This video is sponsored by Heroes of History. In the heart of a rising empire, a new kind of army was born. Not bound by blood nor by tribe but by supreme loyalty alone.
They were called the Janissaries. Forged from the children of conquered lands and taken far from home, they were reshaped, mind, body, and spirit, within the walls of the Sultan’s palace. Trained to fight without fear, they were conditioned to obey without question and stand at the very forefront of battle.
They marched as one. They fought as one. They became the sharpest edge of the Ottoman sword.
Today, in our new series on the history and evolution of the Ottoman military, we will examine the origins of the renowned Janissary military corps, the first standing army in Europe since the time of the Ancient Romans. You should also start putting your own elite unit together, by playing our sponsor today, Heroes of History. And these aren’t any old soldiers we’re talking; it’s the heroes of- you guessed it, history!
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Creation of the Kapıkulu and Devshirme: With the creation of the Yaya and Müsellem corps, as well as the new provincial Timarli Sipahi corps, the Ottoman state had taken its first steps in establishing a military that would one day strike fear into the hearts of its enemies. However, the question of a professional standing army controlled directly by the sultan was yet to be addressed, but such an answer was just around the corner in the form of a slave army. During the reign of the second Ottoman ruler, Orhan Gazi, military slaves served as royal guards; however, their numbers were limited, and they did not form a distinct military unit.
In fact, they were part of the sultan’s private staff at his capital, called the ‘Nöker. ’ They were composed of distinguished individuals personally chosen by the sultan, and they also assumed additional roles, such as messengers, ambassadors, and hound keepers. However, by the 1360s, Ottoman leaders, such as Grand Vizier Çandarlı Kara Halil Pasha, recognized the need for an elite force for the state and founded an indigenous, slave-based standing army.
Known as the ‘Kapıkulu Ocakları’ or ‘Hearths of Gate Slaves,’ this new corps would prove to be the deciding factor for the eventual success of the classical Ottoman army. At the core of this new standing army was the famous subunit known as the ‘Janissaries,’ also referred to as the ‘New Soldiers,’ which would serve the Ottoman state until the beginning of the nineteenth century. In 1363, a new ‘Pençik Law’ was introduced, which imposed a tax under which the sultan could extract one out of every five slaves captured by his soldiers during military campaigns.
Most slaves were Christians captured in the Ottoman conquest of the Byzantine, Bulgarian, and Serbian lands in the Balkans. Only physically fit, young slaves were chosen by state officials and trained and organized in special training centers called the ‘Acemi Ocağı’ or ‘Hearth of the Inexperienced. ’ After two years of military training, they would then be inducted into the ranks of the Janissary corps.
However, by the end of the decade, the training system for such slaves was altered drastically, which saw young slaves first sent to Turkish farmlands in Anatolia, where they became accustomed to Turkish culture and language before finally converting to Islam. After this initial period, which lasted around four to eight years, they were taken to the Acemi Ocağı to begin proper military training. Trainees learned to fight as infantry, using various weapons, and obey their superiors' orders without question.
They also performed menial tasks, such as firefighting and transporting state goods, but never engaged in craftwork. Any Acemi who learned a craft or owned a private business was dismissed from the corps, as their first and only duty to the state was to be the hammer of the sultan. After four to eight years of training, the Acemi would be assigned to their regiment within the Janissary corps.
Within only thirty years after the foundation of the Janissary corps, a new mode of recruitment was introduced, called the ‘Devshirme. ’ The new recruitment method involved the forced conscription of Christian children around the sultanate, who were used as military slaves after extensive training by the state. This practice was common, as the Seljuks of old previously took children from Christian families for court duties in their capitals.
The Ottoman administration continued these practices, integrating them with the well-established military slave system that had been practiced by the Mamluk Dynasty of Egypt. Early enlistment aimed to train young recruits, as prisoners or captured slaves were usually adult men less receptive to military training. Children were seen as more responsive to the training, and their bodies and minds were easily moulded to meet the military's needs.
As a result, the Janissary corps was the first standing regular army since the time of the Ancient Romans and thus became a symbol of centralization of the military within the greater Ottoman framework. However, such centralization would be slow, as the ranks of the elite corps numbered only 1 to 2,000 men by the end of the fourteenth century, far from the numbers seen in later centuries. During the early years of the young Ottoman Beylik, the equally young Janissary corps was not yet armed with the muskets for which they would later become famous.
