Daily Life In The Ottoman Empire (2 page)

1 – HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

The
Ottoman state was born as a small principality in western Anatolia during the
last two decades of the 13th century. As with other Turkish chieftains who had
settled in the region, the family of Osman (1281?–1324/1326), the founder of
the Ottoman Empire, arrived as nomadic tribesmen from Central Asia. Turcoman
tribes had been settling in Anatolia since 1071, when the Seljuk Turks defeated
the Greek Byzantine Empire at the battle of Manzikert (Malazgird). The victory
at Manzikert destroyed Byzantine defenses and allowed Turcoman tribesmen from
Central Asia and Iran to push westward and settle in Anatolia. In 1087, a
branch of the Seljuk dynasty established itself in central and eastern
Anatolia. The Turcoman chiefs, who settled in the region, swore their allegiance
and paid annual tribute to the Rum Seljuks, who ruled from their capital, the
town of Konya, in central Anatolia. When the Mongols defeated the Seljuks at
the battle of Köse Dagh in 1243, Turcoman principalities such as Menteşe,
Aydin, Saruhan, and Ottoman, emerged as autonomous fiefdoms that paid tribute
to a new master, the Il Khanid Mongols of Iran. Toward the end of the 13th
century, as Mongol power began to decline, the Turcoman chiefs assumed greater
independence.

FOUNDERS OF THE OTTOMAN STATE

The founder of the Ottoman state, Osman, began his career
as a
gazi,
or a warrior for Islam, who waged holy war on the Byzantine
state from his small principality in the district of Sögüt in western Anatolia.
Osman’s son and successor, Orhan (1324/1326–1362) attacked and conquered the
important urban center of Bursa in 1326, proclaiming it as the Ottoman capital.
He used his newly acquired territory to capture the towns of Nicaea (Iznik) in
1331 and Nicomedia (Izmit) in 1337. In 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe
and established a foothold on the Gallipoli Peninsula while at the same time
pushing east and taking Ankara on the dry Anatolian plain. In 1355, Stephen
Dušan (Dushan), the ruler of Serbia, died, and his empire disintegrated,
allowing the Ottomans to push farther into the Balkans and capture the
important town of Adrianople (Edirne) in 1361. Shortly after ascending the
throne, the third Ottoman sultan, Murad I (1362–1389), moved against Thrace and
southern Bulgaria. In response, the Pope declared a crusade. The Serbs also
called for a united front of all Orthodox Christian rulers. Despite growing
resistance against the Ottomans, Murad I’s armies scored an impressive victory
at Chermanon on the Maritsa River in 1371, seizing significant territory in
Bulgaria, Macedonia, and southern Serbia. To neutralize the threat posed by
rival Turcoman principalities in Anatolia, Murad I also attacked and annexed
Germiyan and Hamidili. Meanwhile, the Ottomans pushed farther into Bulgaria and
took Sofia in 1385. In the same year, they annexed Nish, and in 1387, they took
Thessaloniki (Salonika) in modern-day northern Greece.

Once again, the Christian powers of southeast Europe tried
to set aside their rivalries and organize an anti-Ottoman coalition. A joint
force of Serbs, Bosnians, and Bulgarians defeated the Ottomans at Plošnik (Ploshnik)
in 1388, but the defeat did not slow down the pace of Ottoman expansion. After
occupying northern Bulgaria, Murad I moved against the Balkan states that had
unified under the leadership of the Serbian prince, Lazar (1371–1389). In June
1389, the Ottoman forces defeated the Christian coalition at Kosovo-Polje
(Field of the Blackbirds). Both Murad I and Lazar died on the battlefield.

The victory at Kosovo-Polje allowed the new Ottoman sultan,
Bayezid I (1389–1402), to continue with the conquest of the Balkans. Skopje, in
Macedonia, was taken in 1391, and Ottoman forces entered Thessaly in 1394. With
the conquest of northern Bulgaria, the ruler of Wallachia, Mircea the Old
(1386–1418), was forced to accept Ottoman sovereignty in 1395. Bayezid’s forces
were now in a position to raid Hungary and Albania. Meanwhile, in the east, the
sultan annexed Karaman in southwestern Anatolia in 1396–1397.

