(Redirected from Ottoman Turkey)
The 'Ottoman Empire' (
1299 to
1922) (
Old Ottoman Turkish: دولت عالیه عثمانیه ''Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye'',
Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish: ''Osmanlı Devleti'' or ''Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'', also known as the 'Turkish Empire' or 'Turkey' by its contemporaries, see
the other names of the Ottoman State), was a multi-ethnic and multi-religious
Turkish-ruled state which, at the height of its power (
16th –
17th centuries), spanned three
continents, controlling much of
Southeastern Europe, the
Middle East and
North Africa, stretching from the
Strait of Gibraltar (and, in 1553, the
Atlantic coast of
Morocco beyond Gibraltar) in the west to the
Caspian Sea and
Persian Gulf in the east, from the edge of
Austria,
Slovakia and parts of
Ukraine in the north to
Sudan,
Eritrea,
Somalia and
Yemen in the south.
The empire was at the centre of interactions between the
Eastern and
Western worlds for six centuries. At the height of its power, the Ottoman Empire contained 29 provinces, in addition to the tributary principalities of
Moldavia,
Transylvania, and
Wallachia. With
Constantinople (today known as
Istanbul) as its capital, the Ottoman Empire was in many respects an Islamic successor to earlier Mediterranean empires — namely the
Roman and
Byzantine empires. As such, the Ottomans regarded themselves as the heirs to both
Roman and
Islamic traditions, and hence rulers of a "Universal Empire" through this "unification of cultures".
[1]
Rise (1299–1453)
With the demise of the
Seljuk Sultanate of Rūm, Turkish Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent states, the so-called
Ghazi emirates.
By 1300, a weakened Byzantium had seen most of its Anatolian provinces lost among some ten Ghazi principalities. One of the
Ghazi emirates was led by
Osman I (from which the name Ottoman is derived), son of
Ertuğrul in the region of Eskişehir in western Anatolia. According to tradition, as Ertuğrul migrated across Asia Minor leading approximately four hundred horsemen, he chanced upon a battle between two armies. Having decided to intervene, he chose the side of the losing army and turned the battle in their favour to secure victory. The troops he supported happened to be those of a Seljuk Sultan who rewarded him with territory in Eskişehir.
[2] Following Ertuğrul's death in 1281, Osman became chief, or
Bey, and by 1299 declared himself a sovereign ruler from the Seljuk empire.
Osman I extended the frontiers of Ottoman settlement towards the edge of the
Byzantine Empire. He moved the Ottoman capital to
Bursa, and shaped the early political development of the nation. Given the nickname "Kara" (
Turkish for black) for his courage,
[3] Osman I was admired as a strong and dynamic ruler long after his death, as evident in the centuries-old Turkish phrase, "May he be as good as Osman." His reputation has also been burnished by the medieval Turkish story known as "'
Osman's Dream'", a foundation myth in which the young Osman was inspired to conquest by a prescient vision of empire.
This period saw the creation of a formal '
Ottoman government' whose institutions would remain largely unchanged for almost four centuries. The government utilized the legal entity known as the
millet, under which religious and ethnic minorities were able to manage their own affairs with substantial independence from central control.
In the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over the Eastern Mediterranean and the
Balkans. After defeat in
Battle of Plocnik, the Turkish victory at the
Battle of Kosovo effectively marked the end of
Serbian power in the region, and paved the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe. With the extension of Turkish dominion into the Balkans, the strategic conquest of
Constantinople became a crucial objective. The empire controlled nearly all of the former
Byzantine lands, the
Greeks gained a temporary reprieve when
Timur Lenk invaded Anatolia in 1402, taking
Sultan Bayezid I prisoner.
Following the death of Timur Lenk, Mehmed II reorganized the structure of both the state and military, and demonstrated his martial prowess by capturing
Constantinople (see:
Istanbul (Etymology)) on
29 May 1453, at the age of 21. The city became the new capital of the Ottoman Empire. Before Mehmed II was killed, Ottoman forces occupied
Corsica,
Sardinia and
Sicily. But with his death, the campaign on
Italian peninsula was canceled. Sokullu Mehmet Pasha, who was grand vizier, created the projects of Suez Channel and Don-Volga Channel but these were canceled.
Growth (1453–1683)
This period in Ottoman history can roughly be divided into two distinct eras: an era of territorial, economic, and cultural growth prior to 1566, followed by an era of relative military and political stagnation.
Ottoman Empire, 1299–1683
Expansion and apogee (1453–1566)
The
Battle of Zonchio in 1499 was the first naval battle in history where cannons were used on ships, and signaled the rise of Ottoman naval power
The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 cemented the status of the empire as the preeminent power in southeastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. During this time the Ottoman Empire entered a long period of conquest and expansion, extending its borders deep into Europe and North Africa. Conquests on land were driven by the discipline and innovation of the Ottoman military; and on the sea, the Ottoman navy established the empire as a great trading power. The state also flourished economically thanks to its control of the major overland trade routes between Europe and Asia.
The Empire prospered under the rule of a series of committed and effective sultans. Sultan
Selim I (1512–1520) dramatically expanded the empire's eastern and southern frontiers by defeating the young
Safavid Shah of
Persia,
Ismail I, in the
Battle of Chaldiran. Selim I established
Ottoman rule in Egypt, and created a naval presence on the
Red Sea.
Selim's successor,
Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–1566), further expanded upon Selim's conquests. After capturing
Belgrade in 1521, Suleiman conquered the
Kingdom of Hungary establishing
Ottoman rule in the territory of present-day Hungary and other Central European territories, by winning the
Battle of Mohács in
1526. He then laid
siege to Vienna in
1529, but failed to take the city after the onset of winter forced his retreat. During the reign of Suleiman,
Transylvania,
Wallachia and, intermittently,
Moldavia, became tributary principalities of the Ottoman Empire, but never became parts of it. In the east, the
Ottomans took
Baghdad from the
Persians in
1535, gaining control of
Mesopotamia and naval access to the
Persian Gulf.
Under Selim and Suleiman, the empire became a dominant naval force, controlling much of the
Mediterranean Sea. The exploits of the Ottoman admiral
Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha, who commanded the Turkish navy during Suleiman's reign, included a number of impressive military victories. Among these were the conquest of
Tunis and
Algeria from Spain; the evacuation of Muslims and Jews from Spain to the safety of Ottoman lands (particularly
Salonica,
Cyprus, and
Constantinople) during the
Spanish Inquisition; and the capture of
Nice from the
Holy Roman Empire in 1543. This last conquest occurred on behalf of France as a joint venture between the forces of the French king
Francis I and those of Barbarossa.
France and the Ottoman Empire, united by mutual opposition to
Habsburg rule in southern and central Europe, became strong allies during this period. The alliance was economic as well as military, as the sultans granted France the right of trade within the empire without levy of taxation. In fact, the Ottoman Empire was by this time a significant and accepted part of the European political sphere, and entered into a military alliance with
France,
England and
the Netherlands against
Habsburg Spain, Italy and
Habsburg Austria.
As the 16th century progressed, Ottoman naval superiority was challenged by the growing sea powers of western Europe, particularly
Portugal, in the
Persian Gulf,
Indian Ocean and the
Spice Islands. With the Ottomans blockading sea-lanes to the East and South, the European powers were driven to find another way to the ancient silk and spice routes, now under Ottoman control. On land, the empire was preoccupied by military campaigns in the
Austrian Empire and
Persia, two widely-separated theaters of war. The strain of these conflicts on the empire's resources, and the logistics of maintaining lines of supply and communication across such vast distances, ultimately rendered its sea efforts unsustainable and unsuccessful. The overriding military need for defense on the western and eastern frontiers of the empire eventually made effective long-term engagement on a global scale impossible.
