Who were the Janissaries? Elite Troops of the Ottoman Empire 

"As their political power increased... their military prowess declined." DJ Khaled, Suffering from Success

Like the Praetorian guard, their influence would become a problem for the people they where supposed to serve.

The Janissary-Ulema Alliance was a big reason for the Ottoman downfall. The Ulema was able to dismiss reforms with the help of the Janissaries and the Ulema passed laws that made the Janissaries even more privileged

Great capture of an important topic!

There is a great book by Ivo Andrić called "The Bridge on the Drina". The bridge that is a center of the story through the ages was built by Mehmed Paša Sokolović, Ottoman statesman who was taken from his Serbian Orthodox Christian family, converted to Islam, raised and educated to serve as a janissary. He rose through the ranks of the Ottoman imperial system, eventually holding positions as commander of the imperial guard... He never forgot where he came from, so as a part of his legacy he built the bridge that the book is based on. It exists to this today... Ivo Andrić won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his book.

Sir,there was no Ottoman Emirate.It was Ottoman Beylik, then empire.

You should also do a video on the Persian immortals, Varangian guard, Praetorian guard, Safavid army, medieval knights and stuff too

That was an amazing story. Keep them coming! Your little charactor looked very real.

Liked the video solely because of that randomly abrupt ending: "So ended the Janissaries."

One of the first modern professional military and the source of marching bands.

thank you for this great work

Great video

Thank you for the informations !

Good video but the Ottomans were never an emirate. There were only a few Turkic "Beyliks" who adopted that title but they quickly went down. Turks either used Beylik or Khangnate and bigger ones like the Ottomans later on added caliphate as well after starting to control most Muslim lands.

Nice man I would love to see more Ottoman content!

A Janissarie and a Samuria meet up at coffee house in Sarajevo. Samurai: Tried a revolt to preserve your social class? Janissarie: yeah... Samurai: I understand you.

part of their training was, they were slapping marble walls which covered with olive oil.. so after years, their hands and wrists become so strong, when they see a horseman who advanced to them on the battlefield they were able to slap the horse (if they dont have weapon at the moment etc) from its neck and bring the horse down with its rider.

Oooooh yes, I’ve been waiting for this one

İt was called Ottoman Beylik rather than emirate.

You do more justice to a subject in < 7 minutes than most do in an hour 👑

In Serbia back at the beginning of 19th century, there were 4 janissary commanders called Dahijas who rebelled and killed Pasha of Belgrade Pashaluk. And for some time territory of Central Serbia was basically in their control Janissary rebel territory. And Serbian revolution that eventually resulted in nominal independence of Serbia originally started as rebellion against Dahijas, because they were even more brutal than the official Ottoman rulers(they killed majority of Serb leaders in 1804 which lead to start of rebellion in that same year).

Cool video!! I love them as a military unit! Just awesome!! Great job

good one. really appreciate the content

Amazimgly informative video 🔥🔥

Can you make a Video about the Byzantine Cataphract?

3:03 I like how the illustrations go from really detailed and solemn to whatever that is...

Awesome video! thanks Assassins next please

yeniçeri/janissary means new soldier yeni(new) çeri(soldier)

Why do you abrupt end the video in that kinda way? Anyway great video! Can you do more about ottoman history?

Good stuff!!!

Sad how they went from elite cutting edge unit to a decadent, corrupt mob.

nobody could explain it better thanks for the facts

I have often found the Janissary to be a fascinating warrior to know more about. Now I do know more. Thanks for that.

Greatly appreciate your work on this Video. Very well explained altough it's pretty short. Greetings 🇹🇷

The Janissaries are certainly a fascinating topic, which you presented splendidly. The best detail is obviously the change of facial expression of the weight-lifting Janissary cadet at 3:33. :) I might add that the young King Władysław III who literary lost his head at Warna in 1444 was also (and first) King of Poland. Afterward, there were many rumors claiming that actually, somebody else's head was brought to Sultan and Władysław somehow survived the battle. He was supposedly seen in various places (particularly in Portugal), allegedly living in a self-appointed exile out of shame of defeat, and leading to it breaking of a truce. BTW His untimely death (or disappearing, if we believe the legend) led to his younger brother Casimir becoming the King of Poland, renewing the union with Grand Duchy of Lithuania, without which probably the Commonwealth wouldn't be eventually created.

So they ended like samurai.

I have read that the Janissaries played a key role in Ottoman succession. Basically, the Sultan let his many sons murder each other until only 2 were left, then posted those two to command opposite ends of the empire. When the Sultan died, these 2 were expected to fight a civil war, the winner becoming the next Sultan, on the theory that Allah must obviously favor him as he's the sole survivor. But the Janissaries, being the only troops allowed in the capitol city, were the trump card., as they could capture the government for one prince or the other. So the Janissaries put their loyalty up for auction, forcing the princes to continually out-bid each other with offers of bribes and privileges until the Sultan died. Whoever won the auction then was assured of being Sultan and the loser would get murdered. And each generation, the auction got more expensive because the Janissaries already had whatever the previous Sultan had given them. So after a while, the Janissaries had become pretty much exempt from going on campaign (so they could keep their grip on the capitol), had a huge bankroll, and could always extort the Sultan for more stuff. IOW, politically powerful but militarily useless, and a huge expense to maintain. This is why they had to be destroyed eventually.

Please do about the spies agency in the Ming! (Jinyiwei(also act as body guard), eastern depot, western depot, etc.)

You should make a video about the Klephts / Enzones.

Epimetheus, will you be doing a video on the Hashashin?

Fun Fact: They used spoons and pots as insignia.

