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{{Infobox Former Country|common_name = Ottoman Empire|native_name = Ottoman Empire
Osmanlı İmparatorluğu
دولت عالیه عثمانیه
Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye|empire = Ottoman Empire|conventional_long_name = Sublime Ottoman State|continent = Afroeurasia|region = Middle East|status = Empire|year_start = 1299|year_end = 1922|date_end = November 17|event_start =
Foundation of Ottoman Empire|event_end = Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire|event1 = Ottoman Interregnum|date_event1 = 1402–1413|event2 =
First Constitutional Era (Ottoman Empire)|date_event2 = 1886-1888|event3 = Second Constitutional Era (Ottoman Empire)|date_event3 = 1908-1918|p1 = Seljuq dynasty|flag_p1 = Buyuk selcuklu devleti.gif|p2 = Byzantine Empire|flag_p2 = Flag_of_Palaeologus_Emperor.svg|s1 = Turkey|flag_s1 = Flag of Turkey.svg|image_flag = Flag of Turkey.svg|image_flag_caption = Ottoman flag|national_motto =
دولت ابد مدتDevlet-i Ebed-müddet("The Eternal State")|national_anthem = [Ottoman imperial anthem (1299–1326)
[Bursa, Turkey (1326–65)
Edirne (1365–1453)
Constantinople (
İstanbul, 1453–1922)]|government_type = Monarchy|title_leader = Ottoman Dynasty|leader1 = Osman I|year_leader1 = 1281–1326|leader2 = Mehmed VI|year_leader2 = 1918–22|title_deputy = List of Ottoman Grand Viziers|deputy1 = Alaeddin Pasha|year_deputy1 = 1320–31|deputy2 = Ahmed Tevfik Pasha|year_deputy2 = 1920–22|stat_year1 = 1856|stat_pop1 = 35350000|stat_year2 = 1906|stat_pop2 = 20884000|stat_year3 = 1914|stat_pop3 = 18520000|stat_year4 = 1919|stat_pop4 = 14629000|stat_year5 = 1680|stat_area5 = 5500000|currency =
Akçe, Kuruş, Turkish lira-->The
Ottoman Empire or
Ottoman Caliphate (1299 to 1922) (Ottoman Turkish language: دولت عالیه عثمانیه
Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye,
Turkish language:
Osmanlı Devleti or
Osmanlı İmparatorluğu, also known as the
Turkish Empire or
Turkey by its contemporaries, see
Names of the Ottoman Empire), was a multi-ethnic and multi-religious Turkish people state which, at the height of its power (16th – 17th centuries), spanned three
List of Ottoman Empire dominated territories, controlling much of
Southeastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, stretching from the
Strait of Gibraltar (and, in 1553, the Atlantic Ocean coast of Salih Reis beyond Gibraltar) in the west to the Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf in the east, from the edge of
Austria, Royal Hungary and parts of
Crimean Khanate in the north to Sudan, Eritrea#Medieval history, History of Somalia#The rise of Marehan Sultanates and Dynasty of Adal .26 the Ethiopian Empire war and Yemen in the south.
The empire was at the centre of interactions between the
Eastern world and Western world worlds for six centuries. At the height of its power, the Ottoman Empire contained 29 provinces, in addition to the tributary principalities of
Moldavia, Transylvania, and Wallachia. With Constantinople (today known as
Istanbul) as its capital, the Ottoman Empire was in many respects an Islamic successor to earlier Mediterranean empires — namely the Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire empires. As such, the Ottomans regarded themselves as the heirs to both
Roman Empire and
Islamic traditions, and hence rulers of a "Universal Empire" through this "unification of cultures".H. İnalcık: "The rise of the Ottoman Empire" in P.M. Holt, A.K. S. Lambstone, and B. Lewis (eds),
The Cambridge History of Islam, (Cambridge University). pages 295-200
Rise (1299–1453)
With the demise of the
Sultanate of Rûm, Turkish Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent states, the so-called Ghazw.
By 1300, a weakened Byzantium had seen most of its Anatolian provinces lost among some ten Ghazi principalities. One of the Ghazw was led by
Osman I (from which the name Ottoman is derived), son of
Ertuğrul in the region of Eskişehir in western Anatolia. According to tradition, as Ertuğrul migrated across Asia Minor leading approximately four hundred horsemen, he chanced upon a battle between two armies. Having decided to intervene, he chose the side of the losing army and turned the battle in their favour to secure victory. The troops he supported happened to be those of a Seljuk Sultan who rewarded him with territory in Eskişehir.Kinross, 23 Following Ertuğrul's death in 1281, Osman became chief, or Bey, and by 1299 declared himself a sovereign ruler from the Seljuk empire. (1396) Fall of Constantinople and made it the new Ottoman capital in 1453Osman I extended the frontiers of Ottoman settlement towards the edge of the Byzantine Empire. He moved the Ottoman capital to
Bursa, Turkey, and shaped the early political development of the nation. Given the nickname "Kara" (Turkish language for black) for his courage, Sultan Osman I, Turkish Ministry of Culture website Osman I was admired as a strong and dynamic ruler long after his death, as evident in the centuries-old Turkish phrase, "May he be as good as Osman." His reputation has also been burnished by the medieval Turkish story known as "
Foundation of Ottoman Empire", a foundation myth in which the young Osman was inspired to conquest by a prescient vision of empire.
This period saw the creation of a formal
Ruling institution of the Ottoman Empire whose institutions would remain largely unchanged for almost four centuries. The government utilized the legal entity known as the Millet (Ottoman Empire), under which religious and ethnic minorities were able to manage their own affairs with substantial independence from central control.
In the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over the Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans. After defeat in Battle of Plocnik, the Turkish victory at the
Battle of Kosovo effectively marked the end of
Kingdom of Serbia power in the region, and paved the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe. With the extension of Turkish dominion into the Balkans, the strategic conquest of fall of Constantinople became a crucial objective. The empire controlled nearly all of the former Byzantine Empire lands, the
Byzantine Greeks gained a temporary reprieve when
Timur Lenk invaded Anatolia in 1402, taking
Bayezid I prisoner.
Following the death of Timur Lenk in 1405, Mehmed I restored the Ottoman power, after the
Ottoman Interregnum. His grandson, Mehmed the Conqueror, reorganized the structure of both the state and military, and demonstrated his martial prowess by capturing
fall of Constantinople (see: Istanbul (Etymology)) on
29 May 1453, at the age of 21. The city became the new capital of the Ottoman Empire, and Mehmed II assumed the title of
Kayser-i Rûm (Roman Emperor). To consolidate this claim, Mehmed II aspired to gain control over the Western capital,
Rome, as well; and Ottoman forces occupied parts of the Italian peninsula, starting from
Ottoman invasion of Otranto and Apulia on July 28, 1480. But after Mehmed II's death on May 3, 1481, the campaign on Italy was cancelled and the Ottoman forces retreated.
Growth (1453–1683)
This period in Ottoman history can roughly be divided into two distinct eras: an era of territorial, economic, and cultural growth prior to 1566, followed by an era of relative military and political stagnation.
Expansion and apogee (1453–1566)
enters
Constantinople after its conquest in 1453 in 1499 was the first naval battle in history where cannons were used on ships, and signaled the rise of Ottoman naval powerThe Ottoman conquest of
Constantinople in 1453 cemented the status of the empire as the preeminent power in southeastern
Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. During this time the Ottoman Empire entered a long period of conquest and expansion, extending its borders deep into Europe and
North Africa. Conquests on land were driven by the discipline and innovation of the Ottoman military; and on the sea, the Ottoman navy established the empire as a great trading power. The state also flourished economically thanks to its control of the major overland trade routes between
Europe and
Asia.
The Empire prospered under the rule of a line of committed and effective sultans. Sultan Selim I (1512–1520) dramatically expanded the empire's eastern and southern frontiers by defeating the young
Safavid dynasty Shah of
Persia, Ismail I, in the Battle of Chaldiran. Selim I established History of Ottoman Egypt, and created a naval presence on the Red Sea.
Selim's successor,
Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–1566), further expanded upon Selim's conquests. After capturing Belgrade in 1521, Suleiman conquered the
Kingdom of Hungary establishing Ottoman Hungary and other Central European territories, by winning the
Battle of Mohács in 1526. He then laid Siege of Vienna in 1529, but failed to take the city after the onset of winter forced his retreat. During the reign of Suleiman, Transylvania,
Wallachia and, intermittently, Moldavia, became tributary principalities of the Ottoman Empire, but never became parts of it. In the east, the
Ottomans took
Baghdad from the Persians in 1535, gaining control of
Mesopotamia and naval access to the Persian Gulf. (1526) and the Ottoman conquest of
HungaryUnder Selim and Suleiman, the empire became a dominant naval force, controlling much of the
Mediterranean Sea. The exploits of the Ottoman admiral
Barbarossa Khair ad Din Pasha, who commanded the Turkish navy during Suleiman's reign, included a number of impressive military victories. Among these were the conquest of Tunis and
Algeria from Spain; the evacuation of Muslims and Jews from Spain to the safety of Ottoman lands (particularly
Salonica,
Cyprus, and
Constantinople) during the Spanish Inquisition; and the capture of
Nice from the
Holy Roman Empire in 1543. This last conquest occurred on behalf of France as a joint venture between the forces of the French king
Francis I of France and those of Barbarossa.
