Turkey - History of the Ottoman Empire. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire - history, interesting facts and consequences

Almost 400 years under the Ottoman Empire was most of territories of South-Eastern Europe, Turkey and the Middle East. It was founded by brave Turkic horsemen, but the empire soon lost much of its original power and viability, being in a state of functional dysfunction that kept many secrets.

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Fratricide

In the early periods, the Ottoman sultans did not practice the principle of primogeniture, when the eldest son is the only heir. Therefore, all existing brothers immediately claimed the throne, and the losers then went over to the side of enemy states and for a long time brought many problems to the victorious Sultan.

When Mehmed the Conqueror tried to conquer Constantinople, his own uncle fought against him from the walls of the city. Mehmed solved the problem with his characteristic ruthlessness. After taking the throne, he simply ordered the killing of male relatives, including not sparing his baby brother. Later, he issued a law that took the lives of more than one generation: “And one of my sons who leads the Sultanate must kill his brothers. Most ulema already allow themselves to do this. So let them keep doing it."

From that moment on, each new sultan took the throne, killing all his male relatives. Mehmed III tore his beard out of grief when his younger brother asked not to kill him. But he "did not answer a single word," and the boy was executed along with 18 other brothers. The sight of their 19 wrapped bodies paraded through the streets was said to have made all of Istanbul weep.

Even after the first round of killings, the rest of the Sultan's relatives were also dangerous. Suleiman the Magnificent watched in silence from behind a screen as his own son was strangled with a string; the boy became too popular in the army, so that the Sultan could not feel safe.

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The principle of fratricide was never popular with the people and the clergy, so it was quietly abolished after the sudden death of Sultan Ahmed in 1617. Instead, potential heirs to the throne were kept in the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul in special rooms known as "Kafes" ("cells").

One could spend his whole life imprisoned in Kafes under the constant supervision of the guards. Imprisonment was generally luxurious in terms of conditions, but with very strict restrictions. Many princes went crazy with boredom, or went into debauchery and drunkenness. When the new sultan was brought to the Gate of the Lord so that the viziers could testify their allegiance to him, it could be the first time he went out into the streets in several decades, which did not greatly affect the abilities of the new ruler.

In addition, the threat of liquidation from the ruling relative was constant. In 1621, the Grand Mufti refused Osman II's request to strangle his brother. Then he turned to the chief judge, he made the opposite decision, and the prince was strangled. Osman himself was later overthrown by the military, who were to lead his surviving brother out of the Kafes by breaking the roof and pulling him out with a rope. The poor man went two days without food or water, and was probably too mad to notice that he had become a sultan.

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Silent hell in the palace

Even for the sultan, life in Topkapı could be extremely boring and unbearable. Then it was considered indecent for the Sultan to talk too much, so a special sign language was introduced, and the ruler spent most of his time in complete silence. Sultan Mustafa considered this completely intolerable, and tried to lift such a ban, but his viziers refused. Mustafa soon went mad and threw coins from the shore to the fish for them to spend.

Intrigues in the palace were woven constantly and in large quantities, as viziers, courtiers, and eunuchs fought for power. For 130 years big influence had women from the harem, this period became known as the "women's sultanate". Dragoman (chief translator) has always been a powerful person, and always a Greek. The eunuchs were divided along racial lines, the chief black eunuch and the chief white eunuch were often bitter rivals.

At the center of this madness, the Sultan was watched over wherever he went. Ahmet III wrote to the Grand Vizier: “If I go from one room to another, 40 people line up, when I need to put on my pants, I don’t feel the slightest comfort in this environment, so the squire should fire everyone, leaving only three or four people to I could be calm." Passing their days in complete silence under constant surveillance and in such a poisonous atmosphere, several Ottoman sultans of the last period lost their minds.

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The power in the Ottoman Empire completely controlled both the life and death of its subjects. Moreover, death was quite common. The first courtyard of the Topkapı Palace, where petitioners and guests gathered, was a terrible place. There were two columns on which severed heads hung and a special fountain in which only executioners could wash their hands. During periodic total “cleansings” in the palace, whole mounds of cut off tongues of the guilty were piled up in this courtyard, and a special cannon fired every time the next body was dumped into the sea.

Interestingly, the Turks did not specifically create a corps of executioners. This work was carried out by the palace gardeners, who divided their time between executions and the cultivation of delightful flowers. They decapitated most of their victims. But it was forbidden to shed the blood of members of the royal family and high-ranking officials, strangulation awaited them. As a result, the head gardener was always a huge, muscular man who was capable of strangling any vizier at any moment.

In the early periods, the viziers were proud of their obedience, and any decision of the Sultan was accepted resignedly. The famous vizier Kara Mustafa very respectfully greeted his executioner with the humble words “So be it”, kneeling with a noose around his neck.

In subsequent years, attitudes towards such conduct of business changed. In the 19th century, Governor Ali Pasha fought so hard against the Sultan's men that he had to be shot through the floorboards in his house.

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There was one way for the loyal vizier to avoid the Sultan's wrath and stay alive. Beginning in the late 18th century, it became customary that a condemned grand vizier could escape execution by beating the chief gardener in a race through the palace gardens.

The convict was brought to a meeting with the chief gardener, and after an exchange of greetings, a goblet of frozen sherbet was presented to the vizier. If the sherbet was white, this meant that the Sultan had granted a reprieve. If red, then an execution should take place. As soon as the vizier saw the red sherbet, he had to immediately run away.

The viziers ran through the palace gardens between the shady cypresses and rows of tulips, as hundreds of eyes watched from the windows of the harem. The convict's goal was to reach the fish market gate on the other side of the palace. If the vizier reached the gate before the chief gardener, he was simply exiled. But the gardener was always younger and stronger, and, as a rule, was already waiting for his victim at the gate with a silk cord.

However, several viziers managed to avoid execution in this way, including Khachi Salih Pasha, the last one to participate in this deadly race. After running with a gardener, he became governor of one of the provinces.

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Mauling the viziers

In theory, the grand vizier was the second person after the sultan, but it was he who was executed or thrown to the mob to be torn to pieces whenever things went somehow wrong. Under Sultan Selim the Terrible, there were so many grand viziers that they always began to carry their wills with them. Once one of them asked Selim to let him know in advance if he was going to be executed, to which the Sultan cheerfully replied that a line had already lined up to replace him.

The viziers also had to calm the people of Istanbul, who had a habit of coming to the palace and demanding execution for any failure. It must be said that people were not afraid to storm the palace if their demands were not met. In 1730, a rag-clad soldier named Patrona Ali led a crowd to the palace and they managed to take control of the empire for several months. He was stabbed to death after trying to get a butcher to lend him money for the ruler of Wallachia.

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Perhaps the most terrible place in Topkapı Palace was the imperial harem. It numbered up to 2000 women - the wives and concubines of the Sultan, most of them were bought or kidnapped as slaves. They were kept locked up in the harem, and for an outsider, one look at them meant immediate death. The harem itself was guarded and ruled by a chief Black Eunuch, whose position was one of the most powerful in the empire.

Very little information has come down to us about the living conditions in the harem and about the events taking place within its walls. It was believed that there were so many concubines there that the Sultan had never even seen some of them. And others were so influential that they participated in the management of the empire. Suleiman the Magnificent fell madly in love with a concubine from Ukraine, whose name was Roksolana, married her, and made her his chief adviser.

Roksolana's influence was so great that the grand vizier ordered the kidnapping of the Italian beauty Giulia Gonzaga in the hope that she could capture the attention of the Sultan. The plan was thwarted by a brave Italian who broke into Julia's bedroom and took her away on horseback just before the kidnappers arrived.

Kesem Sultan had even more influence than Roksolana, she effectively ruled the empire as regent for her son and grandson. But Turhan's daughter-in-law did not give up her positions without a fight, and Kösem Sultan was strangled with a curtain by Turhan's supporters.

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Blood tax

In the early Ottoman period, there was a devshirme (“blood tax”), a type of tax in which boys from the Christian subjects of the empire were taken to the service of the empire. Most of the boys became janissaries and slave soldiers who were always at the forefront of all Ottoman conquests. The tax was collected irregularly, only when the empire lacked the available number of soldiers. As a rule, boys aged 12-14 were taken from Greece and the Balkans.

Ottoman officials rounded up all the boys in the village and checked their names against baptismal records from the local church. Then the strongest were selected, at the rate of one boy for every 40 households. Selected children were sent on foot to Istanbul, the weakest were left to die on the roadsides. A detailed description of each child was prepared so that they could be traced when escaping.

In Istanbul they were circumcised and forcibly converted to Islam. The most beautiful or smartest went to the palace, where they were trained so that they could join the elite part of the sultan's subjects. These guys could eventually reach very high ranks, and many of them became pashas or viziers, like the famous Grand Vizier from Croatia Sokollu Mehmed.

The rest of the boys joined the Janissaries. At first they were sent to work on farms for eight years, where they learned Turkish and grew up. At the age of 20, they officially became Janissaries - the elite soldiers of the empire and iron discipline and ideology.

There were exceptions to this tax. It was forbidden to take from the family an only child or children from men who served in the army. For some reason, they did not take orphans and Hungarians. Residents of Istanbul were also excluded on the grounds that they "have no sense of shame." The system of such tribute ceased to exist at the beginning of the 18th century, when the children of the Janissaries were allowed to become Janissaries.

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Slavery remained the main feature of the Ottoman Empire until the end of the 19th century. Most of the slaves were from Africa or the Caucasus (the Circassians were especially valued), and the Crimean Tatars provided a constant stream of Russians, Ukrainians, and even Poles. It was believed that Muslims could not legally be enslaved, but this rule was quietly forgotten when the recruitment of non-Muslims ceased.

The famous scholar Bernard Lewis argued that Islamic slavery appeared independently of Western slavery, and therefore had a number of significant differences. For example, it was easier for Ottoman slaves to gain freedom or take high positions. But there is no doubt that Ottoman slavery was incredibly brutal. Millions of people died from raids or from

exhausting work in the fields. This is not even to mention the castration process used to obtain eunuchs. As Lewis pointed out, the Ottomans brought millions of slaves from Africa, but there are very few people of African descent in modern Turkey today. This speaks for itself.

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In general, the Ottoman Empire was quite tolerant. Apart from the devshirme, they made no real attempt to convert their non-Muslim subjects to Islam and welcomed the Jews when they were expelled from Spain. The subjects were never discriminated against, and the empire was practically ruled by Albanians and Greeks. But when the Turks themselves felt threatened, they could act very cruelly.

Selim the Terrible, for example, was very concerned that the Shiites, who denied his authority as the defender of Islam, could be double agents of Persia. As a result, he marched through the east of his empire, slaughtering livestock and killing at least 40,000 Shiites.

As the empire weakened, it lost its former tolerance, and the minorities had a hard time. To XIX century massacres became more and more common. In the terrible year of 1915, just two years before the collapse of the empire, a mass murder of 75 percent of the Armenian population was organized. About 1.5 million people died then, but Turkey still refuses to fully recognize these atrocities as the Armenian genocide.

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Conclusion

It was an article Secrets of the Ottoman Empire. TOP 10 interesting facts. Thank you for your attention!

Any Hollywood scenario pales in comparison with the life path of Roksolana, who has become the most influential woman in the history of the great empire. Her powers, contrary to Turkish laws and Islamic canons, could only be compared with the capabilities of the Sultan himself. Roksolana became not just a wife, she was a co-ruler; they did not listen to her opinion - it was the only one that was correct, legal.
Anastasia Gavrilovna Lisovskaya (born c. 1506 - d. c. 1562) was the daughter of priest Gavrila Lisovsky of Rohatyn, a small town in western Ukraine, located southwest of Ternopil. In the 16th century, this territory belonged to the Commonwealth and was constantly subjected to devastating raids by the Crimean Tatars. During one of them in the summer of 1522, the young daughter of a clergyman was caught by a detachment of cannibals. The legend says that the misfortune happened just on the eve of Anastasia's wedding.
First, the captive ended up in the Crimea - this is the usual path for all slaves. The Tatars did not drive the valuable “living commodity” on foot across the steppe, but under vigilant guards they carried it on horseback, not even tying their hands, so as not to spoil the tender girl’s skin with ropes. Most sources say that the Krymchaks, amazed by the beauty of the Polonyanka, decided to send the girl to Istanbul, hoping to profitably sell her in one of the largest slave markets in the Muslim East.

