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 those 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, thereby 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.

The content of the article

OTTOMAN (OTTOMAN) EMPIRE. This empire was created by the Turkic tribes in Anatolia and existed since the decline of the Byzantine Empire in the 14th century. until the formation of the Turkish Republic in 1922. Its name comes from the name of Sultan Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman dynasty. The influence of the Ottoman Empire in the region began to gradually disappear from the 17th century, it finally collapsed after the defeat in the First World War.

Rise of the Ottomans.

The modern Republic of Turkey traces its origins to one of the Ghazi beyliks. The creator of the future mighty state, Osman (1259–1324/1326), inherited from his father Ertogrul a small border inheritance (uj) of the Seljuk state on the southeastern border of Byzantium, not far from Eskisehir. Osman became the founder of a new dynasty, and the state received his name and went down in history as the Ottoman Empire.

In the last years of Ottoman power, a legend appeared that Ertogrul and his tribe arrived from Central Asia just in time to save the Seljuks in their battle with the Mongols, and their western lands were rewarded. However, modern research does not confirm this legend. Ertogrul was given his inheritance by the Seljuks, to whom he swore allegiance and paid tribute, as well as to the Mongol khans. This continued under Osman and his son until 1335. It is likely that neither Osman nor his father were ghazis until Osman fell under the influence of one of the dervish orders. In the 1280s, Osman managed to capture Bilecik, İnönü and Eskisehir.

At the very beginning of the 14th century. Osman, together with his ghazis, annexed to his inheritance the lands that stretched up to the coasts of the Black and Marmara Seas, as well as most of the territory west of the Sakarya River, up to Kutahya in the south. After the death of Osman, his son Orkhan occupied the fortified Byzantine city of Brusa. Bursa, as the Ottomans called it, became the capital of the Ottoman state and remained so for more than 100 years until it was taken by them. In almost one decade, Byzantium lost almost all of Asia Minor, and such historical cities as Nicaea and Nicomedia were named Iznik and Izmit. The Ottomans subjugated the beylik of Karesi in Bergama (former Pergamum), and Gazi Orhan became the ruler of the entire northwestern part of Anatolia: from the Aegean Sea and the Dardanelles to the Black Sea and the Bosphorus.

conquests in Europe.

The rise of the Ottoman Empire.

Between the capture of Bursa and the victory in Kosovo organizational structures and the management of the Ottoman Empire were quite effective, and already at that time many features of the future huge state loomed. Orhan and Murad were not interested in whether the new arrivals were Muslims, Christians or Jews, whether they were listed as Arabs, Greeks, Serbs, Albanians, Italians, Iranians or Tatars. The state system of government was built on a combination of Arab, Seljuk and Byzantine customs and traditions. In the occupied lands, the Ottomans tried to preserve, as far as possible, local customs, so as not to destroy the established social relations.

In all newly annexed areas, military leaders immediately allocated income from land allotments as a reward to valiant and worthy soldiers. The owners of these kind of fiefs, called timars, were obliged to manage their lands and from time to time participate in campaigns and raids on remote territories. From the feudal lords, called sipahs, who had timars, cavalry was formed. Like the ghazis, the sipahis acted as Ottoman pioneers in the newly conquered territories. Murad I distributed many such inheritances in Europe to Turkic clans from Anatolia who did not have property, resettling them in the Balkans and turning them into a feudal military aristocracy.

Another notable event of that time was the creation of a corps of Janissaries in the army, soldiers who were included in the military units close to the Sultan. These soldiers (Turkish yeniceri, lit. new army), called Janissaries by foreigners, later began to be recruited among captured boys from Christian families, in particular in the Balkans. This practice, known as the devshirme system, may have been introduced under Murad I, but did not fully take shape until the 15th century. under Murad II; it continued uninterrupted until the 16th century, with interruptions until the 17th century. Being slaves of the sultans in status, the Janissaries were a disciplined regular army, consisting of well-trained and armed foot soldiers, superior in combat capability to all similar troops in Europe until the advent of the French army of Louis XIV.

The conquests and fall of Bayezid I.

Mehmed II and the capture of Constantinople.

The young sultan received an excellent education at the palace school and as governor of Manisa under his father. He was undoubtedly more educated than all the other monarchs of the then Europe. After the murder of his minor brother, Mehmed II reorganized his court in preparation for the capture of Constantinople. Huge bronze cannons were cast and troops were gathered to storm the city. In 1452, the Ottomans built a huge fort with three majestic fortress castles in the narrow part of the Bosphorus about 10 km north of the Golden Horn harbor of Constantinople. Thus, the Sultan was able to control shipping from the Black Sea and cut off Constantinople from supplies from the Italian trading posts located to the north. This fort, called Rumeli Hisary, together with another Anadolu Hisary fortress built by the great-grandfather of Mehmed II, guaranteed reliable communication between Asia and Europe. The most spectacular move of the Sultan was the ingenious crossing of part of his fleet from the Bosphorus to the Golden Horn through the hills, bypassing the chain stretched at the entrance to the bay. Thus, the cannons from the ships of the Sultan could bombard the city from the inner harbor. On May 29, 1453, a breach was made in the wall, and the Ottoman soldiers broke into Constantinople. On the third day, Mehmed II was already praying in Ayasofya and decided to make Istanbul (as the Ottomans called Constantinople) the capital of the empire.

Owning such a well-located city, Mehmed II controlled the position in the empire. In 1456, his attempt to take Belgrade ended unsuccessfully. Nevertheless, Serbia and Bosnia soon became provinces of the empire, and before his death, the Sultan managed to annex Herzegovina and Albania to his state. Mehmed II captured all of Greece, including the Peloponnese, with the exception of a few Venetian ports, and the largest islands in the Aegean. In Asia Minor, he finally managed to overcome the resistance of the rulers of Karaman, seize Cilicia, annex Trebizond (Trabzon) on the Black Sea coast to the empire and establish suzerainty over the Crimea. The Sultan recognized the authority of the Greek Orthodox Church and worked closely with the newly elected Patriarch. Previously, for two centuries, the population of Constantinople was constantly declining; Mehmed II moved many people from various parts of the country to the new capital and restored traditionally strong crafts and trade in it.

The heyday of the empire under Suleiman I.

The power of the Ottoman Empire reached its peak in the middle of the 16th century. The reign of Suleiman I the Magnificent (1520-1566) is considered the Golden Age of the Ottoman Empire. Suleiman I (previous Suleiman, son of Bayezid I, never ruled all of its territory) surrounded himself with many capable dignitaries. Most of them were recruited according to the devshirme system or captured during army campaigns and pirate raids, and by 1566, when Suleiman I died, these "new Turks", or "new Ottomans", already firmly held power over the entire empire in their hands. They formed the backbone of the administrative authorities, while the highest Muslim institutions were headed by the indigenous Turks. Theologians and jurists were recruited from among them, whose duties included interpreting laws and performing judicial functions.

Suleiman I, being the only son of a monarch, never faced any claims to the throne. He was an educated man who loved music, poetry, nature, and also philosophical discussions. And yet the military forced him to adhere to a militant policy. In 1521 the Ottoman army crossed the Danube and captured Belgrade. This victory, which Mehmed II could not achieve at one time, opened the way for the Ottomans to the plains of Hungary and to the basin of the upper Danube. In 1526 Suleiman took Budapest and occupied all of Hungary. In 1529, the sultan began the siege of Vienna, but was unable to capture the city before the onset of winter. Nevertheless, a vast territory from Istanbul to Vienna and from the Black Sea to the Adriatic Sea formed the European part of the Ottoman Empire, and Suleiman during his reign carried out seven military campaigns on the western borders of the state.

Suleiman fought in the east as well. The borders of his empire with Persia were not defined, and the vassal rulers in the border regions changed their masters, depending on which side the power was on and with whom it was more profitable to conclude an alliance. In 1534, Suleiman took Tabriz, and then Baghdad, including Iraq in the Ottoman Empire; in 1548 he regained Tabriz. The Sultan spent the entire 1549 in pursuit of the Persian Shah Tahmasp I, trying to fight him. While Suleiman was in Europe in 1553, Persian troops invaded Asia Minor and captured Erzurum. Having expelled the Persians and devoted most of 1554 to the conquest of the lands east of the Euphrates, Suleiman, according to the official peace treaty concluded with the shah, received a port in the Persian Gulf at his disposal. The squadrons of the naval forces of the Ottoman Empire operated in the waters of the Arabian Peninsula, in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez.

From the very beginning of his reign, Suleiman paid great attention to strengthening the maritime power of the state in order to maintain the superiority of the Ottomans in the Mediterranean. In 1522 his second campaign was directed against Fr. Rhodes, lying 19 km from the southwestern coast of Asia Minor. After the capture of the island and the eviction of the Joannites who owned it to Malta, the Aegean Sea and the entire coast of Asia Minor became Ottoman possessions. Soon, the French King Francis I turned to the Sultan for military assistance in the Mediterranean and with a request to oppose Hungary in order to stop the advance of the troops of Emperor Charles V, advancing on Francis in Italy. The most famous of Suleiman's naval commanders, Khairaddin Barbarossa, supreme ruler of Algeria and North Africa, devastated the coasts of Spain and Italy. Nevertheless, Suleiman's admirals failed to capture Malta in 1565.

Suleiman died in 1566 in Szigetvar during a campaign in Hungary. The body of the last of the great Ottoman sultans was transferred to Istanbul and buried in a mausoleum in the courtyard of the mosque.

Suleiman had several sons, but his beloved son died at the age of 21, two others were executed on charges of conspiracy, and the only remaining son, Selim II, turned out to be a drunkard. The conspiracy that destroyed Suleiman's family can be partly attributed to the jealousy of his wife, Roxelana, a former slave girl of either Russian or Polish origin. Another mistake of Suleiman was the elevation in 1523 of his beloved slave Ibrahim, who was appointed chief minister (grand vizier), although there were many other competent courtiers among the applicants. And although Ibrahim was a capable minister, his appointment violated the long-established system of palace relations and aroused the envy of other dignitaries.

Mid 16th century was the heyday of literature and architecture. More than a dozen mosques were erected in Istanbul under the guidance and designs of the architect Sinan, the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, dedicated to Selim II, became a masterpiece.

Under the new Sultan Selim II, the Ottomans began to lose their positions at sea. In 1571, the united Christian fleet met the Turkish in the battle of Lepanto and defeated it. During the winter of 1571-1572, the shipyards in Gelibolu and Istanbul worked tirelessly, and by the spring of 1572, thanks to the construction of new warships, the European naval victory was nullified. In 1573, the Venetians were defeated, and the island of Cyprus was annexed to the empire. Despite this, the defeat at Lepanto was an omen of the coming decline of Ottoman power in the Mediterranean.

Decline of the empire.

After Selim II, most of the Ottoman sultans were weak rulers. Murad III, Selim's son, reigned from 1574 to 1595. His tenure was accompanied by turmoil caused by palace slaves led by Grand Vizier Mehmed Sokolki and two harem factions: one led by the Sultan's mother Nur Banu, a Jewish convert to Islam, and the other by a beloved Safi's wife. The latter was the daughter of the Venetian governor of Corfu, who was captured by pirates and presented to Suleiman, who immediately gave her to his grandson Murad. However, the empire still had enough strength to move east to the Caspian Sea, as well as to maintain its position in the Caucasus and Europe.

After the death of Murad III, 20 of his sons remained. Of these, Mehmed III ascended the throne, strangling 19 of his brothers. His son Ahmed I, who succeeded him in 1603, tried to reform the system of government and get rid of corruption. He departed from the cruel tradition and did not kill his brother Mustafa. And although this, of course, was a manifestation of humanism, but since that time all the brothers of the sultans and their closest relatives from the Ottoman dynasty began to be imprisoned in a special part of the palace, where they spent their lives until the death of the ruling monarch. Then the eldest of them was proclaimed his successor. Thus, after Ahmed I, few of those who reigned in the 17th-18th centuries. sultans had a sufficient level of intellectual development or political experience to rule such a vast empire. As a result, the unity of the state and the central government itself began to weaken rapidly.

Mustafa I, brother of Ahmed I, was mentally ill and ruled for only one year. Osman II, the son of Ahmed I, was proclaimed the new sultan in 1618. Being an enlightened monarch, Osman II tried to transform state structures, but was killed by his opponents in 1622. For some time, the throne again went to Mustafa I, but already in 1623 Osman's brother Murad IV ascended the throne, who led the country until 1640. His reign was dynamic and resembled the reign of Selim I. Having reached adulthood in 1623, Murad spent the next eight years in relentless efforts to restore and reform the Ottoman Empire. In an effort to improve state structures, he executed 10,000 officials. Murad personally led his armies during the eastern campaigns, banned the consumption of coffee, tobacco and alcoholic beverages, but he himself showed a weakness for alcohol, which led the young ruler to death at the age of only 28 years.

Murad's successor, his mentally ill brother Ibrahim, managed to largely destroy the state he inherited before he was deposed in 1648. The conspirators put Ibrahim's six-year-old son Mehmed IV on the throne and actually led the country until 1656, when the Sultan's mother achieved the appointment of Grand Vizier with unlimited powers talented Mehmed Köprülü. He held this position until 1661, when his son Fazıl Ahmed Koprulu became vizier.

The Ottoman Empire nevertheless managed to overcome the period of chaos, extortion and crisis of state power. Europe was divided by the Wars of Religion and the Thirty Years' War, while Poland and Russia were in trouble. This made it possible for both Köprül, after the purge of the administration, during which 30,000 officials were executed, to capture the island of Crete in 1669, and in 1676 Podolia and other regions of Ukraine. After the death of Ahmed Koprulu, his place was taken by a mediocre and corrupt palace favorite. In 1683, the Ottomans laid siege to Vienna, but were defeated by the Poles and their allies, led by Jan Sobieski.

