Janissaries’ Names

In September 2021, the head of the Osmanlı Mehter Takımı, the SCA’s Janissary band, asked me to “share a list of appropriate names for our Janissaries to possibly choose from in developing personas”. He was probably referring to my page of names of Muslim men from Sivas province, but that list is full of names that aren’t appropriate for janissaries for one reason or another. This is my attempt to rectify the situation by presenting a list of names borne by real janissaries of the 15th and 16th centuries.

When naming a janissary persona, the most important questions to ask are: Was your persona a freeborn Muslim who joined the janissaries voluntarily? Or was he a prisoner of war or a child tribute (devşirme) who was born Christian, enslaved, and forced to convert? Your answer to this question will determine whether your persona would have been likely to bear a name identical to that of any other freeborn Muslim man, or whether he would have a name chosen from a more restricted list of names given to converts, plus the standard convert’s patronymic “bin Abdullah.”

A sidebar on accuracy, and a quick and dirty guide for the overwhelmed Note that the distinction between converts’ first names and born Muslims’ first names is a fine one, and it’s not enshrined in SCAdian practice. This article is for people who are sticklers for accuracy. If you don’t want to be absolutely accurate, any period Muslim name will work. If you want to be a stickler but all the information below is overwhelming, here’s a simple guide: Before c. 1530: [personal name] bin Abdullah; pick your personal name from the list below. After c. 1530: [personal name] bin Abdullah; pick your personal name from the list below OR [personal name] bin [father’s personal name]; pick both names from any list of Muslim period names you like.

Freeborn Muslims – c. 1530 through 1826

Until the early 16th century, janissaries were strictly forbidden to marry. However, Selim I (1512-1520) abolished the ban on marriage, and about ten years later,¹ long enough for the first married janissaries’ sons to become old enough for training, janissaries’ sons (kuloğlu, “son of the sultan’s slave”) were allowed to volunteer for service. Janissaries’ sons became an increasingly large proportion of the janissary corps over the course of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Starting in the late 16th century, freeborn Muslims also entered the janissaries through exceptions that allowed some freeborn, non-kuloğlu Muslim men to apply.

Freeborn Muslim janissaries’ names followed the same pattern as any other Muslim man’s name: [personal name] bin [father’s personal name], with the personal names chosen from a wide variety of Arabic-, Turkish-, and Persian-derived names. For advice on building a name, I will refer you to my page on ordinary Muslim men’s names when I have one.

If you wish to play a kuloğlu whose father was an enslaved convert (that is, a first-generation janissary), choose your father’s name from the list below.

Enslaved Converts – 14th through 17th Centuries

Enslaved converts were the backbone of the janissary corps from its founding in the mid-14th century. Initially all janissaries were Christian prisoners of war, given to the sultan as his one-fifth share of the booty. They were forced to convert to Islam and were classed as kul, a word that means “slave” but which implies that the person is a slave of the sultan himself, a position of great dignity. Kul lived under more restrictions than free men (for example, janissaries were forbidden to marry until c. 1520) but had a social status similar to that of free men.²

Prisoners of war continued to be an important source of men well into the 16th century, but as the role of the janissaries grew, the corps needed more men than they could acquire by capture. A system of “tribute,” devşirme, was organized by which Christian boys were gathered from non-Muslim provinces, forced to convert to Islam, taught the Turkish language and Turkish culture, and taken into the service of the sultan. When the boys reached Istanbul they were sorted, with the most promising going into training at the palace school (Enderun), and the rest going into pre-janissary training. Devşirme continued until the middle or end of the 17th century, although it became progressively less important during the mid- and late 16th century.

