Devshirme System: The Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire was under control by the Muslims, and during that time era, there was a system called devshirme. “It was no wonder then that Ottoman Christians deployed many strategies to avoid the devshirme” (Strayer, p. 495). The devshirme system was a convolute situation to stay away from because there would be Ottoman officers collecting all the young Christian boys. It was a devastating for the parents getting their sons taken away from them. Strayer states that the parent's bargain with the officers and tries their best to prevent them taking the children’s. “Some communities required their boys to formally marry at a very young age; parish priests might conveniently lose names from the parish registries; families sometimes fled to avoid the recruiters; Eastern Orthodox Christians on occasion appealed to the pope or to Catholic military orders for help, “lest we lose we lose our children” (Strayer, p. 495). Parents do their best to hide their children’s from going through the devshirme system, or if it does not work out, there
“Boys with the greatest potential received a prestigious education, lasting some fourteen years, in Aribic, Turkish, and Persian languages; mathematics; Islamic studies; homrsemanship weaponry; and more” (Strayer p. 494). When the young children’s are going through a military training process, the soldiers observe them precisely and the youths could have many benefits in return. Education means more than anything for the Christian children’s and having the knowledge makes them succeed more. “They were tracked into civil administrative careers, often in the palace itself” (Strayer p. 494). Strayer depicts that, the boys had skills in different areas in the Ottoman Empire and they were sort out in categories. However, it was a tough for the young boys to survive in that enviorment but, it leads to some opportunities for