The education system in the Ottoman Empire developed gradually and transformed over time, changing along with the Ottoman society. The first madrasah was built in Iznik by Orhan Gazi. The traditional education system included mektebs (elementary schools) and madrasahs (an analogue of a higher educational institution), which were located at mosques. For the formation of the madrasah system, an important aspect was the creation by Sultan Mehmed Fatih of Sahn-i-Seman (eight madrasahs) in 1463-1471 and the construction of a network of Suleymaniye madrasahs by Sultan Suleiman Kanuni in 1550-1557. The main part of the future officials and administrators of the empire studied in them. Madrasahs trained not only managers, but also specialists in various fields of knowledge, for example, doctors and architects. Graduates of these madrasahs after graduation usually kept in touch with each other and helped each other.

This system, which existed until the 19th century, was subjected to a radical reform, when, in the course of numerous transformations carried out by the sultans, they tried to remake it according to European models in order to organize the training of specialists, primarily in technical specialties. It all started with the reforms of Sultan Mahmud II, who broke up the Janissary corps and tried to create an army according to the European model, for which he needed European-educated officers. He left the system of madrasas intact, but gave the opportunity to graduates of elementary schools-mektebs to enter technical educational institutions belonging to the military department.

Two such schools were opened at the Suleymaniye and Sultanahmet mosques. Three more schools were opened to train civilian officials who were to work for the reformed government.

The Sultan also provided support to the previously existing technical schools - the naval and military engineering schools. In addition, he sent promising young people to study in Europe, who, upon their return, were to fill vacancies for teachers in reformed educational institutions. Moreover, the Sultan instructed them to translate European technical terms into Ottoman. A medical school was also established, teaching in French and using European textbooks, due to lack of teaching materials in Ottoman.

Graduates of European - German and French educational institutions prepared the era of reforms of the Ottoman Empire - tanzimat, which was announced by the corresponding decree of the Sultan in 1839 and during which ministries were formed in the European manner, including the Ministry of Education (1847).

However, the education reform was complicated by the fact that several education systems simultaneously existed in the country: traditional (mektebs and madrasahs), educational institutions that arose during the reforms and schools maintained by religious minorities that had their own programs, mainly confessional education and in which the Ottoman state did not interfere.

The education system in the Ottoman Empire underwent new changes under Sultan Abdulhamid II during the reform of 1879, and from 1883 a special tax was levied on the maintenance of educational institutions. Unfortunately, this was not enough to en masse ensure the receipt of higher education primary school graduates.

The madrasah system gradually fell into decay. This began in 1826, when the ministry of imperial vaqfs was created - Evkaf-i-Humayun Nezereti, and all waqfs were transferred to its disposal, on the income from which mainly madrasahs were maintained throughout the country.

The matter was further complicated by the fact that the majority of primary schools - 4390 - belonged to the Orthodox Greeks, who did not know the state Turkish language well enough. The situation was partly corrected by the efforts of the district educational committees, who sent Turkish language teachers to these schools, who received salaries from the Ministry of Education.

In the 1880s, the creation of a network of lyceums in Anatolia and secondary schools throughout the empire was completed.

In addition, there was the so-called Rum Lisesi, a private school founded in 1454 with the permission of Sultan Mehmed Fatih, which was also called the Patriarchal Academy, in which representatives of the Greek Orthodox community studied.

For their part, the Armenians, who until the 1860s had only elementary schools, by the decision of their patriarch Nerses Varabetyan, in 1886 created Ermen Lisesi.

At the same time, the Turkish language began to turn into a general literary language. Greek-Turkish and Armenian-Turkish dictionaries were created.

Graduates of non-Muslim schools were given the opportunity to receive education in higher educational institutions of the Ottoman Empire.

Non-Muslim graduates from Ottoman universities filled the ranks of the imperial bureaucracy. They occupied leading positions in the states that were formed as a result of the disintegration and further disintegration of the empire.

The result of the development of the education system was, among other things, the emergence of a Westernized intelligentsia, which stood in opposition to state power and demanded more and more radical reforms and a change in the form of government from an absolutely monarchical to a constitutional one. It was the graduates, first of all, of military educational institutions who stood at the origins of the Young Turk revolution and the further collapse of the Ottoman state.

Ildar Mukhamedzhanov

What do you think about this?

Leave your comment.

Ottoman Empire. State formation

Sometimes the birth of the state of the Ottoman Turks can be considered, of course, conditionally, the years immediately preceding the death of the Seljuk Sultanate in 1307. This state arose in an atmosphere of extreme separatism that reigned in the Seljuk state of Rum after the defeat that its ruler suffered in the battle with the Mongols in 1243 The cities of Bei Aydin, Germiyan, Karaman, Menteshe, Sarukhan and a number of other regions of the sultanate turned their lands into independent principalities. Among these principalities, the beyliks Germiyan and Karaman stood out, the rulers of which continued to fight, often successfully, against Mongol rule. In 1299, the Mongols even had to recognize the independence of the Hermiyan beylik.

In the last decades of the thirteenth century in the north-west of Anatolia, another practically independent beylik arose. It went down in history under the name of the Ottoman, named after the leader of a small Turkic tribal group, the main component of which was the nomads of the Oghuz Kayi tribe.

According to Turkish historical tradition, part of the Kay tribe migrated to Anatolia from Central Asia, where the leaders of the Kay were in the service of the rulers of Khorezm for some time. Initially, the Kay Turks chose the lands in the Karajadag region to the west of present-day Ankara as a nomadic place. Then part of them moved to the regions of Ahlat, Erzurum and Erzinjan, reaching Amasya and Aleppo (Haleb). Some nomads of the Kayi tribe have found shelter on the fertile lands in the Chukurov region. It was from these places that a small unit of kaya (400-500 tents), led by Ertogrul, fleeing from the Mongols' raids, went to the possessions of the Seljuk Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad I. Ertogrul turned to him for patronage. The sultan granted Ertogrul uj (outlying area of ​​the sultanate) on the lands seized by the Seljuks from the Byzantines on the border with Bithynia. Ertogrul took upon himself the obligation to protect the border of the Seljuk state on the territory of the udj granted to him.

Uj Ertogrul in the region of Melangia (Turkish Karajahisar) and Sogyut (to the north-west of Eskisehir) was small. But the ruler was energetic, and his soldiers willingly participated in raids on neighboring Byzantine lands. Ertogrul's actions were greatly facilitated by the fact that the population of the Byzantine border regions was extremely dissatisfied with the predatory tax policy of Constantinople. As a result, Ertogrul managed to somewhat increase his udj at the expense of the border regions of Byzantium. True, it is difficult to accurately determine the scale of these predatory operations, as well as the initial size of Uj Ertogrul himself, about whose life and work there is no reliable data. Turkish chroniclers, even early (XIV-XV centuries), set forth many legends related to the initial period of the formation of the beylik Ertogrul. These legends say that Ertogrul lived for a long time: he died at the age of 90 in 1281 or, according to another version, in 1288.

Information about the life of Ertogrul's son, Osman, who gave the name to the future state, is also largely legendary. Osman was born around 1258 in Sögut. This mountainous sparsely populated region was convenient for nomads: there were many good summer pastures, and there were enough comfortable winter nomads. But, perhaps, the main advantage of Uj Ertogrul and Osman, who succeeded him, was the proximity to the Byzantine lands, which made it possible to enrich themselves through raids. This opportunity attracted representatives of other Turkic tribes who settled in the territories of other beyliks to the detachments of Ertogrul and Osman, since the conquest of territories belonging to non-Muslim states was considered sacred by the adherents of Islam. As a result, when in the second half of the XIII century. the rulers of the Anatolian beyliks fought among themselves in search of new possessions, the warriors of Ertogrul and Osman looked like fighters for the faith, ruining the Byzantines in search of booty and with the aim of territorial seizures of the land of the Byzantines.

After the death of Ertogrul, Osman became the ruler of the uj. Judging by some sources, there were supporters of the transfer of power to Ertogrul's brother Dundar, but he did not dare to oppose his nephew, because he saw that he was supported by the majority. A few years later, a potential rival was killed.

Osman directed his efforts towards the conquest of Bithynia. The area of ​​​​Brusa (tour. Bursa), Belokoma (Bilecik) and Nicomedia (Izmit) became the zone of his territorial claims. One of Osman's first military successes was the capture of Melangia in 1291. He made this small Byzantine town his residence. Since the former population of Melangia partly died, and partly fled, hoping to find salvation from the troops of Osman, the latter settled his residence with people from the beylik of Germiyan and other places in Anatolia. The Christian temple, at the behest of Osman, was turned into a mosque, in which his name began to be mentioned in khutbs (Friday prayers). According to legend, around this time, Osman easily achieved the title of bey from the Seljuk sultan, whose power had become completely illusory, having received the corresponding regalia in the form of a drum and bunchuk. Soon, Osman declared his uj an independent state, and himself an independent ruler. It happened around 1299, when the Seljuk sultan Alaeddin Keykubad II fled from his capital, fleeing from rebellious subjects. True, having become practically independent from the Seljuk Sultanate, which nominally existed until 1307, when the last representative of the Seljuk dynasty of Rum was strangled by order of the Mongols, Osman recognized the supreme power of the Mongol Hulaguid dynasty and annually sent to their capital part of the tribute that he collected from his subjects. The Ottoman beylik freed itself from this form of dependence under Osman's successor, his son Orhan.

