NAME;ZAMZAM HASSAN WAKO

STUDENT NO ;220502947

HISTORY OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

The ottoman empire was founded at the end of the 13th century ,was one of the largest and mightiest
dynasties ever founded ,it roughly consisted of the Balkans modern day
Serbia,Bosnia,Macedonia,Albania,Greece,Bulgaria and large parts of Romania,Anatolia modern day
Turkey .It also consists of of most of the arab world ,Syria, Lebanon,Jordan,Israel ,Iraq,Kuwait and parts
of Saudi Arabia .It also consisted of parts of North Africa that is Egypt,Libya, Tunisia and Algeria .The
empire had a population of 25 milliom people which is a very low number for such a big empire that
covered a very big area .Most of the population lived in the country side while around 15 percent lived
in the towns of almost 10000inahibitants.The Blakans had majority of the population in the empire The
population of the empire started decreasing during the seventeenth and the eighteenth century due to
diseases ,war and the internal conflicts ,famines,the famines made the population vulnerable to
epidemics causing a lot of death.The population of the region was mainly muslim as ottoman empire was
known to be an Islamic state,but also there were other religions like the jewish and Christians .Muslims
were mainly found on the Asiatic side of the empire that’s the turks ,arabs and the kurds .The Asiatic
side had majority of the muslims and minority of the jews and the Christians.In the Balkans that’s
Greeks,Bulgarians ,Serbs had mostly the Christians and jewish people with few muslims.

The ottoman empire was an Islamic state ruled on the basis of religious law ,despite the accepted truth
that the ottoman empire knew no distinction between religion and state modern theory shows that the
otomans did separate religion and politics since the Islamic law ruled theoretically like in the 18th
century matters of family law a,public and criminal laws was based on secular decrees of sultans called
0rf of kanun.In the empire the non muslims (Christians and jews )were allowed to live by paying a
special tax to the government .Due to this they could live freely without forced conversion in the Islamic
state and carry out their affarirs ,they also had their own representatives in their dealings with the
state ,however they would be treated as second class subjects in the empire.

The large population of the muslims in the empire belonged to the sunni Islamic sect(orthodox
muslims)which was the version islam protected by the empire and accepted .The empire combated the
heterodoxmuslims (Shiites)more than the Christians and jews since the Islamic law recognized the
people of the book (Christians and jews )but islam was one and indivisible .The important shii
mimorities lived in Balkans and Mesopotamia tolerated by the authorities .Christian foreigners who
lived in the empire enjoyed aman(mercy) under Islamic law . The empire was rule by a sultan .It was
divided into provinces and vassal states .The empire was organized around a strict distinction which wa
the ruling elites and mass population .The ruling elites did not pay taxes ,they carried fire arms ,they
were the representatives of the sultans power .The sultan had the absolute power in the empire and
everyone else was his subject even the powerful delegates.Main task of the sultan was to defend Islamic
commity against the outside world and maintain justice in the islamic society.The empire stood for peace
and harmony which meant that each group and individual should remain in their place (boundaries)
without trespassing the other groups rights .The sultans also ruled within the bounds of law and if they
did not they were guilty of tyranny.

The empire was at the peak under the reign of sultan suleiman the magnificent and its downfall began
gradually in the 16 th century and peaked in the 18th century.As the French revolution took place its
downfall began .By 18th century European states had surpassed it economically ,technically and military
wise leading to the defeat and loss of power that was inevitable. In the earlier 17th century the main
enemy of the ottomans had been Habsburg Austria but in the 2nd half Russia become a threat under
Catherine as they tried to control and incorporate the northern shoes of the black sea and clashed with
the otomans ,the war fought over this in 1768-74 which ended with ottoman defaeat and a peace
treaty.Subsequently ,the ottoman empire lost Greece in the Greek war of independence ,and all its
Balkans territories in the Balkan wars by the 19th century it had lost a lot of its territories in Europe.

After the defeats the ottoman empire modernized and even established a constituition ,Its dissolution
began with the second constitutional era,(1908-1922),a moment of hope and promise established by the
Young Turks Revolution,the empire lost its North African territories in the italo -Turkish war, the
empire continued to face continuous unrest in years leading to world war 1.In world war 1 it entered the
fight on the central powers side and was ultimately defeated.its participation began with the combined
German-ottoman surprise attack,the ottomans successfully defended the Dardanelles strait and initially
achieved victory against British forces but the Arab Revolt turned the tables.

The Arab revolt revolt had the British support and turned the tide against the ottoman in the middle and
eastern front making the loose the war.The revolt had the goal of creating a single unifies Arab state
stretching from Syria toYemen.The ottoman military was eventually defeated and Damascus was
taken.Defeat of the Ottoman on all sides ,European,North Africa and middle East made it sign the
Armistice of Mudros,1918.constantinople was occupied by combined British,French,Italian and Greek
forces.The partition of ottoman empire was finalized by Treaty of sevres.There arose national
movement that won the Turkish war of independence 1923,under the leadership of Mustafa
Kemal .The sultanate was abolished and the the last sultan Mehmed VI left the country .The Republic of
Turkey was formed with a new city Ankara.End of the Ottoman Empire.|

The ottoman empire was different compared to the modern nation states in aspects such as its size ,the
Ottoman empire despite covering a very big geographical area its admistrartion was very small,the
central govt in Istanbul had like 1000-1500 clerks ,also parts of the national products that reached the
central government in taxes did not exceed 3percent ,this does not mean that the population did not have
a tax burden or that it was light but it was actually heavy but the revenue did not reach the central
treasury because intermediaries skimmed it off to an extraordinary extent .Agricultural production was
the main tax base of the state,trade in the state was overwhelmingly local from village to market or
between adjacent districts .long distance trade on land was limited to expensive and light goods ,lack of
security made it imperative to carry these goods in caravans .Tax was also gotten through export of
goods as the European countries industralised cotton was needed ,the main export products were cotton
to France and pigs across the boarder of Habsburg.

The Ottoman empire is different from modern states ,since unlike modern states that deals with its
citizen directly the ottoman government had no deals with its subjects since they had
representatives ;priests,sheikhs of tribes ,as the government lacked enough resources to deal with each
individual.Another difference is that unlike the modern states the ottoman empire had no concept of
equality before the law for its subjects,the inhabitants of the cities and rural areas were treated
differently,the people of the book(jews and Christians) were treated differently from the muslims ,the
men and women were treated differently ,nomads and the settlers were treated differently.

The ottoman empire was a very large empire with its positive and negative effects .The sultan having the
absolute power was one of the ,many negative aspects this lead to a lot of hostility towards him and the
endless internal conflicts since the people did not have a say in the decisions and rules that were made
and affecting them, since it was a dynasty leadership continued to weakened as some of the rulers were
unfit weakening leadership and the empire .The government task was mainly to protect the state from
attacks and defend it so other duties that are termed as government such as health care ,education ,was
not being given by the government leading to the high rate of illiteracy and epidemics .The governmet
also only gave food and developed places they needed to fullfill their mission of defence such as Istanbul
leading to famine .
Despite the negative and the positive aspects of the Ottoman empire,its existence contributed to the
history of a lot of states and its democracy,culture and development in it however small or big since the
History always shapes the present.