Instead, they were primarily elite infantry archers. Their primary weapon was a powerful composite bow, crafted from wood and horn, designed to deliver rapid, accurate shots from a distance. For close combat, they carried straight or slightly curved swords, such as ‘kilij’ or early ‘yatagan’ sabre, as well as small hand axes or maces.
Long polearms, such as spears, were sometimes used to defend against cavalry. Armour varied depending on rank and wealth. Many wore padded cloth armour called ‘kazaghand’, sometimes reinforced with metal plates or mail.
Helmets were conical, frequently with a nasal guard, while their distinctive white felt headgear, the börk, served as a symbol of the corps. Shields were small and round, typically made of leather over a wooden frame. In addition to the elite Janissary infantry, the Kapıkulu also included cavalry.
Known as the ‘Kapıkulu Süvarileri Ocağı' or ‘Hearth of the Cavalrymen of Gate Slaves,' the corps was founded during the reign of Sultan Murad I. Nevertheless, these elite heavy cavalrymen also numbered only a few hundred during the same period. Most members of this small unit, later known as ‘Kapıkulu Sipahi,’ were royal pages and guards to the sultan, instead of a real fighting unit in battle.
After crossing into Europe during the 1360s, Ottoman marcher lords had played a pivotal role in conquering large swathes of land in the Balkans but remained attuned to preserving the freedoms of their newly captured holdings from the central government. Some famous Akıncı families, such as the Evrenos, Mihal, Turahan, and Malkoç houses, had vast wealth and power bases in the Balkans during this period and were a constant source of trouble for the sultan’s royal court in Edirne. But as the decades passed and the ranks of the Kapıkulu grew in numbers and prestige, the power base of the semi-independent marcher lords dwindled, paving the way for the sultan's centralization of power in the Balkans during the fifteenth century.
Creation of the Azabs: The Jannisaries and heavy cavalry of the Kapıkulu were the elite units of the sultan, and as such, were very costly to maintain and train. As a result, the Ottoman army still required a large number of infantry units that were more expendable and easier to replace. The solution was to introduce an irregular infantry corps, the ‘Azabs’, generally financed by the provinces of the sultanate.
Comprising mainly Turcomans from Western Anatolia, the new unit would be vital to future Ottoman battlefield successes. At the start of each campaigning season, local Ottoman governors collected the necessary funds to raise the number of Azabs allocated to their governed population, which was one Azab per 20-30 households. Recruitment into the corps was less strict than that of the Timarli and Kapıkulu soldiers, as many unemployed and ambitious people with some military experience signed up in droves.
They essentially became the main light infantry of the Ottoman army, armed primarily with composite bows, spears, and swords. Azabs routinely carried out dangerous missions, fought on the front lines, and were tasked with wearing down the enemy. As a result, their casualty rates were very high, but their rewards were equally significant.
Sometimes, for heroic combat achievements and meritorious service, they received timar or permanent positions in the army, and most later became guards at frontier castles around the sultanate. Classical Ottoman Battle Formation: The first time every unit of the Ottoman army came together as a single fighting force against a European power was at the Battle of Kosovo against the Serbians in 1389. By this period, the combined strength of the Ottoman army had grown to around 40,000-50,000, compared to the 5,000-strong army that Osman Gazi had commanded at the start of the century.
This combined power of the marcher lords, the provincial army, and the sultan’s household troops would form the classical Ottoman battlefield formation, which was used to some extent until the end of the seventeenth century. Often at the vanguard of the army were the irregular Azab light infantry, stationed in fortified entrenchments with stakes facing out against the enemy, in which they were equipped mainly with bows, axes, and polarms. Their primary role was to bog down the enemy in the center of the battlefield while the more professional units of the Ottoman army circled them on the flanks.
On the left and right wings were often stationed the army of Anatolia and the Balkans, also known as Rumelia. It was here that the heavy and medium ranks of the Timarli Sipahi cavalry were stationed. Often, they were joined by Akıncı light cavalry on the far wings led by marcher lords of the realm, whose purpose was to harass enemy lines from a distance and conduct reconnaissance for the entire army.
