Turks are a relatively young people. His age is only 600 years old. The first Turks were a bunch of Turkmens, fugitives from Central Asia, who fled from the Mongols to the west. They reached the Konya Sultanate and asked for land for a settlement. They were given a place on the border with the Empire of Nicaea near Bursa. The fugitives began to settle there in the middle of the 13th century.

The main among the fugitive Turkmens was Ertogrul-bey. He called the territory allotted to him the Ottoman beylik. And taking into account the fact that the Konya Sultan lost all power, he became an independent ruler. Ertogrul died in 1281 and power passed to his son Osman I Ghazi. It is he who is considered the founder of the dynasty of the Ottoman sultans 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, as they considered Byzantium 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 swords became dull and until they got enough wealth and wives. And in the east it was considered a very big achievement.

Thus, the Ottoman army began to be replenished with Circassians, Kurds, Arabs, Seljuks, 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 farming. Such a site was called "timar". He represented a house with a garden.

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

With such an 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 over the northern and western regions of Anatolia. And in 1352, the Ottoman Turks crossed the Dardanelles and ended up in Europe. After this, the gradual and steady capture of Thrace began.

In Europe, it was impossible to get by with one cavalry, so there was an urgent need for infantry. And then the Turks created a completely new army, consisting of infantry, which they called Janissaries(yang - new, charik - army: it turns out Janissaries).

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

Janissaries - infantry of the Ottoman army

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

However, having reached the Mediterranean Sea, the Ottoman Empire could not confine itself to the Janissaries alone. Since there is water, ships are needed, and a need arose for a navy. The Turks began to recruit pirates, adventurers and vagabonds from all over the Mediterranean for the fleet. Italians, Greeks, Berbers, Danes, Norwegians went to serve them. This public had no faith, no honor, no law, no conscience. Therefore, they willingly converted to the Muslim faith, since they did not have any faith at all, and it did not matter to them who they were, Christians or Muslims.

From this motley crowd, 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 horrified the Spanish, French and Italian ships. The very same navigation in the Mediterranean began to be considered a dangerous business. Turkish corsair squadrons were based in Tunisia, Algeria and other Muslim lands that had access to the sea.

Ottoman navy

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

A small principality that appeared on the territory of Asia Minor in the middle of the XIII 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 they called themselves not Turks, but Muslims. As for the real Turks, they were considered to be the Turkmen population living in the interior regions of Asia Minor. The Ottomans conquered these people 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 series of major defeats in Europe.. The Russian Empire played an important role in weakening the Turks. She always beat the warlike descendants of Osman I. She took Crimea and the Black Sea coast from them, and all these victories became a harbinger of the decline of the state, which in the 16th century shone in the rays of its power.

But the Ottoman Empire was weakened not only by endless wars, but also by ugly farming. Officials squeezed all the juice 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 the French capitalists. But it soon became clear that they could not pay their debts, since after the victories of Rumyantsev, Suvorov, Kutuzov, Dibich, the Turkish economy was completely undermined. The French then brought a navy into the Aegean and demanded customs in all ports, mining as concessions, 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 political movement of the pro-Western republican persuasion).

On April 27, 1909, the Young Turks enthroned 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 and destroyed. There was nothing good in their reign. They promised freedom, but ended up with a terrible massacre of Armenians, saying that they were against the new regime. And they really were against it, since nothing has changed in the country. Everything remained the same as before it was 500 years under the rule of the sultans.

After the defeat in the First World War, 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 from 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 mountainous provinces. It was headed by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. He led the common people. He very quickly expelled the Anglo-French and Greek invaders from his 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 Republic of Turkey. It exists to this day, and its capital is the city of Ankara. As for the Turks themselves, they have been living quite happily for the last decades. In the morning they sing, in the evening they dance, and in between they pray. 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 cities of Bei Aydin, Germiyan, Karaman, Menteshe, Sarukhan and a number of other regions of the sultanate turned their lands into independent principalities. Among these principalities, the beyliks Germiyan and Karaman stood out, the rulers of which continued to fight, often successfully, against Mongol rule. In 1299, the Mongols even had to recognize the independence of the Hermiyan beylik.

In the last decades of the thirteenth century in the north-west of Anatolia, another practically independent beylik arose. It went down in history under the name of the Ottoman, named after the leader of a small Turkic tribal group, the main component of which were the nomads of the Oghuz Kayi tribe.

According to Turkish historical tradition, part of the Kay tribe migrated to Anatolia from Central Asia, where the leaders of the Kay were in the service of the rulers of Khorezm for some time. Initially, the Kay Turks chose the lands in the Karajadag region to the west of present-day Ankara as a nomadic place. Then part of them moved to the regions of Ahlat, Erzurum and Erzinjan, reaching Amasya and Aleppo (Haleb). Some nomads of the Kayi tribe have found shelter on the fertile lands in the Chukurov region. It was from these places that a small unit of kaya (400-500 tents), led by Ertogrul, fleeing from the Mongols' raids, went to the possessions of the Seljuk Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad I. Ertogrul turned to him for patronage. The sultan granted Ertogrul uj (outlying area of ​​the sultanate) on the lands seized by the Seljuks from the Byzantines on the border with Bithynia. Ertogrul took upon himself the obligation to protect the border of the Seljuk state on the territory of the udj granted to him.

Uj Ertogrul in the region of Melangia (Turkish Karajahisar) and Sogyut (to the north-west of Eskisehir) was small. But the ruler was energetic, and his soldiers willingly participated in raids on neighboring Byzantine lands. Ertogrul's actions were greatly 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 somewhat increase his udj at the expense of the border regions of Byzantium. True, it is difficult to accurately determine the scale of these predatory operations, as well as the initial size of Uj Ertogrul himself, about whose life and work there is no reliable data. Turkish chroniclers, even early (XIV-XV centuries), set forth many legends related to the initial period of the formation of the beylik Ertogrul. 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 largely legendary. Osman was born around 1258 in Sögut. This mountainous sparsely populated region was convenient for nomads: there were many good summer pastures, and there were enough comfortable winter nomads. But, perhaps, the main advantage of Uj 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 sacred by the adherents of Islam. As a result, when in the second half of the XIII century. the rulers of the Anatolian beyliks fought among themselves in search of new possessions, the warriors of Ertogrul and Osman looked like fighters for the faith, ruining the Byzantines in search of booty and with the aim of territorial seizures of the land of the Byzantines.

After the death of Ertogrul, Osman became the ruler of the uj. 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 he was supported by the majority. A few years later, a potential rival was killed.

Osman directed his efforts towards the conquest of Bithynia. The area of ​​​​Brusa (tour. Bursa), Belokoma (Bilecik) and Nicomedia (Izmit) became the zone of his territorial claims. One of Osman's first military successes was the capture of Melangia in 1291. He made this small Byzantine town his residence. Since the former population of Melangia partly died, and partly fled, hoping to find salvation from the troops of Osman, the latter settled his residence with people from the beylik of Hermiyan and other places in Anatolia. The Christian temple, at the behest of Osman, was turned into a mosque, in which his name began to be mentioned in khutbs (Friday prayers). According to legend, around this time, Osman easily achieved 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 bunchuk. Soon, Osman declared his uj 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 rebellious subjects. True, having become practically independent from the Seljuk Sultanate, which nominally existed until 1307, when the last representative of the Seljuk dynasty of Rum was strangled by order of the Mongols, Osman recognized the supreme power of the Mongol Hulaguid dynasty and annually sent to their capital part of the tribute that he collected from his subjects. The Ottoman beylik freed itself 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 greatly expanded its territory. Its ruler continued to raid 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 Germiyan fought either with the Mongols or with the Byzantines. Beylik Karesi was simply weak. The beylik of Osman was not disturbed by the rulers of the beylik of Chandar-oglu (Jandarids), located in the north-west of Anatolia, since they were also mainly busy fighting the Mongol governors. Thus, the Ottoman beylik could use all its military forces for conquests in the west.

