Ottoman Empire in the XV - XVII centuries. Istanbul

Ottoman Empire

(XVII – XVIIIbb)

The predecessors of the Ottomans were the Seljuk Turk Empire.

Population 8 million people.

1683 – Vienna disaster.

The Ottoman Empire arose as a result of conquests and was based on military force. It was not a state with an army, but an army with a state. There was no religious unity. Sunni Islam is the state religion. Shiites were persecuted, Christians and Jews were not loved. There was neither cultural nor economic unity. Even by the 20th century, a national market had not developed.

The head of state is the sultan (khan, hakan, hunkar, padishah, etc.) The Sultan awarded the title of caliph after capturing the Arabian Peninsula, Mecca and Medina.

The ideal of the Ottoman Empire was war with the countries of the golden apple (Europe).

The country was divided into Eyalets:

Rumeli (European);

Anadolu (Asian).

Beylerbey is the head of the eyalet. He had his own courtyard, divan, his own army, and was considered the local sultan. He could distribute small timars.

The eyalets were divided into sanjaks, headed by the sanjakbey.

Ayan is a local elected deputy from the feudal lords who defended their interests.

Public administration

All the Emperor's subjects are Ottomans;

Everyone is equal before the Sultan;

The Turks are humiliated and are usually not allowed into power;

The Serbo-Croatian language is used at court.

The sofa consisted of:

4 controls:

Grand Vizier (the highest military and administrative authority, second in command after the Sultan, everyone hates him, wears white clothes, disappears day and night at the front);

Kadiasker – supreme judge in military and religious matters, “Court is the privilege of the clergy”;

Bash-defterdar – chief treasurer;

Nishanji is the Sultan's secret secretary.

Foreign Secretary;

Sheikh-ul-Islam.

“All officials are slaves of the Sultan.” The concept of nobility was absent; a simple person could become a grand vizier. Each official has his own ?elnae?– form of address. The clergy enjoyed special autonomy and could stand in opposition to the Sultan.

The Ottoman Empire is the most tolerant state in Europe.

3 denominations:

Greek Orthodox;

Armenian-Gregorian;

Jewish.

There was freedom of worship, freedom to perform rituals, and church institutions did not pay taxes.

The Sultan's court was divided into external (serving the Sultan) and internal (house of happiness). The courtyards were led by 2 super-influential eunuchs: the outer one - Kapu-Agasy, the inner one - Kyzlar-Agasy (chief of the girls).

The political system was of a sharply terroristic nature. Without a powerful army this would have been impossible.

Kapikulu is a professional army.

Eyalet Askeri is a provincial feudal militia.

Once every 3/5 years, a devshirme was held - recruitment into the Janissary corps. They recruited peasant boys aged 6 years and slaves. The Janissary corps was divided into ortas (companies) of 40 people, later up to 700 people.

1649 - the last devshirme, after which the Janissary corps began to reproduce itself thanks to the permission of marriages.

Janissaries did not have to wear beards; the death penalty was only strangulation. If they weren’t fighting, they went to construction work. Each orta has its own symbol, which is tattooed. By the 17th century they had lost their fighting qualities and began to engage in trade. By 1726 there were 45 thousand people.

Ulufa - the salary of the Janissaries, was paid 4 times a year. Esame is a payment book. The Janissaries went into debt. If the Janissaries owed too much, then they simply overthrew the emperor. The sultans were unable to fight this.

?Pishkesh?- a gift from the emperor to the Janissaries upon ascending the throne.

Agrarian system

Timar - service land grant (less than 20 thousand avche). Timars were divided into hassa-chiftlik (“special field”) and hisse (“share”). The feudal lord who possesses hisse is obliged to field warriors, and hassa chiftlik was granted for bravery, and soldiers were not required from this land.

Zeamet – land grant greater than timar (20 – 100 thousand avche)

Hass is the largest land grant. (Income over 100 thousand in gold)

Barat is a letter of merit.

Due to high corruption, one timar accounted for 10 berat to ten different persons, so the Turks left the land, peasants fled to Serbia, Croatia, and India. Income standards were not actually met. By the 19th century, Türkiye found itself in a stagnant state.

Yurt (yurtluk) – land holdings of the leaders of nomadic tribes. Usually they were on the border and did not settle.

Waqf is church land ownership. Arises as a result of donation. The person who donated the land retains the right to manage the waqf, plus receives a portion of the income.

Waqf cannot be sold, but can be exchanged for something of equal value.

1. Mulk is a private landholding. Mulk lands accounted for 3% of all lands. You can do whatever you want with them, even though they were not absolute private property: the emperor could take away the land, because... he gave it to him himself.

   Civilians - servicemen;

Spiritual.

Life was worst in the mulk and waqf lands.

The position of the peasant:

Multezim is a tax farmer. Iltizam is a farming system.

The peasants have no real money, only subsistence farming. Multezim buys the right to farm out the tax (mukataa), deposits money into the treasury, takes food from the peasant, and sells the goods on the market. The difference is net income.

The peasants are obliged to support the feudal lords for the fact that they provide them with chift (land from 6 to 16 hectares). For the first receipt of chiefta, the peasant must pay tapu. If a peasant did not cultivate his plot for one year, he lost it. Later the term was increased to three years. The peasant is attached to the earth. The period for finding fugitive peasants is from 15 to 20 years. The period of investigation in Istanbul is 1 year and 1 day. If a person has built a house in one night, no matter what land, then the house cannot be demolished.

Reaya - tax-paying population.

Beraaya - non-taxable population.

Forms of annuity:

Labor (corvée labor);

Natural;

Monetary.

Ashar is a tenth of the harvest, which is collected from Muslims (Actually they paid 1/3-1/2).

Kharaj was paid by non-Muslims.

Agnam is a tax on livestock (1 head per 50 to the feudal lord, 1 akche per 3 heads to the state).

Marriage tax - 10-20 akce for the especially poor, 30-40 akce for middle-income peasants, 50 akche for wealthy peasants.

Resmi-chift - land tax.

Jizya – all able-bodied non-Muslims pay for not serving in the army (except women, children and slaves).

Ispanja is paid by all non-Muslim men and women.

Since the Empire was constantly at war, peasants were recruited to work. Avariz - participation in hostilities. Bedel is a cash payment instead of a disclaimer.

Corvee 7 days a year:

Build/repair a feudal lord's house;

Transportation of goods;

Give daughters to the feudal lord's house.

Çiftlikchi are landowners.

Specifics of Turkish slavery:

Slaves were used for domestic work;

Slaves did not have land; they were simply servants.

Ortakchi (sharecropper, small rural entrepreneur) invests funds in the land together with the feudal lord, and the harvest is divided in half.

Complete freedom of movement;

Their pastures are forbidden to be plowed;

They were only under the authority of their leaders;

They had the right to bear arms;

In the event of war, one man out of five must be sent to the army, and must appear on horseback, in large numbers and armed.

Used in military construction work, because

They weren't very good at fighting.

By the end of the 17th century, the military-feudal, vassal-fief, and timar systems had collapsed.

City life

In the 17th century, the situation of cities improved, because The Empire is expanding, military conflicts have moved to the periphery, the Ottoman Empire is waging war on foreign territories. The sultans themselves need crafts, because... need a weapon. At first, the sultans established moderate taxes, built caravanserais, tried to stop strife, tried to build roads, but all efforts were frustrated by the corruption of local authorities. Market tax: 1 acche per 40 proceeds (for cloth, leather, honey...). Counterfeiting has disappeared from the country. There are two main markets in Istanbul: Bezistan ("land of fabrics"), Etmaidan (meat square). Two city centers - a bazaar and a mosque, where the court was held.

Craftsmen were structured into guild organizations - esnafs. There are no national or regional markets in the country. There is no division of labor; each master performs his own cycle. Little use of hired labor is used. The tools are manual and primitive. Little by little, merchant buyers appeared, but the Esnafs fought with them. At the head of the workshop is esnaf-bashi. In particularly important workshops, the esnafbashi was appointed by the state, basically there was democracy. Esnaf-bashi has great power over the masters, because... only he could purchase raw materials. Esnafs set prices, production norms and standards, and market days. It was forbidden to entice buyers. Esnaf Hayeti - workshop council. Esnaf-bashi had its own enforcement committee - yigit-bashi. Mandatory monopoly on production and sales. The main trouble is power. In case of war, the state confiscated goods at fixed prices, which it set itself. Avani – illegal extortions from local authorities.

Reasons for the decline of the Ottoman Empire

In the 18th century The Eastern Question is the question of the fate of the territories that previously made up the Ottoman Empire. The Isman Empire was ready to collapse already in the 19th century, but it was supported by countries;

Conflict between France and Spain. 1535 - first contacts between France and the Ottoman Empire, because France was surrounded by the Habsburgs and had no one to cooperate with;

The question of influence in the Baltic Sea (Russia vs Sweden). Sweden is an “ally” of Turkey (the common enemy is Russia).

Collapse of the military system;

No legal protection private property, therefore, capital is exported abroad (to France);

The capitulation regime is a system of unequal trade agreements with Western countries.

