Piri Reis participated in several Ottoman naval campaigns in the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. In 1547, during the reign of Sultan Süleyman I (r. 1520–1566), Piri Reis was appointed commander of the Ottoman Red Sea fleet (Somel: 228), as well as grand admiral of the Ottoman Empire’s Indian Ocean fleet (Hind Kapudan-i Derya). As the commander of the Ottoman fleet in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, Piri Reis captured the port of Aden at the mouth of the Red Sea in present-day Yemen in February 1548. In 1552 Piri Reis was sent “with a fleet of thirty ships down the Red Sea and around the Arabian peninsula to eject the Portuguese from Hormuz” and seize the Island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf (Lord Kinross: 244). Piri Reis first captured Masqat (Muscat), the capital of Oman in the southeastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula. He then attacked the city of Hormuz, but failed to capture the fortress that protected its harbor (Lord Kinross: 245). Instead, he plundered the Island of Qeshm off the coast of southern Iran and sailed with the booty he had collected to Basra in present-day southern Iraq (Finkel: 136). The Portuguese pursued Piri Reis and his fleet, hoping to trap the Ottoman naval force. In response, Piri Reis abandoned his fleet and escaped with three galleys laden with rich booty. He reached Egypt after losing one of his galleys. Having learned about the fate of their fleet, the Ottoman authorities in Egypt imprisoned Piri Reis. The brilliant admiral, cartographer, and geographer was executed by the order of Süleyman I in Cairo in 1554 (Lord Kinross: 245).
See also: Battles and Treaties: Gallipoli; Sultans: Selim I; Süleyman I
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.
Lord Kinross. The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire. New York: William Morrow, 1977.
McIntosh, Gregory. The Piri Reis Map of 1513. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2000.
Özükan, Bülent. Piri Reis: The Book of Bahriye. Istanbul: Boyut Yayin Grubu, 2013.
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.
Soucek Svat. Piri Reis & Turkish Mapmaking after Columbus. London: Khalili Collections, 1996.
Soucek Svat. Piri Reis ve Kolomb Sonrasi Türk Haritaciligi. Istanbul: Boyut Yayin Grubu, 2013.
Soucek Svat. Studies in Ottoman Naval History and Maritime Geography. Istanbul: ISIS Press, 1656.
Sinan (1489–1588)
Sinan was the chief imperial architect of the Ottoman Empire between 1539 and 1588. His most important architectural works were accomplished during the reigns of Süleyman I (r. 1520–1566) and Selim II (r. 1566–1574). Born into a Greek Christian family, Sinan was recruited into government service through the devșirme (devshirme) during the reign of Selim I (r. 1512–1520). He served in the Ottoman army during the reign of Süleyman I, building bridges and citadels during the sultan’s campaigns in Europe and Asia. Süleyman financed numerous mosques, schools, aqueducts, and architectural complexes. Many of these buildings were designed and built by Sinan. Among Sinan’s best-known works are the Süleymaniye mosque complex in Istanbul and the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, which remain the masterpieces of Ottoman architecture. The “mosque complexes of Süleymaniye in Istanbul and Damascus; the bridges of Büyükçekmece near Istanbul; and the bridge of Sokollu Mehmed Pasha at Višgrad (Bosnia), crossing the River Drina, are just few examples of his extensive work across the large territory commanded by the Ottomans” (Ahunbay: 50). Sinan was influenced by Byzantine architecture as well as by the Iranian architect Ajemi Ali, who had been brought back by Süleyman from Tabriz, the capital of Iranian Azerbaijan. The design and construction of some 477 buildings have been attributed to Sinan. The three largest and most important buildings he built are Şehzade (Shehzade) mosque (1543–1548) in Istanbul, which he built for Süleyman the Magnificent as a mausoleum for his son, Mehmed; the Süleymaniye mosque complex (1550–1557), which included a mosque and 14 buildings; and Selimiye, which dominates the city of Edirne and is considered the masterpiece of this brilliant Ottoman architect. The Selimiye Mosque (Turkish: Selimiye Camii) was commissioned by Selim II and built by Sinan between 1569 and 1575. The mosque stood at the center of a complex that included a hospital, a library, a bathhouse, and several schools.