Revolts and revival (1566–1683)
Suleiman's death in 1566 marked the beginning of an era of diminishing territorial gains. The rise of western European nations as naval powers and the development of alternate sea routes from Europe to
Asia and the
New World damaged the Ottoman economy. The effective military and bureaucratic structures of the previous century also came under strain during a protracted period of misrule by weak Sultans. But in spite of these difficulties, the empire remained a major expansionist power until the
Battle of Vienna in
1683, which marked the end of Ottoman expansion into Europe.
European states initiated efforts at this time to curb Ottoman control of overland trade routes. Western European states began to circumvent the Ottoman trade monopoly by establishing their own naval routes to Asia. Economically, the huge influx of Spanish silver from the New World caused a sharp devaluation of the Ottoman currency and rampant inflation. This had serious negative consequences at all levels of Ottoman society.
In southern Europe, a coalition of Catholic powers, led by
Philip II of Spain, formed an alliance to diminish Ottoman naval strength in the
Mediterranean Sea. Their victory over the Ottomans at the naval
Battle of Lepanto (1571) hastened the end of the empire's primacy in the Mediterranean. In fact, Lepanto was considered by some earlier historians to signal the beginning of Ottoman decline. By the end of the 16th century, the golden era of sweeping conquest and territorial expansion was over.
The
Habsburg frontier in particular became a more or less permanent border until the 19th century, marked only by relatively minor battles concentrating on the possession of individual fortresses. This stalemate was partly a reflection of simple geographical limits: in the pre-mechanized age,
Vienna marked the furthest point that an Ottoman army could march from
Istanbul during the early-spring to late-autumn campaigning season. It also reflected the difficulties imposed on the empire by the need to maintain two separate fronts: one against the Austrians (see:
Ottoman wars in Europe), and the other against a rival Islamic state, the
Safavids of
Persia (see:
Ottoman wars in Near East).
On the battlefield, the Ottomans gradually fell behind the Europeans in military technology as the innovation which fed the empire's forceful expansion became stifled by growing religious and intellectual conservatism. Changes in European military tactics caused the once-feared
Sipahi cavalry to lose military relevance. Discipline and unit cohesion in the army also became a problem due to relaxations in recruitment policy and the growth of the
Janissary corps at the expense of other military units.
Murad IV (1612–1640), who recaptured
Yerevan (1635) and
Baghdad (1639) from the
Safavids, is the only example in this era of a sultan who exercised strong political and military control of the empire. Notably,
Murad IV was the last Ottoman emperor who led his forces from the front.
The '
Jelali revolts' (
1519-
1610) and '
Janissary revolts' (
1622) caused widespread lawlessness and rebellion in Anatolia in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and toppled several governments. However, the 17th century was not simply an era of stagnation and decline, but also a key period in which the Ottoman state and its structures began to adapt to new pressures and new realities, internal and external.
The '
Sultanate of women' (
1530s-
1660s) was a period in which the political impact of the
Imperial Harem was unchallenged, as the mothers of young sultans exercised power on behalf of their sons.
Hürrem Sultan, who established herself in the early 1530s as the successor of
Nurbanu, the first
Valide Sultan, was described by the Venetian
Baylo Andrea Giritti as 'a woman of the utmost goodness, courage and wisdom' despite the fact that she 'thwarted some while rewarding others'.
[4] The last prominent women of this period were
Kösem Sultan and her daughter-in-law
Turhan Hatice, whose political rivalry culminated in Kösem's murder in
1651. This period gave way to the '
Köprülü Era' (
1656-
1703), during which the Empire was controlled first by the powerful members of the
Imperial Harem, and later by a sequence of
Grand Viziers. The relative ineffectiveness of the successive sultans and the diffusion of power to lower levels of the government have characterized the Köprülü Era.
Decline and reform (1699–1908)
The long period of Ottoman decline is typically broken by historians into an era of failed reforms and a subsequent era of modern times. The military and political details of this period are covered in three separate articles: the
stagnation of the Ottoman Empire (1699–1827), when the empire began to lose territory along its western borders, but managed to maintain its stature as a great regional power; the
decline of the Ottoman Empire (1828–1908), when the empire lost territory on all fronts, and there was administrative instability due to the breakdown of centralized government, despite efforts of reform and reorganization such as the
Tanzimat; and the
dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (1908-1922), when the Ottoman state finally met its demise under the government of the
Committee of Union and Progress which administered the country during the
Italo-Turkish War of 1911-1912, the
Balkan Wars of 1912-1913, and the
First World War of 1914-1918.
Reform (1699–1827)
Further wars were lost, and territories ceded, to
Austria in the
Balkans. Certain areas of the empire, such as
Egypt and
Algeria, became independent in all but name, and subsequently came under the influence of
Britain and
France. The 18th century saw centralized authority giving way to varying degrees of provincial autonomy enjoyed by local governors and leaders. A series of
wars were fought between the
Russian and Ottoman empires from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Ottoman
science and technology had been highly regarded in medieval times, as a result of Ottoman scholars' synthesis of classical learning with Islamic philosophy and mathematics, and knowledge of such Chinese advances in technology as gunpowder and the magnetic compass. By this period though the influences had become regressive and conservative. The
guilds of writers denounced the printing press as "the Devil's Invention", and were responsible for a 43-year lag between its invention by
Johannes Gutenberg in
Europe in
1450 and its introduction to the Ottoman society (the first Gutenberg press in
Istanbul was established by the
Sephardic Jews of Spain in
1493, who had escaped the
Spanish Inquisition of 1492 and migrated to the Ottoman Empire).
The '
Tulip Era' (or ''Lâle Devri'' in Turkish), named for Sultan Ahmed III's love of the
tulip flower and its use to symbolize his peaceful reign, the empire's policy towards Europe underwent a shift. The region was peaceful between 1718–1730, after the Ottoman victory against
Russia in the
Pruth Campaign in
1712 and the subsequent
Treaty of Passarowitz brought a period of pause in warfare. The empire began to improve the fortifications of cities bordering the Balkans to act as a defense against European expansionism. Other tentative reforms were also enacted:
taxes were lowered; there were attempts to improve the image of the Ottoman state; and the first instances of private investment and entrepreneurship occurred.
'
Ottoman military reform efforts' begin with
Selim III (1789-1807) who made the first major attempts to modernize the army along European lines. These efforts, however, were hampered by reactionist movements, partly from the religious leadership, but primarily from the
Janissary corps, who had become anarchic and ineffectual. Jealous of their privileges and firmly opposed to change created a
Janissary revolt. Selim's efforts cost him his throne and his life, but were resolved in spectacular and bloody fashion by his successor, the dynamic
Mahmud II, who massacred the Janissary corps in
1826. Later on in Ottoman history there were '
educational and technological reforms', including the establishment of higher education institutions such as
Istanbul Technical University; but decline continued despite these measures.
Modernization (1828–1908)
The period of the Ottoman Empire's decline was characterized by the reorganization and transformation of most of the empire's structures in an attempt to bolster the empire against increasingly powerful rivals.
The '
rise of nationalism' swept through many countries during the 19th century, and the Ottoman Empire was not immune. A burgeoning
national consciousness, together with a growing sense of
ethnic nationalism, made nationalistic thought one of the most significant Western ideas imported to the Ottoman empire, as it was forced to deal with nationalism-related issues both within and beyond its borders. There was a significant increase in the number of revolutionary
political parties. Uprisings in Ottoman territory had many far-reaching consequences during the 19th century and determined much of Ottoman policy during the early 20th century. Many Ottoman Turks questioned whether the policies of the state were to blame: some felt that the sources of
ethnic conflict were external, and unrelated to issues of governance. While this era was not without some successes, the ability of the Ottoman state to have any effect on ethnic uprisings was seriously called into question.
