Friday, March 29, 2024
07:38 AM (GMT +5)

Go Back   CSS Forums > CSS Optional subjects > Group IV > Islamic History & Culture

Reply Share Thread: Submit Thread to Facebook Facebook     Submit Thread to Twitter Twitter     Submit Thread to Google+ Google+    
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Search this Thread
  #1  
Old Thursday, January 05, 2012
Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Islamabad
Posts: 66
Thanks: 30
Thanked 35 Times in 24 Posts
sfmascot is on a distinguished road
Default Members Please share information about OTTOMAN TURKS

All the respected members are requested to please share your kind views and information about the caliphate of the Ottoman Turks specially in the following areas:
1) Chronological history of the ottoman Turks
2) Note on OTTOMAN Tanzeemat
3) Role of Sultan Mhammad II


REGARD
__________________
Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old Thursday, January 05, 2012
42nd CTP (FSP)
CSP Medal: Awarded to those Members of the forum who are serving CSP Officers - Issue reason: CE 2013 - Merit 136
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: where the streets have no name
Posts: 83
Thanks: 9
Thanked 79 Times in 40 Posts
Alyosha will become famous soon enough
Default

Chronology
TheOttomans.org - The Ottomans History

The Tanzeemat
The Tanzeemat of the Ottoman Empire « History of Islam

Muhammad II
History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Volume 1
By Stanford J. Shaw

MEHMET II, CALLED "THE CONQUEROR" (FATIH)

Introduction

With the rise of Mehmet II, called "the Conqueror" (Fatih), the Ottomans began a new era of conquest that extended the empire's rule across the Danube and into central Europe as well as over the lands of the Islamic caliphates in the Middle East and through much of North Africa.

The Reign of Mehmet II, 1451-1481
Upon his accession on February 18, 1451, Mehmet inherited an empire in a far better condition than that which his father had come to rule three decades before. He was free to take the initiative without having to satisfy either internal or external pressures.

Mehmet’s ambition to conquer Constantinople
It appears, however, that soon after his accession Mehmet and his principal advisers, Sahabeddin Sahin Pasa and Zaganos Pasha, decided that they needed a spectacular victory to fortify their political position against the Turkish nobility, which still wanted peace in order to prevent the kapikulu and devfirme from using new conquests to build their power. Nothing could be more spectacular than the conquest of Constantinople. Arguing with some justice that Byzantium had sheltered Muslim claimants to the Ottoman throne to foment discord in the empire, Mehmet felt that as long as Byzantium held out, there would always be the possibility of new Crusade efforts to rescue it and complete unification of the empire would be impossible. Beyond these practical considerations there was the dream of establishing a world empire, with Constantinople as its natural center. For centuries Muslim hopes of world domination had been associated with the capture of the Byzantine capital.

The ninth-century philosopher al-Kindi had expressed this feeling in his prophecy that the Mahdi, or "rightly-guided one" would return to "renew Islam and cause justice to triumph. He will conquer the Spanish peninsula and reach Rome and conquer it. He will travel to the East and conquer it. He will conquer Constantinople, and rule over the whole earth will be his."
The great Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun related a tradition of the Prophet himself stating that: "He who will destroy the Byzantine emperor and will spend his treasures in God's behalf will be the expected [Mahdi] when he conquers Constantinople." Constantinople was, indeed, the "Red Apple" (Kizil Elmo) of Muslim tradition. Nourishing such dreams, Mehmet busied himself with plans for its conquest almost from the first moment of his accession.

The Conquest of Constantinople
Candarh Halil continued to oppose the sultan's plans for an attack on Constantinople, but Mehmet went ahead. On his return from Karaman he built the fort of Rumeli Hisari, 10 miles north of the city on the European side of the Bosporus, to gain control of the waterway and sever Byzantium's communications with the Black Sea as well as to assure the passage of Ottoman troops from Anatolia to Europe (January-August 1452). As soon as the new fort was completed, Mehmet demanded that Constantinople surrender, threatening a full-scale siege.

The actual siege began in February 1453 when the first Ottoman forces sent from Edirne occupied the Byzantine seaports along the Sea of Marmara and huge cannons were dragged through Thrace to lead the attack on the city's great walls. In March the Ottoman armies of Anatolia crossed the Bosporus to the new Rumeli Hisari, while an armada built in Gallipoli went through the Dardanelles into the Sea of Marmara and began to attack the city by sea. Within the city Mehmet's preparations were met with despair; religious and political division continued to undermine the defense effort, and very little new assistance came from outside. Byzantium's armed forces already had declined so much that there were hardly enough men left to man the vast wall defense system. Sections of the city were almost totally uninhabited. Despite this the siege lasted for 54 days, from April 6 to May 29, 1453. On April 18 the Ottomans occupied all the islands in the Sea of Marmara outside the capital, which had been left undefended.

