Devshirme (, "devşirme"; usually translated as "child levy" or "blood tax") was the Ottoman practice of forcibly recruiting soldiers and bureaucrats from among the children of their Balkan Christian subjects. It is first mentioned in written records in 1438, but probably started earlier. It created a faction of soldiers and officials loyal to the Sultan. It counterbalanced the Turkish nobility, who sometimes opposed the Sultan. The system produced all of the grand viziers, from the 1400s to the 1600s. This was the second most powerful position in the Ottoman empire, after the sultan. The devshirme also produced most of the Ottoman empire's provincial governors, military commanders, and divans during that period.