Leaving the Balkans.

The defeat at Vienna was the beginning of the retreat of the Turks in the Balkans. First, Budapest fell, and after the loss of Mohacs, all of Hungary fell under the rule of Vienna. In 1688 the Ottomans had to leave Belgrade, in 1689 Vidin in Bulgaria and Nish in Serbia. Thereafter Suleiman II (r. 1687–1691) appointed Mustafa Köprülü, Ahmed's brother, as grand vizier. The Ottomans managed to retake Nis and Belgrade, but they were utterly defeated by Prince Eugene of Savoy in 1697 near Senta, in the far north of Serbia.

Mustafa II (r. 1695–1703) attempted to recapture lost ground by appointing Hussein Köprülä as grand vizier. In 1699, the Karlovitsky Peace Treaty was signed, according to which the Peloponnese and Dalmatia peninsulas retreated to Venice, Austria received Hungary and Transylvania, Poland - Podolia, and Russia retained Azov. The Treaty of Karlovtsy was the first in a series of concessions that the Ottomans were forced to make as they left Europe.

During the 18th century The Ottoman Empire lost most of its power in the Mediterranean. In the 17th century The main opponents of the Ottoman Empire were Austria and Venice, and in the 18th century. – Austria and Russia.

In 1718, Austria, according to the Pozharevatsky (Passarovitsky) treaty, received a number of territories. Nevertheless, the Ottoman Empire, despite the defeats in the wars that it waged in the 1730s, according to the treaty signed in 1739 in Belgrade, regained this city, mainly due to the weakness of the Habsburgs and the intrigues of French diplomats.

Surrenders.

As a result of behind-the-scenes maneuvers of French diplomacy in Belgrade, in 1740 an agreement was concluded between France and the Ottoman Empire. Called "Surrenders", this document was for a long time the basis for the special privileges received by all states in the territory of the empire. The formal beginning of the agreements was laid as early as 1251, when the Mamluk sultans in Cairo recognized Saint Louis IX, King of France. Mehmed II, Bayezid II and Selim I confirmed this agreement and used it as a model in relations with Venice and other Italian city-states, Hungary, Austria and most other European countries. One of the most important was the agreement of 1536 between Suleiman I and the French king Francis I. In accordance with the agreement of 1740, the French received the right to move freely and trade on the territory of the Ottoman Empire under the full protection of the Sultan, their goods were not taxed, with the exception of import and export duties, French envoys and consuls acquired judicial power over compatriots who could not be arrested in the absence of a representative of the consulate. The French were given the right to erect and freely use their churches; the same privileges were reserved within the Ottoman Empire and for other Catholics. In addition, the French could take under their protection the Portuguese, Sicilians and citizens of other states who did not have ambassadors at the Sultan's court.

Further decline and attempts at reform.

The end of the Seven Years' War in 1763 marked the beginning of new attacks against the Ottoman Empire. Despite the fact that the French king Louis XV sent Baron de Totta to Istanbul to modernize the Sultan's army, the Ottomans were defeated by Russia in the Danube provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia and were forced to sign the Kyuchuk-Kaynarji peace treaty in 1774. Crimea gained independence, and Azov went to Russia, which recognized the border with the Ottoman Empire along the Bug River. The Sultan promised to provide protection for the Christians living in his empire, and allowed the presence in the capital of the Russian ambassador, who received the right to represent the interests of his Christian subjects. Starting from 1774 and up to the First World War, the Russian tsars referred to the Kyuchuk-Kaynardzhi agreement, justifying their role in the affairs of the Ottoman Empire. In 1779, Russia received rights to the Crimea, and in 1792 the Russian border was moved to the Dniester in accordance with the Iasi peace treaty.

Time dictated change. Ahmed III (r. 1703–1730) brought in architects who built him palaces and mosques in the style of Versailles and opened a printing press in Istanbul. The closest relatives of the Sultan were no longer kept in strict imprisonment, some of them began to study the scientific and political heritage Western Europe. However, Ahmed III was killed by the conservatives, and Mahmud I took his place, during which the Caucasus was lost, passed to Persia, and the retreat in the Balkans continued. One of the prominent sultans was Abdul-Hamid I. During his reign (1774-1789), reforms were made, French teachers and technical specialists were invited to Istanbul. France hoped to save the Ottoman Empire and keep Russia out of the Black Sea straits and the Mediterranean.

Selim III

(reigned 1789–1807). Selim III, who became sultan in 1789, formed a 12-member cabinet of ministers in the style of European governments, replenished the treasury and created a new military corps. He created new educational institutions designed to educate civil servants in the spirit of the ideas of the Enlightenment. Printed publications were again allowed, and the works of Western authors began to be translated into Turkish.

In the early years of the French Revolution, the Ottoman Empire was left alone with its problems by the European powers. Napoleon considered Selim as an ally, believing that after the defeat of the Mamluks, the sultan would be able to strengthen his power in Egypt. Nevertheless, Selim III declared war on France and sent his fleet and army to defend the province. Saved the Turks from defeat only the British fleet, located off Alexandria and off the coast of the Levant. This step of the Ottoman Empire involved it in the military and diplomatic affairs of Europe.

Meanwhile, in Egypt, after the departure of the French, Muhammad Ali, a native of the Macedonian city of Kavala, who served in the Turkish army, came to power. In 1805 he became governor of the province, which opened a new chapter in the history of Egypt.

After the conclusion of the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, relations with France were restored, and Selim III managed to maintain peace until 1806, when Russia invaded its Danubian provinces. England helped her ally Russia by sending her fleet through the Dardanelles, but Selim managed to speed up the restoration of defensive structures, and the British were forced to sail into the Aegean Sea. The French victories in Central Europe strengthened the position of the Ottoman Empire, but a rebellion began in the capital against Selim III. In 1807, during the absence of Bayraktar, the commander-in-chief of the imperial army, the sultan was deposed, and his cousin Mustafa IV took the throne. After the return of Bayraktar in 1808, Mustafa IV was executed, but before that, the rebels strangled Selim III, who was imprisoned. Mahmud II remained the only male representative of the ruling dynasty.

Mahmoud II

(reigned 1808–1839). Under him, in 1809, the Ottoman Empire and Great Britain concluded the famous Dardanelles Peace, which opened the Turkish market for British goods on the condition that Great Britain recognized the closed status of the Black Sea straits for military ships in peacetime for the Turks. Earlier, the Ottoman Empire agreed to join the continental blockade created by Napoleon, so the agreement was perceived as a violation of previous obligations. Russia began hostilities on the Danube and captured a number of cities in Bulgaria and Wallachia. Under the Treaty of Bucharest in 1812, significant territories were ceded to Russia, and she refused to support the rebels in Serbia. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the Ottoman Empire was recognized as a European power.

National Revolutions in the Ottoman Empire.

During the French Revolution, the country faced two new problems. One of them has been ripening for a long time: as the center weakened, the separated provinces eluded the power of the sultans. In Epirus, Ali Pasha Yaninsky, who ruled the province as sovereign and maintained diplomatic relations with Napoleon and other European monarchs, revolted. Similar actions also took place in Vidin, Sidon (modern Saida, Lebanon), Baghdad and other provinces, which undermined the power of the Sultan and reduced tax revenues to the imperial treasury. The strongest of the local rulers (pashas) eventually became Muhammad Ali in Egypt.

Another intractable problem for the country was the growth of the national liberation movement, especially among the Christian population of the Balkans. At the height of the French Revolution, Selim III in 1804 faced an uprising raised by the Serbs, led by Karageorgiy (George Petrovich). The Congress of Vienna (1814–1815) recognized Serbia as a semi-autonomous province within the Ottoman Empire, led by Miloš Obrenović, a rival of Karađorđe.

Almost immediately after the defeat of the French Revolution and the fall of Napoleon, Mahmud II faced the Greek national liberation revolution. Mahmud II had a chance to win, especially after he managed to convince the nominal vassal in Egypt, Muhammad Ali, to send his army and navy to support Istanbul. However, the Pasha's armed forces were defeated after the intervention of Great Britain, France and Russia. As a result of the breakthrough of Russian troops in the Caucasus and their offensive against Istanbul, Mahmud II had to sign the Treaty of Adrianople in 1829, which recognized the independence of the Kingdom of Greece. A few years later, the army of Muhammad Ali, under the command of his son Ibrahim Pasha, captured Syria and found itself dangerously close to the Bosphorus in Asia Minor. Mahmud II was rescued only by the Russian amphibious assault, which landed on the Asian coast of the Bosphorus as a warning to Muhammad Ali. After that, Mahmud never managed to get rid of Russian influence until he signed the humiliating Unkiyar-Iskelesi Treaty in 1833, which gave the Russian Tsar the right to “protect” the Sultan, as well as to close and open the Black Sea straits at his discretion for the passage of foreign military courts.

Ottoman Empire after the Congress of Vienna.

The period after the Congress of Vienna was probably the most destructive for the Ottoman Empire. Greece seceded; Egypt under Muhammad Ali, which, moreover, by capturing Syria and South Arabia, became virtually independent; Serbia, Wallachia and Moldavia became semi-autonomous territories. During the Napoleonic Wars, Europe significantly strengthened its military and industrial power. The weakening of the Ottoman state is attributed to a certain extent to the massacre of the Janissaries organized by Mahmud II in 1826.

By signing the Treaty of Unkiyar-Isklelesiy, Mahmud II hoped to buy time to transform the empire. His reforms were so tangible that travelers visiting Turkey in the late 1830s noted that more changes had taken place in the country in the last 20 years than in the previous two centuries. Instead of the Janissaries, Mahmud created a new army, trained and equipped according to the European model. Prussian officers were hired to train officers in the new military art. Fezzes and frock coats became the official attire of civil officials. Mahmud tried to introduce the latest methods developed in the young European states into all areas of government. It was possible to reorganize the financial system, streamline the activities of the judiciary, and improve the road network. Additional educational institutions were created, in particular, military and medical colleges. Newspapers began to be published in Istanbul and Izmir.

In the last year of his life, Mahmud again entered the war with his Egyptian vassal. Mahmud's army was defeated in northern Syria, and his fleet in Alexandria went over to the side of Muhammad Ali.

Abdul Mejid

(reigned 1839–1861). The eldest son and successor of Mahmud II, Abdul-Majid, was only 16 years old. Without an army and navy, he was helpless in the face of the superior forces of Muhammad Ali. He was saved by the diplomatic and military assistance of Russia, Great Britain, Austria and Prussia. France initially supported Egypt, but the concerted action of the European powers made it possible to find a way out of the deadlock: the pasha received the hereditary right to rule Egypt under the nominal suzerainty of the Ottoman sultans. This provision was legalized by the London Treaty of 1840 and confirmed by Abdul-Mejid in 1841. In the same year, the London Convention of the European Powers was concluded, according to which military ships were not to pass through the Dardanelles and the Bosporus in peacetime for the Ottoman Empire, and the powers that signed it took to the obligation to assist the Sultan in maintaining sovereignty over the Black Sea straits.

Tanzimat.

During the struggle with his powerful vassal, Abdulmejid in 1839 promulgated the khatt-i sherif (“sacred decree”), announcing the beginning of reforms in the empire, with which the chief minister Reshid Pasha spoke to the highest state dignitaries and invited ambassadors. The document abolished the death penalty without trial, guaranteed justice for all citizens regardless of their racial or religious affiliation, established a judicial council to adopt a new penal code, abolished the farming system, changed the methods of recruiting the army and limited the length of military service.

It became apparent that the empire was no longer capable of defending itself in the event of a military attack by any of the great European powers. Reshid Pasha, who previously served as ambassador to Paris and London, understood that certain steps must be taken to show the European states that the Ottoman Empire was capable of self-reformation and manageable, i.e. deserves to be preserved as an independent state. Hatt-i sheriff seemed to be the answer to the doubts of the Europeans. However, in 1841 Reshid was removed from office. In the next few years, his reforms were suspended, and only after his return to power in 1845 did they begin to be put into practice again with the support of the British ambassador, Stratford Canning. This period in the history of the Ottoman Empire, known as the tanzimat ("ordering"), included the reorganization of the system of government and the transformation of society in accordance with the ancient Muslim and Ottoman principles of tolerance. At the same time, education developed, the network of schools expanded, sons from famous families began to study in Europe. Many Ottomans began to lead a Western way of life. The number of published newspapers, books and magazines increased, and the younger generation professed new European ideals.

At the same time, foreign trade grew rapidly, but the influx of European industrial products had a negative impact on the finances and economy of the Ottoman Empire. Imports of British factory-made textiles disrupted artisanal textile production and siphoned gold and silver out of the state. Another blow to the economy was the signing in 1838 of the Balto-Liman Trade Convention, according to which import duties on goods imported into the empire were frozen at the level of 5%. This meant that foreign merchants could operate in the empire on an equal footing with local merchants. As a result, most of the trade in the country was in the hands of foreigners, who, in accordance with the "Surrenders", were released from the control of officials.

Crimean War.

The London Convention of 1841 abolished the special privileges that the Russian Emperor Nicholas I received under the secret annex to the Unkiyar-Iskelesi Treaty of 1833. Referring to the Kyuchuk-Kainarji Treaty of 1774, Nicholas I launched an offensive in the Balkans and demanded a special status and rights for Russian monks in holy places in Jerusalem and Palestine. After the refusal of Sultan Abdulmejid to satisfy these demands, the Crimean War began. Great Britain, France and Sardinia came to the aid of the Ottoman Empire. Istanbul became a forward base for the preparation of hostilities in the Crimea, and the influx of European sailors, army officers and civil officials left an indelible mark on Ottoman society. The Paris Treaty of 1856, which ended this war, declared the Black Sea a neutral zone. The European powers again recognized Turkish sovereignty over the Black Sea Straits, and the Ottoman Empire was admitted to the "Union of European States". Romania gained independence.