France and the Ottoman Empire, united by mutual opposition to Habsburg rule in southern and central Europe, became strong allies during this period. The alliance was economic as well as military, as the sultans granted France the right of trade within the empire without levy of taxation. In fact, the Ottoman Empire was by this time a significant and accepted part of the European political sphere, and entered into a military alliance with France, England and
the Netherlands against Habsburg Spain, Italy and
Austria-Hungary. defeated the
Holy League (1538) of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor under the command of
Andrea Doria at the Battle of Preveza in 1538As the 16th century progressed, Ottoman naval superiority was challenged by the growing sea powers of western Europe, particularly
Portugal, in the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean and the Spice Islands. With the Ottomans blockading sea-lanes to the East and South, the European powers were driven to find another way to the ancient silk and spice routes, now under Ottoman control. On land, the empire was preoccupied by military campaigns in the Austrian Empire and
Persia, two widely-separated theaters of war. The strain of these conflicts on the empire's resources, and the logistics of maintaining lines of supply and communication across such vast distances, ultimately rendered its sea efforts unsustainable and unsuccessful. The overriding military need for defense on the western and eastern frontiers of the empire eventually made effective long-term engagement on a global scale impossible.
Revolts and revival (1566–1683)
Suleiman's death in 1566 marked the beginning of an era of diminishing territorial gains. The rise of western European nations as naval powers and the development of alternate sea routes from Europe to
Asia and the
New World damaged the Ottoman economy. The effective military and bureaucratic structures of the previous century also came under strain during a protracted period of misrule by weak Sultans. But in spite of these difficulties, the empire remained a major expansionist power until the Battle of Vienna in 1683, which marked the end of Ottoman expansion into Europe.
European states initiated efforts at this time to curb Ottoman control of overland trade routes. Western European states began to circumvent the Ottoman trade monopoly by establishing their own naval routes to Asia. Economically, the huge influx of Spanish silver from the New World caused a sharp devaluation of the Ottoman currency and rampant inflation. This had serious negative consequences at all levels of Ottoman society.
Mehmed-paša Sokolović, who was the grand vizier of
Selim II, created the projects of Suez Channel and Don-Volga Channel to save the economy but these were cancelled as well. in 1571In southern Europe, a coalition of Catholic powers, led by Philip II of Spain, formed an alliance to diminish Ottoman naval strength in the Mediterranean Sea. Their victory over the Ottomans at the naval Battle of Lepanto (1571) hastened the end of the empire's primacy in the Mediterranean. In fact, Lepanto was considered by some earlier historians to signal the beginning of Ottoman decline. By the end of the 16th century, the golden era of sweeping conquest and territorial expansion was over. in 1683The Habsburg frontier in particular became a more or less permanent border until the 19th century, marked only by relatively minor battles concentrating on the possession of individual fortresses. This stalemate was partly a reflection of simple geographical limits: in the pre-mechanized age, Vienna marked the furthest point that an Ottoman army could march from
Istanbul during the early-spring to late-autumn campaigning season. It also reflected the difficulties imposed on the empire by the need to maintain two separate fronts: one against the Austrians (see:
Ottoman wars in Europe), and the other against a rival Islamic state, the
Safavids of Persia (see:
Ottoman wars in Near East).
On the battlefield, the Ottomans gradually fell behind the Europeans in military technology as the innovation which fed the empire's forceful expansion became stifled by growing religious and intellectual conservatism. Changes in European military tactics caused the once-feared
Sipahi cavalry to lose military relevance. Discipline and unit cohesion in the army also became a problem due to relaxations in recruitment policy and the growth of the Janissary corps at the expense of other military units.
Murad IV (1612–1640), who recaptured Yerevan (1635) and
Baghdad (1639) from the
Safavids, is the only example in this era of a sultan who exercised strong political and military control of the empire. Notably, Murad IV was the last Ottoman emperor who led his forces from the front.
The Jelali revolts (1519–1610) and
Janissary revolts (1622) caused widespread lawlessness and rebellion in Anatolia in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and toppled several governments. However, the 17th century was not simply an era of stagnation and decline, but also a key period in which the Ottoman state and its structures began to adapt to new pressures and new realities, internal and external.
The Sultanate of women (1530s–1660s) was a period in which the political impact of the
Imperial Harem was unchallenged, as the mothers of young sultans exercised power on behalf of their sons.
Roxelana, who established herself in the early 1530s as the successor of
Nurbanu, the first
Valide Sultan, was described by the Venetian Baylo Andrea Giritti as 'a woman of the utmost goodness, courage and wisdom' despite the fact that she 'thwarted some while rewarding others'.Leslie Peirce "The Imperial Harem: Women and sovereignty in the Ottoman empire and Morality Tales: Law and gender in the Ottoman court of Aintab" The last prominent women of this period were Kösem Sultan and her daughter-in-law
Turhan Hatice, whose political rivalry culminated in Kösem's murder in 1651. This period gave way to the
Köprülü Era (1656–1703), during which the Empire was controlled first by the powerful members of the
Imperial Harem, and later by a sequence of Grand Viziers. The relative ineffectiveness of the successive sultans and the diffusion of power to lower levels of the government have characterized the Köprülü Era.
Decline and reform (1699–1908)
The long period of Ottoman decline is typically broken by historians into an era of failed reforms and a subsequent era of modern times. The military and political details of this period are covered in three separate articles: the stagnation of the Ottoman Empire (1699–1827), when the empire began to lose territory along its western borders, but managed to maintain its stature as a great regional power; the decline of the Ottoman Empire (1828–1908), when the empire lost territory on all fronts, and there was administrative instability due to the breakdown of centralized government, despite efforts of reform and reorganization such as the
Tanzimat; and the
dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (1908-1922), when the Ottoman state finally met its demise under the government of the Committee of Union and Progress which administered the country during the
Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, and the First World War of 1914–1918.
Reform (1699–1827)
Further wars were lost, and territories ceded, to
Austria in the
Balkans. Certain areas of the empire, such as
Egypt and
Algeria, became independent in all but name, and subsequently came under the influence of Kingdom of Great Britain and
France. The 18th century saw centralized authority giving way to varying degrees of provincial autonomy enjoyed by local governors and leaders. A series of
History of Russo-Turkish wars were fought between the
Russian Empire and Ottoman empires from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Ottoman
Science and Technology in the Ottoman Empire had been highly regarded in medieval times, as a result of Ottoman scholars' synthesis of classical learning with Islamic philosophy and mathematics, and knowledge of such Chinese advances in technology as gunpowder and the magnetic compass. By this period though the influences had become regressive and conservative. The guilds of writers denounced the printing press as "the Devil's Invention", and were responsible for a 43-year lag between its invention by Johannes Gutenberg in Europe in 1450 and its introduction to the Ottoman society (the first Gutenberg press in Istanbul was established by the
Sephardic Jews of Spain in 1493, who had escaped the Spanish Inquisition of 1492 and migrated to the Ottoman Empire).
The
Tulip Era in the Ottoman Empire (or
Lâle Devri in Turkish), named for Sultan Ahmed III's love of the
tulip flower and its use to symbolize his peaceful reign, the empire's policy towards Europe underwent a shift. The region was peaceful between 1718–1730, after the Ottoman victory against Russia in the
Pruth Campaign in 1712 and the subsequent
Treaty of Passarowitz brought a period of pause in warfare. The empire began to improve the fortifications of cities bordering the Balkans to act as a defense against European expansionism. Other tentative reforms were also enacted:
taxes were lowered; there were attempts to improve the image of the Ottoman state; and the first instances of private investment and entrepreneurship occurred.
Ottoman military reform efforts begin with Selim III (1789-1807) who made the first major attempts to modernize the army along European lines. These efforts, however, were hampered by reactionist movements, partly from the religious leadership, but primarily from the Janissary corps, who had become anarchic and ineffectual. Jealous of their privileges and firmly opposed to change created a
Janissary revolts. Selim's efforts cost him his throne and his life, but were resolved in spectacular and bloody fashion by his successor, the dynamic
Mahmud II, who massacred the Janissary corps in 1826. Later on in Ottoman history there were
Science and Technology in the Ottoman Empire#Education, including the establishment of higher education institutions such as
Istanbul Technical University; but decline continued despite these measures.
Modernization (1828–1908)
The period of the Ottoman Empire's decline was characterized by the reorganization and transformation of most of the empire's structures in an attempt to bolster the empire against increasingly powerful rivals.
The
Rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire swept through many countries during the 19th century, and the Ottoman Empire was not immune. A burgeoning
Nationalism, together with a growing sense of ethnic nationalism, made nationalistic thought one of the most significant Western ideas imported to the Ottoman empire, as it was forced to deal with nationalism-related issues both within and beyond its borders. There was a significant increase in the number of revolutionary List of parties in Ottoman Empire. Uprisings in Ottoman territory had many far-reaching consequences during the 19th century and determined much of Ottoman policy during the early 20th century. Many Ottoman Turks questioned whether the policies of the state were to blame: some felt that the sources of ethnic conflict were external, and unrelated to issues of governance. While this era was not without some successes, the ability of the Ottoman state to have any effect on ethnic uprisings was seriously called into question.