At the end of the XIII - beginning of the XIV century. The Ottoman beylik greatly expanded its territory. Its ruler continued to raid Byzantine lands. Actions against the Byzantines were facilitated by the fact that his other neighbors did not yet show hostility to the young state. Beylik Germiyan fought either with the Mongols or with the Byzantines. Beylik Karesi was simply weak. The beylik of Osman was not disturbed by the rulers of the beylik of Chandar-oglu (Jandarids) located in the north-west of Anatolia, since they were also mainly busy fighting the Mongol governors. Thus, the Ottoman beylik could use all its military forces for conquests in the west.

Having captured the area of ​​Yenishehir in 1301 and built a fortified city there, Osman began to prepare for the capture of Brusa. In the summer of 1302, he defeated the troops of the Byzantine governor Brusa in the battle of Vafei (tour. Koyunhisar). This was the first major military battle won by the Ottoman Turks. Finally, the Byzantines realized that they were dealing with a dangerous enemy. However, in 1305, Osman's army was defeated in the battle of Levka, where the Catalan squads, who were in the service of the Byzantine emperor, fought against them. In Byzantium, another civil strife began, which facilitated the further offensive actions of the Turks. Osman's warriors captured a number of Byzantine cities on the Black Sea coast.

In those years, the Ottoman Turks also made the first raids on the European part of the territory of Byzantium in the Dardanelles region. Osman's troops also captured a number of fortresses and fortified settlements on the way to Brusa. By 1315, Brusa was practically surrounded by fortresses that were in the hands of the Turks.

Brusa was captured somewhat later by Osman's son Orhan. born in the year of the death of his grandfather Ertogrul.

Orhan's army consisted mainly of cavalry units. The Turks did not have siege engines either. Therefore, the bey did not dare to storm the city, surrounded by a ring of powerful fortifications, and set up a blockade of Brusa, cutting off all its connections with the outside world and thereby depriving its defenders of all sources of supply. Turkish troops used similar tactics later. Usually they seized the outskirts of the city, drove out or enslaved the local population. Then these lands were settled by people who were resettled there by order of the bey.

The city found itself in a hostile ring, and the threat of starvation loomed over its inhabitants, after which the Turks easily took possession of it.

The siege of Brusa lasted ten years. Finally, in April 1326, when Orkhan's army stood at the very walls of Brusa, the city capitulated. This happened on the eve of the death of Osman, who was informed of the capture of Brusa on his deathbed.

Orkhan, who inherited power in the beylik, made Bursa (as the Turks began to call it), famous for crafts and trade, a rich and prosperous city, as its capital. In 1327, he ordered the minting of the first Ottoman coin in Bursa. silver coin- akche. This testified that the process of turning Ertogrul's beylik into an independent state was nearing completion. An important milestone further conquests of the Ottoman Turks in the north began on this path. Four years after the capture of Brusa, Orkhan's troops captured Nicaea (tour. Iznik), and in 1337 - Nicomedia.

When the Turks moved to Nicaea, a battle took place in one of the mountain gorges between the troops of the emperor and the Turkish detachments, led by Orhan's brother, Alaeddin. The Byzantines were defeated, the emperor was wounded. Several assaults on the powerful walls of Nicaea did not bring success to the Turks. Then they resorted to the tried and tested blockade tactics, capturing several advanced fortifications and cutting off the city from the surrounding lands. After these events, Nicaea was forced to surrender. Exhausted by disease and hunger, the garrison could no longer resist the superior forces of the enemy. The capture of this city opened the way for the Turks to the Asian part of the Byzantine capital.

The blockade of Nicomedia, which received military aid and food, lasted nine years. by sea. To capture the city, Orhan had to organize a blockade of the narrow bay of the Sea of ​​Marmara, on the banks of which Nicomedia was located. Cut off from all sources of supply, the city surrendered to the mercy of the victors.

As a result of the capture of Nicaea and Nicomedia, the Turks took possession of almost all the lands north of the Gulf of Izmit up to the Bosphorus. Izmit (this name was henceforth given to Nicomedia) became a shipyard and harbor for the nascent fleet of the Ottomans. The exit of the Turks to the shores of the Sea of ​​Marmara and the Bosporus opened the way for them to raid Thrace. Already in 1338, the Turks began to ravage the Thracian lands, and Orkhan himself appeared at the walls of Constantinople with three dozen ships, but his detachment was defeated by the Byzantines. Emperor John VI tried to get along with Orhan by marrying off his daughter to him. For some time, Orhan stopped raids on the possessions of Byzantium and even provided military assistance to the Byzantines. But Orkhan already considered the lands on the Asian coast of the Bosporus as his possessions. Arriving to visit the emperor, he placed his headquarters precisely on the Asian coast, and the Byzantine monarch with all his courtiers was forced to arrive there for a feast.

In the future, Orkhan's relations with Byzantium escalated again, his troops resumed raids on the Thracian lands. Another decade and a half passed, and Orkhan's troops began to invade the European possessions of Byzantium. This was facilitated by the fact that in the 40s of the XIV century. Orkhan succeeded, taking advantage of the civil strife in the beylik of Karesi, to annex to his possessions most of the lands of this beylik, which reached the eastern shores of the Dardanelles.

In the middle of the XIV century. the Turks intensified, began to act not only in the west, but also in the east. The beylik of Orkhan bordered on the possessions of the Mongol governor in Asia Minor Erten, who by that time had become practically an independent ruler due to the decline of the Ilkhan state. When the governor died and turmoil began in his possessions, caused by a struggle for power between his sons-heirs, Orkhan attacked the lands of Erten and significantly expanded his beylik at their expense, capturing Ankara in 1354.

In 1354, the Turks easily captured the city of Gallipoli (tour. Gelibolu), the defensive fortifications of which were destroyed as a result of an earthquake. In 1356 an army under Orhan's son, Suleiman, crossed the Dardanelles. Having captured several cities, including Dzorillos (tour. Chorlu), Suleiman's troops began to move towards Adrianople (tour. Edirne), which was, perhaps, main goal this hike. However, about 1357, Suleiman died without having carried out all his plans.

Soon, Turkish military operations in the Balkans resumed under the leadership of another son of Orhan - Murad. The Turks managed to take Adrianople after the death of Orhan, when Murad became the ruler. This happened, according to different sources, between 1361 and 1363. The capture of this city turned out to be a relatively simple military operation, not accompanied by a blockade and a protracted siege. The Turks defeated the Byzantines on the outskirts of Adrianople, and the city was left practically without protection. In 1365, Murad moved his residence here from Bursa for some time.

Murad took the title of Sultan and went down in history under the name of Murad I. Wanting to rely on the authority of the Abbasid caliph, who was in Cairo, Murad's successor Bayezid I (1389-1402) sent him a letter asking for recognition of the title of Sultan of Rum. A little later, Sultan Mehmed I (1403-1421) began to send money to Mecca, seeking recognition by the sheriffs of his rights to the sultan's title in this holy city for Muslims.

Thus, in less than a hundred and fifty years, the small beylik Ertogrul was transformed into a vast and rather strong militarily state.

What was the young Ottoman state in the initial stage of its development? Its territory already covered the entire north-west of Asia Minor, extending to the waters of the Black and Marmara Seas. Socio-economic institutions began to take shape.

Under Osman, his beylik was still dominated by social relations inherent in tribal life, when the power of the head of the beylik was based on the support of the tribal elite, and its military formations carried out aggressive operations. important role in the formation of the Ottoman state institutions played by the Muslim clergy. Muslim theologians, ulema, performed many administrative functions, in their hands was the administration of justice. Osman established strong ties with the Mevlevi and Bektashi dervish orders, as well as with the Ahi, a religious guild brotherhood that enjoyed great influence in the craft strata of the cities of Asia Minor. Relying on the ulema, the top of the dervish orders and the ahi, Osman and his successors not only strengthened their power, but also substantiated their aggressive campaigns with the Muslim slogan of jihad, “struggle for faith”.

Osman, whose tribe led a semi-nomadic lifestyle, did not yet possess anything but herds of horses and sheep herds. But when he began to conquer new territories, a system of distributing lands to his close associates as a reward for service arose. These awards were called timars. Turkish chronicles state Osman's decree regarding the conditions of awards as follows:

“Timar, which I give to someone, let them not take it away for no reason. And if the one to whom I gave the timar dies, then let them give it to his son. If the son is small, then all the same, let him be given so that during the war his servants would go on a campaign until he himself becomes fit. This is the essence of the timar system, which was a kind of military fief system and eventually became the basis of the social structure of the Ottoman state.

