["Hungary seemed to be the last chance of the Byzantines. Byzantine Empire 111 The assistance of the Byzantines to the crusaders in Niko- pol (Bulgaria) in 1394 was answered by a full-scale siege of the knights of St. John of Rhodes and to the Geno- Constantinople by the Ottomans. Eventually, when Timur ese lords of Chios and Lesbos, fostered the illusion in (founder of the Timurid Empire) defeated Bayezid in 1402 the West that no harm could come while the Ottoman at the Battle of Ankara, this victory was perceived Empire was in the hands of one so young. Former emirs by the Balkan states as a sign of divine grace. The news shared this illusion and organized a rebellion in Asia in reached Emperor Manuel in Paris on a desperate mission 1451. The revolt was crushed as soon as Mehmed arrived. to awaken the western powers to the Ottoman threat. The Byzantine emperor suggested that a grandson of the late Prince S\u00fcleyman, called Orhan, who lived in exile at While the Ottoman struggle for the throne was rag- Constantinople was a pretender to the Ottoman throne. ing, the Byzantines managed to attain short-lived gains. Mehmed II\u2019s response was the construction of a castle In 1403 the city of Salonika was restored alongside with on the European shore of the Bosporus. Rumeli Hisar\u0131, some Aegean islands and a long stretch of the Black Sea as it came to be known, was completed in four months. coast from Constantinople to Varna (Bulgaria). During the According to Byzantine chronicles the Byzantines watch- period known as the Ottoman Interregnum (1402\u201313) the ing the work from their walls now felt that all the proph- Byzantines managed to become involved in the Ottoman ecies about the end of their world and the coming of the civil wars by supporting one candidate over the other. The Antichrist were about to be fulfilled. triumph of Mehmed I (1413\u201320) was due to the support of Byzantium and local gazha frontier leaders. However, Omens and prophecies about the ultimate fate of Mehmed\u2019s successor, Murad II (r. 1421\u201344 and 1446\u201351), the city had been heard for many years. It was widely was not as willing to tolerate Byzantine interference. Byz- believed that the end of the world would come in 1492, antine support to Mustafa, the Ottoman pretender to the the year 7000 after the creation, which meant that there throne, enraged Sultan Murad II and led to the besieging were still 40 years left. The first bombardment of the of Constantinople in 1422. When Emperor Manuel died in walls by cannons\u2014including a gigantic cannon built by 1425, his empire was reduced to the environs of Constan- the Hungarian engineer Orban\u2014began on April 6, 1453, tinople, Salonika, and Morea (Peloponnese, Greece). His and continued daily. After three Genoese broke through son John VIII (1425\u201348) was convinced that help would the siege, bringing supplies and weapons to the city, only come from the West. In 1430 the conquest of Janina Mehmed knew that he must find a way to get part of his in Epirus and of Salonika convinced the Byzantines that fleet into the Golden Horn. The final attack on the city their appeal to the Western world to save Constantinople began in the early hours of Tuesday, May 29, and by the might be answered this time as the Ottomans were danger- afternoon the sultan entered the city, replacing the car- ously approaching Italy. The Union of Churches achieved cass of the Eastern Roman Empire with a new polity. in the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438\u201339) did result in a long-awaited crusade. Sultan Murad, however, defeated The Ottomans achieved what many neighboring the crusaders at Varna in 1444 and at Kosovo in 1448. forces\u2014including the Bulgarians, the Serbs, the Hungar- ians, and the Holy Roman Emperor\u2014had been dreaming In Constantinople, the unpopularity of the Union of: the conquest of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine of Churches among devoted Eastern Christians compli- Empire. Even if Constantinople was a mere ghost of its for- cated matters for the Byzantine Empire; an anti-Union mer glorious past, depopulated, impoverished, and in dis- party capitalized on the defeats to stress the spiritual and array, it was still a strong symbol and a strategic gateway to physical isolation of the Byzantines from the Western the West. It immediately became apparent that the Otto- world. Constantine XI (r. 1448\u20131453), brother of the late mans intended to replace the old empire with an empire of emperor John VIII, found a devastated and divided city their own. Mehmed II reconstructed and repopulated Con- when he entered Constantinople on March 12, 1449. In stantinople, renaming it Istanbul, and making it the new February 1451 Sultan Murad II died at Edirne. He had Ottoman capital, which it would remain until the fall of the resigned six years earlier in favor of his son Mehmed II Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. (r. 1444\u201346; 1451\u201381), but had come out of his retirement to take revenge on the Hungarians and the Byzantines. Eugenia Kermeli Known as \u201cthe Conqueror,\u201d Mehmed II was 19 years old in 1451 and the Byzantines were slow to recognize that Further reading: Halil \u0130nalc\u0131k, The Ottoman Empire: so young and inexperienced a ruler presented them with The Classical Age, 1300\u20131600 (London: Weidenfeld & Nicol- a danger more formidable than any sultan before. son, 1973); Halil \u0130nalc\u0131k and Donald Quataert, An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, 1300\u20131914 (Cam- The Byzantines were not alone in underestimat- bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994); Colin Imber, ing the strength of Mehmed II. His treaties with J\u00e1nos The Ottoman Empire, 1300\u20131650:The Structure of Power (John) Hunyadi, governor of Hungary, and with George (Houndmills, Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002); Brankovi\u0107 of Serbia, and the goodwill he expressed to David Nicol, The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261\u20131453 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993); Warren T. Treadgold, A History of the Byzantine State and Society (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1997).","C Caffa (Feodosiya; anc.: Theodosia, Feodosia; Ital.: bul market: grain, clarified butter, fish, timber, leather Kaffa; Ottoman and Tatar: Kefe) Known today as goods, and above all, slaves captured by the Tatars in Ukrainian Feodosiya (sometimes Theodosia), the city of Ukraine and southern Russia in almost yearly raids. Caffa was a key Black Sea port town and administra- In addition, furs and hunting birds imported from the tive center of the Ottoman Empire, located on the south- northern reaches of Russia were important luxury items, ern coast of the Crimean peninsula. The origin of this especially for the sultan\u2019s court. town goes back to the sixth century b.c.e. when Theodo- sia, one of many Greek trading colonies in the northern In 1783, the Crimean Khanate fell to the Russian Black Sea region, was founded. Empire, bringing Caffa under Russian dominion; at this time, the original name of the city, Feodosia, was In the second half of the 13th century, with the rise restored. of the Mongol Empire\u2019s trans-Eurasian trade system, a town and fortress named Caffa, which housed a Geno- Victor Ostapchuk ese trading colony, came into being. After the conquest Further reading: Halil \u0130nalc\u0131k, \u201cKefe,\u201d in Encyclopaedia of Constantinople (1453), the expansionist policy of of Islam, 2nd ed., vol. 4, eds. C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, Sultan Mehmed II (r. 1444\u201346; 1451\u201381) made it only B. Lewis, Ch. Pellat (Leiden: Brill, 1960\u2013), 868\u201370. a matter of time before the Ottomans moved into the Black Sea and effectively eliminated the many Genoese Cairo (Ar.: al-Qahira; Turk.: Kahire) From the time and Venetian coastal emporia. In 1475, the Ottoman fleet of its conquest by Ottoman Sultan Selim I (r. 1512\u201320) took Caffa along with the entire southern coast of the in 1517, until it fell to Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798, Crimea, as well as Taman, across the strait of Kerch, and Cairo served as the capital of the Ottoman province Azak, at the mouth of the Don River. These lands were of Egypt. With a population of between 200,000 and turned into a new Ottoman province (originally a san- 300,000 inhabitants, it was the second-largest city in the cak, eventually a beylerbeylik). The existing polity of the Ottoman empire, after Istanbul. It was also the richest Crimean Khanate (see Crimean Tatars) became a vas- city in the empire, providing Istanbul with revenues that sal of the Ottoman Empire, which, while subject to Otto- surpassed those of any other province. Ottoman visitors man rule, was allowed to continue governing the rest of to Cairo were overwhelmed by its size, the diversity of the Crimean peninsula and the steppe lands to the north. the goods that could be obtained there, and the grandeur of its mosques. In the 16th and 17th centuries Cairo was Under the Ottomans, Caffa continued its earlier a center for the lucrative pepper trade from the Indies role as a major trade emporium. Although long-distance and for the import of slaves and gold from sub-Saharan trade had declined, regional trade grew, and Caffa and Africa. Cairo also traded in the produce of Egypt\u2019s fertile its Black Sea steppe and Caucasian hinterlands became a delta, such as rice, cotton, sugar, and indigo, all of which major supplier of a vital commodities for the vast Istan- 112","Taken in the 1880s, this photo shows a street in the ibn Tulun Cairo 113 quarter of Cairo. Traditionally, the houses in Cairo were several stories high and were made of mud brick with stone heads of the household continued to purchase male facades on the ground floor. The wooden window projec- slaves, mamluks, who were also added to the retinue tions on the upper floors, known as mashrabiyya, allowed of the household. Even after their defeat, the Mamluks the women of the house to watch the street action without retained prestige in Cairo for their military prowess and being seen. (Photograph by Maison Bonfils, courtesy of the chivalry, and the founders of some of the city\u2019s more University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia) successful households often fostered the myth that they were of Mamluk origin, even when they were not For were eagerly sought by consumers throughout the empire that reason historians have called these households in and beyond. By the 17th century the pepper trade had Cairo \u201cneo-Mamluks\u201d as they adopted the traditions, fallen off as European traders began to trade directly with titles, and even dress of the former Mamluk rulers of the Indies. Its place was taken by coffee, as both western Egypt, whether or not they actually descended from the Europeans and Ottomans soon acquired a strong liking earlier Mamluks. for the beverage. The military of Egypt in the late 17th was plagued by Egypt\u2019s wealth encouraged Muslim adventurers bloody competition between factions aligned with two of from the Balkans and Anatolia to migrate to Cairo in Cairo\u2019s neo-Mamluk households, the Fiqariyya and the search of employment. The recruitment of Muslim Qasimiyya. Within these broadly based confederations mercenaries by provincial governors was an empire- were smaller individual households who might contend wide phenomenon in the 17th century, but in Cairo, with each other as much as the neo-Mamluks did with prominent Ottoman officials formed households mod- rivals from outside their confederation. Between the two eled after those of the former rulers of Egypt\u2019s Mam- factions stood the city\u2019s governor, who was appointed by luk Empire and brought these men into them. Rather Istanbul. This produced an unstable power triangle in than simply being employees, these men often married Cairo that periodically collapsed into days of street vio- daughters or sisters of the official\u2019s family and carried lence between the contending factions. Within this shift- on the household name after the death of the origi- ing power balance a household founded by Mustafa nal founder. Even if they did not actually marry into Qazdaghli, a member of the Janissaries who had himself the household, the men recruited into it pledged their been a client in the Fiqariyya household, emerged as the loyalty to the head of the household as if they were dominant power by the middle of the 18th century. The actual kin. In addition to these free-born Muslims, the al-Qazdaghli household, like those that preceded it, was made up of a mixture of Mamluks and Janissary offi- cers and their retainers who controlled rural tax farms and customs offices. They also dabbled in trade and offered protection to wealthy merchants in a combination of legal and illegal activities, such as extortion and smuggling. Despite the political turbulence of Cairo\u2019s political life in the 17th and 18th centuries, Egypt\u2019s prosperity cre- ated economic opportunities for the city\u2019s civilian popu- lation. It would seem that most of its inhabitants simply tried to stay out of the Mamluks\u2019 way. With its Al-Azhar university, Cairo was a center for Muslim learning within the Arabic-speaking world, and its intellectual life seems to have been little touched by Mamluk violence. Although the city was hit by recurring plague epidemics, Cairo\u2019s population grew during the Ottoman centuries as its opportunities and wealth continued to draw migrants from throughout the Mediterranean region. The reign of the Mamluks in Cairo ended with the French occupation of the city in 1798. Napoleon Bonaparte had hoped to use Egypt as a base to invade the Ottoman Empire, but his army stalled at the siege of Acre, and the French army withdrew in 1801. At this point the city descended into chaos as the Mamluks once again sought to establish their control. Mehmed Ali emerged from the struggle for power as the city\u2019s mili-","114 caliphate sessed. Therefore, for them, the caliph had to be one of those descendants, whom they called the imam, a title tary strongman and in 1805 Ottoman Sultan Mahmud used by Sunnis to mean the person who led the commu- II (r. 1808\u20131839) recognized him as governor of Cairo. nity in its Friday prayers. From that point on, Cairo served as Mehmed Ali\u2019s base of power and as the capital of what was, in effect, an Although the Muslim theory of government held independent Egypt. Under his rule, Cairo changed very that all Muslims had to owe their political allegiance to little physically, but Egypt\u2019s center of commerce shifted to the caliph, over time independent Muslim states arose. Alexandria. The Muslim legal scholars ruled that these were legal as long as they minted coins in the reigning caliph\u2019s name Mehmed Ali\u2019s descendants transformed Cairo by and read his name aloud during the Friday prayers. With draining the surrounding marshes so that new Western- this diminution of the office the caliph had become the style neighborhoods could be added. A railroad linking symbolic, rather than actual, head of the Muslim com- the city to Alexandria was completed in 1858, and with munity. Even this function was deemed unnecessary, the opening of the Suez Canal, the city once again however, with the murder of the last universally rec- developed a commercial heart to compete with Alexan- ognized caliph of the Abbasid line, al-Mustasim, at the dria. The pace of modernization increased after the Brit- hands of the Mongols in 1258. ish occupation in 1882. By 1914 Cairo consisted of two very separate cities: the old city, where the architecture The question of the caliphate re-emerged with the and street plans were little changed from what they had Ottoman dynasty. According to Ottoman court histo- been in the Mamluk period, and the new, westernized rians of the 17th century, Sultan Selim I (r. 1512\u201320) city, with wide boulevards, tramway lines, street lamps, received the cloak of the caliphate\u2014a symbol of the and all the other technology of an industrialized city. authority of the office in much the same way a crown symbolized the monarchy in Europe\u2014from the last Bruce Masters descendant of the Abbasids when he conquered Cairo Further reading: Nelly Hanna, In Praise of Books: A in 1517. However, no contemporary accounts of the Cultural History of Cairo\u2019s Middle Class, Sixteenth to Eigh- conquest of Egypt mention this transfer of author- teenth Centuries (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, ity. Before the 17th century, the sultans had simply 2003); Andr\u00e9 Raymond, Cairo (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard stated that their legitimacy rested on their adherence University Press, 2000). to the Holy Law, their continuation of the jihad against Europe, and their role as protector of the hajj and caliphate When the Prophet Muhammad died in Arabia\u2019s two holy cities, Mecca and Medina. The first 632 c.e., the Muslim community chose as his succes- diplomatic recognition that the sultan might also be sor Abu Bakr, the Prophet\u2019s father-in-law and one of his caliph came in the Treaty of K\u00fc\u00e7\u00fck Kaynarca in first converts. While it was understood that he lacked 1774, which ceded the Crimea to Russia. Catherine the any prophetic abilities, Abu Bakr was nevertheless cho- Great, the empress of Russia (r. 1762\u201396), recognized sen to head the political community that the Prophet had that the Ottoman sultan still exercised \u201cspiritual sover- founded. As this was a new office, the Muslims were hesi- eignty\u201d over her new Muslim Tatar subjects even while tant to use older titles such as king or sheikh, and so they she exercised political sovereignty over them. Subse- called him simply Khalifat Rasul Allah, the \u201csuccessor to quent losses of Ottoman territory in Bosnia, Algeria, the Prophet of God.\u201d That title was eventually shortened and Tunis saw similar proclamations by the European to khalifa, or caliph in its English form. From that time powers that the Ottoman sultan remained the spiritual until the 13th century, this title was used for the political guide to their Muslim subjects, in much the same way leader of the Muslim community. that they recognized the spiritual authority of the pope over their Catholic subjects. The function and succession of the caliph led to a split within Islam and the rival traditions of Sunni Islam The appropriation of the tile of caliph by the Otto- and Shia Islam. The Sunni tradition held that any male mans was bitterly rejected by most Sunni legal scholars member of the Prophet\u2019s tribe, the Quraysh, could right- outside Istanbul, as the Ottomans were not descended fully be caliph if he were of sound mind and body. They from the Prophet\u2019s tribe, the Quraysh. For Sunnis, this held that the caliph\u2019s only religious function was leading qualification remained an absolute requirement if a polit- the Friday prayer, and that the articulation and imple- ical ruler was to claim the title of caliph. Their opposition mentation of Islamic law, sharia, should be left to the did not present a problem until 1876, when the Ottoman religious scholars, or ulema. The Shii tradition held the Constitution provided a clause stating that the Ottoman view that the caliph must have special insight into Holy sultan was the caliph. Thus legitimated, Abd\u00fclhamid Law and its interpretation that they called ilm, literally II (r. 1876\u20131909) began to use the title and to make the \u201cknowledge,\u201d but by which they meant a specialized eso- claim that he spoke for the world\u2019s Muslims. teric knowledge that only the descendants of Ali pos-","Arabic-speaking Muslim scholars almost universally calligraphy 115 rejected that claim. Some, such as 19th-century Muslim reformist Muhammad Abduh, said that Muslims should according to their uses including for the Quran, official unite behind the sultan as the last independent Muslim correspondence, letters, or scholarly work. ruler; however, he did not concede that the sultan was also the caliph. The claim that the sultan was also caliph In the city of Baghdad, first the center of the Abba- seems to have resonated mostly in Muslim territories sid Caliphate (750\u20131258) and later of Ilkhanid (1256\u2013 that were under direct European colonial rule. This cre- 1353) power, Arabs gradually perfected calligraphy until ated a fear among the British Empire\u2019s governing authori- it reached its ultimate form in the style of master callig- ties that the sultan\u2019s claim to the caliphate might lead rapher Yakut al-Mustasimi (known as Yakut), who died their Muslim subjects into insurrection. This fear led the around 1298, at a time when the Ottoman state was in British to try to cultivate an alternative Muslim author- its infancy. Nevertheless Yakut al-Mustasimi\u2019s students ity, the Hashimi family, whose pedigree as descendants of spread his style through the wider Islamic world. The the Prophet Muhammad\u2019s clan was more authentic than six basic styles of calligraphy (aklam-i sitte), whose rules that of the sultans and who might offer support should were regularized by Yakut, replaced the Kufic script that Britain and the Ottoman Empire go to war. When Mus- had previously dominated calligraphic practice. The six tafa Kemal (later known as Kemal Atat\u00fcrk) officially scripts are s\u00fcl\u00fcs, nesih, muhakkak, reyhani, tevki, and abolished the caliphate in 1924, the largest protest of his r\u0131ka. S\u00fcl\u00fcs and nesih became the dominant styles after action came from British India. the mid-15th century, and tevki and r\u0131ka were replaced by the styles divani and celi divani around the same time. Bruce Masters Muhakkak and reyhani were phased out by the end of the Further reading: Kemal Karpat, The Politicization of 17th century. Islam: Reconstructing Identity, State, Faith, and Community in the Late Ottoman Empire (Oxford: Oxford University The calligraphic form of celi, which can be applied to Press, 2001). any of the calligraphic scripts, is a large-scale and monu- mental version of the script. Designed to be read from calligraphy Islamic calligraphy (h\u00fcsn-i hat) is a form of afar, celi was used for decorative panels of inscriptions writing elevated to the stature of art. The Arabic script was applied to religious buildings as well as to civilian archi- barely developed and little used before the time of Prophet tectural constructions. Muhammad; within a century, as a vehicle for the trans- mission of the Quran, it evolved into a stunning art form. s\u00fcl\u00fcs Often called \u201cthe mother of writing,\u201d s\u00fcl\u00fcs, Its role as a sacred form of communication gives this art its along with muhakkak, attracted the interest of character and importance, and explains its function in the calligraphers from the early years and served art forms of the Muslim world, including book arts, archi- as a master style from which many styles later tectural decoration, metalwork, ceramics, glass, and textiles. derived. The dynastic rulers of the Muslim world, with their nesih A clear and very legible script, nesih is capitals as cultural centers in such diverse locations as often partnered with s\u00fcl\u00fcs. Nesih became the Damascus, Baghdad, Cordoba, Cairo, Konya, Samar- book script, and was often used for the Quran. kand, Herat, and Tabriz, were attracted by the art of cal- ligraphy and patronized its practitioners. During the muhakkak A regular and highly legible script, Ottoman period, calligraphy reached its zenith, and muhakkak in its celi form is often used to write Turkish calligraphy, as it became known, established its the besmele, \u201cIn the name of God, the Benefi- own distinct character. The Ottomans practiced cal- cent, the Merciful.\u201d ligraphy over a period of nearly 500 years, attaining the highest level of expertise in the 19th and 20th centuries. reyhani Based on muhakkak, but smaller, rey- These calligraphic productions, which also displayed the hani is written with a single pen. (Calligraphers national characteristics of the Ottoman Turks, increased used different sizes of pen for the script, the dramatically as time progressed. vowels, and markings while writing muhakkak and s\u00fcl\u00fcs.) STYLES OF CALLIGRAPHY tevki Based on s\u00fcl\u00fcs but smaller and more com- The development of Islamic calligraphy benefited from a pact, tevki, along with r\u0131ka, was used as the general use of paper in the Muslim world from the ninth official script of state and administration in the century. In the 10th century the proportions of the letters early Ottoman period. began to be codified. Numerous types of script developed r\u0131ka A smaller form of tevki was used as the offi- cial script of the early Ottoman state and admin- istration as well as for calligrapher\u2019s certificates and signatures and other formal documents. talik In addition to the aklam-i sitte, the calli- graphic script of talik was also favored by the Ottomans. In the talik form no room is given","116 calligraphy Sublime Porte (Ottoman government).\u201d The calligrapher \u0130zzet Efendi (1841\u20131903) practiced r\u0131k\u2019a according to a to the vowel and reading signs (hareke), and very strict set of rules, ultimately giving his own name to the script is written in a pure and unadulterated the form \u0130zzet Efendi r\u0131k\u2019as\u0131. form, which makes it very compatible with the writing of Turkish. The talik form of writing DEVELOPMENT OF TURKISH CALLIGRAPHY originated in Iran, and was applied to a very broad field. Aside from calligraphic panels, the Calligraphic examples from the period of Sultan script was also used for the writing of divans Mehmed I (r. 1413\u20131421) demonstrate that the Yakut (collections of poems) and canonical and judi- style was also being practiced in the Ottoman domin- cial rulings. The script underwent a number of ions of Anatolia and Rumelia. In addition to Bursa and changes as a result of its extensive application Edirne, certain provincial areas such as Amasya had also and gave way to a new form known as neshtalik, become centers of calligraphic learning and education. which replaced the old talik script completely. Soon after Sultan Mehmed II (r. 1444\u201346; 1451\u20131481) From the second half of the 15th century conquered Constantinople in 1453 (see conquest of onwards, the talik script became widespread. Its Constantinople), the city developed into the cultural finer form (hurde, hafi) in particular came to be and artistic center of the Muslim world. Today Istanbul widely used in writing books as well as in the remains at the forefront of excellence in the art of cal- Ottoman dominions. Talik underwent a num- ligraphy. Sultan Mehmed II is known to have supported ber of important changes and modifications in the fine arts in general and the art of writing in particu- a short period of time and eventually gave rise lar. The calligraphic genius \u015eeyh Hamdullah lived dur- to the official Ottoman script of divani. ing his reign and a number of books written by him, and divani From the 16th century onward the divani still extant today, were donated to the Palace Library by script, embellished with diacritical signs and Mehmed\u2019s son Prince Bayezid, the future Sultan Bayezid in its further developed form, was assigned for II (r. 1481\u20131512). Furthermore, several of the magnifi- use in high-level official correspondence and cent monuments erected after the conquest of Constanti- was referred to as celi divani. These two scripts nople were decorated with inscriptions in celi s\u00fcl\u00fcs made were reserved for official use only; nonoffi- by two master calligraphers active in Mehmed\u2019s day, cial use was strictly prohibited. The use of the Yahya Sofi (d. 1477) and his son Ali Sofi (d.?). scripts of divani and celi divani was taught only in the Imperial Council (Divan-\u0131 H\u00fcmayun). Sultan Bayezid II and his son Prince Korkut (1467\u2013 These two scripts were at their peak during 1513) were both taught by \u015eeyh Hamdullah, who is con- the 19th and 20th centuries. These compara- sidered the spiritual founder (pir) of Turkish calligraphy. tively complicated scripts, recognizable by the After Prince Bayezid\u2019s ascension to the throne in 1481, upward movement toward the end of lines, \u015eeyh Hamdullah moved to Istanbul where he sought to were deliberately chosen for official matters create the most perfect examples of calligraphy in the so as to avoid easy reading and falsification Yakut style. Elaborating upon examples of Yakut\u2019s work of documents, ensuring the safety of official available in the treasury of the official imperial residence, correspondence. the Topkap\u0131 Palace, he created an original new style. Among the six basic scripts of the aklam-i sitte perfected The calligraphic form called tu\u011fra, containing the by \u015eeyh Hamdullah and his pupils, s\u00fcl\u00fcs and nesih became names of the ruling sultan and his father together with the preeminent vehicles for calligraphic practice. Tevki the prayer \u201cel-muzaffer daima\u201d (always victorious), was was replaced by the script types divani and celi divani. The placed at the top of every official written order. The earli- Hamdullah style was transferred to younger generations est example of a tu\u011fra dates back to the reign of Orhan through his pupils. The calligrapher Haf\u0131z Osman (1642\u2013 Gazi (r. 1324\u201362). The most striking examples of illu- 1698) further developed the Hamdullah style; as a result, minated tu\u011fras were produced during the 15th and 16th the six scripts went through a second phase of purification centuries. However, in time, the purity of the form of a and became known as the \u201cstyle of Haf\u0131z Osman.