HISTORY OF THE JANISSARIES.
The Janissaries were first instituted for the protection of the
throne and person of the sultan; the army being then composed of the
victorious Turkomans, who had become turbulent, and were ready to
take the reins of government into their own hands. A new militia was
consequently instituted by Mourad, composed of young prisoners of war,
who were brought up in the Moslem faith: and, in contradistinction
to the existing army, were denominated Yeni-tcheri, or new soldiers.
With the design of giving more solemnity to the new order, the founder
resorted to the aid of religion, and they were blessed by a famous
sheikh, Hadji-Bektash, [1] who extending his arms over the troops,
invoked the blessing of Allah, and predicted their future victories,
pronouncing these words:
"Let them be called Yeni-tcheries. May their countenance ever be
bright! their hand victorious! their sword keen! May their spear
always hang over the head of their enemies, and wheresoever they go,
may they return with a white face!"
Their uniform consisted of loose trousers, and long, flowing robes,
tucked up. Their head-gear, when in full dress, was very peculiar. A
round cap of grey felt, with a long piece of the same hanging behind,
in commemoration of the loose sleeve of the saint, which was suspended
over their heads when he extended his arms to bless their institution.
They were armed with sabres, scimitars, pistols, yataghans, muskets,
constituting, as it were, a peripatetic model arsenal.
Their mode of warfare was quite primitive; each fighting on his own
responsibility.
From their earliest years, these Christian slaves snatched from
the bosom of their families, were inured to all sorts of hardships,
and to perfect resignation to the will of their superiors. They were
diligently trained in the art of war, and every trace of their parents
and native country being obliterated from their minds, their only
aim was to promote the interest and glory of their lord and sultan,
and they were, for many centuries, justly distinguished for the
excellence of their discipline, and for their indomitable courage.
But, owing to their constant successes, they at last began to consider
themselves invincible, and by degrees becoming insolent, respected
neither the laws nor even the sultan himself. They thus turned that
power, which was originally the defence and glory of the country, to
its ruin and destruction; and many were the sultans who fell victims
to their audacity and rebellion.
Sultan Selim III., in his attempt to reform them, was sacrificed to
their fury.
They were, in reality, the ruling power in the country: dethroning
sultans, and taking off the heads of ministers at their will. They
were upheld in all their excesses by the people, from a dread of
their vengeance, many of whom, from motives of personal safety, even
enlisted as honorary members of their corps. For, even the assassin
could find a secure asylum in their barracks, from which no power or
authority could claim him.
Nothing was sacred in their estimation; families dared not to
venture abroad without a janissary escort; and, on this account,
the different foreign embassies were always accommodated with two or
three of their number, which custom is still in vogue; though Kavasses,
or Turkish police officers, have been substituted for the janissaries
of former times.
Even the royal harem was not safe from them, and neither life nor
property were secure from their depredations.
Besides their regular rations, their pay was at the rate of from one
asper to twenty, according to their rank, per day. An asper was, at
that time, equal to one cent of Federal money. But they had various
ways of increasing their personal revenues.
They assumed a peculiar style of taxing the peaceable citizens, by
carelessly tossing their handkerchiefs at them, with an intimation
that their pockets needed replenishing, and none dared to return the
handkerchief without a tribute tied in one of its corners.
Those who were stationed in the city as metropolitan guards, generally
contrived to amass a quantity of mud before the guardhouse, which
they would ask all the rayahs who passed by, either to sweep away,
or contribute something for its removal.
The day of their revolt was most memorable, and our own janissary
boatman coolly put the number and mark of his regiment upon the
street-door of our residence, as an intimation to his comrades that
the house was already appropriated by one of the brotherhood.
Assassination was a matter of frequent occurrence in those days. The
father of the writer once narrowly escaped with his life.
He happened to be passing by a shop, where a janissary was examining
a yataghan with a view of purchasing it.
"Stop," cried the janissary, to him, "come here, I want to test this
blade on you."
He knew the character of those villains too well to suppose that the
rascal was joking--as a forlorn hope, he indifferently remarked,
"that it would be hardly worth the while to try such an exquisite
blade on my old tottering body," at the same time suggesting, that
it would be better for his excellency to accept the sword as a gift,
with the view of trying it on some worthier subject, and throwing
the money to the merchant, the old gentleman very suddenly disappeared.
Imbued with the wildest fanaticism, and with all the prejudices of
ancient times, and habituated to command rather than to obey, these
janissaries constituted the most effectual barrier to all progress
or national reform.
Indeed, their outrageous conduct was often the principal cause of
war with foreign nations--and a stigma upon their country.
