Ataman port. Ottoman port

"Sublime Porte"

In the second half of the 16th century. The Ottoman feudal empire spread over three continents: from Budapest and Northern Taurus to the northern coast of Africa, from Baghdad and Tabriz to the borders of Morocco.

Suleiman I was not only a great commander, lord of the sword, as his father and grandfather were before him, it was he who raised the Turkic civilization, which came from tribal, nomadic and religious roots, to its peak.

The first legislator of the empire was Mehmed the Conqueror, and Suleiman launched his activities on the foundation laid by the Conqueror.

Suleiman did not strive to create a new legal structure, but modernized the old one, bringing the laws as a whole into line with the new conditions of new times and an immensely expanded empire. He did this while continuing to rely on the two main pillars of Ottoman rule: the institution of public administration - a secular and executive institution; and to the Muslim Institute - a religious and legislative institution. United under the "roof" of the absolute power of the Sultan, they represented, in terms of their various functions, the rough equivalent of the Western distinction between church and state.

The Ottoman ruling elite, army and administration, had a heterogeneous cosmopolitan character. One of the first Hadiyas of Istanbul was a Frenchman; most of the viziers and other dignitaries of the Porte were of Greek, Slavic or Albanian origin. Under Suleiman I, of the nine great viziers, eight were Turkicized, that is, Slavs who converted to Islam. The main backbone of the army consisted of Slavic-speaking Muslims; they also constituted the most prominent element at the court and the Ottoman government. Due to its cosmopolitan nature, national nihilism dominated in Ottoman society and state. The unity of Ottoman society as an integral system was supported exclusively by Islam and was based on its fundamental opposition to the socio-economic model of Renaissance Europe. The cult of the Arabic language - the language of the Koran and Divine Revelation, flourished in all provinces of the empire. They bowed before him, listened to his sounds with the reverent awe of paladins. The names of ships and sayings on personal and memorial weapons were written in the Arabic alphabet. Mottos, slogans and other inscriptions on the battle flags of the Ottoman regiments were also written only in Arabic. Prayers and recitations from the Koran were read on it. The implementation of Muslim legal proceedings was simply impossible without knowledge of the Arabic alphabet and language. The Arabs were proud that the Arabic language - the most dear and beloved heritage after Islam - remained the spiritual language of the Turks. In Edirne and Istanbul, the subtleties of the Arabic literary language were often better and more fully known than in other Arab provinces. Throughout the Ottoman Empire, the madrasahs of Cairo and Mecca enjoyed unquestioned authority.

The institution of government consisted, along with the Sultan and his family, of the officials of his court, the leading officers of his government, the standing army and a large number of young men who were being prepared for service in one or another of the above-mentioned places. They were almost exclusively men or sons of men born to parents of Christian origin, and thus slaves of the Sultan. But the most amazing thing is that they were proud of what they could provide: “I am the slave of the Great Master.”

Parallel to this administrative structure there was the institution of Islam, which consisted only of persons born Muslim. Judges and lawyers, theologians, priests, professors - they constituted, as guardians of traditions and executors of the sacred law of Islam, the ulema, that class of learned men who were responsible for maintaining the entire structure of education, religion and law throughout the empire.

The Ottoman Empire, having seized territories that were predominantly Christian at the beginning of the century, has since expanded its reach enormously through extensive conquests in Asia, including such cities of the former Islamic caliphate as Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, along with protectorates over the holy cities of Mecca and Medina . Four-fifths of the entire population of the empire - which at the end of Suleiman's reign numbered fifteen million people and consisted of representatives of twenty-one nationalities, under the control of twenty-one governments - were now residents of the Asian part of it.

Suleiman was at once the patron of the Islamic world, the defender of its faith and the protector, interpreter and executor of its sacred law. The entire Muslim world looked at Suleiman, and he showed himself to be a full legislator.

Suleiman entrusted the preparation of a code of laws to the highly knowledgeable judge Mullah Ibrahim from Aleppo. The resulting code, whimsically named by him because of the oceanic dimensions of the last "Multeka-ul-user", "Confluence of the Seas", remained in actual force until the legislative reforms of the twentieth century.