Bankruptcy of the Ottoman Empire.

After the Crimean War, the sultans began to borrow money from Western bankers. Back in 1854, having practically no external debt, the Ottoman government very quickly became bankrupt, and already in 1875 Sultan Abdulaziz owed almost one billion dollars in foreign currency to European bondholders.

In 1875 the Grand Vizier declared that the country was no longer able to pay the interest on its debts. Noisy protests and pressure from the European powers forced the Ottoman authorities to raise taxes in the provinces. Unrest began in Bosnia, Herzegovina, Macedonia and Bulgaria. The government sent troops to "appease" the rebels, during which unprecedented cruelty was shown that amazed the Europeans. In response, Russia sent volunteers to help the Balkan Slavs. At this time, a secret revolutionary society of the "New Ottomans" appeared in the country, advocating constitutional reforms in their homeland.

In 1876, Abdul-Aziz, who succeeded his brother Abdul-Mejid in 1861, was deposed for incompetence by Midhat Pasha and Avni Pasha, leaders of the liberal organization of the constitutionalists. On the throne they put Murad V, the eldest son of Abdul-Mejid, who turned out to be mentally ill and was removed in just a few months, and Abdul-Hamid II, another son of Abdul-Mejid, was placed on the throne.

Abdul Hamid II

(reigned 1876–1909). Abdul-Hamid II visited Europe, and many pinned great hopes on him for a liberal constitutional regime. However, at the time of his accession to the throne, Turkish influence in the Balkans was in danger despite the fact that the Ottoman forces managed to defeat the Bosnian and Serbian rebels. This development of events forced Russia to come out with the threat of open intervention, which was sharply opposed by Austria-Hungary and Great Britain. In December 1876, a conference of ambassadors was convened in Istanbul, at which Abdul-Hamid II announced the introduction of the constitution of the Ottoman Empire, which provided for the creation of an elected parliament, a government responsible to it, and other attributes of European constitutional monarchies. However, the brutal suppression of the uprising in Bulgaria nevertheless led in 1877 to a war with Russia. In this regard, Abdul-Hamid II suspended the operation of the Constitution for the period of the war. This situation continued until the Young Turk Revolution of 1908.

Meanwhile, at the front, the military situation was developing in favor of Russia, whose troops were already encamped under the walls of Istanbul. Great Britain managed to prevent the capture of the city by sending a fleet to the Sea of ​​Marmara and presenting an ultimatum to St. Petersburg demanding to stop hostilities. Initially, Russia imposed on the sultan the extremely unfavorable Treaty of San Stefano, according to which most of the European possessions of the Ottoman Empire became part of the new autonomous education- Bulgaria. Austria-Hungary and Great Britain opposed the terms of the treaty. All this prompted the German Chancellor Bismarck to convene the Berlin Congress in 1878, at which the size of Bulgaria was reduced, but the complete independence of Serbia, Montenegro and Romania was recognized. Cyprus went to Great Britain, and Bosnia and Herzegovina to Austria-Hungary. Russia received the fortresses of Ardahan, Kars and Batum (Batumi) in the Caucasus; to regulate navigation on the Danube, a commission was created from representatives of the Danubian states, and the Black Sea and the Black Sea straits again received the status provided for by the Treaty of Paris of 1856. The Sultan promised to equally fairly govern all his subjects, and the European powers considered that the Berlin Congress had solved the difficult Eastern problem forever.

During the 32-year reign of Abdul-Hamid II, the Constitution actually did not come into effect. One of the most important unresolved issues was the bankruptcy of the state. In 1881, under foreign control, the Office of the Ottoman Public Debt was created, which was made responsible for the payments on European bonds. Within a few years, confidence in the financial stability of the Ottoman Empire was restored, which contributed to the participation of foreign capital in the construction of such large projects as the Anatolian Railway, which connected Istanbul with Baghdad.

Young Turk Revolution.

During these years, national uprisings took place in Crete and Macedonia. In Crete, bloody clashes took place in 1896 and 1897, which led to the empire's war with Greece in 1897. After 30 days of fighting, the European powers intervened to save Athens from capture by the Ottoman army. Public opinion in Macedonia leaned towards either independence or union with Bulgaria.

It became obvious that the future of the state was connected with the Young Turks. The ideas of national upsurge were propagated by some journalists, the most talented of whom was Namik Kemal. Abdul-Hamid tried to suppress this movement with arrests, exiles and executions. At the same time, secret Turkish societies flourished in military headquarters around the country and in places as far away as Paris, Geneva, and Cairo. The most effective organization turned out to be the secret committee "Unity and Progress", which was created by the "Young Turks".

In 1908, the troops stationed in Macedonia rebelled and demanded the implementation of the Constitution of 1876. Abdul-Hamid was forced to agree to this, unable to use force. Parliamentary elections and the formation of a government from those responsible before this followed. legislature ministers. In April 1909, a counter-revolutionary rebellion broke out in Istanbul, which, however, was quickly suppressed by armed units that arrived in time from Macedonia. Abdul-Hamid was deposed and sent into exile, where he died in 1918. His brother Mehmed V was proclaimed Sultan.

Balkan wars.

The Young Turk government soon faced internal strife and new territorial losses in Europe. In 1908, as a result of the revolution that took place in the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria proclaimed its independence, and Austria-Hungary seized Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Young Turks were powerless to prevent these events, and in 1911 they found themselves embroiled in a conflict with Italy, which had invaded the territory of modern Libya. The war ended in 1912 when the provinces of Tripoli and Cyrenaica became an Italian colony. In early 1912, Crete allied itself with Greece, and later that year, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bulgaria launched the First Balkan War against the Ottoman Empire.

Within a few weeks, the Ottomans lost all their possessions in Europe, with the exception of Istanbul, Edirne and Ioannina in Greece and Scutari (modern Shkodra) in Albania. The great European powers, anxiously watching how the balance of power in the Balkans was being destroyed, demanded a cessation of hostilities and a conference. The Young Turks refused to surrender the cities, and in February 1913 the fighting resumed. In a few weeks, the Ottoman Empire completely lost its European possessions, with the exception of the Istanbul zone and the straits. The Young Turks were forced to agree to a truce and formally give up the already lost lands. However, the victors immediately began an internecine war. The Ottomans entered into a clash with Bulgaria in order to return Edirne and the European regions adjacent to Istanbul. The Second Balkan War ended in August 1913 with the signing of the Treaty of Bucharest, but a year later the First World War broke out.

World War I and the end of the Ottoman Empire.

Developments after 1908 weakened the Young Turk government and isolated it politically. It tried to correct this situation by offering alliances to the stronger European powers. On August 2, 1914, shortly after the start of the war in Europe, the Ottoman Empire entered into a secret alliance with Germany. With Turkish side the pro-German Enver Pasha, a leading member of the Young Turk triumvirate and Minister of War, participated in the negotiations. A few days later, two German cruisers "Goeben" and "Breslau" took refuge in the straits. The Ottoman Empire acquired these warships, sailed them into the Black Sea in October and fired at Russian ports, thus declaring war on the Entente.

In the winter of 1914–1915, the Ottoman army suffered huge losses when Russian troops entered Armenia. Fearing that local residents would come out on their side there, the government authorized the massacre of the Armenian population in eastern Anatolia, which many researchers later called the Armenian genocide. Thousands of Armenians were deported to Syria. In 1916, the Ottoman rule in Arabia came to an end: the uprising was raised by the sheriff of Mecca, Hussein ibn Ali, supported by the Entente. As a result of these events, the Ottoman government finally collapsed, although Turkish troops, with German support, achieved a number of important victories: in 1915 they managed to repel the Entente attack on the Dardanelles, and in 1916 they captured the British corps in Iraq and stopped the advance of the Russians in the east. During the war, the Capitulation regime was canceled and customs tariffs were raised to protect domestic trade. The Turks took over the business of the evicted national minorities, which helped create the nucleus of a new Turkish commercial and industrial class. In 1918, when the Germans were withdrawn to defend the Hindenburg Line, the Ottoman Empire began to suffer defeat. On October 30, 1918, Turkish and British representatives concluded a truce, according to which the Entente received the right to "occupy any strategic points" of the empire and control the Black Sea straits.

The collapse of the empire.

The fate of most of the provinces of the Ottoman state was determined in the secret treaties of the Entente during the war. The Sultanate agreed to the separation of regions with a predominantly non-Turkish population. Istanbul was occupied by forces that had their own areas of responsibility. Russia was promised the Black Sea straits, including Istanbul, but the October Revolution led to the annulment of these agreements. In 1918, Mehmed V died, and his brother Mehmed VI took the throne, who, although he retained the government in Istanbul, actually became dependent on the Allied occupying forces. Problems were growing in the interior of the country, far from the places of deployment of the Entente troops and government institutions subordinate to the Sultan. Detachments of the Ottoman army, wandering around the vast outskirts of the empire, refused to lay down their arms. British, French and Italian military contingents occupied various parts of Turkey. With the support of the Entente fleet in May 1919, Greek armed formations landed in Izmir and began to advance deep into Asia Minor in order to protect the Greeks in Western Anatolia. Finally, in August 1920, the Treaty of Sevres was signed. Not a single area of ​​the Ottoman Empire remained free from foreign supervision. An international commission was created to control the Black Sea Straits and Istanbul. After riots broke out in early 1920 as a result of the growth of national sentiment, British troops entered Istanbul.

Mustafa Kemal and the Lausanne Peace Treaty.

In the spring of 1920, Mustafa Kemal, the most successful Ottoman commander of the war period, convened a Grand National Assembly in Ankara. He arrived from Istanbul in Anatolia on May 19, 1919 (the date from which the Turkish national liberation struggle began), where he united patriotic forces around him, striving to preserve Turkish statehood and the independence of the Turkish nation. From 1920 to 1922 Kemal and his supporters defeated the enemy armies in the east, south and west and made peace with Russia, France and Italy. At the end of August 1922, the Greek army retreated in disorder to Izmir and the coastal regions. Then the detachments of Kemal went to the Black Sea Straits, where the British troops were located. After the British Parliament refused to support the proposal to start hostilities, British Prime Minister Lloyd George resigned, and the war was averted by the signing of a truce in the Turkish city of Mudanya. The British government invited the Sultan and Kemal to send their representatives to a peace conference, which opened in Lausanne (Switzerland) on November 21, 1922. However, the Grand National Assembly in Ankara abolished the Sultanate, and Mehmed VI, the last Ottoman monarch, left Istanbul on a British warship on November 17.

On July 24, 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, which recognized the complete independence of Turkey. The Office of the Ottoman Public Debt and Capitulations were abolished, and foreign control over the country was abolished. At the same time, Turkey agreed to demilitarize the Black Sea straits. The province of Mosul, with its oil fields, went to Iraq. It was planned to carry out an exchange of population with Greece, from which the Greeks living in Istanbul and the West Thracian Turks were excluded. On October 6, 1923, British troops left Istanbul, and on October 29, 1923, Turkey was proclaimed a republic, and Mustafa Kemal was elected its first president.



• Anatolia (Asia Minor), where Turkey is located, was the cradle of many civilizations in ancient times. By the time the ancestors of the modern Turks arrived, the Byzantine Empire existed here - a Greek Orthodox state with its capital in Constantinople (Istanbul). The Arab caliphs who fought with the Byzantines invited the Turkic tribes to military service, who were allocated border and empty lands for settlement.
• In the state of the Seljuk Turks arose with a capital in Konya, which gradually expanded its borders to almost the entire territory of Asia Minor. Destroyed by the Mongols.
• In the lands conquered from the Byzantines, the Turkish sultanate was founded with its capital in the city of Bursa. The Janissaries became the mainstay of the power of the Turkish sultans.
• The Turks, having conquered lands in Europe, moved the capital to the city of Adrianople (Edirne). Turkey's European possessions were named Rumelia.
• The Turks took Constantinople (see Fall of Constantinople) and made it the capital of the empire.
• Under Selim the Terrible, Turkey conquered Syria, Arabia and Egypt. The Turkish sultan deposed the last caliph in Cairo and became caliph himself.
• The Battle of Mohacs took place, during which the Turks defeated the Czech-Hungarian army and occupied Hungary and approached the walls of Vienna. At the height of its power, in the reign of Suleiman "the Magnificent" (-), the empire stretched from the gates of Vienna to the Persian Gulf, from the Crimea to Morocco.
• The Turks captured Ukrainian territories west of the Dnieper.

Rise of an empire

The Ottomans clashed with the Serbian rulers and won victories at Chernomen () and Savra ().

Battle of Kosovo

Early 15th century

A strong opponent of him was the Albanian hostage Iskander-beg (or Skanderbeg), brought up at the Ottoman court and former favorite of Murad, who converted to Islam and contributed to its spread in Albania. Then he wanted to make a new attack on Constantinople, not dangerous to him militarily, but very valuable in its geographical position. Death prevented him from fulfilling this plan, carried out by his son Mehmed II (1451-81).

Capture of Constantinople

The pretext for the war was the fact that Constantine Palaiologos, the Byzantine emperor, did not want to give Mehmed his relative Orhan (son of Suleiman, grandson of Bayazet), whom he reserved for inciting unrest, as a possible contender for the Ottoman throne. In the power of the Byzantine emperor was only a small strip of land along the banks of the Bosporus; the number of his troops did not exceed 6000, and the nature of the management of the empire made it even weaker. Many Turks already lived in the city itself; the Byzantine government had to allow the construction of Muslim mosques next to Orthodox churches, starting from the year. Only the extremely convenient geographical position of Constantinople and strong fortifications made it possible to resist.

