The Ottoman Empire and the World Around It

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND THE WORLD AROUND IT

A note on transliteration and dates
For Ottoman-Turkish words, modern Turkish spelling according to Redhouse Yeni Türkçe–İngilizce Sözlük, New Redhouse Turkish–English Dictionary of 1968 (Istanbul: Redhouse Press) has been used. Only those words denoting places, people and terms of the Islamic realm that never formed part of the Ottoman world have been rendered in the transliteration used in The Encyclopedia of Islam (2nd edition, 1960–). ed. by H.A.R. Gibb et alii (Leiden: E. J. Brill).

Where there exists an accepted English name for a city or region, this has been preferred, i.e. ‘Aleppo’ as opposed to ‘Halep’ or alab’, ‘Syria’ as opposed to ‘Şām’.

The present volume contains a good many dates that I have found in sources using only Common Era (CE) datings. This means that the relevant Islamic year normally encompasses two years, and in order to avoid beginning with a ‘hyphenated’ expression, I have put the CE date first. When giving the birth and death dates of individuals, or the dates between which a given ruler was in power, the first date mentioned is always the first of the two hicri years into which his/her birth or accession is known to have fallen. As to the second date, it is the second of the two hicri years corresponding to the relevant person’s death or dethronement, thus for example: Süleyman the Magnificent (r. 1520–66/ 926–74). For twentieth- and twenty-first-century dates, there are no hicri equivalents.

In the notes only CE dates have been used unless we are dealing with the date of an archival document. Since this is normally in Ottoman, the hicri date will be a single year, and its CE equivalent has to be hyphenated. In consequence when giving the date of an archival document the hicri date will come first.

Table of contents

List of illustrations / ix
A note on transliteration and dates / x
Acknowledgements / xi
Map of the Ottoman Empire in Asia and Africa / xiii
Map of the Ottoman Empire in Europe / xiv

1 ~ Introduction / 1

Islamic law and sultanic pragmatism: 2 ~ Determining the parameters of Ottoman ‘foreign policy’: some general considerations: 4 ~ A few ground rules of Ottoman ‘foreign politics’: 6 ~ Validity and limits of the ‘warfare state’ model: 8 ~ Accommodation, both open and unacknowledged, and the problem of structural similarities in the early modern world: 10 ~ An impossible balance between ‘east’ and ‘west’?: 11 ~ Who, in which period, formed part of the Ottoman elite?: 13 ~ The Ottoman Empire as a world economy: 14 ~ The abiding centrality of Istanbul: 16 ~ Confronting our limits: problems of documentation: 18 ~ ‘Placing’ our topic in geographical terms: 20 ~ ‘Placing’ our topic in time: 21 ~ Confronting different perspectives, or how to justify comparisons: 23 ~ A common world: 25

2 ~ On sovereignty and subjects: expanding and safeguarding the Empire 27

‘Foreign interference’ and its limits: 28 ~ A sequence of ‘mental images’: 30 ~ The 1560s/967–77: 32 ~ Introducing the major ‘players’ of the 1560s/ 967–77: the Habsburg possessions, France, Venice and Iran: 32 ~ Religious rivalries of the 1560s/967–77: 34 ~ The mid-sixteenth century: foreign subjects present on Ottoman territory – and those who were conspicuously absent: 37 ~ Religious-cum-political rivalries between the sultans and ‘western’ rulers in the 1560s/967–77: 41 ~ How the Ottoman elite did not organize its relations with the outside world in the 1560s/967–77: 43 ~ Limits of imperial reach in the 1560s/967–77: Anatolian loyalties to non-Ottoman princes: 44 ~ Limits of imperial reach: some Rumelian examples: 46 ~ Limits of imperial reach in the 1560s/967–77, a further example: Yemen as a frontier province: 47 ~ The Empire in 1639/1048–9: 49 ~ Protecting Ottoman territories in 1639/1048–9: the eastern frontier: 49 ~ The northern regions as a trouble spot in 1639/1048–9: 50 ~ Expanding Ottoman territory in 1639/ 1048–9: relations with Venice and the imminent conquest of Crete: 51 ~ Potential threats to Ottoman control over the western part of the Balkan peninsula in 1639/1048–9: 52 ~ Early links to the seventeenth-century European world economy?: 53 ~ Before  718/1130–1: 55 ~ Wars on all fronts: 55 ~ ‘The Empire strikes back’: toward a reprise en main before 1718/1130–1: 58 ~ xtraterritorialities before 1718/1130–1: 60 ~ Conquest and trade as sources of regional instabilities before 1718/1130–1: 62 ~ War-induced regional instabilities before 1718/1130–1: Serbs on both sides of the frontier: 64 ~ 1774/1187–8: 67 ~ The Russo-Ottoman war of 1768–74/ 1181–8: 67 ~ Provincial power magnates and international relations in 1774/1187–8: 69 ~ Eighteenth-century prosperity and crisis in the ‘economic’ field: 70 ~ The desert borders in 1774/1187–8: 72 ~ In conclusion: the Ottoman rulers within a set of alliances: 73

