Devşirme Devşirme ( literally " changing " or " collecting " in Turkish ) was chiefly the practice by which the Ottoman Empire took boys from their Christian families , who were then converted to Islam with the primary objective of selecting and training the ablest children for the military or civil service of the Empire , though in Bosnia , exceptionally , the devşirme was also extended to local Muslim families . The ideal age of a recruit was between 7 and 10 years of age , although they recruited much younger boys . The devşirme system was locally resented and was resisted , even to the point of disfiguring their sons . On the other hand , as the devşirme were recruited to rise up to the grand vizier status ( the second most powerful man in the empire ) , Christian parents in Bosnia were known to bribe scouts to take their children . According to Yoel Natan , between 200 , 000 and 300 , 000 boys were subjected to devşirme in period from the 15th until the 17th century ; a policy that was clearly contradictory to Muslim law , sharia , at all times . History . The Ottoman Empire , beginning with Murad I , felt a need to " counteract the power of ( Turkic ) nobles by developing Christian vassal soldiers and converted kapıkulları as his personal troops , independent of the regular army . " The elite forces , which served the Ottoman Sultan directly , were divided into two main groups : cavalry and infantry . The cavalry was commonly known as the " Kapıkulu Süvari " ( The Cavalry of the Servants of the Porte ) and the infantry were the popular " Yeni Çeri " ( transliterated in English as Janissary ) , meaning " the New Corps " . At first , the soldiers to serve in these corps were selected from the slaves captured during warfare . However , the system commonly known as devşirme was soon adopted : in this system children of the rural Christian populations of the Balkans - particularly Albanians , Bulgarians , Macedonians , Serbs , and northern Greeks - were conscripted before adolescence and were brought up as Muslims . Upon reaching adolescence , these children were enrolled in one of the four imperial institutions : the Palace , the Scribes , the Religious and the Military . Those enrolled in the Military would become either part of the Janissary corps , or part of any other corps . The brightest were sent to the Palace institution ( Enderun ) , and were destined for a career within the palace itself where the most able could aspire to attain the very highest office of state , that of Grand Vizier , the Sultan ' s immensely powerful chief minister and military deputy . The life of the devşirme . Although the influence of Turkic nobility continued in the Ottoman court until Mehmet II ( see Çandarlı Halil ) , the Ottoman ruling class slowly came to be ruled exclusively by the devşirme , creating a separate social class . This class of rulers was chosen from the brightest of devşirme and hand - picked to serve in the Palace institution , known as the Enderun . They had to accompany the Sultan on campaigns , but exceptional service would be rewarded by assignments outside the palace . Those chosen for the Scribe institution , known as Kalemiye were also granted prestigious positions . The Religious institution , İlmiye , was where all Orthodox clergy of the Ottoman Empire were educated and sent to provinces or served in the capital . Tavernier noted in 1678 that the Janissaries looked more like a religious order than a military corps . The members of the organization were not banned from marriage , as Tavernier further noted , but it was very uncommon for them . He goes on to write that their numbers had increased to a hundred thousand , but this was because of a degeneration of regulations and many of these were in fact " fake " Janissaries , posing as such for tax exemptions and other social privileges . He notes that the actual number of Janissaries was in fact much lower ( Shaw writes that their number was 30 , 000 under Suleiman the Magnificent ) . By the 1650 ' s there were more than 50 , 000 Janissaries who lived as homosexuals and practiced strict military discipline . Recruits were sometimes gained through voluntary accessions , as some parents were often eager to have their children enroll in the Janissary service that ensured them a successful career and comfort . Albertus Bobovius wrote in 1686 that diseases were common among the devşirme and strict discipline was enforced . The BBC notes the following regarding the devşirme system : " Although members of the devshirme class were technically slaves , they were of great importance to the Sultan because they owed him their absolute loyalty and became vital to his power . This status enabled some of the ' slaves ' to become both powerful and wealthy . " According to Cleveland , the devşirme system offered " limitless opportunities to the young men who became a part of it . " However , according to Dr . Basilike Papoulia , " . . . the devsirme was the ' forcible removal ' , in the form of a tribute , of children of the Christian subjects from their ethnic , religious and cultural environment and their transportation into the Turkish - Islamic environment with the aim of employing them in the service of the Palace , the army , and the state , whereby they were on the one hand to serve the Sultan as slaves and freedmen and on the