In 1535, Francis I achieves the first capitulation - unilateral benefits;

The Portuguese open a sea route around Africa; Christopher Columbus discovers America, after which he Western Europe

a stream of gold and silver rushed in. All this was followed by a price revolution, and the exchange rate fell; Formation centralized states

in Europe, the end of the turmoil in Russia => 2 powerful enemies of the Ottoman Empire.

Japan 17-18 State tuning:

2 heads of state: 1) really - SEGUN

2) nominally - TENNO (emperor, the cat cannot be called by name) - could conduct spiritual rituals.

1603 - the third dynasty of shoguns came to power - Takugawa (founder - Takugawa Ieyasu).

A centralized state, 1/4 of the well-cultivated land belonged to the shogun personally.

1573-1603-gr. war for the unification of the country (Mamoyamo period)

1603-1868 - reign of the Takugawa shoguns (EDO period)

1605 - Takugawa Ieyasu abdicated the throne, but retained real power until his death (1616)

Subordinate to the Shogun was TAYRO (Prime Minister), the cat performed the duties of the Shogun during his minority.

The government of the country was subordinate to the RODZYU (6-7 people) - the Council of Ministers.

RODJU did not have the right to enter into relations with SHOGUNS, but could communicate through intermediaries - SABAYONIN

ROZYU's assistants were WAKADOSHYORI (young old men)

Class system:

SINOKOSHO system (four-state)

SI - warriors (samurai)

BUT - peasants

KO - artisans

SOE - traders

---- "sword hunting" - weapons only for samurai

Outside the class stood a certain group of people - ETA - people of lower professions.

Samurai - a hired warrior, the cat was supposed to keep the peasants in the villages, had the right to carry two swords, but not all feudal lords were samurai., had the right to bear a surname, you cannot execute a samurai (only suicide); did not have the right to divide the land!

Daimyo (prince) - feudal lords, the pinnacle of samurai, headed the KHAN princedom, Daimyo led the samurai clan.

1) Fudai Daimyo - close daimyos, hereditary vassals, daimyos supporting the TAKUGAWA clan

2) Tuzamo daimyo - distant daimyos, former opponents of Takugawa

The authorities were constantly watching the Daimyo (his actions)!

HATAMOTO is a samurai directly subordinate to the Shogun.

Government apparatus from HATOMOTO.

1653 - confiscation of land from all samurai, except the daimyo. => crisis of the samurai class.

1597 - last Japanese intervention in Korea

The most powerless and oppressed.

The peasants are attached to the land, do not move from landowner to landowner, do not change

occupation...they cannot be transferred or purchased.

Peasants could not drink alcohol, smoke, wear silk clothes (only cotton)

Meadows and wastelands are for the common use of the peasants!

The village - MURA was divided into five-yards, the members of the five-yards were bound by mutual responsibility

Mass of social layers:

3) GOSI (peasants descended from samurai) =>

4) DOGO (Rich peasants, Kulaks, owners of large plots) =>

5) HOMBYAKUSE (full members of the community, indigenous peasants =>

6) GENII - Tenants (not included in the village community and five-yard) =>

7) HIKAN - servant of hombyakuse - courtyard =>

8) MIZUNOMIBYAKUSHO - peasants drinking water.

City life:

Large cities: Kyoto and Edo => TOKYO - - - - half a million people,

The territory of Japan is approximately equal to the territory of Germany (3/4 are mountains!!!)

1633,1636,1639 - decrees on self-isolation of Japan

Reasons for self-isolation:: Fear of the authorities about the destruction of SINOKOSHO

The Japanese were prohibited from leaving the country;

Japanese expatriates are prohibited from returning to Japan

The city is open for trade - NAGASAKI; Foreigners are prohibited from going ashore.

An island for trade was also built - Dejima

Trade was carried out with China, Korea, and Holland.

Now Japan is a closed country!

The Rise of Japanese Culture

Deterioration of the economy: Bags of rice replaced money, the development of the country stopped.

SAKAN is the only autonomous city

Houses are numbered according to how recently they were built - hence the navigators.

Kyoto and Edo are cities with a population of over a million; the cities have been large since ancient times. The population is not growing due to high mortality. The territory of Japan is ¾ mountains.

1633, 1636, 1639 – three decrees on self-isolation of Japan were adopted. Reasons for self-isolation - (hypothesis) the authorities were afraid that foreigners would raise a peasant uprising and overthrow the government. Foreigners are prohibited from entering Japan and Japanese are prohibited from leaving the country. At the same time, before the adoption of the decrees, the Japanese often left the country. Japanese immigrants are prohibited from returning to Japan, as are their descendants. The policy of self-isolation did not mean that the authorities knew nothing... Nagasaki is the only city open to trade. In this city, foreigners were not allowed to go ashore. For trade, they created the artificial island of Dejima (20x40 m, height - 1 m), where trade was carried out with China, Korea and Holland, only they were allowed to trade. As a result, Japan became closed country, and as a consequence:

1) the rapid rise of urban culture (Ganroku period, 15 years, 1688-1703) – “+”

2) bags of rice began to circulate instead of money, the development of the country practically stopped “-”

there was a coin RIO.

The only autonomous city is Sakai.

The two lower classes were structured into guild organizations. Before Tokugawa they were called "Za". They usually had their own patrons (a large feudal lord or a monastery), the majority of the Za opposed Tokugawa, and upon his arrival they were almost all disbanded, with the exception of those who did not fight against Tokugawa. New organizations loyal to the Tokugawa were created, called Kabunakama - guilds of merchants and artisans. Some artisans infiltrated the samurai, usually through adoption. Often the privilege was enjoyed by the Kakeya, the financial agents of the government. The two lower classes were freer than the peasants. A rice exchange was established in the city of Osaka. Rice brokers - Kuramoto - Shogun and Daimyo gave them orders to sell rice, and received a percentage from it. The Kuramotos gradually became richer and soon a layer of Fudasashi appeared - moneylenders.

(Reign of the Tokugawa Shogun - Edo.)

OTTOMAN EMPIRE IN 17-18 CENTURIES.

European superpower. 6 million km 2. An absolute monarchy, headed by a sultan (Europeans called it) = khan, ... united political and religious power. When Mecca and Medina became part of the empire, the khan called himself a prophet... The ideal of government is a constant struggle with the infidels. The Sultan has the right to kill all his brothers upon ascending the throne. The Sultan's main enemy is his son. Under the Sultan, the diwan functioned - the government of the country. It included four pillars of the state, each with its own administration.

The first pillar - the Grand Vizier (wore white clothes, had privileges) exercised military and administrative power, commanded the army, i.e. really ruled the country

The second pillar is Kadiasker = “judge of the soldiers” - the chief military judge of the country. At first there was one, later there were two.

The third pillar is Bashdefterdar - financier.

The fourth pillar - Nishanji - issued firmans.

Sheikh-ul-Eslam is the highest cleric of the empire, he had the right to life - he was not executed.

Reis Efendi - Minister of Foreign Affairs.

There was court etiquette, each official had his own elkab - a form of address. There was no nobility in the country. All officials wear a Kavuk headdress. Muslims wore turbans, non-Muslims wore caps. Huge Sultan's courtyard - approx. 10,000 people The courtyard was divided into external and internal. The outer one included servants, and the inner one included Dar-i Saaded - a harem. The outer courtyard was led by the eunuch Kapu-Agasy, and the inner courtyard by the eunuch Kyzlar-Agasy.

Specifics Ottoman Empire– in economic terms it did not represent a single whole, because arose as a result of conquest and rested on military force, political power was pure tyranny. The economic parts of the empire were not connected with each other. There was no national market in the country (it appeared only in the mid-20s, forcibly). As soon as military power weakened, territories began to fall away from it.

The armed forces were clearly divided into two parts: Kapykulu - a professional army, 2nd part - local feudal cavalry - (sepahi). The main part of the kapikulu are the Janissaries. Once every three or 5 years, Janissaries were recruited. external service, internal service. Execution is only strangulation. Janissaries did not wear beards. The Janissary corps was divided into orts (companies, initially 40 people, later 100), most of the Janissaries were engaged in economic activities. Janissaries received salaries 3-4 times a year - they were given books with which they could receive a salary.

Organization local government. The country was divided into Eyalets (Vilayets). Originally 2 – Umelian and Anatolian. Later there were up to 28 eyalets. The eyalet was ruled by Beylerbey - he exercised military and administrative power, commanded the troops of the eyalet, and had his own divan and courtyard. Beylerbey had the right to distribute small Timars - service fiefs, awards. The boundaries between eyalets were constantly changing. The eyalets were divided into Sanjaks (“Districts”), headed by Sanjakbey, Ayan - defended the interests of local service feudal lords before the authorities, was elected by local service feudal lords

Feudal relations.

Empire of the Seljuk Turks. The vassal-feudal system originated here. The Ottoman Empire preserved this system. The essence: the feudal lord was given a berat (letter of grant for the estate), with which he appeared on the estate. The estate was divided into three parts: Timar, Zeamet, Hass.

