ABOUT THE IMMACULATE FAMILY AND ITS MAIN CONDITION

The content of the article

OTTOMAN (OTTOMAN) EMPIRE. This empire was created by Turkic tribes in Anatolia and existed since the decline of the Byzantine Empire in the 14th century. until the formation of the Turkish Republic in 1922. Its name came from the name of Sultan Osman I, founder of the Ottoman dynasty. The influence of the Ottoman Empire in the region began to gradually be lost from the 17th century, and it finally collapsed after its defeat in the First World War.

Rise of the Ottomans.

The modern Turkish Republic traces its origins to one of the Ghazi beyliks. The creator of the future mighty power, Osman (1259–1324/1326), inherited from his father Ertogrul a small border fief (uj) of the Seljuk state on the southeastern border of Byzantium, near Eskisehir. Osman became the founder of a new dynasty, and the state received his name and went down in history as the Ottoman Empire.

In the last years of Ottoman power, a legend arose that Ertogrul and his tribe arrived from Central Asia just in time to save the Seljuks in their battle with the Mongols, and were rewarded with their western lands. However modern research do not confirm this legend. Ertogrul's inheritance was given to him by the Seljuks, to whom he swore allegiance and paid tribute, as well as to the Mongol khans. This continued under Osman and his son until 1335. It is likely that neither Osman nor his father were ghazis until Osman came under the influence of one of the dervish orders. In the 1280s, Osman managed to capture Bilecik, İnönü and Eskişehir.

At the very beginning of the 14th century. Osman, together with his ghazis, annexed to his inheritance the lands that extended all the way to the coasts of the Black and Marmara Seas, as well as most of the territory west of the Sakarya River, up to Kutahya in the south. After Osman's death, his son Orhan occupied the fortified Byzantine city of Brusa. Bursa, as the Ottomans called it, became the capital of the Ottoman state and remained so for more than 100 years until they captured Constantinople. In almost one decade, Byzantium lost almost all of Asia Minor, and such historical cities as Nicaea and Nicomedia received the names Iznik and Izmit. The Ottomans subjugated the beylik of Karesi in Bergamo (formerly Pergamon), and Gazi Orhan became the ruler of the entire northwestern part of Anatolia: from the Aegean Sea and the Dardanelles to the Black Sea and the Bosphorus.

Conquests in Europe.

The formation of the Ottoman Empire.

In the period between the capture of Bursa and the victory in Kosovo Polje, the organizational structures and management of the Ottoman Empire were quite effective, and already at this time many features of the future huge state were emerging. Orhan and Murad did not care whether the new arrivals were Muslims, Christians or Jews, or whether they were Arabs, Greeks, Serbs, Albanians, Italians, Iranians or Tatars. The state system of government was built on a combination of Arab, Seljuk and Byzantine customs and traditions. In the occupied lands, the Ottomans tried to preserve, as far as possible, local customs so as not to destroy existing social relations.

In all newly annexed regions, military leaders immediately allocated income from land allotments as a reward to valiant and worthy soldiers. The owners of these kind of fiefs, called timars, were obliged to manage their lands and from time to time participate in campaigns and raids into distant territories. The cavalry was formed from feudal lords called sipahis, who had timars. Like the Ghazis, the Sipahis acted as Ottoman pioneers in newly conquered territories. Murad I distributed many such inheritances in Europe to Turkic families from Anatolia who did not have property, resettling them in the Balkans and turning them into a feudal military aristocracy.

Another notable event of that time was the creation in the army of the Janissary Corps, soldiers who were included in the military units close to the Sultan. These soldiers (Turkish yeniceri, lit. new army), called Janissaries by foreigners, were subsequently recruited from captured boys from Christian families, particularly in the Balkans. This practice, known as the devşirme system, may have been introduced under Murad I, but only became fully established in the 15th century. under Murad II; it continued continuously until the 16th century, with interruptions until the 17th century. Having the status of slaves of the sultans, the Janissaries were a disciplined regular army consisting of well-trained and armed infantrymen, superior in combat effectiveness to all similar troops in Europe until the advent of the French army of Louis XIV.

Conquests and fall of Bayezid I.

Mehmed II and the capture of Constantinople.

The young Sultan received an excellent education at the palace school and as governor of Manisa under his father. He was undoubtedly more educated than all the other monarchs of Europe at that time. After the murder of his underage brother, Mehmed II reorganized his court in preparation for the capture of Constantinople. Huge bronze cannons were cast and troops were assembled to storm the city. In 1452, the Ottomans built a huge fort with three majestic castles within the fortress in a narrow part of the Bosphorus Strait, approximately 10 km north of the Golden Horn of Constantinople. Thus, the Sultan was able to control shipping from the Black Sea and cut off Constantinople from supplies from the Italian trading posts located to the north. This fort, called Rumeli Hisarı, together with another fortress Anadolu Hisarı, built by the great-grandfather of Mehmed II, guaranteed reliable communication between Asia and Europe. The most spectacular step of the Sultan was the ingenious crossing of part of his fleet from the Bosphorus to the Golden Horn through the hills, bypassing the chain stretched at the entrance to the bay. Thus, cannons from the Sultan's ships could fire at the city from the inner harbor. On May 29, 1453, a breach was made in the wall, and Ottoman soldiers rushed into Constantinople. On the third day, Mehmed II was already praying in Hagia Sophia and decided to make Istanbul (as the Ottomans called Constantinople) the capital of the empire.

Owning such a well-located city, Mehmed II controlled the situation in the empire. In 1456 his attempt to take Belgrade ended unsuccessfully. Nevertheless, Serbia and Bosnia soon became provinces of the empire, and before his death the Sultan managed to annex Herzegovina and Albania to his state. Mehmed II captured all of Greece, including the Peloponnese, with the exception of a few Venetian ports, and largest islands in the Aegean Sea. In Asia Minor, he finally managed to overcome the resistance of the rulers of Karaman, take possession of Cilicia, annex Trebizond (Trabzon) on the Black Sea coast to the empire and establish suzerainty over the Crimea. The Sultan recognized the authority of the Greek Orthodox Church and worked closely with the newly elected patriarch. Previously, over the course of two centuries, the population of Constantinople had been constantly declining; Mehmed II resettled many people from various parts of the country to the new capital and restored its traditionally strong crafts and trade.

The rise of the empire under Suleiman I.

The power of the Ottoman Empire reached its apogee in the mid-16th century. The period of the reign of Suleiman I the Magnificent (1520–1566) is considered the Golden Age of the Ottoman Empire. Suleiman I (the previous Suleiman, son of Bayazid I, never ruled over its entire territory) surrounded himself with many capable dignitaries. Most of them were recruited through the devşirme system or captured during army campaigns and pirate raids, and by 1566, when Suleiman I died, these “new Turks” or “new Ottomans” already firmly held power over the entire empire. They formed the backbone of the administrative authorities, while the highest Muslim institutions were headed by indigenous Turks. Theologians and jurists were recruited from among them, whose duties included interpreting laws and performing judicial functions.

Suleiman I, being the only son of the monarch, never faced any claim to the throne. He was an educated man who loved music, poetry, nature, and philosophical discussions. Yet the military forced him to adhere to a militant policy. In 1521, the Ottoman army crossed the Danube and captured Belgrade. This victory, which Mehmed II could not achieve at one time, opened the way for the Ottomans to the plains of Hungary and the upper Danube basin. In 1526 Suleiman took Budapest and occupied all of Hungary. In 1529 the Sultan began the siege of Vienna, but was unable to capture the city before the onset of winter. Nevertheless, the vast territory from Istanbul to Vienna and from the Black Sea to the Adriatic Sea formed the European part of the Ottoman Empire, and Suleiman during his reign carried out seven military campaigns on the western borders of the power.

Suleiman also fought in the east. The borders of his empire with Persia were not defined, and vassal rulers in the border areas changed their masters depending on whose side was powerful and with whom it was more profitable to enter into an alliance. In 1534, Suleiman took Tabriz and then Baghdad, incorporating Iraq into the Ottoman Empire; in 1548 he regained Tabriz. The Sultan spent the entire year 1549 in pursuit of the Persian Shah Tahmasp I, trying to fight him. While Suleiman was in Europe in 1553, Persian troops invaded Asia Minor and captured Erzurum. Having expelled the Persians and devoted most of 1554 to the conquest of the lands east of the Euphrates, Suleiman, according to an official peace treaty concluded with the Shah, received a port in the Persian Gulf at his disposal. Squadrons of the naval forces of the Ottoman Empire operated in the waters of the Arabian Peninsula, in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez.

From the very beginning of his reign, Suleiman paid great attention to strengthening the naval power of the state in order to maintain Ottoman superiority in the Mediterranean. In 1522 his second campaign was directed against Fr. Rhodes, located 19 km from the southwestern coast of Asia Minor. After the capture of the island and the eviction of the Johannites who owned it to Malta, the Aegean Sea and the entire coast of Asia Minor became Ottoman possessions. Soon, the French king Francis I turned to the Sultan for military assistance in the Mediterranean and with a request to move against Hungary in order to stop the advance of the troops of Emperor Charles V, who were advancing on Francis in Italy. The most famous of Suleiman's naval commanders, Hayraddin Barbarossa, the supreme ruler of Algeria and North Africa, devastated the coasts of Spain and Italy. Nevertheless, Suleiman's admirals were unable to capture Malta in 1565.

Suleiman died in 1566 in Szigetvár during a campaign in Hungary. The body of the last of the great Ottoman sultans was transferred to Istanbul and buried in a mausoleum in the courtyard of the mosque.

Suleiman had several sons, but his favorite son died at the age of 21, two others were executed on charges of conspiracy, and his only remaining son, Selim II, turned out to be a drunkard. The conspiracy that destroyed Suleiman's family can be partly attributed to the jealousy of his wife Roxelana, a former slave girl of either Russian or Polish origin. Another mistake of Suleiman was the elevation in 1523 of his beloved slave Ibrahim, appointed chief minister (grand vizier), although among the applicants there were many other competent courtiers. And although Ibrahim was a capable minister, his appointment violated the long-established system of palace relations and aroused the envy of other dignitaries.

Mid 16th century was the heyday of literature and architecture. More than a dozen mosques were erected in Istanbul under the leadership and designs of the architect Sinan; the masterpiece was the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, dedicated to Selim II.

Under the new Sultan Selim II, the Ottomans began to lose their position at sea. In 1571, the united Christian fleet met the Turkish in the battle of Lepanto and defeated it. During the winter of 1571–1572, the shipyards in Gelibolu and Istanbul worked tirelessly, and by the spring of 1572, thanks to the construction of new warships, the European naval victory was nullified. In 1573 they managed to defeat the Venetians, and the island of Cyprus was annexed to the empire. Despite this, the defeat at Lepanto foreshadowed the coming decline of Ottoman power in the Mediterranean.

