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The Janissaries ( ', meaning "new soldier") were elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman Sultan's household troops and bodyguards. Sultan Murad I created the force in 1383. The number of Janissaries grew from 20,000 in 1575, to 49,000 (1591), dropped to a low of 17,000 (1648), then rebounded to 135,000 in 1826. They began as an elite corps of slaves recruited from young Christian boys, and became famed for internal cohesion cemented by strict discipline and order. By 1620 they were hereditary and corrupt and an impediment to reform.〔Alan Palmer, ''The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire'' (1992) pp 23, 92–93〕 The corps was abolished by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826 in the Auspicious Incident in which 6,000 or more were executed.〔Kinross, pp. 456–457.〕 ==Origins== Some historians such as Patrick Kinross date the formation of the Janissaries to around 1365, during the rule of Orhan's son Murad I, the first sultan of the Ottoman Empire.〔Kinross, pp 48–52.〕 The Janissaries became the first Ottoman standing army, replacing forces that mostly consisted of tribal warriors (') whose loyalty and morale were not always guaranteed.〔 From the 1380s to 1648, the Janissaries were gathered through the system which was abolished in 1638. This was the taking (enslaving) of non-Muslim boys, notably Anatolian and Balkan Christians; Jews were never subject to ', nor were children from Turkic families. According to the ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', "in early days, all Christians were enrolled indiscriminately. Later, those from Albania, Bosnia, and Bulgaria were preferred."〔(Encyclopædia Britannica. Eleventh Edition, vol. 15 ), p 151.〕 According to Dimitri Kitsikis, Christians from Northern Greece and Serbia were preferred.〔Kitsikis, Dimitri (1996). ''Türk Yunan İmparatorluğu''. Istanbul,Simurg Kitabevi〕 The Janissaries were ' (sing. '), "door servants" or "slaves of the Porte", neither freemen nor ordinary slaves (').〔Shaw, Stanford; Ezel Kural Shaw (1976). ''History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey'', Volume I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 27. ISBN 0-521-21280-4.〕 They were subjected to strict discipline, but were paid salaries and pensions upon retirement and formed their own distinctive social class.〔Zürcher, Erik (1999). ''Arming the State''. United States of America: LB Tauris and Co Ltd. pp. 5. ISBN 1-86064-404-X.〕 As such, they became one of the ruling classes of the Ottoman Empire, rivaling the Turkish aristocracy. The brightest of the Janissaries were sent to the palace institution, Enderun. Through a system of meritocracy, the Janissaries held enormous power, stopping all efforts at reform of the military. According to military historian Michael Antonucci and economic historians Glenn Hubbard and Tim Kane, the Turkish administrators would scour their regions (but especially the Balkans) every five years for the strongest sons of the sultan's Christian subjects. These boys (usually between the ages of 6 and 14) were then taken from their parents and given to Turkish families in the provinces to learn Turkish language and customs, and the rules of Islam. The recruits were indoctrinated into Islam, forced into circumcision and supervised 24 hours a day by eunuchs. They were subjected to severe discipline, being prohibited from growing a beard, taking up a skill other than soldiering, and marrying. As a result, the Janissaries were extremely well-disciplined troops, and became members of the ' class, the first-class citizens or military class. Most were non-Muslims, because it was not permissible to enslave a Muslim. The Janissary system was introduced in the 14th century. It was a similar system to the Iranian Safavid, Afsharid, and Qajar era ''ghulams'', who were drawn from converted Circassians, Georgians, and Armenians, and in the same way as with the Ottoman's Janissaries who had to replace the unreliable ghazis, they were initially created as a counterbalance to the tribal, ethnic and favoured interests the Qizilbash gave, which make a system imbalanced.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=BARDA and BARDA-DĀRI v. Military slavery in Islamic Iran )〕 The Janissary Corps was a trained and loyal group of slaves to the sultan. In the late 16th century, a sultan gave in to the pressures of the Corps and permitted Janissary children to become members of the Corps, a practice strictly forbidden for the previous 300 years. They also became rent-seeking and sought protection of their special rights and advantages. According to paintings of the era, they were also permitted to grow beards. Consequently, the formerly strict rules of succession became open to interpretation. While they advanced their own power, the Janissaries also helped to keep the system from changing in other progressive ways and according to some scholars the corps was most responsible for the political stagnation of Istanbul. Greek Historian Dimitri Kitsikis in his book ''Türk Yunan İmparatorluğu'' ("Turco-Greek Empire")〔 states that many Christian families were willing to comply with the ''devşirme'' because it offered a possibility of social advancement. Conscripts could one day become Janissary colonels, statesmen who might one day return to their home region as governors, or even Grand Viziers or Beylerbeys (governor generals). Some of the most famous Janissaries include George Kastrioti Skanderbeg, an Albanian who defected and led a 20‑year Albanian revolt against the Ottomans. Another was Sokollu Mehmed Paşa, a Bosnian who became a grand vizier, served three sultans, and was the de facto ruler of the Ottoman Empire for more than 14 years.〔Imamović, Mustafa (1996). Historija Bošnjaka. Sarajevo: BZK Preporod. ISBN 9958-815-00-1〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Janissaries」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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