B. PALMER, B.A.
r I ''HE account which von Hammer gave of the origin of
A the Janissaries was accepted and followed by subsequent
writers from the eighteen twenties to the nineteen twenties.1
Then its authority began to be shaken, particularly by an
article published by F. Giese in 1924, in which he gave the
extracts from the chronicle of 'Ashiqpashazade relative to the
origin of the Janissaries.2 Giese based his revised narrative
only on those extracts : he himself was already editing a text of
the Anonymous Chronicle (to be mentioned presently) and was
presently to re-edit the text of 'Ashiqpashazade, while a few
years later Babinger was to discover and edit the text of the
chronicle of Uruj. One reason why Giese's article cannot be
treated as definitive is that these other texts were not then
equally available. There has been further discussion and the
latest writers on the subject, Professor H. A. R. Gibb and Mr.
H. Bowen, pronounce the origin of the Janissaries as still uncertain.3
This uncertainty can be removed, I believe, by a fresh
investigation of the sources, taking them in their due order and
considering their inter-relationship. The earliest sources are
three Turkish chronicles, composed in the fifteenth century but
comprising fourteenth century material. There are slight discrepancies between one of these and the other two in the passages relevant to our purpose, but these can be explained, and
the three chronicles together give us a clear and self-consistent
account of the matter, an account which I shall call the Chroniclers' Narrative. It has been already noticed by several writers
1 Josef von Hammer, Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches, 2te Ausgabe, Pesth.
(i) (1834), 92-100, 148-9.
2 F. Giese, Das Problem der Entstehung des osmanischen Reiches. Deutsche
morgenlandische Gesellschaft: Zeitschrift fiir Semitistik und verwandte
Gebiete,ii (1924), 246-71.

3 H. A. R. Gibb and Harold Bowen, Islamic Society and the West (1950),
p. 58.
448

THE ORIGIN OF THE JANISSARIES

449

that the Chroniclers' Narrative contains no reference to the

devshirme or tribute of Christian children, and it is now generally
recognized that this was not part of the original institution.
Our next set of sources consists of two Latin writers of the midfifteenth century, the Franciscan Fr. Bartholomaeus de Jano and
the Dominican Fr. Georgius de Hungaria, who establish the date
of the introduction of the devshirme. Next, in the first decade
of the sixteenth century, we have to consider the account to be
found in the Hasht Bihisht of Idris al-Bitlisi, which at the end
of the sixteenth century was adopted by the two most famous
of Ottoman historians, Sa'd ad-din and 'All; this account,
which I shall call the Idrisian Version, is the main cause of
confusion because, while it is really based on the Chroniclers'
Narrative, it introduces certain re-arrangements of that material
which have misled subsequent writers. The confusion was
further increased in the sixteenth century and subsequently by
the circulation of some quite legendary stories, which I shall call
the Bektashi Legends, concerning the connection of Haji Bektash,
the founder or eponym of the Bektashi Dervishes, with the
origin of the Janissaries. By the end of the seventeenth century,
through translations or oral transmission, scholars in Europe
had in front of them the Chroniclers' Narrative, the Idrisian
Version, and the Bektashi Legends ; the uncritical mingling of
these three sources brought confusion and uncertainty into the
pages of European scholars in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, and even into those of d'Ohsson and von Hammer
who, however, mainly accepted (and imposed on their successors)
the Idrisian Version, instead of the Chroniclers' Narrative.
I shall now attempt to amplify and justify this summary
statement of the sources and their inter-relationship, and I
hope in this way to show what are the true facts (so far as we
have record of them) concerning the origin of the Janissaries.

(i) The Chroniclers' Narrative: (a) The White Caps

There are three chronicles to be taken into account, namely,
(a) the Chronicle of Uruj, (b) the Anonymous Chronicle passing
under the title of Ta'rlkh-i-al-i-'Othman, and (c) the Chronicle
29

450

THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY

of 'Ashiqpashazade. There is a statement in 'Ashiqpashazade

that he derived his narrative of the early reigns down to Bayezid I
from the work of a certain Yakhshi Faqlh, the son of a' certain
Isljaq, who had been an imam of Orkhan. All three of our
chronicles agree closely, and they seem to go back to the same
source, viz. Yakhshi. He was alive in 1413, when 'Ashiqpashazade was in personal contact with him. Thus, Yakhshi must
have been born not later than the beginning of the reign of
Murad I (1359), and his father had been a man of standing
under Orkhan. Consequently, what our chronicles take from
Yakhshi, that is to say, the portions down to c. 1420 including
their accounts of the origins of the Janissaries, comprises
traditions recorded by Yakhshi at the beginning of the fifteenth
century as to events of the previous century falling within his
own lifetime or the lifetime of his father.1
The Chronicle of Uruj has been identified, so far, in two
manuscripts, one at Oxford and one at Cambridge, of which the
latter is undoubtedly an abbreviation of a fuller text represented
by the former.2 The Anonymous Chronicle survives in
numerous copies, which have been carried on by different
1 These chronicles are now available in printed editions with introductions,
and in one case a translation as follows :
Uruj. Franz Babinger, Die fruhosmanische Jahrbiicher des Urudsch usw.
(Hannover, 1925).
The. Anonymous Chronicle. Friedrich Giese, Die altosmanische anonyme
Chroniken, Teil I, Text und Variantenverzeichnis (Breslau, 1922); Teil II,
Ubersetzung in Abh. fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes, Bd. xvii, nr. 1 (Leipzig,
1925); Tiel III, Einleitung in Mitteilungen zur osmanischen Geschichte, Bd. i
(Wien, 1922).
'Ashiqpashazade. Die altosmanische Chronik des A$ikpajazade, Friedrich
Giese (Leipzig, 1929).
References will be to these editions.
For further biographical and bibliographical information concerning these
writers and their works (including Yakhshi Faqih) see F. Babinger, Die Geschichtsschreiber der Osmanen (Leipzig, 1927), pp. 10, 23, 35 fi., 39 ff., 73 ff.
2 The Oxford MS. ends in A.H. 872, the Cambridge MS. has been continued
to A.H. 899, but over their common extent the latter is much shorter than the
former and the effect of abbreviation is noticeable in many passages. There are,
however, curious and fairly consistent differences of orthography and phraseology which seem to indicate derivation from a common original, not one text
from the other, as they now exist. In the next note, we shall see that our Oxford
MS. can hardly be the original text of Uruj.

THE ORIGIN OF THE JANISSARIES

451

continuators to greatly varying dates : in its original form it

seems to be closely related to Uruj, but to contain much
additional matter : it was re-edited and republished in a shorter
recension by a Turkish writer of the mid-sixteenth century.1
'Ashiqpashazade is distinctly more literary and artificial than
the other two chronicles, interposing chapter headings and notes,
adding at the end biographical notices, and using a less primitive
and plain language. It is considered that in the form in which
we now possess them Uruj dates from 1460-70 and the other
two from c. 1490.
As regards the passages with which we shall be concerned,
the Oxford MS. of Uruj is to be preferred to the Cambridge
MS., while the Anonymous Chronicle is in such very close
agreement with Uruj that it would be a waste of space to set
out the text of both. 'Ashiqpashazade, however, while agreeing
in general with Uruj, has differences of detail which need examination. Hence I propose to give in translation the relevant
passages from Uruj (Oxford MS.) and 'Ashiqpashazade : the
latter are already available in Giese's article, but it is the narrative of Uruj, supported by the Anonymous Chronicle, which is
really fundamental and which it is essential to compare with
'Ashiqpashazade. The passages to be considered are two in
number.2
1 In his introduction to his edition of Uruj, Babinger surmises with great
probability that some of the manuscripts used by Giese in preparing his edition
of the Anonymous Chronicle were really texts of Uruj. The following is also
worthy of note. At the end of the reign of 'Othman, Uruj says that he ruled for
nineteen years and for the remainder of his life entrusted the chieftainship to
Orkhan, while the Anonymous Chronicle merely says that 'Othman reigned for
nineteen years and no more. Both, of course, are wrong, even by the dates
which they themselves have earlier given. A copyist has confused otuz dokuz
(thirty-nine) with ondokuz (nineteen), which could easily happen in Arabic script.
It follows that a common ancestor in which this corruption had already occurred
underlies both our Oxford MS. of Uruj and the manuscript or manuscripts of
the Anonymous Chronicle which Giese is following here : moreover, a later and
stupid editor or copyist of our text of Uruj has added an inept and false explanation, to reconcile the discrepancy in the dates.
8 This brief review of the relationship of the chronicles, as also of the dates
of composition, rests upon the introductions of their respective editors, coupled
with my own observations, as appears in the preceding notes.

