Topics in Middle East History

Chapter 17: The Start of the Decline

Copyright ©2011 by T. Pavlidis

The Rule of the Harem - continued

1648 saw a young boy as a sultan, with his grandmother, Kösem sultan, serving as Valide sultan. Mehmed IV's mother, Turhan sultan was only in her early twenties and she was pushed aside [CF05, p. 235]. A new Grand Vizier, Sofu Mehmed Pasha lasted only nine months and was executed. The next Grand Vizier was janissary commander-in-chief Kara Murad Pasha. The finances of the empire were in bad shape and there was no money to pay the sultan's cavalry regiments.

There were violent protests in Istanbul reminiscent of the current (2011) protests in the Arab World. The protesters were young educated men who had expected a position in the court or in one of the cavalry regiments. There were joined by actively serving cavalrymen. The janissaries suppressed the uprising by massacring the protesters at the Hippodrome, a place that had seen earlier massacres of protesters, in Byzantine times. The bodies of those killed were dumped in the sea "as though they were Christian prisoners-of-war" according to a chronicler sympathetic to the protesters. However, the massacre caused a new rebellion in Anatolia under the leadership of former cavalry officers that also included some bandits. The rebels reached the Bosporus across from Istanbul but were eventually defeated and the severed head of their leader was put on display outside the Topkapi palace. Apparently, there was an ethnic factor in these fights, between men of Balkan (Albanian or Bosnian) origin and those from Caucasus (Georgian or Abkhazian). At the end, the Anatolian farmers paid for the costs of the rebellions with a 50% tax on their income. [ibid, pp. 236-240.]

Five Sultans after Ibrahim I
Name Reign Relationship to
previous sultan
Mehmed IV 1648-1687 son of Ibrahim I Became sultan at the age of 7.
Suleyman II 1687-1691 younger brother  
Ahmed II 1691-1695 younger brother  
Mustafa II 1695-1703 son of Mehmed IV  
Ahmed III 1703-1730 brother Tulip Age

In 1650 there were new protests by the tradesmen of Istanbul. The treasury of the empire was empty again and tradesmen were forced to accept defective coins in exchange for good ones so the janissaries would be paid. The tradesmen forced the sheikhulislam to become their spokesman and go to the palace to see the sultan. Not surprisingly, he never saw the sultan and he had to negotiate with Kösem sultan. There was more intrigue and the janissary officers conspired with Kösem to poison Mehmed IV because his mother, Turhan sultan, was of an opposite faction. The new sultan would be his younger half-brother Suleyman whose more mother was thought to be easier to control. However, Turhan sultan got wind of the plan and arranged for Kösem sultan's assassination. Kösem was murdered on the night of September 2, 1651. There was more rioting and eventually the janissaries lost to the palace functionaries who were led by Turhan and the Kizlar agha. The janissary high ranking officers were given appointments in the provinces but soon afterward they were killed and their huge fortunes confiscated to alleviate the state's financial crisis. Turhan sultan, who was of Ruthenian (Ukrainian) origin like Roxelana, had proven herself to be an effective leader [ibid, pp. 241-244].

While the Ottomans had taken most of Crete in 1645, the Venetians were still holding the fortress of Candia (modern Heraclion) and their fleet defeated several times the Ottoman fleet. In 1656 the Ottomans suffered their worst naval defeat since Lepanto. The Venetians received some help from the French, but the Ottomans took full possession of the island in 1669 after 24 years of warfare. However, warfare between the Ottomans and the Venetians continued in other fronts, in Dalmatia, in Peloponese, and around Athens. A casualty of this war was the extensive damage of Acropolis when in 1687, canon balls from Venetian artillery, under Francesco Morozini, ignited the powder magazine that Ottomans had established in the ancient buildings that had survived fairly intact until then. [ibid, pp. 247-273].

