In a cruelty that was both useful and cynical Islamic Sultans would forcefully implement a “blood tax” on the peoples of Byzantium. This “blood tax” found the Islamic Infidel seizing from the people of Byzantium their finest very young sons in order to take them back to Islamadom in order to turn these sons into the most elite special forces military units called Janissaries. Fearful of these “blood tax” raids it was not uncommon for the parents of Byzantium to disfigure or cripple in some way their sons knowing that in being disfigured or crippled those sons would escape “the blood tax.”
Once arriving at their Islamic destination these “Janissaries” were not allowed to marry and were considered personally owned by the Sultan. They were provided the very best of foods and drink and were highly educated and then trained in the arts of war. Eventually, they would be used as the shock troops against their former land from which they were kidnapped — Byzantium.
Today much the same is done by the Marxist conditioning as accomplished in our K-12 government schools and then our Universities all augmented and supported by our Marxist Churches. Only instead of having to kidnap the children Christian parents freely turn their children over to the enemy to be brainwashed into a faith that is contrary to the Christian faith. Like the Janissaries of old these children eventually turn on their parents and their former Christian lands in order to conquer them for the cause of Cultural Marxism.
So true. There’s nothing new under the sun. I’m wondering what the Janissaries replaced marriage with?
They were not allowed to marry until they retired if they lived long enough to retire. Retirement age differed between 35 and 45 depending on physical fitness for warfare. Keep in mind that the average life span meant that their marriage would not have lasted much past 10 years