The Ottoman Empire was one of the leading states of the Middle Ages and Modern Times. Turks are a relatively young people, but let's look at how their state developed.

Early history of the Ottoman Empire

The formation of the Ottoman Empire dates back to 1299. From the moment of their appearance in Asia Minor, the Ottomans began periodic wars with Byzantium for leadership in the peninsula, which ended in 1453 with the fall of Constantinople, which was renamed Istanbul and made the new capital.

The capital of the empire changed 4 times. By placing them in chronological order, the capitals were the cities of Shogut, Bursa, Edirne and Istanbul.

Having destroyed the millennial empire, the sultans of the Ottoman Empire continued the conquest of the Balkans, conquering Albania, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Wallachia. By the 16th century, the borders of the Ottoman state stretched from Algeria to the Persian Gulf and from Crimea to southern Egypt. Its official flag was a white crescent moon with a star on a red background, the army was considered invincible, and the rulers saw the role of the Ottoman Empire in uniting all Arab peoples under their rule.

In 1505, the Ottoman Empire defeated Venice in a war to control trade in the eastern Mediterranean.

Rice. 1. Map of the Ottoman Empire during its heyday.

The era of Suleiman the Magnificent

The years of Suleiman's reign turned out to be a real heyday of the Ottoman state. The beginning of his reign was marked by an amnesty for many Egyptian hostages held captive by his father. In 1521, Suleiman conquered the main fortress of the Knights-Ioanites - the island of Rhodes. The year before, Belgrade had been taken under his command. In 1527, the Ottoman Empire peaked in Europe by invading Austria and Hungary. In 1529, the Turks tried to take Vienna by storm, having a sevenfold advantage, but weather conditions prevented them from taking the city.

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Suleiman was a skilled politician. He loved diplomatic victories more than the military. Back in 1517, King Francis I of France proposed an alliance to the Holy Roman Emperor in order to expel the Turks from Europe. But Suleiman already in 1525 managed to agree with the king of France on the conclusion of a military alliance. Thanks to Francis I, for the first time after the Crusades in Jerusalem, the Catholic Church began to conduct services.

Rice. 2. Portrait of Suleiman the Magnificent.

The era of Russian-Turkish wars

The rivalry with Russia for control of the Black Sea remains a bright page in the history of the Ottoman state. The geopolitical position of Russia required it to obtain access to the Mediterranean through the Black Sea. Between 1568 and 1918, Russia and the Ottoman Empire fought 12 times. And if the first wars were of a local nature for the establishment of control over Ukraine and the Azov region, then since 1768 these were large-scale military campaigns. During the wars of 1768-1774 and 1787-1791, the Ottoman Empire lost the Black Sea territories from the Dnieper to the Southern Bug and lost control over the Crimea.

Later, the list of lost lands was added to the Caucasus, Bessarabia, and with the mediation of Russia, control over the Balkan peoples was weakened. The weakening of the position of the Turks in the Black Sea was the first sign of the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Ottoman Empire in the 19th - early 20th century

By the 19th century, there was a decline in the empire, and so great that in Russia they thought about the destruction of the Turkish state. This led to another war, called the Crimean. Turkey in Europe managed to enlist the support of England and France, who took part in the war. Crimean War brought victory to the Ottomans and deprived Russia of its fleet on the Black Sea for decades.

Rice. 3. Map of the Ottoman Empire in the 20th century.

In the 19th century, there was a very long period of time in the Ottoman Empire, during which the sultans tried to modernize the country and prevent an internal split. It went down in history as Tanzimat (1839-1876). The army and the banking system were modernized, the religious law was replaced by a secular one, and in 1876 the Constitution was adopted.

However, more and more national liberation movement Balkan peoples, which intensified even more after Russian-Turkish war 1877-1878, as a result of which Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania gained independence. The delegation of Turkish diplomats could not again enlist the support of the leading European powers, and the technical backwardness in the country affected the war. Turkey's holdings in the Balkans have shrunk even more after being defeated in two Balkan Wars(1912-1913 and 1913), which showed that the Ottoman Empire was literally crumbling to pieces.

Only victory in the First World War in cooperation with Germany, which helped the Turks to develop their military and scientific potential, could save the statehood. However, on the Caucasian front, until 1917, Russian troops pushed the Turkish army, and on the Saloniki front, the Entente landing did not allow the Turks to take part in the main battles of the war.

On October 30, 1918, the Mudross Armistice was concluded with the Entente. The occupation of Turkish lands by the Allies gave rise to the beginning of the Turkish national movement and the Turkish War of Independence 1919-1922. The last sultan of the empire, Mehmed VI, lost his title on November 16, 1922. This date is considered the last day of the empire's existence.

What have we learned?

From the article on history (grade 6), we learned that the Ottoman Empire, which existed for more than 600 years, united vast territories and throughout its existence played a huge role in European politics... The collapse of the country due to internal problems a little less than a hundred years ago erased it from political map the world.

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Turks are relatively young people. Its age is only over 600 years old. The first Turks were a bunch of Turkmens, fugitives from Central Asia who fled from the Mongols to the west. They got to the Sultanate of Konya and asked for land for settlement. They were given a place on the border with the Nicene Empire near Bursa. There the fugitives began to settle down in the middle of the XIII century.

The main thing among the fugitive Turkmen was Ertogrul-bey. He called the territory allocated to him the Ottoman Beilik. And taking into account the fact that the Sultan of Kony lost all power, he became an independent ruler. Ertogrul died in 1281 and power passed to his son Osman I Gazi... It was he who is considered the founder of the Ottoman sultan dynasty and the first ruler of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire existed from 1299 to 1922 and played a significant role in world history.