A few notes for people who wish to play janissaries conscripted through devşirme:

• Boys were required to be Christian. Jews were not allowed. I have yet to find an explanation for this, but the Ottomans were serious about it — if a batch of boys was found to contain suspected Jews, the entire batch was sent to service in the galleys.
• The exception to the Christian-only rule was Bosnian Muslims, who petitioned to be allowed to be included in devşirme even though they were Muslim and exempt from all forms of slavery.
• Recruiters wanted healthy boys from good families.
  • Only sons were exempt, as were boys who were married.
  • Second sons were more likely to be taken than first sons.
  • Some families lost multiple sons, either in the same or successive waves of recruitment.³
  • Boys from rural villages were preferred because they were less worldly and less likely to escape. Boys who had been to Istanbul were ineligible because, having made the trip already, they were too likely to escape.
  • Orphans were not preferred because they were believed to be greedy and selfish.
• Recruiters were sent out with lists of requirements, including desired ages. In the early days, the boys were young — in the 1490’s they were aged 12 to 15, with an average age of 13.5 — but over time, their ages rose. In 1603-1604, 85% were aged 16-20, with an average age of 16.6 and a mode of 18.
• Although boys were supposed to lose all contact with their families, this did not always happen. There is evidence from the 16th century of men regaining contact with their families, and even using their positions to help their families back in their homeland.⁴

The difference between freeborn Muslim janissaries and enslaved convert janissaries is significant because when a person — free or enslaved — converted to Islam, they were given a new Muslim name. The goal of renaming was to give the new convert a Muslim identity, blend them into the Muslim community, and erase their connections to their non-Muslim past, but because a convert was given a distinctive patronymic, “bin Abdullah,” their new name also marked them as a convert. In addition. converts were less likely to receive certain types of names that were common among men who were born Muslim, and the recruiters who named new janissaries were uncommonly uncreative.

Converts’ personal names

Both free and enslaved converts typically received generic Muslim (that is, Turkish versions of Arabic) names: Mehmed, Ahmed, Hüseyin, Hasan, Ali, etc. These names didn’t set them apart from people who were born Muslim, who were also overwhelmingly likely to bear one of these names. There were also occasional appearances of converts with common Turkish-derived names, like Arslan and Timur. However, there were classes of names — mostly Turkish-derived — that were common among Muslim-born men, but which converts were unlikely to bear:

• Names reflecting the time or circumstances of the person’s birth: the place where he was born, the weather when he was born, his father’s age, etc.
• Names intended to deflect bad luck from the newborn, or to prevent yet another child in the family from dying
• Names reflecting joy and excitement at the birth of a child
• Names specific to a certain region
• Names specific to a religious group. (16th-century Janissaries were Sunni Muslims belonging to the [Shi’ite-tinged] Bektashi order of Sufis, so names particular to other Sufi orders or to the Shi’ite Kizilbash group wouldn’t occur to the recruiters in charge of naming new conscripts.)

Many Muslim-born men were named for the month of their birth or a festival during which they were born. Although I don’t have information about whether names reflecting the time of a person’s birth were given to free converts, we know they were given to boys conscripted through devşirme. A 1604 register of newly conscripted boys includes five month names (Sefer, Şa‘ban, Ramazan, Muharrem, and Receb) and Bayram, a name given to boys born during Eid al-Fitr. The conscripters didn’t know the year each boy was born, let alone the month, so presumably these names were given for other reasons.⁵ Converted janissaries in other records also bear month and festival names, so it was a general practice, not a peculiarity of the conscripters active in 1604.

How did conscripts receive their Muslim names?

I don’t currently have any information about how prisoners of war were converted and conscripted into the janissaries, but we have some insight into the conversion and naming of boys taken as devşirme.

Early in the devşirme process, shortly after the boys were removed from their homes, they were made to recite the creed of faith, which legally converted them to Muslims. At this time the recruiters assigned them a new name. A 1604 register of boys newly collected through devşirme, analyzed by Gilles Veinstein, offers a rare look into the process. The register records the boys’ birth names, birthplaces, and new Muslim names, allowing Veinstein to compare the boys’ birth names to their new names and to examine their origins for other clues to their naming.

