CONTROVERSY ABOUT THE DEVSHRME: VEHCLE FOR SOCAL

ADVANCEMENT OR AN INHUMANE ACT

A Thesis
submitted to the Faculty of
The School of Continuing Studies
and of
The Graduate School of Art and Sciences
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of
Master of Arts in Liberal Studies

By

Lela Ivankovic, B.S.

Georgetown University
Washington, D.C.
November, 2013
 UMI Number: 1556280

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 CONTROVERSY ABOUT THE DEVSHRME: VEHCLE FOR SOCAL
ADVANCEMENT OR AN INHUMANE ACT

Lela Ivankovic, B.S.

MALS Mentor: Elizabeth Zelensky, Ph.D.

ABSTRACT

This thesis examines the nature of the devshirme system - the forcible

removal of Christian male children in the form of a tribute, imposed by the

Ottomans on their conquered Christians territories, and how it appeared from the

prospective of the Ottomans, the Christian parents, and the abducted devshirme

youths.

The Ottoman Empire established the devshirme institution as a response to the

empires increasing needs for qualified military men to be employed by the sultans in

their private army, the janissary corps. The Christian families looked at the devshirme

system as an inhumane act aimed to permanently cut off their children from their ethnic

and cultural environment. From the point of view of the devshirme youths, the process

of the devshirme was more complex and intricate. The devshirme system could be a

vehicle toward social advancement or an inhumane act depending on the devshirme

youths ability and willingness to build a new national and religious identity. This thesis

will examine the phenomena of the devshirme system within the framework of the

following question; was the devshirme system an inhumane act or a path toward social

advancement? Or both?

ii
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................... ii

INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 1

CHAPTER ONE:
THE OTTOMAN EMIRE ......................................................................................... 3

CHAPTER TWO:
THE BALKANS ...................................................................................................... 19

CHAPTER THREE:
THE DEVSHIRME INSTITUTION ....................................................................... 36

CHAPTER FOUR:
THE DEVSHIRME YOUTHS ................................................................................ 51

CHAPTER FIVE:
CONTEMPRORARY VIEW ON THE DEVSHIRME .......................................... 78

CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 85

BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................... 88

iii
 INTRODUCTION

The devshirme system established in the early period of the Ottoman

expansion, at the end of the fourteenth century, was a unique innovation of the

Ottoman Empire. The system was founded as a response to the empires extensive

need for qualified military men, the future soldiers in the Janissary corps, the Yeni

Cheri, or New Troops. The Turkish term, devshirme means to collect. The phrase

refers to the forceful separation of the Christian male children from their families in the

form of a tribute. The children were selected based on their physical strength and

intelligence. This forceful act, called blood levy or child tribute in Western societies,

was followed by an immediate conversion to Islam. Upon conversion, the devshirme

children were disciplined mentally to expunge their national and religious identities, as

well as their family background and cultural environment. Ultimately, they were

trained to construct new identities, practice Islam, and become accustomed to life with

Muslim tradition and customs. Based on their intellectual capacity, skills, and

individual talents, the devshirme youths were classified into two distinctive groups.

The scholarly group was composed of devshirme youths conversant in several

languages, knowledgeable in Quran and political affairs, with highly developed skills

of service and loyalty to the sultan. This group began their careers in the sultans

palace working on various positions as members of his personnel. The military group

was composed of the devshirme youths who mastered fighting skills, and army

discipline, and were well prepared for physical endeavors, with complete obedience

and veneration to the sultan. This devshirme group ended in the sultans prestigious

Janissary corps, at that time the best infantry troop in the region.

1
 The devshirme system contributed to the development of a special bond

between the sovereigns and their slaves. The sultans absolute power depended on the

devshirme youths since they were the sultans most loyal and obedient servants. The

life and future of the devshirme youths depended entirely on the sultan.

While the devshirme system removed devshirme youths from their ethnic,

religious, and cultural environment, it provided conditions for an unmatched education

and opportunities for successful professional careers. Because of this, some devshirme

youths held the highest positions within the Ottoman administration, such as the post of

the Grand Vizier, the equivalent of the prime minister today. However, the majority of

the devshirme youths became members of the sultans Janissary corps risking their

lives for the Ottoman Empire and its primary goalsexpansion of the empire and the

abode of Islam.

Despite having the same treatment, the devshirme youths had different

experiences and, thus, different views concerning the Ottoman Empire. Some of them

considered their new life in the glorious empire as a gift from God. Others could never

accustom themselves to their foreign state, and accept the new religion or their status as

slaves. To explain and understand the true nature of the devshirme system, the

organization of the Ottoman state, society and particularly the administrative-military

organization must be explained and examined. In addition, the social and religious

circumstances in the Balkans will be explained specifically in Serbia and Bosnia to

provide context for the devshirme system. The devshirme system was an exceedingly

complex institution and should be analyzed from various points of view.

2
 CHAPTER ONE

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

From one small principality in Anatolia, the Ottomans built a powerful empire,

covering the region from Vienna to the upper Arab Peninsula. The Ottomans built a

multi-ethnic state, whose inhabitants spoke different languages and were of different

religions. The Ottoman state, founded at the beginning of the fourteenth century,

reached its zenith in the sixteenth century under the reign of the sultan Suleiman the

Magnificent. The Ottoman Empire lasted for more than six centuries.

The foundation of the Ottoman state is wrapped in a veil of legend. It started

with a dream of Osman, the founder of the Ottoman state, and its first sultan. The

legend says that Osman received revelations one night while sleeping at the house of a

devout Muslim and mystical leader who left the Quran in Osmans room referring to

prophet Muhammed who gave that book to the world. While reading the Quran,

Osman fell asleep in the early morning hours, a time which is believed in the Muslim

tradition to be the best time for prophetic dreams. Osman dreamed about Malkatum, a

girl who lived in a nearby village. Malkatum was the daughter of Sheikh Edebali who

refused to give her permission to be married. While sleeping, an angel emerged and

spoke to Osman: Since thou has read my eternal word with so great respect, thy

children, and the children of thy children shall be honored from generation to

generation.1 Soon after, Osman had his second revelation, when he dreamed that the

1
Lord Kinross, The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire (New York:
Perennial An Imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, 1977), 1.

3
moon ascended from Sheikh Edebalis breast and descended straight into his own

Breast. Lord Kinross related:

then from his loins there sprang a tree, which as it grew came to cover the
whole world with the shadow of its green and beautiful branches. Beneath it,
Osman saw four mountains rangesthe Caucasus, the Atlas, the Taurus, and
the Balkans. From its roots there issued four rivers, the Tigris, the Euphrates,
the Nile, and the Danube. The fields were rich with crops, the mountains thick
with forests. In the valleys were cities adorned with domes, pyramids, obelisks,
columns, and towers, all surmounted by the Crescent.

When he awoke, Osman described his dream to Sheikh Edebali. The holy man

interpreted his dream as a sign from God, and predicted that Osman would have a

career as a great leader of the greatest Empire. As a reward, Sheikh Edebali agreed to

let his daughter Malkatum marry Osman.2

The first Turcoman tribes, soon to become Ottomans, settled in Asia Minor in

the thirteenth century in the territory conquered by the Seljuk Empire. They were

forced to leave their homeland in central Asia after the invasion of the Mongol hordes.

At the time of their settlement, the early Ottomans had not accepted Islam yet, although

Islam arrived in Asia Minor with the wave of Seljuk Turks in the eleventh century.

The Ottomans were one of many Turkic tribes who fought for supremacy in Anatolia,

which is the region between the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea, and the Mediterranean

Sea. This vast area was part of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the

Byzantine Empire.3

2
Kinross, The Ottoman Centuries, 23-24.
3
Caroline Finkel, Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire 1300-1923 (New York:
Basic Books, 2007), 3.

4
 Two major factors responsible for the foundation and rise of the Ottoman state

were the sultans accentuation of the concept of the holy war, or gazi in Turkish, and a

mass migration of people into the newly founded Ottoman state. However, to the early

Ottomans, their concept of a state had a broader meaning. At the beginning of the

fourteenth century, the early Ottomans were nomadic warriors and regardless of

whether they were gazis, they were all predatory raiders who enjoyed plundering and

looting. Their attacks were directed toward Christians and Muslims alike. The gazi

warriors sometimes formed temporary alliances with Christians and joined fighting

actions. Upon plundering different regions in Anatolia, especially the Christian

Byzantine Empire, they shared the ill-gotten gains.4

Osman, the first Ottoman sultan was a gazi, meaning a warrior who was

fighting in the name of holy war. Osmans goal was to expand his territory in

accordance with the convictions of holy war, which meant to fight against all non-

believers or against all non-Muslims. The empire founded on these principals was an

Islamic state. The main task of the Ottomans was to defend Islam as the supreme faith

and to spread its domain (i.e. Dar al-Islam against the Dar al-Harb, the domain of

war, where the subjects ready to fight Islam resided).

Osmans principality was one of many small frontier principalities in Anatolia,

located in its northwestern region, at the edge of the Byzantine Empire closest to the

Balkans. Osman ruled over his small territory with the support of his father-in-law,

Sheikh Edebali, under whose influence Osman brought Islam into his principality, and

4
Gabor Agoston and Bruce Masters, Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire (New York: Facts on
File, 2009), 232.

5
spread the religious enthusiasm among his followers. The struggle for religious glory

in the Osman principality was very attractive for many Anatolian warriors. Thus, the

gazis poured in from numerous villages across a vast region of Anatolia and settled in

cities in Osmans principality. Osman had a reputation as an excellent soldier as well

as a good administrator. Gradually, Osman gained popularity and respect from many

surrounding tribal gazis who willingly placed their principalities under Osmans

command. As Kinross said, his followers came to serve and to work with him in

harmony, conscientiously helping to lay for this small growing state in its social

cohesion such a foundation as to guarantee its endurance.5 Osman principalities were

quickly transformed from a tribal region into a nontribal territory, with loyalty to one

gazi warrior, Osman himself. 6 The establishment of the house of Osman was one of

the essential elements in the rise of the Ottoman state because under the house of

Osman, traditional nomad attachment to successful commanders became

institutionalized as a dynastic loyalty, and nomadic mentality gave away to state

stability.7 Eventually, Osman ruled over a large territory in Anatolia, and became the

first sultan. His descendants, supporters, and followers called themselves Osmanlis,

the Ottomans, and the house of Osman officially was established. Osman was a very

successful sultan who preferred justice to power and his success was possible because

of his kind nature and sympathetic character, and the fact that he did not rule with an

iron fist. On the contrary, Osman was a wise, patient ruler, whom men revered and

5
Kinross, The Ottoman Centuries, 23-24.
6
Dennis P. Hupchick, The Balkans: From Constantinople to Communism (New York:
Palgrave, 2001), 102.
7
Ibid., 103.

6
loved to serve, not as a warrior, least of all for any Islamic semi-divine status, but for

his calm, compelling personality as a leader of his own people.8

As a patient ruler, aware of the Byzantine power and the weakness of his own

army, Osman was not eager to expand the domain of his principality immediately.

Osman waited and planned his military action for twelve years before he decided to

act. The decisive moment in his career was his famous victory over the Byzantine

army in 1301, at the battle at Koyun Hisar, the Baphaeon in Greek. This victory

brought more fame and veneration to Osman. Consequently, more and more Anatolian

gazis put their service under Osmans flag, proud to be called the Osmanlis. The

Osman principality, now strongly established, expanded its borders. At the end of

Osmans life, his successor and son Orphan established a capital in Bursa.

The exact date of the formation of the Ottoman state was not as important as the

fact that the state was destined to grow into a powerful empire. According to Caroline

Finkel, Osmans dream represents the most enduring myth of the Ottoman Empire,

conjuring up a sense of temporal and divine authority and justifying the visible

success of Osman and his descendants at the expense of their competitors for territory

and power in the Balkans, Anatolia, and beyond.9

Many factors contributed to making Osmans dream a reality. The most

important ones are creation of an autocratic state with the sultans supreme power and a

slave-based administrative-military system, which had its genesis in the devshirme

the subject of this thesis. Although, the devshirme institution was established primarily

8
Kinross, The Ottoman Centuries, 25.
9
Caroline Finkel, Osman's Dream, 2.

7
for the empires military demands, the same institution became the cornerstone for the

empires political establishment and continuity of Osmans dynasty. In that sense, the

devshirme system greatly contributed to the creation of the powerful Ottoman Empire.

The Ottoman Empire had a strong autocratic organization, which could be

explained by the empires central administration where the sultan was the absolute

leader in whose hands lay all political, religious, and military power. As Hupchick

said, the sultan became the protector and proprietor of the state, the head of the

Islamic community, the sole source of civil law, and the controller of all state

offices.10 According to established Turkish belief, the appointment of the sultan was

in Gods hands. Islamic law did not regulate the right of inheritance of the throne and

sultans were restrained from naming their successor because they did not want to act

against Gods judgement. For this reason, the sultans successor was determined by

the principle of fratricide. Any outcome of a fratricidal battle was considered a Divine

judgement. This concept was replaced by the principle of seniority at the beginning of

the seventeenth century.

In terms of its political, religious, and military characteristics, the organization

of the Ottoman state was in the shape of a pyramid. On the top was the sultan as head

of state and the leader of the Ottoman dynasty. The middle section was comprised of

the military and ruling class, the askeris, who were considered the highest

administrative officials. The lowest section belonged to reaya, meaning the flock.

This derogatory term referred to the low social status of the reaya population.

10
Hupchick, The Balkans, 125.

8
 The Ottoman sultans ruled strictly by sharia, or Islamic law. In addition, the

sultan was allowed to legislate laws based on rational principles instead of religious

ones. These laws, known as kanuns, were primarily applied to the non-Muslim

population. Kanuns were primarily intended to serve in areas of public and

administrative law.

As a supreme leader of the Ottoman state, the sultans residence, his palace,

was the physical center of government. The palace, comprised of many buildings, had

four main sections. Aside from the sultans living area, administrative center, and the

area for palace servants, there was a center for education of the devshirme youths

known as Endurun. When the sultan traveled, the physical center of government

moved wherever he happened to reside. The fundamental element of the sultans

power, as well as the cornerstone for the development of the Ottoman Empire, was the

Ottomans adoption of the administrative-military concept of government based on kul,

the slave system. The Ottomans adopted this slave system during an early period of

their rule. Except for the sultan, his children, and family members, religious

instructors, and members responsible for his entertainment, such as dwarfs, mutes, or

wrestlers, all other palace administrators and military members were the sultans

slaves.

Initially, the primary source of slaves was prisoners of war. Later on, there

were several sources for obtaining slaves during the Ottomans period. The Islamic

law, sharia, allowed sultans to enslave a fifth of the prisoners of war. Sultans could

purchase slaves too. In addition, the Ottomans transformed into slaves the aristocratic

children from their newly conquered territory whom they took as hostages. From the

9
end of fourteenth century, the devshirme system or recruitment of the Christian youths

from newly conquered territory in the Balkans became the chief source for obtaining

slaves.

The treatment of the sultans slaves in his palace was the direct responsibility of

the sultans carefully chosen instructors. For every devshirme youth, formal education

and training was provided. Once, they completed their training and merged fully into

the Muslim way of life, the devshirme youths went through the process of selection.

Then they were classified into two distinctive groups based on their intellectual and

physical ability. The well-educated group was composed of devshirme youths

conversant in several languages, knowledgeable in the Quran and political affairs,

with highly developed skills of servitude and loyalty to the sultan and the empire. The

army group was composed of the devshirme youths who mastered fighting skills and

military discipline, were thoroughly prepared for physical endeavors, and gave

absolute obedience and veneration to the sultan. The well-educated devshirme youths

continued their career at the sultans palace or divan, serving in assorted positions as

his personal cadres. The military-positioned youths ended up in the Janissaries corps,

a distinguished military force, at that time the preeminent infantry corps in Europe.