Mehmed II sent an army of 150,000 against the city. and a fleet of 420 small sailing ships that blocked the entrance to the Golden Horn. The armament of the Greeks and their military art was somewhat higher than the Turkish, but the Ottomans also managed to arm themselves quite well. Murad II also set up several factories for casting cannons and making gunpowder, which were managed by Hungarian and other Christian engineers who converted to Islam for the benefits of renegacy. Many of the Turkish guns made a lot of noise, but did no real harm to the enemy; some of them exploded and killed a significant number of Turkish soldiers. Mehmed began preliminary siege work in the autumn of 1452, and in April 1453 he began a regular siege. The Byzantine government turned to the Christian powers for help; the pope hastened to answer with the promise of preaching a crusade against the Turks, if Byzantium would only agree to the unification of the churches; the Byzantine government indignantly rejected this proposal. Of the other powers, Genoa alone sent a small squadron with 6,000 men. under the command of Giustiniani. The squadron bravely broke through the Turkish blockade and landed troops on the coast of Constantinople, which doubled the forces of the besieged. The siege continued for two months. A significant part of the population lost their heads and, instead of joining the ranks of the fighters, prayed in churches; the army, both Greek and Genoese, resisted extremely courageously. At its head was the emperor Constantine Palaiologos, who fought with the courage of despair and died in a skirmish. On May 29, the Ottomans opened the city.

Rise of Ottoman power (1453-1614)

The conquest of Greece brought the Turks into conflict with Venice, which entered into a coalition with Naples, the Pope and Karaman (an independent Muslim khanate in Asia Minor, ruled by Khan Uzun Hasan).

The war lasted 16 years in Morea, in the Archipelago and in Asia Minor at the same time (1463-79) and ended with the victory of the Ottoman state. Venice, according to the Peace of Constantinople in 1479, ceded to the Ottomans several cities in Morea, the island of Lemnos and other islands of the Archipelago (Negropont was captured by the Turks back in the city); The Karaman Khanate recognized the authority of the Sultan. After the death of Skanderbeg (), the Turks captured Albania, then Herzegovina. In the city they waged war with the Crimean Khan Mengli Giray and forced him to recognize himself as dependent on the Sultan. This victory was of great military importance for the Turks, since the Crimean Tatars supplied them with an auxiliary army, at times 100 thousand people; but subsequently it became fatal for the Turks, as it brought them into conflict with Russia and Poland. In 1476, the Ottomans devastated Moldova and made it a vassal.

This ended the period of conquests for a while. The Ottomans owned the entire Balkan Peninsula up to the Danube and the Sava, almost all the islands of the Archipelago and Asia Minor to Trebizond and almost to the Euphrates, beyond the Danube, Wallachia and Moldavia were also in strong dependence on them. Everywhere was ruled either directly by the Ottoman officials, or by local rulers, who were approved by the Porte and were completely subordinate to her.

Reign of Bayazet II

None of the previous sultans did so much to expand the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire as Mehmed II, who remained in history with the nickname "Conqueror". He was succeeded by his son Bayazet II (1481-1512) in the midst of unrest. The younger brother Jem, relying on the Grand Vizier Mogamet-Karamaniya and taking advantage of the absence of Bayazet from Constantinople at the time of his father's death, proclaimed himself sultan.

Bayazet gathered the remaining loyal troops; hostile armies met at Angora. The victory remained with the elder brother; Cem fled to Rhodes, from there to Europe, and after long wanderings found himself in the hands of Pope Alexander VI, who offered Bayazet to poison his brother for 300,000 ducats. Bayazet accepted the offer, paid the money, and Jem was poisoned (). The reign of Bayazet was marked by several more uprisings of his sons, which ended (except for the last one) safely for their father; Bayazet took the rebels and executed them. Nevertheless, Turkish historians characterize Bayazet as a peace-loving and meek person, a patron of art and literature.

Indeed, there was some halt in the Ottoman conquests, but more due to failure than to the peacefulness of the government. Bosnian and Serbian pashas repeatedly raided Dalmatia, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola and subjected them to severe devastation; several attempts were made to take Belgrade, but to no avail. The death of Matthew Corvinus (), caused anarchy in Hungary and seemed to favor the plans of the Ottomans against this state.

The long war, waged with some interruptions, ended, however, not particularly favorably for the Turks. According to the peace concluded in the city, Hungary defended all its possessions and although it had to recognize the right of the Ottoman Empire to tribute from Moldavia and Wallachia, it did not renounce the supreme rights to these two states (rather in theory than in reality). In Greece, Navarino (Pylos), Modon and Coron () were conquered.

By the time of Bayazet II, the first relations of the Ottoman state with Russia date back: in the city of Constantinople, ambassadors of the Grand Duke Ivan III appeared in order to ensure unhindered trade in the Ottoman Empire for Russian merchants. Other European powers also entered into friendly relations with Bayazet, especially Naples, Venice, Florence, Milan and the pope, seeking his friendship; Bayazet skillfully balanced between everyone.

His main focus was on the East. He started a war with Persia, but did not have time to finish it; in the city, his youngest son Selim rebelled against him at the head of the Janissaries, defeated him and overthrew him from the throne. Bayazet soon died, most likely from poison; Other relatives of Selim were also exterminated.

Reign of Selim I

The war in Asia continued under Selim I (1512-20). In addition to the usual desire of the Ottomans to conquer, this war also had a religious reason: the Turks were Sunnis, Selim, as an extreme zealot of Sunnism, passionately hated Persian Shiites, on his orders, up to 40,000 Shiites living on Ottoman territory were destroyed. The war was fought with varying success, but the final victory, although far from complete, was on the side of the Turks. By peace, the city of Persia ceded to the Ottoman Empire the regions of Diyarbakir and Mosul, lying along the upper reaches of the Tigris.

The Egyptian Sultan Kansu-Gavri sent an embassy to Selim with an offer of peace. Selim ordered to kill all the members of the embassy. Kansu stepped forward to meet him; the battle took place in the valley of Dolbec. Thanks to his artillery, Selim won a complete victory; the Mamluks fled, Kansu died during the escape. Damascus opened the gates to the winner; after him, all of Syria submitted to the sultan, and Mecca and Medina surrendered under his protection (). The new Egyptian sultan Tuman Bay, after several defeats, had to cede Cairo to the Turkish vanguard; but at night he entered the city and exterminated the Turks. Selim, not being able to take Cairo without a stubborn struggle, invited its inhabitants to surrender to capitulation with the promise of their favors; the inhabitants surrendered - and Selim carried out a terrible massacre in the city. Tuman Bey was also beheaded when, during the retreat, he was defeated and captured ().

Selim reproached him for not wanting to submit to him, the ruler of the faithful, and developed a bold theory in the mouth of a Muslim, according to which he, as the ruler of Constantinople, is the heir to the Eastern Roman Empire and, therefore, has the right to all the lands, ever included in its composition.

Realizing the impossibility of governing Egypt exclusively through his pashas, ​​who in the end would inevitably have to become independent, Selim kept next to them 24 Mameluke leaders, who were considered subordinate to the pasha, but enjoyed a certain independence and could complain about the pasha to Constantinople. Selim was one of the most cruel Ottoman sultans; in addition to his father and brothers, in addition to countless captives, he executed seven of his grand viziers during the eight years of his reign. At the same time, he patronized literature and himself left a significant number of Turkish and Arabic poems. In the memory of the Turks, he remained with the nickname Yavuz (inflexible, stern).

Reign of Suleiman I

Union with France

The closest neighbor of the Ottoman state and the most dangerous enemy Austria was hers, and it was risky to enter into a serious struggle with her without enlisting anyone's support. The natural ally of the Ottomans in this struggle was France. The first relations between the Ottoman Empire and France began as early as in the city; since then, both states have exchanged embassies several times, but this did not lead to practical results. In 1517, the French king Francis I offered the German emperor and Ferdinand the Catholic an alliance against the Turks in order to expel them from Europe and divide their possessions, but this alliance did not take place : the interests of these European powers were too opposed to each other. On the contrary, France and the Ottoman Empire did not come into contact with each other anywhere and they had no immediate reasons for enmity. Therefore, France, which once took such an ardent part in the crusades, decided on a bold step: a real military alliance with a Muslim power against a Christian power. The last impetus was given by the unfortunate battle of Pavia for the French, during which the king was captured. The regent Louise of Savoy sent an embassy to Constantinople in February 1525, but it was beaten by the Turks in Bosnia, no doubt against the wishes of the Sultan. Not embarrassed by this event, Francis I from captivity sent an envoy to the Sultan with an offer of alliance; the sultan was to attack Hungary, and Francis promised war with Spain. At the same time, Charles V made similar proposals to the Ottoman Sultan, but the Sultan preferred an alliance with France.

Shortly thereafter, Francis sent a request to Constantinople to allow the restoration of at least one catholic church, but received a decisive refusal from the Sultan in the name of the principles of Islam, along with the promise of all protection for Christians and the protection of their safety ().

Military successes

Mahmud I's reign

Under Mahmud I (1730-54), who was an exception among the Ottoman sultans with his mildness and humanity (he did not kill the deposed sultan and his sons and generally avoided executions), the war with Persia continued, without definite results. The war with Austria ended with the Peace of Belgrade (1739), according to which the Turks received Serbia with Belgrade and Orsova. Russia acted more successfully against the Ottomans, but the conclusion of peace by the Austrians forced the Russians to make concessions; of its conquests, Russia retained only Azov, but with the obligation to tear down the fortifications.

During the reign of Mahmud, the first Turkish printing house was founded by Ibrahim Basmaji. The mufti, after some hesitation, gave a fatwa, with which, in the name of the interests of enlightenment, he blessed the undertaking, and the sultan allowed it as a gatti-sheriff. It was only forbidden to print the Koran and holy books. During the first period of the existence of the printing house, 15 works were printed in it (Arabic and Persian dictionaries, several books on the history of the Ottoman state and general geography, military art, political economy, etc.). After the death of Ibrahim Basmaji, the printing house was closed, a new one appeared only in the city of Ibrahim.

Mahmud I, who died of natural causes, was succeeded by his brother Osman III (1754-57), whose reign was peaceful and who died in the same way as his brother.

Reform attempts (1757-1839)

The reign of Abdul-Hamid I

The empire at this time was almost everywhere in a state of ferment. The Greeks, excited by Orlov, were worried, but, left without help by the Russians, they were soon and easily pacified and severely punished. Ahmed Pasha of Baghdad declared himself independent; Taher, supported by Arab nomads, accepted the title of Sheikh of Galilee and Acre; Egypt under the rule of Muhammad Ali did not even think of paying tribute; Northern Albania, which was ruled by Mahmud, Pasha of Scutari, was in a state of complete revolt; Ali, the Pasha of Yaninsky, clearly aspired to establish an independent kingdom.

The entire reign of Adbul-Hamid was occupied with the suppression of these uprisings, which could not be achieved due to the lack of money and a disciplined army from the Ottoman government. This was joined by a new war with Russia and Austria (1787-91), again unsuccessful for the Ottomans. It ended with the Treaty of Jassy with Russia (1792), according to which Russia finally acquired the Crimea and the space between the Bug and the Dniester, and the Treaty of Sistov with Austria (1791). The latter was comparatively favorable for the Ottoman Empire, since its main enemy, Joseph II, died, and Leopold II directed all his attention to France. Austria returned to the Ottomans most of the acquisitions she made in this war. Peace was already concluded under the nephew of Abdul Hamid, Selim III (1789-1807). In addition to territorial losses, the war made one significant change in the life of the Ottoman state: before it began (1785), the empire entered into its first public debt, first internal, guaranteed by some state revenues.

Reign of Selim III

Kuchuk-Hussein moved against Pasvan-Oglu and waged a real war with him, which did not have a definite result. The government finally entered into negotiations with the rebellious governor and recognized his lifelong rights to rule the Vidda Pashalik, in fact, on the basis of almost complete independence.

As soon as the war with the French ended (1801), an uprising of the Janissaries began in Belgrade, dissatisfied with the reforms in the army. Harassment on their part caused a popular movement in Serbia () under the command of Karageorgi. The government supported the movement at first, but it soon took the form of a real popular uprising, and the Ottoman Empire had to start hostilities. The matter was complicated by the war started by Russia (1806-1812). The reforms had to be postponed again: the grand vizier and other senior officials and the military were in the theater of operations.

coup attempt

Only the kaymaqam (assistant to the grand vizier) and the deputy ministers remained in Constantinople. Sheikh-ul-Islam took advantage of this moment to plot against the Sultan. Ulema and Janissaries took part in the conspiracy, among whom rumors spread about the intention of the Sultan to disperse them into regiments of the standing army. The kaimaks also joined the conspiracy. On the appointed day, a detachment of Janissaries unexpectedly attacked the garrison of the standing army stationed in Constantinople, and carried out a massacre among them. Another part of the Janissaries surrounded Selim's palace and demanded from him the execution of persons they hated. Selim had the courage to refuse. He was arrested and taken into custody. The son of Abdul-Hamid, Mustafa IV (1807-08), was proclaimed Sultan. The massacre in the city continued for two days. On behalf of the powerless Mustafa, sheikh-ul-Islam and kaymaks ruled. But Selim had his adherents.

Even in the territory that remained with the empire, the government did not feel confident. In Serbia, an uprising began in the city, which ended only after the recognition of Serbia by the Peace of Adrianople as a separate vassal state, with its own prince at the head. In the city, the uprising of Ali Pasha Yaninsky began. As a result of the betrayal of his own sons, he was defeated, captured and executed; but a significant part of his army formed a cadre of Greek rebels. In the city, an uprising that developed into a war of independence began in Greece. After the intervention of Russia, France and England and the unfortunate Navarino (sea) battle for the Ottoman Empire (), in which the Turkish and Egyptian fleets perished, the Ottomans lost Greece.

