The Ottoman Empire: a Historical Encyclopedia [2 Volumes]
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See also: Peoples and Cultures: Serbian Orthodox Church; Sultans: Mahmud II; Selim III
Further Reading
Fotić, Aleksander. “Karadjordje (Djordje Petrović; Kara George).” In Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, edited by Gábor Ágoston and Bruce Masters, 307–308. New York: Facts On File, 2009.
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.
McCarthy, Justin. The Ottoman Peoples and the End of Empire. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2001.
McCarthy, Justin. The Ottoman Turks: An Introductory History to 1923. London and New York: Wesley Longman Limited, 1997.
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.
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.
Kastrioti, Gjergj (George). See Skanderbeg.
Skanderbeg (Gjergj [George] Kastrioti)
(1405–1468)
Gjergj (George) Kastrioti, later known as Skanderbeg (Iskender Bey), was the son of Gjon (John) Kastrioti, the ruler of Emathia in central Albania. As a young man Gjergj was sent to the Ottoman court as a token of his father’s loyalty to the sultan. In the second half of the 14th century, when Murad I (r. 1362–1389) began expanding his territorial possessions in the Balkan Peninsula, Albania became a target of Ottoman aggression. A coalition of Christian states under the leadership of Prince Lazar of Serbia fought the Ottomans but was eventually defeated at Kosovo Polje (Plain of Blackbirds) near Pristina in present-day Kosovo, in 1389. Murad I was killed on the battlefield, but his son and successor, Bayezid I (r. 1389–1402), continued his father’s expansionist policies, pushing the boundaries of the Ottoman sultanate to the borders of Albania. Albanian princes were forced to submit, pay tribute, and demonstrate their loyalty to the Ottoman sultan by sending their sons as hostages to his court in Edirne (Adrianople).
At the Ottoman court, George Kastrioti converted to Islam and received a traditional Ottoman education. He also participated in the Ottoman military campaigns against Serbs and Hungarians, displaying unrivaled courage and bravery on the battlefield, which won him the name Iskender or Skander (Alexander) after Alexander the Great and the rank of bey (hence Skanderbeg or Iskender Bey). When the armies of Ottoman sultan Murad II (1421–1444, 1446–1451) were defeated by the Hungarian general János (John) Hunyadi (1407–1456) at Nish in present-day southeastern Serbia in November 1443, Skanderbeg deserted Ottoman service and returned home to Albania. Once there, he renounced Islam and re-embraced Christianity.
Statue of the Albanian national hero, George Kastrioti, also known as Skanderbeg, in Tirana, the capital of Albania. (Ross and Helen Photographers/Dreamstime.com)
In 1444 Skanderbeg created a league of Albanian princes, which repeatedly defeated the Ottomans. The Ottoman armies were defeated twice in 1450, then again at the battle of Mokrea in 1453, and yet again in 1456. In September 1457 Skanderbeg scored an impressive victory over the Ottomans west of Mount Tomoritsa, which he followed with the conquest of Satti (Shati) in present-day northwestern Albania in 1459. Skanderbeg and the Ottoman sultan, Mehmed II, agreed to a truce in 1461, but this proved to be short-lived. In 1462 Skanderbeg was back on the battlefield, fighting two successful campaigns against the Ottomans in Dibra in present-day western Macedonia, followed by a successful invasion of Macedonia. Once again a peace treaty was negotiated, in April 1463. Conflict resumed in 1464, with Skanderbeg inflicting defeats on the Ottomans twice in Dibra, followed by yet another victory near Tirana (present-day capital of Albania) in 1465. To the shock of the Ottomans, in 1466 at Kroya (Kruja) in north-central Albania, Skanderbeg attacked and defeated a large Ottoman army led by Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople (Pitcher: 88). In 1467 he repeated his feat, first defeating an Ottoman army led by the Albanian commander Ballaban near Kroya and then repelling Mehmed’s second major campaign to pacify Albania (Pitcher: 88). Considering this extraordinary set of accomplishments and victories, it is not surprising that Skanderbeg was and remains to this day the unchallenged national hero of the Albanian people and a legend in European history. In his battles with the Ottomans, Skanderbeg received assistance from the papacy, Naples, and Venice. He formed a formal alliance with Venice in 1463. Skanderbeg died in January 1468. After his death, Albanian resistance continued for another decade. In 1477 the Ottoman commander Gedik Ahmed Pasha besieged Kroya, Skanderbeg’s birthplace. The town surrendered to the Ottomans in June 1478. Scutari (Shkodër) in northwestern Albania then surrendered to Mehmed in 1479. By 1501 the Ottomans had pacified much of the territory of present-day Albania.
See also: Peoples and Cultures: Albania and Albanians; Sultans: Mehmed II
Further Reading
Imber, Colin. The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1650: The Structure of Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.