A significant event of those years ago was the rise of Koprulu Mehmed Pasha, an Albanian who had been recruited through the devshirme system. He became Grand Vizier in 1656 on the recommendation of the sultan's mother Turhan sultan and he stayed in office until his death in 1661. He was ruthless in suppressing rebellions and he ordered the hanging of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch on the grounds that he had encouraged a revolt by the Christians in Wallachia. He was succeeded by his son Fazil Ahmed who held the office until he died in 1676 and he oversaw the final conquest of Crete. The next Grand Vizier was Koprulu Mehmed's son-in-law Merzinfonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha. Members of this family held the office most of the time until 1710 so historians talk about a Koprulu dynasty [ibid, p. 253-255]. Turhan sultan died in 1682 so she did not live to see the disastrous events of 1683.

The 1683 Siege of Vienna

The Ottoman empire reached its greater extent in years 1683-1699 (see Figure 1 of Chapter 14). In spite of the problems we mentioned in the last chapter, expansion continued during the reign of weak sultans. But this could not go on. The fateful event was the Siege of Vienna that began in July of 1683. The trigger to the new Ottoman campaign against the Hapsburgs was the religious wars in Europe. The Catholic Hapsburgs were oppressing the Hungarian Protestants and a Calvinist Hungarian noble Thököloy reached for Ottoman support. In 1682 he was rewarded with a treaty recognizing him as an Ottoman vassal. The Grand Vizier Merzinfonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha saw him as a tool to be used against the Hapsburgs [CF05, p. 283]. Sultan Mehmed IV had little taste for war but by this time the sultan was in the shadow of the Grand Vizier and Mehmed went along.

By May 1683 the sultan and the Ottoman army were in Belgrade where they had been joined by the forces of Thököloy and of Crimean Tatars. A characteristic of the times was that the sultan was accompanied by 80 coaches carrying ladies of the Harem, including his favorite concubine Rabia Gülnüs Emetullah (mother of future sultans Mustafa II and Ahmed III). The sultan stayed in Belgrade while Kara Mustafa Pasha went straight for Vienna not wanting to "waste" time with capturing outposts on the way. This was against explicit orders of the sultan, but by that time the Grand Vizier did not have to listen to him. The Hapsburg emperor and his court fled Vienna while pursued by Tatar cavalry. By July 14 the city was completely encircled and the Ottoman canons started bombarding its walls. [ibid, pp. 284-285.] The Ottoman army was about 150,000 men strong, including 12,000 janissaries and the prospects for the city did not look promising.

However, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth decided to put aside their differences with the Hapsburgs and unite against a common enemy. The Polish king Jan Sobieski gathered a 60,000 men strong army and approached Vienna from the west through a mountainous and thickly-forested terrain that the Ottomans had assumed to be impenetrable. A fierce battle was fought on September 12 that ended with a crashing defeat of the Ottomans. Those who were not killed or captured fled in disarray [ibid, pp. 286-287].

The Christians captured the luxurious tents of the high Ottoman officials and, apparently, they still on display in various Polish and Austrian museums. Amongst the loot were several sacks of coffee and this was how that beverage was introduced in Western Europe.

The Aftermath of Vienna

When the sultan heard the news of the catastrophic defeat he asked Kara Mustafa Pasha to appear before him but the Grand Vizier refused claiming illness. Eventually he was brought to Belgrade and executed on Christmas Day 1683 [ibid, p. 287]. There was plenty of blame to go around for the defeat but a major accusation against Kara Mustafa Pasha was that he had not ordered an assault and instead waited for a surrender of the city so he could get the loot himself rather than the invading soldiers.

Kara Mustafa Pasha's successor proved quite inept. Several defeats followed, including the recovery of Buda by the Hapsburgs on September 2, 1686. The city had been in Ottoman hands since 1526. There were several mutinies and the office of Grand Vizier changed hands several times. Additional taxes were imposed causing even more discontent [ibid, pp. 287-295]. There were demands for abdication of the sultan and he agreed to step down in favor of his son Mustafa. He gathered an assembly of prominent officials to handle the abdication but the assembly decided that he should abdicate instead in favor of his brother Suleyman. Suleyman II took the throne in November of 1687 at age 45. Finkel [ibid, p. 296-98] quotes a chronicle about the transition of power that speaks volumes about the sad state of the empire. I paraphrase parts of it below:

"The Kizlar Agha went to the Kafes where Prince Suleyman Khan was confined, and invited him to leave his quarters. The Prince became seized with fright and refused to come out. The Kizlar tried to calm him down but the Prince replied weeping: "If my execution has been ordered, tell me, so that I can perform my prayers ... I have been confined for forty years ... Rather than dying a thousand deaths each and every day, it is preferable to die once at the earliest instant ..."

