The Ottoman Empire:A Chronological Outline

arsa · #1 Monday, April 13, 2009

The Turks in the Islamic World before 1300

830-850, Turkish mercenaries from Central Asia found in service of Abbasid caliphs

850-905, Tulunids (Turkish generals) rule Egypt virtually independently of the Abbasids

900, Samanids rule in eastern Persia and borderlands of Turkistan; Turks are exposed to Persianate Islamic culture; preparation far incorporation of Turks into main body of Middle Eastern Islamic civilization

10thc. , term ”sultan” (Arabic abstract noun meaning ”sovereign authority”) begins to be used to designate rulers

c.1000 , Ghaznavids establish rule in Afghanistan, break Samanid power, and expand into Persia below Oxus River; champions of Sunni Islam within a predominantly Persian cultural context

1040, Seljuks take Khorasan from Ghaznavids; soon control most of Persia with center at Isfahan; from there advance to defeat Buwayhids (Shi’i Persians) who had dominated Abbasid caliphs in Baghdad for a century

1055, Seljuk sultans become de facto rulers in Abbasid Baghdad; two centuries of turmoil is ended and unity restored in eastern Islamic region; Persia and Mesopotamia are reunited and northern Syria added to the ”Great Seljuk” state

1071 , Battle of Manzikert ( Malazgirt ) a decisive victory for Seljuk Sultan Alp Arslan over Byzantines; break Byzantine line of defense in Eastern Anatolia; Turkish-speaking Muslims raid and settle in area now known as ”Turkey”; much of the Greek/ Christian veneer of indigenous Anatolian population gradually replaced by a Turkish/Muslim veneer

1092 , death of Seljuk Sultan Malik Shah and his great vizier, Nizam al-Mulk; dynastic strife ensues

1118, Seljuk Empire splits into principalities ruled by princes of the family, often over- shadowed by their ”atabeys” ( tutor guardians )

12th c. , Seljuks of Rum ( Konya, Anatolia ) rule centra1 Anatolian plateau with center at Konya (Iconium) .

1204 , Byzantium fatally weakened by 4th. Crusade and Latin occupation

c.1200 , high point of Seljuks of Rum; by absorption of smaller Turkish principalities (beyliks), Seljuks extend their jurisdiction to south coast of Anatolia; Turkish nomads (”gazis”) active in western border/march region adjacent to Byzantium

1243, Mongols under Hulagu Khan move west, defeat Selcuk Sultan Kaykhusrav II, and establish overlordship in Seljuk Anatolia

1258, Mongols conquer Baghdad and bring Abbasid Caliphate to an end

Later 13th c., Turkish Anatolia fragmented as Mongol control weakens and is withdrawn; many small principalities ( beyliks ) emerge, one of them led by Osman (Turkish form of the Arabic/Muslim name, Uthmm; European corruption of Osman is Ottoman) in northwest Anatolia (around Iznik and Bursa) adjacent to Byzantine territories.

1071-1300, Anatolia witnesses swift military penetration, ragged political conquest, partial and superficial cultural/linguistic conquest by Muslim Turks who, in their upper ranks were carriers of Persianate Muslim culture. That group was small in number but powerful . Below them, Turkish-speaking Muslims mix with indigenous population. Folk culture and folk religion often at odds with high culture and Islamic orthodoxy represented by the religious and political elite in the society.

The Ottomans: Anatolian March Principality, 1300-1366

1299-1324 , Osman I Gazi. Establishes rule around Bursa in NW Anatolia

1324-1360 , Orhan I Gazi. Crosses into Balkans in 1345 as ally of Byzantine Emperor, John Cantacuzenus, against Serbs; marries his daughter, Theodora; 1353, John C. Again calls in Orhan and this time Ottomans stay; set up base at Gallipoli; JohnC. seeks help from Bulgars and Serbs against Ottomans but they refuse; John C. abdicates (1354 ) and is succeeded by John Palaeologus. Ottoman capital at Bursa.

