Daily Life In The Ottoman Empire Read online

  1787–1792

  War with Russia.

  1788–1791

  War with Austria.

  1791

  Selim III establishes the Nizam-i Cedid (New Army).

  1798

  French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte invade Egypt.

  1799

  Napoleon returns to France.

  1805

  Mohammad Ali (Mehmed Ali) is appointed governor of Egypt.

  1807

  Selim III is deposed.

  1808

  Selim III is murdered. Mustafa IV is deposed.

  1808–1839

  Reign of Mahmud II.

  1820–1823

  War against Qajar Iran.

  1821–1830

  Greek revolt.

  1826

  Mahmud II destroys the janissaries.

  1828–1829

  War against Russia.

  1830–1831

  First Ottoman census.

  1830

  France invades Algiers.

  1830

  Serbia is recognized as an autonomous principality.

  1831

  Mohammad Ali of Egypt invades Syria.

  1833

  Egyptian army arrives in Kütahya in western Anatolia after defeating Ottoman forces.

  1833

  Treaty of Hünkar Iskelesi with Russia.

  1839

  Ottoman troops are defeated by Egyptian forces at Nizip.

  1839

  Hatt-i Şerif-i Gülhane, the Noble Rescript of the Rose Garden, signals the beginning of the Tanzimat era.

  1846

  Istanbul’s slave market is closed.

  1853–1856

  Crimean War.

  1856

  Hatt-i Hümayun (the Imperial Rescript of Reform) is issued.

  1856

  Treaty of Paris.

  1863

  Imperial Ottoman Bank is established.

  1869

  Opening of Suez Canal.

  1876

  First Ottoman constitution.

  1877–1878

  War against Russia.

  1878

  Treaty of San Stefano with Russia.

  1878

  Congress of Berlin.

  1881

  France establishes a protectorate over Tunisia.

  1882

  British forces invade and occupy Egypt.

  1891

  Hamidiye regiments are created to police eastern Anatolia.

  1894

  Violent clashes between Hamidiye regiments and local Armenians in Bitlis.

  1896

  Armenian Dashnak organization attacks Ottoman Bank headquarters in Istanbul.

  1897

  Ottoman-Greek war.

  1897

  Crete gains its autonomy.

  1908

  Young Turk revolution forces Abdülhamid II to restore the constitution.

  1908

  Austro-Hungarian Empire annexes Bosnia. Greece seizes the Island of Crete. Bulgaria unifies with Eastern Rumelia.

  1909

  Abdülhamid II is deposed.

  1911

  Italy occupies Tripoli.

  1912–1913

  First Balkan War: Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria invade Ottoman treaty. Edirne is captured by Bulgarian forces.

  1913

  Second Balkan War: Ottoman forces recapture Edirne.

  1914–1918

  First World War: Ottoman Empire is allied with Germany and Austro-Hungarian Empire.

  1915

  Deportation of Armenians from eastern Anatolia.

  1915

  Ottoman victory at Gallipoli.

  1915

  Sykes-Picot Agreement partitions the Ottoman Empire between British and French spheres of influence.

  1916

  Arab Revolt backed by the British starts in Hejaz.

  1918

  Moudros Armistice.

  1918

  Allied forces occupy Istanbul.

  1919

  Mustafa Kemal arrives in Samsun and commences the Turkish national liberation movement.

  1920

  Grand National Assembly is convened in Ankara.

  1920

  Treaty of Sèvres partitions the Ottoman Empire.

  1921–1922

  Turkish national movement fights and defeats Greek forces in western Anatolia.

  1922

  Mudanya Armistice.

  1922

  Grand National Assembly abolishes Ottoman sultanate.

  1923

  Treaty of Lausanne.

  1923

  Republic of Turkey is established.

  1924

  Institution of caliphate is abolished, and the members of the Ottoman royal family are exiled.

