Ottoman Empire Final

Osman Gazi

- Founder of the Ottoman Empire: risen from Anatolia and reigned for 600 years over three continents. -Conquered but did not physically fight/battle in Bursa in 1326 and died of gout immediately after this campaign. Succeeded by his son Orhan Gazi. -A mythical figure in Ottoman history because there are not written sources from this time. -The state, while only a small principality (beylik) during Osman's lifetime, would prevail as a world empire under Osman's dynasty for the next six centuries after his death. -It existed until the abolition of the sultanate in 1922, or alternatively the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, or the abolition of the caliphate in 1924. -Westward drive of the Mongol invasions had pushed scores of Muslims toward Osman's principality, a power base that Osman was quick to consolidate. -As the Byzantine Empire declined, the Ottoman Beylik rose to take its place.

Tanzimat firman

-(Imperial Edict of Reorganization) was a proclamation by Ottoman sultan Abdülmecid I in 1839 that launched the Tanzimât period of reforms and reorganization in the Ottoman Empire. -Period of reformation that began in 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. -Characterized by various attempts to modernize the Ottoman Empire and to secure its territorial integrity against nationalist movements from within and aggressive powers from outside of the state. -Encouraged Ottomanism among the diverse ethnic groups of the Empire, attempting to stem the tide of nationalist movements within the Ottoman Empire. -Grant emancipation to non-Muslim subjects of the Empire and to integrate non-Turks more thoroughly into Ottoman society by enhancing their civil liberties and granting them equality throughout the Empire. -Abolition of tax farming, reform of conscription, and guarantee of rights to all Ottoman citizens regardless of religion or ethnic group. -Help modernize the empire militarily and socially so that it could compete with the Great Powers of Europe. -Edict of Gülhane consisted mainly of three demands: 1) a guaranteed insurance of the security of life of every subject , 2) regular system of assessing and levying taxes, troops, and duration of service , 3) human rights and justice system; accused were to be granted public trials; individuals could possess and dispose of property in freedom; and punishments were to fit the deed regardless of rank and rank was to be merit based. -Goal to guarantee life and property rights. Applies to all Ottoman subjects regardless of religion. Debate about its intended audience.

Shabbatai Zevi

-Born in Izmir, died 1676 albania, -Sephardic Rabbi and kabbalist who claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. -In 1666 in Constantinople he was imprisoned for fomenting sedition. The grand vizier at the time, in the name of Murad IV, gave him the choice of facing death or converting to Islam. -He converted and from then on wore a turban. - Followers also converted to Islam (donmehs). -Rewarded by the heads of the Ottoman state with a generous pension for his compliance with their political and religious plans.

millet system

-Closely linked to Islamic rules on the treatment of non-Muslim minorities living under Islamic dominion (zimmi). -Refers to the separate legal courts pertaining to personal law under which minorities were allowed to rule themselves (in cases not involving any Muslim) with fairly little interference from the Ottoman government. -Had a great deal of power - they set their own laws and collected and distributed their own taxes. All that was required was loyalty to the Empire. -People were bound to their millets by their religious affiliations. -When a member of one millet committed a crime against a member of another, the law of the injured party applied, but the ruling Islamic majority being paramount, any dispute involving a Muslim fell under their sharia−based law.

timar

-Fief whose revenues were held in return for military service. Essentially a land grant given to a sipahi (cavalryman). This included the land and the peasants (reaya) who lived there. -Intended to provide troops for the sultan's army by maintaining a large, centrally controlled cavalry force. -Sipahi (horsemen) only collected taxes listed in his sanjuk's kanunname (province code of laws). -Goals of the system were necessitated by financial, state, and expansionist purposes. The financial aims of the system were to relieve pressure from the Ottoman state of paying the army as well as to gain a new source of revenue for the central treasury. The Ottoman state also desired to centralize the sultan's authority by removing the feudal system and aristocratic elements from dominating the empire. The expansionist aims were to increase the number of cavalry soldiers and to gradually assimilate and bring conquered countries under direct Ottoman control. -Was supposed to be non-heritable and state owned and gave land-owner no judicial or administrative power. -After 1690, lands were de-facto heritable and landowners had local power causing central administrative power less important.

Sheikhulislam

-Grand Mufti was given the title sheikhulislam. -The head of the hierarchy of ulema. Held the highest rank in the hierarchy of ulema. -Chosen by a royal warrant amongst the kadis of important cities. -Had the power to confirm new sultans and his fetvas were able to legitimize the deposition of a bad Sultan, but once the sultan was affirmed, it was the sultan who retained higher authority than him. -Issued fetvas, which were written interpretations of the Quran that had authority over the community. -Highest religious authority in principle above the Sultan religiously, although he was appointed by the government. -famous example: Sheikhulismal Ebussuud in the 16th century wrote a book of Fetva samples instructing non-muslims what is and is not legal and what requires mandatory and discriminatory punishment.

