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, Crimean Tatars, peoples of the Caucasus, Bosnians and Albanians also lived here. 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 wartime, they served their Ottoman overlord by guiding fast corsair ships - which usual time profitably traded in piracy, robbing everyone indiscriminately - against the fleets of Venice and Genoa, powerful Christian maritime 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* - enormous wealth flowed into the city, 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 clear 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 states, was tolerant of non-believers. The Sultan officially recognized the Greek Church and confirmed the jurisdiction of its patriarch and archbishops, while the Orthodox monasteries retained 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 accorded the “highest honor” to their Christian subjects: officials of the central imperial administration were recruited from among them 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 sent to court or trained in government agencies and could rise to the heights of power. Many outstanding 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 master, 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 rose 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 green 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, the military, administrative, commercial and cultural center of the 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 the high walls, were hidden 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 and carts sailed here, loaded with rice, sugar, peas, lentils, peppers, coffee, almonds, dates, saffron, honey, salt, plums in 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 of 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, intervened in state affairs with such persistence that from then on the Ottoman sultans 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 taken 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. In this lonely women's World no man was allowed to enter except the Sultan. 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 the constant cycle of 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 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 collection of ignorant, relaxed princes of the blood, the Janissaries and Grand Viziers could rarely find a person with sufficient mental development and political maturity to rule the 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 for the return of the 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 sailed 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, encased 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 help save 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 - he sat there in the shade of trees, surrounded by his favorite concubines, and listened to poetry. Ahmed loved theatrical performances; in winter, intricate performances of Chinese shadow theater 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 Yusküdar 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.

Ottoman Empire in the XV - XVII centuries. Istanbul

The Ottoman Empire, created as a result of the aggressive campaigns of the Turkish sultans, occupied at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries. a huge territory in three parts of the world - Europe, Asia and Africa. The management of this gigantic state with a diverse population, diverse climatic conditions and economic and household traditions was not an easy task. And if the Turkish sultans in the second half of the 15th century. and in the 16th century. managed to solve this problem in general, the main components of success were: a consistent policy of centralization and strengthening of political unity, a well-organized and well-functioning military machine, closely connected with the timar (military-fief) system of land ownership. And all these three levers of ensuring the power of the empire were firmly held in the hands of the sultans, who personified the fullness of power, not only secular, but also spiritual, for the sultan bore the title of caliph - the spiritual head of all Sunni Muslims.

The residence of the sultans since the middle of the 15th century. Until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul was the center of the entire system of government, the focus of the highest authorities. The French researcher of the history of the Ottoman capital, Robert Mantran, rightly sees in this city the embodiment of all the specifics of the Ottoman state. “Despite the diversity of territories and peoples under the rule of the Sultan,” he writes, “throughout its history the Ottoman capital, Istanbul, was the embodiment of the empire, at first due to the cosmopolitan nature of its population, where, however, the Turkish element was dominant and predominant, and then due to the fact that it represented the synthesis of this empire in the form of its administrative and military, economic and cultural center.”

Having become the capital of one of the most powerful states of the Middle Ages, the ancient city on the banks of the Bosphorus once again in its history turned into a political and economic center of world significance. It again became the most important point of transit trade. And although the great geographical discoveries of the 15th-16th centuries. led to the movement of the main routes of world trade from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, the Black Sea straits remained the most important trade artery. Istanbul, as the residence of the caliphs, acquired the significance of the religious and cultural center of the Muslim world. The former capital of Eastern Christianity has become the main bastion of Islam. Mehmed II moved his residence from Edirne to Istanbul only in the winter of 1457/58. But even before that, he ordered the empty city to be populated. The first new residents of Istanbul were Turks from Aksaray and Armenians from Bursa, as well as Greeks from the Seas and the islands of the Aegean Sea.

The new capital suffered from the plague more than once. In 1466, 600 residents of Istanbul died every day from this terrible disease. The dead were not always buried on time, because there were not enough gravediggers in the city. Mehmed II, who at that moment returned from a military campaign in Albania, chose to wait out the terrible time in the Macedonian mountains. Less than ten years later, an even more devastating epidemic struck the city. This time the entire court of the Sultan moved to the Balkan Mountains. Plague epidemics occurred in Istanbul in subsequent centuries. Tens of thousands of lives were claimed, in particular, by the plague epidemic that raged in the capital in 1625.

And yet the number of inhabitants of the new Turkish capital was rapidly increasing. By the end of the 15th century. it exceeded 200 thousand. To estimate this figure, we will give two examples. In 1500, only six European cities had a population of more than 100 thousand - Paris, Venice, Milan, Naples, Moscow and Istanbul. In the Balkan region, Istanbul was the largest city. So, if Edirne and Thessaloniki at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th centuries. numbered 5 thousand taxable households, then in Istanbul already in the 70s of the 15th century. there were more than 16 thousand such farms, and in the 16th century. Istanbul's population growth was even more significant. Selim I resettled many Vlachs to his capital. After the conquest of Belgrade, many Serbian artisans settled in Istanbul, and the conquest of Syria and Egypt led to the appearance of Syrian and Egyptian artisans in the city. Further population growth was predetermined by the rapid development of crafts and trade, as well as extensive construction, which required many workers. By the middle of the 16th century. in Istanbul there were from 400 to 500 thousand inhabitants.

The ethnic composition of the inhabitants of medieval Istanbul was diverse. The majority of the population were Turks. In Istanbul, neighborhoods appeared populated by people from the cities of Asia Minor and named after these cities - Aksaray, Karaman, Charshamba. In a short time, significant groups of non-Turkish population, mainly Greek and Armenian, formed in the capital. By order of the Sultan, new residents were provided with houses that were empty after the death or enslavement of their former residents. New settlers were provided with various benefits in order to encourage them to engage in crafts or trade.

The most significant group of the non-Turkish population were the Greeks - immigrants from the Seas, from the islands of the Aegean Sea and from Asia Minor. Greek quarters arose around churches and the residence of the Greek patriarch. Since there were about three dozen Orthodox churches and they were scattered throughout the city, neighborhoods with a compact Greek population gradually emerged in different areas of Istanbul and in its suburbs. The Istanbul Greeks played an important role in trade, fishing and navigation, and occupied a strong position in handicraft production. Most of the drinking establishments belonged to the Greeks. A significant part of the city was occupied by neighborhoods of Armenians and Jews, who also settled, as a rule, around their houses of worship - churches and synagogues - or near the residences of the spiritual heads of their communities - the Armenian patriarch and chief rabbi.

Armenians constituted the second largest group of the non-Turkish population of the capital. After Istanbul turned into a major transshipment point, they began to actively participate in international trade as intermediaries. Over time, Armenians took an important place in banking. They also played a very noticeable role in the handicraft industry of Istanbul.

Third place belonged to the Jews. At first they occupied a dozen blocks near the Golden Horn, and then began to settle in a number of other areas of the old city. Jewish quarters also appeared on the northern bank of the Golden Horn. Jews have traditionally participated in intermediary operations of international trade and played an important role in banking.

There were many Arabs in Istanbul, mostly from Egypt and Syria. Albanians, most of them Muslims, also settled here. Serbs and Wallachians, Georgians and Abkhazians, Persians and Gypsies also lived in the Turkish capital. Here one could meet representatives of almost all the peoples of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. The picture of the Turkish capital was made even more colorful by the colony of Europeans - Italians, French, Dutch and English, who were engaged in trade, medical or pharmaceutical practice. In Istanbul they were usually called “Franks”, uniting under this name people from different countries of Western Europe.

Interesting data on the Muslim and non-Muslim population of Istanbul over time. In 1478, the city was 58.11% Muslim and 41.89% non-Muslim. In 1520-1530 this ratio looked the same: Muslims 58.3% and non-Muslims 41.7%. Travelers noted approximately the same ratio in the 17th century. As is clear from the above data, Istanbul was very different in population composition from all other cities of the Ottoman Empire, where non-Muslims were usually in the minority. The Turkish sultans in the first centuries of the empire’s existence seemed to demonstrate, using the example of the capital, the possibility of coexistence between conquerors and the conquered. However, this never obscured the difference in their legal status.

In the second half of the 15th century. Turkish sultans established that spiritual and some civil cases(issues of marriage and divorce, property litigation, etc.) Greeks, Armenians and Jews will be in charge of their religious communities (millets). Through the heads of these communities, the Sultan's authorities also levied various taxes and fees on non-Muslims. The patriarchs of the Greek Orthodox and Armenian Gregorian communities, as well as the chief rabbi of the Jewish community, were placed in the position of mediators between the Sultan and the non-Muslim population. The sultans patronized the heads of communities and provided them with all kinds of favors as payment for maintaining a spirit of humility and obedience in their flock.

Non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire were denied access to administrative or military careers. Therefore, the majority of Istanbul's non-Muslim residents usually engaged in crafts or trade. The exception was a small part of the Greeks from wealthy families who lived in the Phanar quarter on the European shore of the Golden Horn. Phanariot Greeks were in the public service, mainly in the positions of dragomans - official translators.

The Sultan's residence was the center of the political and administrative life of the empire. All state affairs were resolved on the territory of the Topkapi palace complex. The tendency towards maximum centralization of power was expressed in the empire in the fact that all the main government departments were located on the territory of the Sultan's residence or near it. This seemed to emphasize that the person of the Sultan is the focus of all power in the empire, and the dignitaries, even the highest, are only executors of his will, and their own life and property depend entirely on the ruler.

In the first courtyard of Topkapi, the management of finances and archives, the mint, the management of waqfs (lands and property, the income from which went to religious or charitable purposes), and the arsenal were located. In the second courtyard there was a divan - an advisory council under the Sultan; The Sultan's office and the state treasury were also located here. The third courtyard contained the Sultan's personal residence, his harem and personal treasury. From the middle of the 17th century. one of the palaces built near Topkapi became the permanent residence of the great vizier. In the immediate vicinity of Topkapi, the barracks of the Janissary corps were built, where from 10 thousand to 12 thousand Janissaries were usually housed.

Since the Sultan was considered the supreme leader and commander-in-chief of all the warriors of Islam in the holy war against the “infidels,” the very ceremony of the accession of the Turkish sultans to the throne was accompanied by the ritual of “girdling with the sword.” Setting off for this unique coronation, the new sultan arrived at the Eyyub Mosque, located on the shores of the Golden Horn. In this mosque, the sheikh of the revered order of Mevlevi dervishes girded the new sultan with the saber of the legendary Osman. Returning to his palace, the Sultan drank a traditional cup of sherbet at the Janissary barracks, having accepted it from the hands of one of the highest Janissary military leaders. Having then filled the cup with gold coins and assured the Janissaries of their constant readiness to fight against the “infidels,” the Sultan seemed to assure the Janissaries of his favor.

The Sultan's personal treasury, unlike the state treasury, usually did not experience a shortage of funds. It was constantly replenished in a variety of ways - tribute from the vassal Danube principalities and Egypt, income from waqf institutions, endless offerings and gifts.