Ottoman sultan with his warriors

An important factor contributing to the formation of a powerful Turkish state was the fact that the Mongols, having reached Antioch, did not go further, since they considered Byzantium to be their ally. Therefore, they did not touch the lands on which the Ottoman beylik was located, believing that it would soon become part of the Byzantine Empire.

And Osman Gazi, like the crusaders, declared a holy war, but only for the Muslim faith. He began to invite everyone to take part in it. And seekers of fortune began to flock to Osman from all over the Muslim East. They were ready to fight for the faith of Islam until their sabers became blunt and until they received enough wealth and wives. And in the east, this was considered a very great achievement.

Thus, the Ottoman army began to replenish with Circassians, Kurds, Arabs, Seljuks, and Turkmens. That is, anyone could come, pronounce the formula of Islam and become a Turk. And on the occupied lands, such people began to allocate small plots of land for conducting Agriculture... Such a site was called "timar". He imagined a house with a garden.

The owner of the timar became a rider (spagi). His duty was to appear at the first call to the Sultan in full armor and on his own horse to serve in the cavalry army. It was noteworthy that the Spagi did not pay taxes in the form of money, since they paid the tax with their own blood.

With such internal organization the territory of the Ottoman state began to expand rapidly. In 1324, Osman's son Orhan I captured the city of Bursa and made it his capital. From Bursa to Constantinople a stone's throw, and the Byzantines lost control of the northern and western regions of Anatolia. And in 1352 the Ottoman Turks crossed the Dardanelles and ended up in Europe. After that, a gradual and steady conquest of Thrace began.

In Europe, it was impossible to manage with cavalry alone, so there was an urgent need for infantry. And then the Turks created a completely new army, consisting of infantry, which they called janissaries(young - new, charik - army: it turns out a janissary).

The conquerors took by force boys from the Christian nations aged 7 to 14 and converted to Islam. These children were well fed, taught the laws of Allah, military affairs and made infantrymen (janissaries). These warriors turned out to be the finest foot soldiers in all of Europe. Neither the knightly cavalry, nor the Persian kyzylbashs could break through the janissary system.

Janissaries - Ottoman army infantry

And the secret of the invincibility of the Turkish infantry lay in the spirit of military comradeship. From the first days the Janissaries lived together, ate delicious porridge from the same cauldron, and, despite the fact that they belonged to different nations, were people of the same destiny. When they became adults, they got married, had families, but continued to live in the barracks. Only during the holidays did they visit their wives and children. That is why they did not know defeat and represented the loyal and reliable force of the Sultan.

However, going out to Mediterranean Sea, The Ottoman Empire could not limit itself to only one janissary. Since there is water, then ships are needed, and there was a need for a navy. The Turks began to recruit pirates, adventurers and vagabonds from all over the Mediterranean for the navy. Italians, Greeks, Berbers, Danes, Norwegians went to serve them. This audience had no faith, no honor, no law, no conscience. Therefore, they willingly converted to the Muslim faith, since they had no faith at all, and they absolutely did not care who they were, Christians or Muslims.

From this motley public, a fleet was formed that looked more like a pirate than a military one. He began to rage in the Mediterranean, so much so that he terrified Spanish, French and Italian ships. The very same sailing in the Mediterranean Sea began to be considered dangerous business... Turkish corsair squadrons were based in Tunisia, Algeria and other Muslim lands with access to the sea.

Ottoman military fleet

Thus, from completely different peoples and tribes, such a people as the Turks was formed. Islam and a common military destiny became the connecting link. During successful campaigns, Turkish soldiers captured captives, made them their wives and concubines, and children from women of different nationalities became full-fledged Turks who were born on the territory of the Ottoman Empire.

A small principality that appeared on the territory of Asia Minor in the middle of the 13th century, very quickly turned into a powerful Mediterranean power, called the Ottoman Empire after the first ruler, Osman I Gazi. The Ottoman Turks also called their state the High Port, and themselves not Turks, but Muslims. As for the real Turks, they were considered the Turkmen population living in the interior regions of Asia Minor. These people were conquered by the Ottomans in the 15th century after the capture of Constantinople on May 29, 1453.

European states could not resist the Ottoman Turks. Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople and made it his capital - Istanbul. In the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire significantly expanded its territories, and with the capture of Egypt, the Turkish fleet began to dominate the Red Sea. By the second half of the 16th century, the population of the state reached 15 million people, and the Turkish Empire itself began to be compared with the Roman Empire.

But by the end of the 17th century, the Ottoman Turks suffered a number of major defeats in Europe.... An important role in the weakening of the Turks was played by Russian empire... She always beat the warlike descendants of Osman I. She took away from them the Crimea, the coast of the Black Sea, and all these victories were a harbinger of the decline of the state, which in the 16th century shone in the rays of its power.

But Ottoman Empire weakened not only endless wars, but also the hideous conduct of agriculture. The officials squeezed all the juices out of the peasants, and therefore they ran the economy in a predatory way. This led to the emergence of a large number of waste lands. And this is in the "fertile crescent", which in ancient times fed almost the entire Mediterranean.

Ottoman Empire on the map, XIV-XVII centuries

It all ended in disaster in the 19th century, when the state treasury was empty. The Turks began to borrow loans from French capitalists. But it soon became clear that they could not pay the debts, since after the victories of Rumyantsev, Suvorov, Kutuzov, Dibich, the Turkish economy was completely undermined. Then the French brought a navy into the Aegean Sea and demanded customs in all ports, mining as a concession, and the right to collect taxes until the debt was repaid.