“Giovane, ma non bella” (“young, but ugly”), the Venetian nobles told about her in 1526, but “graceful and short in stature.” None of his contemporaries, contrary to legend, called Roksolana a beauty.
The captive was sent to the capital of the sultans on a large felucca, and the owner himself took her to sell - history has not preserved his name. - Pasha. Again, the legend says that the Turk was struck by the dazzling beauty of the girl, and he decided to buy her to make a gift to the Sultan.
As can be seen from the portraits and confirmations of contemporaries, beauty clearly has nothing to do with it - I can call this combination of circumstances with only one word - Fate.
During this era, the sultan was Suleiman I the Magnificent (Magnificent), who ruled from 1520 to 1566, considered the greatest sultan of the Ottoman dynasty. During the years of his reign, the empire reached the apogee of its development, including all of Serbia with Belgrade, most of Hungary, the island of Rhodes, significant territories in North Africa to the borders of Morocco and the Middle East. The nickname the Magnificent was given to the Sultan by Europe, while in the Muslim world he is more often called Kanuni, which in Turkish means Lawgiver. “Such greatness and nobility,” wrote about Suleiman in the report of the Venetian ambassador of the 16th century, Marini Sanuto, “they were also adorned by the fact that, unlike his father and many other sultans, he did not have a penchant for pederasty.” An honest ruler and an uncompromising fighter against bribery, he encouraged the development of arts and philosophy, and was also considered a skilled poet and blacksmith - few European monarchs could compete with Suleiman I.
According to the laws of faith, the padishah could have four legal wives. The children of the first of them became heirs to the throne. Rather, one first-born child inherited the throne, and the rest often waited sad fate: all possible contenders for the supreme power were to be destroyed.
In addition to wives, the ruler of the faithful had any number of concubines that his soul desired and the flesh required. At different times, under different sultans, from several hundred to a thousand or more women lived in the harem, each of which was certainly an amazing beauty. In addition to women, the harem consisted of a whole staff of eunuchs-castrates, maids of different ages, chiropractors, midwives, masseuses, doctors and the like. But no one, except the padishah himself, could encroach on the beauties belonging to him. The head of the girls, the eunuch of Kyzlyaragassi, led all this complex and restless household.
However, one amazing beauty there were few: the girls intended for the harem of the padishah were obligatorily taught music, dance, Muslim poetry and, of course, the art of love. Naturally, the course of the love sciences was theoretical, and the practice was taught by experienced old women and women, experienced in all the intricacies of sex.
Now back to Roksolana, so Rustem Pasha decided to buy a Slavic beauty. But her Krymchak owner refused to sell Anastasia and presented her as a gift to the all-powerful courtier, rightly expecting to receive for this not only an expensive return gift, as is customary in the East, but also considerable benefits.
Rustem Pasha ordered to comprehensively prepare it as a gift to the Sultan, in turn, hoping to achieve this even greater favor with him. The padishah was young, he ascended the throne only in 1520 and greatly appreciated female beauty, and not just as a contemplative.
In the harem, Anastasia receives the name Hurrem (laughing). And for the Sultan, she always remained only Hurrem. Roksolana, the name under which she went down in history, is just the name of the Sarmatian tribes in the II-IV centuries of our era, roaming in the steppes between the Dnieper and the Don, in Latin means "Russian". Roksolana often, both during her lifetime and after death, will be called nothing more than a “Rusynka” - a native of Russia or Roxolanii, as Ukraine used to be called.

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

Lisovskaya was well aware that until her son became the heir to the throne or sat on the throne of the padishahs, her own position was constantly under threat. At any moment, Suleiman could be carried away by a new beautiful concubine and make her his lawful wife, and order some of the old wives to be executed: in the harem, an objectionable wife or concubine was put alive in a leather bag, they threw an angry cat and a poisonous snake there, tied the bag and a special stone gutter lowered it with a tied stone into the waters of the Bosphorus. The guilty were considered lucky if they were simply quickly strangled with a silk cord.
Therefore, Roxalana prepared for a very long time and began to act actively and cruelly only after almost fifteen years!
Her daughter was twelve years old, and she decided to marry her to ... Rustem Pasha, who was already over fifty. But he was in great favor at court, close to the throne of the padishah and, most importantly, was someone like a mentor and " godfather"The heir to the throne, Mustafa - the son of the Circassian Gulbekhar, the first wife of Suleiman.
Roxalana's daughter grew up with a similar face and chiseled figure to a beautiful mother, and Rustem Pasha became related to the Sultan with great pleasure - this is a very high honor for a courtier. Women were not forbidden to see each other, and the sultana deftly found out from her daughter about everything that was going on in the house of Rustem Pasha, literally bit by bit collecting the information she needed. Finally, Lisovskaya decided it was time to strike the death blow!
During a meeting with her husband, Roxalana secretly told the ruler of the faithful about the "terrible conspiracy." Merciful Allah vouchsafed her time to learn about the secret plans of the conspirators and allowed her to warn her adored husband about the danger that threatened him: Rustem Pasha and the sons of Gulbekhar planned to take the life of the padishah and seize the throne by placing Mustafa on him!
The intriguer knew well where and how to strike - the mythical "conspiracy" was quite plausible: in the East during the time of the sultans, bloody palace coups were the most common thing. In addition, Roxalana cited as an irrefutable argument the true words of Rustem Pasha, Mustafa and other "conspirators" that the daughter of Anastasia and the Sultan heard. Therefore, the grains of evil fell on fertile soil!
Rustem Pasha was immediately taken into custody, and an investigation began: Pasha was terribly tortured. He may have slandered himself and others under torture. But even if he was silent, this only confirmed the padishah in the actual existence of the "conspiracy." After being tortured, Rustem Pasha was beheaded.
Only Mustafa and his brothers left - they were an obstacle on the way to the throne of Roxalana's firstborn, red-haired Selim, and therefore they simply had to die! Constantly urged on by his wife, Suleiman agreed and gave the order to kill his children! The Prophet forbade shedding the blood of the padishahs and their heirs, so Mustafa and his brothers were strangled with a green twisted silk cord. Gulbehar went mad with grief and soon died.
The cruelty and injustice of the son struck the valide Hamse, the mother of the padishah Suleiman, who came from the family of the Crimean khans Girey. At the meeting, she told her son everything that she thinks about the "conspiracy", the execution and her son's beloved wife Roxalana. There is nothing surprising that after this Valide Hamse, the mother of the Sultan, lived less than a month: the East knows a lot about poisons!
The sultana went even further: she ordered to find in the harem and throughout the country the other sons of Suleiman, who were born by wives and concubines, and take all of their lives! As it turned out, the sons of the Sultan found about forty people - all of them, some secretly, some openly, were killed on the orders of Lisovskaya.
Thus, for forty years of marriage, Roksolana managed the almost impossible. She was proclaimed the first wife, and her son Selim became the heir. But the victims didn't stop there. Two younger sons of Roksolana were strangled. Some sources accuse her of involvement in these murders - allegedly this was done in order to strengthen the position of her beloved son Selim. However, reliable data on this tragedy has not been found.
She no longer managed to see how her son ascended the throne, becoming Sultan Selim II. He reigned after the death of his father for only eight years - from 1566 to 1574 - and, although the Koran forbids drinking wine, he was a terrible alcoholic! One day, his heart simply could not stand the constant excessive libations, and he remained in the memory of the people as Sultan Selim the drunkard!
No one will ever know what the true feelings of the famous Roksolana were. What is it like to be a young girl in slavery, in a foreign country, with an imposed foreign faith. Not only not to break, but also to grow into the mistress of the empire, gain fame throughout Asia and Europe. Trying to erase the shame and humiliation from her memory, Roksolana ordered the slave market to be hidden and a mosque, a madrasah and an almshouse to be put in its place. That mosque and the hospital in the building of the almshouse still bear the name of Haseki, as well as the adjacent district of the city.
Her name, shrouded in myths and legends, sung by contemporaries and denounced by black glory, has forever remained in history. Nastasia Lisovskaya, whose fate could be similar to hundreds of thousands of the same Nastya, Khristin, Oles, Mariy. But life decreed otherwise. No one knows how much grief, tears and misfortunes Nastasya endured on the way to Roksolana. However, for the Muslim world, she will remain Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska - LAUGHING.
Roksolana died either in 1558 or in 1561. Suleiman I - in 1566. He managed to complete the majestic Suleymaniye mosque - one of the largest architectural monuments of the Ottoman Empire - near which the ashes of Roksolana rest in an octahedral stone tomb, next to the octahedral tomb of the Sultan. This tomb has been standing for more than four hundred years. Inside, under a high dome, Suleiman ordered to carve alabaster rosettes and decorate each of them with a priceless emerald, Roksolana's favorite gem.
When Suleiman died, his tomb was also decorated with emeralds, forgetting that ruby ​​was his favorite stone.

The very beginning of the eleventh century was marked by the fact that in the colossal territories of the Asian, free steppes, countless hordes of sljuks rushed, crushing more and more territories under their own rule. The country captured by these tribes included Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, but mainly the territory of modern Turkey. During the reign of the Seljuk Sultan Melek, who quite successfully ordered to live long in 1092, these Turks were the most powerful people for many thousands of kilometers around, but after his untimely death, and according to historians, he did not die at all from old age, having sat on the throne only two decades, everything went to hell, and the country began to be torn apart by civil strife and the struggle for power. It was thanks to this that the first Ottoman sultan appeared, about whom legends will later be composed, but let's put everything in order.

The beginning of the beginnings: the Sultanate of the Ottoman Empire - the history of the emergence

To understand how everything really happened, the best option would be to present the course of events in exactly the chronology in which it was. So, after the death of the last Seljuk sultan, everything fell into the abyss, and a large, and, moreover, quite a strong state broke up into many small ones, which were called beyliks. Beys ruled there, riots reigned and everyone tried to "revenge" according to their own rules, which was not only stupid, but also very dangerous.

Just where the northern border of modern Afghanistan passes, in the area that bears the name of Balkh, the Oghuz Kayi tribe lived from the eleventh to twelfth centuries. Shah Suleiman, the first leader of the tribe, at that time had already transferred the reins of government to his own son Ertogrul Bey. By that time, the Kayi tribes were pushed back from the nomad camps in Trukmenia, and therefore they decided to move towards the sunset until they stopped in Asia Minor, where they settled.

It was then that the Rum Sultan Alaeddin Kay-Kubad was planning a mess with Byzantium, which was gaining power, and Ertogrul had no choice but to help his ally. Moreover, for this “disinterested” help, the Sultan decided to endow the kay with land, and gave them Bithynia, that is, the space that lay between Bursa and Angora, without the above-mentioned cities, rightly believing that it would be already somewhat too much. Just then, Ertorgul transferred power to his own offspring, Osman I, who became the first ruler of the Ottoman Empire.

Osman the First, son of Ertorgul, the first sultan of the Ottoman Empire

This truly outstanding person should definitely be discussed in more detail, since he undoubtedly deserves close attention and consideration. Osman was born in 1258, in a small town with only twelve thousand inhabitants, called Tebasion, or Segut, which means “willow” in translation. The mother of the young heir to the bey was a Turkish concubine, who was famous for her special beauty, as well as her strong temper. In 1281, after Ertorgul successfully gave his soul to the god, Osman inherited the territories that were occupied by the nomadic hordes of Turks in Phrygia, and began to gradually unfold.

At that time, the so-called wars for faith were already in full swing, and Muslim fanatics began to flock to the newly formed state with the young Osman at the head, and he took the place of his beloved “daddy” at the age of twenty-four, having repeatedly proved his worth from all around. Moreover, these people firmly believed that they were fighting for Islam, and not for money or rulers, and the most intelligent leaders skillfully used this. However, at that time, Osman still hardly understood what he wanted to do, and how to continue what he himself had begun.

The name of this particular person gave the name to the whole state, since then all the Kay people began to be called Ottomans or Otamans. Moreover, many wanted to walk under the banner of such an outstanding ruler as Osman, and legends, poems and songs were composed about his exploits for the glory of the beautiful Malhun Khatun, which still exist today. When the last of the descendants of Alaeddin departed to the world, Osman the first became completely untied, since he no longer owed his formation, as a sultan, to anyone else.

However, at hand there will always be someone who wants to snatch a bigger piece of the pie for himself, and Osman had such a half-enemy-half-friend. The name of the disgraced emir, who was constantly intriguing, was Karamanogullar, but Osman decided to leave his pacification for later, since the enemy’s army was large and the morale was strong. The Sultan decided to turn his attention to Byzantium, whose borders were not reliably protected, and whose troops were weakened by the eternal attacks of the Turkic-Mongols. Absolutely all the sultans of the Ottoman Empire and their wives entered the history of the rather great and powerful Ottoman Empire, skillfully organized by the talented leader and great commander Osman the first. Moreover, a fairly large part of the Turks living there also called themselves Ottomans, before the empire fell.

The rulers of the Ottoman Empire in chronological order: in the beginning there were kayy

It is necessary to tell everyone that during the reign of the famous first Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, the country simply flourished and shone with all colors and wealth. Thinking not only about personal well-being, fame or love, Osman the First turned out to be a really kind and fair ruler, ready to take tough and even inhuman actions, if necessary for the common good. The beginning of the empire is attributed to 1300, when Osman became the first Ottoman sultan. Other sultans of the Ottoman Empire who appeared later, the list of which can be seen in the picture, numbered only thirty-six names, but they also went down in history. Moreover, not only the sultans of the Ottoman Empire and the years of their reign are clearly visible on the table, but also the order and sequence are strictly observed.

When the time came, in 1326, Osman the First left this world, leaving his own son on the throne, named Orkhan Turkish, since his mother was a Turkish concubine. The guy was very lucky that he had no rivals at that time, because people always kill for power and among all peoples, but the boy was on a horse. The "young" khan had already turned forty-five, which did not at all become an obstacle to daring exploits and campaigns. It was thanks to his reckless courage that the sultans of the Ottoman Empire, the list of which is a little higher, were able to get part of the European territories near the Bosphorus into their possession, thereby gaining access to the Aegean Sea.

How the government of the Ottoman Empire advanced: slowly but surely

Brilliant, isn't it? Meanwhile, the Ottoman sultans, the list is provided to you completely reliable, should be grateful to Orhan for another "gift" - the creation of a real, regular army, professional and trained, at least, cavalry detachments, which were called Yayas.

