THE DECLINE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE.
[Sidenote: Saracenic Empire.]
While the great monarchies of Western Europe were struggling for
preëminence, and were developing resources greater than had ever
before been exhibited since the fall of the Roman empire, that great
power which had alarmed and astonished Christendom in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries, began to show the signs of weakness and
decay. Nothing, in the history of society, is more marvellous than the
rise of Mohammedan kingdoms. The victories of the Saracens and Turks
were rapid and complete; and in the tenth century, they were the most
successful warriors on the globe, and threatened to subvert the world.
They had planted the standard of the Prophet on the walls of Eastern
capitals, and had extended their conquests to India on the east, and
to Spain on the west. Powerful Mohammedan states had arisen in Asia,
Africa, and Europe, and the Crusaders alone arrested the progress of
these triumphant armies. The enthusiasm which the doctrines of
Mohammed had kindled, cannot easily be explained; but it was fresh,
impetuous, and self-sacrificing. Successive armies of Mohammedan
invaders overwhelmed the ancient realms of civilization, and reduced
the people whom they conquered and converted to a despotic yoke. But
success enervated the victorious conquerors of the East, the empire of
the Caliphs was broken up, and great changes took place even in those
lands where the doctrines of the Koran prevailed. Mohammed perpetuated
a religion, but not an empire. Different Saracenic chieftains revolted
from the "Father of the Faithful," and established separate kingdoms,
or viceroyalties, nearly independent of the acknowledged successors of
Mohammed. The Saracenic empire was early dismembered, and the sultans
of Egypt, Spain, and Syria contested for preëminence.
[Sidenote: Rise of the Turks.]
But a new power arose on the ruins of the Saracen empire, and became
the enthusiastic defenders of the religion of Islam. The Turks were an
obscure tribe of barbarians when Bagdad was the seat of a powerful
monarchy. Their origin has been traced to the wilds of Scythia; but
they early deserted their native forests in search of more fruitful
regions. When Apulia and Sicily were subdued by the Norman pirates, a
swarm of these Scythian shepherds settled in Armenia, probably in the
ninth century, and, by their valor and simplicity, soon became a
powerful tribe. Not long after they were settled in their new abode,
the Sultan of Persia invoked their aid to assist him in his wars
against the Caliph of Bagdad, his great rival. The Turks complied with
his request, and their arms were successful. The sultan then refused
to part with such useful auxiliaries, and moreover, fearing their
strength, designed to employ them in his wars against the Hindoos, and
to shut them up in the centre of his dominions. The Turkmans rebelled,
withdrew into a mountainous part of the country, became robbers, and
devastated the adjacent countries. The band of robbers gradually
swelled into a powerful army, gained a great victory over the troops
of the Sultan Mohammed, and placed their chieftain upon the Persian
throne, (1038.) According to Gibbon, the new monarch was chosen by
lot, and Seljuk had the fortune to win the prize of conquest, and
became the founder of the dynasty of the Shepherd kings. During the
reign of his grandson Togrul, the ancient Persian princes were
expelled, and the Turks embraced the religion of the conquered. In
1055, the Turkish sultan delivered the Caliph of Bagdad from the arms
of the Caliph of Egypt, who disputed with him the title of _Commander
of the Faithful_. For this service he was magnificently rewarded by
the grateful successor of the Prophet, who, at that time, banqueted in
his palace at Bagdad--a venerable phantom of power. The victorious
sultan was publicly commissioned as lieutenant of the caliph, and he
was virtually seated on the throne of the Abbassides. Shortly after,
the Turkish conqueror invaded the falling empire of the Greeks, and
its Asiatic provinces were irretrievably lost. In the latter part of
the eleventh century, the Turkish power was established in Asia Minor,
and Jerusalem itself had fallen into the hands of the sultan. He
exacted two pieces of gold from the Christian pilgrim, and treated
him, moreover, with greater cruelty than the Saracens had ever
exercised. The extortion and oppression of the Turkish masters of the
Sacred City led to the Crusades and the final possession of Western
Asia by the followers of the Prophet. The Turkish power constantly
increased with the decline of the Saracenic and Greek empires, but the
Seljukian dynasty, like that of Abbassides at Bagdad, at last run out,
and Othman, a soldier of fortune, became sultan of the Turks. He is
regarded as the founder of the Ottoman empire, and under his reign,
from 1299 to 1326, the Moslems made rapid strides in the progress of
aggrandizement.
