Later Sultans
LATER SULTANS
Selim II was succeeded by Murad III who I s notable by his cordial relations with Elizabeth I of
Meanwhile Ottoman fortunes varied depending on the qualities of sultans which were now coming to the throne not by the old ‘kill all brothers’ system but by some form of institutional arrangement. All princes other than the sultan were confined in semi-imprisonment to palace grounds and at the death or deposition of the sultan one favoured by the dominant palace clique was made the new sultan. This of course did not mean that the objectively best was put on the throne on top of the fact that life-prisoners devoid of life knowledge and skills hardly made adequate rulers. A few brilliant sultans came and went though but each was constrained by the powers to whom he owed his position and some ended up destroying or being destroyed by them.
The main players in palace politics were the clique headed by the Valide Sultan (queen mother) whose underlings were the Harem aghasis (guardians of the women’s quarters in the palace, themselves black eunuchs under that most powerful chief black eunuch who could make or brake any politician including the sadrazam (Grand vizier- prime minister) under whom also were several executioners ready for instant capital punishment of any offenders). Both viziers and Sheikh ul Islam (chief mufti/qadi) trembled at the prospect of being caught between the women’s faction and their rival the Yenicheri faction under their own Agha (chief officer). The latter increasingly got corrupted as the devsirme system of recruitment was replaced by ‘any body with strong enough ‘uncles’ or big enough bribes can walk in’ system. Eventually the once invincible Yenicheris had become a body of urban artisans and shopkeepers, married with children, rarely attending the trainings conducted at the barracks or turning up at the military gathering sites when war was declared or stand their ground when attacked by enemy. Their strength went more to guarding their pecuniary interests, the three-monthly ‘ulufa’ salary for doing almost nothing. With such an ‘elite’ corps it was more interesting a question for asking about how such troops sometimes won against the enemy than why increasingly more often they lost.
Additionally the Yenicheris became a hotbed of political intrigue spurred into revolts at the drop of a hat. It was almost like the Roman, Byzantine ad Abbasid praetorian guard dramas revisited, which probves that as rulers become weaker and or more corrupt characters their elite troops become the pestilence of their kingdom. increasingly corrupt and inept government where bribes replaced taxes and positions auctioned to highest bidders was failing in its economies and remaining deeper and deeper in the red. To pay the troops coinage had to be debased by minting them smaller and with more copper than silver or gold which the recipients resented and made them await the first convenient opportunity to rebel, to being down the grand vizier or the padishah or both and promote any figure however odious who could promise better pay and become a more docile puppet. As a result a number of sultans lost their heads and an even larger viziers lost theirs. The European rivals saw their chance and took it often to attack ‘Turkey’ and tear away more flesh from her, topped by Russians and next to them the Austro- Germans (then one empire). Still Ottomans proved surprisingly resilient and tenacious holding on to their lands by reconquests so much so that stripping them of their European territories took more than three centuries and as late as mid early 19th century they could occasionally beat any power.
Among the most notable events of these declining fortunes is their brilliant revival under the Koprulu dynasty of sadrazams beginning with Koprulu Mehmet Pasha, an octogenarian retired bureaucrat recalled to reform the state and his son Fazil Ahmed Pasha who almost brought Suleiman’s times, recovering most losses made to rival powers also complteting the conquest of Crete from the Venetians as well as improving the state affairs beyond recognition- showing that the main problem facing any state in decline is the low quality of its servants, brought there for corrupt reasons by corrupt means. This exemplary dynasty replaced corrupt officials with good ones, pursued and severely punished malpractices all over the empire and disciplined the army by executing all known trouble-makers, then paying the army well and on time. That must be why Allah said “Tuaddul amanati ila ahliha wa iza hakamtum baynan nasi an tahkumu bil adl”, i.e., “Hand over all trusts to those who are worthy of them and when you govern/ judge among people do so with justice”. Their prestige helped a son-in-law, namely Kara Mustafa Pasha to be made sadrazam who then nearly conquered
Only his personal greed to claim more of the booty for himself (for surrender by capitulation would prevent the plunder by the army who took the city by storming it) delayed the inevitable fall and enabled a large relief force drawn from nany countries arrive and surprise the Turkish army into a massive and disastrous retreat- which shows that dynastic succession isn’t the cure of political turmoil and failure but personal competence each and every time as Allah says in His above verse. Kara Mustafa paid for his selfishness with his head but the damage was done. This unnecessary reverse at