• After Orkhan died, his son Murad I of Turkey ascended the throne, who became a worthy successor to his work, going further and further to the West and annexing more and more lands to his state.
• It was this man who brought Byzantium to its knees, as well as to vassal dependence on the Ottoman Empire, and even came up with a new type of troops - the Janissaries, where they recruited young men from Christians, aged 11-14, who were subsequently brought up and given the opportunity to convert to Islam. These warriors were strong, trained, hardy and courageous, they did not know their own kind-tribe, therefore they killed ruthlessly and easily.
• In 1389, Murad died, and his place was taken by the offspring of Bayezid I the Lightning, who became famous throughout the world for his exorbitant predatory appetites. He decided not to follow in the footsteps of his ancestors, and went to conquer Asia, which he succeeded in doing. Moreover, he did not forget about the West at all, besieging Constantinople for a good eight years. Among other things, it was against Bayazid that King Sigismund of the Czech Republic, with the direct participation and help of Pope Boniface IX, organized a real crusade, which was simply doomed to defeat: only fifty thousand crusaders came out against the two hundred thousandth Ottoman army.

It was Sultan Bayezid I the Lightning, despite all his military exploits and achievements, who went down in history as the man who stood at the helm when the Ottoman army suffered the most crushing defeat, in the battle of Ankara. Tamerlane (Timur) himself became an opponent of the Sultan, and Bayezid simply had no choice, fate itself brought them together. The ruler himself was taken prisoner, where he was treated respectfully and politely, his Janissaries were completely destroyed, and the army was scattered around the area.

• Even before Bayazid died, a real squabble for the Sultan's throne broke out on the Ottoman sidelines, there were many heirs, since the guy was excessively prolific, in the end, after ten years of constant strife and showdowns, Mehmed I the Knight was seated on the throne. This guy was fundamentally different from his eccentric father, he was extremely reasonable, choosy in relationships and strict with himself and others. He managed to reunite the shattered country, eliminating the possibility of rebellion or rebellion.

Then there were several more sultans, whose names can be seen in the list, but they did not leave a special mark in the history of the Ottoman Empire, although they successfully maintained its fame and reputation, regularly performing real feats and aggressive campaigns, as well as repelling the attacks of enemies. It is worth dwelling in more detail only on the tenth sultan - it was Suleiman I Kanuni, nicknamed the Legislator for his mind.

Known history of the Ottoman Empire: Sultan Suleiman and a novel about his life

By that time, the wars in the West with the Tatar-Mongols had ceased, the states enslaved by them were weakened and broken, and during the reign of Sultan Suleiman from 1520 to 1566, it was possible to significantly expand the borders of their own state, both in one and in and to the other side. Moreover, this progressive and advanced person dreamed of a close connection between East and West, of an increase in education and the prosperity of the sciences, but he did not become famous for this at all.

In fact, fame all over the world came to Suleiman not at all because of his brilliant decisions, military campaigns and other things, but because of an ordinary Ternopil girl named Alexandra, according to other sources Anastasia) Lisovskaya. In the Ottoman Empire, she bore the name Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Sultan, but she became better known under the name that she was given in Europe, and this name is Roksolana. Everyone in every corner of the world knows the story of their love. It is very sad that after the death of Suleiman, who, among other things, was also a great reformer, his children and Roksolana squabbled among themselves for power, because of which their descendants (children and grandchildren) were ruthlessly destroyed. It remains only to find out who rules the Ottoman Empire after Sultan Suleiman and how it all ended.

Interesting Facts: The Sultanate of Women in the Ottoman Empire

It is worth mentioning the period when the female sultanate of the Ottoman Empire also arose, which seemed simply impossible. The thing is that, according to the laws of that time, a woman could not be allowed to rule the country. However, the girl Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska turned everything upside down, and the sultanas of the Ottoman Empire were also able to have their say in world history. Moreover, she became the first concubine who became a real, legal wife, and, therefore, was able to become a valid Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, that is, to give birth to a child entitled to the throne, in fact, just the mother of the Sultan.

After the skillful rule of a brave and courageous female sultana, who so unexpectedly took root among the Turks, the Ottoman sultans and their wives began to continue the new tradition, but not for very long. The last valid Sultan was Turhan, who was also called a foreigner. They say her name was Nadezhda, and she was also captured at the age of twelve, after which she was brought up and trained like a real Ottoman woman. She died at the age of fifty-five, in 1683, there were no more similar precedents in the history of the Ottoman Empire.

Female sultanate of the Ottoman Empire by name

• Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska
• Nurbanu
• Safiye
• Kösem
• Turhan

Fall and collapse are just around the corner: the last ruler of the Ottoman Empire

It is worth saying that the Ottoman Empire held power for almost five centuries, while the sultans passed the throne by inheritance, from father to son. It must be said that the rulers of the Ottoman Empire after Sultan Suleiman somehow suddenly sharply shredded, or maybe other times simply came. Moreover, there is even evidence, for example, the sultans of the Ottoman Empire and their wives, photos of which are in museums, and pictures can be found on the Internet, if you really can’t wait to see. There were still quite a few sultans of the Ottoman Empire after Suleiman, until the last one appeared. The last sultan of the Ottoman Empire was called Mehmed VI Vahideddin, who took power in early July 1918, and by the autumn of 22 of the last century had already left the throne, due to the complete abolition of the sultanate.

The last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, whose biography is quite interesting and fascinating and deserves a separate story, having done really a lot for his country, for the people, was forced at the end of his life to beg the British to take him away from sin. In the cold autumn of 1922, the British Navy ship of the line Malaya carried Mehmed VI Vahideddin away from Constantinople. A year later, he made a real pilgrimage to Holy place for all Muslims - Mecca, and three years later he died in Damascus, where he was buried.

History of the Ottoman Empire

The history of the Ottoman Empire goes back hundreds of years. The Ottoman Empire existed from 1299 to 1923.

Rise of an empire

Osman (r. 1288-1326), the son and heir of Ertogrul, in the fight against the powerless Byzantium, annexed region after region to his possessions, but, despite his growing power, recognized his dependence on Lycaonia. In 1299, after the death of Alaeddin, he assumed the title of "sultan" and refused to recognize the authority of his heirs. By his name, the Turks began to be called Ottoman Turks or Ottomans. Their power over Asia Minor spread and strengthened, and the sultans of Konya could not prevent this.

Since that time, they have developed and rapidly increased, at least quantitatively, their own literature, although very little independent. They take care of maintaining trade, agriculture and industry in the conquered areas, create a well-organized army. A powerful state is developing, military, but not hostile to culture; in theory it is absolutist, but in reality the commanders, to whom the sultan gave different areas to control, often turned out to be independent and reluctantly recognized the supreme authority of the sultan. Often the Greek cities of Asia Minor voluntarily gave themselves under the patronage of the powerful Osman.

Osman's son and heir Orhan I (1326-59) continued his father's policy. He considered it his calling to unite all the faithful under his rule, although in reality his conquests were directed more to the west - to countries inhabited by Greeks, than to the east, to countries inhabited by Muslims. He very skillfully used internal strife in Byzantium. More than once the disputing parties turned to him as an arbitrator. In 1330 he conquered Nicaea, the most important of the Byzantine fortresses on Asiatic soil. Following that, Nicomedia and the entire northwestern part of Asia Minor to the Black, Marmara and Aegean seas fell into the power of the Turks.

Finally, in 1356, a Turkish army under the command of Suleiman, the son of Orhan, landed on the European coast of the Dardanelles and captured Gallipoli and its environs.

In the activities of Orhan in the internal government of the state, his permanent adviser was his older brother Aladdin, who (the only example in the history of Turkey) voluntarily renounced his rights to the throne and accepted the post of grand vizier, established especially for him, but preserved after him. To facilitate trade, the coinage was settled. Orkhan minted a silver coin - akche in his own name and with a verse from the Koran. He built himself a luxurious palace in the newly conquered Bursa (1326), by the high gate of which the Ottoman government received the name "High Port" (literal translation of the Ottoman Bab-ı Âlî - "high gate"), often transferred to the Ottoman state itself.

In 1328, Orkhan gave his possessions a new, largely centralized management. They were divided into 3 provinces (pashaliks), which were divided into districts, sanjaks. The civil administration was connected with the military and subordinated to it. Orkhan laid the foundation for an army of Janissaries, recruited from Christian children (at first 1000 people; later this number increased significantly). Despite a significant share of tolerance towards Christians, whose religion was not persecuted (even though Christians were taxed), Christians converted to Islam en masse.

From 1358 to Kosovo field

After the capture of Gallipoli, the Turks fortified on the European coast of the Aegean, the Dardanelles and the Sea of ​​Marmara. Suleiman died in 1358, and Orkhan was succeeded by his second son, Murad (1359-1389), who, although he did not forget about Asia Minor and conquered Angora in it, transferred the center of gravity of his activity to Europe. Having conquered Thrace, in 1365 he moved his capital to Adrianople. The Byzantine Empire was reduced to one Constantinople with its immediate environs, but continued to resist conquest for almost a hundred more years.

The conquest of Thrace brought the Turks into close contact with Serbia and Bulgaria. Both states went through a period of feudal fragmentation and could not be consolidated. In a few years, they both lost a significant part of their territory, pledged themselves to tribute and became dependent on the Sultan. However, there were periods when these states managed, taking advantage of the moment, to partially restore their positions.

With the accession to the throne of the next sultans, starting with Bayazet, it became customary to kill the closest relatives in order to avoid family rivalry over the throne; this custom was observed, although not always, but often. When the relatives of the new Sultan did not represent in their own way mental development or for other reasons, not the slightest danger, they were left alive, but their harem was made up of slaves made sterile by operation.

The Ottomans clashed with the Serbian rulers and won victories at Chernomen (1371) and Savra (1385).

Battle of Kosovo

In 1389, the Serbian prince Lazar began a new war with the Ottomans. On the Kosovo field on June 28, 1389, his army of 80,000 people. agreed with Murad's army of 300,000 people. The Serbian army was destroyed, the prince was killed; Murad also fell in the battle. Formally, Serbia still retained its independence, but it paid tribute and undertook to supply an auxiliary army.

Assassination of Murad

One of the Serbs who took part in the battle (that is, the side of Prince Lazar) was the Serbian prince Milos Obilic. He understood that the Serbs had little chance of winning this great battle and decided to sacrifice his life. He came up with a cunning operation.

During the battle, Miloš sneaked into Murad's tent, pretending to be a defector. He approached Murad as if to convey some secret and stabbed him to death. Murad was dying, but managed to call for help. Consequently, Miloš was killed by the Sultan's guards. (Milos Obilic kills Sultan Murad) From this point on, the Serbian and Turkish versions of what happened begin to differ. According to the Serbian version: having learned about the murder of their ruler, the Turkish army succumbed to panic and began to scatter, and only the taking of control of the troops by the son of Murad Bayazid I saved the Turkish army from defeat. According to the Turkish version: the murder of the Sultan only angered the Turkish soldiers. However, the most real option there is a version that the main part of the army learned about the death of the Sultan after the battle.

Early 15th century

Murad's son Bayazet (1389-1402) married the daughter of Lazar and thereby acquired the formal right to intervene in the solution of dynastic issues in Serbia (when Stefan, son of Lazar, died without heirs). In 1393, Bayazet took Tarnovo (he strangled the Bulgarian king Shishman, whose son escaped death by converting to Islam), conquered all of Bulgaria, imposed tribute on Wallachia, conquered Macedonia and Thessaly, and penetrated Greece. In Asia Minor, his possessions expanded far to the east beyond Kyzyl-Irmak (Galis).

In 1396, near Nikopol, he defeated the Christian army gathered on a crusade by King Sigismund of Hungary.

The invasion of Timur at the head of the Turkic hordes into the Asian possessions of Bayazet forced him to lift the siege of Constantinople and personally rush to meet Timur with significant forces. In the battle of Ankara in 1402, he was utterly defeated and taken prisoner, where he died a year later (1403). In this battle, a significant Serbian auxiliary detachment (40,000 people) was also killed.

The captivity and then the death of Bayazet threatened the state with disintegration into parts. In Adrianople, the son of Bayazet Suleiman (1402-1410), who seized power over the Turkish possessions on the Balkan Peninsula, proclaimed himself sultan, Isa in Brousse, Mehmed I in the eastern part of Asia Minor. Timur received ambassadors from all three applicants and promised his support to all three , obviously wanting to weaken the Ottomans, but he did not find it possible to continue its conquest and went to the East.

Mehmed soon won, killed Isa (1403) and reigned over all of Asia Minor. In 1413, after the death of Suleiman (1410) and the defeat and death of his brother Musa, who succeeded him, Mehmed restored his power over the Balkan Peninsula. His reign was comparatively peaceful. He tried to maintain peaceful relations with his Christian neighbors, Byzantium, Serbia, Wallachia and Hungary, and concluded treaties with them. Contemporaries characterize him as a just, meek, peaceful and educated ruler. More than once, however, he had to deal with internal uprisings, which he dealt with very vigorously.

