page_title: Ottoman Tunisia
section_title: Janissary Deys
hierarchical_section_title: Ottoman Tunisia / Janissary Deys
caption_attribution_description: A Turkish Janissary; seated on the ground almost in profile to right, wearing a tall conical hat, the top of which is folded over. 1479-81 Pen and black ink
context_page_description: Ottoman Tunis refers to the episode of the Turkish presence in Ifriqiya during the course of three centuries from the 16th century until the 18th century, when Tunis was officially integrated into the Ottoman Empire as the Eyalet of Tunis. Eventually including all of the Maghrib except Morocco, the Ottoman Empire began with the takeover of Algiers in 1516 by the Ottoman Turkish corsair and beylerbey Oruç Reis. The first Ottoman conquest of Tunis took place in 1534 under the command of Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha, the younger brother of Oruç Reis, who was the Kapudan Pasha of the Ottoman Fleet during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. However, it wasn't until the final Ottoman reconquest of Tunis from Spain in 1574 under Kapudan Pasha Uluç Ali Reis that the Turks permanently acquired the former Hafsid Tunisia, retaining it until the French occupation of Tunisia in 1881.
  Initially under Turkish rule from Algiers, soon the Ottoman Porte appointed directly for Tunis a governor called the Pasha supported by janissary forces. Before long, however, Tunisia became in effect an autonomous province, under the local Bey.
context_section_description: The Ottomans first garrisoned Tunis with 4,000 janissaries taken from their occupying forces in Algiers; the troops were primarily Turkish, recruited from Anatolia. Janissary corps were under the immediate command of their Agha (Trk: "master"). The junior officers were called deys (Trk: "maternal uncle"); each dey commanded about 100 soldiers. The Ottoman Porte did not thereafter maintain the ranks of the janissaries in Tunis, but its appointed Pasha for Tunisia himself began to recruit them from different regions.
  The janissaries (yeni-cheri or "new troops") were an elite institution peculiar to the Ottoman state, though deriving from an earlier practice. Christian youth called devshirme [Trk: "to collect"], often from Greece and the Balkans, were impressed into military training and compelled to convert to Islam; when mature they provided an elite corps of soldiery. Kept apart in their barracks and forbidden marriage, they were under a strict code of toilet and dress, and regimented by rules of the Hurufi sect (later the Bektashi Sufi). Begun in the 15th century as a type of slavery, the janissaries later came to enjoy privileges and might rise to high positions. A well-known symbol of their collective force was the huge kazan [Trk: "kettle"], beside which they ate and talked business. Eventually Muslims became members; the janissaries gained the right to marry and evolved into a powerful caste. They were then liable to riot and loot if not appeased, and "not less than six Sultans were either dethroned or murdered through their agency." At first a small elite of 10,000 by the 19th century before the institution was terminated "the number on the [Ottoman] payroll had reached... over 130,000."
  In the Maghrib under Ottoman control, however, the janissaries were originally Turkish or Turkish-speaking. There existed some rivalry between the janissaires and the corsairs, who were composed in large part of Christian renegades, and as against other Turks. Also the janissaries viewed with suspicion, as potential enemy combatants, the local tribal forces and the militias of the Maghrib. Called collectively the ojaq [Trk: "hearth"], the janissary corps maintained a high degree of unity and élan.
  "They possessed a high sense of group solidarity and egalitarian spirit in the ranks, and elected their commander-in-chief, the agha, and a diwan [council] which protected their group interests. Being Turkish, they enjoyed a privileged position in the state: they were not subject to the regular system of justice in the regency, and were entitled to rations of bread, meat, and oil, to a regular salary, and to a proportion of the yields of piracy."
  In Tunisia until 1591, the corps of janissaries was considered to be under the control of the local Ottoman Pasha. In 1591 janissary junior officers (deys) overthrew their senior officers; they then forced the Pasha to acknowledge the authority of one of their own men. This new leader was called the Dey, elected by his fellow deys. The Dey took charge of law and order in the capital and of military affairs, thus becoming "the virtual ruler of the country". The change defied the Ottoman Empire, although from the Tunisian perspective political power still remained under the control of foreigners. The existing state diwan (council) was dismissed, but to placate local opinion some Tunisian Maliki jurists were appointed to some key positions (yet the Ottoman Hanafi jurists still predominated). The janissary Dey enjoyed wide discretion, being quite free in the exercise his authority, yet his reach was at first limited to Tunis and other cities.
  Two very effective Deys were 'Uthman Dey (1598–1610) and his son-in-law Yusuf Dey (1610–1637). Able administrators, they displayed tact, enhancing the dignity of the office. Neither being fond of luxury, treasury funds were made available for public projects and new construction (e.g., a mosque, fortress, barracks, and repair of aqueducts). Rebellious tribes were subdued. A long period of chronic social turbulence in Tunisia was brought to a close. The resulting
caption: A Janissary (15th century), from a drawing by Gentile Bellini of Venice
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