When Mehmed the Conqueror captured Constantinople in 1453 with a fanatically Muslim army, it would not have been a great surprise if a bloodbath had ensued, whereby the largely Christian inhabitants of the city had been massacred. There was nothing unusual about cities being sacked even if there were no differences of a religious nature but what was unusual in this instance was that the Christians were left in peace, once the city had been taken. Even more surprising, in the coming years there came about a great paradox in the way of life in Constantinople whereby the Ottoman Turks waged a Holy War on the Christian countries adjoining them while at the same time living peacefully alongside and within their own Christian community. Life among the Ottoman Turks was stranger still in the manner in which they owned slaves and yet another paradox existed in the Turkish and Christian relationship. The common perception of a slave in any country or era is of a subservient, less-than-human being, considered to be no more than a chattel. But in Turkish society this was not so and to be a slave in Constantinople was considered as something of a profession, albeit a lowly one and slavery was never considered to be shameful not least by the slaves themselves. There was a system in place whereby ability and talent were recognized and rewarded and a democracy existed within the structure which enabled many slaves to become some of the highest in the land even up to Grand Vizier.

The strangest paradox of all was the existence of a Christian elite Imperial Guard within the Ottoman army and these were the Janissaries. Every 3 years or so there was a trawl of the Christian community for replacements in the army called the devshirme. There was a Turkish Commission appointed and the Christian community were warned in advance of their arrival. The task of the Commission was to choose the most intelligent and fittest of the Christian youth between the ages of 8 and 20. Parents with only one child were exempted but the remainder were paraded with their father in attendance and the chosen were sent to Constantinople in groups of 100. Some parents of large families were not too upset at their offspring being taken while others went to great lengths to avoid their conscription but overall the system worked. Once in Constantinople, the boy's whole lives were given over to training in all of the martial arts of the Ottoman army. They were disciplined and watched over by eunuchs who regulated their lives from dawn till dusk, training them not only physically but also educating them while watching all the while for pupils with special aptitudes. The discipline was especially strict with beatings common and the death penalty the ultimate threat. The resulting force was an elite and intelligent army of dedicated soldiery fanatical to the cause of Islam and thirsting for battle.

A contemporary print exaggarates the plumes but not the weaponry.

The downside to all of this was the increasing power that the Janissaries began to wield and succeeding Sultans paid them ever increasing sums to assure their fidelity. They were eventually to become kingmakers and a powerful political force acknowledging only authority of the strictest kind.

They were yet to meet in battle but their Christian counterparts the Knights of St John were every bit as fanatical and martial in their own cause.