\u201d This tu\u011fra was lost and, toward the end of the 18th century, new style slowly replaced the style of \u015eeyh Hamdullah. the search for new relational proportions in the layout of tu\u011fras began. The script form of celi s\u00fcl\u00fcs did not undergo pro- gressive development until Mustafa Rak\u0131m (1758\u20131826) Because handwriting tends to differ from person to improved the script toward the end of the 18th century. person, in the 19th century it was resolved to regularize In the hands of Mustafa Rak\u0131m\u2019s pupils, the calligraphic the practice of calligraphy. This new form of regularized form of celi s\u00fcl\u00fcs reached its pinnacle. The style was prac- handwriting was known as r\u0131k\u2019a. The application of this ticed well into the Republican period, the last famous cal- script to official documents was called \u201cthe r\u0131k\u2019a of the ligraphers of this style remaining active until the 1960s","calligraphy 117 Calligraphic page by Haf\u0131z Osman (1642-1698), one of the most important Ottoman calligraphers (Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz \/ Art Resource, NY) and 1970s. Mustafa Rak\u0131m also reformed the calligraphic one side only, with illuminated margins on the recto side shape of the tu\u011fra. The tu\u011fra of Sultan Selim III (r. 1789\u2013 only, and approximately the same size as a book. 1807) was the first to undergo a serious revision, which was further developed in the tu\u011fra of Mahmud II (r. Large-scale panels, executed in celi s\u00fcl\u00fcs and celi talik, 1808\u20131839). The tu\u011fra found its definitive shape in the were used for the interior decoration of many public and era of Abd\u00fclhamid II (r. 1876\u20131909), in the hands of private buildings. Haf\u0131z Osman devised a calligraphic com- Sami Efendi (1838\u20131912). position called hilye toward the end of the 17th century. A hilye contains the description of the Prophet\u2019s physical and In the 19th century, two incomparable calligraphers, moral characteristics, and from the 19th century onward kad\u0131asker Mustafa \u0130zzet Efendi (1801\u20131876) and Mehmed this form also began to be executed on a large scale. \u015eevki Efendi (1829\u20131887), were the most important rep- resentatives of two very different schools of calligraphic Calligraphers plied their trade on hand-crafted paper practice. Both elaborated upon the work of Haf\u0131z Osman which, after being dyed in various colors, was sealed and and produced samples in s\u00fcl\u00fcs, nesih, and r\u0131ka. polished according to a special method called ahar. They used an ink produced from soot and gum arabic pounded THE CRAFT OF CALLIGRAPHY in a mortar. Other inks were also available such as pure gold ink (alt\u0131n m\u00fcrekkebi), produced from crushed gold Manuscripts surviving from the Ottoman period can take leaf, as well as red and yellow inks. the form of books, such as mushafs or divans, but can also come in the shape of so-called murakkaas. A murakkaa is TEACHING OF CALLIGRAPHY a collection of k\u0131tas (small original works) that are hinged together on their edges, executed in one or two scripts, on Calligraphy was taught in Ottoman educational institu- tions, such as mektebs, madrasas, the Palace School,","118 cannon These treaties permitted European merchants to reside in specified Ottoman cities and to conduct trade with and the Imperial Council. But the best way to learn the minimal tariffs and interference. The resident Europeans art of writing was to attend individual tutorials at a cal- were not subject to the jizya (the head tax on non-Mus- ligraphic master\u2019s house. These lessons were given with- lim males), nor were they compelled to abide by Islamic out any form of material remuneration. At the beginning law in issues of family law. They were, however, enjoined of the 20th century, the Ottoman government decided to by the earliest treaties to conduct their business accord- institute an academy for the instruction of calligraphy. ing to the precepts of Holy Law and to take all commer- The minister of Pious Foundations and the \u015feyh\u00fclislam cial disputes involving Ottoman subjects, Muslim and (chief Muslim judge of the empire), Mustafa Hayri Efendi non-Muslim alike, to the sharia courts. (1867\u20131922), founded this academy, the Madrasat\u00fcl-Hat- tatin. In 1915 the historical building of the Yusuf Agha For the first century and a half of their existence, the Sibyan Mektebi (today the building houses the Ministry capitulations merely established that Europeans could of Education\u2019s press office) in Istanbul\u2019s Ca\u011falo\u011flu district live in the Ottoman Empire but provided few other was converted into the Madrasat\u00fcl-Hattatin. In addition advantages. That changed as the balance of military to calligraphy, various arts related to book and paper power began to shift in Europe\u2019s favor. With the intro- production were taught, as well as illumination, binding, duction of commercial treaties with France in 1673 and marbling (ebru), and miniature painting. After the aboli- with England in 1675, Sultan Mehmed IV (r. 1648\u201387) tion of madrasas in 1925, the school took the name Hat- gave Europeans the right to take any commercial dispute tat Mektebi. A great number of graduates of this crucible worth over 4,000 ak\u00e7e (a relatively small sum\u2014less than of artistic culture continued practicing their trade in this the price of a donkey) to Istanbul where their ambas- school, which discontinued its activities with the intro- sador would be present, thus circumventing the author- duction of the new Turkish alphabet in December 1928. ity of the Islamic courts. These treaties also permitted the Europeans to designate Ottoman subjects as transla- Calligraphic instruction was based upon the obser- tors (dragoman). While that in itself was not new, the vance of a strict discipline, according to a master- treaties explicitly gave the translators rights comparable apprentice system. It was a process that continued from to those the Europeans enjoyed, including the payment generation to generation. Pupils were able to complete of the same nominal customs duties as their European their instruction only after years of practice, receiving a patrons. The treaties also exempted dragomans from written permit (icazet) to practice the trade of calligra- paying the jizya, as if they were Europeans. Since Muslim phy at the end of their instruction. The art and practice legal scholars had ruled that it was immoral for Muslims of calligraphy was a closed world, and therefore, able to to learn the language of infidel foreigners, all the transla- withstand the westernizing influences that impacted tors employed by Europeans\u2014and enjoying these special other Ottoman arts. This isolation resulted in Ottoman privileges\u2014were non-Muslims; this led to significant dis- calligraphers of the 20th century practicing at a high level content. But even while the treaties gave the translators of expertise unhampered by Western styles. advantages not enjoyed by other Ottoman subjects, they asserted that the translators were to remain the sultan\u2019s M. U\u011fur Derman subjects. This was important to the Ottoman framers of See also language and script. the treaties as a way to assert Ottoman sovereignty and to Further reading: M. U\u011fur Derman, Letters in Gold: demonstrate that the translators should remember who Ottoman Calligraphy from the Sak\u0131p Sabanc\u0131 Collection, ultimately held authority over them. Istanbul (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998); M. U\u011fur Derman and Nihad M. \u00c7etin, The Art of Calligra- The Anglo-Ottoman Treaty of 1675 also gave drago- phy in the Islamic Heritage (Istanbul: IRCICA, 1998). mans the right held by English merchants to take any commercial dispute with ordinary Ottoman subjects to cannon See firearms. Istanbul for adjudication. There the case would be heard in the presence of the ambassador of the country who capitulations Capitulations, known in Ottoman Turk- had issued the dragoman\u2019s berat, or patent of office. Mus- ish as ahdname, were special dispensations for trade, lim merchants fiercely contested this concession, saying it usually in the form of lower tariffs, issued to Europeans gave their non-Muslim competitors a legal advantage over by Ottoman sultans seeking potential allies against their them. Having extended this right to those who were still rivals, the Venetians. The first capitulations were granted legally Ottoman subjects, Ottoman judges and bureaucrats to the French in 1535 by Sultan S\u00fcleyman I (r. 1520\u201366). consistently tried to limit the commercial activities of the Similar treaties with the Netherlands, England, Ven- dragomans to ensure that the privilege was not abused. ice, and Austria followed. By the end of the 18th century almost every European nation held a capitulatory treaty. Many critics of the capitulations point to their wholesale abuse for either monetary or political gain by","the European consuls who illegally obtained far more caravan 119 berats than they were entitled to, and to the rift they cre- ated between Muslim and non-Muslim merchants. The traveling there were smaller, often consisting of no more Ottoman bureaucrats were well aware of these poten- than a dozen or more animals and a small contingent of tial inequities. They used two approaches to counter the armed men. Caravans crossing the desert either to Arabia wide-scale abuse: banning dragomans from trade, and or from the Mediterranean to the cities of Iraq were much enforcing the limit on the number of individuals who larger, as the Bedouin tribes could mount raiding parties could legitimately be employed by a European consul. In consisting of hundreds of warriors. It was not unusual for 1808 the Ottomans negotiated a secret treaty with Great caravans to and from Iraq to consist of more than 1,000 Britain designed to win the Ottoman Empire\u2019s neutral- camels and 100 merchants with their armed escorts. The ity in Britain\u2019s war with Napoleon Bonaparte. The one caravan of the annual hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, often point that the Ottomans insisted on was that those hold- consisted of several thousand camels and 10,000 pilgrims. ing patents as translators for the British would not engage in freelance commerce on their own. However, the treaty Throughout the Ottoman centuries, the high cost was never ratified by the British Parliament. The issue of of transporting goods by caravan determined what the Ottoman subjects holding rights under the capitulations animals carried. It was not profitable to transport bulky did not go away even with the far-reaching provisions of commodities such as grain or building materials, so each the Anglo-Ottoman Convention of 1838. Again, the region of the empire had to be largely self-sufficient in Ottoman representatives protested that while they were these. Rather the caravans most commonly carried lux- willing to open their empire to free trade with Britain, ury commodities such as cloth, spices, coffee, raw silk, they steadfastly opposed the extension of Britain\u2019s right to and European manufactured goods. name Ottoman subjects as translators, which effectively made them honorary Britons. By the end of the Ottoman Each caravan had a master who was chosen by the Empire, thousands of Ottoman subjects enjoyed exemp- merchants traveling in the caravan. The master was usu- tions from some Ottoman taxation and legal regula- ally a merchant who had traveled the route before and, tions because of their status under the capitulations. The in the case of the desert caravans, who had good rela- Young Turk regime unilaterally declared the capitula- tions with the Bedouins. The caravan master enforced tions defunct during World War I, but the Europeans law and order on the caravans, which often suffered theft did not recognize their abolition until the establishment and even murder from within the caravan while it was en of the Turkish Republic in 1923. route; however, he could not dispense justice on his own, but was required by the Ottoman authorities to turn over Bruce Masters any suspects to a Muslim court once he reached a city. See also Levant Company. Further reading: Maurits van den Boogert, The Capitu- Along the desert routes, the Bedouins played a sym- lations and the Ottoman Legal System: Qadis, Consuls, and biotic role with the caravans. They owned and rented the Beratl\u0131s in the 18th Century (Leiden: Brill, 2005). camels to the merchants, and they provided the guides who led the caravans across hostile terrain. But they were caravan Caravans were organized trains of pack also the leading threat to the safety of the caravans. The animals used to carry cargo overland in the Ottoman Ottomans dealt with this problem by providing bribes to Empire. Much of the interior of the empire was either the larger tribes so that they would not attack the cara- mountainous terrain or desert, and travelers needed the vans and would patrol the desert routes against less coop- security of numbers as protection against the numer- erative tribes. Individual caravan masters would also give ous bandits and tribal raiders who plagued the trade gifts to the tribesmen they encountered on the way. This routes. Although the Romans had constructed a net- informal system of protection occasionally broke down work of roads that crisscrossed the eastern regions of with disastrous results. their empire, these had been largely neglected over the succeeding centuries, and wagons were rarely used to Despite the risks, caravans continued to supply most transport commodities in the Ottoman Empire. In Ana- intercity commerce in the Ottoman Empire throughout tolia and the Balkans, the animal of choice was the mule the 19th century. It was only with the construction of or donkey, although camels were also used; in the Arab railroads at the end of that century that alternative meth- provinces, it was almost exclusively the camel. ods of transport began to threaten their continued profit- ability. Caravans finally disappeared only after the fall of The size of the caravans depended in large part on the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century, as trucks where they were traveling. The danger to travelers in became more easily available and a system of roads was Anatolia and the Balkans was from bandits, so caravans once again put in place. Bruce Masters Further reading: Bruce Masters, The Origins of Western Economic Dominance in the Middle East: Mercantilism and the Islamic Economy in Aleppo, 1600\u20131750 (New York: New York University Press, 1988); Douglas Carruthers, ed., The","120 caravansary to the reign of Sultan Mehmed II (1444\u201346; 1451\u201381) and are linked to a growing Ottoman-Venetian rivalry. Desert Route to India: Being the Journals of Four Travellers by After the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, the Great Desert Caravan Route between Aleppo and Basra, Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror ordered cartographer 1745\u20131751 (London: The Hakluyt Society, 1929). Georgios Amirutzes of Trabzon to translate Ptolemaus\u2019s Geographiae and to make a world map by combining caravansary (han, khan) In order to promote the his translation with earlier Arabic translations. Ottoman caravan trade, Ottoman authorities maintained a net- cartographical terminology was based upon terms from work of fortified hostels along the major trade and pil- European cartography and from Islamic literature. The grimage routes. These were usually placed at intervals of words harta and hart\u0131 in Anatolian Turkish, meaning about 20 miles, that being the distance a caravan could map, were most likely developed by renowned Ottoman travel in a day. Similar structures were also built in the mariners Piri Reis (d. 1554) and Seydi Ali Reis (d. 1562). major commercial cities to house traveling merchants. In the latter case, each structure was maintained as a pious WORLD AND NAUTICAL MAPS foundation, or waqf, to support some worthy cause such as the maintenance of a mosque. European travelers The well-known 17th-century Ottoman traveler called such structures caravansaries, although their name Evliya \u00c7elebi mentions a cartography community in Arabic was khan or in Ottoman Turkish han. called esnaf-\u0131 haritaciyan that consisted of eight shops and 15 men, experts in a number of languages includ- Whether constructed along caravan routes or in cit- ing Latin. They made maps by using works such as the ies, most caravansaries had a similar architectural plan. famous Atlas Minor (1607) prepared by Gerard Merca- Invariably built of stone, they consisted of a two-story tor (1512\u201394) and Jodocus Hondius (1563\u20131612), and rectangle or square built around an open courtyard sold them to sailors. The Ottomans, especially Otto- in which there was a fountain. Many also had a small man sailors, were encouraged by rewards to draw maps. mosque in the corner of the structure facing Mecca. The oldest navigation chart, or portolan, was drawn Storage rooms on the ground floor provided space for the in about 1413\u201314 by Ahmed b. Suleyman et-Tanci (d. merchants to store their goods and stable their animals, after 1414) and includes the Black Sea, the European while the merchants themselves occupied apartments on and African coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, and the Brit- the upper floor. On the open road, these accommoda- ish Isles. Another portolan, from 1461, drawn by Ibra- tions were generally free of charge, as the Ottoman state him of Tunis (d. after 1461), a physician in Trablusgarb paid for their construction and maintenance; in the cit- (Libya), depicts the Mediterranean, the Aegean, and the ies, rent was paid to an employee of the waqf who man- Black Sea as well as the western European shores. The aged the everyday running of the hostel. portolan of Hac\u0131 Ebul-Hasan (d. after 1560), possibly dating from the reign of Sultan S\u00fcleyman I (r. 1520\u2013 European merchants often used the caravansaries 66) and preserved in the Topkap\u0131 Palace Museum, in the cities as their permanent residence, and many shows Ottoman lands in three continents\u2014Asia, caravansaries became known locally by the name of the Europe, and Africa. country from which the merchants living there came. Caravansaries also housed Catholic missionaries as they Piri Reis (d. 1554), admiral of the Ottoman imperial began to enter the Ottoman Empire in the 17th and 18th fleet, is the most famous representative of Ottoman car- centuries, and several had chapels that were added to the tography and his work Kitab-\u0131 Bahriyye is a masterpiece. interior of the structure. These were supposedly for the In this work, begun under the protection of his uncle, private use of the missionaries, who received diplomatic Kemal Reis (d. 1510), Piri Reis writes of his experiences status through the protection of the French ambassa- and observations of the seas. He explains each map\u2019s defi- dor in Istanbul. But local converts to Catholicism from nition as well as its omens, giving detailed information Orthodox Christianity or the Eastern-rite churches about some of the big seas and islands. Piri Reis shows would use them at times when Catholic rites in their own portolans for each port that he mentions and marks the churches were forbidden (see Uniates). important buildings. The eminent Ottoman scholar and author Katib \u00c7elebi (d. 1657) in his recently discovered Bruce Masters M\u00fcntehab-\u0131 Bahriyye not only used the Kitab-\u0131 Bahriyye but also updated its information and maps by making Carlowitz, Treaty of See Karlowitz, Treaty of. use of a few Western sources while enhancing Piri Reis\u2019s prose and adding new charts. cartography There are no maps from the early days of the Ottomans; only after the middle of the 15th century The interest in the famous first world map of Piri do the first examples of Ottoman maps appear. They date Reis has not subsided since its discovery in 1929. Today, only one sheet of this map is extant, dated from 1513.","cartography 121 Map of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea from Katip \u00c7elebi\u2018s work of naval history Tuhfet\u00fc\u2019l-kibar. (Photo by Fikret Sar\u0131caog\u02d8 lu) In 1517 the map was presented to Sultan Selim I (r. A nautical cartographer and respected captain, Ali 1512\u201320) in Cairo. It shows the Atlantic Ocean, Spain, Macar Reis (d. after 1567) finished his own work, Atlas, France, the eastern part of America, the Florida coast, in 1567. This atlas contains seven maps depicting areas and the Antilles. In addition to place names, the map from the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara to the Atlan- notes the date of discovery, shows the conquered territo- tic coasts and British Isles. It also includes a world map. ries of the Atlantic Ocean, and speaks of how the chart A similar atlas, Atlas-\u0131 h\u00fcmayun (Imperial atlas), con- was drawn. These notes link Piri Reis\u2019s work to some 20 tains nine maps and was completed in 1570. A third atlas, Eastern or Western maps he used as references, including the work of Walters Deniz, includes eight maps. Another Christopher Columbus\u2019 map of 1498. Ottoman cartographer, Mehmed Reis of Menemen, drew a map of the Aegean Sea (1590\u201391). This map, compiled in Another map drawn by Piri Reis, housed in the Turkish, covers the region from Avlona (Vlor\u00eb in Albania) Topkap\u0131 Palace Museum Library, shows the North to Fethiye on the southwestern coast of Anatolia. Deniz Atlantic and the deserted coasts of North and Central Kitab\u0131, drawn by cartographer Seyyid Nuh, dates from America around 1528\u201329. The map, drawn in Gelibolu 1648\u201350 and includes 204 nautical charts of the Black Sea (Gallipoli), was probably presented to S\u00fcleyman the and Mediterranean ports, including defensive structure Magnificent, becoming his second world map, identify- such as castles. Ancient world maps familiar to the Otto- ing such places as the Yucat\u00e1n, Cuba, Haiti, Florida, and mans came via the classical geography books of renowned North America. Muslim geographers Istahri, Idrisi, and Ibnul-Verdi. Hac\u0131 Ahmed of Tunis created a heart-shaped world MILITARY MAPS map (1559\u201360) using maps drawn by J. Warner (1514) and Orontius Finaeus (1531), translating them into Turk- Ottoman military maps were first drawn to show the sta- ish and combining them. This document also contained tus of sieges and new international borders after peace a map of the firmament including stars and mythological treaties. The first military map, assumed to have Venetian figures.","122 cartography Map of Venice from Piri Reis\u2019s nautical atlas Kitab-i Bahriye. (Photo by Fikret Sar\u0131caog\u02d8 lu) origins, was completed before 1496 by Kulaguz Ilyas of Katib \u00c7elebi, one of the first Ottoman cartographi- Morea for Sultan Bayezid II (1481\u20131512). Another map, cal translators, wrote Cihann\u00fcma, which depicted conti- that of the Sea of Azov and Crimea, was created between nental and territorial maps. The translation of the Atlas 1495 and 1506. It was drawn especially for the Otto- minor prepared by Mercator and Hondius served as a man fleet and depicted castles around Kiev. Many other reference for this work. Katib \u00c7elebi, who defined atlas maps depict military expeditions, sieges, and battlefields, as \u201ca geography book,\u201d made this kind of translated book including those of Belgrade (1521), Malta (1565), popular for many years. The definition of atlas in Otto- Szigetv\u00e1r (in southern Hungary, 1566), Vienna (1683), man literature later changed to \u201ca set of maps.\u201d The geog- and Prut (1711), as well as the 1736\u201339 Ottoman-Aus- rapher Ebubekir Efendi (d. 1691) translated 11 volumes trian-Russian wars, the retrieval of Adakale in 1738, \u00d6zi of Wilhelm and Joan Bleau\u2019s Atlas major in nine volumes (1788), Corfu and Alexandria (1799), and the 1831 that included 242 maps. siege of Baghdad. The works of Ibrahim M\u00fcteferrika (d. 1747), the TRANSLATIONS AND PRINTING founder of the first official Ottoman printing house, form the backbone of Ottoman cartography. These efforts had In the course of the wars of the second half of the 18th an important place in the history of cartography not only century, the Ottomans translated, revised, and edited for Ottomans but also for the world. His maps depict many European maps according to their military needs. the Sea of Marmara (1720), the Black Sea (1724\u201325), Ressam Mustafa\u2019s many translations include a Black Sea the Ottoman countries and Asia, Persia (1729\u201330), and and Crimea map that was translated under the control of Egypt (1730). His main work, Cihann\u00fcma (1732), added M. Yorgaki and dates to the war in 1773. new maps and filled in the gaps in Katib \u00c7elebi\u2019s earlier","work. This impressive and important volume included 27 cartography 123 maps and 13 diagrams, and had a total of 40 plates. Maps were the first Muslim documents to be printed (beginning Raif Efendi\u2019s (d. 1807) translation and adaptation of four with the printing house of Ibrahim M\u00fcteferrika in 1727), sheets of Asia, Europe, Africa, and America from J. B. and were the first printed works in the Ottoman world. Bourguignon d\u2019Anville\u2019s Atlas Generale were published in 1797, followed in 1801 by the portolans of the Medi- Ottoman cartography includes a number of continen- terranean, the Black Sea, and the Sea of Marmara. Resmi tal or territorial maps but they are without much detail. Mustafa Agha\u2019s translation of William Faden\u2019s General These include maps of eastern Anatolia, western Persia, Atlas was published in 1803 as Cedid Atlas Terc\u00fcmesi; it and the Caucasus (1723\u20131724). Kostantin Kamner (d. is the greatest work of the printing house and contains after 1813), a former translator in Morea, also made this 24 colored sheets and, although it contains some errors, kind of map. Some of his works include maps of Istan- is respected as the first complete Turkish atlas to be bul, the Bosporus, and the strait of \u00c7anakkale (1813). published. After 1797, translated maps and atlases were printed At the beginning of the 19th century, the publication under the control of M\u00fcderris Abdurrahman in the of translated maps and atlases by the Ottomans increased M\u00fchendishane Printing House where a printing press under the leadership of European experts and Turk- for maps was kept ready. Ottoman statesman Mahmud ish officers educated in Europe. While the publication of translated or copied maps continued, some territorial Map of Asia from Katip \u00c7elebi\u2019s world geography Cihann\u00fcma, which was edited and published in 1732 by Ibrahim M\u00fcteferrika, the founder of the Ottoman Arabic-letter printing press. (Photo by Fikret Sar\u0131caog\u02d8 lu)","124 Caucasus Iran. In 1569 the canal\u2019s construction began under the direction of Grand Vizier Sokollu Mehmed Pasha. How- maps were also drawn in the first official cartographical ever, the canal was never completed due to interference organization of the Ottoman Empire, the General Staff, from the Crimean khan Devlet Giray who, although an in 1860. In 1880 the fifth department of Erkan-\u0131 harb Ottoman vassal, was partially under Russian influence. was assigned to deal with cartography matters. Finally, in 1895, a commission of cartography was formed. In the Following the failed canal project, Ottoman con- final years of the 19th century, cartography came to be an cern about the Caucasus continued to grow. Neverthe- official profession, and the Ottoman Chamber of Cartog- less, the Ottoman Empire remained the main source of raphy was founded in 1909. political and military power in the Caucasus during the latter half of the 16th century, conquering parts of pres- Fikret Sar\u0131cao\u011flu ent-day Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Dagestan in the Otto- Further reading: Ahmet T. Karamustafa, \u201cIntroduc- man-Safavid War of 1578\u201390. However, most of these tion to Ottoman Cartography, Military, Administrative, gains were retaken by Shah Abbas I (r. 1587\u20131629) in and Scholarly Maps and Plans,\u201d in The History of Cartogra- 1603. phy, vol. 2, Bk. 1, Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies, edited by J. B. Harley and D. Wood- While the first half of the 17th century saw Europe ward (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), 206\u2013227; enmeshed in the Thirty Years War (1618\u201348), the Otto- Svat Soucek, Piri Reis and Turkish Mapmaking after Colum- mans were attempting to contain a series of dangerous bus: The Khalili Portolan Atlas (London: The Nour Founda- internal rebellions known as the Celali revolts. The Safa- tion, 1996), 115\u2013120, 128\u2013132. vids took advantage of these revolts in Anatolia and retook Baghdad and Yerevan, the capital of present-day Armenia, Caucasus (Caucasia; Russ.: Kavkaz; Turk.: Kafkasya) maintaining control of these two areas until 1635. The Caucasus is a mountainous region surrounded by the Caspian Sea in the east, the Black Sea and the Sea of The enthronement of Czar Peter I of Russia (r. 1682\u2013 Azov in the west, the Manych and Kuma rivers and the 1725) marked the beginning of a new period in the Cau- Russian plains in the north, and Anatolia in the south. casus for the Ottomans. Peter quickly began an aggressive The Caucasus is thus a natural frontier separating Asia policy to gain access to warmer waters. His first attempt and Europe. Moreover, the Caucasus has historically had targeted the Black Sea and resulted in the capture of strategic importance as a result of the waterways that Azak in 1696. Following his defeat at the River Prut on stretch between, and link, the Caspian Sea, the Black Sea, the eastern boundary of Romania in 1711, Peter turned and the Sea of Azov. The Euphrates and Tigris basins his attention to the Caucasus. Despite Ottoman attempts also connect these waterways to the Indian Ocean. at control, the Caucasus and Iran were dealing with polit- ical turmoil. Encouraged by this unrest, Peter decided to Despite the strategic benefit of the Caucasus, the organize a military campaign in the Caucasus. His fleet Ottoman Empire did not view the area as militarily or set off from the Caspian Sea port of Astrakhan on June politically important until the second half of the 16th 15, 1722; by the end of the campaign Russia occupied century. The first half of this century was mostly spent the eastern part of the Caucasus at Derbend (in Dages- struggling against the Safavid dynasty of Iran. The emer- tan on the Caspian Sea) and Baku (capital of present-day gence of Muscovite Russia as a political power in the Azerbaijan). second half of the 16th century was the catalyst for Otto- man interest in the Caucasus region. Before this time, the To counter the Russian advance, in May 1722 the Ottoman Empire had dismissed Russia as unworthy of Ottomans moved to occupy several Iranian cities near the serious attention. However, Russia occupied the cities of Ottoman border. In October of the same year the Otto- Kazan (1552) and Astrakhan (1556), then gained access mans occupied Tbilisi on the Kura River, the capital of to the Caspian Sea by seizing control of the Volga region. present-day Georgia. Two years later, both Nakhichevan The introduction of Russian influence into the northern on the Aras River in the southern Caucasus and Yerevan Caucasus was keenly observed by the Ottoman Empire, came under Ottoman control. The Ottoman conquests which now faced three hostile fronts: Russia, Europe, and in the Caucasus were completed with the taking of Lori, Iran. northeast of Tbilisi, in August 1725 and Gyandzha a major city in present-day Azerbaijan in September 1725. Preventing the Russian advance quickly became an important Ottoman objective. One project intended to On June 24, 1724, the Ottomans and Russians signed further this was the construction of a canal between the the Treaty of Istanbul, effectively splitting Iranian land Don and Volga rivers to control the northern Caucasus holdings in two. The lands north of the Kura and Aras while maintaining military and commercial connections. rivers were ceded to Russia. The western Iranian lands Additionally, the canal would give the Ottoman Empire and the Azerbaijan lands were left to the Ottomans. By strategic control over the conduits to Central Asia and signing this treaty, the Russians had stretched their pres- ence to the southern Caucasus.","Iran, however, was not content to allow the parcel- Caucasus 125 ing out of its lands. The emergence of the Iranian leader Nadir Shah (r. 1736\u201347) forced the Ottomans to deal the Kuban\u2019 River as the Ottoman-Russian frontier. How- simultaneously with both Iran and Russia. Nadir Shah ever, the treaty forced the Ottoman Empire to accept began his reign by ending the Russian occupation of Russian superiority in the Caucasus over both the region the Caucasus and connecting Dagestan to Iran. He suc- and its tribes. ceeded in conquering Tbilisi, Yerevan, and Gyandzha. Despite these successes, Nadir Shah\u2019s death in 1747 One final attempt to dislodge the Russians from the marked the return of Ottoman influence to the south- Caucasus was made late in the 18th century. The Iranian ern Caucasus. The Ottomans took advantage of this new ruler Agha Muhammed Khan (r. 1779\u201397) made a feeble Iranian political turmoil and focused on attracting Cau- effort to undermine Russian power in the region, but any casian Muslims to the Ottoman cause against Russia. As territorial gains were quickly recaptured by Russia by 1796 a result, Ottoman influence in the southern Caucasus and were subsequently held firmly under Russian control. lasted until 1760. During the early 19th century the Russians, unlike The Russo-Ottoman War of 1768\u201374 gave Rus- the Ottomans, were active in the Caucasus. Especially sian Empress Catherine II (r. 1762\u201396) the opportu- after the Russian annexation of parts of Georgia in 1801, nity for a new military expedition to the Caucasus and Russian expansion in the Caucasus continued. The first the Crimea. Russia\u2019s purpose was to end the Ottomans\u2019 Russian decision was to appoint General Tsitsianof as the legal claim to the Caucasus. The Crimean Khanate, general governor of the Caucasus. Tsitsianof was origi- an Ottoman client state, became independent in 1774 nally Georgian; under his guidance, a new colonial with the Treaty of K\u00fc\u00e7\u00fck Kaynarca and was even- administration was created. General Tsitsianof began by tually annexed to Russia in 1783. The Treaty of K\u00fc\u00e7\u00fck trying to connect the Azerbaijan khanates through vari- Kaynarca also specified the Kuban\u2019 River as the new ous agreements. In 1804, during the Russo-Persian war of Ottoman-Russian frontier. Russia was not satisfied with 1804\u201313, the Russians defeated Javad Khan of Gyandzha this border and moved to gain control of the southern Khanate and annexed his khanate. Three years later, Baku Caucasus as well. In July of 1783, Georgia was connected came under the control of the Russians. In 10 years, Rus- to Russia by Catherine II through an agreement with the sia strengthened its presence in the southern Caucasus Georgian king Irakli Khan II. and expanded from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea. Despite the Russian approach however, the Ottoman The new Russian action in the Caucasus renewed Empire showed little interest in the events of the southern Ottoman interest in the region. The loss of the Crimea Caucasus before 1806. was especially significant because the area had been under Ottoman control from 1475. Not surprisingly, Rus- In 1806 the Ottomans began to show a renewed sian forces attempted to entrench themselves in the area interest in the Caucasus and as a result the Ottoman by establishing defense lines in the northern Caucasus. Empire clashed with Russia in the Russo-Ottoman War These lines were fortified and extended to connect Rus- of 1806\u201312. Russia was occupying Poti, Kemhal, and sian Georgia. Further Russian attacks on Dagestan and Sukhumi on the eastern coast of the Black Sea. To coun- Azerbaijan began to threaten the security of Anatolia and, ter the Russian force the Ottomans tried to use Circas- as a result, the Ottomans were forced to seek a means to sians, Abkhaz, and other tribes. The hostilities were halt the Russian advance. The Ottoman response to the ended by the Treaty of Bucharest, signed by the Otto- threat was to appoint Ferah Ali Pasha to the So\u011fucak man Empire and Russia in 1812. The terms of the accord Armed Guard in 1780. Ferah Ali Pasha began to actively forced Russia to abandon conquered Ottoman areas. spread Islam among the Circassian tribes; as a result the However, Russia crushed the Iranian army in the same Circassian tribes accepted Islam and fought against Rus- year and forced the signing of the G\u00fclistan Agreement sia in the Russo-Ottoman War of 1787\u201392 (see Russo- in 1813. Through this victory over Iran, Russia obtained Ottoman Wars). Derbend, Baku, Shirvan, Karabakh Kuban, Lenkeran, and a part of Talish in central Caucasus. These conces- In 1785, the emergence of Sheikh Mansur in the sions cost Iran all claims on Dagestan, Georgia, Imere- Caucasus changed the historical course of the region. tia, and Abkhazia. Russia appointed General Aleksey Sheikh Mansur was originally a Chechen, but he worked Petrovich Yermolov soon after as the supreme head of to unite all the Caucasian tribes for jihad. Sheikh Man- the Russian Caucasian Army and became the sole ruler sur fought against Russia in the Caucasus and played an of the northern Caucasus from 1818\u201321. important role in the Russo-Ottoman War of 1787\u201392. The Russian attack on Anapa in 1788\u201389 was unsuccess- Disturbed by Russian superiority in the Caucasus, ful due to fierce Circassian resistance. The Treaty of Iran united with Dagestan to challenge Russia in 1826. Jassy in 1792 brought an end to the war, re-establishing Iran was once again defeated and was forced to sign the Turkmenchai Treaty in 1828. According to this treaty, the Yerevan and Nakhichevan khanates, including the southern banks of the Aras River, were ceded to Russia.","126 Caucasus Abd\u00fclmecid (r. 1839\u201361) sent a decree dated October 9, 1853 to Sheikh Shamil and summoned him to jihad. The Ottomans quickly attacked Russia in 1828, hoping to Sheikh Shamil responded in a letter dated December 13, halt the Russian advance on the Caucasus-Anatolia fron- 1853. In this letter, Shamil informed the sultan that if a tier. Russia, however, was again successful, taking Kars, military force were to advance on Tbilisi, the Russians Akhaltsikhe, and the Bayazid provinces, as well as nine could be expelled from the Caucasus. His strategic advice fortresses. Russian presence and power in the southern was dismissed by Istanbul, but Shamil entered the Kaheti Caucasus was firmly secured, and the newly captured region of Georgia for a joint operation with the Ottoman areas soon became the launching points for military raids army in July, 1854. Although one Ottoman army was in against Anatolia. The Ottoman Empire and Russia signed the Ozurgeti region of Georgia, Shamil failed to locate the Treaty of Edirne on September 14, 1829, in which them and retreated to Dagestan, where he remained until the Ottomans renounced all sovereignty rights over the the conclusion of the war. The Treaty of Paris, signed entirety of the Caucasus. by Britain, France, the Ottoman Empire, and Russia on March 30, 1856, ended the Crimean War. As a result of The Russo-Ottoman War of 1828\u201329 was a turning the treaty, Kars was ceded to the Ottoman Empire. With point in the Ottoman-Russian power struggle in the Cau- the threat of war behind her, Russia increased attacks casus. The Ottoman Empire had been defeated by Rus- against Shamil, who finally surrendered to Russia in sia, and Russia had become the sole military and political 1859. Following his surrender, tens of thousands of Cau- power in the Caucasus. However, other foreign powers casians fleeing Russian oppression immigrated to the began to take an interest in the affairs of the region. Eng- Ottoman Empire. land was concerned about Russian power in the Cau- casus as a possible threat to the security of commercial The Caucasus again saw fighting between the Otto- routes between Turkistan and India. Britain also showed mans and Russia during the 1877\u201378 Ottoman-Russian interest in the signing of the Treaty of H\u00fcnkar Iske- War. The war started on April 24, 1877 as the Russian lesi between the Ottoman Empire and Russia in 1833. army moved to occupy the cities of Kars and Arda- Following the signing of this treaty, Britain was forced han in northeastern Anatolia. Russian troops occupied to change its policy on what was termed the Eastern Kars by November 19, 1877. The Russians continued Question, and began discussions with France about their advance toward the city of Erzurum in northeast- appropriate action. France showed similar concern about ern Anatolia, but harsh winter conditions hampered the the effect of the Russian presence and \u201cthe question of movement of both the Ottoman and Russian armies from the Turkish straits.