Inalcik, Halil. The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300–1600. Translated by Norman Itzkowitz and Colin Imber. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1973.
Pitcher, Donald Edgar. An Historical Geography of the Ottoman Empire. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1972.
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.
Tursun Beg. The History of Mehmed the Conqueror. Translated by Halil Inalcik and Murphey Rhoads. Minneapolis, MN: Bibliotheca Islamica, 1978.
Tasvir-i Efka-r (Representation of Opinions)
A reformist newspaper, first published in Istanbul by the Ottoman writer and poet Ibrahim Şinasi (Shinasi) in 1862. The publication of Tasvir-i Efkar marks the beginning of a new era in the intellectual development of Ottoman society. It was the first Turkish language newspaper to introduce modern political and literary ideas to its readers, while at the same time openly criticizing the policies of the Ottoman government during the era of Tanzimat (1839–1876). The appearance of Tasvir-i Efkar also signaled the introduction of a new and accessible Turkish language that broke away from the highly formal and stylized Ottoman Turkish of the ruling elite, which was heavily influenced by and imbued with Arabic and Persian loan words and grammatical constructs. Şinasi and his colleagues, who were called Young Ottomans (Yeni Osmanlilar), viewed prose and poetry not as hobbies for the enjoyment of members of the educated elite, but as indispensable tools to be utilized in educating the masses and transforming the moral, educational, and intellectual state of Ottoman society. To establish a direct link to the common people, Şinasi used a simplified and accessible Turkish, which could be easily understood by ordinary folks.
In 1863 the Ottoman author, poet, and playwright Namik Kemal joined Şinasi at Tasvir-i Efkar. In 1865 Şinasi left Istanbul for Paris. In his absence Namik Kemal assumed the editorship of Tasvir-i Efkar and intensified the newspaper’s attacks on the statesmen of Tanzimat and what he perceived to be their authoritarian approach to politics. To neutralize Namik Kemal and put a stop to the relentless criticism that Tasvir-i Efkar was directing against the state, the Ottoman government appointed the newspaper’s editor as the deputy governor of Erzurum in eastern Anatolia. Instead of accepting this post, however, Namik Kemal chose exile over co-option and silence: he left Istanbul for Paris in 1867. In Namik Kemal’s absence, Recaizade (Rejaizade) Mahmud Ekrem assumed the leadership of Tasvir-i Efkar, but he could not resist the mounting pressur
e from the government to shut down the dangerous newspaper.
As members of a new generation of young Ottoman intellectuals, the patriotic and liberal- minded Ibrahim Şinasi (Ibrahim Shinasi) and Namik Kemal used Tasvir-i Efkar to criticize the despotic policies of the leaders of the Tanzimat and their appeasing attitude toward the predatory European powers. Their response to the growing sense of ethnic and linguistic nationalism among the Christian subjects of the sultan in the Balkans was to promote a new sense of Ottoman patriotism. They believed that the Ottoman Empire was the fatherland of all communities living under the authority of the sultan. In order for the empire to preserve its territorial integrity, the diverse communities living within its boundaries had to enjoy the right to participate in its daily political life as equal citizens of the state. A parliamentary system of government was the only vehicle through which the diverse peoples of the Ottoman Empire could be unified as an integrated political community.
The Young Ottomans also advocated Islamic unity and the modernization of the Ottoman state as the principal means through which the empire’s independence and territorial integrity could be preserved. Concerned with the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, humiliated by the inability of the state to defend itself against foreign aggression, and inspired by the unification of Germany and Italy, the Young Ottomans believed it was necessary to modernize the political, military, and economic institutions of the empire. At the same time, they agreed on the need to retain their society’s basic Islamic characteristics (Hourani: 103–107; Lewis: 138–139; Shaw: 2:130–131). For the Young Ottomans, it was necessary that the Ottoman state not only introduce modern political institutions such as a parliament, but also assume a leading role in unifying and guiding the rest of the Islamic world as it struggled to maintain its independence.
See also: Beys and Pashas: Mustafa Reşid Pasha; Empire and Administration: Tanzimat; Historians: Ibrahim Şinasi; Namik Kemal
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.
Hourani, Albert. Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age: 1798–1939. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Lewis, Bernard. The Emergence of Modern Turkey. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961.
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. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
Somel, Selçuk Akșin. Historical Dictionary of the Ottoman Empire. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2003.
Urabi, Ahmad Pasha (1840–1911)
Urabi Pasha was an Egyptian officer who led a popular nationalist movement against British intervention in Egypt. His nationalism, as reflected in the slogan “Egypt for Egyptians,” won him great popularity among Egyptian intellectuals and army officers, who resented Egypt’s non-Arab/non-Egyptian ruling dynasty and opposed intervention by European imperial powers, particularly the British and the French, in the internal affairs of their country. In 1882 Urabi Pasha went to war with the British to preserve the independence of his country, but ironically his nationalist movement provided the justification for the British to invade and occupy Egypt. For nearly 74 years, from 1882 to 1952, the British ruled Egypt first informally, and after 1914, as a protectorate.