Veinstein found that there was no attempt to relate the boys’ birth names to their Muslim names. On the contrary, the boys’ new names were as different as possible from their birth names, even when there was a Muslim equivalent. Boys who bore Biblical names didn’t receive their Quranic equivalent; boys who had Turkish names like Karagöz and Malkoç received different, unrelated names. (Meanwhile, other boys received Karagöz and Malkoç as their new Muslim names.)

Apart from that single principle, the method by which boys were named was random. Occasionally a rule pops up — for example, sometimes a boy was named after the timar-holder of the village he came from — but even that rule was applied only sporadically. One recruiter was lazy enough to name a series of boys Kasım, Şaban, and Muharrem, roughly equivalent to November, August, and January. Most recruiters gave every boy in a village group a different name, but sometimes two boys in a group of eight, or four, or even three would have the same name. The apogee was one group of six boys in which three were named Mehmed and two were named Mustafa. If individual recruiters had a method by which they chose names, their methods are lost to time, and the result has come down through the centuries as chaos.

Converts’ patronymics

Converts used the same [personal name] bin [father’s personal name] name pattern as the rest of the population, but they substituted Abdullah for their father’s name.⁶ For example, Yani bin Georgi would become Mehmed bin Abdullah, not Mehmed bin Georgi. This had two purposes: It signaled a break between the convert’s non-Muslim past and Muslim present, and it avoided the impropriety of combining a Muslim name with a non-Muslim name.

In branches of the military and government staffed through devşirme, where thousands of men were named “bin Abdullah,” some high-ranking men distinguished themselves by exchanging Abdullah for another Abd- name. For example, Sinan (d. 1588), the preeminent Ottoman architect of the 16th century, was a former devşirme who went by Sinan bin Abdülmennan, Abdülkerim, or Abdurrahman.⁷ A food-taster at the imperial court in 1594 was known as Rüstem Agha b. Abdülmennan.⁸ The records of charitable foundations contain a litany of courtly names, some named “bin Abdullah” and others renamed more creatively:

• Mother of Prince Şehinşah (Şehzâde Şehinşah Vâlidesi) Vâlide Sultân Hüsnüşaz Hatun binti Abdülcelil (1497)⁹
• Beylerbeyi Hasan Paşa bin Abdülhay or Abdülvehhab (1508)¹⁰
• The prince’s wetnurse (Dâye-i Şehzâde) Ayşe Hatun ibneti Abdülmennan (1548)¹¹
• Wetnurse (dâye) Server Hatun binti Abdülkerim (1551)¹²
• İskender Paşa bin Abdülmennan or Abdurrahman (1559)¹³
• The vezir, provincial governor, and prince’s tutor Hüseyin Paşa bin Abdurrahim (1570)¹⁴
• Murad Paşa bin Abdüsselam, Karaman Beylerbeyi (1574)¹⁵
• Nişancıbaşı Ferhad Ağa bin Abdülmuin (1597)¹⁶

Although the names of the creme de la creme are the easiest to find, not everyone who chose to swap Abdullah for something more distinguished came from the highest court in the land. Although the rank and file of the janissary corps, as well as the first few levels of officers, went by “bin Abdullah,” very high-ranking janissary personas have the option of choosing a different patronymic.

Documentable Names

These names are documented as belonging to a janissary who was a convert. All of these names are also suitable for any freeborn Muslim male.

Although I give the year(s) in which each name is attested, don’t read too much into the range of years. My sources become more plentiful and detailed toward the end of the century, so many names seem to appear out of nowhere late in the century, when the reality is they were probably in use throughout the 16th century, and likely the 15th as well. For example, Davud was a common name among civilians throughout period. It’s unlikely that recruiters started giving it to new janissaries only in 1563, even though that’s the earliest date I could document it.

If you like a name on this list but the documented dates don’t cover your persona’s period, and you want to be a stickler about documentation, look for evidence of the name’s use in a civilian source. If the name was in use among civilians in your persona’s day, it can safely be assumed to be in use among janissaries.