Greece declared its independence from the Empire in 1829 after the end of the Greek War of Independence. Reforms did not halt the rise of nationalism in the Danubian Principalities and
Serbia, which had been semi-independent for almost 6 decades; in 1875
Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia Province, Ottoman Empire, Wallachia and Moldova declared their independence from the Empire; and following the
Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, independence was formally granted to
Serbia,
Romania and
Montenegro, and autonomy to
Bulgaria, with the other Balkan territories remaining under Ottoman control. A Serbian Jew, Yehuda Solomon Alkalai, encouraged a return to Zion and independence for Israel during this wave of decolonialization. started the modernization of
Turkey by preparing the Edict of
Tanzimat in 1839 which had immediate effects such as European style clothing, European agricultural inovations, western weapons, architecture, legislation, institutional organization and land reformDuring the
Tanzimat (from Arabic language
Tanzîmât, meaning "reorganization") (1839- 1876), a series of constitutional reforms led to a fairly modern conscripted army, banking system reforms, and the replacement of
guilds with modern
Factory. In 1856, the
Hatt-ı Hümayun promised equality for all Ottoman citizens irrespective of their ethnicity and confession, widening the scope of the 1839
Hatt-i Sharif. The Christian millets gained privileges; such as in 1863 the Armenian National Constitution (Ottoman Turkish:"Nizâmnâme-i Millet-i Ermeniyân") was Porte approved form of the "Code of Regulations" composed of 150 articles drafted by the "Armenian intelligentsia", and newly formed "
Armenian National Assembly (Ottoman Empire)".Richard G. (EDT) Hovannisian "The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times" page 198 The reformist period peaked with the Constitution, called the
Kanûn-ı Esâsî (meaning "Basic Law" in Ottoman Turkish), written by members of the Young Ottomans, which was promulgated on 23 November
1876. It established freedom of belief and equality of all citizens before the law.
A wide-ranging group of reformers known as the
Young Ottomans, primarily educated in Western University, believed that a
constitutional monarchy would provide an answer to the empire's growing social unrest. Through a
military coup in 1876, they forced Sultan
Abdülaziz (1861-1876) to abdicate in favour of
Murad V. However, Murad V was mentally ill, and was deposed within a few months. His heir-apparent Abdülhamid II (1876-1909) was invited to assume power on the condition that he would accept to declare a constitutional monarchy, which he did on 23 November
1876. However, the parliament survived for only two years. The sultan suspended, not abolished, the parliament until he was forced to reconvene it. The effectiveness of
Kanûn-ı Esâsî was then largely minimized. The empire's
First Constitutional Era (Ottoman Empire) (or
Birinci Meşrûtiyet Devri in Turkish), was short-lived; however, the idea behind it (Ottomanism), proved influential.
During this time, the Empire faced challenges in defending itself against foreign invasion and occupation. Egypt was occupied by the French in 1798. Following defeat in the
Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78,
Cyprus was loaned to the British in 1878 in exchange for Britain's favors at the
Congress of Berlin. The empire ceased to enter conflicts on its own and began to forge alliances with European countries such as France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Russia. As an example, in the
Crimean War the Ottomans united with the British, French, and others against Russia.
Economically, the empire had difficulty in repaying the Ottoman public debt to European banks, which caused the establishment of
Ottoman Public Debt Administration. Despite the empire's label as the "
Sick man of Europe", the empire's actual weakness did not reside in its developing economy, but the cultural gap which separated it from the European powers. The empire's troubled Socioeconomics of Reformation Era (Ottoman Empire) were, in fact, the result of an inability to deal with the new problems created by the conflict between external
imperialism and rising internal nationalism.
Dissolution (1908–1922)
The
Second Constitutional Era (Ottoman Empire) (or
İkinci Meşrûtiyet Devri in Turkish) marks the period of the Ottoman Empire's final dissolution. This era is dominated by the politics of the Committee of Union and Progress (or
İttihâd ve Terakkî Cemiyeti in Turkish), and the movement that would become known as the "Young Turks" (or
Jön Türkler in Turkish). The
Young Turk Revolution began on 3 July 1908 and quickly spread throughout the empire, resulting in the sultan's announcement of the restoration of the 1876 constitution and the reconvening of parliament. The constitutional era had a lapse between Countercoup (1909) and counter-revolution 31 March Incident that ended with the sultan
Abdulhamid II deposed and sent to exile in Selanik, and replaced by his brother Mehmed V Reşad.
Profiting from the civil strife within the Ottoman Empire during the Young Turk Revolution, Austria-Hungary officially annexed
Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, having occupied it following the
Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878) and the Congress of Berlin (1878). Bosnia and Herzegovina was still
de jure Ottoman territory until 1908. During the
Italo-Turkish War, the Balkan League, which was composed of
Serbia,
Montenegro, Greece and
Bulgaria, declared war against the Ottoman Empire; which lost most of its Balkan peninsula territories during the
Balkan Wars (1912-1913). The wars in Libya and the Balkan peninsula posed the first major tests for the Committee of Union and Progress. However, Libya was lost following the Italo-Turkish War, which was also the first war in history where airplanes were used on the battlefield.
The new
Balkan states which were formed at the end of the 19th century sought additional territories from the Ottoman provinces of
Albania,
Macedonia (region), and
Thrace, on the grounds of ethnic nationalism. Initially, with
Russia acting as an intermediary, agreements were concluded between Serbia and Bulgaria in March 1912, and between Greece and
Bulgaria in May 1912.
Montenegro subsequently concluded agreements between Serbia and Bulgaria in October 1912.
The Serbian-Bulgarian agreement specifically called for the partition of
Macedonia (region), which was the chief
casus belli of the First Balkan War. The main causes of the
Second Balkan War were the disputes between the former Balkan allies over their newly gained territories; this then gave the Ottomans an opportunity to regain lost territories in Thrace. The political repercussions of the Balkan Wars led to the coup of 1913, and the subsequent rule of the
Three Pashas. at the trenches of Battle of Gallipoli (1915)
World War I
The Baghdad Railway under
Germany control became a source of international tension and played a role in the origins of the First World War.
Morris Jastrow, Jr.,
The War and the Bagdad Railroad (1917) The Ottoman Empire took part in the
Middle Eastern theatre of World War I of
World War I, under the terms of the Ottoman-German Alliance. The Ottomans managed to win important victories in the early years of the war, particularly at the Battle of Gallipoli and the Siege of Kut; but there were setbacks as well, such as the disastrous
Caucasus Campaign against the Russians. The Russian Revolution of 1917 gave the Ottomans the opportunity to regain lost ground and Ottoman forces managed to take Azerbaijan in the final stages of the war, but the Empire was forced to cede these gains at the end of World War I. A significant event in this conflict was the creation of an
Van Resistance movement in the province of Van Province, in response to deportations and murders of hundreds of thousands Armenians by Turks and Kurds (Armenian Genocide)New York Times Dispatch. Lord Bryce's report on Armenian atrocities an appalling catalogue of outrage and massacre.. The New York Times, October 8, 1916.. The core Armenian resistance group formed an independent Administration for Western Armenia in May 1915, prompting the Ottoman government to accuse the Armenians of being in Collaborationism#Ottoman Empire with the invading Russian forces in eastern Anatolia against their native state due to the Armenian volunteer units in the Russian Army. At the end of 1917 the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation formed the
Democratic Republic of Armenia, consisting mostly of refugees of the Armenian Genocide (see below). The eventual Ottoman defeat came from a combination of coordinated attacks on strategic targets by British forces commanded by Edmund Allenby and the Arab Revolt of 1916–18. Given the fact that Turkish peasantry of Anatolia dropped to 40% of the pre-war levels, regardless of the method used in calculations, Ottoman Muslim casualties of World War I during this time are enormous.Erik Jan Zürcher,
Between death and desertion: The experience of the Ottoman soldier in World War I, p241
Arab Revolt was a major cause of Ottoman Empire's defeat. Campaigns of Arabian Revolt started with the Battle of Makkah by Sherif Hussain of
Mecca with the help of Britain in June 1916 and ended with the Ottoman surrender of Damascus.
Fakhri Pasha the Ottoman commander of Medina showed stubborn resistance during more than two and half years long
Siege of Medina.
During the World War I, the Ottoman government unleashed a wave of persecution on the Armenian minority. There were isolated instances of Armenian rebellions in eastern Anatolia. In 1915 the Ottoman government passed the 24 April circular and then the
Tehcir Law deportations between
1 June 1915 and
8 February 1916. The
Teşkilati Mahsusa or the Special Organization (Ottoman Empire) was created to deport (and in the case of adult males, outright kill) Armenians. The American Committee for Relief in the Near East gave relief support and also the Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919-20 covered the event extensively. In addition to any deliberate policy, fighting between
Kurdish-Armenian relations#World War I along with the
Caucasus Campaign of the World War caused trouble for both the Armenian and
Millet (Ottoman Empire)#Muslims populations of the region. An estimated 400,000 (according to Ottoman archives) to 600,000 Encyclopædia Britannica: Death toll of the Armenian Massacres (according to
Arnold J. Toynbee, envoy of the British Foreign Office) and up to more than 1,000,000 (according to Armenian resources) ethnic
Armenians, including women, children and the elderly, died during this period which some academics refer to as the Armenian Genocide. Some academics, including Turkish authorities, however, do not believe the term
genocide applies. Armenian-Turkish Conflict Similar arguments swirl around the concurrent mass mortalities suffered by the Assyrian Genocide and later the
Pontic Greek Genocide communities of the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish Denial of the Armenian genocide of the genocide definition is widely viewed by the Armenians as
historical revisionism (negationism), who often compare it to
Holocaust denial. See the main
Armenian Genocide article for more information.
