Quote Originally Posted by Martin Greywolf View Post
1) Ottoman children tax

Again, you make massive mistake of looking at this through modern sensibilities. First of all, being selected as a janissary candidate was thought of as an honour, a good start, akin to going to a well-respected boarding school, or in more medieval terms, getting an apprenticeship with a great craftsman.

There was significant controversy even within Ottoman empire itself whether this thing was acceptable, and a lot of the argumentation went along the way of "we can't let former non-muslims into high governmental positions". There was no forced conversion per se, you were just heavily peer pressured into one - not an upstanding thing to do for sure, but separation of church and state is a very modern concept.

Janissaries had a tough training, sure, but only a small portion of kids were even allowed into it, and again, it was something to strive to, not something to avoid. Other occupations for people from this tax were in imperial administration, which was a pretty cushy job.

Lastly, this didn't separate families. There was nothing stopping these recruits from contacting their families back home (save for a lack of literacy), and indeed, most of them kept in touch with them, either by writing (somewhat rare) or by visiting.

Yes, you can find lots of primary sources saying Ottomans tore crying children out of their mother's arms to brainwash them into being bloodthirsty killers. These claims have about as much substance as US anti-Japanese propaganda during WW2.
I will point out that the other issue that comes along with the "tax of children" is still a major problem in some places dominated by Islam today, as independently reported to me (in face to face conversations) by multiple people who have spent time in those areas.