Fabulous sums were spent on maintaining the Sultan's court. The palace servants numbered in the thousands. More than 10 thousand people lived and fed in the palace complex - courtiers, sultan's wives and concubines, eunuchs, servants, and palace guards. The staff of the courtiers was especially numerous. There were not only the usual court officials - stewards and housekeepers, bedkeepers and falconers, stirrups and huntsmen - but also the chief court astrologer, the guardians of the Sultan's fur coat and turban, even the guards of his nightingale and parrot!

In accordance with Muslim tradition, the Sultan's palace consisted of a male half, where the Sultan's chambers and all official premises were located, and a female half, called the harem. This part of the palace was under the constant protection of black eunuchs, whose head had the title of “kyzlar agasy” (“master of the girls”) and occupied one of the highest places in the court hierarchy. He not only had absolute control over the life of the harem, but was also in charge of the Sultan’s personal treasury. He was also in charge of the waqfs of Mecca and Medina. The head of the black eunuchs was special, close to the Sultan, enjoyed his trust and had very great power. Over time, the influence of this person became so significant that his opinion was decisive in deciding the most important affairs of the empire. More than one grand vizier owed his appointment or removal to the head of the black eunuchs. It happened, however, that the leaders of the black eunuchs also came to a bad end. The first person in the harem was the sultana mother (“valide sultan”). She also played a significant role in political affairs. In general, the harem has always been the center of palace intrigue. Many conspiracies, directed not only against high dignitaries, but also against the Sultan himself, arose within the walls of the harem.

The luxury of the Sultan's court was intended to emphasize the greatness and significance of the ruler in the eyes of not only his subjects, but also representatives of other states with which the Ottoman Empire had diplomatic relations.

Although the Turkish sultans had unlimited power, it happened that they themselves became victims of palace intrigues and conspiracies. Therefore, the sultans tried in every possible way to protect themselves; personal guards had to constantly protect them from unexpected attacks. Even under Bayezid II, a rule was established that prohibited armed people from approaching the person of the Sultan. Moreover, under the successors of Mehmed II, any person could approach the Sultan only if accompanied by two guards who took him by the arms. Measures were constantly taken to eliminate the possibility of poisoning the Sultan.

Since fratricide in the Osman dynasty was legalized under Mehmed II, throughout the 15th and 16th centuries. dozens of princes ended their days, some in infancy, at the behest of the sultans. However, even such a cruel law could not protect the Turkish monarchs from palace conspiracies. Already during the reign of Sultan Suleiman I, two of his sons, Bayazid and Mustafa, were deprived of their lives. This was the result of the intrigue of Suleiman’s beloved wife, Sultana Roksolana, who in such a cruel way cleared the way to the throne for her son Selim.

On behalf of the Sultan, the country was ruled by the Grand Vizier, in whose residence the most important administrative, financial and military matters were considered and decided. The Sultan entrusted the exercise of his spiritual power to Sheikh-ul-Islam, the highest Muslim cleric of the empire. And although these two highest dignitaries were entrusted by the Sultan himself with all the fullness of secular and spiritual power, real power in the state was very often concentrated in the hands of his associates. It happened more than once that state affairs were carried out in the chambers of the Sultana-mother, in the circle of people close to her from the court administration.

In the complex vicissitudes of palace life vital role The Janissaries invariably played. The Janissary Corps, which for several centuries formed the basis of the Turkish standing army, was one of the strongest pillars of the Sultan's throne. The sultans sought to win the hearts of the Janissaries with generosity. There was, in particular, a custom according to which the sultans had to give them gifts upon accession to the throne. This custom eventually turned into a kind of tribute from the sultans to the Janissary corps. Over time, the Janissaries became something of a Praetorian Guard. They played the first violin in almost all palace coups; the sultans continually removed high dignitaries who did not please the Janissary freemen. As a rule, about a third of the Janissary corps was in Istanbul, i.e., from 10 thousand to 15 thousand people. From time to time, the capital was shaken by riots, which usually arose in one of the Janissary barracks.

In 1617-1623 Janissary riots led to changes in sultans four times. One of them, Sultan Osman II, was enthroned at the age of fourteen, and four years later he was killed by the Janissaries. This happened in 1622. And ten years later, in 1632, a Janissary rebellion broke out again in Istanbul. Returning to the capital from an unsuccessful campaign, they besieged the Sultan's palace, and then a deputation of Janissaries and Sipahis burst into the Sultan's chambers, demanded the appointment of a new grand vizier they liked and the extradition of dignitaries against whom the rebels had claims. The rebellion was suppressed, as always, yielding to the Janissaries, but their passions were already so inflamed that with the onset of the Muslim holy days of Ramadan, crowds of Janissaries with torches in their hands rushed around the city at night, threatening to set fire to extorting money and property from dignitaries and wealthy citizens.

More often than not, ordinary Janissaries turned out to be mere instruments in the hands of palace factions opposing each other. The head of the corps - the Janissary aga - was one of the most influential figures in the Sultan's administration; the highest dignitaries of the empire valued his location. The sultans treated the Janissaries with special attention, periodically arranging all kinds of entertainment and shows for them. In the most difficult moments for the state, none of the dignitaries risked delaying the payment of salaries to the Janissaries, because this could cost their lives. The prerogatives of the Janissaries were guarded so carefully that things sometimes came to sad oddities. Once it happened that the chief master of ceremonies on the day of a Muslim holiday mistakenly allowed the commanders of the cavalry and artillery of the former Janissary aga to kiss the sultan's robe. The absent-minded master of ceremonies was immediately executed.

Janissary riots were also dangerous for the sultans. In the summer of 1703, the Janissary uprising ended with the overthrow of Sultan Mustafa II from the throne.

The riot started out quite normally. Its instigators were several companies of Janissaries who did not want to set out on the appointed campaign in Georgia, citing a delay in the payment of salaries. The rebels, supported by a significant part of the Janissaries who were in the city, as well as softs (students of theological schools - madrassas), artisans and merchants, turned out to be practically the masters of the capital. The Sultan and his court were at this time in Edirne. A split began among the dignitaries and ulema of the capital; some joined the rebels. Crowds of rioters destroyed the houses of dignitaries they disliked, including the house of the Istanbul mayor - kaymakam. One of the military leaders hated by the Janissaries, Hashim-zade Murtaza Agha, was killed. The rebel leaders appointed new dignitaries to senior positions, and then sent a deputation to the Sultan in Edirne, demanding the extradition of a number of courtiers whom they considered guilty of disordering state affairs.

The Sultan tried to pay off the rebels by sending a large sum to Istanbul to pay salaries and give cash gifts to the Janissaries. But this did not bring the desired result. Mustafa had to depose and send into exile Sheikh-ul-Islam Feyzullah Effendi, who was disliked by the rebels. At the same time, he gathered troops loyal to him in Edirne. Then the Janissaries moved from Istanbul to Edirne on August 10, 1703; already on the way, they proclaimed Mustafa II's brother, Ahmed, as the new sultan. The matter ended without bloodshed. Negotiations between the rebel commanders and the military leaders leading the Sultan's troops ended with a fatwa of the new Sheikh-ul-Islam on the deposition of Mustafa II and the accession of Ahmed III to the throne. The direct participants in the riot received the highest pardon, but when the unrest in the capital subsided and the government again controlled the situation, some of the rebel leaders were nevertheless executed.

We have already said that centralized management of a huge empire required a significant government apparatus. The heads of the main government departments, among which the first was the Grand Vizier, together with a number of the highest dignitaries of the empire, formed an advisory council under the Sultan, called the diwan. This council discussed state issues of special importance.

The office of the Grand Vizier was called “Bab-i Ali”, which literally meant “High Gate”. In French, the language of diplomacy of the time, it sounded like “La Sublime Porte,” i.e., “The Brilliant [or High] Gate.” In the language Russian diplomacy the French "Porte" became "Porto". Thus, “The Sublime Porte” or “Sublime Porte” became the name of the Ottoman government in Russia for a long time. “The Ottoman Port” was sometimes called not only the highest body of secular power of the Ottoman Empire, but also the Turkish state itself.

The post of Grand Vizier existed since the founding of the Ottoman dynasty (established in 1327). The Grand Vizier always had access to the Sultan; he carried out state affairs on behalf of the sovereign. The symbol of his power was the state seal. When the Sultan ordered the Grand Vizier to transfer the seal to another dignitary, this meant, at best, immediate resignation. Often this order meant exile, and sometimes even a death sentence. The office of the Grand Vizier managed all state affairs, including military ones. The heads of other government departments, as well as the beylerbeys (governors) of Anatolia and Rumelia and the dignitaries who ruled the sanjaks (provinces), were subordinate to his head. But still, the power of the great vizier depended on many reasons, including such random ones as the whim or caprice of the sultan, the intrigues of the palace camarilla.

A high position in the capital of the empire meant unusually large incomes. The highest dignitaries received land grants from the Sultan, which brought colossal sums of money. As a result, many high dignitaries accumulated enormous wealth. For example, when the treasures of the great vizier Sinan Pasha, who died at the end of the 16th century, entered the treasury, their size amazed contemporaries so much that the story about it ended up in one of the famous Turkish medieval chronicles.

An important government department was the Kadiasker department. It supervised the justice and court authorities, as well as school affairs. Since the legal proceedings and the educational system were based on the norms of Sharia - Islamic law, the department of the Qadiasker was subordinate not only to the Grand Vizier, but also to the Sheikh-ul-Islam. Until 1480, there was a single department of the Cadiasker of the Rumelian and the Cadiasker of the Anatolians.

The finances of the empire were managed by the office of the defterdar (lit., “keeper of the register”). The Nishanji Department was a kind of protocol department of the empire, for its officials drew up numerous decrees of the sultans, providing them with a skillfully executed tughra - the monogram of the ruling sultan, without which the decree did not receive the force of law. Until the middle of the 17th century. Nishanji's department also carried out relations between the Ottoman Empire and other countries.

Numerous officials of all ranks were considered “slaves of the Sultan.” Many dignitaries actually began their careers as real slaves in palace or military service. But even having received a high position in the empire, each of them knew that his position and life depended only on the will of the Sultan. Remarkable life path one of the great viziers of the 16th century. - Lutfi Pasha, who is known as the author of an essay on the functions of the great viziers (“Asaf-name”). He came to the Sultan's palace as a boy among the children of Christians who were forcibly recruited to serve in the Janissary corps, served in the Sultan's personal guard, changed a number of posts in the Janissary army, became beylerbey of Anatolia, and then Rumelia. Lutfi Pasha was married to the sister of Sultan Suleiman. It helped my career. But he lost the post of grand vizier as soon as he dared to break with his high-born wife. However, his fate was far from worse.

Executions were common in medieval Istanbul. The table of ranks was reflected even in the treatment of the heads of the executed, which were usually displayed near the walls of the Sultan's palace. The severed head of the vizier was given a silver plate and a place on a marble column at the palace gates. A lesser dignitary could only rely on a simple wooden plate for his head, which had flown off his shoulders, and the heads of ordinary officials who had been fined or innocently executed were laid without any supports on the ground near the walls of the palace.

