THE RULING INSTITUTION: AS MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE AND EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM
I. THE MISSIONARY MOTIVE
Although almost every member of the governing group in the Ottoman
Empire had been born a Christian, it was absolutely necessary for his
advancement that he should profess the Moslem faith. A keen contemporary
observer knew of only one Christian who had been entrusted with great
power. Alvise Gritti was allowed to hold special command in Hungary, but
this appointment was made outside the system, as a personal affair of the
grand vizier Ibrahim, without the concurrence of the sultan.[157] Various
Christians were employed in such matters as the superintendence of
ship-building and cannon-founding;[158] but this was a purely commercial
relationship, and such a man had no place in the _cursus honorum_. The
fundamental rule, open to the few exceptions previously described, was
very simple. Every member of the Ruling Institution must have been born a
Christian and must have become a Mohammedan.
A number of questions arise at once. Why were none but sons of Christians
admitted? Why was conversion essential to promotion? What was the process
of accomplishing conversion? How thorough was the conversion? Why were
the sons of most of the converts, and the grandsons of practically all,
carefully pushed out of the system?
The first of these questions might be answered in terms of policy of
state; but since, in all Moslem thinking, church, state, and society
form one undivided whole, such an answer would be inadequate. Conversion
to Mohammedanism meant much more than an inward change and an outward
association for religious purposes with a new group of worshippers.
It meant the adoption of a new law for the whole of life, beginning
with the religious and ethical, but including as equally essential
portions the regulation of all social, commercial, military, and
political relationships.[159] It meant admission to a new social system,
naturalization in a new nation, an entire separation from the old life
in all its aspects and a complete incorporation with the new. Expansion
of membership was always a cardinal principle of Mohammedanism; and the
expansion was to be not merely by the aid of the sword, but far more by
peaceful means. The sword took the land and sometimes the body of the
unbeliever; but his soul was to be won by the benefits of the system,
first religious, then social, financial, and political.[160] Every nation
that has reached eminence has believed firmly that its general system
was immensely the superior of every other in the world, and no nations
have been more thoroughly convinced of this than those of Moslem faith.
Accordingly, their desire to convert the unbeliever was founded primarily
on benevolence. Closely connected with this motive was a burning interest
in the grandeur of Islam as a militant, expanding system; and subordinate
thereto was a purpose to increase the wealth, numbers, and power of the
state.
THE OTTOMAN ATTITUDE
The Ottoman system incorporated young Christians not merely to obtain
more faithful, more obedient, and more single-hearted servants, but,
before and beyond this, to obtain new members of the Ottoman nationality,
new believers in the Moslem faith, and new warriors for the Ottoman
Empire as representing Islam. This missionary purpose stands out
very clearly in the words attributed to Kara Khalil Chendereli, the
traditional founder of the corps of Janissaries, by a poet-historian
of the early sixteenth century, who no doubt here, as elsewhere in his
writings, introduced the ideas of his own day: “The conquered are slaves
of the conquerors, to whom their goods, their women, and their children
belong as a lawful possession; in converting the children to Islam by
force, and in enrolling them as soldiers in the service of the faith, one
is working for their happiness in this world and their eternal salvation.
According to the words of the Prophet, every infant comes into the world
with the beginnings of Islam, which, developing in an army formed of
Christian children, will encourage even in that of the infidels the ardor
of conversion to Islam; and the new troop will recruit itself not merely
with the children of the conquered, but also with a crowd of deserters
from the enemy, united to the believers by common origin or pretended
opinions.”[161] The sentiment of this declaration is woven of two
strands, both ultimately religious,—a desire to convert great numbers to
Islam, and a purpose to strengthen the army which wars for the faith.
Mohammed the Conqueror expressed the same idea poetically in a letter
to Uzun Hassan: “Our empire is the home of Islam; from father to son
the lamp of our empire is kept burning with oil from the hearts of the
infidels.”[162] This declaration seems to reveal two things. First, the
Conqueror asserts that, since by Moslem theory there can be but one _Dar
ul-Islam_, or land of Islam, his empire is the sole lawful Moslem state;
second, he declares that, by the policy of his house, the empire derives
its strength from the ever-renewed supply of Christians. Whether this
exegesis be exact or not, the fact is indisputable that the fundamental
missionary spirit of Islam was strong in the Ottomans of the sixteenth
century,[163] and that the Ruling Institution was deliberately conducted
for the purpose, among others, of transferring the ablest and most useful
of the subject Christians in each generation into the dominant nation. As
the first Western observer who comprehended the system remarked, “This
comes from no accident, but from a certain essential interior foundation
and cause, which,” he feels it his Christian duty to say, with a helpless
admiration, “is desperation of good, and obstinacy in evil, and ... is
the work of the devil.”[164] Not only did Mohammedanism encourage the
practice of taking in outsiders to serve, fight, and aid in ruling, but
this practice was thoroughly in harmony with the old Turkish spirit which
prevailed in the steppe lands, and a similar policy had been followed
by the Byzantine Empire. Thus, in encouraging the incorporation of
foreigners the three great influences which met in the Ottoman state had
exerted a combined activity as perhaps in no other direction. The Ruling
Institution acted for centuries as a great steadily-working machine for
conversion.