After that, the Ottoman Empire was called "the sick man of Europe." She began to quickly lose the conquered lands and turn into a semi-colony of European powers. The last autocratic sultan of the empire, Abdul Hamid II, tried to save the situation. However, under him, the political crisis worsened even more. In 1908, the Sultan was overthrown and imprisoned by the Young Turks (a pro-Western republican political trend).

On April 27, 1909, the Young Turks elevated to the throne the constitutional monarch Mehmed V, who was the brother of the deposed sultan. After that, the Young Turks entered the First world war on the side of Germany and were defeated, destroyed. There was nothing good about their rule. They promised freedom, but ended up with a terrible massacre of the Armenians, stating that they were against the new regime. And they really were against it, since nothing had changed in the country. Everything remained the same as before it was 500 years under the rule of the sultans.

After defeat in World War I, the Turkish Empire began to agonize... Anglo-French troops occupied Constantinople, the Greeks captured Smyrna and moved inland. Mehmed V died on July 3, 1918 of a heart attack. And on October 30 of the same year, the Mudros truce, shameful for Turkey, was signed. The Young Turks fled abroad, leaving the last Ottoman Sultan Mehmed VI in power. He became a puppet in the hands of the Entente.

But then the unexpected happened. In 1919, a national liberation movement was born in the distant mountain provinces. It was headed by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. He led the common people. He very quickly drove the Anglo-French and Greek invaders from their lands and restored Turkey within the borders that exist today. On November 1, 1922, the sultanate was abolished. Thus, the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist. On November 17, the last Turkish Sultan Mehmed VI left the country and went to Malta. He died in 1926 in Italy.

And in the country on October 29, 1923, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey announced the creation of the Turkish Republic. It exists to this day, and its capital is the city of Ankara. As for the Turks themselves, they have lived quite happily for the last decades. They sing in the morning, dance in the evening, and pray during breaks. May Allah protect them!

Ottoman Empire. State formation

Sometimes the birth of the state of the Ottoman Turks can be considered, of course, conditionally, the years immediately preceding the death of the Seljuk Sultanate in 1307. This state arose in an atmosphere of extreme separatism that reigned in the Seljuk state of Rum after the defeat that its ruler suffered in the battle with the Mongols in 1243 The towns of Bei Aydin, Germiyan, Karaman, Menteshe, Sarukhan and a number of other districts of the Sultanate turned their lands into independent principalities. Among these principalities, the beyliks Germiyan and Karaman stood out, whose rulers continued to wage a struggle, often successful, against the Mongol rule. In 1299, the Mongols even had to recognize the independence of Beylik Germian.

In the last decades of the XIII century. in the north-west of Anatolia, another practically independent beylik arose. He went down in history under the name Ottoman, after the leader of a small Turkic tribal group, the main part of which were the nomads of the Kayy Oguz tribe.

According to Turkish historical tradition, part of the Kayy tribe migrated to Anatolia from Central Asia, where the leaders of the Kayy were for some time in the service of the rulers of Khorezm. At first, the Kayy Turks chose the land in the Karajadag region to the west of present-day Ankara as a nomadic place. Then some of them moved to the regions of Akhlat, Erzurum and Erzinjan, reaching Amasya and Aleppo (Aleppo). Some nomads of the Kayy tribe found refuge on fertile lands in the Chukurov area. It was from these places that a small kayy unit (400-500 tents) led by Ertogrul, fleeing the Mongol raids, went to the possession of the Seljuk sultan Alaeddin Keykubad I. Ertogrul turned to him for patronage. The Sultan granted Ertogrul uj (the outskirts of the Sultanate) on the lands captured by the Seljuks from the Byzantines on the border with Bithynia. Ertogrul assumed the obligation to defend the border of the Seljuk state on the territory of the ujj granted to him.

Uj Ertogrul in the region of Melangia (Tur. Karajahisar) and Shogut (north-west of Eskisehir) was small. But the ruler was energetic, and his soldiers willingly participated in raids on the neighboring Byzantine lands. Ertogrul's actions were facilitated by the fact that the population of the Byzantine border regions was extremely dissatisfied with the predatory tax policy of Constantinople. As a result, Ertogrul managed to slightly increase his uj at the expense of the border areas of Byzantium. It is difficult, however, to accurately determine the scale of these aggressive operations, as, incidentally, and the initial size of the ujja Ertogrul himself, about whose life and activities there is no reliable data. Turkish chroniclers, even early ones (XIV-XV centuries), recount many legends associated with the initial period of the formation of the Ertogrul beylik. These legends say that Ertogrul lived for a long time: he died at the age of 90 in 1281 or, according to another version, in 1288.

Information about the life of Ertogrul's son, Osman, who gave the name to the future state, is also legendary in no small measure. Osman was born around 1258 in Shogut. This mountainous, sparsely populated area was convenient for nomads: there were many good summer pastures, and there were plenty of comfortable winter nomads. But, perhaps, the main advantage of the Ujj Ertogrul and Osman, who succeeded him, was the proximity to the Byzantine lands, which made it possible to enrich themselves through raids. This opportunity attracted representatives of other Turkic tribes who settled in the territories of other beyliks to the detachments of Ertogrul and Osman, since the conquest of territories belonging to non-Muslim states was considered a sacred deed by the followers of Islam. As a result, when in the second half of the XIII century. the rulers of the Anatolian beyliks, in search of new possessions, fought among themselves, the warriors of Ertogrul and Osman looked like fighters for the faith, ruining the Byzantines in search of prey and for the purpose of territorial seizures of land.

