THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

INTRODUCTION:
The Ottoman Empire was one of the potent and long-lived dynasties in the world
history. The term Ottoman is a dynastic cognomen derived from OSMAN (Arabic
UTHMAN), the Turk who founded both the dynasty and empire. It was created by
the Turkish tribes in Anatolia, the location of modern turkey, originating in Sogut
the Ottoman dynasty expanded by series of raids from Turkic warriors (known as
ghazis) which all was led by OSMAN. OSMAN and his ghazis took the advantage
of declining SELJUQ dynasty which was weaken by Mongols. The territory was
expanded under the leadership of OSMAN, ORHAN, MURAD and BAYEZID.
The Ottoman Empire reached to its peak power between 1520 and 1566.
This period was marked by great power, stability, prosperity and wealth.
OSMAN’S grandson MURAD laid foundation for systematic ottoman state, Which
was continued by MURAD’S son BAYEZID.

The chief leader was known as Sultan and was given complete religious and
political authority over his people. A total of 36 sultans ruled empire. The ottoman
sultan would live in TOPKAPI palace complex in Istanbul.

The Ottoman Empire have also considered other religions, those who weren’t
Muslims were given limited amount of power to control their own affairs but under
ottoman rule. Later in 14th century a Devshirme system was created, this require
the conquered Christians to give up 20 percent of their male children to the state,
The children then forced to convert to Islam. Some of the converts become
powerful and healthy while some trained for government services or ottoman
military affairs. The military group of these convertants called Janissaries. This
Devshirme system ended in 17th century.

It was the largest Islamic run superpower that ruled Middle East, Eastern Europe
and North Africa for more than 600 years .Following countries were the part of
ottoman empire; Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Egypt, Hungary, Romania, Macedonia,
Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and some of Arabia and a considerable amount
of the North African coastal trip.

THE SICK MAN OF EUROPE:

Tsar Nicholas of Russia coined the sick man of Europe phrase.The ottoman
in the 1914 was known as sick man of Europe; a sign that the most
powerful empire was crumbling. Tsar Nicholas of Russia coined this
phrase.

The Ottoman Empire struggled to retain its enlarged bureaucracy and

decentralized political structure, several attempts at reform were took
which kept the empire buoyant but some address immediate issues and
success has a short life span. The most far reaching is Tanzimat,
contributed to a debt crisis in 1870s.

In the following part of paper we will discuss political reforms of ottoman

empire in detail.

WHAT IS A POLITICAL REFROM?

Political reform means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong,

corrupt or unsatisfactory or it is a movement that bring a social or political
system closer to the community’s demand or ideal.

Reforms to me means more than just changing the governing rules. It is

actually the call for deep rethinking of the meaning of citizenship and how
to use power of citizenship.

POLITICAL REFORMS OF THE OTTOMAN

EMPIRE:
Ottoman empire was once considered the terror of Europe but closer to 18 th
century, no major European power is fearful or even concerned with the
power of ottoman empire. In the 19 th century the weakness of the empire
become an essential concern for the rulers and they embarked aggressively
on a series of reforms which they hope would restore empire’s power.

The focus of this paper is to inspect one of the most important series of
reform undertaken anywhere in the Muslim world, the Tanzimat.

THE TANZIMAT (Auspicious

Reorganization):

The Tanzimat was the series of governmental reform lasting from 1839 to
1876 or the constitutional Era that sought to centralize and rationalize
ottoman rule and capture more tax revenues for the military defense of the
empire, Tanzimat meaning (reordering, reorganizing). It began with the
purpose not to transform radically but to modernize and consolidate the
political and social foundations of ottoman.

The Tanzimat series were implemented under the rule of two monarchs
named ABDULMECID I AND ABDULAZIZ and the three high ranking
bureaucrats MUSTAFA RESID PASA, ALI PASA and FUAD PASA. The
best known of those reforms are the HATT-I SERIF OF GULHANE (THE
GULAHNE DECREE) and THE HATT-I HUMAYUN (THE IMPERIAL
RESCRIPT).