Greece declared its independence from the Empire in 1829 after the end of the
Greek War of Independence. Reforms did not halt the rise of nationalism in the
Danubian Principalities and
Serbia, which had been semi-independent for almost 6 decades; in
1875 Serbia,
Montenegro,
Bosnia,
Wallachia and
Moldova declared their independence from the Empire; and following the
Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, independence was formally granted to
Serbia,
Romania and
Montenegro, and autonomy to
Bulgaria, with the other Balkan territories remaining under Ottoman control. A Serbian Jew, Yehuda Solomon Alkalai, encouraged a return to Zion and independence for Israel during this wave of decolonialization.
Mahmud II started the modernization of
Turkey by preparing the Edict of
Tanzimat in
1839 which had immediate effects such as European style clothing, architecture, legislation, institutional organization and land reform
During the '
Tanzimat period' (from
Arabic ''Tanzîmât'', meaning "reorganization") (
1839-
1876), a series of constitutional reforms led to a fairly modern conscripted army, banking system reforms, and the replacement of
guilds with modern
factories. In
1856, the ''
Hatt-ı Hümayun'' promised equality for all Ottoman citizens irrespective of their ethnicity and confession, widening the scope of the
1839 ''Hatt-ı Şerif'' of Gülhane. The Christian millets gained privileges; such as in
1863 the
Armenian National Constitution (Ottoman Turkish:"Nizâmnâme-i Millet-i Ermeniyân") was
Divan approved form of the "Code of Regulations" composed of 150 articles drafted by the "Armenian intelligentsia", and newly formed "
Armenian National Assembly".
[5] The reformist period peaked with the Constitution, called the ''
Kanûn-ı Esâsî'' (meaning "
Basic Law" in Ottoman Turkish), written by members of the
Young Ottomans, which was promulgated on
23 November 1876. It established freedom of belief and equality of all citizens before the law.
A wide-ranging group of reformers known as the
Young Ottomans, primarily educated in Western
universities, believed that a
constitutional monarchy would provide an answer to the empire's growing social unrest. Through a
military coup in
1876, they forced Sultan
Abdülaziz (1861-1876) to abdicate in favour of
Murad V. However, Murad V was mentally ill, and was deposed within a few months. His heir-apparent
Abdülhamid II (1876-1909) was invited to assume power on the condition that he would accept to declare a constitutional monarchy, which he did on
23 November 1876. However, the parliament survived for only two years. The sultan suspended, not abolished, the parliament until he was forced to reconvene it. The effectiveness of ''
Kanûn-ı Esâsî'' was then largely minimized. The empire's '
First Constitutional era' (or ''Birinci Meşrûtiyet Devri'' in Turkish), was short-lived; however, the idea behind it (
Ottomanism), proved influential.
During this time, the Empire faced challenges in defending itself against foreign invasion and occupation.
Egypt, was occupied by the French in 1798. Following defeat in the
Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78,
Cyprus was loaned to the British in 1878 in exchange for Britain's favors at the
Congress of Berlin. The empire ceased to enter conflicts on its own and began to forge alliances with European countries such as France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Russia. As an example, in the
Crimean War the Ottomans united with the British, French, and others against
Russia.
Economically, the empire had difficulty in repaying its loans to European banks. Despite the empire's label as the "
Sick man of Europe", the empire's actual weakness did not reside in its developing economy, but the cultural gap which separated it from the European powers. During this time
Baghdad Railway under
German control became a source of international tension and played a role in the origins of the
First World War.
[6] The empire's problems were, in fact, the result of an inability to deal with the new problems created by the conflict between external
imperialism and rising internal
nationalism. (See
socioeconomics during the Ottoman reformation era.)
Dissolution (1908–1922)
Public demonstration in the Sultanahmet district of Istanbul, 1908
The
Second Constitutional Era (or ''İkinci Meşrûtiyet Devri'' in Turkish) marks the period of the Ottoman Empire's final dissolution. This era is dominated by the politics of the
Committee of Union and Progress (or ''İttihâd ve Terakkî Cemiyeti'' in Turkish), and the movement that would become known as the "
Young Turks" (or ''Jön Türkler'' in Turkish). The
Young Turk Revolution began on
3 July 1908 and quickly spread throughout the empire, resulting in the sultan's announcement of the restoration of the 1876 constitution and the reconvening of parliament. The constitutional era had a lapse between
Countercoup (1909) and counter-revolution
31 March Incident that ended with the sultan
Abdulhamid II deposed and sent to exile in Selanik, and replaced by his brother
Mehmed V Reşad.
Profiting from the civil strife within the Ottoman Empire during the Young Turk Revolution,
Austria-Hungary officially annexed
Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, having occupied it following the
Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878) and the
Congress of Berlin (1878). Bosnia and Herzegovina was still ''de jure'' Ottoman territory until 1908. During the
Italo-Turkish War, the
Balkan League, which was comprised of
Serbia,
Montenegro,
Greece and
Bulgaria, declared war against the Ottoman Empire; which lost most of its
Balkan territories during the
Balkan Wars (1912-1913). The wars in Libya and the Balkan peninsula posed the first major tests for the Committee of Union and Progress. However,
Libya was lost following the
Italo-Turkish War, which was also the first war in history where
airplanes were used on the battlefield.
The new
Balkan states which were formed at the end of the 19th century sought additional territories from the Ottoman provinces of
Albania,
Macedonia, and
Thrace, on the grounds of
ethnic nationalism. Initially, with
Russia acting as an intermediary, agreements were concluded between
Serbia and
Bulgaria in March 1912, and between
Greece and
Bulgaria in May 1912.
Montenegro subsequently concluded agreements between Serbia and Bulgaria in October 1912.
The Serbian-Bulgarian agreement specifically called for the partition of
Macedonia, which was the chief ''
casus belli'' of the
First Balkan War. The main causes of the
Second Balkan War were the disputes between the former Balkan allies over their newly gained territories; this then gave the Ottomans an opportunity to regain lost territories in Thrace. The political repercussions of the Balkan Wars led to the
coup of 1913, and the subsequent rule of the
Three Pashas.
World War I
The Ottoman Empire took part in the
Middle Eastern theatre of
World War I, under the terms of the
Ottoman-German Alliance. The Ottomans managed to win important victories in the early years of the war, particularly at the
Battle of Gallipoli and the
Siege of Kut; but there were setbacks as well, such as the disastrous
Caucasus Campaign against the Russians. The
Russian Revolution of 1917 gave the Ottomans the opportunity to regain lost ground and Ottoman forces managed to take
Azerbaijan in the final stages of the war, but the Empire was forced to cede these gains at the end of
World War I. A significant event in this conflict was the creation of an
Armenian resistance movement in the province of
Van, in response to deportations and murders of hundreds of thousands Armenians by Turks and Kurds (
Armenian Genocide)
[7]. The core Armenian resistance group formed an independent
provisional government in May 1915, prompting the Ottoman government to accuse the Armenians of being in
collaboration with the invading Russian forces in eastern
Anatolia against their native state due to the
Armenian volunteer units in the Russian Army. At the end of 1917 the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation formed the
Democratic Republic of Armenia, comprised mostly of refugees of the
Armenian Genocide (see below). The eventual Ottoman defeat came from a combination of coordinated attacks on strategic targets by British forces commanded by
Edmund Allenby and the
Arab Revolt of
1916–
18. Given the fact that Turkish peasantry of Anatolia dropped to 40% of the pre-war levels, regardless of the method used in calculations,
Ottoman Empire's casualties during this time are enormous.
