The Ottoman Empire: a Historical Encyclopedia [2 Volumes]
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Mango, Andrew. Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey. New York: Overlook Press, 1999.
McCarthy, Justin. The Ottoman Turks: An Introductory History to 1923. London and New York: Wesley Longman Limited, 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. Vol 2. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Somel, Selçuk Akșin. Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2003.
Zürcher, Erik J. The Young Turk Legacy and Nation Building from the Ottoman Empire to Atatürk’s Turkey. London: I. B. Tauris, 2010.
Zürcher, Erik-Jan. Turkey: A Modern History. London: I. B. Tauris, 2004.
Sistova, Treaty of (1791)
A treaty signed at the conclusion of the Austro-Ottoman War of 1787–1791. Brokered by Prussia, Britain, and the Netherlands, the treaty was signed in Sistova (modern-day Svishtov) in present-day northern Bulgaria on August 4, 1791.
Selim III (r. 1789–1807) ascended the Ottoman throne in April 1789. He inherited an empire in chaos and decline. The central government had lost much of its authority in the provinces. Worse, the Ottoman armies were losing to Russia and Austria. Fortunately for the Ottoman Empire, both European powers were anxious to end the hostilities with the Ottoman Empire. Russia was concerned about Sweden’s attempt to incorporate Finland, and the Austrians were alarmed by revolts in Hungary and the Netherlands, as well as the growing power and influence of Russia in the Balkans. Both powers shared a common concern over a new Triple Alliance among Prussia, the Netherlands, and Britain.
The Austrians agreed to sign a peace treaty in Sistova in present-day northern Bulgaria on August 4, 1791. The Austrians returned Bosnia, Serbia, and parts of the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia that they had occupied. In return the Ottoman sultan promised fair treatment of his Christian subjects and the recognition of the Habsburg emperor as their protector. The peace with the Austrians encouraged Selim III to organize a new campaign against Russia. This campaign ended with a humiliating defeat at the hands of Russian armies in April 1791. The Ottomans agreed to a new peace treaty, which was signed at Jassy in present-day Romania on January 9, 1792. The sultan recognized the Russian annexation of the Crimea and Russia’s sovereignty over Georgia, in return for Russian withdrawal from Wallachia and Moldavia. The Dniester River was accepted as the boundary between the two empires.
See also: Sultans: Abdülhamid I; Selim III
Further Reading
Davies, Brian L. The Russo-Turkish War, 1768–1774: Catherine II and the Ottoman Empire. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire. New York: Basic Books, 2005.
Hale, William. Turkish Foreign Policy, 1774–2000. London: Frank Cass, 2000.
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.
Shaw, Stanford J. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Sugar, Peter. Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Rule, 1354–1805. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977.
Zürcher, Erik-Jan. Turkey: A Modern History. London: I. B. Tauris, 2004.
Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916)
A secret agreement negotiated between Sir Mark Sykes, representing the British government, and his counterpart, Charles François Georges Picot, representing the French Republic. The principal objective of the agreement was the partition of the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire after the conclusion of World War I. The negotiations between Mark Sykes and Georges Picot began in November 1915 and ended on May 16, 1916. Through the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the two European powers carved the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, including the territories of present-day Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel-Palestine, into British- and French-administered areas. The British government promised Greater Syria to France, which incorporated the present-day country of Lebanon as well as the Ottoman province of Mosul. In return, the British gained control over the provinces of Baghdad and Basra, with an adjacent territory that stretched to the Mediterranean towns of Acre and Jaffa, including the imprecisely defined Holy Land, or Palestine (Zürcher: 143).
