by Mehrdad Kia
Until the reign of Mehmed II in the middle of the 15th century, the Ottomans, like many previous Muslim dynasties, recruited and trained slaves primarily as soldiers. The majority of non-military functions were reserved for government officials who were recruited from the Muslim Turkish elite. The members of this elite class were, for the most part, educated in traditional bureaucratic and religious institutions where the knowledge of Islamic sciences, as well as Arabic grammar and Persian literature and poetry, was mandatory. Many who served as civil administrators within the Ottoman government were recruited from the ranks of the ulema, or the scholars and practitioners of Islamic law. Beginning in the reign of Mehmed II, however, the sultan began to appoint slaves to the top administrative positions of the empire.
JANISSARIES
As the sultan’s elite infantry force, the janissary corps constituted one of the most important pillars of the Ottoman military. The members of the corps were acquired as children from among the non-Muslim populations of the empire through the devşirme system. They were kept isolated and received special training in the palace. Their relative isolation from the rest of the population did not, however, prevent some of the janissary battalions from engaging in duties that brought them into contact with the urban populace of Istanbul. They took part in providing security, law and order, or similar municipal tasks. Each janissary battalion was based in one of Istanbul’s numerous districts, where it operated out of kolluk, which functioned as a modern-day police station.
During the 17th century, the effectiveness of the janissaries began to decline as their discipline and training deteriorated. Worse, their commanders became increasingly involved in court intrigues. Instead of sowing fear in the heart of the enemy, the janissaries emerged as the source of terror and instability for Ottoman sultans. Their physical proximity to the sultan, and his dependence on them for his safety and security, allowed the janissaries to play the role of kingmakers.
In the 18th century, the devşirme system finally came to an end as the janissary corps suffered a total “breakdown in discipline and vigour and began to lose its original status.” Meanwhile, as inflation set in and the cost of military campaigns increased, the central government faltered in its financial obligations and failed to pay the janissaries their salaries. In response to the sharp decline in their income, the janissaries became involved in activities that increased their real wages. Some opened coffeehouses, while others worked as “butchers, bakers, boatmen, and porters.” Some organized protection rackets for shopkeepers and artisans in return for regular payments. As their social and economic interests and activities became intertwined with those of the urban classes, the janissaries ignored the traditional rules, which prohibited them from marrying and living outside their barracks. They also sent their sons to join the janissary corps. In place of recruiting young Christian boys as slave soldiers, the sons of the retiring janissaries began to join the infantry force, thus establishing themselves as the hereditary successors to their fathers. Despite these fundamental changes in their role and function, the janissaries retained a prominent role in the palace and among the ruling elite. Here they exerted a conservative influence, which advocated protectionism in trade and opposed any fundamental reform of the political and military structure of the empire that would replace the corps with a new military force modeled after modern European armies.
In 1826, Mahmud II finally disbanded the janissary corps, shelling their barracks in Istanbul and massacring those who had challenged and threatened his authority. Replacing the janissaries, who had dominated the Ottoman army and political life for centuries, was not easy. It took several decades and numerous humiliating defeats at the hands of European armies before a new and well-trained military force emerged.
A janissary (Ottoman elite guard). Jacopo Ligozzi (c. 1547–1632).
PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION
Along with the central government, the provincial administration also played an important role in preserving the unity and territorial integrity of the empire. To maintain an efficient provincial administration and a strong military force, the Ottomans had to create a financial organization that would collect taxes effectively and generate revenue. Under Ottoman rule, land constituted the most important source of wealth and income for the government. As in other Islamic states, there were several distinct categories of land ownership. By far the largest category was mini (crown land), or land owned and controlled by the state. Theoretically, all lands used for agricultural production in the empire belonged to the sultan. The central government also recognized vakif (Arabic: vaqf), or land controlled and supervised as a religious endowment with its revenue providing support for charitable objectives. Another category of land ownership was mülk, or privately owned land. The vakif and mülk could be transferred to crown lands by the order of the sultan. Ottoman sultans were always desperate to increase their revenue base by confiscating vakif and mülk lands, and converting them to mini. Under the Ottoman land tenure system, the peasants enjoyed the hereditary right to cultivate the land but could not sell it or transfer the title without permission from the central government. The hereditary right to cultivate the land passed from father to son.