The emergence of an Ottoman-dominated Balkans posed a
direct threat to the Hungarian state, which viewed Serbia as a buffer. Thus,
when Pope Boniface IX (1389–1404) called for a Christian crusade against the
Ottomans, the Hungarian monarch Sigismund (1387–1437) assumed leadership of the
Christian army. Bayezid rushed back from Anatolia to confront the large crusader
force that was approaching the shores of the Danube. The two armies clashed at
Nicopolis in September 1396, where the Ottomans scored an impressive victory.
Thousands of Christian knights died, either on the battlefield or as they tried
to cross the Danube. Bayezid built on this victory by annexing the principality
of Vidin in 1398. Confident of his power in the west, the sultan shifted his
focus to Anatolia and the threat posed by the Mamluk state that ruled Egypt and
parts of the Arab Middle East from its capital in Cairo. In 1399, he captured
the towns of Malatya and Albistan in the Euphrates valley.

Bayezid’s drive to expand Ottoman territories in the east
coincided with the rise of the world conqueror, Timur, who had created a vast
empire extending from Central Asia to India and Iran. In 1400–1401, Timur moved
his forces toward Anatolia, sacking Sivas and challenging the Ottoman sultan to
a confrontation. Enraged by Timur’s condescending attitude and insulting
language, and confident of his ability to defeat the Central Asian adventurer,
Bayezid moved his forces eastward. The critical battle took place in July 1402
at Ankara, where Timur’s army routed the Ottoman forces and captured Bayezid
and his sons. The defeat at Ankara brought the Ottoman state to the brink of
extinction. Timur pushed his conquests to Smyrna (Izmir) on the eastern shores
of the Aegean Sea and restored the independence of the Turcoman principalities
conquered by the Ottomans. He also granted Bayezid’s sons small principalities
in Anatolia and the Balkans so that they would fight among themselves for
control of what was left of their father’s empire. Thus began the period known
as
Fetret,
or Interregnum, which lasted from 1402 to 1413. After a
series of campaigns against his brothers, Mehmed, who ruled Amasya in northern
Anatolia, emerged as the new ruler of the Ottoman state.

Mehmed I (1413–1421) and his successor Murad II (1421–1444;
1446–1451) spent much of their reigns suppressing internal revolts staged by
members of the Ottoman dynasty and restoring the power of the central
government by subduing the Turcoman principalities, which had regained their
independence under Timur. The Ottoman rulers also resumed their westward march
into the heartland of the Balkans. Once again, a crusade was organized, this
time under the leadership of Vladislav (1434–1444), the ruler of Poland and
Hungary. Serbia, led by George Branković, also joined, but the true leader
of the anti-Ottoman coalition was the governor of Transylvania, John Hunyadi,
who fought for the Hungarian king. Initially, Hunyadi was successful in his
campaigns against the Ottoman forces and pushed them out of Bulgaria. When the
Turks struck back, however, the Christian forces suffered a devastating defeat
at Varna in 1444. King Vladislav died on the battlefield, and the Christian
effort to halt Ottoman occupation of the Balkans came to a sudden end.

ZENITH OF OTTOMAN POWER

Building on the victory at Varna, Murad I’s son and
successor, Mehmed II (1444–1446; 1451–1481), embarked on an ambitious campaign
to complete the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. The first target of the new
sultan was, however, the city of Constantinople, which fell after a two-month
siege on 29 May 1453. The conquest of the capital of eastern Christianity allowed
the Ottomans to establish their control over maritime trade routes that
connected the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, one of the most important avenues
of international commerce in the world.

Mehmed II’s ambitious campaign to impose Ottoman rule over
the entire Balkan Peninsula began with the capture of Morea (Peloponnese
Peninsula or Peloponnesus) in southern Greece in 1458, and the conquest of
Bosnia in 1463. In sharp contrast to other Christian-populated regions of the
Balkans, there was a large-scale conversion to Islam in Bosnia. As the local
landowning nobility converted to Islam, many urban and rural communities
followed suit.

The conquest of Greece and Bosnia set the stage for an
invasion of Albania. To the northeast, the Tatars of Crimea accepted the
suzerainty of the sultan in 1475, allowing the Ottomans to extend their
authority to the northern shores of the Black Sea. In 1480, Herzegovina was
conquered. Despite his best efforts, however, Mehmed II could not capture the
strategic fortress of Belgrade, which would have paved the path to the conquest
of Hungary. He also faced fierce resistance in Albania, where a local hero,
George Kastrioti (Gjergi Kastrioti), also known as Iskender Beg (Skanderbeg),
fought heroically against Ottoman forces from 1443 until his death in 1468.