The taxation system introduced by Suleiman covered almost all aspects of human activity.

His "Eve of Rayya", or "Code of Rayya", regulated the taxation of tithes and per capita taxes, making these taxes both more onerous and more productive, raising them from the level of serfdom, or serfdom, to a status approaching, under Ottoman conditions, that of European tenant with fixed rights.

Taxes were introduced on many types of products, animals, mines, trade profits, and in the form of export and import duties. In addition to taxation, a significant source of income for the state was the confiscation of the property of high-ranking officials and other wealthy individuals who had fallen out of favor. Suleiman's military campaigns more than covered their initial costs, replenishing the imperial treasury with military booty from conquered provinces and tribute from Christian vassal states.

Financially, the Ottoman Empire became increasingly prosperous. Suleiman's income, collected mainly from the Sultan's own possessions and in the form of taxes on the land of his subjects, probably exceeded the income of any of the Christian rulers of his time. These were revenues that grew rapidly as Suleiman's reign prospered.

Suleiman developed a system of educational training for the Muslim clergy, whose schools continued to be financed by religious foundations and operated at mosques. They provided Muslim boys with an education that was generally free and, moreover, significantly more extensive than any education available at that time in Christian countries.

The colleges offered courses in ten subjects based on the liberal humanities of the West - grammar, syntax, logic, metaphysics, philosophy, geography, stylistics, geometry, astronomy and astrology. There were also higher madrasahs, university-level law schools, most of whose graduates became imams or teachers.

Suleiman, in the splendor of this “golden age,” was both sultan-caliph and grand lord in the tradition of the European Renaissance. Skillfully combining the sacred grandeur of the Eastern world with the royal luxury of the Western, the Sultan sought to transform Istanbul into a capital worthy in its architectural splendor of the best cities of the flourishing civilization of the 16th century. Under Suleiman there was a full flowering of that architectural style which Mehmed the Conqueror was the first to extract from the Byzantine school and which in a tangible form glorified Islam and the spread of its civilization throughout a world in which up to that time Christianity had played a predominant role.

Serving as a link between two contrasting civilizations, this new oriental architectural style, thanks to the talent of outstanding architects, reached its peak.

In the field of literature, the cultural influence of Iran was still dominant.

Under the active patronage of the Sultan, classical Ottoman poetry in the Persian tradition reached a degree of perfection such as had never been achieved before. Suleiman introduced the official post of imperial rhythmic chronicler, a type of Ottoman poet laureate whose duty was to reflect current events in poetic form in imitation of the manner of Ferdowsi and other Persian chroniclers of historical events.

Suleiman brought new features of splendor to Eastern civilization, so it was not by chance that he was called the Magnificent by the West.

Suleiman's daily life in the palace - from the morning exit to the evening reception - followed a ritual comparable in its detailed precision to that of the French kings at Versailles.

Most of his day was occupied by official audiences and consultations with officials. But when there were no meetings of the Diwan, he could devote his time to leisure, perhaps reading the Book of Alexander - the legendary account of the Persian writer about the exploits of the great conqueror, or studying religious and philosophical works, or listening to music, etc.

The food for his three meals throughout the day was brought in by a long procession of pages, to be eaten alone from fine china and silver dishes placed on a low silver table, with sweetened and flavored water (occasionally wine) for drinking, with a doctor standing nearby as precautions against possible poisoning.

The Sultan slept on three crimson-colored velvet mattresses - one made of down and two of cotton - covered with sheets made of expensive fine fabric, and in winter - wrapped in the softest sable fur or black fox fur with his head resting on two green pillows with twisted ornament. Above his couch stood a gilded canopy, and around him were four tall wax candles on silver candlesticks, at which throughout the night there were four armed guards who extinguished the candles from the side in which the Sultan could turn, and guarded him until he woke up.

His public entertainments justified his reputation as an admirer of splendor. For example, in an effort to divert attention from his first defeat at Vienna, in the summer of 1530 he celebrated the day of the circumcision of his five sons; the festivities lasted three weeks.