SIPAHIS AND TIMARS
Akçe, a silver coinage, constituted the chief unit of account in the Ottoman state. The Ottoman Empire frequently suffered from a scarcity of this silver coinage, which posed a fundamental challenge to the central government. How could the Ottoman state collect taxes from peasant farmers who could not pay their taxes in cash? And how could the sultan pay his officials and troops their salaries? In response to these challenges, the empire was divided into numerous fiefs. A military fief with an annual value of twenty to one hundred thousand akçes was called kiliç zeamat (sword fief), or zeamat for short. A military fief less than that was called a timar (labor). To each timar, or military fief, the sultan assigned a sipahi, or a cavalryman. The sipahi did not exercise the right of ownership over the timar he held, but was responsible for collecting taxes and maintaining security in the area under his control, making sure that the cultivation of land would not be disrupted. He provided troops to the army during the time of campaigns, thereby contributing to the central government’s cavalry force. Unlike the janissary, who used firearms, the sipahi and the men he recruited and organized were armed with medieval weaponry. The revenue generated by his timar paid for his military services.
At the time of the conquest of each new territory, the Ottoman government sent agents to the newly acquired territory to identify and quantify taxable sources of income, such as crops, and assess the amount of tax that a particular district was to pay. These calculations were then entered into government registries. Every twenty to thirty years, these tax assessments were revisited and, if necessary, revised. Instead of paying the salaries of military personnel from the sultan’s treasury, the troops were thus allowed to directly collect the revenue from agricultural production in lieu of their salary. The sipahi, who lived in a village among peasant farmers, collected the taxes in kind and it was his duty to convert it to cash.
Timar holders were grouped together under sancaks, or military-administrative units, which were run by a military governor (sancak bey). The military governor was called a sancak bey because he had received a sancak, or a standard/banner, from the sultan as a sign and symbol of his power and authority. The officers positioned between the sancak bey and the ordinary sipahi were the alay beys, who were subordinate to the sancak bey, and the subaşi, who acted as the district commander responsible for apprehending offenders and keeping the peace.
As the Ottoman Empire grew in size and the number of sancak beys increased, the central government created a new position, the beylerbey, or bey of the beys, responsible for the sancak beys in his province. Each beylerbey ruled from a provincial capital, which had its own janissary garrison, religious judge (kadi), and administrators in charge of assessing taxes. This system did not prevail in all provinces and territories contro
lled by the sultan, however. In many Kurdish- and Arab-populated regions, tribal chiefs were appointed as hereditary sancak beys. They were responsible for collecting taxes—much of which they retained—and sending troops to Istanbul at time of war with foreign powers. There were also vassal Christian states, such as Wallachia and Moldavia, which were ruled by their princes, and Muslim principalities, such as the Crimea, that were administered by their khans. The Ottomans required an annual tribute from the vassal prince as a token of his submission. At times, they also demanded that a son of the vassal prince reside as a hostage at the Ottoman court, and his father pay homage to the sultan by visiting the capital once a year and swearing allegiance to the sultan. The vassal prince was also expected to provide military support for the sultan’s campaigns against a foreign enemy, and he was to treat the allies and foes of the Ottoman state as his own.
Aside from the beylerbeys and the sancak beys, who acted as the direct representatives of the Ottoman state, in all legal matters the sultan was represented by a kadi (judge), who came from the ranks of the ulema. The governors could not carry out justice without receiving a legal judgment from the kadi, but the kadi did not have the executive authority to carry out any of his religious rulings. Until the second half of the 16th century, kadis were appointed for life, but as the number of prospective judges increased, term limits were imposed by the central government. The kadi settled disputes, “drew up civil contracts, did all the notarial work of the district, administered the property of orphans and minors, acted as registrar, and officiated at important weddings.” The kadi applied the şeriat, or the sacred law of Islam, as well as the kanun, or the laws issued by the sultan. He could also take into consideration the local customs when issuing his ruling. Applying both the şeriat and the kanun in criminal cases, the kadi punished murder, rape, and highway robbery with execution or mutilation, while adultery, physical assault, wine drinking, and theft were punished by fines or bastinado blows.
4 - CITIES, TOWNS, AND VILLAGES: MERCHANTS, CRAFTSMEN, AND PEASANTS
The Ottoman concept of society divided the productive classes into merchants, craftsmen, and peasant farmers. Until the arrival of the modern industrial era, the major urban centers of the Ottoman Empire were much larger, and far more prosperous, than any urban center in Europe. The rich cultural and historical heritage of these cities was evident in their palaces, mosques, churches, synagogues, mausoleums, tombs, bathhouses, bazaars, schools, and bridges.
Aside from these cities of antiquity, new towns emerged during the long Ottoman rule, many along the main trade and military routes. These urban centers served the Ottoman government as military and administrative centers and connected small towns and villages to the larger cities of the empire. They were originally small, “stretching at most for two or three miles from one end to the other,” but “within this compact space” was “a densely packed network of roads, many different kinds of houses, businesses, religious institutions, coffee houses , hammams [bathhouses], waqf complexes, public fountains and a whole range of other kinds of spaces.”