OTHER MOTIVES FOR INCORPORATING CHRISTIANS
Besides the combined religious and national purpose which led to the
introduction of Christian youth into the system, other motives helped
to give it definite shape. That purpose alone would hardly have caused
a rigid rule to be laid down which would exclude Mohammedans. Here,
undoubtedly, the well-known tendency of governments that rest on force
to rely upon servants brought from a distance and owing all to their
favor came strongly into play.[165] The sultan’s _kullar_ were uniformly
faithful to the hand that had raised them from poverty to high position.
“Being all slaves by condition, and slaves of a single lord, from whom
alone they hope for greatness, honor, and riches, and from whom alone
on the other hand they fear punishment, chastisement, and death, what
wonder that in his presence and in rivalry with each other they will
do stupendous things?”[166] Having expected ill treatment from the
enemies of their nation, they were drawn by the surprising contrast to
deep gratitude and boundless devotion;[167] they were not attached to
interests and traditions of family and property which would prevent full
and loyal obedience; they learned what was taught them by their master’s
command, and were not possessed by ideas and prejudices that would make
them independent in mind and intractable. On the contrary, Moslems born
and bred in pride of religion and nationality could not easily be moulded
to the shape desired; the very title of _kul_ was out of harmony with
their beliefs; hence they were inherently unavailable for the system, and
the recognition of this fact led to their rigid exclusion. An important
reason for excluding children of renegades was that heredity of privilege
and office was against Ottoman policy. The immunity from taxation that
was enjoyed by the sultan’s officials would tend to the building up of
vast fortunes that would be beyond the reach of public taxation;[168] and
the power of great families entrenched behind large property interests
would in time endanger the supremacy of the throne.[169]
THE REQUIREMENT OF CONVERSION
Conversion was a principal object of the system, and favor and promotion
waited as rewards upon acceptance of the Moslem faith. In fact, a young
man was not fitted to participate in the system until he had turned
Moslem. He could not be an Ottoman warrior and statesman and fail to
profess and practise, in most respects, at any rate, the system which
inspired his fighting and on whose principles the state rested. The
garment was seamless: it must be either worn or not worn.
At the same time, conversion of the neophytes of the Ruling Institution
seems not ordinarily to have been forcible.[170] The Ottomans were too
wise to believe that the best results could be accomplished by such
means. Their policy was rather to throw every difficulty in the way
of remaining a Christian, and to offer every inducement to make the
Moslem faith and system seem attractive. To this end their educational
scheme helped greatly;[171] for it involved complete isolation from
Christian ideas of every sort, and complete saturation in all the ideas
of Mohammedanism, religious, moral, social, and political. Even those
whose education was mainly physical were isolated from Christians in a
strict Moslem environment. No doubt there were special rejoicings and
rewards when a _kul_ was ready to declare, “There is no God but Allah
and Mohammed is His Prophet,” as there were in like circumstances in the
rest of the Ottoman world.[172] But the _kullar_ seem not to have been
urged to change their faith; on the contrary, an attitude of apparent
indifference was sometimes taken with them.[173] Probably, however, few
who remained long in the system failed to surrender sooner or later.
Prejudices of child-hood would in time be overcome; what the majority
did would tend to act powerfully upon the individual; the reward of a
brilliant career would take clearer and more alluring shape, until in
time, in the absence of all contrary suggestion, the real truth and value
of the Mohammedan religion would make it appear to be the only worthy
system. It is not surprising that the scheme seemed to Christians one of
diabolical ingenuity.
What went on in the sultan’s slave-family in regard to the conversion
of slaves went on in every Mohammedan household. Conversion was desired
but not compelled, and reward awaited it.[174] Among female slaves also,
even in the imperial harem, the same process was employed. Not merely
the imperial slave-family, but the entire system of slavery that existed
in the Ottoman Empire, was thus a great machine for the conversion of
Christians into Turks.
SINCERITY OF CONVERSION
It is not easy to learn what thoughts possessed the hearts of the members
of the Ruling Institution. Enough is recorded, however, to show that not
all who turned Moslem did so without mental reservation, and to prove
that it was possible to hold fast to an inward belief in the superiority
of Christianity through many years spent in the sultan’s service. It
has been said sometimes that the converted Christians were more severe
than the Moslems toward their brethren who remained steadfast.[175] This
would be natural both because of the zeal of new converts, and because
Christianity is intrinsically less tolerant than Mohammedanism; but the
accusation does not seem to be supported as against the members of the
Ruling Institution. A distinction must be drawn between behavior in time
of war and in time of peace. The Janissaries were fierce fighters and
terrible enemies; but religiously they belonged to a sect which was so
liberal as to be accused of rank heresy, and even, it is said, to have
been denied the name of true believers.[176] Many of the renegades were
persons who held no sort of religion.[177] The grand vizier Rustem told
Busbecq, after offering him great rewards if he would turn Moslem, that
he believed in the salvation of those of other faiths;[178] and a _deli_,
or scout, in his service confided to a French gentleman that, while he
pretended to follow Mohammedanism, he was a Christian at heart.[179]
The fact that a Genoese boy, taken at twelve years of age, educated as
a favored page for eight or nine years, and evidently trained carefully
in Mohammedan beliefs, would seize the first opportunity to escape shows
what was possible beneath the surface.[180] Two generations earlier there
was a renegade who cursed the day when he had turned Turk, but who felt
that he could not go back.[181] Nor were the members of the system always
submissive to the stricter rules of Mohammedan ethics. The Janissaries,
for example, forced Bayezid II to reopen the wine shops of the capital,
which in the religious fervor of his later years he had ordered
closed;[182] and the members of the government were led by fondness for
display and lavish expenditure into shameless venality, the cause and the
effect being equally contrary to the teachings and example of Mohammed.