Finally, the prince was convinced to come out, but he had no decent cloths to wear so the Kizlar Agha gave him a robe of his own. Mehmed IV and his sons were confined to the Kafes together with the younger brothers of Suleyman [ibid].

While this tragicomedy was taking place military disasters continued. Belgrade fell to the Hapsburgs on September 8, 1688 [ibid, p. 302]. A new Grand Vizier from the Koprulu family was appointed, Fazil Mustafa Pasha who tried to straighten up the messy state of affairs and he was able to recapture Belgrade [ibid, p. 308]. Suleyman II died in 1691 without leaving any children and he was succeeded by his younger brother Ahmed II. He died four years later while the Ottomans were losing more territory to the Austrians. He was succeeded in 1695 by a son of Mehmed IV, Mustafa II who declared his intention of being an active sultan and lead the army in person as Suleyman I did.

A contemporary chronicler reports that a miraculous discovery in the sultan's private treasury in January 1696. It was a sword accompanied by a copper scroll that explained its provenance. It was the sword that David had used to slain Goliath and had passed on the Jesus and then the Mamluks of Egypt. In spite of the flaws in the story, sultan Mustafa claimed that the discovery of the sword was a sign of God's favor and swore to always carry the weapon. Unfortunately, the charm did not work and in 1697 Prince Eugene of Savoy inflicted a crushing defeat on the Ottomans at Senta (northern Serbia). Amongst the dead was Grand Vizier Elmas Mehmed Pasha [ibid, pp. 316-318].

The Treaty of Karlowitz

The Ottomans had to ask for peace and the negotiations took place in the town of Karlowitz (In today's Serbia). There were nine principal delegates: two Ottoman, two Austrian, one Polish, one Muscovite, one Venetian, one Dutch, and one English. The negotiations lasted four months and on January 26, 1699 a treaty was signed where the Ottoman Empire gave up all its territories in central Europe. Austria obtained Hungary and Transylvania. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth achieved only minor gains regaining the province of Podolia but giving up their conquests in Moldavia (in spite of their decisive military contribution in 1683). The Muscovites, under tsar Peter the Great, obtained recognition as equals of the Ottomans and a Muscovite ambassador was sent to Istanbul. (Until then the Ottoman sultan had viewed the tsar of Muscovy as his subordinate.) The Venetians confirmed their holdings in Dalmatia and the Peloponese [ibid, pp. 319-325].

Probably, the greatest significance of Karlowitz is that for the first time ever the Ottomans agreed to give up territory they had held.

The Reign of Ahmed III (1703-1730)

Mustafa II went ahead with his plan to resume the power that sultans used to have in the time of Suleyman I and towards this purpose he tried to enhance the position of the timariots. This did not go well with those in power and in 1703 an open rebellion broke out in Istanbul while the sultan was in Edirne. The sultan went to face the rebels at the head of an army but his soldiers deserted him and he was deposed. He returned to the Kafes and died six months later. He was succeeded by his brother Ahmed III who reigned for 27 years. The rebellion that brought the downfall of Mustafa II has become known as the Edirne Incident. [ibid, pp. 329-331]

The early part of Ahmed III's reign witnessed the war between Russia (led by Peter the Great) and Sweden (led by Charles II). The Russian defeated the Swedes in the battle of Poltava in 1709 and Charles II sought refuge in Ottoman territory. A war between Russia and the Ottomans followed with the Ottoman winning the battle of the Prut in July of 1711. However, the Ottoman commander-in-chief, Grand Vizier Baltaci Mehmed Pasha did not press his advantage for mysterious reasons. If he had, he might have been able to advance to Moscow. The sultan was not happy with the Grand Vizier so he dismissed and imprison him. Still the Ottomans were able to recover the lands that Russia had captured from them in recent years. A war with Venice followed that allowed the Ottomans to recover Peloponese. A war with Austria in 1717 led to another Ottoman defeat in the hands of prince Eugene of Savoy. In the treaty of Passarowitz the Ottomans had to give up Belgrade once more. The borders with Hungary and Croatia were restored to the position before Suleyman I's conquests [ibid, pp. 333-338].