[Sidenote: Turkish Conquerors.]
Orkham, his son, instituted the force of the Janizaries, completed the
conquest of Bithynia, and laid the foundation of Turkish power in
Europe. Under his successor, Amurath I., Adrianople became the capital
of the Ottoman empire, and the rival of Constantinople. Bajazet
succeeded Amurath, and his conquests extended from the Euphrates to
the Danube. In 1396, he defeated, at Nicopolis, a confederate army of
one hundred thousand Christians; and, in the intoxication of victory,
declared that he would feed his horse with a bushel of oats on the
altar of St. Peter, at Rome. Had it not been for the victories of
Tamerlane, Constantinople, which contained within its walls the feeble
fragments of a great empire, would also have fallen into his hands. He
was unsuccessful in his war with the great conqueror of Asia, and was
defeated at the battle of Angora, (1402,) and taken captive, and
carried to Samarcand, by Tamerlane, in an iron cage.
The great Bajazet died in captivity, and Mohammed I. succeeded to his
throne. He restored, on a firmer basis, the fabric of the Ottoman
monarchy, and devoted himself to the arts of peace. His successor,
Amurath II., continued hostilities with the Greeks, and laid siege to
Constantinople. But this magnificent city, the last monument of Roman
greatness, resisted the Turkish arms only for a while. In 1453, it
fell before an irresistible force of three hundred thousand men,
supported by a fleet of three hundred sail. The Emperor Constantine
succeeded in maintaining a siege of fifty-three days; and the religion
and empire of the Christians were trodden to the dust by the Moslem
conquerors. The city was sacked, the people were enslaved, and the
Church of St. Sophia was despoiled of the oblations of ages, and
converted into a Mohammedan mosque. One hundred and twenty thousand
manuscripts perished in the sack of Constantinople, and the palaces
and treasure of the Greeks were transferred to semi-barbarians.
[Sidenote: Progress of the Turks.]
From that time, the Byzantine capital became the seat of the Ottoman
empire; and, for more than two centuries, Turkish armies excited the
fears and disturbed the peace of the world. They gradually subdued and
annexed Macedonia, the Peloponnesus, Epirus, Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia,
Armenia, Cyprus, Syria, Egypt, India, Tunis, Algiers, Media,
Mesopotamia, and a part of Hungary, to the dominions of the sultan. In
the sixteenth century, the Ottoman empire was the most powerful in the
world. Nor should we be surprised, in view of the great success of the
Turks, when we remember their singular bravery, their absorbing
ambition, their almost incredible obedience to the commands of the
sultan, and the unity which pervaded the national councils. They also
fought to extend their religion, to which they were blind devotees.
After the capture of Constantinople, a succession of great princes sat
on the most absolute throne known in modern times; men disgraced by
many crimes, but still singularly adapted to extend their dominion.
The progress of the Turks justly alarmed the Emperor Charles V., and
he exerted all his energies to unite the German princes against them,
but unsuccessfully. The Sultan Solyman, called the _Magnificent_,
maintained his supremacy over Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia,
ravaged Hungary, wrested Rhodes from the Knights of St. John,
conquered the whole of Arabia, and attacked the Portuguese dominion in
India. He raised the Turkish empire to the highest pitch of its
greatness, and died while besieging Sigeth, as he was completing the
conquest of Hungary. His empire was one vast camp, and his decrees
were dated from the imperial stirrup. The iron sceptre which he and
his successors wielded was imbrued in blood; and discipline alone was
the politics of his soldiers, and rapine their resources.
Selim II. succeeded Solyman, and set the ruinous example of not going
himself to the wars, and of carrying them on by his lieutenants. His
son, Murad III., penetrated into Russia and Poland, and made war on
the Emperor of Germany. Mohammed III., who died in 1604, murdered all
his brothers, nineteen in number, and executed his own son. It was
usual, when an emperor mounted the throne, for him to put to death his
brothers and nephews. Indeed, the characters of the sultans were
marked by unusual ferocity and jealousy, and they were unscrupulous in
the means they took to advance their power. The world has never seen
more suspicious tyrants; and it ever must excite our wonder that they
were so unhesitatingly obeyed. But they were, however, sometimes
dethroned by the Janizaries, who constituted a sort of imperial guard.
