The cream of the Ottoman fighting crop were the Janissaries. The first
Janissary units were formed from prisoners and slaves as a result of the
sultan taking his traditional one-fifth share of his army's booty in humans
rather than cash. Ottoman leader Emir Orkhan (1326-1359), the first to
occupy European continental soil, then issued an edict to the conquered
Europeans in the Balkans that they must hand over to the Ottomans 1,000
male babies "with faces white and shining" each and every year. These
children were brought up as Muslims with their Christian origins concealed.
Janissary officers, left
Similar to the demand by the Moors for White virgins from the Goths in Spain, the annual  tribute of
collecting European babies continued for 300 years until 1648, during which time 300,000 formerly
Christian European infants were absorbed into the Ottoman hierarchy (and into the Turkish elite's
blood line). They were called "kapıkulu", or door slaves of the sultan.
The Janissaries
Initially, Janissaries were not allowed to marry until retirement. They wore moustaches, but could not
grow beards, the sign of free men. The best of them were later selected for education in the palace
school, and eventually they became the most trusted, efficient and elite fighting force of the Sultan,
rewarded for their services with conquered land and privileges and benefits such as a cash salary and
wartime booty. They enjoyed an increasingly higher living standard and a respected social status. By
the fifteenth century, the Janissaries had become a powerful political force within the Ottoman state.
The Janissaries became the first Ottoman standing army and the Ottomans were the first state to
maintain a standing army in Europe since the Roman Empire. The Janissaries wore uniforms, were
paid in cash as regular soldiers and they had no equivalent in the Christian armies of the time. They
lived in their barracks and served as policemen and firefighters during peacetime and even had their
own internal medical auxiliaries. They had everything from a road engineer corps and corps to pitch
tents and make camp to a corps to bake bread. They also marched to distinctive music which many
later musicians enjoyed trying to imitate: Mozart included
The origins of the Janissaries are shrouded in myth though traditional accounts credit Orhan I, the
second Bey, or chief, of the nascent Ottoman Empire from 1326 to 1359 as the initiator of the
practice. Some modern historians put the date slightly later, around 1365, under Orhan's son, Murad
I, ruler of the Ottoman Empire, Sultan of Rûm, from 1359 to 1389.
In the first centuries, Janissaries were expert archers, but adopted firearms when they became
available during the 1440s. By the 16th century, the main weapon of the Janissary was the musket.
Janissaries also made extensive use of early grenades and hand cannon. The Ottoman army had a
cebeci logistic corps to manage the weapons and ammunition.
Initially the recruiters favoured Greeks, who formed the largest part of the first units, and Albanians,
who also served as gendarmes. The Ottomans' "tribute of children" or Devshirmeh, demanded that
every Greek Christian community, for example, be required to give one son in five to be raised as a
Muslim and enrolled in the corps of Janissaries, usually selecting about one boy from forty houses,
but the numbers could be changed to correspond with the need for soldiers. Boys aged 14-18 were
preferred, though ages 8-20 could be taken. Although unwelcome (Greek folklore tells of mothers
crippling their sons to avoid their induction), resistance brought grave consequences, and the practise
nevertheless offered Greek boys the opportunity to advance as high as governor or even Grand
Vizier. Some Greek historians estimate that up to one million Greeks were conscripted into
Janissaries during the Ottoman era.