In addition to his several sons, Ahmed III had 30 daughters and he made it his policy to marry them to influential Pashas in order to gain the latter's loyalty. Because the bridegrooms were much older than the brides, the latter would be left widows at an early age, but then Ahmed III would arrange another marriage. One of the daughters, Saliha Sultan, ended up getting married five times [ibid, pp. 338-339]. The most extreme difference in age was seen in the marriage of five year old Fatma sultan to the almost 40 year old Silahdar Ali Pasha in 1709 [ibid, p. 342].

Ahmed III expanded the system of tax-farming with individual bidding for different provinces. The influx of money helped the imperial treasury and there was prosperity, at least amongst the well-off. Several luxurious palaces date from that era. The sultan also sought to learn from Western Europe. In 1720 he sent the former janissary officer Celebi Mehmed Efendi to France to inform the French king that the sultan had granted France permission to repair the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. However his real mission was to "to visit fortresses and factories, and to make a thorough study of the means of civilization and education, and report on those suitable for application in the Ottoman Empire" [ibid, pp. 341-342].

The most visible western influence was the introduction of tulips from the Netherlands. This had happened before Ahmed III's reign but now the flower reached new heights of popularity. It is reported that the Grand Vizier had 500,000 tulips in his garden. Many new fountains were built in Istanbul, and streets were illuminated for the first time allowing the residents of the city to venture outdoors after dark. Later historians have called that period the Tulip Age [ibid, pp. 344-347].

In 1729 Ibrahim Müteferrika, a Hungarian convert, and a partener received permission from the sultan to establish a printing press to print books in Arabic script. Müteferrika died in 1745, and by this time he had managed to produce seventeen books. One was a treatise on European military arts and another a lengthy description of France. The press closed down in 1796 and by that time the total number of books produced was twent yfour, most in runs of only 500 copies. Finkel thinks that lack of interest (too few people could read) was the cause rather than religious opposition [ibid, pp. 366-367. Also BL95, p. 269 and p. 306].

Civil Unrest

The prosperity of the upper classes during Ahmed III's reign did not trickle down to the rest of the population, so a rebellion broke out in 1730. It started with the very poor but then the janissary rank-and-file joined the crowd. The rebels demand the execution of several high ranking officials and sultan Ahmed III ordered the execution of three of them (including the Grand Vizier) and their bodies were delivered to the rebels. But that did not appeased them and insisted on the removal of the sultan himself. So Ahmed abdicated in favor of his nephew who took the throne as Mahmud I. However, he unable to exercise control and the leader of the rebels, an Albanian called Patrona Halil, seemed to be in charge. The eponym Patrona means vice-admiral in Turkish and it had to do with Halil's service on a ship. Halil presented himself as a man of the people and went around barefoot. The new sultan was unable to satisfy the demands of the rebels but salvation came from a split in their ranks. The murder of a janissary officer on November 5, 1730 triggered a split between the civilian rebels and the janissaries. Patrona Halil and his close associates were invited to the palace and meet the sultan who was going to grant their demands. Instead they were killed and a massacre of several thousand other rebels followed. It was only in March 1731 that the final resistance was suppressed. [CF05, pp. 353-357]

We may look at this period as one of missed opportunities for reform. It took almost a century before the process of breakup of the Ottoman Empire started with the Serbian and Greek revolutions. Belated efforts for reform could not stop the various ethnic groups of the empire from demanding independence. IF (and that is a big IF) the empire had reformed away from the authoritarian form of government during Ahmed III's reign, it might have avoided the ultimate breakup.

