Are-Janissaries-the-last-Jedis?

S/he who wrote this, guesses. 

S/he is not sure.

But I think, this wiki-writer forgot a troop as model (idol) for Jedi-Knights. I can add them now! I can guess, too!

In my opinion we should give a chance to Janissaries, the elite troop of the Ottoman Turks fighting on the side of the Sultan in war and serving him as guards in peace.

Let's begin to compare the Jedi and the Janissary:

1. Jedi and Janissary are monastic, that means they had a strong religious life, yoga, meditation, religious discipline (force?), celibate

2. They are both academic, that means a hard school life mit strict discipline and order (see Enderun "acemi oğlan" school),

3. Both are meritocratic, that means they mustn't have had wealthy parents or a higher caste. It was enough to be smart and talented to get the chance for the highest rank.

4. Jedi and Janissary are paramilitary forces, that means their first duty is not to fight. Jedi Knights can fight but their primary duty is being guardians of peace and order, like Janissary guarding Sultan and acting like -in peaceful times-, for example, fire fighters. Later on in the history the Janissaries were the army itself.

(Wiki: A paramilitary is a semi-militarized force whose organizational structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not formally part of a country's armed forces.^[1])

^{5. Both are open for all races, colors, identities. An important point, I believe.}

^{All were melting in the identity of the troop.}

These were the 5 main similarities between Jedi Knight and Janissaries.

*

And now to other points and a little bit explanations for the points above:

The children were 'adopted' or "recruited' very young, brought to the their new families mostly from Balkan Lands, South Russia, Armenia.

That shows us that no physical appearance made a difference, all were brothers, like the Jedi. 

There are many races, colors, sizes in the Jedi 'Troop', too. This point is very important, I believe. Because it is a basic specialty of Janissaries like of the Jedi.

They were too young to remember their 'real' families, unlike Anakin, who chose the Dark Side, because he knew his mother and this was his first step towards Emperor. 

Celibate is an other significant similarity between these two: 

They may not marry and have children. 

We know what happened, as Anakin and Padme married and got children.

Lack of Possession is another similarity between Jedi and Janissary (no trade).

Both of them had unique uniforms. And these are similar, too. They were both distinctive.

I drop two pics below, you can compare. 

They were both close-knit societies, that means they were themselves their families.

Janissaries called them 'Brotherhood of the Spoon', every unit had its 'kind of spoon" (metal or wooden spoon, or shape or the color of the spoon may have been "different)

Wiki: "brotherhood of the spoon", which reflected a sense of comradeship among the Janissaries who ate, slept, fought and died together.^[11]"

These spoons are maybe the grandfather of the badges of the Football Clubs (Idea of Miksch, Hans: in his book 'Der Kampf der Kaiser und Kalifen')

Both love "sabers" and dislike fire weapons. 

It is not a lightsword, no!, it is a lightsaber what Jedi attaches to his belt.

Sabers have their roots in Middle Asian/Turkish culture and in 'Western' culture zone the sabres are associated with the Turks. 

Janissary had always his 'Atakan' (Yatagan) attached to his belt like Jedi his lightsaber.

Ok, after all these points, I think, I can say, the Jedi could have some "elements and ideas" from the Janissaries.

In Star Wars Saga there are many more points in this context that I will write about.

Stay tuned!

A nice Sunday!

Uzunbacak Adem

Obi-Wan Kenobi's Jedi robes from Episode IV

-A Turkish Janissary-Gentile Bellini-

Pics: wikipedia