2023 has arrived as scheduled, wishes all partners’ wishes come true and good fortune in the new year! The Lifelong Learning Society will also continue to work with you, learning is always on the road. Looking back on the previous article, we shared the Assassin faction, a famous assassin kingdom in the history of the Middle East . In this article, we continue to look back at the history of the Middle East along the timeline.
With the invasion of the Mongols, the Abbasid dynasty that had existed for nearly four hundred years perished, and the history of the Middle East entered the third stage from the second stage of the Middle East. At this stage, with the evolution of the division of the Islamic world, Islamic civilization became more mature and diversified, forming three relatively powerful Islamic empires, namely the Ottoman Empire , the Safavid Empire and the Mughal Empire of the Indian subcontinent in South Asia.
Since this series is the history of the Middle East, we will focus on the history of the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid Empire. The rise and fall of the Mughal Empire will be briefly mentioned and will not be shared in detail. The Ottoman Empire began with the establishment of the Ottoman Principality in 1299, while the Safavid Empire was established in 1501 after overthrowing the Mongol Ilkhanate. In chronological order, we will first focus on sharing The Rise of the Ottoman Empire .
1. Overview of the Ottoman Empire
Looking back on the history of the Ottoman Empire, there is an objective fact that must be faced squarely, which is the dilemma of its decline in modern times. After the First World War, the international forces led by the Western powers divided it up. As a result, the history of the Ottoman Empire was seriously affected by the "Western Eurocentrism" and there was a huge tear. Looking back at this period of history, we must get rid of the above-mentioned influences and get as close to the historical truth as possible.
The Ottoman Empire was once a multi-ethnic country. Many countries from the modern Balkan Peninsula to the Arab world became independent from the Ottoman Empire. But in modern times, many countries, including the Republic of Turkey, which inherited the main legacy of the Ottoman Empire, deny that they are descendants of the Ottoman Empire.
In order to strengthen the national consciousness, the emerging nation-states born in the late 19th and early 20th centuries all refused to regard Ottoman history as part of their own history. Instead, they simplified the Ottoman Empire into the invasion of the Turks and forcibly separated "us" and "them".
With the stability of the Turkish Republic's regime, Turkey gradually discovered that fully inheriting the past glory of the Ottoman Empire would help promote their own country and form the national consciousness of the Turks. As a result, the history of the Ottoman Empire was gradually "Turkized". This is why the Ottoman Empire is also commonly called and the Ottoman Turkish Empire .
But what we must clarify is that the Ottoman Empire was not the country of the Turks. In fact, "Turks" often referred to farmers and herdsmen in the Ottoman Empire. Turkish nomadic tribes often launched rebellions against the Ottoman Empire. Even the most powerful Yeniceri Legion in the empire had almost no Turks.
We draw lessons from the conclusions in the book "Ottoman Empire: Five Hundred Years of Peace" by Kodansha , and regard the Ottoman Empire as a centralized state that "inherited the existing cultural traditions of the Balkans, Anatolia and Arabia and absorbed various systems" and effectively ruled the above regions.
The Ottoman Empire lasted for about five hundred years. In the 14th century, it developed from the Ottoman regime to the "Ottoman princely state" and formed an empire in the mid-15th century. From the mid-15th century to the early 19th century, the Ottomans ruled the vast territory of Europe, Asia and Africa in the form of an empire.
Starting from the first ruler of the regime Osman I , there were a total of 37 rulers.In addition to Osman I, who is regarded as the founding monarch, the monarchs who shine in the annals of history include the second monarch Urhan and the third monarch Murad I who laid the foundation of the Ottoman Principality; there was Bayezid I who fought in all directions to expand his territory in the early period of his rule, and was captured by Timur of Mongolia and died in humiliation in prison; there was Mohan who stabilized the situation in the chaos and division and reunified the Anatolia region. Mohammed I, who revived the Ottoman Sultanate and destroyed the Eastern Roman Empire in one fell swoop, and built the cornerstone of the Ottoman Empire; Mohammed II, who conquered Hungary and ruled southeastern Europe, and ruled Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula, Suleiman I (also known as Suleiman the Great), and so on. We will share these stories in detail later.
2. The origin of the Ottoman Empire
Based on the consensus of getting rid of the influence of "Western Eurocentrism" and "Turkification", if we look back at the origin of the Ottoman Empire, we can put aside the whitewashing and falsification of history by modern Middle Eastern countries, follow the footsteps of history, and get closer to the truth of history.