[8]
During the
First World War, the Ottoman government unleashed a wave of persecution on the Armenian minority. There were isolated instances of
resistance in eastern Anatolia. In 1915 the Ottoman government passed the
24 April circular and then the
Tehcir Law deportations between
1 June 1915 and
8 February 1916. The
Teşkilat-ı Mahsusa or the
Special Organization was created to deport (and in the case of adult males, outright kill) Armenians. The
ACRNE gave relief support and also the
court martials (local and international) covered the event extensively. In addition to any deliberate policy, fighting between
Kurds and Armenians along with the
Caucasus Campaign of the World War caused trouble for both the Armenian and
Muslim populations of the region. An estimated 300,000 (according to Ottoman archives) to 600,000
[9] (according to
Arnold J. Toynbee, envoy of the
British Foreign Office) and up to more than 1,000,000 (according to Armenian resources) ethnic
Armenians, including women, children and the elderly, died during this period which many academics refer to as the
Armenian Genocide. Turkish authorities, however, do not believe the term
genocide applies.
[10] Similar arguments swirl around the concurrent mass mortalities suffered by the
Assyrian and later the
Pontic Greek communities of the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish
rejection of the genocide definition is widely viewed by the Armenians as
historical revisionism, who often compare it to
Holocaust denial. See the main
Armenian Genocide article for more information.
Partition
Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire happened in the aftermath of the World War I. The empire was to submit to a complete partition beginning with the initial ceasefire agreement the
Armistice of Mudros chased by
occupation of Istanbul; under the shadow of
Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919-20 and the
Malta exiles followed by the subsequent
Treaty of Sèvres. Partition of its Middle Eastern territories under the mandates of Britain and France, cede the Turkish Mediterranean coast to Italy, the Turkish Aegean coast to Greece, cede the Turkish Straits and Sea of Marmara to the Allied powers as an international zone, and recognize the
Wilsonian Armenia, an extension of
Democratic Republic of Armenia in eastern Anatolia (in an area which was mostly inhabited by Turks and Kurds). Britain obtained virtually everything it had sought under the secret
Sykes-Picot Agreement it had made with
France in
1916 for the partitioning of the Middle East. The other powers of the
Triple Entente, however, soon became entangled in the
Turkish War of Independence.
Occupation of Istanbul along with the
occupation of İzmir mobilized the
establishment of the Turkish national movement, and led to the
Turkish War of Independence[11] and the foundation of the
Republic of Turkey.
Departure of
Mehmed VI, last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, 1922.
The
Turkish national movement, under the leadership of
Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) resulted in the creation of the
Grand National Assembly (''Büyük Millet Meclisi'') in
Ankara on
23 April 1920, which refused to recognize the Ottoman government in Istanbul and the invading forces in Turkey.
Turkish revolutionaries raised a "people's army" and expelled the invading Greek, Italian and French forces. They took back the Turkish provinces which were given to the Republic of Armenia with the
Treaty of Sèvres, and threatened the British forces controlling the Straits. Turkish revolutionaries eventually freed the Straits and Istanbul, and abolished the Ottoman sultanate on
1 November 1922. The last sultan,
Mehmed VI Vahdettin (1918-1922), left the country on
17 November 1922, and the
Republic of Turkey was officially declared with the
Treaty of Lausanne on
24 July 1923. The
Caliphate was constitutionally abolished several months later, on
3 March 1924. the Sultan and his family were declared
persona non grata of Turkey and exiled. Fifty years later, in 1974, the
Grand National Assembly of Turkey granted descendants of the former dynasty the right to acquire Turkish citizenship. See also:
Ertuğrul Osman V.
The
new countries created from the remnants of the empire currently number 40 (including the disputed
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus).
The
fall of the Ottoman Empire can be attributed to the failure of its economic structure; the size of the empire created difficulties in economically integrating its diverse regions. Also, the empire's
communication technology was not developed enough to reach all territories. In many ways, the circumstances surrounding the Ottoman Empire's fall closely paralleled those surrounding the
fall of the Roman Empire, particularly in terms of the ongoing tensions between the empire's different ethnic groups, and the various governments' inability to deal with these tensions. In the case of the Ottomans, the introduction of a parliamentary system during the
Tanzimat proved too late to reverse the trends that had been set in place.
Economic history
Ottoman government deliberately pursued a policy for the development of Bursa, Edirne ( Adrianople) and Istanbul, successive Ottoman capitals, into major commercial and industrial centres, considering that merchants and artisans were indispensable in creating a new metropolis.
[12] To this end, Mehmed and his successor Bayezid, also encouraged and welcomed migration of the Jews from different parts of the Europe, who were settled in Istanbul and other port cities like Salonica. The Ottoman economic mind was closely related to the basic concepts of state and society in the Middle East in which ultimate goal of a state was consolidation and extension of the ruler's power and the way to reach it was to get rich resources of revenues by making the productive classes prosperous.
[13] The ultimate aim was to increase the state revenues as much as possible without damaging the prosperity of subjects to prevent the emergence of social disorder and to keep the traditional organization of the society intact.
The organization of the treasury and chancery were developed under the Ottoman Empire more than any other Islamic government and, until the 17th century, they were the leading organization among all of their contemporaries.
[14] This organization developed a new group of people (scribial "man of the pen"), partly highly trained ulema which developed a financial professional body.
The effectiveness of this financial professional body behind the success of many great Ottoman statesmen.
[15] The economic structure of the Empire was defined by its geopolitical structure. The Ottoman Empire stood between the West and the East, thus blocking the land route eastward and forcing Spanish and Portuguese navigators to set sail in search of a new route to the Orient. The empire controlled the spice route that
Marco Polo once used. When
Christopher Columbus first journeyed to America in 1492, the Ottoman Empire was at its zenith; an economic power which extended over three continents. Modern Ottoman studies think that the change in relations between the Ottomans and central Europe was caused by the opening of the new sea routes. It is possible to see the decline in significance of the land routes to the East (as Western Europe opened the ocean routes that bypassed the Middle East and Mediterranean) as parallel to the decline of the Ottoman Empire itself.
By developing commercial centres and routes, encouraging people to extend the area of cultivated land in the country and international trade through its dominions, the state performed basic economic functions in the empire. But in all this the financial and political interests of the state were prevalent and the Ottoman administrators could not have realized, within the social and political system they were living in, the dynamics and principles of the capitalist economy of the Modern Age.
[16]
State
Ottoman state organization was a very complex system that had two main dimensions. The military administration, and civic administration. Sultan had the highest position in the system. The civic system was based on local administrative units based on the regions characteristics. The incorporation of Greeks (and other Christians), Muslims, and Jews revolutionized its administrative system.
[17] The rapidly expanding empire utilized loyal, skilled subjects to manage the empire, whether
Albanians,
Phanariot Greeks,
Armenians,
Serbs,
Bosniaks,
Hungarians or others. This eclectic administration was apparent even in the diplomatic correspondence of the empire, which was initially undertaken in the
Greek language to the west.
[18].
Like the Byzantines before them, the Ottomans practiced a system in which the state had control over the clergy. The nomadic Turkic forms of land tenure were largely retained — with a number of unique adjustments — in the Ottoman period. Certain pre-Islamic Turkish traditions that had survived the adoption of administrative and legal practices from Islamic
Iran remained important in Ottoman administrative circles. According to Ottoman understanding, the state's primary responsibility was to defend and extend the land of the Muslims and to ensure security and harmony within its borders within the overarching context of
orthodox Islamic practice and dynastic sovereignty.
House of Osman
The "Ottoman dynasty" (c.
1290–
1922) or as an institution "House of Osman" was unprecedented and unequaled in the Islamic world for its size and duration.
[19] The Ottoman sultan,
pâdişâh or "lord of kings", served as the empire's sole regent and was considered to be the embodiment of its government, though he did not always exercise complete control. The Ottoman family was ethnically Turkish in its origins, as were some of its supporters and subjects, however the dynasty immediately lost this "
Turkic" identification through intermarriage with many different ethnicities
.
