The Ottoman Empire

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The Ottoman Empire

• From Islamic Empire to Western State

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The Ottoman Empire

• Posed the greatest threat to Western Europe
• The Ottomans were Turks, not Arabs.
• Brought from Central Asia to Anatolia
  (present-day Turkey) in 1200s.
• Gunpowder empire
• In 1453, Ottomans led by Mehmed II captured the
  city of Constantinople from the Byzantine Empire,
  renaming it Istanbul.
• From there marched on Eastern Europe, seizing
  Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Transylvania,
  Moldavia, Walachia, Albania, and modern-day
  Yugoslavia.

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Ottoman Society

• At the top of society, was the sultan, or
  pradishah.
• Borrowed aspects of Byzantine and Persian
  empires centralized bureaucracy, provinces
  governed by a bey (governor).
• Sultans private domain known as the harem (also
  refers to his wives and concubines).
• Bureaucrats and landed aristocracy of Ottomans
• Ulama, religious scholars
• Fellahin (peasants) did not own land
• Dhimmis (mostly Greeks, Jews, and Armenians)
• Circassian slaves known as Circassianspeople
  from Balkans and the Caucasus Mountain region.
• Janissarieselite military class (known as
  Mamluks under Ayyubid Empire).

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Modern Caucasus Mountains
Janissaries
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Ottomans as Muslims

• Ottomans were Sunni Muslims, sultan viewed as the
  caliph of Islam.
• Qanun and Sharia
• Empire contained a minority of non-Muslims
• Orthodox Christians of Greece and the Balkans,
  Armenian Christians, Coptic Christians in Egypt,
  and Jews throughout.
• Usually not forced to convert to Islam.

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Ottoman Women

• Women in a harem had more power than one
  imagines.
• Many were Circassian slaves.
• Often acted as diplomats.
• Owned property.
• Could chose their husbands and divorce fairly
  easy.
• Many were educated.

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Life in the Harem?
Of course not. This is the popular Western
stereotype.
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This is the harem quarters of a sultan. What do
you notice about the building?
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Beginning of Ottoman Decline

• The Ottoman Empire began its decline in late
  1500s with Selim II.
• Territorial losses to Safavids and Hapsburgs
• Muslims entered Janissary corps corruption and
  uncontrollable military
• Increased decentralization
• Rising population and inflation
• Agricultural economy no exports
• Adoption of Western practices

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Selim II
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Western Culture in Ottoman Empire

• Upper class members wear European fashions, fill
  homes with European furniture and art, and drink
  coffee (Arab) and smoke tobacco.
• Coffeehouses (cafés) appear across the
  empirehotbeds of rebellion.
• Sharia ignoreddrunkenness, adultery, etc.
• Sultan and ulama banned Western customs and
  products to no avail.

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Emulation of the West

• Islamic response to foreign encroachment usually
  involved one of the following
• Emulation of Western ideas and institutions
• Join Western ideas and Islamic institutions
• Rejection of Western ideas and institutions
• Best examples
• Egypt
• Turkey

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Egypt

• Egypt often called the linchpin of the empire.
• Key to Ottoman dominance of the Middle East
  between 1500 and 1600.
• Ottomans conquered Egypt in 1512, seizing it from
  the Mamluks (who conquered it from the Ayyubid
  Empire).
• Major source of food and commodities.

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Modern Egypt
Lower Egypt
Upper Egypt
Sudan (Nubia)
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Egyptian Population

• FellahinMajority of population was native-born
  Egyptians, mostly descended from Arabsrural and
  poor.
• Mamluk ruling classincorporated into Ottoman
  bureaucracy.
• Ottoman military.
• Ottomans and Mamluks constantly fighting.
• Each emerged as dominant group at different
  times, never totally eliminating the other.

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French Occupation, 1798-1801

• Cycle was disrupted in July 1798 with the arrival
  of Napoleon (before he was emperor).
• Battle of the Pyramids near Cairo.
• Never totally defeated the Mamluks who had
  retreated into Upper Egypt and the Sudan.