Army reform

In the midst of these uprisings, Mahmud decided on a bold reform of the army of the Janissaries. The corps of the Janissaries was replenished with annual sets of 1000 Christian children annually (in addition, service in the army of the Janissaries was inherited, because the Janissaries had families), but at the same time it was reduced due to constant wars and rebellions. Under Suleiman, there were 40,000 Janissaries, under Mehmed III - 1,016,000. During the reign of Mehmed IV, an attempt was made to limit the number of Janissaries to 55 thousand, but it failed due to their rebellion, and by the end of the reign their number rose to 200 thousand. Under Mahmud II, it was probably even greater (salaries were issued for more than 400,000 people), but it is absolutely impossible to determine it precisely because of the complete lack of discipline of the Janissaries.

The number of orts or ods (detachments) was 229, of which 77 were in Constantinople; but the aghas (officers) themselves did not know the true composition of their odes and tried to exaggerate it, since in accordance with it they received a salary for the Janissaries, partly remaining in their pockets. Sometimes, for whole years, salaries, especially in the provinces, were not paid at all, and then even this incentive to collect statistical data disappeared. When a rumor about the reform project was spread, the leaders of the Janissaries at the meeting decided to demand from the Sultan the execution of its authors; but the sultan, who foresaw this, moved a standing army against them, distributed weapons to the population of the capital, and declared a religious war against the Janissaries.

There was a battle in the streets of Constantinople and in the barracks; supporters of the government broke into homes and exterminated the Janissaries with their wives and children; taken by surprise, the Janissaries almost did not resist. At least 10,000, and according to more reliable information - up to 20,000 Janissaries were exterminated; corpses are thrown into the Bosporus. The rest fled across the country and joined the robber gangs. In the provinces, arrests and executions of officers were carried out on a large scale, while a mass of Janissaries surrendered and were dispersed into regiments.

Following the Janissaries, on the basis of the fatwa, the mufti was partly executed, partly expelled Bektashi dervishes, who always served as faithful companions of the Janissaries.

Military casualties

Getting rid of the Janissaries and Dervishes () did not save the Turks from defeat both in the war with the Serbs and in the war with the Greeks. These two wars and in connection with them were followed by the war with Russia (1828-29), which ended with the Peace of Adrianople in 1829. The Ottoman Empire lost Serbia, Moldavia, Wallachia, Greece, and the eastern coast of the Black Sea.

Following that, Muhammad Ali, the Khedive of Egypt (1831-1833 and 1839), broke away from the Ottoman Empire. In the struggle against the latter, the empire suffered blows that put its very existence at stake; but twice (1833 and 1839) she was saved by the unexpected intercession of Russia, caused by the fear of a European war, which would probably be caused by the collapse of the Ottoman state. However, this intercession brought real benefits to Russia: around the world in Gunkyar Skelessi (), the Ottoman Empire provided Russian ships with passage through the Dardanelles, closing it to England. At the same time, the French decided to take away Algeria (from the city) from the Ottomans, and earlier, however, was only nominally dependent on the empire.

Civil reforms

The wars did not stop the reformist plans of Mahmud; private transformations in the army continued throughout his reign. He also cared about raising the level of education among the people; with it () began to go to French the first newspaper in the Ottoman Empire, which had an official character ("Moniteur ottoman"), then () the first Ottoman official newspaper, too, "Takvim-i-vekai" - "Diary of Incidents".

Like Peter the Great, perhaps even consciously imitating him, Mahmud sought to introduce European mores into the people; he himself wore a European costume and encouraged his officials to do so, forbade the wearing of a turban, arranged festivities in Constantinople and other cities with fireworks, with European music, and in general according to the European model. Before the most important reforms of the civil system, conceived by him, he did not live; they were already the work of his heir. But even the little that he did went against the religious feelings of the Muslim population. He began to mint a coin with his image, which is directly prohibited in the Koran (the news that previous sultans also took portraits of themselves is highly doubtful).

Throughout his reign, in different parts of the state, especially in Constantinople, revolts of Muslims caused by religious feelings incessantly occurred; the government dealt with them extremely cruelly: sometimes 4,000 corpses were thrown into the Bosphorus in a few days. At the same time, Mahmud did not hesitate to execute even the ulema and dervishes, who were generally his fierce enemies.

During the reign of Mahmud there were especially many fires in Constantinople, partly due to arson; the people explained them as God's punishment for the sins of the sultan.

Board results

The extermination of the Janissaries, which at first damaged the Ottoman Empire, depriving it of a bad, but still not useless army, after a few years turned out to be in the highest degree beneficial: the Ottoman army rose to the heights of the European armies, which was clearly proved in the Crimean campaign and even more so in the war of 1877-78 and in the Greek war. Territorial reduction, especially the loss of Greece, also turned out to be more beneficial for the empire than harmful.

The Ottomans never allowed military service for Christians; areas with a continuous Christian population (Greece and Serbia), without increasing the Turkish army, at the same time required significant military garrisons from it, which could not be set in motion in a moment of need. This applies especially to Greece, which, due to its extended maritime frontier, did not even represent strategic advantages for the Ottoman Empire, which was stronger on land than at sea. The loss of territories reduced the state revenues of the empire, but in the reign of Mahmud, the trade of the Ottoman Empire with European states, the country's productivity rose slightly (bread, tobacco, grapes, rose oil, etc.).

Thus, despite all external defeats, despite even the terrible battle of Nizib, in which Muhammad Ali destroyed a significant Ottoman army and which was followed by the loss of an entire fleet, Mahmud left Abdul-Majid with a state strengthened rather than weakened. It was strengthened by the fact that henceforth the interest of the European powers was more closely connected with the preservation of the Ottoman state. The significance of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles has increased unusually; The European powers felt that the capture of Constantinople by one of them would deal an irreparable blow to the rest, and therefore they considered it more profitable for themselves to preserve the weak Ottoman Empire.

In general, the empire nevertheless decayed, and Nicholas I rightly called it a sick person; but the death of the Ottoman state was postponed indefinitely. Beginning with the Crimean War, the empire began to intensively make foreign loans, and this acquired for it the influential support of its many creditors, that is, mainly the financiers of England. On the other side, internal reforms, which could raise the state and save it from destruction, became in the XIX century. more and more difficult. Russia was afraid of these reforms, as they could strengthen the Ottoman Empire, and through its influence at the court of the Sultan tried to make them impossible; so, in 1876-77, she killed Midkhad Pasha, who turned out to be able to carry out serious reforms that were not inferior in importance to the reforms of Sultan Mahmud.

Reign of Abdul-Mejid (1839-1861)

Mahmud was succeeded by his 16-year-old son Abdul-Mejid, who was not distinguished by his energy and inflexibility, but who was a much more cultured and gentle person.

Despite everything done by Mahmud, the battle of Nizib could have completely destroyed the Ottoman Empire if Russia, England, Austria and Prussia had not concluded an alliance to protect the integrity of the Port (); they drew up a treatise by virtue of which the Egyptian viceroy retained Egypt at the hereditary beginning, but undertook to immediately clear Syria, and in case of refusal he had to lose all his possessions. This alliance aroused indignation in France, which supported Muhammad Ali, and Thiers even made preparations for war; however, Louis-Philippe did not dare to do so. Despite the inequality of forces, Muhammad Ali was ready to resist; but the English squadron bombarded Beirut, burned the Egyptian fleet and landed in Syria a corps of 9000 people, who, with the help of the Maronites, inflicted several defeats on the Egyptians. Muhammad Ali relented; The Ottoman Empire was saved, and Abdulmejid, supported by Khozrev Pasha, Reshid Pasha and other associates of his father, began reforms.

Gulhane Hutt Sheriff

• providing all subjects with perfect security regarding their life, honor and property;
• The right way distribution and collection of taxes;
• an equally correct way to recruit soldiers.

It was recognized as necessary to change the distribution of taxes in the sense of their equalization and to abandon the system of handing them over, to determine the costs of land and sea forces; the publicity of legal proceedings was established. All these benefits extended to all subjects of the Sultan without distinction of religion. The Sultan himself took an oath of allegiance to the Hatti Sheriff. The only thing left to do was keep the promise.

Tanzimat

The reform carried out during the reign of Abdul-Mejid and, in part, his successor Abdul-Aziz, is known as tanzimat (from Arabic tanzim - order, structure; sometimes the epithet khairiya is added - beneficent). The tanzimat includes a number of measures: the continuation of the reform of the army, the new division of the empire into vilayets, ruled according to one common model, the establishment of a state council, the establishment of provincial councils (mejlis), the first attempts to transfer public education from the hands of the clergy to the hands of secular authorities, the criminal code of 1840 city, trade code, establishment of the ministries of justice and public education (), charter of commercial legal proceedings (1860).

In 1858, the trade in slaves within the Ottoman Empire was prohibited, although slavery itself was not prohibited (formally, slavery was only abolished with the announcement of the Turkish Republic in the 20th century).

Humayun

Was besieged by the rebels. Volunteer detachments moved from Montenegro and Serbia to help the rebels. The movement aroused great interest abroad, especially in Russia and in Austria; the latter appealed to the Porte demanding religious equality, tax cuts, revision of laws on real estate, and so on. The Sultan immediately promised to fulfill all this (February 1876), but the rebels did not agree to lay down their weapons until the Ottoman troops were withdrawn from Herzegovina. The fermentation also spread to Bulgaria, where the Ottomans, in the form of a response, carried out a terrible massacre (see Bulgaria), which caused indignation throughout Europe (Gladstone's pamphlet on atrocities in Bulgaria), entire villages were completely slaughtered, including infants. The Bulgarian uprising was drowned in blood, but the Herzegovinian and Bosnian uprising continued into 1876 and finally caused the intervention of Serbia and Montenegro (1876-77; see.

Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine

National University of Internal Affairs

Test

on the course “History of the state and the law of foreign countries”

on the topic

"Law of the Ottoman Empire"

Completed:
Shevtsov I.P.

Checked by: Assoc. Etc.

Plan

1. State structure of the Ottoman Empire.

2. Sharia.

3. Sultan's eve-names.

4. "Majallat al-Ahkam al-Adliyya" (Code of Laws, 1869-1876).

5. Conclusions.

This paper discusses the basic principles and evolution of the legal system of one of the largest states of the Middle Ages - the Ottoman Empire. The task of the study is to use the preserved or reconstructed legal monuments of this state, as well as sources reflecting modern research in this area. It should be noted both the general importance of the role of the Ottoman Empire among other countries of the Middle East, and its influence on the Ukrainian lands located in the immediate vicinity. It should be emphasized some factors that give additional relevance to the problem under study in our time. Perhaps one of key features The geopolitical situation in the world is the so-called conflict "East-West": the conflict of Western and Eastern cultures, Western and Eastern values. In the autumn of 2005 in France (pogroms of immigrants from Muslim countries) one profile of the conflict emerged, and the events surrounding the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in early 2006 are a new confirmation of tense relations, a round of a long confrontation between civilizations. One of the central problems of the modern world community is terrorism. Moreover, very often he is associated with radical Islamist movements. In this regard, it is important to note the relationship between the Islamist manifestation of terrorism and jihad, which includes a "holy war against the infidels" (jihad of the sword or small jihad (ghazawat) - armed resistance to the enemies of Islam). It is this theory, perhaps formally, that formed the basis of modern radical Islamist organizations, such as Al-Qaeda, which resulted in one of the most high-profile terrorist attacks in world history - September 11 in New York. Some of the legitimized rules of jihad come from the Qur'an or from hadiths - information about the deeds, approvals or sayings of the prophet Muhammad. And the hadiths, in turn, are the source of Sharia - Islamic law. Special attention should be drawn to the evolution that took place in the legal system of the successor of the Ottoman Empire. The Republic of Turkey is practically the only state in which the influence of the previously dominant Muslim law has not been preserved. The new legal system was built on the European model, for example, the Turkish civil code, based on Swedish, granted civil rights to women and banned polygamy. The Turkish Constitution of 1982 declared the republic a democratic, secular and social-legal state.

Separately, it should be said about the sources used in this work. To obtain general information on the history of the Ottoman Empire and Islamic law, textbooks for law and history faculties were mainly used. Their names are included in the bibliography at the end of the work. In particular, this is a textbook Skakun O.F. "Theory of State and Law" and the book by Vasiliev L.S. "History of the East". Also, translations into Russian, directly, of individual legal monuments were used, such as, for example, “The Book of Laws of Sultan Selim I” (translated by Tveritinova A.S., 1969). It is necessary to say about the characteristic feature of the medieval legal monuments of the Ottoman Empire. The most serious works containing data analysis on this topic belong to a prominent Turkish specialist, professor of Istanbul University Omer Lutfi Barkan. O.L. Barkan noted that great difficulties for a comprehensive study of Turkish legislation in the Middle Ages are created by the absence in the archives of Turkey of official texts, even of those legislative codes that are known to historians from various publications. Obviously, the consequence of this is insufficiently extensive information in the literature on the general history of the state and law. And in conclusion, the author of this work analyzed a number of contemporary articles in the media devoted to Muslim law and culture, including foreign (English-language) ones.

The high Ottoman State (Ottoman Empire) appeared as a result of the conquests of Anatolia (Asia Minor) in the 11th century. the Seljuk Turks, who took possession of the lands that previously belonged to Byzantium and assimilated it, mainly the Greek population. The heirs of the first Turkic conquerors became the Ottoman Empire, which completed the conquest of Byzantium with the capture of Constantinople in 1453. At the height of its power, during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1555), the empire stretched from Vienna to the Persian Gulf, from the Crimea to Morocco. The period of the Ottoman Empire ended after the end of the First World War, when it broke up into many independent states, and the Turkish lands became part of the modern Turkish Republic.