The loyal and obedient service of the devshirme slaves helped the sultan to

secure his absolute power. At the same time, the service in the sultans palace or his

Janissary corps provided many advantages for the devshirme youths.

It is important to emphasize that for the Ottomans, the institution of slavery was

observed and judged in a completely contrasting way from the contemporary idea of

slavery in the West. Hupchick explained:

10
 entry into the sultans slave household opened the door to immense power,
wealth, social position, and public honor for any slave with the natural abilities
and dedication to rise through the ranks. The emphasis placed on individual
merit for filling important offices, with little regard for birth status or social
positionto be the sultans slave was to possess the opportunity to rise in
military-administrative standing as far as skill and ability would permit,
including the office of grand vezirsecond only to the sultan in authority.11

It is not surprising that Halil Inalcik observed in the Ottoman society, to be a slave of

the sultan was an honor and privilege.12

Islamic law is very clear regarding eligibility for enslavement. The

enslavement of Muslims is forbidden, but, when non-Muslims convert to Islam, they

do not lose their slave status. However, the children of Muslim slaves did not retain

slave status. Islamic law divides the world into two major groups: Muslims and non-

Muslims. In every aspect, Muslims were in a superior position in relation to non-

Muslims subjects. For example, Islamic law does not protect the life and property of

non-Muslims living in non-Muslim domains. This means, according to Colin Imber,

that it is permissible to kill or enslave non-Muslims living under a non-Muslim

sovereignty. However, if non-Muslims live under the Muslims sovereignty, their

status is quite different. Because non-Muslims were obliged to pay property taxes as

well as a tax levied on male youths, the devshirme, they gained some form of protected

status, and their life and property are protected by Islamic law.13

11
Hupchick, The Balkans, 130.
12
Halil Inalcik, The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300-1600 (London: Phoenix Press,

2000), 87.
13
Colin Imber, The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650 (New York: Palgrave, 2002), 130-131.

11
 Ottoman society was divided into two distinctive classes. This classification

depended on whether its members worked for the state. Askeris were the military and

ruling class, consisting of the high administrative officials, either in the armed forces,

or ulema, the members of religious authority, while reaya was the working class. The

askeri class was strictly Muslim, since only Muslims were allowed to be part of the

Ottoman ruling elite. Reaya was composed of all Muslims without ruling power,

members of the Christian faith from conquered Balkan territory, and some Jews.

Reaya also included all conquered Christian leaders, now vassals of the Ottoman

Empire, who paid taxes to the sultan and consequently, kept their leadership over their

Balkan states. Reaya included 90% of the population; its primary purpose was to

provide economic support to the sultan.

The executive power belonged to the imperial assembly or divan. The imperial

council included the Grand Vizier and the highest representatives of the religious

establishment. The head of the divan was a Grand Vizier (minister of the state), the

second most influential person in the empire, after the sultan. The viziers were

responsible for the political division of administration, which included protection of the

sultan and his family, defense of the state from external enemies, and ensuring national

security. The judicial branch had the task of distributing justice and it was considered

the most important branch of the government. The third division was the financial

branch, responsible for all financial transactions in and out of state. The role of the

religious members, or ulema was to administrate the law, education, and to oversee

Muslims moral and spiritual life.

12
 Ottoman society was feudal, although quite different from the European system

of feudalism. The deference refers to the ownership of feudal property. The Ottoman

feudal owners were allowed to cultivate the land and to collect revenue from the

property. They also had a right to pass the property to their descendants. However,

there were no private properties, the only owner of the land was the state, and the land

stayed in the states possession forever. The Turkish feudal system knew various kinds

of property. The largest property, called has, belonged to sultan, and was considered

an imperial private property. It could be distributed only among the sultans family

and senior officials. The most numerous properties, called timars, were distributed

among sipahiliks (cavalry soldiers) and their commanders. Although timars brought

the smallest revenue, they were the largest in number, and because of that, the entire

socio-economic system in the Ottoman Empire, was called the timar system. Sipahi

warriors were allowed to use the property as long as they fulfilled a commitment to the

state. They were expected to answer every sultans call regarding military missions,

wherever the sultan decided to fight. If they did not respond to the sultans request,

they would lose their fiefs, which would be further distributed to another sipahi solder.

Vakif was a feudal property, an endowment of religious Muslims, built with the

purpose of providing charity.

Although, the Ottoman Empire was a multinational state with three religions,

Islam was the dominant state religion. Religiously, Ottoman society was divided into

Muslims and zimmis, the non-Muslim population. While the Ottoman administrative

code provided privileged status to Muslims, the legal and social status of Christians

and Jews in the Ottoman Empire implied their inferior status. Christians and Jews had

13
relative religious freedom because they were allowed to practice their religion under

certain conditions. First, the zimmis had to acknowledge the supremacy of Islam.

Then, Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire had to pay the land use tax, called

harac. In addition, the devshirme obligation was applied on conquered Christian

populations. None of these taxes were applicable to Muslim subjects. Because the

zimmis paid these discriminatory taxes, the Ottomans had a clear practical reason to

tolerate the non-Muslim subjects on their conquered territory. Those taxes represented

the most lucrative source of income for the Ottoman state, and it was in the states

interest to possess non-Muslim subjects in large numbers. Further, the zimmis were

exposed to a number of discriminatory social restrictions. For example, the Ottomans

restricted the height and size of zimmi religious buildings and their houses as well as

limited the zimmi clothing style regarding permissible colors and textiles. Possession

of horses and weapons were forbidden for the zimmis, and in any legal dispute between

Muslim and Non-Muslim subjects, the zimmis were always in an inferior position.

The Islamic law, sharia was not applicable to non-Muslims populations.

Because of that, the sultan had to incorporate laws that already existed in conquered

territories, into his kanuns. Thus, the sultans secular laws solved all legal problems of

the non-Muslim population. The Ottomans allowed the Christian and Jewish local

religious leaders to implement these laws, and to solve the legal issues among non-

Muslim subjects. When the population of non-Muslim subjects outnumbered the

Muslims, the Ottomans created a millet system, which was based exclusively on

religious affiliation. The establishment of the millet institution by the sultan Mehmed

in 1454 was based on the sultans calculation that the different religious laws of non-

14
Muslim subjects could be used to administrate them, as the Islamic law sharia

administers Muslims. In conformity with this concept, the Ottomans divided non-

Muslim subjects into three millet groups, based strictly on religious affiliation and

administrated by their religious leaders. This division separated the population of the

empire more deeply, into full and second-class citizens. The largest and ultimately the

most economically valuable millet group were the Orthodox Christians, established in

1454. Their religious leader was the Patriarch of Constantinople. The Orthodox

Christians millet was comprised of nations with different ethnic origins such as

Serbian, Greek, Bulgarian, Macedonian, or Romanian, but were all of the same

religion. The Jews represented the second millet group, established 1453; their

religious leader was an elected member of the rabbinical council in Istanbul. The third

millet group was the Armenian Christians, established in 1461; their religious leader

was an Armenian patriarch in Istanbul. Although each millet group was an integral

part of the Ottoman administration, the fact that the sultan allowed the local

administration to maintain control over cultural and religious autonomy as well as

judicial affairs, helped the Ottomans successfully to control and rule over the Christian

Balkan states for centuries.

While the Ottomans supported conversion to Islam, the Muslims were not

allowed to change their faith under any circumstances, even death. The devshirme

system was the only form of forced conversion in the Ottoman Empire, and there is

much evidence that mass conversion to Islam did occur during Ottoman times. This

thesis is focused only on the devshirme system in two Balkan states, Serbia and Bosnia

15
where the conversion through the devshirme institution was known to occur on a large

scale.

In the Balkans, the Christian population converted to Islam in large numbers

under different circumstances. Once converted, the converts went through a

completely new set of social and psychological transformations. They had to adopt

and learn to practice a new way of living and behaving based on Muslim ways of life

arising from Islamic law. The new set of obligations separated the converts from their

Christians coreligionists, for whom they simply became the foreigners and were called

the Turks along with the native-born Muslims. The conversion to Islam in the

Ottoman state was a gradual process and it occurred during the entire period of

Ottoman rule.

The conversion process brought many benefits to zimmi subjects such as

elimination of discriminatory taxes, social restriction, and avoidance of the devshirme

collection. The major reasons for conversion in the Balkan Peninsula were economic,

social, and religious factors. Economically, the hardship of taxes was an enormous

burden imposed on the Christian population. Socially, the Christian aristocracy

converted to Islam to protect their property and continue to enjoy a privileged status in

the society. Many historians indicated religious factors as a very important source for

conversion during Ottoman rule, specifically in the Balkans. Because of the long

lasting encounter of Christians and Muslims, there had been many Christian influences

upon Islam, which led to similarities in practicing folk religions. These similarities

made conversion from Christianity to Islam much easier. In addition, Sufism, a

mystical branch of Islam incorporated some Christian rituals in their doctrine such as

16
veneration of babas, often considered the equivalent of saints in Christianity, worship

of icons, and rarely, baptism. Between the various Sufi orders, the most influential one

was the Bektashi order, which contributed greatly to the process of conversion and

islamization in the Balkans, especially in Bosnia. This order emerged in Anatolia

during the fourteenth century and was prevalent in the Ottoman Empire and the

Balkans. The Bektashis did not have a difficult time accommodating the local Balkan

population with their mixture of Christians and pre-Islamic rituals and practices. For

example, a new member in their order was welcomed with wine, bread, and cheese, the

symbols of Holy Communion in Christianity and the order allowed women to

participate in their rituals without covering their faces. Thus, the Bektashis were

popular among many Christians who converted to Islam because of their rituals and

practices.14

From Osman, the first sultan, the Osmanli or Ottoman dynasty would provide

thirty-five more sultans during the entire period of Ottoman rule. The prosperous

development and rapid expansion of the Ottoman state stems from a highly centralized

rule of the sultans as well as their innovation and adoption of the administrative-

military government based on the slave system and comparative religious tolerance.

For the Ottomans incessant conquest and longevity of their empire, the establishment

of the devshirme system was essential. The devshirme youths, either in the Janissary

corps or in the sultans palace, represented the highest Ottoman administrative-military

establishment. The sultans autocratic power was guaranteed and the empires military

14
Peter F. Sugar, Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Rule, 1354-1804 (Seattle: University of
Washington Press, 1977), 52-54.

17
power was possible in large part because of the establishment of the devshirme

institution.

The expansion of the Ottoman Empire was a continual and unstoppable process

in the first two centuries after its establishment. The Ottoman Empire reached its peak

in the sixteenth century in the period known as the golden age. By that time, the

Ottoman conquest included nearly all of the Balkan Peninsula. The Ottomans ruled for

more than four hundred years over Serbia and Bosnia. During that period, the

devshirme system was imposed on a large scale, especially in the fifteenth and

sixteenth centuries. The empires expansion stopped in the seventeenth century when

the empire was not as strong as it had been previously. Gradually, it began to decline

in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with its fatal collapse at the beginning of the

twentieth century. The empire lasted for six centuries and is considered one of the

longest lasting empires in history.

18
 CHAPTER TWO

THE BALKANS

The Balkan Peninsula is a mountainous region between the Black, Aegean, and

Adriatic seas. The name Balkan is derived from the Turkish word for a chain of

forested mountains. Slavic tribes inhabited the peninsula in the sixth and seventh

centuries. The Serbs, Bulgarian Croats, and Slovenes belonged to the subgroups of the

South Slavs who accepted Christianity in the ninth century. The Serbs and the

Bulgarians, under the influence of the Byzantine Empire, accepted Orthodox

Christianity and used the Old Church Slavonic language in their liturgy. The Croats

and the Slovenes accepted Catholicism and used Latin in their service.

The Ottomans invaded the Balkans at the end of the fourteenth century and

changed the region demographically, religiously, and culturally. Two neighboring

states, Serbia and Bosnia, the setting for this thesis, had quite different political

situations and spiritual conditions before the arrival of the Ottomans. This is especially

important to emphasize because their different state administrations and religious

environments produced a different reaction to the Ottoman conquest, especially on the

issues of conversion and the devshirme system. While Serbia had a strong Christian

Orthodox religious affiliation embodied in the Serbian Orthodox church, this was not

the case in Bosnia. In Bosnia, there were three parallel religions with no central

Bosnian Church. This is most probably one of the major causes of the mass

conversions to the new religion of Islam, which happened on a much larger scale in

Bosnia than in Serbia. As a result, the Ottoman Empire left different cultural and

19
religious influences in Serbia and Bosnia, which in turn affected the demographic

distributions of each country as well.

At the time of the Slav migration, at the end of the sixth and the beginning of

the seventh century, the Serbs settled in the central Balkans. They were polytheists in a

Christian environment, between the West and the East Roman Empire. By the early

ninth century, the various Serbian tribes fell under the dominance of the Bulgarians.

From the ninth to twelfth centuries, the Serbian subjects were under control of the

Byzantine Empire, the influence of which would leave a lasting trace in Serbian

religious and cultural life. The Serbs accepted Orthodox Christianity, thanks to the

Greeks Cyril and Methodius, who preached Christianity in the Slavic language. Cyril

composed the first Slavic alphabet, Glagolitic, in 860, which was modified at the end

of the ninth century and transformed into the first Serbian alphabet, Cyrillic, at the

beginning of the tenth century.

The conversion to Christianity played a significant role in helping the Serbs to

establish their first states. In adopting the same religion, Orthodox Christianity, the

various Serbian tribes developed a strong bond in their personal relationships, which

helped them to develop their first two states, the Raska and the Zeta, in the twelfth

century with Stefan Nemanja as their first leader (1166-1196) and founder of the

Nemanjic dynasty. Thus, Nemanjas rule is considered the beginning of the first

Serbian state in the Middle Ages. The Nemanjic dynasty would remain in power for

the next two centuries, the period marked as the beginning of Serbian history when the

Serbs gained independence for the first time. Stefan Nemanja was a devoted Orthodox

Christian who created the state based on a close link between the Serbian state and its

20
church. As Anzulovic explained in his book Heavenly Serbia, the state organized on

this principle followed the Byzantine model of the close partnership between the

church and the state. It is important to emphasize that all future Serbian kings followed

the same model of state organization, which included a strong state-church union. 1

Nemanjas youngest son Rastko established an autocephalous Serbian national

church. Rastko became a monk when he was 18 years old and took the name Sava. As

a monk, Sava actively participated in all state affairs and diligently worked on

establishing and gaining autonomy for the Serbian Orthodox Church. Thanks to Savas

productive work on church organization as well as his missionary work, the Serbian

national church received autocephalous status from the Byzantine emperor and the

Orthodox patriarch in Constantinople in 1219. Its founder Sava became the first

Serbian archbishop. In his organization of the Serbian national church, Sava followed

the same principal of the close relationship between the Serbian church and state as his

father Nemanja in his work on organization of the Serbian state. The church

participated in state affairs and considered the state not just a political organization but

the guarantor of an ethical and moral order as well. Because of this, the nation and

church were very closely interlocked in the Serbian vision.

The establishment of an autocephalous Serbian national church is considered

one of the most important events in the history of the Serbian people. Sava had a

tremendous influence among the Serbian people and church leaders and his reputation

as their first spiritual reformer is emphasized further by his writings concerning church

1
Branimir Anzulovic, Heavenly Serbia: From Myth to Genocide (New York: New York
University Press, 1999), 21.

21
laws and jurisdiction. Sava brought the Nomocanon, the collection of ecclesiastical

and civil laws regarding church administration and jurisdictions2 from Byzantium and

arranged its translation into Serbian Church Slavonic. The Nomocanon, based on

Byzantine legal texts, inspired Sava to create a basic code of the Serbian Orthodox

Church, called Krmcija. The Krmcija was intended to instruct church leaders how to

organize the church better, its orders, and regulations. In addition, with this basic

church code, Sava wanted to improve the already established close relationship

between the Serbian church and state. Because of this, with the creation of the Serbian

national church closely linked with the Serbian independent state, Sava is considered

the founder of the Serbian national identity.

