devshirme means systematic collection of non-Muslim boys or young men from rural Christian populations of the Balkans, practiced by Ottomans; the boys were taken to Istanbul, converted to Islam and educated for military profession or religious disciplines. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 82 out of 100.
Why “devshirme” is a great word
DEVSHIRME — [Noun] A historical Ottoman system of forcibly recruiting Christian boys from the Balkans, converting them to Islam, and training them for military or administrative service. Borrowed from Ottoman Turkish دیوشیرمه (devşirme), literally meaning 'collection' or 'gathering'. Unlike janissary, which denotes the elite soldier forged by this process, or conscription, a levy upon citizens, devshirme was an institutionalized harvest of children from a subject populace. It is the imperial census-taker at a remote village gate, the precise bureaucratic ledger that records a childhood's end, and the long march from a village church to a barracks mosque—the machinery of empire fed not on territory, but on the subtraction of futures.
noun
- Systematic collection of non-Muslim boys or young men from rural Christian populations of the Balkans, practiced by Ottomans; the boys were taken to Istanbul, converted to Islam and educated for military profession or religious disciplines.