  1 – HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

  The Ottoman state was born as a small principality in western Anatolia during the last two decades of the 13th century. As with other Turkish chieftains who had settled in the region, the family of Osman (1281?–1324/1326), the founder of the Ottoman Empire, arrived as nomadic tribesmen from Central Asia. Turcoman tribes had been settling in Anatolia since 1071, when the Seljuk Turks defeated the Greek Byzantine Empire at the battle of Manzikert (Malazgird). The victory at Manzikert destroyed Byzantine defenses and allowed Turcoman tribesmen from Central Asia and Iran to push westward and settle in Anatolia. In 1087, a branch of the Seljuk dynasty established itself in central and eastern Anatolia. The Turcoman chiefs, who settled in the region, swore their allegiance and paid annual tribute to the Rum Seljuks, who ruled from their capital, the town of Konya, in central Anatolia. When the Mongols defeated the Seljuks at the battle of Köse Dagh in 1243, Turcoman principalities such as Menteşe, Aydin, Saruhan, and Ottoman, emerged as autonomous fiefdoms that paid tribute to a new master, the Il Khanid Mongols of Iran. Toward the end of the 13th century, as Mongol power began to decline, the Turcoman chiefs assumed greater independence.

  FOUNDERS OF THE OTTOMAN STATE

  The founder of the Ottoman state, Osman, began his career as a gazi, or a warrior for Islam, who waged holy war on the Byzantine state from his small principality in the district of Sögüt in western Anatolia. Osman’s son and successor, Orhan (1324/1326–1362) attacked and conquered the important urban center of Bursa in 1326, proclaiming it as the Ottoman capital. He used his newly acquired territory to capture the towns of Nicaea (Iznik) in 1331 and Nicomedia (Izmit) in 1337. In 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe and established a foothold on the Gallipoli Peninsula while at the same time pushing east and taking Ankara on the dry Anatolian plain. In 1355, Stephen Dušan (Dushan), the ruler of Serbia, died, and his empire disintegrated, allowing the Ottomans to push farther into the Balkans and capture the important town of Adrianople (Edirne) in 1361. Shortly after ascending the throne, the third Ottoman sultan, Murad I (1362–1389), moved against Thrace and southern Bulgaria. In response, the Pope declared a crusade. The Serbs also called for a united front of all Orthodox Christian rulers. Despite growing resistance against the Ottomans, Murad I’s armies scored an impressive victory at Chermanon on the Maritsa River in 1371, seizing significant territory in Bulgaria, Macedonia, and southern Serbia. To neutralize the threat posed by rival Turcoman principalities in Anatolia, Murad I also attacked and annexed Germiyan and Hamidili. Meanwhile, the Ottomans pushed farther into Bulgaria and took Sofia in 1385. In the same year, they annexed Nish, and in 1387, they took Thessaloniki (Salonika) in modern-day northern Greece.

  Once again, the Christian powers of southeast Europe tried to set aside their rivalries and organize an anti-Ottoman coalition. A joint force of Serbs, Bosnians, and Bulgarians defeated the Ottomans at Plošnik (Ploshnik) in 1388, but the defeat did not slow down the pace of Ottoman expansion. After occupying northern Bulgaria, Murad I moved against the Balkan states that had unified under the leadership of the Serbian prince, Lazar (1371–1389). In June 1389, the Ottoman forces defeated the Christian coalition at Kosovo-Polje (F
ield of the Blackbirds). Both Murad I and Lazar died on the battlefield.

  The victory at Kosovo-Polje allowed the new Ottoman sultan, Bayezid I (1389–1402), to continue with the conquest of the Balkans. Skopje, in Macedonia, was taken in 1391, and Ottoman forces entered Thessaly in 1394. With the conquest of northern Bulgaria, the ruler of Wallachia, Mircea the Old (1386–1418), was forced to accept Ottoman sovereignty in 1395. Bayezid’s forces were now in a position to raid Hungary and Albania. Meanwhile, in the east, the sultan annexed Karaman in southwestern Anatolia in 1396–1397.

  The emergence of an Ottoman-dominated Balkans posed a direct threat to the Hungarian state, which viewed Serbia as a buffer. Thus, when Pope Boniface IX (1389–1404) called for a Christian crusade against the Ottomans, the Hungarian monarch Sigismund (1387–1437) assumed leadership of the Christian army. Bayezid rushed back from Anatolia to confront the large crusader force that was approaching the shores of the Danube. The two armies clashed at Nicopolis in September 1396, where the Ottomans scored an impressive victory. Thousands of Christian knights died, either on the battlefield or as they tried to cross the Danube. Bayezid built on this victory by annexing the principality of Vidin in 1398. Confident of his power in the west, the sultan shifted his focus to Anatolia and the threat posed by the Mamluk state that ruled Egypt and parts of the Arab Middle East from its capital in Cairo. In 1399, he captured the towns of Malatya and Albistan in the Euphrates valley.

