{{Short description|1826 disbandment of the Ottoman janissary corps}} {{Infobox military conflict | conflict = Auspicious Incident | partof = decline and modernization of the Ottoman Empire | image = | caption = | date = 15 June 1826 | place = Ottoman Empire | result = Janissary corps disbanded and replaced with the Asakir-i Mansure-i Muhammediye | combatant1 = {{flag|Ottoman Empire}} | combatant2 = Janissary corps | commander1 = {{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} Mahmud II<br />{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} Hüsrev Mehmed Pasha<ref>İsmail Hakkı Uzunçarşılı - Osmanlı Tarihi (III. Cilt) 2.Kısım S.340-350</ref> | commander2 = Celâleddin Agha<ref>İsmail Hakkı Uzunçarşılı"Osmanlı Tarihi"IV. Cilt – II. Mahmud Devri (1808–1839) S.300–500</ref> | strength1 = {{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} 15,000 to 20,000<ref>https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ottoman-Empire</ref> | strength2 = 70,000<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kemal |first1=Beydilli |title=Vak'a-i Hayri̇yye |url=https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/vaka-i-hayriyye |website=İslâm Ansiklopedisi|language=tr}}</ref>–135,000 | casualties1 = | casualties2 = 20,000 janissaries were killed, executed, exiled, or imprisoned.<ref>{{cite web |title=Janissary |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Janissary#ref263028 |website=britannica.com}}</ref> }} thumb|right|200px|A janissary musketeer. The entire janissary corps was disbanded during the Auspicious Incident.
The '''Auspicious Incident''' or '''Auspicious Event'''<ref name=Goodwin296>Goodwin, pp. 296–299.</ref> ({{Langx|ota|وقعۀ خيريّه|Vak'a-i Hayriyye|The Fortunate Event}} in Constantinople; {{lang|ota-Latn|Vaka-i Şerriyye}}, {{lit|Event of Malignity}} in the Balkans) was the forced disbandment of the centuries-old janissary corps by Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II on 15 June 1826.<ref name = Kinross456>Kinross, pp. 456–457</ref><ref name="Shaw19">Shaw, pp. 19–20</ref> Most of the 135,000 janissaries revolted against Mahmud II, and after the rebellion was suppressed, many of them were executed (6,000 or more),<ref name=Kinross456 /> exiled or imprisoned. The disbanded janissary corps was replaced with a more modern military force.
==Background== The janissaries were first created by the Ottoman Sultans in the late 14th century and were employed as household troops. Janissaries began as an elite corps made up through the devşirme system of child slavery, by which young Christian boys, notably Serbs, Albanians, Bulgarians, Croats, Greeks, Hungarians, and Romanians were taken from the Balkans, circumcised, converted to Islam, and incorporated into the Ottoman army.<ref>{{cite book |title=The New Encyclopedia of Islam |editor-first=Cyril |editor-last=Glassé |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2008 |page=129}}{{fcn|reason=Please give the title of the encyclopedia entry and use Template:Cite encyclopedia instead. Also give the entry's author if available|date=July 2024}}</ref> During the 15th and 16th centuries they were recognized as one of the best-trained and most effective military units in Europe. They became known for their discipline, morale and professionalism. They were paid regularly and were expected to be ready to enter battle at any time.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cleveland |first1=William L. |first2=Martin |last2=Bunton |title=A History of the Modern Middle East |edition=4th |publisher=Westview Press |year=2009 |page=43}}</ref>
However, by the early 17th century, the janissary corps had ceased to function as an elite military force, and had become a privileged hereditary class, and their exemption from paying taxes made them highly unfavorable in the eyes of the rest of the population.<ref name="theottomans.org">{{cite web |title=Army & the Military Ranks |website=TheOttomans.org |publisher=LuckyEye Interactive |editor-first=Korkut |editor-last=Ozgen |url=http://www.theottomans.org/english/campaigns_army/index_4.asp |access-date=26 July 2024}}</ref> Additionally, since the early eighteenth century, several prominent Istanbul Jewish families had served as moneylenders (''sarrafs'') and financiers for the corps, with Isaac Çelebi Bekhor Carmona also being one of the Pekidei Kushta at the time.