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Here Come the Turks, Here Come Turks

Modern World Civilization

Spring 2003

Pattern of Struggles

� One Scholar wrote about the situation in 1793, �The wars of kings were over; the wars of peoples had begun.�

� This lasted until the Russian Revolution which changed clashes between nations to a clash between ideologies � Communism v Democracy [or Capitalism].

� With the end of the Cold War � all this changed � West vs. Non West.

Map of the Middle East

Muhammad�s Background

� His precise date of his birth is unknown.

� Perhaps he was born in 570.

� He had worked as a shepherd and had lived with the Bedouins.

� Then a wealthy widow employed him to her business.

� This was Khadija.

Muhammad and Religion

� He was a devout man and regularly prayed in the hills near Mecca.

� Sometime about 610, while praying in a cave on Mount Hira, he heard a voice.

� The voice proclaimed that he was the messenger of God.

� According to Muslim tradition, the voice was Gabriel.

� For the next three years, Muhammad was not sure of his calling.

� His wife, Khadija, was sympathetic and would become the first convert.

� Other members of his family followed too.

The Arabs

� The Arabs would be the messenger of Muhammad.

� They would carry the message from the Arabian Peninsula to Spain and the Indus River.

� Economically, the Arabs were dependent upon the camel.

� The main city in the region was Mecca.

Mecca

� Besides being a caravan center.

� The city was also a pilgrimage center.

� Where visitors came to worship the assortment of various deities.

� Some 360 in number.

� One of which was �Allah,� which meant �the god.�

The New Religion

� Muhammad�s new religion was called Islam.

� Which means �submission� in other words, submission to God.

� A Muslim is someone who fulfills the five duties of known as the pillars of Islam.

The Five Pillars of Islam

� Witness � There is only one God and Muhammad is God�s messenger.

� Worship � Five times a day in the direction of Mecca.

� Fasting � All Muslims must fast during the month of Ramadan from daybreak to sundown and must refrain from all pleasurable activities.

� Tithing � All Muslims must pay a specified share of their income to help the poor.

� The Hajj � Pilgrimage to the Holy Sites on the twelfth month of the Muslim year. Must be made once during an adults life time.

Background

� Muhammad�s new religion caused opposition.

� He was forced to leave Mecca and move to Medina, approximately 200 miles away.

� This became known as the Hejira or migration.

� In time, Muhammad was strong enough to return in force to Mecca in 630.

� In 632, Muhammad died in Medina.

� But there were no plans for a successor.

Mohammad�s Successors

� Following his death, Muhammad�s key advisors agreed that Muhammad�s closest friend, Abu Bakr (573-634) should be the new leader or Caliph or deputy of the prophet.

� They did not have status as the prophets, but functioned as heads of the Arab state.

� Slowly the Arab state increased until it managed to challenge the power of the Byzantine Empire.

� Over time, a division occurred, sometimes violently among Muhammad�s heirs.

Shi�ites and Sunnis

� Those who believed that Ali was Muhammad�s true heir are called Shi�ahs or Shi�ites.

� Most Shi�ites came to believe in a succession of 12 imams extending from Ali to Muhammad al-Muntazar, who disappeared in 878 and who will return as a savior called the Mahdi.

� The Sunnis on the other hand follow the tradition of Mohammad and the Koran.

� Shi�ites believe that they can make the pilgrimage to Mecca by proxy.

Clash of Faiths

� Overtime, the power of the Arabs under the Abbasid caliphate had declined.

� A new group moved into to replace them � the Seljuk Turks, who won a major victory of the Byzantines at Manzikert in 1071.

� Opening up all of the Anatolia to Seljuk conquest.

� In 1095, the Byzantine Emperor, Alexius Comnenus appealed to Pope Urban II for aid.

The Crusades

� The First Crusade � 1096-1099.

� Second Crusade � 1147-1149.

� Third Crusade � 1189-1192.

� Fourth Crusade � 1202-1204.

� Fifth Crusade � 1218-1221.

� Sixth Crusade � 1228-1229.

� Seventh Crusade � 1248-1254.

� Eighth Crusade � 1270.

Introduction

� The Ottoman Empire would rival that of China.

� But over time the Ottoman Empire would be weakened until the twentieth century.

� But under Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566) the Ottoman Empire expanded into North Africa and Syria.

Growth of the Ottoman Empire

� For nearly 300 years the Ottomans expanded into the Balkans and to Persia.

� By 1683 the Turks controlled Hungary in Europe to the Persian Gulf.