It was then, present at these celebrations, stunning in their luxury, that one of the Venetian envoys described Suleiman I as follows: “He is 32 years old, he has a deathly pale face with an aquiline nose, a long neck; without outward signs of physical strength, has, as I noticed when I kissed her, a strong hand, and they claim that he is able to draw a bow like no other. He is melancholic by nature, a great admirer of women, liberal, full of pride, quick-tempered and yet at times a very gentle person.”

Suleiman's court was of great diplomatic importance. At the beginning of Suleiman's reign, the only representatives of the West were the Venetians. As time passed, the Venetians were supplemented by representatives of various powers who kept, including for the West, records of their own observations about the Ottoman state. Prominent among them was de Busbecq, a descendant of the Flemish nobility who had been Charles V's ambassador to Istanbul since 1554 and who was able to appreciate the civilized aspects of this unfamiliar world of the East.

The era of Suleiman is one of the great peaks in the history of world civilization. According to the laws of history, a period of prosperity is followed by a period of decline, so let’s try to figure out when the first signs of the decline of the Ottoman Empire appeared.

So, the reign of Suleiman I marks the apogee of the Ottomans. This is considered a peremptory point of view. His campaigns, almost always successful, were the most glorious pages in the history of the empire. He conducted no less than 13 campaigns - 10 in Europe and 3 in Asia - in which he sometimes led more than two hundred thousand soldiers with hundreds of guns. He took Baghdad and captured Iran, Belgrade, Buda and Hungary, which became Turkish for 150 years after the brilliant victory at Mohács over Ludwig II. In 1529, the Sultan laid siege to Vienna for the first time. Corsairs converted to Islam, the Barbarossa brothers, and after them a whole host of renegades of various stripes provided the Ottomans with absolute control over the Mediterranean Sea and created their bases in Algeria, Tunisia, Djerba, Tripoli, and Aden. Barbarossa founded a kingdom in North Africa that threatened the Christian world. Suleiman appointed him commander-in-chief of all the naval forces of the Ottoman Empire and in a few months built for him the most powerful fleet that ever existed in the world.

The world was in awe of Suleiman I, and despite the European strife caused by the Reformation, both Catholics and Protestants knew that the main problem was the threat from the East. The most fearful were preparing for the Apocalypse, which would punish Christians for disunity and crimes; The West tried to revive the spirit of the Crusades and hated the Great Turk, as they called Suleiman I.

The Sultan's wealth was unheard of and fabulous, his trading activities were comprehensive. Istanbul (about 700 thousand inhabitants) was the largest city in the empire, three times larger than Paris. In terms of the rate of demographic growth, the Ottoman Empire could be compared with Europe at that time: during the 16th century. its population grew from 12 to 35 million people. Legislators completed government organization. The fame of the most prominent Ottoman poets expanded: Baki and Fuzuli, whom Gibb considered “one of the most real poets that the East has produced.” The arts flourished. Architects, inspired by the example of the great Sinan (1489–1578 or 1588), erected majestic monuments in the capital and in the provinces and were not afraid to compete with St. Sophia - they equaled it with the Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul and surpassed it in beauty with the mosque Selimiyya in Edirne.

We have already named quite a lot of geographical points, we have repeatedly mentioned those that we had previously visited together with other great Turks - Damascus, Cairo, Baghdad, and some routes are new to us - Belgrade, Buda, the Maghreb countries (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco). By the way, as we have already noted, Amir Temur also showed great interest in the Maghreb, in particular in conversations with Ibn Khaldun.

Let us devote a few lines to the Maghreb, a large region in Africa whose history during the Ottoman era intersected with the history of Western Europe.