Timar consisted of two parts: HassA-chiftlik, and HissE. HassA-chiftlik was awarded by right of the sword (for bravery), there is no need to send warriors from this land. HissE - warriors must be fielded.

Military service feudal lords are timariots. Timar owners were entitled to a share of the income from the timar and to limited administrative and judicial rights. The owners of hasses and zeamets had full administrative rights.

Waqf is church land, land belonging to a mosque or holy place. It arose as a result of a donation, was not subject to taxes, could not be sold, and could be exchanged for equivalent ones. The person who donated the waqf continued to manage it and retained part of the income. Their number increased (due to lack of taxes?).

Mulk is a private landholding. Land donation from the Sultan.

The specifics of the economy of the Ottoman Empire - the state needed money, subsistence farming dominated in the country - where did the money come from? A system of tax farming is being created - iltizam. The main figure is the tax farmer Multezim, who deposits a certain amount into the treasury, then, on this basis, confiscates part of the harvest from the peasants, sells it on the market - the difference is his net income. At the same time, the state receives money, but this is destructive for the peasantry.

The situation of the peasantry. There was no official nobility in the country, but the population was divided into two parts: Beraaya and Reaya. Beraaya is a non-taxable population, reaya (“herd”) is a tax-paying population. The peasants lived poorly in Mulki and waqfs.

Peasants are obliged to support the feudal lords. For a long time there was no lordly smell.

The lands of the feudal lords were divided among the peasants; for the use of the land, they gave the feudal lord a share of the harvest. The feudal lord provided the peasant with Chift (chiftlik) - a plot of land from 6 to 16 hectares per family. For the first receipt of a chief, you need to pay a tax to the feudal lord - Tapu (300 acche). When transferring by inheritance, no tapu was charged. The peasant loses the land if he does not cultivate it. The period of non-cultivation of the land is at first 1 year, later they did 3. (peasants were recruited into the military forces = they were often sent on campaigns = the period of non-cultivation was increased). Failure to cultivate is the only reason for the loss of an allotment. The duties of the peasant were determined by custom, which does not mean that custom can be violated. The peasant was assigned to an allotment, and the feudal lords could search for fugitives. The period of investigation is from 15 to 20 years. The exception is Istanbul, where the length of the investigation is 1 year and 1 day (in 1453, Mehmet II captured Constantinople and invited fugitive peasants). Three forms of rent were present in the Ottoman Empire, namely in-kind, labor and cash, with natural (grocery) rent prevailing. There was almost no money. There was a small labor period (work for the feudal lord for 7 days a year). Muslim peasants paid ASHAR - 1/10 of the harvest. Non-Muslim peasants paid KHARAJ - 1/3 of the harvest. A mill tax was collected in favor of the feudal lord. There was a tax - AGNAM - a tax on small livestock: for the feudal lord 1 head per year per 50, in favor of the state - 1 akche per three heads. Marriage tax to the feudal lord - depending on the income of the peasant, from 10 to 50 akche. Land tax - RESMI-CHIFT was paid to the state. Adult non-Muslim men paid the state tax JIZYA - for non-service in the army. ISPENDJE – all non-Muslims pay the feudal lord.

The feudal lord appeared on the estate extremely rarely = did not take care of the farm. In favor of the state they bore AVARIZ - emergency duty in favor of the war. Subsequently, AVARIZ was replaced with a cash payment.

Ortakchi is a farm laborer who works from a share of the harvest.

There were a small number of slaves, but in the 17th century. the slaves disappeared.

In addition to the rural population, there was a nomadic population (20% of us) - the Turkmens (Yuryuks). Their situation was better than that of the peasants. They were organized into tribal unions (leaders - Khans) and could move around the empire in any direction. Pastures were specially allotted to them; plowing them was forbidden. The nomads did not pay taxes, but at the first call of the emperor, every fifth man had to go on a campaign.

City life.

The government needed the craft (weapons production) and encouraged it. Funds were invested in road construction and were stolen. A network of caravanserais was created. There was no industrial bourgeoisie, there was a trade bourgeoisie - not Turkish in origin. Islam initially did not recognize interest on loans; it was believed that if someone borrows money at interest, then he is paying money for time, and time belongs to Allah, one cannot pay for it.

In the center of the city there are houses of merchants (Greeks, Jews,...), on the outskirts there are houses (Turks). Turk is a “fool”. All subjects of the empire were called Ottomans, nothing else! Sultan Mehmet 2 established a sales tax (quite liberal). Pack is a measure. The main markets of Istanbul are ET-MAYDAN (“meat square”) and BESISTAN (“land of linen”). The Janissaries restored order. For violating the rules of trade, the merchant was nailed behind the ear to the door of the shop.

The subsistence economy of the peasants led to the organization of artisans and merchants of the cities into guild structures - ESNAF. ESNAFs had a monopoly. Craftsmen who did not enter Esnaf were expelled from the city. There was no division of labor between masters; hired labor was rarely used. Tools are manual and primitive. The workshops had self-government, the head was ESNAFBASHY. There was no unified city government. Mukhtars are neighborhood elders. Imams are leaders of prayer.

AVANI – illegal extortions from the authorities. Bilerbeys and sanjebeys openly robbed the population.

For a long time, the Ottoman Empire was the most tolerant state in Europe. The government recognized 3 non-Muslim faiths (Armenian-Gregorian, Greek Orthodox and Jewish). The government, with special charters, granted these denominations liberties: they did not pay taxes, religious publications of non-Muslim denominations could not be converted into mosques, complete freedom of worship. Finally, non-Muslim church sculptures controlled marriage and family relations and civil law among their adherents. In a dispute between a Muslim and a non-Muslim, the judge was KADI, a Muslim cleric. The person was subject to judgment by the priest of his faith. The trial was held in a mosque. Two women's certificates were equal to one man's.

The workshops regulated prices, determined production standards, trading days (you can’t trade all the time!), it was strictly forbidden to lure customers, property was not protected from the state. Owners of large fortunes transferred them abroad, invested money in real estate or turned them into treasure)). THIS STOPPED the development of the country.

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The lands of the Ottoman Empire, every inch of which was conquered by the sword, stretched across three continents. The Sultan's possessions were more extensive than those of the emperors of Ancient Rome.

They covered all of southeastern Europe and the coast of North Africa to the borders of Morocco; they came close to the shores of the Caspian Sea, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf; The Black Sea was an internal “Turkish lake”. Sitting in Constantinople, the Sultan ruled over great cities as distant from each other and as dissimilar as Algiers, Cairo, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Athens and Belgrade. The former territories of the Ottoman Empire accommodate more than two dozen modern states. These endless expanses contained mountains, deserts, rivers, and fertile valleys; approximately 25 million people lived here - a huge figure for those times, almost twice the population of any European state or empire except France. The Ottoman Empire was Muslim - in the middle of its possessions, in the heart of Arabia, lay the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The Turkish Sultan, who is also the Caliph - the ruler of the faithful, was obliged to preserve and protect the shrines of Islam. The Ottoman Turks constituted the dominant group of the empire's Muslim population; Arabs, Kurds also lived here, Crimean Tatars, peoples of the Caucasus, Bosnians and Albanians. In addition, millions of Christians - Greeks, Serbs, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Romanians, Moldovans and others - were subject to the Sultan.

Needless to say, the political ties that united these multilingual peoples, committed to different religions, were weak and unreliable. The Sultan was in Constantinople, and local power was represented by a motley flock of pashas, ​​princes, governors, beys, khans and emirs, some of them subordinate to the Sultan only nominally. For example, the Christian princes of the rich provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia were appointed by the Sultan himself, but in essence they ruled autonomously and all their duties to the central government were limited to the annual payment of tribute. Every year, carts loaded with tribute in gold and other coins arrived from the north to the Sublime Porte in Constantinople. The power of the Crimean Khan over the peninsula was absolute, and only when the Sultan called him to war did he set out from his capital, Bakhchisarai, and appear under the banners of his overlord 20 000-30 000 horsemen 1,200 miles to the west lay the Berber states of Tripoli, Tunisia and Algeria. IN war time They served their Ottoman master by sending fast corsair ships - on which in normal times they profitably engaged in piracy, robbing everyone indiscriminately - against the fleets of Venice and Genoa, powerful Christian sea powers.

In the 16th century, under Sultan Suleiman the Lawgiver, or, as the Europeans called him, Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566), the Ottoman Empire reached its greatest prosperity. This was the golden age of Constantinople* - people flocked to the city enormous wealth, majestic mosques were erected here, and beautiful country palaces were built along the shores of the Bosphorus and the Sea of ​​Marmara.

