ISLAMIC EMPIRE OF FAITH – PART 3
THE OTTOMANS-PBS SPECIAL
The Ottoman Turks were a nomadic people. Sultans enlisted them as mercenaries.
Osman/Bey or chief was a Warlord. He had a dream of a magical tree of his linage. The followers of Osman were Ottomans knows as Ghazis. Their destiny was to bring Islam to the world. The Ottoman Empire was fearless.
The early Ottomans expansion was to the west not east or south because they were their Muslim brothers and they were not to fight each other. They had to move west where the Christians were.
Ottomans moved northwest where the Byzantine Empire was reaching the end of its age. The Crusaders wreaked havoc to Jerusalem. The Ottomans overran the Byzantine Empire and in 1326 took Bursa. Bursa enabled the Ottoman to establish a seat in government. The movement of a whole civilization from nomadic to settled. The Ottomans was a standard civilization. Civilization meant organization. They left the Byzantine clerks in place. Taxation and record keeping was importation. The Ottomans were known for creating structure for the people so they could live by the way they chose/were used to.
The Ottomans still had rival kingdoms old Muslim families were still rebelling. They wanted children who were not connected with the rival families (deshivres). The boys were slaves of the sultan. They were Christian children and not treated like slaves. They were brought up in the Muslim faith. They had great futures. They had one allegiance and it was to the sultan. They moved into the highest position of power in the empire. If brainy they went to the high level in the court systems. Those strong went to the janitorial system. They were the elite army of the sultan. They trained as military machines. Their love was for the sultan. They were the most feared in the Western world.
In the middle of the 15th century the Ottomans spread from Anatolia to the Balkans. They spread from Asia and further west into Constantinople. The Ottomans wanted Constantinople. Every ruler wanted Constantinople.
Mehmed the conquer wanted Constantinople. He had his half brother murdered. All brothers were eliminated. Mehmed took over. Mehmed had to conquer Constantinople. It was a perfect gem/fruit to be picked. Constantinople had three sides by water, encircled by triple walls. Mehmed had an answer for the wall. In 1452 he siege Constantinople by huge canons striped with forged metal. New canons of solid bronze were also introduced during Mehmed’s time. Mehmed did not rely on canons alone. The Bosphorus Strait he wanted to cut off by the Black Sea. He built a fortress to close the strait in the shadow of the city wall. It took four month to do this. When completed he tighten his noose about the Bosphorus Strait. In 1453 Mehmed host the ship to shore. The 7,000 Christians held out for nearly a month. The Byzantine Christians asked for help but the kings of Europe had political and military problems of their own. Constantinople had to fend for itself.
May 29, 1453 the Turkish army reached Constantinople’s Hagia Sophia (The Church of Holy Wisdom). They have seen many churches before but not like Hagia Sophia which was embellished with gold, etc. For Mehmed it was a great beauty. The Shahada was sung there for the first time. The greatest Christian church was now Muslim. All mosques tried to match the Hagia Sophia but could not. For Europeans it was a disaster. Mehmed was now the Holy Roman Emperor. They wanted the conquest of all of Europe now.
Born in the 10th century, Suleiman was well educated. He formed a relation with a Greek Christian convert Ibrahim Pasha who was Suleiman’s grand Vizer. He was close in age and education to Suleiman. When Suleyman took the throne he took Ibrahim with him. He was only 26 years old and no one wanted to obey him. He proved himself on the battle field. Suleyman set his sights on Belgrade in Europe. It was an important area strategically. Then he conquered the Islands of Rhodes where Christians and pirates lived. Suleiman didn’t rely on gun powder. The Ottomans dug some tunnels to mind different foundations. The result of the explosions resulted in the Turks fighting back but in 145 days later the Ottomans won. Suleiman was to be taken seriously now. His march of conquest has begun. Europe feared Suleiman. He was known as The Law Giver (Kanuni). They needed to sort out the legal systems. His law was the bases of the constitution. He was the center of the world. He commissioned spectacular buildings. He was in a position of wealth and built buildings to remember his reign. Great buildings give you a center of faith and great buildings reminded you of the glory of God.
Suleiman’s chief architect, Mimar Sinan was responsible for the Dome Mosque. The Dome of the Rock, The Suleiman Mosque etc. They had spiritual value and faith. The mosque was the center of social services, hospitals, schools and the library. Suleiman gazed at this and said, “Oh Solomon, I have surpassed thee.” Suleiman’s palace was the best. It was the seat of government and his private dwelling.
He was a patron of the arts. Everything flourished. This is the golden age of the Ottoman world. Everything that came out of his palace was exquisite. Suleiman was a goldsmith by trade. Everyone tried to please the sultan because you were rewarded if you did well.
The Ottomans exercise influence on the European imagination. They had to respect the power of the Ottomans. In public Suleiman made sure everyone was quiet while he made know his wishes know with the slighted gesture or nod. No one said a word. His sovereignty was being made known.
As Suleiman’s power grew his friend Ibrahim rose in the court structure. Ibrahim Pasha became known as his devoted Grand Vizer and he married Suleiman’s sister. They were not only good friends but related. Ibrahim campaigned with his own army growing in influence and ambition until his power was second to Suleiman’s. But for power and ambition the secret world to the sultan’s harem had no equal. Contrary to western belief, it was not a playpen but laid at the center of domestic power. The harem was the private quarters of the sultan. The place where he was not displayed. Home is what it meant to him. He was allowed four wives and many concubines. It was a system designed to produce heirs. It wasn’t erotic. He didn’t have much choice.
