172 | The Identity of the Ottoman Elite
The military was central to the empire’s political, social, and economic orga-
nization and was a key institution in the creation of Ottoman identity. The two
main military branches were the cavalry (sipahis) and the Janissaries, largely foot
soldiers. The cavalry, originally Turkish tribesmen and their allies and vassals,
also incorporated former Byzantine and Balkan lords and knights and recruits
from other military corps, particularly the Janissaries, as well as volunteers who
demonstrated prowess in battle. The Janissaries were military slaves: prisoners of
war, men purchased in the slave trade, or Christian boys who were subjects of the
sultan and collected in an official tour through the provinces (devşirme), given
the status of slave (kul), and trained as infantry soldiers, palace cavalry, army of-
ficers, and future high officials. According to the advice writers, only Janissaries
and sons of sipahis were eligible for positions in the cavalry.
The sipahis were paid through grants called timars. A timar was the award
of the right to the tax revenue of a particular set of productive households or
area (small, medium, or large depending on rank), and it entailed the respon-
sibility to live in the area, police it, and supervise its agricultural productivity.
While the area never became the sipahi’s private property, he became the equiva-
lent of a feudal lord (major or minor), the wealthiest person in the area and the
one to whom everybody turned for help, protection, and dispute resolution. A
sipahi could sometimes be promoted to governor of a district or even a province,
its most powerful resident and commander of its sipahis. Those who attained
the status of provincial governor might become viziers, the sultan’s advisors.
Thus, the political, military, administrative, and economic reins of power were
all in the hands of the sipahis, and the right to enter their ranks was jealously
guarded. The advice writers put a lot of effort into analyzing the problems of
the military and determining solutions. Their analyses, examined in chronologi-
cal order, provide an interesting window into how these elite writers understood
Ottoman identity and how that understanding changed over time.
Classical Ottoman Identity
Early in the empire’s history, anyone who fought for the Ottomans could be con-
sidered an Ottoman. The followers of Osman (r. 1299–1326), the first Ottoman
ruler, consisted of Muslims and Christians alike, and Murad I (r. 1362–1389) had
Muslim and Christian vassals who fought against Christian and Muslim foes.
When Mehmed I (r. 1412–1421) restored the timar system after the invasion of
Timur in 1402, the sipahis became the dominant elite, taking over positions of
governance from the vassal rulers. In the fifteenth century many of the Otto-
mans’ Christian elite converted to Islam, though there were always some Chris-
tians in the administration and the army. Murad II (r. 1421–1444, 1446–1451)
established a school in the palace where boys collected in the devşirme could
be converted to Islam and trained to fill positions as officers and state officials.