\u201d December 1877 to January 1878. As the cold weather receded, neither the Ottoman defense nor the resistance During the mid-19th century, a new religious leader of the local population was enough to prevent the Rus- emerged as an opponent to Russia. Sheikh Shamil was sians from occupying Erzurum on February 8, 1878. of Dagestani origin and sought the independence of the Caucasus. In order to achieve this goal, Sheikh Shamil With their military operations in the western Cau- called on all Caucasian tribes to unite and rise up against casus, especially Abkhazia, the Ottomans forced the Rus- the Russians. The Ottoman Empire followed Sheikh sians to maintain an important reserve force in Riyon Shamil\u2019s struggle against Russia, but due to fears of Rus- and around the Black Sea between April and August sian reprisal, the Ottomans could not materially support 1877. Despite the numerical superiority of the Ottomans his independence movement. From the beginning of the at the beginning of the war, the Russians claimed victory independence movement in 1834, Sheikh Shamil repeat- at the city of Batumi on the Black Sea coast. The Ottoman edly sent requests to Istanbul for aid. The Ottomans Navy then fled Sukhumi (the capital of Abkhazia, on the never responded with physical assistance. However, as Black Sea) toward the end of August 1877 and Russia caliph, the Ottoman sultan provided moral support and claimed victory in the western Caucasus. The Treaty of credibility for Sheikh Shamil, allowing him to achieve Berlin was signed on July 13, 1878, officially ending the several key victories against the Russians and to stop war and giving Ardahan, Kars, and Batumi to the Rus- their southward advance. sians. Erzurum however, was returned to the Ottomans. The Crimean War of 1853\u201356, which is accepted as At the beginning of World War I, the Ottoman the first modern world war, increased hopes for indepen- Empire allied itself with Germany. The Ottoman view, dence in the Caucasus. When Ottoman-Russian relations as championed by statesmen such as Enver Pasha, was were cut off at the end of May 1853, Sheikh Shamil acted that if Germany could remove the Russian presence, the to prevent the concentration of Russian troops in Dages- empire could seize enormous political and military influ- tan or the surrounding areas between June and October, ence over the Caucasus and Central Asia. Enver Pasha 1853. The Ottomans were pleased with Shamil\u2019s activities considered the Caucasus a top priority and went as far against Russia in Dagestan. The outbreak of the Crimean as to order General Fuad Pasha to incite the Circassians War on October 4, 1853 once again brought Ottoman attention to the Caucasus. In response, Ottoman Sultan","to rebel against the Russians. The war started on Octo- Celali revolts 127 ber 29, 1914, with attacks on the Ukrainian seaports of Odessa and Sevastopol by two Ottoman warships under versity Press, 1953); Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov and Marie the command of Admiral Suchon. The Russian army Broxup, eds., The North Caucasus Barrier: The Russian was quick to retaliate and crossed the Ottoman frontier Advance towards the Muslim World (New York: St. Martin\u2019s, on November 1, 1914. There the Russian army met the 1992); John F Baddeley, The Russian Conquest of the Cauca- Ottoman Third Army, responsible for the Anatolian- sus (New York: Russell & Russell, 1968 [reprint of the 1908 Caucasian front. The invading Russian forces advanced edition]); Thomas M. Barrett, At the Edge of Empire: The upon Pasinler and Eleshkirt where they were repulsed Terek Cossacks and the North Caucasus Frontier, 1700\u20131860 and driven back between November 6 and 12, 1914. On (Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1999); Moshe Gammer, Muslim November 17, 1914, Ottoman units defeated Russian Resistance to the Tsar: Shamil and the Conquest of Chechnia forces once more. and Daghestan (London: F. Cass, 1994); Robert D. Kaplan, Eastward to Tartary: Travels in the Balkans, the Middle East, The most noteworthy battle on the Anatolian-Cauca- and the Caucasus (New York: Random House, 2000); Fir- sian front was the Sarikam\u0131\u015f operation. Between Decem- ouzeh Mostashari, On the Religious Frontier: Tsarist Russia ber 22 1914 and January 3 1915 Ottoman forces led by and Islam in the Caucasus (London: I. B. Tauris, 2006). Enver Pasha moved to the offensive. They were finally defeated by the Russians. The defeat of the Ottoman Celali revolts Although the phrase Celali revolts has force was the beginning of the Ottoman decline on the been widely adopted by modern scholars to identify a front. In the spring of the same year, Russian forces took series of rural Anatolian rebellions against the Ottoman advantage of the Ottoman weakness and captured Van, state in the 16th and 17th centuries following the death of Mu\u015f, and Bitlis in eastern Anatolia, all of which were Sultan S\u00fcleyman I (r. 1520\u201366) in 1566, the term is prob- recaptured by the Ottoman Third Army in the summer. ably a misnomer. The misunderstanding begins with Otto- man court historians of the 17th century who referred to The Russian offensive continued in early 1916 as Rus- the rebellions as Celali revolts after a certain Sheikh Celal, a sian troops captured a number of strategic cities in east- follower of Shah Ismail I (r. 1487\u20131524) who raised a pop- ern Anatolia: Erzurum on February 16; Bitlis and Mu\u015f ular rebellion against the Ottoman state in 1519. Although on March 3; Rize on March 8; Trabzon, Bayburd and his rebellion was simply a continuation of a more general G\u00fcm\u00fc\u015fhane on April 18; Erzincan on July 25; and finally unrest among the Turkoman tribes of central and eastern Van. The Russian presence in these occupied cities con- Turkey that had given rise to the K\u0131z\u0131lba\u015f movement, tinued until 1918 when Russia pulled out of Anatolia as a Ottoman historians sought to distinguish him from the ear- result of the Bolshevik Revolution. Russia signed an armi- lier movement by characterizing him as a mere bandit. The stice with the Ottoman Empire on December 18, 1917. term Celali revolts was then used more widely by Ottoman Immediately following the signing, the Ottomans began officials and court historians to dismiss many subsequent military operations in eastern Anatolia. The First Cauca- rebellions as peasant banditry, even when these uprisings sian Army Corps of the Ottomans, under the command were clearly of a more political nature. of Kazim Karabekir Pasha, captured many of the Russian- held cities and villages within two months. Ottoman forces Historians differ over the reasons for the Celali finally entered Batumi on April 14. The terms of the Treaty rebellions. Some cite evidence of severe economic and of Brest-Litovsk, signed on March 3, 1918, required Russia social pressure in rural Turkey caused by half a century to return the so-called Three Cities (Evliye-i Sel\u00e2se)\u2014Kars, of robust population growth. Others point to the eco- Ardahan, and Batumi\u2014to Ottoman control. nomic upheaval caused by the influx of cheap silver from the Americas; the drop in the real value of silver desta- Following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Ottoman bilized prices and led to rapid inflation. Another factor Empire was again an important power in the Caucasus. that contributed to destabilization in the countryside was The Caucasus Islamic Army under the command of Nuri the proliferation of muskets among the peasants and the Pasha captured Baku from the British on September 15, inability of graduates from the state-run religious schools, 1918. With the signing of the Moudros Armistice, how- or madrasas, to find employment. In fact, all these factors ever, Ottoman superiority in the Caucasus finally ended. probably contributed to the unrest. Another contributing British forces took Baku on November 17 and Batumi on factor was the need of the Ottoman state to recruit extra December 24. The final withdrawal of Ottoman troops men into the military to supplement the standing army occurred in January of 1919, permanently ending the of the Janissaries. These armed men, known as levends, Ottoman presence in the Caucasus. were often former peasants who lacked the discipline of the professional army. By sanctioning their acquisition Mustafa Budak of firearms, the Ottoman state helped transform popular Further reading: W. E. D. Allen and P. P. Muratov, unrest in rural Anatolia into armed rebellion. Caucasian Battlefields: A History of the Wars on the Turco- Caucasian Border, 1828\u20131921 (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-","128 Cem was indebted to the Janissaries for putting him on the throne. Unwilling to accept the orders of a sultan whom After the Ottoman victory over the Habsburgs at he considered illegitimate, Abaza Mehmed organized an Mez\u00f6keresztes in Hungary in 1596, several thousand army of discontented peasants and marched on Ankara. levends deserted the battlefield and fled to Anatolia. His successes created panic in Istanbul and led to the There they rallied discontented peasants under the lead- replacement of Sultan Mustafa by Murad IV (r. 1623\u2013 ership of Karayaz\u0131c\u0131 Abd\u00fclhalim, an unemployed scribe. 40), who was then only 11 years old. Despite the change Sultan Mehmed III (r. 1595\u20131603) was unable to mus- in sultans, Abaza Mehmed continued his rebellion until ter troops to suppress the rebellion because the governor 1628, when he was offered the governorship of Bosnia. of Karaman, who was sent to destroy the rebels, simply He was finally executed for his rebellion in 1634. switched sides. The Ottoman state finally had to buy Karayaz\u0131c\u0131 off by giving him his own governorship in Over the next quarter of a century, other rebellions 1600 while it raised troops to defeat him in 1601. That were mounted by provincial governors, most notably that proved to be a standard strategy by which the sultans of Abaza Hasan Pasha between 1657 and 1659. But none sought to control the Celali leaders. They would sim- threatened the empire as directly as had those of Janbu- ply buy the rebels\u2019 loyalty until such time as they could lad Ali and Abaza Mehmed because they failed to mobi- destroy them. lize popular support for their cause among the peasants. Perhaps the most famous of the Celali rebels was the The examples of these two revolt leaders illustrate Kurdish leader Janbulad Ali Pasha, although his army that the various rebellions that are collectively known as consisted of his kinsmen rather than disgruntled peasants the Celali revolts had little in common with each other with muskets. The Janbulad family had long been the in terms of their origins. But once they were under- chieftains of the Kurdish tribes who inhabited a moun- way, peasants, unemployed religious students, and army tainous area known as K\u00fcrt Da\u011f\u0131 or \u201cMountain of the deserters formed the ranks of the rebels. Large-scale Kurds,\u201d which today is split between Turkey and Syria. looting and plundering of villages and provincial towns Janbulad Ali\u2019s uncle Husayn had served as governor of were also hallmarks of all the rebellions. The frequency Aleppo but fell out of favor with the grand vizier and of these revolts and the difficulty that the central gov- was executed in 1605. Janbulad Ali raised the clan stan- ernment faced in suppressing them point to the growing dard to avenge his uncle. Although some levends from inability of the Istanbul leadership to control the empire\u2019s Anatolia eventually joined his rebellion, the bulk of Ali\u2019s provinces in the decades following the death of Sultan army was made up of Kurds. In another move that dis- S\u00fcleyman. The instability in the countryside led to the tinguished his revolt from other so-called Celali revolts, migration of peasants away from their villages to the rela- Janbulad Ali sought the military support of the Otto- tive safety of walled cities. While there had been popula- mans\u2019 long-standing rival power, Venice. He boasted to tion pressure in the rural areas in the 16th century, the its representatives that he would establish himself as the 17th century witnessed the abandonment of farms and independent sultan of Syria. In an attempt to buy time, villages and an accompanying shortage of rural labor. In Sultan Ahmed I (r. 1603\u20131617) appointed Janbulad Ali the absence of a strong central government, local lead- as Aleppo\u2019s governor in 1605, while simultaneously rais- ers\u2014provincial notable families known as ayan\u2014raised ing an army to crush him. The two armies met in 1607 their own armies to secure the countryside and to collect and the Janbulad forces were defeated. Janbulad Ali sur- tax revenues for the central government. rendered soon afterward and was appointed to a post in remote Wallachia, in present-day Romania. As was Bruce Masters the case earlier with Karayaz\u0131c\u0131, the Ottoman authori- Further reading: Karen Barkey, Bandits and Bureau- ties sought to buy Janbulad Ali\u2019s loyalty until a time when crats: The Ottoman Route to State Centralization (Ithaca, they felt they could remove him permanently without N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1994); William Griswold, a violent reaction from his kinsmen. That opportunity The Great Anatolian Rebellion, 1000\u20131020\/1591\u20131611 (Ber- came in 1610 when Janbulad Ali was executed for trea- lin: Klaus Schwarz, 1983). son in Belgrade. Cem (Djem, Jem) (b. 1459\u2013d. 1495) famous pretender Abaza Mehmed Pasha raised the last of the major to the Ottoman throne Born to Sultan Mehmed II (r. Celali revolts in 1623. Abaza Mehmed was the governor 1444\u201346; 1451\u201381) and \u00c7i\u00e7ek Hatun in 1459, Cem was of the eastern province of Erzurum, today in northeast- appointed prince-governor of Kastamonu on the Black ern Turkey, who became enraged by the murder of Sul- Sea in north-central Anatolia in 1469. During his father\u2019s tan Osman II (r. 1618\u201322) at the hands of Janissaries 1473 campaign against Uzun Hasan (r. 1453\u201378) of the in the previous year. Not trusting anyone connected Akkoyunlu (White Sheep) Turkoman confederation that to the corps, he began to expel the Janissaries from his ruled over eastern Anatolia and Azerbaijan, Cem was province. Those actions led to his dismissal by the newly enthroned Sultan Mustafa I (r. 1617\u201318, 1622\u201323), who","sent to the former Ottoman capital Edirne (in European Cem 129 Turkey) to guard the empire\u2019s European frontiers. After not hearing from his father for 40 days, Cem started to Brother of Bayezid II and pretender to the Ottoman throne, act as sultan. Although upon his return Mehmed II for- Cem Sultan died in exile in France in 1495. In 1499 his body gave his son, the sultan executed his tutors, who were was brought back to the Ottoman household\u2019s ancestral burial behind Cem\u2019s acts. In 1474, Cem replaced his deceased grounds in Bursa. (Photo by G\u00e1bor \u00c1goston) brother Mustafa as prince-governor of Karaman, and left for his new seat in Konya. ters in Elbistan and Mara\u015f, east of the Taurus Mountains in Anatolia. By March 1489, Cem was in Rome and the When Mehmed II died on May 3, 1481, Grand pope started a new round of negotiations with the propo- Vizier Karamani Mehmed Pasha (in office in 1476\u201381), nents of crusade. However, King Matthias Corvinus died who favored Cem, sent word to both Cem and his elder within a year (April 1490), the Mamluks concluded their brother Bayezid, hoping that Cem would arrive first own treaty with Bayezid (1491), and Pope Innocent died because Konya was closer to Istanbul than Bayezid\u2019s in 1492. governorship in Amasya (in central Anatolia). However, the grand vizier\u2019s enemies, supported by the Janissaries, In 1494, for a short time, Cem was again the focus intercepted the messenger sent to Cem, killed the grand of international politics. King Charles VIII of France vizier, and proclaimed Bayezid\u2019s 11-year-old son Korkud (r. 1483\u201398), who invaded Italy, forced the new pope, regent. Korkud had been living in Istanbul along with Alexander (r. 1492\u20131503), to hand Cem over to him. Cem\u2019s son who was being kept close to the throne as a Although Bayezid feared that the French might take him form of insurance against a possible coup d\u2019\u00e9tat. Bayezid into the Balkans, Cem died in Naples shortly after being reached Istanbul on May 21 and was made sultan the handed over to the French on February 25, 1495. It was next day by the Imperial Council. In the meantime, not until April 1499 that Bayezid managed to acquire his Prince Cem reached the old Ottoman capital of Bursa, brother\u2019s corpse for burial in Bursa. Thus ended the saga where he proclaimed himself sultan. Bayezid rejected of the most famous pretender to the Ottoman throne, Cem\u2019s suggestion to divide the empire and defeated him whose ambitions and very identity became a threat to the on June 20 at Yeni\u015fehir, east of Bursa. integrity of the Ottoman Empire. Cem fled to Konya, whence he retreated to Adana, G\u00e1bor \u00c1goston the gateway to the Cilician (\u00c7ukurova) plain south- Further reading: Halil \u0130nalc\u0131k, \u201cDjem,\u201d in Encyclopaedia east of the Taurus Mountains, seat of the Ramazano\u011flu of Islam, edited by P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, Turkoman emirate, a client of the Mamluk Empire of Egypt and Syria. Cem reached the Mamluk capital of Cairo in late September. With the help of the Mamluks and a scion of the now-extinguished Karaman emirs, Cem returned to Anatolia in the spring and summer of 1482 and laid siege to Konya. However, his support- ers were defeated again by Bayezid, who rejected Cem\u2019s repeated suggestion to divide the empire. In the hope that he could cross to Rumelia\u2014the European part of the Ottoman Empire\u2014by sea, Cem arrived in Rhodes, home of the Knights of St. John, whose Grand Master Pierre d\u2019Aubusson he knew from his years as prince-governor in Konya. However, by September 1482, Bayezid had struck a deal with the Knights, who promised to keep Cem in indefinite confinement in their castles in France; in return, they were rewarded with a yearly payment of 45,000 gold ducats from the sultan. Thus started Prince Cem\u2019s miserable adventures as Europe\u2019s pawn. Cem spent the next seven years in France. Both Pope Innocent VIII (r. 1484\u201392) and King Matthias Corvi- nus of Hungary (r. 1458\u201390) wanted to recruit him for their planned anti-Ottoman crusades. So did the Mam- luk Sultan Qayitbay (r. 1468\u201396), who went to war with the Ottomans from 1485 through 1491 over the Cilician plain and the Turkoman emirate of Dulkad\u0131r with its cen-","130 censorship 5, 1727, the first Turkish printing press was established. At first, the printing of religious works was forbidden, E. van Donzel, and W. P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2007. Brill Online. and M\u00fcteferrika published scientific and technical mate- Online edition (by subscription), viewed 6 March 2007: rial only. It was not until 1803 that the ban on printing http:\/\/www.brillonline.nl\/subscriber\/entry?entry=islam_ religious material was lifted. SIM-2062; Roderick Conway Morris, Jem: Memoirs of an Ottoman Secret Agent (New York: St. Martin\u2019s Press, 1988); In the intervening years, other state-sponsored facilities Nicolas Vatin, Sultan Djem: Un prince ottoman dans l\u2019Europe were established for printing books and journals approved du XVe si\u00e8cle d\u2019apr\u00e8s deux sources contemporaines: V\u00e2ki`\u00e2t-i by the authorities. No great need was felt for legal regula- Sult\u00e2n Cem, Oeuvres de Guillaume Caoursin (Ankara: Impr. tions governing printing or publishing at this point because de la Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 turque d\u2019histoire, 1997). no private enterprise was involved, but in later years, as private enterprise began to grow, changes to the law were censorship Printing entered the Ottoman Empire made to allow for state control. The first such regulation, with the arrival in 1492 of Spanish Jews, who went on to the Printing Regulation (Matbaa Nizamnamesi) of Febru- establish printing presses not only in Istanbul but also ary 8, 1857, was the first form of book censorship. Accord- in other cities such as Salonika, Edirne, and Izmir. By ing to this regulation, works being considered for printing the beginning of the 17th century, printing facilities were had to be approved by the Meclis-i Maarif, an office under well established and were being operated by non-Muslims the Ministry of Education. Copies of books and journals in Istanbul and in cities throughout the empire. Censor- printed without permission or considered damaging to the ship, the monitoring and control of printed material, went public were collected by the police, the printers responsible hand-in-hand with the emergence of printing technology, were fined, and their facilities were closed. and censorship grew and expanded as rapidly as printing itself. The first form of censorship prohibited the printing During the reign of Abd\u00fclhamid II (r. 1876\u2013 of works in Turkish and Arabic but allowed the printing 1909), specialized new institutions were established of works in Spanish, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Provided for the purpose of censorship and control. The Telif that they did not use Arabic letters or publish religiously ve Terc\u00fcme Dairesi, a government body that handled provocative material, the authorities did not interfere with copyright and translation, was established for this pur- the activities of non Muslim publishers. When the print- pose, but on December 30, 1881 it was replaced by the ing and publishing of works in Arabic and Turkish began Council of Inspection (Enc\u00fcmen-i Tefti\u015f ve Muay- in the first half of the 18th century, however, problems ene). The function of the latter was not only to inspect arose, leading to stricter regulation. books and journals before they were printed, but also to examine their contents. It also had the authority to CENSORSHIP OF BOOKS control and inspect the contents of books in librar- ies. After the Council of Inspection\u2019s examination, the Ibrahim M\u00fcteferrika, a Hungarian convert to Islam, who Ministry of Education issued a printing license for each founded the first Arabic-letter printing press in the 18th individual work. Approval for the printing of religious century was the first Ottoman to petition to print works works was sought from the office of the \u015feyh\u00fclislam; in Ottoman Turkish, presenting his request to the grand the military granted approval for military works. On vizier, Ibrahim Pasha. In his petition, M\u00fcteferrika average, between five and ten books in languages such underlined the necessity of printing works in Turkish and as Turkish, Arabic, French, Greek, and Armenian were requested permission to publish not only religious works, presented daily to the Council of Inspection for exami- such as tafsir (commentaries on the Quran), hadith (sto- nation and approval. ries from the life of the Prophet), and Muslim canonical law, but also general works, such as dictionaries, histo- In 1892 another commission, the Commission for ries, and books on medicine. When he realized that his the Investigation of Written Works (Tetkik-i Muellefat request was not being viewed favorably, M\u00fcteferrika peti- Komisyonu), was established and affiliated with the Min- tioned the grand vizier to obtain a fatwa or religious istry of Education. This new commission consisted of five ruling from the \u015feyh\u00fclislam, the chief religious official members whose task was to review for the second time of the empire, and a decree from Sultan Ahmed III (r. books in Turkish, Arabic, Persian, as well as Turkish plays 1703\u201330), granting permission for the printing of works that had come from the Council of Inspection. While a in Turkish using the Arabic alphabet. Despite protests book was under examination, discussion was forbidden from those who favored the status quo and who viewed between the book\u2019s publisher and members of the Coun- this enterprise as a harbinger of fundamental social cil. The report prepared for the five-member committee change, the \u015feyh\u00fclislam, Abdullah Efendi, issued a fatwa included the names of the books or plays concerned, a declaring that there was no religious objection to M\u00fcte- summary of their content, the proprietor\u2019s name, a note ferrika\u2019s proposal. As a result of the sultan\u2019s decree of July of how many copies were being requested, and the deci- sion made after the first examination. That the books","could only be printed following these two examinations censorship 131 shows the government\u2019s strictness on censorship. state in a negative light. Newspapers ignoring these regu- The works of many famous writers failed to pass the lations were either temporarily or permanently closed. censorship boards during this period, including those of Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Racine. The work The reign of Abd\u00fclhamid II marked the period of most of Turkish writers such as Namik Kemal, Ziya Pasha, severe censorship. Before publication, newspapers were Ali Suavi, and Abd\u00fclhak Hamid also did not pass the censored by officials at the Press Directorate, which at the censorship board\u2019s review because their works were gen- time was divided into domestic and foreign departments. erally critical of state power. Censorship also seriously The former monitored the content of domestic newspapers, affected the content of school textbooks, with some while the latter inspected foreign papers for negative press important subjects simply being excluded. For example, on the Ottoman Empire, reported this to the government, the text approved for teaching the history of the Ottoman and took any measures considered necessary. Officials at Empire included nothing more than a chronology of the the Press Directorate combed newspapers for what they sultans. Although Mizanc\u0131 Murad, a famous journalist, deemed unsuitable or damaging language or content. This mentioned important movements and events, such as the unsuitable content was then removed prior to the newspa- French Revolution, in his book written for high schools per\u2019s release. Papers were forbidden to use words such as in 1890, it was a dangerous undertaking at this time to \u201cstrike,\u201d \u201cassassination,\u201d \u201crevolution,\u201d \u201canarchy,\u201d \u201crepublic,\u201d write about contemporary international events, and lit- \u201cfreedom,\u201d or even to refer to these concepts. tle correct information was presented in the classroom on major events in human history. In works concerning Indeed, during the reign of Abd\u00fclhamid II, in all Russia, the emphasis was solely on its aggressive foreign areas of life up to and including political debate, news- policy, while books regarding France elaborated on little papers were little more than official organs of the state. other than the wars of Napoleon Bonaparte. Those seeking permission to produce a newspaper first had to inform the authorities of the political line they Stamps on the cover of a book indicated Ministry would be following. The Press Directorate gave priority of Education approval; any books lacking this stamp to newspapers that chose not to include political news were seized for being printed without the required per- when granting permission for publication, while those mission. Books printed without approval were seized papers covering politics were not allowed defame the whenever and wherever they were found, including on government. Individuals planning to publish papers were printer\u2019s premises or in bookshops. In Istanbul, the col- required to guarantee this preferential treatment and lected books were sent to the Ministry of Education for were expected to refrain from spreading rumor or specu- burning; in rural areas they were collected and burned lation concerning civil servants, publishing unsuitable locally. In 1902, a May burning held in the \u00c7emberlita\u015f extracts from foreign newspapers, or broadcasting any Bathhouse, a building next to the Ministry of Education, information on military matters or preparations. News- destroyed 29,681 items, including those of the celebrated papers that ignored these stipulations were closed down, Turkish authors noted above. either temporarily or permanently. For example, follow- ing the July 10, 1894 earthquake, the newspaper Sabah NEWSPAPER CENSORSHIP (Morning) was closed for printing that the Military Col- lege had been destroyed in the tremors, resulting in 22 Censorship of newspapers began on December 31, injuries and three deaths. Sultan Abd\u00fclhamid II not only 1864, when the first regulation governing the news press shut down Sabah but also ordered other newspapers to was enacted, and remained in force until 1909. Accord- publish news contradicting the story\u2019s veracity. Follow- ing to this regulation, in order to publish a newspaper, ing Sabah\u2019s closure, other newspapers published only an Ottoman citizen was required to apply to the Minis- approved news concerning damage and casualties caused try of Education and a foreigner was required to apply by the earthquake. Today this decision renders it almost to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Inspections followed impossible to determine, with any certainty, the numbers to determine if the applicant would be allowed to do so. killed and the damage done by this natural disaster. With each new edition, a copy bearing the signature of the owner or editor in chief had to be sent to the Press Fear of fines and closure during the reign of