The Janissaries Massacred

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Introduction
By the destruction of the Janissaries, the Ottoman rulers — themselves oppressive despots -— freed their empire from an internal despotism which for many years dominated their own. The history of the Janissaries in Turkey is much like that of the Mamelukes in Egypt. Both these military bodies were created and long recruited from the Christian slaves “tribute children” -forced into the service of the sultans, and both were violently destroyed by the powers which had called them into existence and which they had ruthlessly overridden.

The Janissaries were an infantry body, first organized as the sultan’s guard in the fourteenth century. For three centuries they were levied as at first, and during that time they constituted the main standing army of Turkey. Afterward they were joined by Turks and other Muslims, and became very numerous and powerful, and their history is marked by turbulence, conspiracies, and assassinations. Among their victims were sultans and viziers and other officials of the empire.

The Sultan Mahmud II, while engaged against the Greeks in their war of independence, also attempted internal reforms, with the object of Europeanizing Turkish manners and institutions. This endeavor gave offence to many of his subjects, and led to a collision with the Janissaries, whose revolt, provoked by the Sultan himself, ended in their dissolution, following the frightful scenes of massacre here described.

This selection is from History of the Ottoman Empire from its Establishment till the year 1828 by Edward Upham published in 1829. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Edward Upham (1776-1834) was an English bookseller, antiquarian and orientalist.

Time: 1826
Place: Istanbul

It was reserved for the vigorous scepter of Mahmud II, by one of the most sanguinary and terrific civil contests of modern history, to free the imperial throne of Othman from the intolerable yoke of the Janizary power.

To take a clear view of this important circumstance, we must advert to a name familiar in the first formation of this celebrated corps, as well as in many instances of their insubordination and rebellion under different sultans. Halet Effendi had been ambassador to the court of France, and was tinctured with the literature of Europe. The Sultan, pleased with his acquirements, appointed him to the situation of nizamdge, or keeper of the signet, and he became so useful to the Prince that for several years he was the mainspring of the Cabinet. The Janissaries, however, took great umbrage at this influence and employed the dervis Hadji Bektash to express their sentiments to the minister, confiding that his sacred caste would give an impunity to his interference. The Bektash dervises are a numerous and highly venerated community in Asia Minor, and the corps owed its institution and its sanctity to a dervis of this class in the reign of Amurath, whence one of these divines had always officiated in the namaz of prayer in the Orta mosque. Hadji Bektash ventured to speak freely to Halet Effendi, which gave great offence; and the Hadji disappeared, being probably privately strangled.

The Janissaries, indignant at this mysterious disappearance, held more frequent meetings, and the result was a demand for the dismissal of seven of the ministers the most obnoxious to the soldiery, which was presented to the Sultan on his way to the mosque. (A man stands in a conspicuous place in the street as the Sultan approaches, holding in both hands the paper which he sets over his head to mark that it is for the Sultan’s eye; if the Sultan gives the sign an attendant takes the paper and puts it into a bag for inspection.) He did so, as the Sultan dismounted and as he performed his official duty of holding the Sultan’s stirrup, when the Sultan declared his total ignorance of the subject. A great fermentation now arose in the public mind and Mahmud paraded the streets of his capital to ascertain the public excitement; the consequence of this state of things was that the ministry was broken up, four of its members were exiled, and Halet Effendi was eventually decapitated.

Whether this sacrifice really grew out of any discoveries made to the disadvantage of the former favorite, or whether it became a necessary sacrifice to allay the discontent of the Janissaries, it is clear that though not the immediate, yet it was the remote cause of the extinction of that corps. Mahmud could bear the domination of his Janissaries no longer and resolved to get rid of them altogether. It had long been the desire of the Government to introduce new systems of discipline but every attempt had been fatal to the innovator. Yet the events of the Greek war and the successes of the Egyptian forces, through their superior discipline, convinced every thinking man of its necessity.

The Sultan determined to make another attempt and if the Janissaries assented he designed to hold them in check with his disciplined troops but if they resisted to extirpate them altogether. In conformity with his designs, the Janissaries were to furnish from each orta one hundred fifty men, who were to be instructed and drilled in European tactics by the Egyptian officers. As the Turks are so led away by terms, and a great offence had arisen from the term of nizam-gedit, a new institution, so the same thing was now called izam-gttei, or the old regulation, and all were satisfied, it being declared to be merely a revival of an exercise used in Solyman’s time.

June 15, 1826, was appointed for a general review, at which the Sultan, the ulema, and ministers were to attend, and it was to take place in the great square of the Atmeidan. On the day preceding, the troops were brought together to exercise, that they might be expert in their movements on the grand day and it was now for the first time that the Janissaries perceived that they were practicing the very thing that they had all determined to resist. A bairactar, or standard-bearer, called out, “Why, this is very like Russian maneuvring!” A general discontent ensued; they instantly assailed the palace of the Janizary aga, who had scarcely time to escape. They killed his kiaia, and even insulted his harem, and then spread themselves over the city to arouse their companions to a revolt. The Sultan was at this time at Beshiktash, a kiosk a few miles up the Bosporus; the Janizary aga, the grand vizier, and other ministers hastened thither from the Porte to inform him of what had happened. The ministers had scarcely left the palace of the Porte ere the mutineers arrived; the building was pillaged and stripped, and the archives were destroyed. The insurrection now assumed that desperate character which always announced, in the furious moments of the Janissaries, their settled resolve to proceed to extremities ; their kettles sounded mournfully through the streets in the way to the Atmeidan, which immense square was soon filled with the insurgents, and above twenty thousand were thus assembled.

The crisis had arrived that had been both expected and feared by the Sultan, and he energetically resolved to call forth the resources which he had long secretly prepared. Immediate orders were transmitted to the Pacha-Aga of Yenikui, and to the Topgee Bashi, a commander of artillery, to hold themselves in readiness with their forces. A council was then called of all the principal members of the Divan; and Mahmud energetically stated the ill-conduct and mischief of the Janissaries, also the resolve he had formed to put an end to such a dangerous influence.

The Sultan added that rather than submit to such a system he would at once retire into Asia and leave Constantinople and European Turkey to its fate; and he proposed to display the san jak-she-riff, as a measure of necessity, that all good Muslims might rally round it.

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