The Palace school was part of the House of Osman

House of Osman

House of Osman was the name of the administrative structure of the Ottoman Dynasty, part of the state organization of the Ottoman Empire but nonetheless directly linked to the dynasty...

's system, designated to educate the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

's governing elite. It consisted of two distinct branches. The Madrasa (Ottoman Turkish: Medrese) for the Muslims, which educated the scholars and the state officials in accordance with Islamic tradition. Then there was the Enderun (Ottoman Turkish: Enderûn), a free boarding school

Boarding school

A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...

 populated by mostly the Christian youths, which annually recruited 3,000 students. These were Christian young males between 8 and 20 years old, who came from one in forty families among the communities settled in Rumelia

Rumelia

Rumelia was an historical region comprising the territories of the Ottoman Empire in Europe...

, a process named Devshirme

Devshirme in the Ottoman Palace School

The primary objective of the Palace School was to train the ablest children for leadership positions, either as military leaders or as high administrators to serve the Empire...

.