The final assault began on the night of May 28. In the end the defenders were simply worn down, isolated as they were from significant outside help. After two hours the huge Ottoman cannon tore large gaps in the walls between the modern Topkapi and the Yahkapi, and the attackers flowed into the city. The Ottoman fleet broke the Byzantine chain and entered the Golden Horn, supplementing the land forces. The emperor apparently was killed while fighting on the city walls. Once within the city the Ottomans advanced slowly and methodically, clearing the streets of the remaining defenders. While Islamic law would have justified a full-scale sack and massacre of the city in view of its resistance, Mehmet kept his troops under firm control, killing only those Byzantines who actively resisted and doing all he could to keep the city intact so that it could be the center of his world empire. Many inhabitants and soldiers took refuge at the Genoese colony of Galata, across the Golden Horn, which had remained neutral during the siege. This violated its neutrality, but Zaganos made an agreement by which Galata was joined to the Ottoman Empire and its defenses torn down, in return for which its inhabitants were allowed to retain their holdings and gain freedom of religion and trade within the sultan's dominions. The people of Galata were to retain their properties, but they were to have no tax or customs privileges other than the exemption of their children from the dev§irme tribute imposed in the Balkans.

Mehmet's conquest of Constantinople was not of major strategic importance, since the Ottomans had been able to bypass it as they advanced into Europe. Yet its capture deprived Europe of a base that, in the hands of an effective relief force, might have undermined the Ottoman defense system. Possession of the great commercial, administrative, and military center facilitated the assimilation, control, and defense of the sultan's conquests, while control of the waterways between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean established a stranglehold on European trade.

Organization of the Empire
With the prestige brought by the conquest of Constantinople, now called Istanbul by the Turks, Mehmet II moved ahead to become absolute ruler of a centralized empire, essentially the emperor of a restored Eastern Roman and caliphal empire, with worldwide implications. The first step was to remove the Turkish nobility as a dominating political force and to wipe out all members of the Ottoman family who had any aspirations for the throne. In any case, a move against the Turkish nobility and particularly the Qandarh family had long been desired by Mehmet, who blamed (^andarh Halil (with some justice) for his deposition in 1446 and for the latter's continued opposition to the conquest of Constantinople. On June 1, 1453, only two days after the conquest, (^andarh Halil was dismissed as grand vezir on false charges of having received bribes from the Byzantines for opposing the attack. His property was confiscated, and he was imprisoned along with most members of his family. His replacement with Mehmet's close adviser Zaganos Pasa, member of the devsirme class, began a new tradition whereby the most important positions of the central government were reserved for the slaves of the sultan.

The grand vezir now became the sultan's absolute representative in the processes of government, the only other member of the Ruling Class whose word had to be obeyed by all without question or appeal. He was entrusted with the imperial seal.

This is not to say that the sultan left his supporters unchecked. His aim was to create a balance of forces so that no group would have sufficient power to control him. Therefore, some important administrative functions were withheld from the grand vezir and given to three other major officials, the kazasker (chief judge), defterdar (chief treasurer), and nisanci (chief scribe), who controlled the hierarchies of the religious, financial, and scribal administrations respectively. Nor did Mehmet wish to substitute devsirme domination for that of the Turkish nobility - thus he did not eliminate the latter. Many Turkish notable families kept their properties and were retained in positions, leaving them about equal to the devsirme. By balancing the Turkish aristocracy and the devsirme, Mehmet could play them of f and hence assure himself of the loyalty and support of both.

The sultan also sought the support of the Christian religious leaders. He assured the Greek Orthodox clergy that it would retain its religious freedom, both internally andagainst the possibility of union with Rome

Reconstruction of Istanbul
Mehmet's next move was to restore Istanbul to its former greatness. Much of the city's population and economic prosperity had disappeared long before the conquest it had been left as a poor and largely depopulated city with about 60,000 to 70,000 inhabitants. Mehmet attempted to avoid as much pillage as possible immediately after the conquest, but many people fled in fear, leaving no more than 10,000 inhabitants by the time he turned to rebuilding the city. Mehmet's first task, therefore, was to repopulate Istanbul. Decrees were issued guaranteeing protection of the lives and properties of all inhabitants, regardless of religion, who recognized the sultan and paid taxes to him. Mehmet sought to make his capital a microcosm of all the races and religious elements in the empire.

Efforts to repopulate the city were accompanied by construction work. Thousands of homes, bridges, markets, streets, walls, and factories had fallen into ruins during the later centuries of Byzantine rule. The basic public services no longer existed water conduits had broken down, street pavings were in disrepair, and there was no regular sewage system. Mehmet immediately set to work to remedy these problems, and with tremendous vigor. Many of those who had participated in the conquest were assigned to construct or repair houses, markets, aqueducts, and roads. In 1455 Mehmet began to build the grand bazaar, or covered market, which was to become the center of Istanbul's commercial life for a half-millennium. The Conqueror's first palace, built at the center of the old city (where Bayezit Square and the University of Istanbul are located today), soon came to be known as the Old Palace. The new imperial residence, which under his successors became the center of the sultanate and the Ruling Class until the nineteenth century, was the Topkapi Palace, built at the high point of the city overlooking the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Golden Horn. The monumental Fatih Mosque (Mosque of the Conqueror), built in the sultan's name, set the pattern for the numerous smaller religious and secular buildings that followed. As was the case in all the great empires of Islam, the religious foundations played a vital role in the growth of major cities, providing for the public services not con- sidered to be within the scope of government. Public buildings such as schools, places of worship, fountains, hospitals, public baths, and hotels were constructed and main- tained through religious endowment funds provided by the sultan, his family, the Ruling Class or rich subjects.