Suleiman himself was a patron of literature, arts and sciences; he was interested in music, poetry and philosophy. But above all, he was a warrior. The Ottoman armies moved north along the great military road that led to Belgrade, Buda, and finally to Vienna, and where they passed, among the Balkan mountains and valleys, mosques and minarets rose. The Christian monarchies of the West, outraged by these obvious symbols of Islamic occupation, looked upon the Turks as oppressors of the Greeks and other Christian peoples of the East. However, the Ottoman Empire, more generous in this regard than most European countries, was tolerant of people of other faiths. The Sultan officially recognized the Greek Church and confirmed the jurisdiction of its patriarch and archbishops, and Orthodox monasteries kept their property. The Turks preferred to govern through pre-existing local power structures, so Christian provinces were allowed, subject to payment of tribute, to maintain their own system of government and class hierarchy.

It is curious that the Ottoman Turks showed the “highest honor” to their Christian subjects: officials of the central imperial administration were recruited from their number and special regiments of the Sultan’s guard, the Janissaries, were formed*.

Non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire were denied access to administrative and military careers. Therefore, a Christian could climb the career ladder only by converting to Islam - as described below

In the conquered Balkan provinces, conversion to Islam opened the way to success for capable Christian youths. They were sent - at first by force - to Muslim schools, where they received a harsh education aimed at eradicating all memory of their mother, father, brothers and sisters, destroying the slightest traces of Christianity in their souls. They were brought up in selfless loyalty to the Koran and the Sultan and joined the ranks of his fearless followers, ready to perform any service. The most gifted were brought to court or trained in government institutions and could rise to the heights of power. Many prominent people followed this path, and often the powerful Ottoman Empire was ruled by those who were born into Christianity.

Turkish Janissaries

But most young people entered the Janissary Guard regiments. All their lives, from childhood, they lived in barracks - they were forbidden to marry and start a family, so that their devotion to the Sultan remained undivided. In terms of their position, the Janissaries were no different from a slave; the barracks was his home, Islam was his faith, the Sultan was his ruler, and war was his service. In the early centuries of the empire, the Janissaries resembled an order of fanatical warrior monks who took a vow to fight the enemies of Allah and the Sultan. In the Ottoman army they formed a steel corps of superbly trained, reliable infantry, and in all of Europe there were no troops equal to the Janissaries until the new French army of Louis XIV appeared.

The Janissary detachment was a picturesque spectacle. They wore red hats embroidered with gold, white shirts, fluffy trousers and yellow boots. The Janissaries of the Sultan's personal guard were distinguished by red boots. In peacetime, they were armed only with a curved saber, but when going into battle, the Janissaries could choose a weapon of their choice - a spear, sword, arquebus or, later, a musket.

In the 14th century there were 12,000 Janissaries, and in 1653 there were 51,647 people. Over time, Janissaries of advanced age were allowed to retire and start a family. Both Muslim and Christian families dreamed of having their sons enlisted in the corps, and in the end the circle of those to whom this privilege extended was limited to the sons and relatives of former Janissaries. The Janissaries became a hereditary caste of free people. In peacetime, they, like the archers, were engaged in crafts and trade. Gradually, like guard units in many other countries, they became more dangerous to their own masters than to their enemies. Grand viziers and even sultans came to power and were overthrown at the whim of the Janissaries, until the corps was disbanded in 1826.

From the sea, ancient Constantinople seemed like an endless blooming garden. Above the blue waters of the Bosphorus and the Sea of ​​Marmara, above the dark greenery of cypress trees and the flowering caps of fruit trees, towered the domes and minarets of one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And today Istanbul is full of life, but it is no longer the capital. The government of the Turkish Republic has moved to the austere modern purity of Ankara in the center of the Anatolian plateau. In the 17th century, Constantinople was the capital of the Muslim world, military, administrative, commercial and cultural center powerful Ottoman Empire. Its population reached 700,000 - no other country had such a number of inhabitants. European city, just as there weren’t so many different races and religions. Majestic buildings of mosques, madrassas, libraries, hospitals and public baths were visible everywhere. Goods from all over the world were piled up in the bazaars and piers. The parks and gardens were fragrant with flowers and fruit trees. In the spring, the wild roses bloomed, and nightingales swarmed through the dense thickets of hedges.

Where the Golden Horn Bay separates the Bosphorus and the Sea of ​​Marmara, Topkapi Saray, the Sultan's palace, or rather a palace complex, rose above the city. Here, behind high walls, hidden were countless mansions, barracks, kitchens, mosques, gardens with murmuring fountains and long cypress alleys lined with roses and tulips*.

This was the center of the political and administrative life of the empire; here, as in the Moscow Kremlin, all central government institutions were concentrated and all government affairs were decided. Topkapi had three parts - three courtyards. In the first courtyard there was a financial administration, an archive, a mint, and an arsenal. In the second there was a Divan - an advisory council under the Sultan, as well as the Sultan's office and the state treasury. The third courtyard contained the Sultan's residence, his harem and treasury. The Grand Vizier lived near Topkapi, and the barracks of the Janissary corps numbering up to 12 thousand people were also located.

A city within a city that existed solely for the pleasure of one person, the palace was incredibly expensive for the Sultan's subjects. Every year, from all the provinces of the empire, ships sailed here and carts loaded with rice, sugar, peas, lentils, pepper, coffee, almonds, dates, saffron, honey, salt, plums lemon juice, vinegar, watermelons. Once they even brought 780 carts of snow. Inside this city, the Sultan was served by 5,000 people. The Sultan's table was in charge of the chief keeper of the tablecloth, who was assisted by the elder over the tray bearers, the bearers of fruits, pickles and marinades, sherbet, the foreman of the coffee makers and the water bearer (Muslim sultans were teetotalers). There was also a senior turban winder with a staff of assistants, a custodian of the Sultan's dress, and heads of washers and bathhouse attendants. The senior barber's staff included a mani-curator, who tidied up the Sultan's nails every Thursday. In addition, there were pipe lighters, door openers, musicians, gardeners, grooms and a whole army of dwarfs and deaf mutes - the latter were used by the Sultan as messengers, but they were especially indispensable as servants when strict confidentiality was required.

Polygamy

But this palace itself, carefully hidden from the eyes of its subjects, served only as an outer shell of an internal, even more closely guarded private world - a harem. The Arabic word "haram" means "forbidden", and the Sultan's harem was forbidden to everyone except the Sultan himself, his guests, the inhabitants of the harem and the eunuchs - their guards. From the palace it was possible to get there only through one single passage, which was blocked by four doors, two iron and two bronze. Each door was guarded day and night by eunuchs, who were entrusted with a single set of keys. This passage led to an intricate labyrinth of luxurious chambers, corridors, staircases, secret doors, courtyards, gardens and swimming pools. Many rooms were adjacent to other rooms on all sides, and therefore light seeped into them from above, through stained glass windows in glazed domes and roofs. The walls and ceilings of the Sultan's chambers were covered with complex patterns of blue and green Nicene tiles. The floors were covered with bright carpets, and here and there there were low sofas on which the inhabitants could sit cross-legged, sipping strong coffee or eating fruit. In those rooms where the Sultan liked to talk privately with his adviser, there were fountains that, with their murmur, did not allow curious ears to hear what was being said.

The harem was a closed world of veils, gossip, intrigue and, whenever the Sultan wished, bodily pleasures. But it was also a world governed by strict rules of protocol and chain of command. Before Suleiman the Magnificent, sultans officially married; Islam allowed them to have four wives. But Suleiman’s wife, a red-haired Slav named Roksolana, interfered with state affairs with such persistence that from then on Ottoman sultans They stopped marrying and the Sultan's mother became the ruler of the harem. The Turks believed that “under your mother’s feet lies the sky” and that no matter how many wives and concubines you have, you have only one mother and no one in the world can replace her. Sometimes, if the Sultan was too young or weak in character, his mother herself gave orders on his behalf to the Grand Vizier. The place after the Sultan's mother was occupied by the mother of the heir to the throne, if there was one, and behind her - other women who gave birth to sons from the Sultan, and only then all the other odalisques, or concubines. All these women, at least formally, were slaves, and since it was not supposed to enslave a Muslim woman, then, consequently, the entire harem was made up of foreigners - Russians, Circassians, Venetians, Greeks. Since the end of the 16th century, most women entered the harem from the Caucasus - the residents of these places were famous for their beauty. Once a woman crossed the threshold of the harem, she remained in it forever. There could be no exceptions. Finding herself in a harem, usually at the age of ten or eleven, the girl diligently learned the science of seduction from experienced mentors. Having completed the full course, the girl waited with hope for the moment of preliminary approval, when the Sultan threw a scarf at her feet, and she became “gezde” (“noticed”). Not every “gezde” waited for the happy moment when she was called to the Sultan and she turned into an “ikbal” (“who was on the bed”), but those who were lucky received their own chambers, servants, jewelry, outfits and allowance. And since the women of the harem were completely dependent on how pleased the Sultan was with them, they all longed to get to his bed, and once there, they tried their best to please him. They were so zealous that several sultans, fed up with endless days and nights of passion with these hordes of ardent, full of adoration women, simply went crazy. No man except the Sultan was allowed to enter this secluded female world. Eunuchs stood guard over the harem. At first, the eunuchs were white - they were mostly taken from the Caucasus, as were the women for the harem. But by the beginning of the 17th century, all two hundred eunuchs guarding the harem were black. Usually they were bought as children, when the annual caravan with slaves arrived from the upper Nile, and along the way, near Aswan, they were castrated. It is curious that, since this is prohibited by Islam, the operation was carried out by Copts, a Christian sect living in the area. The crippled boys were then presented to the Sultan as a gift from his viceroys and governors of Lower Egypt.