Decline of the Empire.

After Selim II, most of the sultans of the Ottoman Empire were weak rulers. Murad III, son of Selim, reigned from 1574 to 1595. His tenure was accompanied by unrest caused by palace slaves led by the Grand Vizier Mehmed Sokolki and two harem factions: one led by the Sultan's mother Nur Banu, a Jewish convert to Islam, and the other by his beloved Safiye's wife. The latter was the daughter of the Venetian governor of Corfu, who was captured by pirates and presented to Suleiman, who immediately gave her to his grandson Murad. However, the empire still had enough strength to advance east to the Caspian Sea, as well as to maintain its position in the Caucasus and Europe.

After the death of Murad III, 20 of his sons remained. Of these, Mehmed III ascended the throne, strangling 19 of his brothers. His son Ahmed I, who succeeded him in 1603, tried to reform the system of power and get rid of corruption. He moved away from the cruel tradition and did not kill his brother Mustafa. And although this, of course, was a manifestation of humanism, from that time all the brothers of the sultans and their closest relatives from the Ottoman dynasty began to be kept in captivity in a special part of the palace, where they spent their lives until the death of the reigning monarch. Then the eldest of them was proclaimed his successor. Thus, after Ahmed I, few who reigned in the 17th and 18th centuries. Sultanov had a sufficient level of intellectual development or political experience to rule such a huge empire. As a result, the unity of the state and the central power itself began to quickly weaken.

Mustafa I, brother of Ahmed I, was mentally ill and reigned for only one year. Osman II, the son of Ahmed I, was proclaimed the new sultan in 1618. Being an enlightened monarch, Osman II tried to transform state structures, but was killed by his opponents in 1622. For some time, the throne again went to Mustafa I, but already in 1623 Osman’s brother Murad ascended the throne IV, who led the country until 1640. His reign was dynamic and reminiscent of Selim I. Having come of age in 1623, Murad spent the next eight years tirelessly trying to restore and reform the Ottoman Empire. In an effort to improve the health of government structures, he executed 10 thousand officials. Murad personally stood at the head of his armies during the eastern campaigns, prohibited the consumption of coffee, tobacco and alcoholic beverages, but he himself showed a weakness for alcohol, which led the young ruler to death at the age of only 28 years.

Murad's successor, his mentally ill brother Ibrahim, managed to significantly destroy the state he inherited before he was deposed in 1648. The conspirators placed Ibrahim's six-year-old son Mehmed IV on the throne and actually led the country until 1656, when the Sultan's mother achieved the appointment of grand vizier with unlimited powers talented Mehmed Köprülü. He held this position until 1661, when his son Fazil Ahmed Köprülü became vizier.

The Ottoman Empire still managed to overcome the period of chaos, extortion and crisis of state power. Europe was torn apart by religious wars and the Thirty Years' War, and Poland and Russia were in turmoil. This gave both Köprül the opportunity, after a purge of the administration, during which 30 thousand officials were executed, to capture the island of Crete in 1669, and Podolia and other regions of Ukraine in 1676. After the death of Ahmed Köprülü, his place was taken by a mediocre and corrupt palace favorite. In 1683, the Ottomans besieged Vienna, but were defeated by the Poles and their allies led by Jan Sobieski.

Leaving the Balkans.

The defeat at Vienna marked the beginning of the Turkish retreat in the Balkans. Budapest fell first, and after the loss of Mohács, all of Hungary fell under the rule of Vienna. In 1688 the Ottomans had to leave Belgrade, in 1689 Vidin in Bulgaria and Nis in Serbia. After this, Suleiman II (r. 1687–1691) appointed Mustafa Köprülü, Ahmed's brother, as grand vizier. The Ottomans managed to recapture Niš and Belgrade, but were utterly defeated by Prince Eugene of Savoy in 1697 near Senta, in the far north of Serbia.

Mustafa II (r. 1695–1703) attempted to regain lost ground by appointing Hüseyin Köprülü as grand vizier. In 1699, the Treaty of Karlowitz was signed, according to which the Peloponnese and Dalmatia peninsulas went to Venice, Austria received Hungary and Transylvania, Poland received Podolia, and Russia retained Azov. The Treaty of Karlowitz was the first in a series of concessions that the Ottomans were forced to make when leaving Europe.

During the 18th century. The Ottoman Empire lost much of its power in the Mediterranean. In the 17th century The main opponents of the Ottoman Empire were Austria and Venice, and in the 18th century. – Austria and Russia.

In 1718, Austria, according to the Pozarevac (Passarovitsky) Treaty, received a number of more territories. However, the Ottoman Empire, despite defeats in the wars it fought in the 1730s, regained the city according to the treaty signed in 1739 in Belgrade, mainly due to the weakness of the Habsburgs and the intrigues of French diplomats.

Surrender.

As a result of the behind-the-scenes maneuvers of French diplomacy in Belgrade, an agreement was concluded between France and the Ottoman Empire in 1740. Called the "Capitulations", this document was for a long time the basis for the special privileges received by all states within the empire. The formal beginning of the agreements was laid back in 1251, when the Mamluk sultans in Cairo recognized Louis IX the Saint, King of France. Mehmed II, Bayezid II and Selim I confirmed this agreement and used it as a model in their relations with Venice and other Italian city-states, Hungary, Austria and most other European countries. One of the most important was the 1536 treaty between Suleiman I and the French king Francis I. In accordance with the 1740 treaty, the French received the right to freely move and trade in the territory of the Ottoman Empire under the full protection of the Sultan, their goods were not subject to taxes, with the exception of import-export duties, French envoys and consuls acquired judicial power over their compatriots, who could not be arrested in the absence of a consular representative. The French were given the right to erect and freely use their churches; the same privileges were reserved within the Ottoman Empire for other Catholics. In addition, the French could take under their protection the Portuguese, Sicilians and citizens of other states who did not have ambassadors at the court of the Sultan.

Further decline and attempts at reform.

The end of the Seven Years' War in 1763 marked the beginning of new attacks against the Ottoman Empire. Despite the fact that the French king Louis XV sent Baron de Tott to Istanbul to modernize the Sultan's army, the Ottomans were defeated by Russia in the Danube provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia and were forced to sign the Küçük-Kaynardzhi Peace Treaty in 1774. Crimea gained independence, and Azov went to Russia, which recognized the border with the Ottoman Empire along the Bug River. The Sultan promised to provide protection for the Christians living in his empire, and allowed the presence of a Russian ambassador in the capital, who received the right to represent the interests of his Christian subjects. From 1774 until the First World War, Russian tsars referred to the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Treaty to justify their role in the affairs of the Ottoman Empire. In 1779, Russia received rights to Crimea, and in 1792, the Russian border, in accordance with the Treaty of Iasi, was moved to the Dniester.

Time dictated change. Ahmed III (r. 1703–1730) invited architects to build him palaces and mosques in the style of Versailles, and opened a printing press in Istanbul. The Sultan's immediate relatives were no longer kept in strict confinement; some of them began to study the scientific and political heritage of Western Europe. However, Ahmed III was killed by conservatives, and his place was taken by Mahmud I, under whom the Caucasus was lost to Persia, and the retreat in the Balkans continued. One of the outstanding sultans was Abdul Hamid I. During his reign (1774–1789), reforms were carried out, French teachers and technical specialists were invited to Istanbul. France hoped to save the Ottoman Empire and prevent Russia from accessing the Black Sea straits and the Mediterranean Sea.

Selim III

(reigned 1789–1807). Selim III, who became Sultan in 1789, formed a 12-member cabinet of ministers similar to European governments, replenished the treasury and created a new military corps. He created new educational institutions designed to educate civil servants in the spirit of the ideas of the Enlightenment. Printed publications were allowed again, and the works of Western authors began to be translated into Turkish.

In the early years of the French Revolution, the Ottoman Empire was left to face its problems by the European powers. Napoleon viewed Selim as an ally, believing that after the defeat of the Mamluks the Sultan would be able to strengthen his power in Egypt. Nevertheless, Selim III declared war on France and sent his fleet and army to defend the province. Only the British fleet, located off Alexandria and off the coast of the Levant, saved the Turks from defeat. This move of the Ottoman Empire involved it in the military and diplomatic affairs of Europe.

Meanwhile, in Egypt, after the departure of the French, Muhammad Ali, a native of the Macedonian city of Kavala, who served in the Turkish army, came to power. In 1805 he became governor of the province, which opened a new chapter in Egyptian history.

After the conclusion of the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, relations with France were restored, and Selim III managed to maintain peace until 1806, when Russia invaded its Danube provinces. England provided assistance to its ally Russia by sending its fleet through the Dardanelles, but Selim managed to speed up the restoration of defensive structures, and the British were forced to sail to the Aegean Sea. French victories in Central Europe strengthened the position of the Ottoman Empire, but a rebellion against Selim III began in the capital. In 1807, during the absence of the commander-in-chief of the imperial army, Bayraktar, in the capital, the Sultan was deposed, and his cousin Mustafa IV took the throne. After the return of Bayraktar in 1808, Mustafa IV was executed, but first the rebels strangled Selim III, who was imprisoned. The only male representative from the ruling dynasty remained Mahmud II.

Mahmud II

(reigned 1808–1839). Under him, in 1809, the Ottoman Empire and Great Britain concluded the famous Treaty of the Dardanelles, which opened the Turkish market for British goods on the condition that Great Britain recognized the closed status of the Black Sea Straits for military vessels in peacetime for the Turks. Previously, the Ottoman Empire agreed to join the continental blockade created by Napoleon, so the agreement was perceived as a violation of previous obligations. Russia began military operations on the Danube and captured a number of cities in Bulgaria and Wallachia. According to the Treaty of Bucharest of 1812, significant territories were ceded to Russia, and it refused to support the rebels in Serbia. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the Ottoman Empire was recognized as a European power.

National revolutions in the Ottoman Empire.

During the French Revolution, the country faced two new problems. One of them had been brewing for a long time: as the center weakened, separated provinces slipped away from the power of the sultans. In Epirus, the revolt was raised by Ali Pasha of Janin, who ruled the province as sovereign and maintained diplomatic relations with Napoleon and other European monarchs. Similar protests also occurred in Vidin, Sidon (modern Saida, Lebanon), Baghdad and other provinces, which undermined the power of the Sultan and reduced tax revenues to the imperial treasury. The most powerful of the local rulers (pashas) eventually became Muhammad Ali in Egypt.

Another intractable problem for the country was the growth of the national liberation movement, especially among the Christian population of the Balkans. At the peak of the French Revolution, Selim III in 1804 faced an uprising raised by the Serbs led by Karadjordje (George Petrovich). The Congress of Vienna (1814–1815) recognized Serbia as a semi-autonomous province within the Ottoman Empire, led by Miloš Obrenović, Karageorgje's rival.