Economic Development
Mehmet developed the economic life of his empire to provide a pool of wealth that could be taxed to finance his military and political activities. Encouragement was given to the expansion of native industry by Muslim Turks as well as the Greek and Armenian subjects of the sultan, with the cotton industry rising in western Anatolia, mohair cloth in Ankara and Kastamonu, silk in Bursa and Istanbul, woolen cloth in Salonica and Istanbul, and footwear in Edirne. Mehmet also worked to expand international trade to and through his dominions, ending the privileged economic position given Europeans under the Byzantines so that native Ottoman merchants would be able to gain a share in this trade. During Mehmet's reign, Istanbul, Bursa, and Edirne resumed their former places as industrial and trade centers all contributing to the general prosperity. Economic development alone, however, was not sufficient to provide Mehmet with all the money needed to pay for the army, the buildings, and the new structure of government that he was creating. He resorted to increasingly radical economic measures to secure the funds, achieving his immediate objectives but in the process disturbing the economic expansion that he had sought to stimulate. He debased the coinage, withdrawing all outstanding coins on five different occasions and reissuing them with increased alloys of base metals.
Mehmet also enforced his right to ownership of all wealth-producing property in the empire as part of his attributes of sovereignty. Lands and other property that had originally belonged to the state and were later transferred to private ownership or to foundations were now confiscated; property titles were investigated to ensure that only the most valid ones were left out of state control. Most of the lands secured for the state in this way were divided into timar fiefs and assigned to members of the Sipahi cavalry later in Mehmet's reign to restore at least partly some of the power of the Turkish aristocracy and thus counterbalance the growing power of the devsirme.

Mehmet II’s Aims of World Domination and Policies of Conquest
With the conquest of Constantinople the Muslim world acknowledged Mehmet as leader of the Holy War against Christianity. He now claimed superiority over all other Muslim rulers, including the neighboring Mamluk sultans, and demanded the right to replace the latter as leaders of the pilgrimage to the Holy Cities. He also emphasized Ottoman relationships with the old Turkish empires of Central Asia, encouraging the writing down of traditions showing that his family descended directly from Oguz Han, thus countering the ambitions of his other principal rival in the East, Uzun Hasan, ruler of the White Sheep Turkomans of Iran, who, as we shall see, soon began to challenge his rule in eastern Anatolia.

Mehmet also began to see himself as heir not merely to eastern Rome but to a worldwide empire. Byzantine and Italian scholars surrounding him encouraged grandiose ideas of world dominion. After eliminating possible contenders for the Byzantine throne, he moved to regain all the lands previously ruled by his Byzantine predecessors between the Euphrates and the Danube. To further centralization he abandoned the vassal policies of the early Ottoman sultans and annexed most of the vassal territories, gaining the acquiesence of the Christian ruling families concerned by offering them the opportunity to rise high as Ottomans in the new empire.

Mehmet II was the first Ottoman sultan to develop this right to legislate into full-fledged codes covering all aspects of government and society in a manner that previous Muslim rulers had never attempted or achieved.

The Conquests of Mehmet II
The primary thrust of military advance throughout Mehmet's reign was against the infidel, in the gazi tradition, to prevent unified opposition from the Western world as well as to acquire new territories.

The Lands that paid Tribute to Mehmet
Mehmet was able to detach the Italian commercial republics by granting them new trade privileges in his empire. In 1454 Venice was given the special right of paying only 2 percent customs duties on goods entering and leaving the empire as well as that of having a commercial representative (called baile/balyos) living in Istanbul, in return for the payment of an annual tribute of 200,000 gold ducats. Genoa, its main rival, was given similar rights only in the Crimea and some of the Aegean Islands, again in return for tribute.
Contemplating future areas of expansion, Mehmet recognized the potential gains available in the north and the west.

Threats to the ottoman empire
In 1454 Mehmet made some efforts to conquer the Black Sea coast of Moldavia in order to cement the relationship with the Tatars. At this time, however, his primary interests were in the western Balkans, where autonomous but powerless Serbia constituted a channel through which the Hungarians or possible Crusader expeditions could march against him; similarly, the Byzantine despots of the Morea might be taken by Venice to provide a base for a new effort to displace the Ottomans in Europe.

Initial Campaigns; Serbs and Novo Brdo conquered
In response to these dangers Mehmet undertook a series of expeditions between 1454 and 1463 to extend his direct rule to the Danube and Aegean and thus establish a strong military defense line. Two campaigns in 1454 and 1455 smashed the Serbs. The Ottomans occupied the southern part of the country, secured direct connection with Macedonia from the north for the first time, and also gained control of the rich gold and silver mines of Novo Brdo, which thereafter provided much of the capital needed for the empire's economic expansion.

