Assignment 2/ World Civilization

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The Ottoman Turks were among the many Turkmen peoples that originally inhabited the Eurasian steppes which are vast lands between the borders of China and the Black Sea. They were nomads tied to their herd and their horses. In fact the battle standard of the Turks was the horse tail banner. As mentioned in the lecture on the Mongols, the Turks were closely related to the Mongols and it is possible that the ancestors of the Ottomans had first arrived in Western Asia as soldiers in the Mongol armies

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All the countries whose names are written in green are historic homelands (and current) areas of Turkish/Turkic presence

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The area in green roughly represents the position and size of Orhon’s kingdom

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In 1452 Sultan Mehmet II sought to do what his ancestors could not, to finally take Constantinople and end the Byzantine Empire forever. In 1453 Constantinople, weakened, impoverished and with less then 5000 of its native sons to defend her, fell to Mehmet II, its walls felled by a massive canon built for the Ottoman Muslim Sultan by among others a Transylvanian Christian by the name of Urban (Imagine the Irony!)

Mehmet II would make Constantinople his own, and from it he would reshape the Ottoman Turkish order, for he would make Constantinople the center of an Empire over which he held ultimate control. No longer the warrior prince, or the first among equals, Mehmet II built an imperial dynasty.

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en:User:The Land - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Dardanelles_Gun_Turkish_Bronze_15c.png

Dardanelles Gun. Very heavy 15th-C bronze muzzle-loading cannon of type used by Turks in siege of Constantinople, 1453, showing ornate decoration. Taken by The Land Feb 07 at Fort Nelson, Hampshire, UK.

The canon was built in two parts (to facilitate transport) designed to screw together The picture above shows it assembled. “It weighs 18 tons and has an overall length of 5.23m and a diameter of 0.635m. The length of the barrel is 3.15m and the gunpowder reservoir is 0.248m in diameter.” (source: http://www.muslimheritage.com/article/cannon-mehmed-ii)

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The wall of Constantinople had protected the city for centuries, but the new technology of gunpowder and canon put an end to that

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Restored section of the Theodosian Walls at the Selymbria Gate. The Outer Wall and the wall of the moat are visible, with a tower of the Inner Wall in the background. en:User:Bigdaddy1204 - Photograph taken in June 2006 in Istanbul by en:User:Bigdaddy1204. All credits go to him. Restored section of the Walls of Constantinople

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Johann H. Addicks - Own work Gate of Charisius, Istanbul, Turkey

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After the conquest of Constantinople Mehmet became the absolute master of an

empire. To run it and to perpetuate his rule he required a bureaucracy. He needed to be able to delegate power without fearing that those he gave it too would run away

with it. To that end he expanded the boy tribute initiated by his father Murad II in

1432. Every 3 years or so a tribute officer was dispatched to Christian villages in

Greece, the Balkans and eastern Europe in order to take the finest of the Christian

youths to serve the Sultan as his slaves. They were groomed, taught Turkish and converted to Islam. Then there talents were assessed and they were sent to different

branches of the Sultan’s services.

They could occupy positions as gardeners, soldiers, architects, ambassadors or grand

viziers, there were no limits to the positions they could achieve based on their own

merit. But always they were the Sultans slave, in fact the word Viziers, the highest title in the land after the Sultan’s meant “The Sultan’s Foot.” However their children

born Muslim, were free, and hence could not become Janissary. . The benefits of not

allowing the children to become janissaries, was that it precluded the rise of any

hereditary elites within the system that could compete with the Sultan and his

successors for power. The janissary forces were also crucial in offsetting the power of the elite Ottoman Turkish families that might challenge the sultans.

In there lifetime the individual janissary could achieve great positions as well as fame

and wealth according to their talents, and even own many slaves of their own, but

they were first and foremost the Sultans slaves. This as we shall see, worked for a

while but as in all cases men will find a way around any system in their desire to elevate themselves and their children.

