The Ottoman Empire: a Historical Encyclopedia [2 Volumes]

by Kia, Mehrdad;

  It was in trade and commerce, however, that the Jewish community, particularly those who resided in the Balkans, excelled. Their prominent role in the economic life of the empire was observed by an 18th-century English visitor, who wrote that most of the wealthy merchants in the empire were Jews and enjoyed many privileges that ordinary Turks did not. They had “drawn the whole trade of the empire into their hands,” and every Ottoman high official had his Jewish “homme d’affaires,” to whom he entrusted all his business affairs and interactions (Montagu: 932). By the beginning of the 18th century the Jewish presence and participation in the commercial life of the empire was so central and critical that the English, French, and Venetian merchants negotiated with the Ottomans through the Jewish merchants’ intercession (Montagu: 93). The economic power of the Jewish merchants allowed the community to form a strong commonwealth, which was ruled by its own laws (Montagu: 93).

  Both the Ashkenazim and Sephardim produced numerous statesmen, physicians, merchants, and craftsmen. The most influential Sephardic Jew in the Ottoman Empire was Joseph Nasi (1515–1579), from a Maraño family, who had arrived in Istanbul from Portugal in 1554. Nasi befriended the Ottoman sultan Selim II (1566–1574) and the sultan’s powerful grand vizier, Sokollu Mehmed, who appointed Nasi as the duke of Naxos, the largest island in the Cyclades island group in the Aegean. As an advocate of war against Venice, Nasi encouraged an invasion of the island of Cyprus, which was attacked and captured by the Ottoman forces in 1570 (Sugar: 267; Masters: 302). When “he died in 1579, Joseph Nasi was probably one of the wealthiest men in the Ottoman Empire” (Masters: 302). Another Sephardic Jew, Solomon Abenayish (1520–1603), was appointed the duke of the Greek island of Lesbos.

  The best-known Ashkenazi Jew in the Ottoman state was the Italian-born Solomon Ashkenazi (1520–1603), who served as the physician and confidant of the grand vizier, Sokollu Mehmed. Because Ashkenazi had lived in various Italian states and Poland before his arrival in the Ottoman Empire, the grand vizier sought his advice on Polish- and Venetian-related matters. Sokollu Mehmed demonstrated his trust and confidence in the Jewish physician when he appointed him the Ottoman ambassador to Venice (Sugar: 267; Roth: 255–256).

  In the 17th and increasingly the 18th centuries, during the decline of Ottoman power and the rise of Islamic conservatism, Jews began to suffer at the hands of Muslim religious authorities. After “the great fire of 1660, in which large swathes of Istanbul were destroyed, Jews in the city were not given permission to rebuild” some of their synagogues “as Muslim judges ruled that the permission they had originally received to build them was illegal” (Masters: 302). A strict interpretation of Islamic law also influenced the outcome of the case of Shabbatai Zvi, the self-proclaimed Jewish messiah who was forced to convert to Islam or face death for treason. In addition, relations between Jewish and Christian communities began to deteriorate as attacks by Christian mobs against Jewish businesses and neighborhoods increased. During the Damascus Incident of 1840, for example, authorities arrested and tortured prominent Damascus Jews after Christians accused them of murdering a Roman Catholic priest.

  In the 19th century, as nationalist uprisings erupted in the Balkans, links between the empire’s Jewish communities and the Ottoman sultans grew stronger. Most Jews feared that any new state formed on the basis of one nation, one language, and one church would be far less tolerant than Ottoman imperial rule. The nationalist ideologies propagated by various separatist movements in the Balkans espoused Orthodox Christianity as essential to national identity and characterized the Jews as outsiders. The worst fears of the Jews were realized when at the start of the Greek War of Independence in 1821, Greek nationalists massacred both Muslim and Jewish civilians.

  JEWS AND COMMERCE IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

  Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) was one of the most prolific English writers of her time. In 1716, when her husband, Edward Wortley Montagu, was appointed ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Lady Mary accompanied him to Constantinople (Istanbul). In her letters to family members and acquaintances in England, Lady Mary sent detailed accounts of the daily life of the Ottoman ruling elite, including the following description of the role of the Jewish community in the Ottoman Empire:

  I observed most of the rich tradesmen were Jews. That people are in incredible power in this country. They have many privileges above all the natural Turks themselves, and have formed a very considerable commonwealth here, being judged by their own laws. They have drawn the whole trade of the empire into their hands, partly by the firm union amongst themselves, and partly by the idle temper and want of industry in the Turks. Every bassa [pasha] has his Jew, who is his homme d’affaires; he is let into all his secrets, and does all his business. No bargain is made, no bribe received, no merchandise disposed of, but what passes through their hands. They are the physicians, the stewards, and the interpreters of all the great men. You may judge how advantageous this is to a people who never fail to make use of the smallest advantages. They have found the secret of making themselves so necessary, that they are certain of the protection of the court, whatever ministry is in power.

