Daily Life In The Ottoman Empire (3 page)

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.

Some historians have identified the reign of Süleyman’s
son, Selim II (1566–1574), as the beginning of the long process of decline,
which culminated with the defeat of Ottoman forces outside Vienna in 1683 and
the gradual retreat of the Ottoman state from southeast Europe. The decline of
the empire did not, however, happen overnight. The process was already under
way during the reign of Süleyman the Magnificent, but it did not manifest
itself to outsiders until a century later.

MILITARY CHALLENGE FROM IRAN

The first signs of Ottoman military weakness appeared at
the beginning of the 17th century on the battlefields of eastern Anatolia as a rejuvenated
Iranian state under the charismatic Shah Abbas (1587–1629) attacked and
defeated Ottoman forces in Azerbaijan and the south Caucasus. The Iranians
moved at blazing speed, catching Ottoman garrisons in Azerbaijan and the
Caucasus by surprise and capturing the city of Tabriz in 1603 and Nakhchivan in
1604. Shortly after, Yerevan (Erivan) and Kars were sacked. Using Armenia as
his base, Shah Abbas invaded and occupied the entire eastern Caucasus as far
north as Shirvan.

The crisis caused by the campaigns of Shah Abbas coincided
with the death of Mehmed III (1595–1603) and the accession of Ahmed I
(1603–1617), who mobilized a large force against Iran. When the two armies
clashed in September 1605, however, the Iranians scored an impressive victory
against the larger Ottoman force. In addition to Azerbaijan and the Caucasus,
the Safavids captured southeastern Anatolia and Iraq. The defeat undermined the
Ottoman rule in Anatolia and the Arab world. Kurdish and Turcoman tribal chiefs
defected, and a series of revolts erupted, particularly in Syria, where the
Kurds staged an uprising against the Ottoman state.

During the reign of Murad IV (1623–1640), the Ottomans
tried to restore peace and order in Anatolia and remove Iranian forces from
Iraq. After several long campaigns against Iran, the Ottoman army captured the
city of Baghdad and re-established Ottoman control over the Arab Middle East
that lasted until the end of the First World War. In May 1639, on the plain of
Zahab near the town of Qasr-i Shirin/Kasr-i Şirin (in present-day western
Iran), the Ottoman Empire and Iran signed a peace treaty that ended nearly one
hundred forty years of hostility between the two Islamic states. The treaty
established the Ottoman sultan as the master of Iraq while the Safavids
maintained control over Azerbaijan and southern Caucasus.

KÖPRÜLÜ VIZIERS

When Murad IV died in February 1640, he was succeeded by
his brother Ibrahim (1640–1648), who had lived his entire life in the royal
harem and had no training or experience in ruling an empire. While Ibrahim
became increasingly infatuated with the pleasures of the inner palace, his
mother, his tutor, the grand vizier, the chief eunuch, and janissary
commanders, vied for power and influence. When Ibrahim was murdered and his son,
Mehmed IV (1648–1687), ascended the Ottoman throne, the new ruler remained a
pawn at the hands of those who surrounded him—his grandmother, mother, the
grand vizier, and the chief eunuch.

In 1656, the financial crisis, political chaos, and the
failure of the Ottoman navy to lift the Venetian siege of the capital, finally
forced the sultan to appoint Mehmed Köprülü as grand vizier, thus inaugurating
the rise to power of a family of Köprülü ministers, who tried to restore the
authority of the Ottoman state by imposing peace and order and introducing
badly needed reforms.

The son of an Albanian father, the first Köprülü grand
vizier, Mehmed Köprülü, had served many masters and patrons both within the
palace and in various provinces, acquiring a reputation for competence and
honesty. He and his son, Köprülüzade Fazil Ahmed, who succeeded his father in
1661 and dominated Ottoman politics until 1676, crushed antigovernment revolts
in Anatolia and re-established the authority of the central government in the
provinces. Both father and son pursued a foreign policy aimed at checking the
Habsburg intervention in Transylvania and defeating the alliance of Catholic
forces known as the Holy League, which had been organized under the leadership
of the Pope. When Christian and Ottoman forces clashed near the village of St.
Gotthard in August 1664, the Ottomans were defeated and lost many more men and
much more equipment than the troops of the Holy League, which included
Habsburg, Spanish, and French units. When the peace treaty was negotiated at
Vasvár, however, the Habsburgs agreed to evacuate their troops, and Ottoman
rule over Transylvania was once again secured.

