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The Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire. Dr Aysu Dincer. Why should we study the Ottoman Empire?. At its height, Ottoman territories spread over three continents It was the inheritor and synthesizer of Roman, Mongol, Arab, Persian and Byzantine traditions

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The Ottoman Empire

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  1. The Ottoman Empire Dr Aysu Dincer

  2. Why should we study the Ottoman Empire? • At its height, Ottoman territories spread over three continents • It was the inheritor and synthesizer of Roman, Mongol, Arab, Persian and Byzantine traditions • An opportunity to think about practices of governance, culture, and economics that were in transformation from the late medieval period into the early modern period (and beyond). • An imperial system full of adaptation, innovation, tension and contestation.

  3. Ottoman Empire

  4. Territorial Expansion

  5. The Fall of Constantinople 1453 Mehmed II (‘The Conqueror’) adopted the title: 'Kaysar (Caesar) Basileus Padishah-iKonstantiniyye and Rum'

  6. Sultan Suleyman the Lawgiver (Kanuni) or Magnificent (r. 1521-1566) conquered Hungary, including Budapest besieged Vienna(without success) in 1529 pushed the Ottoman borders to the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean. consolidating all past sultanic judgements into a law code, called the Kanunname

  7. The Royal Household Empire never divided among sons Practice polygyny (multiple wives/concubines) Fratricide

  8. The Ottoman System of Governance ‘reaya’ or ‘askeri’ Ulema: religious elite A multi-ethnic and multi-faith state Various languages spoken Non-Muslims have dhimmi status, can practice their own religion, as long as they all pay the jizya/cizyetax Also toleratant towards other branches of Islam, such as mystical Islam (Sufism) Law: Sharia courts which implemented Islamic law; also recourse to the kanun, Sultanic law

  9. Trade and the Economy An emphasis on the welfare of the subjects of the empire Jewish, Armenian and Greek Orthodox subjects active as merchants in European towns 'Capitulations' (ahdname): Ottomans granting mutually beneficial trading privileges to French, Dutch and English merchants

  10. Military Organisation Timar system Janissaries: devshirme system Combination of light cavalry, firearms, siege warfare and naval warfare

  11. 17th-century Changes Long and bloody wars against the Habsburgs and Safavids Janissary numbers increase from 16,000 to 40,000 Both factors leading to a strain on the treasury Fiscal changes: timar system replaced by tax farming (held by private individuals) Rise of a cash economy (but also increasing inflation) Uprisings (firearms commonly held and used).

  12. The ‘Decline’ Paradigm Decentralised state (rise of tax-farmers + provincial elites + alternative centres of power)= decline? ‘....the decline model is not so much wrong as entirely insufficient; it conceals behind its visage simply too much that was creative, enduring, and resolute.’ (Daniel Goffman, The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe (2002), p.127)

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