Almost immediately after the defeat of the French Revolution and the fall of Napoleon, Mahmud II faced the Greek national liberation revolution. Mahmud II had a chance to win, especially after he managed to convince the nominal vassal in Egypt, Muhammad Ali, to send his army and navy to support Istanbul. However, the Pasha's armed forces were defeated after the intervention of Great Britain, France and Russia. As a result of the breakthrough of Russian troops in the Caucasus and their attack on Istanbul, Mahmud II had to sign the Treaty of Adrianople in 1829, which recognized the independence of the Kingdom of Greece. A few years later, the army of Muhammad Ali, under the command of his son Ibrahim Pasha, captured Syria and found itself dangerously close to the Bosporus in Asia Minor. Only the Russian naval landing, which landed on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus as a warning to Muhammad Ali, saved Mahmud II. After this, Mahmud never managed to get rid of Russian influence until he signed the humiliating Unkiyar-Iskelesi Treaty in 1833, which gave the Russian Tsar the right to “protect” the Sultan, as well as close and open the Black Sea straits at his discretion for the passage of foreigners. military courts.

Ottoman Empire after the Congress of Vienna.

The period following the Congress of Vienna was probably the most destructive for the Ottoman Empire. Greece separated; Egypt under Muhammad Ali, who, moreover, having captured Syria and South Arabia, became virtually independent; Serbia, Wallachia and Moldova became semi-autonomous territories. During the Napoleonic Wars, Europe significantly strengthened its military and industrial power. The weakening of the Ottoman power is attributed to a certain extent to the massacre of the Janissaries carried out by Mahmud II in 1826.

By concluding the Unkiyar-Isklelesi Treaty, Mahmud II hoped to gain time to transform the empire. The reforms he carried out were so noticeable that travelers visiting Turkey in the late 1830s noted that more changes had occurred in the country in the last 20 years than in the previous two centuries. Instead of the Janissaries, Mahmud created a new army, trained and equipped according to the European model. Prussian officers were hired to train officers in the new art of war. Fezs and frock coats became the official clothing of civil officials. Mahmud tried to introduce the latest methods developed in young European states into all areas of management. It was possible to reorganize the financial system, streamline the activities of the judiciary, and improve the road network. Additional educational institutions were created, in particular military and medical colleges. Newspapers began to be published in Istanbul and Izmir.

In the last year of his life, Mahmud again entered into war with his Egyptian vassal. Mahmud's army was defeated in Northern Syria, and his fleet in Alexandria went over to the side of Muhammad Ali.

Abdul-Mejid

(reigned 1839–1861). The eldest son and successor of Mahmud II, Abdul-Mejid, was only 16 years old. Without an army and navy, he found himself helpless against the superior forces of Muhammad Ali. He was saved by diplomatic and military assistance from Russia, Great Britain, Austria and Prussia. France initially supported Egypt, but concerted action by the European powers broke the deadlock: the pasha received the hereditary right to rule Egypt under the nominal suzerainty of the Ottoman sultans. This provision was legitimized by the Treaty of London in 1840 and confirmed by Abdülmecid in 1841. In the same year, the London Convention of European Powers was concluded, according to which warships were not to pass through the Dardanelles and the Bosporus in times of peace for the Ottoman Empire, and the signatory powers took undertake an obligation to assist the Sultan in maintaining sovereignty over the Black Sea Straits.

Tanzimat.

During the struggle with his strong vassal, Abdulmecid in 1839 promulgated the hatt-i sherif (“sacred decree”), announcing the beginning of reforms in the empire, which was addressed to the highest state dignitaries and invited ambassadors by the chief minister, Reshid Pasha. The document abolished the death penalty without trial, guaranteed justice for all citizens regardless of their race or religion, established a judicial council to adopt a new criminal code, abolished the tax farming system, changed the methods of recruiting the army, and limited the length of military service.

It became obvious that the empire was no longer able to defend itself in the event of a military attack from any of the great European powers. Reshid Pasha, who had previously served as ambassador to Paris and London, understood that it was necessary to take certain steps that would show the European states that the Ottoman Empire was capable of self-reform and manageable, i.e. deserves to be preserved as an independent state. Khatt-i Sherif seemed to be the answer to the doubts of the Europeans. However, in 1841 Reshid was removed from office. Over the next few years, his reforms were suspended, and only after his return to power in 1845 they began to be implemented again with the support of the British ambassador Stratford Canning. This period in the history of the Ottoman Empire, known as the Tanzimat ("ordering"), involved the reorganization of the system of government and the transformation of society in accordance with ancient Muslim and Ottoman principles of tolerance. At the same time, education developed, the network of schools expanded, sons from famous families started studying in Europe. Many Ottomans began to lead a Western lifestyle. The number of newspapers, books and magazines published increased, and the younger generation professed new European ideals.

At the same time, foreign trade grew rapidly, but the influx of European industrial products had a negative impact on the finances and economy of the Ottoman Empire. Imports of British factory fabrics destroyed cottage textile production and siphoned gold and silver from the state. Another blow to the economy was the signing of the Balto-Liman Trade Convention in 1838, according to which import duties on goods imported into the empire were frozen at 5%. This meant that foreign merchants could operate in the empire on an equal basis with local merchants. As a result, most of the country's trade ended up in the hands of foreigners, who, in accordance with the Capitulations, were freed from control by officials.

Crimean War.

The London Convention of 1841 abolished the special privileges that the Russian Emperor Nicholas I received under a secret annex to the Unkiyar-Iskelesi Treaty of 1833. Referring to the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Treaty of 1774, Nicholas I launched an offensive in the Balkans and demanded special status and rights for Russian monks in holy places in Jerusalem and Palestine. After Sultan Abdulmecid refused to satisfy these demands, the Crimean War began. Great Britain, France and Sardinia came to the aid of the Ottoman Empire. Istanbul became the forward base for preparations for hostilities in the Crimea, and the influx of European sailors, army officers and civilian officials left an indelible mark on Ottoman society. The Treaty of Paris of 1856, which ended this war, declared the Black Sea a neutral zone. European powers again recognized Turkish sovereignty over the Black Sea Straits, and the Ottoman Empire was accepted into the “union of European states.” Romania gained independence.

Bankruptcy of the Ottoman Empire.

After the Crimean War, the sultans began to borrow money from Western bankers. Even in 1854, having practically no external debt, the Ottoman government very quickly became bankrupt, and already in 1875 Sultan Abdul Aziz owed European bondholders almost one billion dollars in foreign currency.

In 1875, the Grand Vizier declared that the country was no longer able to pay interest on its debts. Noisy protests and pressure from European powers forced the Ottoman authorities to increase taxes in the provinces. Unrest began in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Macedonia and Bulgaria. The government sent troops to “pacify” the rebels, during which unprecedented cruelty was shown that amazed the Europeans. In response, Russia sent volunteers to help the Balkan Slavs. At this time, a secret revolutionary society of “New Ottomans” emerged in the country, advocating constitutional reforms in their homeland.

In 1876 Abdul Aziz, who had succeeded his brother Abdul Mecid in 1861, was deposed for incompetence by Midhat Pasha and Avni Pasha, leaders of the liberal organization of constitutionalists. They placed on the throne Murad V, the eldest son of Abdul-Mecid, who turned out to be mentally ill and was deposed just a few months later, and Abdul-Hamid II, another son of Abdul-Mecid, was placed on the throne.

Abdul Hamid II

(reigned 1876–1909). Abdul Hamid II visited Europe, and many had high hopes for a liberal constitutional regime with him. However, at the time of his accession to the throne, Turkish influence in the Balkans was in danger despite the fact that Ottoman troops had managed to defeat Bosnian and Serbian rebels. This development of events forced Russia to threaten open intervention, which Austria-Hungary and Great Britain sharply opposed. In December 1876, a conference of ambassadors was convened in Istanbul, at which Abdul Hamid II announced the introduction of a constitution for the Ottoman Empire, which provided for the creation of an elected parliament, a government responsible to it and other attributes of European constitutional monarchies. However, the brutal suppression of the uprising in Bulgaria still led in 1877 to war with Russia. In this regard, Abdul Hamid II suspended the Constitution for the duration of the war. This situation continued until the Young Turk Revolution of 1908.

Meanwhile, at the front, the military situation was developing in favor of Russia, whose troops were already camped under the walls of Istanbul. Great Britain managed to prevent the capture of the city by sending a fleet to the Sea of ​​Marmara and presenting an ultimatum to St. Petersburg demanding an end to hostilities. Initially, Russia imposed on the Sultan the extremely unfavorable Treaty of San Stefano, according to which most of the European possessions of the Ottoman Empire became part of the new autonomous education- Bulgaria. Austria-Hungary and Great Britain opposed the terms of the treaty. All this prompted the German Chancellor Bismarck to convene the Berlin Congress in 1878, at which the size of Bulgaria was reduced, but the full independence of Serbia, Montenegro and Romania was recognized. Cyprus went to Great Britain, and Bosnia and Herzegovina to Austria-Hungary. Russia received the fortresses of Ardahan, Kars and Batumi (Batumi) in the Caucasus; to regulate navigation on the Danube, a commission was created from representatives of the Danube states, and the Black Sea and the Black Sea Straits again received the status provided for by the Treaty of Paris of 1856. The Sultan promised to govern all his subjects equally fairly, and the European powers believed that the Berlin Congress had forever resolved the difficult Eastern problem.

During the 32-year reign of Abdul Hamid II, the Constitution never actually came into force. One of the most important unresolved issues was the bankruptcy of the state. In 1881, under foreign control, the Ottoman Office was created government debt, which was given responsibility for payments on European bonds. Within a few years, confidence in the financial stability of the Ottoman Empire was restored, which facilitated the participation of foreign capital in the construction of such large projects as the Anatolian Railway, which linked Istanbul with Baghdad.

Young Turk revolution.

During these years, national uprisings occurred in Crete and Macedonia. In Crete, bloody clashes took place in 1896 and 1897, leading to the Empire's war with Greece in 1897. After 30 days of fighting, European powers intervened to save Athens from being captured by the Ottoman army. Public opinion in Macedonia leaned towards either independence or union with Bulgaria.

It became obvious that the future of the state was connected with the Young Turks. The ideas of national uplift were propagated by some journalists, the most talented of whom was Namik Kemal. Abdul-Hamid tried to suppress this movement with arrests, exile and executions. At the same time, Turkish secret societies flourished in military headquarters around the country and in places as far away as Paris, Geneva and Cairo. Most effective organization turned out to be a secret committee “Unity and Progress”, which was created by the “Young Turks”.

