Devshirme: Difference between revisions

'''Devshirme''' ({{lang-ota|دوشیرمه|devşirme|collecting}}, usually translated as "child levy"{{efn|name=name-greek-armenian|Known as 'collection of children' or 'child-gathering' in: {{lang-gkm|παιδομάζωμα|Paedomazoma}}; {{lang-hy|Մանկահավաք|Mankahavak′}}.}} or "blood tax"{{efn|Known as 'blood tax' in: {{lang-ro|tribut de sânge}}; {{lang-hbs-Latn-Cyrl|Danak u krvi|Данак у крви}}, {{lang-mk|Данок во крв|Danok vo krv}}, {{lang-bg|Кръвен данък|Kraven Danak}}.}})<ref>Ingvar Svanberg and David Westerlund, Islam Outside the Arab World, Routledge, 1999, p. 140</ref> was the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] practice of [[Conscription|forcibly recruiting]] soldiers and bureaucrats from among the children of their [[Balkan]] Christian subjects and raising them in the religion of [[Islam]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hain |first1=Kathryn |title=Devshirme is a Contested Practice |url=https://epubs.utah.edu/index.php/historia/article/download/629/491/0 |website=utah.edu |publisher=University of Utah |access-date=13 June 2020}}</ref><ref name="Gelvin">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K0QRrgEACAAJ|title=The Modern Middle East: A History|author=James L. Gelvin|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2016|isbn=978-0-19-021886-7|page=80}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Hanson|first=Victor Davis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XGr16-CxpH8C|title=Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise to Western Power|date=2007-12-18|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-42518-8|language=en}}</ref> Those coming from the Balkans came primarily from [[nobility|noble]] Balkan families and [[rayah]] (poor) classes.<ref name="cali">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A0mWfovlJ9cC|title=The Balkans in Transition|editor1=Charles Jelavich |editor2=Barbara Jelavich |publisher=[[University of California Press]]|year=1963|page=68|quote=Politically, it meant that the devshirme class, composed primarily of descendants of the Balkan noble and rayah classes}}</ref><ref name="visions">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q8iXDwAAQBAJ|title=Visions of Empire How Five Imperial Regimes Shaped the World|author= [[Krishan Kumar (sociologist)|Kumar, Krishan]]|editor=|publisher=[[Princeton University Press]]|year=2019|isbn=978-0-691-19280-2|page=68|quote=Lowry shows that not only Christian peasants but large numbers of the Byzantine-Balkan aristocracy were recruited into the Ottoman ruling elite}}</ref> It is first mentioned in written records in 1438,<ref name="nicolle" /> but probably started earlier. It created a faction of soldiers and officials loyal to the [[Ottoman Sultan|Sultan]].<ref>{{cite book|title=A History of the Modern Middle East|author=William L. Cleveland|date=4 May 2018|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-429-97513-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CUhaDwAAQBAJ&q=devshirme+loyal&pg=PT66}}</ref> It counterbalanced the Turkish nobility, who sometimes opposed the Sultan.<ref name="brewer">{{cite book|title=Greece, the Hidden Centuries: Turkish Rule from the Fall of Constantinople to Greek Independence|author=David Brewer|page=51|quote=The outsides would owe their position, and their continuance on it, solely to the Sultan, and so be more reliably loyal than Turks subject to influence from court factions.}}</ref><ref name="feroz">{{cite book|title=The Making of Modern Turkey|author=Ahmad Feroz|page=1820|publisher=[[Routledge]]|quote=From the very beginning, the relationship between the ruler and his Turcoman allies was fraught with tension which undermined all attempts by the sultan to create a strong state. With the conquest of the Balkans, the sultan found that he could lessen his dependence on his Turcoman notables by creating a counter-force from among the Christians in the newly conquered territories.}}</ref> The system produced a considerable number of [[grand vizier]]s from the 1400s to the 1600s. This was the second most powerful position in the Ottoman Empire, after the sultan. Initially, the grand viziers were exclusively of Turk origin, but after there were troubles between Sultan [[Mehmed II]] and the Turkish grand vizier [[Çandarlı Halil Pasha the Younger]], who was the first grand vizier to be executed, there was a rise of slave administrators (''devshirme''). They were much easier for the sultans to control, compared to [[Freedom|free]] administrators of Turkish aristocratic extraction.<ref name="somel">{{cite book|last=Aksin Somel|first=Selcuk|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tBoyoNNKh78C|title=The A to Z of the Ottoman Empire|page=67|publisher=[[Scarecrow Press]]|year=2010|isbn=978-0-8108-7579-1|quote=The disappearance of this dynasty [ [[Çandarlı family]] ] was symptomatic with the rise of the class of slave administrators, who were much easier for the sultan to control than free administrators of noble origin.}}</ref> The devshirme also produced many of the Ottoman Empire's provincial governors, military commanders, and [[divan]]s during the 1400s–1600s period.<ref name="BuntCleveland2010">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hnzxzqau3a8C|title=A History of the Modern Middle East|author1=William L Cleveland and Martin Bunt|author2=William L. Cleveland|date=July 2010|publisher=ReadHowYouWant.com|isbn=978-1-4587-8155-0|page=115}}</ref> Sometimes, the devshirme recruits were castrated and became [[eunuchs]].<ref name="duindam">{{cite book|author=[[:nl:Jeroen Duindam|Duindam, Jeroen]]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5ky2CgAAQBAJ|title=Dynasties A Global History of Power, 1300–1800|page=196|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|year=2016|isbn=978-1-107-06068-5|quote=Dikici, 'Making of Ottoman court eunuchs', makes clear that white eunuchs could be recruited among devshirme boys, with the pages and their eunuch supervisors coming from the same background. They were sometimes castrated in the palace, whereas the harem's black eunuchs were more often castrated in their region of origin.}}</ref> Although often destined for the [[Ottoman Imperial Harem|harem]], many eunuchs of devshirme origin went on to hold important positions in the military and the government, such as grand viziers [[Hadım Ali Pasha]], [[Sinan Borovinić]], and [[Hadım Hasan Pasha]].

 

 

According to Speros Vyronis, "The Ottomans took advantage of the general Christian fear of losing their children and used offers of devshirme exemption in negotiations for surrender of Christian lands. Such exemptions were included in the surrender terms granted to Jannina, Galata, Morea, Chios, etc. Christians who engaged in specialized activities important to the Ottoman state were exempted from the blood tax on their children by way of recognition of the importance of their labors for the empire. Exemption from this tribute was considered a privilege and not a penalty."<ref name="auto5">{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6kzPHAAACAAJ | title=Seljuk Gulams and Ottoman Devshirmes | last1=Vryonis | first1=Speros | year=1965 }}</ref>