Failure to take Belgrade from the Hungarians
During the summer of 1456, Mehmet undertook his third Serbian campaign, this time in an effort to take Belgrade from the Hungarians, with Brankovic maintaining an uneasy neutrality although he allowed the expedition to pass through his territory. However, a six-week siege of the great Danubian base was unsuccessful, Hunyadi's arrival at the last minute with some 200 boats forcing the sultan to retire. This left the city in Hungarian hands for another half-century until it finally was taken by Suleyman the Magnificent.
Soon after the sultan returned to Istanbul, Brankovic died (December 24, 1456), leaving Serbia in a state of internal anarchy that contributed to its eclipse. Mehmet had a good claim to rule through Murat's marriage to Mara, but he was not able to act for some time because of pressing needs elsewhere.

Encouraged by King Alfonso V of Naples, Scanderbeg tried to drive the Ottoman garrisons from Albania. Mehmet responded with expeditions that drove the Albanians back into the hills. In 1456 pirate activities based in the Genoese islands in the Aegean led him to mount a naval expedition that conquered Aynos (Enez), Imbros (Imroz), Lemnos (Limni), and Thasos (Tasoz).

Conquest of Greece
Intrigues between the two Byzantine despots of the Morea, brothers of the last emperor, Constantine, led to such internal strife that Mehmet conquered the northern part of the peninsula during the summer of 1458, adding Athens in January 1459 and the southern Morea in July 1460, thus ending the despotate and leaving Trabzon as the last relic of the Byzantine Empire. This meant that all Greece was under direct Ottoman control with the sole exception of the Morean ports of Koron, Modon, and Pylos, which were taken later under Bayezit II.

Final Subjugation of Serbia
Finally, in the summer of 1459 the Ottomans moved back into Serbia, drove out the Hungarian partisans, and occupied the entire country with the exception of Belgrade, ending its independence and incorporating the former feudal, legal, and financial systems with little change into the Ottoman administrative organization.

In the mean- time, Hungarian influence in Bosnia had greatly antagonized the large landholding nobles as well as many cultivators, many of whom had come to espouse the Bogomil heresy in reaction to Catholic oppression. The Bosnian king Stephen Thomas (1443- 1461) managed to retain his throne with Hungarian assistance, secretly receiving papal support also by converting to Catholicism and taking measures to suppress "heretics" within his domains. Mehmet was not yet ready to conquer Bosnia completely, but he encouraged raiders to ravage north of the Danube into Hungary and southern Austria as well as along the Dalmatian and Istrian coasts.

Truce with Albania
By 1461 Mehmet's basic desire was to settle his problems in Europe so that he could concentrate on establishing control of Anatolia. With Serbia and Greece conquered, only Albania was causing real difficulty in the West. The death of Alfonso V in 1458 left Scanderbeg much more amenable, however, and he accepted a truce with the sultan (June 22, 1461) that enabled him to regain control of southern Albania and the Epirus in return for promises to refrain from further attacks on the Ottoman possessions in the north.

Truce with Stephen the Great
There were also increasing problems in the Principalities. Moldavia was now ruled by the famous Stephen the Great (1457-1504), who built a sizable state, took the Danubian port of Kilia, and was intervening in Wallachian politics as a first step toward conquering the Black Sea coast and the Crimea. His conflict with the Ottomans at this time was limited to rivalry for control of the weak princes of Wallachia. Finally, Vlad IV Tepes (the "Impaler") acknowledged Ottoman as well as Hungarian suzerainty and was recognized as prince of Wallachia.

The Anatolian Campaigns
Mehmet promised to keep Ottoman raiders out as long as Stephen made no effort to enlarge his dominion in the area (1460). With Wallachia neutralized, Mehmet was able to turn to Anatolia. The Black Sea coast, with the exception of Byzantine Trabzon, had been brought under Ottoman control by the early part of Mehmet's reign, but there were Muslim opponents in eastern and central Anatolia. After the collapse of the Timurid Empire, the Black Sheep had built a sizable empire in western Iran and northern Iraq, while the White Sheep, under the leadership of the notable Uzun Hasan (1453-1478) and with some Mamluk assistance, built their own dominion in western Iran and eastern Anatolia. Karaman again was extending its power in central Anatolia, fomenting revolts against the Ottomans.

The Ottoman successes in the Balkans also frightened Venice and Genoa into encouraging these eastern ambitions in order to lessen the Ottoman threat against them. Mehmet, therefore, felt an urgency to complete his rule along the Black Sea coast to frustrate any advances that his enemies might make at European instigation.

Beginning in April 1461, he used his newly built navy to join in land-sea attacks that successively overwhelmed the Genoese in Amasra, then Candar, the last Turkoman principality in the area, and, finally, Byzantine Trabzon itself. Uzun Hasan not strong enough to meet the Ottomans alone was forced to accept a separate peace at Erzincan (August 14, 1461). Karaman remained quiet, fearing that any overt act might draw the sultan's wrath against it. Mehmet established a new frontier province in the area under the command of the beylerbeyi of Anatolia, Gedik Ahmet Pa§a, a Greek or Albanian devsirme convert, who established strong frontier garrisons to guard against the White Sheep and Karaman. As a result, the latter turned its attention more toward the Mamluk territories in Cilicia, particularly Adana and Tarsus, which it occupied for a time before losing them to a Mamluk counter- attack. A civil war instigated by the Ottomans further debilitated Karaman's power after 1464.