The probability is that large numbers of the sultan’s slaves were merely
nominal Mohammedans in religious belief, though they necessarily followed
the larger part of the Moslem scheme of life.
EFFECT OF THE PROCESS
Sons of Janissaries were not allowed to become Janissaries, although the
rule began to be infringed about the end of Suleiman’s reign.[183] Sons
of _Spahis_ of the Porte might be admitted as pages and to the corps of
_Spahi-oghlans_, but their grandsons were rigidly excluded.[184] Sons of
great officials were provided with fiefs, or pensions, and so usually
passed out of the Ruling Institution into the territorial army.[185]
Thus few were allowed in the scheme beyond the first generation in the
Moslem faith, and almost none beyond the second. The explanation of this
has been given already: descendants of renegades were Moslems, and hence
subject to the same disqualifications as members of Mohammedan families
of long standing. Not all Moslems of the empire were counted Ottomans,
or, as they called themselves, Osmanlis, or, as they are commonly called
nowadays, Turks; for Arabs, Kurds, and other Mohammedans who had not
adopted the Turkish language did not bear the Turkish name. But all
the descendants of members of the Ruling Institution were added to the
Ottoman-Turkish nationality. The total number of Janissaries in the three
centuries during which they were recruited from Christian children has
been estimated at five hundred thousand;[186] but, as reckoned above,
the tribute boys furnished less than one-half of the recruits of the
institution,[187] and the page system persisted in its original form
after the Janissaries had become hereditary. From one to two millions of
the flower of the Christian population must have been brought into the
Ottoman nation by the operation of the Ruling Institution.
It does not necessarily follow that a like number of new Turkish families
were thus founded. The Janissaries were not supposed to marry, although
the rule was not strictly enforced;[188] a hundred years later, at
any rate, the majority are said to have been unmarried.[189] As the
_Spahis_ of the Porte probably married late, when they married at all,
the whole system had thus something of a monastic aspect.[190] High
officials, it is true, were apt to keep harems of some size; yet the
children even of these were ordinarily few in number.[191] Furthermore,
the frequent fierce wars carried off many of the sultan’s slaves, and
the danger of execution and of confiscation of property put a check on
their establishment of families. It is probable, therefore, that the
Ruling Institution, like most great slave-families, was wasteful of
human life.[192] But although its Christian-born members may not have
perpetuated their numbers, they nevertheless increased the Ottoman nation
by the addition of such children as were born to them; and the Moslem
descendants of these, sailing in quieter waters, doubtless became, both
numerically and otherwise, a great strength to the nation.
II. THE EDUCATIONAL SCHEME
Plato would have been delighted with the training of the sultan’s great
family, though his nature would have revolted from its lowliness of
birth. He would have approved of the life-long education, the equally
careful training of body and mind, the separation into soldiers and
rulers (even though it was not complete), the relative freedom from
family ties, the system’s rigid control of the individual, and, above
all, of the government by the wise. Whether the founders of the Ottoman
system were acquainted with Plato will probably never be known, but they
seem to have come as near to his plan as it is possible to come in a
workable scheme. In some practical ways they even improved upon Plato,—as
by avoiding the uncertainties of heredity, by supplying a personal
directing power, by insuring permanence through a balance of forces, and
by making their system capable of vast imperial rule.
In the largest sense the Ruling Institution was a school in which the
pupils were enrolled for life. Constantly under careful drill and
discipline, they advanced from stage to stage through all their days,
rewarded systematically in accordance with their deserts by promotions,
honors, and gifts, and punished rigorously for infraction of rules, while
both rewards and punishments increased from stage to stage until the
former included all that life under the Moslem scheme could offer, and
the latter threatened to take away the life itself. The system also cared
for all sides of the nature of its pupils, subject to the considerable
limitation that it was especially a school of war and government. The
bodies of all were trained as thoroughly as were the minds of the
best. Though all received some mental training, including at least an
acquaintance with the Moslem mode of life, the ablest were put through a
severe course in Oriental languages and Moslem and Ottoman law, which
embraced ethics and theology. Thus both body and mind, as well as the
religious nature, were provided for systematically and through life.