Looking back at history, it is undisputed that the birthplace of the ancestors of the Ottoman Empire was in Anatolia. Anatolia is surrounded by the sea on three sides and consists of plateaus and hills. It extends to Syria and Mesopotamia plain to the south, and to Central Asia through the Iranian plateau to the east.
The center of the land is a plateau, and the northern and southern edges are mountain ranges, which are low in the west and high in the east. The rainfall is concentrated in winter, with an average annual average of about 400 millimeters. Autumn wheat is mainly grown in agriculture.
Since the 2nd century BC, most of Anatolia has been part of the Roman Empire . After that, East and West Rome split and became part of the Eastern Roman Empire. With the expansion of Arab Islamic civilization in the 7th century, southern Anatolia was occupied by major Islamic dynasties. By the beginning of the 11th century, the Islamic Seljuk dynasty took over the place. At this time, the majority of the local population were still Greek and Armenian Christians, followed by Kurds and Arabs .
Under the rule of the Seljuk Dynasty, the ancestors of modern Turks began to migrate from east to west. In the early 11th century, they continued to launch plundering wars against the Anatolian grasslands and mountains ruled by the Eastern Roman Empire, and existed in the form of bandits.
In 1071 AD, when the Seljuk Dynasty defeated the Eastern Roman Empire in the Battle of Manzikert in eastern Anatolia, the migration of various Turkic nomadic tribes accelerated. Under the rule of the Seljuk dynasty, they went to Anatolia to seek life and formed a new local political force. In 1077 AD, a branch of the Seljuk dynasty became independent from its own family and established the Roman Sultanate. Using tribes as a link, it once again accelerated the westward migration of Turkic nomadic tribes.
After Latin Christianity kicked off the Crusades , and the Sultanate of Roma was forced to retreat eastward. In the 12th century, the Anatolian region formed a tripartite situation of the Roman Sultanate, the Turkic Danishmand Dynasty and the Eastern Roman Empire.
At the beginning of the 13th century, the Fourth Crusade led by Venice in 1204 occupied Constantinople, the capital of Eastern Rome. The Eastern Roman royal family fled to Nicaea and Trabizon to establish governments in exile.
During this period, the Eastern Roman royal family and the Turkic nomadic tribes were relatively peaceful. The armies of the Roma Sultanate and the Eastern Roman Empire were both mixed armies of Christians and Muslims, which accelerated the integration of cultures on both sides. The best evidence is that there were many Eastern Romans serving Turkic monarchs in the court of the Roma Sultanate. There were also a large number of Turkish retainers in the Eastern Roman court. Even the Eastern Roman Emperor Michael VIII, who led the Eastern Romans to recapture Constantinople from the Western European Latins, had experience working in the Roma Sultanate.
However, the intervention of The Republic of Venice still broke the balance of the three kingdoms in Anatolia. Soon the Roman Sultanate destroyed the Danishmand dynasty, occupied most of Anatolia, and reached its heyday in the first half of the 13th century.
However, in the mid-13th century, the Roma Sultanate was quickly defeated by the Mongols, and its ruled area quickly fell into division, with various small Turkic tribes standing in large numbers.After the Eastern Roman Empire returned Constantinople as its capital in 1261, almost all of Anatolia was controlled by numerous Turkic tribes.
The chaotic situation caused a social reorganization in Anatolia. Turkic nomads plundered Greek farmers (mostly Christians) with increasing frequency. Coupled with the influence of the Latin Crusades, a large number of Turkic nomads evolved into a knightly military group without a master. The combination of multiple groups formed multiple political forces.
12. In the 13th century, the continuous plundering of Greek farmers in Anatolia eventually evolved into the so-called "Holy War". The knights' military and political group began to be called "Gazi" (meaning Jihad warriors). But this cannot change the nature of plunder, and the result is that many towns in Anatolia have been reduced to ruins.
In order to seek asylum, many Greek residents of Anatolia began to convert to Islam. At the same time, Turkic tribes who believed in shamanism also converted to Islam. Therefore, relying on the religious medium of Islam, Greek farmers who gave up their Christian faith and converted Turkic nomadic tribes began to merge with each other and became the new settled residents of Anatolia.
These new residents, who merged local Greek farmers and Central Asian Turkic nomads, are the real ancestors of modern Turks. The idea that Turks are all from Central Asia is largely a product of Turkish nationalism.