The Ottomans: Balkan Kingdom, 1365-1403

1350-1389, Murat I. Successful campaign in Thrace obliges John V, Palaelogus, to recognize capture of Philippopolis and Adrianople (Edirne) and to agree to become Ottoman vassal (1363); Murat moves Ottoman capital to Edirne in 1366; origins of Janissary Corps and the devshirme probably date to Murat’s reign. King Sisman of Bulgaria defeated, accepts vassal status in 1379; Serbs defeated and dynasty of Stephen Dusban ended; John V appeals to Christian Europe but gets no help; his vassaldom deepens, must render military service to sultan and give over his son as hostage far punctual performance of his obligations; Macedonia is conquered; completion of subjugation of Bulgaria and Serbia; Sofia falls in 1385; one last concerted effort by Balkan Slavs against Ottomans at Battle of Kossovo (1389) ends in complete Ottoman victory, but during the battle Sultan Murat assassinated by a Serb pretending to be a traitor, Milosh Obilic. Murat’s son, Bayezit, assumes command and immediately executes his brother to avoid possibility of a dynastic struggle.

1389-1403, Bayezit I, Yildirim(The Thunderbolt). Bayezit takes the throne and finishes off the victory at Kossovo, captures and executes Lazar (last Serbian tsar) whose daughter, Despina, becomes a wife of the Ottoman sultan. 1393, Bulgarian dynasty is extinguished and Bulgarian patriarchate ended; Bulgarian lands are absorbed and Bulgarian church reduced to dependence on Greek patriarchate at Byzantium. 1394, Pope Boniface IX proclaims crusade at urging of King Sigismund of Hungary; led by Sigismund, Catholic forces are defeated by Ottomans in Battle of Nikopolis (1396). With no effective resistance remaining, Ottomans conquer most of Greece and southern Albania. The Balkans, except for the immediate areas around Constantinople, Athens, and Salonika and the extreme southern Morea are ruled by Bayezit from his capital at Edirne. Administrative structure strengthened and centralized through elaboration of tahrir-defter (cadastral survey-record books) system based on military fiefs (timars). Expansion of Ottoman rule eastward over Anatolian principalities through combination of diplomacy, dynastic marriages, and military expeditions brings Ottomans into conflict with Timur Leak (Tamerlane) who invades Anatolia and challenges Bayezit at battle of Ankara in 1402. Bayezit is defeated, captured, dies in captivity in 1403.

arsa · #2 Monday, April 13, 2009

The Ottomans: From Ankara to Constantinople, 1403 - 1453

1403-1413, dynastic struggle; civil war among Bayezit’s sons; Suleyman and Musa eventually killed; Mehmet emerges as victor; Christians fail to take advantage of this opportunity to throw off Ottoman rule.

1413-1421, Mehmet I, the Restorer. Devotes his energy to reunification of Ottoman lands and reconsolidation of sultan’s authority; European territories kept fairly intact and most Anatolian provinces recovered; avoiding unnecessary foreign conflicts, Mehmet provides a breathing period in which to heal wounds and reintegrate previous conquests.

1421-1451, Murat II. A strange combination of worrier and saintly recluse. Resumes expansion in Europe; wars with Venice; Salonika falls; Ottomans occupy most of

Albania and Epirus. War with Hungary provokes another crusade against Ottomans; coalition of Hungary, Poland, Bosnia, Wallachia, and Serbia led by the Hungarian, John Hunyadi, wins a victory; Murat signs ten-year truce at Szegedin (1444 ), voluntarily abdicates in favor of his 14-year-old son, Mehmet, and retires to life of religious study and contemplation. Hungarians, encouraged by the Papacy, break truce and renew crusade; Murat comes out of seclusion, resumes throne, and defeats crusaders at Varna. Four years later (1448 ), in second Battle of Kossovo, Murat defeats Hunyadi who has again invaded Serbia, ending any serious threat from Hungary; Albania, under Scanderbeg, continues to resist. The essentially conservative policy of Murat’s reign reflects the influence of the Jandarli viziers.