After this turning point defeats became more and more common and it was only the balancing act exercised by the English now almost dominating the Eastern Mediterranean and to a lesser extent the old sort of friends France, both enjoying lucrative capitulations, who helped ‘Turkey’ to frustrate the ambitions of firstly the voracious Russia coveting the two straits held by
Increasingly Austria-Germany and others joined in this patronage of the Ottoman Empire as all feared
THE OFTEN MISGUIDED REFORM ATTEMPTS
To stop the increasingly worrying decline the sultans remembered that casting an admiring glance towards the West could help. The first padishah to openly show an interest in Western ways was Ahmed III (1703- 1730). It was he who had won against the Peter the Great of Russia at Pruth. This war was caused by Peter’s pursuing king Charles XII of
But nearer home a new threat, this time internal, was in the offing. A new sadrazam, namely Damat Ibrahim Pasha, a son-in-law of Ahmed was rising. Instead of concentrating on his real tasks of tackling real problems this gentleman with refined worldly tastes launched a new era of luxury and enjoyment. Selling offices and appointing his relations and friends to high office the new elite so created aspired at fabulous living. As a result an unprecedented flurry of kiosks and small palaces building, nightly lavish entertainments to small hours and affected polished manners and displays of dazzling luxury and good taste became a craze nationally cascading down the elite class to the middle and naturally living out and antagonizing the poor majority. Because a craze for growing best and most exotic tulips swept through the land (or more truthfully
The public were outraged by this palpably impious trend among he high and the mighty and this growing resentment played into the hands of some lowly hotheads out to exploit any opportunity to seek their own fortunes. A certain notorious rogue, Patrona Halil and his pal Muslubesha leading several roguish intimates began a protest which spread like a bushfire. Increasing multitudes joined and Yenicheris were also sympathetic. These asked for and got the heads of Damat Ibrahim and all his cronies and then downing Ahmed made Mahmut I the new sultan. Then two curious things happened. Sultans made a tradition of trying reforming the state although not exactly as Ibrahim Pasha did and thugs and/or yenicheris made a tradition of toppling all reforming sultans. While Ottomans fought among themselves thus the Russians got bolder and bolder and more successful even if they couldn’t retain all their gains thanks to the intervention of other and jealous European powers, making Russians coughing up a portion. This did not prevent
It was Selim III (ruled 1789- 1807) a contemporary of both the earth-shaking French Revolution (1789) and Napoleon Bonaparte who overturning most of the gains of the revolution became the French emperor. Selim realized that if the Ottoman state was to survive it had to reforms its armed forces first and that could only be on Western lines. Benefiting from the traditional political friendship with
But this could not assuage the ‘grievance’ of the Yenicheris and fanned their fears and suspicions even more. They, some ulema and the growing numbers and factions of humbler malcontents conspired and exploiting an opportunity presented by the absence of the new modern army from the capital on account of war with Russia the opponents moved in for the kill. Under a thuggish Yenicheri named Kabakchi Mustafa the Yenicheris rebelled, deposed Selim, raised Mustafa IV and when the commander of the new army Alemdar Mustafa Pasha rushed to the rescue he found Selim already slaughtered. Determined to continue with the reforms Alemdar deposed Mustafa and put Mahmud II on the throne, finding him where he was hiding from the wrath of both jealous Mustafa and riotous Yenicheris. When these attempted to reinstate Mustafa Alemdar and Mahmud had him executed thus leaving Mahmud as the only surviving prince. Yenicheris avenged this defeat storming Alemdars mansion to kill him but they had to perish along with him when Alemdar kindled the ammunition stored in the basement, blowing the whole place up, all of which showed that not much had changed in Islamdom since the early bloody battles about the khilafa!
Mahmud II (ruled 1808- 1839) bid his time for a while pretending piety as his enemies defined it and moved only gradually to assert his authority and re-launch the Westernizing reforms, for they were aiming at the emulation of the West. He re-instated the modern army under another name, Asakiri Mansurai Muhammadia, which army once made strong enough he used to massacre the Yenicheries by intense artillery fire into their cantonment. They were preparing for another rebellion to cancel the military reforms and this time the government was ready. Equipped with fatwa from the shayhul Islam and getting the public who were fed up with the yenicheris’ bullyings and exactions on his side the populace joined in the hunt and lynched all yenicheries on whom they could lie hands on. This event was then dubbed as ‘Vaka-e Hayriya’ (auspicious event) and proved the decisive turning point in Ottoman history by establishing the ascendancy of Westernization policies over sticking to the traditions.
