The Ottoman Empire

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The Ottoman Empire

• World Power, Sick Man, and the Rise of Secular
  Turkey, 1300-1930

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Period of Growth

• Succeeded Seljuk Turks as great Muslim power in
  Middle East.
• Greatest Emperor was Suleyman (1494-1566).
• Military conquestsCaptured Belgrade in 1521
  turned away from Vienna in 1529.
• Ordered construction of Suleiman Mosque
• Relied on Janissaries, soldiers who eventually
  displace Ottoman nobility.
• Ottoman counterweightFrance and Ottomans allied
  versus Austrian Habsburgs.

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Suleiman Mosque in Istanbul built between 1550
and 1567
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Decline

• Military DefeatLepanto in 1571 Vienna1683
• Russian expansion to Black Sea and Austrian
  expansion in Balkans
• Weak Rulers Selim (1566-1574) The Glutton
  Ibrahim (1640-1648) drowned 280 concubines in the
  Bosphorus.
• Internal disruptionsJanissaries revolt

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Continued Decline

• Revolts in the Balkans (Serbia in 1804 Greece in
  1821
• Failed ReformsSelim III (1789-1807)attempts to
  introduce European style military opposed by
  clerics and Janissaries.
• 1850sTanzimat reforms of bureaucracy fail due to
  military losses (Crimea) and continued Balkan
  revolts.

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Why the Decline

• Doctrine of Closed Revelation
• European incursions (British Land Bridge to
  India Russian and Habsburg expansionism
  European devotion to Holy Land)

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Pre-WWI Reform Movements

• Prime Minister Midhat Pasha and the Constitution
  of 1876unitary state, free press, freedom of
  conscience, equality before the law and
  equitable taxation.
• Sultan fired Midhat in 1877.
• Russia defeats Ottomans in 1876-1877 war.
• Young Turks emerge calling for Constitution of
  1876.
• Struggle between Young Turks and Sultan over
  constitution interrupted by WWI.

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Midhat Pasha, as PM Sought to make Ottoman State
more modern Through the Constitution Of 1876.
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Ottoman Dismemberment

• Ottomans support Central Powers in WWI.
• Treaty of Sevres/Lausanne break up Ottoman
  Empire.
• France and Britain get Syria and Palestine
  Truncated country of Turkey is created.
• Turkey under Mustafa Kemal 1881-1938 (Ataturk)
  becomes secular Muslim State.

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Ataturks Six Arrows

• Republicanism
• Populism
• Secularism

• Reformism
• Nationalism
• Statism

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WESTERNIZATION OF ISLAM

• The State, a lay institution, religion a private
  matter
• Disestablishment of Islam, Islamic piety to
  take the form of Reform Jewish piety
• From Arabic to Turkish call to prayer
• Islam, the test case for the whole traditional
  heritage
• Sufism banned, Madrasa college suppressed

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TURKISH INTERPRETATION OF RELIGION, ISLAM

• The Golden Age of Islam, common among
  non-Turks, limited to early history, in the
  remote past
• Islam proper ended with 1258 CE?
• For Turks Islamic history both recent and
  continuing
• Their reading of history is not fundamentally
  apologetics.
• Turks engage in self-criticism
• History un-terminated process with Turks as
  active participants

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AtaturkFather of Modern Turkey