MAHALLES
Each Ottoman urban center was divided into mahalles, or city quarters. The mahalle constituted a social, cultural, and economic zone, which delineated the cultural life of its residents from other city quarters and neighborhoods. Ottoman towns and cities contained diverse ethnic and religious communities, with each community living in its own mahalle. Muslims, Christians, and Jews inhabited their own neighborhoods. They “spent most of their lives in one neighborhood, rarely venturing beyond their local sphere of activity because all their daily needs could be met in their immediate social surroundings.” In most mahalles, “there was a small market for daily goods, perhaps a small mosque, a butcher shop, fruit vendors, and other institutions providing social services.” The residents of a mahalle “saw one another regularly, and this fostered a distinctive sense of neighborhood identity, which often took on the characteristics of an extended family.” Neighbors in such tightly knit neighborhoods recognized one another and noticed the presence of strangers immediately. Such proximity and familiarity did not always breed good intentions and result in neighborly acts; it also encouraged gossip and speculation.
Mahalles “tended to segregate the urban population” in accordance with “religion and profession.” Not surprisingly, many Christian mahalles were named after churches, which were located there, while many Muslim quarters traced their names to the main mosque within their boundary. Other mahalles took their names from the profession or trade practiced by the majority of residents. Regardless, central to every mahalle was the house of worship that served as the religious and cultural heart of the neighborhood. In a Muslim mahalle, the small neighborhood mosque, in a Christian quarter, the church, and in a Jewish community, the synagogue, were the focal points of the community. Members of different religious communities lived in their own mahalles under the leadership of their religious and administrative heads. A Muslim mahalle was represented by an imam, who served as the religious head of his community, and by the kethüda, who acted as the representative of the government. Similarly, a Christian or a Jewish mahalle was led by a priest or a rabbi. The mahalle provided the Ottoman authorities with the means to collect taxes in the urban centers of the empire. At times, the kethüda and/or the elder of each mahalle functioned as the tax collector for the state.
Though smaller in size and population, Ottoman towns followed the same urban plan as the large cities. Each town had a congregational mosque, neighborhood mosques, inns and caravanserais, bathhouses, schools, lodges of Sufi orders, a bazaar, and shops. The town center was usually reserved for business purposes, administration, and local defense. The majority of residents in the town center were Muslims, who wielded civil and religious authority. They were joined by Greek, Armenian, Jewish, and foreign merchants, who controlled most long-distance commerce. Lying “in a ring around the center were the residential quarters (mahalles), where the general urban population lived in low dwellings that faced the meandering and narrow streets, and that were frequently separated from each other by large gardens,” making “the towns appear larger than their actual populations would warrant.”
Muslim neighborhoods were often “found in the oldest and most prominent sections of the town and close to the center, while those of the Christians,” called “varosh by the Muslim authorities and inhabitants, were commonly located farther from the center.” The homes of the town’s Christian residents “tended to be of lower quality than those of Muslims, having few, if any, windows and structurally oriented toward inner courtyards rather than toward the streets.” These residential areas were surrounded by a broad circle of land that served as the town’s cemetery. In the varosh of most towns in the Balkans, the population was highly heterogeneous. In the urban centers of 17th-century Bulgaria, there were Bulgarian, Greek, Armenian, and Albanian communities, as well as “Catholic Croatian merchants” from “the commercial city of Dubrovnik” on the Adriatic coast. The majority of the Muslim and Christian population worked as craftsmen and traders.
Considerable regional differences appeared among Ottoman architectural designs, reflecting the region’s climate, geographical and environmental setting, available building material, and distinct architectural traditions. The mansions of the rich and powerful stood in close proximity to the shacks of the poor. Among the wealthy classes, the general plan of a house was an entrance through a blank wall, whose bland appearance was relieved by a beautifully carved wooden door. The house consisted of two courts. The first was the outer court, which served as a reception area for the male visitors and guests. The second court or the inner court was reserved for the women of the family and was in every Muslim household a private place, closed to all outsiders and strangers. The large hall “reserved for the men of the family to socialize with their guests” was called the selamlik, and the private section of the house that provided a separate and designated space for female socialization was the haremlik, or h
arem.
In the Balkans, the homes of high government officials were adorned “with beautiful vineyards, gardens, and parks with their pavilions and galleries.” They were often two- or three-story high structures made of stone and crowned with red tiled roofs. Each house also had “a source of pure flowing water, a pool and a fountain with water spurting from jets.” In most Ottoman towns, the houses of the lower classes did not differ much from those in villages, except that there was sometimes an upper story.