Similar uprisings began the reign of his son, Murad II (1421-1451). The brothers of the latter, in order to avoid death, managed to escape in advance to Constantinople, where they met with a friendly welcome. Murad immediately moved to Constantinople, but managed to collect only 20,000 troops and therefore was defeated. However, with the help of bribery, he succeeded soon after in capturing and strangling his brothers. The siege of Constantinople had to be lifted, and Murad turned his attention to the northern part of the Balkan Peninsula, and later to the south. In the north, a thunderstorm gathered against him from the Transylvanian governor Matthias Hunyadi, who defeated him at Hermannstadt (1442) and Nis (1443), but due to the significant superiority of the Ottoman forces, he was utterly defeated in the Kosovo field. Murad took possession of Thessalonica (previously conquered by the Turks three times and again lost by them), Corinth, Patras and a large part of Albania.

A strong opponent of him was the Albanian hostage Iskander-beg (or Skanderbeg), who was brought up at the Ottoman court and was a favorite of Murad, who converted to Islam and contributed to its spread in Albania. Then he wanted to make a new attack on Constantinople, not dangerous to him militarily, but very valuable in its geographical position. Death prevented him from fulfilling this plan, carried out by his son Mehmed II (1451-81).

Capture of Constantinople

The pretext for the war was the fact that Constantine Palaiologos, the Byzantine emperor, did not want to give Mehmed his relative Orhan (son of Suleiman, grandson of Bayazet), whom he reserved for inciting unrest, as a possible contender for the Ottoman throne. In the power of the Byzantine emperor was only a small strip of land along the banks of the Bosphorus; the number of his troops did not exceed 6000, and the nature of the management of the empire made it even weaker. Many Turks already lived in the city itself; the Byzantine government, starting from 1396, had to allow the construction of Muslim mosques next to Orthodox churches. Just extremely comfortable geographical position Constantinople and strong fortifications made it possible to resist.

Mehmed II sent an army of 150,000 against the city. and a fleet of 420 small sailing ships that blocked the entrance to the Golden Horn. The armament of the Greeks and their military art was somewhat higher than the Turkish, but the Ottomans also managed to arm themselves quite well. Even Murad II set up several factories for casting cannons and making gunpowder, which were managed by Hungarian and other Christian engineers who converted to Islam for the sake of the benefits of renegacy. Many of the Turkish guns made a lot of noise, but did no real harm to the enemy; some of them exploded and killed a significant number of Turkish soldiers. Mehmed began preliminary siege work in the autumn of 1452, and in April 1453 he began a proper siege. The Byzantine government turned to the Christian powers for help; the pope hastened to answer with the promise of preaching a crusade against the Turks, if Byzantium would only agree to the unification of the churches; the Byzantine government indignantly rejected this proposal. Of the other powers, Genoa alone sent a small squadron with 6,000 men. under the command of Giustiniani. The squadron bravely broke through the Turkish blockade and landed troops on the coast of Constantinople, which doubled the forces of the besieged. The siege continued for two months. A significant part of the population lost their heads and, instead of joining the ranks of the fighters, prayed in churches; the army, both Greek and Genoese, resisted extremely courageously. At its head was Emperor Constantine Palaiologos, who fought with the courage of despair and died in a skirmish. On May 29, the Ottomans opened the city.

conquests

The era of power of the Ottoman Empire lasted more than 150 years. In 1459, all of Serbia was conquered (except for Belgrade, taken in 1521) and turned into an Ottoman pashalik. In 1460, the Duchy of Athens was conquered, and after it, almost all of Greece, with the exception of some coastal cities that remained in the power of Venice. In 1462, the island of Lesvos and Wallachia were conquered, in 1463 - Bosnia.

The conquest of Greece brought the Turks into conflict with Venice, which entered into a coalition with Naples, the Pope and Karaman (an independent Muslim khanate in Asia Minor, ruled by Khan Uzun Hassan).

The war lasted 16 years in Morea, in the Archipelago and in Asia Minor at the same time (1463-79) and ended with the victory of the Ottoman state. Venice, according to the Peace of Constantinople in 1479, ceded to the Ottomans several cities in Morea, the island of Lemnos and other islands of the Archipelago (Negropont was captured by the Turks as early as 1470); The Karaman Khanate recognized the power of the Sultan. After the death of Skanderbeg (1467), the Turks captured Albania, then Herzegovina. In 1475 they were at war with the Crimean Khan Mengli Giray and forced him to recognize himself as dependent on the Sultan. This victory was of great military importance for the Turks, since the Crimean Tatars supplied them with an auxiliary army, at times 100 thousand people; but subsequently it became fatal for the Turks, as it brought them into conflict with Russia and Poland. In 1476, the Ottomans devastated Moldova and made it a vassal.

This ended the period of conquests for a while. The Ottomans owned the entire Balkan Peninsula up to the Danube and Sava, almost all the islands of the Archipelago and Asia Minor up to Trebizond and almost to the Euphrates, beyond the Danube Wallachia and Moldavia were also in strong dependence on them. Everywhere was ruled either directly by the Ottoman officials, or by local rulers, who were approved by the Porte and were completely subordinate to her.

Reign of Bayazet II

None of the previous sultans did so much to expand the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire as Mehmed II, who remained in history with the nickname "Conqueror". He was succeeded by his son Bayazet II (1481-1512) in the midst of unrest. The younger brother Jem, relying on the Grand Vizier Mogamet-Karamaniya and taking advantage of the absence of Bayazet in Constantinople at the time of his father's death, proclaimed himself a sultan.

Bayazet gathered the remaining loyal troops; hostile armies met at Angora. The victory remained with the elder brother; Cem fled to Rhodes, from there to Europe, and after long wanderings found himself in the hands of Pope Alexander VI, who offered Bayazet to poison his brother for 300,000 ducats. Bayazet accepted the offer, paid the money, and Jem was poisoned (1495). The reign of Bayazet was marked by several more uprisings of his sons, which ended (except for the last one) safely for their father; Bayazet took the rebels and executed them. Nevertheless, Turkish historians characterize Bayazet as a peace-loving and meek person, a patron of art and literature.

Indeed, there was some halt in the Ottoman conquests, but more due to failure than to the peacefulness of the government. Bosnian and Serbian pashas repeatedly raided Dalmatia, Styria, Carinthia and Krajina and subjected them to cruel devastation; several attempts were made to take Belgrade, but to no avail. The death of Matthias Corvinus (1490) caused anarchy in Hungary and seemed to favor the Ottoman designs against this state.

The long war, waged with some interruptions, ended, however, not particularly favorably for the Turks. According to the peace concluded in 1503, Hungary defended all its possessions and although it had to recognize the right of the Ottoman Empire to tribute from Moldavia and Wallachia, it did not renounce the supreme rights to these two states (more in theory than in reality). In Greece, Navarino (Pylos), Modon and Coron (1503) were conquered.

By the time of Bayazet II, the first relations of the Ottoman state with Russia date back: in 1495, ambassadors of the Grand Duke Ivan III appeared in Constantinople to ensure unhindered trade in the Ottoman Empire for Russian merchants. Other European powers also entered into friendly relations with Bayazet, especially Naples, Venice, Florence, Milan and the pope, seeking his friendship; Bayazet skillfully balanced between everyone.

At the same time, the Ottoman Empire was at war with Venice over the Mediterranean, and would defeat her in 1505.

His main focus was on the East. He started a war with Persia, but did not have time to finish it; in 1510, his youngest son Selim rebelled against him at the head of the Janissaries, defeated him and overthrew him from the throne. Bayazet soon died, most likely from poison; Other relatives of Selim were also exterminated.

Reign of Selim I

The war in Asia continued under Selim I (1512-20). In addition to the usual desire of the Ottomans to conquer, this war also had a religious reason: the Turks were Sunnis, Selim, as an extreme zealot of Sunnism, passionately hated the Persian Shiites, on his orders up to 40,000 Shiites living on Ottoman territory were destroyed. The war was fought with varying success, but the final victory, although far from complete, was on the side of the Turks. According to the peace of 1515, Persia ceded to the Ottoman Empire the regions of Diyarbakir and Mosul, lying along the upper reaches of the Tigris.

The Egyptian Sultan Kansu-Gavri sent an embassy to Selim with an offer of peace. Selim ordered to kill all the members of the embassy. Kansu stepped forward to meet him; the battle took place in the valley of Dolbec. Thanks to his artillery, Selim won a complete victory; the Mamluks fled, Kansu died during the escape. Damascus opened the gates to the winner; after him, all Syria submitted to the sultan, and Mecca and Medina surrendered under his protection (1516). The new Egyptian sultan Tuman Bay, after several defeats, had to cede Cairo to the Turkish vanguard; but at night he entered the city and exterminated the Turks. Selim, not being able to take Cairo without a stubborn struggle, invited its inhabitants to surrender to capitulation with the promise of their favors; the inhabitants surrendered - and Selim carried out a terrible massacre in the city. Tuman Bey was also beheaded when, during the retreat, he was defeated and captured (1517).

Selim reproached him for not wanting to submit to him, the ruler of the faithful, and developed a bold theory in the mouth of a Muslim, according to which he, as the ruler of Constantinople, is the heir to the Eastern Roman Empire and, therefore, has the right to all the lands, ever included in its composition.

Realizing the impossibility of governing Egypt exclusively through his pashas, ​​who in the end would inevitably have to become independent, Selim kept next to them 24 Mameluke leaders, who were considered subordinate to the pasha, but enjoyed a certain independence and could complain about the pasha to Constantinople. Selim was one of the most cruel Ottoman sultans; in addition to his father and brothers, in addition to countless captives, he executed seven of his grand viziers during the eight years of his reign. At the same time, he patronized literature and himself left a significant number of Turkish and Arabic poems. In the memory of the Turks, he remained with the nickname Yavuz (inflexible, stern).

Reign of Suleiman I

The son of Selim Suleiman I (1520-66), nicknamed by Christian historians the Magnificent or the Great, was the exact opposite of his father. He was not cruel and understood the political price of mercy and formal justice; he began his reign by releasing several hundred Egyptian captives from noble families kept by Selim in chains. European silk merchants, plundered in Ottoman territory at the beginning of his reign, received from him a generous cash reward. More than his predecessors, he loved the splendor with which his palace in Constantinople amazed the Europeans. Although he did not refuse conquests, he did not like war, only in rare cases did he personally become the head of the army. He especially appreciated the diplomatic art, which brought him important victories. Immediately after accession to the throne, he began peace negotiations with Venice and concluded with her in 1521 an agreement recognizing the Venetians' right to trade in Turkish territory and promising them the protection of their security; both sides pledged to hand over fugitives to each other. Since then, although Venice did not keep a permanent envoy in Constantinople, embassies from Venice to Constantinople and back were sent more or less regularly. In 1521, the Ottoman troops took Belgrade. In 1522, Suleiman landed a large army on Rhodes. The six-month siege of the main citadel of the Knights of St. John ended with its surrender, after which the Turks proceeded to conquer Tripoli and Algiers in North Africa.

In 1527, Ottoman troops under the command of Suleiman I invaded Austria and Hungary. At first, the Turks achieved very significant successes: in the eastern part of Hungary they managed to create a puppet state that became a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, they captured Buda, and devastated vast territories in Austria. In 1529, the Sultan moved his army to Vienna, intending to capture the Austrian capital, but he failed. On September 27, the siege of Vienna began, the Turks at least 7 times outnumbered the besieged. But the weather was against the Turks - on the way to Vienna, due to bad weather, they lost a lot of guns and pack animals, diseases began in their camp. And the Austrians did not waste their time - they fortified the city walls in advance, and the Archduke of Austria Ferdinand I brought German and Spanish mercenaries to the city (his elder brother Charles V Habsburg was both the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and the king of Spain). Then the Turks relied on undermining the walls of Vienna, but the besieged constantly made sorties and destroyed all Turkish trenches and underground passages. In view of the approaching winter, diseases and mass desertion, the Turks had to leave already 17 days after the start of the siege, on October 14th.

Union with France

Austria was the closest neighbor of the Ottoman state and its most dangerous enemy, and it was risky to enter into a serious fight with it without enlisting anyone's support. The natural ally of the Ottomans in this struggle was France. The first relations between the Ottoman Empire and France began as early as 1483; since then, both states have exchanged embassies several times, but this has not led to practical results.

In 1517, the French king Francis I offered the German emperor and Ferdinand the Catholic an alliance against the Turks with the aim of expelling them from Europe and dividing their possessions, but this alliance did not take place: the interests of the named European powers were too opposed to each other. On the contrary, France and the Ottoman Empire did not come into contact with each other anywhere and they had no immediate reasons for enmity. Therefore, France, which once took such an ardent part in crusades, decided on a bold step: a real military alliance with a Muslim power against a Christian power. The last impetus was given by the unfortunate battle of Pavia for the French, during which the king was captured. The regent Louise of Savoy sent an embassy to Constantinople in February 1525, but it was beaten by the Turks in Bosnia against [source not specified 20 days] the wishes of the Sultan. Not embarrassed by this event, Francis I from captivity sent an envoy to the Sultan with an offer of alliance; the sultan was to attack Hungary, and Francis promised war with Spain. At the same time, Charles V made similar proposals to the Ottoman Sultan, but the Sultan preferred an alliance with France.

Soon after, Francis sent a request to Constantinople to allow the restoration of at least one Catholic church in Jerusalem, but received a decisive refusal from the Sultan in the name of the principles of Islam, along with the promise of all protection for Christians and the protection of their safety (1528).