� The Ottomans, under their able leader Osman (1299-1326).

� Osman was a ghazi, or warrior, who was determined to spread the faith.

Why Did The Ottomans Succeed?

� The tolerance of their faith.

� Especially after the initial conquests.

� The disgust of many who lived under the Byzantines of government corruption and oppression.

How the Ottomans Expanded

� Took advantage of the chaos of the Byzantine Empire.

� Gained a foothold across the Dardanelles.

� Defeated the Bulgarians, Serbs, and Macedonians by the fifteenth century.

� As the Turks were about to finally crush the Byzantines and take Constantinople.

� Along came Tamerlane who defeated the Turks near Ankara in 1402.

Key Events of the Ottoman State

� 1389 � Defeat the Serbs at Battle of Kosovo.

� 1396 � Crushed the Hungarians and foreign knights at Nicopolis.

� 1402 � Tamerlane defeats the Ottomans near Ankara.

� 1453 � Turks capture Constantinople by Mohammed II.

� 1517 � Turks captured Cairo.

� 1529 � First siege of Vienna.

� 1683 � Second siege of Vienna.

Problems for Mehmet the Conqueror

� Mehmet�s imperialist ambitions cause him constant trouble.

� From assassins and other enemies.

� Yet he often walked the streets of Constantinople without guards.

� But he did have a record of cruelty.

� Yet he was tolerate of other religions, despite his preference for Shi�ite Islam.

Mehmet�s Dark Side

� There was the case of Bellini�s �Beheading of John the Baptist.�

� He persecuted the Sufi fraternities or as they are remembered, the Dervishes.

� With them he exiled their leaders.

� Sexually he enjoyed the company of both women and boys.

� Still the Turks considered him one of their greatest Sultans.

The Growth of Ottoman Power following Mehmet

� After 1453, the Turks conquered Greece.

� Moved into the Crimea and replaced the Genoese colonies found there.

� The Black Sea now became a Turkish lake.

� This was accomplished by Selim I The Grim (1512-20) and Sulieman The Magnificent (1520-66).

� Selim, after dealing with the Persians, conquered Syria and Palestine and the Holy Places.

Suleiman�s Victories

� Suleiman continued those conquests.

� But now added Rhodes

� Belgrade

� And much of Hungary

� And besieged Vienna before he had to retreat in 1529.

� He also became an ally of France against the Habsburgs.

� As a result, France gained special privileges in the Ottoman Empire.

� Captured Cyprus in 1570.

Halting the Turks

� Following the Turk victory at Cyprus the Holy League was organized to halt the Turk.

� In 1571, the Spanish defeated an Ottoman fleet at Lepanto in 1571.

� Still the Ottomans captured Crete in 1669, but that was the last major gain for the Ottomans.

Decline of the Ottoman Empire

� Failed to accept technological change.

� Failed to adopt military reforms.

� Failed to adopt the printing press.

� Failed to develop an effective bureaucracy.

� As a consequence the Sultanate would collapse after World War I.

The Sultan�s Power

� The Sultans had supreme authority over all of his subjects.

� Especially in civil, military, and religious affairs.

� To interpret Shar�iah Law, the Sultan would turn to the Grand Mufti of Istanbul.

� To help the Sultan, he used a council of advisors called the Divan.

� The Divan handled petitions and supervised the affairs of the state.

� But this rarely happened in the fifteenth century.

Handling Succession in the Ottoman Empire

� One of the serious problems was succession, since the Sultan had a Harem and their were a number of potential claimants.

� Mehment II solved this problem via the Law of Fratricide.

� Selim The Grim used killed all of his potential rivals except for Suleiman the Magnificent.

� This was often done via the �silken cord,� but was ended in the 1660s.

� Then sons were kept in palace chambers called the �cage.�

Slavery in the Ottoman Empire

� Ottoman slavery was far different than European slavery found in North America.

� It was less menial and offered opportunities for advancement.

� Slaves worked in the household or in the military.

� A sixteenth-century Sultan had anywhere from 20,000 to 25,000 slaves.

� Slavery in the Ottoman Empire was not necessarily demeaning.

Devshirme

� Muslims could not enslave other Muslims.

� Slaves were either POWs, purchased in North Africa and Spain, or came from the periodic boy levy.

� This was called the Devshirme.

� Youths had to be between 8-18.

� Every family in the Balkans of 40 had to surrender one son.

� Many became part of the famed Janissaries.