Theoretically, eunuchs were slaves and servants of female slaves - the inhabitants of the harem. But they often acquired great power due to their closeness to the Sultan. In a constant rotation palace intrigues women in alliance with eunuchs could seriously influence the ebb and flow of the Sultan's favors and the distribution of positions. Over time, the chiefs of the black eunuchs, who had the title of “kyzlar agasy” - “lord of the girls”, or “aga of the House of Bliss”, often began to play a large role in state affairs, turning into a thunderstorm for the entire palace, and sometimes took third place in the imperial hierarchy after the Sultan and the Grand Vizier. The Aga of the black eunuchs was always surrounded by luxurious luxury, had many privileges and a large staff of servants, which included several of his own concubines, whose functions, admittedly, are difficult to imagine.

In the harem, as throughout the empire, the Sultan was looked upon as a demigod. Not a single woman was allowed to come to him without being called. When he approached, everyone was supposed to quickly hide. One of the sultans, in order to announce his approach, wore shoes with silver soles that rang on the stone slabs of the passages. When going to swim, the Sultan first went to the changing room, where the young slaves took off his clothes; then to the massage room, where his body was anointed with oils; then to the bathhouse with a marble bath, hot and cold water and golden taps: here, if he wished, he was washed - usually this duty was assigned to fairly elderly women; finally, he was dressed and anointed with incense - again by young women. When the Sultan wanted to have fun, he went to the reception hall - a palace in blue tiles, covered with crimson carpets. There he sat on the throne, his mother, sisters and daughters sat on sofas, and his concubines sat on cushions on the floor, at the feet of the Sultan. If dancers were dancing, they could call on court musicians, but in this case they were carefully blindfolded to protect the harem from male gaze. Later, a balcony with such a high side was built above the hall for the musicians that curious glances could not penetrate it, but the music was clearly audible.

In this palace, the Sultan sometimes received foreign ambassadors, sitting on a marble throne in a long brocade robe with sable trim and a white turban decorated with a black and white plume and a giant emerald. Usually he turned in profile so that not a single infidel would dare to look directly into the face of the Sultan - the earthly Shadow of Allah. As long as the Ottoman Empire existed, it always remained a conquering state. All power was in the hands of the Sultan. If the sultan was a strong and gifted man, the empire flourished. If he was weak, the empire began to crumble. It is not surprising that from the harem life among ardent women and eunuchs who indulged every whim, the breed, which descended from the victorious conquerors, almost completely degenerated. Another circumstance, acting gradually throughout the long history of the Ottoman Empire, led to a deterioration in the personal qualities of the sultans. It began, oddly enough, with an act of mercy. Until the 16th century, there was an Ottoman tradition according to which one of the Sultan’s numerous sons who came to power immediately ordered the strangulation of all his brothers so that not one could encroach on the throne. Sultan Murad III, who reigned from 1574 to 1595, fathered more than a hundred children, of whom twenty sons survived him. The eldest, having ascended the throne under the name of Mehmet III, destroyed nineteen of his brothers, and in addition, in an effort to be sure to get rid of possible rivals, he killed seven pregnant concubines of his father. However, in 1603, the new Sultan, Ahmed I, put an end to this nightmarish custom, refusing to strangle the brothers. Instead, in order to neutralize them, he walled everyone up in a special pavilion, the so-called “cage,” where they lived, deprived of any connection with the outside world. Since then, all the Ottoman princes spent their days there in idleness, surrounded by eunuchs and concubines, who, in order to avoid the appearance of offspring, were incapable of childbearing due to their age. If, through an oversight, a child was born, he was killed so as not to complicate matters. family tree ruling family. Therefore, if the sultan died (or was displaced) without leaving a son, then his brother was called from the “cage” and declared the new earthly Shadow of Allah. Among this crowd of ignorant, relaxed princes of the blood, the Janissaries and Grand Viziers could rarely find a person with sufficient mental development and the political maturity to rule an empire.

At all times, but especially when the Sultan was weak, the Grand Vizier actually ruled the Ottoman Empire on his behalf. From an imposing building erected in 1654 next to the palace and known to Europeans as the Sublime Porte, the Grand Vizier oversaw the administration and army of the empire - he controlled everything except the Sultan's palace. Officially, the Grand Vizier was considered a servant of the Sultan. Upon taking office, he accepted a signet ring from the Sultan's hands; the signal for his resignation was the demand to return state seal. In fact, the Grand Vizier was the true ruler of the empire. During the days of peace, he was the head of the executive and judicial branches. During the war, he acted as the commander-in-chief of the active army, and with him were the Janissary Agha and the Kapudan Pasha, that is, the admiral. He led the meetings of his council - the Divan - in a large vaulted hall, the walls of which were decorated with mosaics, arabesques, and blue and gold draperies. Here the highest officials of the empire sat on benches that ran in a circle along the walls, and the colors of their fur-trimmed clothes with wide sleeves - green, purple, silver, blue, yellow - signified their rank. In the middle sat the Grand Vizier himself, wearing a white satin robe and a turban with a gold border.

The position of grand vizier gave enormous power - it happened that great viziers overthrew sultans - but it was also extremely dangerous, so its owner had little chance of dying a natural death. The blame for the military defeat was placed on the Grand Vizier, and this inevitably followed his removal, exile, and often strangulation. Only outstanding masters of intrigue could achieve this post and retain it. Between 1683 and 1702, twelve grand viziers succeeded each other in the Divan and the Sublime Porte. And yet, in the 17th century, it was the great viziers who saved the empire, while the sultans basked in harems, indulging their inclinations and whims*. By this time, the central government had become so weak that Venetian ships cruised near the Dardanelles, and the Dnieper Cossacks robbed the Bosporus in their “gulls.” The empire was choking in corruption, falling apart, plunging into anarchy, and it was saved by three representatives of the same family - and in essence, a dynasty - the great viziers: father, son and son-in-law

* One sultan, Ibrahim the Mad, enclosed his beard in a diamond net and spent his time throwing gold coins to fish in the Bosphorus. He did not want to see or touch anything except furs, and introduced a special tax, which was used to purchase sables from Russia in order to line the walls in the Sultan’s chambers with these precious furs. Believing that the larger a woman, the more attractive she is, he sent messengers to search throughout the empire for the fattest women. They brought him an Armenian woman of incredible size, who delighted the Sultan so much that he showered her with riches and honors and finally made her the ruler of Damascus.

In 1656, when the empire was on the verge of destruction, the harem camarilla was forced to appoint a stern Albanian, seventy-one years old, Mehmed Köprülü, to the post of grand vizier, who set to work without pity. Having executed 50,000-60,000 people, the oc completely cleared the Ottoman administration of bribery and corruption. When he died five years later, the collapse of the empire had already stopped. Under his son Ahmed Köprülü and later under his son-in-law Kara Mustafa, there was a short-lived revival of the Ottoman Empire. The fleets and armies of the Christian powers - Austria, Venice and Poland - were driven back from its borders. In 1683, in response to the Hungarians' call for help against Emperor Leopold, Kara Mustafa decided to take Vienna. An army of more than 200 thousand, raising banners and horsetails, led by Kara Mustafa himself, ascended the Danube, conquered all of Hungary and for the second time in the history of the Ottoman Empire approached the walls of the Austrian capital. Throughout the summer of 1683, Europe followed events with excitement. Regiments of soldiers from the German states stood under the banner of the Austrian emperor to fight the Turks. Even Louis XIV, the sworn enemy of the Habsburgs and the secret ally of the Turks, could not help but assist in the salvation of the great Christian city. On September 12, 1683, the allied army came to the rescue, attacked the Turkish siege lines from the rear and sent the Turks fleeing down the Danube. By order of Sultan Kara, Mustafa was strangled. After the defeat near Vienna, the Turks were haunted by continuous misfortunes. Buda fell, followed by Belgrade, Austrian troops approached Adrianople. The famous Venetian admiral Francesco Morosini captured the Peloponnese, crossed the Isthmus of Corinth and besieged Athens. Unfortunately, during the shelling of the city, one cannonball hit the Parthenon, where the Turks had built a gunpowder warehouse, and on September 26, 1687, this temple, until then preserved in almost its original condition, exploded and acquired its present appearance.