The Ottoman Empire over the course of 6 centuries developed a rather complex state structure. During the reign of Osman (1288 - 1326), a powerful military state was formed, absolutist, in fact, although the generals, to whom the sultan gave different areas to control, often turned out to be independent and reluctantly recognized the supreme authority of the sultan. This period is marked by the creation of the Ottoman system of state administration, which remained virtually unchanged for four centuries. Mostly for practical reasons (trade, taxes), the Ottoman state was relatively tolerant of non-Muslims, in particular, forced conversion to Islam was not practiced. The concept of "millet" was introduced, according to which religious and ethnic minorities were given the opportunity to be independent from the central government in resolving their issues. Millet was an interpretation of the Muslim rules for the treatment of non-Muslim minorities (dhimmi). The leader of each millet was an ethnarch, most often a religious hierarch, such as the Patriarch of Constantinople, who reported directly to the Ottoman Sultan. The Millets had real power—they made their own laws and collected and distributed taxes. When a member of one millet committed a crime against a member of another, the law of the victim was applied, but if the case involved a member of the Muslim community, then the primary Islamic law, Sharia, was used. Neighboring states that were in vassalage in relation to the Ottoman Empire were forced to pay taxes to the Sultan, as well as to provide their formations in the event of Ottoman military campaigns. Many vassal states were eventually transformed into provinces of the empire itself. However, there were those that did not become provinces, such as the Crimean Khanate, which later became part of the Russian Empire.

In the Ottoman Empire, there was no strict rule for the transfer of the Sultan's power by birthright (from father to eldest son) or by seniority (older brother). Although the crown often passed to the sultan's son, the system of succession changed frequently and was unstable. The state apparatus, like the entire system of administration, the entire internal structure of the empire, was very close to the classical standard, which corresponds to the general scheme of the command and administrative structure of the traditional East, including institutions of power - property and centralized redistribution (redistribution). All the lands of the empire were considered state lands, and the apparatus of power disposed of them on behalf of the Sultan. In the conquered territories, the forms of land ownership partly changed in accordance with Ottoman standards, partly remained the same, but at the same time they were still brought into line with the orders that were adopted in the empire. Although the sultan was the supreme monarch, he had many advisers and ministers. The most powerful among them were the viziers and the Diwan (essentially the government), subordinate to the Grand Vizier. The sofa was a council where the viziers discussed the policy of the empire. The duty of the Grand Vizier was to inform the Sultan of the opinion of the Divan. The sofa consisted of 3 viziers in the 14th century to 11 in the 17th century. The activities of the government were regulated by the code of laws of Kanun-nam, adopted under Mehmed II (1444–1481), as well as Islamic law, Sharia. Organizationally, the central apparatus of power consisted of three main systems - military-administrative, financial and judicial-religious. Each of them was presented both in the center and in the field. The military-administrative system, headed by the Grand Vizier himself, was the backbone of the entire structure of the empire. Country to the XVI century. was divided into 16 large regions-eyalets, headed by governors-beylerbeys, subordinate to the Grand Vizier and responsible for the state of affairs in their regions - primarily for the combat capability of those units that this or that region should always be ready to put forward. The Beylerbeys, in turn, were subordinate to the uyezd sanjakbey governors (there were about 250 sanjak uyezds in the country), who were administratively responsible for their uyezds. In the counties, the power of the sanjakbey was very strong, although formally it was regulated by the county Kanun-name, which over time were created for each sanjak. And, finally, at the lowest level of power, the entire military-administrative system relied on the timariots, subordinate to the sanjakbeys and responsible to them both for the combat capability and equipment of the sipahi warriors sent from their timar-landownership, and for maintaining administrative order among the local population.

The functions of the financial department, headed by the vizier-defterdar and represented at the regional and district levels by special officials with scribes subordinate to them, included keeping a strict record of the resources and income of the treasury, determining the amount of taxes and taxes, and various duties. Apparently, it was the officials of this department who had to strictly control the amount of taxes from each timar, including the share that went to the timariot, and which he had no right to exceed. The system of taxes in the empire was quite complex, especially considering that some of the outlying provinces that were in a semi-autonomous position had their own traditional types of taxes. On the whole, however, the system was coherent and rigidly obligatory. It was divided into two main parts - legal taxes (i.e., those corresponding to Sharia - tithe-ushr from Muslims, kharaj and poll tax jiziya from non-Muslims, zakat from the wealthy and the corresponding heavier duties from non-Muslims, especially from wealthy citizens, etc.). etc.) and additional fees, which included various local and emergency taxes, duties, taxes. The Muslim clergy, both serving (judge-kadi, etc.) and non-serving (ulema), were exempted from taxes, except for servicemen.

The judicial-religious system, within the framework of the general administrative-political structure of the empire, had the function of controlling the way of life and behavior of the population. Headed at the level of the central government by the sheikh-ul-Islam and represented at the governorate level by a few (initially only two) qadi-askers, this system was closed at the county level by Muslim qadi judges and their assistants. Qadi judges were, first of all, judges who decided on behalf of Islam and on behalf of the authorities all court cases concerning Muslims. But this was only a part of their functions, although the main, most important. In addition, qadis acted as notaries who recorded documents and transactions, as well as mediators resolving trade, financial and other disputes, controllers who monitored the regulation of income and the procedure for collecting taxes, the setting of prices, the procedure and nature of public works, etc. . In a word, in conditions of fusion of politics and religion typical for Islamic structures, qadis who were in the administrative service were both confessors and officials. As far as other, non-Muslim strata of the population were concerned, similar functions were entrusted to the leaders of the respective religious millet communities - Greek Orthodox, Armenian Gregorian, Jewish, who received wide powers for this.

As a result, it should be noted the basic principles on which the concept of the Ottoman state was based. It is important to highlight the religious component, which is an integral basis, the foundation of statehood. From this follows the root of the entire legal system of the Ottoman Empire - Sharia. The next feature is the weak centralization of state power. Indicative in this case is the presence of millets - ethnic-religious autonomies that exercised self-government quite independent of the sultan's power.

The next topic to be considered will be the basic principles and scope of Shariah. Sharia (- the proper (correct) way, mode of action) - a set of - and, covering all aspects of life, proclaimed "eternal and unchanging". This legal system, which eventually acquired world significance, arose and took shape within the framework of the Arab Caliphate. The process of its development was closely connected with the evolution of the Arab statehood from a small patriarchal-religious community at the beginning of the 7th century. (under the Prophet Muhammad) to one of the largest empires of the 8th-10th centuries. under the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties. After the fall of the Arab Caliphate, Muslim law became effective in a number of medieval countries in Asia and Africa that adopted Islam to one degree or another (including the Ottoman Empire).

According to Islamic traditions, the main sources of Sharia are the Koran and the Sunnah, and all other sources should not contradict them. Below is a list of the basic sources of Shariah:

As an additional source of law, Sharia also allowed local customs that were not directly included in Muslim law itself during its formation, but did not directly contradict its principles and norms. At the same time, the legal customs that had developed in the Arab society itself (urf) were recognized, as well as among numerous peoples conquered as a result of the Arab conquests or subjected to more late time influence of Islamic law (adat).

Thus, it can be summarized that Sharia is the core of the Islamic religious and legal system of most Muslim countries. This system spread to the territories of all countries under the influence of the Arab Caliphate, in particular, the Ottoman Empire. And now, even though it is not really effective legislation, it still has an impact on the social life of the heiress of the Ottoman Empire - Turkey.

A source of law derived from Sharia was the decrees and orders of the caliphs - firmans. Subsequently, with the development of legislative activity, laws - eve - began to be considered and play an ever-increasing role as a source of law. Firmans and kanuns were not supposed to contradict the principles of Sharia and supplemented it, first of all, with the norms regulating the activities of state bodies and regulating the administrative and legal relations of state power with the population. The legal system, built on eve laws, resolved issues not directly reflected in Sharia law, and, in fact, was the secular legislation of the Sultan. By the first half of the XV century. also include the first attempts to codify Ottoman feudal law in the form of sets of legislative provisions (qanun-name) for individual provinces of the state. They summarized the provisions on administrative, financial and criminal cases, established the principles of taxation of various groups of the taxable population, regulated issues of land relations, taking into account the practice that had developed in these areas by the time they were included in the Ottoman state. From the point of view of Islamic law, such codes were an innovation that detracted from the role of Sharia. The legal provisions that constituted them were based mainly on the norms of customary law and regulations that were in force before the Ottoman conquest, and therefore sometimes significantly diverged from the Sharia dogmas, which were usually guided by Muslim judges - qadis. Later, during the reign of Sultan Mehmed II Fatih (1451-1481), on their basis, general kanun-names (Fatih Kanunnamesi) were compiled, which became mandatory guidelines for solving state affairs and in the practice of Sharia courts. The texts of the decrees of the first Ottoman rulers have not reached us. It is known only from the writings of chroniclers and the later records of jurists that Osman established the rules for collecting bazaar duties and announced a law on the procedure for distributing timar possessions, and under Orkhan, in 1328, it was decided to mint his own coins (akche), to introduce a special clothes (in particular, white caps) for military captives (sipahis; persons in vassal dependence), “so that you can see the differences between them and commoners (rayats)”, about the creation of an irregular infantry army of yay and mucellems, kept on salary in wartime and dispersed through the villages to engage in agriculture at the end of the war. Sultan Murad I, on the advice of Beylerbey Rumelia Timurtash Pasha, clarified the procedure for the succession of Timars and the execution of military obligations by their owners, and also established a law on the deduction in favor of the treasury of 1/5 of the value of the spoils delivered by Turkish conquerors from campaigns, including prisoners , having determined the price of each captive-slave at 25 Akçe. Under Sultan Bayazid I, a fee was established for qadis for writing testimonies, petitions, and so on. similar documents and for the performance of various judicial duties. The listed and many other decrees of the first Ottoman sultans, apparently, remained in a scattered, unsystematized state, at least until the second half of the 15th century. Their first codification refers to the period of Sultan Mehmed II Fatih, which we can judge from the texts of two legislative codes (qanun-name) of this time that have come down to us. One of them contains three parts: 1) a table of ranks, 2) the basics of court ceremonial and the rules for appointing dignitaries and their children to public office, 3) several articles on punishments for criminal offenses, determining the maintenance of dignitaries and their titles.

After Mehmed II Fatih, Sultan Bayezid II (1418-1512) became the publisher of the kanun-name. In this collection of laws, the rules for religious fees and taxes from the Timars were expanded. Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent (1494-1556), also called Kanuni (Legislator), established an even more complex system of kanun-name rules: from the rights and responsibilities of the Timar-sipahi warriors to the rules of appearance. New laws were also issued for the conquered countries and regions. So, for example, in 1520, the kanun-name of Amfissa (Kanun-name-i Salna) was published, which regulated mainly the procedure for collecting taxes and customs duties in areas of Central Greece, which was under Ottoman rule. So, for example, in the kanun-name of Amfissa it is said: “From infidels who have reached adulthood, 25 akche is charged as ispendje (land tax); Married [infidels] are charged 6 Akçe as a tax on hay, and widows of infidels (i.e. non-Muslims) are charged Ispendje of 6 Akçe.” Or about customs duties (baj) on food, clothing, etc.: “For the sale of a slave or a slave, 4 akçe are charged from both the seller and the buyer, which is 8 akçe in total.”

Turkish historians associate the main stages in the development of Ottoman legislation after Mehmed II with the names of Sultans Suleiman Kanuni (1520-1666), Ahmed I (1603-1617) and with the activities, mainly in the 16th-17th centuries, of many jurists (Sheikh ul-Islams and etc.).

From the foregoing, we can conclude that the sultan's kanun-names were one of the most important sources of law in the Ottoman Empire. It is also very significant that the further development of Ottoman legal concepts is connected precisely with those, albeit still insufficiently systematized, provisions that are set forth in these codes of Sultan's laws.

In 1869-1877. The Majallat al-Ahkam al-Adliyya (Code of Laws) was adopted, which is also called the Civil Code of the Ottoman Empire. After the appearance of the code, judges (qadis) were obliged, first of all, to apply its norms, and not to base their decisions on doctrinal interpretations. The Code forbade the interpretation of issues regulated by its norms. Primary attention in this code (another name - Majalla) is given to issues of civil and judicial law. Majalla was the first serious attempt to codify the norms of Islamic law, the importance of which cannot be overestimated, some civil codes of Arab countries still include certain provisions of this source, for example, to this day, separate norms borrowed from Majalla remain in the legislation of Kuwait and other countries . Its action extended to most of the Arab countries that were part of the Ottoman Empire (with the exception of Egypt). The Code regulated issues of legal capacity, but did not affect family relations, which, in accordance with the principle of freedom of belief and personal rights of followers of numerous sects and persuasions, continued to be regulated by various traditional schools of Muslim law. Majalla operated in Turkey until 1926, in Lebanon until 1931, in Syria until 1949, in Iran until 1953, in Jordan until 1976. Currently, its operation is partially preserved in Israel, Kuwait and Cyprus. The principles of legal regulation are widely represented in Majalla, formulated as a result of the interpretation of the causal prescriptions of Islamic law and considered as a starting point for the application of specific legal norms. A significant number of these articles are devoted to liability for harm caused. These included such rules as “damage is not eliminated by damage” (Article 25), “damage is not long-standing” (Article 7), “greater harm is eliminated by lesser” (Article 27), “harm is avoided as far as possible” ( Article 31), “recovery for acquired” (Article 87), etc. Violation of the terms of the contract, illegal taking of another's property and causing damage to another's property (“itlaf”) are considered the grounds for civil liability. Muslim jurists also included unintentional crimes against a person (murder, bodily harm) in the “itlaf”, the responsibility for which was also of a compensatory nature. At the same time, responsibility for crimes came under criminal law. The concept of "itlaf" distinguishes between direct and indirect damage to someone else's property. In the second case, there must necessarily be a gap between the qualifying action and the occurrence of damage in the form of another action or event. According to the rule of Art. 92 and 93 of the Majalla, the burden of liability for damage rests with the person whose actions directly led to the damage: the person who caused it indirectly is liable only if his actions were intentional.