  Source: Letters of the Right Honourable Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. London: Printed for Thomas Martin, 1790, Letter XXXIV. Available online at Project Gutenberg, http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/17520/pg17520-images.html.

  See also: Battles and Treaties: Greek War of Independence; Sultans: Selim II; Süleyman I

  Further Reading

  Ben-Zvi, Itzhak. “Eretz Yisrael Under Ottoman Rule, 1517–1917.” In The Jews: Their History, Culture, and Religion, edited by Louis Finkelstein, 602. New York: Harpers & Brothers, 1960.

  Gibb, H. A. R., and Harold Bowen. Islamic Society and the West: A Study of the Impact of Western Civilization on Moslem Culture in the Near East. 2 vols. London: Oxford University Press, 1951–1957.

  Inalcik, Halil. The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300–1600. Translated by Norman Itzkowitz and Colin Imber. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1973.

  Krondl, Michael. The Taste of Conquest: The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice. New York: Ballantine Books, 2007.

  Lovrenović, Ivan. Bosnia: A Cultural History. New York: New York University Press, 2001.

  Masters, Bruce. “Jews,” “Karaits,” and “Millet.” In Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, edited by Gábor Ágoston and Bruce Masters, 300–303, 308, 383–384. New York: Facts On File, 2009.

  Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley. The Turkish Embassy Letters. London: Virago Press, 1994.

  Roth, Cecil. “The European Age in Jewish History.” In The Jews Their History, Culture, and Religion, edited by Louis Finkelstein, 246–247. New York: Harpers & Brothers, 1960.

  Sugar, Peter. Southeastern Europe under Ottoman Rule, 1354–1805. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977.

  Kurds

  An ancient ethnic group who inhabit the regions of present-day southeastern Turkey, northeastern Syria, northern Iraq, and parts of western Iran. Kurds speak a number of languages and dialects, all of them members of the family of Iranian languages. These Kurdish languages are closely related to Persian (i.e., Farsi, Dari, Tajik), the official language of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, as well as Pashto, which is spoken in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Of the languages that have been claimed to be Kurdish, Zazaki (spoken in eastern Anatolia) and Gorani or Gurani, spoken in western Iran and northwestern Iraq, clearly do not form part of the Kurdish language family. The linguists have identified the “core” as the Northern (Kurmanji), Central (Sorani), and Southern dialects of Kurdish (e.g., that of Kermanshah in western Iran).

  The contiguous geographic region of northeastern Syria, northern Iraq, southeastern Turkey, and western Iran, where the Kurds constitute the majority of the population, is referred to as Kurdistan (Land of the Kurds). There are also Kurdish communities in southern Caucasus and northeastern Iran. Historically, the most basic unit in Kurdish society was the tribe, which was led by a sheikh or an āghā (āğā), w
ho ruled as the representative, defender, and protector of his people. The sheikh or āghā acted as the intermediary between the central government and his people. He was responsible for collecting taxes from his people and sending them to the central government. He also bore the responsibility of bringing with him fighting men for military campaigns organized against an external enemy. The traditional Kurdish way of life was not agricultural but nomadic, revolving around sheep and goat herding throughout the plains of Mesopotamia and the highlands of Anatolia and western Iran.

  After the spread of Islam during the caliphates of Umar (r. 634–644), Uthman (r. 644–656), and Ali (656–661), the majority of Kurds converted to Islam. After the split between the majority Sunni and the minority Shia, the majority of Kurds opted for Sunni Islam, though there were some who chose Shiism or one of its offshoots. Many Kurds also remained attached to their pre-Islamic faiths and refused to convert to Islam. Not surprisingly, therefore, there were always Jewish, Christian, and Yazidi Kurds. Some of the beliefs and practices of the Yazidi Kurds have been traced back to the teachings of ancient Iranian religions and cults, including Zoroastrianism, Mithraism, and Manichaeism.