The agreements reached between the British and the French contradicted the promise made by the British government to Hussein ibn Ali, the Sharif of Mecca. Hussein had staged a revolt against the Ottoman government after he had received a pledge from Henry McMahon, the British high commissioner in Cairo, that in return for his revolt against the Ottoman sultan, he and his sons would receive an independent and united Arab state, which would incorporate most of the Arab-populated provinces of the Ottoman Empire. The Arabs learned about the Sykes-Picot Agreement when in 1917 the newly established Soviet government, under the leadership of Lenin, published the secret agreement, causing outrage among the Arabs, who denounced it as a manifestation of British deceit and treachery. The British tried to modify the clauses of the Sykes-Picot Agreement regarding the Arab countries in the San Remo Conference, which was held in April 1920. Despite these modifications, however, Arab resentment toward British and French colonial designs did not subside and indeed continues to this day.
See also: Battles and Treaties: Arab Revolt; Balfour Declaration; Rebels: Hussein ibn Ali and the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence; Primary Documents: Document 15; Document 16; Document 17
Further Reading
Bickerton, Ian J., and Carla L. Klausner. A Concise History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002.
Rogan, Eugene. The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East. New York: Basic Books, 2015.
Zürcher, Erik-Jan. Turkey: A Modern History. London: I. B. Tauris, 2004.
Tulip Period (ca. 1718–ca. 1730)
Running roughly from the signing of the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718 to the revolt of the janissary leader Patrona Halil in 1730, the Tulip period or era was characterized by peace and a reorientation toward Europe. The name derives from the great popularity of the tulip in Ottoman court society during the period.
In 1718 the Ottoman Empire suffered a series of humiliating defeats at the hands of the Habsburg general, Eugene of Savoy. As a result of the Treaty of Passarowitz, signed in July 1718, the Ottomans lost substantial territories in southeastern Europe to the Habsburgs. The Habsburgs received the Banat of Temeşvár and northern Serbia, including Belgrade and Oltenia (Wallachia west of the river Olt) (Jelavich: 68). They also received assurances that their merchants could operate freely in the sultan’s domains. Moreover, Catholic priests regained old privileges that allowed the Habsburg emperor to interfere in the internal affairs of the Ottoman Empire by acting as the champion and protector of the Catholic community. The Treaty of Passarowitz dealt a deadly blow to the self-confidence of the Ottoman ruling elite. The Habsburg victory attested to the military, technological, and organizational supremacy of European armies. It became essential for the Ottoman state to avoid continuous warfare, establish a peaceful relationship with European powers, and use this opportunity to rebuild its shattered economy and demoralized army.
The new grand vizier, Ibrahim Pasha, purged the sultan’s inner circle and installed his own men in key positions within the royal harem. To focus the sultan’s attention on sexual desires and personal fantasies, he ordered the construction of a palace named Saadabad (Place of Joy), which was to serve as the center for various royal entertainments. Designed after the Palace of Fontainebleau (Chateau de Fontainebleau) outside Paris, Saadabad emerged as the model for other palaces later built by the wealthy members of the ruling elite along the banks of the Bosphorus. Ibrahim P
asha himself built a palace on the Anatolian side of the strait. It contained gardens and fountains in the French style.
The tulip emerged as the popular flower of the time, which later came to be known as Lale Devri (the Tulip period) (Quataert: 43–44). During late night garden parties, turtles with candles on their backs moved through the tulip beds, while entertainers, including poets and musicians, performed their latest lyrics and songs for a bedazzled audience that included foreign dignitaries and diplomats. If the lower classes could not afford to build palaces with gardens and fountains, they could still enjoy the increasing number of coffeehouses that served as centers of public entertainment.
Ibrahim Pasha understood that the empire needed to use diplomacy as the principal means of resolving conflict, reserving warfare as a last resort. He also appreciated the need for collecting information on European political and military affairs. He dispatched Ottoman ambassadors to European capitals, where they served not only as diplomats, but also as informants reporting back to him on the latest European fort-building techniques and other innovations. Observing the latest developments and advances in Europe, these diplomats soon recognized the need to borrow selectively those innovations that could help the Ottoman state to catch up with its European rivals. One of these innovations was the first printing press, which was introduced to the Ottoman Empire in 1727 and was immediately opposed by the religious establishment and the scribes, who feared that it would put an end to their relevance in society. The grand vizier silenced the opposition by promising that the printing press would be used only for nonreligious publications, particularly in the arts and sciences.
