The Ottoman Empire: a Historical Encyclopedia [2 Volumes]
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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.
Midhat Pasha (1822–1884)
Ottoman government official, popular reformer, and grand vizier, who played a central role in introducing the first Ottoman constitution in 1876. Midhat was born Ahmed Şefik (Shefik) in 1822. His father was a member of the religious establishment (ilmiyye). He received a religious education before entering government service and joining the offices of the Imperial Council (Shaw: 2:67). For five years he served in various governmental posts in the provinces of the empire, where he gained firsthand knowledge of the social and economic challenges confronting the working masses. In 1846 he returned to Istanbul and rejoined government service. From 1861 to 1864 Midhat served as governor of Nish (1861–1868) in present-day southern Serbia. During his governorship he introduced fundamental reforms, which “became the basis for the new provincial reform law of 1864, and which he subsequently was to apply as governor of the Danube province formed out of much of Bulgaria (1864–1868)” (Shaw: 2:67). In 1869 he was appointed governor of Baghdad (1869–1872). As in the Balkans, Midhat introduced fundamental reforms in his new post, while at the same time suppressing rebellious tribes and curtailing Iranian influence in the province.
Midhat Pasha was one of the leading statesmen of the Tanzimat era. He also played a central role in introducing the first Ottoman constitution in 1876. (Wormley Latimer, Elizabeth. Russia and Turkey in the Nineteenth Century, 1893)
After the death of the grand vizier, Āli Pasha, in September 1871, Sultan Abdülaziz became increasingly involved in running the everyday affairs of the empire, appointing and dismissing a number of grand viziers. In 1873 the sultan appointed Midhat Pasha as grand vizier, but he only lasted in his new post for three months. In the early hours of May 30, 1876, Midhat Pasha and a small group of officials and army commanders used the diplomatic crisis of 1875–1876 to carry out a peaceful coup. A son of Sultan Abdülmecid (Abdülmejid) and a nephew of Sultan Abdülaziz, Prince Murad (1840–1904), was brought out of his residence to the ministry of war and declared the new sultan. The legality of the putsch was provided by the şeyhülislam, Hayrullah Effendi, whose fetva of deposition justified the coup on the grounds of Abdülaziz’s mental instability and ignorance of political affairs, corruption, and conduct damaging the state and the public.
Before the new sultan could establish himself, however, the news of Abdülaziz’s sudden death was announced on June 4. The body of the deposed sultan had been discovered in his bedroom, his wrists slashed with a pair of scissors. To defuse the rumors of assassination, the government called on physicians from several foreign embassies in Istanbul to examine the body and offer their medical opinion on the cause of death, which was officially declared a suicide. The events profoundly affected the new sultan, Murad V, who suffered a nervous breakdown. Midhat Pasha and his supporters deposed Murad in favor of his brother, who ascended the Ottoman throne on August 31 as Abdülhamid II (r. 1876–1909). Midhat was appointed grand vizier on December 19, and four days later the first Ottoman constitution was introduced by the new grand vizier.
Though he claimed that he supported the constitution, Abdülhamid II dismissed Midhat and sent him into exile in February 1877. In 1878, with support from the British, Midhat Pasha was allowed to return to Istanbul. He was appointed governor of Syria, where he served from 1878 to 1880. Once again he introduced popular reforms, including the creation of a public library and several new government-sponsored schools. In 1880 Midhat resigned from his post. In 1881 he was appointed governor of Izmir in western Anatolia. After serving for less than a year, Midhat was recalled to Istanbul. He was accused of having caused the death of Sultan Abdülaziz. He was tried and sentenced to death, but under pressure from the British government, his sentence “was commuted to life imprisonment” (Somel: 189). He was subsequently transferred to Al-Taif in Hijaz in western Arabia (present-day Saudi Arabia). On May 8, 1884, while being held prisoner in Al- Taif, Midhat Pasha was murdered.
See also: Empire and Administration: Tanzimat; Sultans: Abdülaziz; Abdülhamid II; Murad V; Primary Documents: Document 13
Further Reading
Davison, Roderic H. Nineteenth Century Ottoman Diplomacy and Reforms. Istanbul: Isis Press, 1999.