• ‘Abdi — 1594-1595. [RUM21] 1604. [VEIN]
• Abdüllatif — 1579. [Rodoschuk 1579]
• Abdülrahmet — 1603-1604. [YILM]
• Abdurrahman — 1604. [VEIN]
• Ahmed — 1524-1530. [USK05] 1557-1558. [BAL01] 1575-1576. [GAL05] 1585-1587. [EYU03] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1592-1609. [KURT p. 163] 1594-1595. [RUM21] 1604. [VEIN]
• Alagöz — 1524-1530. [USK05] 1546-1553. [RODO] 1563. [BAL02]
• Ali — 1518-1521. [USK02] 1524-1530. [USK05] 1557-1558. [BAL01] 1558-1559. [TOP02] 1563. [RUM02] 1563. [BAL02] 1585-1587. [EYU03] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1592-1609. [KURT p. 96] 1594-1595. [RUM21] 1603-1604. [YILM]
• Arslan — 1590-1591. [USK84] 1604. [VEIN]
• Ayas — 1604. [VEIN]
• Aydın — 1563. [BAL02] 1575-1576. [GAL05] 1594-1595. [RUM21] 1604. [VEIN]
• Bali — 1521. [YILD] 1524-1530. [USK05] 1546-1553. [RODO] 1604. [VEIN]
• Bayezid — 1563. [BAL02] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1604. [VEIN]
• Bayram — 1563. [BAL02] 1604. [VEIN]
• Behram — 1519. [YILD] 1563. [BAL02] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1604. [VEIN]
• Bekir — 1518-1521. [USK02] 1604. [VEIN]
• Cafer — 1534. [YILD] 1563. [RUM02] 1563. [BAL02] 1575-1576. [GAL05] 1594-1595. [RUM21] 1604. [VEIN]
• Çakır — 1557-1558. [BAL01]
• Cemal — 1604. [VEIN]
• Davud — 1563. [BAL02] 1575-1576. [GAL05] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1603-1604. [YILM]
• Demir — 1563. [BAL02]
• Derviş — 1604. [VEIN]
• Durak — 1604. [VEIN]
• Durmuş — 1563. [BAL02] 1604. [VEIN]
• Dursun — 1604. [VEIN]
• Doğan — (Kazancı Doğan)
• Evrenos — 1604. [VEIN]
• Fazlı — 1590-1591. [USK84]
• Ferhad — 1515. [YILD] 1524-1530. [USK05] 1534-1536. [USK09] 1563. [BAL02] 1575-1576. [GAL05] 1594-1595. [RUM21] 1604. [VEIN]
• Ferruh — 1594-1595. [RUM21]
• Geyvan — 1592-1609. [KURT p. 104]
• Hacı — 1518-1521. [USK02]
  Probably a nickname used by a janissary who was entitled to call himself Hacı because he had made the pilgrimage to Mecca.
• Hamid — 1604. [VEIN]
• Hamza — 1518-1521. [USK02] 1524-1530. [USK05] 1563. [BAL02] 1564-1565. [DARL 25] 1575-1576. [GAL05] 1604. [VEIN]
• Hasan — 1546-1553. [RODO] 1563. [BAL02] 1575-1576. [GAL05] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1594-1595. [RUM21] 1604. [VEIN] 1618. [IST03]
• Haydar — 1585-1587. [EYU03] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1594-1595. [RUM21]
  • Variant: Hayder — 1604. [VEIN]
• Hayreddin — 1518-1521. [USK02]
• Hızır — 1518-1521. [USK02] 1563. [BAL02] 1575-1576. [GAL05] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1594-1595. [RUM21] 1603-1604. [YILM]
• Hüdaverdi — 1563. [BAL02]
• Hürrem — 1585-1587. [EYU03]
  This Persian name, which means “cheerful,” is most famous as the name of Süleyman the Great’s favorite concubine. However, it was more commonly a male name.
• Hüsam — 1524-1530. [USK05]
• Hüseyin — 1534-1536. [USK09] 1563. [RUM02] 1563. [BAL02] 1575-1576. [GAL05] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1594-1595. [RUM21] 1603-1604. [YILM]
• Hüsrev — 1563. [BAL02] 1575-1576. [GAL05] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1604. [VEIN]
  • Variant: Husrev
• İbrahim — 1563. [BAL02] 1570-1572. [DARL 25] 1575-1576. [GAL05] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1594-1595. [RUM21] 1592-1609. [KURT p. 104] 1604. [VEIN]
• İdris — 1604. [VEIN]
• İlyas — 1518-1521. [USK02] 1563. [BAL02] 1563. [RUM02] 1585-1587. [EYU03] 1603-1604. [YILM]
• İnehan — 1604. [VEIN]
• İsa — 1590-1591. [USK84] 1604. [VEIN] 1619-1620. [EYU19]
• İshak — 1604. [VEIN]
