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Devşirme (literally "collecting" in Turkish), also known as the ''blood tax'' or ''tribute in blood'', was chiefly the annual practice by which the Ottoman Empire sent military to abduct boys, ages eight to eighteen, sons of their Christian subjects in the villages of the Balkans and Anatolia. They were then converted to Islam〔''The New Encyclopedia of Islam'', ed. Cyril Glassé, (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), 129.〕 with the primary objective of selecting and training the ablest children for the military or civil service of the Empire, notably into the Janissaries.〔Basgoz, I. & Wilson, H. E. (1989), The educational tradition of the Ottoman Empire and the development of the Turkish educational system of the republican era. Turkish Review 3(16), 15.〕 Started by Murad I as a means to counteract the growing power of the Turkish nobility, the practice itself violated Islamic law. Yet by 1648, the practice was slowly drawing to an end. An attempt to re-institute it in 1703 was resisted by its Ottoman members who coveted its military and civilian posts. Finally in the early part of Ahmet III's reign, the practice of devşirme was abolished. ==History== The Devşirme arose out of the kul system of slavery that developed in the early centuries of the Ottoman Empire and which reached this final development during the reign of Sultan Bayazit I.〔Halil Inalcik, "Ottoman Civilisation", p138, Ankara 2004.〕The origin of the kuls was mostly prisoners of war or hostages or slaves purchased by the state. The Ottoman Empire, beginning with Murad I, felt a need to "counteract the power of (Turkic) nobles by developing Christian vassal soldiers and converted kapıkulları as his personal troops, independent of the regular army." The elite forces, which served the Ottoman Sultan directly, were divided into two main groups: cavalry and infantry. The cavalry was commonly known as the ''Kapıkulu Süvari'' (The Cavalry of the Servants of the Porte) and the infantry were the popular ''Yeni Çeri'' (transliterated in English as Janissary), meaning "the New Corps". At first, the soldiers to serve in these corps were selected from the slaves captured during warfare. However, the system commonly known as devşirme was soon adopted: in this system children of the rural Christian populations of the Balkans—particularly Albanians, Serbs, and northern Greeks—were conscripted before adolescence and were brought up as Muslims. Upon reaching adolescence, these children were enrolled in one of the four imperial institutions: the Palace, the Scribes, the Religious and the Military. Those enrolled in the Military would become either part of the Janissary corps, or part of any other corps. The brightest were sent to the Palace institution (Enderun), and were destined for a career within the palace itself where the most able could aspire to attain the very highest office of state, that of Grand Vizier, the Sultan's immensely powerful chief minister and military deputy. 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「Devşirme」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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