Wallachia conquered
Mehmet was distracted from his Anatolian campaigns by the raids of Vlad IV Tepes into Ottoman territories in northern Bulgaria (1461-1462). He responded by invading and conquering Wallachia and annexing it to his empire (April-August 1462). Its autonomy soon was restored, however, under Vlad-s brother, Radu IV the Handsome (1462-1479), who had grown up at the Ottoman court and was willing to pay tribute and accept the sultan's suzerainty in return for the throne.

Venetian activity against the Ottomans
Another source of trouble was Venetian activity against the Ottomans. Fearing Ottoman expansion along the Adriatic, Venice got Scanderbeg to break his alliance with the sultan and to resume attacks on Ottoman garrisons in the north (February 1462). The new king of Bosnia, Stephen Tomasevic (1461-1463), cooperated with Scanderbeg, throwing off Ottoman suzerainty and accepting Hungarian protection and occupation (1462). Mehmet responded by invading Albania, forcing Scanderbeg to sign a new peace and to abandon his conquests (April 27, 1463).

Bosnia conquered
This left the sultan free to deal with Bosnia, which he conquered during the remainder of the summer with the considerable help of the native Bogomils, who had been subjected to persecution during the recent Hungarian occupation. Only two northern Bosnian districts remained under Hungarian control at this time, being organized as banats, or Hungarian frontier provinces, ruled by a puppet king who claimed all Bosnia in the name of his master. Herzegovina, however, now accepted Ottoman suzerainty and eventual annexation, bringing the sultan even closer to the Adriatic.

Pope Pius II’s Crusade against the Ottomans
Pope Pius II used the situation to join Venice and Hungary in an agreement against the Ottomans (September 12, 1463). If this new Crusade was to succeed, Venice would get the Morea and the Greek territories along the Adriatic; Scanderbeg would expand his Albanian state into Macedonia ; Hungary would rule Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia, and Wallachia; and Constantinople and its environs would be returned to the surviving members of the Byzantine ruling house. Negotiations were also begun with Uzun Hasan, Karaman, and even the Crimean Tatars, who promised to attack the Ottomans in Anatolia at the same time that the Crusaders moved against Mehmet in Europe. Actual hostilities began in September 1463 when Venice seized a number of Aegean Islands as well as much of the Morea. Thus began an Ottoman-Venetian war that was not fully settled until 1479.
Pope Pius II now began to assemble a new Crusader army at Ancona. The Venetian fleet sailed to the mouth of the Dardanelles, capturing Lemnos and Tenedos (1464), preventing the Ottomans from sending supplies to the Morea, and threatening to attack Istanbul.

In response a major new shipyard at Istanbul began to construct an entirely new fleet, while two powerful forts were built facing each other across the Dardanelles to keep the enemy out (1463-1464). The grand vezir then led a major expedition that retook the Morea, smashing the Venetian army (spring 1464). Not knowing how this would turn out, Mehmet had organized another new army at Istanbul. When he learned of the victory over Venice, he led it to Bosnia, driving the Hungarians back and beginning raids into Hungary but failing once again to take Belgrade. Mehmet thus effectively broke the back of the Crusade, and Pope Pius died in sorrow in Ancona soon afterward (August 15, 1464). Scanderbeg died in 1468, and the Ottoman conquest of Albania was completed shortly thereafter.

Karaman’s Rebellion
Mehmet led a major expedition to the east in the summer of 1468. Initially, its objective was declared to be either the White Sheep or the Mamluks who were occupying the Turkoman principality of Dulgadir, located at the headwaters of the Euphrates. But when Pir Ahmet of Karaman refused his suzerain's invitation to join the expedition against the latter, Mehmet conquered the western part of Karaman, centered at Konya. At first it seemed that Karaman was finally destroyed, but Pir Ahmet fled into the Taurus Mountains and organized the local tribes in resistance to the sultan, regaining most of the province as soon as Mehmet returned to deal with his problems in Europe. With the help of the Venetians as well as the White Sheep, he was able to carry the fight into Ottoman territory in a series of destructive attacks that reached well into central Anatolia (1470). Mehmet's response was limited due to new difficulties in the West.
Venetian hostilities continued

In 1469 the Venetian fleet moved into the eastern Aegean, taking the islands of Lemnos and Imbros and ravaging the southern Anatolian coast in addition to landing supplies for Karaman. In response the next summer Mehmet led a naval force that took the island of Negroponte (Egriboz), the principal Venetian naval base in the Aegean. While the pope and Venice tried to organize a new Crusade, Mehmet extended Ottoman rule in south-central Anatolia by a series of expeditions against Karaman. In process, however, Mehmet's devsirme commander, Gedik Ahmet Pa§a, so severely slaughtered the Turkoman nomads of the area that he stimulated a reaction that was to become a major source of division within the state during the next century.