Partition
Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire happened in the aftermath of World War I. The empire was forced to submit to a complete partition. The process began with the signing of the Armistice of Mudros on
30 October 1918, followed 13 days later with the
occupation of Istanbul; under the shadow of
Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919-20 and the
Malta exiles followed by the subsequent Treaty of Sèvres. Partition of its Middle Eastern territories under the mandates of Britain and France, cede the Turkish Mediterranean coast to Italy, the Turkish Aegean coast to Greece, cede the Turkish Straits and Sea of Marmara to the Allied powers as an international zone, and recognize the
Wilsonian Armenia, an extension of
Democratic Republic of Armenia in eastern Anatolia (in an area which was mostly inhabited by Turks and Kurds). Britain obtained virtually everything it had sought under the secret
Sykes-Picot Agreement it had made with
France in 1916 for the partitioning of the Middle East. The other powers of the
Triple Entente, however, soon became entangled in the
Turkish War of Independence.
Occupation of Istanbul along with the occupation of İzmir mobilized the establishment of the Turkish national movement, and led to the
Turkish War of IndependenceMustafa Kemal Pasha's speech on his arrival in Ankara in November 1919 and the foundation of the
Republic of Turkey., last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, 1922The
Turkish national movement, under the leadership of Kemal Atatürk resulted in the creation of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (
Büyük Millet Meclisi) in
Ankara on
23 April 1920, which refused to recognize the Ottoman government in Istanbul and the invading forces in Turkey. Turkish revolutionaries raised a "people's army" and expelled the invading Greek, Italian and French forces. They took back the Turkish provinces which were given to the Republic of Armenia with the Treaty of Sèvres, and threatened the British forces controlling the Straits. Turkish revolutionaries eventually freed the Straits and Istanbul, and abolished the Ottoman sultanate on
1 November 1922. The last sultan,
Mehmed VI (1918-1922), left the country on
17 November 1922, and the
Republic of Turkey was officially declared with the Treaty of Lausanne on
24 July 1923. The Caliphate was constitutionally abolished several months later, on
3 March 1924. the Sultan and his family were declared 150 personae non gratae of Turkey and exiled. Fifty years later, in 1974, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey granted descendants of the former dynasty the right to acquire Turkish citizenship. See also:
Ertuğrul Osman V.
The
List of Ottoman Empire dominated territories from the remnants of the empire currently number 40 (including the disputed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus).
The fall of the Ottoman Empire can be attributed to the failure of its economic structure; the size of the empire created difficulties in economically integrating its diverse regions. Also, the empire's communication technology was not developed enough to reach all territories. In many ways, the circumstances surrounding the Ottoman Empire's fall closely paralleled those surrounding the Decline of the Roman Empire, particularly in terms of the ongoing tensions between the empire's different ethnic groups, and the various governments' inability to deal with these tensions. In the case of the Ottomans, the introduction of a parliamentary system during the Tanzimat proved too late to reverse the trends that had been set in place.
Economic history
Ottoman government deliberately pursued a policy for the development of Bursa, Edirne ( Adrianople) and Istanbul, successive Ottoman capitals, into major commercial and industrial centres, considering that merchants and artisans were indispensable in creating a new metropolis.Halil İnalcık, Studies in the economic history of the Middle East : from the rise of Islam to the present day / edited by M. A. Cook.London University Press, Oxford U.P. 1970, p. 209 ISBN 0197135617 To this end, Mehmed and his successor Bayezid, also encouraged and welcomed migration of the Jews from different parts of the Europe, who were settled in Istanbul and other port cities like Salonica. Many places in Europe, Jews were suffering persecution at the hands of their Christian counterparts. The tolerance displayed by the Ottomans was welcome to the immigrants. The Ottoman economic mind was closely related to the basic concepts of state and society in the Middle East in which ultimate goal of a state was consolidation and extension of the ruler's power and the way to reach it was to get rich resources of revenues by making the productive classes prosperous.Halil İnalcık, Studies in the economic history of the Middle East : from the rise of Islam to the present day / edited by M. A. Cook.London University Press, Oxford U.P. 1970, p. 217 ISBN 0197135617 The ultimate aim was to increase the state revenues as much as possible without damaging the prosperity of subjects to prevent the emergence of social disorder and to keep the traditional organization of the society intact.
The organization of the treasury and chancery were developed under the Ottoman Empire more than any other Islamic government and, until the 17th century, they were the leading organization among all of their contemporaries.Antony Black, "The state of the House of Osman (devlet-i al-i Osman)" in
The History of Islamic Political Thought: From the Prophet to the Present, p199 This organization developed a new group of people (scribial "man of the pen"), partly highly trained ulema which developed a financial professional body. The effectiveness of this financial professional body behind the success of many great Ottoman statesmen.Halil İnalcık, Donald Quataert, (1971)
An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1914, p120 The economic structure of the Empire was defined by its geopolitical structure. The Ottoman Empire stood between the West and the East, thus blocking the land route eastward and forcing Spanish and Portuguese navigators to set sail in search of a new route to the Orient. The empire controlled the spice route that
Marco Polo once used. When Christopher Columbus first journeyed to America in 1492, the Ottoman Empire was at its zenith; an economic power which extended over three continents. Modern Ottoman studies think that the change in relations between the Ottomans and central Europe was caused by the opening of the new sea routes. It is possible to see the decline in significance of the land routes to the East (as Western Europe opened the ocean routes that bypassed the Middle East and Mediterranean) as parallel to the decline of the Ottoman Empire itself.
By developing commercial centres and routes, encouraging people to extend the area of cultivated land in the country and international trade through its dominions, the state performed basic economic functions in the empire. But in all this the financial and political interests of the state were prevalent and the Ottoman administrators could not have realized, within the social and political system they were living in, the dynamics and principles of the capitalist economy of the Modern Age.Halil inalcik, Studies in the economic history of the Middle East : from the rise of Islam to the present day / edited by M. A. Cook.London University Press, Oxford U.P. 1970, p. 218 ISBN 0197135617
State
Ottoman state organization was a very complex system that had two main dimensions: The military administration and the civic administration. Sultan had the highest position in the system. The civic system was based on local administrative units based on the regions characteristics. The incorporation of Greeks (and other Christians), Muslims, and Jews revolutionized its administrative system.The History of Turkish-Jewish Relations The rapidly expanding empire utilized loyal, skilled subjects to manage the empire, whether Albanians, Phanariotes,
Armenians,
Serbs, Bosniaks,
Hungarians or others. This eclectic administration was apparent even in the diplomatic correspondence of the empire, which was initially undertaken in the Greek language to the west.Donald Quataert, 2.
Like the Byzantines before them, the Ottomans practiced a system in which the state had control over the clergy. The nomadic Turkic forms of land tenure were largely retained — with a number of unique adjustments — in the Ottoman period. Certain pre-Islamic Turkish traditions that had survived the adoption of administrative and legal practices from Islamic Iran remained important in Ottoman administrative circles. According to Ottoman understanding, the state's primary responsibility was to defend and extend the land of the Muslims and to ensure security and harmony within its borders within the overarching context of
Sunni Islamic practice and dynastic sovereignty.
House of Osman
The "Ottoman dynasty" (c. 1290–1922) or as an institution "House of Osman" was unprecedented and unequaled in the Islamic world for its size and duration.Antony Black,
ibid, page 197 The Ottoman sultan, Padishah or "lord of kings", served as the empire's sole regent and was considered to be the embodiment of its government, though he did not always exercise complete control. The Ottoman family was ethnically Turkish in its origins, as were some of its supporters and subjects, however the dynasty immediately lost this "Turkic" identification through intermarriage with many different ethnicities.
Throughout Ottoman history, however — despite the supreme
de jure authority of the sultans and the occasional exercise of de facto authority by
Grand Viziers — there were many instances in which local governors acted independently, and even in opposition to the ruler. On eleven occasions, the sultan was deposed because he was perceived by his enemies as a threat to the state. There were only two attempts in the whole of Ottoman history to unseat the ruling Osmanlı dynasty, both failures, which is suggestive of a political system which for an extended period was able to manage its revolutions without unnecessary instability.
After the dissolution of the empire, the new republic abolished the
Caliphate and
Sultanate and declared the
Ottoman Dynasty as 150 personae non gratae of Turkey. Fifty years later, in 1974, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey granted descendants of the former dynasty the right to acquire Turkish citizenship. The current head of the
House of Osman is
Ertuğrul Osman V living in
New York City.
Imperial Harem
The
Harem (household) was one of the most important powers of the Ottoman court. It was ruled by the Valide Sultan (also known as the
Baş Kadın, or "Chief Lady"), mother of the reigning sultan, who held supreme power over the Harem and thus a powerful position in the court. On occasion, the Valide Sultan would become involved in state politics and through her influence could diminish the power and position of the sultan. For a period of time beginning in the 16th century and extending into the 17th, the women of the Harem effectively controlled the state in what was termed the "Sultanate of the women" (
Kadınlar Saltanatı).