Having captured the area of ​​Yenishehir in 1301 and built a fortified city there, Osman began to prepare for the capture of Brusa. In the summer of 1302, he defeated the troops of the Byzantine governor Brusa in the battle of Vafei (tour. 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 Levka, where the Catalan squads, who were in the service of the Byzantine emperor, fought against them. In Byzantium, another civil strife began, which facilitated the further offensive actions of the Turks. 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 the territory of Byzantium in the Dardanelles region. Osman's troops also captured a number of fortresses and fortified settlements on the way to Brusa. By 1315, Brusa was practically surrounded by fortresses that were in the hands of the Turks.

Brusa was captured somewhat 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 Brusa, cutting off all its connections with the outside world and thereby depriving its defenders of all sources of supply. Turkish troops used similar tactics later. Usually they seized the outskirts of the city, drove out or enslaved the 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 loomed over its inhabitants, after which the Turks easily took possession of it.

The siege of Brusa lasted ten years. Finally, in April 1326, when Orkhan's army stood at the very walls of Brusa, the city capitulated. This happened on the eve of the death of Osman, who was informed of the capture 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, as its capital. In 1327, he ordered to mint the first Ottoman silver coin in Bursa - akche. This testified that the process of turning Ertogrul's beylik into an independent state was nearing completion. An important stage on this path was the further conquest of the Ottoman Turks in the north. Four years after the capture of Brusa, Orkhan's troops captured Nicaea (tour. 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 detachments, 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 by sea, lasted nine years. To capture the city, Orhan had to organize a blockade of the narrow bay of the Sea of ​​Marmara, on the banks of which Nicomedia was located. Cut off from all sources of supply, the city surrendered to the mercy of the victors.

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

In the future, Orkhan's relations with Byzantium escalated again, his troops resumed raids on the Thracian lands. Another decade and a half passed, and Orkhan'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 succeeded, taking advantage of the civil strife in the beylik of Karesi, to annex to his possessions most of the lands of this beylik, which reached the eastern shores of the Dardanelles.

In the middle of the XIV century. the Turks intensified, began to act not only in the west, but also in the east. The beylik of Orkhan bordered on the possessions of the Mongol governor in Asia Minor Erten, who by that time had become practically an independent ruler due to the decline of the Ilkhan state. When the governor died and turmoil began in his possessions, caused by a struggle for power between his sons-heirs, Orkhan 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 (tour. Gelibolu), the defensive fortifications of which were destroyed as a result of an earthquake. In 1356 an army under Orhan's son, Suleiman, crossed the Dardanelles. Having captured several cities, including Dzorillos (tour. Chorlu), Suleiman's troops began to move towards Adrianople (tour. Edirne), which was, perhaps, the main goal of this campaign. However, about 1357, Suleiman died without having carried out all his plans.

Soon, Turkish military operations in the Balkans resumed under the leadership of another son of Orhan - Murad. The Turks managed to take Adrianople after the death of Orhan, when Murad became the ruler. This happened, according to various sources, between 1361 and 1363. The capture of this city turned out to be 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 of 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 rather strong militarily state.

What was the young Ottoman state in the initial stage of its development? Its territory already covered the entire north-west 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 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. The Muslim clergy played an important role in the formation of Ottoman state institutions. Muslim theologians, ulema, performed many administrative functions, in their hands was the administration of justice. Osman established strong ties with the Mevlevi and Bektashi dervish orders, as well as with the Ahi, a religious guild brotherhood that enjoyed great influence in the craft strata of the cities of Asia Minor. Relying on the ulema, the top of the dervish orders and the ahi, Osman and his successors not only strengthened their power, but also substantiated 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 sheep herds. But when he began to conquer new territories, a system of distributing lands to his close associates as a reward for service arose. These awards were called timars. Turkish chronicles state Osman's decree regarding the conditions of awards as follows:

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

The timar system took its final form during the first century of the existence 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 allotments were given to soldiers and commanders as conditional holdings. Subject to the performance of certain military duties, the holders of the timars, the timariots, could pass them on from generation to generation. It is noteworthy that the Timariots, in fact, owned not the lands that were the property of the treasury, but the income from them. Depending on these incomes, possessions of this kind were divided into two categories - timars, which brought up to 20 thousand akce per year, and zeamets - from 20 to 100 thousand akce. The real value of these amounts can be compared with the following figures: in the middle of the XV century. the average income from one urban household in the Balkan provinces of the Ottoman state ranged from 100 to 200 akçe; in 1460 in Bursa one could buy 7 kilograms of flour for 1 acce. In the person of the Timariots, the first Turkish sultans sought to create a strong and reliable support for their power - military and socio-political.

In a relatively short historical period, 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 predatory raid. The Turkish medieval chronicler Huseyin cites, for example, a story about how Orhan sold a captive Byzantine dignitary to the archon of 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 maintain an army, build palaces and mosques, spend a lot of money on festivities and receptions of ambassadors. The reason for this change was simple - from the time of the reign of Murad I, it became the law to deduct one fifth of the spoils of war, including prisoners, to the treasury. Military campaigns in the Balkans became the first source of income for the Osmai state. Tribute from the conquered peoples and military booty constantly replenished his treasury, and the labor of the population of the conquered regions gradually began to enrich the nobility of the Ottoman states - dignitaries and military leaders, clergy and beys.

Under the first sultans, the system of governance of the Ottoman state began to take shape. If under Orkhan military affairs were decided in a close circle of his close associates from among the military leaders, then under his successors viziers - ministers began to participate in their discussion. If Orkhan ruled his possessions with the help of his closest relatives or ulema, then Murad I began to single out a person from among the viziers, who was entrusted with the management of all affairs - civil and military. Thus arose the institution of the Grand Vizier, 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 highest advisory body were in charge of the Sultan's Council, consisting of the Grand Vizier, heads of military, financial and judicial departments, representatives of the highest Muslim clergy.

During the reign of Murad I, the Ottoman financial department received its initial formalization. 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. There was also an administrative division. The Ottoman state was divided into sanjaks. The word "sanjak" means "banner" in translation, as if recalling that the rulers of the sanjaks, the sanjak-beys, personified civil and military power in the localities. As for the judicial system, it was entirely under the jurisdiction of the ulema.

The state, which developed and expanded as a result of aggressive wars, took special care to create a strong army. Already under Orhan, the first important steps in this direction were taken. An infantry army was created - yay. During the period of participation in campaigns, infantrymen received a salary, and in peacetime they lived by cultivating their lands, being exempt from taxes. Under Orhan, the first regular cavalry units were created - the mussel. Under Murad I, the army was strengthened by the peasant infantry militia. The militias, Azaps, were recruited only for the duration of the war and also received a salary during the period of hostilities. It was the Azaps who made up the main part of the infantry troops at the initial stage of the development of the Ottoman state. Under Murad I, the corps of the Janissaries began to form (from “yeni cheri” - “new army”), which later became the strike force of the Turkish infantry and a kind of personal guard of the Turkish sultans. It was completed by the 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. A little later, the Janissary infantry formed the cavalry units of the sipahis, who also reported directly to the Sultan and were on a salary. All these military formations ensured the steady success of the Turkish army at a time when the sultans were increasingly expanding their conquest operations.