In 1703, the Janissaries deposed Sultan Mustafa II in favor of his thirty-year-old brother Ahmed III, who ascended the throne after being imprisoned in a “cage” and reigned for twenty-seven years. Gloomy, unbalanced, greatly influenced by his mother all his life, this esthete loved women and poetry; He also loved to draw flowers. He also had a passion for architecture, building beautiful mosques to please his subjects, and planting beautiful gardens to please himself. Along the banks of the Golden Horn, he erected a necklace of luxurious pavilions - some in the Chinese style, some in the French - and sat there in the shade of trees, surrounded by his favorite concubines, and listened to poetry. Ahmed loved theatrical performances; in winter, intricate Chinese shadow theater performances were staged at the court, after which guests were given gems, sweets and honorary robes. In the summer they organized skillful amusing naval battles and fireworks. His yard was in the grip of tulip mania. On spring evenings, the Sultan and his courtiers, accompanied by musicians, walked through the garden, hung with lanterns or permeated with moonlight, carefully stepping among hundreds of turtles that crawled in tulips and in the grass with lit candles on their shells.

In a city with more than 400 fountains, the Sultan Ahmed III fountain is considered one of the most beautiful. This architectural masterpiece, adorning Üsküdar Square, was built in the Ottoman Baroque style, emphasizing the European influence on classical Ottoman architecture

Located in front of the Imperial Gate of Topkapi Palace, the fountain was built in 1728. This unusual building with a pointed roof occupies an area of ​​10x10 meters. The building is given extraordinary lightness and beauty by its original reliefs, graceful vaults decorated with tiles, and a canopy roof.

During Ramadan and religious holidays, free sherbet was distributed to the population near the walls of the fountain. And on the main facade of the building, everyone could read the instructions of Ahmed III: “Pray for Khan Ahmed and drink this water after saying your prayers.”

In this closed, fragrant atmosphere, Ahmed III existed during the same years that witnessed the active, stormy reign of Peter in Russia. Ahmed's reign lasted longer than Peter's, and in the end acquired a typically Ottoman flavor. In 1730, the empire was again engulfed in unrest and Ahmed thought to calm his enemies by ordering the then grand vizier - and at the same time his son-in-law - to be strangled, and his body given to the crowd. But this only temporarily delayed the Sultan’s own death. Soon he was overthrown and replaced on the throne by his nephew - it was he who poisoned Ahmed.

It makes sense to raise a separate topic about the Russian-Turkish wars and the gradual degradation of the empire. And not just one.

Here I will limit myself only to stating the fact that already outside the period under review, the described processes of weakening the power of the Sultan and the entire Ottoman Empire forced the next Sultan to renounce absolute power and introduce a constitution:

• Proclamation of the Constitution in Istanbul on December 23, 1876. Engraving. 1876

• On December 23, 1876, the solemn announcement of the constitution of the Ottoman Empire took place.
  The Constitution of 1876, known as the Midhat Constitution, proclaimed the establishment of a constitutional monarchy in Turkey. It provided for the creation of a bicameral parliament, members of the Senate were appointed by the Sultan for life, and the Chamber of Deputies was elected on the basis of a high property qualification. The Sultan had the right to appoint and dismiss ministers, declare war, make peace, impose martial law and terminate civil laws.
  All subjects of the empire were declared Ottomans and considered equal before the law. The Constitution recognized state language Turkish, and the state religion is Islam.

From the end of 1610, popular protests in Anatolia gradually lost their strength. Long wars, uprisings and brutal repressions that befell participants in the Jelali movement had a heavy impact on the economic life of the country. In many areas of the Balkans and Asia Minor the population declined in the first half of the 17th century. to the level that existed at the beginning of the 16th century. Some settled residents returned to nomadism again. The pace of development of cities and urban crafts also slowed down. Even such major centers, like Bursa, Ankara, Kayseri, Sivas, had difficulty recovering from the damage caused during the years of unrest. At the end of the 40s of the 17th century. the amount of tax revenues to the treasury remained at the level of the 90s of the 16th century, amounting to only 360 million akche.

The consequences of changes in agrarian relations also turned out to be contradictory. The decomposition of the Sipahi system and the beginning of the formation of private-feudal land ownership led to a slight increase in the marketability of agriculture, but this process also had another consequence - the impoverishment of the peasants and their loss of hereditary rights to cultivated lands. In his first instruction (risal), intended for Sultan Murad IV (1623-1640), Kochibey wrote: In a word, such oppression and oppression in which the poor villagers find themselves have never existed in any country in the world, in any state... .The cold sighs of the oppressed crush the houses; the tears of the eyes of the sufferers drown the state in the waters of destruction. In the second risal, written a few years later, he again returns to the same theme: Your servants, the rayya, have become extremely poor and fled from the villages. Since the Sipahi system could no longer act as a source military force and a factor in stabilizing the internal situation, the Porte was forced to increase the number of standing troops and especially the Janissary corps. In 1595, 25 thousand people were recorded in the Janissary registers, and three years later - 35 thousand people. In the first half of the 17th century. there were already up to 50 thousand soldiers in the corps. The previous system of recruiting standing troops based on devshirme was not able to ensure such a multiplication of the ranks of the Janissaries, and in the 30s of the 17th century. Porta actually abandoned it completely. By this time, the corps was replenished by the children of the Janissaries, small traders and artisans, people from the village.

The rapid growth of the state-paid army became an unbearable burden on public finances: increased spending on the army led to depletion of the treasury. Due to the lack of silver, soldiers began to receive salaries irregularly, in damaged coins, and payment of money was often delayed for a long time. The Janissaries responded to the infringement of their rights with open revolts, which showed that the previously existing balance of power in the Ottoman political system had been disrupted. The less combat-ready the sipahi units became, the more dependent the Sultan and his ministers became on the whims of the Janissaries. There are no government authorities in the state: it is held in the hands of the paid Janissaries,” Kochibey complained.

The need for money, not satisfied by low salaries, forced the Janissaries to turn to side earnings - crafts and trade. Since new activities began to bring them the main income, the desire of the soldiers to fight fell and they tried to avoid participating in campaigns under any pretext. At the same time, the Janissaries resolutely opposed any attempts by the authorities to somehow limit their privileged position. Taking advantage of this circumstance, the warring feudal factions constantly incited the Janissaries to revolt and overthrow unwanted ministers, viziers and the sultans themselves. Only during 1617-1623. As a result of the Janissary riots, four sultans replaced the throne. Such events gave contemporaries a reason to write about the Janissaries that they were as dangerous in peacetime as they were weak during war.

Many facts reported by contemporaries indicate the decomposition of the state apparatus. The successors of Suleiman I took little part in governing the state, shifting all concerns onto the shoulders of the great viziers. However, the capabilities of the first ministers turned out to be very limited. The Sultan's palace and especially the harem, which provided the shortest access to the ruler of the empire, turned into the main centers of intrigue among the courtiers in the struggle for power. Already under Suleiman, Roksolana, who had once been driven from Podolia into captivity and became the Sultan’s beloved wife, had a great influence on the activities of the Porte. By supporting her favorite Rustem Pasha as grand vizier, she cleared the way to the Sultan's throne for her son, the future Selim II (1566-1574). In subsequent years, this practice turned into a stable tradition.

Proclaimed sultan, the weak-willed and superstitious Mehmed III (1595-1603) left the management of state affairs to his mother Safiye. As a valid sultan (sultana-mother), Safiye changed 11 grand viziers on behalf of her son during her 8 years of reign. Even more influential was Kösem Sultan (d. 1651), the favorite of Ahmed I (1603-1617) and the mother of Osman II (1617, 1618-1622), Murad IV (1624-1640) and Ibrahim I (1640-1648). For many years, at her whim and the machinations of people from her circle, she actually determined the policy of the Porte, dismissing and appointing grand viziers and other ministers, thereby confusing and complicating the situation in the empire to the extreme. Only when 6-year-old Mehmed IV (1648-1687) came to the throne did his mother manage to overcome the influence of the old sultana. In popular memory, the first half of the 17th century. remained as the era of women's rule, although it is more correct to talk about the dominance of the Sultan's favorites and harem managers - kizlar agasy (lord of the girls).

From the end of the 16th century. Separatist protests intensified in the provinces of the empire. Taking advantage of the weakening of central power, large feudal lords broke from obedience and turned into independent rulers. The Sultan's power, interested mainly in the regular receipt of tax collections from each eyalet into the treasury, usually did not interfere in their management. Hence the complete arbitrariness of the local governors-pashas, ​​whose power was almost uncontrolled and unlimited.

Under these conditions, the Sultan's court began to use Islam more often and more widely as the most important means of preserving the unity and integrity of the empire. Accordingly, the role of the ulema and their main authority, Sheikh-ul-Islam, increased, more and more attention was paid to compliance with Sharia norms, but the scope of application of state legislation decreased. Although such measures could not overcome the internal disunity of the empire, they contributed to strengthening the control of the clergy over all spheres of socio-political and cultural life.

The Sultan's authorities tried to prevent further growth of crisis phenomena in the life of the empire by continuing wars of conquest. In 1576, Murad III (1574-1595) moved his army against Safavid Iran with the goal of capturing Transcaucasia and establishing control over the Volga-Caspian trade route connecting Iran with Russia. The hostilities, which lasted for 14 years, ended with the fact that the Iranian Shah Abbas, forced to simultaneously wage war in Khorasan against the Uzbeks, agreed to conclude the Istanbul Peace Treaty of 1590, according to which he ceded Eastern Georgia and Eastern Armenia, almost all of Azerbaijan and part of Western Iran.