The timar system took on a complete form during the first century of the existence of the new state. The supreme right to grant timars was the privilege of the Sultan, but already from the middle of the 15th century. Timars also complained to a number of higher dignitaries. Land allotments were given to soldiers and commanders as conditional holdings. Subject to the performance of certain military duties, the holders of the timars, the timariots, could pass them on from generation to generation. It is noteworthy that the Timariots, in fact, owned not the lands that were the property of the treasury, but the income from them. Depending on these incomes, possessions of this kind were divided into two categories - timars, which brought up to 20 thousand akce per year, and zeamets - from 20 to 100 thousand akce. The real value of these amounts can be compared with the following figures: in the middle of the XV century. the average income from one urban household in the Balkan provinces of the Ottoman state ranged from 100 to 200 akçe; in 1460 in Bursa one could buy 7 kilograms of flour for 1 acce. In the person of the Timariots, the first Turkish sultans strove to create a strong and reliable support for their power - military and socio-political.

In a historically comparative short term the rulers of the new state became the owners of large material values. Even under Orhan, it happened that the ruler of the beylik did not have the means to ensure the next predatory raid. The Turkish medieval chronicler Huseyin cites, for example, a story about how Orhan sold a captive Byzantine dignitary to the archon of Nicomedia in order to equip an army with the money obtained in this way and send it against the same city. But already under Murad I, the picture changed dramatically. The Sultan could maintain an army, build palaces and mosques, spend a lot of money on festivities and receptions of ambassadors. The reason for this change was simple - from the time of the reign of Murad I, it became a law to deduct a fifth of military booty, including prisoners, to the treasury. Military campaigns in the Balkans became the first source of income for the Osmai state. Tribute from the conquered peoples and military booty constantly replenished his treasury, and the labor of the population of the conquered regions gradually began to enrich the knowledge of the Ottoman states - dignitaries and military leaders, clergy and beys.

Under the first sultans, the system of governance of the Ottoman state began to take shape. If under Orkhan military affairs were decided in a close circle of his close associates from among the military leaders, then under his successors viziers - ministers began to participate in their discussion. If Orkhan ruled his possessions with the help of his closest relatives or ulema, then Murad I began to single out a person from among the viziers, who was entrusted with the management of all affairs - civil and military. Thus arose the institution of the Grand Vizier, who for centuries remained the central figure of the Ottoman administration. The general affairs of the state under the successors of Murad I as the highest advisory body were in charge of the Sultan's Council, consisting of the Grand Vizier, heads of military, financial and judicial departments, representatives of the highest Muslim clergy.

During the reign of Murad I, the Ottoman financial department received its initial formalization. At the same time, the division of the treasury into the personal treasury of the Sultan and the state treasury, which had been preserved for centuries, arose. There was also an administrative division. The Ottoman state was divided into sanjaks. The word "sanjak" means "banner" in translation, as if recalling that the rulers of the sanjaks, the sanjak-beys, personified civil and military power in the localities. As for the judicial system, it was entirely under the jurisdiction of the ulema.

The state, which developed and expanded as a result of aggressive wars, took special care to create a strong army. Already under Orhan, the first important steps in this direction were taken. An infantry army was created - yay. During the period of participation in campaigns, infantrymen received a salary, and in peacetime they lived by cultivating their lands, being exempt from taxes. Under Orhan, the first regular cavalry units were created - the mussel. Under Murad I, the army was strengthened by the peasant infantry militia. The militias, Azaps, were recruited only for the duration of the war and also received a salary during the period of hostilities. It was the azaps that made up initial stage development of the Ottoman state the main part of the infantry troops. Under Murad I, the corps of the Janissaries began to form (from “yeni cheri” - “new army”), which later became the strike force of the Turkish infantry and a kind of personal guard of the Turkish sultans. It was completed by the forced recruitment of boys from Christian families. They were converted to Islam and trained in a special military school. The Janissaries were subordinate to the Sultan himself, received a salary from the treasury, and from the very beginning became a privileged part of the Turkish army; the commander of the Janissary corps was one of the highest dignitaries of the state. A little later, the cavalry units of the sipahis were formed by the Janissary infantry, which also reported directly to the Sultan and were on a salary. All these military formations ensured the steady success of the Turkish army at a time when the sultans were increasingly expanding their conquest operations.

Thus, by the middle of the XIV century. the initial core of the state was formed, which was destined to become one of the largest empires of the Middle Ages, a powerful military power that in a short time subjugated many peoples of Europe and Asia.

For the history of the Turkish people, as well as the countries of South-Eastern Europe, the formation of the Turkish (Ottoman) Empire had very great consequences. The Ottoman state was formed in the process military expansion Turkish feudal lords in Asia Minor and the Balkan Peninsula. The aggressive policy pursued by the Ottoman state led to the centuries-old struggle of the population of the South Slavic countries, the peoples of Hungary, Moldavia and Wallachia against the Turkish conquerors.

Asia Minor at the beginning of the XIV century. Ottomans

During the invasion of the Mongol conquerors in Central Asia, the nomadic association of the Oghuz Turks from the Kayi tribe, only a few thousand tents, migrated to the west along with the Khorezmshah Jalal-ad-Din and then entered the service of the Seljuk Sultan of Rum, from whom the Oguz-Kayi leader Ertogrul received in the 30s of the XIII century. a small feudal estate along the Sakarya River (in Greek, Sangaria), on the very border of the Byzantine possessions, with a residence in the city of Sögyud. These Oguzes became part of the Turkish people that formed in Asia Minor under the Seljukids.

By the beginning of the XIV century. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum disintegrated into ten emirates, including the Ottoman emirate. Most of the possessions of Byzantium that still remained in the northwestern part of Asia Minor were conquered by the son and successor of Ertogrul Osman I (approximately 1282-1326), who made the city of Bursa (in Greek Brusa 1326) his capital. Osman gave his name to the dynasty and to his emirate. The Turks of Asia Minor, who became part of the Ottoman state, were also called Ottomans (Osmanly).

Formation and rise of the Ottoman Empire

From the very beginning, the Ottoman Turks directed their conquests against the declining and extremely weakened Byzantium. Many volunteer warriors of various ethnic origins from other Muslim countries entered the service of the Ottoman state, and most of all Turkish nomads from the emirates of Asia Minor. The feudalized nomadic nobility with its militias was attracted by the possibility of easy conquest, the capture of new lands and war booty. Since all the men of the nomads were warriors, and the light cavalry of the Turks, like all nomads, had great mobility, it was always easy for the Ottoman state to concentrate large military forces for an attack at the right time. The stability of patriarchal-feudal relations among the nomadic tribes made their militias, distinguished by their high fighting qualities, more united and stronger than the militias of Byzantium and its Balkan neighbors. The Turkish nobility, receiving from the Ottoman sovereign a significant part of the newly conquered lands in fief possession, helped the Ottoman Emirate to make extensive conquests and strengthen. Under the son and successor of Osman I - Orkhan (1326-1359), who took Nicaea (1331), the conquest of the Byzantine possessions in Asia Minor was completed.

To the possessions of Byzantium on the Balkan Peninsula (Rumelia ( Rumelia - in Turkish "Rum eli", or "Rum or", i.e. the country of the Greeks.), as the Turks said), the Turks at first only made raids for the sake of military booty, but in 1354 they occupied an important stronghold on the European coast of the Dardanelles - the city of Gallipoli and began to conquer the Balkan Peninsula. The success of the Turks was facilitated by the political fragmentation of the countries of the Balkan Peninsula, feudal strife within these states and their struggle with each other, as well as with Genoa, Venice and Hungary. After the death of Orhan, his son Murad I (1359-1389), who already bore the title of sultan, conquered Adrianople (1362), and then almost all of Thrace, Philippopolis, the Maritsa river valley and began to quickly move west. Murad I moved his residence to Adrianople (Turkish Edirne). In 1371, the Turks won a battle on the banks of the Maritsa. On July 15, 1389, they won an even more important victory in the Kosovo field.

The conquests of Murad I were facilitated by the large numerical superiority of his militias over the scattered forces of the Balkan states and the transition to his side of part of the Bulgarian and Serbian feudal lords who converted to Islam in order to preserve their possessions. The aggressive campaigns of the Ottoman state were carried out under the ideological shell of the "war for the faith" of Muslims with "infidels", in this case with Christians. The wars of conquest of the Ottoman sultans were distinguished by great cruelty, the robbery of the occupied territories, the removal of civilians into captivity, devastation, fires and massacres. The population of the conquered cities and villages was often completely driven into slavery. Greek historian of the 15th century. Duka reports that due to the mass deportation of the population into captivity by the Ottoman troops and the massacre, "the whole of Thrace, up to Dalmatia, became deserted." The Bulgarian author monk Isaiah Svyatogorets wrote: “... Some of the Christians were killed, others were taken into slavery, and those who remained there (i.e., in their homeland) were mowed down by death, for they were dying of hunger. The land was deserted, deprived of all blessings, people died, livestock and fruits disappeared. And verily then the living envied those who had died earlier.”