1451 - 1481, Mehmet II, Fatih (The Conqueror). Fall of Constantinople in 1453 only the beginning of an aggressive policy of conquest; capital moved from Edirne to Istanbul; shift of political power from provincial notables and feudal lords to the sultan’s slaves (kapikullari); the Palace School and the organization of religious education through the medrese system; elaborate court and expanded bureaucracy; the imperial tradition is firmly established and the classical age of the Ottoman Empire has begun. War with Serbia, aided by Hungary; Hunyadi and the Serbian king, Brankovich, both die in 1457; family quarrels over succession; one claimant appeals to Pope for aid, offering to make Serbia a papal dependency; people declare they prefer rule of Muslim Sultan to Catholic Pope and open their cities to Mehmet; Serbian independence ends in 1459. Ottomans invade Bosnia in 1453; Bosnian nobles refuse to support Catholic king, Stephen, and hand over fortresses to Mehmet, many converting to Islam at the same time, thus beginning the process which ultimately sees most Bosnians become Muslims. Herzegovina is occupied a year or so later, and Albania is absorbed following Skanderbeg’s death in 1467. War with Venice ends in 1479 with the Venetians giving up Scutari (Uskudar) and other stations on the coast and agreeing to pay a tribute for permission to trade in the Black Sea. In 1480, an Ottoman force occupies Otranto in southern Italy, causing panic throughout the Catholic Europe. Mehmet besieges Rhodes (1480-81), held by the Knights of St. John, a relic of the Crusades, but dies before the siege is successful.

The Classical Age, 1453-1600

1481-1512, Bayezit II. A man of intellectual tastes but the least significant of the first ten Ottoman sultans; comes to the throne with the support of the Janissaries; his position challenged by younger brother, Jem, who has himself proclaimed sultan at Bursa; in the ensuing civil war, Jem is defeated, flees to Egypt, then to Rhodes; Knights of St. John send him to France; Jem dies at Naples under suspicious circumstances in 1495. In 1489, Venetians get Cyprus by bequest from its Catholic ruler; leads to resumption of Ottoman-Venetian wars; Ottoman fleet commanded by Kemal Reis defeats Venetians; Ottoman cavalry aids within sight of Venice; Venetians sue for peace, lose more trade stations, but keep control of some lonian Islands. Otherwise, another period of respite making possible consolidation of recent conquests, internal reforms, regularization of the financial systems, and expansion of economic and commercial life

1512-1520. Selim I, Yavuz (The Grim). Forces his father to abdicate after a civil war among Bayezit’s sons; Selim defeats his brother, Ahmet, in Anatolia and has him executed in1513; resumption of expansionist policy; rise of Safavi dynasty in Persia; war against Ismail Safavi who had supported Ahmet; political rivalry accentuated by religious differences (Sunni Ottomans, Shi’i Safavis); Battle of Chaldiran, 1514, a victory for Selim; occupies Tabriz but obliged to withdraw when Janissaries object to further advance; Selim subdues Eastern Anatolia and Kurdistan in 1515, provoking the Mamluks; 1515, Selim embarks on second campaign against Persia, is diverted by Mamluk Sultan Kansu al- Gauri, ally of the Safavis; defeats Mamluks in battle near Aleppo in which Mamluk sultan is killed; Aleppo and Damascus surrender to Selim who offers peace to new sultan, Tuman Bey’, on condition he accept Ottoman suzerainty; offer is refused and Selim’s army moves against Egypt. Cairo falls on Jan. 22, 1517; Tuman Bey executed but Mamluks continue to be a powerful force in Ottoman Egypt. Last Abbasid ”Shadow Caliph” Mutavakkil is sent to Istanbul but returns to Cairo after Selim’s death. Sherif of Mecca acknowledges Ottoman suzerainty; Ottoman sultan assumes responsibility for the two Holy Cities and the pilgrimage routes. Expansion of Ottoman fleet; continuing rivalry in Mediterranean with Venice. Beginnings of unrest in Anatolia known as the Jelali Revolts.