Abd\u00fcl- Directorate in Istanbul or to the local governor in the hamid II reign meant that news of even the most mun- province in which it was being published. The Press Reg- dane variety was carefully and cautiously prepared. In ulation stated all points to be taken into account when particular, news that revealed weakness on the part of preparing the newspaper for publishing. Fines or impris- the state was subject to extreme censorship, leading to onment were the penalties for publishing news that dis- the closure of many newspapers. Thus the domestic press turbed the peace, endangered state security, or portrayed was entirely under state control, while the foreign press the sultan, grand vizier, government, or any foreign allied was strictly monitored. Ottoman ambassadors through- out Europe were responsible for immediately telegraph- ing to the sultan\u2019s palace any news items derogatory to","132 ceramics the Islamic word. Ottoman ceramists produced a range of products that display a distinctive aesthetic evolution. the empire. In response, letters contradicting these news Key to the development of Ottoman ceramics were the items were written and the newspapers concerned were workshops at Iznik (Nicaea). These underwent a quality sued. In order to ensure that such foreign press did not change in the late 15th century following the settlement enter the empire, strict controls were put in place at cus- there of ceramic masters from Tabriz, who may have toms and in post offices. Abd\u00fclhamid II even personally arrived via Edirne. Instead of the rough red-clay vessels inspected publications for objectionable items on politi- with a monochrome glaze that these workshops had hith- cal or religious grounds. Lists of all newspapers seized by erto produced, there now appeared vessels made from officials at customs and post offices were presented to the fine white clay rich in silica and embellished with painted palace, including the name and number of the newspa- motifs beneath a colorless and transparent glaze. per, its place of origin and language, and the reasons for its seizure. A major reason for the choice of Iznik as a sup- plier of ceramic products to the sultan\u2019s court was that However, despite all these controls, foreign publi- it lay nearer to the capital, Istanbul, than did K\u00fctahya, cations got through by various means. Often they were another major center of ceramic production. From the smuggled among packages of publications not forbidden last quarter of the 15th century onward, increasingly or sent to foreign post offices between book covers. Since close links were established between the Iznik potters and the authorities had no means of exercising direct control the Topkap\u0131 Palace\u2019s nakka\u015fhane (painters\u2019 workshop), over foreign-run post offices or embassies, there was no which was established by Sultan Mehmed II (r. 1444\u201346; great difficulty involved in smuggling banned publica- 1451\u201381). This studio played a singular role in the devel- tions into the empire by these methods. The entry and opment of classic Ottoman art. The stylistic trends and distribution of such publications to the wider popula- decorative motifs worked out by the select team of highly tion was therefore conducted mainly by foreign residents trained masters working there were used not only in within the empire. ceramics but also in almost every branch of the arts. The styles developed in the nakka\u015fhane can be seen in Iznik A subject of particular concern and fear for Abd\u00fcl- products from the beginning of the 16th century. hamid II was how domestic events were reflected in the foreign press, and his overriding anxiety about this issue CERAMIC WALL TILES meant that financial payments were made to foreign newspapers and reporters attached to them to ensure The embellishment of the exterior and interior surfaces of that no negative reports of the empire appeared. Unfor- buildings has a long tradition in Islamic art. The earliest tunately, this method failed, and indeed led to increasing architectural relics from the Samarra palace of the caliphs numbers of damaging news items, with some newspapers of Baghdad date from the first half of the ninth century. even exploiting the situation to blackmail the empire. The origins of Ottoman wall tile production can be traced to a number of factors. Along with continuing local tradi- Although censorship was officially lifted on July tions, Seljuk buildings covered with wall tiles clearly had 23, 1908, the new Press Law, which came into effect the an effect. Nevertheless, new types of wall tile appeared following year (on July 29, 1909), continued to impose during the first half of the 15th century in the territo- severe restrictions on the press. ries of Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt. This was in all like- lihood occasioned by the release and dispersion in 1411 Fatmag\u00fcl Demirel of the master ceramists gathered together in Samarkand Further reading: Donald J. Cioeta, \u201cOttoman Cen- (now in Uzbekistan) by Timur (r. 1370\u20131405). The work sorship in Lebanon and Syria, 1876\u20131908.\u201d International of these masters is connected with the so-called interna- Journal of Middle East Studies 10, no. 2 (1979): 167\u201386; tional Timurid style, which features motifs adopted from Fatmag\u00fcl Demirel, II. Abd\u00fclhamid D\u00f6nemin\u2019de Sans\u00fcr Chinese and Islamic art and which is evident on the wall (\u0130stanbul: Ba\u011flam Yay\u0131nlar\u0131, 2007); Johann Strauss, \u201cPrint- tiles of 12 structures from the first half of the 15th century ing and Publishing in a Multi-Ethnic Society,\u201d in Late Otto- spread across Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt. man Society: The Intellectual Legacy, edited by Elisabeth \u00d6zdalga (London: Routledge Curzon, 2005), 225\u2013253; \u0130pek Under Sultan Mehmed I (r. 1413\u201321), work began Yosmao\u011flu, \u201cChasing the Printed World: Press Censorship on the Ye\u015fil (green) Cami and T\u00fcrbe in Bursa, the first in the Ottoman Empire, 1876\u20131913.\u201d Turkish Studies Asso- Ottoman capital. The head of the team that made the tile ciation Journal 27, no. 1\u20132 (2003): 15\u201350. coverings for these two structures (which were finished in 1424) was Ali ibn Ilyas, a Bursa man who had spent ceramics Ceramics may be defined as vessels and some years in Timur\u2019s capital, Samarkand. The Ye\u015fil other items made from clay and heated to a high temper- Cami and T\u00fcrbe exhibit close kinship with a number of ature to create a durable, watertight material. These are buildings in Samarkand. Another factor was the appear- often glazed and embellished. Ceramics was one of the most important and highly developed branches of art in","ance in Bursa at this time of masters from Tabriz. The ceramics 133 ceramists who made the tiles for the Ye\u015fil Cami describe themselves\u2014in the inscription above the mihrab (a niche (t\u00fcrbes) in Bursa were made in Iznik, as were those for or blind arch in the wall of a mosque indicating the the Yeni Valide Mosque (1522\u201323) at Manisa (20 miles direction of Mecca)\u2014as coming from the city of Tabriz. northeast of Izmir) and the \u00c7oban Mustafa Pasha t\u00fcrbe It is in the meeting of these two elements in Bursa that (1528\u201329) at Gebze (southeast of Istanbul on the north- Ottoman tile manufacturing has its origins. From the eastern coast of the Sea of Marmara). Other examples first decades of the 15th century, itinerant Tabriz potters of Iznik work are the tile panels\u2014painted in the famous played a significant role in wall tile production in Anato- Persian saz style\u2014that embellish the facade of the lia, Syria, and Egypt. Topkap\u0131 Palace\u2019s S\u00fcnnet or Circumcision Room. From Bursa, the Ottoman capital moved to Edirne, From the late 15th century onward, data indicate and the technique, shape, and motifs of the tiles on that Iznik products were used at the Topkap\u0131 Palace the mosque built there in 1435 for Sultan Murad II (r. itself. Two are mentioned in a treasury inventory from 1421\u201344; 1446\u201351) show a close kinship with those from 1496, and 11 feature in a treasury inventory from 1505. Persian workshops. Featuring motifs of Chinese origin In 1582 Sultan Murad III (r. 1574\u201395) organized a huge painted in blue and black beneath the glaze, the hexago- celebration to which many European ambassadors were nal tiles on this mosque can be linked with tiles on the invited. At a banquet held during the festivities, approxi- mausoleum in Damascus that were made by Tabriz mas- mately 1,000 Iznik vessels were used. It was, perhaps, no ters for the Mamluk governor (Ghars ad-Din Khalil al coincidence that the fashion in Europe for Iznik ceramics Tawrizi) in 1430. The use of a white-colored clay rich in began soon after these celebrations. By way of Venetian silica was likewise a technological innovation of Persian and Genoese traders, Iznik items reached not only Italy, origin. The tiles on Edirne\u2019s \u00dc\u00e7 \u015eerefeli Cami (1438\u201348) but also Germany and England. Plates made in Iznik can be linked to work by a group of these same masters. and embellished with European coats of arms make ref- The year 1500 saw Tabriz masters already well established erence to customers in Italy and Dalmatia. Especially at Iznik. favored were jugs, which were supplied with metal cov- ers made in European workshops. One such cover (now IZNIK CERAMICS in the city of Halle, Germany) once belonged to Elector Johann Friedrich of Brandenburg. Although the jug itself During the first half of the 16th century, Iznik and K\u00fcta- has been lost or destroyed, the inscription on the remain- hya seem to have been equally important as centers of ing cover proudly proclaims that it was made in Nicaea ceramic arts, but Iznik\u2019s proximity to Istanbul and its close (now Iznik) and was brought to Halle in 1582. contacts with the court workshops there resulted in its pulling ahead of K\u00fctahya to become the most important From the 1560s onward, Iznik ceramics production ceramic workshop in the empire. The work of the respec- felt the impact of Kara Memi, head of the nakka\u015fhane at tive centers is usually identified by scholars on the basis of that time. It was he who worked out the so-called four the features of two important pieces produced in K\u00fctahya: flowers style, which featured the tulip, the carnation, the a spouted jug from 1510 and a flask made in 1529. The rose, and the hyacinth. The plum blossom was added decoration, now known as the Abraham of K\u00fctahya style, later. The finest pieces in this style recall the mood of gar- features ornamental motifs of stylized lotus buds and lotus dens in bloom. In some cases the flowers were arranged flowers on branches with meandering tendrils and long in a symmetrical picture; other pieces depicted a garden leaves that frequently end in a sharp point. To this pattern through which wind was blowing, with stems bending are often added cloud motifs adopted from Chinese art. this way and that, and with some of them broken. Of The K\u00fctahya flask is in the Tu\u011frake\u015f spiralis style (for- course, nakka\u015fhane motifs used earlier did not disappear merly called the Golden Horn style), which takes its name entirely. The so-called saz style, which originated in Per- from the sultan\u2019s ornamented tu\u011fra, or monogram, and sia, lived on for many decades; indeed, it was often used is decorated in a style reminiscent of the tu\u011fra\u2019s ornamen- in combination with the four flowers style. tation. The tu\u011fra itself contained the words \u201cEver Victori- ous\u201d; on it artists embellished the name of the monarch, In the covering of surfaces, designs consisting of a the name of his father, and the background of the letters number of different tiles were executed (tile panels). The with finely drawn meandering tendrils supplied with tiny technological innovations developed at this time were leaves and flowers. just as important. Traditional blue and white painting on the Chinese pattern beneath a colorless glaze now gave By the early 1500s, Iznik had already become the way to more vivid coloration. The greatest example of main supplier of ceramics to the ruling house. For exam- technical bravura was the use of bole red in relief-like ple, the tiles for the reconstruction in the 1510s of the application. On pieces made during the second half of the \u015eehzade (Prince) Mustafa and \u015eehzade Mahmud tombs 16th century, the use of cobalt blue, bole red, turquoise, and dark green was characteristic. The background was white or cobalt blue.","134 Cezzar Ahmed Pasha earlier. According to some, output remained steady in the first half of this century, although quality declined, with The finest creations of the classic era of Iznik ceram- simplification taking place on the artistic and technologi- ics production from this period are to be seen on the cal levels alike. most important Istanbul buildings of the second half of the century: the S\u00fcleymaniye Mosque (1557), the tombs In 1724, with the help of masters brought from Iznik, of Sultan S\u00fcleyman I (r. 1520\u201366) and his wife Hur- the Tekfursaray ceramics workshop was founded in rem Sultan (1566 and 1558 respectively), the mosque Istanbul. However, despite every effort to prevent it, the of R\u00fcstem Pasha (1561), and the Selimiye Mosque in leading role in ceramics production passed not to Istan- Edirne (1569\u201375). bul but to Iznik\u2019s old rival, K\u00fctahya. DAMASCUS CERAMICS Ibolya Gerelyes Further reading John Carswell, \u201cCeramics,\u201d in Tulips, As a result of building operations begun there in the Arabesques and Turbans: Decorative Arts from the Ottoman 1550s (the heyday of Iznik production), ceramic art in Empire, edited by Yanni Petsopoulos (New York: Abbeville, Damascus underwent significant development. The 1982), 73\u2013121; John Carswell, \u0130znik Pottery (London: Brit- local pottery industry received a powerful boost when ish Museum Press, 1998); Nurhan Atasoy, Julian Raby, and a team of potters led by Abdullah Tabrizi chose to work Yanni Petsopoulos, \u0130znik, the Pottery of Ottoman Turkey in Aleppo and Damascus following completion of the (London: Alexandria, 1994). repairs to the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, in which stencils had been used extensively. This technique was Cezzar Ahmed Pasha (Cezzar Ahmet Pasha; Djezzar then employed on the tile panels on the Great Mosque Pasha) (d. 1804) (r. 1777\u20131804) warlord and governor in Aleppo as well as on a number of Ottoman edifices in of Acre Cezzar Ahmed Pasha was a Bosnian adventurer Damascus. These include a complex of buildings named who became the dominant political personality in Syria after Sultan S\u00fcleyman\u2014the Takya al-Sulaymaniya (1554\u2013 in the last quarter of the 18th century. His greatest tri- 60)\u2014and the madrasa (1566\u201367) erected by Sultan Selim umph was in 1799 when, from his fortress in the town of II (r. 1566\u201374). Acre, he stalled the advance of Napoleon Bonaparte. Ahmed left his native Bosnia and, like many other young After this, however, a series of tile coverings was Muslim men, sought his fortune in Egypt, where wealth made using a new technique: the underglaze painting and opportunity abounded. There he gained employment technique developed in Iznik. Initially, the stock of motifs as a hired gun in the household of Bulutkapan Ali Bey in on these tiles followed classic Ottoman examples, but the 1760s. In that role, he dealt ruthlessly with the Bed- from the end of the century onward the Damascus mas- ouins of the Libyan Desert who were in rebellion over ters, having broken with the Iznik originals, introduced a taxes imposed upon them by his master Ali Bey. It was looser, freer manner of depiction, one that often showed they who gave him his nickname, Cezzar (the Butcher), living creatures, among them birds and fish. Neverthe- for the execution of dozens of Bedouin tribesmen. less, from a technological standpoint, these masters were never able to match the brilliant green and the relief-like In the political vacuum created after the death in 1775 bole red characteristic of Iznik products. The colors used of Zahir al-Umar, the chieftain of the Ziyadina clan who on Damascus tiles continued to be blue, turquoise, man- had dominated what is today northern Israel for almost ganese purple, and flat green. half a century, Cezzar Ahmed sought to ingratiate himself to Sultan Abd\u00fclhamid I (r. 1774\u20131789) by reasserting the After the end of the 16th century, a fundamental sultan\u2019s authority in the port city of Acre. He was rewarded change took place. The last major wall tile order from a in 1777 with the governorship of the Lebanese province ruler was for 20,000 tiles for the Sultan Ahmed Mosque of Sidon, a position he held until his death. Although the (1609\u20131616) in Istanbul. During the 17th century, out- authorities in Istanbul feared that he aimed to estab- put at Iznik fell off. Characteristic of this new age was lish his autonomy from the empire, as his former master the covering of a given surface with tiles that were all the in Egypt had done, Cezzar Ahmed was able to secure the same and not with tile panels made up of different tiles. governorship of Damascus at several different times, with Technical execution, too, became less exacting: the bril- his longest tenure in that office lasting from 1790 until liant glaze of the classic period became shabby and the 1795. Through his abilities to defeat the rebellious Druze earlier variety of colors disappeared, yielding place to and Shii clans of southern Lebanon, and by providing blue and turquoise. Nevertheless, in the first half of the local security and enabling the uninterrupted flow of taxes 17th century important creations were still being made. to Istanbul, Cezzar Ahmed simply made himself too valu- Examples are the Topkap\u0131 Palace\u2019s Revan Pavilion (1635) able for Istanbul to remove. Nonetheless, the Ottoman and Baghdad Pavilion (1637\u20131639). Visiting Iznik in government remained wary and tried to remove him from 1648, the much-quoted Ottoman traveler and writer Evliya \u00c7elebi mentioned that just nine workshops were in operation. This contrasts with the 300 active a century","power whenever possible. Sensing his vulnerability, Cez- charity 135 zar Ahmed chose to remain in heavily fortified Acre even when he held the governorship of Damascus, and did not on festivals or to mark particular celebrations, or the take up permanent residence in that city. shelter afforded by a mosque or Sufi convent. Almost any occasion, sacred or secular, might be accompanied by the In a century when locally prominent families, the beneficent distribution of money, food, clothing, or other ayan, dominated the politics of Syria, Cezzar Ahmed was benefits. Yet while charity appears to have been a univer- a consummate outsider, being a non-Arab without a large sal practice in the Ottoman Empire, each action acquired extended family to support him. Having lived in Egypt social, cultural, and political meaning within the con- and risen through the ranks in a Mamluk household text of its specific occasion and the individual donor and there, he sought to replicate a similar patron-client rela- recipient involved. tionship in Acre with his own mamluks, who remained subordinate to him and under his direct command, while The religious traditions of Muslims, who made up sometimes holding governorships in Tyre and Tripoli. the majority of Ottoman subjects, as well as those of the Jewish and Christian minorities, encouraged beneficence Learning from the mistakes of Zahir al-Umar, Cezzar to the weak and the poor. Giving alms (zakat) is required Ahmed was careful to keep himself in good graces with of all Muslims who possess more than the minimum nec- the sultan and his court. His two main rivals for control essary for subsistence, and the Quran repeatedly reminds of southern Syria were the al-Azm family, whose mem- believers that prayer and almsgiving are fundamental bers frequently filled the governorship of Damascus, and aspects of belief. Alms are due from money earned in the Shihab family in the Lebanese mountains. Although order to remove the taint of profit from the sum remain- the two families often worked together against his rising ing. In addition, voluntary giving (sadaqah) is recom- political power, Cezzar Ahmed usually held the upper mended emphatically as a way for believers to approach hand due to his wealth and his phalanx of hired men. God and to atone for transgressions in the hopes of reach- ing Paradise after death. Traditions about the Prophet Cezzar Ahmed\u2019s moment in the international spot- Muhammad (hadith) make it clear that anyone, even the light came in 1799 when he was able to withstand the poor, can give charity, if only by offering a blessing. siege of Acre by Napoleon Bonaparte, albeit aided by an outbreak of plague that decimated the French ranks. Charitable practice as advocated by Muslim belief and Napoleon\u2019s forces had quickly dispatched the Mamluks religious texts was reinforced for the Ottomans through in Egypt the year before, and the French general had other traditions. Philanthropic donations by the Chris- assumed that the Ottoman Empire would offer no stiffer tian rulers of the Byzantine Empire, which preceded the resistance. But Cezzar Ahmed\u2019s stubborn refusal to sur- Ottomans in Anatolia, supported a variety of charitable render, added to the harassment his forces were suffer- good works including hospices for travelers, hospitals, ing from the British fleet in the eastern Mediterranean, and facilities for the elderly and orphans, and these insti- forced Napoleon to reconsider his plans for empire in tutions left an influential imprint in the central Ottoman the Middle East, and he returned to Egypt. Napoleon left lands. Following in the tradition of the Byzantines, the Egypt not long after his less-than-triumphant campaign Muslim Seljuk rulers of Anatolia (see Seljuks) established in Syria, but his forces stayed on to occupy the coun- charitable endowments that sustained immense khans or try until 1801 when a combined British-Ottoman force caravansarays along the trade routes, as well as mosques, secured their surrender. colleges or madrasas, and hospitals in Ottoman cities. Long-standing habits of generous hospitality were a legacy Bruce Masters of the Turkic nomadic predecessors of the Ottomans, as Further reading: Thomas Philipp, Acre: The Rise and well as the contemporary practice of Kurdish, Turkoman, Fall of a Palestinian City, 1730\u20131831 (New York: Columbia and Arab tribes within the empire. In 14th-century Ana- University Press, 2001). tolia, the North African traveler Ibn Battuta noted (and enjoyed) the competition between ahis (guild-like brother- Chaldeans See Nestorians. hoods) for the privilege of hosting travelers in their towns. charity Charity touched most people in the Ottoman Under the Ottomans, distributions of material goods Empire, as either donors or recipients, whether in the as well as favors of protection and promotion created form of small individual acts of spontaneous generos- widespread patronage networks of power and interde- ity, regular distributions at holidays or celebrations, or pendence throughout the empire. Together, sincere faith, through the social services offered by a public foundation impulses to hospitality, and patronage deriving from (waqf). Considered equally as charity were alms given to political, economic, or social motivations all inspired beggars, food distributed irrespective of economic need similar kinds of actions, overlapping both materially and symbolically, which could be labeled \u201ccharity,\u201d depending on the circumstances and on the different perspectives of donors, recipients, and observers. Individual dona-","136 charity table endowments. Each mosque complex formed the nucleus of an urban neighborhood or town. They estab- tions of money, food, clothing, or shelter were probably lished spaces for ritual and social services and the money the most prevalent forms of charity among the Otto- to pay their staff, offered clean water, and were often mans, as in most societies. Such acts, however, left few planted with shade trees and a garden. The endowed rev- and unsystematic traces and are largely impossible to enues of such complexes might be periodically reinforced recover or to quantify historically. References to indi- by direct imperial contributions of cash or the endow- vidual generosity, mostly of noteworthy persons such as ment of additional properties. The S\u00fcleymaniye mosque sultans, imperial women, and high-ranking officials, are complex in the center of the old city of Istanbul epito- scattered throughout the chronicle accounts of Otto- mizes such complexes, containing a huge congregational man historians. From them can be derived a represen- mosque (cami), colleges (madrasas) for each of the four tative if incomplete catalog of charitable institutions Muslim schools of law, a primary school (mekteb), public and deeds. For example, the 15th-century Ottoman his- kitchen (imaret), hospice (tabhane), hospital (bimarhane) torian A\u015f\u0131kpa\u015fazade lists the works of the early sultans. with a medical school, public toilets, and the tombs of the He claims that Sultan Orhan (r. 1324\u201362) built the first founder, Sultan S\u00fcleyman I (r. 1520\u201366), and his wife Ottoman public kitchen in Iznik (Nicaea, in northwest- Hurrem Sultan (d. 1558). Thousands of people could ern Anatolia), adding the anecdote\u2014possibly true, pos- pray together inside the mosque, while the public kitchen sibly a literary topos\u2014that Orhan lit the first fire with his fed over 1,000 persons daily including the staff of the own hands. A contemporary biography of the late 16th- complex, the students and teachers in the schools, poor century imperial architect Mehmed Agha offered a por- people from the neighborhood, and travelers. Education trait of private beneficence. Mehmed Agha\u2019s biographer was free for those who qualified for admission, while the praised the generous and unpublicized contributions of hospital took no fees from patients, although people able his patron, which were mostly in the form of small gifts to afford a private doctor were usually treated at home. to the needy people and regularly feeding a variety of people from his own kitchen. Unlike informal donations, endowments gener- ated extensive written and material records as testimony Endowments, or waqfs, were often the most promi- of charitable practice, making them accessible subjects nent and visible form of charity, established according to of historical study. Foundation deeds, account ledgers, specific conditions under Muslim law (sharia). Large imperial orders, and the records of local judicial proceed- and small property owners could make endowments by ings all preserve myriad details (if not always systematic donating some kind of freehold property, the income histories) of the establishment and management of thou- from which would sustain a defined purpose. Revenues sands of endowments around the empire. From these it derived from the property\u2014such as taxes on agricul- becomes clear that the founders were men and women tural lands, rents from houses, shops, or bathhouses, from every part of the property-owning classes, urban or cash loaned out at interest (a unique feature of Otto- and rural alike, and that the endowments were integral to man endowments)\u2014were directed to support specified the local economies as employers, consumers, suppliers, institutions or beneficiaries, such as mosques, schools, borrowers, and sources of small loans. hospitals, hospices, public kitchens, roadside fountains, fortresses, bridges, birdfeeders, neighborhood tax-pay- Endowments, and charitable endeavors in general, ing funds, dowry funds, and private family foundations. offered women an important means to participate in pub- All were established and sustained with the intention that lic political and social spheres. The mothers, wives, and they last for eternity; in reality, some of them functioned sisters of sultans as well as many other property-owning for hundreds of years, while others were defunct within women made endowments in their own names and sup- a generation. Revenue-producing properties might ported the same kinds of institutions already mentioned. include as little as one room in a house or as much as the K\u00f6sem Sultan (d. 1651), the mother of sultans Murad extensive agricultural lands, urban markets, and dwell- IV (r. 1623\u201340) and Ibrahim I (r. 1640\u201348), endowed a ings needed to sustain a mosque and all its subsidiary large caravansary that included a mosque in the cen- buildings and activities. Any purpose, as long as it did tral commercial area of Istanbul. Turhan Sultan, mother not contradict basic Muslim principles, was a legitimate of Sultan Mehmed IV (r. 1648\u201387), endowed two for- beneficiary of an endowment. Thus Christians and Jews tresses at the entrance to the Dardanelles as well as the also made endowments according to Muslim law that large Yeni Cami mosque in Emin\u00f6n\u00fc, Istanbul. supported community services such as soup kitchens or schools, although they could not make endowments for Making endowments enabled individuals to channel churches or synagogues. funds toward purposes they chose from a range of goals permitted by sharia, mostly considered as contributing to The great mosque complexes in the imperial capi- public welfare (maslaha) broadly defined. For sultans and tals of Bursa, Edirne, and Istanbul, as well as those their households, the waqfs were an important and highly in smaller cities and towns, were all established as chari-","visible means of establishing legitimacy and reinforcing charity 137 popular support by demonstrating strength, prosper- ity, and a commitment to the public welfare of Ottoman Sufis\u2014Muslim mystics also called dervishes\u2014were subjects. Imperial women were important in getting this prominent beneficiaries of charitable donations in the message out, with the advantage that their efforts might Ottoman Empire. Many of the Sufi orders (see Sufism) not be misinterpreted as publicizing their own personal encouraged their adherents to give up material posses- strength at the expense of the sultan\u2019s, as might happen sions and sustain themselves exclusively from the dona- with a prince of the dynasty. tions of patrons, including Ottoman sultans as well as people of more modest means. For this reason, the Sufis All charity, however, contained some message about were also referred to regularly as fakir (poor). Some the status of both giver and recipient, no matter what orders had well-endowed zaviyes (convents or lodges) their initial social standing in relation to one another that could feed and host the needy as well as their adher- might be. The contrast between endowment making and ents, while also providing space for Sufi ceremonies and more discreet forms of charity, such as those of Mehmed teaching. Thus Sufis were often both recipients and bene- Agha, may reflect the character of the donor. Endow- factors, distributing the revenues of their zaviyes and ments provided other advantages to their founders, such their begging to the needy. as the ability to preserve the unity of property and mon- eys that would otherwise one day be divided according For most of the Ottoman era, charity was an individ- to Muslim laws of inheritance, or the possibility of pro- ual practice, no matter how large or small the donation. tecting wealth from confiscation, a not uncommon risk Through the reign of Abd\u00fclhamid II (r. 1876\u20131909), among holders of high office. Charitable acts in general sultans continued to use charitable donations as a means were performed for a variety of reasons: to attain Para- to legitimate their rule, reinforcing the idea of the sultan dise after death, to intercede on behalf of those who had as provider and protector of all his subjects, inspired by died, to ward off calamity, to promote recovery from ill- religious obligation as well as imperial tradition. Only in ness, to celebrate festivals, or to mark noteworthy events. the later 19th century does the repertoire of charitable practice change substantially. As well as continuing to Beneficence took many forms, which are most eas- build mosques and sponsor mass circumcision ceremo- ily reconstructed from what we know of the lives of the nies for tens of thousands of boys, Abd\u00fclhamid II also wealthy. Not surprisingly, the distributions of the sultans established a large orphanage in Istanbul. Both circumci- on the occasion of celebrations such as the circumci- sions and the orphanage were advertised as adhering to sion of an Ottoman prince or the wedding of an impe- modern methods for the benefit of the children as well as rial daughter (and perhaps those of some high-ranking society as a whole. dignitaries) inspired written and sometimes illustrated accounts. At these festivities, banquets were offered for Beneficent associations also appeared, among the high-ranking officials and the poor alike. Together with first of which was the Ottoman Red Crescent Society. the princes, the sultans sponsored the circumcisions of The society began its activities in the wake of the bru- hundreds of poor boys, offering them new clothing and a tally destructive Crimean War, but grew only in fits gift of money. Distributions of coins took place as part of and starts until the turn of the century. The Young Turk the imperial procession to and from mosques where