  Bayezid’s drive to expand Ottoman territories in the east coincided with the rise of the world conqueror, Timur, who had created a vast empire extending from Central Asia to India and Iran. In 1400–1401, Timur moved his forces toward Anatolia, sacking Sivas and challenging the Ottoman sultan to a confrontation. Enraged by Timur’s condescending attitude and insulting language, and confident of his ability to defeat the Central Asian adventurer, Bayezid moved his forces eastward. The critical battle took place in July 1402 at Ankara, where Timur’s army routed the Ottoman forces and captured Bayezid and his sons. The defeat at Ankara brought the Ottoman state to the brink of extinction. Timur pushed his conquests to Smyrna (Izmir) on the eastern shores of the Aegean Sea and restored the independence of the Turcoman principalities conquered by the Ottomans. He also granted Bayezid’s sons small principalities in Anatolia and the Balkans so that they would fight among themselves for control of what was left of their father’s empire. Thus began the period known as Fetret, or Interregnum, which lasted from 1402 to 1413. After a series of campaigns against his brothers, Mehmed, who ruled Amasya in northern Anatolia, emerged as the new ruler of the Ottoman state.

  Mehmed I (1413–1421) and his successor Murad II (1421–1444; 1446–1451) spent much of their reigns suppressing internal revolts staged by members of the Ottoman dynasty and restoring the power of the central government by subduing the Turcoman principalities, which had regained their independence under Timur. The Ottoman rulers also resumed their westward march into the heartland of the Balkans. Once again, a crusade was organized, this time under the leadership of Vladislav (1434–1444), the ruler of Poland and Hungary. Serbia, led by George Branković, also joined, but the true leader of the anti-Ottoman coalition was the governor of Transylvania, John Hunyadi, who fought for the Hungarian king. Initially, Hunyadi was successful in his campaigns against the Ottoman forces and pushed them out of Bulgaria. When the Turks struck back, however, the Christian forces suffered a devastating defeat at Varna in 1444. King Vladislav died on the battlefield, and the Christian effort to halt Ottoman occupation of the Balkans came to a sudden end.

  ZENITH OF OTTOMAN POWER

  Building on the victory at Varna, Murad I’s son and successor, Mehmed II (1444–1446; 1451–1481), embarked on an ambitious campaign to complete the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. The first target of the new sultan was, however, the city of Constantinople, which fell after a two-month siege on 29 May 1453. The conquest of the capital of eastern Christianity allowed the Ottomans to establish their control over maritime trade routes that connected the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, one of the most important avenues of international commerce in the world.

  Mehmed II’s ambitious campaign to impose Ottoman rule over the entire Balkan Peninsula began with the capture of Morea (Peloponnese Peninsula or Peloponnesus) in southern Greece in 1458, and the conquest of Bosnia in 1463. In sharp contrast to other Christian-populated regions of the Balkans, there was a large-scale conversion to Islam in Bosnia. As the local landowning nobility converted to Islam, many urban and rural communities followed suit.

  The conquest of Greece and Bosnia set the stage for an invasion of Albania. To the northeast, the Tatars of Crimea accepted the suzerainty of the sultan in 1475, allowing the Ottomans to extend their authority to the northern shores of the Black Sea. In 1480, Herzegovina was conquered. Despite his best efforts, however, Mehmed II could not capture the strategic fortress of Belgrade, which would have paved the path to the conquest of Hungary. He also faced fierce resistance in Albania, where a local hero, George Kastrioti (Gjergi Kastrioti), also known as Iskender Beg (Skanderbeg), fought heroically against Ottoman forces from 1443 until his death in 1468.

