An Ichlogan. Iç oğlan, servant to the Turkish Sultan.
Historical Ottoman Empire officials and ethnic groups.
In the Ottoman Empire, the Içoğlan,were the pages in the service of the Ottoman sultan, authorized to access the most private and intimate part of his residence, the Topkapı Palace at Constantinopel, the so-called Enderûn (palace school ). These were slaves recruited by the Devşirme system and were therefore part of the so-called Kapıkulu. The term was also used to indicate the recruits of the janissary corps.
In Plate X. there was given the portrait of a Page of the Grand Signior (Sultan). The present plate represents one of the Ichlogans, a body of young men, from whom the pages are selected. The nature of this institution has already been explained in the description of the before mentioned plate.
A great number of them are also brought up in the interior of the Seraglio, besides those in the suburb of Pera; and the white eunuchs, to whose care they are entrusted, frequently treat them with the greatest severity.