A crisis in Iran and Ottoman intervention in that country’s internal affairs brought the Tulip period to a sudden end. Ottoman-Iranian relations had remained peaceful following the campaigns of Murad IV and the signing of the Treaty of Qasr-i Shirin in 1639. In October 1722, however, an Afghan army, which had rebelled against the Safavid monarchy in Iran, sacked the Iranian capital, Isfahan, and deposed the reigning shah, Sultan Hussein. The sudden collapse of the Safavid state created opportunities as well as anxieties for the Ottomans. The sultan and his grand vizier could use the vacuum created by the disintegration of the Safavid state to occupy Iran’s western provinces and increase the revenue collected by the central government. But Ahmed III was not the only sovereign determined to conquer this valuable territory. Having triumphed over Sweden, the Russian czar, Peter, was determined to profit from the sudden disappearance of the Safavid dynasty in Iran, a country that could serve Russia as a land bridge to the warm waters of the Persian Gulf and the riches of India.
Despite early victories in Iran, the Ottomans soon ran into trouble after the Iranian leader, Nader Qoli (soon to become Nader Shah), struck back and pushed Ottoman forces out of western Iran in 1730. The decision to start a new campaign against Iran ignited an urban rebellion in Istanbul. The leader of the revolt was Patrona Halil, a member of the janissary corps, who denounced the sultan and his grand vizier as incompetent and corrupt. The rebels succeeded in forcing the sultan to dismiss his chief minister and eventually order his execution. The revolt, however, did not subside. Emboldened by their initial success, the rebels demanded the abdication of the sultan in favor of another member of the Ottoman ruling family. Without any power to resist the rebels, the palace deposed Ahmed III and replaced him with Mahmud I (r. 1730–1754). A few weeks later the new sultan invited Patrona Halil to the palace, where he was murdered by the royal guards. His followers and supporters were also put to death. The war with Iran continued with attacks and counterattacks from both sides until 1746, when the two Muslim states agreed to sign a peace treaty that restored the borders stipulated by the treaty of Qasr-i Shirin in 1639.
See also: Empire and Administration: Nader Shah Afshar; Sultans: Ahmed III; Mahmud I
Further Reading
Jelavich, Barbara. History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Vol 1. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Olson, Robert W. The Siege of Mosul and Ottoman-Persian Relations 1718–1743. London, Routledge, 1997.
Quataert, Donald. The Ottoman Empire, 1700–1922. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Roemer, H. R. “The Safavid Period.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, edited by Peter Jackson and Lawrence Lockhart, 6:189–350. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Sajdi, Dana, ed. Ottoman Tulips, Ottoman Coffee, Leisure and Lifestyle in the Eighteenth Century. London: Tauris Academic Studies, 2007.
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.
Sykes, Sir Percy. History of Persia. 2 vols. London: Macmillan, 1951.
BEYS AND PASHAS
Abbas Hilmi (1874–1944)
Abbas Hilmi was the last khedive or Ottoman viceroy of Egypt. He ruled from 1892 to 1914. He received his early education from British tutors at the palace. He later attended school in Lausanne and Geneva, Switzerland. Abbas became the khedive of Egypt after his father, Tawfiq (Tewfik) Pasha, died in 1892. At the time of his father’s death, the 17-year-old Abbas was studying in Vienna. From the very beginning of his reign, Abbas tried to rule Egypt as an independent sovereign. He displayed a deep hatred for the British, who had occupied Egypt in 1882. His opposition to British rule in Egypt made Abbas popular among Egypt’s nationalist intellectuals, who demanded independence and constitutional rule.