With his first wife he had a son named Mustafa while in his middle thirties he fell in love with a slave girl named Horin. She was known by the name Roxelana. She bared him a rival heir and she became Suleiman’s most trusted confident. The sultan was to be protected from any un-do influence, from any rivals. In a way this created a vacuum around his person into which the harem life can enter. He was so protected that it backfired. It exposed him to his females.
Suleiman was complex. He was tender to his females and also to his males and family. He groomed his first born son Mustafa for power. The young prince was trained for this which led to military power. Mustafa was the heir. Suleiman’s power seemed limited. “In Bagdad I am the Shar. In the Byzantine Empire (Roman), I am the Cezar. In Egypt I am the Sultan”.
One of Suleiman’s greatest rivals was to the east, the Empire of the Persian Safavid. Safavid was a Muslim enemy for centuries. They were Turkish in ethnic origin. They spoke Turkish. They formed the eastern boundaries of the Ottoman. The Safavid were Shites, bitter rival to the Ottoman Sunnis. According to Shites the leader had to be from the family of Muhammad. According to the Sunni you could be someone in the community not necessarily related to Muhammad. This challenge is the basis for the Sunni/Shite split. It still separates the Muslim world today. The Ottomans really never thought themselves as Sunnis until the Safavid came forth with the rival as Shites. The Safavid arrived at a rival ideology towards the Ottomans which became an occasion for war in Anatolia which belonged to the Ottoman Empire. They were patrons of the arts. When you looked at Isfahan it is the most beautiful cite in the world. It iwas the capital of Persia in the Safavid Dynasty. It does give you a since of power like the Ottoman and its capital. It’s a different sense of power, more eloquent, precious in its decoration. Safavid’s architect is on a finer scale. It is not known on a stunning scale.
The sultan’s palace of the Safavid was murderous and had charges was intrigued against Suleiman and his dynasty which hatched in his very household. Suleiman’s eyes were on the west. Europe awaited his conquer. The Ottoman Empire conquered from Egypt to and he now had Hungary. He wanted to bring the larger part of the world under his control.
Sueliman’s next step was Vienna. He wanted to drive a dagger into the European Safavid Empire and open a way to the west. The weather turned against him. The heavy canons that swept the Ottoman to victory in the past were bogged down in the mud. Suleiman had to move on without them. He only had light artillery. They shelled the city but the smallest attack was defended. After a lengthy siege with winter approaching Sueliman withdrew his forces. He wasn’t concerned because he knew he would return soon enough but he never did.
Suleiman’s failure to take Vienna was pivotal for Europe. It was the first major defeat after a long time. The Europeans have been losing and losing. This was the dawn of a new day for Europe. Suleiman had little to fear from Europe. His rival enemies, the Safavid and family members brought the cruelest sorrows to the sultan and his empire as well.
Suleiman showed the empathy of the wise 16th century rulers and tragic figure. In the sultan household the intrigue never ceased. The palace and Horin complained as most wives would that Suleiman was spending too many days campaigning and she was lonely and the children missed him. Surprising there was a fire in the palace in the old quarters, Horin’s quarters and she had to be moved to the top of the palace temporarily and she never moved out.
Now Horin was at the center of power promoting her own son’s heir and herself in a deadly gossip and suspicion. She was devoted to her husband and any threat to Suleiman she had to get rid of it.
The first threat came from Ibriham Pasha whose assumed title was given by sultans and Ibriham knew something was going to happen eventually and to promote the sultan’ and his dynasty Ibriham had to go. On March 15, 1536, Suleiman and Ibriham Pasha dined together as was their custom and in the morning Ibriham’s body was found strangled. Suleiman’s destination had only begun. A few years later Horin’s claim to have a plot to overthrow Suleiman proved his first born son Mustafa was part of the plan. This happens, sons trying to replace their fathers. Without hesitation Suleiman ordered his son’s execution. He then sat by his body for days and didn’t allow anyone to touch him. The best hope for the empire’s future was now dead. When Horin died the following year and Suleiman was in despair. He found solace in his poetry. Most of the poems came when he lost his wife talking about the loneliness of being in office and that he had no one left and he is dying to join her.
In all his loneliness he returned to the field of battle/to the place of conquest. He led thirteen campaigns that lasted at Saget Fa which is in Hungary now. He knew this was going to be his last campaign. He personally led it knowing that he would not come back alive. In 1561 he died in his grand wall pavilion surrounded by his generals. He was 67 years old. No other sultan would achieve his greatness again. The next of world powers would move from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean and the new world slowly leaving the Ottoman’s behind.
In Istanbul today the Safavid Dancers still turn today with the same prayerful prayers they did in Suleiman’s day. It is a meditation in motion whose mystic powers go back to the time of the Prophet Muhammad. “You have become the best community ever raised up before mankind the Quran assures, all believers are joining the right and forbidden the wrong and having faith in God/Allah”.
Islamic and Western Civilization has the same roots. The monotheist of Jews and Christians., the classical intellectual culture of the ancient Greek etc. The two traditions are kindred spirits alike but very different. Islam’s legacy is intertwined with the west and to the billions of Muslims who make it the second largest in the world it is a living legacy, an elementary part of human nature that is world to civilization.
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