The Islamic World - Culture and Society

THE ISLAMIC WORLD HIST 1301 | History Culture and Society Originating in the rich plains of Anatolia (also known as Asia Minor, roughly modern-day Turkey), the Ottoman state was bounded to the west by the Aegean Sea, to the north by the Black Sea, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea, and to the east by the Zagros Mountains. The Turkic nomads who roamed the semifertile Eurasian steppe, a grassland strip that stretches from western China to Hungary, found the plains of Anatolia to be appealing. In the 10 and eleventh centuries, when the Turkic peoples expanded their influence over northern Iran, a group of soldiers from that region founded their own kingdom, which was controlled by the Seljuk dynasty. This Seljuk state expanded over the course of the following 150 years to take control of much of central and southern Anatolia. However, during the disruptive Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century, several tiny Turkic kingdoms arose in the region, drastically altering the political landscape of Anatolia. Under the leadership of Osman I, the Turkic principality in the northeastern corner of Anatolia gained importance in the year 1300. Osman built an army and started annexing land from the nearby Byzantines. After his father's death, Osman's son Orhan carried on the war, bringing most of northwest Anatolia under his authority. Orhan founded the state that would later be known as the Ottoman Empire, after his father Osman. By the fourteenth century, Constantinople, the Byzantine capital, was essentially surrounded by the Ottoman Empire, which had spread into southeast Europe. After marching into the city in 1453, Ottoman soldiers established it as the capital of their growing empire. Subsequent emperors extended the empire over North Africa, through Syria and Palestine, and deeper into Europe during the course of the following century. The Muslim-controlled state exercised dominion over a broad swath of land that contained Muslims as well as numerous dhimmis, such as Christians, Jews, and others, during the height of the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century. For instance, the Balkan regions of southeast Europe under Ottoman rule were predominately Christian and far more densely inhabited than Anatolia. Since many of the Christian communities in southeast Europe were among the oldest in the world, it was doubtful that many of them would convert to Islam. The Ottomans created a system that allowed dhimmis to run their own affairs in accordance with their own religious regulations as a result of this fact. This was later referred to as the millet system; the phrase is derived from the Arabic word millah, which means nation. The division of millets was based on religious identity: under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox patriarch in Istanbul, one millet was constituted by Orthodox Christians, another by Armenian Christians, and a third by Jews. Later on, other communities received their own millets, including the Syriacspeaking Christians and the Coptic Christians of Egypt. A dhimmi would only appear in a sharia court when interacting with a Muslim in a legal or economic matter, or when dealing with the state itself. Millets had their own courts to handle their disputes. The goal of the millet system was to allow non-Muslims to live somewhat independently and to manage their affairs in accordance with their own traditions and values. The devshirme ("gathering"), which involved enslaving young people for military and governmental service, was one of the most dramatic practices implemented against Christian communities in the Balkans and Caucasus. This system, which was created as a kind of taxation on the Christian areas of Ottomancontrolled Europe, gathered boys from designated villages between the ages of eight and ten, converted them to Islam, and provided them with an education aimed at producing an elite military force for the sultan. They were chosen based on both their intelligence and physical characteristics. The rigorous training placed a strong emphasis on endurance, discipline, and sultan allegiance. The majority joined an elite military unit called the Janissaries, which got its name from the Turkish phrase yeni cheri, which means "new soldier." Janissaries were intended to protect the sultan, to whom they were devoted and paid directly, by acting as bodyguards. A select group of young men with extraordinary intelligence were sent to the royal school to study languages and other subjects in order to become the trusted administrative elite of the empire. The goal was to establish a self-sustaining system of military commanders and bureaucrats who had grown up under the Ottoman Empire and whose allegiance was to the sultan and the system they were a part of, rather than to their families, whom they would, in principle, never see again. This eradicated nepotism and reduced ethnicity, religion, and personal identification, hence preventing political infighting inside the administration. Up to the late 1600s, the devshirme system was in use. To their early empire, the Ottomans brought with them expertise of statecraft, military organisation, and horses. They valued Persian culture and elegance highly, following in the footsteps of their Seljuk forebears. Persian was frequently the language of poetry and literature, even at the Persian-speaking Abbasid caliphs' court, whereas Arabic was seen as the language