Thus, the "Code of Legal Norms" is the first legislative act that consolidated the norms of Muslim law as an integral system in the form state law. Subsequently, these provisions were adopted by the legislation of a number of countries in Asia and Africa at the level of industries or even individual norms.

Some conclusions should be drawn from this work. Firstly, it is necessary to state the fact that a feature of the legal systems in states in which Islam has become the dominant religion is a rigid connection between law and state system power with religion. This type of legal systems is fundamentally different from the Western (European type). Researchers usually call a class of such systems traditional-religious. The main sources of law in this case are the holy books, the statements of the prophets (in particular, in Islam - the Koran and the Sunnah), as well as the legal traditions and customs inherent in this ethnic group or region. Another characteristic feature of Muslim law is the widespread principle of authority: individual decisions of the prophets, historical figures, religious leaders, ranging from the Prophet Muhammad, and ending with individual muftis (fatwas). Secondly, in addition to analyzing the very essence of the law of the Ottoman Empire, it is necessary to draw conclusions based on a temporary perspective, that is, the transformation of the legal system over time. Significant changes have taken place over 7 centuries in Asia Minor, starting from the strict application of Sharia norms during the period of the Seljuk Turks who conquered Anatolia. An important role was played by the Arab Caliphate, which laid the foundations of the Muslim religious and legal system. Further, the relationship between religious norms and the Sultan's law developed in the direction of increasing the role of the latter, although it never abolished Sharia law. Indicative in this regard are the codes of laws issued by Suleiman the Magnificent (Kanuni). And, finally, the most important event in the history of the law of the Ottoman Empire was the publication of the "Code of Legal Norms" (Majalla) at the end of the 19th century, which further limited the operation of the norms of religious law. There was a principle indicating, first of all, to use the norms written in Majalla. As a conclusion, it must be said that even after the disappearance of the Ottoman Empire from the political map of the world in 1923, the trend of reducing the role of religious law remained unchanged, which, in the end, led to the declaration of Turkey as a democratic and secular state.

Add at least some literature on Majalla

Is in Anthology of world legal thought. Volume 1. Ancient World and Eastern Civilizations / Ruk. scientific project G.Yu. Semigin. - M.: Thought, 1999. - 750 p.

List of used sources and literature

1. Vasiliev L.S. History of the East: In 2 vols. T. 1. -M., 1998.

2. Regulations on Amfissa. (translated by J. Kabrda) // Eastern sources on the history of the peoples of southeastern and central Europe. T. 1. - M., Institute of Oriental Studies, 1964.

3. History of the East. In 6 volumes. V.2. / Ch. ed. R.B. Rybakov. - M.: Eastern Literature, RAS, 1997.

4. History of the State and Law of Foreign Countries: A Textbook for Universities: At 2 pm, Part 1 / Ed. ed. prof. Krasheninnikova I. A. and prof. Zhidkova O. A. - M .: NORMA Publishing House, 2003.

5. The book of laws of Sultan Selim I. (translated by Tveritinova A.S.) - M., Main edition of Eastern literature, 1969

6. Nersesyants V.S. General theory of law and state. Textbook for law schools and faculties. - M .: Publishing group NORMA-INFRA, 2002.

7. Skakun O.F. Theory of State and Law: Textbook. – Kharkiv: Consum; University int. cases, 2000.

8. Syukiyainen L.R. West and East - a smoldering conflict // Nezavisimaya Gazeta. -<#"#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title="">Sukiyainen L.R. West and East - a smoldering conflict // Nezavisimaya Gazeta. -<#"#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title="">Fiona Simon. Analysis: The roots of jihad // BBC News. – #"#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title=""> Nersesyants VS General theory of law and state. Textbook for law schools and faculties. - M.: Publishing group NORMA-INFRA - M., 2002. - p. 471-473

Skakun O.F. Theory of State and Law: Textbook. – Kharkiv: Consum; University int. cases, 2000. - p. 650.

Vasiliev L.S. History of the East: In 2 vols. T. 1. -M., 1998. Chapter 4, - p. 225-227.

History of the State and Law of Foreign Countries: A Textbook for Universities: At 2 pm, Part 1 / Ed. ed. prof. Krasheninnikova I. A. and prof. Zhidkova O. A. - M .: Publishing house NORMA, 2003. - p. 551.

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§ 1. Formation and main stages of development of the Ottoman Empire

AT 11th century The Seljuk Rum Sultanate was defeated by the Turks and moved to the borders of Byzantium, the process of Turkization of the local population began: Greeks, Slavs, Georgians, Persians. True, these peoples retained their religions, including Christianity. In the XIII century. The Sultanate of Rum completely collapsed. At the turn of the XIII - XIV centuries. Bey Osman created the Ottoman Sultanate. The Ottomans gradually pressed Byzantium in the southeast of Asia Minor, then captured the Balkans. In 1389 they defeated the Serbian army on the Kosovo field, and in 1396 they defeated the united militia of the crusaders from almost all of Europe. In 1453 Constantinople was taken by storm. In 1475, the Crimean Khanate, as a fragment of the Golden Horde, became a vassal of the Turkish Sultanate. At the beginning of the XVI century. the Ottomans conquered Iran, Kurdistan, Syria, Arabia, then Egypt and almost all of North Africa. The power of the descendants of the Arab caliphs in Cairo was abolished, while the Sultan, as it were, became the successor to the caliph as a religious leader, although in fact the Ottoman sultans, not being descendants of Muhammad, did not have the right to be considered the heads of the Muslim church, but in fact they were at the head of the Muslim world. Almost all of the Mediterranean, the Middle East and Transcaucasia were part of the Ottoman Empire.

State system of the Ottoman Empire in the XV - XVII centuries.

The Ottoman Empire is a typically eastern state. The ancient Eastern despot states were characterized by the absolute all-encompassing power of the monarch. K. Marx believed that the supreme property gave rise to the supreme absolute power of the monarch. Hegel derived the form of property from the form of power. So what is primary, what is secondary in the ancient Eastern states - power or property?

In our opinion, there is no absolute superiority here. In the East, there is primary property, secondary power, and vice versa - primary power and secondary property, but most often they form a unity: power - property or property - power, in other words, power over property and at the same time ownership of power. This is an alternative to the European model of the relationship between property and power. In general, the European model is only suitable for Europe. Most of humanity did not live according to the European model. The European model is an offshoot of the universal main line of the world development of the state. The attempt of the crusaders to seize the East failed, in the XVI - XVII centuries. Europeans, relying on a powerful shipbuilding industry, firearms began a new expansion in the world. In the XVIII - XIX centuries. having conquered almost the entire non-Christian world, the Europeans imposed on the public consciousness and scientific developments that the optimal and most progressive model for the development of civilizations is the European model based on predominantly private property, where government is secondary to industrial relations.

Thus, it is believed that despotism appears where there is no private property. Primitive communal forms of power (potestas) are gradually developing into tribal government bodies authorities. In the East, all power passes to the leader; communal democracy, with its popular assemblies and councils of elders, remains in the lower tier of government, while the upper tier is occupied by monarchs and their administration. Thus, the military-communal democracy grew into a tribal state, which also gradually grew into an absolutely totalitarian monarchical state. Over the years, a powerful centralized administrative system has been formed. Power-property in it is original. The market, private property, social strata are subordinate to power-property.

In the Ottoman Empire, on the basis of a tribal state, a “theocratic military-administrative monarchy” is being formed, based on the eastern model of ownership of land, water, mines and other real estate. Initially, a tribal system of power develops according to this model, gradually it is superimposed on the territory, the economy, covers politics, management, administration, armed forces, and law enforcement. Gradually tribal and tribal bodies merged with the military-territorial, military-administrative bodies, they grow together with forms of ownership, lease, allotments for service. According to European terminology and ideas, it seems that a military system of government is being formed here, but the Ottoman system of ownership and use of land, water, other property, territorial, military, administrative management is a completely different system.

It is arranged according to the tribal, military-territorial principle. The territorial unit of the country is sanjak("banner") - the battle banner of the clan, the clan division of warriors, headed by the head of the clan, the sanjak-bey. Warriors on the territory of the sanjak sipahis("cavalrymen") received Timar- conditional hereditary possession of the territory with the right to collect a strictly defined amount of taxes from the population. Timar - collection in favor of timariot should not exceed the amount necessary for the maintenance of the family, horse and military equipment of the warrior. The state strictly followed this. Timar was neither an estate nor a possession; the timariot was not supposed to exceed his rights and powers and infringe on state interests.

In connection with large land conquests, large land grants appear - zeamety. Timariots and Zeamets formed the basis of the Ottoman army. Subsequently, hassy and arpalyks- territories with tax immunity. The tax from them went completely to the owner, was strictly fixed by the financial authorities of the country, but was never inherited, remaining strictly in state ownership, and infringement of state interests was also not allowed. This is how a military-administrative monarchy is formed, which was based on the power-property formula. All land belonged to the state in the person of the Sultan, it was disposed of by the state apparatus.

Sultan crowned the top of the state pyramid. However, there was no succession law in the empire, all members of the next generation potentially had the right to power, the throne, cruel dynastic fights were inevitable and often ended in bloody massacres. Given the polygamy and the harem, there could be dozens of brothers, and in this case they were all destroyed, in a word, blood flowed like a river.

The Sultan was the personification of omnipotent power over his subjects, the system of total slavery. Each subject could at any time end his life on a stake. The personality of the Sultan was not deified, but his power was sacred, sacrificial. At the same time, he was not a representative of Allah on Earth, he was considered his shadow. At the same time, the Sultan was not required to have any outstanding abilities or charisma. He and his personality had to meet a number of requirements:

1.Belonging to the Sunni persuasion in Islam.

2.Only male, because according to Sharia, a woman is not equal to a man.

1. 
   Fine appearance without external defects.
2. 
   Be an adult, at least 15 years of age.
3. 
   Mental and intellectual usefulness.
4. 
   Free status past and present.
5. 
   Moral qualities go back to traditional norms: prudence, wisdom, justice, greatness, dexterity. But it was not required that the ruler of the faithful surpass his subjects in knowledge and deeds.
6. 
   clothed supreme authority The person of the Sultan is sacred and inviolable.
7. 
   All secular and spiritual power was concentrated in the hands of the Sultan, the ruler of the Sunni Muslims.

The Sultan had broad powers and functions of the religious and secular head of the Ottoman Empire:

1. Opening a common prayer on holidays and daily.

2. Minting coins.

3. Maintenance of general order in the country.

4. Control over the execution of sacred laws.

5. Supreme High Command.

6. He has the supreme judicial power.

7. He is obliged to suppress rebellions.

8. Issues laws that must be consistent with Shariah.

As the Ottoman Empire grew, a powerful centralized system of government was formed.

The Sultan delegated his power to the Vezir, who ruled on his behalf. He headed the Grand Council - the government of the country (Divan-i-Humayun), consisting of ministers - viziers. The government in its activities was guided by the Sharia and the Code of Laws Kanun-name.

The central administrative apparatus consisted of three main departments (systems) of administration: military-administrative, financial and judicial-religious.

military administrative department, which was headed by the Grand Vizier himself, was the backbone of the entire governing structure of the empire. The country was divided into 16 regions - eyalets headed by beylarbey(governors) subordinate to the Grand Vizier and having all kinds of power in the territory of the eyalets. They were subject to sanjakbeys - commanders - governors of sanjaks - counties, of which there were 250. The power of the sanjakbey was quite strong, it was controlled from above by the beylarbey and regulated by county laws and Kanunname. The lower level of the military-administrative power in the empire was the Timariots, the holders of the land, who were responsible for the security and equipment of the soldiers (sipahs), who had to be represented by their Timars. The Timariots also kept order in the territory of the Timar.

Financial department headed by a vizier-defterdar had special officials in eyyalets and sanjaks. The functions of the central department and its local officials included: accounting for the resources and income of the treasury; determining the amount of taxes, taxes and other duties; control over the incomes of the Timars, Khass and Arpalyks. Types of taxes: legal taxes - tithe from Muslims, "kharaj" and poll tax "jizya" from non-Muslims; zakat is a tax in favor of the poor from all those who have. There were additional duties, emergency and local.

Judicial-religious department in the most general sense, controlled the way of life and behavior of the population and every Muslim. Sheikh-ul-Islam was at the head of the department. In the eyyalets (provinces), this department was headed by two Qadis - judges. Qadis had very broad judicial, religious, financial and administrative functions. They resolved cases concerning Muslims, in addition, they were notaries, intermediaries in transactions, resolved trade, financial and other disputes, exercised control over the collection of taxes, prices, and order; were clergymen and officials. In non-Muslim areas, the leaders of the communities performed the same functions.

This state system flourished in the 16th century. during the reign of Suleiman I Kanuni (Legislator) or Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566).

§ 2. The development of the statehood of the Ottoman Empire in the second half of the XVI - early XX centuries. Major government reforms

By the middle of the XVI century. The state system and the system of government of the Ottoman Empire experienced a certain crisis. First of all, the causes of the crisis were seen in the shortcomings of the timariot system. Timariots were integral part military, administrative, tax and police systems. Important factors that caused the weakening of the empire were the distribution of state lands, a decrease in military booty, and the cessation of the increment of territories.

The first reforms in the Ottoman Empire were practically military reforms. In the XVI century. instead of warriors - sipahis, the corps was created and repeatedly increased janissary("yeni cheri" - new army), who were in the public service and received state salaries, which dramatically increased government spending on the army. In addition, the Janissaries, being the Sultan's guard, often interfered in the political and palace life of the country. After this failed reform in the middle of the XVII century. a new reform was carried out by the Grand Vizier Mehmed Keprelu. He again strengthened the Timariot system, seizing the lands of the Hass and the waqf lands.