Tribute was imposed on the feudal lords of the conquered countries, who remained Christians, but recognized themselves as vassals of the Sultan, but it did not always save their possessions from raids. Local feudal lords who converted to Islam, and sometimes even remained Christians, were included in the ranks of the Turkish military-feudal nobility as fiefs (sipahis). The son and successor of Murad I-Bayazid I (1389-1402), nicknamed Yildirim ("Lightning"), completed the conquest of Macedonia (by 1392), the capture of Vidin (1396) completed the conquest of Bulgaria, begun back in the 60s years of the XIV century., And imposed tribute on Northern Serbia. Bayazid also conquered all of Asia Minor, except for Cilicia and the Greek kingdom of Trebizond, having annexed the lands of the former Asia Minor emirates to the Ottoman state, although the nomadic feudal lords of Asia Minor for a long time did not want to put up with the loss of their independence, sometimes rebelled against the Ottoman sultan. Despite the fact that the Byzantine emperors John V and Manuel II had paid tribute to the Sultan since 1370 and sent him auxiliary militias, Bayazid nevertheless took Thessaloniki from Byzantium (1394) and blockaded Constantinople, seeking its surrender.

By the time of Bayezid's reign, the Turkish military-feudal elite, having captured new lands and huge wealth, switched to a settled way of life and replaced the simple and harsh life of the nomadic horde with refined luxury and brilliance. At the same time, contradictions emerged between the settled and nomadic military nobility. The latter - mainly in Asia Minor - was relegated to the background. Among the mass of the Turkish population who settled in the newly acquired lands, especially in Rumelia, there was also a process of transition to settled life. But in Asia Minor this process was much slower.

Venice and Genoa saw the Ottoman conquests as a great threat to their possessions and their commercial predominance in the Eastern Mediterranean. Many other Western European states, in their turn, were thoroughly afraid of the invasion of the Ottoman troops into Central Europe. In 1396, a crusade was undertaken against Ottoman Turkey with the participation of Hungarian, Czech, Polish, French and other knights, from the French, the author of famous memoirs about this campaign, Marshal Busiko, the son of the Duke of Burgundy, John the Fearless, and others, participated in it. However, the mediocre leadership of the Hungarian King Sigismund and disagreements between the "crusader" leaders were the reason that their army suffered a severe defeat at Nikopol on the Danube. Up to 10 thousand crusaders were captured, the rest fled. Bayazid killed almost all the captives, except for 300 noble knights, whom he released for a huge ransom. After that, the Ottoman troops invaded Hungary (1397), which they then began to systematically devastate, taking tens of thousands of people away from it into slavery.

But the crusade of 1396 and the invasion of Timur's troops into Asia Minor, which soon followed, prevented Bayazid from capturing Constantinople. A decisive battle between the troops of Bayazid and Timur took place near Ankara on July 20, 1402. During the battle, the militias of the former emirates of Asia Minor, seeing their former emirs in Timur's camp, betrayed the Ottoman sultan and suddenly hit the center of his army. The Ottoman army was defeated, Bayezid himself was captured during the flight and soon died in captivity. Timur devastated Asia Minor and left, restoring seven of the former ten emirates of Asia Minor. The Ottoman state was weakened for some time. The death of Byzantium was delayed, she regained Thessalonica.

Feudal relations in the Ottoman state

In Turkish society, the process of development of feudalism continued, which took place in Asia Minor already under the Seljukids. Almost the entire land fund in Asia Minor and Rumelia was seized by the conquerors. There were four types of feudal land ownership: state lands (miri); lands of the Sultan family (Khass); lands of Muslim religious institutions (waqf) and privately owned lands such as allod (mulk). But most of the state lands were distributed as a hereditary conditional award to the military ranks of the feudal cavalry militia (sipahis). Small fiefs were called timars, large fiefs were called ziamets. Lennik-sipahs were obliged to live in their possessions and, by order of the Sultan, appear in the militia of the sanjak-bey (head of the district) with a certain number of armed horsemen from subject people, depending on the profitability of the fief. This is how the Ottoman military fief system developed, which contributed to a significant extent to Turkey's military successes.

Part of the Sultan's domains was distributed into the possession of large military and civil dignitaries for the duration of a certain position. Such awards were called, like the sultan's domains, hass and were assigned to certain positions. Large feudal ownership of land and water in the Ottoman state was combined with small peasant holdings. Raaya peasants ( The Arabic term "raaya" (plural of rayat) in Turkey, as in other Muslim countries, denoted the taxable estate, especially peasants, regardless of religion, later (from the 19th century) only non-Muslims began to be called that.) were attached to their land plots (in Asia Minor, attachment has been noted since the 13th century) and without the permission of the feudal lord - the owner of the land did not have the right to transfer. A ten-year term was set for the investigation of fugitive peasants. Feudal rent was levied partly in favor of the state, partly in favor of landowners, in a mixed form (in products, money and in the form of forced labor). Muslim farmers paid tithe (ashar), and Christians from 20 to 50% of the harvest (haraj). Non-Muslims (Christians and Jews) paid another poll tax - jizya, which later merged with kharaj. Gradually, many other taxes appeared.

Conquest wars created an abundant influx and cheapness of captive slaves. Some of them were used as servants, servants, eunuchs, etc., but the labor of slaves was also used in production - in nomadic and semi-nomadic cattle breeding, in arable work, in horticulture and viticulture, in the Sultan's mines, and from the 15th century. also on military galleys - penal servitude (in Turkish kadyrga), where the rowers were slaves. The Sultan's power, in order to ensure the interests of the military-feudal nobility, waged constant predatory wars with non-Muslim states, going up to the 16th century. only for temporary truces.

Government organization of the Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire was a military-feudal despotism. The hereditary sultan from the Ottoman dynasty, with unlimited secular power, combined in his hands the spiritual power (imamat) over the Muslims of Turkey. The first dignitary of the Sultan was the Grand Vizier. From the 15th century other viziers also appeared. Together with the great vizier, they made up a sofa - the highest council. The Grand Vizier during campaigns had the right to issue firmans (decrees) on behalf of the Sultan, appoint dignitaries and distribute military fiefs. Of the other important dignitaries, the defterdar was in charge of collecting taxes and finances, and the nishanjy-bashi prepared decrees on behalf of the sultan and drew a tughra on them - a cipher with the sovereign's monogram. The great vizier applied the great state seal to the decrees. No matter how great the power of the great vizier was, at any moment the sultan could remove him and execute him, which often happened.

The court, with the exception of litigation between the Gentiles, was in the hands of Muslim spiritual judges - qadis. Qadis were judged in accordance with Sunni Muslim law of the Hanafi persuasion, and partly also with the customary law of the Oghuz nomads, the ancestors of the Turks. Two kadi-askers (one for Rumelia, the other for Anatolia, i.e. Asia Minor), originally former military spiritual judges, in the 15th century. were in charge of all the affairs of the Muslim clergy and its waqf property. The districts were ruled by the sanjak-beys, who at the same time commanded the local feudal militias, gathering them by decree of the Sultan and being with them at the gathering place of the troops of the entire empire. The Ottoman army consisted of three main parts: the feudal cavalry militia, the cavalry - akindzhi and the corps of regular infantry - the Janissaries (yeni cheri - "new army").

Akyndzhy made up an irregular cavalry vanguard of the troops; they did not receive fiefs, but only a share of the booty, which is why they gained a reputation as ferocious robbers. The corps of the Janissaries arose in the 14th century, but received a solid organization in the second quarter of the 15th century. The ranks of the Janissaries at first were recruited from captured young men, but from the 15th century. Janissary troops began to replenish by forced recruitment (devshirme), first every 5 years, and later even more often, from the Christian population of Rumelia - Serbs, Bulgarians, Albanians and Greeks, sometimes from Armenians and Georgians. At the same time, the most physically fit boys and unmarried young men were selected. All Janissaries were brought up in the spirit of Muslim fanaticism and were considered dervishes of the Bektashi order; up to the 16th century. they were forbidden to marry. They were divided into companies (orta), ate from a common cauldron, and the cauldron (cauldron) was considered a symbol of their army. The Janissaries enjoyed a number of privileges and received generous handouts, and many of the Janissary commanders were promoted to the highest military and administrative positions of the empire. Legally, the Janissaries were considered slaves of the Sultan, like the Ghulam (Mamluk) guards in Egypt and other Muslim states. The capture of many people into slavery and the recruitment of boys and youths as Janissaries served as a direct means of forcible assimilation of the conquered population. The high taxation of non-Muslims - giaours, their inequality and the regime of arbitrariness served as indirect means of the same assimilation. But this policy ultimately failed.

Popular movements at the beginning of the 15th century.