When Köprülüzade Fazil Ahmed died in 1676, his
brother-in-law, Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Paşa, succeeded him. The new grand
vizier pursued the policy of the two previous Köprülüs, focusing his energies
on checking Russian advances on the northern shores of the Black Sea and
crushing the Habsburg’s military machine. Convinced that the Habsburg military
was on the verge of collapse and encouraged by the French, who viewed an Ottoman
invasion as essential to their victory in the west, Kara Mustafa Paşa
moved with a large army against Vienna in June 1683. By July, the Habsburg
capital was under Ottoman siege. The Habsburg emperor had, however, organized a
coalition that included Jan Sobieski of Poland, the Pope, the Spanish, and the
Portuguese. In a fierce battle on September 12, the Ottoman forces were routed
and 10,000 men were killed on the battlefield. The Ottoman army disintegrated
and lost any semblance of organization and discipline, leaving behind its heavy
cannon and badly needed supplies. The shocked Kara Mustafa Paşa tried to
rally his army in Belgrade, but it was already too late. His enemies in
Istanbul had convinced the sultan that his chief minister was solely
responsible for the humiliating debacle at the gates of Vienna. On 25 December
1683, the grand vizier was executed by the order of his royal master.

MILITARY DEFEATS IN EUROPE AND LOSS OF
CONFIDENCE

The execution of Kara Mustafa Paşa only exacerbated
the political and military crisis. Without a commander capable of rallying the
troops and facing a shortage of equipment and supplies, the Ottoman forces fell
into disarray. Worse, a new Holy League was formed in 1684 that included the
Habsburgs, Venice, Poland, the Pope, Malta, Tuscany, and later Muscovy
(Russia). After repeated attempts to regain the territories they had lost, in
November 1698 an Ottoman delegation began to negotiate a peace treaty with
representatives of the Holy League powers. According to the Treaty of
Karlowitz, signed in January 1699, the Habsburgs remained in control of Hungary
and Transylvania while the Ottomans maintained their rule over the Banat of
Temeşvár. Poland received Podolia (Podole), and Russia established its
rule over Azov and the territory north of the Dniester. Venice emerged as the
master of Dalmatia, the Morea, and several strategic islands in the Aegean. According
to the terms of the treaty, the sultan was also forced to guarantee freedom of
religion for his Catholic subjects. Thus, the Ottoman Empire entered the 18th
century in turmoil and decline. The past glory of its able and charismatic
sultans had become, by 1700, a distant memory. Long wars against the Habsburgs,
Venice, Poland, and Russia had drained the resources of the state, which could
not even pay the salaries of its officials and troops. Consequently, corruption
and nepotism became rampant. Against this background, the Ottoman elite once
again appealed to a member of the Köprülü family to save the empire. Amcazade Hüseyin
Paşa became the grand vizier in September 1697 and embarked on another
series of reforms aimed at reducing the financial burdens of the state without
imposing heavier taxes on the peasantry. But, as would happen again and again
over the next two hundred years, the new chief minister ran into formidable
opposition from the traditional elite, who forced him to step down in September
1702.

CONFRONTING THE HABSBURG MONARCHY AND
RUSSIA

Once again, the process of decline accelerated. Taxes
remained uncollected, and government officials and troops were not paid their
wages. The treasury was drained, and corruption spread to all levels of the
civil administration. The reigning sultan, Mustafa II (1695–1703), spent much
of his time in Edirne and did not even realize the severity of the political
and economic crisis in the capital, where the troops, who were being sent on a
military campaign to the southern Caucasus, refused to obey orders unless they
were paid. With the army taking the lead, artisans, shopkeepers, merchants, and
students from various religious schools joined in a rebellion in July 1703.
Mustafa II responded by dismissing his grand vizier, but the rebels, emboldened
by the concessions from the sultan, began a march from Istanbul to Edirne. The
sultan himself led his army against the rebels, but the fatal clash was avoided
when the troops marching with the sultan defected and joined the rebels,
forcing Mustafa II to abdicate in favor of his brother, Ahmed III (1703–1730).