The Ottoman Empire: a Historical Encyclopedia [2 Volumes]

by Kia, Mehrdad;

  In 1463 Ottoman forces invaded and occupied Bosnia (Tursun Beg: 50–52). In sharp contrast to other Christian areas of southeastern Europe, in Bosnia there were massive conversions to Islam following the Ottoman conquest (Jelavich: 32). As mosques and religious schools transformed the urban landscape, Islam gradually penetrated the Bosnian countryside. The newly converted Bosnian nobility retained its Slavic language and culture and gradually emerged as a close ally of the Ottoman state, which rewarded it with enormous political and economic power (Jelavich: 32).

  The invasion and occupation of Bosnia reignited the war with the Hungarians, who formed an alliance with Venice. In searching for formidable allies who could strengthen their united front against the Ottomans, Hungary and Venice received the support of the Albanian rebel Skanderbeg. Their most important ally was not, however, this Christian prince, but a new Muslim ruler by the name of Hassan Beyk, also known as Uzun Hassan (Tall Hassan), who was determined to resurrect the empire of Timur in the east. Venetian ambassadors arrived at the court of Uzun Hassan, the chief of the Aq Qoyunlu (Ak Koyunlu) or White Sheep Turkomans, to negotiate an alliance that would allow Venice and the Aq Qoyunlu forces to coordinate a joint military campaign against the Ottoman Empire.

  Since the early 1460s the Ottomans had watched with anxiety the rise of Uzun Hassan as the ruler of a new and powerful state based in Iran and southeastern Anatolia. Uzun Hassan hoped that he and the Mamluks would form an alliance against the Ottomans. Between the Ottomans and the Aq Qoyunlu in Anatolia stood the last two remaining Turkoman principalities, the Dulkadir (Dulgadir) and Karaman, the latter having been defeated and conquered by Mehmed between 1468 and 1470 (Har-El: 80–81, 86–89). Despite their defeat and loss of independence, the chiefs of Karaman had not given up on the dream of regaining their principality by using the Aq Qoyunlu as an ally against the Ottomans. Since the annexation of their principality, they had sought refuge in the Taurus Mountains, appealing persistently to Uzun Hassan for an alliance against the Ottomans (Shaw: 1:65; Inalcik: 299).

  The Venetians and the Knights of Rhodes sent emissaries to court the Turkoman chief, forming an alliance in 1464 and providing him with financial support and weaponry (Roemer: 6:176; Shaw: 1:66). As a formidable maritime power, Venice could attack the Ottomans from the west while the Aq Qoyunlu waged a land assault from the east. In 1472, after he had received an urgent request from Karaman for support against a major Ottoman force led by the sultan, Uzun Hassan mobilized his army for a major campaign and attacked eastern Anatolia (Tehrani: 554).

  An Ottoman army of nearly 100,000 was mobilized to face the Aq Qoyunlu threat. The decisive battle took place near the village of Bașkent (Bashkent) in northeastern Anatolia on August 11, 1473 (Roemer: 6:179). The Ottoman forces, which included 10,000 janissaries, inflicted a crushing defeat on the Aq Qoyunlu, killing one of Uzun Hassan’s sons and forcing the Turkoman chief to flee the battlefield (Tehrani: 570–584). As part of the victory celebration over Uzun Hassan, in one day alone 3,000 members of Aq Qoyunlu were executed. At each stop on their way back to Istanbul, the Ottomans beheaded 400 Aq Qoyunlu men, leaving their bodies on the road as a warning to those who were contemplating a revolt against the authority of the sultan (Tehrani: 583). With the defeat of Aq Qoyunlu, Karaman as well as Kastamonu and Trebizond were fully incorporated into the Ottoman state.

  Genoa and Venice had instigated the conflict between the Ottomans and Uzun Hassan by financing and arming the Aq Qoyunlu ruler. The attack on Genoa was primarily focused on the Genovese colonies of Amara, Sino, Trebizond, Kaffa, and Sudak on the Black Sea, which the Ottomans forced to pay annual tribute before occupying them between 1459 and 1475 (Inalcik and Renda: 87). The assault on Venice began by Ottoman forces laying siege to Shkodër (Ishkodra) in Albania. After four years of war, the two parties reached a peace agreement. According to this agreement, Shkodër, Akçahisar, Lemnos, and the islands of Euboia were ceded to the Ottoman Empire, while Venice retained its control of Lepanto, Coron, and Modon in the Morea as well as the right to trade in the sultan’s domains. Venice also agreed to pay the sultan 10,000 gold coins annually (Inalcik and Renda: 87).