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

Ottoman Empire (Ottoman Porta, Ottoman Empire - other common names) - one of the great empires of human civilization.
The Ottoman Empire was established in 1299. The Turkic tribes, led by their leader Osman I, united into one whole strong state, and Osman himself became the first sultan of the created empire.
In the XVI-XVII centuries, during the period of its highest power and prosperity, the Ottoman Empire occupied a vast space. It stretched from Vienna and the outskirts of the Commonwealth in the north to modern Yemen in the south, from modern Algeria in the west to the coast of the Caspian Sea in the east.
The population of the Ottoman Empire in its largest borders was 35 and a half million people, it was a huge superpower, with the military power and ambitions of which the most powerful states of Europe were forced to be considered - Sweden, England, Austria-Hungary, the Commonwealth, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Russian the state (later the Russian Empire), the Papal States, France, and influential countries in the rest of the planet.
The capital of the Ottoman Empire was repeatedly transferred from city to city.
From the moment of its foundation (1299) until 1329, the city of Sögut was the capital of the Ottoman Empire.
From 1329 to 1365 the city of Bursa was the capital of the Ottoman Porte.
In the period from 1365 to 1453 the city of Edirne was the capital of the state.
From 1453 until the collapse of the empire (1922), the capital of the empire was the city of Istanbul (Constantinople).
All four cities were and are on the territory of modern Turkey.
During the years of its existence, the empire annexed the territories of modern Turkey, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia, Slovenia, Hungary, part of the Commonwealth, Romania, Bulgaria, part of Ukraine, Abkhazia, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Lebanon, the territory of modern Israel, Sudan, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, Albania, Palestine, Cyprus, part of Persia (modern Iran), southern regions of Russia (Crimea, Rostov region , Krasnodar Territory, Republic of Adygea, Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Region, Republic of Dagestan).
The Ottoman Empire lasted 623 years!
In administrative terms, the entire empire during the period of its highest prosperity was divided into vilayets: Abyssinia, Abkhazia, Akhishka, Adana, Aleppo, Algeria, Anatolia, Ar-Raqqa, Baghdad, Basra, Bosnia, Buda, Van, Wallachia, Gori, Ganja, Demirkapi, Dmanisi, Gyor, Diyarbakir, Egypt, Zabid, Yemen, Kafa, Kakheti, Kanizha, Karaman, Kars, Cyprus, Lazistan, Lori, Marash, Moldova, Mosul, Nakhichevan, Rumelia, Montenegro, Sana'a, Samtskhe, Soget, Silistria, Sivas, Syria, Temeshvar, Tabriz, Trabzon, Tripoli, Tripolitania, Tiflis, Tunisia, Sharazor, Shirvan, Aegean Islands, Eger, Egel-Khasa, Erzurum.
The history of the Ottoman Empire began with a struggle with the once strong Byzantine Empire. The future first sultan of the empire, Osman I (r. 1299 - 1326), began to annex region after region to his possessions. In fact, there was a unification of modern Turkish lands into a single state. In 1299, Osman called himself the title of Sultan. This year is considered the year of foundation of a mighty empire.
His son Orhan I (r. 1326-1359) continued his father's policy. In 1330, his army conquered the Byzantine fortress of Nicaea. Then this ruler, in the course of continuous wars, established complete control over the coasts of the Marmara and Aegean Seas, annexing Greece and Cyprus.
Under Orhan I, a regular Janissary army was created.
The conquests of Orhan I were continued by his son Murad (r. 1359-1389).
Murad fixed his eyes on Southern Europe. In 1365, Thrace (part of the territory of modern Romania) was conquered. Then Serbia was conquered (1371).
In 1389, during a battle with the Serbs on the Kosovo field, Murad was stabbed to death by the Serbian prince Milos Obilich, who made his way into his tent. The Janissaries almost lost the battle upon learning of the death of their sultan, but his son Bayezid I led the army on the attack and thereby saved the Turks from defeat.
In the future, Bayezid I becomes the new sultan of the empire (r. 1389 - 1402). This sultan conquers all of Bulgaria, Wallachia (the historical region of Romania), Macedonia (modern Macedonia and Northern Greece) and Thessaly (modern Central Greece).
In 1396, Bayezid I defeated a huge army of the Polish king Sigismund near Nikopol (Zaporozhye region of modern Ukraine).
However, not everything was so calm in the Ottoman Port. Persia began to claim its Asian possessions and the Persian Shah Timur invaded the territory of modern Azerbaijan. Moreover, Timur moved with his army towards Ankara and Istanbul. A battle broke out near Ankara, in which the army of Bayezid I was completely destroyed, and the Sultan himself was captured by the Persian Shah. A year later, Bayazid dies in captivity.
A real threat loomed over the Ottoman Empire to be conquered by Persia. In the empire, three sultans proclaim themselves at once. Suleiman (r. 1402-1410) proclaims himself sultan in Adrianople, Issa (r. 1402-1403) in Broussa (r. 1402-1403), and Mehmed (r. 1402-1421) in the eastern part of the empire bordering Persia.
Seeing this, Timur decided to take advantage of this situation and set all three sultans one against the other. He accepted everyone in turn and promised his support to everyone. In 1403 Mehmed kills Issa. Suleiman died unexpectedly in 1410. Mehmed becomes the sole sultan of the Ottoman Empire. In his remaining years of reign, there were no aggressive campaigns, moreover, he concluded peace treaties with neighboring states - Byzantium, Hungary, Serbia and Wallachia.
However, internal uprisings began to flare up more than once in the empire itself. The next Turkish sultan, Murad II (r. 1421-1451), decided to bring order to the territory of the empire. He destroyed his brothers and stormed Constantinople - the main stronghold of unrest in the empire. On the Kosovo field, Murad also won a victory, defeating the Transylvanian army of the governor Matthias Hunyadi. Under Murad, Greece was completely conquered. However, then Byzantium again establishes control over it.
His son - Mehmed II (r. 1451 - 1481) - managed to finally take Constantinople - the last stronghold of the weakened Byzantine Empire. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine Palaiologos, failed to defend the main city of Byzantium with the help of the Greeks and Genoese.
Mehmed II put an end to the existence of the Byzantine Empire - it completely became part of the Ottoman Porte, and Constantinople conquered by him becomes the new capital of the empire.
With the conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed II and the destruction of the Byzantine Empire, a century and a half of the real heyday of the Ottoman Porte begins.
For all 150 years of subsequent rule, the Ottoman Empire wages continuous wars to expand its borders and capture more and more new territories. After the capture of Greece for more than 16 years, the Ottomans waged war with the Republic of Venice and in 1479 Venice became Ottoman. In 1467, Albania was completely captured. In the same year, Bosnia and Herzegovina was captured.
In 1475, the Ottomans start a war with the Crimean Khan Mengli Giray. As a result of the war, the Crimean Khanate becomes dependent on the Sultan and begins to pay him yasak.
(that is, tribute).
In 1476, the Moldavian kingdom was devastated, which also becomes a vassal state. The Moldavian prince also now pays yasak to the Turkish sultan.
In 1480, the Ottoman fleet attacks the southern cities of the Papal States (modern Italy). Pope Sixtus IV announces a crusade against Islam.
Mehmed II can rightly be proud of all these conquests, it was the sultan who restored the power of the Ottoman Empire and brought order within the empire. The people gave him the nickname "Conqueror".
His son - Bayazed III (r. 1481 - 1512) ruled the empire in a short period of intra-palace unrest. His brother Jem made an attempt at a conspiracy, several vilayets revolted and troops were gathered against the Sultan. Bayazed III comes out with his army to meet his brother's army and wins, Jem flees to the Greek island of Rhodes, and from there to the Papal States.