Bust of the world renowned Ottoman architect, Sinan, in Istanbul, Turkey. (Sadık Gulec/Dreamstime.com)
See also: Sultans: Selim II; Süleyman I
Further Reading
Ahunbay, Zeynep. “Architecture.” In Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, edited by Gábor Ágoston and Bruce Masters, 46–51. New York: Facts On File, 2009.
Necipoğlu, Gülru. The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire. London: Reaktion Books, 2010.
Pierpont, Ann. Sinan Diary: A Walking Tour of Mimar Sinan’s Monuments. Istanbul: Citlembik Publications, 2007.
Stratton, Arthur. Sinan: The Biography of One of the World’s Greatest Architects and a Portrait of the Golden Age of the Ottoman Empire. London: Macmillan, 1972.
Tevfik Fikret (1867–1915)
Born Mehmed Tevfik, he was a Turkish poet and literary editor during the late Ottoman period. He is considered one of the founders of modern Turkish poetry. He was born in Istanbul on December 24, 1867. His father was a government official. He received his education at Galatasaray Lycée. After completing his education, Tevfik Fikret entered government service. For a time he served as the principal of Galatasaray Lycée. He also taught at Robert College, an American-sponsored institution of higher learning.
Tevfik Fikret was the writer and editor of the Servet-i Funun (The wealth of knowledge). Aside from publishing his own works in Servet-i Funun, he also translated the works of European writers and poets, particularly French poets. He was greatly influenced by the works of Enlightenment thinkers. The repeated defeats and humiliation of the Ottoman Empire by European powers in the second half of the 19th century, as well as his studies of European political and literary thought, converted Tevfik Fikret into a patriotic intellectual who grieved for the fate and future of his country. Like many Turkish intellectuals of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he also became an opponent of autocracy and a proponent of a constitutional form of government.
The literary activities of Tevfik Fikret and his collaborators alarmed the authorities, who banned the publication of their newspaper and his literary works in 1901. As an advocate of free speech and a constitutional form of government, Tevfik Fikret became a vocal critic of the absolutist regime of Abdülhamid II (r. 1876–1909). In 1902 he composed a collection of poems called Sis (Mist), in which he denounced repression and dictatorship. After the Young Turk revolution of 1908, Tevfik Fikret returned to the literary scene and published the newspaper Tanin (Echo). Some of his most important works are Rübbab-i Şikeste (The broken lute), which was published in 1896, and Haluk’un Defteri (Haluk’s notebook), which appeared in 1911. He also took both administrative and teaching positions. Tevfik Fikret devoted the last years of his life to teaching and writing poetry. He died in Istanbul on August 18, 1915.
See also: Rebels: Young Turks; Sultans: Abdülhamid II
Further Reading
Gibb, E. J. W. A History of Ottoman Poetry. 6 vols. Edited by Edward G. Browne. London: Luzac and Company, 1965.
Hanioglu, M. Şükrü. Preparation for a Revolution: The Young Turks, 1902–1908. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Hanioglu, M. Şükrü. The Young Turks in Opposition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Shaw, Stanford J. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Somel, Selçuk Akşin. Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2
003.
Yusuf Akçura (Yusuf Akchura; Akçuraoglu Yusuf)
(1876–1935)
Yusuf Akçura was a Kazan Tatar author, historian, and journalist, who is recognized as one of the first proponents of Pan-Turkism or the unity of all Turkic-speaking people. He was born in 1878 to a Tatar family in Simbirsk. Located on the western bank of the Volga River in southern Russia, Simbirsk was renamed Ulyanovsk after 1924 in honor of Vladimir Ulyanov, better known as Lenin. At the age of seven Akçura moved to Istanbul with his mother. As a student in the War Academy in Istanbul, he joined the Young Turks and was exiled to Libya. He escaped from North Africa to France. In Paris he studied at École des Sciences Politiques and joined the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). He returned to his homeland in 1904, where he wrote his most influential work, Üç Tarz-i Siyaset (Three types of policy). In Üç Tarz-i Siyaset, Akçura presented Ottomanism, Pan-Islamism, and Pan-Turkism as the three dominant ideological trends of his time. He rejected Ottomanism, which called for the unification of all ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups living in the Ottoman Empire in a single Ottoman nation. He also dismissed Pan-Islamism as an ideology that could not generate sufficient unity and solidarity among the Muslims both inside and outside the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire. Instead, he called for Pan-Turkism or the union of all Turkic peoples of the world. Akçura believed that only Pan-Turkism could mobilize and unify the Turkic people around a common ethnicity and language.