After the death of Ertogrul, Osman became the ruler of the ujj. Judging by some sources, there were supporters of the transfer of power to Ertogrul's brother, Dundar, but he did not dare to oppose his nephew, because he saw that the majority supported him. A few years later, a potential rival was killed.

Osman directed his efforts towards the conquest of Bithynia. The regions of Brusy (tur. Bursa), Belokoma (Bilejik) and Nicomedia (Izmit) became the zone of his territorial claims. One of the first military successes of Osman was the capture of Melangia in 1291. He made this small Byzantine town his residence. Since the former population of Melangia partly perished, and partly fled, hoping to find salvation from the troops of Osman, the latter settled in his residence with people from Beylik Germian and other places in Anatolia. At the behest of Osman, the Christian temple was turned into a mosque, in which his name began to be mentioned in khutbahs (Friday prayers). According to legends, around this time, Osman easily won the title of bey from the Seljuk sultan, whose power had become completely illusory, having received the corresponding regalia in the form of a drum and a bunchuk. Soon Osman declared his uj to be an independent state, and himself an independent ruler. It happened around 1299, when the Seljuk sultan Alaeddin Keykubad II fled from his capital, fleeing from the rebellious subjects. True, having become practically independent from the Seljuk Sultanate, which nominally existed until 1307, when the last representative of the Ruman Seljuk dynasty was strangled by order of the Mongols, Osman admitted supreme power Mongolian dynasty Hulaguids and annually sent to their capital part of the tribute, which he collected from subjects. The Ottoman beylik was freed from this form of dependence under Osman's successor, his son Orhan.

At the end of the XIII - beginning of the XIV century. The Ottoman beylik expanded its territory significantly. Its ruler continued to raid the Byzantine lands. Actions against the Byzantines were facilitated by the fact that his other neighbors did not yet show hostility to the young state. Beylik Germian fought first with the Mongols, then with the Byzantines. Beylik Karesi was simply weak. Beylik Osman was not bothered by the rulers of Chandar-oglu (Jandarids) located in the north-west of Anatolia, since they were also mainly engaged in the struggle with the Mongol governors. Thus, the Ottoman beylik could use all his military forces for conquests in the west.

Having seized the Yenisehir region in 1301 and built a fortress city there, Osman began to prepare the capture of Brusa. In the summer of 1302, he defeated the troops of the Byzantine governor Brusa in the battle at Vafei (tur. Koyunhisar). This was the first major military battle won by the Ottoman Turks. Finally, the Byzantines realized that they were dealing with a dangerous enemy. However, in 1305, Osman's army was defeated in the battle of Leuke, where Catalan squads, who were in the service of the Byzantine emperor, fought against them. In Byzantium, another civil strife began, facilitating further offensive actions Turk. Osman's warriors captured a number of Byzantine cities on the Black Sea coast.

In those years, the Ottoman Turks also made the first raids on the European part of Byzantium in the Dardanelles region. Osman's troops also captured a number of fortresses and fortified settlements on the way to Brus. By 1315, Brusa was practically surrounded by fortresses in the hands of the Turks.

Brusu was captured a little later by Osman's son Orhan. born in the year of the death of his grandfather Ertogrul.

Orhan's army consisted mainly of cavalry units. The Turks did not have siege engines either. Therefore, the bey did not dare to storm the city, surrounded by a ring of powerful fortifications, and set up a blockade of Brusy, cutting off all her ties with outside world and thus depriving its defenders of all sources of supply. Turkish troops used similar tactics later. Usually they captured the outskirts of the city, expelled or enslaved local population... Then these lands were settled by people who were resettled there by order of the bey.

The city found itself in a hostile ring, and the threat of starvation hung over its inhabitants, after which the Turks easily took over it.

The siege of Brusa lasted ten years. Finally, in April 1326, when Orhan's army was at the very walls of Brusa, the city capitulated. This happened on the eve of the death of Osman, who was informed about the taking of Brusa on his deathbed.

Orkhan, who inherited power in the beylik, made Bursa (as the Turks began to call it), famous for crafts and trade, a rich and prosperous city, his capital. In 1327, he ordered the minting of the first Ottoman silver coin - akche - in Bursa. This indicated that the process of turning the beylik Ertogrul into an independent state was nearing completion. An important stage on this path were the further conquests of the Ottoman Turks in the north. Four years after the capture of Brusy, Orhan's troops captured Nicaea (Tur. Iznik), and in 1337 - Nicomedia.

When the Turks moved to Nicaea, a battle took place in one of the mountain gorges between the troops of the emperor and the Turkish troops, led by Orhan's brother, Alaeddin. The Byzantines were defeated, the emperor was wounded. Several assaults on the powerful walls of Nicaea did not bring success to the Turks. Then they resorted to the tried and tested blockade tactics, capturing several advanced fortifications and cutting off the city from the surrounding lands. After these events, Nicaea was forced to surrender. Exhausted by disease and hunger, the garrison could no longer resist the superior forces of the enemy. The capture of this city opened the way for the Turks to the Asian part of the Byzantine capital.

The blockade of Nicomedia, which received military aid and food, lasted nine years. by sea... To capture the city, Orhan had to organize a blockade of the narrow bay of the Sea of ​​Marmara, on the shores of which Nicomedia was located. Cut off from all sources of supply, the city surrendered at the mercy of the victors.

