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Janissary revolts were so common throughout Ottoman history that some of the customs and practices of the Ottoman court had arisen to prevent them.A 1574 illustration of a pair of JanissariesThe fratricide policy, in which the Sultan would kill all of his surviving brothers, was meant to eliminate any potential rivals that the Janissaries could rally around to depose the Sultan.The custom of the Sultan giving the Janissary Corps bonuses upon accession was meant to appease them and prevent his reign from beginning with a Janissary revolt. It became so ingrained at the court that when Suleiman I (r. 1520–1566) died, the Janissaries wouldn’t allow his heir Selim II (r. 1566–1574) into Constantinople until he paid it to them.16th century Ottoman miniature depicting Selim II’s enthronement. Before Selim could even enter Constantinople, he had to pay the Janissaries their demanded bonus.These policies wouldn’t have developed and continued without the Janissaries being rebellious. Janissary revolts were common in Ottoman history.During the first reign of Mehmed II (r. 1444–1446, 1451–1481), a Janissary revolt broke out that forced his father, Murad II (r. 1421–1444, 1446–1451), to come out of retirement and become the Sultan againSelim the Grim (r. 1512–1520) deposed his father with the support of the Janissaries16th century miniature from the Selimname depicting the forces of Selim engaging the forces of his father, Bayezid (r. 1481–1512). Selim won with the help of much of the Janissary Corps.In 1525, the Janissaries revolted out of frustration for not having an opportunity to campaign and pillage. Since the Sultan was hunting at Edirne, they attacked the palace of the Grand Vizier Ibrahim PashaIn 1622, out of fear that Osman II (r. 1618–1622) would sideline them by creating a new professional army, the Janissaries deposed and killed himA 1747 French illustration showing how the deposition of Osman II may have looked like. The Janissaries deposed Osman out of fear that he’d sideline them by created a new professional army.They deposed Selim III (r. 1789–1807) for similar reasonsIn the early 1800s, the Janissaries at Belgrade formed their own independent territory. Their oppression of the Christian notables there—and the Porte’s incapability to stop them—triggered the First Serbian Uprising“The Conquest of Belgrade” by Katarina Ivanovic. The Janissary garrison at Belgrade separated from the empire in the early 19th century. Neither the Ottomans nor the Russians could help them at the time, so the Serbs rebelled.And that doesn’t include the times when they mutinied or threatened to. No Sultan or commander could march deep into Persia if the Janissaries refused. Even Selim the Grim had to withdraw from Tabriz when his army mutinied due to food shortages, and he’s considered one of the most domineering sultans.That’s because the sultans, even the most powerful ones, were genuinely afraid of the Janissaries as a whole. Until 1826, no sultan was powerful enough to oppose the entire Janissary Corps.And yes, that includes Suleiman the Magnificent. The Flemish ambassador, Ogier Ghiselin de Busbeq, reported of how an Ottoman official admitted that Suleiman feared the Janissaries. This shouldn’t come as a surprise; he had killed his son, Mustafa, based on a rumor that the Janissaries wanted the shezade as their leader. That’s a decision made almost purely out of fear.Even Suleiman was afraid of the JanissariesTo say that the Janissaries rebelled would be an understatement. The Porte had originally relied on them to become less dependent on its Anatolian vassals, but they eventually became a powerful class themselves.

The growing power of the Janissaries forced the Sultan to do nothing that would challenge their power. Over time, they became a powerful class and would overthrow sultans to stay that way.An early 18th century painting of a Janissary by the Flemish-French painter Jean Baptise Vanmour. The Janissary Corps became a powerful class over the years.Janissary revolts were nothing new by the early 17th century. They’d rebelled against a young Mehmed II (r. 1444–1446, 1451–1481) and against Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520–1566) in 1525. They repeatedly mutinied whenever the Ottomans invaded Safavid Persia.The threat of revolt made the Sultans fear the Janissaries. Rustem Pasha, who served as a Grand Vizier to Suleiman, admitted to the Flemish diplomat Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq that the Sultan was afraid of them.In fact, some of the customs at the Ottoman court had arisen out of fear of rebellious Janissaries. When a new Sultan ascended the throne, he had to give them a bonus just to appease them. The tradition was so ingrained that when Suleiman died, the Janissaries wouldn’t let his successor, Selim the Drunkard (r. 1566–1574), inside the capital until he paid them.Selim II’s enthronement. Selim had to pay the Janissaries their customary bonus before they’d let him into the city.While the Janissaries were clearly a force to reckoned with in the 16th century, this wasn’t even the height of their power. In 1574, there were about 13,600 Janissaries, but by 1609, there were more than 37,000. The Porte had come to increasingly rely on them, particularly in their wars against the Habsburgs.With this reliance came power, so if the Sultan relied on another body of infantrymen, the Janissaries would lose that power.Therefore, they would oppose an attempt to form a new professional army. When Osman II (r. 1618–1622) tried to create a more loyal, effective force after a failed invasion of Poland, the Janissaries revolted and strangled him to death.The ruins of the Yedikule Fortress, where the Janissaries imprisoned Osman before strangling him. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.From then on, the Janissaries continued to grow in size and power, and the Sultans were largely powerless when dealing with them as a whole. Selim III (r. 1789–1807) would try to create a professional force called the “New Order”, but the Janissaries deposed him in 1807.Selim’s Nizam-i Cedid (“New Order”) army on a parade. Selim’s attempt to form a more professional army failed when the Janissaries deposed him.The Janissary rebellions, and the Porte’s inability to control them, reached a climax in Serbia in the early 19th century. There, the Janissary garrison killed the governor, carved out their own independent entity and attacked the local Christian notables known as the knezes, who’d been the governor’s allies.The Porte failed to do much about it. When the Serbs fought back and asked the central government for help, the Sultan wouldn’t send any since then he’d be arming Christians against Muslims. The Janissaries had, by then, become to powerful for him to rein in easily.An illustration of the Janissaries beheading a Serbian knez. In the early 1800s, the Janissaries carved out their own independent entity in Serbia and the Sultan was too powerless to stop them.In conclusion, the Janissaries, as they grew more powerful, forced the Sultan to let them have their way, which meant curtailing any reform that challenged their privileged status as the empire’s elite infantrymen. This continued until their disbandment in 1826.