<ref name=leh>{{cite book |last1=Lehmann |first1=Matthias B. |title=Emissaries from the Holy Land: The Sephardic Diaspora and the Practice of Pan-Judaism in the Eighteenth Century |date=1 October 2014 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-0-8047-9246-2 |page=215 |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Emissaries_from_the_Holy_Land/Ii9iBAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA215&printsec=frontcover |access-date=13 February 2026 |language=en}}</ref> The number of janissaries grew from 20,000 in 1575 to 135,000 in 1826, about 250 years later.<ref>{{cite dictionary |first=George F. |last=Nafziger |title=Janissaries |dictionary=Historical Dictionary of the Napoleonic Era |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dcr7Zt2FEPoC&pg=PA154 |year=2001 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |pages=153–54 |isbn=9780810866171 }}</ref> Many were not soldiers but still collected pay from the empire, as dictated by the corps since it held an effective veto over the state and contributed to the steady decline of the Ottoman Empire. Any sultan who tried to diminish its status or power was immediately either killed or deposed.<ref name="gozlemci.net">{{Cite web |url=http://www.gozlemci.net/5611-vaka-i-hayriye-hayirli-olay.html |title = Vaka I Hayriye Hayırlı Olay | Osmanlı Tarihi |website=Gozlemci.net – Online Eğitim Ansiklopedisi |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210925090114/http://www.gozlemci.net/5611-vaka-i-hayriye-hayirli-olay.html |archive-date=2021-09-25}}</ref>
As opportunities and power continued to rise within the janissary corps, it began to undermine the empire.<ref name="theottomans.org"/> Over time it became clear that for the empire to restore its position as a major power of Europe, it needed to replace the janissary corps with a modern army.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}
==Mutiny== Historians{{Which|date=May 2024}} suggest that Mahmud II purposely incited the revolt and have described it as the sultan's "coup against the Janissaries". The sultan informed them that he was forming a new army, the ''Sekban-ı Cedit'', organized and trained along modern European lines, and that the new army would be Turkish-dominated. The janissaries saw their institution as crucial to the well-being of the Ottoman Empire, especially to Rumelia, and had previously decided they would never allow its dissolution. Thus, as predicted, they mutinied and began to march towards the Topkapı Palace.
Mahmud II then brought out the Holy Banner of the Islamic prophet Muhammad from inside the Sacred Trust, intending all true believers to gather beneath it and thus bolster opposition to the janissaries.<ref>{{cite book|last=Finkel|first=Caroline|title=Osman's Dream|year=2005|publisher=John Murray|isbn=0-465-02396-7|pages=435}}</ref> Turkish historians{{Which|date=May 2024}} claim that the counter-Janissary force, which was great in numbers, included the local residents who had hated the janissaries for years.<ref name="gozlemci.net"/>
In the ensuing fight the janissary barracks were set ablaze by artillery fire, resulting in 4,000 Janissary deaths; more were killed in the heavy fighting on the streets of Constantinople (the capital of the Ottoman Empire and the center of the janissary order). The survivors either fled or were imprisoned, their possessions confiscated by the Sultan. By the end of 1826 the captured janissaries, constituting the remainder of the force, were put to death by decapitation in the Thessaloniki fort that soon came to be called the "Blood Tower" (but which has been known since 1912 as the White Tower). Roughly 100 other janissaries fled to the Cistern of Philoxenos, where many drowned as they tried to cross.<ref>{{cite book|last=Barber|first=Noel|title=The Sultans|url=https://archive.org/details/sultansbarb00barb|url-access=registration|year=1973|isbn=0-671-21624-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/sultansbarb00barb/page/135 135–136]|publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref>
==Aftermath== [[File:Mahmud II.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Mahmud II by Henri-Guillaume Schlesinger, 1836, presumably commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Auspicious Incident<ref>{{Cite web |title=ÜÇ ADET GRAVÜR - AlifArt Auction Sale |url=https://www.alifart.com/uc-adet-gravur-275628/ |access-date=2024-05-17 |website=www.alifart.com}}</ref>]]