In 1908, the troops stationed in Macedonia rebelled and demanded the implementation of the Constitution of 1876. Abdul-Hamid was forced to agree to this, not being able to use force. Elections to parliament followed and the formation of a government consisting of ministers responsible to this legislative body. In April 1909, a counter-revolutionary rebellion broke out in Istanbul, which, however, was quickly suppressed by armed units arriving from Macedonia. Abdul Hamid was deposed and sent into exile, where he died in 1918. His brother Mehmed V was proclaimed Sultan.

Balkan wars.

The Young Turk government soon faced internal strife and new territorial losses in Europe. In 1908, as a result of the revolution that took place in the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria declared its independence, and Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Young Turks were powerless to prevent these events, and in 1911 they found themselves drawn into a conflict with Italy, which invaded the territory of modern Libya. The war ended in 1912 with the provinces of Tripoli and Cyrenaica becoming an Italian colony. In early 1912, Crete united with Greece, and later that year, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria began the First Balkan War against the Ottoman Empire.

Within a few weeks, the Ottomans lost all their possessions in Europe, with the exception of Istanbul, Edirne and Ioannina in Greece and Scutari (modern Shkodra) in Albania. The great European powers, watching with concern as the balance of power in the Balkans was being destroyed, demanded a cessation of hostilities and a conference. The Young Turks refused to surrender the cities, and in February 1913 the fighting resumed. In a few weeks, the Ottoman Empire completely lost its European possessions, with the exception of the Istanbul zone and the straits. The Young Turks were forced to agree to a truce and formally give up the already lost lands. However, the winners immediately began an internecine war. The Ottomans clashed with Bulgaria in order to recapture Edirne and the European areas adjacent to Istanbul. The Second Balkan War ended in August 1913 with the signing of the Treaty of Bucharest, but a year later the First Balkan War broke out World War.

The First World War and the end of the Ottoman Empire.

Developments after 1908 weakened the Young Turk government and isolated it politically. It tried to correct this situation by offering alliances to stronger European powers. On August 2, 1914, shortly after the outbreak of war in Europe, the Ottoman Empire entered into a secret alliance with Germany. On the Turkish side, the pro-German Enver Pasha, a leading member of the Young Turk triumvirate and the Minister of War, took part in the negotiations. A few days later, two German cruisers, Goeben and Breslau, took refuge in the straits. The Ottoman Empire acquired these warships, sailed them into the Black Sea in October and shelled Russian ports, thus declaring war on the Entente.

In the winter of 1914–1915, the Ottoman army suffered huge losses when Russian troops entered Armenia. Fearing that local residents would take their side there, the government authorized the massacre of the Armenian population in eastern Anatolia, which many researchers later called the Armenian genocide. Thousands of Armenians were deported to Syria. In 1916, the Ottoman rule in Arabia came to an end: the uprising was launched by the sheriff of Mecca, Hussein ibn Ali, supported by the Entente. As a result of these events, the Ottoman government completely collapsed, although Turkish troops, with German support, achieved a number of important victories: in 1915 they managed to repulse an Entente attack on the Dardanelles Strait, and in 1916 they captured a British corps in Iraq and stopped the Russian advance in the east. During the war, the regime of capitulations was abolished and customs tariffs were increased to protect domestic trade. The Turks took over the business of the evicted national minorities, which helped create the core of a new Turkish commercial and industrial class. In 1918, when the Germans were recalled to defend the Hindenburg Line, the Ottoman Empire began to suffer defeats. On October 30, 1918, Turkish and British representatives concluded a truce, according to which the Entente received the right to “occupy any strategic points” of the empire and control the Black Sea straits.

Collapse of the empire.

The fate of most of the Ottoman provinces was determined in secret treaties of the Entente during the war. The Sultanate agreed to the separation of areas with a predominantly non-Turkish population. Istanbul was occupied by forces that had their own areas of responsibility. Russia was promised the Black Sea straits, including Istanbul, but the October Revolution led to the annulment of these agreements. In 1918, Mehmed V died, and his brother Mehmed VI ascended the throne, who, although he retained the government in Istanbul, actually became dependent on the Allied occupation forces. Problems grew in the interior of the country, far from the locations of the Entente troops and the power institutions subordinate to the Sultan. Detachments of the Ottoman army, wandering around the vast outskirts of the empire, refused to lay down their arms. British, French and Italian military contingents occupied various parts of Turkey. With the support of the Entente fleet, in May 1919, Greek armed forces landed in Izmir and began advancing deep into Asia Minor to take the protection of the Greeks in Western Anatolia. Finally, in August 1920, the Treaty of Sèvres was signed. No area of ​​the Ottoman Empire remained free from foreign surveillance. An international commission was created to control the Black Sea Straits and Istanbul. After unrest occurred in early 1920 as a result of rising national sentiments, British troops entered Istanbul.

Mustafa Kemal and the Treaty of Lausanne.

In the spring of 1920, Mustafa Kemal, the most successful Ottoman military leader of the war, convened the Great National Assembly in Ankara. He arrived from Istanbul to Anatolia on May 19, 1919 (the date from which the Turkish national liberation struggle began), where he united around himself patriotic forces striving to preserve Turkish statehood and the independence of the Turkish nation. From 1920 to 1922, Kemal and his supporters defeated enemy armies in the east, south and west and made peace with Russia, France and Italy. At the end of August 1922, the Greek army retreated in disarray to Izmir and the coastal areas. Then Kemal's troops headed to the Black Sea straits, where British troops were located. After the British Parliament refused to support the proposal to begin hostilities, British Prime Minister Lloyd George resigned, and war was averted by the signing of a truce in the Turkish city of Mudanya. The British government invited the Sultan and Kemal to send representatives to the peace conference, which opened in Lausanne (Switzerland) on November 21, 1922. However, the Grand National Assembly in Ankara abolished the Sultanate, and Mehmed VI, the last Ottoman monarch, left Istanbul on a British warship on November 17.

On July 24, 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, which recognized the full independence of Turkey. The Office of the Ottoman State Debt and Capitulation were abolished, and foreign control over the country was abolished. At the same time, Türkiye agreed to demilitarize the Black Sea straits. The province of Mosul with its oil fields was transferred to Iraq. It was planned to carry out a population exchange with Greece, from which the Greeks living in Istanbul and the West Thracian Turks were excluded. On October 6, 1923, British troops left Istanbul, and on October 29, 1923, Turkey was proclaimed a republic, and Mustafa Kemal was elected its first president.

The formation of the Turkish (Ottoman) Empire had very great consequences for the history of the Turkish people, as well as the countries of South-Eastern Europe. The Ottoman state emerged in the process of military expansion of Turkish feudal lords in Asia Minor and the Balkan Peninsula. The aggressive policy pursued by the Ottoman state led to the centuries-long struggle of the population of the South Slavic countries, the peoples of Hungary, Moldavia and Wallachia against the Turkish conquerors.

Asia Minor by the beginning of the 14th century. Ottomans

During the invasion of the Mongol conquerors in Central Asia, a nomadic association of Oghuz Turks from the Kayy tribe, with only a few thousand tents, migrated to the west along with the Khorezmshah Jalal-ad-din and then entered the service of the Seljuk Sultan of Rum, from whom the Oghuz-Kayy leader Ertogrul received in the 30s of the 13th century. a small fief along the Sakarya River (Sangari in Greek), on the very border of the Byzantine possessions, with a residence in the city of Sögyüd. These Oguzes became part of the Turkish people that formed in Asia Minor under the Seljukids.

By the beginning of the 14th century. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum broke up into ten emirates, including the Ottoman Emirate. Most of the Byzantine possessions that remained in the northwestern part of Asia Minor were conquered by Ertogrul's son and successor Osman I (approximately 1282-1326), who made the city of Bursa (in Greek Brusa 1326) his capital. Osman gave his name to the dynasty and his emirate. The Turks of Asia Minor, who became part of the Ottoman state, also began to be called Ottomans (Ottomans).

Formation and growth of the Ottoman Empire

From the very beginning, the Ottoman Turks directed their conquests against the declining and extremely weakened Byzantium. Many volunteer warriors of different ethnic origins from other Muslim countries, and most of all Turkish nomads from the Asia Minor emirates, entered the service of the Ottoman state. The feudalized nomadic nobility with its militias was attracted by the possibility of easy conquests, the seizure of new lands and military booty. Since all the men of the nomads were warriors, and the light cavalry of the Turks, like all nomads, had great mobility, it was always easy for the Ottoman state to concentrate large military forces for an attack at the necessary moment. The stability of patriarchal-feudal relations among nomadic tribes made their militias, distinguished by high fighting qualities, more united and stronger than the militias of Byzantium and its Balkan neighbors. The Turkish nobility, receiving a significant part of the newly conquered lands as fief from the Ottoman sovereign, helped the Ottoman emirate make extensive conquests and strengthen itself. Under the son and successor of Osman I, Orhan (1326-1359), who took Nicaea (1331), the conquest of the Byzantine possessions in Asia Minor was completed.

To the possessions of Byzantium on the Balkan Peninsula (Rumelia ( Rumelia - in Turkish “Rum eli”, or “Rum or”, i.e. the country of the Greeks.), as the Turks said) the Turks initially carried out only raids for the sake of military booty, but in 1354 they occupied an important stronghold on the European shore of the Dardanelles - the city of Gallipoli and began conquests on the Balkan Peninsula. The successes of the Turks were facilitated by the political fragmentation of the countries of the Balkan Peninsula, feudal strife within these states and their struggle with each other, as well as with Genoa, Venice and Hungary. After the death of Orhan, his son Murad I (1359-1389), who already bore the title of Sultan, conquered Adrianople (1362), and then almost all of Thrace, Philippopolis, the valley of the Maritsa River and began to quickly move west. Murad I moved his residence to Adrianople (Turkish Edirne). In 1371, the Turks won the battle on the banks of the Maritsa. On July 15, 1389, they won an even more important victory at Kosovo.

The conquests of Murad I were facilitated by the large numerical superiority of his militias over the scattered forces of the Balkan states and the transition to his side of some of the Bulgarian and Serbian feudal lords who converted to Islam in order to preserve their possessions. The aggressive campaigns of the Ottoman state were carried out under the ideological guise of a “war for faith” between Muslims and “infidels,” in this case Christians. The wars of conquest of the Ottoman sultans were distinguished by great cruelty, the plunder of occupied territories, the taking of civilians into captivity, devastation, fires and massacres. The population of conquered cities and villages was often driven into slavery. Greek historian of the 15th century. Ducas reports that due to the mass captivity of the population by Ottoman troops and massacres, “all of Thrace as far as Dalmatia became deserted.” The Bulgarian author, monk Isaiah Svyatogorets, wrote: “...Some of the Christians were killed, others were taken into slavery, and those who remained there (i.e., in their homeland) were mowed down by death, for they were dying of hunger. The land was empty, it lost all its blessings, people died, livestock and fruits disappeared. And truly then the living were jealous of those who died before.”