Davison, Roderic H. Reform in the Ottoman Empire, 1856–1876. New York: Gordian Press, 1973.
Findley, Carter V. Bureaucratic Reform in the Ottoman Empire: The Sublime Porte, 1789–1922. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980.
Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire. New York: Basic Books, 2005.
Inalcik, Halil. Application of the Tanzimat and Its Social Effects. Lisse: Peter de Ridder, 1976.
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.
Mardin, Şerif. The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought: A Study in the Modernization of Turkish Political Ideas. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963.
Quataert, Donald. The Ottoman Empire, 1700–1922. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
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.
Mustafa Reşid Pasha (Mustafa Reshid Pasha) (1800–1858)
The Ottoman reformer, diplomat, and statesman Mustafa Reșid Pasha (Mustafa Reshid Pasha) was born in 1800 and received a traditional medrese education. He joined the scribal institution and in 1821 participated in the Ottoman campaign to crush the nationalist uprising in Greece. In 1828 Mustafa Reșid Pasha served in the war against Russia. In the peace negotiations at Edirne in 1829, he was a member of the Ottoman delegation. In 1830 Mustafa Reșid Pasha joined the delegation sent by Mahmud II (r. 1808–1839) to Egypt to negotiate with Mehmed Ali Pasha (Muhammad Ali Pasha). In the military campaigns against Greek nationalists and Russia, Mustafa Reșid Pasha witnessed the embarrassing performance of the Ottoman army. During his visit to Egypt he saw firsthand the reforms of Mehmed Ali. When Mehmed Ali invaded Anatolia and defeated Ottoman forces near Konya, Mustafa Reșid Pasha was sent to negotiate with Mehmed Ali’s son, Ibrahim Pasha. Mustafa Reșid Pasha went to Paris in 1834 to negotiate with the French government about the withdrawal of French forces from Algeria. In 1835 Mustafa Reșid Pasha was appointed Ottoman ambassador to Paris. A year later the sultan sent him to London as his ambassador. During his tenure as the Ottoman ambassador in London, Mustafa Reșid Pasha developed a close relationship with influential British officials. In the summer of 1837 he returned to Istanbul and was appointed minister of foreign affairs. In 1838 he was sent to London to convince the British government to sign a treaty against Egypt. Instead, he signed a commercial treaty with the British government, which opened the Ottoman market to British goods and investment. After the death of Mahmud II in the summer of 1839, Mustafa Reșid Pasha played an important role in writing the Hatt-i Șerif Gülhane (Noble Rescript of the Rose Garden), which inaugurated the era of governmental reforms known as Tanzimat (Reorganization). During the reign of Sultan Abdülmecid (Abdülmejid) (r. 1839–1861) he served as the grand vizier six times and attempted to introduce administrative, social, economic, and educational reforms using advanced European countries as his model. In the crisis that led to the Crimean War (1853–1856), he used the British and the French to isolate and eventually defeat Russia and secure the inclusion of the Ottoman state in the “Concert of Europe.”
Mustafa Reşid Pasha was
an Ottoman diplomat and statesmen who played a leading role in promulgating the governmental reforms known as the Tanzimat. (Wright, John Henry. A History of All Nations from the Earliest Times, 1906)
See also: Beys and Pashas: Āli Pasha, Mehmed Emin; Fuad Pasha; Sultans: Abdülmecid; Mahmud II
Further Reading
Davison, Roderic H. Nineteenth Century Ottoman Diplomacy and Reforms. Istanbul: Isis Press, 1999.
Davison, Roderic H. Reform in the Ottoman Empire, 1856–1876. New York: Gordian Press, 1973.
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.
Quataert, Donald. The Ottoman Empire, 1700–1922. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
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.
Yurdakul, Ilhami. “Āli Pasha, Mehmed Emin.” In Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, edited by Gábor Ágoston and Bruce Masters, 36–37. New York: Facts On File, 2009.
Zürcher, Erik-Jan. Turkey: A Modern History. London: I. B. Tauris, 2004.
Talat Pasha (1874–1921)
Mehmed Talat, known as Talat Pasha, was one of the leaders of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), which seized power in 1908. From 1913 to 1917 he served as minister of justice. In 1915 he was the principal architect of Armenian deportations, which forced the Armenian population of eastern Anatolia to settle in Syria. He served as the grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 1917 to 1918.
