400 THE WEALTH AND POVERTY OF NATIONS
patriotic volunteers were not to be found. More and more, the state
depended on slave soldiers, the janissaries in particular.* The janis
saries began as the servants of the sultan, his right arm, his elite corps;
but the power to kill is a key to power. In Constantinople (Istanbul to
the Muslims),r the janissaries became a state within the state, a preto-
rian guard that made and unmade rulers, until in 1826 the sultan got
the consent of religious leaders to rid the place of these troublemakers.
First the sultan set up a new corps and told the janissaries they would
be welcome to join—elimination by fusion. They refused and dug in.
The sultan's loyal troops then brought up their artillery, cannonaded
the barracks, and the mob did the rest. Balance sheet: six to ten thou
sand dead, and the janissaries had become history.
In Egypt, a similar corps, called Mamelukes, had actually taken over
the kingdom and ruled it for some 260 years (1254-1517) as an aris
tocracy whose very name (Arabic memalik, slave) had changed its
meaning. Even after the Ottoman conquest, they ran Egypt, up until
the intrusion of the French under Bonaparte (1798) and the counter-
invasion by British forces. In the train of these Europeans came an Al
banian adventurer who made himself the sultan's viceroy and the new
pasha of Egypt. This soldier of fortune, Mehemet Ali by name, decided
he had had enough of the Mameluke parasites and needed to clarify his
authority. So in 1811 he invited their chiefs to a banquet. They showed
up at the palace all gay and hearty and dressed in their best and sat
themselves down to the feast. Most of them never got up. The gates
were closed, and shooters killed them from above like ducks on a pond.
Finis to over 550 years.**
But here we get ahead of our story. After the defeat of the first Ot
toman siege of Vienna (1529), the empire suffered repeated setbacks
in Europe as inchoate Christian polities got organized. Among other
changes that made a difference, European military technology kept
improving. The Ottomans tried to keep up, but they were imitators
- The janissaries were originally conscripted by the devshirme and raised as Muslims;
they also included young war captives. Later on, Turks were admitted to the corps; in
between campaigns they were allowed to work at trades or serve as police.
t The Turkish version of Stamboul. The Turkish language does not like to begin a
word with two successive consonants; so Stamboul becomes Istanbul and Smyrna be
comes Izmir.
- The Bey of Algiers used a similar trap to eliminate his rivals. Ditto for Saddam Hus
sein of Iraq. It is precisely the force of obligations of hospitality that render such tac
tics effective.
- The Bey of Algiers used a similar trap to eliminate his rivals. Ditto for Saddam Hus