See also: Beys and Pashas: Āli Pasha, Mehmed Emin; Mustafa Reşid Pasha; Empire and Administration: Tanzimat; Sultans: Abdülmecid
Further Reading
Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire. New York: Basic Books, 2005.
Jelavich, Barbara. History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Vol. 1. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Shaw, Stanford J. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Somel, Selçuk Akșin. Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2003.
Zürcher, Erik-Jan. Turkey: A Modern History. London: I. B. Tauris, 2004.
Erzurum, Treaty of (1823)
A peace treaty between the Ottoman Empire and Iran, which was signed on July 28, 1823. The Qajar dynasty (1794–1925) in Iran used the Greek revolution, which had erupted in February 1821, as a golden opportunity to invade eastern Anatolia and Iraq. The invasion of Ottoman territory by Iran forced the Ottoman sultan, Mahmud II (r. 1808–1839), to divert some of the army units needed in Greece to a new campaign in the east. After initial victories in eastern Anatolia and Iraq, the Iranian forces withdrew following the outbreak of a cholera epidemic. The two Islamic states agreed to negotiate a peace treaty in Erzurum in eastern Anatolia in July 1823. The Treaty of Erzurum reaffirmed the borders of the two empires as established by the Treaty of Qasr-i Shirin (Kasr-i Şirin), signed in May 1639.
See also: Battles and Treaties: Erzurum, Treaty of (1847); Greek War of Independence; Sultans: Mahmud II
Further Reading
Shaw, Stanford J. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Somel, Selçuk Akșin. Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2003.
Sykes, Sir Percy. History of Persia. 2 vols. London: Macmillan, 1951.
Woodhouse, C. M. The Greek War of Independence. London: Hutchinson’s University, 1952.
Zürcher, Erik-Jan. Turkey: A Modern History. London: I. B. Tauris, 2004.
Erzurum, Treaty of (1847)
A treaty of peace signed between the Ottoman Empire and Iran on April 14, 1847, in Erzurum in eastern Anatolia (present-day eastern Turkey). To resolve the border skirmishes between the two Muslim empires, representatives of Ottoman sultan Abdülmecid (Abdülmejid) (r. 1839–1861) met with a delegation dispatched by the Qajar monarch, Mohammad Shah (r. 1834–1848), at Erzurum in eastern Anatolia. The two sides agreed to renounce their territorial claims on one another. The Iranian government ceded the land in the western part of the province of Zohab (Zuhab) to the Ottoman government. In return, the Ottomans agreed to cede all the mountainous or eastern part of Zohab to Iran. Iran also agreed to renounce its claim on the Kurdish-populated town of Suleimani (Suleymaniyah) in present-day northern Iraq. The Ottoman state recognized Iran’s sovereignty over the cities of Muhammara (present-day Khorramshahr) and Abadan, in the present-day Khuzestan province of southwestern Iran. Iran also received the eastern bank of the strategically important Shatt ul-Arab River.
See also: Battles and Treaties: Erzurum, Treaty of (1823); Sultans: Abdülmecid
Further Reading
Shaw, Stanford J. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Somel, Selçuk Akșin. Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2003.
Sykes, Sir Percy. History of Persia. 2 vols. London: Macmillan, 1951.
Gallipoli (1354; 1915–1916)
Gallipoli (Turkish: Gelibolu) is a peninsula 50 miles (80 kilometers) long in the European part of present-day northwestern Turkey, bordering the Aegean Sea on the west and the Strait of Dardanelles on the east. Gallipoli guards the entrance to the Strait of Dardanelles, a waterway that leads to the Sea of Marmara, and via the Bosphorus, to the Black Sea. Twice in the long history of the Ottoman Empire, control of Gallipoli brought the Ottoman state into a major military confrontation with European powers. The first conflict occurred in the 14th century, during the reign of the second Ottoman sultan, Orhan (r. 1326–1362). The second conflict occurred in 1915–1916, during World War I.
