After they killed the Sultan.. they rebelled against his brother, and the cannons got them! The story of the eradication of the Janissaries
They were a striking force for the Ottoman Empire, and then they became a dependence on it and a reason for its delay.
The Janissary forces were known as one of the most powerful armies in the world in their beginnings when it was founded by Orkhan I bin Osman, founder of the Ottoman Empire. It is the striking force of the Ottomans for centuries, and they are one of the main divisions in the Ottoman army that conquered Constantinople, one of the most prominent achievements of the Ottoman Empire. But the end of this powerful army was different. In this report, we tell you about the Janissary massacre.
The beginning of the Janissaries..a striking force, their loyalty to the Sultan only
Orkhan bin Othman came to power in 1326. His father, Othman , had established a small border emirate, and during thirty years of rule, Orkhan was able to expand its area sixfold. This was the seed of the Ottoman Empire.
At that time, the state did not have a regular army, as the state army relied mainly on clan fighters and feudal soldiers, as fighters are feuding an agricultural area from which they benefit, provided that they are on demand in wars. However, this method was not effective, especially in battles far from the lands in which the fighters live. The existence of agricultural land requires more stability.
A drawing of Janissary soldiers in the protection of the Sultan / IStock
Here, a person close to Orhan suggested that he establish a regular army, so he began isolating children captured from battles in special camps, where they were raised and lived. Convert to Islam and become loyal to the Ottoman Sultan only. These soldiers were forbidden to marry. Their name became "Yangishari" or "Ankshaari" in Arabic, meaning "new soldiers".
The reputation of the Janissaries became frightening and terrifying. Before meeting them in battle, their reputation preceded them over their enemies, which was one of the major factors in their victories. Thus, this army became one of the most powerful armies in the world, and its victories in Europe increased its lethal reputation.
But the Janissary forces were a double-edged sword. In their first time, they were the main striking force of the Ottoman state, but later on they became a weakening force. And caused her weakness and almost caused her to be lost more than once.
Janissaries.. out of total loyalty to the Sultan to struggle with him and kill him
As mentioned earlier, the Janissaries had strict discipline, and they had their own instructions and laws, they were not allowed to marry, they were not allowed to interfere in politics, or enjoy what ordinary people enjoy without the military. This helped make the organization focus only on being a military organization whose mission is wars and battles.
With time, the Janissaries entered the political arenas and a number of them took political positions in the state , and then they were allowed to marry as well. This was accompanied by another symbolic verb. The Ottoman sultans used to go out at the head of armies in battles, but this habit was interrupted after Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, so the sultans no longer came out at the head of the armies, which made the soldiers look at the Sultan in a different way, instead of being a field commander with them, he inspires them enthusiasm and achieves victory himself. , his leaders became the ones who fought and associated with the soldiers.
Ottoman history recorded long and deep conflicts between the Janissaries and the sultan. Enmities developed between them and some sultans to the point that they killed the sultan to get rid of him. We mention here, for example, but not limited to the story of the young Sultan Osman II.
When Sultan Ahmed I died, a struggle for the throne began, which was ultimately resolved in favor of the Sultan's brother. Sultan Mustafa I took over, and this sultan was weak in character, which made his mother control the joints of the state. Thus, Osman I - the eldest son of the previous sultan - became marginal.
However, Mustafa I was not a strong sultan, and the matter did not take long, so he was removed from the throne and Osman II took over at the age of 14.
When Osman II assumed the Sultanate, he overthrew some of the leaders, and appointed his teacher the Grand Vizier. In general, the relationship between the Janissaries and Sultan Osman II was not good. The Sultan wanted to bring them under his authority, as was the case historically, while they wanted to control the state and the Sultan.
A drawing of a Janissary soldier in war with a lion at his side/ commons.wikimedia
Sultan Osman II decided to invade Poland, which had violated some of its agreements with the Ottoman Empire, and the Sultan decided to come out at the head of the army this time, after the previous sultans did not go out to lead the army themselves.
The army besieged Poland, the siege intensified, and the leader of the Poles was killed. But the leaders of the Janissaries wanted to end the siege and return to the capital, Istanbul, and here the Sultan entered into a clash with them.
The Sultan was forced to accept the decision of the leaders of the Janissaries, but he reprimanded them in the camp, and returned to Istanbul, both harboring ill intentions for the other. Upon his return, the Sultan decided to form another army in an area far from the capital (where the Janissaries were in control), and it is said that he thought about moving the capital to the city of Bursa to be away from the Janissaries and their control and conflict with them.
The conflict was clear at that stage between the Sultan and the Janissaries. The Janissaries learned of the features of the Sultan’s plan, so they created a problem and demanded that he hand them over to the Grand Vizier (who is his advisor and teacher) to kill him, but the Sultan refused. He later decided to go out for Hajj, so they knew that he would go to lead this new army to return to Istanbul and eliminate them.