Pope Alexander VI for the huge reward received from the Sultan and gives him his brother. Subsequently, Jem was executed.
Under Bayazed III, the Ottoman Empire began trade relations with the Russian state - Russian merchants arrived in Constantinople.
In 1505, the Venetian Republic is completely defeated and is deprived of all possessions in the Mediterranean.
Bayazed begins in 1505 a long war with Persia.
In 1512, his youngest son Selim plotted against Bayazed. His army defeated the Janissaries, and Bayazed himself was poisoned. Selim becomes the next sultan of the Ottoman Empire, however, he did not rule it for long (reign period - 1512 - 1520).
Selim's main success was the defeat of Persia. The victory for the Ottomans was not easy. As a result, Persia lost the territory of modern Iraq, which was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire.
Then begins the era of the most powerful sultan of the Ottoman Empire - Suleiman the Great (r. 1520 -1566). Suleiman the Great was the son of Selim. Suleiman is the longest of all the sultans who ruled the Ottoman Empire. Under Suleiman, the empire reached its greatest extent.
In 1521, the Ottomans take Belgrade.
In the next five years, the Ottomans take possession of the first African territories - Algeria and Tunisia.
In 1526, the Ottoman Empire made an attempt to conquer the Austrian Empire. At the same time, the Turks invaded Hungary. Budapest was taken, Hungary became part of the Ottoman Empire.
Suleiman's army besieges Vienna, but the siege ends with the defeat of the Turks - Vienna was not taken, the Ottomans leave with nothing. They failed to conquer the Austrian Empire in the future, it was one of the few states of Central Europe that withstood the power of the Ottoman Porte.
Suleiman understood that it was impossible to be at enmity with all states, he was a skilled diplomat. Thus, an alliance was concluded with France (1535).
If under Mehmed II the empire revived again and the largest amount of territory was conquered, then under Sultan Suleiman the Great, the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe empire became the largest.
Selim II (r. 1566 - 1574) - son of Suleiman the Great. After the death of his father, he becomes a sultan. During his reign, the Ottoman Empire again entered the war with the Venetian Republic. The war lasted three years (1570 - 1573). As a result, Cyprus was taken from the Venetians and incorporated into the Ottoman Empire.
Murad III (r. 1574 - 1595) - Selim's son.
At the same time, almost all of Persia was conquered by the sultan, and a strong competitor in the Middle East was eliminated. The structure of the Ottoman port included the entire Caucasus and the entire territory of modern Iran.
His son - Mehmed III (r. 1595 - 1603) - became the most bloodthirsty sultan in the struggle for the sultan's throne. He executed his 19 brothers in a struggle for power in the empire.
Beginning with Ahmed I (r. 1603 - 1617) - the Ottoman Empire began to gradually lose its conquests and decrease in size. The golden age of the empire was over. Under this sultan, the Ottomans suffered a final defeat from the Austrian Empire, as a result of which the payment of yasak by Hungary was stopped. The new war with Persia (1603 - 1612) inflicted a number of very serious defeats on the Turks, as a result of which the Ottoman Empire lost the territories of modern Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Under this Sultan, the decline of the empire began.
After Ahmed, the Ottoman Empire was ruled for only one year by his brother Mustafa I (r. 1617 - 1618). Mustafa was insane and after a short reign was overthrown by the highest Ottoman clergy, headed by the supreme mufti.
Osman II (r. 1618 - 1622), the son of Ahmed I, entered the Sultan's throne. His reign was also short - only four years. Mustafa undertook an unsuccessful campaign against the Zaporizhzhya Sich, which ended in a complete defeat from the Zaporizhian Cossacks. As a result, a conspiracy was committed by the Janissaries, as a result of which this Sultan was killed.
Then the previously deposed Mustafa I (reigned 1622 - 1623) again becomes the sultan. And again, like last time, Mustafa managed to hold out on the Sultan's throne for only a year. He was again deposed from the throne, and died a few years later.
The next sultan - Murad IV (reigned 1623-1640) - was the younger brother of Osman II. It was one of the most cruel sultans of the empire, who became famous for his numerous executions. Under him, about 25,000 people were executed, there was not a day in which at least one execution was not performed. Under Murad, Persia was again conquered, but lost the Crimea - the Crimean Khan did not pay yasak to the Turkish Sultan anymore.
The Ottomans also could not do anything to stop the predatory raids of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks on the Black Sea coast.
His brother Ibrahim (r. 1640 - 1648) lost almost all the conquests of his predecessor in a relatively short period of his reign. In the end, this sultan suffered the fate of Osman II - the Janissaries plotted and killed him.
His seven-year-old son Mehmed IV (r. 1648 - 1687) was elevated to the throne. However, the young sultan did not have actual power in the first years of his reign, until he came of age - the viziers and pashas, ​​who were also appointed by the Janissaries, ruled the state for him.
In 1654, the Ottoman fleet inflicts a serious defeat on the Republic of Venice and regains control of the Dardanelles.
In 1656, the Ottoman Empire again starts a war with the Habsburg Empire - the Austrian Empire. Austria loses part of its Hungarian lands and is forced to conclude an unfavorable peace with the Ottomans.
In 1669, the Ottoman Empire starts a war with the Commonwealth on the territory of Ukraine. As a result of a short-term war, the Commonwealth loses Podolia (the territory of modern Khmelnitsky and Vinnitsa regions). Podolia was annexed to the Ottoman Empire.
In 1687, the Ottomans were again defeated by the Austrians;
CONSPIRACY. Mehmed IV was deposed from the throne by the clergy and his brother, Suleiman II (r. 1687 - 1691) takes the throne. This was a ruler who constantly drank and was not at all interested in state affairs.
In power, he did not last long and another of his brothers, Ahmed II (reigned 1691-1695), takes the throne. However, the new sultan also could not do much to strengthen the state, while the Austrians inflicted one defeat after another on the sultan.
Under the next sultan, Mustafa II (r. 1695-1703), Belgrade was lost, and the war with the Russian state that ended, which lasted 13 years, greatly undermined the military power of the Ottoman Porte. Moreover, part of Moldova, Hungary and Romania was lost. The territorial losses of the Ottoman Empire began to grow.
Mustafa's heir, Ahmed III (reigned 1703-1730), turned out to be a bold and independent sultan in his decisions. During the years of his reign, Charles XII, who was overthrown in Sweden and suffered a crushing defeat from the troops of Peter, acquired political asylum for some time.
At the same time Ahmed started a war against the Russian Empire. He has achieved significant success. Russian troops led by Peter the Great were defeated in Northern Bukovina and were surrounded. However, the Sultan understood that a further war with Russia was quite dangerous and that it was necessary to get out of it. Peter was asked to give Karl to be torn apart by the coast of the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov. That is how it was done. The coast of the Sea of ​​Azov and the adjacent territories, together with the fortress of Azov (the territory of the modern Rostov region of Russia and the Donetsk region of Ukraine), was transferred to the Ottoman Empire, and Charles XII was transferred to the Russians.
Under Ahmet, the Ottoman Empire restored some of its former conquests. The territory of the Republic of Venice was reconquered (1714).
In 1722, Ahmed made a careless decision - to re-start the war with Persia. The Ottomans suffered several defeats, the Persians invaded Ottoman territory, and an uprising broke out in Constantinople itself, as a result of which Ahmed was overthrown from the throne.
His nephew, Mahmud I (reigned 1730 - 1754), entered the Sultan's throne.
Under this Sultan, a protracted war was waged with Persia and the Austrian Empire. No new territorial acquisitions were made, with the exception of the reconquered Serbia with Belgrade.