other to form the ruling class of the State . " Accordingly , Papoulia agrees with Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb and Harold Bowen , authors of " Islamic society and the West " , that the devşirme was a penalization imposed on the Balkan peoples since their ancestors resisted the Ottoman invasion . Vladimir Minorsky states , " The most striking manifestation of this fact is the unprecedented system of devshirme , i . e . the periodic conscription of ' tribute boys ' , by which the children of Christians were wrung from their families , churches , and communities to be molded into Ottoman praetorians owing their allegiance to the Sultan and the official faith of Islam . " This system as explained by Çandarlı Kara Halil Hayreddin Pasha , founder of the Janissaries , " " The conquered are slaves of the conquerors , to whom their goods , their women , and their children belong as lawful possession " " , indicates the clear opinion of an Ottoman official regarding devşirme . Ethnicity of the devşirme , and exemptions . The devşirme were collected once every four or five years from rural provinces in Balkans , and with a few exceptions , only from non - Muslims . The devşirme levy was not applied to the major cities of the empire , and children of local craftsmen in rural towns were also exempt , as it was considered that conscripting them would harm the economy . In early days all Christians were enrolled indiscriminately ; later those from Albania and Bosnia were preferred . Bernard Lewis points that the core of the " Ottoman Janissaries were Slavic and Balkan origin , particularly Albanian , Serb , and Macedonians . " Well known examples of Ottomans who had been recruited in the devşirme include Scanderbeg and Sinan Pasha . Jews were exempt from this service and until recently Armenians were thought to have been exempt also . However , Armenian colophons from the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries and foreign travelers of the time indicate that Armenians were indeed not spared from the devşirme . What is certain is that devşirme were primarily recruited from Christians in the Balkans . However , Bosnian Muslims were also recruited and sent directly to serve in the Palace ( rather than the military ) , under groups called " potor " . Decline of the devşirme class . The devşirme declined in the 16th and 17th Century due to a number of factors , including the inclusion of free Muslims in the system . After 1568 the ' boy harvest ' was only occasionally made . In 1632 the Janissaries attempted an unsuccessful coup against Murad IV , who then imposed a loyalty oath on them . In 1648 the devşirme - based recruiting system of the Janissary corps formally came to an end ; attempts to reintroduce the old system failed due to the resistance of the new Turkish members of the Janissary corps in 1703 , who wanted the coveted posts exclusively for their own families . In an order sent in multiple copies to authorities throughout the European provinces in 1666 a devşirme recruitment target of between 300 and 320 was set for an area covering the whole of the central and western Balkans . On the accession of sultan Suleiman II in 1687 only 130 Janissary inductees were graduated to the Janissary ranks . Economic historians , Glenn Hubbard and Tim Kane claim that " The institution of devşirme was abolished in 1638 " . As a method of recruitment the devşirme was finally abolished in the early part of Ahmet III ' s reign ( 1703 – 1730 ) . The Janissary corps was officially abolished by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826 with the Auspicious Incident . After Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798 there was a reform movement in Sultan Selim III ’ s regime , to reduce the numbers of the askeri class , who were the first class citizens or military class ( also called Janissary ) . Sultan Salim III was taken prisoner and murdered by the Janissary revolt . The successor to the sultan , Mahmud II was patient but remembered the results of the uprising in 1807 . In 1827 he created a revolt among the Janissaries , kept them all in their barracks and slaughtered thousands of them . The response of society . The practice as to Janissary soldiers was motivated by the desire to create an elite class of warriors loyal only to the Sultan , rather than to individual Ottoman nobles . There are accounts of Muslim families attempting to smuggle their offspring into the levy , which was strictly forbidden . Although the devşirme made boys the Sultans ' state slaves it led to a highly privileged position in Ottoman society , but inevitably led to their conversion to Islam . The system also had specific limits on who and how many could be taken . The seizure of sons whose absence would cause hardship and difficulties was not permitted , though it is dubious on whether such rules were upheld with any rigidity . Another aspect is that recruiting personnel for the military and administration counterbalanced the grip of the old Turkish nobility , which was largely channeled into education , law , Muslim religion and the provincial cavalry , in the spirit of division of tasks and rights of the " millet " system which increased the cohesion of the multi - ethnic and multi - cultural empire by slowly eliminating non - Muslim culture with Ottoman holdings . .