Urabi was born into an Egypt burning with anger and resentment toward its ruling dynasty and European intervention. During the reigns of Khedive Said (r. 1854–1864) and Khedive Ismail (r. 1864–1879), the Egyptian government granted numerous concessions to European banks and governments and received high-interest loans to pay for the expensive lifestyles of its rulers. These loans eventually forced Egypt into bankruptcy, providing European powers, particularly the British and the French, with the pretext to intervene in the name of reorganizing the country’s finances. They seized control of the collection of taxes by administering customs houses and the railway system.
Urabi was born in 1840 in Horiyeh, a village near Zaqaziq in the Nile River delta northeast of Cairo. He was the son of a local sheikh. At the age of 12 Urabi went to Cairo to study at al-Azhar, one of the most prestigious centers of higher learning in the Islamic world. After studying at Azhar for two years, he was conscripted into the Egyptian army at the age of 14. He began his military career as a clerk in the Egyptian army. He rose to the rank of lieutenant when he was 17, became a captain by the age of 18, and was a lieutenant colonel at 19. Urabi participated in the Egyptian-Ethiopian war of 1875–1876.
Until the second half of the 19th century the officer class in Egypt was the exclusive domain of the Turks and Circassians, who hailed from the powerful Ottoman and Mamluk families that had ruled Egypt for centuries. These Turks and Circassians were resented by native Egyptians, particularly those Egyptian officers who were denied the opportunity to rise into the higher ranks. Urabi began his career in politics as an opponent of Khedive Ismail. Ismail opposed the promotion of Egyptian officers to positions of power in the Egyptian military hierarchy, favoring instead an army dominated by Turkish and Circassian officers. Opposed to the domination of the Turkish and Circassian officers, who held the highest and the most important posts in the Egyptian army, Urabi joined a secret society organized by Egyptian officers. In 1881 Urabi led a revolt against the Egyptian ruler, Khedive Tawfiq (Tewfik). In 1882 British intervention and a dispute over the prerogatives of the Egyptian assembly regarding budgetary issues resulted in the formation of a nationalist government led by Mahmud Sami al-Barudi. Urabi was appointed minister of war. His popularity reached a new height when he adopted the slogan “Egypt for Egyptians.”
The Egyptian army officer, Ahmad Urabi Pasha, led a nationalist movement, which expressed the opposition of the Egyptian people to growing British control of the country. (Ridpath, John Clark. Ridpath’s History of the World, 1901)
In May 1882 the European powers demanded the dismissal of al-Barudi and Urabi. Al-Barudi resigned, but Urabi refused to step down from his post. Anti-European demonstrations erupted in Alexandria in June. The British responded by dispatching their naval forces. The British fleet bombarded Alexandria in July 1882. The weak and incompetent Tawfiq escaped and sought refuge with the British fleet. The khedive also denounced Urabi as a rebel and a traitor. That declaration by Tawfiq provided the British with the convenient justification to land their forces in Alexandria in August. Urabi tried to rally his forces against Tawfiq and the British, denouncing the khedive as a traitor and a puppet of the English infidels. Determined to use Urabi’s rebellion as an excuse to impose their rule over Egypt, the British marched toward Cairo. On September 13, 1882, Urabi’s forces were defeated at Tall al-Kabir (Tell el-Kebir) by the British. Urabi was captured, court-marshaled, and condemned to death. The death sentence was commuted a short time later to exile in Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka). Urabi returned to Egypt in 1901. He died in Cairo in 1911.
The Ottoman sultan Abdülhamid II could not challenge the British occupation of Egypt. Instead, the Ottomans and the British reached an agreement on the fiction of the Ottoman sultan’s suzerainty over Egypt, and an Ottoman and a British commissioner were assigned responsibility to advise the khedive. Regardless of these formal arrangements, however, the British were now the true masters of Egypt, a country they would dominate for the next seven decades. In 1914, after the commencement of World War I, the British threw out the pretense of Ottoman sovereignty and declared Egypt a protectorate.
See also: Beys and Pashas: Abbas Hilmi; Rebels: Abduh, Muhammad; Afghani, Jamal al-Din; Sultans: Abdülhamid II
Further Reading
Blunt, Wilfrid Scawen. Secret History o
f the English Occupation of Egypt: Being A Personal Narrative of Events. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1922.
Masters, Bruce. “Urabi, Ahmad Pasha.” In Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, edited by Gábor Ágoston and Bruce Masters, 578–795. 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.
Tollefson, Harold. Policing Islam: The British Occupation 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.