THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE: FROM EXPANDING POWER TO THE SICK MAN OF EUROPE by Oksana Drozdova Lecture V 2
3 Süleyman II (1687-1691)
JANISSARY REBELLION Rebellion reached its climax in three weeks. Mutinous troops and a mob eager to profit from the chance to riot and loot besieged the palaces of several state officials. Riot was suppressed when people of Istanbul decided to rally against the mutinous mob. A number of the rebel leaders were lynched by the crowd outside of the palace. A new grand vezir was appointed and a public order was restored.
SÜLEYMAN S ACCESSION The new sultan faced several problems upon his accession. Ongoing war. Constant shortage of silver to mint coins: Ottomans had to allow the silver coinage of various European states and that of newly-conquered territories to circulate within the empire Inadequate military system that no longer met even defensive needs of the empire. Muslim men fit to fight were enlisted. Civilian population was requested to pay their taxes in advance. 5
REFORM OF POLL-TAX Poll-tax was once more assessed on individual adult males rather than on the community as a whole. It was levied according to the tax-payer s means. The rates were standardized across the empire. 6
Military Reform of Fazıl Mustafa Pasha Conscription of settled and nomadic tribesmen from Anatolia and Rumeli. Five thousand men were raised from the Turcoman and Kurdish tribes of south-east Anatolia. Their appearance for duty was assured by naming a guarantor who was to be held financially responsible if they failed to arrive at the mustering grounds at Edirne. In Rumeli a different approach was employed: nomadic tribesmen were required to participate in return for an exemption from certain taxes to which they were normally subject. 7
Settlement Reform of Fazıl Mustafa Pasha Settlement policy was focused on two specific groups: the nomadic tribal population and the Christians of the empire. Kurdish and Turcoman tribes of Anatolia traditionally moved their flocks between lowland and mountain pastures. They were now exempted from extraordinary taxation in return for giving up their migratory habits and restoring the agricultural potential of the area to which they were assigned. Christians who fled the war were now allowed to establish and repair their churches if they returned back their villages. 8
Tax Reform of Fazıl Mustafa Pasha Reforms were directed at three main commodities: alcohol, coffee and tobacco. Ban on alcohol consumption forced the producers to export alcohol and this trade was subject to an export duty. Production of tobacco was legalized in 1646, and by 1690s the crop was grown across the empire. Unlike wine, both the production and export of tobacco was taxed. Coffee, which came into the empire from the former Ottoman province of Yemen, via Egypt, was another item which was frowned upon but had potential for gathering revenues: its import was first taxed in Süleyman II s reign and a further tax was levied on its sale 9
10
Reform of Poll-Tax Poll-tax was once more assessed on individual adult males rather than on the community as a whole. It was levied according to the tax-payer s means. The rates were standardized across the empire. 11
12 Ahmed II (1691-1695)
13 Mustafa II (1695-1703)
International Affairs Mustafa II inherited an ongoing Russo-Turkish War (1686-1700). In 1696, the young Russian tsar led a siege of Azov and captured the fortress. The treaty signed in 1700 ended this war and also overthrew the extant diplomatic hierarchy. From now on the Tsar was no longer a subordinate but rather an equal of the Sultan, and Russia was major power. 14
Tax Reform (1690s) Leading statesmen and wealthy people were donating money to the treasury. These one-off contributions now became an obligatory tax. Introduction of life-term tax-farming: long-term transfer into private hands of this particular source of state income. 15
Tax-farming Individuals with short-term ownership of a farm tended to make no investments into their resource. The successful bidder for a life-term tax-farm enjoyed greater security than the previous system had offered. The capital sum paid to the treasury at an auction to acquire the tax-farm was equivalent to between two and eight times its anticipated annual net profit. Life-term tax-farming was first applied in south-east Anatolia and the Arab provinces before being extended elsewhere. 16