Looked at thus, the Ottoman educational scheme, in its relations to the
whole lives of those under instruction, was more comprehensive than any
Western institution of learning. The officers of a Western army are
educated and organized in a life-long system which provides for both
body and mind; but they do not learn theology and they do not govern the
nation. Great American railroads and manufacturing corporations possess
schemes of education and advancement which bear comparison to the Ottoman
system in life-long scope, promotion for merit, and the possibility of
rising from the bottom to the top; but the mental training which they
give even to their ablest helpers is of a highly technical sort, which
bears no comparison to the general learning and finished culture bestowed
upon the most studious in the Ottoman scheme. In general, Western
universities and educational systems, although they far surpass the
Ottoman scheme in the scope and character of the intellectual training
which they give, do not provide a comparable systematic training of the
body; and their control over the lives of their students ceases early.
The superior comprehensiveness of the Ottoman system was, of course,
based upon the fact that its members were slaves. Their master could keep
them at school all their lives, in order that they might become better
and better trained to serve him. At the same time, reward was considered
more potent than the rod. Unequalled prizes were offered in this school,
so skilfully disposed and graded as to call out the utmost strivings and
the best work of every pupil.
The first stages of the wide scheme, which constitute the educational
system in its narrower sense, were a fitting introduction to the rest.
All the recruits for the sultan’s slave-family, whether captured, bought,
presented, or levied, to the number of probably three or four thousand
annually, with an addition of ten or twelve thousand in the years of
the _devshurmeh_,[193] were brought by a regular process before trained
officials, carefully registered, and divided into two classes.[194]
Those who best satisfied the criterions of bodily perfection, muscular
strength, and intellectual ability so far as it could be judged without
long testing,[195]—about one in every ten of the whole number,—were
chosen for a superior quality of training, especially on the intellectual
side. The remainder were destined for a different education, which was
mainly physical.[196] The first regularly became pages and _Spahis_
of the Porte, and the ablest of them rose to the great offices of the
army and the government. The others regularly became _Ajem-oghlans_ and
Janissaries, but the ablest of these might also rise to positions as
_Spahis_ of the Porte and even as generals and officers of state.[197]
Failure to be selected for the higher school was not, therefore, a
final restriction to low position. Merit was recognized everywhere, and
regularly led to promotion. At the same time, it was a distinct advantage
to a young man to be chosen for the higher training, since he would
receive greater care, would acquire more of both ornamental and useful
learning, and would associate with those already great, and perhaps with
the sultan himself.
THE COLLEGES OF PAGES
Of those selected for the higher training, a portion were distributed
among the households of the provincial governors and high officers at
the capital.[198] These were probably brought up in much the same way as
if they had remained with the sultan. The very choicest of the recruits,
to the number of perhaps two hundred annually, or twelve to fifteen
hundred in all,[199] were taken into three palaces of the sultan as
_Itch-oghlans_, or pages. Three or four hundred were in the palace at
Adrianople,[200] a like number in one at Galata,[201] and from five to
eight hundred in the principal palace at Stamboul.[202] These were all
handsome boys, physically perfect, and of marked intellectual promise.
An excellent idea of the international character of the college is given
by a Venetian writer, who said that the pages of the palace included
Bulgarians, Hungarians, Transylvanians, Poles, Bohemians, Germans,
Italians, Spaniards, a few French, many Albanians, Slavs, Greeks,
Circassians, and Russians.[203]
The _Itch-oghlans_ were dressed in suitable raiment and were well cared
for without luxury.[204] That the sultan took a particular interest in
the arrival of excellent specimens is evident from the reception that
Menavino received.[205] The general Ottoman attitude toward the pages,
and indeed toward all recruits, has been well expressed by a thoughtful
observer: “The Turks rejoice greatly when they find an exceptional man,
as though they had acquired a precious object, and they spare no labor or
effort in cultivating him; especially if they discern that he is fit for
war. Our plan [that is, in Western Europe] is very different; for if we
find a good dog, hawk, or horse, we are greatly delighted, and we spare
nothing to bring it to the greatest perfection of its kind. But if a man
happens to possess an extraordinary disposition, we do not take like
pains; nor do we think that his education is especially our affair; and
we receive much pleasure and many kinds of service from the well-trained
horse, dog, and hawk; but the Turks much more from a well-educated man
(_ex homine bonis moribus informato_), in proportion as the nature
of a man is more admirable and more excellent than that of the other
animals.”[206]
That the primary object of the page system was educational appears from
all contemporary observations. Not merely are their palaces termed
“places for nourishing youths,”[207] but Menavino calls the place where
he was taught “the palace school.”[208] Another writer gives chapters
on “The Education of Young Men in the Seraglio,” and “The Studies and
Learning in the Seraglio,”[209] and speaks of the young men as “designed
for the great offices of the empire.” Another says, “And the said emperor
does this good for the profit of his soul, and when they are grown up he
takes them from there and gives them dignities and offices, according
as it seems to the emperor they have deserved.”[210] Some of the pages
were the personal servants of the sultan, and a band of thirty-nine
constituted his gentlemen of the bedchamber, or _Khas Oda_.[211] These