452

THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY

The first passage is to be found in the reign of Orkhan, and

is as follows :
Uruj (Oxford MS.) 1
His [sc. Orkhan's] brother 'Ali Pasha also abandoned the Beglik and handed
it over to Orkhan. 2 He himself, embracing the way of the Shaikhs became
a dervish. One day 'Ali Pasha said to his brother Orkhan " Oh ! brother, praise
be to Allah, now again thy army has increased, the army of Islam has become
strong, the army of Muhammad has attained majesty in the eyes of all and from
day to day has increased. Now do thou also make in face of the world a formal
act that thereby it be known in the world." Orkhan Ghazi said " Oh ! brother,
whatever thou sayest, do, so be it! " 'AH Pasha said " Oh ! brother, let all
thy army put on a red cap : put thou on thyself a white cap and let thy dependent
slaves put on a white cap : let this be a sign in the face of the world." Orkhan
Ghazi accepted this word. He sent some one and obtained authority in Amasia
from Haji Bektash of Khorasan (Allah have mercy on him !) and had a white cap
brought. He first put it on himself and afterwards his dependent slaves put on
the white cap. The wearing of the white cap has remained from that time. At
that time the kings and chiefs were in accord with their brothers, they respected
and honoured each other, they used not to kill each other down to the time of
Yildirim Khan ; afterwards, in the time of Khan Yildirim, the killing of brother
by brother came in. And in Anatolia in the time of Orkhan Ghazi there came
in the enrolment of yaya [foot soldiers].
'Ashiqpashazade
His brother 'Ala ad-din Pasha 3 said to Orkhan Ghazi, " My Khan, praise
be to Allah that I have seen thee as king. Now also together thy army should
increase from day to day. Now also put a sign on thy soldiery, which is not
upon other soldiery." Orkhan Ghazi said, " My brother, I accept whatever
thou sayest." He said, " Now the caps of the Begs round about are red, let
thine be white." He said " So be it." In Bilejik they set up the white cap:
Orkhan Ghazi put it on, all those subject to him put it on together. Orkhan
sought to increase his army, as much as he could from that country. His brother
said " it is a matter for the Qacjis." At that time Chendereli Karaja Khalil was
Qadi of Bilejik, and he was of the family of Edebali. He was informed and said
" Get foot soldiers from the district [or the people the word is il]" Thereupon a lot of men offered bribes to the Qadi saying " Get me enrolled as a foot
soldier." And they made them also wear the white cap.
1 P. 15 of Babinger's edition of Uruj: the following passage from 'Ashiqpashazade is on p. 37 of F. Giese's edition.
2 The Oxford MS. has Beglerbeglik, the Cambridge MS. Beglik. The
latter is correct, being the old expression for the office of the Ottoman chieftain.
The Oxford MS. has again been ineptly amended to convert an obsolete expression into an office (of Beylerbey) which existed later.
3 He is usually so called, but Uruj calls him 'Ali: but the latter name can be
used for a person whose true name is 'Ala ad-din.

THE ORIGIN OF THE JANISSARIES

453

Before commenting in detail on these passages it will be

helpful to recall the general condition of Ottoman military
forces at that time, particularly as reflected in our chronicles.
The chronic warfare in Asia Minor along the frontiers of the
Christian and Turkish dominions was an affair of frontier raids
and counter-raids. In Lascarid times, in Phrygia, these raids
were from the Turkish side carried on by people described
sometimes as Uj-Turcomans, that is to say, " frontier Turcomans ", between whom and the Turks of the Seljuk realm
proper, some distinction is drawn.1 One hundred years later,
when a similar frontier in Mysia and Bithynia was the scene of
Ottoman raiding, the main mass of Ottoman warriors, corresponding no doubt to the Uj-Turcomans, were designated in the
chronicles by the term ghdzis.2 This is, of course, a term of
general significance, meaning roughly " fighters for the faith ".
It is now rather generally asserted that the term has also a
specialized meaning, and that precisely Jn early Ottoman times
it denotes a body of fighters with some kind of organization, of
the nature of a military order, and enjoying support from
another organization somewhat resembling a guild of which the
members were known as Ahls. Whether there is adequate
evidence to support this theory or not is a question which is
not material to the problems before us : the Chroniclers' Narrative of the origin of the Janissaries is in no way affected by the
meaning which it may be legitimate to attribute to the term
ghazi in the chronicles.3 When, as a result of the raids, adjoining
districts were wrested from Christian and subjected to Ottoman
control, they began almost at once to be divided up among the
*Cf. P. Wittek, Das Ftirstentwn Mentesche, pp. 1-5, and Alice Gardiner,
Th*. Lascarids of Nicaea, p. 223 (as to the capture of Michael Palaeologus by
Turcomans).
2 It will be found in the texts of the chronicles passim.
3 Apart from Giese's article and the work of Gibb and Bowen above-mentioned, see on the question of the ghdzis and the Ahis, particularly P. Wittek,
The Rise of the Ottoman Empire (London, 1938). There is also an article, prior
to Wittek's later work, by Langer and Blake, " The Rise of the Ottoman Turks
and its Historical Background " in American Historical Review, vol. xxxvii, pp.
468 ff.: these writers in that article undervalue the chronicles as historical
sources, though admitting that they contain valuable traditions, among which,
of course, their account of the origin of the Janissaries can safely be reckoned.

454

THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY

Ottoman warriors, presumably among the principal ghazi heroes

or leaders, in a form of ownership or tenure having feudal
characteristics the units of which were known as timdrs. The
chronicles expressly mention the fact of division as timdrs, both
under 'Othman and under Orkhan.1 Thus, at the time of the incident described in the above passage, the Ottoman fighting
forces consisted of a general body of warriors known as ghazls,
who operated in some kind of unity under the Ottoman Beg, as
he was then entitled, but evidently with a good deal of independence in the cases where we hear of named heroes conquering
particular districts : and the subjugated territories were divided
up, or were possessed by their individual conquerors, on a basis
which furnishes the beginnings of a feudal levy consisting of the
ffmdr-holders (timdr-erleri in the chronicles, timdr-sipdhiler in
later times) and their retainers.
The passage now under consideration introduces us to two
further elements of military organization, namely (J) the dependent slaves of the Beg, and (ii) the yaya or footsoldiers.
This passage occurs in the reign of Orkhan, near the beginning
of the narrative of that reign as it stands in the chronicles, but
following upon their mention of the capture of Nicomedia
(Ismid), for which the chronicles give no date : Orkhan's reign
began in 1327, but from other sources the capture of Nicomedia
is held to have occurred about 1338. Hence we can only judge
that this incident is to be located rather before 1340.
We see that at this date the Ottoman Beg had a body of
dependent slaves who engaged in warlike duties. We need not
feel any doubt about this, nor does the origin of such a
body require to be explained on the ground of Ottoman mentality or characteristics or any other extraordinary factor. Tljis
body was evidently a slave-bodyguard or a slave-household with
military functions such as was then common among Moslem
rulers : it was over four hundred years since this institution of a
Mamluk household force had been invented by an Arab Caliph
and the greatest of contemporary Moslem states, Mamluk
Egypt, was founded upon it. It would be a matter of course for
1 Uruj, pp. 12, 15; Anonymous Chronicle, pp. 7, 14; 'Ashiqpashazade,
p. 22.

GENTILE BELLINI: A TURKISH JANISSARY

(By kind permission of the Trustees of the British Museum)

To face page 455

THE ORIGIN OF THE JANISSARIES

455

a rising Moslem chieftain, such as the Ottoman Beg, to acquire

such a body of personal retainers. Whether in this case the
source of recruitment was capture in war or purchase from
slave-merchants, particularly the Genoese, whose cargoes from
the Crimea to Alexandria passed through the Straits, is not
clear, but the point is immaterial for our purpose.
The incident which our passage records is the institution of
a distinguishing head-dress for this force. The head-dress was
a white cap, in Turkish ak bork, and there is no doubt that it is
the head-dress later worn by the Janissaries, which Latin writers
call mitra or pileus. It was a conical cap of white felt, stiff
enough to stand up a few inches above the crown of the head,
but so long that the upper part then bent back and fell down
behind over the nape of the neck. Its form is beautifully recorded for us in Gentile Bellini's drawing of a Janissary made
in 1480-1, now in the British Museum (see plate).
It will have been noticed that, in two particulars concerning
the adoption of this head-dress, the accounts of Uruj and
'Ashiqpashazade differ, namely, as to whether it distinguished
the Beg's slave-troops from the rest of the Ottoman forces
(Uruj), or from the forces of neighbouring Begs ('Ashiqpashazade), and as to whether sanction for its use was obtained from
a Dervish Shaikh (Uruj) or not ('Ashiqpashazade). On both
these points 'Ashiqpashazade was followed by Giese, and other
writers have repeated this view : but Giese had not the text of
Uruj before him in 1924, and these seem to be strong reasons
for preferring the account of Uruj in both these particulars.1
First, as to the distinction which the white cap was intended
to effect, the account of Uruj is to be preferred as the difficilior
lectio. If the original distinction was, as 'Ashiqpashazade says,
between the Ottoman troops and those of other Begs, it is very
1 Giese again stated his preference for 'Ashiqpashazade on the object of the
head-dress (distinction from the forces of neighbouring Begs) in a footnote on
p. 22 of his translation of the Anonymous Chronicle, which (as usually) accords
with Uruj, and says the distinction was between the household slaves and the
other Ottoman troops : Giese conjectures that a sentence has fallen out of the
Anonymous Chronicle, but he is still writing before the identification of the
text of Uruj, and if he had known that that text agreed with the Anonymous
Chronicle and against 'Ashiqpashazade he would surely have revised his opinion.