The harem had its own internal organization and order of formulating policies. Beneath the
Valide Sultan in the hierarchy was the
Haseki Sultan, the mother of the sultan's first-born son, who had the best chance of becoming the next Valide Sultan. The sultan also had four other official wives, who were each called
Haseki Kadın. Next in rank below the sultan's wives were his eight favourite concubines (
ikbâls or
hâs
{{Infobox Former Country|common_name = Ottoman Empire|native_name = Ottoman Empire
Osmanlı İmparatorluğu
دولت عالیه عثمانیه
Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye|empire = Ottoman Empire|conventional_long_name = Sublime Ottoman State|continent = Afroeurasia|region = Middle East|status = Empire|year_start = 1299|year_end = 1922|date_end = November 17|event_start = Foundation of Ottoman Empire|event_end = Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire|event1 = Ottoman Interregnum|date_event1 = 1402–1413|event2 = First Constitutional Era (Ottoman Empire)|date_event2 = 1886-1888|event3 = Second Constitutional Era (Ottoman Empire)|date_event3 = 1908-1918|p1 = Seljuq dynasty|flag_p1 = Buyuk selcuklu devleti.gif|p2 = Byzantine Empire|flag_p2 = Flag_of_Palaeologus_Emperor.svg|s1 = Turkey|flag_s1 = Flag of Turkey.svg|image_flag = Flag of Turkey.svg|image_flag_caption = Ottoman flag|national_motto = دولت ابد مدت
Devlet-i Ebed-müddet
("The Eternal State")|national_anthem = [Ottoman imperial anthem (1299–1326)
[Bursa, Turkey (1326–65)
Edirne (1365–1453)
Constantinople (İstanbul, 1453–1922)]|government_type = Monarchy|title_leader = Ottoman Dynasty|leader1 = Osman I|year_leader1 = 1281–1326|leader2 = Mehmed VI|year_leader2 = 1918–22|title_deputy = List of Ottoman Grand Viziers|deputy1 = Alaeddin Pasha|year_deputy1 = 1320–31|deputy2 = Ahmed Tevfik Pasha|year_deputy2 = 1920–22|stat_year1 = 1856|stat_pop1 = 35350000|stat_year2 = 1906|stat_pop2 = 20884000|stat_year3 = 1914|stat_pop3 = 18520000|stat_year4 = 1919|stat_pop4 = 14629000|stat_year5 = 1680|stat_area5 = 5500000|currency = Akçe, Kuruş, Turkish lira-->The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman Caliphate (1299 to 1922) (Ottoman Turkish language: دولت عالیه عثمانیه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Turkish language: Osmanlı Devleti or Osmanlı İmparatorluğu, also known as the Turkish Empire or Turkey by its contemporaries, see Names of the Ottoman Empire), was a multi-ethnic and multi-religious Turkish people state which, at the height of its power (16th – 17th centuries), spanned three List of Ottoman Empire dominated territories, controlling much of Southeastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, stretching from the Strait of Gibraltar (and, in 1553, the Atlantic Ocean coast of Salih Reis beyond Gibraltar) in the west to the Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf in the east, from the edge of Austria, Royal Hungary and parts of Crimean Khanate in the north to Sudan, Eritrea#Medieval history, History of Somalia#The rise of Marehan Sultanates and Dynasty of Adal .26 the Ethiopian Empire war and Yemen in the south.
The empire was at the centre of interactions between the Eastern world and Western world worlds for six centuries. At the height of its power, the Ottoman Empire contained 29 provinces, in addition to the tributary principalities of Moldavia, Transylvania, and Wallachia. With Constantinople (today known as Istanbul) as its capital, the Ottoman Empire was in many respects an Islamic successor to earlier Mediterranean empires — namely the Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire empires. As such, the Ottomans regarded themselves as the heirs to both Roman Empire and Islamic traditions, and hence rulers of a "Universal Empire" through this "unification of cultures".H. İnalcık: "The rise of the Ottoman Empire" in P.M. Holt, A.K. S. Lambstone, and B. Lewis (eds), The Cambridge History of Islam, (Cambridge University). pages 295-200
Rise (1299–1453)
With the demise of the Sultanate of Rûm, Turkish Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent states, the so-called Ghazw.
By 1300, a weakened Byzantium had seen most of its Anatolian provinces lost among some ten Ghazi principalities. One of the Ghazw was led by Osman I (from which the name Ottoman is derived), son of Ertuğrul in the region of Eskişehir in western Anatolia. According to tradition, as Ertuğrul migrated across Asia Minor leading approximately four hundred horsemen, he chanced upon a battle between two armies. Having decided to intervene, he chose the side of the losing army and turned the battle in their favour to secure victory. The troops he supported happened to be those of a Seljuk Sultan who rewarded him with territory in Eskişehir.Kinross, 23 Following Ertuğrul's death in 1281, Osman became chief, or Bey, and by 1299 declared himself a sovereign ruler from the Seljuk empire. (1396) Fall of Constantinople and made it the new Ottoman capital in 1453Osman I extended the frontiers of Ottoman settlement towards the edge of the Byzantine Empire. He moved the Ottoman capital to Bursa, Turkey, and shaped the early political development of the nation. Given the nickname "Kara" (Turkish language for black) for his courage, Sultan Osman I, Turkish Ministry of Culture website Osman I was admired as a strong and dynamic ruler long after his death, as evident in the centuries-old Turkish phrase, "May he be as good as Osman." His reputation has also been burnished by the medieval Turkish story known as "Foundation of Ottoman Empire", a foundation myth in which the young Osman was inspired to conquest by a prescient vision of empire.
This period saw the creation of a formal Ruling institution of the Ottoman Empire whose institutions would remain largely unchanged for almost four centuries. The government utilized the legal entity known as the Millet (Ottoman Empire), under which religious and ethnic minorities were able to manage their own affairs with substantial independence from central control.
In the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over the Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans. After defeat in Battle of Plocnik, the Turkish victory at the Battle of Kosovo effectively marked the end of Kingdom of Serbia power in the region, and paved the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe. With the extension of Turkish dominion into the Balkans, the strategic conquest of fall of Constantinople became a crucial objective. The empire controlled nearly all of the former Byzantine Empire lands, the Byzantine Greeks gained a temporary reprieve when Timur Lenk invaded Anatolia in 1402, taking Bayezid I prisoner.
Following the death of Timur Lenk in 1405, Mehmed I restored the Ottoman power, after the Ottoman Interregnum. His grandson, Mehmed the Conqueror, reorganized the structure of both the state and military, and demonstrated his martial prowess by capturing fall of Constantinople (see: Istanbul (Etymology)) on 29 May 1453, at the age of 21. The city became the new capital of the Ottoman Empire, and Mehmed II assumed the title of Kayser-i Rûm (Roman Emperor). To consolidate this claim, Mehmed II aspired to gain control over the Western capital, Rome, as well; and Ottoman forces occupied parts of the Italian peninsula, starting from Ottoman invasion of Otranto and Apulia on July 28, 1480. But after Mehmed II's death on May 3, 1481, the campaign on Italy was cancelled and the Ottoman forces retreated.
Growth (1453–1683)
This period in Ottoman history can roughly be divided into two distinct eras: an era of territorial, economic, and cultural growth prior to 1566, followed by an era of relative military and political stagnation.
Expansion and apogee (1453–1566)
enters Constantinople after its conquest in 1453 in 1499 was the first naval battle in history where cannons were used on ships, and signaled the rise of Ottoman naval powerThe Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 cemented the status of the empire as the preeminent power in southeastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean. During this time the Ottoman Empire entered a long period of conquest and expansion, extending its borders deep into Europe and North Africa. Conquests on land were driven by the discipline and innovation of the Ottoman military; and on the sea, the Ottoman navy established the empire as a great trading power. The state also flourished economically thanks to its control of the major overland trade routes between Europe and Asia.
The Empire prospered under the rule of a line of committed and effective sultans. Sultan Selim I (1512–1520) dramatically expanded the empire's eastern and southern frontiers by defeating the young Safavid dynasty Shah of Persia, Ismail I, in the Battle of Chaldiran. Selim I established History of Ottoman Egypt, and created a naval presence on the Red Sea.
