JANISSARIES ABOLISHED - NOTORIOUS UNITS THAT TOOK CHRISTIAN CHILDREN

BIJELJINA, JUNE 15 /SRNA/ – On June 16, 1826, following a Janissary revolt that was crushed in bloodshed, Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II abolished the Janissary corps and introduced a regular army.

The Janissaries were founded in 1330 by Sultan Orhan from Christian subjects' children who had been taken from their families and forcibly converted to Islam.

Murad II later allowed Turks to be admitted to the Janissary corps, and in 1638 the practice of taking Christian children was abolished.

As Ottoman power declined, the Janissaries increasingly instigated revolts and unrest and became a threat to Ottoman authority.

The Janissaries became the first standing army of the Ottoman Empire, replacing forces that had largely consisted of tribal warriors whose loyalty and discipline could not always be relied upon.

The devshirme system, or the taking of children, mostly Orthodox Christian children, is regarded as one of the harshest forms of brutality during the Ottoman occupation in these lands.