456

THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY

difficult to imagine how in the text of Uruj this became altered

at some time into a distinction between the slave-troops and the
rest of the Ottoman forces : if Uruj's distinction, however, is
original, it is not difficult to suppose that 'Ashiqpashazade might
have amended it into a more obvious distinction, to his mind
and in his time, between Ottoman and non-Ottoman forces.
Moreover, if 'Ashiqpashazade is correct as to this distinction,
what he says in his last sentence about the yaya is redundant:
if all Ottoman forces wore the white cap, then there was no need
to mention that the yaya wore it. The point of this reference
to the head-dress of the yaya must have been to equate them
with the slave-troops and stress their special connection with
the Beg, and it thus implies Uruj's distinction between slavetroops and the other Ottoman forces rather than Ashiqpashazade's own distinction between Ottoman and non-Ottoman
forces. Therefore Uruj is here to be preferred to 'Ashiqpashazade.
Secondly, as to Dervish sanction for the head-dress, there
are, it must be submitted, good reasons for again following
Uruj. It must, of course, be conceded that the personal reference to Haji Bektash is an anachronism, for that individual
certainly died in the thirteenth century.1 If, however, it is
taken as a reference to the Shaikh of a Bektashi Tekke in
Amasia, there is nothing improbable about it, and it is quite in
the habits of the time.
The real ground on which scholars have questioned this
incident is that the Bektashi Dervishes did in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries undoubtedly make strenuous efforts to
nourish a belief in a special connection between their Order
and the Janissaries: consequently, this passage has been, and
can be, regarded as an interpolation made in favour of this later
Bektashi propaganda. There are, however, two reasons against
regarding it as such an interpolation. The first is that it does
not in any way correspond with the real Bektashi legends, of
which, as we shall see, we know both the earlier and later forms.
Secondly, it is difficult to believe that a Bektashi interpolator
1 The most recent and convenient study of the Bektashi Dervishes and their
founder is J. K. Birge, The Bektatf Order of Dervishes (London, 1937).

THE ORIGIN OF THE JANISSARIES

457

would have been so ingenious as to insert his false statement in

this passage : he would have inserted something in the later
passage (to which we shall come) where the Janissaries and their
creation are expressly mentioned and not in this passage which
does not refer to the Janissaries at all.
One cannot, therefore, fairly regard this item in the narrative
of Uruj as a Bektashi interpolation, and so it must be taken as
belonging to the original tradition. If it is then asked why it
does not appear in 'Ashiqpashazade, the answer is that he excised
it because he was himself a disbeliever in the Bektashi claims
and hostile to them. The Bektashi propaganda evidently began
to make its way in the second half of the fifteenth century,
and it aroused contradiction and hostility. In another passage
'Ashiqpashazade aligns himself with the latter opinion and
characterises the Bektashi claim that the Janissaries took their
head-dress from them as a lie.1 This opinion of his explains
why the reference to Haji Bektash disappears from his account
of the matter. The upshot is that, disregarding the anachronism
of the personal intervention of Haji Bektash, there is no ground
for rejecting the narrative of Uruj, which is in all respects
reproduced in the Anonymous Chronicle, as to some original
Dervish sanction for the use of the head-dress. It is to be
noted also that the head-dress in question does closely resemble
the earliest Bektashi head-dress known as the elifi tdj: 2 but it
also corresponds to Ibn Battuta's description of the head-dress
worn by the Ahis.
In this passage the term for the dependent slaves is u//ari,
sing. k.ul- They evidently reappear in later passages in the
chronicles under the terms Qapu Kullari, i.e. Gate-slaves or
Court-slaves, and more frequently Qapu Khalqi, i.e. Gatepeople or Court-people. Under this name they appear at the
battles of Ankara and Varna and in many other passages. They
are always mentioned together with, but separately from, the
Janissaries. Both Qapu Khalqi and Janissaries are in close
attendance on the Sultan, but the chronicles designate them
separately. Later, the term Qapu Kullari came to be used as a
1 'Ashiqpashazade, p. 201.
2 J. K. Birge, op. cit. Illustration no. 26.

458

THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY

general designation for all the forces or formations, of technically servile status, dependent on the Sultan, including both the
various bodies of palace retainers as then existing and also the
Janissaries: but originally, as found in the chronicles, the distinction between Qapu Khalqi and Janissaries is clear and well
maintained.
It is evidently the expression Qapu Khalqi from which are
derived the expressions Tropra, Ovpa and Bvpai which appear in
Byzantine historians. It cannot, therefore, be said that these
expressions necessarily refer to the Janissaries, as, for instance,
when Ducas mentions the TTO/OTO, as present at the battle of
Nicopolis. No doubt, the Byzantine writers may not have been
aware of any distinction between Qapu Khalqi and Janissaries :
but, strictly speaking, we should think of the Qapu Khalqit the
Beg's dependent household bodyguard, and not the Janissaries,
when the term iropra or 6vpa is used in a fifteenth century Greek
text.
It remains to consider the force raised under the name of
yaya or footsoldiers, as mentioned at the end of the passage
now under consideration. The date of this experiment is not
indicated. It is a separate matter from the incident of the
white cap, and we may reasonably surmise that it belongs to the
period after 1340, and very possibly after 1350. It evidently
represents an attempt to increase the forces in close dependence
on the Beg, as distinct from the loosely organized ghdzis and
the feudal levy of the ffmdr-holders; "Ashiqpashazade says as
much. Whether the originator of the project was Chendereli
Kara Khalil Pasha (later Khair ad-din Pasha), as 'Ashiqpashazade tells us, is not certain. That personage, as we shall see,
was certainly concerned with the creation of the Janissaries, and
it may be by reflection from that fact that 'Ashiqpashazade
brings him in here: on the other hand, if he was concerned
with the unsuccessful experiment of the yaya, that could explain
why he was led to seek a fresh and successful solution of the same
problem through the creation of the Janissaries.
The Chroniclers' Narrative in these passages does not explain
the basis on which the yaya were raised. The view most
recently expressed is that they were originally given grants of

THE ORIGIN OF THE JANISSARIES

459

land.1 This view, however, is contrary to the earliest account

of this aspect of the matter which we possess, namely, the Hasht
Bihisht. As mentioned, the author of this work remoulded the
Chroniclers' Narrative in regard to the Janissaries, but as
regards the organization of the yaya he is our earliest authority,
and (as will appear below) he clearly states that the yaya were
originally a force who received pay while on campaign and
certain tax exemptions : it was only later, when they had proved
a failure, that they were given auxiliary functions and received
grants of land in place of their original conditions.
The explanation for the failure of the yaya is to be gained
from the statement of 'Ashiqpashazade regarding bribery to
obtain this status, and this accords very well with the supposition
that they were originally paid troops. Pay for military service
was a novelty, and there would naturally be a rush to take
advantage of it. Now, the offer was made to the population of
the Anatolian districts. This, however, was the same population from which came the ghazis, whose services to the Beg
were free, and from which the /fmdr-holders drew their retainers
and also their force of cultivators. Hence in offering pay for
military service to this population the Beg was competing with
himself and also with the ffmdr-holders. That is why this
experiment was a failure.
However, the yaya, though not successful as an expansion
of the Beg's personal troops, do not entirely disappear. They
were formed at sometime in Rumili, as well as Anatolia. According to the chronicles, yaya from Anatolia and 'azabs from
Rumili, mentioned together and evidently similar in character,
were present at Kossovo I in 1389: it is extraordinary that
neither Qapu Khalqi nor Janissaries are mentioned by the
chronicles as present at that battle. The chronicles also mention
that in the rebellion of the false Mustafa at the beginning of the
reign of Murad II, the Rumili yaya were converted into
Musellem while Chalcocondylas mentions the yaya taking part
in Murad II's attack on the Isthmus of Corinth.2 The fore1 Gibb and Bowen, op. cit., p. 54.
* Under the name ayiaSes : the word was identified by R. P. Blake in his
review in Speculum (1948), p. 138, of Gy. Moravcsik, Byzantinoturdca.

460

THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY

going is the earliest reference to Musellem, a cavalry force which

received pay or land-grants similar to the yaya. It is a coherent
story if we regard the Musellem as mounted yaya and as subsequent in date to the yaya, as the chronicles here show. Some
connection or similarity between yaya and 'azabs is also to be
suspected. Petantius mentions that the 'azabs wore red caps
early in the sixteenth century.
To sum up the Chroniclers' Narrative so far, Orkhan, on
the suggestion of his brother, about 1340 adopted a distinctive
head-dress for his soldiers, consisting of a white cap for his
own slave-bodyguard, and (probably) a red cap for the rest of
his troops : sanction for the use of the white cap was obtained
from Dervish quarters. Later, after 1340, and perhaps after
1350, an attempt was made to increase his personal forces by
recruiting a (paid) infantry force, known as yaya, from Anatolia,
but this experiment failed for reasons which we can easily
discern.

(ii) The Chroniclers' Narrative continued: (b) The creation of

the Janissaries
The second passage with which we are concerned occurs in
the reign of Murad I, and is as follows :
Uruj (Oxford MS) 1
Again he [sc. Murad I] sent Lala Shahin to Zagora and Philippopolis. He
gave him a raid. The ghazts conquered that part, and when Evrenos Beg had
also conquered the part round Ipsala, each one of those Begs became in his own
place an Uj-Beg. Finally they conquered Ipsala. It was in the year of the Hijra
763. And there was a danishmand called Kara Rustem ; he had come from Karaman. He came to Chendereli Kara Khalil who was Qafli 'asker. He said to him,
" My lord, as to this booty which there is, coming from the raid, why dost thou
not seize it for the chieftainship ? Thou art causing loss." The Qadi 'asker
said, " Indeed ! What should we do ? " Kara Rustem said, " These prisoners
that the ghazis bring, according to the commandment of God one-fifth should
go to the king : why dost thou not take it ? " The Qadi 'asker said to Murad
Khan Ghazi, " Oh ! king, since it is the commandment of God, why shouldst
thou not take it ? " Said he " Take ", and so gave command. They went and
put Kara Rustem over the Akjnjis. " Since it is the commandment of God, so
be it", they said. Kara Rustem set himself at Gallipoli. He took 25 akches per
prisoner. This innovation was through these two persons. They charged
Evrenos Beg also that he should take 25 akches per prisoner coming from a raid,