were the élite of all, chosen by selection after selection; and, though
young, they ranked very high in the system. Since only a few of all
the pages could attain to this honor, the remainder were at school for
outside service.[212]
Besides many less direct descriptions of the course of training,
two exist which are derived from men who passed through the palace
school. Menavino tells his own story;[213] and Ricaut records what
he learned from a Polish captive who had spent nineteen years in the
sultan’s service and had reached high position.[214] Although these
accounts were written one hundred and fifty years apart, they agree in
essentials. Menavino does not refer to the physical training in arms and
horsemanship; but at the time of his escape he showed himself, if not a
courageous, yet an accomplished horseman. Postel, some twenty years after
Menavino’s time, describes this training in some detail. He probably had
his information from a French page named Cabazolles, whom he quotes as
authority on one point.[215]
The pages were trained in the art of war, the use of all sorts of arms,
and good horsemanship.[216] Suleiman took especial delight in watching
their cavalry evolutions, and occasionally summoned a page who pleased
him, conversed with him, and dismissed him with presents.[217] Also, by
old Oriental custom, every page was taught some handicraft useful in his
master’s service, and, no doubt, intended to provide for his own support
in case of need.[218]
Menavino describes the course of study in the so-called _Yeni Oda_, or
New Chamber, which contained from eighty to a hundred boys. “When a boy
has remained five or six days in that school, they set him to learning
the alphabet. There are four teachers in the school. One drills the
boys in reading during their first year. Another teaches the Koran in
the Arabic (_Moresco_) language, giving explanations of the different
articles of their faith. After this a third teaches books in the
Persian tongue, and some write a little, but they do not teach writing
willingly. A fourth teaches Arabic books, both vulgar and literary.” It
is interesting to notice that, from the first, rewards in the form of
pay were given for labor. “These boys,” continues Menavino, “have a daily
allowance of two aspers during the first year, three during the second
year, four during the third year, and thus their allowance increases
each year. They receive scarlet garments twice a year, and some robes
of white cloth for the summer.”[219] Postel describes how they learned
with great diligence Arabic and Turkish letters and the law.[220] Ricaut
explains in more detail that the chief object of the course of study
was to teach reading and writing for the purpose of giving inspection
into the books of law and religion, especially the Koran. He says that
Arabic was taught to enable the boys to inspect the writings of the
judges and to have knowledge of religion, Persian to give them quaint
words and handsome and gentle deportment, and adds that both tongues
might be needed in governing Eastern regions. He gives a list of their
text-books, and remarks that those who wished to become men of the pen
studied with greater exactness. They were not, he says, taught logic,
physics, metaphysics, mathematics, or geography, and their knowledge of
ancient history was much mixed. “Yet as to the successes and progress
of Affairs in their own Dominions,” he adds, “they keep most strict
Registers and Records, which serve them as Presidents and Rules for the
present Government of their Affairs.”[221] This shows that the pages were
instructed in Turkish history and the various _Kanun-namehs_, or imperial
laws. Most of the teachers were Anatolian Turks,[222] chosen no doubt, as
imparting better pronunciation and more orthodox religious views.
Discipline was severe,[223] but was kept within bounds. A page could be
beaten on the soles of his feet with no more than ten strokes, and not
more than once on any one day.[224] The boys, organized in groups of ten,
were watched carefully by eunuchs, both day and night.[225] Absolute
obedience, modest behavior and decorum, and good manners were taught
with great insistency.[226] The two sections, or _odalar_, at the palace
seem to have been of equal rank,[227] while the schools in Pera and
Adrianople ranked lower.[228] Select boys who had finished their studies
were promoted through the different chambers of the personal service of
the sultan to the Inner Chamber,[229] where twelve or fifteen of the
thirty-nine held titular offices.[230] On reaching the age of twenty-five
every page was sent out from the school.[231] Those from the Inner
Chamber passed at once to places in the Noble Guard (_Muteferrika_), or
to governorships of towns.[232] Ibrahim passed almost directly to the
place of grand vizier;[233] but he was the first to break the regular
order of promotion, and in after times much evil was held to date from
the precedent.[234] The majority passed into the regular cavalry, or
_Spahis_ of the Porte.[235] Those who left the school were honored by a
ceremony of farewell. The sultan personally commended each one, and gave
him encouragement for good conduct in his new position. He presented each
with an embroidered coat and one of his most beautiful horses, and often
a gift in money. The young man, with all the presents he had received
during his stay, was escorted to the great gate, where he mounted his
horse triumphantly, and departed from the palace forever.[236]
THE HAREM
Probably because of the tendency of the human mind to construct along
parallel lines, the imperial harem partook of the characteristics of the
schools of pages. There were two _odalar_, or rooms, for the recruits of
the harem, in which they were taught housework, sewing and embroidery,
manners and deportment.[237] They were organized in groups of ten,
each group under a matron. Those with a taste for music and dancing
learned those accomplishments, those who were studious learned to read
and write. All were carefully instructed in the system of Islam. Like
the pages, nearly all of them passed out of the palace at the age of
twenty-five, being given in marriage to _Spahis_ of the Porte or to other
officials.[238] Thus the harem might be considered a training-school of
slave-wives for the sultan himself and for the most highly honored of his
_kullar_.
