Blood Tax

During 5 centuries under Turkish tyranny christians lived as second-class citizens in their own homelands. Blood tax called devshirme forced Serbian and other Christian Balkan mothers to give up every few male family child to military profession in Istanbul after forced conversion to Islam. The practice as to Janissary soldiers was motivated by the desire to create an elite class of warriors loyal only to the Sultan, rather than to individual Ottoman nobles.

 

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