Throughout Ottoman history, however — despite the supreme
de jure authority of the sultans and the occasional exercise of
de facto authority by
Grand Viziers — there were many instances in which local governors acted independently, and even in opposition to the ruler. On eleven occasions, the sultan was deposed because he was perceived by his enemies as a threat to the state. There were only two attempts in the whole of Ottoman history to unseat the ruling Osmanlı dynasty, both failures, which is suggestive of a political system which for an extended period was able to manage its revolutions without unnecessary instability.
After the dissolution of the empire, the new republic abolished the
Caliphate and
Sultanate and declared the
Ottoman Dynasty as
''persona non grata'' of Turkey. Fifty years later, in 1974, the
Grand National Assembly of Turkey granted descendants of the former dynasty the right to acquire Turkish citizenship. The current head of the
House of Osman is
Ertuğrul Osman V living in
New York City.
Imperial Harem
The
Harem was one of the most important powers of the Ottoman court. It was ruled by the
Valide Sultan (also known as the ''Baş Kadın'', or "Chief Lady"), mother of the reigning sultan, who held supreme power over the Harem and thus a powerful position in the court. On occasion, the Valide Sultan would become involved in state politics and through her influence could diminish the power and position of the sultan. For a period of time beginning in the
16th century and extending into the
17th, the women of the Harem effectively controlled the state in what was termed the "
Sultanate of Women" (''Kadınlar Saltanatı'').
The harem had its own internal organization and order of formulating policies. Beneath the ''Valide Sultan'' in the hierarchy was the ''Haseki Sultan'', the mother of the sultan's first-born son, who had the best chance of becoming the next Valide Sultan. The sultan also had four other official wives, who were each called ''Haseki Kadın''. Next in rank below the sultan's wives were his eight favourite
concubines (''ikbâl''s or ''hâs
odalık''s), and then the other concubines whom the sultan favoured and who were termed ''gözde''. Next in rank were the concubines of other court officials. Pupils (''acemî'') and novices (''câriye'' or ''şâhgird'') were younger women who were either waiting to be married off to someone or who had not yet graduated out of the Harem School.
Palace schools
Main articles: Palace school
New sultans were always chosen from among the sons of the previous sultan. The strong educational system of the
palace school geared towards eliminating the unfit potential heirs, and establishing support amongst the ruling elite for a succesor.
Palace schools were not a single track, but two. First, the
Madrasa () for the Muslims, which educated the scholars and the state officials in accordance with Islamic tradition. The financial burden of the Medrese was supported by vakifs, allowing children of poor families to move to higher social levels and income.
[20] The Second track was a free-
boarding school for the Christians, the ''Enderûn'', which recruited 3,000 students annually from Christian boys between 8 and 20 years old from one in forty families among the communities settled in
Rumelia and/or the
Balkans; a process known as
Devshirmeh (''Devşirme'').
[21] Orphans, single children, married boys, Jews, Russians, and shepherd's sons were exempted.
Palace Schools were fairly successful in this trans-culturation of students, and many statesmen were products of this process. The system functioned strictly for bureaucratic purposes, and (ideally) the graduates were permanently devoted to government service and had no interest in forming relations with lower social groups.
[22]
The incoming students were called the inner boys (
Ottoman Turkish:iç oglanlar). It took seven years of
professional development to graduate. The
apprenticeship began in the Sultan's services; progressing to mastering natural and Islamic sciences (formal education); and finally to developing physical fitnesses, and vocational or artistic skills. It is reported by Madeline Zilfi
[23] that European visitors of the time commented "In making appointments, Sultan pays no regard to any pretensions on the score of wealth or rank. It is by merits that man rise..Among the Turks, honors, high posts and Judgeships are rewards of great ability and good service"
[24]
The Divan (Council)
Though the sultan was the supreme monarch, the Sultans' political and executive authority was delegated to (
Viziers). The politics of the state had a number of advisors and ministers gathered around the council known as
Divan. The Divan, in the years when the Ottoman state was still a ''Beylik'', was composed of the elders of the tribe. Its composition was later modified to include military officers and local elites (such as religious and political advisors). Later still, beginning in the year
1320, a Grand Vizier (or ''Sadrazam'') was appointed in order to assume certain of the sultan's responsibilities.
After the 17th century the specific name
Porte was used, in reference to the residence/administrative center for the
Grand Vizier (''Paşakapısı'', later ''Babiali''). Viziers were headed by the
Grand Vizier. It was the Grand Vizier's duty to inform the sultan of the opinion of the Porte. The Grand Vizier had considerable independence from the Sultan with almost unlimited powers of appointment, dismissal and supervision. Beginning with the late 16th century, Sultans became withdrawn from politics and Grand Vizier became the ''de facto'' head of state.
The Porte consisted of three viziers in the 14th century; by the 17th century, the number had grown to eleven, four of whom served as "Viziers of the Dome" (the most important ministers after the
Grand Vizier).
Young Turk period
After the
Young Turk Revolution of 1908, the Ottoman state became a constitutional monarchy. Sultan did not have executive powers. A parliament was formed, with representatives chosen from the provinces.
Insignia
The
tughra of
Sultan Mahmud II of the Ottoman Empire. It reads ''Mahmud Khan son of Abdülhamid is forever victorious''. Written out:
-
محمود خان بن عبدالحميد مظفر دائماً
The
Tughra were calligraphic monograms, or signatures, of the Ottoman Sultans, of which there were 35. Carved on the Sultan's seal, they bore the names of the Sultan and his father. The prayer/statement “ever victorious” was also present in most. The earliest belonged to Orhan Gazi. The ornately stylized ''Tughra'' spawned a branch of Ottoman-Turkish
calligraphy.
Society
One of the successes of the Ottoman Empire was the unity that it brought about among its highly varied populations. While the main reason for this was the Empire's military strength and use of intimidation as a means of control in newly conquered territories, it may also be ascribed in part to the laws of Islam, which stated that Muslims, Christians and Jews — who constituted the vast majority of the Ottoman population — were all related in that they were "
People of the Book" (''Ahl al-Kitâb''). As early as the reign of
Mehmed II, extensive rights were granted to
Phanariot Greeks, and many Jews were invited to settle in Ottoman territory.
Millet
Under Ottoman rule the major religious groups were allowed to establish their own communities, called
millets, each retaining its own religious laws, traditions, and language under the general protection of the sultan. Millets were led by religious chiefs, who served as secular as well as religious leaders and thus had a substantial interest in the continuation of Ottoman rule. After conquering Constantinople,
Mehmed II used his army to restore its physical structure. Old buildings were repaired, streets, aqueducts, and bridges were constructed, sanitary facilities were modernised, and a vast supply system was established to provide for the city's inhabitants.
Ultimately, the Ottoman Empire's relatively high degree of tolerance for ethnic differences proved to be one of its greatest strengths in integrating the new regions until the
rise of nationalism (this non-assimilative policy became a weakness during the
dissolution of the empire that neither the
first or
second parliaments could successfully address).
Slavery
Slavery was an important part of Ottoman society. In
Istanbul, about 1/5 of the population consisted of slaves.
[25] It was
Arab traders who started the
trans-Saharan slave trade, exporting
black slaves from Ghana and other West African countries as far back as AD 1100 and the practice carried over into Ottoman reign. The Ottoman slave was far different from the typical image of a beaten agricultural worker, they could achieve high status. Harem guards and janissaries are some of the better known positions a slave could hold, but slaves actually were at the forefront of Ottoman politics. The majority of officials of the Ottoman government were bought slaves, obviously they were raised free, but they were integral to the success of the Ottomans from the fourteenth century to the nineteenth. By raising and specially training slaves as officials, not only did they get administrators with intricate knowledge of government and fanatic loyalty, but they cut back corruption as an administrator would have no ties in the region, thus he would not favor one person over another when granting contracts.