OTTOMAN EXPANSION INTO GALLIPOLI IN
THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY
To cross into Europe and establish a foothold on Thrace, Orhan ordered his oldest son, Süleyman, to raid the southern shores of the Sea of Marmara and Gallipoli. In a desperate attempt to revive the Byzantine state and confront the threat posed by Serbian monarch Stephan Dušan, the Byzantine emperor, Cantacuzenus, turned to Orhan for military support. The anti-Serbian alliance enabled Süleyman to confront and neutralize the Serbian army as it advanced against Thrace in 1352, bringing Ottoman troops, who were soon followed by Turkoman settlers, to the European side of the straits. Thus, in confronting the Serbian threat Cantacuzenus unwittingly enhanced the power and influence of the Ottoman principality, providing it with a bridgehead in Europe. Cantacuzenus tried unsuccessfully to bribe the Ottomans to abandon their new territory, but Süleyman was determined to hold on. He expanded his possessions after an earthquake destroyed hundreds of towns and villages on the Gallipoli Peninsula in March 1354, thus allowing Ottoman forces to occupy the ruins and to transport new Turkoman settlers to rebuild and repair the homes and farms evacuated by their Greek inhabitants. In response to the Byzantine demand for restitution, Süleyman replied that the devastated villages and towns had fallen into his hands not by conquest, but by the will of God, and that returning them “would be an act of impious ingratitude” (Norwich: 348). Using Gallipoli as the base for their military operations, the Ottomans attacked southern Thrace. Thrace would thereafter emerge as the territorial base for Ottoman raids and the eventual conquest of the Balkans.
GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN OF WORLD WAR I
Nearly 560 years after the Ottomans had crossed into Europe, the Allied forces of Britain and France invaded the shores of Gallipoli in an attempt to force the Ottoman Empire out of World War I, into which it had entered in November 1914 on the side of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The British decision to force the Ottoman Empire out of the war by capturing its capital, Istanbul, in one military blow called for a massive landing of Allied troops at the foothills of Gallipoli on the shores of the Dardanelles in February 1915. After establishing a beachhead in April 1915, the Allied troops planned to climb the hills and destroy the Ottoman forces that defended the heights. For the Ottomans, the defense of Gallipoli was a matter of life and death. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Ottomans, supported by German officers, fought back heroically, inflicting an impressive defeat on the Allied forces, who retreated with heavy casualties in January 1916.
Ottoman officers and soldiers during the Gallipoli campaign, which took place between April 1915 and January 1916. (Library of Congress)
See also: Battles and Treaties: Arab Revolt; Sykes-Picot Agreement; Beys and Pashas: Enver Pasha; Sultans: Murad I; Orhan Gāzi
Further Reading
Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire. New York: Basic Books, 2005.
Inalcik, Halil. The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300–1600. Translated by Norman Itzkowitz and Colin Imber. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1973.
Norwich, John Julius. A Short History of Byzantium. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.
Rogan, Eugene. The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East. New York: Basic Books, 2015.
Shaw, Stanford J. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Somel, Selçuk Akșin. Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2003.
Sugar, Peter. Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Rule, 1354–1805. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977.
Greek War of Independence (1821–1832)
An anti-Ottoman nationalist revolt, which
began in 1821 and ended with the establishment of the independent kingdom of Greece in 1832. The Greek War of Independence began after the reigning Ottoman sultan, Mahmud II (r. 1808–1839), clashed with the powerful local notable, Tepedelenli Ali Pasha (Ali Pasha of Janina), who at the height of his power had ruled a vast region that included much of present-day Greece and parts of Albania. Mahmud II, who was determined to impose the authority of the central government over the empire’s provinces, ordered an invasion of Greece. He could not have known that by attacking Ali Pasha, the Ottoman government would provide a golden opportunity to the Greek nationalists, who had been organizing a movement to overthrow Ottoman rule and establish an independent Greek state. Indeed, the destruction of Ali Pasha removed the only power capable of suppressing the Greek revolution.
