Devşirme

Devşirme (literally "collecting" in Turkish), also known as the blood tax or tribute in blood, was chiefly the annual practice whereby the Ottoman Empire sent military officers to take boys, ages 8 to 18, from their families in order that they be raised to serve the state. This tax of sons was imposed only on the Christian subjects of the empire, in the villages of the Balkans and Anatolia. Started in the mid 1300s by Murad I as a means to counteract the growing power of the Turkish nobility, the practice itself violated Islamic law.

Devşirme

Devşirme (literally "collecting" in Turkish), also known as the blood tax or tribute in blood, was chiefly the annual practice whereby the Ottoman Empire sent military officers to take boys, ages 8 to 18, from their families in order that they be raised to serve the state. This tax of sons was imposed only on the Christian subjects of the empire, in the villages of the Balkans and Anatolia. Started in the mid 1300s by Murad I as a means to counteract the growing power of the Turkish nobility, the practice itself violated Islamic law.