The Maghreb was a bone of contention between the Turks and the Spaniards. For Christians, the occupation of the North African coast was a matter long ago decided. Saint Louis made ancient Carthage his target. The Ottomans were just ripening the idea of creating their bases in these countries, which they called “barbarian,” and this idea was instilled in them by corsairs who were neither Turks nor Muslims by birth. And yet they executed it brilliantly. In 1516, Turkish corsairs landed in Algeria, in 1534 - in Tunisia, in 1551 - in Tripoli and established convenient bridgeheads there for campaigns in the Mediterranean Sea. The Christian coast was plundered and the galleys were burned. For centuries, instability reigned there, making sea travel in the Mediterranean more dangerous than crossing the Atlantic. By the way, looking ahead, let us remember Cervantes, who lived in the Maghreb from 1575 to 1580 and saw there harems and concubines from Provence, Calabria and Castile. The most beautiful girls were sent as gifts to the Sultan in Istanbul. Josephine Beauharnais's cousin, who was kidnapped in Martinique, managed to make her way into the Sultan's seraglio and later received the title of valide, and subsequently became the all-powerful queen mother of Sultan Mehmed II the Reformer.

When speaking of the period of decline, it is often believed that Turkish rule was limited to the coast. In fact, the occupation of North Africa occurred continuously right up to the borders of Morocco, which, however, remained untouched. In Algeria in 1522, the Sahara oases came under Turkish control, and a Turkish garrison appeared in Touggourt. In Tunisia in 1556–1559. The Turkish occupation practically ended with the creation of bridgeheads in Kayriana and Gafza. After the corsairs, the power of the Ottoman administration with its harsh laws was established. Permanent councils of senior officials were established - divans - subordinate to the pasha, the representative of the Sublime Porte. In the 16th century Algeria had more than 50 thousand inhabitants, almost the same as Damascus (70 thousand). Everywhere the ruling class consisted of families of Turkic origin, who were often at odds with the old Arab-Berber aristocracy; Adventurers of various stripes came to these cosmopolitan ports to try their luck, mostly renegade Christians, people, in essence, without honor or conscience. And they managed to achieve a lot. They resembled robbers, which in essence they were. Cervantes burned with anger towards Islam and the Turks, but he wrote about them with knowledge of the matter and thus presented a colorful portrait of the Venetian Hassan Pasha, ruler of Algeria, his master: “Every day he hanged someone; he impaled one, cut off the ears of another at the slightest provocation and for no reason, and the Turks themselves said that he did it simply for pleasure and because he was born an executioner.” Such evidence shows how the image of the Turk was perceived in Western Europe.

Over time, the situation in the Maghreb provinces changed. Demographic evolution in Algeria has led to the impoverishment of the country. On the eve of the French invasion, the city had no more than 30 thousand inhabitants, while about 100 thousand people lived in Baghdad, 150 thousand in Damascus, about 250 thousand in Aleppo, 300 thousand in Cairo. The sailors who occupied a special niche in the colonies created by them and for them, and who ensured prosperity there, did not hesitate to interfere in state affairs, and they often managed to seize power. In 1590, the dey of Tunis became the de facto ruler, and the pasha performed only representative functions under him. Things got to the point that the Algerian Pasha single-handedly appointed and removed provincial governors and beys, without looking back at Istanbul. And at the beginning of the 18th century. in Tripoli, Ahmad Pasha Karamanli (1711–1745), although he continued to send taxes collected to the capital, this was perhaps his only connection with the empire. Tunisia became an independent state in 1705, and Libya was freed from the Janissaries in 1816.

In 1830, the French landed in Algeria and defeated the Turks in the city and in the country as a whole; only later did the Arabs begin to be mentioned. The Sublime Porte failed to recapture Algeria, but tried to restore its power in Tunisia, where a secret war for influence began between its agents and the French. She lost Sirenaica, which entered into an alliance with the Senussis, but the Turks almost completely took control of Tripoli, where Turkish garrisons were stationed even in the most deserted places, because of this at the beginning of the 20th century. she became embroiled in a war with Italy.

So what is left in time in North Africa from the long Turkish presence? Archives. And its people, remembering their Ottoman origins and traditions, the importance of which should neither be exaggerated nor minimized. This is immediately noticeable. If you walk along the streets of the Maghreb cities, you will be struck by spacious halls under the domes of mosques, cylindrical minarets, palaces, as if dreaming of another sky, the sky above the Bosphorus. And also in places called "souk", rare ceramic square tiles, which are still traded, fleecy air-spun carpets, jewelry - all this, despite the pronounced local character, represents distant echoes of the imperial splendor and grandeur of the East.