The Janissary leaders agreed to isolate the sultan, and in 1622 they entered the sultan's palace, executed him, and restored his uncle Mustafa to power.
Sultan was only 18 years old at the time of his assassination. He will not be the only sultan to be eliminated by the Janissaries. Since his murder, the Janissary has turned into a nightmare for the Ottoman sultans.
To read in detail about the story of Othman II, you can read this article .
The Janissary massacre.. Sultan Mahmud II avenged his brother and saved the Ottoman Empire
This struggle for power continued between the Sultan and the Janissaries for more than a century and a half. Until there was another scene, in which the conflict between the Sultan and the Janissaries reached a stage similar to the stage of the conflict with Sultan Osman II.
The Ottoman Empire suffered major defeats in these two centuries of conflict, and all attempts of the Ottoman sultans to modernize the Ottoman army failed, and Janissary was the first stumbling block in the face of any sultan who wanted to develop the army.
Until the Ottoman Empire completely lost the territory of the Crimea during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid I, whose cause of death is said to be a brain hemorrhage that he sustained as a result of the defeat of the Ottoman Empire against Russia.
He was succeeded by his nephew Selim III. Sultan Selim III was a young man of twenty-eight when he assumed the sultanate, and he wanted to lead a process of modernization throughout the country in order to save it from the deterioration that had been in it for a century and a half.
The Sultan tried the same as his predecessors, by using the Janissaries in the process of modernization. If he wanted to modernize the state and the army from others, they might kill him, and if he wanted to eliminate them, he could not.
The Sultan imposed what he called the "new system", a modernization system for the army, and the Janissaries agreed to adopt it, but the truth is that they only adopted it in theory while placing all obstacles in the way of its implementation in practice.
The Sultan and his Grand Vizier realized the deception of the Janissary soldiers, so they decided to implement the "new order" away from them, so they established a new army division under the name of the New Order, which was the group that was finally able to eliminate the Janissaries. But not during the reign of Sultan Selim III.
Painting of an Agha (commander) Janissary/picryl
And just as it happened with the young Sultan Osman II, so it happened with the young Sultan also Selim III. The Janissaries felt threatened after they learned of the establishment of a modern military division that competed with them, and allied themselves with Prince Mustafa bin the former Sultan Abdul Hamid I.
The Janissaries revolted in the capital, Istanbul, and the Sultan retreated in the face of this rebellion. Perhaps the memory of his predecessor, Osman II, was on his mind. He appointed a grand vizier (the grand vizier) in favor of the Janissaries and hostile to the new regime. It was an attempt by him to absorb their anger, but they immediately dismissed him the next day and bequeathed his cousin Mustafa, who became Sultan Mustafa IV.
The Horrifying Death of Sultan Osman
The new division, founded by the Sultan and his former Grand Vizier, moved from Bulgaria when the news of the Sultan's dismissal reached it, but the Janissaries killed the Sultan to miss any opportunity to try to restore him to the throne.
However, the New Order Division had trained well, and this division was able to complete its rebellion and overthrow Sultan Mustafa IV after only 13 months of his rule, and they appointed Mahmud II as Sultan, the younger brother of the former Sultan Selim III.
Sultan Selim III’s movements throughout the 18 years of his rule were a prelude to what his brother Mahmoud II would do in the Janissaries, as he would eliminate them in revenge for the murder of his brother on the one hand, and of course out of the modernization of the flabby Ottoman army on the other hand.
On the other side of the capital of the Ottoman Sultan, the army of Muhammad Ali Pasha in Egypt was modern and strong, and it was able to defeat even the Ottoman forces later. But all this did not happen to Muhammad Ali until after he carried out the famous massacre of the Mamluks , in which about a thousand of the leaders of the Mamluks, who were standing in the way of his development of the army, were killed.
To read more about the Mamluk massacre, click ( here ).
Sultan Mahmud II was a young man of twenty-three when he came to power in 1808, and during the first 18 years of his reign, the sultan was waiting for the decisive moment in which he eliminated the Janissaries. Until the moment came to him in 1826.
In 1826, the Sultan imposed military modernization on the Janissaries. The Janissaries refused and began their usual rebellion in Istanbul: burning buildings and homes.
Sultan Mahmud II was fully prepared for such a situation, so he ordered the artillery division to surround them and their centers from all sides, and bombarded them, killing 6,000 of them Janissaries. Thus, this nightmare ended completely, and the Ottoman Empire was freed from their burden.
Sultan Mahmud II and his destruction of the Janissary Corps
The eradication of the Janissaries came very late. If they were eliminated during the time of Othman II, the age of the Ottoman Empire might not have ended with World War II.
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