@arendt

They were as good as any other troops anywhere else at the time,until a decline in standards of recruitment and discipline (for example,allowing them to marry and have families) from about 1600 onwards began to make them less effective as field troops.

Actually, allowing the yeni cheri or Janissaries to marry wasn't the principal problem. The principal problem was that no Muslim-born boy could be a Janissary. Only non-volunteers from Greek Christian families qualified. As the generations passed, fewer and fewer of these families existed as most folks living under Turkish rule became Muslims. So their effectiveness failed because their numbers shrank. The legalization of marriage, necessary for opening the ranks to birthright Muslims, was more an effect than a cause of the problem; the Sultans were trying to keep the Janissaries alive as a military formation by way of Muslim recruitment.

#3.1

You have confused harem guards (definitely want them "fixed") with soldiers. Perhaps you were just making a joke, because I don't often catch you out.

Question: Harem guards were generally slaves made into eunuchs so they wouldn't try anything with the harem girls.So were ottoman janissaries eunuchs?

Answer: No. They weren't used as harem guards,they were used as front line shock troops - they (along with the Spahis of the Porte) were the standing army element of the Ottoman army,and were the elite of the Ottoman military. They were as good as any other troops anywhere else at the time,until a decline in standards of recruitment and discipline (for example,allowing them to marry and have families) from about 1600 onwards began to make them less effective as field troops.

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20131130204039AAQc8dQ