The practice in which the Sultan would marry foreign princesses was mostly specific to the early Ottoman Sultanate. The Ottomans used this as a political tool in their relationship with neighboring powers.“The Humiliation of Despina” by Andrea Celesti, c. 1700. “Despina Hatun” was one of the names of Olivera, the Serbian wife of Bayezid I.Such marriage alliances dated to the Sultanate’s nascent years. While later Ottoman tradition stated that Osman (r. 1299–1324) had Orhan (r. 1324–1362) with the daughter of Sheik Edebali, a trust deed dated to 1324 indicates that his mother was Mal Hatun, the daughter of one Omer Beg. The title “Beg” suggests that Omer was a lord, and Osman may have married Mal to form an alliance with him.Marriage alliances with Christian lords began during Orhan’s reign. In 1346, Orhan married Theodora, the daughter of John Kantakouzenos. The marriage confirmed an alliance that John formed with the Ottomans against his rival, the empress-regent Anna of Savoy.Late 14th century illustration depicting Roman Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos presiding over a synod. Kantakouzenos had his daughter marry Orhan in an alliance with the Ottomans, who assisted him in a civil war. He became emperor in 1347.As the Ottomans grew more powerful, marriages with foreign princess became a way to confirm the subordination of the Sultan’s vassals. This was important, since the early Ottoman Sultanate was mostly composed of vassals and marcher lords, both in Europe and Anatolia.This was especially true during the late 14th and early 15th centuries. To confirm the vassalization of the Bulgarians in 1371, Murad I (r. 1362–1389) married Tsar Ivan Shishman’s sister, Thamar. He also married off his son, Bayezid, to the daughter of the Germiyanid bey, thus leaving much of Germiyan under Ottoman control.An illustration of Tsar Shishman presenting his sister Thamar to Murad, by John Harris Valda. Thamar’s marriage to Murad confirmed Shishman’s position as an Ottoman vassal.Dynastic marriage would later be a part of the Ottomans’ policy toward Serbia. After the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, the new Prince of Moravian Serbia, Stefan Lazarevic, agreed to be a vassal of Bayezid I (r. 1389–1402). Part of the agreement was that Stefan’s sister, Olivera, would marry Bayezid. Later, Murad II (r. 1421–1444, 1446–1451) would marry the daughter of George Brankovic to confirm his subjugation of Serbia.Illustration from 1429 depicting Mara Hatun, the Serbian wife of Murad II and daughter of George Brankovic, Despot of Serbia. The marriage confirmed Murad’s subjugation of Serbia.The Ottomans could only use dynastic marriage as a tool of subjugation while in a position of power. When they were weak, it again became a way to forge alliances. During the Interregnum (1402–1413), in which the empire fell into a civil war between the sons of Bayezid, the rival princes (Çelebi) married foreign princesses not as a way to bind vassals to the empire but to form alliances against each other.The House of Osman began to stop marrying foreign princesses during the mid-15th century, when the empire began to centralize. As the Sultan relied less on vassals, there was less of a need for dynastic marriages. The last Ottoman marriage alliance was between the prince-governor Bayezid—future Sultan Bayezid II (r. 1481–1512)—and the Dulkadirid princess Ayshe Hatun.The mausoleum of Gulbahar Hatun (Ayshe Hatun) in Trabzon, where Selim served as prince-governor. Ayshe was a Dulkadirid princess. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons: Gülbahar Hatun Türbe.The idea that most of these marriages were with Christian princesses isn’t completely true, as you can see. The Ottomans formed dynastic marriages keeping contemporary political considerations in mind. Since they dealt with surrounding Anatolian beyliks, many of these marriages were with Muslim women.It is true, however, that all of the Sultan’s concubines were of foreign, Christian origin. A concubine was not the same as a wive, though, especially in Ottoman society. Sultans almost never married their concubines; in fact, when Suleiman (r. 1520–1566) married his Ruthenian concubine Hurrem, it shocked both Istanbulites and foreigners. Therefore, we can only talk of Sultans choosing foreign wives before the 16th century.It’s also important to note that, unlike with concubines, reproduction was not the primary goal. While Theodora bore Orhan’s son Halil and Ayshe Hatun bore a future Sultan, Selim I (r. 1512–1520), most of these marriages were sterile. The purpose was to secure the vassalage and alliances, not to produce heirs.