of scholarship and religion. The Ottoman Empire is sometimes referred to as a Persianate, indicating that while it was greatly inspired by Persian culture, its architecture and visual arts were not Persian in origin. Turkish, which was written in a modified form of the Perso-Arabic alphabet and had many borrowed terms from both Persian and Arabic, was the language of government and education. Divan poetry, a rival tradition of great poetry in Turkish that used Persian poetic metres and rhyme systems, also flourished. Turkish took the role of Persian as a literary language in the seventeenth century during the protracted Ottoman-Safavid war in Iran. This move served to highlight the Ottoman state's Turkish identity and set it apart from its adversary's culture. The majority of Ottoman Empire citizens were illiterate. Primary education was seen as the responsibility of religious organisations, not the state, as it was in much of the early modern world, even though sultan's family members frequently funded schools. Young Muslims were taught to recite the Quran in elementary schools called mekteps, and each millet was permitted to oversee its own children's education. Since only individuals who engaged directly with the state were needed to speak Turkish, schools often taught in the chosen local language. This is one of the key reasons why, despite several instances when non-Turkish people spoke solely Turkish, Arabic, Bulgarian, Greek, and SerboCroatian-Bosnian did not eventually become the dominant language in those regions. Numerous loanwords from Ottoman Turkish were also introduced into regional languages, such as Bosnian. Being multilingual was advantageous for trade and business as it made it easier for European traders to interact with regional representatives and partners. It also let newly arrived immigrant groups to keep their native tongues. For instance, many Jews continued to speak Judeo-Spanish (often referred to as Ladino) after being forced to flee Spain in 1492 and lived in the Ottoman Empire, especially in Izmir, Salonica, and Istanbul. Those with more money had typically greater access to education beyond the basic primary level. While some boys from ordinary and low-income homes were able to attend local schools, the majority of parents relied on their kids to help out in the family business or with agricultural tasks. Elite family boys attended private schools, while females in comparable circumstances received private tutoring at home. This also applied to the millets. Members of the community might attend schools run by millets; in Istanbul, for instance, a private school catering to Greek Christians was established in 1454. A wealthy local patron or landowner may sponsor particularly intelligent students from lower social strata to continue their education, usually with the stipulation that the pupils work for the patron's company after graduation. The early 1460s saw the construction of an opulent palace complex in Istanbul, which led to significant modifications in both the Ottoman system of governance and the royal court. Over the course of the following century, Ottoman sultans shifted from ruling continuously from military encampments that they had previously moved about to staying for extended periods of time at the new palace, which they eventually dubbed Topkapi. The return of women to the public and political life of the Ottoman court—something that had previously been more common in the Seljuk state—was one effect of this shift to a more stable household. Sultan Bayezid I's concubines, women whose primary function was to bear children for the sultan but who did not have the same legal status as official wives, became the custom after the Mongol conqueror Timur had captured and held Sultan Bayezid I's wife captive in the 1400s. Suleiman I disregarded this custom and wed Hurrem, a young Ruthenian lady (today in western Ukraine) who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery by the Crimean Tatars. Hurrem was finally carried to Istanbul as a hostage, where Suleiman's mother bought him as a present for her son. She rose to prominence as Hurrem Sultan and became one of the most significant figures in Ottoman history, laying the groundwork for the strong spouses and principal concubines who came after her in the region that came to be known as the Sultanate of Women. The mother or wife of the current sultan possessed unparalleled influence over the imperial family and often became well-liked by providing funds for public structures and monuments, such as bath facilities, schools, soup kitchens, and fountains. Vaqfs, charity endowments meant to aid the underprivileged or fulfil religious obligations, made up a large number of them. Rich ladies and men would frequently gift buildings or property in addition to cash to help the general population. In an attempt to gain favour, outsiders frequently sent letters to the sultan's mother or wife, or even dispatched female relations to make their case. By plotting with palace officials like the head eunuch, she could then transfer her popular popularity into political power and rise to become one of the most influential individuals in the empire. There might be conflicts at court between the sultan's mother and chief wife, who were frequently rivals for the sultan's political position. The Sultanate of Women flourished for almost a century before coming to an abrupt end in the late seventeenth century due to several sultans passing away