After the victory of the Young Turk Revolution, Akçura returned to Istanbul and in 1911, together with other Pan-Turkist intellectuals, founded the journal Türk Yurdu (The Turkish homeland) in Istanbul. In 1914 he participated in founding the nationalist organization Türk Ocaği (Türk Ojaği) (The Turkish Hearth). He also taught Turkish history at Darülfünun. During the war of independence Akçura joined the nationalist movement led by Mustafa Kemal, and after the establishment of the Turkish Republic he was elected to the Grand National Assembly. He also served as the president of the Turkish Historical Society and taught history at Ankara University. Akçura died in Istanbul in 1935.
See also: Empire and Administration: Atatürk, Kemal; Rebels: Young Turks
Further Reading
Lewis, Bernard. The Emergence of Modern Turkey. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961.
Mango, Andrew. Atatürk: The Biography of the Founder of Modern Turkey. New York: Overlook Press, 1999.
Mardin, Şerif. The Genesis of Young Ottoman Thought: A Study in the Modernization of Turkish Political Ideas. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963.
Shaw, Stanford J. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. Vol. 2. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Zenkovsky, Serge A. Pan-Turkism and Islam in Russia. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967.
Zürcher, Erik-Jan. Turkey: A Modern History. London: I. B. Tauris, 2004.
Ziya Pasha (Abdülhamid Ziyaeddin)
(1825/1826 or 1829/1830–1880)
Turkish intellectual, author, journalist, poet, and statesman of the second half of the 19th century, who played a leading role in the Young Ottoman movement. Ziya Pasha, also known as Abdülhamid Ziya or Ziya Bey, was born in Istanbul either in 1825/1826 or 1829/1830. His father was a clerk who worked in the Galata custom house. As a young boy Ziya was enrolled in one of Mahmud II’s new Rüşdiye (Rushdiye) schools (Shaw: 2:131). At the School of Humanities (Mekteb-i Edebiyye) (Gibb: 5:42–44) he became attracted to poetry, which was described to him as a gift from God that could not be obtained through classroom learning (Gibb: 5:49). He also began to study Persian, even though his father had warned him that whoever learned Persian became an infidel and lost half of his religion (Gibb: 5:46). The classical masterpieces of the celebrated Persian poets Sa’di and Hafez had a profound impact on his literary growth. As he wrote, “the Persian poets became my masters, and I gathered gems from many of their Khamsas and Diwans” (Gibb: 5:53).
At the age of 17 Ziya Bey joined government service, working at the office of the chief secretary of the grand vizier. He later joined the Translation Office (Tercüme Odasi), where his talents brought him to the attention of the powerful Ottoman statesman Mustafa Reşid Pasha (Mustafa Reshid Pasha). For the next nine years, while he was working at the Sublime Porte (Bab-i Āli), Ziya Bey continued writing poetry, which remained the love of his life. In 1854/1855, with encouragement and support from Mustafa Reşid Pasha, Ziya Bey was appointed third secretary to the Ottoman sultan Abdülmecid (Abdülmejid) (r. 1839–1861). His new appointment forced Ziya Bey to abandon his merry-making and tavern-hopping life and embrace a more proper, respectable, and dignified lifestyle. It was during this period in his life that Ziya Bey began to study French. His fascination with French language and literature led him to translate a number of works from French into Turkish. His translation of a work by the French author Louis Viardot (1800–1883), titled Histoire des Arabes et des Mores d’Espagne, traitant de la constitution du peuple arabe-espagnol, de sa civilisation, de ses moeurs et de son influence sur la civilisation moderne, was the first of Ziya’s translated works, as well as the first of his prose productions. The book, a historical treatise on the Moors in Spain, was translated into Turkish as Endelus Tarihi (History of Andalusia) (Gibb: 5:58). Ziya Bey also translated a number of literary and philosophical works from French into Turkish. These included Molière’s Tartuffe, Fénelon’s Télémaque, and La Fontaine’s Fables. Most of these works remained unpublished. In 1870, while living in Geneva, he translated Jean Jacques Rousseau’s Émile into Turkish. While working at the palace Ziya continued composing new poems, including some of his best known lyrics (Gibb: 5:59).