Two years later, a new long war began, this time against Austria for Hungarian lands. In 1605, taking advantage of the fact that Ottoman forces were concentrated in Europe, and the Jelali turmoil was raging in Anatolia, Shah Abbas resumed military operations in Transcaucasia. The Porte had to urgently resolve its conflict with the Habsburgs. The fight against them showed that despite the enormous funds spent on maintaining the Sultan’s army, in military-technical terms it was increasingly lagging behind the armies of European states, which were increasingly ahead of the Ottoman Empire in terms of the pace and level of their development. Countries that previously bought their peace of mind at the price of tribute and periodic gifts are gradually getting rid of such humiliating dependence. In this regard, the peace treaty in Sitvatorok (1606), which ended the Austro-Turkish war, is indicative. Under the terms of the treaty, the Sultan was forced not only to free Austria from the annual tribute of 30 thousand ducats, paid since 1547, but also for the first time to recognize the Christian state as an equal partner in a peace treaty. A few years later, the Habsburgs achieved significant trade privileges for their subjects.

Trying to exploit the contradictions between the European powers, the Porte granted important economic and political privileges to England and Holland. In the first half of the 17th century. For these countries, capitulations were renewed several times, expanding the rights of European merchants to Levantine trade. The Ottoman rulers hoped that in return for trade benefits they would receive support from these states in implementing their own plans of conquest.

Meanwhile, the Iran-Turkey conflict continued. By 1612, Shah Abbas took away a significant part of Transcaucasia from the Turks, and in 1624 all of Iraq with Baghdad. But Sultan Murad IV, who had just ascended the throne, hastened to resume hostilities. After several years of war in Qasri Shirin, a peace treaty was signed in 1639, according to which Iraq and Baghdad again passed to the Ottoman Empire; in addition, the Turks retained Western Georgia, Western Armenia and part of Kurdistan. The Turkish-Iranian border established by this agreement remained almost unchanged in the future. Simultaneously with the war against Iran, the Porte launched military operations in Europe against gentry Poland. The main source of the conflict was the dispute over Ukrainian lands. The initiators of the war clearly hoped that Poland, involved in the pan-European Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), would not be able to resist Ottoman aggression. However, the long siege of the Polish camp near Khotyn in 1621, thanks to the courage and courage of the Zaporozhye Cossacks, did not bring success to the Sultan’s army. Having carried heavy losses, she was forced to retreat.

The failure of the Khotyn campaign led the young Sultan Osman II to the conclusion about the need for reforms in the system government controlled and in the army. The Sultan wanted to achieve the strengthening of central power and restoration of the military power of the empire by refusing to staff the bureaucracy and permanent troops with the help of devshirme. He intended to carry out the Turkization of the army and government bodies by replenishing their ranks with people from Muslim families in Anatolia. At the same time, he hoped to limit the increased role of the ulema by reducing their material privileges. However, the very first attempts to implement these plans caused sharp opposition within the ruling elite, among the Janissaries and the Muslim clergy.

The Janissary revolt cost the lives of the Sultan and his closest advisers. The second appearance on the throne of Mustafa I (1617-1618, 1622-1623), completely unable to rule the country, gave rise to a negative reaction in Anatolia. Its most striking expression was the revolt of the governor of Erzurum, Abaza Mehmed Pasha, during which several Janissary garrisons were destroyed. Following the outbreak of unrest in the Asian provinces, power in Istanbul changed once again: 11-year-old Murad IV was elevated to the Sultan's throne. However, plans for reform were abandoned, and the course of continuing military campaigns was maintained.

The situation in Istanbul was also known to the new rulers of Russia from the House of Romanov. However, they had to take into account that the Deulin truce of 1618. did not yet mean the final refusal of the magnate elite of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from plans for intervention in Russia. Therefore, the Moscow government was concerned about maintaining peaceful relations with the Ottoman Empire. This course can be clearly seen in the events associated with the fight for Azov. In 1637, the Don Cossacks, taking advantage of the Iranian-Turkish war, besieged Azov and, after a two-month siege, took the fortress.

In the summer of 1641, having ended the war with Iran, the Turks moved towards Azov. The siege was carried out according to all the rules of military art. For four months, about 6 thousand Cossacks defended the fortress from the Ottoman troops, who had numerous artillery. Having failed to achieve success and having suffered serious losses from Cossack attacks, the besiegers were forced to retreat, but in 1642 Moscow, not wanting to aggravate relations with the Porte, ordered the Cossacks to surrender Azov.

However, the rulers of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, after their success at Khotyn, preferred to maintain peaceful relations with the Sultan, although back in 1623 the Polish ambassador in Istanbul K. Zbarazhsky came to the conclusion that the power of the Ottoman Empire was greater in words than in deeds.

Source: http://turkey-info.ru/forum/stati145/usilenie-separatizma-t3008233.html.

• Ottoman Empire in the 17th century
• Ottoman Empire in the 17th century
• borders of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century map

Ottoman Empire in the 17th century

Ottoman Empire in the XVI- XVII centuries

By the beginning of the 16th century. The military-feudal Ottoman Empire brought almost the entire Balkan Peninsula under its rule. Only on the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic Sea did the Dubrovnik Republic retain its independence, formally recognizing, however, after the Battle of Mohács (1526) the supreme power of Turkey. The Venetians also managed to retain their possessions in the eastern part

Adriatic - the Ionian Islands and the island of Crete, as well as a narrow strip of land with the cities of Zadar, Split, Kotor, Trogir, Sibenik.

The Turkish conquest played a negative role in the historical fate of the Balkan peoples, delaying their socio-economic development. To the class antagonism of feudal society was added religious antagonism between Muslims and Christians, which essentially expressed the relationship between conquerors and conquered peoples. The Turkish government and feudal lords oppressed the Christian peoples of the Balkan Peninsula and committed arbitrariness.

Persons of the Christian faith did not have the right to serve in government institutions, carry weapons, and for showing disrespect for the Muslim religion they were forcibly converted to Islam or severely punished. To strengthen its power, the Turkish government resettled tribes of nomadic Turks from Asia Minor to the Balkans. They settled in fertile valleys, strategically important areas, displacing local residents. Sometimes the Christian population was evicted by the Turks from cities, especially large ones. Another means of strengthening Turkish dominance was the Islamization of the conquered population. Many “post-Turkish” came from among the people captured and sold into slavery, for whom conversion to Islam was the only way to regain freedom (according to Turkish law, Muslims could not be slaves)². Needing military forces, the Turkish government formed a Janissary corps from Christians who converted to Islam, which was the Sultan's guard. At first, the Janissaries were recruited from among captured youths. Later, systematic recruitment of the healthiest and most beautiful Christian boys began, who were converted to Islam and sent to study in Asia Minor. In an effort to preserve their property and privileges, many Balkan feudal lords, mainly small and medium-sized ones, as well as urban artisans and merchants, converted to Islam. A significant part of the “post-Turkish people” gradually lost contact with their people and adopted the Turkish language and culture. All this led to the numerical growth of the Turkish people and strengthened the power of the Turks in the conquered lands. Serbs, Greeks, and Albanians who converted to Islam sometimes occupied high positions, became major military leaders. Among rural population Islamization took on a widespread character only in Bosnia, some regions of Macedonia and Albania, but the change of religion for the most part did not lead to separation from one’s nationality, to the loss of native language, native customs and culture. The majority of the working population of the Balkan Peninsula, and above all the peasantry, even in those cases when they were forced to convert to Islam, were not assimilated by the Turks.

The entire structure of the feudal Turkish state was subordinated to the interests of waging wars of conquest. The Ottoman Empire was the only true military power of the Middle Ages. The military success of the Turks, who created a strong army, was facilitated by a favorable international situation for them - the collapse of the Mongol state, the decline of Byzantium, and contradictions between the states of medieval Europe. But the huge empire created by the Turks had no national basis. The dominant people, the Turks, constituted a minority of its population. At the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th centuries, a protracted crisis of the feudal Ottoman Empire began, which determined its decline and subsequently facilitated the penetration of European colonialists into Turkey and other countries under its domination.

How many years does it usually take to collapse an empire?

And how many wars does this require? In the case of the Ottoman Empire, it took 400 years and at least two dozen wars, including the First World War that began in Sarajevo.

I can’t even believe how many of the most pressing problems of today’s Europe have their roots in the national-political-religious node that remained in the place where the Ottoman Empire once stretched.

Section I: Ethnosocial and religious policy Ports in the Balkan countries

1.1 Regulations Orthodox Church(using the example of Bulgaria)

1.1.1 Bulgaria within the Patriarchate of Constantinople

The first metropolitan of the Tarnovo diocese within the Patriarchate of Constantinople was Ignatius, the former metropolitan of Nicomedia: his signature is the 7th in the list of representatives of the Greek clergy at the Florence Council of 1439. In one of the lists of dioceses of the Patriarchate of Constantinople from the mid-15th century, the Tarnovo Metropolitan occupies a high 11th place (after Thessaloniki); Three episcopal sees are subordinate to him: Cherven, Lovech and Preslav. Until the mid-nineteenth century, the Tarnovo diocese covered most of the lands of Northern Bulgaria and extended south to the Maritsa River, including the areas of Kazanlak, Stara and Nova Zagora. The bishops of Preslav (until 1832, when Preslav became a metropolitan), Cherven (until 1856, when Cherven was also elevated to the rank of metropolitan), Lovchansky and Vrachansky were subordinate to the Tarnovo metropolitan.