As a result of the capture of Nicea and Nicomedia, the Turks took possession of almost all the lands north of the Izmit Bay up to the Bosphorus. Izmit (this name was now given to Nicomedia) became a shipyard and a harbor for the nascent Ottoman fleet. The exit of the Turks to the shores of the Sea of ​​Marmara and the Bosphorus opened the way for them to raid Thrace. Already in 1338 the Turks began to ravage the Thracian lands, and Orhan himself with three dozen ships appeared at the walls of Constantinople, but his detachment was defeated by the Byzantines. Emperor John VI tried to get along with Orhan, marrying his daughter to him. For some time Orhan stopped raiding the possessions of Byzantium and even provided military assistance to the Byzantines. But Orhan considered the lands on the Asian coast of the Bosphorus as his own. Arriving to visit the emperor, he placed his headquarters on the Asian coast, and the Byzantine monarch with all his courtiers was forced to arrive there for a feast.

V further relationship Orhan and Byzantium became aggravated again, his troops resumed their raids on the Thracian lands. Another decade and a half passed, and Orhan's troops began to invade the European possessions of Byzantium. This was facilitated by the fact that in the 40s of the XIV century. Orkhan managed, taking advantage of the civil strife in the Karesi beilik, to annex to his possessions most of the lands of this beilik, which reached the eastern shores of the Dardanelles.

In the middle of the XIV century. the Turks strengthened, began to act not only in the west, but also in the east. Beylik Orhan bordered on the possessions of the Mongol governor in Asia Minor Erten, who by that time had become an almost independent ruler due to the decline of the Ilkhan state. When the governor died and turmoil broke out in his possessions, caused by the struggle for power between his sons-heirs, Orhan attacked the lands of Erten and significantly expanded his beylik at their expense, capturing Ankara in 1354.

In 1354 the Turks easily captured the city of Gallipoli (Tur. Gelibolu), the defensive fortifications of which were destroyed as a result of an earthquake. In 1356, an army under the command of Orhan's son, Suleiman, crossed the Dardanelles. After capturing several cities, including Dzorillos (Tur. Corlu), Suleiman's troops began to move towards Adrianople (Tur. Edirne), which was, perhaps, the main goal of this campaign. However, around 1357 Suleiman died without fulfilling all his plans.

Soon, Turkish military operations in the Balkans resumed under the leadership of Orhan's other son, Murad. The Turks managed to take Adrianople after the death of Orhan, when Murad became ruler. This happened, according to various sources, between 1361 and 1363. The capture of this city was a relatively simple military operation, not accompanied by a blockade and a protracted siege. The Turks defeated the Byzantines on the outskirts of Adrianople, and the city was left practically without protection. In 1365 Murad moved his residence here from Bursa for some time.

Murad took the title of Sultan and went down in history under the name of Murad I. Wanting to rely on the authority of the Abbasid caliph who was in Cairo, Murad's successor Bayezid I (1389-1402) sent him a letter asking for recognition of the title of Sultan Rum. A little later, Sultan Mehmed I (1403-1421) began to send money to Mecca, seeking recognition by the sheriffs of his rights to the Sultan's title in this holy city for Muslims.

Thus, in less than a hundred and fifty years, the small beylik Ertogrul was transformed into a vast and militarily strong state.

What was the young Ottoman state like at the initial stage of its development? Its territory already covered the entire northwest of Asia Minor, extending to the waters of the Black and Marmara Seas. Socio-economic institutions began to take shape.

Under Osman, his beylik was still dominated by social relations, inherent in the tribal life, when the power of the head of the beylik was based on the support of the tribal elite, and its military formations carried out aggressive operations. Big role in the formation of Ottoman state institutions the Muslim clergy played. Muslim theologians, the ulama, performed many administrative functions, in their hands was the administration of justice. Osman established strong ties with the dervish orders of the Mevlevi and Bektashi, as well as with the ahi - a religious guild brotherhood that enjoyed great influence in the artisan strata of the cities of Asia Minor. Relying on the ulema, the elite of the dervish orders and ahi, Osman and his successors not only strengthened their power, but also justified their aggressive campaigns with the Muslim slogan of jihad, "struggle for the faith".

Osman, whose tribe led a semi-nomadic lifestyle, did not yet possess anything but herds of horses and flocks of sheep. But when he began to conquer new territories, a system arose for distributing lands to his entourage as a reward for service. These awards are called timars. The Turkish chronicles set out Osman's decree regarding the conditions of awards:

“Timar, which I will give to someone, may not be taken away for no reason. And if the one to whom I gave the timar dies, then let him give it to his son. If the son is small, then all the same, let them give him over, so that during the war his servants go on a campaign until he becomes fit. " This is the essence of the thymar system, which was a kind of the military-fief system and became, over time, the basis social structure Ottoman state.

The Timar system took on a complete form during the first century of the new state. The supreme right to grant timars was the privilege of the Sultan, but already from the middle of the 15th century. Timars also complained to a number of higher dignitaries. Land plots were given to soldiers and military leaders as conditional holdings. Subject to the fulfillment of certain military duties, the holders of the timar, the timariots, could pass them on from generation to generation. It is noteworthy that the Timariots, in essence, owned not the lands that were the property of the treasury, but the income from them. Depending on these incomes, properties of this kind were divided into two categories - timars, which brought in up to 20 thousand acce per year, and zeamets, from 20 to 100 thousand acce. The real value of these amounts can be presented in comparison with the following figures: in the middle of the 15th century. the average income from one municipal economy in the Balkan provinces of the Ottoman state ranged from 100 to 200 akce; for 1 acche in 1460 in Bursa one could buy 7 kilograms of flour. In the person of the Timariots, the first Turkish sultans strove to create a strong and loyal support for their power - military and socio-political.