Mahmud held on to power for a relatively long time and was the first sultan after Suleiman the Great to die of natural causes.
Then his brother Osman III came to power (reigned 1754 - 1757). During these years, there were no significant events in the history of the Ottoman Empire. Osman also died of natural causes.
Mustafa III (r. 1757 - 1774), who ascended the throne after Osman III, decided to recreate the military power of the Ottoman Empire. In 1768 Mustafa declares war on the Russian Empire. The war lasts six years and ends with the Kyuchuk-Kainarji peace of 1774. As a result of the war, the Ottoman Empire loses Crimea and loses control over the northern Black Sea region.
Abdul-Hamid I (r. 1774-1789) ascends the Sultan's throne just before the end of the war with the Russian Empire. It is this Sultan who stops the war. There is already no order in the empire itself, fermentation and discontent begin. The Sultan, through several punitive operations, pacifies Greece and Cyprus, calm is restored there. However, in 1787 a new war began against Russia and Austria-Hungary. The war lasts four years and ends already under the new sultan in two ways - the Crimea is finally lost and the war with Russia ends in defeat, and with Austria-Hungary - the outcome of the war is favorable. Returned Serbia and part of Hungary.
Both wars were already over under Sultan Selim III (r. 1789 - 1807). Selim attempted profound reforms of his empire. Selim III decided to liquidate
Janissary army and introduce a draft army. Under his reign, the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte captured and took Egypt and Syria from the Ottomans. On the side of the Ottomans was Great Britain, which destroyed Napoleon's group in Egypt. However, both countries were lost to the Ottomans forever.
The rule of this sultan was also complicated by the uprisings of the Janissaries in Belgrade, for the suppression of which it was necessary to divert a large number of troops loyal to the sultan. At the same time, while the Sultan is fighting the rebels in Serbia, a conspiracy is being prepared against him in Constantinople. The power of Selim was eliminated, the Sultan was arrested and imprisoned.
Mustafa IV (reigned 1807-1808) was placed on the throne. However, a new uprising led to the fact that the old sultan - Selim III - was killed in prison, and Mustafa himself fled.
Mahmud II (r. 1808 - 1839) - the next Turkish sultan, who attempted to revive the power of the empire. It was an evil, cruel and vengeful ruler. He ended the war with Russia in 1812 by signing the Peace of Bucharest, which was beneficial to him - Russia had no time for the Ottoman Empire that year - after all, Napoleon was advancing towards Moscow with his army. True, Bessarabia was lost, which went under the terms of peace to the Russian Empire. However, all the achievements of this ruler ended there - the empire suffered new territorial losses. After the end of the war with Napoleonic France, the Russian Empire in 1827 provided military assistance to Greece. The Ottoman fleet was completely defeated and Greece was lost.
Two years later, the Ottoman Empire forever loses Serbia, Moldavia, Wallachia, the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. Under this sultan, the empire suffered the largest territorial losses in its history.
The period of his reign was marked by mass riots of Muslims throughout the empire. But Mahmud also reciprocated - a rare day of his reign was not complete without executions.
Abdulmejid is the next sultan, the son of Mahmud II (r. 1839 - 1861), who ascended the Ottoman throne. He was not particularly decisive, like his father, but he was a more cultured and polite ruler. The new sultan concentrated his forces on carrying out domestic reforms. However, during his reign, the Crimean War (1853-1856) took place. The Ottoman Empire received a symbolic victory as a result of this war - the Russian fortresses on the sea coast were torn down, and the fleet was removed from the Crimea. However, the Ottoman Empire did not receive any territorial acquisitions after the war.
Abdul-Majid's successor, Abdul-Aziz (reigned 1861-1876), was distinguished by hypocrisy and inconstancy. He was also a bloodthirsty tyrant, but he managed to build a new powerful Turkish fleet, which became the reason for a new subsequent war with the Russian Empire, which began in 1877.
In May 1876, Abdul-Aziz was overthrown from the Sultan's throne as a result of a palace coup.
Murad V became the new sultan (reigned in 1876). Murad held out on the Sultan's throne for a record short time - only three months. The practice of overthrowing such weak rulers was common and already worked out for several centuries - the supreme clergy, led by the mufti, carried out a conspiracy and overthrew the weak ruler.
Murad's brother, Abdul-Hamid II (reigned 1876 - 1908) comes to the throne. The new ruler unleashes another war with the Russian Empire, this time the main goal of the Sultan was the return of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus to the empire.
The war lasted a year and pretty much ruffled the nerves of the Russian emperor and his army. First, Abkhazia was captured, then the Ottomans moved deep into the Caucasus towards Ossetia and Chechnya. However, the tactical advantage was on the side of the Russian troops - in the end, the Ottomans are defeated
The Sultan manages to suppress an armed uprising in Bulgaria (1876). At the same time, the war with Serbia and Montenegro began.
This sultan, for the first time in the history of the empire, published a new Constitution and made an attempt to establish a mixed form of government - he tried to introduce a parliament. However, parliament was dissolved a few days later.
The end of the Ottoman Empire was close - in almost all its parts there were uprisings and rebellions, which the Sultan could hardly cope with.
In 1878, the empire finally lost Serbia and Romania.
In 1897, Greece declares war on the Ottoman Porte, but the attempt to free itself from the Turkish yoke fails. The Ottomans occupy most of the country and Greece is forced to ask for peace.
In 1908, an armed uprising took place in Istanbul, as a result of which Abdul-Hamid II was overthrown from the throne. The monarchy in the country lost its former power and began to wear a decorative character.
The triumvirate of Enver, Talaat and Jemal came to power. These people were no longer sultans, but they did not last long in power - there was an uprising in Istanbul and the last, 36th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed VI (reigned 1908 - 1922) was placed on the throne
The Ottoman Empire is forced to engage in three Balkan wars, which ended before the start of the First World War. As a result of these wars, the Port loses Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Macedonia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia.
After these wars, due to the inconsistent actions of the Kaiser's Germany, the Ottoman Empire was actually drawn into the First World War.
On October 30, 1914, the Ottoman Empire enters the war on the side of Kaiser Germany.
After the First World War, Porta loses its last conquests, except for Greece - Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya.
And in 1919, Greece itself achieves independence.
Nothing remained of the once former and powerful Ottoman Empire, only the metropolis within the borders of modern Turkey.
The issue of the complete fall of the Ottoman Porte became a matter of several years, and perhaps even months.
In 1919, after liberation from the Turkish yoke, Greece made an attempt to take revenge on Porte for centuries of suffering - the Greek army invaded the territory of modern Turkey and captured the city of Izmir. However, even without the Greeks, the fate of the empire was sealed. A revolution has begun in the country. The leader of the rebels - General Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - gathered the remnants of the army and expelled the Greeks from Turkish territory.
In September 1922, the Port was completely cleared of foreign troops. The last sultan, Mehmed VI, was deposed from the throne. He was given the opportunity to leave the country forever, which he did.
On September 23, 1923, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed within its present borders. Ataturk becomes the first president of Turkey.
The era of the Ottoman Empire has sunk into oblivion.