The son and successor of Bayezid I, Mehmed I (Muhammad, 1402-1421), nicknamed Chelebi (“Noble”, “Knightly”), had to wage war with his brothers - pretenders to the throne, with the Seljuk emirs restored by Timur in their possessions, especially with the emir of Karaman, who robbed and burned Bursa, as well as with the Venetians, who defeated the Ottoman fleet at Gallipoli (1416). Mehmed I, on the contrary, concluded an alliance with Byzantium, returning some coastal cities to it.

These wars ruined the small fiefs and caused an increase in the tax burden of the peasants. As a result, an uprising of petty lenniki broke out, which was joined by peasants and artisans, which grew into a real civil war(in 1415-1418, but according to other sources - in 1413-1418). The movement was headed by the dervish sheikh Simavia-oglu Bedr-ad-din, who launched his activities in Rumelia. The dervishes Berkludzhe Mustafa (in the region of Izmir, in Greek Smyrna) and Torlak Kemal (in the region of Manisa, in Greek Magnesia) who acted on his behalf in Asia Minor, relying on artisans and peasants, demanded the establishment of social equality of all people and the community of all property , “except for wives”, namely: “food, clothes, harnesses and arable land”, and first of all - the community of land ownership. The rebels introduced the same simple clothes for all and common meals and proclaimed the principle of equality of the three monotheistic religions - Muslim, Christian and Jewish.

Through his friend, a Christian monk from the island of Chios, Berkludzhe Mustafa called on the Greek peasants to revolt together with the Turkish peasants against the common oppressors - the Ottoman feudal nobility, led by the Sultan. Indeed, the peasants of the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, both Turks and Greeks, rebelled almost without exception. They defeated the feudal militia that had gathered in the western part of Asia Minor. Only two years later, having gathered the sipahis from all over the state, the sultan finally crushed the movement and carried out a massacre against the rebels. After that, by the end of 1418, the militia of Sheikh Bedr ad-Din was defeated in Rumelia.

At the beginning of the XV century. among the urban lower classes of Turkey, which arose at the end of the 14th century, was widely spread. in Khorasan, the heretical teachings of the secret Shiite sect of the Hurufis, with anti-feudal tendencies and the preaching of social equality and community of property. There were also uprisings among the non-indigenous peoples of the Balkan Peninsula, who did not put up with Ottoman rule (the uprising in the Vidip region in Bulgaria in 1403, etc.).

Turkey in the first half of the 15th century Conquest of Constantinople by the Turks

Under Murad II (1421-1451), the Ottoman state strengthened and resumed its policy of conquest. Terrible danger again hung over Constantinople. In 1422, Murad II besieged the city, but without success. In 1430 he took Thessalonica. In 1443, the participants of the new crusade (Hungarians, Poles, Serbs and Wallachians) led by the King of Poland and Hungary Vladislav and the famous Hungarian commander Janos Hunyadi defeated the army of Murad II twice and occupied Sofia. But the following year, the crusaders suffered a heavy defeat at Varna from the numerically superior forces of Murad II. After this, the attempts of the popes to organize a new crusade against Turkey no longer met with sympathy in Western Europe. However, the victories of the troops of Janos Hunyadi in 1443 nevertheless facilitated the struggle for the independence of Albania, which was almost already conquered by the Ottoman troops. The Albanian people, under the leadership of their illustrious commander and prominent statesman Skanderbeg, successfully fought the Turkish conquerors for more than twenty years.

Murad II's successor was his young son Mehmed II (Mohammed, 1451-1481), nicknamed Fatih ("Conqueror"). The personality of Mehmed II is vividly depicted in Greek and Italian sources. He received a good education, knew five languages, was familiar with Western culture, shunned religious fanaticism, but at the same time was a capricious and cruel despot. Turkish historiography glorified him as a talented commander. In fact, the conquests of Mehmed II were mainly victories over weak feudal states, most often already paying tribute to the Ottoman Empire. From the Hungarians, Albanians and Moldavians, Mehmed II suffered defeat more than once.

The siege of Constantinople by the Turks took about two months (April - May 1453). After the capture and robbery of Constantinople for three days, Mehmed II entered the city and proceeded to the church of St. Sophia, got off his horse and performed the first Muslim prayer in this temple. As a result of the massacre and the withdrawal of the population into slavery, the city was almost completely depopulated. In order to repopulate it, Mehmed II transferred all the inhabitants of the Asia Minor city of Aksaray there, but since the Turkish population was still not enough, he resettled many Greeks from Morea and other places, as well as Armenians and Jews, to Constantinople. The Genoese colony of Galata, founded shortly after 1261 on the outskirts of Constantinople, was also forced to surrender. In doing so, the Genoese retained personal freedom and property, but lost their autonomy, and Galata has since been ruled by a Turkish administration. The capital of the Ottoman state was transferred from Adrianople to Constantinople (Istanbul, more precisely Istanbul) ( The name "Istanbul" comes from the modern Greek expression "is tin polin" - "to the city" and was in use both among the Greeks and among the Arabs, Persians and Turks already in the 12th-13th centuries.).

Domestic policy of Mehmed II

Mehmed II issued in 1476 a set of laws (“Kanun-name”), which determined the functions of state dignitaries and their salaries, established the organization of the Muslim Sunni clergy (more precisely, the classes of theologians), the regime of military fiefs, etc. Mehmed II also established a statute for non-Muslim religious communities, approving Orthodox (Greek) and Armenian patriarchs and a Jewish chief rabbi in Constantinople. All Orthodox peoples (Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, part of the Albanians, Georgians, Vlachs and Moldavians) were henceforth considered as one "Greek community" - rum-milleti, over which the Patriarch of Constantinople used not only church, but also judicial power. The patriarch and bishops could pronounce judicial sentences on the Orthodox up to and including exile to hard labor (galleys). But if an Orthodox sued a Muslim, then the matter was dealt with by a Muslim spiritual judge, a qadi. The patriarch and bishops had control over the schools and books of the Orthodox peoples, and were given certain personal privileges. The Armenian Patriarch and the Jewish Chief Rabbi received the same rights over their communities.

Giving some rights to the highest Christian and Jewish clergy, the Sultan's government sought to keep the Gentiles in obedience with the help of their own clergy. The mass of the Gentiles was completely disenfranchised. They were deprived of the right to have weapons, had to wear clothes of special colors, did not have the right to acquire land, etc. However, some restrictions for non-Christians were not always respected in practice. The practice of non-Muslim worship was subject to serious restrictions: it was forbidden, for example, to build new places of worship. Even worse was the situation of Muslim heretics - Shiites, who were very numerous in Asia Minor. They were severely persecuted and forced to hide their faith.

Further conquests by Mehmed II

In Asia Minor, Mehmed II conquered the weak Greek kingdom of Trebizond (1461) and all the emirates of Asia Minor. In the Crimea, his troops captured the Genoese colonies with the most important trading city of Kafa (now Feodosia) and subordinated the Crimean Khanate to Turkey (1475). This was a real disaster for Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine and the Russian state, because the Crimean Tatars, with the support of Ottoman Turkey, almost every year began to carry out deep horse raids into these countries in order to capture military booty, especially captives, then resold to Turkey. Between 1459 and 1463 Mehmed II conquered Serbia, the Greek Principalities of Morea and the Duchy of Athens ( Founded after the fourth crusade in 1204; the duchy was successively ruled first by the French, from the beginning of the 14th century. - Spanish, and from the end of the XIV century - Italian feudal lords.), as well as the Slavic kingdom of Bosnia. At the same time, Turkey began a long war with Venice, which was supported by Uzun Hasan, the sovereign of Ak Koyunlu. The troops of Uzun Hasan were defeated by the Turks in 1473, while the war with Venice was fought with varying success.

The attempt of the Turks to take Belgrade, defended by Janos Hunyadi, ended in a heavy failure for them (1456). The Ottoman troops also suffered a complete defeat in Albania during the siege of the Krui fortress (1467), in Moldavia (1475) and in an attempt to capture the island of Rhodes, which belonged to the Knights of St. John. Wallachia submitted only after a long resistance, retaining its autonomy (1476). In 1479, after the death of Skanderbeg, the Ottoman army finally managed to occupy the territory of Albania, but the Albanians did not submit and continued the guerrilla war in the mountains for a long time. According to the Treaty of Constantinople with Venice (1479), the latter ceded to Turkey its islands in the Aegean Sea and pledged to pay an annual tribute of 10 thousand ducats, but retained the islands of Crete and Corfu and received the right of extraterritoriality and duty-free trade for the Venetians in Turkey. In the summer of 1480, Mehmed II landed in southern Italy, planning to conquer it, and ravaged the city of Otranto to the ground. Shortly thereafter, he died.

The son of Mehmed II, Bayezid II Dervish (1481-1512), abandoned the plan to conquer Italy, although he waged a generally unsuccessful war with Venice. Wars were also fought with Hungary, the Austrian Habsburgs and Egypt. Moldavia recognized the suzerainty of Turkey, securing autonomy through diplomatic negotiations (1501). In 1495, the first Russian embassy arrived in Constantinople. The Sultan allowed Russian merchants to trade in Turkey. In the future, formally remaining at peace with Russia, Ottoman Turkey systematically set the hordes of the Crimean Khan against her, preventing the Russian state from strengthening its military power and trying to get from there, as well as from Ukraine, captives for slave markets and for galleys.