  With Venice and Genoa neutralized for a time, Mehmed pursued his strategy of establishing a complete Ottoman hegemony on the Black Sea basin by bringing the Crimean Tatars under Ottoman suzerainty in 1475. Thus the northern shores of the Black Sea were incorporated into the Ottoman state, which came to dominate maritime trade in the region until the second half of the 18th century (Inalcik and Renda: 87).

  With the establishment of Ottoman rule in the Black Sea region, Mehmed turned his attention once again to Venice and concentrated his forces on a plan to conquer Italy. He also intended to capture Rhodes from the Knights of Hospitallers. The Ottoman forces under the command of Gedik Ahmed Pasha attacked Italy, landing at Otranto in present-day southern Italy in the summer of 1480 and establishing a land base from which they planned to pursue their conquest the following spring. The Italian city-states and the pope in Rome were preparing themselves for the worst when the news of Mehmed’s death arrived. The sultan died on March 3, 1481, before his dream of conquering Italy could become a reality (Shaw: 1:70).

  See also: Beys and Pashas: Gedik Ahmed Pasha; Sultans: Bayezid II; Cem Sultan; Murad II

  Further Reading

  Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire 1300–1923. New York: Basic Books, 2005.

  Har-El, Shai. Struggle for Domination in the Middle East: The Ottoman-Mamluk War. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995.

  Inalcik, Halil. The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300–1600. Translated by Norman Itzkowitz and Colin Imber. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1973.

  Inalcik, Halil, and Gunsel Renda, eds. Ottoman Civilization. Istanbul: Republic of Turkey, 2003.

  Jelavich, Barbara. History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Vol.1. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983.

  McCarthy, Justin. The Ottoman Turks: An Introductory History to 1923. London and New York: Wesley Longman Limited, 1997.

  Navai, Abdol Hossein, ed. Asnad va Mukatabat-e Tarikhi-ye Iran. Tehran: Tahuri Bookstore, 1992.

  Roemer, H. R. “The Türkmen Dynasties.” In The Cambridge History of Iran, edited by Peter Jackson and Lawrence Lockhart, 6:147–188. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

  Shaw, Stanford J. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. 2 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976.

  Tehrani, Abu Bakr. Kitab-i Diyar Bakriyya (Ak Koyunlular Tarihi). Edited by Faruk Sümer. Tehran: Tahuri Bookstore, 1977.

  Tursun Beg. The History of Mehmed the Conqueror. Translated by Halil Inalcik and Rhoads Murphey. Minneapolis, MN: Bibliotheca Islamic, 1978.

  Mehmed III (1566–1603)

  A sultan of the Ottoman Empire who ruled from 1595 to 1603. Mehmed was born in Manisa in present-day western Anatolia (Turkey) in 1566. He was named by his great-grandfather, Süleyman I (r. 1520–1566), in honor of the Ottoman conqueror of Constantinople, Mehmed II Fatih (r. 1444–1446, 1451–1481). Mehmed’s father was Murad III (r. 1574–1595). His mother was the Albanian-born concubine Saffiye Sultan. In 1584 Mehmed was appointed governor of Saruhan. After the death of Murad III in 1595, Mehmed III ascended the Ottoman throne. The new sultan unleashed a reign of terror against his own family, ordering the execution of his 19 brothers and 20 sisters (Shaw: 1:184; Imber: 109). Throughout Mehmed’s reign his mother, Saffiye Sultan, exercised enormous power and influence, while the grand vizier conducted the ongoing military campaigns against the Habsburgs and the insurgency in the Romanian-populated principality of Wallachia.

  The reign of Mehmed III witnessed the continuation of conflict with Austria and widespread revolts in Anatolia. By the time Mehmed III ascended the throne, the war with the Habsburgs was in its second year. To strengthen their position vis-à-vis the Ottomans, the Habsburgs formed an alliance with the two Danubian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. To suppress the revolts in the two princ
ipalities, the Ottoman forces invaded Wallachia and captured Bucharest. However, the Wallachian counterattacks, combined with a very harsh winter, forced the Ottoman army to retreat. With Wallachia and Moldavia in turmoil and chaos, the sultan appealed to his ally, the khan of Crimea, to attack the two Romanian principalities from the north. The Ottoman decision to involve the Crimean Tatars rang alarm bells in Poland, which responded by sending its armies into the principalities to stop the Tatars.