Sheikh-ul-Islam occupied a special place in the Ottoman Empire and in the life of its capital. The highest clergy, the ulema, consisted of qadis - judges in Muslim courts, muftis - Islamic theologians and muderris - madrasah teachers. The strength of the Muslim clergy was determined not only by its exclusive role in the spiritual life and administration of the empire. It owned vast tracts of land, as well as a variety of property in cities.

Only Sheikh-ul-Islam had the right to interpret any decision of the secular authorities of the empire from the point of view of the provisions of the Koran and Sharia. His fatwa - a document approving acts of supreme power - was also necessary for the Sultan's decree. Fatwas even sanctioned the deposition of sultans and their accession to the throne. Sheikh-ul-Islam occupied a position equal to the Grand Vizier in the Ottoman official hierarchy. The latter paid him a traditional official visit every year, emphasizing the respect of the secular authorities for the head of the Muslim clergy. Sheikh-ul-Islam received a huge salary from the treasury.

The Ottoman bureaucracy was not distinguished by purity of morals. Already in the decree of Sultan Mehmed III (1595-1603), issued on the occasion of his accession to the throne, it was said that in the past in the Ottoman Empire no one suffered from injustice and extortion, but now the set of laws guaranteeing justice is neglected, and in In administrative matters there are all kinds of injustices. Over time, corruption and abuse of power, sale of lucrative places and rampant bribery became very common.

As the power of the Ottoman Empire grew, many European sovereigns began to show increasing interest in friendly relations with it. Istanbul often hosted foreign embassies and missions. The Venetians were especially active, whose ambassador visited the court of Mehmed II already in 1454. At the end of the 15th century. Diplomatic relations between the Porte and France and the Muscovite state began. And already in the 16th century. Diplomats of European powers fought in Istanbul for influence on the Sultan and Porto.

In the middle of the 16th century. arose and survived until the end of the 18th century. the custom of providing foreign embassies with allowances from the treasury during their stay in the sultans' possessions. Thus, in 1589, the Sublime Porte gave the Persian ambassador one hundred sheep and one hundred sweet breads per day, as well as a significant sum of money. Ambassadors of Muslim states received higher salaries than representatives of Christian powers.

For almost 200 years after the fall of Constantinople, foreign embassies were located in Istanbul itself, where a special building was allocated for them, called “Elchi Khan” (“Embassy Court”). From the middle of the 17th century. Ambassadors were given residences in Galata and Pera, and representatives of the Sultan's vassal states were located in Elchihan.

The reception of foreign ambassadors was carried out according to a carefully designed ceremony, which was supposed to testify to the power of the Ottoman Empire and the power of the monarch himself. They tried to impress the distinguished guests not only with the decoration of the Sultan’s residence, but also with the menacing appearance of the Janissaries, who on such occasions lined up in thousands in front of the palace as an honor guard. The culmination of the reception was usually the admission of ambassadors and their retinue to the throne room, where they could approach the person of the Sultan only when accompanied by his personal guard. At the same time, according to tradition, each of the guests was led to the throne arm in arm by two of the Sultan’s guards, who were responsible for the safety of their master. Rich gifts to the Sultan and the Grand Vizier were an indispensable attribute of any foreign embassy. Violations of this tradition were rare and, as a rule, cost the perpetrators dearly. In 1572, the French ambassador was never granted an audience with Selim II, because he did not bring gifts from his king. In 1585, the Austrian ambassador was treated even worse, who also came to the Sultan’s court without gifts. He was simply imprisoned. The custom of presenting gifts to the Sultan by foreign ambassadors existed until the middle of the 18th century.

Relations between foreign representatives and the grand vizier and other high dignitaries of the empire were also usually associated with many formalities and conventions, and the need to give them expensive gifts remained until the second half of the 18th century. the norm of business relations with the Porte and its departments.

When war was declared, the ambassadors were put in prison, in particular in the casemates of Yedikule, the Seven Tower Castle. But even in peacetime, cases of insulting ambassadors and even physical violence against them or arbitrary imprisonment were not an extreme phenomenon. The Sultan and Porta treated representatives of Russia, perhaps, with more respect than other foreign ambassadors. With the exception of imprisonment in the Seven Tower Castle during the outbreak of wars with Russia, Russian representatives were not subjected to public humiliation or violence. The first Moscow ambassador to Istanbul, Stolnik Pleshcheev (1496), was received by Sultan Bayezid II, and the Sultan’s response letters contained assurances of friendship to the Moscow state, and very kind words about Pleshcheev himself. The attitude of the Sultan and the Porte towards Russian ambassadors in subsequent times, it was obviously determined by the reluctance to worsen relations with a powerful neighbor.

However, Istanbul was not only the political center of the Ottoman Empire. “In terms of its significance and as the residence of the caliph, Istanbul became the first city of Muslims, as fabulous as the ancient capital of the Arab caliphs,” notes N. Todorov. - It contained enormous wealth, which consisted of the spoils of victorious wars, indemnities, a constant influx of taxes and other revenues, and income from developing trade. Nodal geographical position- at the crossroads of several major trade routes by land and sea - and the supply privileges that Istanbul enjoyed for several centuries turned it into the largest European city."

The capital of the Turkish sultans had the glory of a beautiful and prosperous city. Samples of Muslim architecture fit well into the magnificent natural landscape of the city. The new architectural appearance of the city did not emerge immediately. Extensive construction took place in Istanbul for a long time, starting from the second half of the 15th century. The Sultans took care of the restoration and further strengthening of the city walls. Then new buildings began to appear - the Sultan's residence, mosques, palaces.

The gigantic city naturally fell into three parts: Istanbul itself, located on the cape between the Sea of ​​Marmara and the Golden Horn, Galata and Pera on the northern shore of the Golden Horn, and Uskudar on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus, the third large district of the Turkish capital, which grew up on the site of ancient Chrysopolis. The main part of the urban ensemble was Istanbul, the boundaries of which were determined by the lines of the land and sea walls of the former Byzantine capital. It was here, in the old part of the city, that the political, religious and administrative center of the Ottoman Empire developed. Here were the residence of the Sultan, all government institutions and departments, and the most important religious buildings. In this part of the city, according to a tradition preserved from Byzantine times, the largest trading firms and craft workshops were located.

Eyewitnesses, who unanimously admired the general panorama and location of the city, were equally unanimous in the disappointment that arose upon closer acquaintance with it. “The city inside does not correspond to its beautiful external appearance,” wrote an Italian traveler of the early 17th century. Pietro della Balle. - On the contrary, it is quite ugly, since no one cares to keep the streets clean... due to the negligence of the inhabitants, the streets have become dirty and inconvenient... There are very few streets here that can be easily passed by... road crews - they are used only by women and those people who cannot walk. All other streets can only be ridden on horseback or walked, without experiencing much satisfaction.” Narrow and crooked, mostly unpaved, with continuous ups and downs, dirty and gloomy - this is how almost all the streets of medieval Istanbul look in the descriptions of eyewitnesses. Only one of the streets in the old part of the city - Divan Iolu - was wide, relatively neat and even beautiful. But this was the central highway along which the Sultan’s cortege usually passed through the entire city from the Adrianople Gate to the Topkapi Palace.

Travelers were disappointed by the appearance of many of Istanbul's old buildings. But gradually, as the Ottoman Empire expanded, the Turks perceived the higher culture of the peoples they conquered, which, naturally, was reflected in urban planning. Nevertheless, in the XVI-XVIII centuries. The residential buildings of the Turkish capital looked more than modest and did not at all inspire admiration. European travelers noted that the private houses of Istanbul residents, with the exception of the palaces of dignitaries and wealthy merchants, were unattractive buildings.

In medieval Istanbul there were from 30 thousand to 40 thousand buildings - residential buildings, trade and craft establishments. The overwhelming majority were one-story wooden houses. At the same time, in the second half of the XV-XVII centuries. In the Ottoman capital, many buildings were built that became examples of Ottoman architecture. These were cathedral and small mosques, numerous Muslim religious schools - madrassas, dervish abodes - tekkes, caravanserais, market buildings and various Muslim charitable institutions, palaces of the Sultan and his nobles. In the first years after the conquest of Constantinople, the Eski Saray (Old Palace) palace was built, where the residence of Sultan Mehmed II was located for 15 years.

In 1466, on the square where the ancient acropolis of Byzantium was once located, the construction of a new Sultan's residence, Topkapi, began. It remained the seat of the Ottoman sultans until the 19th century. The construction of palace buildings on the territory of Topkapi continued in the 16th-18th centuries. The main charm of the Topkapi palace complex was its location: it was located on a high hill, literally hanging over the waters of the Sea of ​​Marmara, and it was decorated with beautiful gardens.

Mosques and mausoleums, palace buildings and ensembles, madrassas and tekkes were not only examples of Ottoman architecture. Many of them also became monuments of Turkish medieval applied art. Masters of artistic processing of stone and marble, wood and metal, bone and leather participated in the external decoration of buildings, but especially their interiors. The finest carvings decorated the wooden doors of rich mosques and palace buildings. Amazingly crafted tiled panels and colored stained glass windows, skillfully made bronze candelabra, famous carpets from the Asia Minor city of Ushak - all this was evidence of the talent and hard work of numerous nameless craftsmen who created genuine examples of medieval applied art. Fountains were built in many places in Istanbul, the construction of which was considered a godly deed by Muslims who highly revered water.

Along with Muslim places of worship, the famous Turkish baths gave Istanbul its unique appearance. “After mosques,” noted one of the travelers, “the first objects that strike a visitor in a Turkish city are buildings topped with lead domes, in which holes with convex glass are made in a checkerboard pattern. These are "gammas", or public baths. They belong to the best works of architecture in Turkey, and there is no town so miserable and desolate that there are not public baths open from four o'clock in the morning until eight in the evening. There are up to three hundred of them in Constantinople.”

Baths in Istanbul, as in all Turkish cities, were also a place of relaxation and meeting for residents, something like a club, where after bathing they could spend many hours talking over a traditional cup of coffee.

Like baths, markets were an integral part of the appearance of the Turkish capital. There were many markets in Istanbul, most of them covered. There were markets selling flour, meat and fish, vegetables and fruits, furs and fabrics. There was also a special

Introduction

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 of the 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 and became major military leaders. Among the rural population, Islamization became widespread only in Bosnia, some regions of Macedonia and Albania, but the change in religion for the most part did not lead to separation from their nationality, to the loss of their 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 that 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 The situation of the 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 Sultan's authority.

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 abbot. 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”.

1.1.2 New martyrs and ascetics of the period of the Ottoman yoke

During the period of Turkish rule, the Orthodox faith was the only support for the Bulgarians that allowed them to preserve their national identity. Attempts at forced conversion to Islam contributed to the fact that remaining faithful to the Christian faith was also perceived as protecting one’s national identity. The feat of the new martyrs was directly correlated with the exploits of the martyrs of the first centuries of Christianity.