The
Devşirme system could be considered as a form of slavery, in that the Sultans had absolute power over its members. However, the 'slave' or
kul (subject) of the Sultan had high status within Ottoman society, and this group included the highest officers of state and the military elite, all well remunerated, so to consider them 'slaves' (in the way the term is generally understood in the West) is misleading. In the ''devşirme'' (translated "blood tax" or "child collection"), many young Christian boys from the
Balkans were taken away from their homes and families and enlisted into special soldier classes of the army of the Ottoman Empire. These soldier classes were named
Janissaries. The Janissaries eventually became a decisive factor in the intrigues of the
Istanbul court of the Ottoman sultans.
Rural slavery was largely a
Caucasian phenomenon, carried to Anatolia and Rumelia after the
Circassian migration in
1864. Conflicts emerged within the immigrant community and the Ottoman Establishment, at times, intervened on the side of the slaves.
[26]
For a long time, until the early 18th century
Crimean Khanate maintained massive slave trade with the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East. In a process called "harvesting of the steppe" Crimean Tatars enslaved many
Slavic peasants. The Crimean Khanate was undoubtedly one of the strongest powers in Eastern Europe; the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and
Russia suffered a series of
Tatar invasions, the goal of which was to loot, pillage and capture slaves into
jasyr. The borderland area to the south-east was in a state of semi-permanent warfare until the 18th century. It is estimatad that up to 75% of the Crimean population consisted of slaves or freedmen.
[27]
Hundreds of thousands of Europeans were captured by
Barbary pirates and sold as slaves to
North Africa and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 19th centuries.
[28]
During the 19th century the Empire came under pressure from Western European countries to outlaw the practice - which had been generally considered valid under Islamic law effectively since the beginning. Policies developed by various Sultans throughout the 19th century attempted to curtail the
slave trade but, since slavery did have centuries of religious backing and sanction, could never directly abolish the institution outright - as had gradually happened in Western Europe and the Americas. Eventually, trafficking in slaves was expressively forbidden by utilizing what were effectively clever loopholes in the application of ''
sharia'', or Islamic law. For example, by the terms of the ''sharia'', any slaves who were taken could not be kept as slaves if they had been Muslim prior to their capture. They could also not be captured legitimately without a formal declaration of war, which could only be issued by the Sultan. As late Ottoman Sultans, who wished to halt slavery, obviously did not authorize raids for the purpose of capturing slaves, it effectively became illegal to procure any slaves at all, although those already in Slavery would remain slaves, allowing slavery to die a slow and quiet death in the Ottoman lands.
[29] [30]
The court and lifestyle
The Ottoman court life in many aspects assembled ancient traditions of the
Persian
Shahs, but had many
Greek and
European influences.
The culture that evolved around the court was known as the Ottoman Way. To get a high position in the empire, one had to be skilled in the Way. This included knowing the languages
Persian,
Arabic and
Ottoman Turkish, and how to behave in different settings: in court, in front of the sultan, and on formal and religious occasions. The Ottoman Way also separated the nobles from the lower classes. Peasants and villagers were called Turks, while nobles were called Ottomans.
The provincial capitals
Apart from the Ottoman court, there were also large metropolitan centers where the Ottoman influence expressed itself with a diversity similar to metropolises of today:
Sarajevo,
Skopje,
Thessaloniki,
Dimashq,
Baghdad,
Beirut,
Jerusalem,
Makkah and
Algiers were other cities that had their own examples of Ottoman diversity, with their own small versions of Provincial Administration replicating the culture of the Ottoman court locally.
Culture
The Ottoman Empire had filled the centuries-old power vacuum left behind by the Roman and Byzantine empires in roughly the same territories around the
Mediterranean Sea, while adopting their traditions, art and institutions; and adding new dimensions to them. The
Turkish Bath, which has its origins in the
Roman Bath;
Ottoman classical music, which was largely inspired by the Byzantine church
hymns; and
Ottoman mosques, which were greatly influenced by the design of the
Hagia Sophia, a Byzantine
cathedral, are only a few examples.
In the course of its lifespan, the Ottoman Empire undertook, more than once, programmes of both
Islamisation and
modernisation (reform), blurring the difference between the
West and the
East.
[31] It developed
its own distinctive culture, from a diverse system of
Millets to a multi-ethnic state (see
Ottomanism); which was influential in both Europe and the Muslim lands.
[32]
Many different cultures lived under the umbrella of the Ottoman Empire, and as a result, a specifically "Ottoman" culture can be difficult to define, except for those of the regional centers and capital. However, there was also, to a great extent, a specific melding of cultures that can be said to have reached its highest levels among the Ottoman elite, who were composed of myriad ethnic and religious groups. This multicultural perspective of "
millets" was reflected in the Ottoman State's multi-cultural and multi-religious policies. As the Ottomans moved further west, the Ottoman leaders absorbed some of the culture of the conquered regions. Intercultural
marriages also played their part in creating the characteristic Ottoman elite culture. When compared to the Turkish folk culture, the influence of these new cultures in creating the culture of the Ottoman elite was very apparent.
Architecture
Ottoman architecture was influenced by
Seljuk,
Persian,
Byzantine Greek, and
Islamic architecture, but came to develop a style all of its own. The years 1300–1453 (
Rise period) constitute the early or first Ottoman period, when Ottoman art was in search of new ideas. The years 1453–1600, known as the classical period, coinciding with the
Empire's expansion, is the period when Ottoman art was at its most confident. During the years of the
Stagnation period, Ottoman architecture moved away from this style however. During the
Tulip Era, it was under the influence of the highly ornamented styles of Western Europe;
Baroque,
Rococo,
Empire and other styles intermingled.
Concepts of Ottoman architecture mainly circle around the
mosque. The mosque was integral to society,
city planning and communal life. Besides the mosque, it is also possible to find good examples of Ottoman architecture in
soup kitchens, theological schools,
hospitals,
Turkish baths and
tombs.
Examples of Ottoman architecture of the classical period, aside from
İstanbul and
Edirne, can also be seen in Egypt, Eritrea, Tunisia, Algiers, the Balkans and Hungary, where mosques, bridges, fountains and schools were built.
Language
Many ethnic groups with their own languages (e.g. Jews, Greeks, Armenians etc.) continued to speak them within their families and neighborhoods (
mahalles). In villages where two or more populations lived together, the inhabitants would often speak each other's language. In cosmopolitan cities, people often spoke their family languages, some Ottoman or Persian if they were educated, and some Arabic if they were Muslim. In the last two centuries, French and English emerged as popular languages, especially among the Christian
Levantine communities. The elite learned French at school, and used European products as a fashion statement. The use of Turkish grew steadily under the Ottomans, but, since they were still interested in their two other official languages, they kept these in use as well. Usage of these came to be limited, though, and specific: Persian served mainly as a literary language, while Arabic was used solely for religious rites. At this time many famous Persian poets emerged.
Ottoman Turkish was a variety of Turkish, highly influenced by Persian and Arabic. Ottomans had three influential languages;
Turkish,
Persian,
Arabic but they did not have a parallel status. Throughout the vast Ottoman bureaucracy and, in particular, within the Ottoman court in later times, a version of Turkish was spoken, albeit with a vast mixture of both Arabic and Persian grammar and vocabulary. If the basic grammar was still largely Turkish, the inclusion of virtually any word in Arabic or Persian in Ottoman made it a language which was essentially incomprehensible to any Ottoman subject who had not mastered Arabic, Persian or both. The two varieties of the language became extremely differentiated and this resulted in a low literacy rate among the general public (about 2–3% until the early
19th century and just about 15% at the end of 19th century). Consequently, ordinary people had to hire special "request-writers" (''arzıhâlci''s) in order to be able to communicate with the government.
Music
As music was an important part of the education of the Ottoman elite, a number of the Ottoman sultans were accomplished musicians and composers themselves, such as
Selim III, whose compositions are still frequently performed today. Due to a geographic and cultural divide between the capital and other areas, two broadly distinct styles of music arose in the Ottoman Empire: Ottoman classical music, and folk music.