Any monarch, then, who appreciated the real interest of his subjects,
and could anticipate the future downfall of his country, would be
impelled to annihilate this scourge.
Eternal gratitude is due to the illustrious Mahmoud, who at last,
accomplished this task. A man of remarkable energy and discernment,
more inspired with the spirit of civilization and modern reform
than any of his predecessors; with a determination and perseverance
unparalleled in the history of his country, Mahmoud effected this
coup d'état, and has justly been designated of "Glorious memory."
He first gained over to himself the renowned Hüssein Pasha, who
was then the Agha or chief of the janissaries; then Kara-Jehennem
or Black-Hell, the chief of the artillery, and Bostangy-Bashi, the
head of the life-guards; with the co-operation of these personages a
system of military reform was ordered, requiring all the soldiery to
be regularly drilled, and to adopt a certain uniform better suited
to military life, than the flowing robes and cumbersome head gears
they had hitherto worn.
The artillery corps and the life-guards cheerfully submitted to this
order, but the janissaries considered this change of costume as an
innovation upon long established customs, and averse to any military
discipline, there arose great dissatisfaction among them; and, as
usual, they commissioned the Kool-Keahiassi, their representative,
to remonstrate with his majesty, upon whose refusal to listen to
their murmurs, they determined on rebellion.
Having no suspicions of their chief, Hüssein-Pasha, according to his
counsel and public proclamation, the janissaries all assembled in
their own barracks, at the great square of Et-Meydan, nearly in the
centre of the city, to be in readiness to resist any attempt on the
part of the sultan, to enforce his edict.
The sultan being informed of this circumstance, he, on his part,
issued a proclamation that all good Mussulmans should repair to the
holy standard of the Prophet in the court of the seraglio.
This standard is never brought out except in cases of great
emergency, and no Mussulman would refuse to repair to it when
summoned. Accordingly all the Mussulman citizens, the artillery and
the life-guards, who hated the janissaries, assembled at the seraglio
and proceeded in a body to the great rallying point of the rebels,
where they met with a warm reception from the barrack windows of
the janissaries, who, confident in their own sheltered position,
were sure of a glorious victory.
But they were soon undeceived; for, by the order of Kara-Jehennem,
two field pieces had been slily transported to the very doors of the
barracks, whose first discharge shattered the gates and prostrated
hundreds of the rebels.
The janissaries now desperate, rushed to seize the cannon, which
were just reloading: and had it not been for the heroic action of
Kara-Jehennem at this critical emergency, all would have been lost. The
brave general perceiving the nature of the affair, and although wounded
as he was in the thigh, promptly jumped from his horse, and seizing
the torch, instantly applied it to the cannon, and thus baffling the
attempts of the assailants, soon turned the scale of fortune.
All resistance was now rendered futile by the barracks being set
on fire, when amidst shrieks of agony the miserable wretches were,
on the 15th of June, 1826, destroyed. Many among them were allowed
to effect their escape, with the design of sparing the innocent. The
most dangerous of their number were afterwards arrested and sent to
the European castles on the Bosphorus, where their doom was sealed
by the bow-string, and thus perished this formidable scourge of the
Ottoman Empire.
Many censures and much opprobrium have been cast upon the memory
of Mahmoud for this act of consummate destruction. He has been
stigmatized as cruel and blood-thirsty, whereas his whole country
was groaning under a scourge of tremendous power, in the shape of an
unlicensed soldiery.
Day by day, the monster grew in strength, and threatened the utter
annihilation of both sovereign and people. What greater act of humanity
then, than to crush the Hydra with one fell blow.
By this act Mahmoud not only established his own sovereign authority,
but bursting, for the first time, the bonds of barbarism, made a bold
stride towards the platform of civilization, and the fraternity of
the world. But for Mahmoud, Turkey would, perhaps, have, ere this,
been only a record of the past.
The army was immediately re-organized, and the soldiers were trained
in European tactics, by distinguished foreign officers.
They attained great distinction as infantry and artillery-men, and
still greater progress would have been made in military science, had
it not been for the intrigues of Russia, who, just at that period,
availing herself of the forlorn condition of the country, found a
favorable opportunity for declaring war.
The Allies of the present day, not discerning the Muscovite cunning,
were quiet spectators of the affray, and became as it were silent
partners in the shameful treaty of Adrianople, for which they have
since paid so dearly.
But the janissaries were not the sole barriers to the civilization of
the country. The Ulema, or the expounders of the faith, have exercised
even greater influence over the minds of the superstitious people,
through their unlimited spiritual authority.