Their lives were created, services were compiled for them, the celebration of their memory was organized, the veneration of their relics was organized, churches consecrated in their honor were built. The exploits of dozens of saints who suffered during the period of Turkish rule are known. As a result of outbreaks of fanatical bitterness of Muslims against the Christian Bulgarians, George the New of Sophia, burned alive in 1515, George the Old and George the New, hanged in 1534, suffered martyrdom; Nicholas the New and Hieromartyr. Bishop Vissarion of Smolyansky was stoned to death by a crowd of Turks - one in Sofia in 1555, others in Smolyan in 1670. In 1737, the organizer of the uprising, Hieromartyr Metropolitan Simeon Samokovsky, was hanged in Sofia. In 1750, Angel Lerinsky (Bitolsky) was beheaded with a sword for refusing to convert to Islam in Bitola. In 1771, the Hieromartyr Damascene was hanged by a crowd of Turks in Svishtov.

Martyr John in 1784 confessed the Christian faith in the St. Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople, converted into a mosque, for which he was beheaded; martyr Zlata Moglenskaya, who did not succumb to the persuasion of her Turkish kidnapper to accept his faith, was tortured and hanged in 1795 in the village of Slatino Moglenskaya areas. After torture, the martyr Lazarus was hanged in 1802 in the vicinity of the village of Soma near Pergamon. They confessed the Lord in the Muslim court. Ignatius of Starozagorsky in 1814 in Constantinople, who died by hanging, and so on. Onufriy Gabrovsky in 1818 on the island of Chios, beheaded by a sword. In 1822, in the city of Osman-Pazar (modern Omurtag), the martyr John was hanged, publicly repenting of having converted to Islam; in 1841, in Sliven, the head of the martyr Demetrius of Sliven was beheaded; in 1830, in Plovdiv, the martyr Rada of Plovdiv suffered for her faith. The BOC celebrates the memory of all the saints and martyrs of the Bulgarian land, who pleased the Lord with a firm confession of the faith of Christ and accepted the crown of martyrdom for the glory of the Lord, on the 2nd week after Pentecost.

1.1.3 Patriotic and educational activities of Bulgarian monasteries

During the Turkish conquest of the Balkans in the 2nd half of the 14th - early 15th centuries, most of the parish churches and once thriving Bulgarian monasteries were burned or looted, many frescoes, icons, manuscripts, and church utensils were lost. For decades, teaching in monastery and church schools and the copying of books ceased, and many traditions of Bulgarian art were lost. The Tarnovo monasteries were especially damaged. Some representatives of the educated clergy (mainly from among the monastics) died, others were forced to leave the Bulgarian lands. Only a few monasteries survived due to either the intercession of relatives of the highest dignitaries of the Ottoman Empire, or the special merits of the local population to the Sultan, or their location in inaccessible mountainous regions. According to some researchers, the Turks destroyed mainly monasteries located in areas that most strongly resisted the conquerors, as well as monasteries that were on the routes of military campaigns. From the 70s of the 14th century until the end of the 15th century, the system of Bulgarian monasteries did not exist as an integral organism; Many monasteries can be judged only from the surviving ruins and toponymic data.

The population - secular and clergy - on their own initiative and at their own expense, restored monasteries and churches. Among the surviving and restored monasteries are Rilsky, Boboshevsky, Dragalevsky, Kurilovsky, Karlukovsky, Etropolsky, Bilinsky, Rozhensky, Kapinovsky, Preobrazhensky, Lyaskovsky, Plakovsky, Dryanovsky, Kilifarevo, Prisovsky, Patriarchal Holy Trinity near Tarnovo and others, although their existence was constantly under threat due to frequent attacks, robberies and fires. In many of them, life stood still for long periods.

During the suppression of the first Tarnovo uprising in 1598, most of the rebels took refuge in the Kilifarevo Monastery, restored in 1442; For this, the Turks again destroyed the monastery. The surrounding monasteries - Lyaskovsky, Prisovsky and Plakovsky - were also damaged. In 1686, during the second Tarnovo uprising, many monasteries were also damaged. In 1700, the Lyaskovsky Monastery became the center of the so-called revolt of Mary. During the suppression of the uprising, this monastery and the neighboring Transfiguration Monastery suffered.

The traditions of medieval Bulgarian culture were preserved by the followers of Patriarch Euthymius, who emigrated to Serbia, Mount Athos, and also to Eastern Europe: Metropolitan Cyprian († 1406), Gregory Tsamblak († 1420), Deacon Andrei († after 1425), Konstantin Kostenetsky († after 1433 ) and others.

In Bulgaria itself, a revival of cultural activity occurred in the 50s–80s of the 15th century. A cultural upsurge swept the western former territories of the country, with the Rila Monastery becoming the center. It was restored in the middle of the 15th century through the efforts of the monks Joasaph, David and Theophan with the patronage and generous financial support of the widow of Sultan Murad II Mara Brankovich (daughter of the Serbian despot George). With the transfer of the relics of St. John of Rila there in 1469, the monastery became one of the spiritual centers not only of Bulgaria, but also of the Slavic Balkans as a whole; Thousands of pilgrims began to arrive here. In 1466, an agreement on mutual assistance was concluded between the Rila monastery and the Russian monastery of St. Panteleimon on Mount Athos. Gradually, the activities of scribes, icon painters and traveling preachers resumed in the Rila Monastery.

The scribes Demetrius Kratovsky, Vladislav Grammatik, monks Mardari, David, Pachomius and others worked in the monasteries of Western Bulgaria and Macedonia. The Collection of 1469, written by Vladislav the Grammar, included a number of works related to the history of the Bulgarian people: “Long Life of St. Cyril the Philosopher”, “Eulogy to Saints Cyril and Methodius” and others; the basis of the “Rila Panegyric” of 1479 is made up of the best works of the Balkan Hesychast writers of the 2nd half of the 11th - beginning of the 15th centuries: (“The Life of St. John of Rila”, epistles and other works of Euthymius of Tarnovsky, “The Life of Stefan Dečansky” by Gregory Tsamblak, “The Eulogy of St. Philotheus” by Iosaf Bdinsky, “The Life of Gregory Sinaita" and "The Life of St. Theodosius of Tarnovo" by Patriarch Callistus), as well as new works ("The Rila Tale" by Vladislav Grammatik and "The Life of St. John of Rila with Little Praise" by Dimitri Kantakouzin).

At the end of the 15th century, monks-scribes and compilers of collections Spiridon and Peter Zograf worked in the Rila Monastery; For the Suceava (1529) and Krupniši (1577) Gospels stored here, unique gold bindings were made in the monastery workshops.

Book-writing activity was also carried out in monasteries located in the vicinity of Sofia - Dragalevsky, Kremikovsky, Seslavsky, Lozensky, Kokalyansky, Kurilovsky and others. The Dragalevsky monastery was restored in 1476; The initiator of its renovation and decoration was the wealthy Bulgarian Radoslav Mavr, whose portrait, surrounded by his family, was placed among the paintings in the vestibule of the monastery church. In 1488, Hieromonk Neophytos and his sons, priest Dimitar and Bogdan, built and decorated the Church of St. with their own funds. Demetrius in the Boboshevsky Monastery. In 1493, Radivoj, a wealthy resident of the suburbs of Sofia, restored the Church of St. George in the Kremikovsky Monastery; his portrait was also placed in the vestibule of the temple. In 1499, the church of St. Apostle John the Theologian in Poganov, as evidenced by the preserved ktitor portraits and inscriptions.

In the 16th–17th centuries, the Etropole Monastery of the Holy Trinity (or Varovitec), founded initially (in the 15th century) by a colony of Serbian miners that existed in the nearby city of Etropole, became a major center of writing. In the Etropol Monastery, dozens of liturgical books and collections of mixed content were copied, richly decorated with elegantly executed titles, vignettes and miniatures. The names of local scribes are known: the grammarian Boycho, the hieromonk Danail, Taho Grammar, the priest Velcho, the daskal (teacher) Koyo, the grammarian John, the carver Mavrudiy and others. In scientific literature there is even a concept of the Etropolian artistic and calligraphic school. Master Nedyalko Zograf from Lovech created an icon of the Old Testament Trinity for the monastery in 1598, and 4 years later he painted the church of the nearby Karlukovo monastery. A series of icons were painted in Etropol and surrounding monasteries, including images of Bulgarian saints; the inscriptions on them were made in Slavic. The activity of monasteries on the periphery of the Sofia Plain was similar: it is no coincidence that this area received the name Sofia Small Holy Mountain.

Characteristic is the work of the painter Hieromonk Pimen Zografsky (Sofia), who worked at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th century in the vicinity of Sofia and Western Bulgaria, where he decorated dozens of churches and monasteries. In the 17th century, churches were restored and painted in Karlukovsky (1602), Seslavsky, Alinsky (1626), Bilinsky, Trynsky, Mislovishitsky, Iliyansky, Iskretsky and other monasteries.

Bulgarian Christians counted on the help of the Slavic peoples of the same faith, especially the Russians. Since the 16th century, Russia was regularly visited by Bulgarian hierarchs, abbots of monasteries and other clergy. One of them was the above-mentioned Tarnovo Metropolitan Dionysius (Rali), who delivered to Moscow the decision of the Council of Constantinople (1590) on the establishment of the Patriarchate in Russia. Monks, including the abbots of Rila, Preobrazhensky, Lyaskovsky, Bilinsky and other monasteries, in the 16th–17th centuries asked the Moscow Patriarchs and sovereigns for funds to restore damaged monasteries and protect them from oppression by the Turks. Later, trips to Russia for alms to restore their monasteries were made by the abbot of the Transfiguration Monastery (1712), the archimandrite of the Lyaskovsky Monastery (1718) and others. In addition to generous monetary alms for monasteries and churches, Slavic books were brought from Russia to Bulgaria, primarily of spiritual content, which did not allow the cultural and national consciousness of the Bulgarian people to fade.

In the 18th–19th centuries, as the economic capabilities of the Bulgarians grew, donations to monasteries increased. In the first half of the 18th century, many monastery churches and chapels were restored and decorated: in 1700 the Kapinovsky monastery was restored, in 1701 - Dryanovsky, in 1704 the chapel of the Holy Trinity in the monastery of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the village of Arbanasi near Tarnovo was painted, in 1716 In the same village, the chapel of the monastery of St. Nicholas was consecrated, in 1718 the Kilifarevo monastery was restored (in the place where it is now), in 1732 the church of the Rozhen monastery was renewed and decorated. At the same time, magnificent icons of the Trevno, Samokov and Debra schools were created. In monasteries, reliquaries for holy relics, icon frames, censers, crosses, chalices, trays, candlesticks and much more were created, which determined their role in the development of jewelry and blacksmithing, weaving, and miniature carving.

1.2 The situation of foreigners (mustemen) and non-Muslims (dhimmis)

Müstemen (person who received eman-promise of security, i.e. safe conduct). This term denoted foreigners who were temporarily, with the permission of the authorities, in the territory Dar ul-Islam. The status of the Mustemen in Islamic countries and the Ottoman state is similar to the status dhimmi, but still there are some differences. According to Abu Hanifa¹, when the Mustemen committed crimes against individuals, the norms of Islamic law were applied to them. According to this, if a mustemen intentionally killed a Muslim or a dhimmi, he was punished according to the norms kysas(revenge, "an eye for an eye"). There are no punishments in Islamic law for crimes that violate divine rights. An example of this is adultery. Abu Yusuf, also a Hanefi, disagrees with his teacher on this issue; he says that the mustemen must be held accountable for any crimes according to Islamic law. The Melikites, Shafi'ites and Hanbelites approach this issue like Abu Yusuf, and do not believe that the Mustemen should be treated with special treatment in matters of criminal law.