The Ottoman conquest slowed down the development of the conquered Balkan countries. At the same time, unbearable oppression provoked a struggle between the peoples of these countries against the Ottoman Empire. The growth of feudal exploitation made the Sultan's government deeply alien to the masses of the Turkish people. Anti-popular policy of the sultans of the XV century. resulted in great uprisings by Turkish peasants and the nomadic poor in Asia Minor in the next century.

culture

Having settled in Asia Minor in the 11th century, the ancestors of the Turks, the Seljuk Oghuz, were for a long time under the cultural influence of Iran and, to a lesser extent, Armenia and Byzantium. Many Persians settled in the cities of Asia Minor, and for a long time the New Persian language was the official and literary language of the Seljuk Asia Minor.

On the basis of the reworked traditions of the art of Iran, Armenia and partly Byzantium in Asia Minor, the “Seljuk” architectural style developed, the main features of the buildings of which were a high portal, richly ornamented with stone carvings, and a conical dome, probably borrowed from the Armenians. The best monuments of this style were the Chifte Minare Madrasah in Erzurum (XII century) and the monuments of the XIII century. in Konya - Karatai-madrasah, Syrchaly-madrasah and the Inje-minareli mosque with a wonderful carved portal and a slender minaret. This style was replaced by the so-called “Bursa style” under the Ottomans, which dominated in the 14th-15th centuries. Its monuments are the Ulu Jami mosque built in Bursa (at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries) and the Yesil Jami mosque (Green Mosque), decorated with faience tiles with turquoise and greenish glaze. The mosques of Sultan Mehmed II and Sultan Bayezid II in Istanbul mark the transition from the “Bursa style” to the “classical” Turkish style, created by assimilation of Byzantine traditions in a revised form (central-domed mosques built according to the plan of the Church of St. Sophia, with a round dome, apses, etc.).

The representatives of the oral folk poetry of the Asia Minor Oghuz Turks, heroic and love, were wandering singers - ozans and ashyks. Literature in the Turkish language that was developing in Seljuk Asia Minor, using the Arabic alphabet, developed for a long time under strong Persian influence. The son of the famous poet of Asia Minor Jalal-ad-din Rumi, who wrote in Persian, Sultan Veled (died in 1312) began to write poetry in Turkish (“The Book of the Lute”). Major Turkish poets of the XIV century. there were Ashik Pasha, a moralist poet, Yunus Emre, a Sufi lyricist who used the motifs of Turkish folk poetry, and Burkhan-ad-din Sivassky, a warrior poet.

In the XV century. Turkish literature flourished. Its most prominent representative was the poet Necati (1460-1509), the best Turkish lyricist. The themes of his poems were spring, love, grief, separation of lovers, etc. A brilliant poet was Hamdi Celebi (died in 1509), the author of the poem "Layli and Majnun" and other works. The poetess Mihri-khatun (died in 1514) and the poet Mesihi (died in 1512) were singers of earthly love and fought for the secular character of poetry, against Sufism. Until the XIV century. Historical works (though very few) were written in Persian. In the XV century. a descendant of the poet Ashyk Pasha, Ashyk Pasha Zade, and Neshri laid the foundation for historical literature in Turkish.

The Ottoman Empire arose in 1299 in the northwest of Asia Minor and lasted 624 years, having managed to conquer many peoples and become one of the greatest powers in the history of mankind.

From the spot to the quarry

The position of the Turks at the end of the 13th century looked unpromising, if only because of the presence of Byzantium and Persia in the neighborhood. Plus the sultans of Konya (the capital of Lycaonia - regions in Asia Minor), depending on which, albeit formally, the Turks were.

However, all this did not prevent Osman (1288-1326) from expanding and strengthening his young state. By the way, by the name of their first sultan, the Turks began to be called the Ottomans.
Osman was actively engaged in the development of internal culture and carefully treated someone else's. Therefore, many Greek cities located in Asia Minor preferred to voluntarily recognize his supremacy. Thus, they "killed two birds with one stone": they both received protection and preserved their traditions.
Osman's son Orkhan I (1326-1359) brilliantly continued his father's work. Declaring that he was going to unite all the faithful under his rule, the Sultan set off to conquer not the countries of the East, which would be logical, but the western lands. And Byzantium was the first to stand in his way.

By this time, the empire was in decline, which the Turkish Sultan took advantage of. Like a cold-blooded butcher, he "chopped off" area after area from the Byzantine "body". Soon the entire northwestern part of Asia Minor came under the rule of the Turks. They also established themselves on the European coast of the Aegean and Marmara Seas, as well as the Dardanelles. And the territory of Byzantium was reduced to Constantinople and its environs.
Subsequent sultans continued the expansion of Eastern Europe, where they successfully fought against Serbia and Macedonia. And Bayazet (1389-1402) was "marked" by the defeat of the Christian army, which King Sigismund of Hungary led on a crusade against the Turks.

From defeat to triumph

Under the same Bayazet, one of the most severe defeats of the Ottoman army happened. The Sultan personally opposed Timur's army and in the Battle of Ankara (1402) he was defeated, and he himself was taken prisoner, where he died.
The heirs by hook or by crook tried to ascend the throne. The state was on the verge of collapse due to internal unrest. Only under Murad II (1421-1451) did the situation stabilize, and the Turks were able to regain control of the lost Greek cities and conquer part of Albania. The Sultan dreamed of finally cracking down on Byzantium, but did not have time. His son, Mehmed II (1451-1481), was destined to become the killer of the Orthodox empire.

On May 29, 1453, the hour of X came for Byzantium. The Turks besieged Constantinople for two months. Such a short time was enough to break the inhabitants of the city. Instead of everyone taking up arms, the townspeople simply prayed to God for help, not leaving churches for days. The last emperor, Constantine Palaiologos, asked for help from the Pope, but he demanded in return the unification of churches. Konstantin refused.

Perhaps the city would have held out even if not for the betrayal. One of the officials agreed to the bribe and opened the gate. He did not take into account one important fact- the Turkish Sultan, in addition to the female harem, also had a male one. That's where the comely son of a traitor got.
The city fell. The civilized world has stopped. Now all the states of both Europe and Asia have realized that the time has come for a new superpower - the Ottoman Empire.

European campaigns and confrontations with Russia

The Turks did not think to stop there. After the death of Byzantium, no one blocked their way to rich and unfaithful Europe, even conditionally.
Soon, Serbia was annexed to the empire (except for Belgrade, but the Turks would capture it in the 16th century), the Duchy of Athens (and, accordingly, most of all of Greece), the island of Lesbos, Wallachia, and Bosnia.

IN Eastern Europe the territorial appetites of the Turks intersected with the interests of Venice. The ruler of the latter quickly enlisted the support of Naples, the Pope and Karaman (Khanate in Asia Minor). The confrontation lasted 16 years and ended with the complete victory of the Ottomans. After that, no one prevented them from "getting" the remaining Greek cities and islands, as well as annexing Albania and Herzegovina. The Turks were so carried away by the expansion of their borders that they successfully attacked even the Crimean Khanate.
Panic broke out in Europe. Pope Sixtus IV began to make plans for the evacuation of Rome, and at the same time hastened to announce a Crusade against the Ottoman Empire. Only Hungary responded to the call. In 1481, Mehmed II died, and the era of great conquests ended temporarily.
In the 16th century, when internal unrest in the empire subsided, the Turks again directed their weapons at their neighbors. First there was a war with Persia. Although the Turks won it, the territorial acquisitions were insignificant.
After success in North African Tripoli and Algiers, Sultan Suleiman invaded Austria and Hungary in 1527 and laid siege to Vienna two years later. It was not possible to take it - bad weather and mass diseases prevented it.
As for relations with Russia, for the first time the interests of states clashed in Crimea.

The first war took place in 1568 and ended in 1570 with the victory of Russia. Empires fought each other for 350 years (1568 - 1918) - one war fell on average for a quarter of a century.
During this time, there were 12 wars (including the Azov, Prut campaign, Crimean and Caucasian fronts during the First World War). And in most cases, the victory remained with Russia.

Dawn and sunset of the Janissaries

Talking about the Ottoman Empire, one cannot fail to mention its regular troops - the Janissaries.
In 1365, on the personal order of Sultan Murad I, the Janissary infantry was formed. It was completed by Christians (Bulgarians, Greeks, Serbs, and so on) at the age of eight to sixteen years. Thus, devshirme worked - a blood tax - which was imposed on the unbelieving peoples of the empire. It is interesting that at first the life of the Janissaries was quite difficult. They lived in monasteries-barracks, they were forbidden to start a family and any household.
But gradually the Janissaries from the elite branch of the military began to turn into a highly paid burden for the state. In addition, these troops were less and less likely to take part in hostilities.

