Mamlouks I have been in a great measure describing the
Janizaries, and have little to add to the picture. When Amurath, one of
the ten Sultans, had made himself master of the territory round
Constantinople, as far as the Balkan, he passed northwards, and subdued
the warlike tribes which possessed Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, and the
neighbouring provinces. These countries had neither the precious metals
in their mountains, nor marts of commerce; but their inhabitants were a
brave and hardy race, who had been for ages the terror of
Constantinople. It was suggested to the Sultan, that, according to the
Mahometan law, he was entitled to a fifth part of the captives, and he
made this privilege the commencement of a new institution. Twelve
thousand of the strongest and handsomest youths were selected as his
share; he formed them into a military force; he made them abjure
Christianity, he consecrated them with a religious rite, and named them
Janizaries. The discipline to which they were submitted was peculiar,
and in some respects severe. They were in the first instance made over
to the peasantry to assist them in the labours of the field, and thus
were prepared by penury and hard fare for the privations of a military
life. After this introduction, they were drafted into the companies of
the Janizaries, but only in order to commence a second noviciate.
Sometimes they were employed in the menial duties of the palace,
sometimes in the public works, sometimes in the dockyards, and sometimes
in the imperial gardens. Meanwhile they were taught their new religion,
and were submitted to the drill. When at length they went on service,
the road to promotion was opened upon them; nor were military honours
the only recompense to which they might aspire. There are examples in
history, of men from the ranks attaining the highest dignities in the
state, and at least of one of them marrying the sister of the Sultan.

This corps has constituted the main portion of the infantry of the
Ottoman armies for a period of nearly five hundred years; till, in our
own day, on account of its repeated turbulence, it was annihilated, as
the Mamlouks before it, by means of a barbarous massacre. Its end was as
strange as its constitution; but here it comes under our notice as a
singular exemplification of the unproductiveness, as I may call it, of
the Turkish intellect. It was nothing else but an external institution
devised to supply a need which a civilized