If we talk about whether or not the Müstemen were given autonomy in legal rights, as a dhimmi, it should be noted that before the time of Suleiman Kanuni there is no information about this. For the first time in 1535, in the capitulations granted to France, it was recognized that any legal and criminal cases of traders, subjects of France, on the territory of the Ottoman Empire were decided by the French consuls. Then this benefit was extended to other foreigners, and the consular courts became the judicial authority in the event of conflicts between the Mustemen themselves. Thus, the Müstemen, in terms of litigation on the territory of the Ottoman state, found themselves in a position similar to the dhimmi. If conflicts arose between the Müstemen and Ottoman subjects, here, as in the case of dhimmis, the Ottoman courts were considered competent. But here, too, there were some differences and benefits for the Müstemen: for example, some cases were heard in Divan-i Humayun, and embassy dragomans (interpreters) could be present at court hearings.

Over time, this practice created situations that were contrary to the sovereignty of the Ottoman state, and it attempted to abolish the legal powers of the consular courts. But by that time, the Ottoman state was seriously weakened, and it did not have the strength to resist the West and resolve this issue.

The legal privileges enjoyed by non-Muslims in the Ottoman state, whether müstemen or dhimmis, took on a new form after the signing of the Treaty of Ouchy-Lausanne between the Western powers and the Turkish Republic. According to him, these legal privileges were abolished.

It is known that when a country became part of Dar ul-Islam, those living in this country had to leave the country, or enter into an agreement with the Islamic state and continue to live in their homeland on the terms of the agreement. This agreement between the Islamic state and the non-Muslims who entered into the agreement was called dhimmet, and the non-Muslims who entered into the agreement were called dhimmis. According to the treaty, dhimmis were largely subordinate to the Islamic state, and instead of compulsory military service, they paid a special poll tax. jizya. In response, the Islamic state took upon itself the protection of life and property and allowed them to live according to their faith. In the first treaties with the dhimmis, the emphasis was on these three points.

Islam had a high state level in relation to other religions:

1) Christians and Jews do not dare to build monasteries, churches, synagogues and chapels on conquered lands. In fact, this could have been arranged with the permission of the Sanjakbey.

2) They do not dare to repair their churches without permission. The permission of the Sanjakbey was required.

3) Those of them who live near Muslims can repair their houses only in case of great need. Indeed, the authorities sought to resettle the Christian and Muslim population quarter by quarter. However, representatives of other faiths also sought to separate themselves. For example, in Istanbul, Izmir, and Thessaloniki there were separate compact settlements of Christians, Muslims, Jews, and foreigners.

4) They will not accept fugitives, and if they find out about such people, they must immediately hand them over to the Muslims. This refers to runaway peasants and outlaws. The same rule applies to Muslims.

5) They do not have the right to pronounce sentences among themselves. Indeed, the court was administered by a Muslim judge - a qadi. However, the millets had the right to consider trade proceedings between co-religionists. However, already in the 17th century. their rights in this direction are significantly expanded.

6) They cannot prevent anyone from their midst from becoming a Muslim.

7) They will behave with respect towards Muslims, stand up when they arrive and give them a place of honor without delay. 8) Christians and Jews cannot wear clothes and shoes like Muslims. This refers to religious clothing. This applies only to the green color and “truly Muslim” attributes, such as, for example, a turban or a fez.

9) They cannot learn the Arabic literary language. In fact, this rule was violated all the time. Often Arabic taught to Christian youth voluntarily in order to instill a good attitude towards Islam.

10) They cannot ride a saddled horse, carry a saber or other weapons either in the house or outside it. You cannot ride on horseback only if there are Muslims on foot nearby, so as not to be taller than them.

11) They do not have the right to sell wine to Muslims.

12) They cannot put their name on a signet ring.

13) They cannot wear a wide belt.

14) Outside their homes they do not have the right to openly wear a cross or their holy letter.

15) Outside their homes they do not have the right to ring loudly and loudly, but only in moderation (meaning church ringing). Bell ringing was completely prohibited. Because of this, a serious stagnation of bell art occurred in Greece, Bulgaria, and Mount Athos.

16) They can only sing religious chants quietly. This means “without attracting the attention of Muslims.” In fact, there is ample evidence that Christians, Muslims and Jews held mass religious celebrations together using musical instruments and carrying banners during times of drought.

17) They can only silently pray for the dead. No loud funeral processions are allowed.

18) Muslims can plow and sow in Christian cemeteries if they are no longer used for burials.

IISection: Feudal relations under Ottoman rule

2.1 Peasant land use and the position of the peasantry

In the 16th century In the Ottoman Empire, developed feudal relations were dominant. Feudal ownership of land came in several forms. Until the end of the 16th century, most of the land of the Ottoman Empire was state property, and its supreme administrator was the Sultan. However, only part of these lands was under the direct control of the treasury. A significant part of the state land fund consisted of the possessions (domain) of the Sultan himself - the best lands in Bulgaria, Thrace, Macedonia, Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia. The income from these lands went entirely to the personal disposal of the Sultan and for the maintenance of his court. Many regions of Anatolia (for example, Amasya, Kayseri, Tokat, Karaman, etc.) were also the property of the Sultan and his family - sons and other close relatives.

The Sultan distributed state lands to feudal lords for hereditary ownership on the terms of military fief tenure. Owners of small and large fiefs (“timars”, “iktu” - with an income of up to 3 thousand akche and “zeamet” - from 3 thousand to 100 thousand akche). These lands served as the basis of the economic power of the feudal lords and the most important source military force states.

From the same fund of state lands, the Sultan distributed land to court and provincial dignitaries, the income from which (they were called khasses, and the income from them was determined in the amount of 100 thousand akche and above) went entirely to the maintenance of state dignitaries in return for salaries. Each dignitary enjoyed the income from the lands provided to him only as long as he retained his post.

In the 16th century the owners of Timars, Zeamets and Khass usually lived in cities and did not run their own households. They collected feudal duties from the peasants sitting on the land with the help of stewards and tax collectors, and often tax farmers.

Another form of feudal land ownership was the so-called waqf possessions. This category included huge areas of land that were fully owned by mosques and various other religious and charitable institutions. These land holdings represented the economic base of the strongest political influence of the Muslim clergy in the Ottoman Empire.

The category of private feudal property included the lands of feudal lords, who received special Sultan's letters for any merit for the unlimited right to dispose of the estates provided. This category of feudal land ownership (called "mulk") arose in the Ottoman state at an early stage of its formation. Despite the fact that the number of mules was constantly increasing, they specific gravity until the end of the 16th century it was small.

Lands of all categories of feudal property were in the hereditary use of the peasantry. Throughout the territory of the Ottoman Empire, peasants living on the lands of feudal lords were included in the scribe books called raya (raya, reaya) and were obliged to cultivate the plots allocated to them. The attachment of rayats to their plots was recorded in laws at the end of the 15th century. During the 16th century. There was a process of enslavement of the peasantry throughout the empire, and in the second half of the 16th century. Suleiman's law finally approved the attachment of peasants to the land. The law stated that the rayat was obliged to live on the land of the feudal lord in whose register it was entered. In the event that a raiyat voluntarily left the plot allotted to him and moved to the land of another feudal lord, the previous owner could find him within 15-20 years and force him to return back, also imposing a fine on him.

While cultivating the plots allotted to them, the peasant rayats bore numerous feudal duties in favor of the land owner. In the 16th century In the Ottoman Empire, all three forms of feudal rent existed - labor, food and cash. The most common was rent in products. Raya Muslims were required to pay tithes on grain, garden and vegetable crops, taxes on all types of livestock, and also perform fodder duties. The landowner had the right to punish and fine those who were guilty. In some areas, peasants also had to work several days a year for the landowner in the vineyard, building a house, delivering firewood, straw, hay, bringing him all kinds of gifts, etc.

All the duties listed above were also required to be performed by non-Muslim rayas. But in addition, they paid a special poll tax to the treasury - jizya from the male population, and in some areas of the Balkan Peninsula they were also obliged to supply boys for the Janissary army every 3-5 years. The last duty (the so-called devshirme), which served the Turkish conquerors as one of the many means of forcible assimilation of the conquered population, was especially difficult and humiliating for those who were obliged to fulfill it.

In addition to all the duties that the rayats performed in favor of their landowners, they also had to perform a number of special military duties (called “avaris”) directly for the benefit of the treasury. Collected in the form of labor, various kinds of natural supplies, and often in cash, these so-called Diwan taxes were more numerous the more wars the Ottoman Empire waged. Thus, the settled agricultural peasantry in the Ottoman Empire bore the main burden of maintaining the ruling class and the entire huge state and military machine of the feudal empire.

A significant part of the population of Asia Minor continued to lead the life of nomads, united in tribal or clan unions. Submitting to the head of the tribe, who was a vassal of the Sultan, the nomads were considered military. In wartime, cavalry detachments were formed from them, which, led by their military leaders, were supposed to appear at the first call of the Sultan to a specified place. Among the nomads, every 25 men formed a “hearth”, which was supposed to send five “next” ones from their midst on a campaign, providing them at their own expense with horses, weapons and food during the entire campaign. For this, nomads were exempt from paying taxes to the treasury. But as the importance of the captive cavalry increased, the duties of the detachments made up of nomads increasingly began to be limited to performing auxiliary work: the construction of roads, bridges, baggage service, etc. The main places of settlement of the nomads were the southeastern and southern regions of Anatolia, as well as some areas of Macedonia and Southern Bulgaria.

In the laws of the 16th century. traces of the unlimited right of nomads to move with their herds in any direction remained: “Pasture lands have no boundaries. Since ancient times, it has been established that where cattle go, let them wander in that place. Since ancient times, it has been incompatible with the law to sell and cultivate established pastures. If someone forcibly cultivates them, they should be turned back into pastures. Village residents have no connection with pastures and therefore cannot prohibit anyone from roaming them.”

Nomads were not attributed to the owners of the land and did not have individual plots. They used the pasture land together, as communities. If the owner or proprietor of pasture lands was not at the same time the head of a tribe or clan, he could not interfere in the internal affairs of nomadic communities, since they were subordinate only to their tribal or clan leaders.

The nomadic community as a whole was economically dependent on the feudal owners of the land, but each individual member of the nomadic community was economically and legally dependent completely on his community, which was bound by mutual responsibility and dominated by tribal leaders and military leaders. Traditional clan ties covered social differentiation within nomadic communities. Only the nomads who broke ties with the community, settling on the land, turned into rayats, already attached to their plots. However, the process of settling the nomads on the land occurred extremely slowly, since they, trying to preserve the community as a means of self-defense from oppression by landowners, stubbornly resisted all attempts to speed up this process by violent measures.

