498 appendix 2
of giving satisfactory answer to the questions about their origins, will remain
absent at the time of inspection, and after those pay certificates belonging to
pretenders ... are excluded, the number of true Janissaries, if God the Almighty
wills it, who remain will be only 15,000. If it is the imperial wish of your felicitous
majesty that the number of the aforementioned group not become excessively
large a law should be put into effect stipulating a maximum size for each of the
one hundred and sixty-two companies of the Janissary corps ... Furthermore,
in accordance with the ancient law, members of the Janissary corps should be
resident and present in the barracks in Istanbul which have been assigned to
their companies, and not one of them should ever be allowed to reside outside
Istanbul. Also, those who are presently bachelors and those who are called to
permanent service in regiments of the Porte after the inspections are carried
out should not be permitted to marry ... At present too warnings and injunc-
tions to this effect should be given, and henceforth the recruitment categories of
handpicked assistant to the commander, sons of cavalrymen and place switch-
ing should completely abolished. By God the exalted’s willing in this manner the
desired reforms may be accomplished. Amen.
... In manner mentioned above, the group of salaried servants of the Sultan,
from the safe and secure times of your illustrious forefathers until the present
day in the era of your majesty’s reign, have many times rebelled against the
Sultan and laid his well-protected realm to rack and ruin. By their failure to obey
their commanders’ orders during campaigns they have furthermore been cause
for the loss to the enemy of the choice lands and prosperous districts which were
brought into Sultanic realm through great pains and difficulties by your venera-
ble ancestors of illustrious descent. Therefore, by carrying out a thorough in-
spection and investigation of this group and by ousting the illegitimate intruders
to rout these brigands and rebels who are more reprehensible than the enemy
himself, dispersing a part of them and reducing the remainder to contrition and
to reciting constant prayers and praises of God, and by thus doing bringing into
being a great victory equal with the conquests of our glorious ancestors, would
not this be a miraculous accomplishment vouchsafed by the sanctity of the
Caliph Ali Murteza himself?17 Anonymous, Kavanin-ı yeniçeriyân (See Chapter 5)
From Kavânîn-i yeniçeriyân-ı dergâh-ı âlî (“Rules of the imperial janissaries”):20
20 Akgündüz 1990–1996, 9:263–268.