the Revolution of 1908 (see Young Turks) provided further sultans attended Friday noon prayers. The return of the impetus to replace imperial endeavors with state-spon- victorious army from campaign was another occasion for sored efforts and institutions, although these were soon distributing largesse. Women from the imperial house- overwhelmed by the humanitarian challenges of the Bal- hold had their own beneficent projects. For example, the kan wars and World War I, forcing the reopening of queen mother K\u00f6sem Sultan annually sent money to be institutions such as public kitchens and providing the distributed to the poor of Mecca and Medina, as well impetus for new kinds of charitable associations such as as going out incognito in Istanbul to arrange the release the Children\u2019s Protection Society. from prison of debtors and criminals by paying what was required. Charity in the Ottoman Empire was far from uni- form, as practices varied according to local conditions The historical record of the Ottomans contains much and customs. The charitable impulse, whether the result more evidence for voluntary giving than for the canoni- of religious faith or personal self-interest, was the major cal obligation to give alms. References to almsgiving in form of emergency relief and welfare sustenance for discussions of Muslim law or in formal legal opinions those who slipped below the level of independent sub- (fatwa) make it clear that Ottoman Muslims were aware sistence, for whatever reason. Moreover, many charitable of the obligation, yet the overall impression is that pay- or philanthropic endeavors in the Ottoman Empire, as ment was a matter of individual action and conscience, in the contemporary world, benefited people of means not regulated formally by any state apparatus. as well as those described as poor or destitute, particu- larly in large public endowments such as mosques and fountains.","138 Christians to the Egyptian cities of Cairo and Damascus, and by the middle of the 16th century, to the center of the Otto- Nor was charity without its critics. For example, the man empire in Istanbul. From that point on, coffee was late 16th-century bureaucrat and intellectual, Mustafa Ali, an empire-wide phenomenon, and an addiction that was railed against sultans who made charitable endowments indulged by sultans and commoners alike. without earning the means to do so (because endow- ments were supposed to be based on personal wealth and The spread of coffee drinking and coffeehouses not from the state treasury). Others questioned the sin- did not go unopposed, however. Muslim legal schol- cerity of people who made endowments that served only ars (ulema) were initially uncertain as to whether the their families. Charity exploited economic strength to drink, which was clearly a stimulant, was legal. To some, create and maintain social and political hierarchies. Even it seemed that it strayed into the category of alcoholic modest neighborhood distributions ultimately reinforced drinks or narcotics, both of which Islamic law forbids positions of relative power and weakness. Exclusion from the faithful to imbibe. In addition, coffeehouses became beneficent distributions was a clear signal of truly mar- gathering places for unsavory types and were viewed ginal or outsider status. Yet the manifold forms of char- with suspicion as providing the setting for immoral and ity supported by Ottoman culture were also constructive seditious behavior. The use of tobacco, which was enter- and flexible, producing some of the empire\u2019s most glori- ing the Ottoman Empire at roughly the same time, also ous monuments. raised eyebrows. Sultan Murad IV (r. 1623\u201340) outlawed both coffeehouses and the smoking of tobacco in 1633, Amy Singer but that action had no long-lasting effect on his subjects\u2019 Further reading: Michael Bonner, Mine Ener, and Amy consumption of either substance. Singer, eds., Poverty and Charity in Middle Eastern Contexts (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003); Leslie By the middle of the 17th century, coffeehouses Peirce, The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the were found in every Ottoman city, and even some vil- Ottoman Empire (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993); lages boasted of having one. Although there was a long- Amy Singer, Constructing Ottoman Beneficence: An Imperial established tradition of taverns in the Ottoman Empire, Soup Kitchen in Jerusalem (Albany: State University of New because they were owned and operated by Christians, York Press, 2002); T. H. Weir and A. Zysow, \u201cSadaka,\u201d in Muslims were suspicious of them as places of immo- Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., vol. 8 (Leiden: Brill, 1960\u2013) rality. The proliferation of coffeehouses thus created a 708\u201316; A. Zysow, \u201cZak\u0101t,\u201d in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd social space for Muslim men that had previously been ed., vol. 11 (Leiden: Brill, 1960\u2013), 406\u201322; Rudolph Peters lacking, although their appearance did not diminish the et al., \u201cWakf,\u201d in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., vol. 11 appeal of taverns to those less concerned with religious (Leiden: Brill, 1960\u2013), 59\u201399. propriety. The 17th-century Ottoman travel author, Evliya \u00c7elebi, described coffeehouses in major cities, Christians See Armenian Apostolic Church; Bul- including some that could serve up to 1,000 patrons at a garian Orthodox Church; Copts; Greek Ortho- time. In addition to providing coffee and tobacco, usu- dox Church; Jacobites; Maronites; missionaries; ally consumed in water pipes (nargiles), coffeehouses Nestorians; Serbian Orthodox Church. were used as artistic venues by storytellers, puppeteers, and musicians who provided entertainment to the cus- cizye See jizya. tomers. As the authorities had feared, coffeehouses did provide a forum for public political discussions and for coffee\/coffeehouses Sometime in the 15th century, the circulation of rumors, some of them seditious. Cof- the people of Yemen discovered that the beans of the cof- feehouses were also frequently the starting point for fee plant could be roasted, ground, and boiled in water urban protests and riots. to produce a stimulating drink. Ethiopians claim that the happy accident occurred in their country first, but it was Yemen enjoyed a monopoly on coffee produc- from Yemen that coffee beans were first exported out of tion, bringing the region immense wealth and making the Red Sea region, and that country was associated with its chief port, Mocha, a household name in the West. its production in the Ottoman geographical imagination. Cairo, on the other hand, served as the center for the According to Muslim tradition, the first people to use the coffee trade and the profits gained from this trade did drink were Sufis seeking to stay up all night to prolong much to enhance its commercial position in the eastern their dhikr, the ritual of invoking God. Once discovered, Mediterranean. But by the early 18th century Europeans the custom of coffee drinking quickly spread to the holy had managed to introduce coffee plants, smuggled out city of Mecca. From there, returning pilgrims carried it of Ethiopia, into their colonies in the Caribbean Sea; by the end of the century, beans from the Americas began to displace those from Yemen, even in the markets of the Ottoman Empire. Indeed, by the end of the 19th century,","Brazil had become as synonymous with coffee in many Committee of Union and Progress 139 dialects of Arabic as Mocha had once been in the lan- guages of the West. The popularity of coffeehouses did In1895\u201396, the CUP established an influential branch not, however, abate. controlled by ulema in Cairo as well as a network in Bul- garia and Romania and many branches throughout the Bruce Masters empire. During the same period, supporters of two lead- Further reading: Ralph Hattox, Coffee and Coffee- ers of the committee, Ahmed R\u0131za and Mehmed Murad houses: The Origins of a Social Beverage in the Medieval Near (Mizanc\u0131), entered into a bitter power struggle that East (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1985). resulted in Ahmed R\u0131za\u2019s expulsion from the organiza- tion. The failure of a coup attempt initiated by the Istan- commerce See trade. bul center in 1896, the breakdown of the Syrian network of the organization in 1897, and the peace campaign of Committee of Union and Progress Originally the sultan, who was trying to cash in on the Ottoman founded as a student organization, the revolutionary victory over Greeks, brought about a near collapse of political group known as the Ottoman Committee of the organization in July 1897. Many leaders of the CUP Union and Progress (CUP) would go through many returned to the empire in response to the sultan\u2019s prom- incarnations and divisions between its inception on June ise of general reforms and political amnesty. Opposition 2, 1889 and its demise in 1926. During this period, the activities were continued, however, by Ahmed R\u0131za, his CUP embraced a variety of political ideals, but generally followers, and many doctors who escaped from the loca- inclined toward secularization, westernization, Turkism, tions within the empire to which they had been banished. and centralization. The founders of modern Turkey, Between 1897 and 1899, a group led by medical doctors including the first three presidents serving from 1923 to and Ahmed R\u0131za fought over the control of the commit- 1960, were former CUP members. tee, and in the end Ahmed R\u0131za and his faction won con- trol of major branches within the organization, while the The CUP was originally founded as a student orga- positivist Young Turk leader and his followers worked nization at the Royal Medical Academy in Istanbul almost independently in Paris. during the reign of Sultan Abd\u00fclhamid II (1876\u20131909). The founders initially named their organization the In 1899 many leading Ottoman bureaucrats, led by Ottoman Union Committee (\u0130ttihad-\u0131 Osman\u00ee Cemiy- Damad Mahmud Pasha, one of the brothers-in-law of the eti). Colleges in the Ottoman capital were hotbeds of sultan, and \u0130smail Kemal, a former governor, joined the anti-regime activity during this period, and the orga- organization. This produced a committee that worked nization quickly gained popularity among students in as an umbrella organization of loosely affiliated groups. the Royal Military Academy and in the Royal School Some of the factions within the CUP went as far as form- of Administration. After a series of meetings held in ing semi-independent societies under its umbrella. There various places, the organization\u2019s leaders, known as the were six major factions within the organization during Young Turks, prepared bylaws for the society. Start- this period. Ahmed R\u0131za led the first faction, advocating ing in 1893, despite various arrests at colleges and a constitution and parliament for all Ottomans, as well other strong measures taken by the government against as positivism as the prospective ideology of a reformed the organization, the committee leaders succeeded Ottoman state. The second faction, led by pro-British in recruiting influential members of the ulema and former high-ranking statesmen, tried to secure foreign bureaucrats and transformed their organization into a intervention to change the regime in the empire. A third serious clandestine political society. In 1895, leaders of faction consisted of medical doctors and college students the committee contacted Ahmed R\u0131za, a notable oppo- who promoted a scientistic program. A fourth faction, nent of the regime who had taken refuge in Paris. After called the activists, advanced anarchist ideas and praised long negotiations, Ahmed R\u0131za joined the committee as bloodshed in various journals and appeals. A fifth fac- its leader in Europe. As a devoted adherent of positivism tion was composed of those ulema who became mem- he asked the founders to rename the organization Order bers of the committee and had a religious agenda. Finally and Progress, adopting the motto of famed French posi- the Balkan network established by teachers and artisans tivist thinker Auguste Comte (1798\u20131857). The founders adopted a more conservative agenda compared to those insisted on keeping the term \u201cunion\u201d and thus the com- promoted by branches in Europe. mittee settled on the name Ottoman Union and Prog- ress. In 1895, the organization published its regulations The Congress of Ottoman Liberals that convened and initiated two journals, Me\u015fveret and Mechveret Sup- in Paris in 1902 marked the end of the CUP organiza- pl\u00e9ment Fran\u00e7ais, in Paris. tion. The majority group that emerged at this congress established a new committee called the Ottoman Free- dom-lovers Society and strove to carry out a coup with the help of the British. The minority group composed of the followers of Ahmed R\u0131za and the activists formed a","140 Committee of Union and Progress guilds and cooperatives Kara Kemal Bey; and party ideo- logue Z ya G\u00f6kalp. new organization but decided not to use the title CUP for their new committee. In 1903 some members of the old The transformation of the CUP from a clandes- organization claimed ownership of the CUP, albeit for a tine revolutionary committee to a major political power brief period. brought about significant changes in its organization. In 1909 the organization was divided into two bodies: the In late 1905 a leading Young Turk, Dr. Bahaeddin committee (cemiyet) and the parliamentary group sup- \u015eakir, attempted to reorganize the alliance between the porting it, called the party (f\u0131rka). There was little sub- activists and the followers of Ahmed R\u0131za. After lengthy stance to this distinction, however, as the committee negotiations he transformed the alliance into an activist nominated all deputies and senators in its parliamentary organization under the name of the Ottoman Commit- faction. In 1913 the CUP expanded its definition of the tee of Progress and Union (CPU), thereby reclaiming the party to include the committee itself as well as the orga- organization. The committee soon established branches nization\u2019s press organs. in Crete, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania, and the Cauca- sus, as well as a host of branches and cells throughout In theory, the General Congress of the CUP consti- the empire. In September 1907 the CPU merged with the tuted the highest decision-making body of the organiza- Ottoman Freedom-lovers Society that had been estab- tion. The congress, which met annually, was made up of lished by officials and officers in Salonika. Both par- the members of the central committee, deputies and sena- ties agreed to use the name CPU for the new partnership tors who were CUP members (between 1911 and 1913, organization. Following the merger, the former CPU only their representatives attended), representatives of the center in Paris became the external headquarters and local organizations and clubs, general inspectors, and edi- the Ottoman Freedom Society became the internal head- tors of the committee\u2019s official newspapers; it appointed quarters of the new organization. The merger provided the central committee members and revised organiza- many new branches and cells in the European provinces. tional regulations. In practice, the supreme decision-mak- By early 1908 the CPU had approximately 2,000 mem- ing organ of the CUP was the central committee\u2014a board bers in these provinces, an overwhelming number of of between 7 and 12 individuals (the number fluctuated) them officers in the military. that issued directives to the formal institutions of state: the cabinet, the military, and the bureaucracy. The CPU started its revolutionary activity in June 1908, and on July 23 and 24, the sultan issued an impe- Beneath the central committee lay an elaborately rial decree ordering the reopening of the Chamber structured hierarchy designed to inflate the organiza- of Deputies. Immediately after this, the organization tion and create the illusion of mass participation, as well reverted to its former name, and until the elections held as to promote the entrenchment of the CUP. The central in December and the convening of the chamber, the committee presided over a number of special branches restored CUP worked as the de facto executive govern- that dealt with organizational matters in various sectors. ment of the Ottoman state, forming a comit\u00e9 de salut These included special branches devoted to subjects such public, and served as the major political power broker in as women, ulema, provincial centers, local and district the empire. In the meantime, hundreds of CUP branches centers, and military and civil clubs. In 1913 the CUP was were established by local leaders. The landslide victory restructured. The general congress was preserved and all of the CUP in the December elections led to its control deputies and senators were again allowed to attend annual of legislature. meetings. But in addition, a general assembly was created to coordinate the two main policy aspects of CUP activ- By 1910, the number of CUP branches across the ity: its actions as the supreme governing organization of empire had multiplied from 83 on the eve of the revo- the state, and its parliamentary activity through party rep- lution to 360, while individual membership grew from resentatives in the chamber of deputies and senate. roughly 2,250 to 850,000; although the CUP had clearly become a mass organization, the extent of central control The CUP refrained from forming cabinets until over this unwieldy structure was debatable. In any case, 1913, despite providing ministers for key portfolios the provincial appendages of the CUP were largely cut such as the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of off from the process of policy formulation at the center, Finance. However, with the exception of a brief period and a central committee made all major decisions. As a between July 1912 and January 1913, the CUP played rule, decisions were made collectively, and shared inter- a decisive role in politics and worked as a parallel gov- est in thwarting individual control of the organization ernment. Following the assassination of Grand Vizier ensured that this practice continued. Certain figures did Mahmud \u015eevket Pasha on June 11, 1913, the CUP also rise to prominence within the CUP, however. The most established full control over the government and bureau- important of these were the policy makers and organiz- cracy and, in fact, established one-party rule that lasted ers Talat Pasha, Dr. Bahaeddin \u015eakir, and Dr. N\u00e2z\u0131m; mil- until October 1918. itary leaders Enver Pasha and Cemal Pasha; organizer of","The last CUP General Congress was held in Novem- condominium 141 ber 1918 and resolved on the abolition of the CUP and the establishment of a new political party named the (Trebizond), established after the crusaders temporar- Renovation Party (Tecedd\u00fct F\u0131rkas\u0131). In the meantime, ily occupied Constantinople in 1204. In many places, old major CUP leaders fled abroad. The Ottoman govern- forms of property ownership were adopted and retained. ment closed down the Renovation Party in May 1919. The empire also accommodated the previous systems of The CUP network within the empire nevertheless played agriculture and mining, and it adopted certain forms of a significant role in the organization of the Turkish War taxation and coinage. Similarly, the continuation of pre- of Independence between 1919 and 1922. Although the Ottoman local communal organizations, and the activity surviving CUP leaders attempted to revitalize the organi- of their leaders (knezes and primik\u00fcrs) are well docu- zation after the nationalist victory and the establishment mented in Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece. of the Turkish Republic, the trials of 1926 that followed an attempt to assassinate Mustafa Kemal Atat\u00fcrk The same pragmatism can be seen in eastern Ana- resulted in the complete liquidation of the CUP. tolia in the early 16th century. Here, the first Ottoman provincial tax codes (kanunname) were often exact cop- M. \u015e\u00fckr\u00fc Hanio\u011flu ies of the tax regulations that had been introduced by the Further reading: M. \u015e\u00fckr\u00fc Hanio\u011flu, Preparation for a Akkoyunlus, Dulkad\u0131rs, and the Egyptian Mamluks, lords Revolution: The Young Turks, 1902\u20131908 (New York: Oxford of eastern and southeastern Anatolia before the Otto- University Press, 2001); M. \u015e\u00fckr\u00fc Hanio\u011flu, The Young mans. These pre-Ottoman tax codes, as well as the spe- Turks in Opposition (New York: Oxford University Press, cial regulations that the Ottomans applied to the nomadic 1995); Erik Jan Z\u00fcrcher, The Unionist Factor: The R\u00f4le of the Turkoman tribes, preserved pre-Ottoman tribal customs, Committee of Union and Progress in the Turkish Nationalist which often contradicted the Ottoman secular law, or Movement, 1905\u20131926 (Leiden: Brill, 1984). kanun. Replacing these regulations with Ottoman tax codes took decades and there remained territories where concubine See harem. double taxation was the rule rather than the exception. condominium Although contemporary Ottoman and The Ottomans were also forced to compromise in European sources suggest that the Ottoman sultans gov- their conquest east of the Black Sea in territories of the erned as absolute monarchs during the empire\u2019s \u201cgolden present-day Caucasian country of Georgia. Following age,\u201d from about the 1450s through 1600, in fact, Otto- the conquest of these territories, Istanbul left members man power was always limited and a number of factors\u2014 of the former Georgian ruling families at the head of the the military force of the sultan\u2019s opponents, geography, newly established Georgian sancaks or subprovinces. In and the strength of pre-Ottoman elites in conquered some cases, families whose members were still Christians lands\u2014often forced Istanbul into political compro- received these territories as family estates. Only later did mise. One element of this compromise was the sharing they convert to Islam, probably in order to ensure that of authority between Ottoman rulers and the conquered they could keep their lands for themselves and their pos- elite. Known as condominium or joint rule, such a prac- terity. In 1578, when the Ottomans established a new tice was especially visible in the early decades of Ottoman province in the region, they appointed the former Geor- governance and in the frontier provinces, and extended gian prince, Minuchir (who in the meantime had con- to many aspects of government institutions, including verted to Islam and had taken the name Mustafa) as its land tenure, taxation, administration, and the judiciary. first governor or beylerbeyi. Together with his brother, who had been given the sancak of Oltu (near Erzurum, In the 15th century the Ottoman government was northeastern Turkey), Minuchir was awarded an Otto- careful to take account of local balances of power and man military fief (has). With some exceptions, the new attempted to win over local secular and religious leaders. province was administered by the Georgian princes of Ottoman sultans tried to integrate cooperative groups Samtskhe as hereditary district governors or beys until and individuals belonging to the previous social elites the mid-18th century. In the Georgian areas of Guria, into the privileged Ottoman ruling class (askeri). This Imeretia, Mingrelia Svaneti, and Abkhazia, which are is borne out by the presence of Christian timar-holder mountainous and were thus more difficult to conquer, sipahis or Ottoman \u201clandlords\u201d and various privileged the Ottomans wisely permitted the rule of vassal Geor- auxiliary military units (voynuks, martolos) both in gian princes, who recognized the authority of the sultan the Balkans and in the territory of the former Empire of by paying symbolic (though often irregular) tributes. Trebizond (1204\u20131461), one of the three successor states of the Byzantine Empire with its capital in Trabzon In the 16th and 17th century in Hungary, the mili- tary balance of power between the Ottomans and the Habsburgs and the armed strength of the Hungarian garrisons also led to joint rule and taxation. A single vil- lage had both an Ottoman and a Hungarian landlord and paid taxes to both. Taxes to the Hungarian landlords","142 Congress of Berlin young men from the villages who elected their own lead- ers (yi\u011fitba\u015f\u0131). Their task was to ensure public order and were collected more regularly, while state taxes (paid to security in the villages and the surrounding areas. the fiercely adversarial Habsburg kings of Hungary) and taxes for the Hungarian Catholic and Protestant churches Apart from geographical constraints and limits aris- could be collected from only two-thirds of the Ottoman- ing from overextension, the existing presence of resid- held territories in the 16th century and from only half of ual powers of this kind from the Habsburg and Safavid it in the 17th century. Empires constituted the main obstacles to Ottoman cen- tral administration in its frontier territories. As well as taxation, the condominium also extended to jurisdiction and administration. Whereas in the hand- G\u00e1bor \u00c1goston ful of Ottoman garrison towns in Hungary the kad\u0131s See also administration, provincial. or Ottoman judges administered justice, in the more Further reading: G\u00e1bor \u00c1goston, \u201cA Flexible Empire: numerous Hungarian market towns that had no Ottoman Authority and Its Limits on the Ottoman Frontiers.\u201d Inter- garrison, the tasks of maintaining law and order, pre- national Journal of Turkish Studies 9, no. 1\u20132 (2003): 15\u201331; venting and investigating crime, and passing judgment G\u00e9za D\u00e1vid, \u201cAdministration in Ottoman Europe,\u201d in S\u00fcley- remained the prerogatives of the local Hungarian author- man the Magnificent and His Age: The Ottoman Empire in ities. Towns in Ottoman Hungary obtained the right to the Early Modern World, edited by Metin Kunt and Chris- impose and administer the death penalty. The municipal tine Woodhead (London: Longman, 1995), 71\u201390; Amy magistrates administered the disputes of guilds and arti- Singer, Palestinian Peasants and Ottoman Officials: Rural sans as well as matters of probate. They also imposed and Administration Around Sixteenth-Century Jerusalem (Cam- collected fines. Although the Ottomans initially rejected bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). the idea that the Hungarian estates might collect taxes and administer justice in Ottoman-held areas, the mili- Congress of Berlin See England. tary balance of power and, above all, the armed strength of the Hungarian border soldiers made this a day-to-day Constantinople See Istanbul. practice over time. Constantinople, conquest of The 1453 Ottoman As can be seen in Georgia and Hungary, Istanbul conquest of Constantinople, until that time the capital of attempted to win over the members of the pre-Ottoman the Byzantine Empire, was a major historical moment Christian elite and to establish its rule through negotia- for the peoples of the Balkans, Asia Minor, the Mediter- tion, cooperation, and co-optation rather than by force. ranean, and the Black Sea, and affected their lives for In eastern Anatolia and in Hungary the Ottoman sultans centuries to come. To the Byzantines, it meant the end of accepted the condominium, double taxation, and shared their 1,000-year-old empire and the symbolic defeat of judicial jurisdiction. Although the representatives of Christianity. To the Ottomans, it brought military, geo- Istanbul, Ottoman judges and sipahis, were nearly ubiq- political, and economic rewards, as well as political and uitous, when conducting daily business, the Ottoman psychological prestige in both the Muslim and Christian government had to rely on local authorities, village head- worlds. The conquest eliminated a hostile wedge that men, \u201celders,\u201d or provincial notables known as ayan. In had separated the sultan\u2019s European and Asian provinces, Hungary these local authorities were called b\u00edr\u00f3s (judge); known as Rumelia and Anatolia. It gave the Ottomans in the Arab lands, they were known as rais al-fallahin an ideal logistical center for further campaigns against (head of the peasants) or sheikh al-qarya (elder of the Europe and a commanding position over the trade routes village). In 16th-century Syria-Palestine, the rais al-fal- between Asia and Europe, the Black Sea and the Mediter- lahin and the leaders of the Jewish community in Jeru- ranean. It silenced the opposition of those who had sug- salem (sheikh al-yahud), presumably both pre-Ottoman gested that the plans of Mehmed II (r. 1444\u201346; 1451\u201381) institutions that went back to Egypt\u2019s Mamluk Empire to capture Constantinople would trigger yet another (1250\u20131517), were essential in administering the day-to- Christian crusade against the Ottomans. The conquest day affairs of the local communities. strengthened the position of the young Ottoman sul- tan, who was henceforth known as \u201cFatih,\u201d or \u201cthe Con- When neither the Ottoman authorities nor the queror.\u201d After the conquest, Mehmed II established the indigenous local elites could maintain law and order and imperial capital in the city. He then used his improved provide security and safety for villagers from bandits, rob- position to embark on a remarkable restructuring of the bers, and soldiers, villagers formed their own militias and Ottoman elite and state institutions. Many have argued self-defense organizations. These militia groups\u2014called gatherings of peasants (parasztv\u00e1rmegye) in Hungary and zapis in territories inhibited by Slavic peoples\u2014provided for villagers\u2019 self-defense. In Anatolia, such self-defense organizations were known as il-erleri, that is, \u201cthe bach- elors of the province.\u201d Members of such groups were","that the centralized and patrimonial empire that contem- Constantinople, conquest of 143 porary Ottoman and European observers described in the late 15th and early 16th centuries was born in 1453. fare were continuous,\u201d but the city stood firm. Ottoman shipboard artillery was ineffective against the tall Chris- The conquest of Constantinople may be understood tian galleys defending Constantinople from the harbor. as having begun with the second accession of Mehmed II According to Mehmed II\u2019s Greek chronicler, Kritovoulos, to the Ottoman throne in 1451, for it was at this time that Mehmed, a keen student of military technology, urged the Ottoman conciliatory policy regarding the Byzan- his cannon-makers to make a different type of cannon tine Empire and Christian Europe practiced in previous that could fire its shot \u201cto a great height, so that when it decades ended, and the new sultan revived the Ottoman came down it would hit the ship.