The Ottoman Empire

1. The Ottoman Empire From Islamic Empire to Western State

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

4. Ottoman Society • At the top of society, was the sultan, or pradishah. • Borrowed aspects of Byzantine and Persian empires: centralized bureaucracy, provinces governed by a bey (governor). • Sultan’s private domain known as the harem (also refers to his wives and concubines). • Bureaucrats and landed aristocracy of Ottomans • ‘Ulama, religious scholars • Fellahin (peasants) did not own land • Dhimmis (mostly Greeks, Jews, and Armenians) • “Circassian” slaves known as Circassians—people from Balkans and the Caucasus Mountain region. • Janissaries—elite military class (known as Mamluks under Ayyubid Empire).

5. Modern Caucasus Mountains Janissaries

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

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

9. Life in the Harem? Of course not. This is the popular Western stereotype.

11. This is the harem quarters of a sultan. What do you notice about the building?

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

13. Selim II

14. Western Culture in Ottoman Empire • Upper class members wear European fashions, fill homes with European furniture and art, and drink coffee (Arab) and smoke tobacco. • Coffeehouses (cafés) appear across the empire—hotbeds of rebellion. • Shari’a ignored—drunkenness, adultery, etc. • Sultan and ‘ulama banned Western customs and products to no avail.

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

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

17. Modern Egypt Lower Egypt Upper Egypt Sudan (“Nubia”)

18. Egyptian Population • Fellahin—Majority of population was native-born Egyptians, mostly descended from Arabs—rural and poor. • Mamluk ruling class—incorporated into Ottoman bureaucracy. • Ottoman military. • Ottomans and Mamluks constantly fighting. • Each emerged as dominant group at different times, never totally eliminating the other.

19. French Occupation, 1798-1801 • Cycle was disrupted in July 1798 with the arrival of Napoleon (before he was emperor). • Battle of the Pyramids near Cairo. • Never totally defeated the Mamluks who had retreated into Upper Egypt and the Sudan.

20. Napoleon “liberating” the Egyptians from Mamluk rule.

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

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

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

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

25. Muhammad Ali receiving Western envoys in Alexandria

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

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

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

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

30. Egypt under the British (1882-1914) • Summer 1882, Great Britain dispatches naval and land forces to occupy Egypt. • “Protect” Suez Canal. • March on Cairo in September and Egyptians surrenders. • British ruled indirectly as a colonial power. • Egypt never officially became a colony • Remained Ottoman province until World War I.

31. Suez Canal

32. Suez Canal

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

34. Mahmud II Selim III

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

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

40. Atatürk giving instruction in the Latin alphabet in 1928.