Q. & A. 711 to 1707 with solved Papers css 1971 to date

The Janissaries
They were called ’Ajam Oghlans (literally, Foreign Boys). Those unable to speak Turkish were first placed under the service of the feudal sipahis in Anatolia, but all were brought sooner or later to Istambul. There they were scrutinised again and appointed to various duties according to their capacities. There are indications that the Janissary organization was modeled or at feast influenced by that of a religious movement to which the Ottoman enterprise owed much of its vigour. This was the Akhi movement. In so far as the first Ottoman conquests were undertaken from religious motives, many of the townsmen who entertained such motive, including persons closely connected with ’Usman were members of this movement. Hence it would seem that the Janissaries were first established at a time when there was complete accord between the interests of the Sultan and those of his subjects. They were founded as a bodyguard of the Sultan and consequently followed him wherever he went. But as the corps increased in size, though a considerable number of troops continued to be stationed at the Sultan’s place of residence, most of them were posted to provincial garrisons, where they were placed under the command of the local governors. The Sultans always tried to confine the attention of the Janissaries to their proper duties, fighting and the preservation of order.

Political and Cultural History of Islam
The regulation permitting persons only of slave status into the Janissary troops, after a training, begun when such recruits were still of a tender age, ensured to keep them ignorant of money-making crafts; it was reinforced by another regulation that forbade them later to engage in such crafts and in any form of trade. The government procured all the commodities required for the rationing of the Janissaries direct from the producers, without resorting to civilian middlemen and engaged for those that were sent on a campaign, a number of men from those guilds whose members produced such manufactured articles as the Janissaries might need. The artisans so engaged ceased to belong to their original guilds. They were not regarded, however, as forming part of the Janissary establishment, but they enjoyed some of the privileges attaching-to Janissary status, such as immunity from arrest and punishment by the civil authorities. Ottoman Feudalism
Outside the towns of the greater part of the European dominions and a large part of Asia Minor, fiefs were granted to Muslims who were not slaves of the Sultan. The smaller fiefs were hereditary and gaps were filled from volunteers with the army. The fief-holders collected the revenues and exercised seigniorial jurisdiction in their estates, but they were officered by the kullars (slaves) of ife Sultan. The estates were of different size and were reckoned in three cteses: timars, when the yearly revenue was under

20,000 aspers; zi’amats, when it was 20,000 to 100,000 aspers; khasses, when it was over i .r’0,000 aspers. Timars might be divided into zi’amats, but zi’amats couiJ* not be divided. Every fief-holder was obliged to appear in persons ,vhen summoned to war. If the annual income of timarji (fief-holder) re« ”hed 600° asPers> he had lo bring with him an armed horseman, and ano *her for each additional

3000 aspers of his revenue. The holder of a Iarfe ”r ^ had to brin§ with him an armed horseman if his income amounted ^®® aspers of income.
In the sixteenth century this service was strictly exacu • T principle of the heredity entered into the distribution of these Sta/es but under limitations. One son of the holder of a small fief had a right to the fief; not more than three sons of the holder of a large fief were entitled to small fiefs. The sons of a kullar (Personal slaves of the Sultan) in high position might receive fiefs large in proportion to their father’s rank. This was one of the ways in which they were honourably conveyed from the Ruling Institution into the Muslim