Military successes

According to the truce of 1547, all southern part Hungary, up to and including Ofen, turned into an Ottoman province, divided into 12 sanjaks; the northern one passed into the power of Austria, but with the obligation to pay the Sultan 50,000 ducats of tribute annually for it (in the German text of the treaty, the tribute was called an honorary gift - Ehrengeschenk). The supreme rights of the Ottoman Empire over Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania were confirmed by the peace of 1569. This peace could take place only because Austria spent huge sums of money on bribing Turkish representatives. The war between the Ottomans and Venice ended in 1540 with the transfer of the last possessions of Venice in Greece and the Aegean to the Ottoman Empire. In a new war with Persia, the Ottomans occupied Baghdad in 1536, and Georgia in 1553. In this way they reached the apogee of their political power. The Ottoman fleet sailed freely throughout the Mediterranean to Gibraltar and on Indian Ocean often plundered the Portuguese colonies.

In 1535 or 1536, a new treaty "of peace, friendship and trade" was concluded between the Ottoman Empire and France; France henceforth had a permanent envoy in Constantinople and a consul in Alexandria. The subjects of the sultan in France and the subjects of the king in the territory of the Ottoman state were guaranteed the right to freely travel around the country, buy, sell and exchange goods under the protection of local authorities at the beginning of equality. Litigation between the French in the Ottoman Empire had to be dealt with by French consuls or envoys; in case of litigation between a Turk and a Frenchman, the French were protected by their consul. During the time of Suleiman, some changes took place in the order of internal management. Previously, the sultan was almost always personally present in the sofa (ministerial council): Suleiman rarely appeared in it, thus providing more scope for his viziers. Previously, the positions of the vizier (minister) and the grand vizier, and also the viceroy of the pashalik, were usually granted to people more or less experienced in government or military affairs; under Suleiman, the harem began to play a prominent role in these appointments, as well as cash gifts given by applicants for high posts. This was caused by the government's need for money, but soon became, as it were, the rule of law and was the main cause of the decline of the Porte. The extravagance of the government has reached unprecedented proportions; True, the revenues of the government, thanks to the successful collection of tributes, also increased significantly, but, despite this, the Sultan often had to resort to defacing the coin.

Reign of Selim II

The son and heir of Suleiman the Magnificent, Selim II (1566-74), ascended the throne without having to beat the brothers, since his father took care of this, wanting to ensure the throne for him for the sake of his beloved last wife. Selim, reigned prosperously and left his son a state that not only did not decrease territorially, but even increased; this, in many respects, he owed to the mind and energy of the vizier Mehmed Sokollu. Sokollu completed the conquest of Arabia, which was previously only weakly dependent on the Porte.

He demanded from Venice the cession of the island of Cyprus, which led to a war between the Ottoman Empire and Venice (1570-1573); the Ottomans suffered a heavy naval defeat at Lepanto (1571), but despite this, at the end of the war they captured Cyprus and were able to keep it; in addition, they obliged Venice to pay 300 thousand ducats of military indemnity and pay tribute for the possession of the island of Zante in the amount of 1500 ducats. In 1574, the Ottomans took possession of Tunisia, which had previously belonged to the Spaniards; Algeria and Tripoli have previously recognized their dependence on the Ottomans. Sokollu conceived two great deeds: the connection of the Don and the Volga by a canal, which, in his opinion, was to strengthen the power of the Ottoman Empire in the Crimea and re-subjugate the Astrakhan Khanate, already conquered by Moscow, to it, and the digging of the Isthmus of Suez. However, this was beyond the power of the Ottoman government.

Under Selim II, an Ottoman expedition to Aceh took place, leading to the establishment of long-term ties between the Ottoman Empire and this remote Malay sultanate.

Reign of Murad III and Mehmed III

During the reign of Murad III (1574-1595), the Ottoman Empire emerged victorious from a stubborn war with Persia, capturing all of Western Iran and the Caucasus. Murad's son Mehmed III (1595-1603) executed 19 brothers upon accession to the throne. However, he was not a cruel ruler, and even went down in history under the nickname of the Just. Under him, the state was largely ruled by his mother through 12 grand viziers, who often succeeded each other.

Increased damage to the coin and the rise of taxes more than once led to uprisings in various parts states. The reign of Mehmed was filled with a war with Austria, which began under Murad in 1593 and ended only in 1606, already under Ahmed I (1603-17). It ended with the Peace of Sitvatorok in 1606, which marked a turn in mutual relations between the Ottoman Empire and Europe. No new tribute was imposed on Austria; on the contrary, she freed herself from the former tribute for Hungary, having paid a lump sum indemnity of 200,000 florins. In Transylvania, Stefan Bochkay, hostile to Austria, was recognized as the ruler with his male offspring. Moldova, which repeatedly tried to get out of vassalage, managed to defend during border conflicts with the Commonwealth and the Habsburgs. From that time on, the territory of the Ottoman state no longer expanded except by short term. The war with Persia in 1603-12 had sad consequences for the Ottoman Empire, in which the Turks suffered several serious defeats and had to cede the East Georgian lands, Eastern Armenia, Shirvan, Karabakh, Azerbaijan with Tabriz and some other areas.

Decline of the empire (1614-1757)

The last years of the reign of Ahmed I were filled with rebellions that continued under his successors. His brother Mustafa I (1617-1618), a protege and favorite of the Janissaries, to whom he made millions of gifts from public funds, after a three-month rule was overthrown by the mufti's fatwa as insane, and Ahmed's son Osman II (1618-1622) ascended the throne. After the unsuccessful campaign of the Janissaries against the Cossacks, he made an attempt to destroy this violent army, which every year became less and less useful for military purposes and more and more dangerous for the state order - and for this he was killed by the Janissaries. Mustafa I was again elevated to the throne and dethroned again a few months later, and died a few years later, probably from poisoning.

Osman's younger brother, Murad IV (1623-1640), seemed to intend to restore the former greatness of the Ottoman Empire. He was a cruel and greedy tyrant, reminiscent of Selim, but at the same time a capable administrator and an energetic warrior. According to estimates, the accuracy of which cannot be verified, up to 25,000 people were executed under him. Often he executed wealthy people solely in order to confiscate their property. He again won back in the war with the Persians (1623-1639) Tabriz and Baghdad; he also managed to defeat the Venetians and conclude an advantageous peace with them. He subdued the dangerous Druze uprising (1623-1637); but the uprising of the Crimean Tatars almost completely freed them from Ottoman rule. The devastation of the Black Sea coast, produced by the Cossacks, remained unpunished for them.

In internal administration, Murad sought to introduce some order and some savings in finances; however, all his attempts proved unworkable.

Under his brother and heir Ibrahim (1640-1648), under whom the harem was again in charge of state affairs, all the acquisitions of his predecessor were lost. The Sultan himself was overthrown and strangled by the Janissaries, who enthroned his seven-year-old son Mehmed IV (1648-1687). The true rulers of the state in the early days of the latter's reign were the Janissaries; all government posts were replaced by their henchmen, management was in complete disarray, finances reached an extreme decline. Despite this, the Ottoman fleet managed to inflict a serious naval defeat on Venice and break through the blockade of the Dardanelles, which had been held with varying success since 1654.

Russian-Turkish war 1686-1700

In 1656, the post of grand vizier was taken over by the energetic man Mehmet Köprülü, who managed to strengthen the discipline of the army and inflict several defeats on the enemies. Austria was to conclude in 1664 a not particularly advantageous peace in Vasvar; in 1669, the Turks conquered Crete, and in 1672, at peace in Buchach, they received Podolia and even part of Ukraine from the Commonwealth. This peace aroused the indignation of the people and the diet, and the war began again. Russia also took part in it; but on the side of the Ottomans stood a significant part of the Cossacks, led by Doroshenko. During the war, Grand Vizier Ahmet Pasha Köprülü died after 15 years of ruling the country (1661-76). The war, which went on with varying success, ended with the Bakhchisaray truce, concluded in 1681 for 20 years, at the beginning of the status quo; Western Ukraine, which after the war was a real desert, and Podolia remained in the hands of the Turks. The Ottomans easily agreed to peace, since their next step was a war with Austria, which was undertaken by the successor of Ahmet Pasha, Kara-Mustafa Köprülü. The Ottomans managed to penetrate to Vienna and besiege it (from July 24 to September 12, 1683), but the siege had to be lifted when the Polish king Jan Sobieski made an alliance with Austria, hurried to the aid of Vienna and won a brilliant victory over the Ottoman army near it. In Belgrade, Kara-Mustafa was met by envoys from the Sultan who had an order to deliver the head of an incapable commander to Constantinople, which was done. In 1684, Venice, and later Russia, also joined the coalition of Austria and the Commonwealth against the Ottoman Empire.

During the war, in which the Ottomans had not to attack, but to defend themselves on their own territory, in 1687 the Grand Vizier Suleiman Pasha was defeated at Mohacs. The defeat of the Ottoman troops irritated the Janissaries, who remained in Constantinople, rioting and plundering. Under the threat of an uprising, Mehmed IV sent them the head of Suleiman, but this did not save him himself: the Janissaries overthrew him with the help of a mufti's fatwa and forcibly elevated his brother, Suleiman II (1687-91), a man devoted to drunkenness and completely incapable of governing, to the throne. The war continued under him and under his brothers, Ahmed II (1691-95) and Mustafa II (1695-1703). The Venetians took possession of the Morea; the Austrians took Belgrade (soon again inherited by the Ottomans) and all the significant fortresses of Hungary, Slavonia, Transylvania; Poles occupied a significant part of Moldova.

In 1699 the war was ended by the Karlowitz Peace Treaty, which was the first under which the Ottoman Empire received neither tribute nor temporary indemnity. Its significance significantly exceeded the significance of the Peace of Sitvatorok. It became clear to everyone that the military power of the Ottomans was not at all great and that internal troubles were shaking their state more and more.

In the empire itself, the Peace of Karlovtsy aroused among the more educated part of the population the consciousness of the need for some reforms. This consciousness had already been previously possessed by the Köprülü family, which gave the state during the 2nd half of the 17th and early 18th centuries. 5 Grand Viziers, who belonged to the most remarkable statesmen of the Ottoman Empire. Already in 1690 led. the vizier Köprülü Mustafa issued Nizami-Cedid (Ottoman Nizam-ı Cedid - “New Order”), which established the maximum norms for total taxes levied on Christians; but this law had no practical application. After the Peace of Karlovica, Christians in Serbia and the Banat were forgiven for a year's taxes; the highest government in Constantinople began at times to take care of the protection of Christians from extortions and other oppressions. Insufficient to reconcile Christians with Turkish oppression, these measures irritated the Janissaries and Turks.

Participation in the Northern War

Mustafa's brother and heir, Ahmed III (1703-1730), enthroned by the uprising of the Janissaries, showed unexpected courage and independence. He arrested and hastily executed many officers of the army of the Janissaries and dismissed and exiled the grand vizier (sadr-azam) Ahmed Pasha, who had been imprisoned by them. The new grand vizier, Damad-Ghassan Pasha, pacified uprisings in various parts of the state, patronized foreign merchants, and founded schools. He was soon overthrown as a result of intrigue emanating from the harem, and the viziers began to be replaced with amazing speed; some remained in power for no more than two weeks.

The Ottoman Empire did not even take advantage of the difficulties tested by Russia during Northern war. Only in 1709 did she receive Charles XII, who had fled from Poltava, and, under the influence of his convictions, began a war with Russia. By this time, in the Ottoman ruling circles, there was already a party that dreamed not of a war with Russia, but of an alliance with it against Austria; at the head of this party was led. vizier Numan Keprilu, and his fall, former case Charles XII, served as a signal for war.

The position of Peter I, surrounded on the Prut by an army of 200,000 Turks and Tatars, was extremely dangerous. The death of Peter was inevitable, but the Grand Vizier Baltaji-Mehmed succumbed to bribery and released Peter for the relatively unimportant concession of Azov (1711). The war party overthrew Baltaji-Mehmed and exiled to Lemnos, but Russia diplomatically secured the removal of Charles XII from the Ottoman Empire, for which they had to resort to force.

In 1714-18 the Ottomans were at war with Venice and in 1716-18 with Austria. According to the Peace of Passarovitsa (1718), the Ottoman Empire received the Morea back, but gave Austria Belgrade with a significant part of Serbia, Banat, and part of Wallachia. In 1722, taking advantage of the end of the dynasty and the subsequent unrest in Persia, the Ottomans began religious war against the Shiites, with which they hoped to reward themselves for their losses in Europe. Several defeats in this war and the Persian invasion of Ottoman territory caused a new uprising in Constantinople: Ahmed was deposed, and his nephew, the son of Mustafa II, Mahmud I, was elevated to the throne.

Mahmud I's reign

Under Mahmud I (1730-54), who was an exception among the Ottoman sultans with his mildness and humanity (he did not kill the deposed sultan and his sons and generally avoided executions), the war with Persia continued, without definite results. The war with Austria ended with the Peace of Belgrade (1739), according to which the Turks received Serbia with Belgrade and Orsova. Russia acted more successfully against the Ottomans, but the conclusion of peace by the Austrians forced the Russians to make concessions; of its conquests, Russia retained only Azov, but with the obligation to tear down the fortifications.

During the reign of Mahmud, Ibrahim Basmaji founded the first Turkish printing house. The mufti, after some hesitation, gave a fatwa, with which, in the name of the interests of enlightenment, he blessed the undertaking, and the sultan allowed it as a gatti-sheriff. It was only forbidden to print the Koran and holy books. In the first period of the existence of the printing house, 15 works were printed in it (Arabic and Persian dictionaries, several books on the history of the Ottoman state and general geography, military art, political economy, etc.). After the death of Ibrahim Basmaji, the printing house was closed, a new one appeared only in 1784.