The monastery Zica was originally designated as the seat of the Serbian

archbishopric but later this was relocated to the Kosovo town of Pec, where the

spiritual center of the Serbian church would remain for centuries. In the whole

territory of the Serbian state, Sava founded eight more dioceses where he appointed

bishops and sent liturgical manuscripts and religious books. Blessed with great moral

and spiritual qualities, Sava gained the status of saint in his lifetime and is considered

the most sacred figure in the Serbian Orthodox Church as well as in Serbia.

With the Nemanjic dynasty, Orthodox Christianity became a state religion

tightly interlocked with the Serbian medieval state. With their direct association began

the tradition of medieval endowments in Serbia. Initially, those endowments were

intending to guard the tomb of their founder, and the monastery brotherhood held

2
Sima M. Cirkovic, The Serbs (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004), 43.

22
constant memorial services and prayed for his soul.3 Later, those medieval

monasteries and churches, whose walls were covered with icons and religious paintings

portraying the lives of former Serbian kings and saints, played a very important role at

the time of Ottoman domination. Those religious endowments and their priesthood

kept the memory of the independent Serbian state alive among the conquered Serbian

subjects.

Leaving his throne to his middle son, Stefan Prvovencani, the First Crowned,

Stefan Nemanja and his wife Ana embraced a monastic life as well. Together, as a

monk Simeon and the nun Anastasia retired to the Studenica monastery that Nemanja

had built ca. 1183. Soon after, Nemanja went to Greece to join his son St. Sava who

was dedicated to his monastic life. Together, father and son founded the Chilandar

monastery in Mount Athos in Greece. Nemanja died on Mount Athos on February 13,

1200. He was buried in the Studenica monastery. Upon his death, the cult of St.

Simeon was founded, the importance as stated by Cirkovic.

Nemanja was placed at the beginning of the sacred dynasty or dynasty of

sacred roots, which later produced other saints. The aura of sanctity that
surrounded some members as well as the entire dynasty enabled the gradual
creation of a special Serbian tradition as an extension of general Christian
tradition, and placed the history of the Serbian people within the common
history of salvation. These ideas were nurtured by the church and handed down
through the ages, even during periods when there was no dynasty or state.4

Nemanjas son, St. Sava, the first Serbian archbishop, died in 1236 and soon

after the cult of St. Sava was founded this cult, which was incorporated in the church

calendar and in the founders portraits in endowed churches, gave the Serbian

3
Ibid., 60.
4
Ibid., 36.

23
autocephalous church specific characteristics and later played an important role in

preserving continuity.5 Today, St. Sava is the patron saint of Serbian schools and

schoolchildren.

The highpoint of the Serbian state and church occurred under the king and later

emperor Stefan Dusan (1331-1355), a Nemanjas descendent. King Dusan elevated the

Serbian state to the status of Balkan Empire and upgraded the status of the Serbian

Orthodox Church from an archbishopric to the patriarchate. During Dusans reign,

Serbia became the most powerful state in the Balkans, covering the territory from the

Adriatic Coast in the West, river Danube to the North, and the Aegean Sea to the

South.

Emperor Dusan ruled over his vast empire by the first written law, called

Dusans code. It was the first legal system independently written in the Serbian state.

This code of laws was intended to organize the government polity and establish the

rule of law in the society and the state. Unlike St. Savas Krmcija, which every church

official had to have and which was an essential tool for administrating the church, the

emperor Dusans code was intended to coordinate the political system and establish the

rule of law in the state. Stefan Dusan, known as Dusan the Mighty, proclaimed himself

as an emperor of the Serbs and the Greeks in 1346. Later, emperor Dusan upgraded his

title, to include Emperor of the Bulgarians and the Albanians. Dusans proclamation as

a tsar went parallel with his work on elevation of the Serbian Orthodox Church to the

rank of a patriarchate. In The History of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Dr. Slijepcevic

clarified that Dusan followed the well-established link from the Byzantine Orthodox

5
Ibid., 46.

24
world between the empire and the patriarchate, which simply meant that the empire

without a patriarchate was unthinkable. In addition, Dusans ordination must be done

by the Serbian patriarch. For that reason, the Serbian archbishoprics station had to be

upgraded. Dr. Slijepcevic assumed that for this act Dusan also had a canonical

confirmation since Dusans empire covered areas previously under the rule of the

Byzantine emperor and under the jurisdiction of the Constantinople patriarch whose

power ceased once Dusan became the emperor over their territory. In that sense, as the

borders of the Serbian state expanded, the borders of the Serbian patriarchate expanded

as well.6 Dusan upgraded the status of the Serbian bishop Joanikie and appointed him

as a patriarch of the Serbian empire. In addition, Dusan relocated the new seat of the

patriarch in the city of Pec, in Kosovo and his capital in Skoplje, Macedonia, where he

was ordained. Tzar Dusans empire lasted until his death in 1335. Gradually, Dusans

empire began to collapse because his successor and son Uros lacked the administrative

capacity to govern such a vast territory.

The Ottomans began invading the Balkan states in the second half of the

fourteenth century. At the time of the Ottoman invasion, the head of the state was

Prince Lazar Hrebeljanovic. The decisive battle between the Serbs and the Ottoman

forces took place in Kosovo, at a place known as the Field of Blackbirds, on St. Vituss

Day, June 28, 1389. While for the Ottomans this struggle represented just one more

attempt to conquer more territories in the Balkans, for the Serbs, the same battle

represented a major historical juncture in the destiny of their state and nation. The

Serbian defeat was explained by an apocryphal tale concerning the decision made by

6
Djoko Slijepcevic, Istorija Srpske Pravoslavne Crkve (Beograd: BIGZ, 1962), 162.

25
the Serbian leader, Prince Lazar who had to make a choice between two sets of values,

spiritual and secular, and because of his decision, a cultural scheme was set, which has

remained a major influence on Serbian self-perception to this day. Prince Lazars

decision was explained in the following religious legend. Just before the battle, Saint

Elias had sent a messenger to Prince Lazar with a question. Which kingdom did he

prefer to choose: the earthly kingdom or the heavenly one? If Lazar had chosen the

earthly kingdom, he just had to take his army into a campaign to defeat the Turks. If

Lazar had chosen the heavenly kingdom, then he had to build a church at Kosovo field,

take communion along with his army, and be prepared to lose his life and the lives of

his soldiers. Prince Lazar opted for the heavenly kingdom, and supported by the

Albanians and Bosnian troops, decided to go into battle facing defeat from the much

larger Ottoman army.

Memories of the Kosovo battle were preserved in the Serbian culture because

of the folk singers who recited their songs using the one string fiddle called a gusli. All

of the writings related to the Kosovo battle, which were composed during the thirty

years after the battle, referred to Prince Lazars destiny as a martyrs victory. In the

Serbian culture during the Middle Ages, as well as for today, Prince Lazar made the

right choice because he committed to the heavenly kingdom and rejected the earthly

kingdom.7 One of the most famous folk songs is The Downfall of the Kingdom of

Serbia, which clearly describes Lazars options and his decision:

Oh, Tsar Lazar, of honorable descent,

which kingdom will you choose?
Do you prefer the heavenly kingdom,

7
Branimir Anzulovic, Heavenly Serbia, 11-12.

26
 Or do you prefer the earthly kingdom?
If you prefer the earthly kingdom,
Saddle the horses, tighten the girths!
You knights, belt on your sabers,
and charge against the Turks:
the entire Turkish army will perish!
But if you prefer the heavenly kingdom,
build a church at Kosovo,
do not make its foundation of marble,
but of pure silk and scarlet,
and make the army take Communion and prepare;
your entire army will perish,
and you, prince, will perish with it.

Although, with his choice Prince Lazar assured a certain military defeat, his

choice became the best-known myth of heavenly Serbia, which emerged directly after

the Kosovo battle. This myth stayed preserved in Serbian historical consciousness

until today which still understands the battle at Kosovo as representing a Serbian moral

victory over the Ottomans.8

The battle of Kosovo was a standoff in military terms with massive fatalities on

both sides, including the death of both leaders, the Serbian Prince Lazar and the

Ottomans Sultan Murad. However, the Turkish consolidated their troops much faster,

and were ready for new attacks, which the Serbians were not able to quell. The Serbian

state was divided onto several counties, each one ruled by its own independent

noblemen. To avoid more losses, the Serbian nobles accepted positions as Turkish

vassals. This vassalage status meant that Serbian nobles continued to rule during the

next seventy years with certain financial and military obligations toward the Ottomans.

In 1459, the Serbian territory fell totally under Ottoman domination.

8
Ibid.

27
 With the Ottoman conquest, the union between Saint Savas two pillars, the

state, and the Church, was gone. The Serbs lost their independent state. The Ottomans

imposed many restrictions and social limitation, such as forbidding the Serbs to dress

in bright colors or wear weapons. Economically, the burden of paying taxes was

imposed on the Serbian subjects. In a religious sense, the Serbian Orthodox Church

had a subordinate position. However, the relative religious tolerance of the Ottomans

played a significant role in allowing the Orthodox subjects to practice their faith.

Under Ottoman domination, the role of the church was contradictory; it no longer

served the Serbian state because that state had ceased to exist; but it served the

Ottoman state, and as the only surviving national institution, it became the main carrier

of Serbian national identity.9 When the Ottomans conquered the Serbian territory, the

Serbian patriarchate, located in the town of Pec in Kosovo since the rule of the emperor

Dusan, lost its authority and went under the jurisdiction of the Archbishopric of Ohrid.

Its place in the autocephalous Serbian Orthodox Church would be reestablished in

1557 only thanks to the Mehmed Pasha Sokollu, at the time a Grand Vizier of the

Ottoman Empire who was a devshirme boy taken by the devshirme from his Serbian

family in Bosnia. The reestablishment of an independent Serbian church placed the

Serbian Orthodox Church in a privileged position and as Anzulovic explained it,

because of the close link between the Orthodox church and nation, the reemergence of

the autonomous Serbian Orthodox church and the huge expansion of its jurisdiction

had very important consequences for the future of Serbia.10

9
Ibid., 25.
10
Ibid., 42.

28
 The church continued to fulfill the spiritual needs of the Serbian people and

numerous churches and monasteries built before Ottoman domination played the

pivotal role in preserving the notion of Christian consciences among the conquered

Serbian population. Savas legacy in Serbia was a strong church, which identified

itself with the nation11 contributed greatly in preserving the feelings of national

consciousness among the conquered Serbian population. In addition, the cult of St.

Sava was deeply embedded in the Serbian mindset and the Serbians were determined to

preserve it. In The History of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Dr. Slijepcevic elaborated

the cult of St. Sava among the Serbian population. Namely, Savas cult gradually grew

into an idea. It represents the cult of a Serbian state founded based on Stefan

Nemanjas value and Tsar Dusans glory. Through the cult of St. Sava, the conquered

Serbian nation under the leadership of their priesthood wanted to resurrect its

nationhood.12 The Ottomans were determined to terminate the cult and end the idea of

a new Serbian state. For that reason, the Ottomans burned the relics of St. Sava in

Belgrade, today the Serbian capital, in 1594. Contrary to their plan, this violent act

only further enhanced St. Savas cult in Serbias vision.

From the beginning, the Ottomans did not force the Balkan people to accept

Islam, the dominant faith of the empire. However, the Ottoman Empire did provide

conditions for conversion to Islam by offering many socio-economic benefits to

Christian subjects who converted. The only forced method of conversion was the

11
Tim Judah, The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia (New Haven: Yale
University Press), 81.
12
Slijepcevic, Istorija Srpske Pravoslavne crkve,131.

29
devshirme system, which contributed to the process of conversion as well as

islamization in the Balkans. In Serbia, the islamization process did not take the same

path and did not occur on a large scale like in Bosnia. The primary reason is certainly

the strong presence of the Serbian Orthodox Church, a cornerstone of the Serbian

national and religious identity. In Serbia, there were only two alternatives: Christianity

or Islam. Since the Serbian church embedded Orthodoxy in state affairs and developed

a strong relationship with that state, the Serbian subjects stayed closely connected to

their religious roots and did not convert to Islam in large numbers for a variety of

socio-economic or religious benefits, as they did in Bosnia.

However, the devshirme system contributed to the conversion to Islam in

Serbia and Bosnia as well. In Serbia, this forced method of conversion was primarily

applied to Serbian male youths from the end of the fourteenth century, soon after the

Kosovo battle, and lasted until the beginning of the seventeenth century. However, the

devshirme system did not contribute to conversion to Islam en masse as in Bosnia.

The Slavs settled in Bosnia during the same era as in Serbia, in the late sixth

and early seventh centuries. The Slavic tribes in Bosnia were organized into a variety

of small independent counties, called zupas, each ruled by its own leaders called

zupans. This regional division in Bosnia and governance of zupans based on their own

tradition and religion, made it difficult for future Bosnian leaders to centralize the

Bosnian state and church. In medieval times, Bosnians simple called themselves Slavs.

When the Bosnian state was established, the Slav population took the name Bosnians.

The Bosnians used a slightly altered Cyrillic alphabet called Bosancica. Their

acceptance of Christianity occurred during the ninth century. The majority of the

30
Bosnian population accepted Catholicism by the tenth century thanks to the Dalmatian

missionaries. When a breach appeared between Byzantium and Rome in the eleventh

century, Bosnia became the land of religious division in the Christian world. In

contrast to Serbia where Orthodox Christianity was the only religion among the

Serbian population, in Bosnia from Medieval times until the arrival of the Ottomans,

three separate Christian religions coexisted. This fact made it difficult for Bosnia to

have a central state church supported by the entire population and with its own

religious leaders. Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and the Bosnian Church all existed as

separate entities dominant in different areas of Bosnia with their own religious leaders

who most often resided outside of the Bosnian territory. The majority of the

population was not religiously intolerant and all three faiths were equally accepted and

respected.

Different areas of Bosnia were under the political control of neighboring states

from the tenth to the twelfth century. Bosnia did not have a royal dynasty and the

Bosnian rulers frequently sought to balance themselves between the Catholic and the

Orthodox political power. The first Bosnian ruler was Ban Kulin (1180-1204) under

whose leadership Bosnia gained independence. During his reign, the Bosnians

established an independent Bosnian Church, which was simply a Catholic non-

preaching order gone into schism with Rome.13 The pope denounced the Bosnian

Church as heretical and the Catholic and Orthodox kings blamed Ban Kulin for

providing hospitality to the members of the Bosnian Church and even accused Ban Kulin

13
John Fine, The Bosnian Church: Its Place in state and Society from the Thirteenth to the
Fiftieth Century, (London, SAQI), 232.

31
of making the beliefs of the heretics a state religion. When the pope threatened to send

crusades against Ban Kulin, he immediately declared Catholicism as his religious

affiliation. The next ruler, Ban Stjepan Kotromanic (1318-1353) was most probably an

Orthodox Christian who converted to Catholicism. During Ban Stjepans reign, Bosnia

expanded its territory and advanced economically. Bosnia included parts of Croatia and

the region of Hum, previously under Serbian domination. In addition, during the Ban

Stjepan reign, the Bosnian Church obtained autonomous status and Ban Stjepan

Kotromanic had cordial relations with the Bosnian Church. The next leader, Ban Tvrtko

(1377-1391), who was the Ban Stjepan Kotromanics nephew, made Bosnia one of the

most important states in the Balkan Peninsula at that time. Ban Tvrtko was a devout

Catholic and tolerant ruler who allowed all faiths to be equally practiced in Bosnia. Ban

Tvrtko proclaimed himself king of Serbia and Bosnia over the grave of St. Sava, in an

endowment of the Nemanjic dynasty. Tvrtkos claim to a Serbian crown was based on

his Serbian ancestry from the Nemanjic royal family and his annexation of lands with

Orthodox populations. He chose the Monastery Mileseva, the resting place of St. Sava,

as the location of his coronation. After his coronation, according to the custom of

Serbian rulers, King Tvrko took the name of Stefan Tvrtko but remained Catholic.

While Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece were already under Ottoman domination, King

Tvrtko ruled independently until he died in 1391. Bosnia did not have a strong central

administration and as a result, after Ban Tvrtkos death, Bosnia fragmented into several

counties all governed by their own independent nobles frequently in rivalry and warfare

with each other. The Ottoman Empire and the Hungarian kingdom fought over parts of

Bosnian territory. During one period, the Bosnian noblemen, King Ostoja was on the

32
Hungarian side and fought against Turks and the Bosnian nobleman Hrvoje on the other

side. When the Ottomans defeated the Hungarians in Bosnia, they established control

over central Bosnia. There was not any decisive battle in Bosnia that marked the fall of

the Bosnian state. The Bosnian nobles lacked central organization and an organized

resistance against the Ottomans because they literally fought against each other until the

Ottoman arrival. Because of its impenetrable mountain landscape, Bosnia was gradually

conquered by the Ottomans. The final fall of Bosnia occurred in 1463.

To a large extent, religious affiliation determined the settlement of the Bosnian

population. The Orthodox population was predominantly in the east and south of

Bosnia. This part of Bosnia bordered the Serbian states whose population was Orthodox

Christians and under the jurisdiction of the centralized Serbian Orthodox Church. The

Orthodox Church had little influence in Bosnia during the pre-Ottoman period except for

the southern region, the territory of Hum, today Hercegovina. Hum was under Serbian

political rule with Orthodox Christian subjects affiliated with the Serbian archbishopric

in Pec. The Catholic population was predominantly in the western and northern regions

of Bosnia since those areas of Bosnia bordered with Catholic Croatia and the Hungarian

state. The Catholics were entirely settled in the urban areas of Bosnia where its clergy

founded numerous monasteries before the arrival of the Ottomans. When the Franciscan

vicariate of Bosnia was established in 1342, the Franciscan order was the most

responsible for spreading Catholicism in Bosnia. The Catholic Christians recognized the

pope as their religious authority. However, the Catholic bishop of Bosnia lived outside

of Bosnia, in Slavonia and did not play a crucial role for the Catholic subjects. The third

religious entity in Bosnia was the Bogomils who settled in the central part of Bosnia and

33
joined in large numbers the Bosnian Church established in the mid-thirteenth century.

The Bogomils were dualistic in dogma. Their bishop was called djed (grandfather) and

its clergy called them krstjanin, meaning Christian. The Bosnian Church never

established a strong bond with its members. Although, many Bosnian nobles belonged

to the Bosnian Church, the church has never gained a majority of the Bosnian subjects

since it lacked proselytizing efforts and because of the presence of two well-established

faiths. As a result, the Bosnian Church did not have political power and did not

constitute a state church. The Bosnian Church ceased to exist in 1459 when Bosnian

King Stefan Tomas under pressure from the pope and Bosnian Franciscans gave an

ultimatum to the clergy of the Bosnian Church: to accept Catholicism or to leave Bosnia.

A majority converted to Catholicism with a small number moving to Herzegovina who

eventually accepted Orthodox Christianity. The church lasted as a separate entity as

long as the Bosnian state existed, until the Ottoman conquest. It is important to note that

no faith, Orthodox, Catholicism, or Bogomil was able to act as a spiritual or cultural

guide to the Bosnian society. Because of the presence of the three separate creeds in

Bosnia, the Ottomans categorized the Bosnian subjects by their religious affiliation on

Orthodox, Catholics, and Muslims subjects.14

While Serbia had a state Serbian Orthodox Church, which bound their believers

and continued to do so under Ottoman rule, the Bosnians never developed such strong

religious feelings since three competing faiths existed at the same time without an

organized central church administration and with the absence of priests. Thus, the

14
John V. A. Fine, The Medieval and Ottoman Roots of Modern Bosnian Society, edited by
Mark Pinson in The Muslims of Bosnia~ Herzegovina: Their Historic Development from the Middle
Ages to the Dissolution of Yugoslavia (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994). 7-19.

34
weak Bosnian Christian identity, their inability to adhere to any religious community,

and absence of religious bonds between the Bosnian population as a whole, directly

opened the door for acceptance of Islam as a new religion conveyed by the Ottomans.

The Bosnians converted to Islam for political, economic, and/or social reasons. In a

political sense, the Bosnians experienced a long fight with the Hungarian Empire and

developed a sense of hostility toward the Hungarians, who were Catholic. In addition,

for a half a century before the final Ottoman conquest, the Bosnians had encountered

the Turks and were acquainted with Islam. Therefore, the alternative in Bosnia was

between Turks and Hungarians or Catholicism and Islam. The conversion to Islam for

the Bosnian subjects was more logical since Islam became the dominant state religion

and the adoption of the new faith brought undeniable benefits and advantages. The

Bosnian nobles were the first to convert to Islam because they worried more for their

own personal wealth, property, and social status than for the Bosnian state or religion

to which they did not have any historical bond at all. Aside from the Bosnian nobles,

the Bosnian peasants converted to Islam in large numbers to avoid paying property

taxes as well as taxes levied on their male youths. The conversion to Islam in Bosnia

did not arise directly after the Ottoman conquest. Rather, the process of conversion

began slowly and increased gradually. It lasted for over four hundred years. The last

of the Balkan populations to convert, the Bosnians converted to Islam in the largest

number. One of the sources of conversion to Islam was the devshirme system.

35
 CHAPTER THREE

THE DEVSHIRME INSTITUTION

From the beginning of the Ottoman Empire, as an autocratic leader the sultan

was allowed to keep one-fifth of war prisoners as booty. Although Islamic law allowed

the sultan to enslave them, kill them, or free them after the payment of bedel

(redemption money), the sultan used those prisoners of war as soldiers for the

expansion of the empire and ultimately the domain of Islam, which was his primary

governmental objective. As the empire continued to grow, the demand for military

men increased, particularly with establishment of a new army corps, the Janissaries by

Sultan Murad I, who desired to have his own private army loyal only to him. As

staffing the ever-expanding army became increasingly difficult, the Ottomans

developed a new source of personnel in the devshirme institution.

Although, the devshirme system was established to staff the sultans prestigious

Janissary corps, it proved to have multiple purposes. At first, the system diminished

and subsequently eliminated the Turkish noble families as the only potential threats

that could jeopardize the sultan absolute power. The sultan encircled himself with the

devshirme youths since they did not have ties to the capital elites and came without the

disadvantages of nepotism. The devshirme youths became the sultans closest allies

whose loyalty and obedience guaranteed his absolute power.

According to Peter Sugar, certain arguments supported the establishment of the

devshirme institution. These arguments relate to the fact that the purchase of slaves

was expensive while recruitment of the Christian youths was free. Then, when the

devshirme system was established at the end of the fourteenth century, there was a

36
shortage of slaves available for purchase. Thus, along with his military corps, Sultan

Murad I began using slaves in his administration, which resulted in an increased

demand for them.1 From the beginning, there was a difference between the slaves of

devshirme origin and those obtained by purchase. Prisoners of war were not forced to

convert to Islam or adopt Muslim traditions and culture. They were not obliged to

complete the Ottoman education required for the devshirme youths.2 In addition, the

Janissaries collected by the devshirme were allowed to leave their wealth to whomever

they wanted, while the property of the slave-purchased soldiers belonged to the sultan.

The origin of the devshirme system was under question until 1954 when the

sermon of Isidore Glabas, the metropolitan of Thessaloniki from 1380 to 1396 was

discovered. The Glabas sermon, dated February 28 1395, is considered the earliest

document that refers to the existence of the devshirme. The sermon was saved in a

manuscript from the beginning of the fifteenth century, and is entitled, His sermon

concerning the carrying off of the children by the decree of the emir, and concerning

the Coming Judgment, delivered on the first Sunday of the Fasts.3

As the oldest document related to the devshirme system, Glabas sermon is very

important for this thesis because it presents an early Christian point of view about the

devshirme institution. In his sermon, Isidore Glabas lamented about the capture of the

children by the decree of the sultan. The sermon will be analyzed in detail in the last

1
Peter Sugar, Southeaster Europe under Ottoman Rule, 57.
2
Gulay Yilmaz, Becoming a Devshirme, in Children in Slavery Through the Ages, ed. Gwyn
Campbell, Suzanne Miers, and Joseph C. Miller (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2009), 121.
3
SperosVryonis, Isidore Glabas and the Turkish Devshirme, Speculum 31 (July1956): 435.

37
chapter but as the earliest known written document about the devshirme system from

the Christian point of view, here is a quote from the beginning of Glabas sermon.

What am I to say, and how am I to consider the magnitude of the present

misfortunate? Helplessness has afflicted me from all sides, as if I found myself
blocked at a crossroad. I have heard the harsh decree concerning our dearest
ones, and I shudder as one before a fire too hot to approachmy voice is cut
off my lips turn to lamentation, my mind is veiled in a cloud of despondency,
and I am almost mad. My eyes are filled with tears and can no longer bear to
see my beloved ones.

In his further words, Isidore Glabas named freeborn Christian boys as the

sultans slaves and grieved upon their destiny to be forced to convert to a heathen faith

and kill Christian subjects in the same land from which they were taken.4

The founder of the Janissary corps was Kara Halil Chandarly, a Kadiasker in

the reign of Murad I (1359-1389). Thanks to Isidore Glabas sermon, we now know

that the devshirme system and the Janissary corps were established at the same time

(i.e. at the end of the fourteenth century). Most scholars agreed that both institutions

were established by Chandarly but the Janissaries were preceded by the devshirme.

What was the devshirme institution? Dr. Basilike Papoulia gave the most

comprehensive definition of the devshirme system. According to her, the devshirme

system is as follows:

the forcible removal, in the form of a tribute, of children of the Christian

subjects from their ethnic, religious, and cultural environment and their
transplantation into the TurkishIslamic environment with the aim of
employing them in the service of the Palace, the army, and the state, whereby
they were on the one hand to serve the Sultan as slaves and freedmen and on
the other to form the ruling class of the state.5

4
Ibid., 436.
5
Basilike Papoulia, in V. L. Manage, Some Notes on the devshirme, Bulletin of the School
of Oriental and African Studie 29 (1966): 64.

38
 Aside from such a comprehensive definition, to understand such a complex

structure as the devshirme institution, the whole process of recruitment, education, and

employment of the devshirme youths must be explained in detail.

The devshirme youths were recruited from non-Muslim societies conquered by

the Ottomans and were under the authority of the Ottoman state and Islamic law.

Those societies had a zimmi status, which meant a privileged position in comparison to

the non-Muslim societies living outside of the domain of Islam. The term devshirme

literally means collection of dhimma-children, children of those under Muslim

protection.6 The process of conscription excluded Jews and gypsy children and was

applied only to Christian children. The possible explanation could be based on a

certain ethnic stereotypingfor example, considering Jews as unsuitable for warfare

or gypsies as unreliable.7 Goodwin offered a more precise explanation no Jews or

gypsies might be enlisted; the former were townsmen, doctors and accountants who

managed the great estate of the pashas and whose faith was as tenacious as that of any

Muslim, while the latter were clearly despised.8

The recruitment process began when the leader of the Janissary corps

determines that there is a need for new recruits. Then, the sultan issued a decree for the

devshirme collection. When the empire was in its golden age of expansion during the

fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, those requests for the devshirme collection were more

frequent and were issued every three to four years. As the empire declined, the decree

6
Alexander Lopasic, Islamization of the Balkans with special reference to Bosnia, Journal of
Islamic Studies 5:2 (1994): 171.
7
Gulay Yilmaz, Becoming a Devshirme, 21.
8
Godfrey Goodwin, The Janissaries (London: Saqi Books, 1994), 34.

39
for the devshirme recruitment was issued every five to seven years. Each time, the

Janissary officials collected between 1000-3000 male children, usually one child from

every forty households. The recruitment was carried out from peasant families in rural

areas rather than in towns, since the towns were sources of trade and craft production,

which the Ottomans wanted to protect.

When the child levy was requested, the recruitment process was done by

previously established procedure. Either the leader of the Janissary would send a

dispatch to the Balkan village authorities to inform them of the forthcoming

recruitment process or the Janissary officials would come to the village, visit a local

priest, and ask him for a list of baptized male youths ages ten to eighteen. After

gathering youths in a public place, under the supervision of local Ottoman officials,

following the strict rules, the selection of children would begin. The youths were

selected based on their physical strength, good looks, and intellect. Children who were

too tall or too short were excluded from the devshirme as well as any unhealthy boys or

those deemed defective (e.g. cross-eyed). Orphans were exempt from the devshirme

because they were considered to be lacking in proper nurturance and education. The

youths were required to be unmarried and uncircumcised. For economic reasons, the

sons of artisans and craft makers were excluded as well as the only child in a family. It

was forbidden to take more than one youth from the same family because the others

had to cultivate the land and pay taxes. To protect their children from the blood levy,

families undertook a series of measures to prevent the Ottoman authorities from

selecting them. Some families sent their children into the woods to run and hide so the

Janissary officers would not find them. If their children were found, the families were

40
harshly punished. Some families falsified their childs birth certificate. Some families

circumcised their children or married them off at early ages. Some even physically

disfigured their childs face to keep him from being selected for the devshirme.

Once the conscription process was completed, the devshirme youths

immediately became the sultans slaves. On their way to the Ottoman Empire, the

devshirme children were all dressed in red clothes, with red hats to be recognized

easily in case they attempted an escape. They were transported to Istanbul in groups of

100 to 150. Upon arrival to Istanbul, the devshirme children were given two to three

days to rest and then they were examined physically and mentally. Directly after, the

Christian boys taken by the blood levy were converted to Islam, circumcised and were

given Muslim names.9 Upon their conversion, the devshirme boys were mentally

disciplined to forget their heritage, Christian religion, and cultural environment.

Ultimately, they were trained to forge a new identity, practice Islam, and grow

accustomed to living with Muslim traditions and customs.

For the first selection procedure regarding the youths future education and

professional orientation, two major concepts were applied: on the one hand the strong

Turkish belief in the science of physiognomy maintained that moral status could be

judged by outer appearance, on the other, the recruits were subject to mental

examinations similar to modern IQ tests.10 From the beginning, the devshirme boys

had very different educational paths depending on their intellectual abilities and

physical appearances. The best physically fit and intellectually brightest youths were

9
Gulay Yilmaz, Becoming a Devshirme, 121-122.
10
David Nicole, The Janissaries (Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 1995), 12.

41
ic oglans or pages who comprised the smaller group, which was educated for positions

in the sultans palace and attended the palace school. They were destined for senior

positions within the sultans personal administration. The other, much larger group

was sent to villages in Anatolia where they stayed with Turkish families for the first

part of their education. This group, known as acemi oglans, novices was destined to

pursue their careers in the sultans kapikulu corps. Among the kapikulu corps, the

Janissaries were the best-known corp.

The education of the devshirme youths destined for the sultans service took

place in one of the four palace schools at Bursa, Edirne, Istanbul, and Galata. All of

the youths lived in one of the sultans palaces under the supervision of the white

eunuchs who enforced the rigorous discipline and strictly organized routine. In their

daily routine, the devshirme youths had specified times when they slept and woke up,

ate or prayed. The times for study and exercise were also specified. In addition, good

manners were strictly nurtured in the way they walked or ate, maintained personal

hygiene, wore clean-ironed clothes, and performed all five daily prayers required from

every Muslim.11 They were forbidden to communicate with anyone outside of the

palace and to communicate with each other at will. The youths were carefully

observed at all times. If they violated the rules of conduct, they were severely

punished by beatings on the soles, expulsion from the palace, or death.