The wings of the army were often led by the princes of the House of Osman, called ‘Şehzades,’ but actual military authority lay in the hands of the ‘beylerbey’ or ‘governor-general’ of Anatolia and Rumelia. By the 1360s, the Ottoman Sultanate was divided into the two central provinces of Anatolia and Rumelia to better manage the state’s military and political administration. This was due to communication and travel between the two halves of the sultanate being frequently cut off by the naval blockades imposed by European powers at the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits during the time period.
Meanwhile, at the center of the army, stationed in the rear, were the Kapıkulu corps of the elite Janissary infantry and heavy Sipahi cavalry. These units were held in reserve and used only after the entire army had engaged the enemy. These units were led by the sultan himself and his ‘grand vizier.
’ Ottoman Army Developments (1389-1448): Although the classical Ottoman battle formation emerged in the late fourteenth century, it was far from the capable formation that would strike fear across Europe and Asia. During the Battle of Kosovo, the army suffered heavy casualties and barely gained the upper hand until the very end of the engagement. The Janissary corps and other elite Kapikuli units were still too small to affect the outcome of the battle and, as a result, Sultan Murad I was slain on the battlefield.
The Azabs, with their light armour, were no match against heavily armoured Serbian infantry cavalry. The Akıncıs were essentially raiders with limited conventional cavalry capacity, and the Timarlı Sipahi corps was still in its infancy, with various shortcomings, including maintaining unit cohesion during the heat of battle. It was only the individual maneuvers and actions of the Sultan’s son, Şehzade Bayezid, on the right wing that had granted the Ottoman army victory at the end of the day.
The bloody lessons of Kosovo were learned by Ottoman leaders seven years later, when each army corps worked together to crush the crusader forces of Europe at the Battle of Nicopolis. For the first time, the Janissaries made their presence felt and influenced the outcome of the entire battle through successful defensive infantry tactics, including the use of sharpened stakes and ditches to annihilate the crusader heavy cavalry. In a single day, some of the best warriors that Christendom had to offer were slain and their bodies dumped in the Danube River.
During the reign of Bayezid I, the Ottoman state expanded in the Balkans and Anatolia in a series of lightning campaigns over the course of thirteen years. During this period, the size of the Kapıkulu corps was increased, thereby alienating many social groups that had been empowered under previous sultans. This, combined with the emergence of a centralized sultanate and increased taxes, alienated the Turcoman marcher lords, who already felt threatened by the growing importance and influence of the Sultan’s professional standing army.
Many segments of the Anatolian population viewed Bayezid I unfavorably, prompting numerous former Turcoman beys to turn to the mighty Timurid Empire for aid. Timur, a self-established sultan of a significant Central Asian Turcoman state, had recently completed his conquest of Iran and Azerbaijan and had become an Ottoman neighbour by the early 1400s. Eager to gain allies, Timur gladly sought the support and cooperation of the Turcoman beys, whom the Ottoman armies had recently subdued.
This alliance was a dangerous development, as Bayezid’s excessive arrogance and overconfidence in his military strength made conflict unavoidable. At the Battle of Ankara in 1402, the far more numerous nomadic army of Timur decimated the exhausted and outmaneuvered Ottoman army. During the battle, many Turcoman beys had switched sides to the Timurid ruler, thus resulting in the collapse of Bayezid’s wings, which had been pivotal in his previous major victories at Kosovo and Nicopolis.
Although the Kapıkulu corps at the center maintained their formation and courageously withstood the increasing attacks, Bayezid refused to withdraw in time and was thus captured by the enemy. The collapse of the Ottoman army at the Battle of Ankara was the result of a clash of interests and divided loyalties within the army, stemming from the rapid military transformation policies of the central state. As a result, the rest of the century would be marked by constant competition between the Devshirme-Kapıkulu military and political class stationed across the Balkans and the provincial Turkic military and political class, mainly stationed across Anatolia.
After the fall of Bayezid, his realm was divided among his sons, and a decade-long civil war ensued. After much heavy fighting, Sultan Mehmed I reunited the realm by 1413, and what followed was a significant restructuring of the military. The twenty-seven-year-old Sultan began his reign by reassembling the ranks of his personal council by appointing men to positions of power who had supported his cause during the civil war.
