Ottoman Janissary

Description from original post (created 2012-01-22 21:22):

The Janissary were the elite "warrior-scholar" troops of the Ottoman empire, which had the first professional army in Europe. The Sultan wanted to raise an army of people totally loyal to the empire rather than their local politics or tribe, so he began to conscript non-Muslim citizens of the empire's recently conquered European provinces. Conscripted as young boys, they were given top-notch well-rounded educations as well as training with weapons and military strategy. Most of them became Muslims along the way, and held pretty high positions within the civilian government of the empire. As slaves directly owned by the Sultan, they were initially forbidden to marry or wear beards, but from one sultan to another the rules were relaxed and they grew in power, until ultimately they started controlling things behind the scenes.