THE ORIGIN OF THE JANISSARIES

461

and one prisoner out of five. Thus they arranged it and carried it out. They
collected the youths and divided them among the Turkish folk in Anatolia:
they set them to ploughing and to menial tasks, and they learnt Turkish. After
three or four years had passed, they brought them back and made them at the
Court into Yenicheri, and made them wear the white cap. This was the original
foundation of the Yenicheri: since that time they gave them the name Yenichm.
t
'Ashiqpashazade 1
The Khan stayed in state in Adrianopole. He gave a raid to his Lala to the
parts round Zagora and to Philippopolis. Evrenos Ghaz! also went, he conquered Ipsala. These became Uj-Begs each in his own place. One day a
danishmand they called Kara Rustem came from the Karaman country: he
came to Chendereli Kara Khalil, who was Qadl 'asker : he said, " Sir, why dost
thou cause loss of this property ". The Qadii said, " What is this property ? "
Rustem said " These prisoners which these ghdzis take, by the command of
God one in five of them belongs to the Khan : why dost thou not take ? " The
Qao!i 'asker submitted it to the Khan. They called Kara Rustem and said,
" My lord, whatever is the command of God, do." He set himself in Gallipoli:
he took 25 akches per prisoner, and this innovation was the work of two ddnishmands, one Chendereli Kara Khalil, and the other Kara Rustem. And also they
charged Ghazi Evrenos, they said, " Take one in five of the prisoners coming
from the raid, and from him who has not five prisoners take his 25 akches per
prisoner " : and over this arrangement Evrenos also set a Qadl. And many
youths were collected, they brought them to the Khan. Khalil said, " Let us
give these to the Turks, let them learn Turkish, let us make them into a force of
troops," thus said he, and thus it was. Day by day, there were more : in
the end they became Moslems, they made use of them for some years, afterwards
they brought them to the Court, they put on them a cap, they gave them the name
of Yenicheri, they exist at the present time.

This incident is narrated directly after the story of the

capture of Adrianople, which the chronicles date in 761/1360,
while the present story follows on fresh raids dated 763/1362.
Whether these dates are correct cannot here be discussed.
The ghdzis are still the main personnel of the Turkish
forces, but their operations seem to be more organized:
this is to be gathered from the fact that they operate under
leaders belonging to the entourage of the Beg, who is said to
" give the raid " to the chosen commander. The word used
for raid is akin, and the ghdzis participating in the raid are called
Akinjis, the name of terror by which the irregular troops of the
Ottoman rulers became known to the inhabitants of the Balkans,
1 P. 50.

462

THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY

Hungary, Transylvania and Slavonia.1 We can thus see that

the later Akinjis, who now first appear, are the old ghdzis. The
term ghdzis when used in the later parts of the chronicles certainly
has merely its general sense: the raiding forces, when the frontier
is in the Balkans or on the Danube and the regular Ottoman
forces have been fully organized, are the Akinjis. At the present
stage the Akinji commanders are given some special status in
the frontier districts under the title of Uj-begs, frontier-chiefs,
reminiscent of the Uj-Turcomans. This title persists quite
late in the chronicles: they are found along the Danube in
the reign of Murad II, always in connection with the Akinjis*
The origin of the Janissary organization is to be found in a
suggestion by a certain Kara Rustem to apply the ordinary
Moslem law of ghanimat (booty) to human captives. This law
provided that one-fifth of all booty should belong to Allah, i.e.
to the public fisc. If this is applied to living creatures it can
only operate in kind where a captor is bringing in a group of at
least five captives, when one can be taken by the fisc and four
be left to the captor. To deal with fractional groups below five
or between two multiples of five, a value per head must be set
on the creatures in question and then for each individual in the
fractional group the captor pays one-fifth of that value. That
is what was done here. The value fixed for a captive was 125
akches (or aspers), and for a " fractional" captive the captor
paid 25 akches. Thus the captor of five prisoners yielded up
one, the captor of nine prisoners yielded one prisoner and 100
(4 X 25) akches, and so on.
The collection of this levy was entrusted to Kara Rustem at
Gallipoli when the prisoners would be brought down for transport to Anatolia, and also to Evrenos Beg because he was the
Uj-Beg through whose control the returning raiders would pass
with their booty.
Chendereli Kara Khalil suggested that the prisoners who
were thus collected (the verb used here is devshirmek) should
be utilized for the formation of a New Force (Yenicheri) of
*i.

1 For a remarkable description of the Akinjis c. 1450, their training and methods,
see Fr. Georgius de Hungaria, O.P., Tractates de moribus, condicionibus et nequida
Turcorum, cap. v.
2 See, for instance, Uruj, p. 60.

THE ORIGIN OF THE JANISSARIES

463

slave troops. By this method the ruler's personal force could

be increased without incurring the defects disclosed in the yaya
experiment. The Turkish word cheri means an army, a military
force, or troops. It is used in the chronicles interchangeably
with the Persian word lashk^r : sometimes both words are used
in the same sentence with the same meaning, and both are
applied to Ottoman forces, to enemy forces, and to allied forces.1
Later in the chronicles both words also acquire a specialized
meaning as the technical terms for the feudal levies of Anatolia
and Rumili respectively, commanded by the Beglerbegs.
Yenicheri means simply New Force.
The cash levy or commutation for fractional prisoners was
originally a levy made by the fisc from the captor. It later
turned into a due which was exacted by a Moslem landholder,
whose position would be that of a quasi-captor, from his
Christian tenants, regarded here as quasi-captives. This transformation had come about at least as early as the reign of Murad
II, for this due is mentioned in law-books dating from the
reign of Mehmed II.2 It is found again in various localities in
the codes of Sulaiman I in the mid-sixteenth century : it
remained in existence and was noted by d'Ohsson and by von
Hammer as a poll-tax.3 In this altered form, the levy was
known as penjify, a Persian word for one-fifth, corrupted into
ispenje: it always retained the original fractional figure of 25
arches per head. How this transformation came about, we
cannot at present say, but it is clear that the penjik tax is a later
development from the fractional cash commutation under the
old law of ghanimat.
To sum up the Chroniclers* Narrative so far as concerns
this episode, after the capture of Adrianople and further raids
in the Balkans there was a great influx of prisoners and a
1 Examples may be found in Uruj, pp. 13, 22, 33, 34, 73, etc.
' See Mitteil. z. osm. Gesch., i, 28 (text), 44 (trans.). The code in question
regulates the rights of men-at-arms, i.e. the lowest grade of the feudal fighting
force who would have been the practical captors on campaign.
3 von Hammer, Des osm. Reiches Staatsverfassung und Staatsverwaltung, pp.
213,246,281 and 291 : Mouradja d'Ohsson, Tableau general del Empire Othoman,
iii, 37-8. von Hammer again mentions that it was payable to the immediate
lord, i.e. the quasi-captor.

464

THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY

certain Kara Rustem suggested that the public fisc ought, under
the law of ghanimat, to make a levy of one prisoner in five.
This was done. Chendereli Kara Khalil suggested that the
prisoners so collected should be used to create a New Force of
slave-retainers for the Beg, known therefore as Yenicheri:
these were given the same white cap as the pre-existing Qapu
Khalqi. The application of the law of ghanimat involved a
cash commutation at 25 a^cAes per head for fractional groups of
captives. Later on this became transformed into a tax known
as penjik or ispenje, levied from Christian tenants by their Moslem
lords.
(iii) The Devshirme
The Chroniclers' Narrative shows that neither the Qapu
Khalqi nor the Janissaries were originally recruited by means
of the forced levy of Christian children later known as the
devshirme, the verbal noun of the same verb which the
Chroniclers' Narrative uses for the " collection " of the captives
taken by the fisc. For the origin of the devshirme we have to
utilize the information contained in two Latin writers.
The first of these is a Franciscan friar, Fr. Bartholomaeus
de Jano. In his Epistole de Crudelitate Turcarum, dated from
Constantinople in December 1438, he gives a long and harrowing description of the devastation caused by the Ottomans
(including a reference to the very raid into Siebenbiirgen in
August 1438 in which Fr. Georgius de Hungaria was captured),
the sufferings of Christian captives, and the iniquities of Christian
slave-dealers. He then gives a warning that Murad II is preparing an attack on Constantinople for the following year and
has recruited 3000 rowers and collected materials of war. He
next proceeds as follows:
Adde, si quid ponderis est, quod de omnibus villis, civitatibus et castellis suo
subjectis imperio, quae forte centum millia sunt decimam puerorum partem de Christianis, quod prius numquam fecerat, nuper accepit a decem usque ad viginti aetatis
annos, quos suos speciales sclavos et armigeros, et quod pejus est, Saracenos ejfecit.1
J Migne, PG. 158, cols. 1055-67: the quotation is from col. 1066. The
credit for first noting this statement seems to belong to J. H. Mordtmann in an
article in Encyclopaedia of Islam, s.v. Devshirme : but he quoted inaccurately and
without the necessary context, and failed to give the reference. Fr. Bartholomaeus de Jano is so named from his birthplace, Giano near Spoleto (Yanensii