Section III: Revolts of the Balkan peoples

3.1 The growth of the liberation and anti-feudal movement of the Balkan peoples at the end of the 16th-17th centuries

Popular uprisings in Asia Minor in the first half of the 16th century.

Wars of the Turkish conquerors from the beginning of the 16th century. entailed an increase in the already numerous exactions, in particular exactions in favor of the active armies, which in a continuous stream passed through the villages and cities of Asia Minor or were concentrated in them in preparation for new offensives against the Safavid state and Arab countries. The feudal rulers demanded more and more funds from the peasants to support their troops, and it was at this time that the treasury began to introduce emergency military taxes (avaris). All this led to an increase in popular discontent in Asia Minor. This discontent found expression not only in the anti-feudal protests of the Turkish peasantry and nomadic herders, but also in the liberation struggle of non-Turkish tribes and peoples, including residents of the eastern regions of Asia Minor - Kurds, Arabs, Armenians, etc.

In 1511-1512 Asia Minor was engulfed in a popular uprising led by Shah-kulu (or Shaitan-kulu). The uprising, despite the fact that it took place under religious Shiite slogans, was a serious attempt by the farmers and nomadic pastoralists of Asia Minor to provide armed resistance to the increase in feudal exploitation. Shah-kulu, proclaiming himself a “savior,” called for refusal to obey the Turkish Sultan. In battles with rebels in the Sivas and Kayseri regions, the Sultan's troops were repeatedly defeated.

Sultan Selim I led a fierce struggle against this uprising. Under the guise of Shiites, more than 40 thousand inhabitants were exterminated in Asia Minor. Everyone who could be suspected of disobedience to the Turkish feudal lords and the Sultan was declared Shiites.

In 1518, another major popular uprising broke out - under the leadership of the peasant Nur Ali. The center of the uprising was the areas of Karahisar and Niksar, from there it later spread to Amasya and Tokat. The rebels here also demanded the abolition of taxes and duties. After repeated battles with the Sultan's troops, the rebels scattered to the villages. But soon a new uprising, which arose in 1519 in the vicinity of Tokat, quickly spread throughout Central Anatolia. The number of rebels reached 20 thousand people. The leader of this uprising was one of the residents of Tokat, Jelal, after whom all such popular uprisings subsequently became known as “Jalali”.

Like previous uprisings, Celal's uprising was directed against the tyranny of the Turkish feudal lords, against countless duties and extortions, against the excesses of the Sultan's officials and tax collectors. Armed rebels captured Karahisar and headed towards Ankara.

To suppress this uprising, Sultan Selim I had to send significant military forces to Asia Minor. The rebels in the battle of Aksehir were defeated and scattered. Jalal fell into the hands of punitive forces and was brutally executed.

However, the reprisal against the rebels did not pacify the peasant masses for long. During 1525-1526. The eastern regions of Asia Minor up to Sivas were again engulfed in a peasant uprising, led by Koca Soglu-oglu and Zunnun-oglu. In 1526, an uprising led by Kalender Shah, numbering up to 30 thousand participants - Turks and Kurdish nomads, engulfed the Malatya region. Farmers and cattle breeders demanded not only a reduction in duties and taxes, but also the return of land and pastures that had been appropriated by the Sultan's treasury and distributed to Turkish feudal lords.

The rebels repeatedly defeated punitive detachments and were defeated only after a large Sultan's army was sent from Istanbul against them.

Peasant uprisings of the early 16th century. in Asia Minor testified to a sharp aggravation of the class struggle in Turkish feudal society. In the middle of the 16th century. A Sultan's decree was issued on the deployment of Janissary garrisons in the largest points of all provinces of the empire. With these measures and punitive expeditions, the Sultan's power managed to restore calm in Asia Minor for some time.

3.2 The struggle of Montenegrins for liberation from Turkish rule

During the period of Turkish rule, Montenegro covered only a small part of the territory that it currently occupies. It was a small mountainous region lying to the west of the Moraca and Zeta rivers. In socio-economic terms, Montenegro lagged behind other Yugoslav lands. The transition to the rule of Turkish feudal lords of low-lying areas near Podgorica and Zabljak deprived the Montenegrins of fertile lands and complicated trade. The annexation of the entire Dalmatian coast from Kotor to Bar to Venice blocked their access to the sea and further worsened the economic situation of Montenegro.

Engaged mainly in cattle breeding, cultivating tiny plots of land reclaimed from rock-covered mountains, the Montenegrins could not satisfy even the most basic needs of life and usually suffered severely from hunger. Trade ties were maintained with the nearest cities - Podgorica, Spuzh, Niksic, Skadar, but mainly with Kotor, where the Black people sent livestock and livestock products for sale, and bought salt, bread, gunpowder and other goods they needed. Montenegrins had to constantly defend their land from attacks by Turkish troops or neighboring tribes. This instilled in them good fighting qualities and made military affairs a profession for many of them. Since Montenegro was considered the sultan's khas, there were no possessions of Turkish feudal lords in it. Land convenient for cultivation was in the private ownership of individual families, while forests and pastures were owned by rural communities as collective property.

The Turkish government never managed to strengthen its power in Montenegro, whose dependence on the Porte was weak and actually came down to the Montenegrins paying harach, often collected with the help of military force. The Montenegrins also had military obligations to the Porte: they had to defend the border from attacks from outside. The special conditions that developed in Montenegro - isolation from the outside world, the need to protect freedom from Turkish encroachments - led to the formation of territorial administrative units-tribes, consisting of several brotherhoods, on the basis of pre-existing knezhins. Tribal associations also became military-political unions. They jointly defended themselves from attacks and conducted military operations. The tribes provided protection to their members; they strictly observed local law, which included some archaic customs: blood feud. Each tribe had its own assembly of all adult members, the decisions of which were binding on everyone. However, essentially all power was concentrated in the hands of the prince elders and governors, who actually enjoyed hereditary rights to this position; in addition, there was a chief prince. He usually acted as a mediator in relations between the Turkish authorities and the Montenegrins. But the power of the main princes and spahii was, as a rule, small.

In Montenegro there was a general representative body - assembly or assembly. It decided the most important questions internal life, relations with the Turks, Venice and other states. Decisions were made by the metropolitan, the chief prince and the rest of the governors and princes-representatives of each tribe. However, they could be canceled by the people present at the gathering.

Despite the existence of this all-Montenegrin representative body, the tribes were very divided among themselves, and hostility and armed clashes did not stop among them. Intertribal strife was often incited by the Turkish authorities, who hoped in this way to strengthen their power and influence in Montenegro. For the same purpose, a policy of Islamization was pursued, which led to the formation of a layer of Turkmen among the Chergogorsk people, although there were few of them.

Under these conditions, the only factor uniting the Montenegrin tribes was the Orthodox Church. In the 1750s. The power and political importance of the Montenegrin metropolitans gradually increased, slowly but steadily uniting the tribes into a single state whole. The residence of the Montenegrin metropolitans or rulers was located in the inaccessible mountains of Katun Nakhia. The monastery gradually increased its property and land holdings, on which lived peasants who were feudally dependent on it. Subsequently, it turned into the political center of all of Montenegro.

In the 17th century, the Turkish government and feudal lords increased pressure on the Montenegrin tribes, trying to deprive them of their autonomous rights, force them to regularly pay harach and introduce new taxes. This policy met with active resistance from Montenegrins who defended their rights and privileges. The struggle of the Montenegrins was led and organized by metropolitans, individual princes and governors.

Due to its important strategic position in the system of Turkish possessions in the Balkans, Montenegro in the 17th century began to attract increasing attention from European governments interested in the fight against Turkey.

The Montenegrin metropolitans, princes and governors, for their part, hoped to rely on outside help in the fight against the Turks. The close proximity of the Venetian Republic, which waged war with the Ottoman Empire, the economic ties of the Montenegrins with Kotor and other centers of Primorye - all this contributed to the establishment of close political relations between Montenegro and Venice.

Together with the Dalmatians, Brd and Herzegovinian tribes, the Montenegrins undertook an anti-Turkish offensive during the Kandyan War between Turkey and Venice over Crete. In 1648 The Montenegrin assembly decided to establish a protectorate of Venice over Montenegro, provided that the republic accepted certain obligations. However, this act had no real consequences due to the failure of Venice's military actions against the Turks.

The anti-Turkish movement in Montenegro took on a wide scope during the war of the Holy League with Turkey. Venice, which had been significantly weakened by this time, hoped to wage the war in Dalmatia and Montenegro using the forces of the local population. Therefore, the Venetians used all means to persuade the Montenegrin ruler and tribal leaders to revolt against the Turks. To prevent it, Skadar Pasha with a large army came out against the Montenegrins and inflicted on them in 1685. defeat in the battle of Vrtelskaya. By this, however, he could not force the Montenegrins to submit. In 1688 The armed struggle of the Montenegrin tribes against the Turks intensified again. In the battle near the village of Krusy, they inflicted a serious defeat on the Turks. After this, the Montenegrin gathering, represented by a significant part of the tribes led by Metropolitan Vissarion, decided to come under the rule of Venice and ask the lord to send his army to Cetinje. Clashes with Turkish troops continued in the following years. But Venice did not provide sufficient military assistance to the Montenegrins. Arrived in Cetinje in 1691. a small military detachment could not protect Montenegro from Turkish attacks. In 1692 Turkish troops again invaded Montenegro, captured the Cetinje Monastery and destroyed it.

After this, the liberation movement of the Montenegrins began to gradually weaken. Left to their own devices by Venice, they were forced to recognize the sovereignty of the Turkish government. However, the Porte never managed to establish lasting power over the Montenegrin tribes. In the 18th century, the struggle of the Montenegrins against the Turks entered a new phase. It is now being waged for complete liberation from Turkish rule and the creation of its own state organization.

Completion

Began in the middle of the 14th century. The Turkish offensive on Europe radically changed the fate of the Balkan peoples of South-Eastern Europe. By the beginning of the 16th century. The Ottoman Empire included: Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania. Moldavia and Wallachia were turned into vassal states of Turkey.

Turkish domination delayed the historical development of the Balkan peoples and led to the conservation of feudal relations among them.

In 1455, troops of the warlike Turks invaded the Middle East and captured Baghdad. They accepted Islam. Successor Arslan conquered Syria, Palestine and defeated Palestine in the battle of Monazikert. The Rum Sultanate fell, but Osman 1 was able to gain a foothold in new lands. After the defeat, the Ottoman possessions were established. Sultan Bayazit 1 was a great warrior. But during the battle of Ankara his army was defeated. Timur's empire collapsed. . 1455-1481 Mahmed 2 accumulated enough strength for the state. The rushing Turks penetrated the Balkans, the northern Black Sea region and climbed to the East. And then all of Arabia came under control. Turkish power reached its apogee. The Ottomans rushed to Hungary. Also the Turks throughout the kingdom and became a threat to the Austrian Habsburgs. The Turkish border flew 130 km from Vienna. Suleiman's troops were victorious. They conquered Armenia. No one encroached on the lands of the Ottoman Empire. At that time the empire was growing stronger. The Ottoman Empire was increasingly in crisis. In 1699, the Karlavit Peace was concluded, the empire had to make concessions.