However, let us return to the era of Suleiman I - the period of the absolute apogee of the Ottoman Empire. Of course, in the 16th century. no one noticed the first signs of the “disease” that was just emerging.

So, the absolute master of the empire was “the Sultan of Sultans, the sovereign of sovereigns, the giver of crowns to the monarchs of the earth, the shadow of God on earth,” as Suleiman I was called. He owned all the wealth, all the lands. He could give and take them away at his discretion. Land grants and higher titles were not hereditary, they were officially given for merit or due to the favor of the monarch. He was the absolute master of a slave state, in which, however, his own life depended on the squadron of the Janissary Guard, where the common people were freer than in any other country, where the law was so omnipotent that a thousand laws protected the subjects, that the Grand Vizier himself I visited markets every week to personally verify that prices were fair and that there were no abuses. Let us repeat: it was a Turkic empire, acutely aware of itself as such, remembering its origins, preserving the characteristic features of the Turkic genius. Like all Turks, Suleiman loved theological discussions, although he organized them only between Muslim scholars and was not interested in Christianity, unlike his ancestor Mehmed II. Let us cite the testimony of the Grand Vizier Ibrahim, who, we recall, was not a Turk. This favorite of Suleiman, who was put to death for no apparent reason, perhaps because devoted friendship, like immeasurable love, ultimately ends in death, once said: “There can be only one empire on earth, just as there is only one God on earth.” sky." Well, why not the phrase of Genghis Khan and Temur the Great!

However, being a Turk by consciousness and instinct, the Sultan was to a greater extent a Muslim. He was the embodiment of Islam. To live up to what from the very beginning had the foundation of being a Turk in the Western world, he had to fight heresies - hence his campaigns against Shah Ismail - and through victories expand the empire of the true God - hence his implacable enmity towards the Habsburgs, which prevented him from seeing the Eastern problems, although he was constantly informed about them. A devout man, he devoted a lot of time to copying the Koran, and at least eight handwritten texts written by him have survived. Like all the princes of his house, he was already a European. Since Muslims could not be enslaved, and the harems contained only male and female slaves, the mothers of the commanders of the faithful for generations were of Christian origin. Almost all high officials were Christians, also former slaves who came into service thanks to the “devshirmi”: young children were taken from their mothers and raised in the spirit of Islam in order to form from them both the core of the army - the guard, the corps of the Janissaries - and the corps "Ichoglan", pages who were destined for a brilliant career. None of the Magnificent's grand viziers was Turkic. Ibrahim, the favorite and confidant of the Sultan's youth, was a handsome Greek slave, Sokollu was a Bosnian, Lutfi was an Albanian, Rustem was a Bulgarian - of course, they all converted to Islam. The same picture occurred among lower-ranking officials. Thus, as Andre Clos notes, they were all Europeans. As for the minorities, they not only participated in the system that Mehmed II defined for them, but they became important cogs in the empire; each “nation,” to use Ottoman terminology, that is, each religious community, had its own villages, and the cities had their own neighborhoods, just like the Uighurs of Xinjiang or the Khazars... In Istanbul, Muslims did not constitute and half the population: 40% were Christians and more than 10% were Jews. Suleiman found great abilities among the Jews and took them into service the more willingly, the more they were persecuted by Christians. There were 160 thousand of them in the capital and in Salovniki.

In its own way, this design operated clearly, but required the voluntary participation of everyone and depended on wealth, success and the absence of national ideology.

Towards the end of Suleiman's reign, the successes became less and soon began to fade away. Riches began to melt away, and poverty loomed on the still distant horizon. European nationalism, a dangerous export product, was raising its head. The empire expanded beyond measure, and, alas, it was not in the hands of the nomads! It took months to reach its outskirts. The too cumbersome army lacked mobility: Iran remained invincible, since the Ottomans could not fight far from their bases. Despite impressive victories in the west, Suleiman still did not conquer Vienna and was constantly at war with the Habsburgs.