In a historically relatively short period of time, the rulers of the new state became the owners of large material values. Even under Orhan, it happened that the ruler of the beylik did not have the means to ensure the next invasion raid. The Turkish medieval chronicler Hussein gives, for example, the story of how Orhan sold a captive Byzantine dignitary to the archon Nicomedia in order to equip an army with the money obtained in this way and send it against the same city. But already under Murad I, the picture changed dramatically. The sultan could support the army, build palaces and mosques, spend a lot of money on festivities and receptions of ambassadors. The reason for this change was simple - since the reign of Murad I, it has become a law to deduct a fifth of the military booty, including prisoners, to the treasury. Military campaigns in the Balkans became the first source of income for the Ottoman state. Tribute from the conquered peoples and war booty constantly replenished his treasury, and the labor of the population of the conquered regions gradually began to enrich the nobility of the Ottoman state - dignitaries and military leaders, clergy and beys.

Under the first sultans, the system of government of the Ottoman state began to take shape. If under Orhan military affairs were resolved in a close circle of his close associates from among the military leaders, then under his successors the vezirs - ministers began to participate in their discussion. If Orkhan ruled his possessions with the help of his closest relatives or ulema, then Murad I from among the vezirs began to single out a person who was entrusted with the management of all affairs - civil and military. This is how the institution of the great vizier arose, who for centuries remained the central figure of the Ottoman administration. The general affairs of the state under the successors of Murad I, as the supreme deliberative body, were in charge of the Sultan's council, consisting of the great vizier, heads of the military, financial and judicial departments, representatives of the highest Muslim clergy.

During the reign of Murad I, the Ottoman financial department received its initial design. At the same time, the division of the treasury into the personal treasury of the Sultan and the state treasury, which had been preserved for centuries, arose. Appeared and Administrative division... The Ottoman state was divided into sanjaks. The word "sanzhak" means "banner" in translation, as if reminding that the rulers of the sanzhaks, sanzhak-beys, personified civil and military power in the localities. Concerning judicial system, then it was entirely under the jurisdiction of the ulema.

The state, which developed and expanded as a result of wars of conquest, showed special concern for the creation strong army... Already under Orhan, the first important steps were taken in this direction. An infantry army was created - yaya. The infantrymen during the period of participation in the campaigns received a salary, and in peacetime they lived by cultivating their lands, being exempted from taxes. Under Orhan, the first regular cavalry units were created - musell. Under Murad I, the army was strengthened by the peasant infantry militia. The militias, the Azap, were recruited only for the duration of the war and during the period of hostilities they also received a salary. At the initial stage of the development of the Ottoman state, it was the Azap that constituted the main part of the infantry army. Under Murad I, a corps of janissaries began to form (from "yeni cheri" - "new army"), which later became the striking force of the Turkish infantry and a kind of personal guard of the Turkish sultans. He was recruited by forced recruitment of boys from Christian families. They were converted to Islam and trained in a special military school. The Janissaries were subordinate to the Sultan himself, received a salary from the treasury and from the very beginning became a privileged part of the Turkish army; the commander of the janissary corps was one of the highest dignitaries of the state. Somewhat later, the Janissary infantry formed the Sipahi cavalry detachments, which were also directly subordinate to the Sultan and were on a salary. All these military formations ensured sustainable successes for the Turkish army at a time when the sultans were increasingly expanding their conquest operations.

Thus, by the middle of the XIV century. formed the initial nucleus of the state, which was destined to become one of the largest empires of the Middle Ages, a powerful military power, which in a short time subjugated many peoples of Europe and Asia.

8 290

Having become the ruler of the mountainous region, Osman received the title of bey from the Seljuk sultan in 1289. Having come to power, Osman immediately set out to conquer the Byzantine lands and made the first captured Byzantine town Melangia his residence.

Osman was born in a small mountainous area of ​​the Seljuk Sultanate. Osman's father, Ertogrul, received the neighboring Byzantine lands from the Sultan Ala ad-Din. The Turkic tribe, to which Osman belonged, considered the seizure of neighboring territories a sacred deed.

After the escape of the ousted Seljuk sultan in 1299, Osman created an independent state on the basis of his own beylik. For the first years of the XIV century. the founder of the Ottoman Empire managed to significantly expand the territory of the new state and moved his headquarters to the fortress city of Episehir. Immediately after this, the Ottoman army began to raid the Byzantine cities located on the Black Sea coast and the Byzantine regions in the Dardanelles Strait.

The Ottoman dynasty was continued by Osman's son Orhan, who began his military career with the successful capture of Bursa, a powerful fortress in Asia Minor. Orhan declared the prosperous fortified city the capital of the state and ordered the minting of the first coin of the Ottoman Empire - a silver akche - to begin. In 1337, the Turks won several brilliant victories and occupied territories up to the Bosphorus, making the conquered Ismit the main shipyard of the state. At the same time, Orhan annexed the neighboring Turkish lands, and by 1354, under his rule were the northwestern part of Asia Minor to the eastern shores of the Dardanelles, part of its European coast, including the city of Galliopolis, and Ankara, recaptured from the Mongols.

Orhan's son Murad I became the third ruler of the Ottoman Empire, who added territory near Ankara to its possessions and set off on a military campaign to Europe.

