Ottoman Growth (HIST 1301 History)

The OTTOMANS, the MAMLUKS, and the MING HIST 1301 | History Ottoman Growth In the thirteenth century, the Ottoman Turks started to become significant players in Asian and European politics thanks to their empire that spanned both the western and eastern hemispheres. That being said, they were not the first Turkic-speaking people to do so. A group of Turkic speakers came from central Asia in the 10 and eleventh century, first crossing the Iranian plateau and then moving westward into what is now modern Turkey. In the eleventh century, this group—dubbed the Seljuks after their ruler—converted to Islam. Expert horsemen and archers, they first served in the Islamic Karakhanid and Ghaznavid armies in central Asia before establishing their own kingdom in eastern Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, and Persia. After taking over the Sunni caliph's residence in Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Empire, in 1055, the Seljuks formed the Seljuk Empire and began to see themselves as protectors of Islam. The Seljuks quickly took control of Asia Minor after defeating the Byzantine Empire's army at the Battle of Manzikert in eastern Anatolia in 1071. The Seljuks took over the region from the Eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, and founded a kingdom in Anatolia in 1077 that they named the Sultanate of Rum, or "Rome." Other Turkish tribes in Anatolia were gradually assimilated by the sultanate and subjugated, resulting in a confederation of tribes rather than a single empire. Military commanders oversaw the provinces, and the sultanate's king was essentially a military figurehead. distinct factions of warriors, who frequently engaged in combat with one another and occasionally offered their military services to Byzantine authorities, ruled distinct districts within the provinces. Mosques and madrasas, or educational institutions where learned people studied science, religion, and Islamic law, were constructed by the Seljuk emperors, particularly at Iconium (present-day Konya), the capital of the Sultanate of Rum. Additionally, they built caravansaries, which were inns where traders could securely relax and do business while on the Silk Roads. Merchants and artisans were drawn to the Turkish towns by trade, and religious academics settled there as well. The Orthodox Christian clergy and monks left Anatolia when the Byzantine Empire lost authority over region, weakening the peasants' links to Christianity and facilitating a large number of conversions to Islam. With time, Anatolia became a more Islamic aspect and character, and the Byzantine emperors' hold over the area loosened. With its capital located in Baghdad in Mesopotamia, the Seljuk Empire had several internal and external challenges. Even though the western crusaders would ultimately be defeated, their entrance in the region at the very end of the eleventh century and the creation of the Crusader States generated significant political and social transformations in the area. The Khwarezm-Shah, a central Asian dynasty whose founder had been taken as a slave by the Seljuks, overthrew the Seljuks. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, a breakaway state from the main group, was left as the last hub of Seljuk authority in Anatolia when the Seljuk dynasty lost control of the area. Still, there was more political and military upheaval. The Sultanate of Rum broke apart into several tiny, autonomous republics known as beyliks after the Mongols invaded eastern Anatolia and defeated the Seljuks at the Battle of Köse Dağ in 1243. One of these beyliks started to gain notoriety in the fourteenth century as the Seljuk fortunes began to wane following the Mongol invasions. Osman was the leader of this beylik, and those who followed him became referred to as the "Osmanli" or "Ottomans." The pastoralists known as the Ottomans spoke Turkic and lived in northwest Anatolia. Similar to the Seljuks, they saw themselves as ghazis, fighters who defended and extended Islam's influence and frontiers; this understanding became a crucial component of Ottoman Turkish identity. Initially, the Ottomans occupied the power vacuum that was created in northwest Anatolia following the European crusaders' invasion of Constantinople in 1204, during which they pillaged, burned, and destroyed portions of the city. Killings and severe beatings of civilians occurred. The looting and destruction of priceless religious treasures severed links to the past of the Byzantine Empire. Following this "sack" of Constantinople, the empire was split by Venice and its allies, and the next years saw political unrest. The Byzantines could not compete with the Ottomans, despite their best efforts to reconstruct their state and capital. Even though the empire continued for an additional 200 years, it only ruled a small portion of Anatolia. The Byzantine cities of Anatolia were besieged and then overrun by the Ottomans, who turned one of them—Bursa—into the seat of their expanding, imperially-minded kingdom. The city became a significant religious hub when mosques and madrasas were constructed there. After Osman's death, his son Orhan I extended Ottoman territory throughout Europe and assumed the title of sultan. His forces founded a base in 1354 on the Gallipoli peninsula in Europe, which is located on the northern bank of the Dardanelles, a waterway between Europe and Asia Minor. The Ottomans had command of maritime trade between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean thanks to their conquest of Gallipoli. It also allowed them the power, should they want to do so, to obstruct ships that were headed towards Constantinople, which was located on the European side of the Bosporus Straits. The European component of the Byzantine Empire, which included what is now northern Greece, southern Bulgaria, and Thrace, the western region of modern Turkey, was gradually seized by the Ottomans. In 1362, the European side of the Dardanelles saw the establishment of a new capital at Edirne by Murad I, the son of Orhan. Anatolian Turks were invited to settle in Europe during Ottoman rule and inherit the estates of emigrating European landlords. The majority of the European peasants who came under Ottoman rule were Orthodox Christians, and as long as they paid the special tax known as the jizya and acknowledged their status as Ottoman subjects, they were free to practise their religion without hindrance. As a result, the European peasants did not necessarily harbour animosity towards their new rulers. Because people were used to looking to their religious leaders for guidance on a range of subjects, the Ottomans also saw that non-Muslim clerics might aid in the governance of their empire. In order to gain the support of Christian clergy, the Ottomans decided against attempting to eradicate their faith. The religiously tolerant Ottomans were probably considered superior masters by many peasants than the European Roman Catholic warriors who had repeatedly invaded the Greek Orthodox Byzantine Empire. The Ottomans' reduced tax burden was likewise hailed by them. Murad aimed to gain access to the Serbian king's territory through his death in 1355 and merge it with the Ottoman sphere of influence. The last significant Orthodox Christian state, Serbia, became a vassal of the Ottoman Empire when the Ottomans routed the Serbian army at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389. Murad and Prince Lazar, the ruler of Serbia, perished in the conflict; nonetheless, a tale exists in Serbia that a Serbian soldier killed the Ottoman sultan in his tent by using deceit. Bayezid I, also known as "the Thunderbolt," was the son of Murad and his successor. He made a failed effort to take control of Constantinople and end all Byzantine rule in the area. Following the Ottomans' blockade of the city in 1396, Pope Boniface IX called for a crusade to free the Greek Orthodox Christians from the Muslim Turks in response to the Byzantine emperor's petitions. Knights of the Roman Catholic Church from all around Europe answered. At the Battle of Nicopolis on the Danube River, Ottoman forces defeated the crusader army while fighting with Bayezid's Serbian vassals. However, the Ottomans were unable to breach the city's defences, and Bayezid soon found himself up against a more powerful opponent in the form of Timur, the Mongol conqueror, as the blockade of Constantinople eventually failed.