  Portrait of the Ottoman sultan Mehmed III (r. 1595–1603), enthroned and attended by two members of the janissary corps. (Los Angeles County Museum of Art)

  The failure of the campaigns in the Balkans finally forced Mehmed III to leave the palace and assume leadership of the Ottoman forces in the field (Shaw: 1:185). The Ottoman armies captured Eger in present-day northern Hungary. On October 26, 1596, the Ottoman armies defeated the Habsburgs at Mezőkeresztes (Haçova/Hachova) (Sugar: 158). Despite the victory, however, the Ottomans failed to establish and maintain defensible positions. Thus, in 1598 Michael of Wallachia attacked Nicopolis and captured Moldavia and Transylvania. The expansion of Habsburg power and influence caused anxiety not only in Istanbul but also among the Poles, who joined the Ottomans in a campaign to restore the suzerainty of the sultan over the two rebellious principalities. Order was finally restored, but it had come at a high price. The war against the Habsburgs and Wallachia had exposed the weaknesses of the Ottoman army and command structure. Without the support and participation of the Poles and Crimean Tatars, the sultan could not have maintained the territorial integrity of his empire. The inability of the Ottoman army to sustain its victories against the Habsburgs was partially caused by a series of rebellions known as the celāli (jelāli) revolts, which shook the Ottoman Empire to its foundations. Mehmed III died of a sudden stroke in December 1603 and was replaced by his son, Ahmed I (r. 1603–1617), who was only 13 years old.

  See also: Empire and Administration: Abbas I, Shah of Iran; Safavid Dynasty; Sultans: Ahmed I; Murad III

  Further Reading

  Alderson, A. D. The Structure of the Ottoman Dynasty. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956.

  Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire. New York: Basic Books, 2005.

  Freely, John. Inside the Seraglio: Private Lives of the Sultans in Istanbul. London: Penguin Books, 1999.

  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.

  McCarthy, Justin. The Ottoman Turks: An Introductory History to 1923. London and New York: Wesley Longman Limited, 1997.

  Naima, Mustafa (Mustafa Naim). Annals of the Turkish Empire from 1591 to 1659 of the Christian Era. Translated by Charles Fraser. New York: Arno Press, 1973.

  Peirce, Leslie P. The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

  Peksevgen, Șefik. “Mehmed III.” In Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, edited by Gábor Ágoston and Bruce Masters, 368–370. 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.

  Sugar, Peter. Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Rule, 1354–1805. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977.

  Mehmed IV (1642–1693)

  A sultan of the Ottoman Empire who ruled from 1648 to 1687. Mehmed was born in Istanbul on January 2, 1642, and died in Edirne on January 6, 1693. Mehmed’s father was the Ottoman sultan Ibrahim, also known as Deli Ibrahim (Mad Ibrahim). Mehmed IV was six years old when he succeeded his mentally ill father. For years before he reached puberty, the young sultan was merely a pawn in the hands of his grandmother, mother, the grand vizier, army commanders, and harem attendants who surrounded him. Initially the grand vizier, Sofu Mehmed Pasha, allied himself with the janissaries, who established their monopoly over the political and commercial life of the capital. A short time later, however, the grand vizier broke his alliance with the janissaries and began to challenge their growing power by appealing to the sipāhis and even the celāli (jelāli) rebels in Anatolia. His strategy for maintaining his control over the sipāhi and janissary corps by playing one against the other failed, however, and he was dismissed from his post and replaced by Kara Murad Ağa (Agha), the commander of the janissaries, who emerged as the most powerful man in the government. As factionalism within the harem and the army spread into the provinces, the Venetians laid naval siege to the Dardanelles in March 1650, throwing the capital once again into a panic. The presence of a powerful foreign fleet, along with a shortage of food, caused an increase in the price of basic goods in Istanbul, which only intensified the suffering of the sultan’s subjects. The revolt that many had anticipated finally erupted on August 21, 1651, after ships that had bypassed the Venetian fleet to supply Ottoman troops in Crete were attacked and destroyed. The popular revolt allowed the mother of the sultan, Turhan Sultan, to stage a coup with the support of palace eunuchs. The powerful and meddling Kösem Sultan, the grandmother of Mehmed IV, was murdered in September, and her ally, the grand vizier, was dismissed (Finkel: 236; Kurat: 162).