• İskender — 1524-1530. [USK05] 1553? [YILD] 1563. [BAL02] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1594-1595. [RUM21] 1604. [VEIN]
• İslam — 1590-1591. [USK84]
• İsmail — 1526? [YILD] 1534-1536. [USK09] 1575-1576. [GAL05] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1604. [VEIN]
• Karagöz — 1570-1572. [DARL 25] 1594-1595. [RUM21] 1604. [VEIN]
  This Turkish name means “dark eyes,” and was one of the few names that was used by men of all ethnicities.
• Kasım — 1518-1521. [USK02] 1563. [BAL02] 1585-1587. [EYU03] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1604. [VEIN]
• Kemal — 1519. [YILD]
• Kemaleddin — 1519. [YILD]
• Korkud — 1563. [BAL02]
• Kurd — 1590-1591. [USK84] 1594-1595. [RUM21]
• Lütfullah — 1594-1595. [RUM21]
• Mahmud — 1518-1521. [USK02] 1524-1530. [USK05] 1558-1559. [TOP02] 1563. [RUM02] 1563. [BAL02] 1575-1576. [GAL05] 1585-1587. [EYU03] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1592-1609. [KURT p. 87] 1594-1595. [RUM21] 1604. [VEIN]
• Malkoç — 1594-1595. [RUM21] 1604. [VEIN]
• Mehmed — 1517. [YILD] 1518-1521. [USK02] 1546-1553. [RODO] 1557-1558. [BAL01] 1575-1576. [GAL05] 1585-1587. [EYU03] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1592-1609. [KURT p. 104] 1594-1595. [RUM21] 1604. [VEIN] 1623-1624. [RUM40]
  • Variants: Mehmedî 1518-1521. [USK02] 1524-1530. [USK05]
• Mesih — 1563. [BAL02]
• Muharrem — 1604. [VEIN]
• Murad — 1524-1530. [USK05] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1592-1609. [KURT p. 75] 1594-1595. [RUM21] 1604. [VEIN]
• Musa — 1518-1521. [USK02] 1604. [VEIN]
• Mustafa — 1518-1521. [USK02] 1523? [YILD] 1524-1530. [USK05] 1558-1559. [TOP01] 1563. [BAL02] 1585-1587. [EYU03] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1594-1595. [RUM21] 1604. [VEIN]
• Nasuh — 1549-1556. [USK17] 1563. [BAL02] 1604. [VEIN]
• Ömer — 1563. [BAL02] 1585-1587. [EYU03] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1604. [VEIN]
• Osman — 1575-1576. [GAL05] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1604. [VEIN]
• Pervane — 1563. [BAL02] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1594-1595. [RUM21] 1604. [VEIN]
• Piri — 1590-1591. [USK84]
• Ramazan — 1575-1576. [GAL05] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1604. [VEIN]
• Receb — 1590-1591. [USK84] 1604. [VEIN]
• Rüstem — 1531. [YILD] 1563. [BAL02] 1585-1587. [EYU03] 1594-1595. [RUM21]
• Şaban — 1563. [BAL02] 1604. [VEIN]
• Salih — 1604. [VEIN]
• Sefer — 1563. [BAL02] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1592-1609. [KURT p. 104] 1604. [VEIN]
• Sinan — 1518-1521. [USK02] 1524-1530. [USK05] 1546-1553. [RODO] 1558-1559. [TOP02] 1563. [BAL02] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1594-1595. [RUM21] 1604. [VEIN]
• Şirmerd –1604. [VEIN]
• Şüca’ — 1524-1530. [USK05] 1590-1591. [USK84]
• Şücaaddin — 1525. [YILD]
• Süleyman — 1563. [BAL02] 1575-1576. [GAL05] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1592-1609. [KURT p. 75] 1594-1595. [RUM21] 1604. [VEIN]
• Timur — 1594-1595. [RUM21]
• Turgud — 1604. [VEIN]
• Turhan — 1604. [VEIN]
• Uruc — 1604. [VEIN]
• Üveys — 1563. [BAL02] 1575-1576. [GAL05]
• Veli — 1590-1591. [USK84] 1594-1595. [RUM21]
• Yahya — 1558-1559. [TOP01] 1604. [VEIN]
• Yakub — 1515. [YILD] 1518-1521. [USK02] 1592-1609. [KURT p. 142] 1604. [VEIN]
• Yunus — 1563. [BAL02] 1604. [VEIN]
• Yusuf — 1518-1521. [USK02] 1524-1530. [USK05] 1534-1536. [USK09] 1563. [BAL02] 1575-1576. [GAL05] 1590-1591. [USK84] 1592-1609. [KURT p. 104] 1594-1595. [RUM21] 1604. [VEIN]
• Zulfıkar — 1604. [VEIN]