Mahmud I, who died of natural causes, was succeeded by his brother Osman III (1754-57), whose reign was peaceful and who died in the same way as his brother.

Reform attempts (1757-1839)

Osman was succeeded by Mustafa III (1757-74), son of Ahmed III. Upon his accession to the throne, he firmly expressed his intention to change the policy of the Ottoman Empire and restore the brilliance of its weapons. He conceived rather extensive reforms (by the way, digging channels through the Isthmus of Suez and through Asia Minor), openly did not sympathize with slavery and set free a significant number of slaves.

General dissatisfaction, which had never been news in the Ottoman Empire before, was especially intensified by two incidents: a caravan of the faithful returning from Mecca was robbed and destroyed by an unknown person, and a Turkish admiral's ship was captured by a detachment of marine robbers of Greek nationality. All this testified to the extreme weakness of state power.

To settle the finances, Mustafa III began with savings in his own palace, but at the same time he allowed the coins to be damaged. Under the patronage of Mustafa, the first public library, several schools and hospitals were opened in Constantinople. He very willingly entered into an agreement with Prussia in 1761, by which he provided Prussian merchant ships with free navigation in Ottoman waters; Prussian subjects in the Ottoman Empire were subject to the jurisdiction of their consuls. Russia and Austria offered Mustafa 100,000 ducats for the abolition of the rights given to Prussia, but to no avail: Mustafa wanted to bring his state as close as possible to European civilization.

Further attempts at reform did not go. In 1768, the sultan had to declare war on Russia, which lasted 6 years and ended with the Kuchuk-Kainarji peace of 1774. The peace was already concluded under Mustafa's brother and heir, Abdul-Hamid I (1774-1789).

The reign of Abdul-Hamid I

The empire at this time was almost everywhere in a state of ferment. The Greeks, excited by Orlov, were worried, but, left without help by the Russians, they were soon and easily pacified and severely punished. Ahmed Pasha of Baghdad declared himself independent; Taher, supported by Arab nomads, accepted the title of Sheikh of Galilee and Acre; Egypt under the rule of Muhammad Ali did not even think of paying tribute; Northern Albania, which was ruled by Mahmud, pasha of Scutari, was in a state of complete revolt; Ali, the Pasha of Yaninsky, clearly aspired to establish an independent kingdom.

The entire reign of Adbul-Hamid was occupied with the suppression of these uprisings, which could not be achieved due to the lack of money and a disciplined army from the Ottoman government. This was joined by a new war with Russia and Austria (1787-91), again unsuccessful for the Ottomans. It ended with the Treaty of Jassy with Russia (1792), according to which Russia finally acquired the Crimea and the space between the Bug and the Dniester, and the Treaty of Sistov with Austria (1791). The latter was comparatively favorable to the Ottoman Empire, since its main enemy, Joseph II, had died, and Leopold II directed all his attention to France. Austria returned to the Ottomans most of the acquisitions she made in this war. Peace was already concluded under the nephew of Abdul Hamid, Selim III (1789-1807). In addition to territorial losses, the war made one significant change in the life of the Ottoman state: before it began (1785), the empire entered into its first public debt, at first internal, guaranteed by some state revenues.

Reign of Selim III

Sultan Selim III was the first to realize the deep crisis of the Ottoman Empire and set about reforming the military and state organization of the country. With energetic measures, the government cleared the Aegean from pirates; it patronized trade and public education. His main focus was on the army. The Janissaries proved their almost complete uselessness in war, while at the same time keeping the country in periods of peace in a state of anarchy. The Sultan intended to replace their formations with a European-style army, but since it was obvious that it was impossible to immediately replace the entire old system, the reformers paid some attention to improving the position of traditional formations. Among other reforms of the Sultan were measures to strengthen the combat capability of artillery and fleet. The government took care to translate into Ottoman the best foreign writings on tactics and fortification; invited French officers to teaching positions in the artillery and naval schools; during the first of them, she founded a library of foreign writings on military sciences. Workshops for casting cannons were improved; military ships of the new model were ordered in France. These were all preliminary measures.

The Sultan clearly wanted to move on to reorganizing the internal structure of the army; he set for her new form and began to introduce stricter discipline. Janissaries until he touched. But then, firstly, the uprising of the Viddin Pasha, Pasvan-Oglu (1797), who clearly neglected the orders coming from the government, and secondly - Egyptian expedition Napoleon.

Kuchuk-Hussein moved against Pasvan-Oglu and waged a real war with him, which did not have a definite result. The government finally entered into negotiations with the rebellious governor and recognized his lifelong rights to rule the Vidda Pashalik, in fact, on the basis of almost complete independence.

In 1798, General Bonaparte made his famous attack on Egypt, then on Syria. Great Britain took the side of the Ottoman Empire, destroying the French fleet at the Battle of Abukir. The expedition had no serious results for the Ottomans. Egypt remained formally in the power of the Ottoman Empire, in fact - in the power of the Mamluks.

As soon as the war with the French ended (1801), an uprising of the Janissaries began in Belgrade, dissatisfied with the reforms in the army. Harassment on their part caused a popular movement in Serbia (1804) under the command of Karageorgi. The government supported the movement at first, but soon it took the form of a real popular uprising, and the Ottoman Empire had to start hostilities. The matter was complicated by the war started by Russia (1806-1812). The reforms had to be postponed again: the grand vizier and other senior officials and the military were in the theater of operations.

coup attempt

Only the kaymaqam (assistant to the grand vizier) and the deputy ministers remained in Constantinople. Sheikh-ul-Islam took advantage of this moment to plot against the Sultan. Ulema and Janissaries took part in the conspiracy, among whom rumors spread about the intention of the Sultan to disperse them into regiments of the standing army. The kaimaks also joined the conspiracy. On the appointed day, a detachment of Janissaries unexpectedly attacked the garrison of the standing army stationed in Constantinople, and carried out a massacre among them. Another part of the Janissaries surrounded Selim's palace and demanded from him the execution of persons they hated. Selim had the courage to refuse. He was arrested and taken into custody. The son of Abdul-Hamid, Mustafa IV (1807-1808), was proclaimed Sultan. The massacre in the city continued for two days. On behalf of the powerless Mustafa, sheikh-ul-Islam and kaymaks ruled. But Selim had his adherents.

During the coup, Mustafa Kabakchi (tur. Kabakçı Mustafa isyanı), Mustafa Bayraktar (Alemdar Mustafa Pasha - Pasha of the Bulgarian city of Ruschuk) and his followers began negotiations on the return of Sultan Selim III to the throne. Finally, with an army of sixteen thousand, Mustafa Bayraktar went to Istanbul, having previously sent Haji Ali Aga there, who killed Kabakchi Mustafa (July 19, 1808). Mustafa Bayraktar with his army, having destroyed quite a large number of rebels, arrived in the High Port. Sultan Mustafa IV, having learned that Mustafa Bayraktar wanted to return the throne to Sultan Selim III, ordered to kill Selim and Shahzade's brother Mahmud. The Sultan was killed immediately, and Shahzade Mahmud, with the help of his slaves and servants, was released. Mustafa Bayraktar, removing Mustafa IV from the throne, declared Mahmud II Sultan. The latter made him sadrazam - grand vizier.

Reign of Mahmud II

Not inferior to Selim in energy and in understanding the need for reforms, Mahmud was much tougher than Selim: angry, vengeful, he was more guided by personal passions, which were moderated by political far-sightedness than by a real desire for the good of the country. The ground for innovations had already been somewhat prepared, the ability not to think about means also favored Mahmud, and therefore his activities still left more traces than those of Selim. He appointed Bayraktar as his grand vizier, who ordered the beating of the participants in the conspiracy against Selim and other political opponents. Mustafa's own life was spared for a time.

As the first reform, Bayraktar outlined the reorganization of the corps of the Janissaries, but he had the imprudence to send part of his army to the theater of operations; he had only 7,000 soldiers left. 6,000 Janissaries made a surprise attack on them and moved towards the palace in order to free Mustafa IV. Bayraktar, with a small detachment, locked himself in the palace, threw out the corpse of Mustafa to them, and then blew up part of the palace into the air and buried himself in the ruins. A few hours later, a three thousandth army loyal to the government arrived, headed by Ramiz Pasha, defeated the Janissaries and exterminated a significant part of them.

Mahmud decided to postpone the reform until the end of the war with Russia, which ended in 1812 with the Peace of Bucharest. The Congress of Vienna made some changes to the position of the Ottoman Empire, or, more correctly, defined more precisely and approved in theory and on geographical maps what had already taken place in reality. Dalmatia and Illyria were approved for Austria, Bessarabia for Russia; seven Ionian islands received self-government under the English protectorate; British ships received the right of free passage through the Dardanelles.

Even in the territory that remained with the empire, the government did not feel confident. In Serbia, in 1817, an uprising began, which ended only after the recognition of Serbia by the Peace of Adrianople in 1829 as a separate vassal state, with its own prince at the head. In 1820, the uprising of Ali Pasha Yaninsky began. As a result of the betrayal of his own sons, he was defeated, captured and executed; but a significant part of his army formed a cadre of Greek rebels. In 1821, an uprising that developed into a war of independence began in Greece. After the intervention of Russia, France and England and the Navarino (sea) battle (1827), which was unfortunate for the Ottoman Empire, in which the Turkish and Egyptian fleets perished, the Ottomans lost Greece.

Military casualties

Getting rid of the Janissaries and Dervishes (1826) did not save the Turks from defeat both in the war with the Serbs and in the war with the Greeks. These two wars and in connection with them were followed by the war with Russia (1828-29), which ended with the Peace of Adrianople in 1829. The Ottoman Empire lost Serbia, Moldavia, Wallachia, Greece, and the eastern coast of the Black Sea.

Following this, Muhammad Ali, Khedive of Egypt (1831-1833 and 1839), broke away from the Ottoman Empire. In the fight against last empire suffered blows that put her very existence at stake; but twice (1833 and 1839) she was saved by the unexpected intercession of Russia, caused by the fear of a European war, which would probably be caused by the collapse of the Ottoman state. However, this intercession brought real benefits to Russia: in the peace in Gunkjar Skelessi (1833), the Ottoman Empire provided Russian ships with passage through the Dardanelles, closing it to England. At the same time, the French decided to take away Algeria from the Ottomans (since 1830), and earlier, however, was only nominally dependent on the empire.

Civil reforms

The wars did not stop the reformist plans of Mahmud; private transformations in the army continued throughout his reign. He also cared about raising the level of education among the people; under him (1831) began to go to French the first official newspaper in the Ottoman Empire ("Moniteur ottoman"). From the end of 1831, the first official newspaper in Turkish, Takvim-i Vekai, began to appear.

Like Peter the Great, perhaps even consciously imitating him, Mahmud sought to introduce European mores into the people; he himself wore a European costume and encouraged his officials to do so, forbade the wearing of a turban, arranged festivities in Constantinople and other cities with fireworks, with European music and in general according to the European model. Before major reforms he did not live to see the civil system he conceived; they were already the work of his heir. But even the little that he did went against the religious feelings of the Muslim population. He began to mint a coin with his image, which is directly prohibited in the Koran (the news that previous sultans also took portraits of themselves is highly doubtful).

Throughout his reign, in different parts of the state, especially in Constantinople, revolts of Muslims caused by religious feelings incessantly occurred; the government dealt with them extremely cruelly: sometimes 4,000 corpses were thrown into the Bosphorus in a few days. At the same time, Mahmud did not hesitate to execute even the ulema and dervishes, who in general were his fierce enemies.

During the reign of Mahmud there were especially many fires in Constantinople, partly due to arson; the people explained them as God's punishment for the sins of the sultan.

Board results

The extermination of the Janissaries, which at first damaged the Ottoman Empire, depriving it of a bad, but still not useless army, after a few years turned out to be extremely beneficial: the Ottoman army rose to the height of the European armies, which was clearly proved in the Crimean campaign and even more in the war of 1877-1878 and in the Greek war of 1897. Territorial reduction, in particular the loss of Greece, also turned out to be beneficial rather than harmful for the empire.

The Ottomans never allowed military service for Christians; areas with a continuous Christian population (Greece and Serbia), without increasing the Turkish army, at the same time required significant military garrisons from it, which could not be set in motion in a moment of need. This applies especially to Greece, which, due to its extended maritime frontier, did not even represent strategic advantages for the Ottoman Empire, which was stronger on land than at sea. The loss of territories reduced the state revenues of the empire, but during the reign of Mahmud, the trade of the Ottoman Empire with European states somewhat revived, the country's productivity (bread, tobacco, grapes, rose oil, etc.) increased somewhat.

Thus, despite all external defeats, despite even the terrible battle of Nizib, in which Muhammad Ali destroyed a significant Ottoman army and which was followed by the loss of an entire fleet, Mahmud left Abdul-Majid with a state strengthened rather than weakened. It was strengthened by the fact that henceforth the interest of the European powers was more closely connected with the preservation of the Ottoman state. The significance of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles has increased unusually; The European powers felt that the capture of Constantinople by one of them would deal an irreparable blow to the rest, and therefore they considered it more profitable for themselves to preserve the weak Ottoman Empire.

