janissaries's Usage Examples:

Many of the janissaries had married and settled on the land, forming a strongly conservative and fanatical caste, friendly to the Moslem nobles, who now dreaded the curtailment of their own privileges.

His one attempt at reform, the order forbidding the sale of intoxicants so as to stop the growing intemperance of the janissaries, broke down on the opposition of the soldiery.

"As early as 1308 the Ottoman Turks had begun to settle in Europe; by 1350 they had organized their terrible army of janissaries.

The Mamelukes, who are analogous to the janissaries of the Ottoman Turks, were made of sterner and more fanatical stuff; and Bibars, the greatest of these Mamelukes, who had commanded at Gaza in 1244, had been one of the leaders in 1250, and was destined to become sultan in 1260, was the sternest and most fanatical of them all.

The hardships of their lot, and, above all, the system by which the strongest of their sons were carried off as recruits for the corps of janissaries, frequently drove them to brigandage, and occasionally to open revolt.

Hafiz was surrendered, a voluntary martyr; other ministers were deposed; Mustafa Pasha, aga of the janissaries, was saved by his own troops.

Miinnich had at least dissipated the illusion of Ottoman invincibility, and taught the Russian soldier that 100,000 janissaries and spahis were no match, in a fair field, for half that number of grenadiers and hussars.

At his accession the financial straits of the treasury were such that the usual donative could not be given to the janissaries.

They were archers fighting on horseback, and in their cavalry consisted the strength of the Parthian army; the infantry were mostly slaves, bought and trained for military service, like the janissaries and mamelukes.

Besides being a fortress the kasbah formerly contained a palace of the beys, barracks for janissaries and bagnios for the Christian slaves.

Synonyms:

follower,

Antonyms:

leader, superior,