1520-1556, Suleyman I, Kanuni (The Lawgiver, The Magnificent). Suleyman’s reign marks the zenith of Ottoman grandeur and power. Conquest of Hungary and Baghdad; expansion across North Africa to Morocco; naval supremacy in the Mediterranean and naval operations in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean; capitulations (commercial treaties) with European states; alliance with Francis I of France against the Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V; first Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1529; further development and regularization of law, administration, medrese education; the nakkashhane and patronage of the arts; the master architect, Sinan Pasha; Hurrem Sultan vs. Gulbahar Hatun, harbinger of the ”Sultanate of the Women”; population explosion (from about 12 million to about 22 million) leading to or exacerbating social and economic problems; revolts with imperial princes implicated; Sulayman dies while on a final campaign in Hungary.

1566 - 1574, Selim II, Sarhosh (The Sot). Incompetence of ruler permits political dominance of Grand Vezir Mehmet Sokollu; conquest of Cyprus from the Venetians, reestablishment of the Cypriot Orthodox Patriarchate, and the repopulation of the island; Battle of Lepanto (1571), nava1 defeat of Ottomans by fleets of the Holy League; the Ottoman Empire has reached the limit of its geographical expansion.

1574 - 1595, Murat III. Last of the Ottoman sultans to have had training and experience in military and administrative matters before taking the throne; growing power of the women of the Imperial Harem; death of Mehmet Sokollu (1579) marks end of period of relative stability at the center of the Ottoman system; wars with the Hapsburgs and with Persia; shifting trade routes, influx of New World silver, inflation, and other factors precipitate economic crisis at the end of the 16th c.; decentralization follows in17th and 18th centuries as Ottoman statesmen respond to new challenges, both domestic and foreign.
1600-1923

Ottoman history from 1566 -1792 has been described as ”The Decline of Faith and State.” To Ottomans, " decline ” meant dislocation of the traditional order; hence, ” reforms " to check or reverse " decline " meant restoring the old order which had produced the Golden Age of Suleyman the Magnificent.” At times decline was checked but only temporarily. Decline was not only slow, gradual, interrupted, lasting rnore than three centuries, but also it was relative only to its own Golden Age and to the remarkable progress of its Christian European neighbors.

It is easier to describe decline than to explain it. Some developments which the Ottoman Empire did not take part in gave Europe its relative superiority.

[ 1 ] Its 16th-10th c. commercial expansion overseas enriched Western Europe to the detriment of the Ottomans.

[ 2 ] The West improved agricultural methods while technology and industry advanced rapidly, all tied to the new scientific experimentation and rationalist attitudes stemming from the Renaissance and Reformation and culminating in the Enlightenment; only weak echoes of these events reached the East before 1800.

[ 3 ] Strong, centralized, national monarchies or bureaucratic empires appeared not only in Western Europe but also along the Ottoman frontiers in Central and Eastern Europe just when centrifugal forces were weakening the previously centralized Ottoman bureaucratic empire.

[ 4 ] A prosperous,enterprising bourgeoisie on the Western model failed to appear in the Ottoman Empire to back up the ruler; the wealthy bourgeoisie which did exist was small and composed largely of either non-Muslim merchants and bankers, who were not acceptable as the sultan’s allies, or bureaucrats, who were a part of the "establishment ” anxious to protect their own interests and often resisting change.