In general, the empire nevertheless decayed, and Nicholas I rightly called it a sick person; but the death of the Ottoman state was postponed indefinitely. Beginning with the Crimean War, the empire began to intensively make foreign loans, and this acquired for it the influential support of its many creditors, that is, mainly the financiers of England. On the other hand, internal reforms that could raise the state and save it from destruction became in the 19th century. more and more difficult. Russia was afraid of these reforms, as they could strengthen the Ottoman Empire, and through its influence at the court of the Sultan tried to make them impossible; so, in 1876-1877, she killed Midkhad Pasha, who turned out to be able to carry out serious reforms that were not inferior in importance to the reforms of Sultan Mahmud.

Reign of Abdul-Mejid (1839-1861)

Mahmud was succeeded by his 16-year-old son Abdul-Mejid, who was not distinguished by his energy and inflexibility, but who was a much more cultured and gentle person.

Despite everything Mahmud did, the battle of Nizib could have completely destroyed the Ottoman Empire if Russia, England, Austria and Prussia had not concluded an alliance to protect the integrity of the Porte (1840); they drew up a treatise by virtue of which the Egyptian viceroy retained Egypt at the hereditary beginning, but undertook to immediately clear Syria, and in case of refusal he had to lose all his possessions. This alliance aroused indignation in France, which supported Muhammad Ali, and Thiers even made preparations for war; however, Louis-Philippe did not dare to do so. Despite the inequality of forces, Muhammad Ali was ready to resist; but the English squadron bombarded Beirut, burned the Egyptian fleet and landed in Syria a corps of 9000 people, which, with the help of the Maronites, inflicted several defeats on the Egyptians. Muhammad Ali relented; The Ottoman Empire was saved, and Abdulmejid, supported by Khozrev Pasha, Reshid Pasha and other associates of his father, began reforms.

Gulhane Hutt Sheriff

Tanzimat

Tanzimat (arab. التنظيمات‎‎ - “ordering”, “coordination”) - the basic laws of Turkey, promulgated by Sultan Abdul-Mejid on November 3, 1839, upon accession to the throne.

A well-known component is the Gulhane Manifesto, which was supposed to reform political life Turkey.

Gulhane Hutt Sheriff

providing all subjects with perfect security regarding their life, honor and property;

the right way to distribute and levy taxes;

an equally correct way to recruit soldiers.

It was recognized as necessary to change the distribution of taxes in the sense of their equalization and to abandon the system of handing them over, to determine the costs of land and sea forces; public proceedings were established. All these benefits extended to all subjects of the Sultan without distinction of religion. The Sultan himself took an oath of allegiance to the Hatti Sheriff. The only thing left to do was keep the promise.

The reforms were initiated by the predecessor of Abdul-Majid, Sultan Mahmud, the destroyer of the Janissaries, and were supposed to give the country a new political and administrative organization. The main protagonist of the Tanzimat was Reshid Pasha.

The consequences did not justify the hopes placed on the Tanzimat in Western Europe. He could not revive Turkey.

Humayun

After the Crimean War, the Sultan published a new Gatti-Sheriff Gumayun (1856), which confirmed and developed the principles of the first one in more detail; especially insisted on the equality of all subjects, without distinction of religion and nationality. After this Gatti Sheriff, the old law on the death penalty for converting from Islam to another religion was abolished. However, most of these decisions remained only on paper.

The higher government was partly unable to cope with the willfulness of lower officials, and partly did not want to resort to some of the measures promised in the Gatti Sheriffs, such as the appointment of Christians to various posts. Once it made an attempt to recruit soldiers from Christians, but this caused discontent among both Muslims and Christians, especially since the government did not dare to abandon religious principles during the production of officers (1847); this measure was soon abolished. The massacres of the Maronites in Syria (1845 and others) confirmed that religious tolerance was still alien to the Ottoman Empire.

During the reign of Abdul-Mejid, roads were improved, many bridges were built, several telegraph lines were laid, and mail was organized according to the European model.

The events of 1848 did not resonate at all in the Ottoman Empire; only the Hungarian revolution prompted the Ottoman government to make an attempt to restore its dominance on the Danube, but the defeat of the Hungarians dispelled his hopes. When Kossuth and his comrades escaped on Turkish territory, Austria and Russia turned to Sultan Abdul-Majid demanding their extradition. The Sultan replied that religion forbade him to violate the duty of hospitality.

Crimean War

1853-1856 were the time of the new Eastern War, which ended in 1856 with the Peace of Paris. On the basis of equality, a representative of the Ottoman Empire was admitted to the Congress of Paris, and by this very fact the empire was recognized as a member of the European concern. However, this recognition was more formal than real. First of all, the Ottoman Empire, whose participation in the war was very large and which proved an increase in its fighting ability compared to the first quarter of the 19th century or the end of the 18th century, actually received very little from the war; the demolition of Russian fortresses on the northern coast of the Black Sea was of negligible importance to her, and Russia's loss of the right to keep a navy on the Black Sea could not be prolonged and was canceled already in 1871. Further, consular jurisdiction was retained and proved that Europe was still watching on the Ottoman Empire as a barbarian state. After the war, the European powers began to set up their own postal institutions on the territory of the empire, independent of the Ottoman ones.

The war not only did not increase the power of the Ottoman Empire over the vassal states, but weakened it; the Danube principalities in 1861 united into one state, Romania, and in Serbia, the Obrenovići, friendly to Turkey, were overthrown and replaced by the Karageorgievichi, friendly to Russia; a little later, Europe forced the empire to remove its garrisons from Serbia (1867). During the Eastern Campaign, the Ottoman Empire borrowed £7 million from England; in 1858,1860 and 1861 I had to make new loans. At the same time, the government issued a significant amount of paper money, the rate of which soon and strongly fell. In connection with other events, this caused the commercial crisis of 1861, which severely affected the population.

Abdulaziz (1861-76) and Murad V (1876)

Abdulaziz was a hypocritical, voluptuous, and bloodthirsty tyrant, more like the sultans of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries than his brother; but he understood the impossibility under the given conditions to stop on the path of reforms. In the Gatti Sheriff published by him upon accession to the throne, he solemnly promised to continue the policy of his predecessors. Indeed, he released from prison the political criminals imprisoned in the previous reign, and retained his brother's ministers. Moreover, he declared that he was giving up the harem and would be content with one wife. The promises were not fulfilled: a few days later, as a result of a palace intrigue, the Grand Vizier Mehmed Kybrysly Pasha was overthrown, and replaced by Aali Pasha, who in turn was overthrown a few months later and then again took up the same post in 1867.

In general, the grand viziers and other officials were replaced with extreme speed due to the intrigues of the harem, which was very soon reinstated. Some measures in the spirit of the Tanzimat were nevertheless taken. The most important of them is the publication (which, however, does not exactly correspond to reality) of the Ottoman state budget (1864). During the ministry of Aali Pasha (1867-1871), one of the most intelligent and dexterous Ottoman diplomats of the 19th century, the waqfs were partially secularized, Europeans were granted the right to own real estate within the Ottoman Empire (1867), the State Council was reorganized (1868), a new law on public education was issued, the metric system of measures and weights was formally introduced, which, however, did not take root in life (1869). Censorship was organized in the same ministry (1867), the creation of which was caused by the quantitative growth of periodicals and non-periodicals in Constantinople and other cities, in Ottoman and foreign languages.

Censorship under Aali Pasha was distinguished by extreme pettiness and severity; she not only forbade writing about what seemed inconvenient to the Ottoman government, but directly ordered to print praising the wisdom of the sultan and government; in general, it made the whole press more or less official. Its general character remained the same after Aali Pasha, and only under Midhad Pasha in 1876-1877 was it somewhat softer.

War in Montenegro

In 1862, Montenegro, seeking complete independence from the Ottoman Empire, supporting the rebels of Herzegovina and counting on the support of Russia, began a war with the empire. Russia did not support it, and since a significant preponderance of forces was on the side of the Ottomans, the latter quickly won a decisive victory: the troops of Omer Pasha penetrated to the very capital, but did not take it, as the Montenegrins began to ask for peace, to which the Ottoman Empire agreed .

Revolt in Crete

In 1866, a Greek uprising began in Crete. This uprising aroused warm sympathy in Greece, which began to hastily prepare for war. The European powers came to the aid of the Ottoman Empire and firmly forbade Greece to intercede for the Cretans. Forty thousand troops were sent to Crete. Despite the extraordinary courage of the Cretans, who led guerrilla war in the mountains of their island, they could not hold out for long, and after three years of struggle, the uprising was pacified; the rebels were punished with executions and confiscation of property.

After the death of Aali Pasha, the grand viziers began to change again with extreme speed. In addition to harem intrigues, there was another reason for this: two parties fought at the Sultan's court - English and Russian, acting on the instructions of the ambassadors of England and Russia. The Russian ambassador in Constantinople in 1864-1877 was Count Nikolai Ignatiev, who had undoubted relations with the dissatisfied in the empire, promising them Russian intercession. At the same time, he had a great influence on the Sultan, convincing him of the friendship of Russia and promising him assistance in the change in the order of succession planned by the Sultan, not to the eldest in the family, as it was before, but from father to son, since the Sultan really wanted to transfer the throne to his son Yusuf Izedin.

coup d'état

In 1875, an uprising broke out in Herzegovina, Bosnia and Bulgaria, which dealt a decisive blow to Ottoman finances. It was announced that from now on, the Ottoman Empire on its foreign debts pays in cash only one half of the interest, the other half - in coupons payable no earlier than after 5 years. The need for more serious reforms was recognized by many of the highest officials of the empire and, at their head, Midhad Pasha; however, under the capricious and despotic Abdul-Aziz, their holding was completely impossible. In view of this, the Grand Vizier Mehmed Rushdi Pasha plotted with the ministers Midhad Pasha, Hussein Avni Pasha and others and the Sheikh-ul-Islam to overthrow the Sultan. Sheikh-ul-Islam gave this fatwa: “If the ruler of the faithful proves his madness, if he does not have the political knowledge necessary to govern the state, if he makes personal expenses that the state cannot bear, if his stay on the throne threatens with disastrous consequences, should it be deposed or not? The law says yes.

On the night of May 30, 1876, Hussein Avni Pasha, putting a revolver to the chest of Murad, the heir to the throne (son of Abdul-Majid), forced him to accept the crown. At the same time, a detachment of infantry entered the palace of Abdul-Aziz, and it was announced to him that he had ceased to reign. Murad V ascended the throne. A few days later it was announced that Abdul-Aziz had cut his veins with scissors and died. Murad V, who had not been quite normal before, under the influence of the murder of his uncle, the subsequent murder of several ministers in the house of Midhad Pasha by the Circassian Hassan Bey, who was avenging the Sultan, and other events, completely went crazy and became just as inconvenient for his progressive ministers. In August 1876, he was also deposed with the help of the mufti's fatwa and his brother Abdul-Hamid was elevated to the throne.

Abdul Hamid II

Already at the end of the reign of Abdul-Aziz, an uprising began in Herzegovina and Bosnia, caused by the extremely difficult situation of the population of these regions, partly obliged to serve corvee in the fields of large Muslim landowners, partly personally free, but completely powerless, oppressed by exorbitant exactions and at the same time constantly fueled in its hatred of the Turks by the close proximity of free Montenegrins.

In the spring of 1875, some communities turned to the Sultan with a request to reduce the tax on sheep and the tax paid by Christians in return conscription, and organize a police force of Christians. They didn't even answer. Then their inhabitants took up arms. The movement quickly covered all of Herzegovina and spread to Bosnia; Niksic was besieged by the rebels. Volunteer detachments moved from Montenegro and Serbia to help the rebels. The movement aroused great interest abroad, especially in Russia and Austria; the latter appealed to the Porte demanding religious equality, tax cuts, revision of laws on real estate, and so on. The Sultan immediately promised to fulfill all this (February 1876), but the rebels did not agree to lay down their weapons until the Ottoman troops were withdrawn from Herzegovina. The fermentation also spread to Bulgaria, where the Ottomans, in the form of a response, carried out a terrible massacre (see Bulgaria), which caused indignation throughout Europe (Gladstone's brochure on atrocities in Bulgaria), entire villages were massacred without exception, including infants. The Bulgarian uprising was drowned in blood, but the Herzegovinian and Bosnian uprising continued into 1876 and finally caused the intervention of Serbia and Montenegro (1876-1877; see Serbo-Montenegrin-Turkish war).

On May 6, 1876, in Thessaloniki, a fanatical crowd, in which there were also some officials, killed the French and German consuls. Of the participants or conniving in the crime, Selim Bey, the chief of police in Thessaloniki, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, one colonel to 3 years; but these punishments, far from being carried out in full, satisfied no one, and the public opinion of Europe was strongly agitated against a country where such crimes might be committed.

In December 1876, at the initiative of England, a conference of the great powers in Constantinople was convened to settle the difficulties caused by the uprising, which did not achieve its goal. The Grand Vizier at this time (since December 13, New Style, 1876) was Midhad Pasha, a liberal and an Anglophile, head of the Young Turk Party. Considering it necessary to make the Ottoman Empire a European country and wishing to present it as such as authorized by the European powers, he drafted a constitution in a few days and forced Sultan Abdul-Hamid to sign and publish it (December 23, 1876).