Talat was born in Edirne in 1874. As a young man he worked as a postal clerk and telegrapher in Edirne. It was also in Edirne that he joined a branch of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), the underground organization that opposed the autocratic rule of Sultan Abdülhamid II (r. 1876–1909). Talat was imprisoned for his antigovernment activities between 1895 and 1898. Upon his release from prison, Talat rejoined the Young Turk opposition and quickly emerged as one of the leaders of the CUP. He also moved to Salonika, which served as one of the important centers of antigovernment activities. Talat played an active role in preparing the ground for the 1908 Young Turk revolution.
The Young Turk leader, Talat Pasha, was a member of the triumvirate which dominated the Ottoman government during World War I. (Library of Congress)
After the victory of the Young Turk revolution, Talat was elected as a deputy to the new Ottoman parliament from Edirne. Soon he emerged as the deputy speaker of the Ottoman parliament and one of the most powerful and influential members of the CUP’s central committee. In 1912 Talat was appointed secretary general of the CUP. He was one of the architects of the 1913 coup d’état, which imposed a CUP dictatorship on the Ottoman Empire. After the victory of the 1913 coup, together with Enver Pasha and Cemal (Jemal) Pasha, he formed the so-called Young Turk triumvirate, which ruled the Ottoman Empire. While Enver served as minister of war and Cemal as minister of the marine, Talat became minister of the interior. He remained at the head of the ministry of justice from 1913 to 1917. It was this triumvirate that took the Ottoman Empire into World War I on the side of the Central Powers, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In April 1915 Talat ordered the deportation of the Armenian population from eastern Anatolia. This eviction order caused the death of more than one million Armenians. In February 1917 Talat was appointed grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire. He held this position until October 1918. After the Central Powers called for an armistice, Talat Pasha fled to Germany, where he lived under an assumed identity.
After the end of the war, under pressure from British authorities, the postwar Ottoman government tried Talat in absentia and condemned him to death. The German government, however, refused to extradite him. On March 15, 1921, Talat was shot and killed in Berlin. The assassin, Soghomon Tehlirian, was an Armenian who had lost members of his family during the deportations of the Armenian population from the town of Erzincan (Erzinjan). Tehlirian was put on trial, but he was acquitted of all charges. In 1943 the Nazi government returned Talat’s remains to Turkey, where he was given burial with full honors. Talat’s memoirs, Talat Pașa’nin Hātiralari (Talat Pasha’s Memoirs), were published in Turkey in 1958.
See also: Beys and Pashas: Cemal Pasha; Enver Pasha; Rebels: Young Turks
Further Reading
Ahmad, Feroz. The Young Turks: The Committee of Union and Progress in Turkish Politics. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969.
Bogosian, Eric. Operation Nemesis: The Assassination Plot That Avenged the Armenian Genocide. New York: Little, Brown, 2015.
Djemal Pasha. Memories of a Turkish Statesman, 1913–1919. New York: Arno Press, 1973.
Hanioglu, M. Șükrü. Preparation for a Revolution: The Young Turks, 1902–1908. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Hanioglu, M. Șükrü. The Young Turks in Opposition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Hanioglu, Șükrü. A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010.
Kansu, Aykut. The Revolution of 1908 in Turkey. Leiden: E. J. Brill 1997.
Mango, Andrew. Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey. New York: Overlook Press, 1999.
Mehmed Talat Pasha. Posthumous Memoirs. Leeaf.com Books, Amazon Digital Services, 2013.
Ramsaur, Ernest. The Young Turks: Prelude to the Revolution of 1908. New York: Russell & Russell, 1957.
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.
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.
EMPIRE AND
ADMINISTRATION
Abbas I, Shah of Iran (1571–1629)
Shah of Iran and the most powerful and successful monarch of the Safavid dynasty (1501–1722), who ruled from 1588 to 1629. During his reign the Safavid Empire reached the zenith of its power. The reign of Shah Abbas is known for the brilliance of its artistic and architectural accomplishments, including magnificent squares, palaces, mosques, bazaars, and schools, which were built in Isfahan, the city chosen by the Safavid monarch as his new capital.