Mahmud then opened up modern schools and colleges where modern medicine, engineering and military sciences began to be taught for the first time. French was the medium od instruction though the tutors were drawn from a wider spectrum and included Germans. Gradually all scientific terms were Turkefied, Turkish professors were trained and the foundation of the Ottoman education and university were laid down. He also modelled the government on Western lines instituting ministries and the council of ministers or cabinet under a prime minister. A Council of State (Shura-e Devlet) was also created to advise the sultan on policies and reforms and government departments were organized on the French bureaucratic lines. In other words Mahmud II was the precursor of all reformers who explicitly opted for the Western models in statecraft and not only the army. He also reformed dress making it essentially Western but only compulsory for the state employees. He did not however budge from Islam but his reforms were too fast and too Westernizing for his critics. Increasingly the populace began to call him ‘ghiavur padishah’ (infidel king) deploring his especially odd-looking Western dress with narrow trousers, multiply bemedalled French coat and his embellishing all government offices with his portraits. A certain alim is reported to have prophesied that the House of Osman had only seven more sultans to rule and after then no more- which, if true, proved accurate.
He could perhaps get away with his daring had it not been for his abject failure in foreign affairs and military defeats. It was he who lost the control of
Mahmud died from his sorrows in 1839 to be succeeded by his equally Western- oriented son Abdul Majid who just built up on the foundations his father had laid. These Westernizing afforts lasted through all the rest of the Ottoman sultans, changed the face of bigger Ottoman cities from Istanbul down making them looking partially like their Western equivalents including athesistic, communistic, anarchic as well as debauching ways of thinking and living. Nationalism also flourished and caused the breaking away of all European subject races from the Ottoman rule with assistance from first
YOUNG TURKS AND THE COLLAPSE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
The last great sultan-khalifa of the empire was Abdulhamid II. Inheriting the throne from three good-willed but prodigal sultans who had depleted the treasury and burdened it with massive loans from Western bankers he was also faced by demands for the setting up a parliament elected by general suffrage on democratic lines and then be answerable to this body. This demand for democracy was iinspired and instigated by Western powers who mentored and protected their Western-educated Turkish agents. The various and vast non-Muslim minorities of the empire, mainly the Jews, Greeks and Armenians heartily and cynically supported this demand, as it would lead to anarchy, collapse of the empire and each minority than carving its own state from the carcass. Jews dreamed of
The so-called ‘Young Turks’ who were yearning for and getting many pats on the shoulder by now nearly worshipped non-Muslims both inside and outside of the Empire and happily deceived by their stirrer-applauders attacked in their newspapers and pamphlets what they called the tyranny of sultans and deplored the plight of the poor majority of people which they saw as the victims of an undemocratic system. Mind you, at the time nearly passable democracy only existed in
Abdulhamid was vulnerable to them because this party was a well-organized conspiratorial clique with tentacles in both the army and the bureaucracy as well enjoying advice and protection of the embassies of the Great Powers in
He allowed as promised a constitution to be drawn up under the chairmanship Midhat Pasha, an ex- able governor and the ring leader of the clique, whose plan was to puppetize the sultan and run the whole show himself. The parliament was quickly put in place with about a third of the deputies being non-Muslims and most Muslim deputies hand-picked by the Young Turks. This revolution was called the Meshrutiyet (constitutionalism, as against autocracy) and only pleased the non-Muslims and a minority of the tiny minority of e ducated Turks while leaving the bulk of Muslims shrugging their heads in offended disbelief and commenting about “Qiyamat alametleri”, i.e. the Signs of the Last Day, since the long-hallowed padishah was being cut down to size by this thing.
Soon the worst fears of Abdulhamid Khan came to pass: The parliament, despite his warnings, challenged an ultimatum issued by
Turkish Thrace and
What is more he aspired at avoiding foreign loans and instead paying up the existing he inherited from his predecessors. He paid a lot from his own royal wealth. His time since has been nostalgically remembered among Muslims as a time of baraka where somehow everybody did well. Unlike any other time in recent Ottoman history the salary paid to any public employee, like an officer or teacher not only proved adequate to live on but also support relatives and even poorer neighbours. Everything looked so plentiful and cheap.