The constitution was drawn up on the model of European ones, especially the Belgian one. It guaranteed individual rights and established a parliamentary regime; the parliament was to consist of two chambers, from which the chamber of deputies was elected by universal closed voting of all Ottoman subjects without distinction of religion and nationality. The first elections were made during the reign of Midhad; his candidates were chosen almost universally. The opening of the first parliamentary session took place only on March 7, 1877, and even earlier, on March 5, Midhad was overthrown and arrested due to palace intrigues. Parliament was opened with a speech from the throne, but dissolved a few days later. New elections were held, the new session was just as short, and then, without the formal repeal of the constitution, even without the formal dissolution of Parliament, it did not meet again.

Russian-Turkish war 1877-1878

In April 1877, the war with Russia began, in February 1878 it ended with the Peace of San Stefano, then (June 13 - July 13, 1878) with the modified Berlin Treaty. The Ottoman Empire lost all rights to Serbia and Romania; Bosnia and Herzegovina were given to Austria to establish order in it (de facto - in full possession); Bulgaria constituted a special vassal principality, Eastern Rumelia - an autonomous province, soon (1885) united with Bulgaria. Serbia, Montenegro and Greece received territorial increments. In Asia, Russia received Kars, Ardagan, Batum. The Ottoman Empire had to pay Russia an indemnity of 800 million francs.

The Russian-Turkish war clearly proved that the Ottoman state is much stronger than it was before. He had talented generals, and his army exceeded all expectations in courage and endurance; artillery and infantry weapons were excellent. However, the war weakened him considerably. It lost significant provinces with a rather mixed population, among which there were many Muslims (in Bosnia, East Rumelia, Bulgaria). In Europe, the empire was left, besides Constantinople with its environs, only Thrace, Macedonia, Albania and Old Serbia. In Asia, her possessions also decreased. Its prestige, which rose in 1853-1855 and 1862, fell again. Indemnity in connection with all military losses for a long time deprived the Ottoman Empire of the opportunity to get back on its feet financially. In 1879 and 1880, she significantly reduced her government spending, even on the army, navy and court. In 1885, the Ottoman Empire reacted rather calmly to the Eastern Rumelian coup, which greatly affected its interests.

Riots in Crete and Western Armenia

Nevertheless, the internal conditions of life remained approximately the same, and this was reflected in the riots that constantly arose in one place or another in the Ottoman Empire. In 1889 an uprising began in Crete. The rebels demanded the reorganization of the police so that it did not consist of only Muslims and patronize more than one Muslims, a new organization of the courts, etc. The Sultan rejected these demands and decided to use weapons. The uprising was put down.

In 1887 in Geneva, in 1890 in Tiflis, the political parties Hnchak and Dashnaktsutyun were organized by the Armenians, which gained great fame for their terrorist activities against the Ottoman Empire, and later Turkey. In August 1894, at the instigation of the Dashnaks and under the leadership of a member of this party, Ambartsum Boyajiyan, unrest began in Sasun. Armenian historiography explains these events by the disenfranchised position of the Armenians, especially by the robberies of the Kurds, who made up part of the troops in Asia Minor. The Turks and Kurds responded with a terrible massacre, reminiscent of the Bulgarian horrors in response to the massacre that the Armenians committed over the Turks, where rivers bled for months; entire villages were slaughtered; many Armenians taken prisoner. All these facts were confirmed by European (mainly English) newspaper correspondence, which very often spoke from positions of Christian solidarity and caused an explosion of indignation in England, however, these newspaper correspondence, despite the fact that the Turks provided evidence that the massacre began first by Armenians , did not even express a desire to listen to the Turks. To the presentation made on this occasion by the British ambassador, the Porte replied with a categorical denial of the validity of the "facts" and a statement that it was a matter of the usual suppression of a riot. Nevertheless, the ambassadors of England, France and Russia in May 1895 presented the Sultan with demands for reforms for the territories of eastern Anatolia inhabited by Armenians, based on the decisions of the Berlin Treaty; they demanded that the officials governing these lands be at least half Christian and that their appointment depend on a special commission in which Christians would also be represented; Kurdish troops in Asia Minor should be disbanded, but I would like to ask if these states have to meddle in the internal politics of another country, forgetting about their deeds in the Caucasus, Libya and Algeria, and other countries?! The Porte replied that she saw no need for reforms to separate territories but that she means general reforms for the whole state.

On August 14, 1896, Dashnaktsutyun militants attacked the Ottoman Bank in Istanbul itself, killed the guards and engaged in a skirmish with the arriving army units. On the same day, as a result of negotiations between the Russian Ambassador Maksimov and the Sultan, the terrorists left the city and headed for Marseille, on the yacht of the General Director of the Ottoman Bank, Edgard Vincent. The European ambassadors made a presentation to the Sultan on this occasion. This time the sultan saw fit to reply with a promise of reform, which was not fulfilled; only a new administration of vilayets, sanjaks and nahiyas was introduced (see the State structure of the Ottoman Empire), which changed the essence of the matter very little.

In 1896, new unrest began in Crete and immediately took on a more dangerous character. The session of the national assembly opened, but it did not enjoy the slightest authority among the population. Nobody counted on the help of Europe. The uprising flared up; rebel detachments in Crete disturbed the Turkish troops, more than once inflicting heavy losses on them. The movement found a lively echo in Greece, from which in February 1897 a military detachment under the command of Colonel Vassos set off for the island of Crete. Then the European squadron, consisting of German, Italian, Russian and English warships, under the command of the Italian admiral Canevaro, assumed a threatening position. On February 21, 1897, she began to bombard the rebels' military camp near the city of Kanei and forced them to disperse. A few days later, however, the rebels and the Greeks managed to take the city of Kadano and capture 3,000 Turks.

At the beginning of March, a riot of Turkish gendarmes took place in Crete, dissatisfied with not receiving salaries for many months. This rebellion could have been very useful for the rebels, but the European landing disarmed them. On March 25, the rebels attacked Kanea, but came under fire from European ships and had to retreat with heavy losses. At the beginning of April 1897, Greece moved its troops into Ottoman territory, hoping to penetrate as far as Macedonia, where minor riots were taking place at the same time. Within one month, the Greeks were utterly defeated, and the Ottoman troops occupied all of Thessaly. The Greeks were forced to ask for peace, which was concluded in September 1897 under pressure from the powers. There were no territorial changes, except for a small strategic correction of the border between Greece and the Ottoman Empire in favor of the latter; but Greece had to pay a military indemnity of 4 million Turkish. fnl.

In the autumn of 1897, the uprising on the island of Crete also ended, after the sultan once again promised self-government to the island of Crete. Indeed, at the insistence of the powers, Prince George of Greece was appointed governor-general of the island, the island received self-government and retained only vassal relations with the Ottoman Empire. At the beginning of the XX century. in Crete, there was a noticeable desire for a complete separation of the island from the empire and for joining Greece. At the same time (1901) fermentation continued in Macedonia. In the autumn of 1901, Macedonian revolutionaries captured an American woman and demanded a ransom for her; this causes great inconvenience to the Ottoman government, which is powerless to protect the safety of foreigners on its territory. In the same year, the movement of the Young Turk party, at the head of which was once Midhad Pasha, manifested itself with comparatively greater strength; she began to intensively produce brochures and leaflets in the Ottoman language in Geneva and Paris for distribution in the Ottoman Empire; in Istanbul itself, quite a few persons belonging to the bureaucratic and officer class were arrested and sentenced to various punishments on charges of participating in the Young Turk agitation. Even the son-in-law of the sultan, married to his daughter, went abroad with his two sons, openly joined the Young Turk party and did not want to return to his homeland, despite the insistent invitation of the sultan. In 1901, the Porte made an attempt to destroy European postal institutions, but this attempt was unsuccessful. In 1901, France demanded that the Ottoman Empire meet the claims of some of its capitalists, creditors; the latter refused, then the French fleet occupied Mytilene and the Ottomans hurried to satisfy all demands.

XX century. The collapse of the empire

In the 19th century, separatist sentiments intensified on the outskirts of the empire. The Ottoman Empire began to gradually lose its territories, yielding to the technological superiority of the West.

In 1908, the Young Turks overthrew Abdul-Hamid II, after which the monarchy in the Ottoman Empire began to have a decorative character (see the article The Young Turk Revolution). The triumvirate of Enver, Talaat and Dzhemal was established (January 1913).

In 1912, Italy seized Tripolitania and Cyrenaica (now Libya) from the empire.

In the First Balkan War of 1912-1913, the empire loses the vast majority of its European possessions: Albania, Macedonia, northern Greece. During 1913, she manages to win back a small part of the land from Bulgaria during the Inter-Allied (Second Balkan) War.

Weakening, the Ottoman Empire tried to rely on the help of Germany, but this only dragged it into the First World War, which ended in the defeat of the Quadruple Alliance.

October 30, 1914 - The Ottoman Empire officially announced its entry into the First World War, having actually entered it the day before, by shelling the Black Sea ports of Russia.

April 24, 1915 - mass arrests in Constantinople (Istanbul) of the Armenian intellectual, religious, economic and political elite; generally accepted day of the beginning of the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

During 1917-1918, the Allies occupy the Middle Eastern possessions of the Ottoman Empire. After the First World War, Syria and Lebanon came under the control of France, Palestine, Jordan and Iraq - Great Britain; in the west of the Arabian Peninsula, with the support of the British (Lawrence of Arabia), independent states were formed: Hijaz, Nejd, Asir and Yemen. Subsequently, Hijaz and Asir became part of Saudi Arabia.

On October 30, 1918, the Armistice of Mudros was concluded, followed by the Treaty of Sevres (August 10, 1920), which did not enter into force because it was not ratified by all signatories (ratified only by Greece). According to this agreement, the Ottoman Empire was to be dismembered, and one of the largest cities in Asia Minor, Izmir (Smyrna), was promised to Greece. The Greek army took it on May 15, 1919, after which the war of independence began. The Turkish military statesmen, led by Pasha Mustafa Kemal, refused to recognize the peace treaty and the armed forces remaining under their command expelled the Greeks from the country. By September 18, 1922, Turkey was liberated, which was recorded in the Lausanne Treaty of 1923, which recognized the new borders of Turkey.

On October 29, 1923, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed, and Mustafa Kemal, who later took the surname Atatürk (father of the Turks), became its first president.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Top most interesting facts about the sultans of the Ottoman Empire

Kazan researcher Bulat Nogmanov, whose publications are read by Mintimer Shaimiev, continues to acquaint the readers of Realnoe Vremya with his observations about the culture and history of Turkey. After the travel notes written on the basis of a trip to the mausoleums of the founders of the Ottoman dynasty, he will tell about the most interesting facts from the life of all 36 Turkish sultans.

In the previous two essays, we examined the topic of origins, or rather, how the Ottoman Empire was born, and told a little about the life of the first Sultan Osman Gazi and his father Ertugrul Gazi, who laid the foundations of the future Great Porte. In this regard, it seemed to us quite logical to continue the series about the most interesting moments in the life of all the sultans of the Ottoman Empire in chronological order. Such an approach would allow our dear reader to get acquainted with palace intrigues, conspiracies, family secrets, love vicissitudes, passions and life circumstances of the sultans from a convenient angle, and through them to better understand what the traditions, culture and life of our southern neighbor are based on.

However, all this awaits us next Saturday, but for now, I suggest dear readers to follow the example of Khoja Nasretdin, and having rolled up the carpet of impatience and putting it in the waiting chest, read some interesting information about the sultans of the Ottoman Empire, so to speak, for starters:

History knows the following poetic pseudonyms of the padishahs: Muradi - Murat II, Avni - Fatih Sultan Mehmed, Adni - Bayazid II, Selimi - Selim II, Adli - Mehmed III, Muhibbi - Suleiman I, etc. Photo wikipedia.org (Suleiman I is waiting arrival of his vizier)

Ahmed I was haunted by the number 14 throughout his life. He ascended the throne at the age of 14 as the 14th sultan and ruled for 14 years. Photo wikipedia.org (Ahmed I after accession to the throne)

• Eight out of thirty-six padishahs did not die of natural causes. Murat I died on the battlefield, Fatih and Bayazid II were poisoned, Gench Osman and Selim III were killed, and Ibrahim I and Mustafa IV were executed by fatwa after they were dethroned. Sultan Abdulaziz was either killed or committed suicide.
• By different reasons the death of the seven sultans was kept secret for some time. For example, the death of Mehmed I was reported only 41 days later, the death of Kanuni was reported only 48 days later. In other cases, the death of the ruler was kept secret from one to fifteen days.
• The most prolific of all sultans is Murat III, there is evidence that he had about 100-130 children.
• The tradition of executing other pretenders to the Ottoman throne, established during the reign of Fatih, was completely abolished during the reign of Ahmed I. During this period, only Kanuni and Selim II did not shed fraternal blood.
• Throughout his life, Ahmed I, already known to us, was haunted by the number 14. He ascended the throne at the age of 14, as the 14th sultan and ruled for 14 years.
• The most bloodthirsty, according to Western scientists, is Murat IV. It is said that in 7 years he executed 20,000 people.
• The life of the chief viziers of the Ottoman Empire was no less eventful. At least the lives of 44 out of 203 grand viziers were suddenly cut short on the orders of the padishahs for certain misconduct. The first Grand Vizier to be executed on the orders of Fatih was Candarly Khalil Pasha.

I hope that we have at least slightly warmed up your story about the history of the sultans of the Ottoman Empire, if so, then starting next week, you will find a story about the second sultan of the future empire, Orhan Gazi.