RELG 330 - History of Christianity
Course Notes
The Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire started with a band of Turks who were driven out of their original homeland by the Mongols.
During the eight and ninth centuries AD they moved into what is now China, Turkestan, Afghanistan and Iran (Persia), and during the course of their migrations they abandoned their original shamanistic religion and became Sunni Moslems.
One group, the Seljuk Turks, moved eastwards into what is now Iraq and Iran, then continued to push eastwards into Asia Minor and Anatolia.
In 1068 the Byzantine Emperor Romanos decided to attack the Turks, and advanced into Cappadocia, but he had alienated his troops so badly that they refused to fight for him.
In 1071 Romanos was defeated and captured by the Turks at the Battle of Manzikert.
In 1073 the Turkish leader, Alp Arslan, was assassinated, and there was a period of political instability in the region. The Seljuk Turks of Anatolia became separated from the Turks who had stayed in Persia. Those in Anatolia were known as the Seljuks of Rum ("Rum" being a corruption of Rome), and their rule was known as the Sultanate of Rum.
The Byzantines entered upon a civil war, and relied upon mercenary soldiers to fight their battles. The mercenaries even included some Turks and some Norman French. Although the Norman French were Christians, they and the Byzantines were soon at odds with each other. The Byzantines thought of Constantinople as the Holy City, whereas the Normans wanted to capture Jerusalem. Further, the Normans could not understand why the Byzantines were happy to do business with the "infidel" Turks.
In 1204 the European armies of the Fourth Crusade reached Constantinople and there was a major disagreement between the Western Christians and the Byzantine Christians which resulted in the sack of Constantinople on Easter Sunday. The Crusaders went on towards Jerusalem, but were attacked and decimated by the Turks on the way.
In 1243 the Mongols invaded Anatolia from the North East, and a period of chaos ensued.
Some time around 1308 the Seljuk sultanate ended with the death of the last Seljuk sultan, and the sultanate was divided into two emirates in central Turkey. The Turks were still under pressure from the Mongols in the East, and continued to push Westwards - the North West region of Anatolia came under the control of the Osmanli or Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Ertoghrul.
Sometime around 1280 Ertoghrul died and was succeeded by his son Osman, or Othman.
In 1288 Osman took control of territory in Asia Minor and established his Empire. The Ottoman (Othman's) Turks continued to spread into the territory of the Byzantine Empire.
In 1331 Osman's successor, Orbam, captured the Byzantine city of Nicaea, and in 1337 he captured Nicomedia. By 1350 the whole of Anatolia was under Turkish dominion, and in 1354 the Turks had crossed the Bosphorus and captured the stronghold of Gallipoli.
In 1362 the Turks captured Adrianople, and invaded Thrace.
The Turkish invasions alarmed Europe, and in 1366 the Pope called for a Crusade to protect Europe from the Turks. The Byzantine emperor traveled to Hungary to enlist help, but was kidnapped in Bulgaria. The Balkans were predominantly Eastern Orthodox, and the people feared the Roman papacy. Although some of the rulers in the Balkans accepted help from Rome, and submitted to Roman authority, many of the people preferred the conditions of life under Turkish rule. The Turks allowed their subjects to practice their Orthodox faith, and treated serfs and peasants better - they were regarded as liberators by the serfs.
In 1389 the Turks defeated the Serbs at Kosovo Polje, but after the battle one of the Serbs broke into Sultan Muhrab's tent and stabbed him to death. Then one of the sultan's sons killed another son in order to grab power, and there was a further period of chaos. During this time the Ottoman Turks came under pressure from the Tatars, led by Timur, invading Anatolia from the East. In spite of the Tatar invasion, the Turks pressed on into the Balkans.
In 1439 Bosnia-Herzegovina joined the Turkish empire. Bosnia was the home of the Bogomils, who were being persecuted by the Orthodox Hungarians, so the Bogomils joined the Turks and became Muslims.