Capitulations

-Grants made by Sultans to Christian nations, conferring rights and privileges in favor of their subjects residing or trading in the Ottoman dominions. -Traders entering the Ottoman Empire were exempt from local prosecution, local taxation, local conscription, and the searching of their domicile. -Made to gain trade favor and be competitive with Venetians. -If there was an issue with the agreements the Europeans could have the dispute handled in Istanbul and skip the Sharia Court. -Initially made during the Ottoman Empire's military dominance, to entice and encourage commercial exchange with Western merchants. -Increasingly exploited after military dominance shifted to Europe, allowing significant economic and political abuse by European powers. -Abolished by the Empire in 1923 because it gave more favorable deals to the Europeans.

Mehmed II

-He conquered Constantinople in 1453 (age 21) and brought an end to the Eastern Roman Empire. -Issued first kannuname , though his predecessors had promulgated individual kanuns. -Formed the early arrangements for the millet system. -Stabilized/ reconquered much of the Empire, including Rumelia and Western Anatolia. -Centralized imperial power. -Reigned 1444-1446 before his uncle took back the throne because Mehmed II was a child, then again from 1451-1481. -Fatih Mosque is named after him due to his importance in Ottoman history.

Grand Mufti

-Highest official of religious law in a Muslim country. -Issues legal opinions/edicts (fetvas) on interpretations of Islamic laws to help judges decide a case. -The collected opinions of the grand mufti aka sheikhulislam serve as valuable sources of information on the practical application of Islamic law as opposed to its abstract formulation. -His fetvas are non-binding precedents in areas of civil laws. -He is responsible for the body of legal scholars.

Ottoman art of calligraphy

-Islamic suspicion of figurative art as idolatrous has led calligraphy to become one of the major forms of artistic expression in Islamic cultures. -Development of Islamic calligraphy is strongly tied to the Qur'an; chapters, and excerpts from the Qur'an is a common and almost universal text upon which Islamic calligraphy is based. -Islamic calligraphy is highly venerated, most works follow examples set by well-established calligraphers, with the exception of secular or contemporary works. -A pupil would copy a master's work repeatedly until their handwriting is similar. -The process of making the paper and the ink are also included in this process. -Calligraphy is seen as a form of meditation in some sufi traditions.

zikr

-Means "remembrance". -Rhythmic repetition of the name of god or his attributes. -Devotional act in Islam in which short phrases or prayers are repeatedly recited silently within the mind or aloud. -Quran emphasizes the importance of remembering the will of god and to counter worldly materialism. -Muslims believe zikr is one of the best ways to enter in the higher level of Heaven and to glorify god. -Sufis recognize zikr as a way to gain spiritual enlightenment and achieve union (visal) in god. -Includes singing, music and dance.

zimmi, dhimmi

-Non-muslims, "people of the pact/book", Jews and Christians. -Paid the cizye and couldn't carry weapons, ride horses, and were under many other laws that were meant to keep them socially lower than Muslims within the Empire. -Literally means "protected person", they had their rights fully protected in their communities, but as citizens in the Islamic state, had certain restrictions, and it was obligatory for them to pay the cizye tax, which complemented the zakat, or Islamic tax, paid by the Muslim subjects. -Excluded from specific duties assigned to Muslims and did not enjoy certain political rights reserved for Muslims, but were otherwise equal under the laws of property, contract, and obligation. -Millet system allowed the zimmi communities to rule themselves under separate legal courts. Zimmi communities were also allowed to engage in certain practices that were usually forbidden for the Muslim community, such as the consumption of alcohol and pork.

gazel

-Poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. -Expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. -Many poets were Sufis or sympathized with Sufi ideas. -Can be viewed in a spiritual context, with the Beloved being a metaphor for God or the poet's spiritual master.

Cizye

-Poll tax paid by Jews and Christians -Tax payers were exempt from military service -For freedom to practice their religion in Ottoman lands -Some did convert to escape tax -Tax justified as a form of protection from the sultan as permission of free practice. -Reminder of inferior status -Zimmis are relinquishing rights and agreeing to pay for Muslim expansion.

tıbb-ı Nebevi

-Prophetic Medicine -Genre of medical writing intended as an alternative to the exclusively Greek-based medical systems derivative from Galen (humorology). -Authors were clerics, rather than physicians, advocating the traditional medical practices of the Prophet Muhammad's day and those mentioned in the Qur'an over the medical ideas assimilated from Hellenistic society, thereby producing a guide to medical therapy acceptable to the religiously orthodox. -Therapy consisted of diet and simple drugs (especially honey), bloodletting, and cautery, but no surgery. Other topics included fevers, leprosy, plague, poisonous bites, protection from night-flying insects, protection against the evil eye, rules for coitus, theories of embryology, proper conduct of physicians, and treatment of minor illnesses such as headaches, nosebleed, cough and colic.

kadi

-Relied on the dynastic secular law (kanun), local customs (orf), and the sharia to guide their rulings. -Binding rulings. -Ensured the establishment of justice on the basis of these very laws and rules. -Chosen from amongst those who has mastered the science of jurisprudence and law.

