II.

Ottoman Expansion

The early Ottoman state was a small principality in north-west Anatolia around Sogud on the middle part of the Sakarya river. There were several such petty states which grew out of the wreckage of the former Seljuk state of Rum. Historians differ in opinion as to the relative importance of the young Ottoman state’s two main characteristics: the tribal traditions of the Turko-Mongol warriors who dominated the state, and the influence of Islam. The scholar Paul Wittek, who emphasized the role of Islam, claimed that the rise of the Ottoman state was due to its attraction to ghazis, or fighters of the holy war (jihad), who joined the Ottomans in preference to other similar ghazi states because they were well positioned to play the leading role in the struggle against the Christian Byzantine Empire to the west. An inscription at Bursa dated 1337-1338, which commemorates the second Ottoman sultan, Orkhan, describes him as “the mujahid, sultan of the ghazis, ghazi, son of a ghazi”. Yet in the early years of the 14th century, the Ottoman state was not the most successful of the ghazi states and more than one factor contributed to its eventual triumph. The character of the state was formed especially by the peculiar conditions of continuous border conflict.

Incessant warfare and judicious alliances brought the Ottomans success. In 1325 or 1326 they captured Bursa, which became their first capital city, and by 1338 the Byzantines had been expelled from Anatolia. At the same time the Ottomans extended their territories southwards and eastwards at the expense of other Turkish princedoms, and in 1354 took Ankara in central Anatolia. In the same year the Ottomans occupied Gallipoli (Gelibolu) on the European side of the strait of the Dardanelles, which became the base for their subsequent drive into south-eastern Europe. In 1361 the Ottomans took Adrianople (Edirne) which became their second capital city, and, by 1389, when Sultan Murad I defeated the Serbs at the Battle of Kosovo, the Ottomans held Thrace, Macedonia, and much of Bulgaria and Serbia.

During most of the first century of the expansion of their power, the Ottomans relied as much upon diplomacy as upon war and they sought especially to establish diplomatic relations with states, which the Ottomans regarded as vassals (although the so-called vassals did not necessarily recognize the degree of subordination implied). Such relations were formed with the princes of Bulgaria in 1371, Serbia in 1372, Byzantium in 1373, with the Albanian chiefs from 1385 onwards and at various times with the Turkish principalities in Anatolia. A significant change in Ottoman policy was ushered in by Sultan Bayazid I who sought to substitute for this loose structure a much more centralized polity and removed many of the “vassal” princes, especially those in Bulgaria and Anatolia. It was less easy to justify war against Muslims than war against the infidel, and this changed provoked internal opposition to Bayazid, and although he defeated a challenge from Christian Europe (the crusade of Nicopolis, 1396) he was defeated in 1402 by the Central Asian conqueror, Tamerlane (Timur Lang), who restored the deposed Anatolian chiefs and effectively postponed the further application of the policy of centralization for 50 years. There followed first a period of dispute over the sultanate and then one of conservative rule and consolidation. Centralization was resumed under Sultan Mehmed II (Muhammad II).

Mehmed II can be regarded as the real founder of the Ottoman empire as an imperial power and campaigned throughout his reign. He fought against Hungary, where he was defeated; in Greece, where he conquered the Morea; in eastern Asia Minor, where he defeated the Turkoman chief Uzun Hasan; and he established control over the Black Sea by conquering the southern shore in 1461 including the old Greek state of Trabzon, and the northern coast in 1475 by taking Kaffa from the Genoese and establishing suzerainty over the Khan of the Crimea. At home he introduced the first Ottoman law codes which were later to be greatly developed by Sultan Suleiman I the Magnificent. But his greatest achievement was the 1453 conquest of Constantinople (İstanbul), which he made the third and last Ottoman capital city. The Ottoman state had always been influenced by Byzantium but with the annexation of Constantinople, Byzantine imperial ideas (embracing Greek and Roman traditions) came to stand with the Turkish and Islamic factors as elements of the ideology of the Ottoman state. Mehmed was Caesar and Padishah, “Sovereign of the Two Lands and the Two Seas”, that is of Rumelia and Anatolia, the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea. The Ottomans claimed to be the true heirs of the Seljuks and the Turkish element was also soon given a new polish with the claim that the Ottomans were descended from the Oghuz Turks, regarded as the founders of the Turkish race in Central Asia.

The tide of Ottoman conquest continued to flow throughout the 16th century. From the successful challenge to Venice in 1499-1503, Ottoman sea power became a force to reckon with in the Mediterranean. Under Sultan Selim I (the Grim), the Safavids of Iran were defeated at Chaldiran in 1514, eastern Anatolia was added to the empire, and, in 1516-1517, the Mamelukes of Syria and Egypt were beaten and their territories annexed. Consequently, the Ottomans also inherited Mameluke interests in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean and acquired possession of the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Arabia. The Ottomans now controlled nearly all the great old Muslim cities and capitals, including Jerusalem, Damascus, and Cairo. The Ottoman sultan could add to his titles that of “Servant of the Two Noble Sanctuaries”, and he assumed the major responsibility for the safety of the annual pilgrim caravans to the Ḩijāz (Al Ḩijāz). He was the greatest living Muslim ruler. Selim also acquired from the Mamelukes possession of the person of the last Abbasid caliph. Although this circumstance was given no importance at the time, in the 19th century it was to become part of the claim of the Ottoman sultans to lead, as caliphs, the Panislamic movement.

Suleiman I (the Magnificent), the son and successor of Selim I, is commonly acclaimed as the greatest of Ottoman rulers. During his reign, Iraq (including the other great Muslim capital Baghdad) was added to the empire in 1534, and Ottoman control was established in the eastern Mediterranean. Via the annexation of Algiers and the activities of the Barbary Coast corsairs, Ottoman power was thrust into the western Mediterranean. Also, Suleiman carried Ottoman arms far into Europe: Belgrade was captured in 1521 and the Hungarians defeated at the Battle of Mohács in 1526. In 1529, Suleiman unsuccessfully laid siege to Vienna.