AIM OF TANZIMAT:

The aim of this reform was to preserve the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman
consider it necessary to make some concession in European powers and
also in their own non Muslim subjects while some tanzimat diplomats
consider equality to be an ultimate goal, it was the desire to preserve the
state that brought about the mobilization of resources and for
modernization. The central reforms, therefore were in the army, notably
major reorganizations in administration, both at the centre and in provinces
and in society as well via change in law and education.

REFORMS IN LAW OR THE IMPERIAL

RESCRIPT (HATT-I HUMAYUN):

After the Crimean War, The Imperial Rescript was demonstrated. This was
another step to further reform the existing laws of the Ottoman Empire.
This decree was also supported by European states, who felt that the
previous demonstration had been not able to provide equal rights to the non
Muslim disciplines of the empire. Unlike its forerunner, this decree did not
make any reference to Islamic principle and preferred a European inspired
penal code:

The Ottoman penal code was based on Napoleonic penal code, putting
Islamic punishment asides. It established a French type system of courts,
with tribunals of first instance, courts of appeals and a high court of
appeals. These were the first secular court system introduced in this
country while it remains operational till 1932.

Putting aside the HADD (Islamic punishments) was not entirely

unparalleled for Ottomans. In fact, the HADD punishment for stealing had
been banned by 2 nd Caliph (leader) of Islam UMAR IBN AL KAHTTAB,
companion of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). The ottoman sultans
considered their decision to set aside the HADD punishments to be in best
interest of their subjects and a way to meet the challenges they were
facing. For instance, during the ottoman administration of the Arabian
peninsula, the HADD punishments were not applicable. It was only after
Arabia become independent, and was practiced by Saudi royal family. The
duty of providing legal decree across the Ottoman Empire fell to the
SHAYKH UL ISLAM; system which had existed over 500 years. The
putting aside of HADD punishments for the benefit and in the interest of
people (maslaha) was accepted by the SHAYKH UL ISLAM as being in
accordance with Islamic theological reasoning.
The imperial rescript also uplifted the role of non Muslims from Dhimmi
status by terminating the jizya ( head tax pay by the non muslim subjects
of the empire). The reason behind the abolishment of tax from non
Muslims was all subjects of Ottoman empire are equal and therefore
obligated to serve in the military. The jizya was abolished by bedek-I
askeri.

In Tanzimat period, Ottomans have also adopted trade laws, the property
law, the French penal code and the maritime trade law. Homosexuality
were also decriminalized. There were still shariah courts in empire.

In the 19 th century secular Nizamye courts were established across the

empire. These courts were made by the sultans of Ottoman empire to apply
new secular laws. Several attempts were made to codify the shariah in 19 th
century which results in mejelle. Mejelle covered only a small part of
shariah law; that is mainly procedural and economic matters. It did not
cover family law, where traditional shariah was dominant nor criminal law,
which was already codified on a European inspired basis.

Another main point to mention here is that BAHAULLAH, the founder of

BAHAI FAITH claimed that he was new messenger of God while the
teachings of Prophet (PBUH) and the holy book (QURAN) is no longer
applicable. He was not executed on charges of apostasy but imprisoned by
SULTAN ABDUL HAMID II. This incident indicates that the death
sentence for apostasy was not only abolished in theory but practice as well
The Empire was adapting new realities and the tanzimat reforms were a
direct expression of this modification.

REFORMS IN MILITARY OR THE

GULHANE DECREE (HATT-I SHARIF):

The gulhane decree was one of the most important documents in Ottoman
history, mainly because it is initiated in a time when the state attempt to
implement a whole series of rationalizing reforms. SULTAN MAHMUD’S
first objective in rationalizing the military was to eliminate the ineffective
JANISSARIES and replace them with a modern army trained along Europe
lines. He spent the next decade building a new armed force and placing his
aspirants of power amongst the JANISSARIES. MAHMUD was confident
that senior officers were condoling to reform, and at the end he required
the crops to accept the European code of drill, European uniforms and
training in the use of riffles. As expected the JANISSARIES deny to
accord and revolted. The sultans new army gunned down the
JANISSARIES. The JANISSARIES were completely destroyed and on 18 th
June 1826 all were abolished.

