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{{Infobox military unit
| unit_name = Janissary
| image = Lambert Wyts - Agha of the Janissaries and a Bölük of the Janissaries.jpg
| image_size = 230px
| caption = ''[[Agha of the Janissaries]] and a Bölük of the Janissaries'' by [[Lambert Wyts]], 1573
| dates = 1363–1826 (1830 for Algiers)
| allegiance = {{flag|Ottoman Empire
| type = [[Infantry]]
| role = Standing professional military
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A '''janissary''' ({{lang-ota|یڭیچری|yeŋiçeri}}, {{IPA-tr|jeniˈtʃeɾi|}}, {{lit|new soldier}}) was a member of the elite [[infantry]] units that formed the [[Ottoman Sultan]]'s household troops. They were the first modern [[standing army]], and perhaps the first infantry force in the world to be equipped with [[firearms]]; adopted during the reign of [[Murad II]].<ref name="Ágoston 2017">{{cite encyclopedia |author-last=Ágoston |author-first=Gábor |year=2017 |title=Janissaries |editor1-last=Fleet |editor1-first=Kate |editor2-last=Krämer |editor2-first=Gudrun |editor2-link=Gudrun Krämer |editor3-last=Matringe |editor3-first=Denis |editor4-last=Nawas |editor4-first=John |editor5-last=Rowson |editor5-first=Everett K. |editor5-link=Everett K. Rowson |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia of Islam 3|Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE]] |volume=2 |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_30927 |isbn=978-90-04-33571-4 |issn=1873-9830}}</ref>{{sfn|Kinross|1977|p=52}}{{sfn|Goodwin|1998|pp=59, 179–181}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Streusand|first=Douglas E.|title=Islamic Gunpowder Empires: Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kaQ_BAAAQBAJ|location=[[Philadelphia]]|publisher=[[Westview Press]]|year=2011|isbn=978-0813313597|page=83|quote=The word "Janissary" derives from the Turkish ''yeni cheri'' (''yeni çeri'', new army). They were originally an infantry bodyguard of a few hundred men using the bow and edged weapons. They adopted firearms during the reign of Murad II and were perhaps the first standing infantry force equipped with firearms in the world.}}</ref> The corps was established either under Sultans [[Orhan]] or [[Murad I]],<ref name="Ágoston 2017"/> and dismantled by [[Mahmud II]] in 1826.
Janissaries began as elite corps made up through the [[devşirme]] system of [[Ghilman|child levy]] enslavement, by which [[Christians|Christian]] [[Albanians]], [[Bosniaks]], [[Bulgarians]], [[Croats]], [[Greeks]], [[Romanians]], [[Serbs]], [[Italians]] and [[Ukrainians]] were taken, levied, subjected to forced [[Forced circumcision|circumcision]] and [[Forced conversion#Islam|conversion to Islam]], and incorporated into the [[Ottoman army in the 15th–19th centuries|Ottoman army]].<ref>''The New Encyclopedia of Islam'', ed. Cyril Glassé, Rowman & Littlefield, 2008, p.129</ref> They became famed for internal cohesion cemented by strict discipline and order. Unlike typical slaves, they were paid regular salaries. Forbidden to marry before the age of 40 or engage in trade, their complete loyalty to the Sultan was expected.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A History of the Modern Middle East|author1=William Cleveland|author2=Martin Bunton|publisher=Westview Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0-8133-4833-9|pages=43}}</ref> By the seventeenth century, due to a dramatic increase in the size of the Ottoman standing army, the corps' initially strict recruitment policy was relaxed. Civilians bought their way into it in order to benefit from the improved socioeconomic status it conferred upon them. Consequently, the corps gradually lost its military character, undergoing a process that has been described as "civilianization".{{sfn|Ágoston|2014|pp=119–120}}
The janissaries were a formidable military unit in the early centuries, but as Western Europe [[Early modern warfare|modernized]] its military organization and technology, the janissaries became a reactionary force that resisted all change. Steadily the Ottoman military power became outdated, but when the janissaries felt their privileges were being threatened, or outsiders wanted to modernize them, or they might be superseded by their [[Sipahi|cavalry rivals]], they would rise in rebellion. By the time the janissaries were suppressed, it was too late for Ottoman military power to catch up with the West.<ref>Peter Mansfield, ''A History of the Middle East'' (1991) p. 31</ref> The corps was abolished by Sultan [[Mahmud II]] in 1826 in the [[Auspicious Incident]], in which 6,000 or more were executed.{{sfn|Kinross|1977|p=456-457}}
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