  Throughout the long centuries of Islamic rule, Kurds developed a reputation for valor and gallantry in battle. Kurdish tribal units were frequently used by Muslim dynasties in their armies. The Seljuk Turks, who invaded the Near East from Central Asia in the middle of the 11th century, made extensive use of Kurdish commanders, officers, and soldiers in their armies. The brilliant Kurdish commander Salah al-Din, his father, Ayyub, and his charismatic uncle, Shirkuh, rose to power and prominence in the armies of the Turkish emirs, Zengi and Nur al-Din.

  For over two centuries after the establishment of the Ottoman state in western Anatolia, the Kurds did not play any role in Ottoman political, social, and economic life because until the second decade of the 16th century, the majority of Kurds lived outside the territory of the Ottoman Empire. In the first decade of the 16th century many Kurdish groups allied themselves with the Safavid dynasty founded by the Iranian monarch Shah Ismail I (r. 1501–1524), though some may have resented and opposed the Shia ideology of the Safavid state. When the Ottoman sultan Selim I (r. 1512–1520) defeated Shah Ismail at the battle of Chaldiran in 1514, the majority of the Kurdish tribes of Anatolia and northern Iraq switched their loyalty and recognized the suzerainty of the Ottoman sultan. Though much of the territory of Kurdistan came under the nominal rule of the sultan in Istanbul, Ottoman suzerainty was and continued to be nominal.

  For nearly a century and a half after the clash at Chaldiran, as the conflict between the Iranians and the Ottomans erupted intermittently, Kurdish tribes who lived on the borderland between the two Muslim empires shifted their loyalty back and forth in accordance with changes in the balance of power. Thus, during the reign of Süleyman I (r. 1520–1566), when the Ottoman Empire emerged as the dominant power in northern Mesopotamia and eastern Anatolia, the majority of Kurdish tribal groups sided with the Ottoman state against the weaker Safavid Empire, which had assumed a defensive posture vis-à-vis its powerful neighbor to the west. As the Iranians took the upper hand in the beginning of the 17th century, however, particularly during the reign of the Safavid monarch Shah Abbas I (r. 1588-1629), an increasing number of Kurdish groups declared their support for the Safavids and revolted against the authority of the Ottoman sultan. It is not surprising, therefore, that in the Ottoman literature of the 17th century the Kurds were presented as disloyal, traitorous, deceitful, and untrustworthy.

  The Treaty of Qasr-i Shirin (Kasr-i Şirin) between the Ottoman Empire and Iran, signed on May 17, 1639, brought to an end 150 years of intermittent warfare between the two Muslim powers. Ottoman sovereignty was established over Iraq and southeastern Anatolia, making the overwhelming majority of Kurds the subjects of the Ottoman sultan and not the Safavid shahs. Despite the peace accord, the Ottoman government viewed its boundaries with Iran as strategically vital. The importance of Kurdistan as the first line of defense against a possible Iranian invasion was highlighted by the willingness of the Ottoman government to allow Kurdish tribal chieftains of eastern Anatolia and northern Iraq to rule their provinces as autonomous emirates as long as they were prepared to defend the Ottoman territory against Iranian incursions.

  Throughout the 17th century eastern Anatolia suffered tremendously from the anarchy caused by the so-called celāli (jelāli) revolts. The population of the region was depleted, and many Armenians who lived as agriculturalists and urban dwellers abandoned their homes and lands. The vacated lands and villages of the Armenians often were occupied and repopulated by various Kurdish tribes from eastern Anatolia. Because the central government in Istanbul viewed the borderland between western Iran and eastern Anatolia as strategically vital, Ottoman sultans rewarded the Kurds, who fought against the Iranians, by dividing the region into administrative units called sancāks (sanjāks) and appointing loyal Kurdish tribal chiefs as hereditary governors (sancāk beys), responsible for collecting taxes and maintaining order. Thus, while Ottoman rule restored peace and tranquility, it forced the Armenians to live under the dominance of the Kurds. As long as the central government was strong and could protect Armenian communities through its local officials, a certain balance was maintained between the Kurds and the Armenians. But in the 18th and 19th centuries, as the power of the state waned, Kurdish tribal chiefs had matters all their own way.