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Ali Amir Beg (fl. 1558) - Süleymannâme, Istanbul, Topkapi Palace Museum Janissary Recruitment in the Balkans (upload) Illustration of the registration of Christian boys for the devşirme ("tribute in blood"). Ottoman miniature painting, 1558.[1] ↑ Celebi, Arif (1588). Janissary Recruitment in the Balkans. Süleymanname, Topkapi Sarai Museum, Ms Hazine 1517.

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The Ottoman Empire lasted for close to 4 centuries, and its malleability and pragmatism was what allowed that to happen. It had to be malleable given the extremely diverse religious and ethnic makeup of the empire. The millet system which we will talk about next is a prime example of this malleability.

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The subjects of the Ottoman Empire were organized in what were known as millets. This could carry the connotation of community, or of nation (not in the modern sense of nation state but in the same sense that we refer to the Apache, or Comanche nation) Basically, the Ottomans for the most part left the internal affairs of the community up to its traditional religious and political leaders, with the exception of smaller communities which were amalgamated with larger millets. This meant for instance that the Armenian Patriarch was recognized as the head of his community and became responsible for collecting the taxes on behalf of his community and was also responsible for the smooth functioning of his community and their loyalty. He could call on Ottoman aid should he need to but he was expected to regulate their affairs without bothering the authorities for the most part.

This system of course did not always operate as discussed above, but the millet remained an organizational unit within the Empire until the late 19th century.

The major drawback to the millet system was that it never created a sense of common identity in the Empire, an issue that would haunt it in the 19th and 20th centuries.

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Never forget that above all else it was conquest that founded the Empire. Without bureaucracy and malleability it would not likely have lasted, but still it was an empire founded and expanded by the sword.

The Janissary formed the infantrymen of the Ottoman army. They were the standing army of the Sultan and his slaves. Well trained and well equipped they were superb soldiers. The were trained to utilize muskets and swords and relied on fire power and the shock charge to strike at the enemy.

The sipahi or cavalryman was usually a Muslim Turk. Those were the tribal horseman that had helped conquer an Empire for the Sultans. They were billeted in units all over the Empire. Not all sipahi’s were in the regular army, indeed it was only a few that received a timar, or a form of compensation for being in the army. These were the timariot. A timar allowed a sipahi to collect a certain amount of taxes on the behalf of the Sultan for his own use. Depending on his rank this could be the revenues from a small village or a ziamet, the revenue of several villages, or as with high provincial official a hass, a compound of various revenues derived from the region they governed. The more you were given the greater number of horses and soldiers you brought with you when the sultan called up the troops.

When the horse tail banner was carried out signaling the beginning of a campaign it was not only the janissary and sipahi that headed the call. Irregulars would join the army as it marched in the hope of financial reward. Some to fight, others to support the army. Not all were Muslim’s either, but also Christian subjects of the Sultan

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would serve in his army as irregulars.

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Janissary from Ralamb Costume Book. Miniatures in Indian ink with gouache and some gilding. They were acquired in Constantinople in 1657-58 by Claes Rålamb who led a Swedish embassy https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ralamb_Janissary_1.jpg

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Although this image is taken form a site selling historical miniatures, it very accurately represents the early janissary in action from descriptions I have read. Front rank fires, and then the charge. The janissary tactic and weaponry would evolve over time.

http://www.warlordgames.com/art-preview-janissaries/

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Sipahis at the Battle of Vienna https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Vienna.Sipahis.jpg

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Ottoman Empire as a Result of the Selim I expansions

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The Habsburgs were now the only major barrier to Ottoman expansion into Europe

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An Ottoman depiction of the siege from the 16th century, housed in the Istanbul Hachette Art Museum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Vienna

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Lepanto was on the edge of Bay of Corinth in western Greece. This was the first ever major European victory over the Ottomans. The Ottoman fleet was all but annihilated . The Ottomans quickly rebuild their fleet however and continued to dominate the eastern Mediterranean for another century or so.

When we speak of the stagnation of the Empire, we must understand it in relative terms. It was not so much that the Ottoman Empire became weaker in a vacuum, it was more a result of the fact that its European opponents started advancing at a much more rapid pace (industrial revolution, enlightenment…) The Ottoman pace was much slower and they did not adapt quickly enough, so they were left behind.

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