The Ottoman Empire was "the only truly military power of the Middle Ages." The military nature of the empire affected its government system and administrative structure. The entire territory of the empire was divided into provinces (eya-lets). During the reign of Suleiman, 21 eyalets were created, they were divided into sanjaks (districts). Warriors of the mounted feudal militia (sipahi) received land grants - timars and zeamets. They were obliged, by order of the Sultan, to personally participate in military campaigns and, depending on the income from the land grant they received, to field a certain number of equipped horsemen. Judicial functions were isolated and performed by qadis (Muslim judges), who were subordinate not to the local administration, but only to the qadiaskers in the eyalts and the head of the Muslim community in the empire - the Sheikh-ul-Islam.

India in the 16th-17th centuries. Formation of the Great Mongols Empire.

The sultans of the Sayyid and Lodi dynasties, who ruled Northern India in 1414–1526, at times strengthened their power and vigorously pursued their opponents, even making campaigns against their neighbors, mostly unsuccessful. The Vijayanagar state came into being almost simultaneously with the Bahmanis. Having conquered and annexed a number of independent principalities, Vijayanagar already at the turn of the 15th–16th centuries. turned into a large Hindu state, the like of which had never existed in southern India. And although the power of the ruler himself, the Maharaja, was not very stable here, so that as a result of palace coups, one dynasty sometimes replaced another. The first minister, Mahapradhan, was practically a version of the grand wazir. Under him there was a council of heads of departments and representatives of princes, as well as some segments of the population, including merchants. The forms of land tenure were also very complex. The lands of the country were mainly state-owned and were either under the direct control of the treasury or in the conditional possession of soldiers. Conditional allotments for the military, Amaram - something like Islamic iqt. Some categories of state land were donated on behalf of the rulers to Hindu temples and especially often to groups of Brahmins, which was a typical Indian tradition. Competing with the Muslim states of the Deccan, Vijayanagar sometimes resorted to the help and mediation of the Portuguese. The fact is that in India, like in China, there were no conditions for breeding and raising horses - they were usually purchased by bringing them from afar. They came to India mainly from Arabia and Iran. In 1526, the Timurid Babur invaded India. His army, well armed with muskets and cannons, including cavalry, defeated the last of the Delhi sultans and the Rajput militia in two large battles, after which it occupied a significant part of the Ganges valley. This was the beginning of the Mughal Empire, which united almost all of India under its rule at its peak. Babur himself did not rule India for long. Already in 1530, he was replaced on the throne by his son Humayun. wars with his brothers over his father’s inheritance weakened his power so much that the influential ruler from Bihar and Bengal, Farid Sher Khan, a native of the Afghan Sur tribe that had long settled in eastern India, managed to seize power in Delhi, forcing Humayun to seek refuge in Iran. Having accepted the title of Shah, Sher Shah did a lot to strengthen the central government during the short six years of his reign (1540–1545). In 1555, Humayun regained the throne in Delhi, but a year later he died in an accident, and power went to his 13-year-old son Akbar.

China in the 16th-17th centuries.

During this period, feudal exploitation of the population and private owners intensified. There was a process of landlessness among peasants, especially in the northern and central provinces. Not only landowners, but also merchants and rural rich people became owners of land. The original owners of the land were replaced by other owners. In 1581, tax reform was carried out. China's economy has developed extremely unevenly. Handicraft production was more developed in the southeastern province. Most of the city's artisans united in trade and craft unions, while a minority worked separately. From the end of the 16th century, labor conscription began to be replaced by monetary ones. Large private manufactories were increasingly developed. However, the state defended the interests of state-owned workshops. At the turn of the 15th-16th centuries, the class struggle intensified. An uprising of peasant artisans, they were supported by merchants against tax collectors. Discontent grew among the ruling class, the learned class, and petty feudal lords. The movement for government reform began. In the second half of 16, Zhang Ju carried out a number of reforms. Most of which were canceled after his death. At the end of the 16th century, the opposition created the first political group, the center of which became Donglin.

57. Japan in the XVI-XVII centuries. The struggle for the unification of the country. In the 16th century The preconditions have matured for eliminating the fragmentation of the country. The struggle for the unification of Japan began. One of the most powerful feudal lords, Oda Nobunaga, having entered into an alliance with the feudal lords of the Tokugawa and Takeda houses, subjugated 30 of the country's 66 provinces by 1582. At the same time, he carried out a number of reforms, many of which were aimed at developing cities and trade - roads were built between separate provinces, local outposts were liquidated, and obstacles were put in place for moneylenders. After his death in 1582, the work of unifying Japan was continued by one of his closest associates, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. As a result of Hideyoshi’s successful military campaigns, by the end of the 16th century. subjugated almost all of Japan and concentrated military and administrative power in his hands. A population census was carried out and a land cadastre was compiled. Peasants were attached to the land and were bound by mutual responsibility; taxes were set depending on the yield and fertility of the soil. The peasants had to pay taxes in rice in the amount of one ton of the harvest. Measures of area and weight were unified. Simultaneously with the land reform, a decree was issued to confiscate weapons from peasants. Peasants were strictly instructed to engage only in agriculture. In area foreign policy Hideyoshi's goal was to conquer Korea and then China. After the death of Hideyoshi, under his three-year-old heir, a regency council was created, which included the largest feudal lords. The winner of the struggle that began between them was Tokugawa Ielyasu. In 1603, Tokugawa was proclaimed shogun. The House of Tokugawa dominated Japan until the mid-19th century.

58. XVI-XVII centuries. Cultural and historical connections between the peoples of the West and the East. From the end of the 15th century. Europe has entered new era international relations, the main feature of which was the formation of nation states. The world system of international economic relations began to take shape. The clash of interests of European states in Asia, Africa and America also had an impact on European politics. Great geographical discoveries expanded international connections and, filling the market with new products, stimulated European production. The 16th century witnessed the rise and fall of the multinational power of Charles V of Habsburg. The political map of Europe is changing. By the beginning of the 16th century. England, France, Spain, Portugal, Denmark and Sweden have already achieved significant success in establishing state unity. Beginning with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, European diplomacy was finally secularized, becoming the diplomacy of the New Age. The intensity of international relations already in the first half of the 16th century. caused a transition to a new (modern) system of organizing embassy service - permanent diplomatic mission. This system originated in Italy in the 60-70s of the 15th century. In the 90s of the 15th century. it was adopted by France and Spain, in 1510 by the Papal State, in 1530 by England, and by the middle of the 16th century. Most European countries have adopted this practice. A major role in the establishment of interstate relations was played by the system that appeared in the 16th century. postal service. In addition to permanent diplomatic missions, emergency embassies continued to retain their importance, equipped, for example, on the occasion of the accession to the throne of a new sovereign. In the second half of the 16th century, international law began to take shape. The struggle of national states for their clearly recognized interests gave rise to trade wars, the struggle for the mastery of sea routes, markets for raw materials and sales, and for the monopoly exploitation of colonies. The contradictions between large states, to which medium-sized and small countries adjoined, come to the fore. Clashes between states grew into pan-European conflicts. In the 16th century in Europe, three main nodes of international contradictions emerged that threatened wars: 1) the clash of trade and colonial interests of Spain, on the one hand, and France and England, on the other, which resulted in the late 15th - first half of the 16th centuries. in the Italian Wars, and in the second half of the 16th century. - in the war between Spain and England; 2) relationships between European states and the Ottoman Empire; 3) the struggle between the countries of Northern Europe for dominance in the Baltic. In trade competition between countries, success begins to be determined by the level of socio-economic development. The victory of England was the beginning of the triumph of early capitalism, which was gaining strength. By the end of the 16th century. In Western European international relations, a new balance of power emerged, which relegated Spain and the Italian states to secondary roles. Contradictions between nation-states and the fractured Habsburg power created the threat of new clashes in the next century. One of the serious sources of danger in Europe, prompting military clashes as well as diplomatic maneuvers, was the policy of the Ottoman Empire. The 16th century was the beginning of a fierce struggle for a trade monopoly in the Baltic. The Scandinavian countries sought to take control of the Baltic ports and secure a monopoly on the use of trade intermediation in the exchange of goods between different regions of Europe.

Any Hollywood script pales in comparison with the life path of Roksolana, who became the most influential woman in the history of the great empire. Her powers, contrary to Turkish laws and Islamic canons, could only be compared with the capabilities of the Sultan himself. Roksolana became not just a wife, she was a co-ruler; They didn’t listen to her opinion; it was the only one that was correct and legal.
Anastasia Gavrilovna Lisovskaya (born c. 1506 - d. c. 1562) was the daughter of the priest Gavrila Lisovsky from Rohatyn, a small town in Western Ukraine, located southwest of Ternopil. In the 16th century, this territory belonged to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and was constantly subjected to devastating raids Crimean Tatars. During one of them, in the summer of 1522, the young daughter of a clergyman was caught by a detachment of robbers. Legend has it that the misfortune happened just before Anastasia’s wedding.
First, the captive ended up in Crimea - this is the usual route for all slaves. The Tatars did not drive valuable “live goods” on foot across the steppe, but carried them on horseback under vigilant guard, without even tying their hands, so as not to spoil the delicate girl’s skin with ropes. Most sources say that the Crimeans, struck by the beauty of Polonyanka, decided to send the girl to Istanbul, hoping to sell her profitably at one of the largest slave markets in the Muslim East.

“Giovane, ma non bella” (“young, but ugly”), Venetian nobles said about her in 1526, but “graceful and short in stature.” None of her contemporaries, contrary to legend, called Roksolana a beauty.
The captive was sent to the capital of the sultans on a large felucca, and the owner himself took her to sell her - history has not preserved his name. On the very first day, when the Horde took the captive to the market, she accidentally caught the eye of the all-powerful vizier of the young Sultan Suleiman I, the noble Rustem, who happened to be there - Pasha. Again, the legend says that the Turk was struck by the dazzling beauty of the girl, and he decided to buy her to give a gift to the Sultan.
As can be seen from the portraits and confirmations of contemporaries, beauty clearly has nothing to do with it - I can call this coincidence of circumstances with only one word - Fate.
During this era, the sultan was Suleiman I the Magnificent (Luxurious), who ruled from 1520 to 1566, considered the greatest sultan of the Ottoman dynasty. During the years of his rule, the empire reached the apogee of its development, including all of Serbia with Belgrade, most of Hungary, the island of Rhodes, significant territories in North Africa to the borders of Morocco and the Middle East. Europe gave the Sultan the nickname Magnificent, while in the Muslim world he is more often called Kanuni, which translated from Turkish means Lawgiver. “Such greatness and nobility,” the report of the 16th-century Venetian ambassador Marini Sanuto wrote about Suleiman, “was also adorned by the fact that he, unlike his father and many other sultans, had no inclination towards pederasty.” An honest ruler and uncompromising fighter against bribery, he encouraged the development of the arts and philosophy, and was also considered a skilled poet and blacksmith - few European monarchs could compete with Suleiman I.
According to the laws of faith, the padishah could have four legal wives. The children of the first of them became heirs to the throne. Or rather, one firstborn inherited the throne, and the rest often faced a sad fate: all possible contenders for supreme power were subject to destruction.
In addition to wives, the Commander of the Faithful had any number of concubines that his soul desired and his flesh required. At different times, under different sultans, from several hundred to a thousand or more women lived in the harem, each of whom was certainly an amazing beauty. In addition to women, the harem consisted of a whole staff of castrati eunuchs, maids of various ages, chiropractors, midwives, masseuses, doctors and the like. But no one except the padishah himself could encroach on the beauties belonging to him. All this complex and hectic economy was supervised by the “chief of the girls” - the eunuch of Kyzlyaragassy.
However, amazing beauty alone was not enough: the girls destined for the padishah’s harem were required to be taught music, dancing, Muslim poetry and, of course, the art of love. Naturally, the course of love sciences was theoretical, and the practice was taught by experienced old women and women experienced in all the intricacies of sex.
Now let’s return to Roksolana, so Rustem Pasha decided to buy the Slavic beauty. But her Krymchak owner refused to sell Anastasia and presented her as a gift to the all-powerful courtier, rightly expecting to receive for this not only an expensive return gift, as is customary in the East, but also considerable benefits.
Rustem Pasha ordered it to be fully prepared as a gift to the Sultan, in turn hoping to achieve even greater favor with him. The padishah was young, he ascended the throne only in 1520 and greatly valued feminine beauty, and not just as a contemplator.
In the harem, Anastasia receives the name Khurrem (laughing). And for the Sultan, she always remained only Khurrem. Roksolana, the name under which she went down in history, is just the name of the Sarmatian tribes in the 2nd-4th centuries AD, who roamed the steppes between the Dnieper and Don, translated from Latin as “Russian”. Roksolana will often be called, both during her life and after her death, nothing more than “Rusynka” - a native of Rus' or Roxolanii, as Ukraine was previously called.