Osman II., fearing their power, and disgusted with their degeneracy,
resolved to destroy them, as dangerous to the state. But his design
was discovered, and he himself lost his life, (1622.) Several monsters
of tyranny and iniquity succeeded him, whose reigns were disgraced by
every excess of debauchery and cruelty. Their subjects, however, had
not, as yet, lost vigor, temperance, and ambition, and still continued
to furnish troops unexampled for discipline and bravery, and bent on
conquest and dominion.
The Turkish power received no great checks until the reign of
Mohammed IV., during which Sobieski defeated an immense army, which
had laid siege to Vienna. By the peace of Carlovitz, in 1699,
Transylvania was ceded to the Emperor of Germany, and a barrier was
raised against Mohammedan invasion.
The Russians, from the time of Peter the Great, looked with great
jealousy on the power of the sultan, and several wars were the result.
No Russian sovereign desired the humiliation of the Porte more than
Catharine II. A bloody contest ensued, signalized by the victories of
Galitzin, Suwarrow, Romanzoff, and Orloff, by which Turkey became a
second class power, no longer feared by the European states.
[Sidenote: Decline of Turkish Power.]
From the peace of Carlovitz, the decline of the Ottoman empire has
been gradual, but marked, owing to the indifference of the Turks to
all modern improvements, and a sluggish, conservative policy, hostile
to progress, and sceptical of civilization. The Turks have ever been
bigoted Mohammedans, and hostile to European influences. The Oriental
dress has been preserved in Constantinople, and all the manners and
customs of the people are similar to what they were in Asia several
centuries ago.
[Sidenote: Turkish Institutions.]
One of the peculiarities of the Turkish government, in the most
flourishing period of its history, was the institution of the
Janizaries--a guard of soldiers, to whom was intrusted the
guardianship of the sultan, and the protection of his capital. When
warlike and able princes were seated on the throne, this institution
proved a great support to the government; but when the reins were held
by effeminate princes, the Janizaries, like the Prætorian Guards of
Rome, acquired an undue ascendency, and even deposed the monarchs whom
they were bound to obey. They were insolent, extortionate, and
extravagant, and became a great burden to the state. At first they
were brave and resolute; but they gradually lost their skill and their
courage, were uniformly beaten in the later wars with the Russians,
and retained nothing of the soldier but the name. Mahmoud II., in our
own time, succeeded in dissolving this dangerous body, and in
introducing European tactics into his army.
[Sidenote: Turkish Character.]
The Turkish institutions have reference chiefly to the military
character of the nation. All Mussulmans, in the eye of the law, are
soldiers, to whom the extension of the empire and the propagation of
their faith were the avowed objects of warfare. They may be regarded,
wherever they have conquered, as military colonists, exercising great
tyranny, and treating all vanquished subjects with contempt. The
government has ever been a pure despotism, and both the executive and
legislative authorities have been vested in the sultan. He is the sole
fountain of honor; for, in Turkey, birth confers no privilege. His
actions are regarded as prescribed by an inevitable fate, and his
subjects suffer with resignation. The evils of despotism are
aggravated by the ignorance and effeminacy of those to whom power is
intrusted, although the grand vizier, who is the prime minister of the
empire, is generally a man of great experience and talent. All the
laws of the country are founded upon the precepts of the Koran, the
example of Mohammed, the precepts of the four first caliphs, and the
decision of learned doctors upon disputed cases. Justice is
administered promptly, but without much regard to equity or mercy; and
the course of the grand vizier is generally marked with blood. The
character of the people partakes of the nature of their government,
religion, and climate. They are arrogant, ignorant, and austere;
passing from devotion to obscenity; fastidiously abstemious in some
things, and grossly sensual in others. They have cherished the virtues
of hospitality, and are fond of conversation but their domestic life
is spent in voluptuous idleness, and is dull and insipid compared with
that of Europeans. But the Turks have degenerated. In the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries, they were simple, brave, and religious. They
founded an immense empire on the ruins of Asiatic monarchies, and
filled the world with the terror of their arms. For two hundred years
their power has been retrograding, and there is much reason now to
believe that a total eclipse of their glory is soon to take place.
* * * * *
REFERENCES.--See Knolle's History of Turkey. Eton's Survey
of the Turkish Empire. Upham's History of the Ottoman
Empire. Encyclopædia Britannica. Heeren's Modern History.
Madden's Travels in Turkey. Russell's Modern Europe. Life of
Catharine II.