The beginning of decomposition was laid in 1683, when, along with Christian children, Muslims began to be taken as Janissaries. Wealthy Turks sent their children there, thus solving the issue of their successful future - they could make a good career. It was the Muslim Janissaries who began to start families and engage in crafts, as well as trade. Gradually, they turned into a greedy, impudent political force that interfered in state affairs and participated in the overthrow of objectionable sultans.
The agony continued until 1826, when Sultan Mahmud II abolished the Janissaries.

The death of the Ottoman Empire

Frequent troubles, inflated ambitions, cruelty and constant participation in any wars could not but affect the fate of the Ottoman Empire. The 20th century turned out to be especially critical, in which Turkey was increasingly torn apart by internal contradictions and the separatist mood of the population. Because of this, the country fell behind the West in technical terms, so it began to lose the once conquered territories.

The fateful decision for the empire was its participation in the First World War. The allies defeated the Turkish troops and staged a division of its territory. On October 29, 1923, a new state appeared - the Republic of Turkey. Mustafa Kemal became its first president (later, he changed his surname to Atatürk - "father of the Turks"). Thus ended the history of the once great Ottoman Empire.

Ottoman Empire. Briefly about the main

The Ottoman Empire was formed in 1299, when Osman I Gazi, who went down in history as the first sultan of the Ottoman Empire, declared the independence of his small country from the Seljuks and took the title of Sultan (although some historians believe that for the first time only his grandson officially began to wear such a title - Murad I).

Soon he managed to conquer all western part Asia Minor.

Osman I was born in 1258 in the Byzantine province of Bithynia. He died a natural death in the city of Bursa in 1326.

After that, power passed to his son, known as Orhan I Gazi. Under him, a small Turkic tribe finally turned into a strong state with a strong army.

The Four Capitals of the Ottomans

For the entire long history During its existence, the Ottoman Empire changed four capitals:

Següt (first capital of the Ottomans), 1299–1329;

Bursa (former Byzantine fortress of Brus), 1329–1365;

Edirne (former city of Adrianople), 1365–1453;

Constantinople (now the city of Istanbul), 1453–1922.

Sometimes the city of Bursa is called the first capital of the Ottomans, which is considered erroneous.

Ottoman Turks, descendants of the Kaya

Historians say: in 1219, the Mongol hordes of Genghis Khan attacked Central Asia, and then, saving their lives, leaving their belongings and domestic animals, everyone who lived on the territory of the Kara-Khidan state rushed to the southwest. Among them was a small Turkic tribe Kayi. A year later, it reached the border of the Kony Sultanate, which by that time occupied the center and east of Asia Minor. The Seljuks who inhabited these lands, like the Kays, were Turks and believed in Allah, so their sultan considered it reasonable to allocate to the refugees a small border allotment-beylik near the city of Bursa, 25 km from the coast of the Sea of ​​Marmara. No one could have imagined that this small plot of land would turn out to be a springboard from which lands from Poland to Tunisia would be conquered. This is how the Ottoman (Ottoman, Turkish) empire will arise, populated by the Ottoman Turks, as the descendants of the kaya are called.

The further the power of the Turkish sultans spread over the next 400 years, the more luxurious their court became, where gold and silver flowed from all over the Mediterranean. They were trendsetters and role models in the eyes of the rulers of the entire Islamic world.

The Battle of Nikopol in 1396 is considered the last major crusade of the Middle Ages, which could not stop the advance of the Ottoman Turks in Europe.

Seven Periods of the Empire

Historians divide the existence of the Ottoman Empire into seven main periods:

The formation of the Ottoman Empire (1299-1402) - the period of the reign of the first four sultans of the empire: Osman, Orhan, Murad and Bayezid.

The Ottoman Interregnum (1402–1413) is an eleven-year period that began in 1402 after the defeat of the Ottomans in the Battle of Angora and the tragedy of Sultan Bayezid I and his wife in captivity at Tamerlane. During this period, there was a struggle for power between the sons of Bayazid, from which the youngest son Mehmed I Celebi emerged victorious only in 1413.

Rise of the Ottoman Empire (1413-1453) - the period of the reign of Sultan Mehmed I, as well as his son Murad II and grandson Mehmed II, ended with the capture of Constantinople and destruction Byzantine Empire Mehmed II, nicknamed "Fatih" (Conqueror).

Growth of the Ottoman Empire (1453-1683) - the period of the main expansion of the borders of the Ottoman Empire. It continued under the reign of Mehmed II, Suleiman I and his son Selim II, and ended with the defeat of the Ottomans in the Battle of Vienna during the reign of Mehmed IV (son of Ibrahim I the Mad).

Stagnation of the Ottoman Empire (1683-1827) - a period that lasted 144 years, which began after the victory of the Christians in the Battle of Vienna forever put an end to the aggressive aspirations of the Ottoman Empire in European lands.

The decline of the Ottoman Empire (1828-1908) is a period characterized by the loss of a large number of territories of the Ottoman state.

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire (1908–1922) is the period of the reign of the last two sultans of the Ottoman state, the brothers Mehmed V and Mehmed VI, which began after the change in the form of government of the state to a constitutional monarchy, and continued until the complete cessation of the existence of the Ottoman Empire (the period covers the participation of the Ottomans in the First world war).

The main and most serious reason for the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, historians call the defeat in the First World War, caused by the superior human and economic resources of the Entente countries.

November 1, 1922 is called the day the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist, when the Turkish Grand National Assembly adopted a law on the separation of the Sultanate and the Caliphate (then the Sultanate was abolished). On November 17, Mehmed VI Vahideddin, the last Ottoman monarch, the 36th in a row, left Istanbul on a British warship, the battleship Malaya.

On July 24, 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, which recognized the independence of Turkey. On October 29, 1923, Turkey was proclaimed a republic, and Mustafa Kemal, later known as Atatürk, was elected its first president.

The last representative of the Turkish Sultan dynasty of the Ottomans

Ertogrul Osman - grandson of Sultan Abdul-Hamid II

“The last representative of the Ottoman dynasty, Ertogrul Osman, has died.

Osman spent most of his life in New York. Ertogrul Osman, who would have become the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire if Turkey had not become a republic in the 1920s, has died in Istanbul at the age of 97.

He was the last surviving grandson of Sultan Abdul-Hamid II, and his official title, had he become ruler, would have been His Imperial Highness Prince Shahzade Ertogrul Osman Efendi.

He was born in Istanbul in 1912, but lived most of his life modestly in New York.

12-year-old Ertogrul Osman was studying in Vienna when he learned that his family had been expelled from the country by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who founded the modern Republic of Turkey on the ruins of the old empire.

Osman eventually settled in New York, where he lived for over 60 years in an apartment above a restaurant.

Osman would have become Sultan if Atatürk had not founded the Republic of Turkey. Osman has always maintained that he has no political ambitions. He returned to Turkey in the early 1990s at the invitation of the Turkish government.

During a visit to his homeland, he went to the Dolmobakhce Palace near the Bosphorus, which was the main residence of the Turkish sultans and in which he played as a child.

According to BBC columnist Roger Hardy, Ertogrul Osman was very modest and, in order not to draw attention to himself, he joined a group of tourists to get into the palace.

The wife of Ertogrul Osman is a relative of the last king of Afghanistan.”

Tughra as a personal sign of the ruler

Tugra (togra) is the personal sign of the ruler (sultan, caliph, khan), containing his name and title. From the time of the ulubey Orhan I, who applied an imprint of a palm dipped in ink to documents, it became customary to surround the signature of the Sultan with the image of his title and the title of his father, merging all the words in a special calligraphic style - a distant resemblance to a palm is obtained. The tughra is drawn up in the form of an ornamentally decorated Arabic script (the text may not be in Arabic, but also in Persian, Turkic, etc.).

Tughra is placed on all state documents, sometimes on coins and mosque gates.

For the forgery of the tughra in the Ottoman Empire, the death penalty was due.

In the chambers of the lord: pretentious, but tasteful

The traveler Theophile Gauthier wrote about the chambers of the lord of the Ottoman Empire: “The chambers of the Sultan are decorated in the style of Louis XIV, slightly modified in an oriental way: here one can feel the desire to recreate the splendor of Versailles. Doors, window casings, architraves are made of mahogany, cedar or massive rosewood with elaborate carvings and expensive iron fittings studded with gold chips. A most wonderful panorama opens from the windows - not a single monarch of the world has an equal in front of her palace.

Tughra Suleiman the Magnificent

So not only European monarchs were fond of the style of their neighbors (say, oriental style, when they arranged boudoirs like a pseudo-Turkish alcove or arranged oriental balls), but the Ottoman sultans also admired the style of their European neighbors.

"Lions of Islam" - Janissaries

Janissaries (Turkish yeni?eri (yenicheri) - new warrior) - the regular infantry of the Ottoman Empire in 1365-1826. The Janissaries, together with the sipahis and akynji (cavalry), formed the basis of the army in the Ottoman Empire. They were part of the capykula regiments (the personal guard of the Sultan, which consisted of slaves and prisoners). Janissary troops also performed police and punitive functions in the state.