Abbas began his rule by distancing himself from Lord Cromer, the British agent and consul general in Egypt. He also tried to gain the support of Egypt’s anti-British nationalist movement by appointing the opponents of British rule to high governmental posts. In 1894, in response to his anti-British stance and policies, Lord Cromer imposed severe restrictions on Abbas’s power as the khedive. Abbas, however, continued to lend moral and financial support to the nationalist movement. For example, he provided financial support for the anti-British newspaper al-Mu’ayyad (The supporter). In 1906, despite his nationalist and anti-British sentiments, Abbas rejected a demand from Egyptian nationalists for the establishment of a constitutional government. When Lord Kitchener was appointed the consul general of Egypt in 1911, the British either imprisoned or exiled the leaders of the nationalist movement and curtailed Abbas’s power even further.
When World War I began in August 1914, Abbas was on his summer vacation in Istanbul. He refused to return to Egypt, causing anxiety for the British, who were alarmed by his close ties to the members of the Ottoman ruling elite. On October 29, 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered the war on the side of the Central Powers, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Abbas returned to Egypt in December. On December 18, 1914, the British government declared Egypt as its protectorate. The next day Abbas was deposed. The British placed Abbas’s uncle, Hussein Kāmil (r. 1914–1917), on the throne as the sultan of Egypt, thus severing permanently the country’s nominal ties to the Ottoman Empire. Abbas lived the rest of his life in Europe. He died in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1944.
See also: Rebels: Abduh, Muhammad; Afghani, Jamal al-Din; Young Turks; Sultans: Abdülhamid II
Further Reading
Aksakal, Mustafa. The Ottoman Road to War in 1914: The Ottoman Empire and the First World War. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Masters, Bruce. “Abbas Hilmi.” In Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, edited by Gábor Ágoston and Bruce Masters, 2–3. New York: Facts On File, 2009.
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.
Tollefson, Harold. Policing Islam: The British Occu
pation of Egypt and the Anglo-Egyptian Struggle over Control of the Police, 1882–1914. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999.
Vatikiotis, P. J. A History of Modern Egypt. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991.
Ahmed Tevfik Pasha (1845–1936)
Statesman and diplomat who served as the last grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire. He was born on February 11, 1845, at Üsküdar on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus in metropolitan Istanbul. In 1859 he joined the army and received military training. For the next 11 years he served in the Ottoman army. In 1870, after leaving the army, he joined the Translation Office, which allowed him to enter diplomatic service. He served at the Ottoman embassy in Athens. In 1884 he was appointed Ottoman ambassador to Berlin. In 1895 Ahmed Tevfik Pasha was recalled to Istanbul and appointed the foreign minister.
After the mutiny of April 13, 1909, Ahmed Tevfik served briefly as the grand vizier. He resigned, however, after the Ottoman sultan Abdülhamid II (r. 1876–1909) was deposed. Ahmed Tevfik Pasha was then sent to London as the Ottoman ambassador to Great Britain. After the end of World War I, during the armistice in 1918–1919, Ahmed Tevfik Pasha was once again appointed the grand vizier. He formed a government, which excluded the members of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). He resigned from his post in March 1919. That same year, Ahmed Tevfik was chosen as the head of the Ottoman delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. He participated in the negotiations, which culminated in the drafting of the Treaty of Sèvres, but he refused to sign the treaty on the grounds that it was aimed at total dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire.
In October 1920 Ahmed Tevfik Pasha became grand vizier for the third and last time. He tried to bring the imperial government in Istanbul and the nationalist government in Ankara together. In 1922, when the last Ottoman sultan, Mehmed VI, fled and the institution of the sultanate was abolished, Ahmed Tevfik Pasha’s tenure as the grand vizier came to an end. With the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1922, Ahmed Tevfik Pasha retired from politics. After the passage of the Surname Law of 1934, he adopted the name Ahmed Tevfik Okday. He died in Istanbul on October 8, 1936.