  Kurds were one of the last ethnic groups in the Ottoman Empire to develop their own brand of nationalism. Even then Kurdish nationalism was popular among a very small group of Kurdish intellectuals who lived in the urban centers of the empire. The first Kurdish newspaper appeared in 1897 and was published at intervals until 1902. It was revived at Istanbul in 1908 (when the first Kurdish political club, with an affiliated cultural society, was also founded) and again in Cairo during World War I. The Treaty of Sèvres, signed between the Allied powers and the representatives of the Ottoman government at a porcelain factory in Sèvres, France, on August 10, 1920, abolished the Ottoman Empire, forced the sultan to renounce his rights over the Arab Near East and North Africa, and called for the establishment of an independent Armenia and an autonomous Kurdish state. The Turkish nationalist movement, led by Mustafa Kemal, rejected the treaty. In 1923, after Mustafa Kemal seized power and abolished the Ottoman sultanate, the Turkish nationalists signed the Treaty of Lausanne with the Allied powers. The Treaty of Lausanne made no mention of the Kurds or Kurdistan. With the creation of several artificial Arab states, including Iraq and Syria, by the French and the British, the Kurds were forced to live under the jurisdiction of four separate states: Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria.

  See also: Empire and Administration: Abbas I, Shah of Iran; Ismail I, Shah of Iran; Safavid Dynasty; Peoples and Cultures: Armenians; Sultans: Abdülhamid II; Selim I

  Further Reading

  Paul, Ludwig. “Kurdish Language I: History of the Kurdish Language.” In Encyclopaedia Iranica, December 15, 2008. www.iranicaonline.org.

  Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi. Sharafnameh. Translated by Mehrdad Izady. n.p.: Mazda Publishers, 2000.

  Van Bruinessen, Martin. “Kurdistan in the 16th and 17th Centuries, as Reflected in Evliya Çelebi’s Seyahatname.” Journal of Kurdish Studies 3 (2000): 1–11.

  Moldavia

  One of the two Romanian-populated principalities, which joined Wallachia in 1859 to form the modern state of Romania. Located between the eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River, Moldavia was called Moldova in Romanian and Boğdan in Ottoman Turkish. Moldavia was founded as a principality in the 14th century. The principality was a dependency of the kingdom of Hungary during the reign of Louis the Great (r. 1342–1382), and the Hungarian monarchs claimed suzerainty over the principality. In the mid-14th century Moldavia gained its independence under its prince, Bogdan. In the late 14th century Siret, in the historical region of Bukovina in present-day northeastern Romania, served as the capital of Moldavia. At its greatest extent, Moldavia incorporat
ed Bessarabia and was bounded on the north and northeast by the Dniester River, on the south by the Black Sea and Dobrudja and Walachia, and on the west by Transylvania.

  From 1457 to 1504 Moldavia was ruled by the charismatic prince (voivod) Stephen the Great, whose rise to power coincided with the last 22 years of the reign of the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II (r. 1444–1446, 1451–1481). During Stephen’s reign the Moldavian state fought against Hungarians, Poles, and the Ottomans, who were vying to dominate the principality. The Hungarians were repulsed in 1467, and the Ottomans were defeated at Vaslui in present-day Romania in 1475. Though Stephen the Great suffered a defeat at the hands of the Ottomans at Valea Albă the following year, in 1476, the Moldavian state continued to increase in size, capturing the port of Kilia on the Danube and expanding its influence into Wallachia (Shaw: 1:64). The conflict between Moldavia and the Ottoman Empire, which was centered on the control of Wallachia, continued until Vlad IV Tepeș (the Impaler) acknowledged Ottoman and Hungarian suzerainty and was recognized as the prince of Wallachia (Shaw: 1:64).

  After the death of Mehmed II in 1481 a civil war erupted between the two sons of the sultan, Bayezid and Cem (Jem) Sultan. Bayezid reached Istanbul before his brother and ascended the throne as Bayezid II. In response, Cem assembled his supporters in Bursa in western Anatolia and proclaimed himself the ruler of the Asian provinces of the Ottoman Empire. Stephen the Great used the civil war between the contenders to the Ottoman throne to invade Wallachia in summer 1481. He then marched south, crossed the Danube, and raided Bulgaria. The Ottomans could not allow the charismatic Moldavian prince to get away with challenging and undermining the legitimacy of the Ottoman sultan in the eyes of his Christian vassals in the Balkans. Once he had defeated his brother Cem, Bayezid II turned his focus to Wallachia and Moldavia. Ottoman forces crossed into Moldavia and captured Kilia on the Danube in July 1484. The sultan’s allies, the Crimean Tatars, captured Akkerman in Bessarabia on the Dniester (Shaw: 1:73). Bayezid II’s invasion forced Stephen the Great to sue for peace and agree to pay an annual tribute to the Ottoman sultan. The peace between the Ottoman Empire and Moldavia was, however, short-lived. Stephen reneged on his promise and attacked Kilia and Akkerman in 1484 and 1486, but he failed to recapture the two strategic forts.