Tribute was imposed on the feudal lords of the conquered countries, who remained Christians but recognized themselves as vassals of the Sultan, but this did not always save their possessions from raids. Local feudal lords who converted to Islam, and sometimes even remained Christians, were included in the ranks of the Turkish military-feudal nobility as fiefs (sipahs). The son and successor of Murad I, Bayezid I (1389-1402), nicknamed Yildirim (“Lightning”), completed the conquest of Macedonia (by 1392), and with the capture of Vidin (1396) completed the conquest of Bulgaria, which began back in the 60s years of the 14th century, and imposed tribute on Northern Serbia. Bayazid also conquered all of Asia Minor, except for Cilicia and the Greek kingdom of Trebizond, annexing the lands of the former Asia Minor emirates to the Ottoman state, although the nomadic feudal lords of Asia Minor for a long time did not want to accept the loss of their independence and sometimes rebelled against the Ottoman Sultan. Despite the fact that the Byzantine emperors John V and Manuel II had been paying tribute to the Sultan since 1370 and sending him auxiliary militias, Bayazid still took Thessalonica from Byzantium (1394) and put Constantinople under blockade, seeking its surrender.

By the time of Bayazid's reign, the Turkish military-feudal elite, having seized new lands and enormous wealth, switched to a sedentary lifestyle and replaced the simple and harsh life of the nomadic horde with sophisticated luxury and splendor. At the same time, contradictions emerged between the settled and nomadic military nobility. The latter - mainly in Asia Minor - was relegated to the background. Among the mass of the Turkish population who settled on the newly acquired lands, especially in Rumelia, a process of transition to sedentarism also took place. But in Asia Minor this process took place much more slowly.

Venice and Genoa saw the Ottoman conquests as a great threat to their possessions and their commercial dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean. Many other Western European states, in turn, were fundamentally afraid of an invasion of Ottoman troops into Central Europe. In 1396, a crusade was launched against Ottoman Turkey with the participation of Hungarian, Czech, Polish, French and other knights; among the French, the author of the famous memoirs about this campaign, Marshal Boucicault, the son of the Duke of Burgundy, John the Fearless, and others took part in it. However, the incompetent leadership of the Hungarian King Sigismund and disagreements between the “crusader” leaders were the reason that their army suffered a severe defeat at Nicopolis on the Danube. Up to 10 thousand crusaders were captured, the rest fled. Bayezid killed almost all the captives, except for 300 noble knights, whom he released for a huge ransom. After this, Ottoman troops invaded Hungary (1397), which they then began to systematically devastate, taking tens of thousands of people into slavery.

But the crusade of 1396 and the subsequent invasion of Timur’s troops into Asia Minor prevented Bayazid from taking control of Constantinople. The decisive battle between the troops of Bayazid and Timur took place near Ankara on July 20, 1402. During the battle, the militia of the former Asia Minor emirates, seeing their former emirs in Timur’s camp, betrayed the Ottoman Sultan and suddenly attacked his troops in the center. The Ottoman army was defeated, Bayazid himself was captured during the flight and soon died in captivity. Timur devastated Asia Minor and left, having restored seven of the former ten Asia Minor emirates. The Ottoman power was weakened for some time. The death of Byzantium was delayed; it regained Thessalonica.

Feudal relations in the Ottoman state

In Turkish society, the process of development of feudalism, which took place in Asia Minor already under the Seljukids, continued. Almost the entire land fund in Asia Minor and Rumelia was captured by the conquerors. There were four types of feudal land ownership: state lands (miri); lands of the Sultan's family (khass); lands of Muslim religious institutions (waqf) and privately owned lands, such as allod (mulk). But most of the state lands were distributed as hereditary conditional grants to the military ranks of the mounted feudal militia (sipahi). Small fiefs were called timars, large ones - ziamets. Lena sipahi were obliged to live in their domains and, by order of the Sultan, to appear in the militia of the sanjak bey (chief of the district) with a certain number of armed horsemen from the people under his control, depending on the profitability of the fief. This is how the Ottoman military-feudal system developed, which contributed significantly to Turkey’s military successes.

Part of the Sultan's domains was distributed to large military and civil dignitaries for the duration of a certain position. Such awards were called, like the Sultan's domains, khass and were assigned to certain positions. Large feudal ownership of land and water in the Ottoman state was combined with small peasant holdings. Peasants of Raaya ( The Arabic term “raaya” (plural of rayat) in Turkey, as in other Muslim countries, designated the tax-paying class, especially peasants, regardless of religion; later (from the 19th century) only non-Muslims began to be called this way.) were attached to their land plots (in Asia Minor, attachment has been noted since the 13th century) and without the permission of the feudal lord - the owner of the land did not have the right to transfer. A ten-year period was established for the search for fugitive peasants. Feudal rent was collected partly in favor of the state, partly in favor of landowners, in a mixed form (in products, money and in the form of forced labor). Muslim farmers paid tithe (ashar), and Christians paid from 20 to 50% of the harvest (kharaj). Non-Muslims (Christians and Jews) also paid a poll tax - jizya, which later merged with the kharaj. Gradually many other taxes appeared.

Wars of conquest created a plentiful influx and cheapness of captive slaves. Some of them were used as servants, servants, eunuchs, etc., but the labor of slaves was also used in production - in nomadic and semi-nomadic cattle breeding, in arable work, in gardening and viticulture, in the Sultan's mines, and from the 15th century. also on military galleys - katorga (kadirga in Turkish), where the oarsmen were slaves. The Sultan's power, in order to ensure the interests of the military-feudal nobility, waged constant predatory wars with non-Muslim states, continuing until the 16th century. only for temporary truces.

State organization of the Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire was a military-feudal despotism. The hereditary sultan from the Ottoman dynasty with unlimited secular power united in his hands the spiritual power (imamate) over the Muslims of Turkey. The first dignitary of the Sultan was the Grand Vizier. Since the 15th century Other viziers also appeared. Together with the Grand Vizier, they formed the divan - the highest council. During campaigns, the Grand Vizier had the right to issue firmans (decrees) on behalf of the Sultan, appoint dignitaries and distribute military fiefs. Of the other most important dignitaries, Defterdar was in charge of collecting taxes and finances, and Nishanji-bashi prepared decrees on behalf of the Sultan and drew a tughra on them - a code with the sovereign’s monogram. The grand vizier attached the great state seal to the decrees. No matter how great the power of the Grand Vizier was, he could be removed and executed by the Sultan at any moment, which often happened.

The court, with the exception of litigation between non-believers, was in the hands of Muslim spiritual judges - qadis. The qadi was judged on the basis of Hanefi Sunni Muslim law, and partly also the customary law of the Oghuz nomads, the ancestors of the Turks. Two qadi-askers (one for Rumelia, the other for Anatolia, i.e. Asia Minor), originally military spiritual judges, in the 15th century. were in charge of all affairs of the Muslim clergy and their waqf property. The districts were ruled by the sanjak beys, who at the same time commanded the local feudal militias, collecting them by order of the Sultan and appearing with them at the gathering place for the troops of the entire empire. The Ottoman army consisted of three main parts: the mounted feudal militia, the cavalry - akinci and the corps of regular infantry - the Janissaries (yeni cheri - “new army”).

The akinjs formed the irregular cavalry vanguard of the army; they did not receive fiefs, but only a share of military spoils, which is why they gained a reputation as ferocious robbers. The Janissary Corps arose in the 14th century, but received a solid organization in the second quarter of the 15th century. At first the ranks of the Janissaries were composed of captured young men, but from the 15th century. Janissary troops began to be replenished through forced recruitment (devshirme), first once every 5 years, and later even more often, from the Christian population of Rumelia - Serbs, Bulgarians, Albanians and Greeks, sometimes from Armenians and Georgians. At the same time, the most physically fit boys and unmarried young men were selected. All Janissaries were brought up in the spirit of Muslim fanaticism and were considered dervishes of the Bektashi order; up to the 16th century. they were forbidden to marry. They were divided into companies (orta), fed from a common cauldron, and the cauldron (cauldron) was considered a symbol of their army. The Janissaries enjoyed a number of privileges and received generous handouts, and many of the Janissary commanders were promoted to the highest military and administrative positions of the empire. Legally, the Janissaries were considered slaves of the Sultan, like the Gulam (Mamluk) guards in Egypt and other Muslim states. The capture of many people into slavery and the recruitment of boys and young men into the Janissaries served as a direct means of forcible assimilation of the conquered population. High taxation of non-Muslims - infidels, their inequality and arbitrary regime served as indirect means of the same assimilation. But this policy ultimately failed.

Popular movements at the beginning of the 15th century.

The son and successor of Bayezid I, Mehmed I (Muhammad, 1402-1421), nicknamed Chelebi (“Noble”, “Chivalrous”), had to wage war with his brothers - pretenders to the throne, with the Seljuk emirs, restored by Timur in their possessions, especially with the emir of Karaman, who robbed and burned Bursa, as well as with the Venetians, who defeated the Ottoman fleet at Gallipoli (1416). On the contrary, Mehmed I entered into an alliance with Byzantium, returning some coastal cities to it.

These wars ruined small farmers and caused an increase in the tax burden of the peasants. As a result, an uprising of small fiefs broke out, joined by peasants and artisans, which escalated into a real civil war (in 1415-1418, but according to other sources - in 1413-1418). The movement was led by the dervish sheikh Simavia-oglu Bedr-ad-din, who launched his activities in Rumelia. Acting on his behalf in Asia Minor, the dervishes Berklyudzhe Mustafa (in the region of Izmir, in Greek Smyrna) and Torlak Kemal (in the region of Manisa, in Greek Magnesia), relying on artisans and peasants, demanded the establishment of social equality of all people and the community of all property , “except for wives,” namely: “food, clothing, harnesses and arable land,” and, first of all, the community of land ownership. The rebels introduced the same simple clothes and common meals and proclaimed the principle of equality of the three monotheistic religions - Muslim, Christian and Jewish.

Through his friend, a Christian monk from the island of Chios, Berklyudzhe Mustafa called on the Greek peasants to rebel together with the Turkish peasants against their common oppressors - the Ottoman feudal nobility led by the Sultan. And indeed, the peasants of the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, both Turks and Greeks, rebelled almost without exception. They defeated the feudal militia gathered in the western part of Asia Minor. Only two years later, having gathered sipahiys from all over the state, the Sultan finally suppressed the movement and carried out a bloody reprisal against the rebels. After this, by the end of 1418, the militia of Sheikh Bedr-ad-din was defeated in Rumelia.

At the beginning of the 15th century. among the urban lower classes of Turkey, which arose at the end of the 14th century, became widespread. in Khorasan, the heretical teaching of the secret Shiite sect of the Hurufis, with anti-feudal tendencies and preaching social equality and community of property. There were also uprisings among the non-indigenous peoples of the Balkan Peninsula, who did not put up with Ottoman rule (uprising in the Vidip region in Bulgaria in 1403, etc.).