Aside from their general education, where the study of Islam was paramount,

the study of specific subjects depended on each youths interests and unique talents. In

accordance with their personal preferences, in religion, military, or the administrative

11
Yilmaz, Becoming a Devshirme, 123.

42
field, the devshirme youths studied Turkish, Arabic, and Persian language and

literature as well as the Quran, Muslim theology, and Islamic law. As future personnel

of the sultan, the youths were especially taught to be meek and well mannered. They

were required to show reverence to their superiors by kissing their hands and bowing

their heads.12 In addition, great emphasis was also put on honesty, loyalty, good

manners, and self-control.13

The regular school attendance and training period lasted approximately

fourteenth years. The devshirme youths stayed in these preparatory schools from seven

to eight years. Upon completion, the devshirme youths were subjected to another

selection, called cikma and obtained their first professional promotion. The best of

them were sent to one of the two chambers in the sultans palace, the greater or lesser

chamber. The rest were assigned to the kapikulu corps, the sultans personal slave

army. In the sultans chambers, the pages usually stayed for four years where they

attended one of the four occupational schools. The curriculum in those schools was

chosen carefully and was taught by the best-educated palace tutors whose

responsibility was to prepare pages to perform their future administrative tasks to

perfection. Each occupational school was concentrated on a specific subject:

the expeditionary force chamber provided mainly musical training but also
taught sewing, embroidery, leatherwork, arrow making, and gun repair. The
commissariat chamber taught students to prepare royal beverages, whereas
Treasure chamber trained pages in financial responsibility. The royal
bedchamber trained those who would be responsible for the protection of the
Holy Relics.14

12
Ibid.
13
Nicolle, The Janissaries, 13.
14
Yilmaz, Becoming a Devshirme, 123.

43
After their graduation, the devshirme youths applied for a post within a variety of

palace administrative positions, according to their expertise.

The education of the acemi oglans, the future Janissaries, was vastly different

and considerably shorter. Their education was strictly military with a focus on

obedience. It took place in two stages. First, the devshirme youths were transferred to

the Anatolia region where they stayed and worked for their host families for

approximately five to seven years. Aside from the basic military training, they learned

the Turkish language and Muslim faith. The second phase was more specific when

their instruction continued in the training corps or barracks. The training lasted for at

least six years and there too, eunuchs were their supervisors. The discipline was very

strong and although the youths were allowed to have off-duty hours, they were

forbidden to socialize with females. During the second phase of their training, the

devshirme youths learned:

literacy, the principle of governance, and the precept of the Quran. They
were assigned general tasks such as sweeping, carrying, or cooking for
themselves and for the city, as well as continuing their training as professional
warriors. They were also used on the ships carrying wood and ice to Istanbul.
They replaced the Janissaries when they went on campaigns and also served as
night watchmen, firemen, and police within the city. When new soldiers were
needed selected acemi oglans were enlisted in the kapikulu corps.15

Of all the kapikulu corps, the Janissary corps was the most famous infantry.

The Janissaries would provide a certificate of acceptance to any new novice as well as

the unique Janissary hat and coat.16 Every Janissary belonged to one of the regiments,

which had its own tutor. In addition, every regiment had its own symbol, which was

15
Yilmez, Becoming a Devshirme, 124.
16
Nicolle, The Janissaries, 13.

44
etched as a tattoo on each Janissarys body. Inside one regiment, the Janissaries

developed a close relationship among each other with a high level of trust, friendship,

and loyalty. There is one more very specific symbol related to Janissaries. It is the

Kazan. The Janissaries would assemble around a large cooper cooking pot, cook pilav,

which is cracked wheat and butter, and they all gathered for one meal a day. The kazan

was a highly respected Janissary object. By sitting around the kazan, the Janissaries

felt protection and peace. The kazan followed Janissaries in the battle and they took

great care of it. If they lost it, their officers would be labeled as dishonored and

shameful.17 There were sixteen rules for the Janissary corps prescribed by the Murad I:

total obedience to officers; unity of purpose; strict military behavior; no

extremes of luxury or abstinence; strict piety under the Bektashi code;
acceptance of only the best recruits; capital punishment of a distinctive sort;
punishment by only their own officers; promotion by seniority; looking after
their own dependents; no beards for ordinary soldiers; no marriage until
retirement; living only in barracks; no other trades; full-time military training;
and no alcohol or gambling.18

Rigorous discipline was applied inside the Janissary corps and the punishments

for any mistake were very harsh, from lowering the rank of the Janissary officers to

corporal punishment and execution. The sultan was the supreme ruler over his

Janissary corps. When a sultan died, the Janissaries were without a leader. It was their

time for rebellion, when they usually attacked the homes of the non-Muslim

population. Their revolt lasted until the new sultan ascended to the throne. The sultan

would then allocate a large amount of money to the Janissaries to pay for their loyalty.

After at least fourteen years of the preeminent available education and military

17
Ibid.,19.
18
Ibid., 27.

45
training in the Ottoman Empire, the finest 10% of the devshirme youths began their

careers at the sultans palace occupying the highest positions among his administration

while the rest of them were sent to serve in the sultans military corps. Their future

professional careers depended exclusively on their personal qualities and qualified

skills. The system of promotion was not based on ethnicity or religious background

but on their intellectual capacity, competency, and job productivity. It appears as

though the sultan and his devshirme slaves had a mutually symbiotic relationship. The

devshirme youths were completely depended on the sultan. Without family

background among the Muslims, the devshirme youths considered the service to the

sultan to be a privilege and honor. Thanks to their education and prestigious jobs

within the sultans highest administrative-military service, those abducted and

converted Christian youths, become the elite of the Ottoman Empire. The sultan

depended on the devshirme servants as well. The devshirme slaves were the sultans

foremost supporters and the sultans major source of trustworthiness, obedience, and

fidelity. The administrative-military administration comprised of the devshirme slaves

became the most centralized political system in Europe at that time. Only in such a

centralized political organization could the sultans position be absolutely guaranteed

and could he rest secure in his absolute power. The educational system provided the

conditions for the establishment of this mutually dependent relationship between the

sultan and his slaves. Thus, as the historian Inalcik explained, the fundamental goal of

the devshirme education was to instill complete obedience and loyalty to the sultan.

All means were used to inculcate this ideal in the young men who were studying at the

palace school and destined to occupy the highest offices of the empire. They learned

46
that death in the sultans service was the greatest blessing.19

The devshirme conscription began in the Balkan Peninsula immediately upon

its establishment. Serbia had a vassal status for the first 70 years of the Ottoman

occupation, until 1459. The vassalage status did not postpone the onset of the

devshirme collection that started at the beginning of the fifteenth century. In Bosnia,

the devshirme recruitment began later, in the middle of the fifteenth century since

Bosnia was thoroughly conquered in 1463. Initially, in both states, the devshirme

institution had a negative connotation and conversion to Islam was commonly rejected.

However, the view toward the devshirme changed because of the process of

islamization, which affected Bosnia much more than Serbia.

United by the Serbian Orthodox Church, as the only surviving national

institution, the Serbian population saved their faith despite the severe economic and

social restrictions imposed by the Ottomans. Thus, the Serbians did not convert to

Islam for a variety of economic, social, and political reasons. The view of devshirme

conscription among the Serbian subjects was negative from the beginning, disgraceful

and alien in nature and despite the fact that the conversion to Islam would exempt the

Serbian subjects from paying the child tribute, they did not convert en masse to Islam.

As a result, the blood levy in Serbia represents the most painful levy the Serbian

subjects had to endure during the 400-year period under Ottoman domination.

The Bosnian population held this negative view of the devshirme collection

until the end of the fifteenth century when the broader process of islamization

gradually began to take place. As the demographic picture of Bosnia changed

19
Halil Inalcik, The Ottoman Empire, 79.

47
considerably, the view of the devshirme institution changed noticeably as well.

The conversion to Islam began in the 1480s, first in central Bosnia then spread

across the state, reaching its peak at the end of the sixteenth century, the time when the

Bosnian population had already converted to Islam en masse. As explained above,

religion did not play a major role in the life of ordinary Bosnian subjects and the

Bosnians were never deeply attached to any of the three churches that existed in their

state before the Ottoman arrival. Soon after Bosnia was completely conquered, the

Bosnians gradually began to convert to Islam because of the migration of people as

well for economic, political, or social reasons. In addition, the conversion allowed the

Bosnian subjects to avoid the devshirme collection. The first converts to Islam were

members of the Bosnian noble families who as Muslims were exempted from paying

the blood levy to the Ottomans and were entitled to keep their property, social status,

and political power. A large number of Bosnians converted to Islam when their

children who had been taken by the devshirme returned to Bosnia as high Ottoman

officials. Many of them converted their parents and cousins to Islam and helped their

family members to obtain political positions in Bosnia. For poor Bosnian families who

could not see a promising future for their children, the devshirme system was a more

rational choice or as Zheliazkova indicated the peasant raya in Bosnia saw service in

the Janissary adjaks and the palace as the only way to bring about some social change

and prosperity for their offspring, which is why they offered no resistance to the

devshirme, as did the population in other Balkan provinces.20

20
Antonina Zheliazkova, The Penetration and Adaptation of Islam in Bosnia from the fifteenth
to the nineteenth century, Journal of Islamic Studies 5:2 (1994): 197.

48
 Those Bosnian subjects offered their children to the collection to provide a

better future for them. The percentage of children voluntarily offered to the devshirme

was very small. When the Muslim children were freely given to the devshirme

collection, their treatment was different. For example, the youths had to be between

fifteen and twenty years old, they were not allowed to mix with the Christian children

and they were transported to Istanbul separately. Those children were put into the

service within the sultans palace only at the request of their parents to avoid being sent

back to Bosnia as Janissaries. Those children were listed as circumcised children of

potur ogullari, or children of Bosnian Poturnak. The name poturnak was a derogatory

term for former Bosnian Christians who converted to Islam.

Overall, despite the fact that some families were giving their children

voluntarily to the devshirme, the majority of the Bosnian parents protested against

devshirme recruitment and tried to avoid it.

In Serbia and Bosnia, whose populations were under the Ottomans for

centuries, the way of life under Ottoman domination, full of social restrictions and tax

obligations, was difficult and humiliating. Of all the burdens imposed on Christians by

their conquerors, the child tribute represents the harshest levy the Christian families

had to pay to the Ottomans.

However, when it comes to the devshirme youths, there is disagreement about

the advantages and disadvantages related to the devshirme system. While the

devshirme youths were separated permanently from their family and lost their ethnic,

cultural, and religious background, in the Ottoman Empire those Christian youths from

rural peasant families had opportunities to receive an excellent education and to obtain

49
the most prestigious careers within the most powerful empire at the time. This thesis is

focusing entirely on this aspect of the controversy. Was the devshirme institution

imposed on the Christian children in the Balkans a path toward social advancement or

an inhumane act? The next chapter provides an illustration of this controversy by

comparison of life and professional careers of two youths taken by the devshirme. One

is a Serbian youth from Serbia while the other is a Serbian youth from Bosnia.

50
 CHAPTER FOUR

THE DEVSHIRME YOUTHS

Thousands of Christian youths taken by the blood levy in the Balkan Peninsula

faced the same destiny. They were converted to Islam, received Muslim names and

Ottoman education, and they were trained to adapt to the Muslim way of life. As part

of their assimilation to the Ottoman Empire, the devshirme youths were expected to

abandon their national and religious identity, which is Serbian and Christian and

develop an Ottoman Muslim identity. Forbidden to have their own family until they

were at least thirty years old, the devshirme youths were forced to devote their life and

service to only one person, the sultan.

The education of the devshirme youths depended on their individual

capabilities. Only a small number, approximately ten percent of the brightest and most

talented devshirme youths, completed their education in the sultans palace. The

palace education primarily focused on Islam and Islamic law as well as foreign

languages. For those devshirme youths who did not qualify for the palace education,

the Ottomans provided education in the form of military training in different regions of

Anatolia. Regardless of their educational path, every devshirme youth was taught to

obey the sultan with loyalty and veneration.

While the blood levy permanently removed devshirme youths from their ethnic,

religious, and cultural background, at the same time, it offered an opportunity for

devshirme youths to have a successful professional career, which in the future could

provide unparalleled political power and prestigious social status. Despite

experiencing equal treatment, the devshirme youths did not adapt equally to the

50
Ottoman Empire. Two examples of such differences may be found in the fate of

Konstantin Mihailovic and Mehmed Sokollu. Konstantin Mihailovic was a Serb from

Serbia who gained military training and ended up in the sultans Janissary corps.

Mihailovic never adjusted to the Ottoman state, nor accepted the role of being the

sultans slave. Mihailovic was terrified of losing his religious identity and ending up in

the world of heathens, the term he widely used for Muslims. To return to his native

Christian religion, Mihailovic escaped from the Ottoman army. For Mihailovic, the

blood levy proved to be nothing more than a painful experience. Mihailovic wrote

Memoirs of a Janissary1 a chronicle about his service in the Janissary corps and his

experience as a devshirme youth. His memoir is one of the few materials about the

devshirme system written by a participant and is very useful documentation for this

thesis. Others like Bajo Sokolovic, known in the Ottoman Empire as Mehmed pasha

Sokollu, was a Serb from Bosnia who completed education in the sultans palace and

achieved a great career within the Ottoman dominion. Sokollu embraced service within

the sultans palace as well as the Muslim way of life. Sokollu considered his

conversion to Islam as Gods will and although he had great respect for Christianity, he

became a zealous Muslim. Mehmed Sokollu was the subject of a great deal of

historical research about the Ottoman Empire, as he became its Grand Vizier, the

sultans highest trusted servant. For Sokollu, the devshirme system represented a path

to a very successful career and social advancement. Two useful and comprehensive

studies about Sokollus life from the time when he was taken by the devshirme until his

1
Konstantin Mihailovic, Memoirs of a Janissary (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2011).

51
death are biographies, Mexmed Sokolovic written by the Serbian historian Radovan

Samardzic and Sokolovic written by the Axmed Refik, a Turkish historian.

My thesis is intended to elucidate the devshirme institution from two different

viewpoints. One perspective looks at the devshirme system as a path to career

advancement and high social recognition. Another point of view is of the devshirme

system as an inhumane act, which brought loss of family as well as national and

religious identity to the devshirme youths. Mehmed Sokollu and Konstantin

Mihailovic are two devshirme youths whose destinies in the Ottoman Empire may be

used as illustrations of two very different outcomes of the devshirme system.

Mihailovic belonged to those youths who had a painful and frightening

experience as a devshirme. Mihailovic ended up in the Janissary corps or in one of the

auxiliaries corps closely connected to the Janissaries. Although Mihailovics

biographical data is scarce and does not provide enough accurate information about his

life before he was taken by the devshirme or his life after his escape from the Ottoman

army, we are able to reconstruct some factual data based on his description of several

major events that took place during his term in the Ottoman Empire.

Mihailovic was captured in 1455 in the city of Novo Brdo, today Kosovo in

Serbia, during the reign of Sultan Mehmet II. After eight years in the Ottoman service,

Mihailovic managed to escape by surrendering himself to the enemys army in 1463,

while fighting in Bosnia for the Ottomans. Upon returning to the Christian world,

Mihailovic wrote a memoir about his service and life in the Ottoman Empire. In his

memoir, written in fifty chapters in the Serbo-Croatian language, Mihailovic described

his personal experience among the Ottomans whom he simple called Turks and

52
mostly wrote about his views on the organization, institutions, and religion of the

Ottoman Empire. Mihailovic wrote about Balkan leaders and Christianity as well and

often compared the two faiths.

