Page:Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened.djvu/111

Rh By this time the necessity of a permanent military force was felt, and the grand vizier, the prime minister of the Sultan established a corps of infantry, who, not having yet forgotten, however, the pastoral life, proved ungovernable and unfit for the strict discipline of military life. To remove this difficulty he resorted to rearing up in the doctrine of Islam the children of the conquered Christians, training them from early youth to the profession of arms, and forming them into a separate corps called "Yeni Cheri" (janissary), the new troops.

The corps proved very valiant, and continued to be supplied by the children of captives taken in war, or by those of Christian subjects. An inhuman tax of every fifth child, or of one child every fifth year, was strictly levied upon them. It has been estimated that not less than half a million Christian children thus cruelly torn from their parents, were made Moslems, and trained them to maintain Islam with the sword. Afterwards the children of janissaries themselves were admitted into regiments, thus they became a military class, distinguished by their fanaticism in religion, bravery in wars and cruelty against Christians. Through upwards of three centuries, marked by a long series of great battles, they sustained only four signal reverses. Victory and despotic rule marched hand in hand under their banner; but by the gradual advance of the European nations their power failed abroad, while their disorder increased at home and they became formidable to their masters, deposing them from the throne and