Formation of the Ottoman state.

Seljukids and the formation of the state of the Great Seljuks.

The Turks in the era of the Great Migration of Peoples. Early Turkic Khaganates.

Lecture 4. Turkic world on the way to empire.

1. The Turks in the era of the Great Migration of Peoples. Early Turkic Khaganates.

In the second half of the 1st millennium AD. in the Eurasian steppes and mountainous regions of Central Asia, the predominant position was occupied by the tribes of the Turks. The history of the Turkic peoples is known mainly from the stories of their settled neighbors. The Turks had their own historical literature in Turkestan only in the 16th century. Of all the Turkish states, only the history of the Ottoman Empire can be studied from Turkish sources (in the Old Ottoman language).

The initial use of the word "Turk" served as a designation for a tribe headed by the Ashina clan, i.e. was an ethnonym. After the formation of the Turkic Khaganate, the word "Turk" became politicized. It came to mean the state at the same time. A broader meaning was given to it by the neighbors of the kaganate - the Byzantines and Arabs. They extended this name to the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian steppes dependent on the Turks and related to them. At present, the name "Turk" is an exclusively linguistic concept, without regard to ethnography or even origin.

The Ashina clan is the creator of the first Turkic state. It arose in Altai in the VI century. An extensive tribal union of 12 tribes was formed here, which adopted the self-name "Turk". According to ancient legend, this name was the local name of the Altai Mountains.

The first historical person from the Ashin clan, who headed the union, was the leader of the Turks Bumyn. In 551, after the victory over the Rourans (bordering northern China), Bumyn became the head of a multi-tribal state. It included not only the Turks, but also other nomadic tribes subject to them. The name Türkic Khaganate was fixed for nirm (Turk el, el among the Turks - a tribe and a state in the Middle Ages).

Bumyn took the Juan title "kagan" (later form - khan). This title among nomadic peoples denoted the supreme ruler, under whose authority were other rulers of a lower rank. This title was equated with the title of the Chinese emperor. This title was worn by the rulers of many peoples - the Huns, Avars, Khazars, Bulgarians.

The Turkic Khaganate, under the closest successors of Bumyn, expanded its borders from the Pacific Ocean to the Black Sea in a short period. In 576, during the period of the greatest territorial expansion, the Turks reached the borders with Byzantium and Iran.

According to the internal structure, the kaganate was a rigid hierarchy of tribes and clans. The championship belonged to the 12-tribal union of the Turks. The second most important was the Tokuz-Oghuz tribal union led by the Uighurs.

The supreme power belonged to the representatives of the Kagan Ashina clan. The kagan personified in one person the rudders of the leader, the supreme judge, the high priest. The throne was passed on by the seniority of brothers and nephews. Each of the princes of the blood received an inheritance in control. They received the title "Shad" (Middle Persian Shah). This is the so-called specific-ladder system of government.

The Turkic Khagans, having subjugated the ancient agricultural regions, themselves continued to roam in the steppes. They interfered little in the political, economic and cultural life of the occupied territories. Their local rulers paid tribute to the Turks.

During 582-603. there was an internecine war, which led to the disintegration of the kaganate into warring parts: the Eastern Turkic khaganate in Mongolia; Western Turkic in Central Asia and Dzungaria. Their history did not last long. Until the end of the 7th century they were under the rule of the Chinese Tang Empire.

For a short period of time, the second Turkic Khaganate (687 - 745) arose, at the origins of which the Ashina clan again stood, uniting the Eastern Turks. The state of the Western Turks was also restored with the dominant position of the Turgesh tribe. Hence the name of the kaganate - Turgesh.

After the collapse of the Second Turkic Khaganate, the Uighur Khaganate with its capital in the city of Orubalyk on the river became an important political force in Central Asia. Orkhon. Since 647, the Yaglakar clan was at the head of the state. The Uighurs professed Buddhism and Nestorianism. They were considered irreconcilable enemies of Islam. In 840, the Uighurs were defeated by the Yenisei Kyrgyz.

An important milestone in the history of the early Turkic states and peoples of Central and Central Asia was the conquest of the Arabs and the processes of Islamization that took place here. At the beginning of the 8th century Arabs conquered the entire Central Asian region. Starting from 713 - 714 years. the Arabs clashed with the Turks in the battles near Samarkand. The Türgesh Khagan refused to voluntarily submit to the caliphate and supported the struggle of the Samarkand people against the Arab presence. As a result, the Arabs in the 30s. 8th century dealt a decisive blow to the Turkic troops, and the Turgesh Khaganate disintegrated.

With the accession of Central Asia to the Caliphate, fractional internal borders were eliminated, and the different peoples of this region were united by one language (Arabic) and a common religion - Islam. Since that time, Central Asia has become an organic part of the Islamic world.

2. Seljukids and the formation of the state of the Great Seljuks.

At the end of the X century. the tribes of the Turks who converted to Islam began to play an active political role in Central Asia. Since that time, Islamized Turkic dynasties - Karakhanids, Ghaznavids and Seljukids - began to rule in the region.

The Karakhanids came from the top of the Karluk tribe. They were associated with the Ashina clan. After the defeat of the Uyghur Khaganate by the Yenisei Kyrgyz, the supreme authority among the Turkic tribes passed to them. In 840, the Karakhanid state was formed, which initially occupied the territory of Semirechye and Turkestan. In 960, the Karluks converted to Islam en masse. According to sources, 200 thousand tents immediately converted to Islam. The Karakhanid state existed until the beginning of the 13th century. His fall was accelerated by the blows of the Seljuks.

The Ghaznavids are a Turkic Sunni dynasty that ruled in Central Asia from 977 to 1186. The founder of the state is the Turkic gulam Alp-Tegin. After leaving the service of the Samanids in Khorasan, he headed a semi-independent principality in Ghazna (Afghanistan). The state of the Ghaznavids reached its greatest power under Sultan Mahmud Ghazni (998-1030). He significantly expanded the territory of his state, making successful trips to Central Asia and India. His campaigns played a big role in the spread of Sunni Islam in northern India. He also became famous for his wide philanthropy, providing ample opportunities for famous scientists to work at the court. The famous encyclopedist Abk Raykhan Biruni (973-1048) worked at his court. The great Persian poet Firdousi, author of the epic poem "Shah-name". Mahmud's son Masud (1031 - 1041) underestimated the dangers of the Sedjukids. In 1040 Masud's huge army was defeated by the Seljuks near Merv. As a result, they lost Khorasan and Khorezm. By the middle of the XI century. The Ghaznavids lost all Iranian possessions, and in 1186, after a long struggle for survival, after numerous territorial losses, the Ghaznavid state ceased to exist.

In the IX - X centuries. Oghuz nomads lived in the Syr Darya and in the Aral Sea region. The head of the Oguz tribal union with the Turkic title "yabgu" headed the union of 24 tribes. The collision of the Oghuz with the culture of Central Asia contributed to their Islamization. Among the Oguz tribes, the Seljuks stood out. They were named after the semi-legendary leader Seljuk ibn Tugak.

The history of the rise of the Seljuks is connected with the names of two famous leaders, whom tradition considers the grandsons of the Seljuks - Chaghril-bek and Togrul-bek. Togrul-bek utterly defeated the Ghaznavids and became the master of Khorasan. Then he made trips to Iraq, overthrew the Buwayhid dynasty. For this, he received the title of "Sultan and King of the East and West" from the Caliph of Baghdad. The policy of conquest was continued by his son Alp Arslan (1063 - 1072). In 1071 he won a famous victory over the Byzantines at Manzikert. This victory opened the way for the Seljuks to Asia Minor. By the end of the XI century. the Seljuks captured Syria, Palestine, and in the east - the possessions of the Karakhanids.