War between the Ottomans and Uzun Hasan
The final conquest of Karaman brought the Ottomans into direct contact and conflict with the Mamluks and the White Sheep. The conflict with the Mamluks over the question of who should dominate Dulgadir was postponed, however, because of the outbreak of war between the Ottomans and Uzun Hasan, who saw his worst fears realized with the establishment of Ottoman rule along his entire western frontier. He considered himself legitimate successor to the Ilhanids and Timurids and claimed large portions of Anatolia as part of this heritage. He allied with Venice (1472), which promised to send arms and ammunition as well as experts to teach his men how to use them, threatening the Ottomans with a coordinated attack in the East and the West. A Venetian fleet landed the promised equipment late in 1472 while an allied European fleet sailed into the Aegean. Uzun Hasan prepared by gathering around him all the Turkoman princes who had been deposed by Mehmet, promising to restore them in return for help in undermining Mehmet's resistance. A large White Sheep army advanced into central Anatolia, taking Sivas and Tokat and placing Ottoman Anatolia in danger. Mehmet, however, met the threat with his usual vigor. After preparing Istanbul to meet a possible Crusader naval attack and leaving the city under his 14-year-old son, Cem Sultan, he led a major army into Anatolia, beating back the efforts of the Crusaders to pass through the straits. After several ruses on both sides the combatants came together on the plain of Otluk Beli, near Erzurum.

The onslaught of the Ottoman auxiliaries on the White Sheep flank carried the day before the two commanders were actually able to fight (August 11, 1472). Again realizing that he could not defeat the Ottomans in open combat, Uzun Hasan agreed to a peace treaty (August 24, 1473) and returned to Azerbaijan. Ottoman rule of Anatolia west of the Euphrates thus was assured. Uzun Hasan's ability to gain the support of the Anatolian Turkomans ended as soon as they saw he would not be able to support them against the sultan. Most of them now gave up their efforts to resist the rule of Istanbul. Uzun Hasan's alliances with Europeans also terminated when they realized he could do no more than divert the Ottomans. During the reign of his son Yakup (1479-1490), relations with the Ottomans remained quiet, with a wide territory of mountains forming a kind of no man's land between the two empires.

New Wars in Europe: Conclusion of the War with Venice

Stephen the Great challenges the ottoman’s again
Hungary's insistence on remaining in Belgrade and Ottoman construction of new forts along the Danube while supporting Akinci raids into Hungarian territory presaged the approach of renewed conflict in Europe. Mathias Corvinus of Hungary got Stephen the Great of Moldavia to throw off Ottoman suzerainty and built a powerful military force to contest Ottoman rule in Wallachia. Hungarian ambitions in Moldavia led to a war with Stephen (1465-1467), but the latter won easily, taking the Danubian forts of Kilia and Ibrail (1465) and emerging as the major leader in the area, able to concentrate his efforts against the Ottomans without having to worry about his rear. Stephen then invaded Wallachia and replaced the Ottoman puppet Radu with his own man (1471).

Another threat to Ottoman rule came from the principality of Muscovy, whose Prince Ivan III the Great (1462-1505) had married Zoe (Sophia) Paleologus, daughter of the last Byzantine despot of the Morea and niece of the last emperor. Accompanying the Byzantine princess were many Greek learned men and artists, who began the development of Muscovy as a center of Greek Orthodox culture. Ivan himself was busy gathering together the various parts of what was to become Russia, but as the result of the marriage, he and his successors considered themselves the legal heirs to the Eastern Roman Empire and attemped to make Moscow the new center of the Orthodox church as a demonstration of their aspirations.

A third threat to Ottoman power came from the Jagellonians of Lithuania and Poland, now ruled by Casimir IV (1447-1492), whose dominions extended as far east as the Ukraine, bordering Moldavia to the north and across the Dniester to the Black Sea in the east. They allied with the Golden Horde, which ruled to the north. The han of the Crimean Tatars, Mengili Giray, while happy to accept the support of his Ottoman suzerain against these threats, was not pleased by Mehmet's efforts to extend Ottoman influence to the north shores of the Black Sea. In turn, then, he began to cooperate with Muscovy. In spite of a conflict of interests, Stephen of Moldavia, the Jagellonians, Muscovy, the Golden Horde, and even the Crimean Tatars agreed on united action to prevent Ottoman domination of the Black Sea.