\u201d Designed by the sultan, warrior tradition. His first target was the seat of the Byz- the new weapon, soon to be known as the mortar, sank a antine Empire. Constantinople not only separated the Christian ship in the harbor. sultan\u2019s European and Asian provinces, its emperor, Con- stantine XI Palaiologos (r. 1448\u201353), also played a crucial On the morning of April 23, the Byzantines noticed role in organizing anti-Ottoman Christian alliances and with terror that some 70 to 80 smaller Ottoman ships crusades. had been lowered into the Golden Horn. Using sheep and ox tallow as lubricants, the Ottomans transported To assume control over the Straits, Mehmed had their smaller ships from the Bosporus on rollers along a fortress built at the narrowest point of the Bosporus. the land route that connected the so called Double Col- Rumeli Hisar\u0131 or the European castle stood opposite umns (the Be\u015f\u0131kta\u015f and Kabata\u015f districts of the city), Anadolu Hisar\u0131 or the Anatolian castle, which had been with Ey\u00fcb. Sultan Mehmed\u2019s ingenious maneuver was a erected by Sultan Bayezid I (r. 1389\u20131402) during the serious blow for the Byzantines, who now had to allocate first and prolonged Ottoman siege of Constantinople men and resources to defend the walls along the Golden between 1394 and 1402. With their cannons deployed on Horn. Ottoman assaults and bombardments contin- the walls of the two castles, the Ottomans sealed off Byz- ued. Food supplies and ammunition in the besieged city antium, depriving it of reinforcements and supplies. were running low. When it was learned that neither relief forces nor the promised Venetian armada would arrive, The Ottomans constructed approximately 16 large the defenders lost hope. and 60 light galleys, 20 horse-ships, and several smaller vessels in their arsenal at Gallipoli (Gelibo\u011flu, on the On May 29, shortly after midnight, the last assault Gallipoli Peninsula in southern European Turkey). The began. While the Ottoman shipboard artillery stormed sultan\u2019s army of 80,000 to 100,000 men was assembled the walls along the Sea of Marmara and the Golden Horn, at Edirne, which was then the Ottoman capital. In the the army attacked the landward walls. The sultan first Edirne foundry some 60 new guns of various calibers sent his irregulars and volunteers against the walls, but were cast by the sultan\u2019s Turkish and European cannon the defenders, commanded by the emperor and Gius- founders. The largest cannon that the Hungarian mas- tiniani, drove them back. These were followed by more ter Orban made for the sultan fired stone balls weighing experienced and disciplined troops, who, according to 1,300 lbs. (600 kg). It was transported to Constantinople one eyewitness account, attacked \u201clike lions,\u201d but they too by 60 oxen and 200 men. were forced to withdraw. At the break of dawn, Mehmed ordered his elite Janissaries against the walls. In the For the city\u2019s defense, the emperor had some 8,000 midst of the fight Giustiniani was badly wounded and was Greeks and 2,000 foreigners at his disposal along with taken to the harbor to a Genoese ship. Not seeing their some 30,000 to 40,000 civilians. They were joined by some general, Giustiniani\u2019s men lost their spirit and the Janis- 700 experienced soldiers of the Genoese Giovanni Gius- saries took advantage of the confusion to force their way tiniani Longo, a celebrated expert in siege warfare and through the breaches opened by the constant bombard- defense. From the south and east Constantinople was pro- ment. Last seen near the Gate of Saint Romanos, Constan- tected by the Sea of Marmara, while the Golden Horn, an tine Palaiologos, the last emperor of the Romans, died as inlet of the Bosporus, guarded the city\u2019s northern side. On a common soldier, fighting the enemy. Riding on horse- April 2, in order to deny the Ottoman fleet access into the back, Sultan Mehmed II entered the city through the very Golden Horn, where the walls of the city were the weak- same gate, known to the Ottomans as Topkap\u0131 (literally, est, the Byzantines stretched a boom across the entrance \u201ccannon gate\u201d). The sultan granted a three-day plunder to of the harbor. The same day the advance forces of the sul- his troops. After the plunder, however, Mehmed entrusted tan appeared near the city\u2019s western landward walls. the newly appointed Ottoman governor of Constantinople with the reconstruction and repopulation of the city. On April 5, Sultan Mehmed II arrived with the rest of his troops and erected his tent opposite the Gate of G\u00e1bor \u00c1goston Saint Romanos, along the western walls of the city. A Further reading: Franz Babinger, Mehmed the Conqueror contemporary account reported that in the first weeks and His Time, translated by Ralph Manheim, edited by Wil- \u201conslaughts, attacks, bombardment, and general war- liam C. Hickman (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press,","144 constitution\/Constitutional Periods agricultural, and political upheaval of the early 1870s, combined with the Balkan revolts of 1875\u201376, created 1992); Kritovoulos, History of Mehmed the Conqueror, trans- an international crisis, and Midhat Pasha organized a lated by Charles T. Riggs (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Univer- putsch on May 30, 1876. As a result, Sultan Abd\u00fclaziz sity Press, 1954); Donald M. Nicol, The Immortal Emperor: (r. 1861\u201376) was dethroned in favor of his more liberal- The Life and Legend of Constantine Palaiologos, Last Emperor minded nephew, Murad V (r. 1876). However, when of the Romans (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Murad became unable to rule, he was replaced by his 1994); Steven Runciman, The Fall of Constantinople, 1453 more authoritarian brother, Abd\u00fclhamid II (r. 1876\u2013 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965). 1909). The new sultan, unsympathetic to liberalism, forced Midhat Pasha to change the original constitution constitution\/Constitutional Periods A constitution into an authoritarian document. The text of this eviscer- is a written document that establishes the basic politi- ated constitution, know as Kanun-i Esasi, or Fundamen- cal and administrative principles of a state and deter- tal Law, was inspired by the Belgian constitution of 1831 mines the power and duties of governments. Before the and the Prussian constitution of 1850. According to this 19th century, there was no single document that defined constitution, members of the government were directly the Ottoman imperial system. Theoretically, the sultan appointed by the ruler. The government was thus respon- was the only source of legislative and executive power. sible to the sultan and not to the Parliament, which Sultanic decrees were called kanun, and at each sul- could not initiate laws but could merely discuss proposed tanic accession and enthronement, previous kanuns laws. The sultan also had the absolute right to convene or became null and void. The only legal limitation on sul- dissolve the parliament. Making full use of this right, on tanic legislation and execution was Islamic law or sharia, February 13, 1878, when the most recent of the Russo- which concerns itself primarily with private and criminal Ottoman Wars ended in Ottoman defeat, Abd\u00fclhamid law. Thus, until the Tanzimat reform era (1839\u201376), the used his power to dissolve the parliament; however, the Ottoman Empire did not embrace constitutional gov- constitution technically remained in force. ernment. The 19th century, however, witnessed growing political and social demands. The provincial notables With the Young Turk Revolution of July 24, 1908, (ayan) forced Mahmud II (r. 1808\u201339) to accept the Abd\u00fclhamid was forced to reconvene the parliament. Sened-i \u0130ttifak (Deed of Agreement) in 1808, which Abd\u00fclhamid was deposed on August 21, 1909, and the sought to restrict the sultan\u2019s authority in provincial authoritarian stipulations of 1876 were amended. These administration while maintaining the interests of the amendments restricted the powers of the sultan, and the ayan. The two most significant imperial edicts of the parliament became a politically sovereign institution. Tanzimat\u2014the Imperial Rescript of G\u00fclhane (1839) and Ironically, the Committee of Union and Progress the Imperial Rescript of Reforms (1856)\u2014included legal (CUP), the Young Turk government, ultimately fell into and administrative regulations as an answer to the gen- many of the same authoritarian patterns that they had eral discontent concerning arbitrary rule, lack of basic originally protested against, gradually restricting politi- individual rights, and discrimination against non-Mus- cal freedom and engineering new constitutional amend- lims. Despite the constitutional character of these docu- ments that restored some of the autocratic stipulations ments, they did not define the Ottoman state as a whole of 1876. The constitution of 1876 remained in force until and failed to stipulate the powers, limitations, and duties Istanbul was occupied by the Allied Powers on March 16, of the government. 1920 at the close of World War I. On the other hand, separatist developments in The phrase \u201cConstitutional Period\u201d refers specifi- peripheral provinces led to increasing autonomy for some cally to the two periods when the constitution of 1876 populations and prepared the way for a formal constitu- was in full force. The First Constitutional Period began tional structure. The first constitution within the Otto- in December 1876 and lasted until February 1878. Dur- man imperial realm was promulgated in Wallachia and ing this period Grand Vizier Midhat Pasha was dismissed Moldavia in 1831, followed by Serbia in 1835. In 1861 and expelled from the empire. In April 1877 Russia the North African region of Tunisia adopted the first declared war on the Ottomans. This constitutional period constitution of the Islamic world. ended with an Ottoman military defeat and the dissolu- tion of the parliament by Abd\u00fclhamid II. The Young Ottomans were the first in the empire to publicly advocate a constitution that would limit the The Second Constitutional Period began with the absolute rule of the sultan by creating a representative Young Turk Revolution in July 1908 and ended with the parliament. Reformist statesmen of the period, such as Allied occupation of Istanbul in 1920) On July 24, 1908, Midhat Pasha (1822\u201383), considered the introduc- Abd\u00fclhamid conceded to reopening the parliament. tion of a constitutional regime as a way to guarantee the Following a reactionary rebellion in April 1909, the sul- territorial integrity of the empire. The administrative, tan was deposed in favor of his brother Mehmed V (r.","1909\u201318). Between 1908 and January 1913, the increas- conversion 145 ing power of the Committee of Union and Progress did much to quell opposition, but party politics was still pos- Following medieval Islamic practice, the Ottomans sible. When the Balkan Wars (1912\u201313) provided an also forbade the export of weapons and other strategic opportunity, the CUP staged a military coup in January materials, declaring them memnu e\u015fya or memnu olan 1913. Although the constitution and parliament con- meta, prohibited goods. Molla H\u00fcsrev, the famous grand tinued to function, the regime in fact became a mili- mufti or jurist of Sultan Mehmed II (r. 1444\u201346; 1451\u2013 tary dictatorship under Tal\u00e2t Pasha, Enver Pasha, and 81), regarded arms, horses, and iron as prohibited goods Cemal Pasha. The CUP regime led the Ottoman Empire even in peacetime, since these commodities could be into World War I on the side of the Central Powers used for war against Muslims. Prohibitions were incor- (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria). When the porated into the peace treaties concluded with Christian Ottomans capitulated on October 31, 1918, the three states as well as into the passports issued to foreign trav- leaders left the empire. The new sultan Mehmed VI (r. elers. Not even merchants of Ottoman vassal states were 1918\u201322), an adversary of the CUP, dissolved the par- allowed to import prohibited goods from the sultan\u2019s liament on November 23, 1918. However, the Anatolian realms. movement, which opposed Allied plans to partition the empire, forced the sultan to permit general elections. The Ottoman lists of contraband included grains, arms, last parliament in Istanbul met on January 12, 1920 and gunpowder, saltpeter and sulfur (essential ingredients dissolved itself on March 18, 1920 upon the Allied occu- of gunpowder), copper, iron, and lead (metals used for pation of the Ottoman capital. making cannons and projectiles), cotton, cotton yarn, different kinds of leather, canvas, tallow, pitch, and Sel\u00e7uk Ak\u015fin Somel horses. Imperial orders containing long lists of prohibited See also Young Ottomans. goods were especially common during prolonged wars in Further reading: Feroz Ahmad, The Young Turks: The the 16th and 17th centuries. However, judging from the Committee of Union and Progress in Turkish Politics, 1908\u2013 number of repeated decrees, the Ottoman authorities, 1914 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1969); Robert Devereux, The like their Christian adversaries, failed to suppress the First Ottoman Constitutional Period: A Study of the Midhat contraband trade. Smuggling was undertaken mainly in Constitution and Parliament (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hop- the winter months, when the Ottoman navy was at the kins Press, 1963); Sabine Pr\u00e4tor, Der arabische Faktor in der Istanbul Arsenal and could not enforce the regulations jungt\u00fcrkischen Politik: eine Studie zum osmanischen Parla- and stop foreign and Ottoman vessels from engaging ment der II. Konstitution, 1908\u20131918 (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz, in contraband trade. Some of the friendly nations who 1993). enjoyed trade privileges through the capitulations or special trade agreements, however, were granted the contraband (memnu e\u015fya, memnu olan meta, merces right to import prohibited goods such as cotton, cotton prohibitae, merces inlicitae, memnuat) Since the Mid- yarn, leather, and beeswax. In return, the empire was able dle Ages, rival Christian and Muslim states forbade the to secure the import of lead, tin, iron, and steel, strategic export of weaponry and other contraband, or prohibited metals for the war industry, from these countries. goods, to each other. These embargoed goods included guns, metal, timber suitable for building fortresses and G\u00e1bor \u00c1goston ships, canvas, horses and other draught animals, servants, Further reading: G\u00e1bor \u00c1goston, \u201cMerces Prohibitae: and food. Although the popes repeatedly forbade the The Anglo-Ottoman Trade in War Materials and the Depen- export of these commodities to the Islamic world, threat- dence Theory.\u201d Oriente Moderno n.s., 20 (2001): 177\u2013192. ening individuals and nations who broke the embargo with excommunication and anathema, there were always conversion The extent and timing of conversion to European merchants who were eager to make a profit Islam in different parts of the Ottoman Empire were dic- by supplying prohibited goods to Muslims. tated by the local conditions in a region before the arrival of the Ottomans and the nature of the region\u2019s conquest Until the late 18th century, the Ottomans were self- and incorporation into the Ottoman Empire. Anato- sufficient in the production of firearms and ammuni- lia experienced extensive conversion to Islam of the tion. However, during protracted wars from the late 16th local population during the early Seljuk period, before century onward, they welcomed supplies of gunpow- the establishment of the Ottoman state, beginning after der and hand-held firearms or their firing mechanisms, the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 and with the influx of which were brought to the empire by English and Dutch Turkoman tribes into the region. Reliable sources on the merchants. The Ottomans also imported tin, the only progress of conversion in Anatolia are scarce before the mineral they lacked domestically, from England. mid-15th century, when it appears from the Ottoman census records that the process was about 85 percent complete. However, areas such as the region of Trabzon","146 conversion able soldiers and administrators. As a part of their edu- cation, dev\u015firme children underwent compulsory conver- on the Black Sea (conquered in 1461) witnessed the sion to Islam, which is the only documented forced form beginning of the process comparatively late, as conver- of conversion organized by the Ottoman state. Although sions to Islam continued to occur in this primarily Chris- it dominates the Balkan nationalist historiography as the tian region well into the 16th and 17th centuries, when supposed principal Ottoman method of conversion, the the process had been mostly completed in the rest of dev\u015firme, which was discontinued by the mid-17th cen- Anatolia. tury, represents a numerically limited phenomenon in the context of conversion to Islam in the Balkans. The process of conversion to Islam in the Balkans is much better documented. Recent research with Ottoman Likewise, despite established theories that empha- census records suggests that conversion to Islam in the size \u201cexternal\u201d agents of conversion, such as proselytizing Balkans was minimal in the 14th and early 15th centu- Sufi mystics or an invasive Ottoman state, both Christian ries, increased slightly in the late 15th century, and rose and Muslim sources of different types and time periods steadily throughout the 16th century, peaking in the mid- suggest that family and social networks were the most 17th century only to slow down and come to an almost important contexts of religious change and that agents complete stop by the end of the 18th century. However, of conversion were usually the people a convert-to-be significant regional differences exist. For example, the was familiar with. Among these sources are a number of region of Thrace (conquered by the Ottomans in the mid- Orthodox Christian neomartyrologies that describe the 14th century) saw extensive colonization by Muslims suffering and death of Christians who converted to Islam from Anatolia but also a steady rise in local conversions but later reneged and faced trial and execution by Otto- over the centuries. Conversely, Bosnia, conquered in the man authorities. Although these accounts are written mid-15th century, witnessed only a limited Muslim colo- from an Orthodox perspective, they clearly demonstrate nization but experienced a rapid and extensive process that many converts hailed from religiously mixed house- of conversion of the local population to Islam (almost holds in which one or both parent\u2019s conversion to Islam 100 percent in Sarajevo) that was already complete by resulted in conversion of their adolescent children, as dic- the end of the 16th century. Scholars are still investigat- tated by Islamic law. At the same time, converts\u2019 petitions ing the nature of the religious dynamic in medieval Bos- to the Ottoman imperial council from the 17th and 18th nia before the Ottoman conquest that made this collective centuries, seeking money for the new clothes that they acceptance of Islam possible. By contrast, another major- were entitled to as converts according to Islamic custom, ity Muslim area, Albania, which was conquered gradu- demonstrate that families often converted collectively. ally over the course of the 15th century, saw a significant Moreover, intermarriage represented an important ave- onset of conversion to Islam only in the second half of the nue for women to convert to Islam. Islamic law allowed 17th century, presumably due to increase of both the jizya Muslim men to marry Jewish and Christian women, and and the so-called urgent (avar\u0131z) taxes in the region, as although a non-Muslim wife was not legally obliged to well as due to significant population shifts. convert, many women in interfaith marriages opted for conversion nevertheless. Single women, typically widows Nevertheless, some common factors are observable with children in need of sustenance and women seeking across the region. Existing sources, such as the 15th-cen- divorce and custody of their children, also appear in the tury Ottoman census records, suggest that the earliest Ottoman court records. As the sharia forbids a union converts to Islam in the Balkans came from the ranks of between a non-Muslim man and a Muslim woman, the the Balkan nobility and military elite that could supply refusal of the husband to convert to Islam resulted in the Ottomans with the manpower and know-how needed a quick divorce and the wife\u2019s gaining custody over the to administer the region. Although conversion was not a couple\u2019s children. Ottoman sources suggest that, in the prerequisite for joining the Ottomans and obtaining a fief 17th century, women throughout the Ottoman Empire (timar) from the sultan, over time these local converts to increasingly resorted to this strategy. Ottoman governance also became converts to Islam\u2014a process that could take several generations to be fully Kinship networks often overlapped with profes- completed. For example, Ottoman census records dating sional networks, which were another important avenue to 1432 suggest that some Christian timar-holders in the of conversion. In the Balkans, both neomartyrologies district of Arvanid (Albania) had sons who converted to and Ottoman court records suggest that a single young Islam but shared their fief with their Christian siblings. male moving from the countryside to the city in search of work and suitable social and patronage networks was These voluntary cross-overs of the Balkan military the most likely candidate for conversion. As numer- elite were nevertheless insufficient for the growing Otto- ous records in the registers of important imperial affairs man need for manpower. Thus, starting in the late 14th (m\u00fchimme defterleri) show, conversion often followed century, the Ottomans institutionalized a levy of children (dev\u015firme) from among their Balkan Christian subjects that was supposed to supply the Ottoman polity with","apprenticeship to a Muslim craftsman or coming to work Copts 147 for a relative who embraced Islam and established a suc- cessful business in a city. lim Arab conquest of Egypt in the 7th century, after which their church was left in peace for several centuries. Conversion to Islam was a social phenomenon that entailed an interplay of individual, family, communal, That peace was broken, however, and the Copts suf- and Ottoman institutional initiatives and motives. The fered repeated persecution from Muslim authorities process was also influenced by the overall balance of in Egypt, first under the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim (r. power between the Ottomans and surrounding Christian 996\u20131021) and then under the Mamluk Empire (1260\u2013 states. In the late 18th century, the process of conversion 1517), because the Mamluks viewed the local Christians seemingly came to a halt with the increasing influence of as potential allies of their crusader enemies. For this Western powers and Russia on Ottoman affairs. As these reason, the Mamluks imposed severe restrictions on the Christian powers extended protection to Ottoman Chris- Copts\u2019 practice of religion and involvement in commerce. tian subjects in the 19th century, the Ottomans were They also sought to impose a dress code by which Coptic pressured into turning a blind eye to the re-conversion Christians and Jews would be distinguished from their of many of their subjects from Islam to Christianity, an Muslim neighbors. action punishable by death according to Islamic law and one that had been strictly punished in previous centuries. Although the Copts probably made up the majority of Egypt\u2019s population in the 11th century, by the time of Tijana Krsti\u0107 the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517, they had been Further reading: Eyal Ginio, \u201cChildhood, Mental Capac- reduced to only 10 to 15 percent of the total population. ity and Conversion to Islam in the Ottoman State.\u201d Byzantine Under the Ottomans, the Copts were tolerated, although and Modern Greek Studies 25 (2001): 90\u2013119; Anton Minkov, they received no official recognition from the Ottoman Conversion to Islam in the Balkans: Kisve Bahasi Petitions and sultans as a millet, or recognized religious community. Ottoman Social Life, 1670\u20131730 (Leiden: Brill, 2004); Anto- But this seems to have been simply because their patri- nina Zhelyazkova, \u201cIslamization in the Balkans as a Historio- arch (the head of the church) did not seek that status graphical Problem: The Southeast-European Perspective,\u201d in from the Ottoman sultans. Although Copts were found The Ottomans and the Balkans, edited by S. Faroqhi and F. in every region of Egypt in the Ottoman period, their Adan\u0131r (Leiden: Brill, 2002). percentage of the total population was higher in rural Upper Egypt than it was in either Cairo or the villages Copts Copts are Christians who are indigenous to of the Nile Delta. Egypt. Both the English designation Copt and the Ara- bic qibti derive from the Greek aigyptikos, \u201cEgyptian,\u201d and The fortunes of the Copts took a dramatic turn attest to the community\u2019s claim to antiquity. The Coptic when Napoleon Bonaparte occupied Egypt in 1798. language is descended from Ancient Egyptian, although Many of the country\u2019s Muslims saw the Copts as natural it is written with a modified Greek alphabet rather than allies of the French because both were Christian, even if hieroglyphs. Although no longer a living language, Cop- Napoleon proclaimed that he was at heart a Muslim. As tic has continued to serve as the liturgical language of a result, anti-French anger in Egypt was often channeled the Coptic Church. While adhering to most of the theol- into aggression toward the Copts. In the riots of 1798 in ogy and liturgical practice of the larger Orthodox Chris- Cairo, Copts, as well as the more prosperous Syrian Mel- tian group from which it derives, the Coptic Church is kite Catholic merchants and Europeans, were targets of spiritually and politically independent of the Orthodox Muslim unrest. Under French occupation, however, sev- patriarch, having parted from the parent church at the eral Copts served with distinction in the treasury, a niche Council of Chalcedon in 451. It was that church council they had previously occupied in the Ottoman adminis- that established the theological principle that Jesus Christ tration, and in the Egyptian military units formed as aux- was one person in whom two natures, divine and human, iliaries to the French army. were permanently united, but unmixed, a concept with which many disagreed. The Copts accepted the belief The Copts again were targeted for Muslim retaliation that Christ had two natures, but they held that these were for their perceived collaboration with the French occupi- fused together through the mystery of the incarnation, an ers when the French forces withdrew from Egypt in 1801. idea the Orthodox Church condemns as the Monophysite However, under the reign of Egyptian ruler Mehmed Ali heresy. Regarding the Copts of Egypt as heretics, the Byz- (r. 1805\u201349), the Coptic community enjoyed relief from antine authorities persecuted them, forcing many to flee some of the discrimination they had suffered in the past. to Ethiopia, where the Coptic Church is still strong. In Mehmed Ali had a good relationship with Peter VII, the revenge for that persecution, some Copts aided the Mus- patriarch of the Coptic Church from 1809 to 1859, and granted him the right to build new churches for the first time since the Muslims conquered Egypt. When the Egyp- tian khedive Said (r. 1854\u201363) subjected the Copts to the military draft in 1858, the Coptic patriarch Cyril IV inter- vened to have them exempted in return for a special tax,","148 corsairs and pirates tian nationalist movement at the turn of the century, nationalist leader Mustafa Kamil (1874\u20131908) tried not unlike the jizya, the head tax on non-Muslim men, to assuage Coptic fears that independence for Egypt they had previously paid the state. Cyril was also active in would mean Muslim domination over non-Muslims, helping the Coptic Church reform itself by building new but tensions in the nationalist movement over the place schools for the community and establishing a printing of religion in an independent Egypt remained present press. He also undertook the construction of St. Mark\u2019s throughout World War I. Cathedral in Cairo, which remains the see, or seat, of the patriarchate. Bruce Masters Further reading: Otto Meinardus, Two Thousand Years In the second half of the 19th century, the Coptic of Coptic Christianity (Cairo: American University in Cairo church hierarchy felt pressure from both Protestant and Press, 1999). Catholic missionaries seeking to win their parishio- ners over to what seemed to the Coptic clergy as hereti- corsairs and pirates Pirates and piracy are terms that cal interpretations of Christianity. The presence of these are familiar to modern audiences. Piracy, most simply European and American missionaries in Egypt prompted defined as violence at sea, has been practiced through- calls for reform among an increasingly educated laity. out history, and the Mediterranean has had its share. The Influenced by the reforms in the millet system that were stony soil and aridity of the region have always encour- taking shape in the Ottoman Empire in the period of the aged poorer inhabitants to try their luck at sea, and the Tanzimat reforms (1839\u201376), the Coptic laity pushed many islands scattered across the eastern Mediterranean their clergy to accept a religious council (majlis al-milli) have provided safe harbor and concealment. But piracy to supervise the financial and civil affairs of the Coptic is not just the story of outlaws. The Ottomans, like many community. The Egyptian ruler, Khedive Ismail (r. 1863\u2013 states before and after them, drew on the knowledge and 79), endorsed the establishment of such a council in 1874 skills of pirates when they first reached the shores of the and established that the Coptic laity would directly elect Mediterranean in the mid-14th century. With little mari- the members of the assembly that would supervise insti- time knowledge and no proper navy as yet, the Ottoman tutions of the community, such as schools and religious sultans engaged pirates, mostly Greeks, to carry out raids endowments. The first assembly met in November 1874, against various enemies (who were, of course, doing the but it was bitterly resented and resisted by Patriarch Cyril same thing). Among these was Hayreddin Barbarossa, a V (r. 1875\u20131927), who worked to block the assembly\u2019s Greek convert from the island of Mytilene and one of the reforms in education and local administration of church famed Barbarossa brothers, who began as a raider for properties. As a result, the laity and the clergy were often the Ottomans; he eventually took the fight to the western at odds over the assembly\u2019s functions and prerogatives Mediterranean and rose through the Ottoman ranks to until the patriarch\u2019s death. become admiral in chief of the Ottoman navy in 1533. Economically and politically, the Coptic commu- In most parts of the world, when a pirate fought on nity prospered under the reign of Mehmed Ali and his behalf of a state he was known as a privateer. In the Med- descendants, with one member of the Coptic commu- iterranean there was the less familiar figure of the corsair. nity, Butrus Ghali, even achieving the post of prime The corsair, who fought a battle known as the corso, is minister under Khedive Abbas Hilmi (r. 1892\u20131914). somewhere between a pirate and a privateer. Both corso Ghali later served as Egypt\u2019s minister of justice and in and corsair are terms that originated in Italy but that 1905 presided over the trial of the Egyptians charged in were adopted across the Mediterranean. They draw our the Dinshaway Incident (1906), in which a number attention to, and are a reflection of, certain realities dis- of Egyptian nationals were wrongly executed follow- tinctive to the region. It is not an accident that the words ing a fracas with British troops. Ghali was assassinated corsair and corso first came into use in the 12th century, in 1910 for his role in the decision that went against when the antagonism between Christianity and Islam the Muslim peasants. His death highlighted a growing had been given new life by the First Crusade. The term sense in the Coptic community that the Copts were a corsair has a religious connotation; to be a Christian minority facing discrimination by the Muslim majority, corsair was to be a warrior engaged in the eternal battle a view that was frequently expressed in Coptic news- against Islam, while for the Muslim corsair it was just the papers. The Coptic bishops of Upper Egypt, the region opposite. In addition, because this war between Christi- where Copts are most numerous, convened a General anity and Islam was perennial, at least in the minds of its Congress of Coptic clergy and laity in 1910, which combatants, so too was the phenomenon of the corsair. among other things called for an end to religious dis- In other words, corsairing was not limited to periods of crimination in government employment, the right of declared war between, for example, the Islamic Ottoman Copts to receive their own religious instruction in the government schools, and that Sunday, as well as Friday, be a government holiday. With the advent of the Egyp-","Empire and Catholic Habsburg Spain, but was a perma- Cossacks 149 nent feature of Mediterranean life. Finally, corsairs often had a closer association with the state than was seen in the widely read English Romantic poem \u201cThe Corsair,\u201d other parts of the world, where their activity would look written by George Gordon, Lord Byron, in 1814. suspiciously like mere piracy. Molly Greene In the 16th century, when conventional navies, on Further reading: Peter Earle, Corsairs of Malta and both the Ottoman and the Spanish side, engaged in a Barbary (London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1970); G. Fisher, number of large-scale battles at sea, corsairs were sub- Barbary Legend: War, Trade and Piracy in North Africa, merged into the organized fighting forces of internation- 1415\u20131830 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1957); Victor Mallia-Mila- ally recognized states. But toward the end of the century nes, ed., Hospitaller Malta, 1530\u20131798: Studies on Early the Ottomans and the Spanish concluded a truce and Modern Malta and the Order of St. John of Jerusalem (Msida, both turned their attention elsewhere. Left to their own Malta: Mireva Publications, 1993). devices, and now bereft of the material opportunities that warfare had provided, corsairs emerged on either side of Cossacks The term Cossacks is a loose appellation for the religious divide. And not only corsairs, but veritable military groups of varied ethnic composition, organiza- corsairing states\u2014that is to say, states that were organized tion, allegiance, and social standing who lived in the Eur- for, and lived off the profits of, raiding at sea. This is why asian steppe. Due to their involvement in east European the 17th century is known as the Age of the Corsair in politics, the Ottomans developed diverse relations with the Mediterranean. those Cossacks located in the northern Black Sea steppe (the Pontic steppe), in particular with the Cossacks in The most notorious Christian corsairs were the Ukraine, also known in Ottoman sources as Dnieper Knights of St. John on the island of Malta. On the Cossacks (\u00d6zi kazaklar\u0131), as they constituted a largely Muslim side, the three North African corsair states of independent political power from the 16th through the Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis (so named after their 18th centuries. major cities) became infamous raiders of Christian ship- ping. The relationship of these three states to the Otto- The origins of the Cossacks are obscure. Though not man Empire was exceedingly ambiguous. The Ottomans generally accepted by linguists, it has been suggested that certainly benefited from North African maritime skill, the word cossack is derived from the root kaz, \u201cto flee, to and more than one Ottoman admiral had risen from the escape,\u201d and means \u201coutcast, vagabond, adventurer.