  To the east, the Ottomans scored a decisive victory over the Aq Qoyunlu Turcomans and their chief, Uzun Hasan, who ruled Iran and southern Caucasus, at the battle of Başkent in 1473. When the Venetian allies of Aq Qoyunlu attacked the Aegean coast and the island of Lesbos, the Ottomans struck back and laid siege to Venetian fortresses in northwestern Albania, including Shkodër (Scutari), which was captured in 1479. By 1481, when Mehmed II died, the Ottoman forces had landed at Otranto in anticipation of a full-fledged invasion of Italy.

  Prince Bayezid, after defeating his brother Cem (who was the favorite of their father), ascended the Ottoman throne as Bayezid II (1481–1512) and embarked on a campaign to extend Ottoman rule to the western and northern shores of the Black Sea by attacking Moldavia and conquering the fortresses of Kilia and Akkerman in 1484. The invasion brought the Poles into confrontation with the Ottomans. The wars with Hungary and Venice also continued until the end of Bayezid II’s reign. In the east, the conflict between the Ottomans and the Mamluks, who ruled Egypt and Syria, was concluded in 1491 when the two powers agreed to sign a peace treaty.

  Meanwhile, a new and far more threatening menace was emerging in the east. The rise of the Shia Safavid dynasty in Iran forced the Ottomans to shift their focus to eastern Anatolia where the power and popularity of the Iranian dynast Shah Ismail (1501–1524) posed a direct threat to the authority of the sultan. Under the charismatic leadership of their shah, the Safavid forces occupied Baghdad in 1504 and pushed into southeastern Anatolia. The failure of the aging and ailing Bayezid II to organize an effective response to the threat posed by the Safavids allowed one of his sons, Selim, to seize power in 1512.

  It was during the reign of Selim I (1512–1520) that the Ottoman Empire emerged as the most powerful state in the Middle East and North Africa. First, Selim I defeated the Safavids at the battle of Chaldiran in August 1514 and occupied the strategically important province of Azerbaijan. He then attacked and defeated the Mamluk armies, first in Syria in 1516, and then in Egypt in 1517, thus bringing the Arab lands of the Middle East, including the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina, under Ottoman rule.

  Egypt emerged as the largest and the most lucrative province of the Ottoman Empire, sending the largest amount of taxes to the central treasury in Istanbul. The conquest of Egypt allowed the Ottomans “to participate in the traffic in African gold, which passed through Ethiopia and the Sudan, and in the spice trade with Christian countries.” The Ottomans also used their military and naval presence in Egypt to impose their hegemony over the greater Red Sea region and annex Abyssinia that “extended from the southern border of Egypt all the way to the Horn of Africa, encompassing most of present-day Sudan, Djibouti on the horn of Africa, and coastal Ethiopia.”

  When Selim I’s son, Süleyman (1520–1566), succeeded his father, the territorial expansion of the empire
continued. The new sultan attacked and captured Belgrade in 1521, using the conflict and personal jealousies between the Habsburg King, Charles V, and the French monarch, Francis I, to his advantage. A year later, the Ottomans occupied Rhodes despite fierce resistance from the Knights of St. John, who had ruled the island since the 13th century. Using Belgrade as a territorial base, Süleyman invaded and occupied Hungary after defeating King Louis II at the battle of Mohács in 1526. With the disappearance of the Hungarian state, the Habsburgs emerged as the northern neighbors of the Ottoman Empire and the power most threatened by Turkish expansionism. The expected attack on the Habsburg capital, Vienna, came in September 1529, but the arrival of the rainy season made the roads impassable for the Ottomans, forcing Süleyman to abandon the siege.

  Meanwhile, to the east, the sultan pushed the frontiers of his empire by attacking Iran in 1535 and occupying Iraq and the Iranian cities of Tabriz and Hamedan. After several successful campaigns against Iran, the Ottomans forced the Safavid dynasty to sign the Treaty of Amasya in May 1555, ceding much of Azerbaijan and the southern Caucasus to the Ottoman Empire. Meanwhile, Süleyman ordered the construction of a naval force and appointed the legendary Hayreddin Paşa as his chief admiral (kapudan-i derya). Hayreddin Paşa captured Tunis in 1533 and established Ottoman hegemony on the southern shores of the Mediterranean. Finally, to the south, the Ottomans extended their rule in the Arab world by occupying Sana’a, the capital of Yemen in 1547.