After this event, the Ottoman forces and state officials all wore European
style uniforms and progress was made in rationalizing military, navy and
state laws. SULTAN MAHMUD died before, so he did not see all his
reforms implemented but his son SULTAN ABDUL MAJID continued it at
greater pace. After his succession, the gulhane decree was proclaimed. The
gulhan decree promised to;

Defend the lives and worldly goods of its subjects

Insert a new code of Justice declareing equal status of Muslims, Christians and
Jews before the law

Institute a regular system of imposing taxes

Develop a fair method of recruiting subjects for service in rationalized army and
navy.

The gulhane decree also states that Islamic principles provide apath for thr
introduction of new laws in coming years. For example; a new penal code was
introduced in 1843 while in 1844 the death penalty for apostasy from Islam was
terminated. In general, the Ottomans have moved out to secular laws from
religious laws.
REFORM IN EDUCATION:

Education in the Ottoman Empire before the reforms had not been states
responsibility but provided by various Millets (Turkish; religious
community or people), education for Muslims was controlled by the Ulama
and they were directed towards religion.

The first encroachment into the system was made by introducing the
creation of the military engineering, naval engineering, medical and
military sciences colleges. So that they can give specialized western type
training and produce specialist for army. Similar institutions for
administrators and diplomats were made including translational bureau and
the civil service school; this was reorganized later and become the
department for political science in university of Ankara and the major
training school for higher civil servants.

The first comprehensive proposal for state education was put forward in
1846. It provided for a complete system of primary and secondary schools
leading to the university level under ministry of education. Later in 1869
another proposal was put forward stating to provide free and compulsory
primary education. Both proposal implemented slowly because of lack of
financial resources, but they had given a framework to officials so the
development towards a systematic and secular educational program could
take place.

TANZIMAT LEGACY:

The reforms of Tanzimat accelerated the secularization process, as the

Sultan expected,

the most critical feature of the inventions initiated by Mahmud II was the
establishment of an Ottoman state on the basis of secular sovereignty as
compared to the medieval myth of an Islamic empire. This transformation
marked the beginning of modernization and secularization. The Tanzimat
reforms have been successful in bringing about equality despite their
mixed results. For all people, including non-Muslims, who were
historically accepted only as dhimmis. They also contributed to the
formation of a new identity known as Ottomanism, replacing the millet.
Technically, Ottomanism meant that all of the empire's people were equal
in the eyes of the legislation, irrespective of religion, however old biases
persisted in fact (The atrocities of the ottoman Empire against the
Armenians are well known).

While the Tanzimat reforms never again achieved the results, the later
Sultans had hoped to produce.But they strengthened the different facets of
the empire, such as the education system of the empire, Non-Muslims'
position. It could be said that, if the empire had been around today, it
would have been a political structure somewhat similar to modern-day
Turkey. After all, it was only due to the reforms, the Turkish Republic was
able to rise from the debris of the Ottoman empire, opposing the
colonization by European powers.

OPPONENTS OF TANZIMAT:

Mostly traditionalists, primarily. All sorts of social changes were primarily

criticized by Conservative traditionalists. They liked stuff like the
modernization of industry and the military, but when it came to offering
non-Muslims full citizenship, many got upset. As they believed it would
diminish their control, the Ulma, religious scholars, as well as Islamists
opposed the reforms. They felt, that the country was on a road of
Europeanization and betraying the tradition of being Turkish. Most
European powers, such as Russia and Britain, who didn't want the Ottoman
empire to reclaim its power, were external threats. By undermining the role
of authority in Bosnia and giving autonomy to Lebanon, they attempted to
bring an internal reformation in empire. After Selim III, Mustafa IV, and
Mahmud II, the Ottomans all tried very hard to get rid of the empire's
internal problems, including abolishing the Janissaries. The Tanzimat,
however, was interrupted by wars and internal conflicts that made it
impossible to enact the most successful reforms possible.
CONCLUSION:

This paper is intended to be a focal point for discussions on Tanzimat and

the Manner in which some groups exploit Ottoman history to support an
exclusionist and Restrictive ideological perspective. History reveals that
communities interpret the past by such a narrow lens risks that not only
diminishes their survival chances, but also corroding cultures from inside.
Islam and Muslim communities deserve better and the influence of these historical
misreadings and hence misunderstandings can be countered by considering a range
of differing narratives. Without these varied perspectives, history can be
manipulated into a dangerous tool for ulterior political and radical Islamist
motives.