THE ORIGIN OF THE JANISSARIES

465

Considering that Fr. Bartholomaeus had only just returned

from the Council of Ferrara and that he stresses in his letter
the events of that very year 1438, the adverb nuper must be emphasised and probably means that the thing happened in 1438
and even perhaps in the later months of the year. The phrase
decimam partem should be taken rather as tithe in a general sense :
the exact proportion need not be pressed. The levy was not,
in the writer's eyes, of much military importance (si quid ponderis
est), and was probably for the Qapu Khalqi (speciales sclavos et
armigeros) rather than for the Janissaries.
Fr. Bartholomaeus does not indicate that the levy was to be
regularly repeated: moreover, there is extant another letter
from him dated in February 1442 (1443), in which he repeats
his descriptions of the sufferings of Christian captives but omits
any mention of this levy.1 Evidence, however, that it was
repeated and had become an established institution between
1438 and 1458 is contained in the Tractatus de moribus, condicionibus et nequicia Tarcorum of Fr. Georgius de Hungaria, a Dominican friar. His most interesting description of the Janissaries,
as they existed before the end of his captivity in 1458, has not
been printed in modern times.2 Therefore, I transcribe it in
Umber, Wadding calls him) : one of the Franciscans specially employed by Pope
Eugemus IV in the matter of the re-union, he accompanied the Emperor John
VIII to Ferrara, and returned to Constantinople, where he was Vicar of the
Province of the Orient with full powers from the Minister General of the Observants, and established a convent, known as S. Antomus de Cipressis, which was
destroyed at the Turkish capture. See Wadding, Annales Minorum (3rd edn.,
1931), vols. x and xi, index s.n., Bartholomaeus de Yano.
1 The second letter is extant in an old French version, contained in a manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale now numbered Francais 1278, which was
printed in Anciennes Chroniques d'Engleterre par Jehan de Wavrin, edited by
Mile. Dupont for the Societe de I'Histoire de France, Tome II, 6eme Partie,
Paris, 1859 : the subscription in the manuscript is Berthelemy de Jennes, which
the editress made into Barthelemy de Genes (under which name Zinkeisen later
quoted it), a confusion of ]an.ua with Jano.
* Fr. Georgius de Hungaria, born in Siebenbiirgen in 1422, was captured by
the Turks at Szaszsebes, where he was a student, in a raid in 1438 mentioned
curiously enough by Bartholomaeus de Jano : he remained in captivity till
1458, then returned and became a Dominican, arrived in Rome probably between
1475 and 1480 and at about that time wrote his book, which is the most valuable
and interesting account extant of Ottoman life and institutions before 1500 and
was reprinted in eleven Latin editions between 1480 and 1530, and thereafter in
30

466

THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY

entirety from the first edition of his work, expanding abbreviations, but otherwise retaining his orthography :
Praeterea Turcus magnus ab omni prede et rapina decimas suas habet et cam
senserit copiam esse captivorum, precepit ut omnes juvenes a xx. annis et infra per
partem decime que ad eum special sibi offerantar. Sed et per omnem terram sui
dominii adhuc multi sunt de greets antiquis et aliis nationibus qui castella et oppida
plurima inhabitant et ab omnibus statutis et oneribus aliorum dominorum liberi et
exempti ipsius regis serviciis intendunt et ad eius curiam pertinent. Hortm
filios a xx. annis et infra etatis missis nunciis de quinquermio ad quinquennium sibi
adducere precipit et jubet ut, distributi per curias magnatorum suorum, in moribtu et
viribus et in armis erudiantur et exerceantur. Qui dum circa xx. vel amplius etatis
pervenerint reductos ad curiam suam in stipendium suum cos recipit et sibi familiarii
facit. Tales eorum lingua gingitscheri vocantur et habentur aliquando in curia
regis xxx. vel xl. milia et portant quaedam insignia in vestimentis et maxime in
capite portant pileos vel mitras albas, quibus nemo audeat uti nisi sit de curia regis.1

Apart from its reference to the tribute of children, this

passage confirms the Chroniclers' Narrative as to the recruitment
from prisoners of war and as to the white caps, points of considerable interest in view of its early date. The statement that
the children were levied from Christians who were free of dues
to other lords and rendered services to the Sultan himself is also
of interest, because it is possibly the explanation of how this
institution, totally unjustified by the Sacred Law of Islam, came
into being. Other lords were already levying the penjik from
their tenants, and perhaps the Sultan likewise levied it from his
and now claimed it in kind, in its original form : it could then
be justified on the ground of custom or analogy, though not by
several imperfect German versions : he died in 1502, and was buried near Fra
Angelico in the church of S. Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. For fuller information I may be allowed to refer to an article which I published in the BULLETIN
OF THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY, vol. xxxiv, no. 1 (September, 1951), pp. 44tf.
1 It is the more necessary for me to record that this important reference was
noted (but not quoted) by A. H. Lybyer, Government of the Ottoman Empire in
the time of Suleiman the Magnificent (1913), in an Appendix, pp. 309-10, because
in my article referred to above I omitted his name from my list of forty writers
who make use of or mention the Tractatus. Lybyer, however, was much at sea
over the bibliography of the Tractatus. He also (glancing no doubt at the
Prologus) thought the author was only a theological student and further (misled
doubtless by the tendentious preface of Martin Luther to the Augsburg 1530
edition) supposed him to have held " some of the ideas that preceded the Reformation ", whatever that may mean : in fact, the author was a Dominican friar
and a priest, and we now know that he died in Rome in 1502 in such odour of
sanctity that he was venerated by crowds after his death. His pages abundantly
show his fervid devotion to the Catholic Church, her full doctrine and authority.

THE ORIGIN OF THE JANISSARIES

467

any express permission of the Sacred Law. However, the

tribute did not apparently in later times remain confined to the
Sultan's own tenants.
To complete the early references to the devshirme, it seems
to be mentioned in a treaty or capitulation concluded between
Mehmed II and the Genoese at Galata in 1453.1 It seems also
to be referred to by Chalcocondylas.2 Moreover, Phrantzes
states that Murad 11 first gave to the Janissaries the organization
which they had in Phrantzes' time and that previously they had
different regulations and uniform, a statement which might
refer to the new mode of recruitment.3 Paulus Jovius, c. 1540,
says that Murad II first established the Janissaries, a statement
which may be based on the passage in Phrantzes.4
The original period of the levy's recurrence and the proportion of children taken is uncertain. There is considerable
evidence for a period of five years and a proportion of one-fifth,
which would tend to confirm some connection with the ghanimat
law and the penjik tax. Fr. Georgius de Hungaria makes it
quinquennial. 5 Spandugino (information first collected c. 1505)
says it was every five years and the proportion of the eligible
children actually taken was one-fifth.6 Petantius (information
before 1516) says the levy was triennial or, as some say, quinquennial.7 Menavino says the levy was as if by a tithe and from
a father who had three children one might be taken.8 Geuffroy
1 Mildosich and Miiller, Acta et Diplomata Graeca Medii Aevi, iii. 287.
2 Laonikos Chalcocondylas in Corpus Script. Hist. Byz., Pars xxxi, p. 228.
8 Georgios Phrantzes, op. cit. Pars xxiii, Lib. I, cap. xxxi.
* Paolo Giovio vescovo di Nocera, Commentario de le cose de' Turchi (Venice,
5 See the quotation above.
1538 ?) : see under the reign of Murad II.
8 Theodoro Spandugino Cantacuscino, / Commentari dell'origine de' Prindpi
Turchi e de'costumi di quella nazione (Florence, 1541), p. 123.
7 Felix Petantius* only printed work is his treatise Quibus itineribus Turd
sunt aggrediendi, but he collected much valuable information when he was in
Constantinople as an envoy of Ladislaus II of Hungary before 1516 : he was a
personal friend of Joannes Cuspinianus, who (according to J. G. Vossius De
Historicis Latinis (1627), p. 548, (1651), p. 607), possessed an unprinted manuscript of Petantius, and who embodies much information from Petantius in
his De Origine Turcorum (see p. 475, n. 5 below), where the item now in question
is in the section entitled Militum Genera.
8 Giovantonio Menavino, / Cinque Libri della Legge, Religione et vita de
Turchi etc. (Venice, 1548), p. 108.

468

THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY

says it was quadrennial: x Paulus Jovius only mentions recruitment from prisoners of war: 2 these last three sources are all
about 1540.

(iv) The Idrisian Version

Having thus examined and commented on the earliest
sources which record the creation of the Janissaries (the chronicles) and of the devshirme (the two Latin authors), we now have
to consider when and how the Idrisian Version of the story
came into being.
The Idrisian Version appears first in the Hasht Bihisht of
Idris al-Bitlisi, which was composed between 1500 and 1510.
The work was written in florid Persian, to the order of the
Sultan Bayezid II, who desired a history covering the exploits
of the House of Qthman to be produced on the model of accepted
Arabic and Persian historians.3
At the period when Idris wrote and for at least sixty years
thereafter, we find that the chronicles, and the Chroniclers'
Narrative as to the Janissaries, are dominant in Ottoman historiography. Thus, Mehmed Neshri virtually reproduced 'Ashiqpashazade, in his Jahdnnumd, which was written before 1520.4
Then, about 1550, the Anonymous Chronicle itself was reedited and republished in a shorter recension by a certain
Muhyi'd-dln b. 'AH al-Jamali.5 At about the same time
Kiichiik Nishanji Mehmed Pasha gives an abbreviated version of
the Chroniclers' Narrative in the corresponding passages of his
1 F. Antoine Geuffroy, Briefve descriptio de la Court du Grant Tare etc.
(Paris, 1543),f.d.v.
2 Paolo Giovio, op. cit.
3 F. Babinger, Die Geschichtsschreiber der Osmanen, p. 45. There is no
printed edition of the Hasht Bihisht. For the purposes of this article, I have used
British Museum Add. MSS. 7646-7, where the relevant passages are to be
found on fols.73r-75r (Book II, Dastan 7) and fols.!06r-108r (Book III, Dastan 4).
4 Babinger, op. cit. p. 39. I have examined the relevant passages in the
Vienna National Bibliothek MS. Nr. 986 by means of photographs kindly
supplied to me by that library : I learn, however, that a text is in course of being
printed at Ankara under the care of M. Faik Refat Unat.
6 Babinger, op. cit. p. 73 : Giese's introduction to his edition of the Anonymous Chronicle (see p. 467, n. 8).