3 ~ On the margins of empire: clients and dependants 75

The royal road to empire-building: from ‘dependent principality’ to ‘centrally governed province’: 75 ~ ‘Dependent principalities’ with long life-spans: 77 ~ Ottoman methods of conquest and local realities: 78 ~ Old and new local powers in ‘centrally governed provinces’: 80 ~ Semi-autonomous provinces controlled by military corps and ‘political households’: 82 ~ The case of the Hijaz: 84 ~ Subsidising a reticent dependant: the sherifs as autonomous princes on the desert frontier: 84 ~ The sherifs, the Bedouins and the security of the pilgrimage caravan: 87 ~ The sherifs in the international arena: 88 ~ The case of Dubrovnik: linking Ottoman sultans to the Catholic Mediterranean: 89 ~ ‘Cruel times in Moldavia’: 91 ~ In conclusion: 95 ~

4 ~ The strengths and weaknesses of Ottoman warfare 98

Ottoman military preparedness and booty-making: assessing their significance and limits: 98 ~ Ottoman political advantages in early modern wars: 102 ~ Financing wars and procuring supplies: the changing weight of tax assignments and cash disbursals: 104 ~ How to make war without footing the bill – at least in the short run: 108 ~ Logistics: cases of gunpowder: 110 ~ Societies of frontiersmen: 112 ~ Legitimacy through victory, delegitimization through wars on the sultan’s territories: 114 ~ In conclusion: Ottoman society organized to keep up with the military reformation: 116 ~

5 ~ Of prisoners, slaves and the charity of strangers 119

Prisoners in the shadows: 119 ~ Captured: how ordinary people paid the price of inter-empire conflict and attempts at state formation: 121 ~ From captive to slave: 124 ~ The miseries of transportation: 126 ~ On galleys and in arsenals: 127 ~ Charity and the tribulations of prisoners: 129 ~ The ‘extracurricular’ labours of galley – and other – slaves: 131 ~ Domestic service: 132 ~ The role of local mediation in ransoming a Christian prisoner: 134 ~ In conclusion: 135

6 ~ Trade and foreigners 137

Merchants from remote countries: the Asian world: 138 ~ Merchants from a (not so) remote Christian country: the Venetians: 140 ~ Polish traders and gentlemanly visitors: 142 ~ Merchants from the lands of a (doubtful) ally: France: 144 ~ Subjects of His/Her Majesty, the king/queen of England: 148 ~ Links to the capital of the seventeenth-century world economy: the Dutch case: 150 ~ How Ottoman merchants coped with foreigners and foreign trade: 151 ~ Revisiting an old debate: ‘established’ and ‘new’ commercial actors: 154 ~ The Ottoman ruling group and its attitudes to foreign trade: 155 ~

7 ~ Relating to pilgrims and offering mediation 161

The problems of Iranian pilgrims in Iraq and the Hijaz: 162 ~ Jewish visitors to Jerusalem: 164 ~ Christian visitors writing about Palestine and the Sinai peninsula: 165 ~ Ottoman people and places in western accounts of Jerusalem: 167 ~ The Christian pilgrimage to Jerusalem in Muslim eyes: 169 ~ Catholic missionaries in Ottoman lands: 171 ~ Mediations, ambiguities and shifts of identity: 174 ~ An eighteenth-century Istanbul xenophobe: 176 ~ Was friendship between an Ottoman Muslim and a non-Muslim foreigner an impossible proposition?: 177 ~

8 ~ Sources of information on the outside world 179

The knowledge of the ambassadors: some general considerations: 181 ~ Fleeting encounters: a sea captain and diplomat in sixteenth-century India: 183 ~ The knowledge of the envoys: representing Ottoman dignity in Iran: 185 ~ Lying abroad for the good of one’s sovereign: obscuring Ottoman intentions in early eighteenth-century Iran: 186 ~ Reporting on European embassies: 187 ~ Old opponents, new allies: 191 ~ In the empire of the tsars: 192 ~ Difficult beginnings: a new type of information-gathering: 193 ~ Framing the world according to Ottoman geographers: 194 ~ Taking
notice of the Americas: 197 ~ Kâtib Çelebi and his circle: 199 ~ Non-Muslim Ottoman subjects and their travel writing: 200 ~ Tracking down the knowledge of the educated Muslim townsman: 203 : Evliya Çelebi’s stories about Europe: 204 ~ Holland and the way thither: 204 ~ European frontiers: a quantité négligeable?: 206 ~ And what about Evliya’s intentions in writing?: 207 ~ In conclusion: 208 ~