Türkiye in the first half of the 15th century. Conquest of Constantinople by the Turks

Under Murad II (1421-1451), the Ottoman power strengthened and resumed its policy of conquest. A terrible danger again loomed over Constantinople. In 1422, Murad II besieged the city, but without success. In 1430 he took Thessalonica. In 1443, participants in the new crusade (Hungarians, Poles, Serbs and Wallachians) led by the King of Poland and Hungary Vladislav and the famous Hungarian commander Janos Hunyadi twice defeated the army of Murad II and occupied Sofia. But the following year, the crusaders suffered a heavy defeat at Varna from the numerically superior forces of Murad II. After this, the attempts of the popes to organize a new crusade against Turkey no longer met with sympathy in Western Europe. However, the victories of the troops of Janos Hunyadi in 1443 nevertheless facilitated the struggle for the independence of Albania, which had almost already been conquered by Ottoman troops. The Albanian people, under the leadership of their famous commander and great statesman Skanderbeg, successfully fought against the Turkish conquerors for more than twenty years.

Murad II's successor was his young son Mehmed II (Muhammad, 1451-1481), nicknamed Fatih ("Conqueror"). The personality of Mehmed II is vividly depicted in Greek and Italian sources. He received a good education, knew five languages, was familiar with Western culture, shunned religious fanaticism, but at the same time was a capricious and cruel despot. Turkish historiography glorified him as a talented commander. In fact, the conquests of Mehmed II were mainly victories over weak feudal states, which most often had already paid tribute to the Ottoman Empire. Mehmed II suffered defeats more than once from the Hungarians, Albanians and Moldovans.

The siege of Constantinople by the Turks took about two months (April - May 1453). After the capture and three-day plunder of Constantinople, Mehmed II entered the city and, proceeding to the church of St. Sophia, got off his horse and performed the first Muslim prayer in this temple. As a result of the massacre and the removal of the population into slavery, the city was almost completely depopulated. To repopulate it, Mehmed II transferred all the inhabitants of the Asia Minor city of Aksaray there, but since the Turkish population was still not enough, he resettled many Greeks from Morea and other places, as well as Armenians and Jews, to Constantinople. The Genoese colony of Galata, founded shortly after 1261 on the outskirts of Constantinople, was also forced to surrender. At the same time, the Genoese retained personal freedom and property, but lost their autonomy, and Galata was ruled by the Turkish administration from then on. The capital of the Ottoman Empire was transferred from Adrianople to Constantinople (Istanbul, more precisely Istanbul) ( The name “Istanbul” comes from the modern Greek expression “is tin polin” - “to the city” and was in use among both the Greeks and the Arabs, Persians and Turks already in the 12th-13th centuries.).

Domestic policy of Mehmed II

Mehmed II issued a set of laws in 1476 (“Kanun-name”), which determined the functions of state dignitaries and the size of their salaries, established the organization of the Muslim Sunni clergy (more precisely, the class of theologians), the regime of military fiefs, etc. Mehmed II also established a statute for non-Muslim religious communities, establishing Orthodox (Greek) and Armenian patriarchs and a Jewish chief rabbi in Constantinople. All Orthodox nations (Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, part of the Albanians, Georgians, Wallachians and Moldovans) were henceforth considered as one “Greek community” - rum milleti, over which the Patriarch of Constantinople enjoyed not only ecclesiastical, but also judicial power. The patriarch and bishops could pass judicial sentences on the Orthodox, up to and including exile to hard labor (galleys). But if an Orthodox Christian was suing a Muslim, then the case was dealt with by a Muslim spiritual judge, a qadi. The patriarch and bishops had control over the schools and books of the Orthodox peoples, and they were given some personal privileges. The Armenian patriarch and the Jewish chief rabbi received the same rights over their communities.

By giving some rights to the highest Christian and Jewish clergy, the Sultan's government sought to keep the Gentiles in obedience with the help of their own clergy. The mass of people of other faiths was completely powerless. They were deprived of the right to have weapons, had to wear clothes of special colors, did not have the right to acquire land, etc. However, some restrictions for non-believers were not always observed in practice. The practice of non-Muslim worship was subject to serious restrictions: for example, it was forbidden to build new religious buildings. Even worse was the situation of the Muslim heretics - the Shiites, of whom there were very many in Asia Minor. They were severely persecuted and forced to hide their faith.

Further conquests of Mehmed II

In Asia Minor, Mehmed II conquered the weak Greek kingdom of Trebizu (1461) and all the emirates of Asia Minor. In Crimea, his troops captured the Genoese colonies with the most important trading city of Kafa (now Feodosia) and subjugated the Crimean Khanate to Turkey (1475). This was a real disaster for Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and the Russian state, because the Crimean Tatars, with the support of Ottoman Turkey, almost every year began to carry out deep horse raids into these countries in order to capture military booty, especially captives, who were then resold to Turkey. Between 1459 and 1463 Mehmed II conquered Serbia, the Greek principalities of Moray and the Duchy of Athens ( Founded after the Fourth Crusade in 1204; The duchy was successively ruled first by the French, from the beginning of the 14th century. - Spanish, and from the end of the 14th century - Italian feudal lords.), as well as the Slavic kingdom of Bosnia. At the same time, Turkey began a long war with Venice, which was supported by Uzun Hasan, the sovereign of Ak Koyunlu. The troops of Uzun Hasan were defeated by the Turks in 1473, and the war with Venice was fought with varying degrees of success.

The Turks' attempt to take Belgrade, defended by Janos Hunyadi, ended in severe failure for them (1456). The Ottoman troops also suffered complete defeat in Albania during the siege of the Krui fortress (1467), in Moldavia (1475) and in an attempt to capture the island of Rhodes, which belonged to the Knights of St. John. Wallachia submitted only after long resistance, retaining its autonomy (1476). In 1479, after the death of Skanderbeg, the Ottoman army finally managed to occupy the territory of Albania, but the Albanians did not submit and continued the guerrilla war in the mountains for a long time. According to the Treaty of Constantinople with Venice (1479), the latter ceded its islands in the Aegean Sea to Turkey and undertook to pay an annual tribute of 10 thousand ducats, but retained the islands of Crete and Corfu and received the right of extraterritoriality and duty-free trade for the Venetians in Turkey. In the summer of 1480, Mehmed II landed in southern Italy, planning to conquer it, and ruined the city of Otranto to the ground. Soon after this he died.

Mehmed II's son, Bayezid II Dervish (1481-1512), abandoned the plan to conquer Italy, although he waged a generally unsuccessful war with Venice. Wars were also fought with Hungary, the Austrian Habsburgs and Egypt. Moldavia recognized the suzerainty of Turkey, securing autonomy through diplomatic negotiations (1501). In 1495, the first Russian embassy arrived in Constantinople. The Sultan allowed Russian merchants to trade in Turkey. Subsequently, formally remaining at peace with Russia, Ottoman Turkey systematically set the hordes of the Crimean Khan against it, not giving the Russian state the opportunity to strengthen its military power and trying to obtain from there, as well as from Ukraine, captives for slave markets and for galleys.

The Ottoman conquest slowed down the development of the conquered Balkan countries. At the same time, the unbearable oppression caused the peoples of these countries to fight against the Ottoman Empire. The growth of feudal exploitation made the Sultan's government deeply alien to the mass of the Turkish people. Anti-people policy of the sultans of the 15th century. had as its consequence large uprisings of Turkish peasants and nomadic poor in Asia Minor in the next century.

Culture

Having settled in Asia Minor in the 11th century, the ancestors of the Turks, the Seljuk Oguzes, were for a long time under cultural influence Iran and, to a lesser extent, Armenia and Byzantium. Many Persians settled in the cities of Asia Minor, and the New Persian language was for a long time the official and literary language of Seljuk Asia Minor.

On the basis of the processed traditions of art of Iran, Armenia and partly Byzantium in Asia Minor, the “Seljuk” architectural style developed, the main features of the buildings were a high portal, richly ornamented with stone carvings, and a conical dome, probably borrowed from the Armenians. The best monuments of this style were the Chifte-minare madrasah in Erzurum (12th century) and the monuments of the 13th century. in Konya - Karatay Madrasah, Syrchaly Madrasah and the Inje Minareli Mosque with a wonderful carved portal and slender minaret. This style was replaced under the Ottomans by the so-called “Bursa style”, which dominated in the 14th - 15th centuries. His monuments are the Ulu Cami Mosque built in Bursa (at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries) and the Yesil Cami Mosque (Green Mosque), decorated with faience tiles glazed with turquoise and greenish glaze. The mosques of Sultan Mehmed II and Sultan Bayezid II in Istanbul mark the transition from the “Bursa style” to the “classical” Turkish style, created by assimilating Byzantine traditions in a revised form (central domed mosques built according to the plan of the Church of St. Sophia, with a round dome, apses, etc.).

Representatives of the oral folk poetry of the Oghuz Turks of Asia Minor, heroic and love, were wandering singers - ozans and ashyks. Literature in the Turkish language that developed in Seljuk Asia Minor, using the Arabic alphabet, developed for a long time under strong Persian influence. The son of the famous poet of Asia Minor Jalal ad-din Rumi, who wrote in Persian, Sultan Veled (died in 1312) began to write poetry in Turkish (“The Book of the Lute”). Major Turkish poets of the 14th century. there were Ashik Pasha, a moralist poet, Yunus Emre, a Sufi lyricist who used motifs of Turkish folk poetry, and Burhan ad-din Sivas, a warrior poet.

In the 15th century the heyday of Turkish fiction. Its most prominent representative was the poet Necati (1460-1509), the best Turkish lyricist. The themes of his poems were spring, love, grief, separation of lovers, etc. A brilliant poet was Hamdi Chelebi (died in 1509), the author of the poem “Leili and Majnun” and other works. The poetess Mihri-khatun (died in 1514) and the poet Mesihi (died in 1512) were singers of earthly love and fought for the secular nature of poetry, against Sufism. Until the 14th century. including historical works (though very few) were written in Persian. In the 15th century a descendant of the poet Ashik Pasha, Ashik Pasha-zade, and Neshri laid the foundation for historical literature in Turkish.

Ottoman Empire. State formation

At times, the birth of the state of the Ottoman Turks can be considered, of course, conditionally, the years immediately preceding the death of the Seljuk Sultanate in 1307. This state arose in an atmosphere of extreme separatism that reigned in the Seljuk state of Rum after the defeat that its ruler suffered in the battle with the Mongols in 1243 The cities of Bey Aydin, Germiyan, Karaman, Menteshe, Sarukhan and a number of other areas of the sultanate turned their lands into independent principalities. Among these principalities, the beyliks of Germiyan and Karaman stood out, whose rulers continued to fight, often successfully, against Mongol rule. In 1299, the Mongols even had to recognize the independence of the Germiyan beylik.