The Ottomans were more conscious of the dislocations in their own traditional system:

[ 1 ] Leadership : 17 sultans after Suleyman ( from1566 to 1789) were, with few exceptions, men of little ability, training, or experience, and some were incompetent, even mentally defective; their average rule of 13 years was less than half that of the first 10 sultans. This was no accident! Mehmed III died in 1605 leaving two minor sons as the only direct male survivors. The elder, Ahmet I, spared the life of his brother, Mustafa, but kept him secluded in a special apartment in the harem of Topkapi Palace. The Sitva Torok treaty with Austria (1606) should have been a wake-up call for the Ottomans. It was a negotiated compromise rather than a grant of peace dictated by the sultan; in it, the Hapsburg monarch finally was recognized as the sultan’s peer, as " Emperor” (Padishah rather than simply King of Vienna.” Mustafa I’s accession in 1617 marked the end of ”succession by military contest and the practice of royal ” fratricide,” replaced by confinement of princes in the palace and succession by the eldest male of the imperial family. Not only were most inexperienced and incompetent, many were minors under the influence of the Queen Mother (Valide Sultan) and harem favorites, giving rise to palace cliques and intrigue. For several decades in the first half of the17.th century, women of the palace exercised such influence that the period is called " The Sultanate of the Women "

[ 2 ] Bribery, purchase of office, favoritism, nepotism : Promotion by merit, long the hallmark of Ottoman administration, became less common. Corruption spread to the provinces where an official would buy his office, then squeeze more taxes from the populace to reimburse himself. There were frequent shifts in judicial as well as civil officials, with justice also sometimes for sale. In the mid-to-late 17th c., the great Koprulu family of viziers attempted to root out corruption and improve administrative and military efficiency. They were temporarily successful in arresting " decline " through traditional reforms, and in 1663 Ottoman forces besieged Vienna for the second time. But in the 17th c., the Ottomans were confronted by an extended arc of opponents, Venice, Austria, Poland, Russia, and Iran, often obliged to confront several at once. In 1699, after defeat by a coalition of all Central and East European powers, the Ottomans accepted mediation, negotiated peace, and, by the Treaty of Karlowitz, for the first time gave up territories in the Balkans. The shrinking of Ottoman frontiers had begun.

[ 3 ] Military : The devshirme was abandoned ( just when is uncertain ); sons of janissaries were admitted to the corps, then other Muslims; and imperial slavery became a legal fiction.” Provincial janissaries sometimes acted as semi-autonomous local rulers, while in Istanbul they become a disruptive force, often in collaboration with artisans / craftsmen and students. The provincial cavalry army was made obsolete by musket-armed European troops, requiring the Ottomans to increase their standing infantry and equip them with firearms. This required money. The military fief system was all but abandoned and replaced by tax-farming. The heavy tax burden was responsible in part for revolts in Anatolia, abandonment of farm lands, and depopulation of villages; thus the empire experienced a decline in tax revenues despite higher taxes.

[ 4 ] Economics : The Ottoman Empire suffered from severe inflation, as did all of Europe, as New World silver flooded in. This, together with debased coinage, fueled corruption. By the 17th c., Europeans and consolidated their control of new sea trade routes, by-passing the Middle East and diminishing the transit trade through Ottoman lands. Asian spices were shipped directly to Europe, and wars with Iran interrupted the silk trade. European manufactured goods flowed in, undercutting local handicraft products and enriching Levantine merchants. The Ottoman Empire’s unfavorable trade balance resulted in an outflow of gold, while European states demanded more favorable trade treaties ( ”Capitulations" ) and were guilty of blatantly abusing them.

[ 5 ] Intellectual decline--Selim and Suleyman’s 16th c. victory over Safavid Shi’ism so consolidated Sunni orthodoxy that Muslims in the Empire were not forced to engage in intellectually challenging and stimulating conflict as Catholics and Protestants were in Europe. Muslim scholars became intellectually conservative and resistant to new ideas; convinced of the superiority of Muslim / Ottoman civilization, they were seemingly oblivious to the advances being made in the infidel West. Meanwhile, the Ottoman religious establishment gradually became infiltrated by the Sufi orders, producing a new sort of symbiosis which gave greater strength to conservative religious” elements.