In 1452 the Ottoman sultan Mehmed had two huge cannons built, and assembled a large army and a navy to attack Constantinople by land and sea. The city was further weakened by earthquakes, torrential rains, and floods during the winter of 1452-53, and morale was lowered by the appearance of mysterious shooting stars in the sky. The Turkish attack and siege lasted for about 2 months.
On May 29, 1453, Constantinople fell to the Turks, and what had been the Byzantine Empire became the Ottoman Empire, with Islam as the dominant religion. The church of Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) was turned into a mosque, but the Orthodox Christians were allowed to continue to practice their religion. The Jews were allowed to have a Chief Rabbi, and the succession of Chief Rabbis has continued up to the present.
The last Byzantine Emperor, John Palaeologus, fled to Venice to try to raise support against the Turks, but the Venetians did not help him. Europe was torn by the Reformation and subsequent wars, and was unable to unite against the Turkish invasion.
By 1478 the Turks had control of Athens, Serbia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Wallachia, and most of the Balkans. The Venetians attacked the Turks, and lost. Then the Turks turned East against the Tatars and conquered the Crimea.
In 1516-17 Selim I invaded the Arab lands of the Levant (what is now Syria, Israel), and Egypt.
The most famous of the Ottoman Emperors was probably Süleyman the Magnificent (Süleyman is the Arabic form of Solomon), the son of Selim I, who reigned 1520-1566. His Empire stretched from what is now Iraq, to within 30 miles of the city of Vienna, and included the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina. He built the walls round Jerusalem which still stand today, restored the Al Aksa Mosque on the Temple Mount (the one with the black dome, not the golden dome). He continued the expansion of the Empire, and conquered Baghdad in the East and Belgrade and Budapest in the West.
In 1529 Süleyman besieged Vienna, but was defeated and driven off by combined Christian armies from the West.
Süleyman engaged in diplomatic relations with European rulers - he signed a treaty of alliance with Francis I of France against the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V - which scandalized the other European monarchs. He also courted Elizabeth I of England (unsuccessfully - she was too canny to marry and give up her mystique and power as the "Virgin Queen").
Süleyman's successor, Selim the Drunk, was an incompetent ruler who left the government of the Empire to his Vizier. This became the pattern for future sultans, the empire began to decline, the military became weak, and the Sunni Moslem leaders became resistant and intolerant.
In 1683 the Turks besieged Vienna again. At this point the other European nations, particularly Poland, rallied and came to the aid of Vienna. The Ottoman Turks were driven back, and the slow decline of the Empire continued.
In 1829 Greece won a War of Independence, though the Turks still held the region of Anatolia which had been colonized by Greeks, and was the home of Troy, Ephesus, Collossae, and Laodicaea.
At its greatest extent, the Ottoman Empire included Egypt, but that country was "taken under protection" by the British in 1882.
It became clear that the Ottoman Empire was so corrupt and losing power that the European nations referred to it as "The Sick Man of Europe"
With the outbreak of WWI in 1914 the Ottomans decided to join Germany against the rest of Europe. When Germany lost the war the Ottoman Empire was divided up, leaving just Turkey to the Ottoman Turks.
The Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal (1881-1938), who changed his name to Atatürk, was the father of modern Turkey. He was a general in the army of the Ottoman Empire during WWI, and following the defeat of Turkey he led the Turkish National Movement in the War of Independence.
In 1923 the Republic of Turkey was founded on secular, rather than religious, lines, with Atatürk as its first president (1923-1938). He made education free and compulsory, gave equal civil rights to women, encouraged the use of a western-style alphabet, and western dress and customs.
In 1922 Atatürk abolished the sultanate, and in 1924 he abolished the caliphate (religious leadership) and the sharia courts.
One consequence of the break-up of the Ottoman Empire was the formation of Arab states, and also the eventual formation of the State of Israel. The Arab nations had believed that the Europeans, particularly the British, had promised that all the region would be given to the Arabs. When Jews were allowed to settle there also, the Arabs saw it as a betrayal of promises made to them, and the stage was set for the present situation in the Middle East.
Copyright © 2005 Shirley J. Rollinson, all Rights Reserved