THE ORIGIN OF THE JANISSARIES

469

work usually called the Tarikfi~i~Nishdnji (much valued by the

Turks down to modern times).1
There is, in fact, no sign that, at the time when Idris wrote,
there existed any earlier source on which he could have drawn
for his account of the origin of the Janissaries, except the
chronicles which we have examined.2 We must suppose, in
those circumstances, that Idris used those sources and that the
Idrisian Version is based on the Chroniclers' Narrative. In
that case the differences between the two accounts ought to be
explicable on literary grounds. I shall endeavour to show that
this is the case.
It is unnecessary, for this purpose, to set out the Idrisian
Version. Whether in the original Persian or in the scarcely less
ornate Turkish of Sa'd ad-din, the relevant passages are far too
long to translate in full. A fairly lengthy summary will suffice.
The Idrisian Version, like the Chroniclers' Narrative, consists
of two episodes, one under Orkhan and one under Murad I.
1 Babmger, op. cit. p. 103. I have referred to the edition of this work printed
at Constantinople 1279/1862, pp. 112, 119.
* I would point out that there is also an early line of Ottoman historians who
entirely omit these episodes. The head of this line appears to be Karamani
Mehmed Pasha, who died in 1481 : for him see Babinger, op. cit., p. 24,
and extracts in Turk Tarih Encumeni Mecmuasi (1924), pp. 85 ff., 142 ff. Since
his work must date from the time when Uruj, as we have him, took final shape,
its importance is obvious. When critically examined, it will probably be found
to contain valuable personal information on the reign of Mehmed II. For
earlier times, the author's written sources can only have been our chronicles or
earlier forms or recensions of them ; as to such earlier forms of the chronicles,
some valuable information may be gleaned from his work, when subjected to
scholarly examination. Karamani Mehmed Pasha is said to be the source used
by Ruhl Chelebi al-Edrenewi, who wrote between 1500 and 1520, contemporary
with Idris and Neshri: Ruhl's work again has not been printed, but I find in
Bodleian MS. Marsh 313 that he omits the episode in the reign of Murad I
(that manuscript unfortunately has a lacuna covering the reign of Orkhan).
Ruhl in turn was used by Rustem Pasha, who wrote c. 1560 in the last years of
Sulaiman QanunI: for him see Babinger, op. cit. pp. 80-2, and extracts by
Dr. Ludwig Fo'rrer, Turk- Bibi, Bd. xxi (Leipzig, 1923). Rustem's contemporary
Lutfi Pasha seems to belong to the same group. These writers seem to limit
themselves deliberately to an account of wars and campaigns, foreign or civil,
and to exclude other matters, such as the episodes in which we are interested.
Their works thus do not invalidate the view expressed in the text that for our
purpose the Chroniclers' Narrative is the only early source.

470

THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY

Episode 1 : Reign of Orkhan. After the capture of Nicomedia Orkhan makes

Brusa his capital. His brother 'Ala ad-din, who had made Brusa his corner of
retirement, offered congratulations on the victory at Nicomedia, and pointed
out that the house of Othman had acquired majesty and independence, that its
military power increased from day to day, and that appropriate customs and
laws should be introduced. First, the Ottoman ruler should coin in his own
name. Secondly, soldiers should have a particular dress, distinguishing them
from enemy forces. Thirdly, the army should be increased by a force of
infantry. Orkhan approved these suggestions. In the year A.M. 729 he began
to coin in his own name in place of the Seljuk coinage. The Greeks and Franks
wore scarlet woollen garments and red, yellow and black caps, and he beautified
his army with white caps. This custom continued till the time of Yildirim
Bayezid, who chose various garments for his army, at which time, on the suggestion of Timurtash Beg, the white cap was appointed for the ruler's personal
troops and a red cap for the retainers of great men. Mehmed II made white
caps with gold embroidery the special dress of the Janissaries, and red caps for
the servants of great men. The uskuf, worn by the chiefs of the Janissaries of the
Buluk, was the invention of Sulaiman Pasha, the conqueror of Bulair, and was
worn out of respect for Maulana Jalal ad-din Rumi. The custom began under
Murad I of decorating it with gold embroidery for ceremonial occasions. As to
increasing the army, they consulted the Qadi of Bilejik, Maulana Khalil. They
chose active youths from among the children of the Turks. Maulana Khalil
was put in charge, and collected brave youths ; these were given an akche a day
on campaign, which ceased upon their return, when they worked at cultivation in
their own homes, and were exempted from taxes. This piyada [i.e. yaya] increased in numbers and committed abuses, whereupon the ruler consulted his
counsellors and it was decided to select suitable children of the infidels and bring
them the honour of conversion to Islam. Overseers were appointed to collect
within a few years some thousand infidel children who should receive the light
of Islam and render service and obedience. They were given pay of an akche
or more according to ability and the name of Yenicheri. Others, seeing their
rewards and advancement, became eager to hand over their children, and several
thousand unbelievers were converted to Islam. In the past 200 years in this
way more than 200,000 persons have decided to embrace Islam and under Ottoman rulers there has been an incomparable extension of the faith. After the
innovation of the Yenicheri, the piyada received lands instead of pay with exemption from taxes. In this mode also, a mounted force was formed from children
of the Turks and given special lands and called Musellem.
Episode 2: Reign of Murad I. Lala Shahin conquered the district of Zagora
and a great quantity of booty of all kinds was obtained. Maulana Kara
Rustem, a learned jurist from Karaman, observing that the legal rule regarding
the one-fifth of all booty was not in force, drew the attention of the Qadi'asker
Maulana Kara Khalil to the relevant verse, declaring that a fifth of all booty
belonged to Allah. Maulana Kara Khalil referred the matter to the Sultan,
who gave orders to proceed according to the tradition and entrusted the collection
of the fifth to Maulana Kara Rustem. They placed a value on all kinds of booty
and valued each prisoner at 125 Othmani (akche) and established the custom of
taking 25 Othmani (akche) as the fifth part of a prisoner.

THE ORIGIN OF THE JANISSARIES

471

The Idrisian Version bears, as we were led to expect, evident

signs of dependence on the Chroniclers' Narrative. The division
into two episodes, and their dating, is the same in both : so are
the personalities who take part. Even in high-flown Persian
the speech of 'Ala ad-din preserves verbal echoes of his speech in
the Chroniclers' Narrative. Dependence on 'Ashiqpashazade
in particular can be inferred from the part played by Kara
Khalil, the reason given for the colour of the caps, and the
absence of any reference to Dervish sanction.
The vital difference between the Idrisian Version and the
Chroniclers' Narrative is that the former transfers the account
of the origin of the Janissaries from its place in the narrative of
the reign of Murad I to a passage in the section comprising the
reign of Orkhan, where it becomes combined with (or more
accurately, appended to) the account of the origin of the white
cap : as a corollary, the Idrisian Version treats the episode in the
reign of Murad I merely as the institution of a booty tax in
money. This difference, however, can be accounted for on
literary grounds, if attention is turned to Idris' method of composition as exemplified in these passages.
It will be seen that after he has given the narrative of the
adoption of the white caps (according to 'Ashikpashazade), Idris
proceeds to deal with a number of later changes in regard to
headgear and costume. It is evident that, writing for the
highest circles of the Court in his own time, he felt it incumbent on him to connect the first introduction of a distinguishing
uniform with later changes and even with the customs of his
own day. No doubt, Court or administrative traditions provided
him with his material here: in the only point to which the
chronicles also refer in this connection, the origin of the goldbraided uskuf, he agrees with them in dating it under Murad I.1
These later developments do not belong chronologically to this
part of the narrative at all: it is by a literary device that Idris
incorporates these matters here, as more or less completing the
story of Ottoman military or formal dress down to his own time.
That is his literary method.
Now, his placing in this passage the episode of the origin of
1 Uruj, p. 24. The story bears a highly legendary air in the chronicles.

472

THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY

the Janissaries is an example of the same method. Still following

the chronology of the Chroniclers' Narrative, he deals with the
yaya. Again, he seeks to complete this with related developments down to his own time. He therefore brings in the origin
of the Janissaries : he finds in his sources no account of the
devshirme which was a feature of the Janissary organization in
his own day, and so he supplies an account of this, which serves
the double purpose of filling a gap and of giving a flattering
(but inaccurate) account of current arrangements. Finally, he
brings in the origin of the Musellem which again comes from a
still later passage in the chronicles. Once again, it is a question
of the literary device of welding into a single passage and a
consecutive narrative material and episodes of different dates.
The fact is that the difference in chronological arrangement
between the Idrisian Version and the Chroniclers' Narrative is
only apparent, not real. Idris is studiously vague as to chronology. For literary reasons, he moves the episode of the origin
of the Janissaries into his narrative of Orkhan's reign but he
does not date the episode in that reign. Later writers, as we
shall see, have taken him in that sense, but in so doing they have
conjured a difference over facts out of a literary device.
It followed, of course, that in the second episode under
Murad I, Idris could not deal with the origin of the Janissaries
at all, for he had already done so. All that was left to him to
use was the financial aspect of the ghanimat tax. Still following
his same method, he hastens to connect that with the institutions
known to himself and his contemporaries in the Ottoman service,
and therefore converts the episode of Kara Rustem into the
institution of a money tax recognizable as the pen/V^ tax which
was being collected in his own time.
The Idrisian Version, therefore, does not represent an
account of the origin of the Janissaries different from, much less
superior to, the account contained in the Chroniclers' Narrative.
It is merely the Chroniclers' Narrative rearranged by another
hand. Its importance is due to the fact that, after the lapse of
another sixty years and more, it was adopted by the two most
famous and influential of Ottoman historians, Sa'd ad-din and
'All. The former virtually translates it into Turkish, the latter