Late 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries in the Ottoman Empire became centuries of major state reforms.

The first two rounds of reforms are associated with the activities of Sultan Selim III (1789 - 1807) and Mahmud II (1808 - 1839). The first round dealt mainly with the reform of the allotment timar system, military and partially religious spheres:

1. 
   The formation of a new army on the European model, the creation of modern artillery, fleet and engineering troops.
2. 
   Liquidation of the Janissary corps (1826).
3. 
   Elimination of the Bektashi Sufi order from the political life of the empire (1826 onwards).
4. 
   Complete abolition of the timar system.

The second round of reforms affected the central administration, the tax system and social spheres:

1.Reform of the central administration according to the European model, the creation of new ministries and departments.

2. Tax reform.

3. Reform of the post office, hospitals, education system.

The reforms of the second round quickly came to naught. The wars of Muhammad Ali of Egypt weakened the empire. Among the great powers of Europe, the question arose of dividing the "sick man" of Europe - the Ottoman Empire. In 1839, the West took the Ottoman Empire under "collective guardianship." Sultan Abdul Majadid received him.

The next stage of reforms 40 - 70 years. received the name "tanzimat" (transformation, reform).

On November 3, 1839, the “Gulhane Hatt-i-Sheriff” (rescript), sometimes simply called the Gulhane Act, was signed. Hatt-i-sheriff prescribed:

1. 
   To provide all citizens, representatives of all religions with guarantees of inviolability of life, honor and property.
2. 
   Abolish the system of farming out and streamline taxation.
3. 
   Change the order of conscription for military service.

In 1856, another rescript "Khatt-i-humayun" was adopted. It provided for the creation in the eyyalets and sanjaks of majlises - deliberative bodies with the participation of non-Muslims; judicial reform; adoption of criminal and commercial codes; creation of a system of secular schools. The reform met with stiff resistance from the Muslim nobility, especially against the equal rights of Muslims and non-Muslims. Soon were adopted: Law on land; the guild system of organizing handicraft production in cities was abolished; the judiciary was separated from the administrative: Sharite courts were pressed by secular judicial institutions.

In 1865, a movement of “new Ottomans” arose in the Ottoman Empire, who advocated the creation of a constitutional monarchy. After nine or ten years, their activities have brought certain results. In 1876, Sultan Abdul-Hamid adopted the constitution of the Ottoman Empire. She proclaimed the rights and freedoms of the citizens of the empire, and a bicameral parliament was created. However, already in February 1878, Abdul-Hamid carried out a coup d'etat, dissolved the already elected parliament and established tyranny - "Zyulyum". Under this regime, newspapers were closed, censorship was tightened, many new educational institutions were closed. For the first time, the doctrine of “pan-Islamism” was proclaimed, the purpose of which was to adapt the world of Islam to existence in the new conditions; to oppose Muslim unity to the onslaught of European colonialism. At the same time, Abdul-Hamid saw pan-Islamism as a tool to strengthen his power. However, his ambitious plans soon failed. The country had long been bogged down in foreign debts and in 1879 was declared bankrupt. Western powers began to prepare tools for establishing their control over the empire. First of all, financial control became an instrument of Western governance of the country. In 1881, the Office of the Ottoman Debt was created, and then the Ottoman (Ottoman) Bank, the main purpose of which was the control of the Western powers over the Ottoman government, the country's budget, by controlling or even participating foreign representatives in the collection of taxes and spending budgetary funds. Of course, as in other cases in Europe and Asia, Western governments, bankers and entrepreneurs sought to destroy the remaining empires on earth in order to destroy them, establish control and even seize the parts that had broken away from the empires.

The failure of the reforms, the establishment of foreign control over the country, caused a protest both in the ruling circles and among the officials, military and intelligentsia of the country. Secret anti-government circles and organizations began to emerge. The “New Ottomans” movement was replaced by the “Young Turks” movement. In 1889, an underground cell was created in Istanbul among the cadets of the military medical school, whose members set the goal of ridding the country of despotism and restoring the constitution. In Paris, Riza Bey created the Ittihad ve Terraki (Unity and Progress) society. His program included: the struggle for freedom, justice and equality of all subjects; preservation of the empire on the path of reforms; establishment of a constitutional order; non-intervention of foreign affairs of the empire.

In 1902, the first, obviously, founding congress of the Young Turks took place. In 1907, the Second Congress of the Young Turks adopted a Declaration calling for an uprising against Adul-Hamid. In 1908, there was an uprising of Turkish troops in Macedonia. The Sultan accepted their demands. The Chamber of Deputies was created, a third of the seats in which went to the Young Turks. In 1909, Abdul-Hamid tried to carry out a counter-coup, but the Young Turks occupied the capital with their troops and, having real power, enthroned the new Sultan Mehmed V. This is how the Young Turk revolution took place.

The Young Turks carried out a number of reforms, the essence of which was the preservation of the empire, the doctrine of Ottomanism was proclaimed - the retention of non-Turkish lands and peoples within the empire. Since 1910, under the slogans of Pan-Islamism and Pan-Turkism, they began to persecute non-Islamic peoples.

In 1912, the Young Turks were overthrown by the Islamic liberals "ittilafists" - members of the association "Hurriyet ve ittilaf" ("Freedom and Consent"), who stood for granting autonomy to other peoples. Using Turkey's failures in the Balkan War of 1912, the Young Turks overthrew them. In 1914, the Young Turkish triumvirate came to power: Enver Pasha, Talaat Pasha and Dzhemal-nami. They pushed the Ottoman Empire into world war on the side of Germany and the Triple Alliance. As a result of the defeat of Germany, the dictatorship of the Young Turks in the Ottoman Empire also fell, the Young Turks fled the country. The empire agonized, the outskirts sought to secede, the nationalist idea matured more and more - to preserve the Turkish lands proper in Asia Minor in a single strong state. The allies decided that they could dictate their terms of peace to the Ottoman Empire. On October 30, 1918, they signed the “Truce of Mudros”, which provided for the opening of irrigation for foreign, including military, shipping, the demobilization of the army, the surrender of warships to the allies, and the establishment of control of the Entente above railways country, by telegraph and radio, the occupation of Armenian eyalets. The Ottoman Empire was ending its centuries-old existence.

The history of legislation in the Ottoman Empire in all its details has not yet been studied and written, although it is of great interest to students of Islamic law. Islamic law arose and developed within the framework of the Arab Caliphate. Since the Ottoman Empire can rightfully be considered the successor of the Arab Caliphate and one of the largest Muslim powers of all time, for a more complete picture of the development of Muslim law, it is necessary to consider its development in the Ottoman Empire.

In historiography, it is believed that, to one degree or another, legislative activity took place under all the Ottoman sultans. It is recorded in many decrees, resolutions, etc., which were in an unsystematized state until the second half of the 15th century. The first codification refers to the reign of Sultan Mehmed II Fatih. The code of laws compiled by him contains three parts: 1) a table of ranks; 2) the basics of court ceremonial and the rules for appointing dignitaries and their children to public office; 3) several articles on penalties for criminal offenses, determining the content of dignitaries and their titles. There was another set of laws, compiled under the same sultan. It differed significantly from the first in content, structure and style, and consisted of the following sections: 1) on punishments for adultery; 2) about punishments for fight and murder; 3) on taxes and trade duties; 4) about nomads (Yuriuks); 5) about taxes and duties from non-Muslims (kafirs). The further development of legal concepts in the Ottoman Empire is connected precisely with these still rather primitive provisions set forth in the second code of Mehmed II.

Turkish historians associate the main stages in the development of Ottoman legislation after Mehmed II with the names of the sultans Selim I (1512-1520), Suleiman Kanuni (1520-1566), Ahmed I (1603-1617), the activities of jurists in the XVI- 17th century and the legal reforms of the Tanzimat period.

In the Ottoman Empire for centuries, there were two systems of law - religious laws - Sharia and secular laws that came from the name of the Sultan - eve.

Muslim legal doctrine allowed the introduction of legal changes. Muslim jurists believed that since the rules of conduct on those issues that are not regulated by the Qur'an and Sunnah are formulated by people and are not guaranteed against erroneous judgments, they can be replaced by other judgments. In the writings of medieval Muslim jurists, the opinions of all jurists belonging to the same madhhab were cited. Even if these opinions were contradictory, they were all recognized as valid. Cadius could choose the norm at his own discretion when deciding. The direct abolition of obsolete norms that did not meet the needs was not practiced either. one

Thus, it was traditionally uncharacteristic for Turkish lawmaking to create unified legislative structures.

The religious system of law in the Ottoman Empire was associated with general principles Islamic law and corresponded to the interpretation of the Hanafi legal school officially accepted in this country. The difference of this madhhab is that it is applied more flexibly to local circumstances, trying to adapt the rigid framework of Sharia to the practical needs of life. When solving specific issues, the Hanifites operated with three methods of interpretation: rai, qiyas and istikhsan (see page of the manual). At the same time, this teaching was fraught with the danger of arbitrary actions of the Qadis. Sheikh-ul-Islam fatwas were issued on controversial issues, which became the legal basis for subsequent court decisions. Since both the fatwas and the actions of the Qadis had to correspond to the Hanafi sense, in the empire the Hanafi law had primacy and invaded those areas where other schools of Sunni Islam had previously dominated. Qadis and muftis could adjoin any of the Sunni madhhabs, but judge and make conclusions only according to the Hanafi sense. one

Another system of law in the Ottoman Empire is secular laws - kanuns, coming from the name of the sultan. The coexistence of eve and Sharia is a specific feature of the Ottoman state. Kanuns, originally conceived as unofficial - only for the information of the Sultan, later became mandatory in solving state problems and in the practice of Cadian courts. Moreover, in many cases, the Sultan's decrees differed significantly from Sharia dogmas.

The reasons for the emergence in the Ottoman Empire of such a system of law as eve are as follows. First, by the XV-XVI centuries. As a result of aggressive campaigns, the Ottoman state reached the maximum expansion of its borders. A tendency began to appear for the Ottoman sultans to become absolute monarchs, whose power was not limited by any corrective institutions. In their desire to expand the scale of power, the sultans began to rely on the Turkic-Mongolian and Byzantine models of political organization, based on the primacy of the secular principle. An expression of this was the publication under Sultan Mehmed II of the first kanun-nam. The Sultan in his actions relied on the divine destiny, reflected in the norms of Sharia and on his state mind. The first determined the order of the material and spiritual world, and the second made it possible to maintain this order. The Sultan, through his absolute power, had to determine the place of each person in society, ensure social order, and the safety of people. This was achieved with the help of kanuns, which, unlike Sharia norms, were temporary in nature and operated only during the reign of one sultan. In addition, Sharia and eve, according to Muslim views, have never stood on the same level. The purpose of Sharia is to lead believers to perfection during life, and happiness after death. Kanun had a lower status, was aimed only at establishing order in the state and protecting citizens from violence. Eves have never been canceled, but only supplemented by religious laws.

Such a system is called mazalim and is accepted today in all Muslim states. The Ottoman feature consisted only in the fuller inclusion of qadi in the system of government and the more frequent use of kanuns in state administration. one

In order to have a more complete picture of the eve of the XV-XVI centuries, consider the Book of Laws of Sultan Selim I - one of the authoritative collections of laws of this period.

The book of laws of Sultan Selim I is not divided into any structural units, but there is a certain system. The first provisions of the law contain criminal law norms. There are few of them, it is said about the punishments of lechers and harlots, about blood feud, murder and theft. Much of the law is devoted to taxation. It is noteworthy that the criminal law refers to the death penalty only in the case of malicious theft, very little about self-harmful punishments. For most crimes, a fine is provided, even if this does not comply with the provisions of Sharia. For example, in the case of committing adultery, the Qur'an speaks of only one punishment - "beating with a hundred blows" in public. In accordance with the adat regulations in Muslim states, adulterers were traditionally stoned. The book of laws of Sultan Selim I provided for a fine, the amount of which varied depending on the social status of the perpetrator. The rich and married paid more than the poor and single; a slave paid less than a free Muslim for committing any crime, a non-believer paid more. The punishment for the murder was a legalized blood feud, but if there was no one to take revenge or for some other reason the revenge did not take place, a fine was also paid. The death penalty is mentioned in this law only once, it is provided for committing theft with penetration into the house or repeatedly: - let them hang.

For minor thefts, a fine was also provided, despite the fact that the Koran is very strict in relation to thieves and prescribes cutting off hands for any theft.

A distinctive feature of this law is its unusual for the Muslim society of the early XVI century. humanity. However, one should not think that fewer executions were carried out in the Ottoman Empire during this period than in any other. Firstly, the kanuns were valid only during the reign of the Sultan who adopted them, which means that this law existed as valid only for 8 years (the years of the reign of Selim I: 1512-1520), and, secondly, Sharia in relation to the kanun always had dominance and decisions were made mostly on its basis. And the eve only added to it. Qadis, on the other hand, could make decisions both on the basis of Sharia and on the basis of eve. For example, more secular provisions of kanuns were more often applied to non-believers than Sharia. one

In general, the criminal laws of the Ottoman Empire were one of the branches of law that were most free from Sharia norms. Most of the vital criminal law norms were not mentioned in the Koran and Sunnah, so the missing ones were developed by jurists with the help of interpretation, mainly on the Sultan's eve.

As W. Heid notes, a lot of work in this direction was done in the 16th century. under Sultan Suleiman I. The code of criminal laws was improved, systematized, replenished with new articles containing elements of the legal culture of the conquered peoples. one

During the reign of this sultan, the peak of the activity of publishing kanuns fell, for this reason Suleiman I was nicknamed Kanuni - the Legislator. Under him, the General Code of Laws of the Ottoman Empire was compiled. In general terms, this legislative code is as follows. It consists of three chapters, each of which includes a number of sections.