  The young sultan Mehmed IV used the opportunity to purge the janissary corps, killing and exiling those commanders who had established their military rule over the government. With the elimination of Kösem Sultan, Turhan Sultan, who was supported by the chief eunuch, Süleyman Ağa, now emerged as the power behind the throne (Finkel: 204). Famine, starvation, and runaway inflation had eroded the confidence of the populace in their government. With all hope lost and the empire poised on the verge of collapse, Turhan Sultan and Süleyman Ağa invited Tarhoncu (Tarhonju) Ahmed Pasha, the capable administrator and commander who at the time was serving as the Ottoman governor of Egypt, to assume the reins of power and rescue the empire from further disintegration (Kurat: 162–163; Shaw: 1:205). The new grand vizier embarked on a series of political and financial reforms (Shaw: 1:205–206). He reorganized the imperial treasury, regained the funds that had been stolen from it by the members of the ruling elite, and clamped down on bribery and nepotism. He also attempted to reform the system of tax farming, confiscating many timārs and large estates held by highly placed palace officials. New taxes were imposed on the high officials of the state, and an annual budget was prepared and submitted for the first time prior to the beginning of the fiscal year (Kurat: 163; Shaw: 1:205). These measures significantly increased the revenue of the central government, but they also alienated the palace and the members of the imperial administration. The opposition unified to demand Tarhoncu Ahmed Pasha’s dismissal, for while they had been willing to absorb a cut in their income, they could not tolerate the loss of prestige and access to power. Spreading the false rumor that the grand vizier had decided to overthrow the sultan, the opposition secured his dismissal and execution in March 1653 (Kurat: 163; Shaw: 1:205).

  The ill-fated Tarhoncu Ahmed Pasha was followed by a series of weak grand viziers who were subservient to the mother of the sultan and the chief eunuch, Süleyman Ağa. For the next three years the political situation deteriorated as the celāli revolts continued to disrupt rural and urban life in Anatolia. As peasant farmers fled their villages, agricultural production declined and government revenue decreased. With roads controlled by the rebels and bandits, food supplies could not reach the capital. The specter of famine and starvation spread panic among the populace in Istanbul. In June 1656 the Venetian navy once again blockaded the Dardanelles after inflicting a humiliating defeat on the Ottoman fleet (Kurat: 163; Shaw: 1:207). Under these dire circumstances, in September Mehmed IV appointed Mehmed Köprülü (Köprülü Mehmed Pasha) as grand vizier, thereby ushering in the reign of a family of statesmen who would dominate Ottoman poli
tics for the remainder of the 17th century (Finkel: 253; Shaw: 1:207–208).

  The son of an Albanian father, Mehmed Köprülü had been recruited through the devșirme (devshirme) (McCarthy: 182). He had served many masters and patrons both within the palace and in various provinces, where he acquired a reputation for competence and honesty. Aware of the grave risks that came with such a high position, he asked the sultan for certain promises and commitments before he agreed to assume the position of grand vizier. He knew that the commanders of the janissary corps and the palace officials regularly interfered with the management of the state. If the sultan wished to restore power, prosperity, and peace for his subjects and neutralize the threat posed by the Venetians and their blockade, it was essential for the new grand vizier to have a free hand (Shaw: 1:209). He requested and received a promise from his royal master that all appointments and dismissals would be made by the grand vizier and that the sultan would refuse to listen to any story accusing his chief minister of malice and treachery (Shaw: 1:209). Having secured the support of the sultan, Mehmed Köprülü embarked on a systematic purge of his potential opponents, replacing them with his own clients and protégés. The chief eunuch, the imperial treasurer, the commander of the navy, and the chief mufti, who had accumulated a great deal of wealth and influence in the court, were removed and banished (Kurat: 164).

  With his position secured in Istanbul, Köprülü embarked on the expulsion of the Venetians from the Dardanelles, which was achieved in July 1657 (Kurat: 165). Although the grand vizier had planned to further his victory over the Venetians by an invasion of Crete, events in Transylvania forced him to focus his attention northward. Prince George Rákoczi (Rakoczy) had established an anti-Catholic alliance with Sweden, Moldavia, and Wallachia to conquer and unify Poland and Hungary under his own rule. In alliance with the Crimean khan, the Ottomans invaded from the south while the Tatars attacked from the east, defeating Rákoczi and replacing him with Ákos Barcsay (Barkczai). The defeated Prince Rákoczi sought refuge in Habsburg territory, where he died in 1660. By 1662 the Ottomans had defeated Rákoczi’s successor, Janos Kemény, re-establishing Ottoman rule under the new prince, Mihail Apafi (Apaffy) (Kurat: 165–168).