In response Hadim Siileyman Pasha was sent from Albania through Serbia and Wallachia in the winter of 1475 to join the sultan in an attack on Moldavia. Because of illness, however, Mehmet was unable to bring his army from Istanbul, enabling Stephen to rout the Ottomans at Rakovitza (Racova) (January 17, 1475) with the help of Jagellonian and Hungarian troops.
Mehmet was much more successful in the Crimea. He first used internal disputes in the Hanate family to replace Mengili Giray (1469-1475, 1478-1515) with his son Erminak Giray, who restored the tributory relationship and then cooperated with an Ottoman naval expedition in capturing all the remaining Genoese colonies along the northern shores of the Black Sea (June 1475). Mehmet then restored Mengili as a result of the intervention of the Crimean notables in Ottoman service, who said that Mengili would be better able to lead the Tatars against their enemies in the north. Mengili, in turn, accepted Ottoman suzerainty and agreed to provide military and financial sup- port as needed. Thus Ottoman control of the Crimean Tatars was established. It was to continue for three centuries, providing the sultans with not only another base to control the Black Sea but also a regular supply of able fighting men. The power of the Crimean hans at this time was not extensive, hardly extending beyond the Crimea itself, but with Ottoman help they were at least able to avoid being absorbed by Muscovy, as happened to the other Tatar Hanates at the time. They remained the principal Ottoman buffers to keep the Russians away from the Black Sea for another two centuries.

The successes north of the Black Sea gave the sultan the added strategic advantageof being able to attack Stephen of Moldavia from north as well as south of the Black Sea. While the Tatars of Crimea diverted the Golden Horde, a joint attack occupied the shores of Bessarabia and took Akkerman, thus gaining control of the southern mouth of the Danube.
Stephen tried to avoid open battle with the Ottomans by following a scorched-earth policy. But since Wallachian help to the sultan made this meaningless, he finally confronted the sultan at Valea Alba (Akdere) (July 17, 1476). Mehmet prevailed and ravaged Moldavia, but Stephen was able to escape and subsequently to resume his rule after the Ottomans returned home, although he lost his former prestige and ability to threaten the Ottomans.

The wars in the Principalities and north of the Black Sea ended just in time to enable Mehmet to face new threats to the West. Mathias Corvinus attacked the Ottoman fort at Semendria (1476), threatening the entire Danubian defense line, but Mehmet arrived from Moldavia, beating the Hungarians of f with direct attacks and also by sending raiders into Dalmatia and Croatia.
He then concentrated on Venice, hoping to force it to accept a peace by completing his conquest of Albania and thus gaining a firm foothold on the Adriatic. In 1477 Ottoman forces in Albania besieged the port of Lepanto (Inebahti) and Scanderbeg's old capital of Kroya (Ak^ahisar), both of which were controlled by local Albanian leaders with Venetian assistance. The Venetian fleet responded with raids along the shores of western Anatolia, but this stopped when Mehmet sent the Bosnian raiders several times into northern Italy, causing havoc in the valleys opposite Venice (1477-1478). By the end of 1478 all of Albania was under direct Ottoman rule. It now was organized as a regular Ottoman province, and the economy was developed with the help of Jewish refugees from Spain who were settling here as well as at Salonica. Avlonya became an international port centering much of the trade between western Europe and the Ottoman Empire. Albanians also began to enter the Ottoman Ruling Class on a large scale, soon surpassing the Bosnians in influence and gaining a position of predominance far in excess of their numbers, a situation that was, in many ways, to continue until moder times.

The Ottomans also moved into Montenegro (Crnagora/Karadag), which had been established early in the fifteenth century in a revolt against Serbian rule in the mountains of the upper Zeta, sheltered by the coastal areas of Dalmatia under Venetian rule. Mehmet took the southern part of the country, while the Montenegrins moved their capital to Qetince, which became the center of their resistance.

Venice was clearly outflanked by Mehmet's conquests. A settlement was reached restoring Venetian commercial privileges in the Ottoman Empire and leaving it with sufficient power in the Adriatic to maintain its sea communications. Negotiations culminated with the signature of a peace treaty in Istanbul on June 25, 1479, ending the 16-year war. Venice agreed to surrender I§kodra (Scutari), the last major port it held in northern Albania, and to recognize Ottoman rule in Albania as well as Ottoman conquests of the Aegean Islands, thus giving the sultan full control of the northern Aegean except for the Sporades islands, which remained in Venetian hands, and Chios, still ruled by Genoa. In return Mehmet allowed Venice to retain a number of ports in Dalmatia along the Adriatic and its former possessions in the Morea with the exception of Argos. Venice agreed to pay an annual tribute in return for these possessions as well as for renewal of the right to trade freely in the sultan's dominions and to maintain its agent in Istanbul.
Mehmet's Final Campaigns

This victory over the strongest naval power in the eastern Mediterranean emboldened Mehmet to seek two more goals for his navy: (1) conquest of the island of Rhodes, considered the gateway to further advances toward the western Mediterranean, and (2) occupation of Italy, which seemed ripe for conquest due to the rivalries then endemic among Venice, Naples, and Milan as well as divisions caused by the political activities of the pope.
Rhodes was the only major Aegean island not yet ruled by the Ottomans. It was controlled by the order of the Knights of St. John, which was originally founded in Jerusalem in 1070 and subsequently transferred to Cyprus (1292) and then to Rhodes (1306). After the Muslim reconquest of the Holy Land, the order had established itself as a fortified bastion against Islam, becoming the principal base for the pirates who raided Ottoman shipping in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean and supported the various Crusader naval efforts in the environs.