The Patriarch of Constantinople, considered the supreme representative before the Sultan of all Orthodox Christians (millet bashi), had broad rights in the spiritual, civil, and economic spheres, but remained under the constant control of the Ottoman government and was personally responsible for the loyalty of his flock to the authority of the Sultan.

Church subordination to Constantinople was accompanied by increased Greek influence in the Bulgarian lands. Greek bishops were appointed to the departments, who in turn supplied Greek clergy to monasteries and parish churches, which resulted in the practice of conducting services in Greek, which was incomprehensible to most of the flock. Church positions were often filled with the help of large bribes; local church taxes (more than 20 of their types are known) were levied arbitrarily, often using violent methods. In case of refusal of payments, the Greek hierarchs closed the churches, anathematized the disobedient, and presented them to the Ottoman authorities as unreliable and subject to relocation to another area or taking into custody. Despite the numerical superiority of the Greek clergy, in a number of dioceses the local population managed to retain a Bulgarian rector. Many monasteries (Etropolsky, Rilsky, Dragalevsky, Kurilovsky, Kremikovsky, Cherepishsky, Glozhensky, Kuklensky, Elenishsky and others) preserved the Church Slavonic language in worship.

In the first centuries of Ottoman rule, there was no ethnic hostility between the Bulgarians and Greeks; There are many examples of joint struggle against conquerors who equally oppressed Orthodox peoples. Thus, Metropolitan of Tarnovo Dionysius (Rali) became one of the leaders of the preparation of the first Tarnovo uprising of 1598 and attracted the bishops Jeremiah of Rusensky, Feofan Lovchansky, Spiridon of Shumen (Preslavsky) and Methodius of Vrachansky subordinate to him. 12 Tarnovo priests and 18 influential laymen, together with the Metropolitan, vowed to remain faithful to the cause of the liberation of Bulgaria until their death. In the spring or summer of 1596, a secret organization was created, which included dozens of both clergy and secular persons. Greek influence in the Bulgarian lands was largely due to the influence of Greek-speaking culture and the influence of the growing process of “Hellenic revival”.

Source: http://www.refsru.com/referat-25945-1.html

Ottoman Empire in the 17th century

Ottoman Empire

in 1574 r. The Turks occupied Tunisia (having killed the Spaniards), Ottoman aggression in Europe petered out.

At 1574 r. Selim II Soft ingloriously “died from a supermundane feast and comfortable life”15, and his weak-willed and alcohol-prone son Murad III (1566 - 1595) stepped onto the Ottoman throne. During his reign, the Turks were once again fortunate to beat the Safavids in the war of 1578 - 1590. And after the Peace of Istanbul we will join the Port of Transcaucasia and Azerbaijan. They sold 100 thousand in slave markets. captives (Georgians, Virmens, Azerbaijanis, Persians, Kurds, etc.), and this is the remaining successful success of the Turkish army.

The reign of the empire began to collapse, the budget deficit became 200 million akche (!), the issuance of coins began, and then a real famine erupted with tens of thousands of victims, like the unpopular Asian provinces of the Ottoman Port and. Driven into a remote corner, Murad_III started the war with Austria (1592 - 1606) and died immediately.

The Habsburg War ended in 1606. In addition, Safavid Iran after the large-scale reforms of Abbas (1587 - 1629) took enemy revenge from the Turks. The Persians fought against Azerbaijan, Georgia, Virginia and Kurdistan (1603 - 1612). Mass riots of the hungry and sick began in the Turkish region itself.

Even more confused by the situation was the religious Sultan Ahmed I (1603 - 1617), who, due to the decline of “humanity”, described the murders of the brothers of the new Sultan upon his accession to the throne. Now they were kept in isolation in special cages where wives were not allowed to enter. Because of the Turkic steppe traditions, the eldest man of the family was in decline, and the Ottoman throne began to be seized not by the Blues, but through the brothers of the great Sultan, whose skins were obviously not without sovereigns, and the most important ones in life. The transfer of real power to the sultans by the viziers and janissaries became a major issue.

Taxes increased 10 - 15 times, and in 1572 r. Moldova rebelled in 1594. - Wallachia, in 1596 1598 r.

Bulgaria. Stretch 1595 - 1610 rubles. The insurrection was fought in Anatolia, Pivdennaya Serbia, Montenegro, Herzegovina, Morea, Dalmatia, Albania, and in 1625. The Ottoman Empire was devastated by a greedy plague epidemic.

Having realized that they were in control, the sultans tried violence again, increasing it to 100 thousand. having cut off their guards (Yanichars, Sipahi), but this led to complete devastation of the state’s finances, and the penny-worth of the warriors became pitifully meager, so they began to engage in trade and farming to survive. The combat potential of such a war has fallen catastrophically, and wars have remained completely unpossible.

Turechchina was cursed by the crooked raids of the Ukrainian Cossacks-Cossacks, who captured Christians and cruelly robbed and impoverished Muslims. On their chovny-gulls at 1606 r. The Cossacks acquired Bulgarian Varna in 1614. Sinop and Trebizond were destroyed in 1616. captured the Crimean Kafa (they freed up to 40 thousand Orthodox slaves), and in 1615 They sank the Turkish flotilla in the Danube (capturing the Ottoman pasha) and made it to Istanbul (!), plundering and burning down all the capital's ports. “It’s impossible to say what a great fear there is here. 16 Cossack ships arrived these days, reaching all the way to the Pompey Colony at the mouth of the Bosporus, captured Karamusol, burned and plundered the local villages, and so there was fear. "16

The Ottomans wanted to punish the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (on the teren of which Zaporizka Sich was officially dissolved) and in 1620.

(since the decline of Byzantium), was formed in Anatolia by Turkic tribes. The state existed until 1922 - the moment of the formation of the Turkish Republic. Named after the first sultan - the founder

At the beginning of his reign, the Sultan expanded his inheritance, annexing territories from the Marmara and Black Seas, a significant part of the land west of the Sakarya River.

After Osman's death, Orhan ascended the throne. During his reign, the capital of the state was established - Bursa (a former Byzantine city).

After Orhan, his eldest son Murad 1 became the ruler. This great statesman managed to strengthen the presence of his state’s troops in Europe. Murad 1 defeated the Serbian prince in 1389. As a result of this battle, the Ottoman Empire acquired most of the southern territory of the Danube.

The system of government in the country was built on a combination of Byzantine, Seljuk and Arab traditions and customs. In the lands that the Ottomans conquered, they tried to preserve local traditions as much as possible and not destroy historically established relations.

The territory of the Ottoman Empire expanded even further during the reign of Murad 1's son, Bayezid 1. The most significant victory was the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396 (on the Danube). However, despite external prosperity, the Ottoman Empire experienced quite serious difficulties, both external and internal. Mainly, the ruler's mannered behavior, his huge harem, and elaborate ceremonies in the palace irritated many ghazis. In addition, Bayezid's campaigns against Muslims and other ghazis in Asia Minor also caused concern. As a result, most of the local beys went over to Tamerlane and convinced him to start a war against the Ottoman ruler.

As a result of the battle in 1402, Bayezid's army was defeated and the ruler himself was captured. The Ottoman Empire was fragmented as a result of Tamerlane's subsequent campaigns. However, the sultans retained power over some territories of the country.

During the 15th century, the Ottoman state pursued a policy of internal reconstruction and external expansion and strengthening of borders.

The 16th century became “golden” for the empire. During this period, the country was ruled by Suleiman 1, who attached great importance to strengthening the naval power of the state. The mid-16th century saw the heyday of architecture and literature.

In the Ottoman Empire at that time, feudal relations dominated, and the military organization and administrative system were structured by law.

It should be noted that after this time (after the reign of Suleiman 1) most of the sultans turned out to be rather weak rulers. At the beginning of the 17th century, a government reform was carried out in the state. Previously, there was a rather cruel tradition in the empire - the sultan who ascended the throne killed all his brothers. Since 1603, the brothers of the rulers and their relatives were imprisoned in a special, remote part of the palace, where they spent their entire lives, until the death of the ruler. When the Sultan died, the eldest of the prisoners took his place. As a result, almost all the sultans who reigned in the 17th and 18th centuries were not intellectually developed and, of course, had no political experience. Due to the fact that there was no worthy ruler, the huge country began to lose its unity, and the power itself began to weaken very quickly.

As a result, the Ottoman Empire lost much of its power in the Mediterranean in the 18th century. The end of the Seven Years' War provoked new attacks on the state. Thus, the empire acquired, in addition to the old enemy of Austria, a new enemy - Russia.