Devshirme

Devshirme was an Ottoman system that periodically recruited Christian boys from the empire’s territories, converted them to Islam, and trained them for military or administrative service.

Janissaries: An elite Ottoman infantry corps whose members were initially recruited through the devshirme system. Many recruits entered the Janissary corps after training and conversion.
Murad I: An Ottoman sultan who ruled from 1362 to 1389 during the state’s expansion into the Balkans. The levy is commonly associated with the consolidation of Ottoman institutions during his reign.
Sokollu Mehmed Pasha: A sixteenth-century Ottoman grand vizier who rose from Christian origins through the imperial service system. His career illustrates how a recruit of Christian background could attain the empire’s highest offices.
Ottoman social mobility: Changes in an individual’s social position within Ottoman society, shaped by wealth, office, education, and legal status. Devshirme could lift recruits from provincial origins into elite state careers.
Ottoman kul system: The Ottoman institution of service to the sultan by state dependents, including enslaved military and administrative servants. Devshirme was one recruitment channel within the wider kul system.
Enderun: The Ottoman palace school that educated selected youths for high-ranking service. The palace school trained some devshirme recruits for administrative and court careers.
Ottoman Empire: A dynastic empire centered in Anatolia and southeastern Europe that lasted from the late thirteenth century to 1922. Devshirme developed as a recruitment institution within this expanding empire.
Ibrahim Pasha: A grand vizier under Suleiman I who had been born to a Christian family in the Ottoman Balkans. His ascent exemplifies the political reach available to palace-trained recruits.
Ottoman centralization: The concentration of political authority and resources in the Ottoman sultan’s central government. Directly recruited servants helped the sultan counterbalance hereditary and provincial powers.
Ottoman voluntary conversion: The adoption of Islam by choice or through social pressures rather than compulsory state recruitment. It distinguishes personal conversion from the levy’s institutional requirement to convert recruits.

Linked from 16 pages