Devshirme

How it is used

Describe its coercive recruitment and changing practice; not every Ottoman official entered through it.

Example sentences

1. The register lists villages visited during a devshirme levy.

   The list records the collection process at local level.

2. His study compares devshirme recruitment with other routes into palace service.

   The comparison avoids treating one recruitment route as universal.

Common collocations

• the devshirme system
• devshirme recruitment

Related terms

• Ottoman EmpireThe state founded in north-western Anatolia around 1300 by the dynasty of Osman, which grew into an empire across south-eastern Europe, western Asia and North Africa and lasted until 1922.
• slaveryA system in which people are legally owned by others, forced to work without pay and denied basic freedoms, or the condition of being enslaved.

More terms: Empires, States and Rulers

• empire
• dynasty
• reign
• colonialism
• monarchy
• sovereignty
• colony
• city-state
• abdicate
• decline
• Byzantine Empire
• imperialism