The leading groups that benefited from this restructuring in government were the Turkic class, who had long been neglected during the reign of Bayezid, but had since regrouped around the new Sultan. It was these same Turkic class that had made up the core of Mehmed’s army during the wars of the last decade, and it would be they who were now to play a vital role in his government for the foreseeable future. As a result of these political developments, the formerly influential Kapıkulu and Devşirme classes were reduced in size and sidelined in the new Ottoman administration.
Many soldiers in the Balkans, who had supported Mehmed's rival claimant in the recent civil war, also had their timars seized and redistributed by the state. Lastly, the Sultan refrained from an offensive policy against his neighbours, and the Ottoman military remained focused on internal conflicts, such as suppressing rebellions in the Balkans and Anatolia. However, Mehmed’s son and successor, Murad II, immediately ended this appeasement policy and reconquered most of the Anatolian lands lost after the Battle of Ankara.
The ranks of the Kapıkulu and Devşirme classes were expanded, and they again became influential within the central government. Despite this turnaround, Murad’s aggressive policy would also cause a prolonged but minor conflict with Venice and a sporadic yet significant one with Hungary. Hungarian magnate John Hunyadi was the first European commander to recognize the inherent weaknesses of the Ottoman army at both the operational and tactical levels.
He launched attacks on the Ottomans' European territories, exploiting the seasonal nature of their campaigns and their tendency to demobilize their forces. However, he gained his fame by widely employing the Hussite war wagons against Ottoman cavalry charges. These mobile fortresses, built from war wagons and light artillery, proved highly effective against the lightly armoured Ottoman cavalry and their arrow volleys.
Hunyadi also created a light cavalry corps for the Hungarian army, known as the ‘hussars,’ a direct response to the highly mobile Akıncı light horsemen of the Ottoman army, which frequently raided across Eastern Europe. Although Hunyadi had achieved some victories against the Ottomans during the 1430s and 1440s, his first real test against Murad was at the Battle of Varna in 1444. During the fight, both Ottoman wings attacked but were pushed back by the well-fortified, heavily armed Christian army.
However, when the Ottoman host began preparing to retreat, the enemy center pursued. The Polish-Hungarian king, Władysław III, led the charge, which collided directly into Janissaries behind sharpened stakes and ditches. After a hard struggle, the Janissaries succeeded in surrounding the enemy and even killing the king.
Following the death of the enemy monarch and the sudden arrival of the Ottoman wings back into the battle, panic and chaos spread through the Christian army. Hunyadi managed to escape, but few of his fellow crusaders did in the blood bath that followed. The lesson the Hungarian leader learned from his defeat at Varna was that, while the Timarli Sipahis were relatively easy to dislocate and rout, success on the wings was not enough to break the Ottomans.
The battle had to be won in the center. The opportunity came four years later at the Second Battle of Kosovo in 1448. This time, the roles reversed as the Ottoman army stayed on the defensive behind a long line of stakes and a ditch palisade that stretched across the entire front.
In addition to this security measure, the Kapıkulu corps in the center utilized the same type of war wagons that Hunyadi had made famous. In the years prior, Murad II had established a special military unit to operate war wagons called ‘Top Arabacıları Ocağı’ or the ‘Artillery Wagoners’ Corps. ’ As a result, Hunyadi’s attack on the Ottoman center during the second day of the battle was shattered under the weight of small firearms and cannons, thus granting the sultan yet another victory.
The Second Battle of Kosovo convinced Europeans of the Ottoman army’s invincibility and of the impossibility of reclaiming the Balkans. From then on, their efforts would be directed at stopping the Ottoman advance into Central Europe. While the Ottoman Sultanate had achieved in creating a standing army with specialized units and a standardized battle formation, significant reforms were still needed to make it a fighting force that could be wielded with great efficiency and speed in Europe, Asia, and Africa.
In the next episode of our series on the history and evolution of the Ottoman military, we will examine Sultan Mehmed’s reforms and the birth of the classical Ottoman Army. To ensure you don’t miss that, double check that you are are subscribed and have pressed the bell button to see it. Please consider liking, subscribing, commenting, and sharing - it helps immensely.
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