Muslim Slave System in Medieval India c9.29

c9.29

The practice of Dewshrime (Greek for collecting boys), is the name applied to the forcible pressing of Christian children to recruit the janissary regiments of the Turkish Empire mainly in the European parts with a Christian population (Greece, Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Bulgaria).⁷² These Christians, Jews and Gypsies turned Muslims were trained to fight against their own erstwhile brethren. Instituted by Urkhan in 1330, it formed for centuries the mainstay of the despotic power of the Turkish sultans, and was kept alive by a regular contribution exacted every four years (or so), when the officers of the Sultan visited the districts over and made a selection from among the children about the age of seven. The Muhammadan legists attempted to apologise for this inhuman tribute by representing these children as the fifth of the spoil which the Quran assigns to the sovereign.⁷³