Mihailovic was born around 1435 in either Ostrovica or Novo Brdo. His family

was from Ostrovica, a medieval city south of Belgrade. However, at the time of his

capture, Mihailovic was living in Novo Brdo, which is the southernmost city in Serbia

where he was most likely born and raised. Although the purpose of the Mihailovic

memoir was to provide Christians information about the Ottomans to help Christians to

fight their enemy better, for my thesis, Mihailovics narrative is very important because

is a significant source of information about the devshirme youths in the Ottoman

Empire. To understand how painful the practice of devshirme recruitment was for

Mihailovic as well as other Christian youths, I will explain in detail Mihailovics

experience among the Ottomans and his views of Islam, since Mihailovic saw the

greatest enemy of Christianity in the Muslim faith.

The importance of Mihailovics chronicle for better understanding of the

devshirme system is manifold. First, in Mihailovics explanation of how the devshirme

system worked in the early phase of its establishment, we determine that the devshirme

system was different in the early stage of its development, which was in the middle of

the fifteenth century, in comparison with the devshirme collection in the sixteenth

century when the devshirme system was fully developed and when Mehmed pasha

Sokollu was selected. For example, after Mihailovics capture and transportation to

Istanbul, he did not go through the minimum ten-year formal education and military

training in the Ottoman Empire. He was being sent to participate in the Ottoman siege

53
of Belgrade in 1456 only a year after his capture. In Mihailovics account of his

capture in Serbia, we determine that the sultan whom Mihailovic called emperor

personally selected youths for the devshirme system without any participation of the

local priest or Janissary officer. In addition, Mihailovics capture with his brother

conflicts with the rules of the devshirme in the latter period of its development when

the Ottomans collected only one child from the same family. All of these differences

regarding the devshirme recruitment and the Ottomans rush to send the devshirme

youths into battles, suggested that the Ottomans in the early stage of their conquest

needed youths in their Janissary corps as quickly as possible and as many as possible to

maintain the expansion of their state. As a result, the recruitment process was

horrifying not just for the captured youths but also for the Christian communities from

which the youths were taken. The following is Mihailovics description:

when the city of Novo Brdo had surrendered, the Emperor ordered that the
gates be closed and that one small gate be left open the Turks ordered all the
householders with their families, both males and females, to go out of the city
through the small gate and so it happened that they went one after another,
and the Emperor himself standing before the small gate sorted out the boys on
one side the women on the other side. All those among the men who were the
most important and distinguished, he ordered decapitatedthe females he
distributed among the heathens, but he took the boys for himself into the
Janissaries, and sent them beyond the sea to Anatolia.2

For this thesis, it is particularly important that Mihailovics memoir

documented the emotional and mental state of the devshirme youths upon their capture

as well as their realization of their future positions as slaves and their determination to

avoid enslavement. When Mihailovic described the terrible torture that the devshirme

youths endured after their attempt to escape, it tells us about the brutality of the

2
Ibid., 50.

54
devshirme collection and the Ottomans determination to take those youths to Istanbul

at all costs. Mihailovic wrote:

wherever we came to forests or mountains, there we always thought about

killing the Turks and running away by ourselves among the mountains, but our
youth did not permit us to do that; for I myself with nineteen others ran away
from them in the night from a village called Samokovo. Then the whole region
pursued us, and having caught and bound us, they beat us and tortured us and
dragged us behind horses. It is a wonder that our soul remained in us.3

Mihailovics strong religious feelings as well as those of the other devshirme

youths clearly described in his memoir suggested the concerns the devshirme youths

had for their own Christian spirituality as well as Christianity in general. According to

Mihailovic, the devshirme youths planned a conspiracy against the sultan directly after

their arrival in Istanbul. Their act was motivated by their strong belief that their souls

would be saved if they killed the sultan and by this act, Christendom would be saved as

well:

the Emperor having arrived at Adrianople, took eight youths of this same
group among the chamberlains. These youths agreed to kill the Emperor on
night watch, saying among themselves, If we kill this Turkish dog, then all of
Christendom will be freed; but if we are caught, then we will become martyrs
before God with the others.4

The plan turned out to be unsuccessful and the sultans terrible revenge tells us

about the brutality the devshirme youths experienced when they tried any action

against the sultan. The sultans punishment instilled a great amount of fear into the

devshirme youths. The devshirme youths were burned with hot hens eggs and

beheaded. The Serbian youths were no longer allowed to serve in the sultans private

3
Ibid.,51.
4
Ibid.

55
chambers. Their genitals were cut off and they continued their service as eunuchs

guarding the sultans wives. What is most important for us is the answer devshirme

youths gave to the sultan on his inquiry into who led them to their action. They

answered in unison, none other than our great sorrow for our fathers and dear

friends.5 Their response clearly reflected the desolation and loneliness of the

devshirme youths among the Ottomans.

Mihailovic emphasized the importance of Christianity at the beginning of his

memoir. It was his belief that the Christians should use their religion as a tool against

the Ottomans:

all races of man who govern themselves according to the sacred reading of
our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, we believe and profess one Lord God, Creator of
heavens and earth, in three persons: the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the
Trinity one and indivisible reigning forever and ever. Amen. And as we
believe, so do we accept the Holy Cross. In the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Ghost. And after Christ, we call ourselves Christians. O
Most Holy Trinity we pray to Thy Holy Grace: Aid the Christians against the
accursed heathens.6

Mihailovic repeatedly used the word heathens for Muslims and showed

disrespect and intolerance toward their faith. There was only one thing worse than

Muslims in Mihailovics view. This was converted Christians who upon forced

conversion to Islam forgot their Christian religion and worshiped the Muslims God.

Mihailovic rightly concluded that the process of conversion in the Ottoman Empire

contributed greatly to the Turkish expansion as well as the Turkish practice of

systematic mixing of the Christians and Muslims. With a very thought provoking

5
Ibid.
6
Ibid.,1.

56
comparison of the Ottoman Empire and the sea, Mihailovic brought his memoir to an

end:

Turkish or heathens expansion is like the sea, which never increases nor
decreases...Sea water is dense and salty, so that in some regions they make salt
of it; nevertheless, without adding a portion of fresh water to the salt water, salt
cannot be made. The Turks are also of such a nature as the sea: they never have
peace they round up and bring several thousand good Christians amongst the
heathens; having being mixed they are spoiled, like the above-mentioned water.
Having forgotten their good Christian faith they accept and extol the heathen
faith. And such heathenized Christians are much worse than true-born heathens
This then adds to the expansion of the Turks.7

Despite a negative view of the Ottomans and their religion, Mihailovic admired

Ottoman organization of their state and generously praised the Janissary corps. What

is important for my thesis is Mihailovica respect toward the Ottomans for their

equitable treatment of the devshirme youths concerning their career advancement as

well as justice for all: Muslims, Christians, and Jews. Thanks to the Ottomans

impartial treatment toward the devshirme youths, many of them reached the highest

political and social positions in the Ottoman Empire.

As I mentioned earlier, Mihailovics memoir was intended to help Christians to

get to know the Ottomans better so the victory of Islam over Christianity would be

stopped. All Mihailovic wanted was to return to the Christian lands and extol his

native religion. When he escaped, he was thankful to God for his success. As

Mihailovic began his memoir addressing Christianity and praying for help against the

heathens, he ended his story in the same way. Lord God Almighty, help faithful

Christians against the ignoble heathens, to wipe them out. Amen.8

7
Ibid., 96.
8
Ibid., 99.

57
 In contrast to Mihailovics life and career in the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed

Sokollu had a different experience. Mehmed pasha Sokollu began his life in the

Ottoman Empire as a youth collected by the blood levy around 1523, at the time when

the Bosnian youths were already known as reliable palace administrators as well as

skilled soldiers. Sokollu belonged to those devshirme youths whom sultan Suleiman

the Magnificent, after many years of loyal service in his palace as well as on the

battlefield as a military commander granted the highest political and trustworthy

position in the Ottoman Empire. Sokollu became Grand Vizier, equivalent to a prime

minister today. To understand the scheme of the devshirme collection, which provided

opportunities for a political career and social advancement for Sokollu and many other

devshirme youths, I will explain in detail Sokollus pathway to success, from the time

he was taken by the blood levy to the time of his great political leadership and high

social recognition.

Sokollu was born ca. 1505 in Bosnia in a small town called Sokolovici. His

Serbian and Christian name was Bajo Sokolovic. According to legend passed down

orally in the Serbian folk tradition, Bajo Sokolovic was destined for a successful

political career while he was still in his mothers womb. When she was pregnant,

Bajos mother had a dream that a pine tree emerged from her womb and with its

branches, provided a protective roof over the world. Since she did not understand her

dream, she turned to the eldest member of the family, who, according to Serbian belief,

is the most knowledgeable to clarify all seemingly unexplainable phenomena or events.

Sadly, Bajos grandfather interpreted the dream as a bad sign, because he considered it

difficult to believe that his daughter-in-law would give birth to the master of the world.

58
He prayed to God for it to end happily.9 It is thought provoking how much the dream

of Sokollus mother resembles Osmans dream, the first sultan I mentioned in Chapter

One. Both dreams signified successful leadership and the prophecy for both future

leaders turned out to be true.

The Sokolovic family was well known in the Visegrad district as they belonged

to the rank of low nobility that still existed at the beginning of the sixteenth century

dispersed in the rural areas of Bosnia. This is significant because when the devshirme

collection took place in some districts, the families of noble birth were targeted first.

The Ottoman officials knew the Sokolovic family when they came to collect a

devshirme tax. The Sokolovic family had experienced the devshirme collection some

twenty years earlier when Bajo was selected. One boy from the Sokolovic family,

known in the Ottoman Empire as Deli Husrev pasha was already taken by the

devshirme. As Deli Husrev pasha made a successful career in the Ottoman Empire,

which his title pasha suggested, he took his younger brother known as Lala Mustafa

pasha to Istanbul around the same time when Sokollu was taken. Therefore, the

Janissary officers in charge of the devshirme knew the Sokolovic family when they

came to the Visegrad district to collect devshirme.10 At the time, Bajo was in the

Miliseva monastery where his uncle was a monk and a tutor, and where Bajo Sokolovic

was first educated. He was singing in the church choir when a Janissary officer took

him back to the village for the devshirme. Bajos parents persistently begged the

Janissary officer not to take their child away and with financial support of other family

9
Radovan Samardzic, Mexmed Sokolovic (Zavod za udzbenike, Beograd 2010), 20.
10
Samardzic, Mehmd Sokolovic, 16-17.

59
members, his father Dimitrije tried to bribe the Janissary officer. The Janissary official

was incorruptible and with dismay in his voice, calling Bajos parents dummies,

blamed them for knowing nothing about their sons future. He tried to convince them

that their poor son would become an honorable man in the sultans service and very

happy in the Ottoman Empire because the sultan would take care of him. The

Janissary officer predicted that Bajo would be able to make his parents happy and rich

too and threated them not to sabotage their sons destiny because it would bring

damnation on their house. All of this prophecy occurred according to the Ottoman

official because the Ottoman Empire was a Xumaj bird who fell on the Sokolovic

genus and on Bajos head. He saw the shadow of that bird, which in the mythological

world means a symbol of great happiness. Thus, for Sokollu, there was only one future

and that was in the sultans service.11

A Turkish historian, Axmed Refik, also a biographer of Sokollu, talked about

the same legend in a different way but with the same outcome. According to Refik, the

Janissary officer tried to convince Bajos parents by telling them that the brilliance of

great happiness was reflected from Bajos forehead. He considered it an obvious sign

of a successful future, so Bajos parents should confidently expect that their son would

reach the highest position, next to the sultan. Once that happened, his prediction was

that all roads toward the treasure of happiness would be available for Bajo and when

his parents got old, he would come to help them.12

11
Ibid.,18-19.
12
Axmed Refik, Sokolovic (Sarajevo: Stamparija Bosanska Posta, 1927), 6.

60
 In a group of forty children eighteen years of age, Bajo Sokolovic was

transported to Edirne where the sultan Suleiman the Magnificent resided at the time.

Upon arrival, when all of the devshirme youths were converted to Islam and given

Muslim names, Bajo Sokolovic became Mehmed Sokollu. Because of his height and

slender physique, Sokollu quickly acquired the nickname Mehmed Tavil (tall).

Sokollu was enlisted in icoglane (i.e. in a group of youths who began their education at

the sultans palace). Thanks to his primary interest in religion and aptitude for foreign

languages, Sokollu quickly mastered several languages spoken in the Ottoman Empire

and demonstrated exceptional knowledge of Islam and Islamic law. Sokollus

education lasted for thirteen years and upon completion, Sokollu began his professional

career at the sultans palace in Istanbul.

From his first position, which was financial in nature, as he worked in the royal

treasure, Sokollu took the well-trodden path of hard work and continual verification of

his abilities and service to the sultan. During the next ten years, Sokollu occupied five

positions and accomplished all of them well with unquestioning loyalty to the sultan.

As a result, Suleiman the Magnificent promoted Sokollu as his courtier and Sokollu

began working in close proximity to the sultan. At first, his position was as a rikabdar,

to help the sultan mount his horse. He then followed him on foot on all of his

ceremonies and journeys. Sokollu gained a higher position when he became cohadar

with responsibility to take care of the sultans clothes. At the same time, Sokollu

became an aga. This title, as all others used for civil or military officers in the

Ottoman Empire, meant that the sultans staff members became eligible for more

trustworthy tasks in the fields of his administration and military. With this first title,

61
Sokollu was in line to climb the palace corporate ladder. When Sokollu completed

more responsible assignments and duties, the sultan appointed Sokollu as a silahdar-

aga, commander of the imperial shields. This position entailed responsibility for a

sultans personal weapons. In addition, at all palace ceremonies and public events,

Sokollu walked on the sultans right side while carrying his saber on his right shoulder.

Sokollus next position and title was a cesnegir-pasha, the sultans personal escort on

all of his journeys and military campaigns. One of the responsibilities Sokollu had in

this position was to taste all food and drinks intended for the sultan. When the sultan

appointed Sokollu as kapidzipasha, Sokollu completed confidential tasks of a

political and military nature, such as welcoming foreign envoys before the sultan and

accompanying them to the sultans private chambers, opening the sultans personal

letters, and taking various confidential missions. Sokollu was particularly successful in

this position since knowledge of foreign languages and law were his greatest

strengths.13

Sokollu left the sultans palace in 1546 when the sultan appointed him as an

admiral of the Turkish fleet. This honorable position was particularly important for

Sokollu because it was the first position outside of the sultans palace. Upon

successful completion, Sokollu was eligible for higher future positions within the

sultans administration and military. Before Sokollu, this position was in the hands of

Hayreddin Barbarossa, a very successful and illustrious commander of the Turkish fleet

who accomplished many naval victories and secured the Ottoman domination on the

Mediterranean Sea. However, the Turkish sea soldiers were unorganized and divided

13 Samardzic, Mehmed Sokolovic, 29-31.

62
into several independent clusters. Sokollu united them and organized the Turkish fleet

under one High Command. In addition, Sokollu improved the condition of the sultans

fleet by building new shipyards for manufacturing galleys of superior quality and

improving maritime laws. Sokollu was a commander of the Turkish fleet until 1551,

when the sultan appointed him as a beylerbey of Rumeli (the Ottoman Balkans) and in

the same year promoted Sokollu to supreme commander in the war with Hungarians

and Hapsburgs.14 As the news about Sokollus victory on the battlefield spread

throughout the empire, Sokollu earned increasing confidence and trust from the sultan.