Ottoman classical music arose largely from a confluence of
Byzantine music,
Arabic music, and
Persian music. Compositionally, it is organised around
rhythmic units called
usul, which are somewhat similar to
meter in Western music, and
melodic units called
makam, which bear some resemblance to Western
musical modes. The
instruments used are a mixture of Anatolian and Central Asian instruments (the
saz, the
bağlama, the
kemence), other Middle Eastern instruments (the
ud, the
tanbur, the
kanun, the
ney), and — later in the tradition — Western instruments (the
violin and the
piano).
In the provinces, several different kinds of
Folk music were created. The most dominant regions with their distinguished musical styles are: Balkan-Thracian Türküs, North-Eastern (
Laz) Türküs, Aegean Türküs, Central Anatolian Türküs, Eastern Anatolian Türküs, and Caucasian Türküs. There is no separate style for Istanbul, because Turkish Classical Music was preferred there.
Cuisine
When one talks of
Ottoman cuisine, one refers to the cuisine of the capital —
Istanbul, and the regional capital cities, where the melting pot of cultures created a common cuisine that all the populations enjoyed. This diverse cuisine was honed in the Imperial Palace's kitchens by chefs brought from certain parts of the empire to create and experiment with different ingredients. The creations of the Ottoman Palace's kitchens filtered to the population, for instance through
Ramadan events, and through the cooking at the
Yalıs of the
Pashas, and from there on spread to the rest of the population.
Today, the Ottoman cuisine lives in the
Balkans,
Anatolia and the
Middle East; i.e. in regions that are common heirs to what was once the Ottoman life-style, and their cuisines offer treacherous circumstantial evidence of this fact
[Bert Fragner, "From the Caucasus to the Roof of the World: a culinary adventure", in Sami Zubaida and Richard Tapper, ''A Taste of Thyme: Culinary Cultures of the Middle East'', London and New York, p. 52]. Besides, one should not forget that it is typical of any great cuisine in the world to be based on local varieties and on mutual exchange and enrichment among them, but at the same time to be homogenized and harmonized by a metropolitan tradition of refined taste
[.]
Religion
Before adopting Islam — a process that was greatly facilitated by the Abbasid victory at the 751 Battle of Talas, which ensured Abbasid influence in Central Asia — the Turkic peoples practised a variety of shamanism. After this battle, many of the various Turkic tribes — including the Oghuz Turks, who were the ancestors of both the Seljuks and the Ottomans — gradually converted to Islam, and brought the religion with them to Anatolia beginning in the 11th century.
The Ottoman Empire was, in principle, tolerant towards Christians and Jews (the "Ehl-i Kitab", or "People of the Book", according to the Koran) but not towards the polytheists, in accordance with the Sharia law.
Under the ''millet'' system, non-Muslim people were considered subjects, or rather raya (i.e. cattle), of the empire, but were not subject to the Muslim faith or Muslim law. The Orthodox ''millet'', for instance, was still officially legally subject to Justinian's Code, which had been in effect in the Byzantine Empire for 900 years. Also, as the largest group of non-Muslim subjects (or ''zimmi'') of the Islamic Ottoman state, the Orthodox ''millet'' was granted a number of special privileges in the fields of politics and commerce, in addition to having to pay higher taxes than Muslim subjects.[33],[34]
The Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II allowed the local Christians to stay in Constantinople (Istanbul) after conquering the city in 1453, and to retain their institutions such as the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate. In 1461 Sultan Mehmed II established the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople. Previously, the Byzantines considered the Armenian Church as heretical and thus did not allow them to build churches inside the walls of Constantinople. In 1492, when the Muslims and Sephardic Jews were expelled from Spain during the Spanish Inquisition, the Ottoman Sultan Bayezid II sent his fleet under Kemal Reis to save them and granted the refugees the right to settle in the Ottoman Empire.
The state's relationship with the Greek Orthodox Church was largely peaceful, and recurrent oppressive measures taken against the Greek church were a deviation from generally established practice. The church's structure was kept intact and largely left alone but under close control and scrutiny until the Greek War of Independence of 1821–1831 and, later in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the rise of the Ottoman constitutional monarchy, which was driven to some extent by nationalistic currents, tried to be balanced with Ottomanism. Other Orthodox churches, like the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, were dissolved and placed under the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate; until Sultan Abdülaziz established the Bulgarian Exarchate in 1870 and reinstated the autonomy of the Bulgarian Church.
Similar ''millet''s were established for the Ottoman Jewish community, who were under the authority of the ''Haham Başı'' or Ottoman Chief Rabbi; the Armenian Orthodox community, who were under the authority of a head bishop; and a number of other religious communities as well.
Law
An Ottoman trial, 1877 (see for explanation)
Ottoman legal system accepted the Religious law over its subjects. The Ottoman Empire was organized around a system of local jurisprudence. Legal administration in the Ottoman Empire was part of a larger scheme of balancing central and local authority.[35] Ottoman power revolved crucially around the administration of the rights to land, which gave a space for the local authority develop the needs of the local millet.
These court categories were not, however, wholly exclusive in nature: for instance, the Islamic courts — which were the empire's primary courts — could also be used to settle a trade conflict or disputes between litigants of differing religions, and Jews and Christians often went to them so as to obtain a more forceful ruling on an issue. The Ottoman state tended not to interfere with non-Muslim religious law systems, despite legally having a voice to do so through local governors. The Islamic ''Sharia'' law system had been developed from a combination of the Qur'ān; the Hadīth, or words of the prophet Muhammad; ''ijmā''', or consensus of the members of the Muslim community; qiyas, a system of analogical reasoning from previous precedents; and local customs. Both systems were taught at the empire's law schools, which were in Istanbul and Bursa.
Tanzimat reforms, had a drastic effect on the law system. In 1877, the civil law (excepting family law) was codified in the Mecelle code. Later codifications covered commercial law, penal law and civil procedure.
Military
Ottoman Army
The first military unit of the Ottoman State was an army that was organized by Osman I from the tribesmen inhabiting western Anatolia in the late 13th century. The military system became an intricate organization with the advance of the Empire.
Sipahis were the elite cavalry knights of the Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman military was a complex system of recruiting and fief-holding. The main corps of the Ottoman Army included:
★ 'Janissary': Infantry units recruited at a very young age from the non-Muslim ethnic groups of the empire and raised as Muslim Turkish warriors; also forming the Sultan's household troops and bodyguard.
★ 'Sipahi': Elite cavalry knights who were granted ''tımars'' (fiefs) throughout the empire's lands. Their alternative name was ''Tîmârlı Sipahi'' (Enfiefed Knight).
★ 'Akıncı': Frontline cavalry units of the Ottoman Army which raided and scouted the border areas and outposts.
★ 'Mehterân': Ottoman Army Band which played martial tunes during military campaigns. The mehterân was usually associated with the Janissary corps.
The Ottoman army was once among the most advanced fighting forces in the world, being one of the first to employ muskets. The Ottoman cavalry used bows and short swords and often applied nomad tactics similar to those of the Mongol Empire; such as pretending to retreat while surrounding the enemy forces inside a crescent-shaped formation and then making the real attack.
Starting from the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 and the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396, the Ottoman army quickly advanced towards central Europe, capturing Hungary with the Battle of Mohács in 1526 and twice laying siege to Vienna, in 1529 and 1683.
The modernization of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century started with the military. In 1826 Sultan Mahmud II abolished the Janissary corps and established the modern Ottoman army, which he named as the Nizam-ı Cedid (New Order). The Ottoman army was also the first institution to hire foreign experts and send its officers for training in western European countries.
