Prilog pitanju devširme
A contribution to the problem of devshirme

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with a way of collecting the Christian children for the janitzari corp. The first Chapter deals with a short critical survey of the sources and literature on this question, then organization means and ways of collecting of those children, are described. This tribute is mentioned under the name »Devshirme« meaning collecting in the Turkish documents. Our people called it "Tribute in blood" or »'Bloody tribute«. It was called the same by the forigen travellers that had traveled trough the Balkans. At the time of Murat I »a đemi ođak« was estalblished and it was controled iby the janitzari ođak wlhere the children were taught reading, writting, islamic sciences and the art of warfare. At the beginning only »penđik usulu« was applied, i. e. only the children from the border regions were taken, and later on also the children from the inland by »devshirme uslu«. The system of devshirme was first practice in Rumelia, Albania, Macedonia, Greece and Bulgaria, and later on Serbia, Bosnia and Hercegovina and Hungary. Since the end of 15. ct or the beginning of 16. ct. devshirmea was gradully extended all over the christian subjects from Anadolia. There is information from which one may drowe conclusion, that at the beginning for devshirme all christian children without exception were taken but it was later on limited only to certain nationalities and those were the Albanians, Bosnians, Greeks, Bulgarians and Armenians. For a certain period of time it was forbiden to taike away the children of other nationalities. In a document from 1666 it was ordered that the children of Bosnian and Aibanian Moslems he taken in devshirme and if they want to do so voluntarely and are 15-20 years of age. It was ordered for these cihildren not to mix with the christian ones that a special list should lbe made, that they shoud form a separate group and be sent to Istanbul.

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