As a result of the military campaigns of the Seljuks, a huge state was created, stretching from the Amu Darya and the borders of India to the Mediterranean. The reign of the sultans of the XI - XII centuries. It is customary to call the dynasty of the Great Seljukids.

The Seljuk Empire reached its peak during the reign of Sultan Malik Shah I (1072-1092). During his reign, the folding of state structures, begun under Togrul-bek, was completed. Unlike his predecessors, who bore Turkic names, Malik Shah took a name composed of Arab. Malik and Persian. Shah (both words mean king). Isfahan became the capital of the state. His vizier was Nizam al-Mulk (1064 - 1092), the author of the Persian-language treatise "Siyasat-name" ("The Book of Government"). In it, the Abbasid caliphate was declared the model of government. To realize this ideal, a new system of training officials and Sunni theologians was introduced.

During the reign of Malik Shah, the Seljuk state was relatively centralized. The Sultan, as the head of state, was the supreme owner of all the land of the empire. His power was inherited by his son. The second figure in the state is the vizier, who led the central administrative apparatus and departments - sofas. The provincial administration was clearly divided into military and civil.

A permanent army of Mamluk slaves was formed. They were brought from Central Asia, converted to Islam and trained in military affairs. Becoming professional soldiers, they received freedom and sometimes had a successful career.

Under the Seljukids, the system of iqta, which arose even under the Abbasids, became widespread. The Seljuk sultans allowed iqta to be inherited. As a result, large land holdings appeared that were not controlled by the central government.

In the state of the Seljuks, some elements of management, dating back to tribal principles, were preserved. one). The empire was considered as family property, so the management functions could belong to several brothers at the same time. 2). The Institute of Atabeks (literally - father-guardian) or mentors and educators of young princes. Atabeks had a huge influence on the young princes, sometimes even ruled for them.

In 1092, Nizam al-Mulk was killed, and Malik Shah died a month later. His death marked the beginning of the collapse of the Seljuk Empire. The sons of Malik Shah fought for power for a number of years. At the beginning of the XII century. The Seljuk Sultanate finally split into several independent and semi-dependent possessions: Khorasan (East Seljuk), Iraqi (West Seljuk) and Rum sultanates.

The Khorasan and Iraqi sultanates existed until the end of the 12th century. The Rum Sultanate was destroyed by the Mongols. During the XI - XIII centuries. there was a process of Turkization of Asia Minor. From the 11th to the 12th centuries from 200 to 300 thousand Seljuks moved here. The development of the Byzantine world by the Turks took various forms. Firstly, the displacement of the Greeks from their lands, which led to the depopulation of the territories of the former Byzantine provinces. Secondly, the Islamization of the Greeks. The Mongol conquests led to a new wave of Turkization. Turkic tribes poured into Asia Minor, especially Anatolia, from East Turkestan, Central Asia and Iran.

3. Formation of the Ottoman state.

In the second half of the XIII - the first half of the XIV century. on the territory of Western and Central Anatolia (the Byzantine name for Asia Minor, which means “east” in Greek), about 20 Turkic beyliks or emirates arose.

The strongest of the emerging emirates was the Ottoman state in Bithynia (northwest of Asia Minor). This name was given to the state by the name of Osman, the ancestor of the emir who ruled there. Around 1300, the Ottoman beylik freed itself from subjugation to the Seljuks. Its ruler Bey Osman (1288 - 1324) began to pursue an independent policy.

During the reign of Osman's son Orhan (1324-1359), the Ottoman Turks conquered almost all the Muslim emirates in Asia Minor. They set about conquering the Byzantine possessions in Asia Minor. Initially, the capital of the Ottoman state was the city of Brusa. By the middle of the XIV century. The Ottomans went to the Black Sea straits, but could not capture them. They transferred their aggressive activity to the Balkans, which belonged to Byzantium.

The Ottomans faced in the Balkans not with a powerful state, but with a weak Byzantium and several warring states of the Balkans. The Turkish Sultan Murad I (1362 - 1389) captured Thrace, where he moved the capital, choosing the city of Adrianople for it. Byzantium recognized its vassal dependence on the Sultan.

The decisive battle that determined the historical fate of the peoples of the Balkans took place in 1389 on the Kosovo field. Sultan Bayazid I Lightning (1389 - 1402) defeated the Serbs, and then captured the Bulgarian kingdom, Wallachia and Macedonia. Having captured Thessaloniki, he went to the approaches to Constantinople. In 1394, he blocked the Byzantine capital from land, which lasted for a long 7 years.

European countries tried to stop the Turkish conquest. In 1396, led by the Hungarian king Sigismund, the crusading knightly army gave Bayezid's Turkish army a general battle. As a result, near Nikopol on the Danube, the brilliant knights from Hungary, the Czech Republic, Germany, France and Poland suffered a crushing defeat.

Constantinople was temporarily saved not by the West, but by the East. The troops of the Central Asian ruler Timur were advancing on the state of Bayezid. On July 20 (28), 1402, at Angora (modern Ankara), in Asia Minor, the armies of two famous commanders Timur and Bayazid met. The outcome of the battle was decided by the betrayal of the Asia Minor beys and tactical miscalculations by Bayezid. His army suffered a crushing defeat, and the Sultan was captured. Unable to bear the humiliation, Bayazid died.

After a long struggle for the power of the sons of Bayezid, Murad II (1421 - 1451) came to power. He made an attempt to capture Constantinople, which in 1422 rebuffed his troops. Murad lifted the siege, but the Byzantine emperor recognized himself as a tributary of the Sultan.

Twice unsuccessfully Western European monarchs tried to defend the Balkans and Constantinople. In 1444, the combined troops under the command of the King of Poland and Hungary, Vladislav III Jagiellon, were defeated by Murad's army. In 1448, the same fate awaited the Hungarian commander Janos Hunyadi on the Kosovo field.

Constantinople was taken after a long preparation by the young Sultan Mehmed II (1451 - 1481), who received the nickname "Fatih" - "The Conqueror" for numerous conquests. May 29, 1453 Constantinople fell. The last symbol of the Byzantine Empire was Trebizond, whose basileus David the Great Komnenos (1458 - 1461) belonged to the descendants of the ancient imperial family of Komnenos. After the conquest of Trebizond, all the sultans, starting with Mehmed, included in their titles the name Kaiser-i Rum, i.e. "Emperor of Romagna"

After the capture of Constantinople, the Ottoman state turned into a world power, which for a long time played the most important geopolitical role in the East and West of Eurasia.

The Ottomans completely subjugated the peoples of the Balkan Peninsula to their power, in fact ousted European merchants and former leaders of Genoa and Venice from the trade routes in the Mediterranean. Genoa lost its largest colony in the Crimea (1475). Since that time, the Crimean Khanate has become a vassal of the Ottoman Empire.

By the beginning of the XVI century. the Turks captured all of eastern Anatolia and began to control the most important international trade routes. During the reign of Selim I (1512 - 1520), the Ottoman Empire gained access to the Arab East, capturing northern Mesopotamia with large cities like Mosul, Mardin.

The Ottomans contributed to the destruction of the hegemony of the Arab world in the Middle East. In 1516 - 1520. under the leadership of Selim I, they crushed the Mamluk state of Egypt. As a result, Syria and Hijaz with Mecca and Medina were annexed to the Ottoman state. In 1516, Selim I assumed the title of padishah-i-islam ("Sultan of Islam") and began to fulfill the caliph's prerogatives, such as organizing the hajj. In 1517, Egypt became part of the Ottoman state.