Upon his return to Istanbul, Sokollu was elevated into a prominent political ministers

circle. Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent appointed Sokollu as his third vizier. Sokollu

continued to work with diligence and passion until 1565 when Sultan Suleiman

appointed him as a Grand Vizier. The title of a Grand Vizier was considered the most

prestigious position in the Ottoman Empire. The Grand Vizier had immense political

power and responsibility. This position was a source of wealth and respectful social

status. The role of viziers was widely described in the historical literature. Therefore,

only the highlights of Sokollus extensive political authority are covered here:

the Grand Vizier represented the sultan as head of the civil and military
administration and as a supreme judge. He appointed the highest officials in
these departmenthe had the care of the imperial sealhe might hold a Divan
of his own at his palace in the afternoonhe received visits of state from the
Kaziaskers and Defterdars every Wednesdayhe received a weekly visit from
the Agha of the Janissaries, and a monthly visit from the other viziershe
inspected the city of Constantinople and its markets, escorted by the judge of
Constantinople, the Agha of the Janissaries, the provost of the market, and the

14 Ibid., 35-37.

63
 prefect of the city he received a weekly visit of state from various magistrates
and Sanjak Beys.15

Aside from all of the political power and public recognition, the Grand Viziers

position was short lived, because the post was a dangerous one; for the possessor,

with all his greatness was the sultans kul (slave) liable to summary execution if he

failed to give satisfaction.16 Sokollu was a Grand Vizier for fifteenth years, during the

reign of three sultans during the golden age of Ottoman expansion and success, during

the sixteenth century. Sokollu held the Grand Vizier position until his death on

October 11, 1579. Sokollus life was tragically ended by the hand of a dervish who

came to the viziers chamber to protest the lost timar or property he was given as a

compensation for military service.

Sokollus intelligence, hard work, absolute loyalty to the sultan, and successful

outcomes for every duty and responsibility he had it in the sultans palace and on the

battlefield, brought him the most prestigious position in the Ottoman Empire. If we

only look at the devshirme system through Sokollus successful career, the logical

conclusion would be that the devshirme system was a path to social advancement.

However, if we look at Sokollus relationship with his parents, family, and native

country, as well as his respect for the Christian religion, we may question whether the

devshirme system was a vehicle for social advancement or something else. This might

become clearer as we consider Sokolovics dedication to his family and native land.

15
Albert Howe Lybyer, The Government of the Ottoman Empire in the Time of Suleiman the
Magnificent, (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1913), 165-166.
16
Ibid., 167.

64
 Mehmed Sokollu felt pride and honor in his Serbian origin and Christian

religion and his national and religious background were enhanced with Sokollus

advancement in his political and social career. Sokollu found his parents and family

and converted them to Islam, surrounded himself with Serbian compatriots whom he

generously supported, maintained a strong bond with the Serbian Orthodox Church and

in his old age began claiming his descent from the Serbian despots. All of these facts

are vital and should be explained in detail because they underscore the fact that despite

the devshirme youths having positive experiences in the Ottoman Empire and

achieving great professional success, they did not forgot their parents and families,

religion, and native country.

When Sokollu went on his first military commission, as the sultans highest

military commander, he arrived with the Turkish troops in Belgrade. What he found in

Belgrade was military aid from Serbs who in large part joined the Ottoman military

and greatly contributed to the Turkish military victory. This military support by the

Serbs turned out to be one of the most important reasons for Sokollus subsequent

decision to reopen the Serbian patriarchy in Pec, on Kosovo. At that time, the Serbians

had been under the Ottoman conquest for nearly 100 years and their participation in the

Ottoman army helped them to obtain some relief from the Ottoman obligations such as

high property taxes and social limitation.

During this first military crusade, as well as throughout his career, Sokollu did

not hide his Serbian origin. Quite the opposite, Sokollu insisted in communicating in

the Serbian language and using the Cyrillic alphabet in all of his diplomatic

correspondence with Hungarian diplomats. In addition, Sokollu demanded from all of

65
his political or military opponents to respond in the same language and alphabet to him.

Sokollu used his native language in the sultans palace as well and communicated with

members of his family and other Serbians from Bosnia and Serbia in the Serbian

language.17

Along with his career advancement, Sokollu began to inquire intently about his

family back in Bosnia. When he found out from the Janissary officer who collected the

devshirme in Bosnia that his parents were still alive, Sokollu contacted his family and

converted his parents and cousins to Islam. Sokollus father Dimitrije became

Jemaludin Sinan-Beg and obtained property and management duties of one of the

Muslim endowments that Sokollu founded in Bosnia. Sokollu brought his mother to

Istanbul and when she died, buried her with the highest honor. Many of his close

relatives ended up in Istanbul where they made successful careers thanks to Sokollus

help and support. Sokollu appointed many of his cousins to various command

positions all over Bosnia and Serbia. His nephew Mustafa, for example, gained a job

collecting devshirme taxes in Bosnia and later when Sokollu became the Grand Vizier,

he appointed Mustafa as Bosnian Sanjak-Bey.18

Aside from supporting and helping his relatives to make careers in the Ottoman

Empire, Sokollu generously supported and helped all of his compatriots from the

village of Sokolovic and surrounding areas in the Visegrad district who came to

Istanbul and asked for help. As Sokollus career advanced, especially when he became

a Grand Vizier, the number of his cousins and compatriots increased noticeably at the

17
Samardzic, Mehmed Sokolovic, 52.
18 Ibid., 33-34.

66
sultans palace. Sokollu always made time for his relatives and compatriots and was

always willing to listen to their problems and complaints related to improving justice in

Bosnia, more land, famine, the restoration of their old or damaged mosques or

churches, or their need for a new bridge or fountain. As Sokollu helped his family

members and compatriots make prosperous careers in the palace, they became

Sokollus loyal and obedient supporters. 19 It was well known that Sokollus genus had

more members in the sultans palace than any other palace officials who were taken by

the devshirme in the Balkans. It is worth mentioning that Sokollu did not force anyone

to convert to Islam. Christians who kept their faith were welcomed to his viziers

chamber as well as Muslims.20

Sokollu respected Orthodox Christianity and generously supported the

Orthodox churches and monasteries. His relationship with the Christian faith was clear

and consistent. Sokollu had great respect toward Orthodox Christianity and considered

his knowledge of Christianity as a prerequisite for his superior understanding of Islam

and Islamic teaching of God and faith. One of the reasons why Sokollu passionately

adopted his new religion was the fact that Sokollus understanding of Islam exceeded

his knowledge of Christianity. Sokollu never showed any sign of mystic mixture of

those two faiths. On the contrary, Sokollu fought against all Islamic heresy and mystic

teachings with the zeal of a man turned toward true religion.21 Although Sokollu was a

devout Muslim for whom Islam and Islamic law was paramount in life as well as in his

19
Ibid., 14.
20 Ibid., 108.
21
Ibid., 107.

67
political career, Sokollu was firm in his support of Christian Orthodoxy as well as the

Serbian sacred places. As a result, aside from his commitment to reestablishment of

the Serbian patriarchy, Sokollu generously supported the Mileseva monastery, the

same monastery from which he was taken as a boy by the devshirme. The Mileseva

monastery, famous for keeping the relics of the holiest man in the Serbian tradition,

Saint Sava, where Serbians would gather for solace and cures, flourished during

Sokollus years as a vizier. Sokollu greatly supported the monastery financially,

granted more land, and provided opportunities for an extensive printing of the holy

books. Thanks to Sokollus close relationship with this monastery, which lasted until

the end of his life, in the sixteenth century, Mileseva became the holy place for

converted Christians, now Muslim subjects as well. Unfortunately, after Sokollus

death, the Turks feared that the Serbs could raise a rebellion against them from this

holy place. By the order of Sinan pasha, the relics of Saint Sava were removed from

Mileseva and burned in Belgrade. By this act, the Turks destroyed the greatest shrine

of the Serbian population and tried to eliminate any connection of Muslims with their

former faith.22

By the viziers decree, the Serbian patriarchy in Pec was reestablished in

1557, 94 years after it was abolished in 1463. The patriarchy was reestablished

thanks to Sokollus influence as the third vizier of the sultans palace. According to

Serbian historian Samardzic, the primary reason for Sokollus persistent campaign

for reopening of the Serbian patriarchy in Kosovo was the Serbian military aid to

Sokollus troops in a war against the Hungarians. Although Sokollus decision was

22
Ibid., 108.

68
guided by the interest of the Ottoman state, since the benefits of the Serbian military

support in the Balkan was obvious, this act served more to strengthen the Serbian

population than the Ottoman state.23 For the Serbian subjects the reestablishment of

the patriarchy was the most important historical event in the time of the Ottoman

domination. The patriarchy helped the Serbians to restore their weakened spiritual

unity while it also became the institution of a state character and in that way

replaced the Serbians lost independent state. Although the patriarchy had an

obligation to cooperate with the Ottomans and was guided by the Turkish influence

in choosing its heads, the patriarchy still made the Serbian subjects politically

accountable and had as a goal to preserve Serbian traditions and customs as well as

to prevent Serbians from conversion to Islam. Sokollu appointed Makarije

Sokolovic, his cousin with whom he had a close relationship throughout his political

career, as the new Serbian patriarch. Sokolovics dynasty remained at the head of

the Serbian patriarchy for the next 30 years.24

At the time when Sokollu became a Grand Vizier, he expressed a tremendous

determination as well as obligation to leave a legacy in the Balkan states. Although

Sokollu built many mosques in Istanbul and constructed many caravansarays across the

empire, the majority of endowments were in Serbia and Bosnia. One of the first places

Sokollu economically supported was Belgrade, where Sokollu destroyed abandoned

churches and from their stones created the citys free and closed markets, inns, and

caravansarays. In addition, Sokollu constructed cobblestone roads and a fountain,

23
Ibid., 20.
24
Ibid., 109-114.

69
which still exists in Belgrade and is named Viziers Fountain after Sokollu. The

largest and the most important endowment Sokollu built at the end of his life was the

bridge over the river Drina in Visegrad, a city in Bosnia, close to his native town of

Sokolovici. The river Drina is the same river Sokollu crossed when he was collected

by the devshirme. For this project, Sokollu hired the most prestigious architect of that

time, the famous Mimar Sinan. The Grand Vizier never saw his largest and most

important endowment completed. Today, the bridge on river Drina symbolizes

Sokollus return home through his great deeds. In Bosnia, Sokollu also built a great

number of mosques and churches, among which the Piva monastery is the most

famous. Sokollu erected many more small bridges over Bosnia, vakufs or religious

endowments, covered markets, inns, and fountains as well.

Despite the same origin and religious background, Mehmed Sokollu and

Konstantin Mihailovic had completely different experiences in the Ottoman Empire.

Their individual destinies are reflected in their disparate views of the Ottomans, their

state, and religion. Although, both former devshirme youths set their goals in two

completely different directions, one intended to return to the Christian world, another

chose to stay; one continued to fight against the Ottomans, another chose to fight on

their side, there is one common thread that connected their disparate endings.

Regardless of their positive or negative experience in the Ottoman Empire, the

devshirme youths could not forget their families, native country, and Christian religion.

In this sense, the idea of the devshirme system as a means permanently to eradicate

national and religious background of the devshirme youths was erroneous in its

essence.

70
 Before we finish examining the devshirme system from the perspectives of two

devshirme youths, one more point of view must be analyzed. What was the experience

of the devshirme parents? The devshirme system was a traumatic experience not just

for the youths but their parents as well. For every parent, their children are their

greatest source of joy and happiness but also their largest responsibility. They had

rights to raise their children in accordance with their own wish, religion, and family

tradition. When their children were taken away, the parents lost their parenting rights

and the future of their children became unknown to them. This certainly painful

situation for the parents of the devshirme youths is increased further by the parents

powerlessness to prevent the forcible removal of their children. As I mentioned in the

third chapter, some desperate parents took actions against the Ottomans, which resulted

in them being killed. The agony, desperation, and helplessness of the parents

positions is increased by their awareness that they would never see their male children

again and that their children would end up in an enemy country, converted to a foreign

religion, with Muslim names, and devoting their lives to the sultan. The fact that some

of the devshirme youths achieved social advancement cannot ethically justify the

devshirme system. Thus, the experience of the devshirme parents was painful and

made the devshirme system an inhumane act from the parents point of view.

The devshirme system was organized in such a way as to expunge the national

and religious identity of the abducted Christian youths from the Balkans and to make

of them loyal Muslims whose life should be devoted only to the sultan and dedicated to

the expansion of the Ottoman Empire. When it comes to Mihailovic, it is worth

remembering that Mihailovic was a Serb from Serbia where the Serbian Orthodox

71
Church was strongly established and represented the cornerstone of Serbian national

identity. The Serbian population in Serbia was very religious in the Middle Ages

because of its founder Nemanja, who established a state based on a strong church-state

relationship. Since the Serbian subjects under Ottoman domination lost their

independent state and political dynasty, only the Serbian Orthodox Church remained

and continued to maintain a national identity alive through providing spiritual support

for the Serbian subjects. When the Ottomans defeated Serbia, the religious feelings of

the Serbian population were magnified. The Serbian subjects looked at their church as

the only path toward their salvation, often equating salvation with independence and

freedom. It is no wonder that Mihailovic was a deeply religious man whose strong

religious feelings made him see in Christianity his own path to salvation, which for him

meant return to the Christian faith and life among Christians in a Christian land. Thus,

the conversion to Islam and loss of the Christian religion for a deeply religious man

like Mihailovic was his greatest fear and anxiety, and caused his a very negative

experience as a devshirme youth. In addition, when we look at Mihailovics

frightening capture as well as the Ottoman punishment for attempted escape, it is no

wonder that Mihailovic had a very traumatic experience as a devshirme youth.

The Mihailovic case proved that heritage and religion of the devshirme youths

could not be expunged or forgotten. Conversion to a new religion and adoption of a

new nationality were degrading for the devshirme youths as well as painful and fearful.

Thus, the devshirme system ended as a very negative phenomenon of the Ottoman

Empire from the point of view of the converted devshirme youths who could not accept

72
the loss of their national and religious identity. Thus, Mihailovics experience as a

devshirme youth proved that the devshirme institution was an inhumane act.

In contrast, when we examine Sokollus experience in the Ottoman Empire, the

picture is quite different. Sokollu embraced life in the Ottoman Empire, accepted his

new religion, and accommodated himself to the Ottomans and their way of life. In

Sokollus case, there are certain facts that contributed to his quick accommodation

within the Ottoman Empire as well as his unconditional acceptance of Islam. As I

mentioned earlier, the Sokolovic family had already experienced islamization before

Sokollu was taken by the devshirme. Their continuing enjoyment of the status of low

nobility indicates that some of their members must have converted to Islam or

collaborated with the Ottomans in some way. Thus, Sokollu may have experienced

some familiarity with the Ottomans before he was taken to the Ottoman Empire, which

could have contributed to his relatively rapid adaptation to the Ottoman way of life.25

In addition, the timing and manner of recruitment of the devshirme youths contributed

greatly in ameliorating the painful experience of the devshirme system for Sokollu. In

contrast with Mihailovic, Sokollu was recruited some 70 years later. The recruitment

took place at the time of the greatest Ottoman expansion, when the local priest and the

Janissary officer both participated in the process of devshirme selection. Thus, Sokollu

did not have the terrible experience of forced capture as Mihailovic did. In addition,

upon arrival to Edirne, Sokollu was selected for education in the sultans palace, which

is considered a less difficult treatment than training for the Janissary corps.

25
Ibid., 20.

73
 Sokollus life and career shows that the devshirme youths could reach the

pinnacle within the sultans autocratic state and soar high politically, socially and

publicly. Looking at Sokollus successful career in the Ottoman Empire, the logical

conclusion would be that the devshirme system was a vehicle for social advancement.

However, that vehicle could only take the brightest devshirme youths into a life of

political power and social progress. The majority of the devshirme youths ended up in

the sultans Janissary corps risking their lives for the sultans and their expansionist

goals.

