The Ottoman Empire, beginning with Murad I, felt a need to "counteract the power of (Turkic) nobles by developing Christian vassal soldiers and converted as his personal troops, independent of the regular army." That elite force, which served the Ottoman Sultan directly, were called (Slaves of the Porte), they were divided into two main groups: cavalry and infantry. The cavalry was commonly known as the (The Cavalry of the Servants of the Porte) and the infantry as the (transliterated in English as Janissary), meaning "the New Corps".