TURKISH ACCOUNT OF THE JANISSARIES. 



THE East has lately become a scene of events, which are of most 

 intense interest to all reflecting minds ; their consequences being of ex- 

 traordinary importance to every great European power. We have wit- 

 nessed the gradual decay of an empire, which was once pre-eminent 

 among the nations, but we know little or nothing of those fatal 

 diseases which have long preyed upon her vitals, and at length 

 reduced her to a state of utter prostration. All eyes are now fixed 

 upon Turkey Old Istamboul forms the pivot of European political 

 strategy. Possessing, as we do, but very meagre information as to 

 her internal history, we hail with perfect gladness the appearance 

 of a translation into French, by M. Coussin de Perceval, of the 

 Turkish Historiographer's account of the Janissary corps, of which, 

 we feel certain that our readers will thank us for the following 

 abridged version. 



The Jeni-Cheri (Janissaries) or new troops, were created in the 

 year 1330, by the emperor Orkhan. They were at first composed of 

 the children of the conquered Christians, and reared up in the doc- 

 trine of Islam. They received their name and the distinguishing 

 form of their caps, from the Dervise Hadji Begtash, who blessed 

 them, and placing a piece of his garment upon the head of each of 

 the officers, promised them victory in the name of heaven. They 

 were all enrolled as Dervises, and thus acquired a religious as well as 

 a military character. All their forms of discipline, were contrived to 

 remind them of the liberality with which their wants were supplied. 

 The colonel, or head of a regiment, was called the Tshorbadghi, or 

 (f soup-maker." The officers next in rank, were (f chief cooks," and 

 " water-drawers : " the soldiers carried in their caps a wooden spoon 

 instead of a tuft, or feather ; and the kettle, or cauldron, was the 

 sacred standard or rallying point of every regiment. Their whim- 

 sical institutions remained unchanged among them down to the 

 period of their suppression. In the reign of Mahomet II., a custom 

 was introduced of admitting the children of soldiers themselves ; and 

 from that time the Janissaries became a military caste, transmitting 

 from father to son the profession, if not the exercise, of arms. Their 

 numbers were increased by successive sovereigns, till under Mo- 

 hammed IV. they amounted to forty thousand. 



At the accession of the present Sultan, in 1808, this military 

 body, once the right arm of Islamism, had lost all those character- 

 istics which rendered it formidable abroad, but still retained the power 

 of oppression at home. Its influence extended over the empire. A 

 long period of luxuriant idleness had extinguished its military spirit 

 and enthusiasm. It monopolized all the lucrative trades, and made 

 their exercise the means of the most barefaced extortion. It set the 

 tribunals of justice at nought, and dictated not only to the magistrates 

 but to the Sultan himself. No order or profession was safe from its 

 insolence and exactions. From the prevailing custom of selling their 

 certificates of service (co.amissions) to the f rst bidder, its exclusively 



M.M. No. 90. 4F 