Murad was the first sultan of the Ottoman dynasty and a true champion of Islam. In the cities of the country, they began to build the first in Turkish history schools.

After the very first victories in Europe (the conquest of Thrace and Plovdiv), a stream of Turkic settlers poured onto the European coast.

The sultans fastened the firman decrees with their own imperial monogram - tugra. The intricate oriental pattern included the name of the Sultan, the name of his father, title, motto, and the epithet "always victorious."

New conquests

Murad paid much attention to the improvement and strengthening of the army. For the first time in history, a professional army was created. In 1336, the ruler formed a corps of janissaries, which later became the Sultan's personal bodyguard. In addition to the janissaries, a cavalry army of the Sipahs was created, and as a result of these fundamental changes, the Turkish army became not only numerous, but also unusually disciplined and powerful.

In 1371, on the Maritza River, the Turks defeated the united army of the southern European states and captured Bulgaria and part of Serbia.

The next brilliant victory was won by the Turks in 1389, when the Janissaries first took over firearms... That year, the historic battle took place on the Kossovo field, when, after defeating the crusaders, the Ottoman Turks annexed a significant part of the Balkans to their lands.

Murad's son Bayazid continued his father's policy in everything, but unlike him, he was distinguished by cruelty and indulged in debauchery. Bayazid completed the defeat of Serbia and turned it into a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, becoming the sovereign master in the Balkans.

For the quick movements of the army and energetic actions, Sultan Bayazid received the nickname Ilderim (Lightning). During a lightning march in 1389-1390. he subdued Anatolia, after which the Turks took possession of almost the entire territory of Asia Minor.

Bayazid had to fight simultaneously on two fronts - with the Byzantines and the Crusaders. On September 25, 1396, the Turkish army defeated a huge army of crusaders, gaining control over all the Bulgarian lands. On the side of the Turks, according to the description of contemporaries, more than 100,000 people fought. Many noble Europeans-crusaders were taken prisoner, later they were ransomed for huge sums of money. In the capital of the Ottoman Sultan, caravans of pack animals with gifts of Emperor Charles VI of France were drawn: gold and silver coins, silk fabrics, carpets from Arras with paintings woven on them from the life of Alexander the Great, hunting falcons from Norway and many others. True, Bayazid did not make further campaigns to Europe, distracted by the eastern danger from the Mongols.

After the unsuccessful siege of Constantinople in 1400, the Turks had to fight the Tatar army of Timur. On July 25, 1402, one of the greatest battles of the Middle Ages took place, during which an army of Turks (about 150,000 people) and an army of Tatars (about 200,000 people) met near Ankara. Timur's army, in addition to well-trained soldiers, was armed with more than 30 war elephants - quite powerful weapon on the offensive. The Janissaries, showing extraordinary courage and strength, were nevertheless defeated, and Bayazid was captured. Timur's army plundered the entire Ottoman Empire, exterminated or captured thousands of people, burned the most beautiful cities and villages.

Muhammad I ruled the empire from 1413 to 1421. Throughout his reign, Muhammad was with Byzantium in good relations, turning his main attention to the situation in Asia Minor and making the first trip in the history of the Turks to Venice, which ended in failure.

Murad II, the son of Muhammad I, ascended the throne in 1421. He was a just and energetic ruler who devoted much time to the development of the arts and urban planning. Murad, coping with internal strife, made a successful campaign, capturing the Byzantine city of Thessalonica. The battles of the Turks against the Serbian, Hungarian and Albanian armies were no less successful. In 1448, after the victory of Murad over the united army of the crusaders, the fate of all the peoples of the Balkans was sealed - for several centuries Turkish rule hung over them.

Before the start historical battle in 1448 between the united European army and the Turks through the ranks of the Ottoman army, a letter was carried on the tip of a spear with an armistice agreement violated in again... Thus, the Ottomans showed that they were not interested in peace treaties - only battles and only offensive.

From 1444 to 1446 the Turkish Sultan Muhammad II, son of Murad II, ruled the empire.

The reign of this sultan for 30 years turned the state into a world empire. Starting his reign with the now traditional execution of relatives who potentially claimed the throne, the ambitious young man showed his strength. Muhammad, nicknamed the Conqueror, became a tough and even cruel ruler, but at the same time he had an excellent education and spoke four languages. The Sultan invited scientists and poets from Greece and Italy to his court, and allocated a lot of funds for the construction of new buildings and the development of art. The sultan set the conquest of Constantinople as his main task, and at the same time treated its implementation very thoroughly. In March 1452, opposite the Byzantine capital, the fortress of Rumelihisar was founded, in which they installed the latest cannons and placed a strong garrison.

As a result, Constantinople was cut off from the Black Sea region, with which it was tied by trade. In the spring of 1453, a huge Turkish land army and a powerful fleet approached the Byzantine capital. The first assault on the city was not crowned with success, but the sultan ordered not to retreat and organize the preparation of a new assault. After being dragged to the bay of Constantinople along the deck of part of the ships specially built over the iron barrage chains, the city found itself in a ring of Turkish troops. Battles were fought daily, but the Greek defenders of the city showed examples of courage and tenacity.

The siege was not a strong point for the Ottoman army, and the Turks won only due to the careful encirclement of the city, the numerical superiority of forces by about 3.5 times and thanks to the presence of siege weapons, cannons and a powerful mortar with cannonballs weighing 30 kg. Before the main assault on Constantinople, Muhammad invited the inhabitants to surrender, promising to spare them, but, to his great amazement, they refused.