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Napoleon liberating the Egyptians from Mamluk
rule.
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Muhammad Ali

• Combined Ottoman-British force expelled France
  from Egypt, Mamluks and Ottomans struggled for
  control, again.
• In 1805, Ottoman of Albanian descent, Muhammad,
  or Mehmed Ali, came out on top.
• Eventually recognized as the viceroy of Egypt.
• Modernization movement

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Muhammad Alis Egypt

• Often called pasha rather than bey, considered
  the founder of modern Egypt.
• Ruled from 1805 to 1848 basically independent of
  the sultan.
• Process of Westernization/modernization
• His reign witnessed changes in Egypts politics,
  economics, and cultural orientation.
• Creation of a modern Egyptian state

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Politics

• Solidified his own power by crushing several
  resistance movements in Cairo.
• 1809, removed the tax exempt status from
  religious organizations to curb power of the
  ulama powerthose that protested were exiled.
• Wiped out remaining Mamluks in 1811 at a feast in
  Cairo.

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More on Politics

• The core of his government was his family sons,
  nephews, cousins.
• Appointed foreign-born Egyptians to mid-level
  positions Turks, Albanians, Greeks, and
  Circassianscame to be known as
  Turko-Circassians.
• Employed Europeans as advisors.
• Modernized the military.

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Muhammad Ali receiving Western envoys in
Alexandria
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Economy

• Nationalization of agriculture.
• Fellahin forced to labor on government farms.
• Canals and irrigation improved.
• Farm land increased by 1/3 under Ali.
• Promoted the growth of cotton, sugar, indigo, and
  rice as cash crops.
• Funds used for public works such as roads and the
  military.
• Attempted a massive industrialization project
  between 1810 and 1830failure.

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Failure of Industrialization

• High tariffs on Egyptian exports.
• Inadequate power sources.
• Factories relied on turbines driven by animals.
• Industrial sabotage by workers forced to work in
  factories with little or no compensation.

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Culture

• Egyptians were sent to study abroad in Europe.
• Learned skills such as printing, shipbuilding,
  and modern military techniques.
• Established a system of state-run military
  schools that also taught medicine and
  engineering.
• Printing presses that printed Turkish and Arabic.
• School of Languages, 1835, designed to teach
  Egyptians the languages of Europe.
• Redesigned elite section of Cairo to resemble
  Paris.

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Muhammad Alis Successors

• Muhammad Ali died in 1848, succeeded by son
  Ibrahim, then grandson Abbas (1848-1854), then
  another son, Muhammad Said (1854-1863), finally
  grandson Ismail (1863-1879).
• Construction of the Suez Canal in 1869
• Financed by the British.
• Bankrupt and indebted to Europe.
• British use this as an excuse to interlope in
  Ottoman-Egyptian affairs.

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Egypt under the British (1882-1914)

• Summer 1882, Great Britain dispatches naval and
  land forces to occupy Egypt.
• Protect Suez Canal.
• March on Cairo in September and Egyptians
  surrenders.
• British ruled indirectly as a colonial power.
• Egypt never officially became a colony
• Remained Ottoman province until World War I.

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Suez Canal
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Suez Canal
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Creation of Turkey

• Ottomans defeated by Russians in 1774 lose
  Crimea
• Some Ottoman sultans emulated the West
• Selim III (r. 1762-1808)
• European officers trained new army that replaced
  Janissaries
• Mahmud II (r. 1808-1839)
• Furthered Selim IIIs reforms, modern centralized
  government
• No Enlightenment ideals of equality or citizens
  rights
• Tanzimat movement (1839-1876), reordering
• Some Enlightenment ideas anti-slavery movement
• Ottomanism
• Creation of a constitutional monarchy (1876)
• Give Europeans few excuses to intervene in
  Ottoman affairs

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Mahmud II
Selim III
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Young Turks

• Tanzimat paved way for Young Turk Revolution of
  1889-1908
• Turkish nationalism opposition to Sultan Abdul
  Hamid II pro-Western secularists
• Restoration of a Turkish Parliament
• Suppression of nationalist movements in Empire
  (Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, and Kurds)
• Committee of Union and Progress (CUP)
• World War I and the partition of the Ottoman
  Empire (1918-1922)

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Republic of Turkey

• Turkey created in 1922 through leadership of
  Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk 1881-1938)
• First president, 1922-1938
• Kemalism intensely pro-Western secular
  republicanism
• European-style law code, abolition of Arabic
  script, adoption of Latin alphabet abolition of
  the Arabic call to prayer
• Continuation of Tanzimat and modernization
• Continual movement toward democracy

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Atatürk giving instruction in the Latin alphabet
in 1928.