Jews in the Ottoman Empire during the 1600s

In 1660 a fire had devastated the port district of Eminonu in Istanbul and the Jews (who lived in the area) were blamed for starting the fire. As a result their properties were expropriated and were expelled from the area. Jews were characterized as "enemies of Islam." This persecution came right after the massacres of Jews in Ukraine and Poland during the Cossack Khmlnytsky uprising in the period 1648-57. When times become hard people are desperate for any message of hope and that may explained the Messianic movement of Sabbatai Zevi (also spelled Tzevi or Zvi).

Zevi was born in 1626 in the ancient port of Smyrna (Izmir in Turkish) in a family of Romaniote (Greek-speaking) Jews from Patras (in Peloponese). His father was a trader in Patras but during the Venetian-Ottoman wars of the times business was disrupted and he moved to Smyrna. Both Patras and Smyrna had large Greek-speaking populations. The young Zevi studied the Kabbala and in 1648, at age 22, announced that he was the Messiah.

There is an interesting coincidence here. Around that time a Millennial movement had arisen in Britain, called the Fifth Monarchy Men. It was an extreme Puritan sect and they claimed that after the four ancient monarchies (Assyrian, Persian, Greek, and Roman) a fifth monarchy, of Christ, would arrive soon and it would last for 1000 years. In the beginning they supported Oliver Cromwell (1653-1658) but later they turned against him. By 1661 all their leaders had been executed and the sect died out [1].

The Fifth Monarchy Men expected the arrival of Christ in 1666. The number of this year lends itself to mystical interpretation. 666 is the Number of the Beast in the Apocalypse. Also 1666 written in Roman numerals is MDCLXVI containing all numerals exactly once and in descending order.

Zevi's father traded with English commercial houses so it is highly likely that young Zevi heard about the Fifth Monarchy Men [2]. The rabbis of Smyrna did not take kindly to Zevi, so around 1651 he left for Salonica that was a significant Kabbalistic center. From there he moved to Constantinople where he found a supporter in the person of the Kabbalist Abraham ha-Yakini. ha-Yakini produced a supposedly ancient document affirming that Sabbatai Zevi was the Messiah. Zevi moved on to Palestine and Cairo while gaining numerous supported, including the wealthy tax-farmer Raphael Halebi. Zevi married a beautiful woman named Sarah that had been a prostitute in Europe and that act, apparently, gained him more followers. He made a triumphal return to Jerusalem and he event found a prophet, Nathan of Gaza, who went around proclaiming the imminent restoration of Israel with Sabbatai riding a lion with a seven-headed dragon in his jaws [2]. In 1665 Sabbatai returned to Smyrna where he was wildly acclaimed. He dismissed the old rabbi and replaced him with one he had chosen. In the time the movement has spread throughout Europe, including the cities of Venice, Amsterdam, Hamburg, and London. Nathan of Gaza went around proclaiming that Sabbatai would soon replace the sultan. In early 1666 Sabbatai went to Constaninople and he was promptly arrested by the Ottoman authorities.

In September 1666 he was brought before the sultan (Mehmet IV) in Edirne and was offered the choice of death or conversion to Islam. He chose the latter and became Aziz Mehmed Efendi, in the payroll of the court. He then went to be an active proselytizer to Islam, at least for awhile. At the end he was banished to Albania where he died in 1676, supposedly on Yom Kippur. Not only most of his followers converted to Islam but in this period were mass voluntary conversions to Islam by other Jews and by Christians. The were so many conversions that legislation had to be created on "New Muslims". Descendents of Zevi's followers became know as Donme (meaning convert in Turkish) and continued by identified as such through modern times. Being a Muslim removed all political and financial disabilities that a member of a "tolerated" faith had. For some people there were additional advantages. A woman who was a household slave of non-Muslims could gain her freedom by converting to Islam. [CF05, pp. 279-281.]

  1. Article on the "Fifth Monarchy Men" in Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. IV (p. 130), Fifteenth Edition, 1982.
  2. Article on "Shabbetai Tzevi" in Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. IX (pp. 98-99), Fifteenth Edition, 1982.

First Posted: March 12, 2011. Latest Revision: March 28, 2011.

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