After the Sultanate of Roma was defeated by the Mongols and lost its authority, there were four forces in Anatolia that attacked each other. The first group was a number of independent small Turkic countries in the central and eastern parts. Belonging to the Roma Sultanate; the second group is the small Turkic countries in the east and central part that surrendered to the Mongol Ilkhanate; the third and fourth groups are the small Turkic countries attached to the Mamluk (also known as Mamluk) dynasty in the south and the Eastern Roman Empire in the west respectively. In this chaotic situation, a refugee military group led by Osman I gradually emerged.
Since most of the records of Osman I in the historical materials of the Ottoman Empire are legends and fabrications, they are not very useful for reference. On the contrary, the history books of the Eastern Roman Empire gave some clues to explore the historical truth.
According to the records of Pachmeres, an Eastern Roman historian, around 1250 AD, with the westward expansion of the Mongols, the tribe of Osman I's grandfather migrated westward from Central Asia under the leadership of leader Suleiman and came to Mesopotamia.
After Suleiman's death, some of the tribesmen chose to return to their homeland, while Osman's father led another group of tribesmen to stay in Anatolia, relying on the Seljuk Sultan of Conya to fight against the Eastern Roman Empire in the west.
At this time, Emperor Michael VIII of the Eastern Roman Empire was suffering from fighting with the Latin countries in the west and was unable to maintain the tax-free privileges in the eastern part of the empire. He began to collect taxes from eastern farmers. This made many farmers choose to defect to the Turkic forces, cutting off the food source of the local Eastern Roman military group. The morale of the army was low, and some directly chose to surrender to the Turkic military group.
One of the Georgian Eastern Roman legions chose to surrender to Osman's group, which enabled the Turkic military group led by Osman's father to make repeated military exploits against the Eastern Roman Empire. So the Seljuk Sultan gave part of the land in northwest Anatolia to Osman's military group, which happened to border Eastern Rome.
In 1281, after Osman I took over the military group, he took advantage of the internal turmoil in the Eastern Roman Empire and the invasion of external Latins to capture many Eastern Roman cities, plunder a large amount of wealth, and strengthen the legions.
In 1299 AD, the Seljuk Kingdom collapsed under the fierce attack of the Mongol Ilkhanate. The kingdom Sultan also died in the same year. This gave Osman I the opportunity to become independent and declare the establishment of the Ottoman regime. However, the Ottoman regime at this time was at best an inconspicuous one among the many small countries in Anatolia.
3. The establishment of the Ottoman princes
1 In 302, the Sakarya River overflowed and the river changed its course, destroying the military defense line that the Eastern Roman Emperor Michael VIII had worked hard to build since 1280.Osman I decisively seized the historical opportunity and led his troops to invade the interior of the Eastern Roman Empire. They continued to expand along the Sakarya River and plundered the towns and villages in the Eastern Roman Plains, and their sphere of influence continued to expand.
During the eastward and westward expeditions, the Ottoman army gained great prominence, and the legion was enough to surround the well-defended metropolis. During a siege of Bursa, Osman I died and his son Orhan succeeded to the throne, which started the expansion and growth of the Ottoman regime.
In 1326 AD, Orhan successfully captured Bursa. In 1329 AD, Orhan led his army to defeat the regular army of the Eastern Roman Empire in the Battle of Belcanon. In 1331, he took advantage of his victory to conquer Nicaea, and in 1337, he conquered Nicomedia. The Ottoman regime developed into the Ottoman princely state.
At this time, Anatolia was still in a state of fragmentation. The Ottoman princes are just one of the many separatist forces. Next to them are the Jeremyan princes and the Turkic Kares princes, who are eyeing covetously and surrounding the Ottoman princes.
In 1345 AD, the Ottoman princes annexed the Kares princes, and the latter's armed forces, which were a mixture of Turkic and Mongolian troops, were all taken over by the Ottoman princes. So far, the Ottoman army has included various legions of the Turkic, Mongolian, and Eastern Roman armies. There are both Muslims and Christians in the army, including Sunni Muslims and Sufi Muslims.
The largest alliance is the cooperation between the Ottoman family and the Christian military family. They were the Ebrenos family, the Michal family and the Tullahan family. Although they later converted to Islam, they were all Christians at the time, and their cavalry regiments were all Christians.
In the early 14th century, the Ottoman Group emerged and more and more small legions submitted to the Ottoman princes. By the 1420s, the Ottoman princes began to expand into Europe with the Balkans as the center, and the cornerstone of the Ottoman Empire was laid.
Well, that’s it for this article. In the next article, we will continue to review the rise of the Ottoman Empire and look for the dust-laden past events of the Ottoman Empire. This is the 634th article shared with you. I hope it will be helpful to your understanding of the Middle East. Welcome to read and see you in the next article.