Sokollus care and support for his family and compatriots in Bosnia sheds new

light on the devshirme system and places under question the statement that the

devshirme system was more a path to social success than a painful act. Social

advancement in the Ottoman Empire demanded from the devshirme youths rejection of

their national and religious identities and the adoption of new ones. Sokollu replaced

his family with loyalty and servitude to the sultan, embraced Islam with passion and

zeal, and showed adoration toward the glory of the Ottoman Empire he had a privilege

to serve.

However, when he became one of the viziers and reached high social status in

the Ottoman Empire, Sokollu found his parents, maintained contacts with his family,

and generously supported his place of birth. What do these facts tell us? They

demonstrate that devshirme youths who achieved great success were never able or

willing to abandon completely their original national identity despite the fact that they

adopted a new one in the Ottoman Empire. Further, Sokollu generously supported

Christian churches and monasteries and erected many new ones throughout the

74
Balkans, not just in his native state of Bosnia. This fact tells us that, despite adoption

of the Islamic religion with passion and zeal, Sokollu wanted or needed to maintain ties

with his former Christian faith. Thus, in case of Sokollu, the devshirme system ended

up being an inhumane act because it demanded that the devshirme youths eliminate

something that was never supposed to be eliminated and that is family, origin, and

faith.

The devshirme system was a unique invention of the Ottoman Empire. The

idea of the devshirme institution was not to aid or in any way endorse the devshirme

youths in their endeavor to succeed within their new state and provide better social

status for themselves. From the moment when Osman established the first Ottoman

principality to the time when the Ottoman state became the most powerful state in the

Eurasian region, the state required from all of its subjects the subordination of their

existence to the realization of the states primary goal, which was to spread Islam and

empower the empire under the Osman dynasty. The devshirme system was

strategically organized in a way to exploit those youths to realize this basic idea of the

state. Although the Ottoman state provided opportunities for their career advancement,

the devshirme youths were just the sultans slaves, used for his personal battle against

the Turkish aristocracy, his main threat in the creation of an autocratic state. Thanks to

the devshirme institution, sultans secured their positions as absolute leaders by

surrounding themselves with the brightest and most gifted youths, who were absolutely

loyal and obedient in their servitude. Certainly, the devshirme system was not

established for any kind of success for the devshirme youths, rather for their loyal

service in the sultans private army, his Janissary corps. From the point of view of the

75
political establishment of the Ottoman Empire, the devshirme system was an essential

tool for expansion of the Ottoman Empire and extension of Islamic territory.

If we take into account all of these points of view concerning the devshirme

system, the logical conclusion would be that the devshirme system, while both an

inhumane act, and a path to social advancement, when judged objectively was simply

part of the survival strategy of the Osman dynasty as it headed the unprecedented

expansion of the Ottoman state.

76
 CHAPTER FIVE

CONTEMPRORAY VIEW ON DEVSHIRME

As a unique innovation of the Ottomans, the devshirme institution was

established to fulfill the staffing needs of the sultans prestigious military corps.

However, the idea of using slaves as military personnel was practiced in many places

throughout the Islamic world. From the Middle Ages until the nineteenth century, a

large number of long lasting Muslim dynasties (e.g., Abbasids, Buyids, Fatimids,

Seljuks, Mamluks, and the Safavids) based their military organizations on slave

soldiers. Turks themselves experienced military slavery under the Abbasid Caliphate

when they have been captured, taken as tribute or purchased as slaves, from the non-

Muslim steppes of Central Asia, brought up as Muslim converts, then trained in

Baghdad as soldiers and administrators.1 Thus, when Murad I formed his private

army based on slaves in the mid-fourteenth century, it represented some kind of

continuation of well-established practice of using slaves either obtained as bounty or

purchased for military purposes.

As an Islamic state, the Ottoman Empire based its administrative-military

organization on sharia or Islamic law. Under Islamic law, the Muslims were allowed

to enslave prisoners of war from non-Muslim populations and in that sense, the

Ottoman action was legal since it was done in accordance with Islamic law. However,

when it comes to the devshirme system, the Ottoman actions were illegal and in

opposition to the sharia.

1
Lord Kinross, The Ottoman Centuries, 51.

76
 The devshirme youths were recruited from non-Muslim societies conquered by

the Ottomans and under the authority of the Ottoman state and Islamic law. Those

societies had a zimmi status, which meant an advantageous position in comparison to

the non-Muslim societies found outside of the domain of Islam. The term devshirme

meant collection of dhimma-children (i.e. children of non-Muslim populations living

under Muslim protection). Paul Wittek states:

the levy of dhimmi children was not only contrary to the Sharia, but also
contrary to well-established custom. For three centuries, in their Anatolian
homeland, the Turks had been ruling over non-Muslims and had applied to
them the prescriptions of the Sharia; the status of dhimmi was therefore
commonly known and respected.2

Why the Ottomans acted in opposition to Islamic law when it came to

collection of the devshirme youths is still an open question. The possible answer may

be found in the shafi legal school since according to this Islamic school only those who

were people of the book prior to 622 (i.e. who professed their religion since the time

before the prophet Muhammad) were entitled to zimmi status. Since the population of

the Balkans converted to Christianity after the time of the prophet Muhammad, they

should be denied the status of dhimmi. 3 Unfortunately, this theory cannot legally

justify the devshirme system applied to the Christian youths in the Balkans for one

simple reason. The Jews as well as the Greeks and Armenians professed their religion

a long time before the Muslim professed Islam. However, only the Jews were

exempted from the devshirme collection and that is because they were townspeople

2
Paul Wittek, Devshirme and sharia, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
17, no. 4 (1955): 275.
3
Ibid., 271-278.

77
working as craft makers and in other businesses that the Ottomans wanted to preserve.

The Greeks or Armenians were not exempted from the devshirme collection. Thus, the

Ottomans could not have any explanation for collection of the devshirme youths from

the non-Muslim population with zimmis status. Their action was against the sharia or

Islamic law.

The view of the devshirme system among the Christian population in the

Balkans is part of a general view of the Ottoman Empire and its conquest of the Balkan

states. Namely, the span of several centuries under Ottoman domination is considered

the most tragic period in the history of the Balkan people. The Balkan subjects lost

their independence and ruling dynasties. They were obliged to pay poll taxes and the

blood levy. The blood levy was the most painful levy the Christians communities had

to pay to the Ottomans.

While the medieval Christian sources openly resisted and opposed the

devshirme system, contemporary historians are divided in their opinion about the

devshirme institution. The sermon of Isidore Glabas, as mentioned in the third chapter,

addressed for the first time the devshirme collection at the end of the fourteenth

century, clearly shows an opposing view of the devshirme institution from three

different perspectives. Isidore Glabas began his sermon from the parents point of

view and questioned:

what would a man not suffer were he to see a child, whom he had begotten
and raisedcarried off by the hands of foreigners, suddenly and by force, and
forced to change over to alien customs and to become a vessel of barbaric garb,
speech, impiety, and other contamination, all in a momentor what would
happenif a man were to find himself as if cut into two parts; and if he were to
see the one dismembered section of his body, his son, become a substance of

78
 baseness and not used for any good purpose; and to see the remaining section,
himself that is, not only useless but dead and full of lamentation and agony?4

Glabas could not determine whose pain was greater and who was more

devastated by the devshirme system, the abducted child, or the abandoned father. In

his sermon, Isidore questioned:

which one shall the father lament, himself or his sonbecause the
light of his eyes has perished? Because he will not have his son to send
him to his grave in fitting manner, and to perform the other rites and
honors? Because he sees that seed which he hoped to offer to God
changed into an offering to the devil?5

Glabas lamented upon the fact that the freeborn Christians lost their freedom

and became slaves in the hands of foreigners:

or shall he lament his son because a free child becomes a slave? Because
being nobly born he is forced to adopt barbaric customs? Because he who was
rendered so mild by motherly and fatherly hands is about to be filled with
barbaric cruelty? Because he attended matins in the churchesis now taught to
pass the night in murdering his own peoplebut the worst of all the evils is
that, he is shamefully separated from God and has become miserably entangled
with the devil, and in the end will be sent to darkness and hell with the
demons.6

As mentioned in previous chapters, the Christian families were very resistant in

their opposition to the devshirme system and tried to protect their children by all

means. The parents married their sons at an early age, send them into the forest, tried

to bribe the Janissary officials not to spirit their child away, and in some cases, even

disfigured their childrens faces. However, the fact that some families in Bosnia

offered their children to the devshirme collection to provide a better future for them

4
Vryonis,Isidore Glabas and the Turkish Devshirme, 436-437.
5
Ibid., 437.
6
Ibid.

79
and the fact that the life and career in the Ottoman Empire provided a path toward

social advancement within Ottoman society, made some modern historians conclude

that the Christians response to the devshirme system was less tragic and more passive.

For example, Caroline Finkel described the professional career of one devshirme youth

who was sent back to Bosnia as Ottoman governor after forty years of service

throughout the Ottoman Empire. She concluded:

his brilliant career was a clear demonstration of the opportunity open to a

boy such as he, removed from a poor peasant family. No doubt there were tears
on both sides as such boys left home and family, but the youth-levy appears not
to have aroused much resistance among the Christians subject to itit almost
seems that it may have been regarded as a legal duty owed to a legitimate
monarch, rather than a tyrannical imposition.7

It is well known that the opportunities in a sphere of political power or social

prominence existed for the devshirme youths but it is wrong to conclude that this fact

made the Christian population passive in their action against the devshirme system. In

his sermon, Isidore Glabas did not mention any political career or social advancement

for the devshirme youths, rather he underlined the tragedy of the devshirme youths

who were born as free Christians and were about to become slaves.

This view of Ottoman rule in the Balkans today is reflected in folk literature.

Folk songs were composed by ordinary people singing with the tune of a gusle, the

one-string fiddle. Songs were passed down orally from the Middle Ages to the present

day. The epic poetry of Serbia represents the most famous and the best-known

reference for knowledge of the common peoples view of the history of the Serbian

people. The first Balkan ballads were created in medieval times describing the glory of

7
Caroline Finkel, Osmans Dream, l23.

80
the Serbian kingdom and royal dynasty. During the time of the Ottoman occupation,

Serbian folk poetry depicted the circumstances under the Ottoman conquest, loss of

independence, Serbian resistance, and determination to gain back their freedom, state,

religion, and culture. It was a common practice to create songs based on the hajduk

personality (i.e. a guerrilla who is successfully fighting against the Ottomans). As

Stavrianos explained:

the Serbian heroes in these epics were adopted by the neighboring South
Slavic peoples and glorified in their respective literature. This is particularly
true of the burly, blustering, impulsively chivalrous haiduk, Marko
Kraljevichhe is strong, self-willed, capricious, at time cruel, but always
brave, always fighting and hating the Turks, and always protecting the weak
and the friendless.8

The folk literature expressed the commonly held negative view of the Ottoman

occupation. Although, one may assume that the blood levy represented in the mind of

the Serbian subjects was the most painful levy imposed by the Ottomans, the

traditional folk literature did not address the devshirme system apart from the generally

negative outlook on the period of the Ottoman occupation and suppressed religious

activity.

However, the memories of famous devshirme youths such as Mehmed Pasha

Sokollu or Konstantine Mihailovic are still very much present in the mind of the

contemporary Serbian people in Serbia as well as in Bosnia. Although, the Sokollu

legacy is much more substantial and his life is better known, both Serbs have a special

place in the history of the Serbian people. Of all devshirme youths who made more or

less successful careers in the Ottoman Empire, only these two Serbs made an

8
L. S. Stavrianos, The Balkans since 1453 (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1958), 108-
109.

81
impression on the historical memory of the Serbian people as represented in popular

Serbian literature and culture. As a person who grew up in the former Yugoslavia, I

must say that the biographies of these two devshirme youth were quite popular. The

schools regularly took children on excursions to visit some of Sokollus endowments

such as the fountain in Kalemegdan Park in Belgrade or the bridge on the river Drina

that Sokollu built in Bosnia. The subject of the Nobel Prize-winning book, The Bridge

on the Drina is the history of Sokollus bridge built it in the Visegrad city in Bosnia.

This book by Ivo Andric was mandatory reading in the school system of the former

Yugoslavia.

For the Serbian population, Sokollu and Mihailovic were symbols of Ottoman

inhumanity and their ultimate defeat. Looking through the prism of forcible removal

of their children as the embodiment of their loss of religious and national identity

intensified the tragedy of the Serbian defeat. Thus, the fact that Konstantine

Mihailovic returned to the Christian fold and Mehmed Sokollu continued to generously

support the Serbian Orthodox Church and people could be viewed as a defeat of the

devshirme system and ultimately a victory for Serbian national identity.

82
 CONCLUSION

The devshirme system or blood levy was imposed on Balkan territory

conquered by the Ottomans at the end of the fourteenth century. The Ottoman Empire

invented the devshirme system out of a need for qualified, and most importantly, loyal

military men who would fill the Janissary corps or sultans personal slave-based army.

However, from its very inception, this institution was fraught with contradictions.

From its non-conformity with Islamic law and breach of the zimmi status of the

devshirme youthsa greatly debated topic in the historiographical literature dealing

with the Ottoman Empireto the curious silence that surrounds the institution in

Serbian folklorethe devshirme continues to confound modern scholars to this day.

The forcible removal of the most precious possession of the parentstheir

children, would be an act of unspeakable trauma for any family. The Balkan Christian

tragedy was enhanced by the fact that their children, the most vulnerable part of any

society, were forced to mentally and emotionally transform themselves to fit into a

Muslim way of life and act as slaves for the rest of their lives. For this reason, the

devshirme system is considered an inhumane and heinous act down to the present day

by the Christian communities that were exposed to the devshirme collection in the

Middle Ages. However, some contemporary western historians today justify the

existence of the devshirme system because it provided social mobility, political career,

and wealth for the devshirme youths who came from poor peasant families. For this

reason, some wrongly looked at the Christian communities as passive opponents to the

devshirme collection.

83
 I intentionally chose Mehmed Sokollu and Konstantine Mihailovic as two

representatives of the devshirme youths who had completely different career paths and

destinies in the Ottoman Empire. While these two Serbs and Christians were both

trained as slaves with the purpose of serving the sultan and the Ottoman Empire, their

views on the Ottoman Empire and vision of their future were in opposition. For

Mihailovic, the loss of his Christian identity was unacceptable and humiliating.

Making a career among the Muslims was never his intention. To escape from the

heathens, his expression for Muslims, was his only objective. On the contrary,

Sokollu embraced Islam as a gift from God and saw in his slavery an opportunity for a

political career and social advancement.

The different views of the devshirme youths on their life and career in the

Ottoman Empire are later reflected in the different points of view in contemporary

historical works. No one can defend the brutal removal of children from their parents,

country, and religion. However, no one can diminish the fact that the devshirme

system was both a career path as well as slave institution. Thus, when we consider this

institution from the various points of view, we must consider the devshirme system as

both a subjective and an objective phenomenon.

Objectively, the Ottoman Empire established the devshirme system out of a

need for qualified military men. The emerging need for a larger army came at a time

when the Ottoman Empire was expanding. The Ottomans did not have any other goals

related to the devshirme youths and their future except to continue the legacy of Osman,

the first Ottoman sultan, which was to spread Islam and expand the Ottoman Empire.

84
This was the primary goal of the Ottomans. The devshirme youths were used for

realization of that goal.

Subjectively, the Christian parents lost their children permanently, knowing that

their most precious gift was forced to eradicate their Christian and Serbian identity and

live as slaves serving Muslim conquerors.

Some devshirme youths made successful political careers and established

prestigious social status within the Ottoman Empire. Depending on their own vision of

their new life and willingness to transform their national and religious identity, for the

devshirme youths this institution could be a vehicle toward social advancement as well

as an inhumane act.

In my opinion, the devshirme system, as any institution, has the potential to be

viewed as negative, positive, or neutral depending on context or point of view. This is

why I found the devshirme institution so fascinating topic to study.

85
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