THE AJEM-OGHLANS
The term _ajemi-oghlanlar_ signifies “foreign youth,” and was sometimes
applied to all the young recruits. Ordinarily, however, it was given
only to the remainder left after the pages had been selected. These, for
the most part destined to become Janissaries, probably numbered about
twenty thousand.[239] Their training was largely physical, industrial,
and military, with oral instruction in the Turkish language and the
principles of the Mohammedan system. The _Ajem-oghlans_ usually passed
through two or three stages. Unless they knew Turkish and something
of Turkish ways, they were first scattered through Asia Minor in the
service of Moslem country gentlemen.[240] There they were set at hard
agricultural labor, to strengthen their bodies to the utmost. They were
expected to learn to speak and understand the Turkish language and to
learn the faith, the laws, and the customs of the Turks. The sultan
allowed them no pay. The gentlemen whom they served, responsible for
them to the sultan, supplied them with food and clothing and whatever
else they were pleased to give.[241] The number of these _Ajem-oghlans_
of the first stage may be estimated as ten thousand.[242] At the
end of two or three years, or perhaps at about the time for a new
_devshurmeh_,[243] officers came to examine them. If they knew enough
Turkish and were strong and well-grown, they passed to the next stage.
Having been brought to Constantinople, and once more carefully inscribed
and estimated,[244] the _Ajem-oghlans_ were again distributed, but now
in groups. About two thousand were assigned to service with the fleet
at Gallipoli.[245] Another two thousand, probably the most intelligent,
were appointed as gardeners, or _Bostanjis_, to the sultan’s palaces in
Stamboul, Adrianople, Brusa, and Magnesia;[246] and five hundred or more
served in other capacities about the palaces, as wood-cutters, helpers
in the kitchen, and the like.[247] Five or six thousand were kept in
Constantinople and employed in the shipyards or on public buildings,[248]
or were hired out in bands of one hundred or more to private citizens
for hard labor of various sorts.[249] Some were hired out similarly in
other cities.[250] In the midst of such a variety of occupations, two
objects seem always to have been kept in mind,—the _Ajem-oghlans_ were
to develop the utmost strength of body, and they were to learn some
trade useful in war.[251] In this stage they were normally organized
in groups or messes of ten. The gardeners were under the charge of an
official of high rank and great authority, who bore the humble title of
_Bostanji-bashi_, or head gardener; he was aided by under officers and
an administrative staff. Those in Constantinople were under the orders
of an _Agha_, or general officer, with a staff of under officials,
clerks, and accountants.[252] Being filled with the spirit of youth,
conscious of their superior physical strength and privileged position,
gathered together in large groups, and unrestrained by substantial mental
instruction, the _Ajem-oghlans_ were by no means easy to manage. They
frequently raised great disturbances in the city, in emulation perhaps
of the Janissaries.[253] Those who wished were allowed to learn to read
and write, but they were not obliged to do so.[254] They received a small
amount of pay, with food and clothing.[255]
After a certain time spent in this stage of development, the majority
of the _Ajem-oghlans_ were assigned, one by one as each seemed ready,
to the service of the _odalar_, or messes, of the Janissaries.[256] The
latter then became responsible for their training in the art of war,
and discharged this duty with much zeal. In the course of time, as the
_Ajem-oghlans_ acquired sufficient skill, and as vacancies occurred,
they were enrolled as full-fledged Janissaries.[257] The gardeners of
the sultan’s palaces and the palace servants seem not ordinarily to have
become Janissaries, but to have been advanced toward the directing of
the transport, commissary, and artillery services, the oversight of the
imperial stables, and like positions in the administration of the army
and the great household.[258] No doubt some of those assigned to the
fleet were promoted in the navy, but most of them seem to have become
Janissaries.[259] Thus a large number and variety of openings lay before
the _Ajem-oghlans_, who as they became ready were advanced into them. The
ordinary age of graduation from the corps was twenty-five years,[260]
which may be regarded as the age of majority for all the sultan’s
slaves. At times war caused such depletion of the upper service that
_Ajem-oghlans_ were promoted before they had reached the desired age or
were thoroughly ready.[261]
ADVANCEMENT BASED ON MERIT
The entire system from start to finish was designed to reward merit and
fully to satisfy every ambition that was backed by ability, effort, and
sufficient preparation. Two parallel lines of reward were established,
the honorable and the financial. In the page school the first was
represented by promotion from class to class, and, in the case of those
who were observed to be the most suitable, by advancement through the
chambers of personal service to the _Khas Oda_. In this _oda_ they were
promoted in regular order through the twelve or more special offices.[262]
Among the _Ajem-oghlans_ the process seems to have been carried on by
carefully observing and testing individuals, by advancing them from
stage to stage on this basis, and by entrusting them in the later stages
with greater and greater responsibilities. The financial reward began
for the pages immediately upon admission to the school. It was then
probably about equal to the daily wages of an unskilled laborer. This
was increased regularly year by year, and in the _Khas Oda_ reached the
proportions of a handsome salary.[263] The _Ajem-oghlans_ depended
during the first stage on the rewards assigned by their temporary
masters. After that stage they began to receive a small amount of
pay from the sultan, which was gradually increased.[264] All were
provided with food, lodging, and at least a part of their clothing, and
individuals might hope to obtain special gifts.