In the18th c. more wars and losses resulted in another attempt at reforms. The Tulip Period ( 1718-30 ) marks the first conscious borrowing of European culture and art. During the mid-century interlude of peace on the European frontiers, Ottoman political authority was further diffused. Provincial notables and governors barely heeded orders from Istanbul. Levantines and Phanariot Greeks enjoyed enormous prosperity and influence. The Muslim religious elite reached the apex of their power. In the last quarter of the century, Catherine the Great resumed Russian expansion southward; her ” Greek Scheme " aimed to put her grandson, Constantine, on the throne of a neo-Byzantine Empire with its capital at Constantinople. Her first war ended in the Treaty of Kuchuk Kaynarca (1774) by which the Ottomans gave up the Crimea, the first time they had lost territory inhabited primarily by Muslims. In 1789, during the second war with Catherine, Selim lll became sultan and initiated a reform program called the New Order, (Nizam-i Cedid) with emphasis on military and fiscal reform. But Selim’s failure to prevent Napoleon’s invasion of the rich Ottoman province of Egypt in 1798 revealed to Europeans as never before that the balance of power had now shifted decidedly in their favor.

The Imperial reforms begun by Selim III were taken up again in the early decades of the 19th.c. by Sultan Mahmud II. They aimed at curbing provincial autonomy and achieving political centralization and modernization through Western-style military, administrative, and fiscal reforms. But European intervention in the Greek struggle for independence signaled the beginning of the modern " Eastern Question ” (Simply put : Who would divide the spoils when the Ottoman Empire collapsed ? ). To counter this, the Tanzimat period (1839-76) saw reforms center around a new concept of justice (adalet): equality before the law for all Ottoman subjects, Muslim and non- Muslim alike. This concept was fundamental to the prevalent ideology of the Tanzimat, Ottomanism ( patriotism but not yet nationalism). In the 1850s-60s, intellectuals known as the New Ottomans” engaged in a liberal critique of Tanzimat policies with emphasis on fatherland (vatan), freedom (hurriget), and constitutionalism. The Tanzimat reforms culminated in the constitution and parliament of 1876, but the 1877-78 war with Russia and the Treaty of Berlin, by which most of the Ottoman lands in Europe were lost and the European powers laid claim to spheres of influence in the Middle East, allowed Sultan Abdulhamid II to bring an end to " liberalism” and proceed with reforms under an autocratic- regime. By the 1880s Germany under Kaiser Wilhelrn had replaced France and Great Britain as friend and military advisor of the Ottoman Empire, and new ideologies were challenging Ottomanism. Abdulhamid embraced Pan-Islamism; his opponents, known collectively as Young Turks, were drawn to a secular Ottoman pseudo-nationalism and some to Pan-Turkism.

The Hamidian despotism was ended by the Young Turk Revolution(1908-09) and replaced by constitutional, parliamentary government under the Young Turk Committee of Union and Progress. Their policies reflected a growing sense of Turkish nationalism. But in the five years preceding World War I, two Balkan wars and a war with Italy, which had invaded Libya, brought the military element of the Young Turk movement to the fore and resulted in the domination of the Istanbul political scene by the Young Turk Triumverate ( Enver, Talat, and Jemal Pashas) . Under their leadership, the Ottomans entered World War I on the side of Germany. The victors dictated the peace to end all peace at Paris in 1919. With even the heartlands of the Empire partitioned and Istanbul occupied by the victorious allies, the Turks of Anatolia under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) rejected the terms of the dictated Treaty of Sevres. Again they took up arms, fought successfully for their independence, and --- bringing to an end the 600 + year-old Ottoman Empire –- negotiated the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 which granted international recognition to the boundaries of the new Republic of Turkey.

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