1000 word essay due tonight 11:00pm eastern time

Units/Unit 2/Ottoman Empire.html

2: Intellectual Change from the 15th to 17th Century

The Ottoman Empire

In Asia Minor, the Ottoman Empire was growing into the new power of the region.  From its foundation in the early fourteenth century, it had expanded and become quite prosperous.  As discussed in Unit 1, the capture of Constantinople in 1453 was a significant step in the rise of Ottoman power.  Central to the success of the Empire was its political system.  At the head of the Ottoman Empire was the Sultan or Caliph.  Theoretically, the sultan had absolute power over the state, but that never really existed, much like the situation of monarchs in Europe.  Sultans maintained their control and authority by playing powerful factions against each other, including warrior elites, Islamic religious scholars, and government officials.  Most of the Ottoman sultans were able rulers, despite the popular depiction at the time of their brutality and corruptness. The sultan relied on a council of advisors called The Divan, and their realm of control was called a caliphate.  The Grand Vizer was the most powerful advisor to the sultan, and viziers ruled over provincial governors called beys. As the empire increased in size and wealth, the Ottoman sultans became more and more removed from their subjects and became less involved in the day to day administration of the Empire.  By the late sixteenth century, the quality and abilities of the Sultans had noticeably begun to deteriorate.

The greatest of all the Ottoman sultans is Suleiman the Magnificent (r.1520-1566), who is often generally considered one of the greatest European rulers in the sixteenth century.  Under his leadership, the Ottoman Empire reached its largest size and became a world power.  He personally led his armies into battle in Europe (as far as Vienna), North Africa, and the Middle East.  But his accomplishments were more than just what he achieved on the battlefield.  Suleiman is known as the lawgiver because he revised and reconstructed the entire Ottoman legal system. Otherwise known as The Millet System, the Ottoman Empire flourished under a policy of tolerance comprised of separate legal courts in which minorities within the Ottoman Empire were allowed to rule themselves, with each millet under the control of an Ethnarch or national leader.  Some characteristics of the millet system were opening their doors to many Spanish Muslims, Jews, and conversos (Catholic converts to Islam) who left Spain during The Inquisition, collecting taxes and setting laws for each social caste, and creating a jizya or religious tax for non-Muslim practitioners living in the empire. Under the terms of the jizya, women, slaves, minors, and the insane, as well as non-Muslim foreigners who only temporarily resided in Muslim lands, were exempt. By allowing Jews, Christians, and Muslims to live peacefully side by side, Suleiman the Magnificent brought peace to the empre.  It was also during his reign that the Ottoman Empire experienced new advances in cultural achievements due to his patronage of the arts.  Poetry, calligraphy, and philosophy all advanced greatly while he ruled.  The walls around Jerusalem were rebuilt during his reign as well, the ones that still stand today.  It was under Suleiman that Ottoman law, society, and culture all flourished, which is why he has come to reflect the pinnacle of the Ottoman sultanate. 

No sultan, not even Suleiman, could rule by himself.  There were a number of positions under the sultan that formed a vast state bureaucracy.  By the 1520s, the Ottoman government had developed into one of the best organized and most powerful states in either Europe or the Islamic world.  Thus, when an area was conquered, its administrative structure was improved as the Ottomans took over and most areas even had their taxes reduced from the previous rulers.  An individual known as the Grand Vizier oversaw the daily administration of government and was accountable only to the sultan.  He was the head of the Ottoman bureaucracy and, after the reign of Suleiman, usually held more real power than even the sultan.  Below the grand vizier, military leaders played a dominant role in Ottoman politics.  During the period of expansion, the Turkic warriors who were central to success on the battlefield developed into a kind of warrior aristocracy.  These warriors were given control over conquered lands and asked to rule over them even though they did not own the land themselves.  As the state grew, the bureaucracy also grew.  Members of the warrior class filled positions within the bureaucracy, but shared power with religious leaders and trained administrators from other social backgrounds. 

There were two main institutions that were established in the Ottoman Empire during their period of expansion which became the foundation of the greatness of the state.  Eventually, both of these would fail, signaling a decline for the empire.  The first of these institutions was a system for controlling land known as the Prebendal System.  Under this system, all land was owned by the sultan who appointed individuals to rule over the area, typically the military leaders as discussed.  These individuals were moved around regularly to make sure they did not begin to have too much power.  In addition, tax collectors were assigned to an area to collect the taxes directly for the sultan, taking the tax collection responsibilities out of the hands of the nobility.  These tax collectors were also frequently sent to new areas.  This system kept the sultan in control of the land and the wealth from the land while also limiting the potential for individuals to directly challenge his authority. The second institution was the Janissary System, or “new army”.  Beginning in the fourteenth century, the Janissaries comprised the main infantry units of the Ottoman army.   The Janissaries were technically slaves.  Between the ages of seven and fourteen (sometimes as old as eighteen), boys were taken from their Christian families in the Balkans as part of the devshirmeh, a tax collected in humans.  The boys were then placed in the homes of Turkic families to learn the language and culture.  After they had learned the language, these boys received an extensive education and were converted to Islam.  The boys who showed the most academic promise continued their education and entered the ruling bureaucracy, some even becoming grand viziers.  Most of the boys became Janissaries and served in the sultan’s military.  This system provided the sultan with individuals of great abilities to help rule and with well-trained soldiers who were very loyal to the sultan.