This double system was continued without a break through the entire
institution. The lowest Janissary might hopefully aspire to promotion,
either through the hierarchy of office in his own corps, or by
being lifted out of it for service in the cavalry or the active
administration.[265] The pages who had passed out of the school were
already well up in the scale of advancement, and every place except the
sultan’s own was within their grasp. The grand vizier, indeed, might
wield almost the whole of the sultan’s power, a fact which Ibrahim,
shortly before his fall, realized so fully that he added to his title of
_Seraskier_ the word Sultan.[266] The losses occasioned by fierce and
frequent wars, and by not infrequent depositions and executions, gave
abundant opportunity for men to rise from below. Conquest was continually
adding new offices and commands. The whole Ruling Institution was, so to
speak, in a constant state of boiling, in which the human particles were
rapidly rising to the top, and, alas, disappearing, while others rose as
rapidly behind them.
The figure just employed is applicable, however, only to the mere
phenomenon of rising: the upward movement was not in the least accidental
or automatic; it was conducted with keen intelligence at every stage.
Now and then, as in the case of Ibrahim, favor disturbed the scheme;
but this happened very seldom before the end of Suleiman’s reign.
Sometimes a temporary confusion resulted from extraordinary losses in
war, but order was soon restored. There is reason to believe that human
history has never known a political institution which during so long a
period was so completely dominated by sheer intellect, and thereby so
unerringly held to its original plan and purpose, as was the Ottoman
Ruling Institution. The democracy of Athens attained an unexampled level
of average intelligence, but under its sway the exceptional mind received
discouragement rather than exceptional training. The free democracies of
the present age allow the gifted individual opportunities to fight his
way upward, but against obstacles which sometimes become insuperable.
These systems are unquestionably superior on the whole to the Ottoman
scheme, because of their inclusiveness and individual freedom; but as
regards sheer efficiency, unobstructed opportunity, and certainty of
reward, their operation is wasteful, clumsy, and blind by comparison.
Some testimonies of shrewd contemporary observers will show how they
regarded the Ottoman scheme of promotion both in itself and in comparison
with Western ways. The intelligent author of the _Tractatus_ is impressed
by the unity and control of the scheme. “Out of the aforesaid slaves,” he
writes, “promotions are made to the offices of the kingdom according to
the virtues found in them. Whence it comes about that all the magnates
and princes of the whole kingdom are as it were officials made by the
king, and not lords or possessors; and as a consequence he is the sole
lord and possessor, and the lawful dispenser, distributer, and governor
of the whole kingdom; the others are only executors, officials, and
administrators according to his will and command.... Whence it follows
that in his kingdom, although there is an innumerable multitude, no
contradiction or opposition can arise; but, united as one man in all
respects and for all purposes, they look to his command alone, they obey
and serve unwearyingly.”[267]
Postel says: “The Seigneur [or sultan] has four or several principal
personages for all the business of his empire, whether in war or justice,
and they are promoted to this honor by degrees from lower offices,
always mounting and giving good examples of living, unless by some
extraordinary favor the prince raises them from some low place, which is
very perilous.”[268] Speaking of the pages in the palace, he adds: “When
they have lived there a long time and done well, they are given a place
where they receive pay, and they are made Castellans and given other
offices used among them. If there are some who have the ability to make
themselves known, they may have the best fortune in the world, and become
governors of the land and Pashas; for there they judge of nobility by the
worth which they see appearing in a man, and they give honors according
to the evidence of his past.”[269] Of Suleiman, Tanco says, “He sows hope
of certain reward in all conditions of men, who by means of virtue, may
succeed in mounting to better fortune”; and of the Janissaries, “Each has
his good and real fortune in his hand.”[270]
Among all observers, Busbecq seems to have been most impressed with the
system of advancement by merit. “The Turks,” he tells us, “do not measure
even their own people by any other rule than that of personal merit. The
only exception is the house of Ottoman; in this case, and in this case
only, does birth confer distinction.”[271]
Referring to his audience with Suleiman, he says: “There was not in all
that great assembly a single man who owed his position to aught save
his valour and his merit. No distinction is attached to birth among the
Turks; the deference to be paid to a man is measured by the position
he holds in the public service. There is no fighting for precedence; a
man’s place is marked out by the duties he discharges. In making his
appointments the sultan pays no regard to any pretensions on the score
of wealth or rank, nor does he take into consideration recommendations
or popularity; he considers each case on its own merits, and examines
carefully into the character, ability, and disposition of the man whose
promotion is in question. It is by merit that men rise in the service, a
system which ensures that posts should only be assigned to the competent.
Each man in Turkey carries in his own hand his ancestry and his position
in life, which he may make or mar as he will. Those who receive the
highest offices from the sultan are for the most part the sons of
shepherds or herdsmen, and so far from being ashamed of their parentage,
they actually glory in it, and consider it a matter of boasting that
they owe nothing to the accident of birth; for they do not believe that
high qualities are either natural or hereditary, nor do they think that
they can be handed down from father to son, but that they are partly the
gift of God, and partly the result of good training, great industry, and
unwearied zeal; arguing that high qualities do not descend from a father
to his son or heir, any more than a talent for music, mathematics, or
the like; and that the mind does not derive its origin from the father,
so that the son should necessarily be like the father in character, but
emanates from heaven, and is thence infused into the human body. Among
the Turks, therefore, honours, high posts, and judgeships are the rewards
of great ability and good service. If a man be dishonest, or lazy, or
careless, he remains at the bottom of the ladder, an object of contempt;
for such qualities there are no honours in Turkey!