Selim's successor, Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–1566), further expanded upon Selim's conquests. After capturing Belgrade in 1521, Suleiman conquered the Kingdom of Hungary establishing Ottoman Hungary and other Central European territories, by winning the Battle of Mohács in 1526. He then laid Siege of Vienna in 1529, but failed to take the city after the onset of winter forced his retreat. During the reign of Suleiman, Transylvania, Wallachia and, intermittently, Moldavia, became tributary principalities of the Ottoman Empire, but never became parts of it. In the east, the Ottomans took Baghdad from the Persians in 1535, gaining control of Mesopotamia and naval access to the Persian Gulf. (1526) and the Ottoman conquest of Hungary
Under Selim and Suleiman, the empire became a dominant naval force, controlling much of the Mediterranean Sea. The exploits of the Ottoman admiral Barbarossa Khair ad Din Pasha, who commanded the Turkish navy during Suleiman's reign, included a number of impressive military victories. Among these were the conquest of Tunis and Algeria from Spain; the evacuation of Muslims and Jews from Spain to the safety of Ottoman lands (particularly Salonica, Cyprus, and Constantinople) during the Spanish Inquisition; and the capture of Nice from the Holy Roman Empire in 1543. This last conquest occurred on behalf of France as a joint venture between the forces of the French king Francis I of France and those of Barbarossa. France and the Ottoman Empire, united by mutual opposition to Habsburg rule in southern and central Europe, became strong allies during this period. The alliance was economic as well as military, as the sultans granted France the right of trade within the empire without levy of taxation. In fact, the Ottoman Empire was by this time a significant and accepted part of the European political sphere, and entered into a military alliance with France, England and the Netherlands against Habsburg Spain, Italy and Austria-Hungary. defeated the Holy League (1538) of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor under the command of Andrea Doria at the Battle of Preveza in 1538As the 16th century progressed, Ottoman naval superiority was challenged by the growing sea powers of western Europe, particularly Portugal, in the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean and the Spice Islands. With the Ottomans blockading sea-lanes to the East and South, the European powers were driven to find another way to the ancient silk and spice routes, now under Ottoman control. On land, the empire was preoccupied by military campaigns in the Austrian Empire and Persia, two widely-separated theaters of war. The strain of these conflicts on the empire's resources, and the logistics of maintaining lines of supply and communication across such vast distances, ultimately rendered its sea efforts unsustainable and unsuccessful. The overriding military need for defense on the western and eastern frontiers of the empire eventually made effective long-term engagement on a global scale impossible.
Revolts and revival (1566–1683)
Suleiman's death in 1566 marked the beginning of an era of diminishing territorial gains. The rise of western European nations as naval powers and the development of alternate sea routes from Europe to Asia and the New World damaged the Ottoman economy. The effective military and bureaucratic structures of the previous century also came under strain during a protracted period of misrule by weak Sultans. But in spite of these difficulties, the empire remained a major expansionist power until the Battle of Vienna in 1683, which marked the end of Ottoman expansion into Europe.
European states initiated efforts at this time to curb Ottoman control of overland trade routes. Western European states began to circumvent the Ottoman trade monopoly by establishing their own naval routes to Asia. Economically, the huge influx of Spanish silver from the New World caused a sharp devaluation of the Ottoman currency and rampant inflation. This had serious negative consequences at all levels of Ottoman society. Mehmed-paša Sokolović, who was the grand vizier of Selim II, created the projects of Suez Channel and Don-Volga Channel to save the economy but these were cancelled as well. in 1571In southern Europe, a coalition of Catholic powers, led by Philip II of Spain, formed an alliance to diminish Ottoman naval strength in the Mediterranean Sea. Their victory over the Ottomans at the naval Battle of Lepanto (1571) hastened the end of the empire's primacy in the Mediterranean. In fact, Lepanto was considered by some earlier historians to signal the beginning of Ottoman decline. By the end of the 16th century, the golden era of sweeping conquest and territorial expansion was over. in 1683The Habsburg frontier in particular became a more or less permanent border until the 19th century, marked only by relatively minor battles concentrating on the possession of individual fortresses. This stalemate was partly a reflection of simple geographical limits: in the pre-mechanized age, Vienna marked the furthest point that an Ottoman army could march from Istanbul during the early-spring to late-autumn campaigning season. It also reflected the difficulties imposed on the empire by the need to maintain two separate fronts: one against the Austrians (see:Ottoman wars in Europe), and the other against a rival Islamic state, the Safavids of Persia (see: Ottoman wars in Near East).
On the battlefield, the Ottomans gradually fell behind the Europeans in military technology as the innovation which fed the empire's forceful expansion became stifled by growing religious and intellectual conservatism. Changes in European military tactics caused the once-feared Sipahi cavalry to lose military relevance. Discipline and unit cohesion in the army also became a problem due to relaxations in recruitment policy and the growth of the Janissary corps at the expense of other military units.
Murad IV (1612–1640), who recaptured Yerevan (1635) and Baghdad (1639) from the Safavids, is the only example in this era of a sultan who exercised strong political and military control of the empire. Notably, Murad IV was the last Ottoman emperor who led his forces from the front.
The Jelali revolts (1519–1610) and Janissary revolts (1622) caused widespread lawlessness and rebellion in Anatolia in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and toppled several governments. However, the 17th century was not simply an era of stagnation and decline, but also a key period in which the Ottoman state and its structures began to adapt to new pressures and new realities, internal and external.
The Sultanate of women (1530s–1660s) was a period in which the political impact of the Imperial Harem was unchallenged, as the mothers of young sultans exercised power on behalf of their sons. Roxelana, who established herself in the early 1530s as the successor of Nurbanu, the first Valide Sultan, was described by the Venetian Baylo Andrea Giritti as 'a woman of the utmost goodness, courage and wisdom' despite the fact that she 'thwarted some while rewarding others'.Leslie Peirce "The Imperial Harem: Women and sovereignty in the Ottoman empire and Morality Tales: Law and gender in the Ottoman court of Aintab" The last prominent women of this period were Kösem Sultan and her daughter-in-law Turhan Hatice, whose political rivalry culminated in Kösem's murder in 1651. This period gave way to the Köprülü Era (1656–1703), during which the Empire was controlled first by the powerful members of the Imperial Harem, and later by a sequence of Grand Viziers. The relative ineffectiveness of the successive sultans and the diffusion of power to lower levels of the government have characterized the Köprülü Era.
Decline and reform (1699–1908)
The long period of Ottoman decline is typically broken by historians into an era of failed reforms and a subsequent era of modern times. The military and political details of this period are covered in three separate articles: the stagnation of the Ottoman Empire (1699–1827), when the empire began to lose territory along its western borders, but managed to maintain its stature as a great regional power; the decline of the Ottoman Empire (1828–1908), when the empire lost territory on all fronts, and there was administrative instability due to the breakdown of centralized government, despite efforts of reform and reorganization such as the Tanzimat; and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (1908-1922), when the Ottoman state finally met its demise under the government of the Committee of Union and Progress which administered the country during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1912, the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, and the First World War of 1914–1918.
Reform (1699–1827)
Further wars were lost, and territories ceded, to Austria in the Balkans. Certain areas of the empire, such as Egypt and Algeria, became independent in all but name, and subsequently came under the influence of Kingdom of Great Britain and France. The 18th century saw centralized authority giving way to varying degrees of provincial autonomy enjoyed by local governors and leaders. A series of History of Russo-Turkish wars were fought between the Russian Empire and Ottoman empires from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Ottoman Science and Technology in the Ottoman Empire had been highly regarded in medieval times, as a result of Ottoman scholars' synthesis of classical learning with Islamic philosophy and mathematics, and knowledge of such Chinese advances in technology as gunpowder and the magnetic compass. By this period though the influences had become regressive and conservative. The guilds of writers denounced the printing press as "the Devil's Invention", and were responsible for a 43-year lag between its invention by Johannes Gutenberg in Europe in 1450 and its introduction to the Ottoman society (the first Gutenberg press in Istanbul was established by the Sephardic Jews of Spain in 1493, who had escaped the Spanish Inquisition of 1492 and migrated to the Ottoman Empire).
The Tulip Era in the Ottoman Empire (or Lâle Devri in Turkish), named for Sultan Ahmed III's love of the tulip flower and its use to symbolize his peaceful reign, the empire's policy towards Europe underwent a shift. The region was peaceful between 1718–1730, after the Ottoman victory against Russia in the Pruth Campaign in 1712 and the subsequent Treaty of Passarowitz brought a period of pause in warfare. The empire began to improve the fortifications of cities bordering the Balkans to act as a defense against European expansionism. Other tentative reforms were also enacted: taxes were lowered; there were attempts to improve the image of the Ottoman state; and the first instances of private investment and entrepreneurship occurred.
Ottoman military reform efforts begin with Selim III (1789-1807) who made the first major attempts to modernize the army along European lines. These efforts, however, were hampered by reactionist movements, partly from the religious leadership, but primarily from the Janissary corps, who had become anarchic and ineffectual. Jealous of their privileges and firmly opposed to change created a Janissary revolts. Selim's efforts cost him his throne and his life, but were resolved in spectacular and bloody fashion by his successor, the dynamic Mahmud II, who massacred the Janissary corps in 1826. Later on in Ottoman history there were Science and Technology in the Ottoman Empire#Education, including the establishment of higher education institutions such as Istanbul Technical University; but decline continued despite these measures.
Modernization (1828–1908)
The period of the Ottoman Empire's decline was characterized by the reorganization and transformation of most of the empire's structures in an attempt to bolster the empire against increasingly powerful rivals.
The Rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire swept through many countries during the 19th century, and the Ottoman Empire was not immune. A burgeoning Nationalism, together with a growing sense of ethnic nationalism, made nationalistic thought one of the most significant Western ideas imported to the Ottoman empire, as it was forced to deal with nationalism-related issues both within and beyond its borders. There was a significant increase in the number of revolutionary List of parties in Ottoman Empire. Uprisings in Ottoman territory had many far-reaching consequences during the 19th century and determined much of Ottoman policy during the early 20th century. Many Ottoman Turks questioned whether the policies of the state were to blame: some felt that the sources of ethnic conflict were external, and unrelated to issues of governance. While this era was not without some successes, the ability of the Ottoman state to have any effect on ethnic uprisings was seriously called into question. Greece declared its independence from the Empire in 1829 after the end of the Greek War of Independence. Reforms did not halt the rise of nationalism in the Danubian Principalities and Serbia, which had been semi-independent for almost 6 decades; in 1875 Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia Province, Ottoman Empire, Wallachia and Moldova declared their independence from the Empire; and following the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, independence was formally granted to Serbia, Romania and Montenegro, and autonomy to Bulgaria, with the other Balkan territories remaining under Ottoman control. A Serbian Jew, Yehuda Solomon Alkalai, encouraged a return to Zion and independence for Israel during this wave of decolonialization. started the modernization of Turkey by preparing the Edict of Tanzimat in 1839 which had immediate effects such as European style clothing, European agricultural inovations, western weapons, architecture, legislation, institutional organization and land reformDuring the Tanzimat (from Arabic language Tanzîmât, meaning "reorganization") (1839- 1876), a series of constitutional reforms led to a fairly modern conscripted army, banking system reforms, and the replacement of guilds with modern Factory. In 1856, the Hatt-ı Hümayun promised equality for all Ottoman citizens irrespective of their ethnicity and confession, widening the scope of the 1839 Hatt-i Sharif. The Christian millets gained privileges; such as in 1863 the Armenian National Constitution (Ottoman Turkish:"Nizâmnâme-i Millet-i Ermeniyân") was Porte approved form of the "Code of Regulations" composed of 150 articles drafted by the "Armenian intelligentsia", and newly formed "Armenian National Assembly (Ottoman Empire)".Richard G. (EDT) Hovannisian "The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times" page 198 The reformist period peaked with the Constitution, called the Kanûn-ı Esâsî (meaning "Basic Law" in Ottoman Turkish), written by members of the Young Ottomans, which was promulgated on 23 November 1876. It established freedom of belief and equality of all citizens before the law.
A wide-ranging group of reformers known as the Young Ottomans, primarily educated in Western University, believed that a constitutional monarchy would provide an answer to the empire's growing social unrest. Through a military coup in 1876, they forced Sultan Abdülaziz (1861-1876) to abdicate in favour of Murad V. However, Murad V was mentally ill, and was deposed within a few months. His heir-apparent Abdülhamid II (1876-1909) was invited to assume power on the condition that he would accept to declare a constitutional monarchy, which he did on 23 November 1876. However, the parliament survived for only two years. The sultan suspended, not abolished, the parliament until he was forced to reconvene it. The effectiveness of Kanûn-ı Esâsî was then largely minimized. The empire's First Constitutional Era (Ottoman Empire) (or Birinci Meşrûtiyet Devri in Turkish), was short-lived; however, the idea behind it (Ottomanism), proved influential.
During this time, the Empire faced challenges in defending itself against foreign invasion and occupation. Egypt was occupied by the French in 1798. Following defeat in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, Cyprus was loaned to the British in 1878 in exchange for Britain's favors at the Congress of Berlin. The empire ceased to enter conflicts on its own and began to forge alliances with European countries such as France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Russia. As an example, in the Crimean War the Ottomans united with the British, French, and others against Russia.
Economically, the empire had difficulty in repaying the Ottoman public debt to European banks, which caused the establishment ofOttoman Public Debt Administration. Despite the empire's label as the "Sick man of Europe", the empire's actual weakness did not reside in its developing economy, but the cultural gap which separated it from the European powers. The empire's troubled Socioeconomics of Reformation Era (Ottoman Empire) were, in fact, the result of an inability to deal with the new problems created by the conflict between external imperialism and rising internal nationalism.
Dissolution (1908–1922)
The Second Constitutional Era (Ottoman Empire) (or İkinci Meşrûtiyet Devri in Turkish) marks the period of the Ottoman Empire's final dissolution. This era is dominated by the politics of the Committee of Union and Progress (or İttihâd ve Terakkî Cemiyeti in Turkish), and the movement that would become known as the "Young Turks" (or Jön Türkler in Turkish). The Young Turk Revolution began on 3 July 1908 and quickly spread throughout the empire, resulting in the sultan's announcement of the restoration of the 1876 constitution and the reconvening of parliament. The constitutional era had a lapse between Countercoup (1909) and counter-revolution 31 March Incident that ended with the sultan Abdulhamid II deposed and sent to exile in Selanik, and replaced by his brother Mehmed V Reşad.
Profiting from the civil strife within the Ottoman Empire during the Young Turk Revolution, Austria-Hungary officially annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, having occupied it following the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878) and the Congress of Berlin (1878). Bosnia and Herzegovina was still de jure Ottoman territory until 1908. During the Italo-Turkish War, the Balkan League, which was composed of Serbia, Montenegro, Greece and Bulgaria, declared war against the Ottoman Empire; which lost most of its Balkan peninsula territories during the Balkan Wars (1912-1913). The wars in Libya and the Balkan peninsula posed the first major tests for the Committee of Union and Progress. However, Libya was lost following the Italo-Turkish War, which was also the first war in history where airplanes were used on the battlefield.
The new Balkan states which were formed at the end of the 19th century sought additional territories from the Ottoman provinces of Albania, Macedonia (region), and Thrace, on the grounds of ethnic nationalism. Initially, with Russia acting as an intermediary, agreements were concluded between Serbia and Bulgaria in March 1912, and between Greece and Bulgaria in May 1912. Montenegro subsequently concluded agreements between Serbia and Bulgaria in October 1912.
The Serbian-Bulgarian agreement specifically called for the partition of Macedonia (region), which was the chief casus belli of the First Balkan War. The main causes of the Second Balkan War were the disputes between the former Balkan allies over their newly gained territories; this then gave the Ottomans an opportunity to regain lost territories in Thrace. The political repercussions of the Balkan Wars led to the coup of 1913, and the subsequent rule of the Three Pashas. at the trenches of Battle of Gallipoli (1915)
World War I
The Baghdad Railway under Germany control became a source of international tension and played a role in the origins of the First World War.Morris Jastrow, Jr., The War and the Bagdad Railroad (1917) The Ottoman Empire took part in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I of World War I, under the terms of the Ottoman-German Alliance. The Ottomans managed to win important victories in the early years of the war, particularly at the Battle of Gallipoli and the Siege of Kut; but there were setbacks as well, such as the disastrous Caucasus Campaign against the Russians. The Russian Revolution of 1917 gave the Ottomans the opportunity to regain lost ground and Ottoman forces managed to take Azerbaijan in the final stages of the war, but the Empire was forced to cede these gains at the end of World War I. A significant event in this conflict was the creation of an Van Resistance movement in the province of Van Province, in response to deportations and murders of hundreds of thousands Armenians by Turks and Kurds (Armenian Genocide)New York Times Dispatch. Lord Bryce's report on Armenian atrocities an appalling catalogue of outrage and massacre.. The New York Times, October 8, 1916.. The core Armenian resistance group formed an independent Administration for Western Armenia in May 1915, prompting the Ottoman government to accuse the Armenians of being in Collaborationism#Ottoman Empire with the invading Russian forces in eastern Anatolia against their native state due to the Armenian volunteer units in the Russian Army. At the end of 1917 the Armenian Revolutionary Federation formed the Democratic Republic of Armenia, consisting mostly of refugees of the Armenian Genocide (see below). The eventual Ottoman defeat came from a combination of coordinated attacks on strategic targets by British forces commanded by Edmund Allenby and the Arab Revolt of 1916–18. Given the fact that Turkish peasantry of Anatolia dropped to 40% of the pre-war levels, regardless of the method used in calculations, Ottoman Muslim casualties of World War I during this time are enormous.Erik Jan Zürcher, Between death and desertion: The experience of the Ottoman soldier in World War I, p241
Arab Revolt was a major cause of Ottoman Empire's defeat. Campaigns of Arabian Revolt started with the Battle of Makkah by Sherif Hussain of Mecca with the help of Britain in June 1916 and ended with the Ottoman surrender of Damascus. Fakhri Pasha the Ottoman commander of Medina showed stubborn resistance during more than two and half years long Siege of Medina.
During the World War I, the Ottoman government unleashed a wave of persecution on the Armenian minority. There were isolated instances of Armenian rebellions in eastern Anatolia. In 1915 the Ottoman government passed the 24 April circular and then the Tehcir Law deportations between 1 June 1915 and 8 February 1916. The Teşkilati Mahsusa or the Special Organization (Ottoman Empire) was created to deport (and in the case of adult males, outright kill) Armenians. The American Committee for Relief in the Near East gave relief support and also the Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919-20 covered the event extensively. In addition to any deliberate policy, fighting between Kurdish-Armenian relations#World War I along with the Caucasus Campaign of the World War caused trouble for both the Armenian and Millet (Ottoman Empire)#Muslims populations of the region. An estimated 400,000 (according to Ottoman archives) to 600,000 Encyclopædia Britannica: Death toll of the Armenian Massacres (according to Arnold J. Toynbee, envoy of the British Foreign Office) and up to more than 1,000,000 (according to Armenian resources) ethnic Armenians, including women, children and the elderly, died during this period which some academics refer to as the Armenian Genocide. Some academics, including Turkish authorities, however, do not believe the term genocide applies. Armenian-Turkish Conflict Similar arguments swirl around the concurrent mass mortalities suffered by the Assyrian Genocide and later the Pontic Greek Genocide communities of the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish Denial of the Armenian genocide of the genocide definition is widely viewed by the Armenians as historical revisionism (negationism), who often compare it to Holocaust denial. See the main Armenian Genocide article for more information.