In the last decades of the 13th century. In the north-west of Anatolia, another practically independent beylik arose. It went down in history under the name Ottoman, after the leader of a small Turkic tribal group, the main component of which were the nomads of the Oghuz Kayy tribe.

According to Turkish historical tradition, part of the Kayi tribe migrated to Anatolia from Central Asia, where the Kayi leaders served for some time in the service of the rulers of Khorezm. At first, the Kay Turks chose the land in the Karajadag region to the west of present-day Ankara as a place of nomadism. Then some of them moved to the areas of Ahlat, Erzurum and Erzincan, reaching Amasya and Aleppo (Aleppo). Some nomads of the Kayi tribe found refuge on fertile lands in the Çukurova region. It was from these places that a small Kaya unit (400-500 tents) led by Ertogrul, fleeing the Mongol raids, headed to the possessions of the Seljuk Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad I. Ertogrul turned to him for protection. The Sultan granted Ertogrul uj (outlying region of the sultanate) on the lands captured by the Seljuks from the Byzantines on the border with Bithynia. Ertogrul took upon himself the obligation to defend the border of the Seljuk state in the territory of the uj given to him.

The Uj of Ertogrul in the area of ​​Melangia (Turkish: Karacahisar) and Sögüt (northwest of Eskişehir) was small. But the ruler was energetic, and his soldiers willingly participated in raids on neighboring Byzantine lands. Ertogrul’s actions were greatly facilitated by the fact that the population of the border Byzantine regions was extremely dissatisfied with the predatory tax policy of Constantinople. As a result, Ertogrul managed to slightly increase his income at the expense of the border regions of Byzantium. It is difficult, however, to accurately determine the scale of these aggressive operations, as well as the initial size of Uj Ertogrul himself, about whose life and activities there is no reliable data. Turkish chroniclers, even early ones (XIV-XV centuries), set out many legends associated with the initial period of the formation of the Ertogrul beylik. These legends say that Ertogrul lived a long time: he died at the age of 90 in 1281 or, according to another version, in 1288.

Information about the life of Ertogrul’s son, Osman, who gave the name to the future state, is also largely legendary. Osman was born around 1258 in Söğüt. This mountainous, sparsely populated area was convenient for nomads: there were many good summer pastures, and there were also plenty of convenient winter nomads. But, perhaps, the main advantage of Ertogrul’s uj and Osman, who succeeded him, was the proximity to Byzantine lands, which made it possible to enrich themselves through raids. This opportunity attracted representatives of other Turkic tribes who settled in the territories of other beyliks to the detachments of Ertogrul and Osman, since the conquest of territories belonging to non-Muslim states was considered sacred by the adherents of Islam. As a result, when in the second half of the 13th century. The rulers of the Anatolian beyliks fought among themselves in search of new possessions, the warriors of Ertogrul and Osman looked like fighters for the faith, ruining the lands of the Byzantines in search of booty and with the aim of territorial seizures.

After the death of Ertogrul, Osman became the ruler of Uj. Judging by some sources, there were supporters of transferring power to Ertogrul’s brother, Dündar, but he did not dare to speak out against his nephew, because he saw that the majority supported him. A few years later, a potential rival was killed.

Osman directed his efforts to conquer Bithynia. The area of ​​his territorial claims became the regions of Brusa (Turkish Bursa), Belokoma (Bilejik) and Nicomedia (Izmit). One of Osman's first military successes was the capture of Melangia in 1291. He made this small Byzantine town his residence. Since the former population of Melangia partly died and partly fled, hoping to find salvation from the troops of Osman, the latter populated his residence with people from the beylik of Germiyan and other places in Anatolia. At the behest of Osman, the Christian temple was turned into a mosque, in which his name began to be mentioned in khutbas (Friday prayers). According to legends, around this time, Osman, without much difficulty, obtained from the Seljuk Sultan, whose power had become completely illusory, the title of bey, receiving the corresponding regalia in the form of a drum and a horsetail. Soon Osman declared his uj an independent state, and himself an independent ruler. This happened around 1299, when the Seljuk Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad II fled from his capital, fleeing his rebellious subjects. True, having become practically independent of the Seljuk Sultanate, which nominally existed until 1307, when the last representative of the Rum Seljuk dynasty was strangled by order of the Mongols, Osman recognized the supreme power of the Mongol Hulaguid dynasty and annually sent part of the tribute he collected from his subjects to their capital. The Ottoman beylik freed itself from this form of dependence under Osman's successor, his son Orhan.

At the end of the XIII - beginning of the XIV century. The Ottoman beylik significantly expanded its territory. Its ruler continued to raid Byzantine lands. Actions against the Byzantines were made easier by the fact that his other neighbors did not yet show hostility towards the young state. Beylik Germiyan fought either with the Mongols or with the Byzantines. Beylik Karesi was simply weak. The rulers of the Chandar-oglu (Jandarids) beylik located in the north-west of Anatolia did not bother Osman’s beylik, since they were mainly busy fighting the Mongol governors. Thus, the Ottoman beylik could use all its military forces for conquests in the west.

Having captured the Yenisehir region in 1301 and built a fortified city there, Osman began preparing the capture of Brusa. In the summer of 1302, he defeated the troops of the Byzantine governor Brusa in the battle of Vafey (Turkish Koyunhisar). This was the first major military battle won by the Ottoman Turks. Finally, the Byzantines realized that they were dealing with a dangerous enemy. However, in 1305, Osman’s army was defeated in the Battle of Levka, where Catalan squads in the service of the Byzantine emperor fought against them. Another civil strife began in Byzantium, which facilitated further offensive actions of the Turks. Osman's warriors captured a number of Byzantine cities on the Black Sea coast.

In those years, the Ottoman Turks made their first raids on the European part of Byzantine territory in the Dardanelles region. Osman's troops also captured a number of fortresses and fortified settlements on the way to Brusa. By 1315, Brusa was practically surrounded by fortresses in the hands of the Turks.

Brusa was captured a little later by Osman's son Orhan. born in the year of the death of his grandfather Ertogrul.

Orhan's army consisted mainly of cavalry units. The Turks did not have siege engines. Therefore, the bey did not dare to storm the city, surrounded by a ring of powerful fortifications, and established a blockade of Brusa, cutting off all its connections with the outside world and thereby depriving its defenders of all sources of supply. Turkish troops used similar tactics subsequently. Usually they captured the outskirts of the city, expelled or enslaved the local population. Then these lands were settled by people resettled there by order of the bey.

The city found itself in a hostile ring, and the threat of starvation loomed over its inhabitants, after which the Turks easily captured it.

The siege of Brusa lasted ten years. Finally, in April 1326, when Orhan's army stood at the very walls of Brusa, the city capitulated. This happened on the eve of the death of Osman, who was informed of the capture of Brusa on his deathbed.

Orhan, who inherited power in the beylik, made Bursa (as the Turks began to call it), famous for crafts and trade, a rich and prosperous city, his capital. In 1327, he ordered the minting of the first Ottoman silver coin, the akçe, in Bursa. This indicated that the process of transforming the Ertogrul beylik into an independent state was nearing completion. An important stage on this path was the further conquests of the Ottoman Turks in the north. Four years after the capture of Brusa, Orhan's troops captured Nicaea (Turkish Iznik), and in 1337 Nicomedia.

When the Turks moved towards Nicaea, a battle took place in one of the mountain gorges between the emperor’s troops and the Turkish troops, led by Orhan’s brother, Alaeddin. The Byzantines were defeated, the emperor was wounded. Several assaults on the powerful walls of Nicaea did not bring success to the Turks. Then they resorted to the tried and tested blockade tactics, capturing several advanced fortifications and cutting off the city from the surrounding lands. After these events, Nicaea was forced to surrender. Exhausted by disease and hunger, the garrison could no longer resist the superior enemy forces. The capture of this city opened the way for the Turks to the Asian part of the Byzantine capital.

The blockade of Nicomedia, which received military aid and food by sea, lasted for nine years. To take possession of the city, Orhan had to organize a blockade of the narrow bay of the Sea of ​​Marmara, on the shores of which Nicomedia was located. Cut off from all sources of supply, the city surrendered to the mercy of the victors.

As a result of the capture of Nicaea and Nicomedia, the Turks captured almost all the lands north of the Gulf of Izmit up to the Bosphorus. Izmit (this name was henceforth given to Nicomedia) became a shipyard and harbor for the nascent Ottoman fleet. The Turks' exit to the shores of the Sea of ​​Marmara and the Bosphorus opened the way for them to raid Thrace. Already in 1338, the Turks began to ravage the Thracian lands, and Orhan himself with three dozen ships appeared at the walls of Constantinople, but his detachment was defeated by the Byzantines. Emperor John VI tried to get along with Orhan by marrying his daughter to him. For some time, Orkhan stopped raiding the Byzantine possessions and even provided military assistance to the Byzantines. But Orkhan already considered the lands on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus as his possessions. Having arrived to visit the emperor, he located his headquarters precisely on the Asian coast, and the Byzantine monarch with all his courtiers was forced to arrive there for a feast.

Subsequently, Orhan's relations with Byzantium deteriorated again, and his troops resumed raids on the Thracian lands. Another decade and a half passed, and Orhan's troops began to invade the European possessions of Byzantium. This was facilitated by the fact that in the 40s of the 14th century. Orhan managed, taking advantage of the civil strife in the beylik of Karesi, to annex to his possessions most of the lands of this beylik, which reached the eastern shores of the Dardanelles Strait.

In the middle of the 14th century. The Turks strengthened and began to act not only in the west, but also in the east. Orhan's beilik bordered on the possessions of the Mongol governor in Asia Minor Erten, who by that time had become an almost independent ruler due to the decline of the Ilkhan state. When the governor died and turmoil began in his possessions caused by the struggle for power between his sons-heirs, Orhan attacked the lands of Erten and significantly expanded his beylik at their expense, capturing Ankara in 1354.

In 1354, the Turks easily captured the city of Gallipoli (Turkish: Gelibolu), whose defensive fortifications were destroyed by an earthquake. In 1356, an army under the command of Orhan's son, Suleiman, crossed the Dardanelles. Having captured several cities, including Dzorillos (Turkish Chorlu), Suleiman’s troops began to move towards Adrianople (Turkish Edirne), which was perhaps the main goal of this campaign. However, around 1357, Suleiman died without realizing all his plans.

Turkish military operations in the Balkans soon resumed under the leadership of Orhan's other son, Murad. The Turks managed to take Adrianople after the death of Orhan, when Murad became ruler. This happened, according to different sources, between 1361 and 1363. The capture of this city turned out to be a relatively simple military operation, not accompanied by a blockade or a protracted siege. The Turks defeated the Byzantines on the outskirts of Adrianople, and the city was left virtually undefended. In 1365, Murad moved his residence here from Bursa for some time.