quickly. As a result, there was unrest in the court and the royal family's connections with the outside advisors that the Sultanate of Women had depended on weakened. In the Ottoman Empire, women were not involved in politics, with the exception of the sultan's mother or wife. Still, they were involved in other facets of life. Ottoman women, both married and single, had the ability to purchase, inherit, and own property, as well as leave their fortune to heirs after their deaths, in contrast to women in pre-19th-century Europe. They may take out loans, borrow money, and file a lawsuit to defend their legal rights. Parents typically arranged marriages, although women might, in principle, later seek a divorce and had to give their approval to the match. The time of middle-class and elite women was spent caring for their families and running their homes. They socialised with other women, frequently meeting them in bathhouses, if they resided in towns or cities. They used veils as a status symbol on their few outings into public. Workingclass women may produce things in their houses and hawk them on the streets. females may invest in companies, but females were mainly kept out of the formal guild structure, which exclusively accepted male craftsmen. Nonetheless, there were certain professions where women predominated, including nursing and dancing, and cleaning laundry was a common way for them to support themselves. They were members of the several Sufi orders as well. Naturally, the lifestyles of Muslim and non-Muslim women varied according to their location within the Ottoman Empire. Peasant women's life differed from city people' in that, in addition to taking care of the house and kids, they may help their male relatives out with farm work. The Ottoman Empire's cuisine, which combined products and culinary techniques from all over the world, including Greece, Iran, the Balkans, the Arabian Peninsula, and central Asia, is arguably the best example of the synthesis of its wide cultural basis. Cooks from the Ottoman Empire were among the first to use products from the Americas, including maize, peppers, tomatoes, and pumpkins, in their recipes once the Americas were discovered. It's also possible that the Ottomans brought dishes from other parts of Asia, including sesame, into Middle Eastern kitchens. The cooks of Topkapi Palace skillfully recreated several foods for the imperial court, including Indian tandoori casseroles and rice pilafs from Egypt, Iran, and central Asia. These recipes were later adopted by people throughout the empire in less ornate versions. Food was a powerful symbol of generosity and authority, and Topkapi could accommodate up to 4,000 guests for a banquet. The Janissary corps, the Ottoman Empire's most elite soldiers, were treated to a sumptuous feast by the sultan every year. During the 18th century, 10 thousand soldiers were fed all at once. Public dinners were anticipated to be held in the palace on the events of the sultan's (or his wife's or mother's) burial, royal wedding, and the birth of an heir. Thousands of people were fed daily by caravansaries and soup kitchens in the empire's principal towns. Simultaneously, the public's unwillingness to eat the sultan's cuisine sent a strong message. The Janissaries pounded their metal soup bowls like drums and symbolically turned them upside down when they were angry over imperial policies. They let everyone know how unhappy they were with the sound that echoed throughout the nation's capital. The Ottomans were the ones who introduced coffee to Europe, and it was as vital to Ottoman culture as, if not more so than, feasting. The custom originated in Arabia and extended across the Islamic world. During Suleiman the Magnificent's rule in the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire saw the establishment of its first coffeehouses, which served as gathering places for individuals to interact socially, do business, and share news. Coffeehouses were frequented by men from many socioeconomic groups, and even those with less knowledge might witness intellectual individuals reading aloud from books, poets reciting their most recent works, and intellectuals debating. Political discourse was widespread, and the Ottoman administration frequently dispatched spies to listen for indications of possible uprising or discontent. Politics were particularly often discussed at coffee shops that Janissaries frequented. Although coffee was not prohibited by sharia, many Muslim clerics were in favour of it due to its energising properties. In the sixteenth century, there were futile attempts to outlaw the beverage. Sultan Murad IV outlawed coffee shops in the seventeenth century out of concern that they might be used as a base for a rebellion. Those who continued to consume coffee ran the possibility of receiving a death sentence. In addition, a large number of Muslim intellectuals and clergy disapproved of tobacco use, which had been brought to the Ottoman Empire from the Americas in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They considered tobacco to be unhealthy and an intoxicant that had the same effects on users as wine or coffee. Some condemned it as an alien custom brought over from Europe by Christians with the intention of hurting Muslims. The fact that tobacco was associated with coffee shops, where smoking was common, further stigmatised the substance. Murad IV forbade tobacco smoking in coffee shops and imposed the death sentence on offenders.