9 ~ Conclusion 211

A common world: 211 ~ The integration of foreigners: 212 ~ Imperial cohesion, ‘corruption’ and the liberties of foreigners: 213 ~ Coping with the European world economy: 214 ~ Ottoman rule: between the centre and the margins: 215 ~ Providing information: what ‘respectable people’ might or might not write about: 216 ~ Embassy reports: much maligned but a sign of changing mentalities: 217 ~

Bibliography 220

Notes 263

Index 283

~ List of illustrations

1. Helmet and armour intended as a diplomatic present from the Habsburg Emperor Rudolf II to the Grand Vizier Sinan Paşa. / 39
2. View from Semlin towards Belgrade, with the Ottoman fortress beyond the Danube, early nineteenth century / 66
3. A janissary and his European captive, 1669 / 124
4. The naval arsenal at Kasımpaşa, Istanbul, after 1784 and before 1800 / 128
5. The Damascus gate in the walls of Jerusalem / 169
6. The parade by which Ahmed Resmi entered Berlin in 1763 / 189
7. Secretary of the Ottoman embassy to Berlin, carrying the sultan’s letter (after 1763) / 190
8. A visit of the Ottoman ambassador Mehmed efendi, accompanied by his son Hüseyin, at the court of King Augustus of Poland in 1731 / 218

Acknowledgements

Many colleagues and students have helped in the preparation of this book, and as the Turkish saying goes ‘however much I thank them it will be too little’. A large part of the writing was done while I was a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin in 2001–2. I owe a great debt to the other fellows, who did much to enlarge my horizons, but particularly to Gesine Bottomley and her team, who obtained books for me whenever I wanted them, and were ever ready to locate outlandish bibliographical information. Mitchell Cohen contributed his expertise as an editor. Barbara Sanders of the secretariat as well as Wiebke Güse and Petra Sonnenberg of the computer department helped to process the correspondence this manuscript occasioned, ironed out word processing problems and upon occasion, patiently listened to the lamentations without which no book apparently gets written. Back in Munich, Yavuz Köse has been a tower of strength; without his efficiency, I do not think I could have written very much, given the university bureaucracy that seems to increase in inverse proportion to the means actually available for historical research. The Library of the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT/Istanbul) furnished some books I had not been able to find elsewhere; thanks to Anthony Greenwood and Gülden Güneri. During the weeks that I was based in Istanbul, Pınar Kesen most graciously helped with the editing; and last but not least, I have Christoph Knüttel to thank for his aid with the index, and Yvonne Grossmann for drawing the maps.

Too numerous to list are the colleagues who have supplied me with material and good advice, and I crave the pardon of anyone that I may have forgotten. Virginia Aksan provided me with insights into the problems of war and peace from the Ottoman perspective, particularly by allowing me to read her as yet unpublished manuscript. Stephanos Boulaisikis, Nikolas Pissis and Anna Vlachopoulos introduced me to Greek travel accounts and translated modern Greek texts for me. Penelope Stathe, Marie Elisabeth Mitsou and Albrecht Berger provided further information on this – to me – arcane subject. Many thanks for that and for their overall interest in the emerging work. To Maria Pia Pedani Fabris, I am grateful for sharing her profound knowledge of the documents in the Venetian archives, and above all for a copy of the relazioni that she has edited, all but impossible to locate otherwise as the publisher has gone out of business. Without the help of Minna Rozen, I would not have known anything about the Jewish travellers whose silhouettes fleetingly appear on the pages of this book, while Ina Baghdiantz McCabe has provided pointers to the accounts of Armenian travellers available in translation. To Nicolas Vatin, I am much obliged for letting me read his article on illegal enslavement in the Ottoman realm before it actually appeared in print, while Enis Batur has presented me with several publications put out by Yapı ve Kredi Yayınları: my heartiest thanks. Vera Costantini has generously provided information on the Cyprus war, but perhaps more importantly, contributed much through her laughter and love of life.

In addition, there are the people who have read the manuscript and tried very hard to make it into a better book; if I did not take all of their excellent advice, I have no one to blame but myself. Apart from an anonymous reader, whose incisive criticisms I have done my special best to take into account, I extend my warmest thanks to Virginia Aksan, Robert Dankoff, Christopher Hann and Ildikó Béller-Hann, Leslie Peirce, Gilles Veinstein and above all, Christoph Neumann, whose patience has been almost without limits. At I. B. Tauris, Lester Crook has been a most understanding editor, providing tea and endless sympathy when accommodating my intrusions and listening to my follies. All these people have made time in their busy schedules in order to respond to me and my queries, and I can only hope that they will find the results acceptable at least to some degree.

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
AND THE WORLD AROUND IT

The Ottoman Empire
and the World Around It
SURAIYA FAROQHI

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The Library of Ottoman Studies 7

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