The mystery of the birth of love between the Sultan and a fifteen-year-old unknown captive will remain unsolved. After all, there was a strict hierarchy in the harem, and anyone who violated it would face severe punishment. Often - death. The female recruits - adzhemi, step by step, first became jariye, then shagird, gedikli and usta. No one except the mouth had the right to be in the Sultan's chambers. Only the mother of the ruling sultan, the valide sultan, had absolute power within the harem, and decided who and when to share a bed with the sultan from her mouth. How Roksolana managed to occupy the Sultan’s monastery almost immediately will forever remain a mystery.
There is a legend about how Hurrem came to the attention of the Sultan. When new slaves (more beautiful and expensive than she) were introduced to the Sultan, a small figure suddenly flew into the circle of dancing odalisques and, pushing away the “soloist,” laughed. And then she sang her song. The harem lived according to cruel laws. And the eunuchs were waiting for only one sign - what to prepare for the girl - clothes for the Sultan’s bedroom or a cord used to strangle the slaves. The Sultan was intrigued and surprised. And that same evening, Khurrem received the Sultan’s scarf - a sign that in the evening he was waiting for her in his bedroom. Having interested the Sultan with her silence, she asked for only one thing - the right to visit the Sultan's library. The Sultan was shocked, but allowed it. When he returned from a military campaign some time later, Khurrem already spoke several languages. She dedicated poems to her Sultan and even wrote books. This was unprecedented at that time, and instead of respect it aroused fear. Her learning, plus the fact that the Sultan spent all his nights with her, created Khurrem's lasting fame as a witch. They said about Roksolana that she bewitched the Sultan with the help of evil spirits. And in fact he was bewitched.
“Finally, let us unite with soul, thoughts, imagination, will, heart, everything that I left mine in you and took with me yours, oh my only love!”, the Sultan wrote in a letter to Roksolana. “My lord, your absence has kindled a fire in me that does not go out. Have pity on this suffering soul and hurry up your letter so that I can find at least a little consolation in it,” answered Khurrem.
Roksolana greedily absorbed everything that she was taught in the palace, took everything that life gave her. Historians testify that after some time she actually mastered the Turkish, Arabic and Persian languages, learned to dance perfectly, recite her contemporaries, and also play according to the rules of the foreign, cruel country in which she lived. Following the rules of her new homeland, Roksolana converted to Islam.
Her main trump card was that Rustem Pasha, thanks to whom she got to the palace of the padishah, received her as a gift, and did not buy her. In turn, he did not sell it to the kyzlyaragassa, who replenished the harem, but gave it to Suleiman. This means that Roxalana remained a free woman and could lay claim to the role of the padishah’s wife. According to the laws of the Ottoman Empire, a slave could never, under any circumstances, become the wife of the Commander of the Faithful.
A few years later, Suleiman enters into an official marriage with her according to Muslim rites, elevates her to the rank of bash-kadyna - the main (and in fact, the only) wife and addresses her “Haseki,” which means “dear to the heart.”
Roksolana’s incredible position at the Sultan’s court amazed both Asia and Europe. Her education made scientists bow to her, she received foreign ambassadors, responded to messages from foreign sovereigns, influential nobles and artists. She not only came to terms with the new faith, but also gained fame as a zealous orthodox Muslim, which earned her considerable respect at court.
One day, the Florentines placed a ceremonial portrait of Hurrem, for which she posed for a Venetian artist, in an art gallery. It was the only female portrait among the images of hook-nosed, bearded sultans in huge turbans. “There was never another woman in the Ottoman palace who had such power” - Venetian ambassador Navajero, 1533.
Lisovskaya gives birth to the Sultan four sons (Mohammed, Bayazet, Selim, Jehangir) and a daughter, Khamerie. But Mustafa, the eldest son of the padishah’s first wife, Circassian Gulbekhar, was still officially considered the heir to the throne. She and her children became mortal enemies of the power-hungry and treacherous Roxalana.

Lisovskaya understood perfectly well: until her son became the heir to the throne or sat on the throne of the padishahs, her own position was constantly under threat. At any moment, Suleiman could become carried away by a new beautiful concubine and make her his legal wife, and order the execution of one of the old wives: in the harem, an unwanted wife or concubine was put alive in a leather bag, an angry cat and a poisonous snake were thrown in there, the bag was tied and a special stone chute was used to lower him with a tied stone into the waters of the Bosphorus. The guilty considered it lucky if they were simply quickly strangled with a silk cord.
Therefore, Roxalana prepared for a very long time and began to act actively and cruelly only after almost fifteen years!
Her daughter turned twelve years old, and she decided to marry her to... Rustem Pasha, who was already over fifty. But he was in great favor at court, close to the throne of the padishah and, most importantly, was something of a mentor and “godfather” to the heir to the throne, Mustafa, the son of the Circassian Gulbehar, Suleiman’s first wife.
Roxalana's daughter grew up with a similar face and chiseled figure to her beautiful mother, and Rustem Pasha with great pleasure became related to the Sultan - this is a very high honor for a courtier. Women were not forbidden to see each other, and the sultana deftly found out from her daughter about everything that was happening in the house of Rustem Pasha, literally collecting the information she needed bit by bit. Finally, Lisovskaya decided it was time to strike the fatal blow!
During a meeting with her husband, Roxalana secretly informed the Commander of the Faithful about the “terrible conspiracy.” Merciful Allah granted her time to learn about the secret plans of the conspirators and allowed her to warn her adored husband about the danger that threatened him: Rustem Pasha and the sons of Gulbehar planned to take the life of the padishah and take possession of the throne, placing Mustafa on it!
The intriguer knew well where and how to strike - the mythical “conspiracy” was quite plausible: in the East during the time of the sultans, bloody palace coups were the most common thing. In addition, Roxalana cited as an irrefutable argument the true words of Rustem Pasha, Mustafa and other “conspirators” that the daughter of Anastasia and the Sultan heard. Therefore, the seeds of evil fell on fertile soil!
Rustem Pasha was immediately taken into custody, and an investigation began: Pasha was terribly tortured. Perhaps he incriminated himself and others under torture. But even if he was silent, this only confirmed the padishah in the actual existence of a “conspiracy.” After torture, Rustem Pasha was beheaded.
Only Mustafa and his brothers were spared - they were an obstacle to the throne of Roxalana’s first-born, red-haired Selim, and for this reason they simply had to die! Constantly instigated by his wife, Suleiman agreed and gave the order to kill his children! The Prophet forbade the shedding of the blood of the padishahs and their heirs, so Mustafa and his brothers were strangled with a green silk twisted cord. Gulbehar went crazy with grief and soon died.
The cruelty and injustice of her son struck Valide Khamse, the mother of Padishah Suleiman, who came from the family of the Crimean khans Giray. At the meeting, she told her son everything she thought about the “conspiracy,” the execution, and her son’s beloved wife Roxalana. It is not surprising that after this Valide Khamse, the Sultan’s mother, lived for less than a month: the East knows a lot about poisons!
The Sultana went even further: she ordered to find in the harem and throughout the country other sons of Suleiman, whom wives and concubines gave birth to, and to take the lives of all of them! As it turned out, the Sultan had about forty sons - all of them, some secretly, some openly, were killed by order of Lisovskaya.
Thus, over forty years of marriage, Roksolana managed the almost impossible. She was proclaimed the first wife, and her son Selim became the heir. But the sacrifices did not stop there. Roksolana's two youngest sons were strangled. Some sources accuse her of involvement in these murders - allegedly this was done in order to strengthen the position of her beloved son Selim. However, reliable data about this tragedy has never been found.
She was no longer able to see her son ascend the throne, becoming Sultan Selim II. He reigned after the death of his father for only eight years - from 1566 to 1574 - and, although the Koran forbids drinking wine, he was a terrible alcoholic! His heart once simply could not withstand the constant excessive libations, and in the memory of the people he remained as Sultan Selim the drunkard!
No one will ever know what the true feelings of the famous Roksolana were. What is it like for a young girl to find herself in slavery, in a foreign country, with a foreign faith imposed on her. Not only not to break, but also to grow into the mistress of the empire, gaining glory throughout Asia and Europe. Trying to erase shame and humiliation from her memory, Roksolana ordered the slave market to be hidden and a mosque, madrasah and almshouse to be erected in its place. That mosque and hospital in the almshouse building still bear the name of Haseki, as well as the surrounding area of ​​the city.
Her name, shrouded in myths and legends, sung by her contemporaries and covered in black glory, remains forever in history. Nastasia Lisovskaya, whose fate could be similar to hundreds of thousands of the same Nastya, Khristin, Oles, Mari. But life decreed otherwise. No one knows how much grief, tears and misfortunes Nastasya endured on the way to Roksolana. However, for the Muslim world she will remain Hurrem - LAUGHING.
Roksolana died either in 1558 or 1561. Suleiman I - in 1566. He managed to complete the construction of the majestic Suleymaniye Mosque - one of the largest architectural monuments of the Ottoman Empire - near which Roksolana’s ashes rest in an octagonal stone tomb, next to the also octagonal tomb of the Sultan. This tomb has stood for more than four hundred years. Inside, under the high dome, Suleiman ordered to carve alabaster rosettes and decorate each of them with a priceless emerald, Roksolana’s favorite gem.
When Suleiman died, his tomb was also decorated with emeralds, forgetting that his favorite stone was ruby.