After the victory over Mamluk Egypt, the only enemy in the East for the Ottomans was the power of the Safavids. During the 16th century Ottoman rulers sought to isolate the Safavid state by capturing the eastern coast of the Black Sea and part of the territories of the Caucasus (Eastern Armenia, Azerbaijan, Shirvan, Dagestan). In 1592, the Ottomans closed the Black Sea to all foreign ships.

From the beginning of the XVI century. The Ottoman Empire became involved in European politics. Its main rivals were the Portuguese and the Spaniards. On the other hand, an alliance was formed between the Ottoman Empire and the Protestant countries, as well as with France, which fought against the Habsburgs.

The Ottoman threat pursued Europe both from the sea and from land: in the Mediterranean Sea and from the territory of the Balkans. After even crushing victories, when the Ottoman fleet was destroyed by the Holy League at the Battle of Lepanto (1571), the Turks captured Tunisia. As a result of these campaigns, the Grand Vizier Mehmed Sokolu said to the Venetian ambassador: “You cut off our beard at Lepanto, but we cut off your hand in Tunisia; the beard will grow, the arm will never.

Until the middle of the XVI century. the Turks were really dangerous to the neighbors of their Balkan territories: Hungary, the Czech Republic, Austria. They besieged Vienna three times, but could not overcome it. Their undoubted success was the control of Hungary. Subsequently, the Ottoman wars in Western Europe were local in nature and did not change the political map of this region.

4. Internal structure and social structure of the Ottoman Empire.

The main socio-political and economic institutions of the Ottoman Empire took shape in the second half of the 15th century, under Mehmed II (1451-1481) and Bayezid II (1481-1512). The reign of Suleiman I Kanuni ("Legislator"), or Suleiman the Magnificent (1520 - 1566), as he was called in Europe, is considered the "golden age" of the Ottoman Empire. By this time, it had reached the apogee of its military power and the maximum size of the territory.

Usually, during his lifetime, the sultan appointed his successor, who could be the son of any of the sultan's wives. Such direct inheritance from father to son continued in the Ottoman Empire until 1617, when it became possible to transfer supreme power by seniority. This order of succession was a constant threat to the lives of family members. The deadly dynastic struggle continued until the beginning of the 19th century. So, Mehmed III (1595 - 1603), having come to power, executed 19 of his brothers and ordered 7 pregnant wives of Ottoman princes to be drowned in the Bosphorus.

In the XVI century. in the Sultan's family, it was customary, according to the Seljuk custom, to send sons who had reached 12 years of age to distant provinces. Here they organized administration according to the capital model. Mehmed III initiated another practice. He kept his sons in isolation in a special room in the palace. These conditions were not conducive to the preparation of the rulers of a vast empire.

The harem played a prominent role in the Sultan's court. The sultana-mother reigned in it. She discussed state affairs with the Grand Vizier and the Chief Mufti.

The grand vizier was appointed by the sultan. He conducted administrative, financial and military affairs on behalf of the Sultan. The office of the Grand Vizier was called Bab-i Ali ("Great Gate"), in French La Sublime Porte ("Brilliant Gate"). Russian diplomats have "Brilliant Porta".

Sheikh-ul-Islam is the highest Muslim cleric to whom the Sultan entrusted his spiritual authority. He had the right to issue a "fatwa", i.e. a special conclusion on the compliance of the government act with the Koran and Sharia. The Imperial Council, Divan-i Humayun, functioned as an advisory body.

The Ottoman Empire had an administrative division into eyalets (provinces), which were headed by governors - beylerbeys (from 1590 - Vali). Beyelbey had the title of vizier and the title of pasha, so the eyalets were often called pashaliks. The governor was appointed from Istanbul and submitted to the great vizier. In each province there were Janissary corps, the commanders of which (yeah) were also appointed from Stanbul.

Smaller administrative units were called "sanjaks" headed by military leaders - sanjakbeys. Under Murad III, the empire consisted of 21 eyyalets and about 2,500 sanjaks. Sanjaks were divided into counties (kaza), counties - into volosts (nakhiye).

The basis of the socio-political structure of the Ottoman Empire was self-governing communities (taifa), which developed in all spheres of professional activity, in the city and in the countryside. The sheikh was at the head of the community. Cities had neither self-government nor municipal structure. They were part of the government system. The actual head of the city was a qadi, to whom the sheikhs of trade and craft corporations were subordinate. The Qadi regulated and set the production and sales standards for all goods.

All subjects of the Sultan were divided into two categories: the military (askeri) - professional soldiers, Muslim clergy, government officials; and taxable (raya) - peasants, artisans, merchants of all faiths. The first category was exempt from taxation. The second category - they paid taxes, according to the Arab-Muslim tradition.

In all parts of the empire there was no serfdom. Peasants could freely change their place of residence if they did not have arrears. The status of elite groups of society was supported exclusively by tradition and was not enshrined in law.

In the Ottoman Empire XV - XVI centuries. there was no dominant nationality. The Ottoman state and society had a cosmopolitan character. The Turks, as an ethnic community, were a minority and did not stand out in any way from other peoples of the empire. The Turkish language as a means of interethnic communication has not yet developed. Arabic was the language of Scripture, science and legal proceedings. Slavic served as the spoken language of the court and the Janissary army. Greek was spoken by the people of Stanbul and the inhabitants of the former Byzantine cities.

The ruling elite, the army, the administration were multinational. Most of the viziers and other administrators came from Greeks, Slavs or Albanians. The backbone of the Ottoman army consisted of Slavic-speaking Muslims. Thus, the unity of the Ottoman society as an integral system was supported exclusively by Islam.

Millets are religious and political autonomies of the heterodox population. By the 16th century there were three millets: rum (Orthodox); Yahudi (Jews); Ermeni (Armenian-Gregorians, etc.). All millets recognized the supreme power of the Sultan, paid a poll tax. At the same time, they enjoyed complete freedom of worship and independence in solving their communal affairs. Millet-bashi was at the head of the millet. He was approved by the sultan and was a member of the imperial council.

However, in fact, non-Muslim subjects of the Sultan were not entitled to full rights. They paid more taxes, were not accepted for military service and did not hold administrative positions, and their evidence was not taken into account in court.

The timar system developed under conditions of a special form of land tenure, according to which all land and water resources were considered the property of the “Ummah”, i.e., all Muslims. There was very little private property or "mulk". The main type of land ownership was the state.

Civil servants, the military received timars - inalienable land holdings, initially with the right to be inherited. It was not the land itself that complained, but the right to a part of the income from it.

Timars differed in terms of income. Once every 30-40 years, a census of all land holders was carried out in the empire. This census compiled a cadastre (defter) for each sanjak. Defter and kanun-name rigidly fixed tax rates, above which it was forbidden to take payments from peasants.

In the XVI century. the distribution of timars acquired a strictly centralized order. On the basis of the distribution of timars, the sipahi warriors were kept. From the end of the XV century. this army began to be forced out by warriors of a slave state (kapykulu), who were kept at public expense. Warriors - slaves were recruited in the Slavic regions at the age of 9-14 years. They were converted to Islam and specially prepared for military and civil service. Such infantry in the Ottoman army was called the Janissaries (from Turkish Yeni Cheri - “new army”). They lived according to the charter of the Bektashi dervish order. Over time, they became a closed military corporation - the guards of the Sultan.

Literature

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Smirnov V.E. Mamluk institutions as an element of the military-administrative and political structure of Ottoman Egypt//Odysseus. - M., 2004.