Names with Nicknames

Because the nickname, not the main name, is the important consideration, these names belonged to both converted and freeborn janissaries.

• Dramalu
  • Dramalu Mustafa — 1564-1565. [DARL 26]
• Fenerlü
  • Fenerlü İbrahim — 1564-1565. [DARL 18]
• Güzelce
  • Güzelce Rüstem Ağa — 1531. [YILD]
• Kalın, “bold”
  • Kalın Ali Ağa
• Kara, “dark”
  • Kara Ahmed Ağa — 1534. [YILD]
• Küçük, “little”
  • Küçük İbrahim bey [Rodoscuk 1579 p. 109]
• Semin
  • Semin Ali Ağa
• Semiz, “fat”
  • Semiz Ali Ağa — 1558. [YILD]
• Temerrüd
  • Temerrüd Ali Ağa — 1541. [YILD]

Sources

[BAL01] Balat Mahkemesi 1 Numaralı Sicil (H. 964-965/M. 1557-1558)

[BAL02] Balat Mahkemesi 2 Numaralı Sicil (H. 970-971/M. 1563)

[DARL] Darling, Linda T. “Crime among the Janissaries in the Ottoman Golden Age.”

[EYU03] Eyüb Mahkemesi (Havass-ı Refia) 3 Numaralı Sicil (H. 993 – 995 / M. 1585 – 1587)

[EYU19] Eyüb Mahkemesi (Havass-ı Refia) 19 Numaralı Sicil (H. 1028 – 1030 / M. 1619 – 1620)

[GAL05] Galata Mahkemesi 5 Numaralı Sicil (H. 983-984 / M. 1575-1576)

[IST03] İstanbul Mahkemesi 3 Numaralı Sicil (H.1027/ M. 1618)

[KURT] Kurt, Meral. Kismet-Î Askerîye Mahkemesi 01 Numarali Defteri (Transkripsiyon ve Değerlendirme)

[RODO] Sandfuchs, Özlem Sert. Reconstructing a Town from its Court Records: Rodosçuk (1546-1553)

[RUM21] Rumeli Sadareti Mahkemesi 21 Numaralı Sicil (H. 1002-1003/M. 1594-1595)

[RUM40] Rumeli Sadâreti Mahkemesi 40 Numaralı Sicil (H. 1033-1034 / M. 1623-1624)