The Janissary infantry was created by Sultan Murad I in 1365 from Christian youths aged 12–16. Basically, Armenians, Albanians, Bosnians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Georgians, Serbs, who were later brought up in Islamic traditions, were enrolled in the army. Children recruited in Rumelia were given to be raised by Turkish families in Anatolia and vice versa.

Recruitment of children in the Janissaries ( devshirme- blood tax) was one of the duties of the Christian population of the empire, since it allowed the authorities to create a counterbalance to the feudal Turkic army (sipahs).

The Janissaries were considered slaves of the Sultan, lived in monasteries-barracks, they were initially forbidden to marry (until 1566) and do household chores. The property of the deceased or perished Janissary became the property of the regiment. In addition to military art, the Janissaries studied calligraphy, law, theology, literature and languages. Wounded or old Janissaries received a pension. Many of them have gone on to civilian careers.

In 1683, the Janissaries also began to be recruited from Muslims.

It is known that Poland copied the Turkish army system. In the army of the Commonwealth, according to the Turkish model, volunteers formed their own Janissary units. King August II created his personal Janissary guard.

The armament and uniform of the Christian Janissaries completely copied the Turkish samples, including the military drums were of the Turkish model, while differing in color.

The Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire had a number of privileges, from the 16th century. received the right to marry, engage in trade and crafts in their free time from service. Janissaries received salaries from the sultans, gifts, and their commanders were promoted to the highest military and administrative positions of the empire. Janissary garrisons were located not only in Istanbul, but also in all major cities of the Turkish Empire. From the 16th century their service becomes hereditary, and they turn into a closed military caste. Being the sultan's guard, the Janissaries became a political force and often interfered in political intrigues, overthrowing unnecessary sultans and enthroning the sultans they needed.

The Janissaries lived in special quarters, often rebelled, staged riots and fires, overthrew and even killed the sultans. Their influence acquired such dangerous proportions that in 1826 Sultan Mahmud II defeated and completely destroyed the Janissaries.

Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire

The Janissaries were known as courageous warriors who rushed at the enemy without sparing their lives. It was their attack that often decided the fate of the battle. No wonder they were figuratively called "the lions of Islam."

Did the Cossacks use profanity in a letter to the Turkish Sultan?

Letter of the Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan is an insulting response of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, written to the Ottoman Sultan (probably Mehmed IV) in response to his ultimatum: stop attacking the Sublime Porte and surrender. There is a legend that, before sending troops to the Zaporizhian Sich, the Sultan sent a demand to the Cossacks to submit to him as the ruler of the whole world and the viceroy of God on earth. The Cossacks allegedly replied to this letter with their own letter, not embarrassed in expressions, denying any valor of the Sultan and cruelly mocking the arrogance of the “invincible knight”.

According to legend, the letter was written in the 17th century, when the tradition of such letters was developed among the Zaporozhye Cossacks and in Ukraine. The original letter has not been preserved, but several versions of the text of this letter are known, some of which are replete with obscene words.

Historical sources cite the following text of a letter from the Turkish Sultan to the Cossacks.

"Proposal of Mehmed IV:

I, the sultan and lord of the Sublime Porte, the son of Ibrahim I, the brother of the Sun and the Moon, the grandson and vicegerent of God on earth, the ruler of the kingdoms of Macedonia, Babylon, Jerusalem, Great and Lesser Egypt, king over kings, ruler over rulers, an incomparable knight, no one victorious warrior, owner of the tree of life, relentless guardian of the tomb of Jesus Christ, guardian of God himself, hope and comforter of Muslims, intimidator and great defender of Christians, I command you, Zaporozhye Cossacks, to surrender to me voluntarily and without any resistance and do not make me worry with your attacks.

Turkish Sultan Mehmed IV.

The most famous version of the Cossacks' answer to Mohammed IV, translated into Russian, is as follows:

“Zaporozhye Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan!

You, Sultan, Turkish devil, and damned devil brother and comrade, secretary of Lucifer himself. What a hell of a knight you are when you can't kill a hedgehog with your bare ass. The devil vomits, and your army devours. You will not, you son of a bitch, have Christian sons under you, we are not afraid of your troops, we will fight with you with land and water, spread ... your mother.

You are a Babylonian cook, a Macedonian chariot driver, a Jerusalem brewer, an Alexandrian goat, a swineherd of Greater and Lesser Egypt, an Armenian thief, a Tatar sagaydak, a Kamenets executioner, a fool of all the world and illumination, the grandson of the asp himself and our x ... hook. You are a pig's muzzle, a mare's asshole, a butcher's dog, an unbaptized forehead, damn it ....

That's how the Cossacks answered you, shabby. You will not even feed the pigs of the Christians. We end with this, because we don’t know the date and we don’t have a calendar, a month in the sky, a year in a book, and our day is the same as yours, for this, kiss us on the ass!

Signed: Kosh ataman Ivan Sirko with the entire Zaporizhia camp.

This letter, replete with profanity, is cited by the popular Wikipedia encyclopedia.

Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan. Artist Ilya Repin

The atmosphere and mood among the Cossacks composing the text of the answer is described in the famous painting by Ilya Repin "The Cossacks" (more often called: "The Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan").

Interestingly, in Krasnodar at the intersection of Gorky and Krasnaya streets in 2008, a monument was erected "Cossacks write a letter to the Turkish Sultan" (sculptor Valery Pchelin).

From the book The Art of Driving a Car [with illustrations] author Tribal Zdenek

I. Briefly about the car A good driver drives the car almost automatically. He reacts to visual and auditory stimuli with appropriate actions, for the most part unaware of their causes. If suddenly someone comes out of the side street, the driver slows down

From the book School of Literary Excellence. From concept to publication: short stories, novels, articles, non-fiction, screenplays, new media by Wolf Jurgen

Never Forget the Essentials I sincerely believe that you can earn enough money through your writing, but I must warn you that it may happen that a few years of your life will be very difficult. At some point you will even think

From the book Sudak. Traveling to historical places author Timirgazin Alexey Dagitovich

From the book Encyclopedia of Islam author Khannikov Alexander Alexandrovich

From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (PO) of the author TSB

From the book Great Soviet Encyclopedia (OS) of the author TSB

From the book War Machine: A Guide to Self-Defense - 3 author Taras Anatoly Efimovich

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Anatoly Efimovich Taras was born in 1944, in the family of a regular officer of the Soviet military intelligence. In 1963-66. served in a separate reconnaissance and sabotage battalion of the 7th tank army. In 1967-75. participated in 11 operations conducted

From the book encyclopedic Dictionary winged words and expressions author Serov Vadim Vasilievich

Old songs about the main thing The name of the musical TV movie (directed by Dmitry Fix), shown on the night of January 1, 1996 on the 1st channel of Russian TV. The authors of the project are Leonid Gennadyevich Parfenov (b. 1960) and Konstantin Lvovich Ernst (b. 1961). Perhaps the song was the primary source

author

MISCELLANEOUS IN BRIEF USE DRIBLING With a sluggish bite, experienced master anglers often use the so-called dribbling, when the bait trembles finely for 5-10 seconds. near the bottom, attracting fish that are a few meters from the hole. Bite usually

From the book Four Seasons of the Angler [Secrets of successful fishing at any time of the year] author Kazantsev Vladimir Afanasyevich

MISCELLANEOUS AT A GLANCE TROUT FLAVORS Like any other hobby, there is no limit to how you can improve your skills in fishing. One of the components of success in this case is the use of modern baits, developed taking into account the latest achievements of science. Many fishing

From the book Four Seasons of the Angler [Secrets of successful fishing at any time of the year] author Kazantsev Vladimir Afanasyevich

BRIEFLY ABOUT MISCELLANEOUS ON UNDERWATER BREYS Many both predatory and non-predatory fish prefer to get their livelihood on various kinds of underwater brows. Therefore, in order to achieve good results in fishing, you need to carefully study these places. Sometimes some types of predatory

From the book Four Seasons of the Angler [Secrets of successful fishing at any time of the year] author Kazantsev Vladimir Afanasyevich

BRIEFLY ABOUT MISCELLANEOUS baits What is the secret of the catchability of oscillating lures made of two plates of different metals? Such baits are usually called bimetallic. Their peculiarity lies in the fact that the heterogeneous components of the spinner in this

From the book A Concise Dictionary of Alcoholic Terms author Pogarsky Mikhail Valentinovich

From the book How to become a writer ... in our time author Nikitin Yuri

Quite briefly ... Pascal once said: only when we finish a planned work, we understand ourselves with what we should have started it. Well, for a professional author, this is just an excuse to go back and rewrite what was planned, for that he is a pro, but for a beginner, this is an impetus to cowardice and

author Rozanov Vasily Vasilievich

About the immaculate family and its main condition

From the book Family Issue in Russia. Volume I author Rozanov Vasily Vasilievich

ON THE IMMACULATE FAMILY AND ITS MAIN CONDITION