\u201d Ini- ranks of the corsairs. However, in the 17th century the tially it referred to exiled or breakaway tribesmen (the corsairs became a nuisance to established governments traditional component of the nomadic polity and the because they routinely preyed on the shipping of coun- provenance of the name of the Kazak people). In the early tries, such as France or England, that were officially at 14th century it was interpreted as \u201cguard,\u201d which posits peace with the Ottoman sultan. These attacks would then Cossacks of that time as trained military slaves (simi- provoke complaints by the English or French ambassador lar to the Janissaries). Mongols of the Golden Horde in Istanbul. The Ottomans, however, never managed to employed them for guarding and maintaining roads, rein in the North Africans. postal stations, and fortresses. Some military units of the Crimean Tatar khans (see Crimean Tatars) and tribal The ability of the corsairs to terrorize peaceful com- leaders, the successors to the Golden Horde in the 15th mercial shipping in the name of either Islam or Christi- and the 16th centuries, were also composed of troops anity was due to the inability of larger states to impose called Cossacks. This name entered Ottoman usage as order at sea. Over time, as the navies of the northern the name for raiders (ak\u0131nc\u0131) positioned around the Otto- European powers\u2014the French and the English in par- man fortresses of Akkerman (at the mouth of the Dni- ticular\u2014grew in strength, they were able to rein in the ester River) and Azak (at the mouth of the Don River). corsairs, and the 18th century saw a marked lessening in Following the outbreak of hostilities between Ottomans such activity. Corsair raids flared up again, however, dur- and Cossack units in Ukraine and on the lower Don, the ing the chaos of the Napoleonic Wars at the beginning of name kazak ceased to be applied to Ottoman subjects. the 19th century. Although both Christians and Muslims From the 16th through the 19th centuries, the Ottomans had always engaged in maritime violence, France was able also used the term kazak to refer to male slaves of east to selectively highlight North African corsairing as a justi- European origin. fication for the invasion of Algeria in 1830, an action that would lead to 130 years of occupation. Significantly, the The Ukrainian Cossacks evolved from the military European rhetoric at the time insisted that the Algerians population that the Grand Duchy of Lithuania main- were pirates, avoiding, for the most part, the term corsair, tained in the steppe areas that had been taken from the which was always much more ambiguous. The place of Golden Horde in the second half of the 14th century. the corsair has been enshrined in Western literature by Taking advantage of weak governmental control in the border zone these military settlers, now formally serfs","150 Cossacks In 1558\u201362 a unit led by Prince Dmytro Vyshnevec\u2019ky attacked the Ottoman fortress of Azak. The Cossacks also of the state, expanded their economic activities in the made alliances with Muslim rulers, including alliances steppe. As well as hunting and fishing, they engaged in with the Crimean khans Mehmed Giray III (r. 1610, pastoralism and agriculture. The increased demand in 1623\u201327) in 1624\u201328 and Inayat Giray (r. 1635\u201337). At western European markets for foodstuffs stimulated this times even the Ottomans sought the assistance of Cos- colonizing movement, drawing Slavs (sometimes fugi- sack mercenaries. In 1648 plans were developed to hire tive serfs) from inner areas and attracting Turkic nomads Cossacks as marines, to be deployed in a war against to cooperate with the newcomers. Political anarchy also Venice. In exchange, the Ottomans dangled the prospect offered the possibility for plundering the pastoralists and of granting the Cossacks navigation and trading privi- merchants, thus facilitating the formation of military leges on the Black Sea. The Russian Empire, which ulti- bands. A net of rivers and streams in this segment of the mately won the allegiance of the Ukrainian Cossacks, steppe, which was particularly dense along the middle employed them militarily against the Crimean Tatars and course of the river Dnieper, below its cataracts, provided Ottomans. the nascent militarist community with excellent refuge. Another name for the Cossacks, Zaporozhians\u2014men Unlike pirates, Cossacks developed the elements of from beyond the cataracts\u2014derives from this geographi- state organization. Oriented economically toward the Pol- cal reference point. ish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Cossacks\u2019 social and political ambitions hinged on their relationship to this Polish, Lithuanian, and Ruthenian magnates and state. From the Polish king the Cossacks received state gentry were also established on the steppe, usually with rights similar to those held by Polish gentry (szlachta). their retinue (who were also called Cossacks). It was due to An ongoing conflict with the Polish kings concern- the initiative of one of them, Prince Dmytro Vyshnevec\u2019ky ing the Cossacks\u2019 status intensified in 1620 when Cos- (known in Ottoman documents as Dimitra\u015f), that Cossacks sacks supported the Orthodox cause in Ukraine against built their first permanent fortified camp (sich) on an island the Union of Greek Orthodox and Catholic churches of in the Dnieper in about 1557. This was the turning point in Poland (1596). Until this point indifferent to religion, the the process of Cossack consolidation, as after this time such Cossacks were transformed into a pillar of the Orthodox camps turned into headquarter where offices such as the Church. This conflict, in addition to serious political court, treasury, arsenal, and military barracks were located. and social upheavals, resulted in a major Cossack revolt against their Polish sovereigns in 1648\u201354. The military exploits of the Ukrainian Cossacks began around the end of the 15th century with ambushes During this revolt the Cossacks were allied with the and the interception of merchant caravans along the Crimean khan Islam Giray III (r. 1644\u201354). The Crimean Dnieper. Cossacks also stole cattle and horses from khan\u2019s support contributed to the rebels\u2019 success. In the nomadic shepherds and commandeered cattle and horses ensuing civil war some Cossack factions accepted Otto- from Ottoman subjects in Akkerman. Early Cossack land man suzerainty, which dragged the Ottomans into raids were focused on Ottoman and Crimean fortresses wars with Poland (1672\u201399) and Muscovy (1676\u201381). (\u00d6zi, Akkerman, and Bender) on the northern Black Sea Between 1672 and 1699, the Ottomans occupied parts of littoral. They also raided into the Principality of Molda- western Ukraine, which they organized as a new Otto- via, an Ottoman vassal or satellite state. It is believed that man province (vilayet) around the capital in Kamani\u00e7e. Cossack naval raids started in the 1570s. These raids were The Ottomans looked to the Cossacks as potential allies focused on Rumelia (the European parts of the Ottoman against growing Muscovite pressure in the steppe and Empire) and the Crimea. The first raid across the Black recognized the Cossacks as a separate ethnic and politi- Sea (against Sinop and Trabzon) is reliably dated to 1614. cal entity (a tribe or taife). Following an alliance between Raids on the southern shores of the Black Sea reached Sweden and the Cossacks in the early 18th century, the their zenith in the 1620s. These raids involved up to 300 Ottomans granted protection to Cossacks fleeing repri- longboats called chaikas and reached the outskirts of sals from Peter I of Russia. Istanbul. The Cossacks engaged in a major naval battle with the Ottoman fleet near Kara-Harman in 1625. The Cossacks organized their own administration in Ukraine, called the Zaporozhian Host (ordu). In an Although these early Cossack exploits were essen- imitation of the Ottoman and Crimean pattern, it was tially a form of piracy, they quickly developed into a divided into regiments and hundreds. The Zaporozhian factor in international politics. Beginning in the 1540s Host issued its own legislation and currency and had an Cossack military activity caused tension between the elected head of state, or hetman. The Russian govern- Porte and the kings of Poland. In 1589 a Cossack attack ment appointed the last hetman in 1750 and abolished on the Crimea even compelled Elizabeth I of England this office in 1764. As an autonomous military and polit- (r. 1558\u20131603) to intercede on behalf of Poland in its ical power, the Ukrainian Cossacks survived for only negotiations with the Porte. Czar Ivan IV (r. 1533\u201384) of Muscovy was the first foreign ruler to hire Cossacks.","a few years. After the Treaty of K\u00fc\u00e7\u00fck Kaynarca court and favorites 151 (1774), Czarina Catherine II (r. 1762\u201396) ordered the disbanding of the Zaporozhian Host and the destruction forced the Don Cossacks to swear an oath of loyalty to of its capital, Sich. From 1775 until 1828 the Ottomans the czar, abolished their self-government, and effectively permitted Cossack refugees to settle in the Danube delta impeded the influx of fugitive serfs into the Don Cossack as a military corps. host. The bloody pacification of the Cossacks in 1708 resulted in thousands of deaths. Some Don Cossacks, led Following the disbanding of the Zaporozhian Host, by Ignat Nekrasov, fled to the south toward the Kuban\u2019 the Russian government used the remaining Cossacks of River. These fugitives later formed the nucleus for a mili- Ukraine, organized around several Cossack hosts, as mil- tary unit known as Nekrasovites that settled in Ottoman itary servitors against the Ottoman Empire. These hosts territory in the Danube delta. By the end of the 18th cen- were located on the Yuzhny Bug River (the Bug Cossack tury the Russian government had succeeded in trans- Host, 1785\u201398, 1803\u201317), between the Dnieper and Dni- forming the remaining Don Cossacks into loyal military ester rivers (the Black Sea Cossack Host, 1788\u20131860), settlers. The Don Cossacks, at this point, were no longer and on the northern shore of the Sea of Azov (the Azov an object of Ottoman foreign policy. Cossack Host, 1832\u201366). In 1792 the Black Sea Cossacks were partly transferred to the basin of the Kuban\u2019 River in Oleksandr Halenko the northern Caucasus, where they formed the Kuban\u2019 Further reading: John Uhre, The Cossacks (London: Cossack Host. All officers in these hosts were appointed Constable, 1999); Gilles Veinstein, \u201cEarly Ottoman Appella- by the government. Cossacks were assigned to specially tions for the Cossacks.\u201d Harvard Ukrainian Studies 23 (1999): designed settlements, and their service was rewarded 33\u201344; Serhii Plokhiy, The Cossacks and Religion in Early with conditional land grants. At this point, these Cos- Modern Ukraine (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001); sacks could be described as privileged military settlers. Victor Ostapchuk, \u201cThe Human Landscape of the Ottoman Black Sea in the Face of the Cossack Naval Raids.\u201d Oriente The Don Cossacks (Ten Kazaklar\u0131 in Ottoman) Moderno, n.s., 20 (2001): 23\u201395; Mykhaylo Hrushevsky, emerged at the end of the 16th century in the basins of History of Ukraine-Rus\u2019, vol. 7\u20139 (Edmonton and Toronto: the Don and Seversky Donets rivers. Their composition Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, 1997\u20132005). and organization were similar to the Ukrainian Cossacks except for the notable absence of upper class representa- courier network See menzil\/menzilhane. tives in their ranks. In fact the Don Cossacks were farm- ers and freebooters who found a comfortable refuge in court and favorites In the early modern period this neutral zone and showed less inclination that the (1500\u20131800), a particular type of court developed in Zaporozhian Host to cooperate with any government. most empires of the world. On the way to the forma- Moscow provided a potential economic partner for the tion of modern nation-states, royal courts were the pri- Don Cossacks, but the distance between Muscovy and mary setting for politics, and court favorites were among the territory of the Don Cossacks frustrated attempts to the leading actors on the political stage. The Ottoman build trade connections. Empire was no exception in terms of the position and functions of the court and favorites. The Ottoman court The military activity of the Don Cossacks was limited defined not only a princely residence but also a larger to raids on Ottoman fortresses and piracy on the Black matrix of political, social, economic, cultural, and reli- and Azov seas. The most memorable episode in the his- gious relations that converged in the sultan\u2019s household. tory of the Don Cossacks was their seizure and control of Like any pre-modern ruler, the Ottoman sultan was per- Azak from 1637 to 1642. This exploit, however, was not sonally the source of secular authority and the principal of any long-term political importance. The Don Cossacks dispenser of offices, patronage, and power. Hence the continued their piratical activity on the Black Sea in the Ottoman court was the prime locus of decision making, second half of the 17th century. Again, these raids were the major house for preferment, and the main spatial set- devoid of any political agenda and were in contravention ting for daily rituals of rule. Overall, it fulfilled a series to appeals from the Ukrainian hetman to participate in of multiple and sometimes opposing functions. While it peaceful commerce with the Ottomans. The Muscovite enclosed the sultan and thus limited access to his person czars used Don Cossacks as guards for embassies to the to a favored entourage, it also served as a means of con- Ottoman Empire. The Don Cossacks were generously necting the Ottoman ruler to the larger political universe paid for their services. Russian attempts to impose a for- that lay beyond the palace gates. mal service obligation on the Don Cossacks in return for social and economic privileges were strenuously resisted. The Ottoman court and favorites began to emerge In time, Muscovy was able, following the suppression of in the mid-16th century with the consolidation of royal Cossack raids by regular army units, to impose a tribu- power that was coterminous with the centralization of tary status on the Don Cossacks. In the 1670s Muscovy","152 court and favorites of the sultans, together with the increasing seclusion of the sultans in the inner compounds of the palace, were the bureaucracy and the sedentarization of Ottoman the determining factors for the making of the Ottoman imperial rule. A defining feature of the early modern court in the period between 1450 and 1550. court, this sedentarization was realized with the creation of a permanent imperial seat in Istanbul\u2019s Topkap\u0131 Pal- Although the sultans of this period still spent most of ace, a residence that outshone those of all former Otto- their reigns on battlefields, a less visible sultan gradually man sultans. The majesty of this new palatial residence emerged as part of the new definition of sultanic imag- and its inhabitants was guaranteed and accentuated by ery. The initial signs of royal seclusion and dignity can elaborately tailored rituals of ceremony, power, and hier- be found in some of Mehmed II\u2019s new practices, which archy. The major consequence of these developments was also found their way into his law codes. Perhaps the most the emergence of a new type of sultan who tried to rule significant of these practices was that, beginning with the empire from seclusion, both physical and ceremonial. Mehmed II, the sultans ceased to attend the meetings of At the same time, two interrelated factors became crucial the Imperial Council. for both building and holding political power in this new setting: controlling the points of access to the person of Constant victories resulting in further territorial the sultan, and establishing privacy with the sultan and expansions during the 15th and first half of the 16th with other powerful figures of the court. century created a well-fed self-importance and over- confidence among the Ottoman ruling elite. This self- THE EARLY OTTOMAN ERA: 1300\u20131450 confidence, especially during the reign of S\u00fcleyman I, cultivated an appetite for the world domination. The The first 150 years of Ottoman rule was characterized by Ottoman sultans\u2019 dignity grew, and a well-regulated cer- frequent military campaigns, which demanded a ruler emonial procedure set down the rules of behavior to deal and political-military elite to be constantly on the move. with the sultan. This was manifested in the increasing During this formative period, the itinerant character of seclusion of the sultans. The sultans\u2019 retinue also grew the Ottoman political body also required direct involve- enormously, and with the reign of S\u00fcleyman, the court ment and leadership from the sultans. Although there ceremonial and the fabricated aura surrounding the sul- were capital cities\u2014first Bursa (1326) and then Edirne tan became more solemn. S\u00fcleyman I took another cru- (c. 1360)\u2014that accommodated the royal household, the cial step toward the making of the court. He transferred court of the sultan was not sedentary and moved to new all members of his royal household from the Old Palace locations that were dependent on military conquests and to the new one, and the sultan\u2019s household and the busi- territorial expansion in the 14th century. Thus, between ness of rule were thus entwined in the Topkap\u0131 Palace. 1300 and 1450, the itinerancy of the Ottoman ruling The accommodation of the bureaucracy, imperial gov- body hindered the development of a permanent seat for ernment, and royal household under the same roof was court and favorites. the most important last step for the making of the Otto- man court as the central stage for power politics between AFTER THE CONQUEST OF CONSTANTINOPLE: 1450 and 1550. 1450\u20131550 THE EMERGENCE OF THE OTTOMAN COURT: The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 1540\u20131600 was a turning point in the making of the empire and court. From this point until the end of the reign of Sultan The next period marked the emergence of the court as S\u00fcleyman I (r. 1520\u201366) came a period of imperial mat- the nerve center of political struggles and practical poli- uration. During this era, the sultans consolidated their tics. The emergence of the Ottoman court as the new imperial-dynastic sovereignty through networks of legiti- political setting dictated specific rules for both building mization by a fully grown bureaucracy and law-making and practicing power. The sultans of the latter half of the efficacy. The conquest of Constantinople gave the Otto- 16th century ruled within the mechanisms and relations mans a permanent capital city. The construction of the dictated by these rules of court politics. The basic impo- Topkap\u0131 Palace in the new capital, or the New Palace as sition of this new political framework was to create agen- it was called by the Ottomans, began with the initiative cies to bridge the gap between the ruler, the court, and of Sultan Mehmed II (r. 1444\u201346; 1451\u201381) immediately the outside world. The main agents who bridged this gap after the takeover of the city. Although the initial layout were the favorites. Thus the rise of the favorites as agents of the palace was shaped during Mehmed\u2019s reign, suc- of power politics was a direct consequence of the emer- cessive sultans rebuilt and added sections to the palace. gence of the Ottoman court. Its construction was rather a process, corresponding to the aspirations of the expanding empire, and it had to be Although Selim II (r. 1566\u20131574) was the first adjusted according to changing conditions. The estab- Ottoman sultan whose reign began in this new politi- lishment of the Topkap\u0131 Palace as the ultimate residence cal setting, the overwhelming control of the grand vizier","Sokollu Mehmed Pasha over the business of rule through- court and favorites 153 out his reign delayed the true emergence of favorites until the beginning of the reign of Sultan Murad III (r. THE TOPKAPI PALACE AND ISTANBUL: 1574\u20131595). The assassination of Sokollu Mehmed Pasha in 1579, during the fifth year of Murad III\u2019s reign, marks 1600\u20131700 the beginning of favorites as a new power elite within the Ottoman political order. The reign of Sultan Ahmed I (r. 1603\u20131617) constitutes another watershed in the development of the court and It is challenging to delineate the borders of the Otto- the roles played by the favorites in the Ottoman imperial man court in terms of its social, political, and economic establishment. He was the first sultan in Ottoman history interactions with society as a whole. However, one of the to come to the throne from the inner compounds of the most important parameters for understanding how pow- palace without having first served in a province as gover- erwas built and practiced tin court politics was the con- nor. This lack of experience, which was designed to pre- cept of access. Since access to the court and access from pare the princes for a future sultanate, prevented Ahmed the court to the outside world were strictly controlled from establishing his own retinue that would form the in the Ottoman political order, anyone contending for nucleus of his government and court when he came to power in the court\u2014including the sultans\u2014needed to the throne. Overall, with Ahmed\u2019s reign, dynastic suc- establish a communication network within and outside cession, power struggles, and patronage networks within of the court. Therefore the favorites were not only the the Ottoman political body shifted from a larger setting, inevitable outcome of the changes in the Ottoman politi- which once included the provincial princely households, cal setting, they were also deliberate creations of power to a narrower domain consisting of the Topkap\u0131 Palace contenders at court. In fact, we observe the first examples and Istanbul. of such creations in the reign of Murad III. Ahmed\u2019s reign witnessed the crystallization of the Of the anti-Sokollu factionalism under Murad III\u2019s crucial roles played by the favorites. Given the increased first years, \u015eemsi Pasha was one of the first examples invisibility and inaccessibility of the Ottoman sultan of such creations. The main reason for bringing \u015eemsi during this period, a favorite who managed to enter the Pasha from his retirement to the court of Murad III was sultan\u2019s quarters consolidated his power against chal- his well-known animosity to Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, and lengers. In this context, El-Hac Mustafa Agha, who held with the power invested in him as a favorite, he worked the office of chief eunuch throughout Ahmed I\u2019s reign, hard to divert the flow of the business of rule toward the became the royal favorite par excellence. Especially after sultan. However, the first proper example of created royal the untimely death of Ahmed\u2019s mother Handan Sultan in favorites was Do\u011fanc\u0131 Mehmed Pasha, the governor of 1605, Mustafa Agha enjoyed exclusive access to Ahmed Rumelia, whose status as favorite was officially granted since he was now the highest authority in the royal pal- by an imperial decree in 1584. The extraordinary privi- ace. Thanks to his position, he was not only able to attain leges given to Mehmed Pasha by Murad III bypassed the enormous power and to control almost all petitions and well-established patterns of the hierarchical order and information addressed to the sultan, he also distributed cut through the jurisdictions of the different offices of wealth, power and patronage both in the sultan\u2019s name the bureaucracy. and in his own name. It was during the first half of the 17th century that the position and function of the chief A more accurate picture of court politics includes eunuch of the palace within court politics were solidly a number of power foci and a multiple set of relations entrenched, and until the end of the 18th century, several among them. While some favorites were deliberate cre- chief eunuchs, such as El-Hac Be\u015fir Agha, exercised great ations, others were engendered and gained unprecedented power over imperial politics. power as a result of their control over the points of access to the court and politics of privacy. The most illustri- However, while the Ottoman court continued to ous examples of these new power elites were the queen serve as the nerve center of politics until the end of the mothers and chief eunuchs of the palace. After Murad 17th century, it also remained a contested domain for III moved his mother, Nur Banu Sultan, to the Topkap\u0131 power struggles in which various factions and patron- Palace, the queen mother became one of the most impor- client relations limited, and thus often undermined, tant power contenders of the court. Successors of Nur both the sovereign authority of the sultan and the Banu Sultan, such as Safiye Sultan, the mother of Sultan standing of his favorites. During this period various Mehmed III (r. 1595\u20131603) or K\u00f6sem Sultan, the mother factions among members of the government, the army, of Sultan Murad IV (r. 1623\u20131640) and Sultan Ibrahim and the religious establishment often allied and worked (r. 1640\u20131648), were prime examples of queen mothers against the Ottoman rulers and their male and female who concentrated immense power in their hands through favorites. Such united factions within the court and their own networks of favorites and prot\u00e9g\u00e9s. the larger political body often managed to make and unmake sultans such as Mustafa I (r. 1617\u201318, 1622\u2013 23) and Mehmed IV (r. 1648\u201387). These factions even led to the first two regicides in Ottoman history: sultans","154 court chronicles 1512). Elaborately written in Persian, Idris-i Bidlisi\u2019s work, He\u015ft Bihi\u015ft, discusses the first eight Ottoman sul- Osman II (r. 1618\u20131622) and Ibrahim I (r. 1640\u201348) tans and is modeled on the histories of Wassaf (b. 1265\u2013d were murdered in 1622 and 1648, respectively. Many 1334) and Djuwayni (b. 1226\u2013d. 1286). Kemalpa\u015fazade\u2019s favorites too lost their lives in the midst of such tumults 10-volume chronicle, which covers the first 10 sultans, and as part of the power struggles in the court. marks a turning point in Ottoman historiography; unlike earlier chroniclers, the writer did not relate a string of Overall, the early modern Ottoman courtly practice, unrelated events, but rather tied events together in a con- with embedded royal favorites and constant factionalism, tinuous and connected chain. belied the rhetoric of \u201dabsolute\u201d and \u201carbitrary\u201d sultanic power. Another important development in the genre took place under Selim I (r. 1512\u201320) when, for the first G\u00fcnhan B\u00f6rek\u00e7i-\u015eefik Peksevgen time, a history was produced based on the reign of a Further reading: Cornell Fleischer, Bureaucrat and single ruler. This text, The Book of Selim (Selim-name), Intellectual in the Ottoman Empire: The Historian Mus- is the most important source of history for this period. tafa \u00c2li (1541\u20131600) (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University As the empire became firmly established, and with the Press, 1986); G\u00fclr\u00fc Necipo\u011flu, Architecture, Ceremonial, Selim-name and the S\u00fcleyman-name (written after the and Power: The Topkap\u0131 Palace in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth ascension of S\u00fcleyman I, r. 1520\u201366, in 1520), the Centuries (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1991); Leslie number of chronicles continued to increase as did the Peirce, The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the number of histories of military campaigns. Under S\u00fcl- Ottoman Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993); eyman I, the post of court chronicler (\u015fehnameci) was Caroline Finkel, Osman\u2019s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman for the first time made official and the first court chron- Empire, 1300\u20131923 (London: John Murray, 2005); Baki Tez- icler of this period, Arifi Fethullah \u00c7elebi (d. 1561), can, \u201cSearching for Osman: A Reassessment of the Deposi- completed the half-written history left by \u015eehdi in the tion of The Ottoman Sultan Osman II (1618\u20131622)\u201d (Ph.D. mid-15th century. diss., Princeton University, 2001). Early in the history of the practice, the court historian court chronicles The Ottoman court chronicles was identified as the \u015fehnameci (writer of \u015fehname or poet- (\u015fehname or vakan\u00fcvis) are the official accounts of ical history). The most famous Ottoman \u015fehnameci was Ottoman imperial history as recorded by the sultan\u2019s Seyyid Lokman who served as court historian for almost court chronicler. Ottoman court historiography pro- 27 years, writing many works before his death at the duced works inspired by classical Islamic historiogra- beginning of the 17th century. The next official \u015fehnameci, phy. In this concept of historiography, which developed Talikizade Mehmed Subhi, wrote three \u015fehnames while in in the Islamic world prior to the Ottoman period, the his post. Talikizade was removed from office in 1601 and chronicler tries to confirm oral traditions by identify- replaced with Hasan H\u00fckmi, but despite holding the post ing written sources close to the events. Following the for 10 years, Hasan H\u00fckmi did not produce any writing. traditions developed during the period of classical After that, the office was left vacant. Islam (Umayyad and Abbasid periods), the chroni- cler narrates events year by year, and at the end of each The court historian or court chronicler ultimately year gives a biography of the sheikhs, viziers, poets, came to be called vakan\u00fcvis, written originally as vekayi- and other important people who died during that year. n\u00fcvis, meaning \u201cone who records events.\u201d Although Ottoman historiography was also strongly influenced by the title of vakan\u00fcvis was used in the 16th century, the Ibn Khaldun (b. 1332\u2013d. 1406), one of the most original appearance of the vakan\u00fcvislik as a post connected philosophers of Arabic history. Compared with Persian to the royal court did not occur until the beginning historiography, the language used in Ottoman histori- of the 18th century with the appointment of Mustafa ography is rather plain. Naima (b. 1655\u2013d. 1716), who wrote histories covering the period 1574 to 1660. Abdurrahman Abdi Pasha (d. The writing of \u015fehname, the earlier type of chron- 1692), who wrote the history of the reign of Mehmed IV icle composed in a poetic form, began in the reign of (r. 1648\u201387), is sometimes identified as the first vakan\u00fc- Mehmed II (r. 1444\u201346, 1451\u201381) when the sultan vis, but this claim is not generally accepted. Beginning appointed \u015eehdi to record all historical events in the epic in 1735, the appointment of a vakan\u00fcvis became stan- style; however, this first attempt was left uncompleted. An dard practice. Although there are significant differences even earlier history of this kind, written during the reign between the posts of the \u015fehnameci of the early 17th of Murad II (r. 1421\u201344, 1446\u201351), was Menakib-name-i century and the vakan\u00fcvis, the later position was essen- Yah\u015fi Fakih, however, this work is no longer extant. tially a continuation of the earlier one; the \u015fehnamecilik and the vakan\u00fcvislik reflect different periods of official The most important early court chronicles were historiography. written by Idris-i Bidlisi (d. 1520) and Kemalpa\u015fazade (b. 1469\u2013d. 1534) on the order of Bayezid II (r. 1481\u2013","The next vakan\u00fcvis appointed was \u015eefik Mehmed court chronicles 155 Efendi (d. 1715), who described the 1703 uprising in Edirne that led to the abdication of Mustafa II (r. 1794). Enveri was appointed vakan\u00fcvis five times (1769\u2013 1695\u20131703) in the rich and complex language that was 74, 1776\u201383, 1787\u201391, 1791\u201393 and finally in 1794). The to become characteristic of Ottoman documents. Later work he prepared, in three parts, is known by his name: commentaries illuminate some of the complexities of Tarih-i Enveri. this text. Picking up the official record from the point at which Naima left off in 1660 was religious scholar Ahmed Vas\u0131f Efendi was the most famous of the Mehmed Ra\u015fid (d. 1735), who was appointed vakan\u00fcvis vakan\u00fcvises. He was appointed four times (1783\u20131787, in 1714. Ra\u015fid was commissioned by the acting grand 1791\u20131792, 1793\u20131794 and finally in 1799\u20131806). Vas\u0131f vizier, Nev\u015fehirli Ibrahim Pasha, to record the events recorded the events that occurred during his time as from where Naima left off to the ascension of Ahmed vakan\u00fcvis while also completing and rewriting the works III (r. 1703\u20131730) in 1703. After completing this first of his predecessors (Hakim, \u00c7e\u015fmizade, Musazade, volume, Ra\u015fid\u2019s second volume described the events Hasan Behceti, \u00d6mer Efendizade S\u00fcleyman, Enveri, Edib, between 1703 and 1718, while the third volume narrated Nuri). He completed writing the history of the empire events that took place under Grand Vizier Nev\u015fehirli from 1753 through 1804, with only a few years missing. Ibrahim Pasha (1718\u201322). Although the works of Naima Of his work, Tarih-i Vas\u0131f (History of Vas\u0131f), the vol- and Ra\u015fid seem to be continuous, there is a small gap ume covering 1752 through 1774 was printed twice; he between them. Ra\u015fid continued in this position until his himself published the volume that chronicled the years appointment to the judgeship of Aleppo in June, 1723. 