Prominent Households By mid-18th century the Ottoman house withdrew from its earlier prominence as a patron of impressive mosque complexes and charitable organizations leaving them in the hands of grand households. Stipulations concerning the management of this these charities were often loose and left much to the discretion of those responsible for running them. Over the years cash leaked from foundations back into the hands of grandee households, enabling them to protect their wealth from confiscation, and to pass it to their heirs. Growing trend for sons to inherit fathers appointments in the central administration and as provincial governors enabled minor households to consolidate their position and rise in prominence. 17
Ahmed III (1703-1730) Tulip Era Sultan 18
New Pattern of international relations An early sign of the shift in the empire s relationship with the world beyond its borders was that the treaty of Karlowitz was negotiated by the high-ranking Ottoman bureaucrats. The European states came to realize that the Ottoman Empire no longer had the strength to challenge them as it had before. Negotiation began to prevail over aggression as a way of resolving international differences. 19
Prut Campaign (1711) 20
Grandees Ahmed III had thirty daughters who, unlike the Ottoman princes, didn t suffer seclusion and were now allotted a public role. Princesses were wed to the leading members of prominent households. This practice promoted stability among the grandee households who now shared in the authority of the Ottoman house. The restructuring of taxation and increase in regional trade enabled wealthier members to enrich themselves further. Princesses were the only females able to hold life-term tax-farms. 21
Tulip Age In the 18th century, France replaced England as the Ottomans trading partner. The nouveaux riches Ottoman grandees of the 1720s had the leisure to enjoy themselves and the money to indulge their whims. Public places were rebuilt, streets and mosques were brightly illuminated. This expanded and reshaped the public spaces and relaxed constraints on personal mobility, enabling even the poor to move about the city when previously they had been confined to their homes during the hours of darkness. 22
Sultan Ahmed received French ambassador Vicomte d Andrezel at Topkapı Palace. 23
24 Mahmud I (1730-1754)
Military Reform French military specialists were invited to the Ottoman court to initiate a reform of the armed forces. This reform came at a time when diplomacy rather than military engagements started to dominate on the international arena, thus downgrading of the military profession to the advantage of administration started to be noticeable. The janissaries opposed reorganization and modernization for the reason that it materially threatened their privileged position. The clerics could see the incipient changes of the time as a challenge to their monopoly over education as science such as military technology required teachers with a non-traditional education and thus threatened the clerical closed shop. 25
Osman III (1754-1757) Mustafa III (1757-1774) Abdülhamid I (1774-1789) 26
Russ0-Turkish War (1768-1774) 27
July 1774. Battle of Çeşme 28
Russo Turkish War (1787 1791) Involved a futile attempt by the Ottoman Empire to regain lands lost to Russia in the course of the previous Russo-Turkish War (1768 74). While being very symptomatic of Empire s shaky international position, this war also revealed its internal problems. «Sultan Abdülhamid, we have just just about run out of patience. You have not yet realized the error of your ways. You have seen that Yusuf Pasha [who was a Georgian by birth, and a convert] is unable to perform his service properly. Why have you let yourself be deceived by his words and turn the empire over to the infidel?» 29
Russo Turkish War (1787 1791) Constantly short of cash, the government became more dependant than ever before on the provincial grandees who alone had the resources to bear the financial burden of military campaigns. In gradually devolving the defence of the realm into the hands of newly-wealthy and newly-powerful provincial magnates, the state made it easy for them to act in their own interests and ignore government writ when it suited them to do so. The need to mobilize resources for war was perhaps now, more than ever, one of the most important catalysts to change in the Ottoman Empire. 30
31 Selim III (1789-1807)
Military Reform New Order Army Baron de Tott advised on the setting-up of various military professional schools and rapid-fire artillery regiments. This experiment in military modernization was aimed at moulding a disciplined, professional force with greatly improved fire-power and training. The New Order army was forged from raw recruits all Muslim-born, now, not Christians who were to receive specialized training to equip them for service in a modern army. By 1806 this New Order army comprised more than 22,500 men and 1,500 officers, quartered in barracks in Istanbul, Anatolia, and the Balkans. 32