After Sultan Abdülaziz (r. 1861–1876) ascended the throne, Ziya Bey was removed from his position in the palace. Most historians agree that Ziya Bey’s dismissal was the direct result of the rivalry between the former grand vizier, Mustafa Reşid Pasha, and the powerful Tanzimat statesman Āli Pasha. Because Mustafa Reşid Pasha had acted as Ziya Bey’s patron and mentor, Āli Pasha viewed the young literatus as a potential opponent and rival who should be purged from the sultan’s inner circle. After losing his position at the palace, Ziya Bey was appointed to a series of governmental posts. His persecution by Āli Pasha, however, had already made Ziya Bey an opponent of the Porte. The brilliant poet joined a group of young intellectuals who came to be known as the Young Ottomans (Yeni Osmanlilar). The group included prominent writers, poets, and journalists such as Ibrahim Şinasi, Namik Kemal, Ali Suavi, and Āgah Effendi. The Young Ottomans opposed what they perceived to be the authoritarianism of the statesmen of Tanzimat. They also maintained that reforms introduced by the men of Tanzimat did not go far enough. To preserve the territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire, the Young Ottomans believed that the autocratic rule of the sultan and his ministers had to be replaced by a constitutional form of government based on a parliament elected by all the ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups within the empire.
The grand vizier, Āli Pasha, viewed the Young Ottomans as idealist revolutionaries whose ideas would weaken and undermine the power of the Ottoman central government, the very institution that preserved the unity and territorial integrity of the empire. In the spring and summer of 1867 the Ottoman government embarked on a policy of dispersing the Young Ottomans and forcing them out of Istanbul. As part of this scheme, Ziya Bey was appointed governor of Cyprus. Before being dispatched to Famagusta, the capital of Cyprus, however, Ziya Bey fled to Europe in 1867. He first went to Paris, where he was joined by his collaborator, Namik Kemal. During their stay in Paris Ziya Bey and Namik Kemal published the Turkish-language newspaper Hürriyet (Liberty). Their stay in Paris was short lived. Ziya Bey and Namik Kemal moved their operation to London, where they continued to publish their newspaper, which was distributed secretly in the Ottoman Empire. In his articles Ziya Bey advocated an end to autocracy and the establishment of a constitutional form of government. Eventually Ziya Bey left London and settled in Geneva.
After
his nemesis, the grand vizier Āli Pasha, died in September 1871, Ziya Bey wrote Sultan Abdülaziz and requested a pardon. The sultan responded positively to Ziya Bey’s petition and granted him permission to return to Istanbul. Upon his return to the Ottoman capital Ziya Bey was appointed to a governmental post. He focused much of his time on completing his anthology, titled Kharābāt (Tavern), which he finished in 1876.
In August 1876 a palace coup planned and led by the reform-minded statesman Midhat Pasha forced Sultan Abdülaziz to abdicate. A nephew of Abdülaziz, Prince Murad, was brought out of his residence and declared the new sultan. Before Murad V could establish himself, however, news of Abdülaziz’s sudden death was announced to a shocked populace. The body of the deposed sultan had been discovered in his private bedroom, his wrists slashed with a pair of scissors, leading many to conclude that he had been murdered. The events profoundly affected the new sultan, Murad V, who suffered a nervous breakdown. Murad was deposed in favor of his brother, who ascended the Ottoman throne as Abdülhamid II. Midhat Pasha, who shared many of the sentiments and beliefs of the Young Ottomans, was appointed grand vizier in December, and shortly afterward the first Ottoman constitution was introduced. Ziya was not allowed to run for the newly established parliament, but the new sultan, Abdülhamid II, appointed him as vizier. With his new position came the new title of Pasha. Soon Ziya Pasha was appointed governor of Syria. Abdülhamid II’s strategy was unambiguous: buy off and co-opt the government critics and send them as far away from the capital as possible. Ziya Pasha’s tenure as the governor of Syria was short lived. He was soon transferred to a new post in Konya in central Anatolia. From Konya he was moved to Adana in present-day southern Turkey. He died in Adana in May 1880.
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