“This is the reason that they are successful in their undertakings, that
they lord it over others, and are daily extending the bounds of their
empire. These are not our ideas; with us there is no opening left for
merit; birth is the standard for everything; the prestige of birth is the
sole key to advancement in the public service.”[272]
Finally, Ricaut, after describing the _Ajem-oghlans_, declares that this
part of the system “is one of the most Politick Constitutions in the
World, and none of the meanest supports of the _Ottoman_ Empire.”[273]
Financial rewards paralleled advancement in office with great exactness.
When a man came to high position, he was provided with the means to live
splendidly in proportion to his rank. In addition to his salary, many
opportunities of increasing his income presented themselves; and though
some of these would be considered undignified in Western eyes,[274]
and others were undoubtedly stained with rapacity and extortion,[275]
they were allowed to be enjoyed under all ordinary circumstances.
The sultan’s higher officials not only lived in great splendor, with
a numerous retinue, a large harem, and many costly garments, dishes,
gems, and the like, but they often accumulated great wealth in money,
houses, lands, mills, horses, cattle, sheep, and everything else that is
considered worth collecting.[276] Thus, as men were promoted, they were
enabled regularly to proportion display of wealth to rank and office.
The example of one of Suleiman’s chief servants will illustrate
the _cursus honorum_ in the Ottoman system. Ali Pasha was a native
of Dalmatia. Levied with the tribute boys, he was admitted to the
principal palace at the time when Ibrahim was _Oda-bashi_, or head
of the Inner Chamber of pages. In the course of time he was made
_Kapuji_, or gatekeeper. When Ibrahim became grand vizier, Ali became
_Chasnejir_, or chief taster, to Suleiman, and held that office during
the expedition to Vienna in 1529. In due course he was discharged from
the palace, and appointed to high office outside. He soon reached the
grade of _Agha_, or general or the _Ghurebas_, the lowest of the four
divisions of the regular cavalry, and was then promoted to be _Agha_
of the _Spahi-oghlans_, the highest of the cavalry divisions. Next he
became second equerry and later first equerry (_Emir-al-Akhor_), then
_Agha_ of the Janissaries, then _Beylerbey_ of Rumelia. In the last
capacity he attended the sultan in the Persian war of 1548-1549. As a
reward for special services in the war he was made pasha of Egypt in
1549, and at the time of his departure was nominated vizier. Returning
to Constantinople in 1553, he was made third vizier, and upon the
death of Rustem in 1561, he became grand vizier. Because of jealousies
and enmities caused by his promotions he had hardly a friend left;
nevertheless, he was able to hold the favor of Suleiman until his death
in 1565.[277]
PUNISHMENTS
The system did not attempt to rely wholly upon the glittering attractions
of indefinite promotion and enormously increasing wealth. Not all men
can be allured to remain unswervingly within a narrow path of strict
obedience and whole-hearted service. Pages and _Ajem-oghlans_ were held
to severe discipline by sufficient and certain punishment; but their
teachers and eunuch masters were required to keep that punishment within
bounds by the certainty of yet severer punishment.[278] _Ajem-oghlans_
might be beaten, or sold out of the sultan’s service. After the close
of the strictly educational period, punishment, like reward, followed
continuously the law of proportionate increase. The higher the position,
the heavier the punishment of being passed over in promotion, or of
being actually degraded. Fines and confiscations also grew with rank. At
no great height in the scale, the personal punishments reached that of
death, and death was always very near the highest officials. Any tendency
toward treason or revolt, any act of disobedience, sometimes a plot
against a higher official, sometimes even a disagreement with the sultan
in a matter of policy,[279] would lead to sudden execution. The viziers
of Selim I carried their wills in their bosoms; and well they might,
since the heads of seven are said to have fallen at his command.[280]
Thus was the system carefully kept clear of all the human material
that seemed to endanger its working or threaten its unity. There was
no sympathy for weakness, no accepting of excuses, no suspension of
sentence, no mercy. Suleiman did not always have the heart to execute
promptly; but in the end he had no alternative, so remorseless was
the system. Even his best friend, Ibrahim, went too far and had to be
removed. Two of his sons, the oldest and ablest, threatened the system
in turn, and one after the other suffered the bow-string. Small wonder
that Suleiman’s soul was not filled with joy at the victory of Jerbé.
“Those who saw Solyman’s face in this hour of triumph,” says Busbecq,
“failed to detect in it the slightest trace of undue elation. I can
myself positively declare, that when I saw him two days later on his way
to the mosque, the expression of his countenance was unchanged; his stern
features had lost nothing of their habitual gloom; one would have thought
that the victory concerned him not, and that this startling success of
his arms had caused him no surprise. So self-contained was the heart of
that grand old man, so schooled to meet each change of fortune however
great, that all the applause and triumph of that day wrung from him no
sign of satisfaction.”[281] Arbiter of the destinies of so many men,
compelled to be remorseless as fate, Suleiman could allow joy no place in
his soul. He who wielded as severe a rod as ever man held must maintain
over himself the sternest discipline of all.