Gedik Ahmet Pasa was now made sancak bey of Avlonya and commander of the Ottoman fleet in the Aegean with the task of organizing the campaigns against both Italy and Rhodes. His first fleet took the Greek islands of Cephalonia and Zanta and then put Rhodes under siege beginning on December 4, 1479, while another force sailed around southern Italy and landed at Otranto on August 11 to initiate the second phase of the campaign. Rome panicked, and the pope planned to flee northward with most of the population of the city. At the same time, a new Crusade was called and support came from the Italian city-states, Hungary, and France. Gedik Ahmet returned to Rumeli in the winter of 1481 to raise additional forces and was there when the news arrived of the sultan's sudden death (May 3, 1481), as a result of which the siege of Rhodes was broken off. Gedik Ahmet's subsequent involvement in the conflicts for succession in Istanbul left the force at Otranto without leadership, so that it finally left for home on July 10, thus ending what might have been an entirely new area of Muslim expansion

CHARACTER OF MAHOMET II.
The siege of Constantinople by the Turks attracts our first attention to the person and character of the great destroyer. Mahomet the Second was the son of the second Amurath; and though his mother has been decorated with the titles of Christian and princess, she is more probably confounded with the numerous concubines who peopled from every climate the harem of the sultan. His first education and sentiments were those of a devout Mussulman; and as often as he conversed with an infidel, he purified his hands and face by the legal rite of ablution. Age and empire appear to have relaxed this narrow bigotry: his aspiring genius disdained to acknowledge a power above his own; and in his looser hours he presumed (it is said) to brand the prophet of Mecca as a robber and impostor. Yet the sultan persevered in a decent reverence for the doctrine and discipline of the Koran: his private indiscretion must have been sacred from the vulgar ear; and we should suspect the credulity of strangers and sectaries, so prone to believe that a mind which is hardened against truth must be armed with superior contempt for absurdity and error. Under the tuition of the most skilful masters, Mahomet advanced with an early and rapid progress in the paths of knowledge; and besides his native tongue it is affirmed that he spoke or understood five languages, the Arabic, the Persian, the Chaldaean or Hebrew, the Latin, and the Greek. The Persian might indeed contribute to his amusement, and the Arabic to his edification; and such studies are familiar to the Oriental youth. In the intercourse of the Greeks and Turks, a conqueror might wish to converse with the people over which he was ambitious to reign: his own praises in Latin poetry or prose might find a passage to the royal ear; but what use or merit could recommend to the statesman or the scholar the uncouth dialect of his Hebrew slaves? The history and geography of the world were familiar to his memory: the lives of the heroes of the East, perhaps of the West, excited his emulation: his skill in astrology is excused by the folly of the times, and supposes some rudiments of mathematical science; and a profane taste for the arts is betrayed in his liberal invitation and reward of the painters of Italy. But the influence of religion and learning were employed without effect on his savage and licentious nature. I will not transcribe, nor do I firmly believe, the stories of his fourteen pages, whose bellies were ripped open in search of a stolen melon; or of the beauteous slave, whose head he severed from her body, to convince the Janizaries that their master was not the votary of love. His sobriety is attested by the silence of the Turkish annals, which accuse three, and three only, of the Ottoman line of the vice of drunkenness. But it cannot be denied that his passions were at once furious and inexorable; that in the palace, as in the field, a torrent of blood was spilt on the slightest provocation; and that the noblest of the captive youth were often dishonoured by his unnatural lust. In the Albanian war he studied the lessons, and soon surpassed the example, of his father; and the conquest of two empires, twelve kingdoms, and two hundred cities, a vain and flattering account, is ascribed to his invincible sword. He was doubtless a soldier, and possibly a general; Constantinople has sealed his glory; but if we compare the means, the obstacles, and the achievements, Mahomet the Second must blush to sustain a parallel with Alexander or Timour.
Reply With Quote
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Alyosha For This Useful Post:
sfmascot (Saturday, January 07, 2012), VetDoctor (Wednesday, September 04, 2013)
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Restructuring The Un Security Council sohailpkdr Current Affairs 1 Friday, July 29, 2011 10:04 AM
18 Amendment Trancript moss4u Current Affairs Notes 0 Friday, June 11, 2010 12:22 PM
Exclusive for Information group aqdas shaukat CSS 2008 Exam 37 Friday, November 06, 2009 03:46 PM
European Union Aarwaa Current Affairs Notes 0 Sunday, April 20, 2008 10:34 PM


CSS Forum on Facebook Follow CSS Forum on Twitter

Disclaimer: All messages made available as part of this discussion group (including any bulletin boards and chat rooms) and any opinions, advice, statements or other information contained in any messages posted or transmitted by any third party are the responsibility of the author of that message and not of CSSForum.com.pk (unless CSSForum.com.pk is specifically identified as the author of the message). The fact that a particular message is posted on or transmitted using this web site does not mean that CSSForum has endorsed that message in any way or verified the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message. We encourage visitors to the forum to report any objectionable message in site feedback. This forum is not monitored 24/7.

Sponsors: ArgusVision   vBulletin, Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.