The Greek nationalist movement was led by Philiki Hetairia (Etairia) (Society of Friends/Friendly Society), which was founded in Odessa in 1814. From its inception the movement was supported by wealthy and influential Greek merchant families residing in the Crimea. Beginning in 1820, Alexandros (Alexander) Ypsilantis (Ipsilantis), a member of one of the most powerful Phanariote (named after the Phanar quarter of the Ottoman capital) families of Istanbul, emerged as the leader of the secret society. He had studied in Russia and joined the Russian army as an officer. Ypsilantis’s original plan was to organize an anti-Ottoman revolt in the Romanian-populated principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia to divert the attention of Ottoman forces from Greece, where he was secretly training his supporters. He also hoped that the uprising in Wallachia and Moldavia would force Russia to intervene on behalf of the Greek nationalists. In March 1821 Ypsilantis and his supporters entered Moldavia, but the revolt they had hoped for did not materialize. The Romanian population was hostile toward the Greeks, who had ruled their country for more than a century on behalf of the Ottoman sultan. Having failed to ignite a popular uprising against the Ottoman Empire, the Greeks were defeated in June 1821, and Ypsilantis was forced to seek refuge in Hungary.
Although the revolt in Moldavia and Wallachia failed, the efforts of Ypsilantis and Hetairia were successful in mainland Greece. In the Morea (the Peloponnese), the Greek national movement benefited enormously from the confrontation between the Ottoman government and Ali Pasha. Though willing to accept the suzerainty of the sultan, Ali Pasha refused to give up on his dream of creating an autonomous state under his own rule. The Ottoman government was well aware that he had established close ties with Hetairia, cultivating the support of the Greek population by improving conditions in rural communities under his control. The conflict between the sultan and Ali Pasha created a golden opportunity for Hetairia to stage its revolution. The revolt began on February 12, 1821, in a series of attacks on Turkish-populated rural communities, followed by a full-fledged uprising in Mani in April. For the Greeks the act that marked the beginning of their revolution was Bishop Germanos’s raising the cross at the monastery of Aghia Lavra at Kalavryta in the northern Peloponnese. With the sultan’s army focused on defeating Ali Pasha, the Ottomans’ response to the Greek revolt was slow. Their efforts to suppress it were further hampered by a new war with the Qajar dynasty in Iran, which began in November 1821 and did not end until July 1823. In Istanbul, the news of the Greek revolt was received with shock and disbelief. The sultan, who continued to view Ali Pasha as his principal nemesis, demanded that the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Istanbul denounce the rebels and restore peace and order among the members of his religious community. When the revolt spread, the sultan continued to blame the patriarch, who was executed by hanging on Easter Sunday, April 22, 1821.
In January 1822 Ali Pasha of Janina was executed. The Greek revolt, however, refused to subside. The guerrilla attacks staged by Greek nationalists against Ottoman forces intensified. In April 1824 the sultan appealed to Mehmed Ali (Muhammad Ali), the Ottoman governor of Egypt, for assistance and support. In return for dispatching his troops to Greece, Mehmed Ali’s son, Ibrahim Pasha, was to be appointed governor of the Morea and Crete. After capturing Crete, the Egyptian forces under the command of Ibrahim Pasha landed in the bay of Methoni in February 1825 and stormed and occupied several strategically important forts in the Mani. Soon much of the Peloponnese was under Ottoman control, with Missolonghi at the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth falling in April 1826. Athens was captured in June 1827.
In the Greek revolt, Russia, France, and Britain recognized an opportunity to intervene in the internal affairs of the Ottoman Empire and advance their own political, diplomatic, and commercial interests in the Balkans. When the three powers expressed their intention to mediate, the Greek nationalists accepted the offer, while the sultan rejected it. In response, the three European states imposed a naval blockade on the Egyptian supply lines. The inevitable confrontation between the Ottoman-Egyptian forces and the combined naval forces of Russia, Britain, and France took place in October 1827 at Navarino, where the European powers destroyed the entire Ottoman fleet. The refusal of Mahmud II to accept the defeat allowed Russia to declare war on the sultan and invade Ottoman territory in April 1828. Russian forces crossed into eastern Anatolia from their bases in the south Caucasus and captured Erzurum in July 1829, while a second Russian army attacked and occupied Edirne in August. The destruction of the Ottoman and Egyptian naval forces and intense pressure from Russia and Britain forced Mehmed Ali to withdraw his troops from Greece in October. The sultan had no other option but to sue for peace. The Treaty of Edirne, signed in September 1829, forced the Ottoman Empire to recognize the independence of Greece and the autonomy of Moldavia, Wallachia, and Serbia. Although a new independent Greek state had been established, it did not incorporate all the territory and the districts that Greek nationalists had envisioned. Great Britain, France, and Austria did not wish the new Greek state, which was under strong Russian influence, to be a large and strong political entity. It would have been foolish for these European powers to further undermine the power and authority of the Ottoman sultan by rewarding the aggressive and expansionist Russia with a new base of operations in the Balkans.