1782\u20131787, which was the heftiest part of his History and The next vakan\u00fcvis, K\u00fc\u00e7\u00fck \u00c7elebizade As\u0131m (d. 1760), the one he wrote first. However, a significant part of his who was from an academic background like his prede- History, the sections that discuss the events of 1775\u201379 cessor, wrote a history that recorded events from between and 1789\u20131804, are still in manuscript form. 1722 and 1728. This work was printed as an appendix to Ra\u015fid\u2019s history. When Vas\u0131f was sent to Spain as ambassador in 1787, Te\u015frifati Hasan Efendi (d. 1797) was appointed in As\u0131m was succeeded by Rami Pa\u015fazade Refet Abdul- his place as vakan\u00fcvis. Hasan Efendi recorded events lah Beyefendi (d. 1744), who became vakan\u00fcvis in 1725; from the time Vas\u0131f left the post. Mehmed Emin Edib Sami Mustafa Efendi (d. 1734), who had a bureaucratic Efendi (d. 1802) chronicled events from 1788 through background and was vakan\u00fcvis from 1730 to 1731; \u015eakir 1792 as deputy vakan\u00fcvis; his work is known as Tarih-i Efendi (d. 1742); and Subhi Mehmed Efendi (d. 1769), Edib. Vakan\u00fcvis Halil Nuri\u2019s (d. 1799) six-volume history also from a bureaucratic background, who acted as describes the events of 1794\u201399, including the various vakan\u00fcvis from 1739 to 1743. Subhi Mehmed Efendi military reforms and other regulations. Mehmed Pertev wrote about his own period and the preceding one, and Efendi (d. 1807), who came to the post on Vas\u0131f \u2019s death his work was printed together with the histories writ- in 1806, spent two years as vakan\u00fcvis but did not leave ten by \u015eakir and Sami as Tarih-i Sami ve \u015eakir ve Subhi any individual works. He was succeeded by Es-Seyyid (The History of Sami and \u015eakir and Subhi). \u0130zzi S\u00fcleyman \u00d6mer Amir Bey (d. 1815), who was removed from Efendi (d. 1755), who succeeded Subhi Mehmed Efendi, office three and a half months later because he did not wrote Tarih-i \u0130zzi (History of \u0130zzi), printed in two vol- carry out his duties. M\u00fctercim Ahmed As\u0131m (d. 1819), umes. His history, like those by most subsequent vakan\u00fc- appointed in 1807, covered the time period 1803 to 1808, vis, chronicles the years of his tenure, 1744 to 1752. Seyyid including the first four months of the reign of Mahmud Mehmed Hakim (d. 1770), vakan\u00fcvis from 1753 through II (r. 1808\u201339). After presenting his work to the sultan, 1766, wrote Tarih-i Hakim, which is in manuscript form. he made changes to his own copy, including criticism of His successor was \u00c7e\u015fmizade Mustafa Re\u015fid Efendi (d. some people who had passed away. 1770), who held the post from 1766 to 1768. His Tarih- i \u00c7e\u015fmizade was one of the sources for the history later As\u0131m was succeeded by \u015eanizade Mehmed Ataul- written by Vas\u0131f. lah (d. 1826), who combined As\u0131m\u2019s rough draft with his own chronicle of the years 1808 through 1821 in The vakan\u00fcvises Musazade Mehmed Ubeydullah his four-volume Tarih-i \u015eanizade (History of \u015eanizade). Efendi (d. 1782), Esseyyid Hasan Behceti Efendi (18th Sahaflar \u015eehyizade Mehmed Esad Efendi (b. 1789\u2013d. century), and \u00d6mer Efendizade S\u00fcleyman Efendi (d. 1848) was appointed on 29 September 1825. The work 1807) did not publish individual works, but their writing that he wrote, Tarih-i Esad, covers events from October was used as a source for Tarih-i Vas\u0131f, written by vakan\u00fc- 1821 to July 1826 and consists of two volumes. Although vis Ahmed Vas\u0131f Efendi (d. 1806). Esad Efendi remained vakan\u00fcvis until his death on 11 January 1848, he was unable to compile his notes con- Vas\u0131f also compiled and used as a source the work of cerning the period after 1826 into book form due to the his immediate predecessor, Enveri Sadullah (b. 1736\u2013d. number of additional important duties he had to carry out. Recai Mehmed \u015eakir Efendi (b. 1804\u2013d. 1874), and later Ak\u0131f Pa\u015fazade Nail Mehmed Bey (d. 1855),","156 court of law court of law (mahkama; mahkeme) Although some changes were made, the Ottoman justice system evolved although acting as vakan\u00fcvis, did not leave any written from and reflected the structure of the justice systems of histories. previous Islamic states. Until the Tanzimat reform period of 1839\u201376, only one type of court existed in the Otto- After the death of Nail Bey, Ahmed Cevdet Pasha man Empire. In keeping with Islamic law, or sharia, this (b. 1823\u2013d. 1895), the prominent Ottoman writer and court had only one judge or kad\u0131, trained in an imperial statesman of the Tanzimat or reform era who was to madrasa, and although it was possible to appeal a judg- become the greatest Ottoman historian, was appointed ment, there was no regular multi-staged court structure. In to the post. Commissioned to record events from 1774 practice, however, the Divan or Imperial Council, the Fri- to 1826, Cevdet Pasha studied documents and histories, day Court, and the court of the kad\u0131asker, the top judi- interviewed contemporary leaders, and used other con- cial official in the empire, accepted and discussed appeals. temporary sources to produce Tarih-i Cevdet, a 12-vol- ume work. Cevdet Pasha did not just describe events; he Ottoman judicial opinions were the sole purview of was careful to take into account the relationship of cause judges, although they had assistants. The most impor- and effect and occasionally compared Ottoman history tant assistant was the clerk (katib). Another assistant, the with European history. naib, assisted the kad\u0131 in judging, took depositions dur- ing investigations out of court, and judged in the kad\u0131\u2019s Cevdet Pasha also kept notes on the period during stead if he was absent. In some courts, a vice-kad\u0131 (kas- which he acted as vakan\u00fcvis (February 19, 1855\u2013Janu- sam) was in charge of the dividing up of inheritances. ary 12, 1866), and when his appointment came to an end Kad\u0131s made decisions in their court regardless of the upon his acceptance of the post of governor of Aleppo, views of jurisconsults or muftis. Although the Ottoman he gave the work, known as Tezakir, to the historian who court system provided for trial observers, they merely succeeded him, Ahmed L\u00fctfi Efendi (b. 1816\u2013d. 1907). watched the trial and did not give any opinions. Because Using the notes of Cevdet Pasha and Esad Efendi, the they did not participate in the judging process their role official gazette of the time Takvim-i Vekayi, and his own should not be confused with that played by the jury in observations, L\u00fctfi Efendi wrote a 15-volume history, some Western judicial systems. Vakan\u00fcvis Ahmed L\u00fctfi Efendi Tarihi, covering events from 1826 through 1868. In small settlements, courthouses were not distinct structures. The judge presided either in a part of his For two years after the death of L\u00fctfi Efendi in 1907, house or in the mosque. Judgments were usually reached no vakan\u00fcvis was appointed. Abdurrahman \u015eeref (b. after one hearing, although certain trials required further 1853\u2013d. 1925) was appointed to the post on May 18, investigation and a second hearing. 1909. The last vakan\u00fcvis, Abdurrahman \u015eeref, carried out his duties until the abolition of the sultanate in 1922. The Ottoman court also expanded its role depending The history he wrote, Vakan\u00fcvis Abdurrahman \u015eeref on the need of the individual community. Where notary Efendi Tarihi, includes the reasons for the proclamation publics and municipalities did not exist, some transac- of the Second Constitutional Monarchy (see constitu- tions of purchases or marriages were finalized in court. tion and constitutional periods) and the removal of Municipal duties\u2014such as giving zoning permits, pro- Abd\u00fclhamid II from the throne, and one month of the tecting the environment, the administration of religious reign of Sultan Mehmed V (r. 1909\u201318). foundations, and the protection of orphans and infants\u2014 were also sometimes handled by the court. All the works Erhan Afyoncu and transactions performed by the courts were recorded See also literature. in court records or registers (sicil). These inventories help Further reading: Robert Charles Bond, \u201cThe Office of to illuminate the activities of the Ottoman courts and the Ottoman Court Historian or Vak\u2019an\u00fcvis, 1714\u20131922.\u201d contain valuable information regarding the social life, (Ph.D. diss., University of California, 2004); Cornell H. gender relations, and other aspects of the communities Fleischer, Bureaucrat and Intellectual in the Ottoman under the courts\u2019 jurisdiction. Empire: The Historian Mustafa Ali, 1541\u20131600 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1986); Historians of the After the Tanzimat period, the Ottoman judicial Middle East, edited by B. Lewis and P. M. Holt (Oxford Uni- system underwent significant changes. New courts were versity, 1962); Jan Schmidt, Pure Water for Thirsty Muslims: established, the Western system of assembled judges was A Study of Mustafa \u00c2li of Gallipolis K\u00fcnh\u00fc\u2019l-Ahbar (Leiden: introduced, and a two-stage judicial appeal system was Het Oosters Institut, 1991); Lewis V. Thomas, A Study of adopted. After various trials, two main court structures Naima, edited by Norman Itzkowitz (New York University were formed. One was the classical Ottoman court, which Press, 1972); Christine Woodhead, \u201cAn Experiment in Offi- continued to exist as sharia courts (\u015feriyye mahkemesi). cial Historiography: The Post of \u015eehn\u00e2meci in the Ottoman The other was a new court, or the nizamiye mahkemesi. Empire, 1555\u20131605.\u201d Wiener Zeitschrift f\u00fcr die Kunde des Morgenlandes 75 (1983), 157\u2013182; Christine Woodhead, Mustafa \u015eentop \u201cTar\u2019ikh,\u201d in Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., vol. 10 (Leiden: Brill, 1960\u2013), 290\u2013295.","Further reading: Colin Imber, Ebu\u2019s-su\u2019ud: The Islamic Cretan War 157 Legal Tradition (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1997); Halil \u0130nalcik, \u201cMahkama,\u201d in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Deli H\u00fcseyin Pasha, was unable to conquer the capital 2nd ed., vol. 6 (Leiden: Brill, 1960\u2013); Ronald C. Jennings, city of Venetian Crete, Candia (Ottoman Kandiye, pres- Studies on Ottoman Social History in the Sixteenth and Sev- ent-day Ir\u00e1klion), a fortress specially designed to with- enteenth Century: Women, Zimmis and Sharia Courts in stand the increasing firepower of 17th-century warfare. Kayseri, Cyprus and Trabzon (Istanbul: Isis, 1999); Galal The inability of the Ottoman army to capture Candia was Nahal, The Judicial Administration of Ottoman Egypt in the also a result of Venice\u2019s successful strategy of blockading Seventeenth Century (Minneapolis: Bibliotheca Islamica, the Dardanelles with its fleet, thus preventing the regular 1979); Martin Shapiro, Courts: A Comparative and Political re-supply of men and ammunition from Istanbul to the Analysis (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981). Cretan expedition. Between 1648 and 1656, the Ottoman fleet was often prevented from coming out of the Darda- covered market See Grand Bazaar; market. nelles, and the fleet was defeated in two major encoun- ters: first in 1651 in the waters of Naxos and then in 1656 Cretan War (1645\u20131669) The Cretan War refers at the entrance of the Dardanelles. to a conflict between the Ottomans and the Venetians between 1645 and 1669 for the possession of the large Even when the Ottomans managed to lift the Vene- island of Crete. Today a possession of Greece, Crete tian blockade of the Straits in 1657 thanks to the efforts is situated at the intersection of important sea routes in of Grand Vizier K\u00f6pr\u00fcl\u00fc Mehmed Pasha (1656\u201361) (see the eastern Mediterranean and was one of the last signifi- K\u00f6pr\u00fcl\u00fc family), the necessary reinforcements for the cant conquests of the Ottoman Empire, taken only a few siege of Candia, which had started in 1647, were not dis- decades before the Ottoman retreat from central Europe patched. The war in Crete was no longer a priority for began. Until it fell to Ottoman control, the island had \u039a\u00f6pr\u00fcl\u00fc Mehmed Pasha, who was busy punishing Prince been under Venetian rule from the time of the Fourth Gy\u00f6rgy R\u00e1k\u00f3czi II of Transylvania for undertaking an Crusade in 1204. unauthorized campaign against Poland, and suppressing the rebellion of an Ottoman provincial governor, Abaza The Ottomans began the war in 1645, exploiting a Hasan Pasha, in Anatolia. The Ottoman position in Crete favorable international situation: the end of their long was seriously endangered and, in 1660, an allied French- war against Safavid Persia (1624\u201339) in Asia and the Venetian fleet successfully pillaged the environs of Can- continuation of the Thirty Years\u2019 War (1618\u201348) that dia and the Ottoman camp outside the city. involved many of the European powers. At the same time, internal changes at the court of Ottoman Sultan Ibrahim It was only after the Treaty of Vasv\u00e1r (1664), fol- I (r. 1640\u201348), which came to be dominated by a war lowing an unsuccessful Ottoman campaign against party under the leadership of the sultan\u2019s favorites Cinci Habsburg Hungary and Austria, that Grand Vizier \u0397\u00fcseyin Hoca and Silahdar Yusuf \u0391gha, also favored a \u039a\u00f6pr\u00fcl\u00fc Faz\u0131l Ahmed Pasha (1661\u201376), son of K\u00f6pr\u00fcl\u00fc campaign against Venetian Crete. The provocation for Mehmed Pasha, decided to renew the attempt to con- the beginning of the Ottoman campaign was a Maltese quer Candia. At the head of a large expedition, the pirate attack in the vicinity of Crete against a ship car- grand vizier arrived on the island of Crete in the autumn rying a number of Ottoman notables from Istanbul to of 1666. This time, the Venetians obtained little support Egypt in the autumn of 1644. The Ottomans accused from western Europe. A French force that arrived in the the Venetians of Crete of having given harbor to Mal- spring of 1669 sailed back home after a short period of tese pirates, and the following summer an Ottoman army fighting. The commander of the Venetians, Francesco under Silahdar Yusuf, promoted to the rank of pasha and Morosini, had no alternative but to surrender the keys of appointed grand admiral, landed in western Crete with the town, \u201cthe most beautiful crown to adorn the head the Ottoman galley fleet. of the Most Serene Republic\u201d according to the Venetians, in September 1669. According to the peace that was then During the first years of the campaign, the Otto- concluded, the Venetians left Candia and abandoned man army managed to conquer the two major fortified all their possessions in Crete. The island fortresses of cities on the western part of the island (1645: Chania, Souda, Granbousa, and Spinalonga remained under 1646: Rethymno), as well as most of the countryside. Venetian rule until they were conquered by the Otto- They declared the island an Ottoman province (eyalet) mans in 1715. \u039a\u00f6pr\u00fcl\u00fc Faz\u0131l Ahmed Pasha stayed on the and, in 1651, promulgated a special law code (kanun- island for a short time to oversee the implementation of name) and completed a detailed property survey (tahrir) the peace as well as the Ottomanization and Islamization of Crete. However, the commander of the invading army, of Crete. A new and innovative law code (kanunname- i cedit) was promulgated for the Ottoman province of Crete and a new property survey, or tahrir, was carried out throughout the island. During and after the Cretan War, voluntarily conversion to Islam resulted in the","158 Crete haps the two most striking anomalies. Crete was the only Greek island where large numbers of the local popula- formation of an important Muslim community on the tion chose to become Muslim. The reasons for this are island, which nonetheless continued to be dominated by still unclear but two factors must have been quite impor- the Orthodox Christian majority. tant. First, the Orthodox Cretans had endured half a millennium of religious persecution under the Catho- Elias Kolovos lic Venetians and this had certainly weakened the reli- Further reading: Irene Bierman, \u201cThe Ottomanization gious leadership on the island. Second, by the time the of Crete,\u201d in The Ottoman City and its Parts: Urban Struc- sultan\u2019s army arrived on the island\u2019s shores in 1645, Otto- ture and Social Order, edited by Irene A. Bierman, Rifa\u2018at man methods of warfare had changed dramatically from A. Abou-El-Haj, and Donald Preziosi (New Rochelle, N.Y.: previous centuries. The long war was marked by exten- A.D. Caratzas, 1991), 53\u201375; Molly Greene, A Shared World: sive recruitment of the islanders and this close contact Christians and Muslims in the Early Modern Mediterranean with the Ottoman military must have also encouraged (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000); Kenneth conversion to Islam. Whatever the reasons, the mixed M. Setton, Venice, Austria, and the Turks in the Seventeenth population of Christians and Muslims made the age of Century (Philadelphia: The American Historical Society, nationalism a particularly bloody one in Crete. 1991). After the Greek War of Independence (1821\u2013 Crete (Candia; Gk.: Kriti; Turk.: Girit) After the 30), the Greeks of Crete, which was not included in the Ottoman conquest of Cyprus in 1570, Crete was the borders of the new state, rose up repeatedly to demand only eastern Mediterranean island of any importance union with Greece. This was opposed by the island\u2019s that remained in Venetian hands. Aside from the gen- Muslim population and the 19th century was marked by eral desire to control as much territory as possible, Vene- a downward spiral of violence, as Christian and Muslim tian possession of Crete was a particular problem for the Cretans repeatedly clashed and the Ottoman authorities Ottomans because it lay directly in the main sea lane that responded with severe measures against the Christian connected Istanbul, the imperial capital, to its impor- population. Although the Ottomans were able to prevail tant province of Egypt. Egypt was the breadbasket of militarily against the Christians, they did not succeed on the Ottoman Empire, much as it had been for previous the world diplomatic stage. The Ottoman Empire was empires, and maintaining the link was a vital concern. now called \u201cthe sick man of Europe\u201d and it was Europe The issue was compounded by the fact that the 17th cen- that decided, ultimately, which pieces of the dying empire tury saw a huge upsurge in Christian piracy in the east- were going to be given away to newly founded states such ern Mediterranean. Given the maritime technology of as Greece. In the end, European pressure forced the Otto- the time, pirates depended upon ready access to ports of mans to cede Crete to Greece in 1912. refuge where they could take shelter and replenish their water supply. The southern coast of Crete offered such a Molly Greene safe harbor. Desperate to avoid war with the Ottomans, Further reading: Molly Greene, A Shared World: the Venetians did their best to chase pirates away, but at Christians and Muslims in the Early Modern Mediterranean that point Venice was in decline and no longer enjoyed (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000). the resources that would have allowed it to adequately guard its extensive coastline in Crete. Predictably, then, Crimea See Crimean Tatars; Crimean War. it was an attack by pirates known as the Knights of St. John on Ottoman shipping in 1644 that set off the long Crimean Khanate See Crimean Tatars. (1645\u20131669) Ottoman-Venetian War of Candia (see Cre- tan War), Candia being the Venetian term for both the Crimean Tatars A Turkic-speaking ethnic group island of Crete and its capital city, today\u2019s Ir\u00e1klion. The that founded a khanate in the Crimea and on the grassy war was immensely costly for the Ottomans but they steppes above the Black Sea in the first half of the 15th managed finally to prevail and 500 years of Venetian rule century, the Crimean Tatars played an important role in on the island came to an end. Ottoman history. The Tatars, also known as Mongols, originally arrived on the Crimean peninsula along with The conquest of the island was the first major Otto- the Kipchak Turkic tribes. The Kipchak tribes, along with man territorial acquisition in 100 years, coming about the other local Turkic and Indo-European inhabitants long after the age of Ottoman expansion had ended. (Greeks, Alans, Goths, Armenians) of the region, had Therefore, the organization and incorporation of the a major impact on the development of the Tatars who island into the empire was somewhat irregular. The out- right grant of large blocks of territory to imperial elites, and high levels of conversion to Islam amongst the indigenous (Orthodox Christian) population, were per-","swept in around 1238\u201339. Under Mongol-Tatar domina- Crimean Tatars 159 tion, the Crimea was an independent unit, both econom- ically and militarily. In the 1440s Hajji Giray (r. 1426\u201356), leaders of each wing were titled kalga or nureddin. Due to a descendant of Genghis Khan\u2019s grandson Toka Tem\u00fcr, the fact that Tatar succession was not defined, the militar- created a self-governing khanate with the support of the ily experienced kalgas and nureddins were well placed to grand duke of Lithuania and the Crimean Tatar clans. gain the throne. However, power in the Crimea was not Militarily, the Crimea relied on the inexhaustible human achieved through possession of the throne alone. As a resources of the steppe. Economically, it depended on the ruler, the khan did not hold total power and was forced peninsula\u2019s strong agricultural and pastoral resources and to seek the support of the Karachi beys of the four rul- the taxes paid by the Genoese trading colonies on the ing Tatar clans: Shirin, Barin, Argin, and Kipchak. Only southern coast of the Crimea. through the support of the Karachi beys and Ottoman confirmation could power in the Crimea be maintained. Following the death of Hajji Giray in 1466, the Otto- mans became embroiled in the struggle for succession. The bulk of the Crimean military strength came Backed by the Ottomans, Hajji Giray\u2019s younger son, from the four ruling clans. The khan also had access to Mengli Giray (r. 1466\u201374, 1475\u201376, 1478\u20131514), seized additional manpower in the form of members of the power by defeating his brother, Nurdevlet (r. 1466, 1474\u2013 Giray dynasty and their escorts as well as their personal 75, 1476\u201378), who was supported by the khan of the t\u00fcfenk\u00e7i (musketeers), numbering approximately 500 Tatar Great Horde and the Genoese. The Ottomans took men. Additionally, from 1532 on, the Ottoman Empire advantage of the distraction caused by the struggle for provided the khan with a small, fully funded artillery and power, eliminating the peninsula\u2019s Italian commercial col- army. Crimean military campaigns were also commonly onies and annexing the southern coast of the Crimea that joined by nomadic hordes seeking plunder, but their mil- became an Ottoman subprovince, the sancak of Caffa. itary value was not significant. The accession of Ottoman-supported Mengli Giray Income for the Crimean Khanate came from three linked the Crimea and the Ottoman Empire on the basis main areas: taxes paid by neighboring states, revenues of mutual interest. The Tatars became vassals of Istan- of the khanate, and subsidies paid by the Ottoman gov- bul but remained generally independent in terms of ernment or Sublime Porte. During the 16th century the their internal and foreign affairs. The election of new Crimean khans were paid a regular tribute (tiyi\u015f) by the khans, for example, was conducted by the four ruling Polish king and the Muscovite czar consisting of cash, Tatar tribes, and the results of the elections were gener- costly textiles, and fur. Most of the land of the khanate ally accepted and acknowledged by the Ottoman sultans. was commonly owned by the ruling clans and was culti- However, the Tatar khans were required to send mem- vated by free farmers and slaves. The bulk of the khans\u2019 bers of their families to Istanbul as hostages as an act of income came from trade in goods and salt. However, a loyalty to the Ottoman court. As a result, the Crimean substantial portion also stemmed from plunder, the most Tatars enjoyed the protection of the sultan, and the Otto- lucrative part of which was the slave trade. As an addi- mans relied on Tatar subsidiary troops during their cam- tional supplement, the Porte paid an annuity (salyane) to paigns against eastern Europe. the khan, as well as the kalga and nureddin, and provided a cash subsidy for military expenses. THE 16TH CENTURY The reigns of the two most important Tatar khans During the first half of the 16th century the Crimean of the 16th century, Sahib Giray (1532\u20131551) and Devlet Khanate was a typical nomadic empire, and as such it Giray (r. 1551\u201377), were marked by competition against had several basic goals: restoring the political cohesive- Muscovy (known later as Russia). Although the Giray ness experienced under Mongol rule, subduing rebellious dynasty established khans in both Kazan and Astrakhan clans, and collecting taxes originally paid to the Golden on the Volga River, by the middle of the century the Horde by Poland-Lithuania and the Grand Duke of Mus- Muscovite czar, Ivan IV, had annexed both khanates to covy (Russia). The legitimacy of the khan was ensured his empire. Hoping to get Astrakhan back, the Ottomans by his ancestral connection to Genghis Khan. Moreover, attempted to build a canal between the Volga and the the names of the khans were mentioned in the hutbe (the Don rivers in 1569, but the plan failed. In response, Dev- Friday sermon in Islam). The final legitimizing tactic let Giray launched a campaign against Moscow in 1571 utilized by the ruling Tatars was the practice of minting and burned the city. He failed, however, to retake the two coins (sikke) bearing the names of the khans. Muslim khanates. Having been forced out of the area originally held by the Golden Horde, the Tatars sought The administration of the Crimean Khanate was closer relations with the Ottomans. During the period firmly steeped in tradition. The classical division of center, from 1578 to 1590, Tatars fought for the Ottomans in right, and left wings was common, including the khan, his the Persian War, and from 1591 to 1606 Crimean troops brothers, and often times his sons atop the hierarchy. The also participated in Ottoman campaigns against the Habsburgs in Hungary.","160 Crimean Tatars THE 18TH CENTURY THE 17TH CENTURY By the early 18th century, the Crimean administration was beginning to encounter some serious problems. The During the 17th century the prestige of the khans Treaty of Istanbul in 1700 declared that the Polish king declined as a result of increased submission to the Otto- and the Russian czar would no longer pay tribute to the man Empire. The sultan\u2019s name was recited before that of Crimean khans; it also left the castle of Azak, which had the khan in the hutbes, and the Sublime Porte often dis- been occupied by the Don Cossacks, in Russian hands. missed the khans, exiling the former rulers to the island Pillaging and taking prisoners became more difficult for of Rhodes in the southeastern Aegean Sea. The Karachi career soldiers as a result of the treaties. The decline in beys managed to maintain their influence throughout these acts of freebooting caused a severe economic crisis the khanate\u2019s existence. However, the election of the khan in the Crimea, and the poorly armed Tatar army was no became more and more of a formality. longer able to repulse Russian attacks. The result of this military ineffectiveness was that, in 1736, Russian Gen- The Crimean Khanate was plagued by internal eral M\u00fcnnich reached the Crimean capital of Bakhchisa- strife during this period as well, facing dissension on rai and burned it. Administrative reform and political the part of the Nogay Tatars, the Cossacks, and the compromise became inevitable for the Crimean Tatars. Kalmyks. The Nogays came under Crimean suzerainty Shahin Giray (r. 1777\u201383), who had been educated in after the Volga region fell into Russian hands. The khan Europe, set these changes in motion with the support of offered them Budjak, the southern part of Bessarabia the Russians. These reforms however, were too extreme (in the Odessa province of present-day Ukraine), but for Tatar society and provoked resistance among the reli- the Nogays preferred the idea of Ottoman suzerainty. gious leaders (ulema). The struggle for control led to many bloody conflicts between the khans and their Nogay subjects seek- With the end of the Russo-Ottoman War of ing to break away in the first half of the 17th century. 1768\u201374, the Treaty of K\u00fc\u00e7\u00fck Kaynarca declared the The Cossacks, moreover, were a continual threat to \u201cindependence\u201d of the Crimean Khanate. However, this the Crimea from about the middle of the 16th cen- new independence was short\u2013lived as Russia annexed tury. Using light, quick riverboats, the Cossacks would the Crimea in 1783, organizing a new province called descend the Dnieper River attacking settlements, ran- Tavrida. Following the Russian annexation, vast numbers sacking merchants, and taking prisoners. Moreover, of Tatars migrated to Ottoman territories. A second huge both the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Mus- wave of migration took place following the Crimean covy utilized the Cossacks as a shield to deflect Tatar War (1853\u201356). During the early part of the 20th cen- raids. The Buddhist Kalmyks, speakers of a Mongolian tury, a movement to reform the Tatar society and lan- language, settled on the lower Volga during the begin- guage, led by Ismail Gasp\u0131ral\u0131 (1851\u20131914), arose. In ning of the 17th century. Originally, the Kalmyks were 1917 the Crimea became independent for a brief period; in the service of the czar, and they served a similar in 1944 the Soviet government deported the native Tatars function as the Cossacks. to Uzbekistan, wrongly accusing them of collaborating with Nazi Germany. Approximately half of the Tatar pop- The Tatars were active militarily in the second half ulation died as a result of Soviet deportation, and it was of the 17th century. During the uprising against the only in 1989 that the Tatars were permitted to return to Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth led by the Ukrai- the Crimea. Today significant Tatar communities can be nian hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the Crimean khan, found in Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Germany, and the Islam Giray III (r. 1644\u201354), was a key ally of the Cos- United States. sacks. On the other hand, Islam Giray\u2019s successor (and predecessor) Mehmed Giray IV (r. 1641\u201344, 1654\u201366) M\u00e1ria Ivanics mediated between the Commonwealth and the Cos- Further reading: L. J. D. Collins, \u201cThe Military Orga- sacks. The Tatar khan also joined the Northern War for nization and Tactics of the Crimean Tatars during the Six- hegemony over the Polish lands bordering Baltic Sea. teenth and Seventeenth Centuries,\u201d in War, Technology and After Ukraine joined Russia (1654) the Tatars backed Society in the Middle East, edited by V. J. Parry and M. E. the hetmans who were against Russia. In 1672, the Yapp (London: Oxford University Press, 1975), 257\u2013276; khan Selim Giray (r. 1671\u201378, 1684\u201391) participated in Alan W. Fisher, The Crimean Tatars (Stanford, Calif.: the occupation of the southeastern borderlands of the Hoover Institution Publications, 1978); Halil \u0130nalc\u0131k, \u201cThe Commonwealth (Podolia). In 1683 the Tatars, led by Khan and the Tribal Aristocracy: The Crimean Khan- Murad Giray (1678\u201383), were defeated outside Vienna ate under Sahib Giray I.\u201d Harvard Ukrainian Studies 3\u20134 (see Vienna, sieges of) while fighting on the Ottoman (1979\u20131980): 445\u2013466; M\u00e1ria Ivanics, \u201cThe Role of the side, but during the second reign of Selim Giray his Crimean Tatars in the Habsburg-Ottoman War (1595\u2013 Tatars continued to support the Ottoman army against 1606),\u201d in The Great Ottoman-Turkish Civilization, vol. the advancing Habsburg troops until the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699."]
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