The Janissaries Ottoman Turkish were infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops and bodyguards. The force was created by the Sultan Murad I in the 14th century and was abolished by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826 in the Auspicious Incident.

The origins of the Janissaries are shrouded in myth though traditional accounts credit Orhan I – an early Ottoman bey, who reigned from 1326 to 1359 – as the founder. Modern historians, such as Patrick Kinross, put the date slightly later, around 1365, under Orhan's son, Murad I, the first sultan of the Ottoman Empire. The Janissaries became the first Ottoman standing army, replacing forces that mostly contained tribal warriors whose loyalty and morale were not always guaranteed. From 1380s to 1648, the Janissaries were gathered through the devşirme system. This was the recruiting of non-Turkish children.