Murad took the title of Sultan and went down in history under the name Murad I. Wanting to rely on the authority of the Abbasid caliph, who was in Cairo, Murad's successor Bayezid I (1389-1402) sent him a letter, asking for recognition of the title of Sultan of Rum. Somewhat later, Sultan Mehmed I (1403-1421) began to send money to Mecca, seeking recognition by the sheriffs of his rights to the title of Sultan in this holy city for Muslims.

Thus, in less than a hundred and fifty years, the small beylik Ertogrul was transformed into a vast and militarily quite strong state.

What was the young Ottoman state like in the initial stage of its development? Its territory already covered the entire north-west of Asia Minor, extending to the waters of the Black and Marmara seas. Socio-economic institutions began to take shape.

Under Osman, his beylik was still dominated by social relations inherent in tribal life, when the power of the head of the beylik was based on the support of the tribal elite, and aggressive operations were carried out by its military formations. The Muslim clergy played a major role in the formation of Ottoman state institutions. Muslim theologians, ulemas, performed many administrative functions, and the administration of justice was in their hands. Osman established strong ties with the Mevlevi and Bektashi dervish orders, as well as with the Ahi, a religious guild brotherhood that enjoyed great influence in the craft layers of the cities of Asia Minor. Relying on the ulema, the top of the dervish orders and the Ahi, Osman and his successors not only strengthened their power, but also justified their aggressive campaigns with the Muslim slogan of jihad, “the fight for faith.”

Osman, whose tribe led a semi-nomadic life, did not yet possess anything except herds of horses and herds of sheep. But when he began to conquer new territories, a system arose of distributing lands to his associates as a reward for their service. These awards were called timars. Turkish chronicles state Osman's decree regarding the terms of the grants as follows:

“The timar that I give to someone should not be taken away without reason. And if the one to whom I gave timar dies, then let it be given to his son. If the son is small, then still let him tell him that during the war his servants will go on campaigns until he himself becomes fit.” This is the essence of the timar system, which was a type of military-feudal system and over time became the basis of the social structure of the Ottoman state.

The timar system took on a complete form during the first century of the existence of the new state. The supreme right to grant timars was the privilege of the Sultan, but already from the middle of the 15th century. The Timars also complained to a number of high dignitaries. Land plots were given to soldiers and military leaders as conditional holdings. Subject to fulfilling certain military duties, holders of timars, timariots, could pass them on from generation to generation. It is noteworthy that the Timariots, in essence, did not own the lands that were the property of the treasury, but the income from them. Depending on these incomes, properties of this kind were divided into two categories - timars, which brought up to 20 thousand akche per year, and zeamet - from 20 to 100 thousand akche. The real value of these amounts can be imagined in comparison with the following figures: in the middle of the 15th century. the average income from one urban household in the Balkan provinces of the Ottoman state ranged from 100 to 200 akce; In 1460, 1 akce could buy 7 kilograms of flour in Bursa. In the person of the Timariots, the first Turkish sultans sought to create a strong and loyal support for their power - military and socio-political.

In a historically relatively short period of time, the rulers of the new state became the owners of great material assets. Even under Orhan, it happened that the ruler of the beylik did not have the means to ensure the next aggressive raid. The Turkish medieval chronicler Hussein cites, for example, a story about how Orhan sold a captive Byzantine dignitary to the Archon of Nicomedia in order to use the money obtained in this way to equip an army and send it against the same city. But already under Murad I the picture changed dramatically. The Sultan could maintain an army, build palaces and mosques, and spend a lot of money on celebrations and receptions for ambassadors. The reason for this change was simple - since the reign of Murad I, it became law to transfer a fifth of military booty, including prisoners, to the treasury. Military campaigns in the Balkans became the first source of income for the Ottoman state. Tributes from the conquered peoples and military booty constantly replenished his treasury, and the labor of the population of the conquered regions gradually began to enrich the nobility of the Ottoman state - dignitaries and military leaders, the clergy and beys.

Under the first sultans, the management system of the Ottoman state began to take shape. If under Orhan military affairs were decided in a close circle of his close associates from among the military leaders, then under his successors viziers - ministers began to participate in their discussions. If Orkhan managed his possessions with the help of his closest relatives or ulemas, then Murad I from among the viziers began to single out a person who was entrusted with the management of all affairs - civil and military. Thus arose the institution of the Grand Vizier, who remained for centuries the central figure of the Ottoman administration. General affairs State under the successors of Murad I, the Sultan's Council, consisting of the Grand Vizier, the heads of the military, financial and judicial departments, and representatives of the highest Muslim clergy, was in charge as the highest advisory body.

During the reign of Murad I, the Ottoman financial department received its initial design. At the same time, the division of the treasury into the personal treasury of the Sultan and the state treasury, which had been maintained for centuries, arose. An administrative division also appeared. The Ottoman state was divided into sanjaks. The word “sanjak” means “banner” in translation, as if recalling the fact that the rulers of the sanjaks, the sanjak beys, personified civil and military power locally. As for the judicial system, it was entirely under the jurisdiction of the ulema.

The state, which developed and expanded as a result of wars of conquest, took special care to create a strong army. Already under Orhan, the first important steps were taken in this direction. An infantry army was created - the Yaya. During the period of participation in campaigns, infantrymen received a salary, and in peacetime they lived by cultivating their lands, being exempt from taxes. Under Orhan, the first regular cavalry units, the mucellem, were created. Under Murad I, the army was strengthened by peasant infantry militia. Militias, azaps, were recruited only for the duration of the war and during the period of hostilities they also received a salary. It was the Azaps who made up the bulk of the infantry army at the initial stage of development of the Ottoman state. Under Murad I, the Janissary Corps began to form (from “yeni cheri” - “new army”), which later became the striking force of the Turkish infantry and a kind of personal guard of the Turkish sultans. It was staffed by the forced recruitment of boys from Christian families. They were converted to Islam and trained in a special military school. The Janissaries were subordinate to the Sultan himself, received salaries from the treasury and from the very beginning became a privileged part of the Turkish army; the commander of the Janissary corps was one of the highest dignitaries of the state. Somewhat later than the Janissary infantry, sipahi cavalry units were formed, which also reported directly to the Sultan and were paid. All these military formations ensured the sustainable successes of the Turkish army during a period when the sultans were increasingly expanding their conquest operations.

Thus, by the middle of the 14th century. The initial core of the state was formed, which was destined to become one of the largest empires of the Middle Ages, a powerful military power that in a short time subjugated many peoples of Europe and Asia.

The education system in the Ottoman Empire developed gradually and transformed over time, changing along with Ottoman society. The first madrasah was built in Iznik by Orhan Ghazi. The traditional education system included mektabs (primary schools) and madrassas (analogous to higher education institutions), which were located at mosques. An important aspect for the establishment of the madrasah system was the creation of Sahn-i-Seman (eight madrasahs) by Sultan Mehmed Fatih in 1463-1471 and the construction of a network of Suleymaniye madrasahs by Sultan Suleyman Kanuni in 1550-1557. The bulk of the future officials and administrators of the empire were trained there. Madrasahs trained not only managers, but also specialists in various fields of knowledge, for example, doctors and architects. After graduation, graduates of these madrasahs usually kept in touch with each other and helped each other.

This system, which existed until the 19th century, was subjected to radical reform when, during the course of numerous transformations carried out by the sultans, they tried to remake it according to European models in order to organize the training of specialists, primarily in technical specialties. It all started with the reforms of Sultan Mahmud II, who dispersed the Janissary corps and tried to create an army on a European model, for which he needed European-educated officers. He left the madrasah system intact, but gave the opportunity for graduates of primary mekteb schools to enter technical educational institutions owned by the military department.

Two such schools were opened at the Suleymaniye and Sultanahmet mosques. Three more schools were opened to train civilian officials who would work for the reformed government.

The Sultan also provided support to the previously existing technical educational institutions - the naval and military engineering schools. In addition, he sent promising young people to study in Europe, who, upon their return, were supposed to fill teaching vacancies in reformed educational institutions. Moreover, the Sultan entrusted them with the translation of European technical terms into the Ottoman language. A medical school was also established, teaching in French and using European textbooks, due to the lack of educational materials in the Ottoman language.

Graduates of European – German and French educational institutions prepared the era of reforms of the Ottoman Empire - Tanzimat, which was declared by a corresponding decree of the Sultan in 1839 and during which ministries were formed in the European style, including the Ministry of Education (1847).

However, the education reform was complicated by the fact that several education systems existed in the country at the same time: traditional (mektabs and madrassas), educational institutions that arose during the reforms and schools maintained by religious minorities, which had their own programs, mainly denominational education and in which the Ottoman state did not interfere.

The education system in the Ottoman Empire underwent new changes under Sultan Abdulhamid II during the reform of 1879, and from 1883 a special tax was levied on the maintenance of educational institutions. Unfortunately, this was not enough to ensure that elementary school graduates received higher education en masse.

The madrasah system gradually fell into decay. This began back in 1826, when the Ministry of Imperial Waqfs - Evkaf-i-Humayun Nezereti - was created and all waqfs were transferred to its disposal, the income from which mainly supported madrassas throughout the country.

The matter was further complicated by the fact that the largest number of primary schools - 4390 - were owned by Orthodox Greeks, who did not speak sufficiently the official Turkish language. The situation was partly corrected by the efforts of the district educational committees, which sent Turkish language teachers to these schools who received salaries from the Ministry of Education.

In the 1880s, the creation of a network of lyceums in Anatolia and secondary schools throughout the empire was completed.

In addition, there was the so-called Rum Lisesi - a private school founded in 1454 with the permission of Sultan Mehmed Fatih, which was also called the Patriarchal Academy, in which representatives of the Greek Orthodox community studied.

For their part, the Armenians, who had only primary schools until the 1860s, by the decision of their patriarch Nerses Varabetyan, created Ermen Lisesi in 1886.

At the same time, the Turkish language began to turn into a common literary language. Greek-Turkish and Armenian-Turkish dictionaries were created.

Graduates of non-Muslim schools were given the opportunity to receive education in higher educational institutions of the Ottoman Empire.

Non-Muslim graduates of Ottoman universities joined the ranks of the imperial bureaucracy. They also occupied leadership positions in the states formed as a result of disintegration and further collapse of the empire.

The result of the development of the education system was, among other things, the emergence of a Westernized intelligentsia, which stood in opposition to state power and demanded more and more radical reforms and a change in form government system from absolutely monarchical to constitutional. It was the graduates, first of all, of military educational institutions who stood at the origins of the Young Turk revolution and the further collapse of the Ottoman state.

Ildar Mukhamedzhanov

What do you think about it?

Leave your comment.