THE ORIGIN OF THE JANISSARIES

473

adopts it in an abbreviated form.1 They are hardly to be blamed

for thus giving currency and predominance to the Idrisian
Version. Like Idris, they were Court historians. Idris' work
was already of respectable age in their time, sixty years nearer
the sources than they were, full (as we have seen) of useful
material not to be found in the Chronicles, and composed with
evident labour and studiousness. They preferred it to the
rough chronicles, already in their time circulating in texts and
recensions which differed much among themselves : a more
critical approach could not be expected of them. However, as
a consequence, they set upon the Idrisian Version the seal of
their own dazzling reputations.
Before leaving the Idrisian Version one concluding remark
is necessary. Where Idris' work does not pervert or contradict
its own written sources (the chronicles), it is a first-rate source
in its own right, and its statements may and do form our earliest
evidence on important matters. The most notable of these for
our purpose is the question of the original constitution of the
yaya. According to Idris, these were first of all paid troops,
and only later did they receive grants of land, when their experiment had proved unsatisfactory. There is no good reason for
rejecting this, the earliest, record on this point and reversing the
process of their development.
(v) The Bektashi Legends
These are only legends and little time need be spent on them.
We can gather their earliest form and something of their growth
from the Bektashi compendium known as the Vildyatnama of
Hdji Bektash.2 This work has been claimed to belong, as a
whole, to the early fifteenth century, and thus to be earlier than
the existing texts of the chronicles. That claim, however, may
1 I have referred to the printed editions of Sa'd ad-din, Constantinople, A.H,
1279, 2 vols., vol. i, 37-41, and 74-5, and 'All, Constantinople, 5 vols., vol. v.
pp. 42-3 and 69.
2 See Dr. Erich Gross, " Die Vilayetname des Haggi Bektasch ", Turk- Bibl,
xxv (Leipzig, 1927): the passages referred to are on pp. 133 and 153-5.
Gross's views as to date have been controverted and reference should now be
made to J. K. Birge, The Bektashi Order of Dervishes, p. 48.

474

THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY

be excessive, particularly as regards the passages of interest to

us. However, the Vildyatndma is, generally speaking, of the
fifteenth century, and even those passages cannot be much, if
at all, later than our texts of the chronicles. We certainly find
here the kind of legend which the Bektashis were circulating at
the time when they were seeking to establish their connection
with the Janissaries and which roused the ire of 'Ashiqpashazade.
The longest and earliest form of these legends in the
Vildyatndma is made to relate to 'Othman I, not Orkhan.
According to it 'Othman I committed a breach of a truce with the
Christians, and was summoned for judgement on this offence
before the Seljuk Sultan at Konia. He was then sent for judgement to Haji Bektash. The latter used to make his disciples wear
white caps, locally manufactured. One of these caps had been one
day brought to him which was of exceptional height and which
no one could wear : he therefore bent it in the middle and put
it away in a cupboard saying that its destined wearer would one
day appear. When 'Othman was brought before him, Haji
Bektash gave him this special cap with a blessing, a lighted
candle, and a sword. Later Haji Bektash took refuge in the
lands conquered by'Othman and his children and invited the
Seljuk Sultan to confer a high office on 'Othman : the Seljuk
Sultan, on learning that 'Othman possessed the high cap and the
sword and had received the blessing of Bektash, conferred on him
the Sanjak of Sultan Onii (the original Ottoman holding).
Two briefer supplements also contained in our text of the
Vildyatndma furnish a different story. According to these, on
an occasion when 'Othman I was hard pressed, Haji Bektash
sent him miraculous reinforcements : these troops complained
of being insufficiently or improperly clad for their duty, and
thereupon Haji Bektash cut pieces of felt from the hem of his
robe and laid these on their heads.
A marginal gloss then adds that they were called Yenicheri
from the word yen meaning a sleeve, a false etymology substituting this word for yeni, new. This gloss seems to record the
transition to the form of the legend which appears in European
writers from the seventeenth century onwards and according to
which the Janissaries' head-dress originated through the sleeve

THE ORIGIN OF THE JANISSARIES

475

of Haji Bektash falling over a Janissary's head and down his

back when Bektash was giving him a blessing. This incident
reaches a final form in which it is said to have occurred on the
field of Kossovo I immediately after the killing of Murad I
by a wounded Serbian, an event foreseen or foretold by Haji
Bektash, who is thereupon also put to death for failing to prevent
what he had foreseen.
We can see clearly enough here a development of a pure
legend originally attached to 'Othman I. Evidently, this legend
is not represented by the story of the white cap as given in the
Chroniclers' Narrative and, as pointed out already, this is one
reason for not classing that incident in its entirety as a Bektashi
interpolation.

(vi) The use of the Turkish sources by European writers

Even the latest Byzantine writers, Chalcocondylas, Ducas
and Phrantzes, do not use written Turkish sources. They are
largely concerned with contemporary events and are themselves,
for us, sources for Ottoman history. They are of the same date
as the composition, in their surviving form, of the Turkish
chronicles. For events before their own time the Byzantine
writers rely upon earlier Greek writers or on hearsay, not on
written Turkish sources.
When we come to the earliest Latin or European writers
there is no reason to dissent from von Hammer's judgement
that their sources for early Turkish history were hearsay. They
were themselves again sometimes eyewitnesses and they had
some access to Byzantine writers, and the later among them used
the works of the earlier. They did not use written Turkish
sources. This is true of Nicolaus Sagundinus (c. 1450),1
Spandugino (c. 1505),2 Felix Petantius (before 1516),3 Joannes
Adelphus (1513),4 Joannes Cuspinianus (d. 1529),5 Paulus
1 For the work of Sagundinus, see J. Ramus, Elegiarum de rebus gestis Ardu2 See above p. 467 and n. 6.
ducum Austriae (Louvain, 1553).
* For Petantius see above p. 467, and n. 7.
4 Joannes Adelphus, Die Turkisch Chronica usw. (Strassburg, 1513).
6 Joannes Cuspinianus, De Origine Turcorum, first printed after his death as
part of his De Caesaribus et Imfxratoribus opus insigne (Strassburg, 1540) and then
separately at Antwerp, 1541.

476

THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY

Jovius (c. 1540),1 or Sansovino (c. 1560).2 Between 1450 and

1550 the only Latin writer who offers us something quite
remarkable in regard to Ottoman origins is Fr. Georgius de
Hungaria ; his knowledge of the campaign of the Mamluk
Sultan Baibars in eastern Asia Minor and of the names of the
post-Seljuk princedoms is without parallel.3
It was not until the last forty years of the sixteenth century
that Turkish written sources became available to European scholars
in translation. The first to become so were the ancient chronicles,
to be precise the Anonymous Chronicle. This is in line with
the status of these sources in the sixteenth century as indicated
above ; it is indeed a confirmation of the respect in which they
were then held that the first European enquirers and translators
should have had these placed in their hands. The earliest of
these translators were Caudir von Spiegel (1567) and the contemporary translator of the manuscript known as the Bek Chronicle.4
Then comes the more famous Leunclavius (1588) : the latter
used, in different works, both the longer and the shorter (1550)
recension of the Anonymous Chronicle. 5 In the seventeenth
century the Anonymous Chronicle continued to be utilized by
European writers. This is the case with Knolles in 1603 6 and
the republication of his work by Rycaut in 1687,7 while Spiegel's
work reappears through Podesta in 1671 8 and Geropoldi in
1686.9
1 See above p. 467 and n. 4.
2 Francesco Sansovino, Dell' Historia Universale dell' Origine et Imfxro de
Turchi (Venice, 1560).
3 Tractatus de moribus, condicionibus et nequicia Turcorum, cap. i.
4 For these early translations see the remarks by Giese and by Babinger in
their respective introductions to their editions of the Anonymous Chronicle and
Uruj. Spiegel's translation appears in Markus Brosian, Chronica oder Acta von
der tiirkischen Tyrannen (Neisse, 1567). The Bek Chronicle was a manuscript
belonging to Jerome Bek of Leopoldsdorf.
5 Leunclavius, Annales sultanorum othmanidorum (Frankfurt, 1588), Historiae
Musulmanae (Frankfurt, 1591).
6 Richard Knolles, The General Historic of the Turks (London, 1603).
7 Sir Paul Rycaut, The Turkish History . . . with a continuation . . . whereunto is added the Present State of the Ottoman Empire (London, 1687-1700).
8 J. B. Podesta, Origo et Gesta Ottomanici Stirpis (Vienna, 1671). He also
translated Sadeddin.
9 Antonio Geropoldi, Annali de' Sultani Osmanidi etc. (Venice, 1686).

