Janissary

Yeah, uh, just the unleashing of, of, of Bio-Leninism as you use these, sort of these miscreants, you'll lose those who have nothing but the support of, of the state or of the elite.

So these are people who otherwise would have no influence or power, but if they're, uh Sort of, uh, they're, they're, they become Janissaries, or some people say Tranissaries now, [laughs] to, uh, go out, and they're the ones that go out, and this is Antifa, and they go out and, and if the FBI or local law enforcement don't prevent them from destroying property, harassing people, intimidating people, um, they have a lot more power than otherwise, and they, they, they would have no power otherwise 'cause they, they'd be thrown into jail.

And so they, yeah, so this, you know, what they do is they go out and they'll intimidate society, suppress, you know, political dissent or just opposition, you know.

Or just go after normal people.

Uh, just one simple historical example, the Ottomans had the, one of the weirdest ways of getting to a modern state.

They literally captured young boys in the Balkans, brought them to Istanbul, and trained them to be administrators and generals, but they couldn't have families because they didn't want nepotism, right? And, uh, they couldn't resist the demand of the Janissaries, uh, uh, to have children and have families, so eventually a sultan gave in, and you're back in the whole nepotistic, patrimonial world that the Ottomans had briefly managed to, to get beyond.

We're doing that right now.

You know, instead of professional diplomats handling our Middle East policy, you get Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, you know, two friends and family of, uh, Donald Trump, and you're paying the price for it because a modern state really does need kind of meritocratic, you know, impersonal, uh, people running the state apparatus.

Muezzin Zadi Ali Pasha with Muezzin Zadi meaning the son of the muezzin.

He was educated in the Ottoman palace school system and he entered into imperial service rising through the military's administrative hierarchy including the Janissaries.

Ali Pasha became popular with the future Sultan Selim II, who was the son of Sultan Selim and the Magnificent, and Ali benefited from Selim's patronage and was able to marry into the Ottoman royal family, perhaps even a daughter of Selim, but the sources are a little unclear on this particular detail.

From 1563 to 1566, Ali Pasha served as governor of Egypt, one of the wealthiest and most prestigious provinces of the Ottoman Empire.

Meanwhile, a reliable infantry was needed.

This was by preference composed of Christian boys who had been carried off from their parents and who, after being trained in Islamism and subjected to discipline, were drafted into the corps of Janissaries.

In 1638, under Murad IV, this compulsory enlistment was abolished, and even after, the corps consisted exclusively of volunteers.

The service was severe and for life, but the position was held in honor and was well paid.

In 1623 Mustafa was relegated to the harem where he lived in obscurity for sixteen years, and Osman's brother Murad IV was set in his place.

Murad, though like his murdered brother a youth of energy and enterprise, gave way without restraint to his sensual passions, and thus ultimately wrecked himself.

He humbled the insolent arrogance of the Janissaries by terrible and repeated executions.

External affairs soon demanded his active intervention.

It's from everywhere and they're getting all these levies coming together.

And most importantly, they are bringing the incredibly renowned Janissary.

Now, do you know much about the Turkish Janissaries, Zach?

Well, I know about Janissaries from my experience playing Age of Empires 2.

Yeah, so if you have played Age of Empires, then you'll know that the unique unit of the Turks is the Janissary, and it's a gunpowder unit.

So go on, Zach, what do you know about them?

And they carry a long sort of pistols, maybe like rifles that they can shoot at like, you know, hundreds of yards with great accuracy.

They're basically the elite of the elite of the gunpowder corps, which means they counter infantry.

So the initial settlement was not very successful, let's say.

So it was mainly the Janissaries who were settled here.

So who were the Janissaries? Janissaries were recruited from different parts of the empire.

And some even spoke Greek as mother tongue as well.

So that could also explain some of the Greek-speaking Muslims in the island as well, because these people were settled.