[TOP01] Tophane Mahkemesi 2 Numaralı Sicil (H. 966-967/M. 1558-1559)

[USK02] Üsküdar Mahkemesi 2 Numaralı Sicil (H. 924-927/M. 1518-1521)

[USK05] Üsküdar Mahkemesi 5 Numaralı Sicil (H. 930-936/M. 1524-1530)

[USK09] Üsküdar Mahkemesi 9 Numaralı Sicil (H. 940-942/M. 1534-1536)

[USK17] Üsküdar Mahkemesi 17 Numaralı Sicil (H. 956-963/ M. 1549-1556)

[USK84] Üsküdar Mahkemesi 84 Numaralı Sicil (H. 999-1000/ M. 1590-1591)

[VEIN] Veinstein, Gilles. Les nouveaux noms des recrues du devşirme ottoman. I drew names from this source only when they did not already appear in [YILD] for 1603-1604, since the two sources draw from the same register of conscripted boys.

[YILD] Yıldız, Aysel. Commanders of the Janissary Army: The Janissary Ağas, Their Career and Promotion Patterns.

[YILM] Yılmaz, Gülay. The Devshirme System and the Levied Children of Bursa in 1603-4.

Methodology

To locate janissaries who were converts, I searched court records, government documents, and scholarly articles for men who were identified as janissaries or devşirme, who had the patronymic “bin Abdullah” or who were identified as converts through context, and who lived before 1625.

When searching Turkish sources, the keywords yeniçeri (janissary), er-racil (infantry, a descriptor commonly applied to janissaries), and Beşe (a title borne by many janissaries from the mid-16th century onward) were helpful. I ignored titles such as çavuş, which could be borne by members of other military organizations as well.¹⁷

Bibliography

Darling, Linda T. “Crime among the Janissaries in the Ottoman Golden Age.” Ottoman War and Peace: Studies in Honor of Virginia H. Aksan. Netherlands: Brill, 2020: 13-34.

Kafadar, Cemal. Yeniçeri-Esnaf Relations: Solidarity and Conflict. Thesis. McGill University: Institute of Islamic Studies (1981).

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https://search.worldcat.org/title/580656085

Bibiliography lookup: https://avesis.marmara.edu.tr/yayin/a99e415d-f6ef-47f1-9c8f-d49c40f5d2a2/istanbul-kadi-sicilleri-43-tophane-mahkemesi-2-numarali-sicil-h-966-967-m-1558-1559

Footnotes

1. Exact dates are impossible to come by. This is a theme in janissary studies — even the date when the janissaries were founded isn’t known for sure.
2. Another sign of kuls’ special status is that although children followed the status of their father, kuls’ children were legally freeborn, not slaves or kuls.
3. We know this because of evidence that men kept in touch with brothers and cousins who had also been taken through devşirme, even when they went into different branches of service.
4. My personal favorite is a letter from a palace page to his hometown’s bishop, saying, in effect, “I’ve heard that you’re making trouble for my mother. Back off or I’m going to come down on your head like a ton of bricks.”
5. Veinstein 2013
6. I have yet to discover why the name Abdullah was chosen. It was the name of Muhammad’s father, and its meaning, “servant/slave of God,” is appropriate for a new convert, but no source has confirmed that either of these reasons is correct.
7. https://isamveri.org/pdfdrg/D237196/2014_YAVASAZ_PAMUKS.pdf
8. https://web.archive.org/web/20220204235348id_/https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1826699 , p. 22
9. https://cdn.vgm.gov.tr/yayin/dergi/muhtelif/vakiflar-genel-mudurlugu-arsiv-rehberi.pdf , p. 32)
10. Ibid., p. 28
11. Ibid., p. 19
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid., p. 30
16. Ibid., p. 29
17. This method was informed by the method used by Gülay Yılmaz in The Economic and Social Roles of Janissaries in a 17th-Century Ottoman City: The Case of Istanbul, p. 18.