THE ORIGIN OF THE JANISSARIES

477

Meanwhile, the Idrisian Version had become available also

to European scholars through translations of Sa'd ad-dm. The
most famous of these was Bratutti's Italian translation, which
appeared in 1649.1 Seaman, in 1652, translated Sa'd ad-din's
account of Orkhan's reign into English and this, of course,
included the whole of the first episode of the Idrisian Version. 2
It is also evident that by about this time European travellers
or officials in the Levant began to come across the Bektashi
Legends in their then current forms. In his own additions to
Knolles' work, Rycaut gives the Kossovo version of the sleeve
incident, oblivious of the fact that in reproducing Knolles' own
work he had already given the Chroniclers' Narrative of the
origin of the white cap and of the Janissaries.3
Thus by the end of the seventeenth century European
students were in possession of three apparently distinct narratives, without the critical apparatus or ability to understand
their interrelationship the Chroniclers' Narrative, the Idrisian
Version, and the Bektashi Legends. The result is confusion
throughout the works of eighteenth century writers, who juxtapose these sources or reconcile them as each judges best.
Demetrius Cantemir (translated into English in 1734) gives a
summary of the Idrisian version under the reign of Orkhan,
attributes under the reign of Murad I the origin of the Janissaries to the imposition of a tax on booty, mentioning Kara
Khalil but not Kara Rustem, and adds to this the sleeve incident,
but not at Kossovo.4 Aaron Hill, in 1709, gives the Kossovo
version of the sleeve incident.5 Marsigli, in 1732, attributes the
1 Vincenzo Bratutti, Chronica dell' origine e progression della casa ottomana
compos/o da Saidino Turco (Vienna, 1649).
2 W. Seaman, The Reign of Sultan Orhan (London, 1652).
3 In Rycaut's work Knolles's original narrative taken from the chronicles is
in vol. i, pp. 128, 132 : the sleeve incident is in vol. ii on p. 72 of the additional
section by Rycaut entitled Present State of the Ottoman Empire, while on p. 90
of the same section Rycaut again refers to Kara Rustem and the institution of
the Janissaries under Murad I, i.e. to the Chroniclers' Narrative.
4 Demetrius Cantemir, Prince of Moldavia, History of the Growth and Decay
of the Ottoman Empire, translated by N. Tindale, 1734: originally written in
Latin, but apparently first printed in this English translation, posthumously, the
author having died in 1723.
6 Aaron Hill, Present State of the Ottoman Empire, 1709.

478

THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY

origin of the Janissaries to Murad I and gives the sleeve incident,

but not at Kossovo.1
Late in the eighteenth century confusion still persists in
the very famous work of Mouradja d'Ohsson, though in the
main he adopts the Idrisian Version and is chiefly responsible,
together with von Hammer, for its subsequent predominance
and (we may add) the misunderstanding of it.2 d'Ohsson, of
course, splits the story up and deals with it in different parts of
his work, which is descriptive, not consecutively historical. In
one place he gives the history of the white cap and later headdresses from the Idrisian Version. Elsewhere he states that
Orkhan, in 1330, instituted the Janissaries to replace the yaya
and recruited them from Christian prisoners, thus fastening on
later students the apparent chronology of the Idrisian Version,
which has been criticized above: he adds to this the sleeve
incident but not at Kossovo. Elsewhere he refers to the
Sultan's right to one-fifth of the booty, a right established according to him in 1362 under Murad I.
Von Hammer's account is practically a complete translation
of the Idrisian Version from the pages of Sa'd ad-din. He
cites the latter in his footnotes as his principal authority, but he
was well aware of what his less learned predecessors and successors did not know, namely, that Sa'd ad-din himself was
only reproducing Idris: he made, for this reason, great efforts
to obtain one of the rare manuscripts of the Hasht Bihisht,
ultimately with success.3
To his presentation of the Idrisian Version, von Hammer
added the sleeve incident, but not at Kossovo : he placed it in
the reign of Orkhan. There is a mystery here, because in his
footnotes he gives as his sources for this incident Neshri and
All. The incident, of course, is not in Neshri's real text at all,
and Neshri, in any case, follows 'Ashiqpashazade who, if he had
ever heard the sleeve incident in the form which we know, would
1 Comte de Marsigli, L'Etat Militaire de I'Empire Ottoman (1732), ch. XT,
p. 67.
2 Mouradja d'Ohsson, Tableau Central de I'Empire Ottoman (Paris, 17871820). See vol. ii, pp. 135 fl., vol. iii, pp. 39 ff. and 416.
8 See above p. 448, n. 1.

THE ORIGIN OF THE JANISSARIES

479

have been exceedingly enraged. As for 'All, he again uses the

Idrisian Version, which contains nothing of the kind. It seems
that von Hammer in his footnotes here has confused his sources :
as he places the incident under Orkhan, one may suspect that
he is really following d'Ohsson, but he might have had an
interpolated or corrupt text of Neshri or 'Ashiqpashazade.
The vital point of von Hammer's treatment is that he agrees
with d'Ohsson in adopting a superficial chronology from the
Idrisian Version, and therefore he locates in the reign of Orkhan
both the origin of the white caps and the creation of the Janissaries (including the devshirme) and treats the episode under
Murad I as the imposition merely of a (money) tax on booty.1
Von Hammer's account naturally reappears in the works of
writers who were mere abbreviators of his own great history,
such as Creasy, de la Joncquiere or Lord Eversley.2 Inability
to use Turkish sources, however, compels also such writers as
Zinkeisen and lorga to rely on von Hammer in this matter,
although in other respects their works are original and independent.3 The very imperfect monograph of Ahmad Jevad, generally speaking, corresponds, as d'Ohsson's version does, with the
Idrisian Version.4 Theodore Menzel, again, seems to draw mainly
1 In dealing with the origin of the Janissaries d'Ohsson particularly was handicapped (as was also von Hammer) because he approached the question from the
state of Ottoman military formations in his own time. There had been a long
development, resulting in a huge and complex organization, in which many old
distinctions had fallen into oblivion or had been overlaid by later classifications.
Thus, Qapu Kullari had become a term which included both the various Palace
corps (the original Qapu Khalqi) and the Janissaries, and the devshirme had
(in its time) served to recruit both formations, so that the true and original
distinction between them observed in the Chroniclers' Narrative was either
unnoticed or disbelieved. Again, the 'Ulufejis or troops paid from the Treasury
(as opposed to the feudal levies) included the yaya under the same classification
with the Qapu Kullari, thus again blurring an original distinction. It is extremely difficult to disentangle early Ottoman military history if one starts to
work backwards from the later state of affairs, and this has been a secondary
cause of confusion in regard to the origin of the Janissaries.
8 Sir W. Creasy, History of the Ottoman Turks (1854) ; Vicomte A. de la
Joncquiere, Histoire de /'Empire Ottoman (1881); Lord Eversley, The Turkish
Empire (1917).
3 J. W. Zinkeisen, Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches in Europe (Gesch. d. eur.
Staaten) (1840-63) ; N. lorga, Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches (1908-13).
Ahmed Djevad, Etat Militaire Ottoman (1882).

480

THE JOHN RYLANDS LIBRARY

on d'Ohsson and thus also has the Idrisian Version.1 In 1916

H. A. Gibbons made an attempt to re-write early Ottoman
history, again without knowing Turkish : his speculations as to
the early history of military organization are valueless.2 F. W.
Hasluck observed the confusion among European writers over
the origin of the Janissaries but, once more for lack of ability to
examine Turkish sources, he had no key to the puzzle.3
F. Giese, in his article of 1924 mentioned above,4 was mainly
concerned to correct Gibbons' mistaken reconstruction and also
to develop the theory of a connection between the beginnings of
Ottoman expansion and the Ahis. Moreover, he relied only on
'Ashiqpashazade. He formed the theory that the white cap belonged to the Ahis (he gives the red cap to the Kizilbash naturally
enough), claims that Othman's followers were Ahis and so used
the white cap before Orkhan, that Orkhan added the yaya to
Othman's Ahis, and then Murad I added the Janissaries to the
" war-worn " yaya. Whatever the merits of the theory as to
Ottoman~.<4/if connections, this account as a historical sequence
is evidently an artificial reconstruction of the data to be found in
'Ashiqpashazade. Similar accounts are offered by those who
have extended Giese's j4#F-theory by further explanations of
the special character of the ghdzis in early Ottoman times.
Professor Gibb and Mr. Bowen in the latest study of the
subject do, in substance, adhere to the Chroniclers' Narrative.5
They distinguish Qapu Kullari existing under Orkhan, then the
yaya under the same ruler, and finally the creation of the Janissaries from prisoners of war under Murad I ; they then attribute
the institution of the devshirme to Murad II. Their account is
much coloured by current views regarding the Ahis and the
ghdzis, but they also have to contend with the same difficulties
as d'Ohsson,6 because the main purpose of their work is to
describe Ottoman institutions as they existed in the sixteenth
1 Theodore Menzel, Das /Corps der Janitscharen in Beit. z. Kenntnis d. Or., i
(Jahrbuch. der Munch, or. Ges., 1902-5), 47.
2 H. A. Gibbons, The Foundation of the Ottoman Empire (1916).
8 F. W. Hasluck, Christianity and Islam under the Sultans, ii. 483 ff.
4 p. 448, n. 2.
5 Gibb and Bowen, Islamic Society and the West, pp. 48,53,54,58,59 and 64.
6 See above p. 478, n. 2.

THE ORIGIN OF THE JANISSARIES

481

century and later, so that they start from the later elaborations
and read these back into the primitive institutions. Thus,
starting from the later 'Ulufeji classification, they confound the
Qapu Kullari and the Janissaries from the beginning, so that
they miss the vital distinction in origin between them. Then,
again arguing from the later conditions, they regard the Musellem
as earlier than, or contemporary with, the yaya in origin, a view
not supported by either the Chroniclers' Narrative or the
Idrisian Version, and consider that the yaya had grants of land
originally, not pay, which is contrary to the Idrisian Version,
the earliest account of the matter. The connection of the
Bektashis with the white caps they regard as wholly apocryphal.
One may say, therefore, with all respect to such distinguished
scholars, that the problem for them has continued to be bedevilled
by the lack of orderly and critical analysis of the sources. By such
an analysis we have endeavoured to restore in its simplicity and
self-consistency a story first innocently distorted by the literary
devices of Idris, less innocently embroidered by the Bektashis,
then lost to sight in the tangle of later Ottoman administrative
rules and traditions, and later recovered by even the greatest of
European Turcologists only in a muddled and unrecognizable
state.

31