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.