A general assault was launched on May 29, 1453, and elite janissaries, supported by artillery, broke into the gates of Constantinople. For 3 days the Turks plundered the city and killed Christians, and the temple of Hagia Sophia was later turned into a mosque. Turkey has become a real world power, proclaiming the most ancient city as its capital.

In subsequent years, Muhammad made the conquered Serbia his province, conquered Moldova, Bosnia, a little later - Albania and captured all of Greece. At the same time, the Turkish sultan conquered vast territories in Asia Minor and became the ruler of the entire Asia Minor peninsula. But he did not stop there either: in 1475 the Turks captured many Crimean cities and the city of Tanu at the mouth of the Don on the Sea of ​​Azov. Crimean Khan officially recognized the authority of the Ottoman Empire. Following this, the territories of Safavid Iran were conquered, and in 1516 Syria, Egypt and Hijaz with Medina and Mecca were under the sultan's rule.

At the beginning of the XVI century. the conquest campaigns of the empire were directed to the east, south and west. In the east, Selim I the Terrible defeated the Safavids and annexed the eastern part of Anatolia and Azerbaijan to his state. In the south, the Ottomans suppressed the warlike Mamluks and took control of the trade routes along the coast of the Red Sea to Indian Ocean, in North Africa reached Morocco. In the west, Suleiman the Magnificent in the 1520s. captured Belgrade, Rhodes, Hungarian lands.

At the peak of power

The Ottoman Empire entered the stage of its highest flowering at the very end of the 15th century. under Sultan Selim I and his successor Suleiman the Magnificent, who achieved a significant expansion of territories and established a reliable centralized government of the country. The reign of Suleiman went down in history as the "golden age" of the Ottoman Empire.

Since the early years of the 16th century, the Turkish empire has become the most powerful state in the Old World. Contemporaries who visited the lands of the empire, in their notes and memoirs, enthusiastically described the wealth and luxury of this country.

Suleiman the Magnificent
Sultan Suleiman is the legendary ruler of the Ottoman Empire. During his reign (1520-1566), the huge power became even larger, the cities - more beautiful, the palaces - more luxurious. Suleiman (Fig. 9) also went down in history under the nickname Legislator.

Becoming a sultan at the age of 25, Suleiman significantly expanded the borders of the state, capturing Rhodes in 1522, Mesopotamia in 1534, and Hungary in 1541.

The ruler of the Ottoman Empire was traditionally called the Sultan, a title of Arab origin. Counts correct use such terms as "shah", "padishah", "khan", "caesar", which came from different peoples under the rule of the Turks.

Suleiman contributed to the cultural prosperity of the country; during his reign, beautiful mosques and luxurious palaces were built in many cities of the empire. The famous emperor was a good poet, leaving his works under the pseudonym Muhibbi (in love with God). During the reign of Suleiman, the remarkable Turkish poet Fizuli lived and worked in Baghdad, who wrote the poem "Leila and Medjun". The nickname Sultan Among Poets was given to Mahmud Abd al-Baqi, who served at the court of Suleiman, who reflected the life of the high society of the state in his poems.

The Sultan entered into a legal marriage with the legendary Roksolana, nicknamed the Ridiculous, one of the slaves of Slavic origin in the harem. Such an act was exceptional at that time and according to the Sharia. Roksolana gave birth to an heir to the Sultan, the future emperor Suleiman II, and devoted a lot of time to patronage. The spouse of the Sultan had great influence on him in diplomatic affairs, especially in relations with Western countries.

In order to leave a memory of himself in stone, Suleiman invited the famous architect Sinan to create mosques in Istanbul. The emperor's associates also erected large religious buildings with the help of the famous architect, as a result of which the capital was noticeably transformed.

Harems
Harems with several wives and concubines, permitted by Islam, could only be afforded wealthy people... Sultan's harems have become an integral part of the empire, its hallmark.

Harems, except for the sultans, were possessed by viziers, beys, emirs. The overwhelming majority of the population of the empire had one wife, as it should be in the entire Christian world. Islam, on the other hand, officially allowed a Muslim to have four wives and several slaves.

The Sultan harem, which gave rise to many legends and traditions, was in fact a complex organization with strict internal orders. This system was ruled by the Sultan's mother, "Valide Sultan". Her main assistants were eunuchs and slaves. It is clear that the life and power of the ruler of the Sultan directly depended on the fate of her high-ranking son.

In the harem lived girls captured during the wars or acquired in slave markets. Regardless of their nationality and religion, before entering the harem, all the girls became Muslims and learned the traditional arts of Islam - embroidery, singing, conversation skills, music, dancing, and literature.

Being in a harem long time, its inhabitants passed several steps and ranks. At first they were called jariye (beginners), then quite soon they were renamed shagirt (students), over time they became gedikli (companions) and usta (craftswomen).

There were also isolated cases in history when the sultan recognized the concubine as his legal wife. This happened more often when the concubine gave birth to the long-awaited son-heir to the ruler. A striking example- Suleiman the Magnificent, married to Roksolana.

Only girls who reached the level of craftswomen could gain the attention of the Sultan. From among them, the ruler chose his constant mistresses, favorites and concubines. Many representatives of the harem, who became the sultan's mistresses, were awarded their own housing, jewelry and even slaves.

Legal marriage was not provided for by Sharia, but the sultan chose four wives from all the inhabitants of the harem, who were in a privileged position. Of these, the main one became the one who gave birth to the sultan's son.

After the death of the Sultan, all his wives and concubines were sent to the Old Palace outside the city. The new ruler of the state could allow retired beauties to marry or go to his harem.