Suleyman the Magnificient

-Ruled over Golden Age (apex of military, political, economic power) of the empire, longest period of rule 1520-1566. -Personally instituted major legislative changes relating to society, education, taxation and criminal law. -His canonical law (or the Kanuns) fixed the form of the empire for centuries after his death. -He was a distinguished poet and goldsmith; he also became a great patron of culture, overseeing the "Golden" age of the Ottoman Empire in its artistic, literary and architectural development. -Increased education and medreses (colleges). -Conquered Belgrade during the Hungarian-Ottoman war, city became one of the largest in Europe under his rule, used as a pivot point to capture rest of Central Europe -In the Ottoman-Safavid war Baghdad was surrendered to him, confirming him as the leader of the Sunni Islamic world.

ulema

-Scholars of the Empire, viewed as heirs of the Prophet and the repositories of the holy (sharia) law. -Following the 16th century the ulema filled the positions of medrese instructors and kadis, as well as having almost complete control over Sharia law. -Spent 10+ years in medrese learning rational sciences including mathematics, astronomy/astrology, philosophy, logic, rhetoric, grammar, and syntax and traditional ones including exegesis, hadith, and fiqh.

sufi

-Strive to obtain direct experience of God by making use of "intuitive and emotional faculties" that one must be trained to use in order to purify the inner self. -Sufism is a mystical-ascetic aspect of Islam. -Sufi al-Rudhabari combined two Arabic origins of the words sufi, "The Sufi is the one who wears wool (ṣūf) on top of purity (ṣafā)".

Orientalism

-Term used by scholars in art history, literary, geography, and cultural studies for the depiction of Eastern cultures. -Since the publication of Edward Said's "Orientalism" in 1978, much academic discourse has used the term "Orientalism" to criticize a perceived patronizing Western attitude towards Eastern societies that is used to justify Western imperialism. -Western society is developed, rational, flexible, and superior, while Oriental societies embody the opposite values - static and undeveloped. -Further developed into Ottoman Orientalism and Turkish Orientalism.

kanunname

-The official secular/sultanic code of laws (kanuns). -Addresses matters such as taxation, administration, financial matters, or penal law. -"Kanun-I Osmani" contained: a log of the chief officials of the central government and the palace, and their respective salaries, pensions, hierarchy, etc., a strong reflection of the concept of the sultan as the center of the government and as the source of all authority (Patrimonial), and the two kannunames of Mehmed II formed the nucleus of the "Kanun-I Osmani". -Based on custom (orf) and could vary by province (sanjaks) to adapt/reconcile the previous rule to an Ottoman standard. -The basic principle of the code was that the land and the reaya belonged to the Sultan. -Split society into a two-tiered hierarchy of askeri (Ruler and ministers, soldiery, governors, bureaucrats, ulema) tax-exempt class and the reaya (Peasantry, commoners) whose duty it was to produce and pay taxes. Reaya and land belonged to sultan. -Mehmet II important in this law making (Fratricide) -Suleyman the Lawmaker

Martin Luther

-Theologist who formed the ideology of the Lutheran branch of Protestant Christianity. -Argued against resisting the Turks. -Saw the Turks as a scourge sent to punish Christians by God, as agents of the Biblical apocalypse that would destroy the antichrist, whom Luther believed to be the papacy, and the Roman Church. -Though Luther saw the Muslim faith as a tool of the devil, he was indifferent to its practice. He opposed banning the publication of the Qur'an, wanting it exposed to scrutiny. -Concluded that existence of Turks (Muslim) was God's punishment and to fight them is to fight God's will. -His goal was to bring the pomp of the papacy to an end.

Lady Mary Montagu

-Wife of British ambassador, visited Ottoman empire and wrote about Ottoman women, also wrote about vaccinations in the Ottoman empire. -In Letters from Turkey her personal interactions with Ottoman women enabled her to provide a more accurate account of Turkish women, their dress, habits, traditions, limitations and liberties. -Provides an interesting perspective on women and the Harem because many western opinions of such are given by men who were not permitted into the women's spaces. -Writings usually address and challenge the hindering contemporary social attitudes towards women and their intellectual and social growth. -Thought women hiding their faces/bodies gave them more freedom.