Abbas I was the third son of the Safavid monarch Sultan Mohammad Shah, also known as Sultan Mohammad Khodabandeh or Shah Mohammad Khodabandeh. Abbas was born on January 27, 1571. When the second monarch of the Safavid dynasty, Tahmasp I (r. 1524–1576), died in 1576, he was succeeded by Ismail II. Upon ascending the Safavid throne, Ismail II unleashed a reign of terror, blinding and killing nine male members of the royal family. Ismail also ordered the execution of Abbas (known as Abbas Mirza or Prince Abbas), who at the time resided in Herat in present-day northwestern Afghanistan. The governor of Herat, Ali Qoli Khan Shamlu, who served as the guardian of Abbas Mirza, refused to carry out the royal order. A short time later, after Ismail II was assassinated, a second courier was dispatched to Herat to reverse the original order.
After the murder of Ismail II, Abbas Mirza’s father, Mohammad Khodabandeh, ascended the throne. Sultan Mohammad Khodabandeh was a humble, unassuming, and inept ruler who suffered from poor eyesight. He was also greatly influenced by his wife, Mahd-e Olya, and the commanders of the Qizilbash (Kizilbaș) cavalry units. The Qizilbash were the Shia tribal groups, which had supported the Safavid dynasty. They constituted the military backbone of the Safavid state. Because they wore the distinct red headgear, which compris
ed 12 triangles representing the 12 imams of Shia Islam, they came to be known as the Qizilbash or Red Heads. The Qizilbash viewed the Safavid monarchs as their religious and spiritual leaders.
When Abbas was only 10 years old a group of Qizilbash commanders who hailed from the Shamlu and Ostajlu tribes swore allegiance to the young prince and raised the flag of rebellion. The rebels, who were based in Khorasan (present-day northeastern Iran and northwestern Afghanistan), minted coins in the name of Abbas. The name of the young prince was also mentioned in the khotba (the Friday sermon in which the ruler’s name was mentioned). The rebellion fizzled out, however, as soon as army units loyal to Abbas’s father arrived in Khorasan. Ali Qoli Khan Shamlu declared his loyalty to Sultan Mohammad Khodabandeh and Hamzeh Mirza, a brother of Abbas who had been designated as the crown prince.
In 1585 the army chief, Morshed Qoli Khan Ostajlu, attacked and captured Mashhad in present-day northeastern Iran. The governor of Herat and the guardian of Abbas, Ali Qoli Khan Shamlu, responded by raising an army against the ambitious Morshed Qoli Khan. When the battle was joined, Morshed Qoli Khan managed to abduct Abbas from the battlefield. Morshed Qoli Khan planned to use Abbas as his puppet and seize power in the name of the young Safavid prince. Meanwhile, a coalition of Qizilbash forces stationed in Qazvin, which served as the capital of the Safavid state, tried to install a brother of Abbas, Tahmasp, as the new shah, but the heir apparent, Hamzeh Mirza, suppressed this rebellion. In 1586 Hamzeh Mirza was killed. With the death of the heir apparent, the Ostajlu forces stationed in Qazvin threw their support behind Abu Taleb, another brother of Abbas, but this attempt also failed.
Morshed Qoli Khan Ostajlu, who had abducted Abbas on the battlefield, tried to convince the Qizilbash chiefs in Qazvin to rally around the young Safavid prince, but the majority of these commanders hesitated to commit themselves. In December 1587 the Shaybani Uzbeks invaded Khorasan, raiding Safavid territory as far south as Sistan in present-day eastern Iran. Morshed Qoli Khan used the Uzbek invasion as an opportunity to march to Qazvin and seize the throne in the name of Abbas Mirza. Once he had imposed his rule on the Safavid capital, Morshed Qoli Khan forced Sultan Mohammad Khodabandeh to abdicate in favor of his son. On October 1, 1588, Abbas, who was only 17 years old, ascended the throne as Shah Abbas I. The new shah appointed Morshed Qoli Khan Ostajlu as the vakil-e divan-e āli or deputy of the imperial court, thus allowing the ambitious Qizilbash chief to emerge as the most powerful man in the empire.