But this wasn’t good for the internal and external enemies. The Young Turks gradually recovered and allying themselves with then the only viable minority the Salonikan and other urban Jewry (most of them donmes) seeked to depose Abdulhamid and reinstate the Meshrutiyet. This time many things were different though. Firstly these new Young Turks recruited almost entirely from the ranks of younger officers of the army and more from the European units. So the army was the driving force behind the intended coup. Secondly the mentors were the donmes and also other plain jews. Thirdly the ideology now was not a multi-racial multi-faith pan-Ottomanism (which had badly failed in the First Meshrutiyet) but pan-Turkism, dreaming a Turkish empire extending to Altai Mountains in
This contrasted sharply with Abdulhamid’s wiser pan-Islamic policies, realizing that non-Muslims could no longer be relied upon but with a bit of more effort Muslim races’ unity in the Ottoman khilafa and sultanate could be viable. Accordingly Abdulhamid promoted both Arab and Kurdish subjects while avoiding the increasingly treacherous Greeks and Armenians. The latter became restive and shifted towards armed rebellion in the East and terrorism elsewhere and nearly blew up the sultan whose slight delay after a Friday prayer saved him from a time bomb put in his coach. The increasing and spreading Armenian rebellion was patronised by
Some truth must have exist in these accusations but the crimes were mutual and roughly equal. The region, like all heavily mountainous regions, had always been rough and rowdy with a culture of tribal and ethnic warfare, brigandage and almost hallowed habit of committing mass atrocities by all sides. The same geography in other parts of the world was accompanied by the same problems which continues even today. Examples are
By 1908 the Young Turks had enough penetrated the army to stage their coup and force the Sultan to open another parliament. This new body was anything but democratic however. It was exclusively formed from the deputies handpicked by the conspiratorial Ittihad and Terakki Partisi (Party of Union and Progress), an ideological totalitarian party bent upon founding a one- party state long before the Bolshevik Party which then became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It ruled so ruthlessly and impiously that some religious elements in
The star of this new revolutionary elite was the dreamy young major Enver bey, who after politically marrying a princess became Enver Pasha and made minister of War in the Ittihad and Terakki government then re-formed. He soon assassinated his own prime minister Mahmud Shevket Pasha and became the real power behind the throne despite the new prime minister Talat Pasha. These two an the minister of the interior Jemal Pasha became a triumvirate of dictators. Exploiting the basic shallowness of these upstarts as the empire’s new government
Abdulhamid had warned against this prospect but not listened to. At the same time
Altough by now totallay modernized and Germam trained and armed Turkish army fought very effectively and won some great victories against the British in Iraq and joint British-French forces around the Dardanelles (where Mustafa Kemal made his fame as the most able Ottoman commander and was promoted to a general) still the allies on the opposite side won, especially the USA threw its weight behind them late in the War. The empire lost all its Arab territories where the English and the French created national Arab kingdoms of Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Hejaz appointing, ironically, ahl al bait figures of whom only the Jordanian dynasty escaped subsequent secularist nationalistic-military coups. All the rest became socialist Arab republics ruled by military dictators under a one-party state where all institutions must rubber stamp the dictator’s wishes. This sorry turn of events can be seen as an aping of the Ittihad Terakki revolution in
The victors tried to imposed on the Ottoman empire a treaty which seeked to chop up the its remaining territories (a small rump in Europe and the rest in Anatolia) granting various large chunks of it to Greece, Italy and France and also creating homelands for both the Amenians and the Kurds, thus leaving the Turks the barren middle part of Anatolia with capital Istanbul under allied occupation for control. Mustafa Kemal Pasha saw his chance in this sorry state. From the beginning a secularist and republican he found a way for having himself appointed military inspector general of the Ottoman government, in charge of implementing the mandatory disarmament of the Ottoman armies stranded in
Also a national resistance movemement was in brewing in these remote parts. Equipped with his royal portfolio and endorsed by the allied headquarters in Istanbul he landed in Samsun (19 may 1919) and after resting the waters for a few months had himself elected as the leader of the nationalist movement, thanks to his military record. Soon he gathered the dispersed Ottoman MPs and reinforcing their numbers by local deputies formed the first Grand National Assembly (parliament) of
Against all incredible odds Mustafa Kemal Pasha had won such a success that he became the immensely adored master of new