Janissary

Their identity was the Ottoman state, which made them, in theory, perfectly loyal instruments of imperial will.

In practice, the Janissaries would eventually become something considerably more complicated, but that story belongs to a later chapter.

In Murad's time, they were a genuine military innovation.

A professional, trained, disciplined standing army at the Sultan's direct command was something that very few rulers in the world possessed at that point.

Most armies of the period were assembled for specific campaigns and dissolved afterward.

The Janissaries were always there, always ready, and always improving.

It gave the Ottomans a structural military advantage that their neighbours struggled to match.

Murad also formalized the empire's relationship with Islamic law, appointing senior judges and religious scholars to positions of real authority within the administrative system.

not until November no

Gary's away no he's away fighting the Parthians yeah yeah no he's Janissary now yeah no so I've got the kids I can't

I'll tell you what, I would say we could do tomorrow, but I've got some paperwork to do.

And when I tell you how complex this paperwork

Meanwhile, Bayezid had gathered all his European and Anatolian soldiers in Bursa.

He had his riders and infantry from the Turkic Beyliks, Janissaries, as well as the heavy cavalry from the Serbs, which he used as his secret weapon when defeating the Crusaders at Nicopolis.

He marched east and followed the valleys into the Anatolian plateau and marched out to meet Timur.

So now we have both armies heading towards each other.

Of course, there was a very powerful echo of American and French revolution, which, of course, spurned nationalism across the Western world and, of course, began to transform traditionally feudal aristocracy-ruled societies.

The story, of course, began with the first Serbian uprising, which began in 1804, which initially began as an uprising against Dahye, the rogue Janissaries, which eventually also emerged into a rebellion against the Ottoman rule.

From that moment on, as the first signs of Serbian autonomy within the Ottoman Empire began to be established, these structures aimed first at liberating Serbia and creating a state which would be composed out of territories inhabited by the ethnic Serbs, of course.

With the passage of time, we also had a very, very powerful component of Pan-Slavism, which involved Serbia potentially joining or at least leading the uprising of other South Slavic nations.

Apart from anything else, the conduct of the sultans toward their non-Mohammedan subjects was never so ideally just as to afford no excuse for complaint.

Internally, the Janissaries were so powerful that their nominal master was in effect their slave, and there was no other adequate military force.

In the provinces, the pashas rendered a very shadowy obedience to Constantinople, and there could be no strength in the administration of the empire until they had been coerced or persuaded into real loyalty.

Centralization, in a word, was the paramount necessity of Turkey, but Mahmud, aiming at this, had to remember that it was only too probable that his own murder would mark the conclusion of his schemes.

Further progress toward the solution of the problem was for a while interrupted by the outbreak of a war between Russia and Persia, which gave Canning cause to hope that there might be no need for him to conciliate the Tsar.

This hope was falsified by the unexpectedly rapid success of the Russian arms, and it was changed into grave alarm by the vigorous policy of Nicholas.

Availing himself of the fact that the destruction of the Janissaries had left the Ottoman Empire without means of resistance, he presented to the port an ultimatum on the matters in dispute between the two governments.

Mahmud had no choice but to give way.