The Palace School (Enderun-i Hümayun Mektebi) was a special school inside of the innermost court of Topkapı Palace that provided the education for the servants (slaves) of the Ottoman dynasty, who went on to staff the administrative elite of the Ottoman Empire. These were converts to Islam, young males between 8 and 20 years old, who were mostly taken away from the rural Christian communities settled in Rumelia in an enslavement process known as devşirme.
The most promising of the latter were sent to the school located in the grounds of the imperial Topkapı Palace, where they studied law, linguistics, religion, music, art, and fighting, as well as performing functions as palace staff.