JaNet: Janissary Networks
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Janissaries in Ottoman Port-Cities: Muslim Financial and Political Networks in the Early Modern Mediterranean
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ItemΔιακοινοτική βία στη Σμύρνη το 1821: μια ευρύτερη οπτική των γεγονότων(Εκδόσεις του 21ου, 2025)This article highlights elements of the Janissary political networks active in the Ottoman Mediterranean and explains how these networks contributed to the development and spread of phenomena of Muslim violence. Specifically, it focuses on the events in Smyrna and the connection of their protagonists with Crete, Manisa, Istanbul, and other regions where such –seemingly independent– violent mobilizations occurred after the outbreak of the 1821 Revolution. Through the above analysis, it explains that a series of events which had taken place in Smyrna as early as the second half of the 18th century, and which at first glance could be interpreted as simple intercommunal conflicts, in fact had deeper roots. Finally, it argues that the 1821 Revolution acted as a catalyst for the emergence of new, or the expression of pre-existing, claims by groups connected to the Janissaries, whose interests and networks often transcended the local or religious level. Αυτό το άρθρο αναδεικνύει στοιχεία των πολιτικών δικτύων των γενίτσαρων στην οθωμανική Μεσόγειο και εξηγεί πώς αυτά τα δίκτυα συνέβαλαν στην ανάπτυξη και διασπορά φαινομένων μουσουλμανικής βίας. Επικεντρώνεται συγκεκριμένα στα γεγονότα της Σμύρνης και στη σύνδεση των πρωταγωνιστών τους με την Κρήτη, τη Μανίσα, την Κωνσταντινούπολη και άλλες περιοχές, όπου πραγματοποιήθηκαν βίαιες κινητοποιήσεις –φαινομενικά ανεξάρτητες μεταξύ τους– μετά το ξέσπασμα της Επανάστασης του 1821. Μέσω της ανάλυσης αυτής, εξηγεί ότι μια σειρά γεγονότων που είχαν λάβει χώρα στη Σμύρνη ήδη από το δεύτερο μισό του 18ου αιώνα, και που εκ πρώτης όψεως θα μπορούσαν να ερμηνευθούν ως απλές διακοινοτικές διαμάχες, στην πραγματικότητα είχαν βαθύτερες ρίζες. Τέλος, ισχυρίζεται ότι η Επανάσταση του 1821 έδρασε ως καταλύτης για την ανάδυση νέων – ή την έκφραση προϋπαρχουσών – διεκδικήσεων ομάδων που συνδέονταν με τους γενίτσαρους, των οποίων τα συμφέροντα και τα δίκτυα συχνά ξεπερνούσαν το τοπικό ή θρησκευτικό επίπεδο.
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ItemThe Janissaries Socio-Political and Economic Actors in the Ottoman Empire (17th-Early 19th Centuries)(Crete University Press, 2025)This volume presents the proceedings of the 12th Halcyon Days in Crete Symposium, held at the Institute for Mediterranean Studies in Rethymno from January 12-14, 2024, under the theme The Janissaries: Socio-Political and Economic Actors in the Ottoman Empire (17th-Early 19th Centuries). Drawing on diverse sources and perspectives, this collection offers a fresh and comprehensive examination of the Janissaries beyond their traditional military role: it considers them as key figures in imperial politics and economic networks, while also highlighting various aspects of their lived experiences and societal interactions. The 16 papers included in the volume explore a wide range of topics, shedding light on the Janissaries’ financial and commercial ventures, credit mechanisms, and extensive networks – both within the provinces and across interprovincial and international frontiers. More importantly, rather than portraying them as relics of a declining empire, the studies present the Janissary Corps and its affiliates as dynamic agents of change who profoundly shaped the post-classical Ottoman world.
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ItemInsights into Janissary Networks, 1700-1826(Izmir Katip Celebi University, 2022-07-01)This special issue comprises a collection of essays exploring the history of the Janissaries, serving as the first installment in a planned series of publications examining the processes that established the Janissary Corps as a formidable political and socioeconomic force both in the Ottoman center and the provinces. The articles featured here originated as presentations at a workshop held at İzmir Kâtip Çelebi University in September 2021, organized as part of the ERC-funded project “JaNeT: Janissaries in Ottoman Port-Cities: Muslim Financial and Political Networks in the Early Modern Mediterranean.” This project investigates the operations of Janissary networks within the Ottoman Empire, framing them as integral components of broader Muslim political and economic networks spanning much of the Mediterranean region.
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ItemPayitaht Yeniçerileri. Padişahın “Asi” Kulları 1700-1826( 2022-08)Janissaries have a special place in the history of Istanbul. For centuries they represented an important element of the imperial capital, shaping the latter's politics and economy, establishing deep ties with its inhabitants and enriching its culture. As they evolved into a large decentralized army present in most fortresses of the Ottoman empire —especially from the 17th century onward, their rapidly increasing numbers in the imperial urban space deepened and complicated their relations with the population of the cities where they were located. This was also the case with Istanbul where the Janissaries grew into an essential component of its economic, social, and cultural life. This book attempts at studying the Janissaries from the perspective of their involvement into the 18th- and early 19th-century Istanbul's socioeconomic and political history, while avoiding to engage into the elitist, centralist, and reductionist discourse which —under the influence of the decline paradigm— has associated them with the image of a conservative reactionary group responsible for the empire's downfall. Instead, the contributors of this volume treat the members and affiliates of the corps as everyday people forming social relations and networks, and as political and economic actors who were in constant interaction with the society they lived in, changing it as much as they changed themselves in the process. This collective volume has been published in the framework of the ERC-funded project “JANET: Janissaries in Ottoman Port Cities: Muslim Financial and Political Networks in the Early Modern Mediterranean,” a project dedicated to examining the functioning of Janissary networks in the Ottoman Empire, conceiving of them as inextricably connected to Muslim political and economic networks across a large part of the Mediterranean.