The janissary leaders were promptly put to death. Carmona and two other leading figures of the Istanbul Jewish community serving as moneylenders and financiers for the corps were also executed.<ref name=leh/> The younger and older janissaries were either exiled or imprisoned, but those who were competent and showed promise were allowed to take jobs in the Ottoman foreign ministry or join the new Ottoman Army as officers. Thousands of janissaries had been killed, and thus the elite order came to its end.<ref name=Goodwin296/><ref name=Kinross456/> The Sufi Order of the Bektaşi Brotherhood, a core janissary institution, was outlawed, and its followers executed or exiled. A new modern corps, ''Asakir-i Mansure-i Muhammediye'' ("The Victorious Soldiers of Muhammad"), was established by Mahmud II to guard the Sultan and replace the janissaries. Many former janissaries, especially those living in the provinces outside the capital, subsequently became involved in anti-Ottoman political movements demanding greater autonomy. In particular, they incited Christians in the Balkans, inflaming existing hostility to their Muslim neighbors and strengthening armed resistance to the new Turkish armies sent from Constantinople. Some janissaries, however, survived by merely keeping a low profile and taking ordinary jobs.<ref name="Goodwin296" />
Immediately after the janissaries had been disbanded, Mahmud II ordered the court chronicler, Mehmet Esad Efendi, to record the official version of events. This account, ''Üss-i Zafer'' ("Foundation of Victory"), was printed in Istanbul in 1828 and served as the main source for every other Ottoman account of this period.<ref>Levy, Avigdor. "The Ottoman Ulama and the Military Reforms of Sultan Mahmud II." ''Asian and African Studies'' 7 (1971): 13 - 39.</ref> The incident had a negative impact on the Muslim communities in the Balkans, who lost their privileges, as rebellions broke out across Rumelia, especially in Bosnia and Albania.{{citation needed|date=July 2011}}
Taking advantage of the temporary weakness in the military position of the Ottoman Empire following the Auspicious Incident, the Russian Empire forced the Ottomans to accept the Akkerman Convention on 7 October 1826.<ref>Jelavich, Charles and Barbara. ''The Establishment of the Balkan National States, 1804-1920''. University of Washington Press, 1986. {{ISBN|0-295-96413-8}}. pp. 48-51</ref>
Vis-à-vis the impact on the Jewish philanthropic network fundraising for the Land of Israel in Western Europe at the time, in 1827, leading force Hirsch Lehren behind Amsterdam-based ''Pekidim ve-Amarkalim'' wrote to Istanbul officials expressing his sympathy over the recent demise of Carmona, though modern Jewish history scholar Matthias B. Lehmann notes "it is also clear that the increasingly assertive role played by [both] was facilitated in part by the declining fortunes of the Jewish leadership in the Ottoman capital."<ref name=leh/>
==See also== * Sanjak of Smederevo * First Serbian Uprising * Mustafa IV * Halet Efendi * Hursid Pasha * Reşid Mehmed Pasha * Ottoman military reforms * Mustafa Reshiti * Husein Gradaščević
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== * Goodwin, Jason (1998). ''Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire''. New York: H. Holt {{ISBN|0-8050-4081-1}} * Kinross, Patrick (1977) ''The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire'' London: Perennial. {{ISBN|978-0-688-08093-8}} * Shaw, Stanford J. & Shaw, Ezel Kural (1977). ''History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey'' (Vol. II). New York: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-521-29166-8}}
==Further reading==
===Eyewitness accounts=== * {{cite magazine |date=1830 |author=n.s. |publisher=Frederick Westley and A. H. Davis |title=Sketch of a Residence at Constantinople |pages=345–352 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P2UEAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA345 |magazine=The British Magazine |volume=1 |location=London}} Esp. p. 349.
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Category:Politics of the Ottoman Empire Category:1826 in the Ottoman Empire Category:Reform in the Ottoman Empire Category:June 1826 Category:1826 in military history Category:Mahmud II Category:Rebellions in the Ottoman Empire Category:Jews and Judaism in the Ottoman Empire Category:Janissaries