Partition
Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire happened in the aftermath of World War I. The empire was forced to submit to a complete partition. The process began with the signing of the Armistice of Mudros on 30 October 1918, followed 13 days later with the occupation of Istanbul; under the shadow of Turkish Courts-Martial of 1919-20 and the Malta exiles followed by the subsequent Treaty of Sèvres. Partition of its Middle Eastern territories under the mandates of Britain and France, cede the Turkish Mediterranean coast to Italy, the Turkish Aegean coast to Greece, cede the Turkish Straits and Sea of Marmara to the Allied powers as an international zone, and recognize the Wilsonian Armenia, an extension of Democratic Republic of Armenia in eastern Anatolia (in an area which was mostly inhabited by Turks and Kurds). Britain obtained virtually everything it had sought under the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement it had made with France in 1916 for the partitioning of the Middle East. The other powers of the Triple Entente, however, soon became entangled in the Turkish War of Independence.
Occupation of Istanbul along with the occupation of İzmir mobilized the establishment of the Turkish national movement, and led to the Turkish War of IndependenceMustafa Kemal Pasha's speech on his arrival in Ankara in November 1919 and the foundation of the Republic of Turkey., last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, 1922The Turkish national movement, under the leadership of Kemal Atatürk resulted in the creation of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (Büyük Millet Meclisi) in Ankara on 23 April 1920, which refused to recognize the Ottoman government in Istanbul and the invading forces in Turkey. Turkish revolutionaries raised a "people's army" and expelled the invading Greek, Italian and French forces. They took back the Turkish provinces which were given to the Republic of Armenia with the Treaty of Sèvres, and threatened the British forces controlling the Straits. Turkish revolutionaries eventually freed the Straits and Istanbul, and abolished the Ottoman sultanate on 1 November 1922. The last sultan, Mehmed VI (1918-1922), left the country on 17 November 1922, and the Republic of Turkey was officially declared with the Treaty of Lausanne on 24 July 1923. The Caliphate was constitutionally abolished several months later, on 3 March 1924. the Sultan and his family were declared 150 personae non gratae of Turkey and exiled. Fifty years later, in 1974, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey granted descendants of the former dynasty the right to acquire Turkish citizenship. See also: Ertuğrul Osman V.
The List of Ottoman Empire dominated territories from the remnants of the empire currently number 40 (including the disputed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus).
The fall of the Ottoman Empire can be attributed to the failure of its economic structure; the size of the empire created difficulties in economically integrating its diverse regions. Also, the empire's communication technology was not developed enough to reach all territories. In many ways, the circumstances surrounding the Ottoman Empire's fall closely paralleled those surrounding the Decline of the Roman Empire, particularly in terms of the ongoing tensions between the empire's different ethnic groups, and the various governments' inability to deal with these tensions. In the case of the Ottomans, the introduction of a parliamentary system during the Tanzimat proved too late to reverse the trends that had been set in place.
Economic history
Ottoman government deliberately pursued a policy for the development of Bursa, Edirne ( Adrianople) and Istanbul, successive Ottoman capitals, into major commercial and industrial centres, considering that merchants and artisans were indispensable in creating a new metropolis.Halil İnalcık, Studies in the economic history of the Middle East : from the rise of Islam to the present day / edited by M. A. Cook.London University Press, Oxford U.P. 1970, p. 209 ISBN 0197135617 To this end, Mehmed and his successor Bayezid, also encouraged and welcomed migration of the Jews from different parts of the Europe, who were settled in Istanbul and other port cities like Salonica. Many places in Europe, Jews were suffering persecution at the hands of their Christian counterparts. The tolerance displayed by the Ottomans was welcome to the immigrants. The Ottoman economic mind was closely related to the basic concepts of state and society in the Middle East in which ultimate goal of a state was consolidation and extension of the ruler's power and the way to reach it was to get rich resources of revenues by making the productive classes prosperous.Halil İnalcık, Studies in the economic history of the Middle East : from the rise of Islam to the present day / edited by M. A. Cook.London University Press, Oxford U.P. 1970, p. 217 ISBN 0197135617 The ultimate aim was to increase the state revenues as much as possible without damaging the prosperity of subjects to prevent the emergence of social disorder and to keep the traditional organization of the society intact.
The organization of the treasury and chancery were developed under the Ottoman Empire more than any other Islamic government and, until the 17th century, they were the leading organization among all of their contemporaries.Antony Black, "The state of the House of Osman (devlet-i al-i Osman)" in The History of Islamic Political Thought: From the Prophet to the Present, p199 This organization developed a new group of people (scribial "man of the pen"), partly highly trained ulema which developed a financial professional body. The effectiveness of this financial professional body behind the success of many great Ottoman statesmen.Halil İnalcık, Donald Quataert, (1971) An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1914, p120 The economic structure of the Empire was defined by its geopolitical structure. The Ottoman Empire stood between the West and the East, thus blocking the land route eastward and forcing Spanish and Portuguese navigators to set sail in search of a new route to the Orient. The empire controlled the spice route that Marco Polo once used. When Christopher Columbus first journeyed to America in 1492, the Ottoman Empire was at its zenith; an economic power which extended over three continents. Modern Ottoman studies think that the change in relations between the Ottomans and central Europe was caused by the opening of the new sea routes. It is possible to see the decline in significance of the land routes to the East (as Western Europe opened the ocean routes that bypassed the Middle East and Mediterranean) as parallel to the decline of the Ottoman Empire itself.
By developing commercial centres and routes, encouraging people to extend the area of cultivated land in the country and international trade through its dominions, the state performed basic economic functions in the empire. But in all this the financial and political interests of the state were prevalent and the Ottoman administrators could not have realized, within the social and political system they were living in, the dynamics and principles of the capitalist economy of the Modern Age.Halil inalcik, Studies in the economic history of the Middle East : from the rise of Islam to the present day / edited by M. A. Cook.London University Press, Oxford U.P. 1970, p. 218 ISBN 0197135617
State
Ottoman state organization was a very complex system that had two main dimensions: The military administration and the civic administration. Sultan had the highest position in the system. The civic system was based on local administrative units based on the regions characteristics. The incorporation of Greeks (and other Christians), Muslims, and Jews revolutionized its administrative system.The History of Turkish-Jewish Relations The rapidly expanding empire utilized loyal, skilled subjects to manage the empire, whether Albanians, Phanariotes, Armenians, Serbs, Bosniaks, Hungarians or others. This eclectic administration was apparent even in the diplomatic correspondence of the empire, which was initially undertaken in the Greek language to the west.Donald Quataert, 2.
Like the Byzantines before them, the Ottomans practiced a system in which the state had control over the clergy. The nomadic Turkic forms of land tenure were largely retained — with a number of unique adjustments — in the Ottoman period. Certain pre-Islamic Turkish traditions that had survived the adoption of administrative and legal practices from Islamic Iran remained important in Ottoman administrative circles. According to Ottoman understanding, the state's primary responsibility was to defend and extend the land of the Muslims and to ensure security and harmony within its borders within the overarching context of Sunni Islamic practice and dynastic sovereignty.
House of Osman
The "Ottoman dynasty" (c. 1290–1922) or as an institution "House of Osman" was unprecedented and unequaled in the Islamic world for its size and duration.Antony Black, ibid, page 197 The Ottoman sultan, Padishah or "lord of kings", served as the empire's sole regent and was considered to be the embodiment of its government, though he did not always exercise complete control. The Ottoman family was ethnically Turkish in its origins, as were some of its supporters and subjects, however the dynasty immediately lost this "Turkic" identification through intermarriage with many different ethnicities.
Throughout Ottoman history, however — despite the supreme de jure authority of the sultans and the occasional exercise of de facto authority by Grand Viziers — there were many instances in which local governors acted independently, and even in opposition to the ruler. On eleven occasions, the sultan was deposed because he was perceived by his enemies as a threat to the state. There were only two attempts in the whole of Ottoman history to unseat the ruling Osmanlı dynasty, both failures, which is suggestive of a political system which for an extended period was able to manage its revolutions without unnecessary instability.
After the dissolution of the empire, the new republic abolished the Caliphate and Sultanate and declared the Ottoman Dynasty as 150 personae non gratae of Turkey. Fifty years later, in 1974, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey granted descendants of the former dynasty the right to acquire Turkish citizenship. The current head of the House of Osman is Ertuğrul Osman V living in New York City.
Imperial Harem
The Harem (household) was one of the most important powers of the Ottoman court. It was ruled by the Valide Sultan (also known as the Baş Kadın, or "Chief Lady"), mother of the reigning sultan, who held supreme power over the Harem and thus a powerful position in the court. On occasion, the Valide Sultan would become involved in state politics and through her influence could diminish the power and position of the sultan. For a period of time beginning in the 16th century and extending into the 17th, the women of the Harem effectively controlled the state in what was termed the "Sultanate of the women" (Kadınlar Saltanatı).
The harem had its own internal organization and order of formulating policies. Beneath the Valide Sultan in the hierarchy was the Haseki Sultan, the mother of the sultan's first-born son, who had the best chance of becoming the next Valide Sultan. The sultan also had four other official wives, who were each called Haseki Kadın. Next in rank below the sultan's wives were his eight favourite concubines (ikbâls or hâs
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