I would like to learn more about the training that these men and their peers from other nations would go through mentioned in 3:27, particularly strength training, and what their methods of getting strong were

Explaining how being a janissary could get your rich was very interesting.I never saw it from that perspective

Janissaries were actually no slaves when their recruitment was done. Since their education included converting to Islam, they became muslims. And it was forbidden to have another muslim as a slave hence janissaries were technically no slaves.

Another video on the Ottomans? Is it my birthday?

0:36 ah! his eyes moved!

On a tangent but a cool one I think. The Norwegian word for a military style marching band is janistjarkorps, and yes, it is indeed named after the janissaries. I think it's the smae in several other European languages too but I can't remember which off the top of my head.

Epimitheus, you do a lot of middle eastern history. Why do don’t you make more videos about this empire. Like this is the first video you make on this empire. I hope you do it-😀

it's like you read my mind Yay Janissaries! Evet

Mke a video about the excubitors, the late roman emperor guard!

such beautiful art this episode

So basically all the things that made the Janissaries ideal as bodyguards in the beginning were slowly taken away

"And so ended the Janissaries" - And so too did the video

Turkish history is interesting

After the revolution in the Galata Oğlanları Ocağı, in the begining of 18th century, The Turks started to be accepted to Jannissary troops. This was the point in which the population of jannissaries started to grow perpetually. Glad to Mahmud The Second for kicking the ass of these troops. They were helpful in the begining but they caused more harm to empire rather than the other states afterwards.

Ironic how they were supposed to protect the sultan but later on ended up killing them

Nepotism is what did in the Jannisaries. If they'd never allowed fathers to recruit their sons, they could still be around today. Now that would be strange.

I would really love for you to start adding your sources. I really would like to dig deeper, very interesting topic

Nice

1:30 - *Improved Politics Depictions* :)

Nothing about the bektashiya?

Plenty of errors. What sources do you have this from?

Hello there, I wanted to use some of your video content for a forum in a game that I play. Just to give people some information about soldiers in game and where they come from. The game I play is called Muhteşem Osmanlı.

this video is good but not long enough for janissary history, there were janissary rebellions in ottoman history, even janissaries murdered sultan osman II, and they took several sultans from the throne

Make a video about the tocharian people!

3:13 kinda funny how they added the mustache in

Who was the Sejanus for these Jannissary Guards

To quote Clutch: Shadow of the new Preatorian.

You could've mentioned that Janissaries had already been doing coupe d'etats in 1600s-1700s and replacing many Sultans

Can you do a video about the Dacian warfare?

Can you do a video on the history of the *Mamluks*

After their downfall and the destruction of their barracks with cannon fire in 1826, many of them died, but some of them escaped and returned their homeland. It was a huge manhunt by the way, led by Sultan and the new army and the public. Some stayed. Those who survived the great purge eventually became gangsters (Kabadayı) and received extortion from the public. But not in the sense of Italian Mafia, they didnt have any organization. Mafia has no rules, they do only one thing making profit. A Kabadayı has some certain rules (Racon), a Kabadayı works alone, demonstrates brute force, bravery, cuts the Racon (establishing a certain rule for doing a job), gains fame and that's so. Everyone fears him in a particular territory, pays homage and sees him as the unofficial authority in his own territory. They were notorius for their Stilletto duels. Their culture endured so many years, even in modern times.

one of the factors that took the remnants of the roman empire down

Please can you make a video about the Second Bulgarian Tsardom

Do a video on the Byzantine Imperial Guards.

The janissaries badass but damn did they mess up in the 19 th and 18th century

They ended up like the Praetorian Guards

How to you make all these characters?

What’s the different between the Janissary tunic colors?

As Usual, the *#EpimetheusSquad**#* - Like the video before the watch as a token of graditude! As the Happiness follows when the epimetheus uploads :)

If the Janissaries just accepted gunpowdered weapons, they wouldve been a force to reckon with.

I love how all the Jannisaries look pissed off constantly

What do you mean by were removed?

I never realised that people actually wanted to be janissaries

The Janissary became king makers as in the past when they became trouble were broken up by someone seen it was time to disband them.

They were also a big influence for Sardaukars in Frank Herbert's Dune.

Also look up for Kapıkulu (Qapıqulu). Those were the royal bodyguards of Sultan.

Fun fact. Bosnian muslims, Bosniaks were the only muslim population in the Empire who gave their sons willingly to the devshirme, and that is in the 15 century, way before the introduction of other muslims into the janissary core.

You should also do a vid on the Polish Winged Hussars. The most badass, awsome looking, and powerful cavalery ever.

I wonder what a centuries old weightlifting program would look like

Your autenthical sources?

2:09 "Ey Otto man, get outta my pool!"

I see a lot of similarities with space marine training and recruitment.

Also when a new Sultan comes to the throne, it was a tradition to give Janisseries "culus", some kind of bonus payment. Janisseries started to abuse this as they become corrupted, they tried to depose Sultans in order to get some sweet culus

The moral of the story... Don’t fix it if it ain’t broke...

Kinda got inspiration for the idea of foreign bodyguards from the Byzantine Varangian Guard in a way.

The Janissary elite troops remind me of the Mamluk slave army of the Fatimid sultans of Egypt, the Praetorian guard of the Roman emperors, and the Varangian guard of the Eastern Roman emperors. A slave army is a misnomer because a slave with weapons will not remained a slave for long time. The Mamluk slave army of Egypt deposed the Fatimid sultan and become the ruler of Egypt. In the Ottoman empire the Janissary slave army became the power behind the throne.

This history would make a great serie on tv.

Sounds like the Jedi with the recruitment

Star Wars: The Clone Wars