Regarding Janissaries

Reader Kasia writes:

Janissaries might have needed appeasement because they were originally forced draftees, mostly very young Christian boys from occupied countries, who were trained to become killing machines against their own country men, were forced to convert to Islam and not allowed to have any life outside the barracks until retirement, if they lived that long. Even the best baklava was unlikely to change their moods……..

As Johnny Carson liked to say: I did not know that.