Ottoman History

Ottoman History

Our readings of history has tended to a Eurocentric direction that has failed to give attention to the rich heritage of engagement with non-western European lands, many of them more powerful than Europe, that has existed for centuries. This is particularly true with western European colonialism so fresh in our minds. It was only in 1947, less than 70 years ago, that Britain finally left India, the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the British Empire. However, in the early modern period, between the late fifteenth century to the late eighteenth century, when western Europe was just beginning to increase travel around the world and long before a meaningful western European colonialism had come into being, the case was quite the reverse.

Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha was the boyhood friend of Suleiman. Ibrahim was originally a Christian from Parga, (Epirus),[61][62] and when he was young was educated at the Palace School under the devshirme system. Suleiman made him the royal falconer, then promoted him to first officer of the Royal Bedchamber.[63] Ibrahim Pasha rose to Grand Vizier in 1523 and commander-in-chief of all the armies. Suleiman also conferred upon Ibrahim Pasha the honor of beylerbey of Rumelia, granting Ibrahim authority over all Turkish territories in Europe, as well as command of troops residing within them in times of war. According to a 17th-century chronicler, Ibrahim had asked Suleiman not to promote him to such high positions, fearing for his safety; to which Suleiman replied that under his reign no matter what the circumstance, Ibrahim would never be put to death.[64]

It was poison administered by a Jewish physician that killed Sultan Bayezid II as he was about to go into exile, they said. Maybe it was, maybe not.

The new sultan, his son, certainly had a motive to kill his father, who died 500 years ago on May 26, 1512. The grand vizier might have had a motive, but it seems improbable that his Jewish physician had since Jews in the Ottoman Empire had so much to thank Bayezid for. It was on his watch that the Jews who were expelled from Spain settled in the Ottoman Empire.

He was governor of Amasya

This article is about the Ottoman leader Ertuğrul. For the Ottoman frigate, see Ottoman frigate Ertuğrul. For the name, see Ertuğrul (name).

Had destiny followed a different course, Prince Ertugrul Osman would have been the Sultan and Caliph of the Ottoman Empire. When he died in Istanbul at the age of 97 in September 2009, his funeral at the magnificent Sultan Ahmad mosque was attended by high government officials and thousands of ordinary Turkish citizens who mourned the passing of an icon linking them to their glorious past. Many Turks, looking past the decadence of the Empire in its waning days, have developed a feeling of nostalgia for the glory days when mighty Sultans ruled a vast empire, stretching from North Africa to parts of Eastern Europe, from their majestic palaces on the Bosporus.

In 1920s and 1930s Turkey things changed rapidly. The speed of the reform movement that had started in the nineteenth century accelerated after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk came to power in 1923 and launched his modernization program soon afterwards. In order to enable Turkey to regain its position among the world’s leading nations the Turkish elite looked West. Few terrains escaped their attention. Atatürk’s language reforms changed both the written and the spoken language, so that linguistically too there would be a break with the Ottoman-Islamic past.

The Russo-Turkish wars (or Ottoman-Russian Wars) were a series of wars fought between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire between the 16th and 20th centuries. It was one of the longest series of military conflicts in European history.[1]
List of conflicts
Name Result
1 Russo-Turkish War (1568–70)
Russian military victory[2]
Ottoman commercial victory[3]

2 Russo-Turkish War (1676–81)
Indecisive[4]
Treaty of Bakhchisarai[5]

3 Russo-Turkish War (1686–1700)
Russia gains possession of Azov
fortress of Taganrog,
Pavlovsk and Mius[6]

4 Russo-Turkish War (1710–11)
Ottoman victory[7]

5 Austro-Russian–Turkish War (1735–39)

The Eastern Front of World War I (Russian: Восточный фронт, sometimes called the "Second Fatherland War" or "Second Patriotic War" (Russian: Вторая Отечественная война) in Russian sources)[7] was a theatre of operations that encompassed at its greatest extent the entire frontier between the Russian Empire and Romania on one side and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and the German Empire on the other. It stretched from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south, included most of Eastern Europe and stretched deep into Central Europe as well. The term contrasts with "Western Front", which was being fought in Belgium and France.

Blue Mosque in Istanbul, a World Heritage Site and example of the classical style period of Ottoman architecture, showing Byzantine influence.
Ottoman architecture is the architecture of the Ottoman Empire which emerged in Bursa and Edirne in 14th and 15th centuries. The architecture of the empire developed from the earlier Seljuk architecture and was influenced by the Byzantine architecture, Armenian architecture, Iranian[1][2] as well as Islamic Mamluk traditions after the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans.[3][4][5] For almost 400 years Byzantine architectural artifacts such as the church of Hagia Sophia served as models for many of the Ottoman mosques.[5] Overall, Ottoman architecture has been described as Byzantine architecture synthesized with architectural traditions of the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

[6]

When he was not-quite 20 years old, Mehmet (also spelled Mehmed) II inherited the throne of the Ottoman Empire on the 3rd of February, 1451.
Two years later—in one of the world's most-famous battles—the 21-year-old conquered the city of Constantinople (in 1453).
This video documentary, with English subtitles, introduces us to Mehmet II and provides background on the loss of the Byzantine city to the Ottoman Empire (which thereafter renamed it Istanbul, "the city of Islam").
These world-changing events happened at about the time of a man called “Dracula.” How were the lives of Dracula, and his family, impacted by the Ottomans who captured Constantinople?

Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg served as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. During the time of his reign, he favored a Wallachian named Vlad who, with his wife, Cneajna, had a son (named Vlad, after his father). The child was born in the Transylvanian town of Sighisoara in 1431.

Mustafa III (Ottoman Turkish: مصطفى ثالث‎, lit. 'Muṣṭafā-yi sālis') (18/28 January 1717 – 21 January 1774) was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empirefrom 1757 to 1774. He was a son of Sultan Ahmed III (1703–30) and was succeeded by his brother Abdul Hamid I (1774–89). He was born in Edirne Palace. His mother was Âminā Mihr-î-Shâh Sultan.
Reign
An energetic and perceptive ruler, Mustafa III sought to modernize the army and the internal state machinery to bring his empire in line with the Powers of Europe.
Mustafa III did secure the services of foreign generals to initiate a reform of the infantry and artillery. The Sultan also ordered the founding of Academies for Mathematics, Navigation and the Sciences.
He died at Topkapi Palace, Constantinople.
Consorts
• Ayn ul-Hayat Bash Kadin Effendi (1726 – 21 July 1764), styled Bash Kadin Effendi from 30 October 1757.
• Fahima Kadin Effendi (d. 1761).

The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers and fought with Germany during World war I. As a result it was one of the great European empires that were destroyed by the War. Modern Turkey emerged after the War. Turkey remained neutral in World War II. Although often given little attention in World War II histories, this was of major importance in the outcome of the War. Germany's most significant weakness was oil. Turkey would have provided a significant threat to the Soviet Caucasian oil fields and would have provided an important ally to the Germans in their 1942 southern offensive. Turkey almost certainly could have seized the oil fields in Iraq that supplied the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean and the 8th Army in Egypt. Hitler was very interesting in drawing Turkey into the War. And as a World War I ally, there were links. The Germans also had a great deal to offer the Turks, especially the Pan-Turkic nationalists. The Wehrmacht entered the northern Caucausus (July 1942).

The Middle Eastern theatre of World War I saw action between 29 October 1914 and 30 October 1918. The combatants were, on one side, the Ottoman Empire (including Kurds and some Arab tribes), with some assistance from the other Central Powers; and on the other side, the British (with the help of Jews, Greeks, Assyrians and the majority of the Arabs), the Russians (with the help of Armenians) and the French from the Allies of World War I. There were five main campaigns: the Sinai and Palestine Campaign, the Mesopotamian Campaign, the Caucasus Campaign, the Persian Campaign, and the Gallipoli Campaign. There were also several minor campaigns: the North African Campaign, Arab Campaign, and South Arabia Campaign.
Both sides used local asymmetrical forces in the region.

The Topkapı Palace (Turkish: Topkapı Sarayı[2] or in Ottoman Turkish: طوپقاپو سرايى‎) or the Seraglio[3] is a large palace in Istanbul, Turkey, that was one of the major residences of the Ottoman sultans for almost 400 years (1465–1856) of their 624-year reign.[4]

As well as a royal residence, the palace was a setting for state occasions and royal entertainments. It is now a museum and as such a major tourist attraction. It also contains important relics of the Muslim world, including Muhammed's cloak and sword.[4] The Topkapı Palace is among the monuments contained within the "Historic Areas of Istanbul", which became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985, and is described under UNESCO's criterion iv as "the best example[s] of ensembles of palaces [...] of the Ottoman period."[5]

Gentile Bellini (c. 1429 – 23 February 1507) was an Italian painter of the school of Venice. He came from Venice's leading family of painters, and at least in the early part of his career was more highly regarded than his younger brother Giovanni Bellini, the reverse of the case today. From 1474 he was the official portrait artist for the Doges of Venice, and as well as his portraits he painted a number of very large subjects with multitudes of figures, especially for the Scuole Grandi of Venice, wealthy confraternities that were very important in Venetian patrician social life.[1]
In 1479 he was sent to Constantinople by the Venetian government when theOttoman Sultan Mehmed II requested an artist; he returned the next year. Thereafter a number of his subjects were set in the East, and he is one of the founders of theOrientalist tradition in Western painting. His portrait of the Sultan was also copied in paintings and prints and became known all over Europe.[1]

Biography