Ottoman Navy
The Ottomans began to develop a navy in the early 14th century, and the conquest of İmralı Island in the Sea of Marmara in 1308 marked the first Ottoman naval victory (for a timeline of the naval actions of the Ottoman fleet, see the History of the Turkish Navy.) In 1321 the Ottoman fleet made its first landings on Thrace in southeastern Europe, and vastly contributed to the expansion of the empire's territories on the European continent. The Ottoman navy was one of the first to use cannons, and the Battle of Zonchio in 1499 went down to history as the first naval battle where cannons were used on ships. It was also the Ottoman navy which initiated the conquest of North Africa, with the addition of Algeria and Egypt to the Ottoman Empire in 1517. The Battle of Preveza in 1538 and the Battle of Djerba in 1560 marked the apex of Ottoman naval domination in the Mediterranean Sea. The Ottomans also confronted the Portuguese forces based in Goa at the Indian Ocean in numerous battles between 1538 and 1566. In 1553, the Ottoman admiral Salih Reis conquered Morocco and the lands of North Africa beyond the Strait of Gibraltar, extending Ottoman territory into the Atlantic Ocean. In 1566 the Sultan of Aceh asked for support against the Portuguese and declared allegiance to the Ottoman Empire, which sent its Indian Ocean fleet under Kurtoğlu Hızır Reis to Sumatra. The fleet landed at Aceh in 1569, and the event marked the easternmost Ottoman territorial expansion. In 1585 the Ottoman admiral Murat Reis captured Lanzarote
Following defeat against the combined British-French-Russian navies at the Battle of Navarino in 1827, and the subsequent loss of Algeria (1830) and Greece (1832), Ottoman naval power, and control over the empire's distant overseas territories declined. Sultan Abdülaziz (reigned 1861-1876) attempted to reestablish a strong Ottoman navy, building the third largest fleet after that of Britain and France with 21 battleships and 173 other types of warships. But the collapsing Ottoman economy could not sustain the fleet strength. Sultan Abdülhamid II (reigned 1876-1908) distrusted the navy, when the admirals supported the reformist Midhat Pasha and the First Ottoman Parliament of 1876. Claiming that the large and expensive navy was of no use against the Russians during the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878), he locked most of the fleet inside the Golden Horn, where the ships decayed for the next 30 years.
Following the Young Turk Revolution in 1908, the Committee of Union and Progress which effectively took control of the country sought to develop a strong Ottoman naval force. The poor condition of the fleet during the Ottoman Naval Parade of 1910 saddened every Turk who saw it, and the ''Ottoman Navy Foundation'' was established in order to purchase new ships through public donations. Those who made donations received different types of medals according to the size of their contributions. With this public money, the Ottoman government ordered large battleships like ''Sultan Osman I'' and ''Reşadiye'', but despite the payment for both ships, the United Kingdom confiscated them at the outbreak of World War I and renamed them as ''HMS Agincourt'' and ''HMS Erin''. This caused some ill-feeling towards Britain among the Ottoman public, and the German Empire took advantage of the situation by sending the battlecruiser ''Yavuz Sultan Selim'' and light cruiser ''Midilli'' which entered service in the Ottoman fleet. This event significantly contributed to the decision of supporting Germany in the First World War, with whom the Ottomans sided.
Ottoman Air Force
The Ottoman Air Force was founded in June 1909, making it one of the oldest combat aviation organizations in the world. Its formation came about after the Ottoman Empire sent two Turkish pilots to the International Aviation Conference in Paris. After witnessing the growing importance of an air combat support branch, the Ottoman government decided to organize its own military aviation program. For this purpose, officers were sent to Europe by the end of 1910 to participate in the study of combat flight. However, because of bad living conditions, the student program was aborted and the trainees returned to Turkey in the spring of 1911. Although left without any governmental guidelines for establishing an air force, the Ottoman Minister of Defence of the time, Mahmut Şevket Paşa, continued to encourage the idea of a military aviation program and sent officers Fesa and Yusuf Kenan, who achieved the highest maneuvering points in a piloting test conducted in 1911, to France for receiving a more satisfactory flight education. In late 1911 Süreyya Ilmen was instructed with founding the ''Havacılık Komisyonu'' (Aviation Commission) bound to the ''Harbiye Bakanlığı Fen Kıtaları Müstahkem Genel Müfettişliği'' (War Ministry Science Detachment General Inspectorship). On February 21, 1912, Fesa and Yusuf Kenan completed their flight education and returned home with the 780th and 797th French aviation diplomas. In the same year, eight more Turkish officers were sent to France for flight education.
The Ottoman Empire started preparing its first pilots and planes, and with the founding of the ''Hava Okulu'' (Air Academy) in Istanbul on July 3, 1912, the empire began to tutor its own flight officers. The founding of the Air Academy quickened advancement in the military aviation program, increased the number of enlisted persons within it, and gave the new pilots an active role in the Armed Forces. In May 1913 the world's first specialized Reconnaissance Training Program was activated by the Air Academy and the first separate Reconnaissance division was established by the Air Force.
Because of the lack of experience of the Turkish pilots, the first stage (1912) of the Balkan Wars (1912-1913) ended with the loss of several aircraft. However, the second stage (1913) was marked with great success since the pilots had become more battle-hardened. Many recruits joined the Air Academy following a surge of Turkish nationalism during the war.
With the end of the Balkan Wars a modernization process started and new planes were purchased. In June 1914 a new military academy, ''Deniz Hava Okulu'' (Naval Aviation Academy) was founded, also in Istanbul. With the outbreak of the First World War, the modernization process stopped aprubtly, but in 1915 some German officers came to the Ottoman Empire and some Turkish officers went to Germany for flight education.
The Ottoman Air Force fought on many fronts during the First World War, from Galicia in the west to the Caucasus in the east and Yemen in the south. Efforts were made to reorganize the Ottoman Air Force, but this ended in 1918 with the end of the First World War and the occupation of Istanbul.
Notes
1. H. İnalcık: "The rise of the Ottoman Empire" in P.M. Holt, A.K. S. Lambstone, and B. Lewis (eds), ''The Cambridge History of Islam'', (Cambridge University). pages 295-200
2. Kinross, 23
3. Sultan Osman I, Turkish Ministry of Culture website
4. Leslie Peirce "The Imperial Harem: Women and sovereignty in the Ottoman empire and Morality Tales: Law and gender in the Ottoman court of Aintab"
5. Richard G. (EDT) Hovannisian "The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times" page 198
6. Jastrow, Morris, ''The War and the Bagdad Railroad'' (1917)
7. New York Times Dispatch. Lord Bryce's report on Armenian atrocities an appalling catalogue of outrage and massacre.. The New York Times, October 8, 1916.
8. Erik Jan Zürcher, ''Between death and desertion: The experience of the Ottoman soldier in World War I'', p241
9. Encyclopædia Britannica: Death toll of the Armenian Massacres
10. Armenian-Turkish Conflict
11. Mustafa Kemal Pasha's speech on his arrival in Ankara in November 1919
12. Halil inalcik, Studies in the economic history of the Middle East : from the rise of Islam to the present day / edited by M. A. Cook.
London University Press, Oxford U.P. 1970, p. 209 ISBN 0197135617
13. Halil inalcik, Studies in the economic history of the Middle East : from the rise of Islam to the present day / edited by M. A. Cook.
London University Press, Oxford U.P. 1970, p. 217 ISBN 0197135617
14. Antony Black, "The state of the House of Osman (devlet-i al-i Osman)" in ''The History of Islamic Political Thought: From the Prophet to the Present'', p199
15. Halil İnalcık, Donald Quataert, (1971) ''An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1914'', p120
16. Halil inalcik, Studies in the economic history of the Middle East : from the rise of Islam to the present day / edited by M. A. Cook.
London University Press, Oxford U.P. 1970, p. 218 ISBN 0197135617
17. The History of Turkish-Jewish Relations
18. Donald Quataert, 2
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