The Battle of Navarino, which took place on October 20, 1827, during the Greek War of Independence, resulted in the defeat of the Ottoman and Egyptian naval forces by a combined British-French-Russian fleet. The Greek War of Independence from 1821 to 1832 culminated in the creation of an independent Greece under the protection of the three European powers. (Northrop, Henry Davenport. Grandest Century in the World’s History; Containing a Full and Graphic Account, 1900)
See also: Beys and Pashas: Mehmed Ali; Sultans: Mahmud II; Selim III
Further Reading
Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire. New York: Basic Books, 2005.
Jelavich, Barbara. History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Vol 1. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Jelavich, Charles, and Barbara Jelavich. The Establishment of the Balkan National States, 1804–1920. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977.
Lord Kinross. The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire. New York: William Morrow, 1977.
Quataert, Donald. The Ottoman Empire, 1700–1922. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Șakul, Kahraman. “Selim III.” In Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, edited by Gábor Ágoston and Bruce Masters, 514–515. New York: Facts On File, 2009.
Shaw, Stanford J. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Somel, Selçuk Akșin. Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2003.
Woodhouse, C. M. The Greek War of Independence. London: Hutchinson’s University, 1952.
Zürcher, Erik-Jan. Turkey: A Modern History. London: I. B. Tauris, 2004.
Hünkār Iskelesi, Treaty of (1833)
A defensive alliance signed between the Ottoman Empire and Russia on July 8, 1833, at the village of Hünkār Iskelesi near Istanbul, the capital
of the Ottoman Empire. The signing of the treaty became necessary after Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Mehmed Ali (Muhammad Ali), the governor of Egypt, invaded and defeated Ottoman armies in Palestine, Syria, and Anatolia between May 1832 and February 1833. The Treaty of Hünkār Iskelesi converted the Ottoman state into a virtual protectorate of imperial Russia.
In May 1832 Mehmed Ali’s armies, under the command of his son, Ibrahim Pasha, invaded and captured the town of Acre in present-day northern Israel. In June of the same year Ibrahim Pasha entered Damascus, Syria. The Ottoman forces sent by Mahmud II (r. 1808–1839) to stop the invading Egyptian army suffered two humiliating defeats at the hands of Ibrahim Pasha, who established his rule over the entire territory of Syria. Despite his impressive victories, it was Ibrahim Pasha who requested negotiations for a peace treaty. Though painfully aware of the superiority of the Egyptian army, Mahmud refused the peace offer. Ibrahim Pasha used Mahmud’s rejection of his peace offers to push into Anatolia. In a battle near Konya in central Anatolia in December 1832, the Ottoman forces were routed once again. On February 2, 1833, the Egyptians reached Kütahya in western Anatolia (present-day western Turkey).
Mahmud responded to the defeat by opening negotiations with European powers, with the aim of securing their support against his rebellious governor. When the British and the Austrians turned down the request, the sultan asked for military intervention from Russia. Although the arrival of the Russian fleet in February 1833 prevented Mehmed Ali’s forces from attacking Istanbul, it could not dislodge the Egyptian forces from their newly conquered territories in Anatolia. To end the crisis, the sultan agreed to sign the Treaty of Kütahya in April and appoint Mehmed Ali governor of Syria. On July 8, 1833, Mahmud II also signed the Treaty of Hünkār Iskelesi with Russia, an eight-year defense pact. According to this treaty, if either the Ottoman Empire or Russia were attacked by a third power, the state that had not been attacked was obligated to provide the state that had been attacked with full-fledged military and naval support. Thus, in the case of a threat or a war, both empires committed themselves to defending one another by force of arms.
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