The Sultan, ruler of the largest empire on Earth, the supreme arbiter in European affairs, soon stopped leading troops on campaigns and began to lock himself in the seraglio among children, odalisques and eunuchs.

Enthusiasm was replaced by naked calculation; selflessness gave way to interest. Admiral Barbaross, like his rival Andrea Doria, did not want a decisive victory that would make him an unnecessary figure, and continued the endless war in which he was needed. The others acted exactly the same way. Everyone was overcome by indifference, the spirit of creativity was replaced by imitation, everyone thought only about satisfying their own ambitions. My horizons narrowed sharply. The first campaign against Iran ended in failure and was renewed twice, making the same mistakes and not learning any lessons from them.

The first of these three wars was tainted by the subsequent execution, at the instigation of Roksolana, the favorite of Sultan Ibrahim. The beginning of the third provoked an act even more heinous - and certainly more fatal in the annals of the Ottoman Empire than many others in the annals of world history.

And here we should reflect on the role of, say, an essentially ordinary but beloved woman in the fate and deeds of a great man.

Over the past two decades, Suleiman fell more than ever under the spell of his Slavic mistress, who became widely known to Europeans as La Rossa, or Roksolana. A captive from Galicia, the daughter of a Ukrainian priest, she received the nickname Hurrem, or “Laughing One,” from the Turks for her happy smile and cheerful disposition. In the affection of the Sultan, she replaced his former favorite Gulbahor. She made it a rule to exile and imprison her rivals, which was contrary to Turkic traditions. As an adviser, she replaced Ibrahim, whose fate she was able to predetermine. With a thin and graceful figure, Roksolana captivated more with her liveliness than her beauty. She pacified with the charm of her manners and stimulated with the liveliness of her mind. Quick to grasp and sensitive, Roksolana has perfectly mastered the art of reading Suleiman’s thoughts and directing them in directions that will help satisfy her thirst for power. First of all, she got rid of her predecessor Gulbahor, who was the “first lady” of Suleiman’s harem after his mother, Sultana Valide, and who went into almost exile for six months in Magnesia.

Having given birth to a child to the Sultan, Roksolana managed to become, despite Muslim laws, his recognized legal wife, something that none of the concubines of the Turkish Sultans had been able to achieve over the past two centuries. When, around 1541, the inner chambers of the old palace, where the Sultan's harem was located, were damaged by a strong fire, Roksolana created a new precedent by moving directly to the Grand Seraglio, where the Sultan lived and where he was engaged in state affairs. Here she took her belongings and a large retinue, which included one hundred ladies-in-waiting along with her personal tailor and supplier, who had thirty slaves of his own. According to tradition, no woman was allowed to spend the night in the Grand Seraglio. But Roksolana remained there until the end of her life, and over time a new harem was built here, inside his own closed courtyard, to take the place of the old one.

Finally, seven years after the execution of Ibrahim, Roksolana gained the highest power over the Sultan, having achieved the appointment as grand vizier of Rustem Pasha, who was married to her daughter Mihrimah and, therefore, was Suleiman's son-in-law, just as Ibrahim was Suleiman's brother-in-law. As the Sultan increasingly handed over the reins of power to Rustem, Roksolana grew ever closer to the zenith of her power.

Suleiman, with all the patience of his character, the integrity of his principles and the warmth of his affections, retained within himself a certain dangerous reserve of coldness, hidden cruelty, generated by a penchant for absolute power and a closely related suspicion of anyone who could compete with him. Roksolana knew well how to play on these strings of his nature. She gave birth to three heirs to the Sultan - Selim, Bayazed and Cihangir, the eldest of whom she was determined to ensure the succession to the throne. But Suleiman saw his successor as his first-born son, Mustafa, whose mother was Gulbahor. He was a handsome young man, of a nature of incredible promise, "remarkably highly educated and sensible, and of an age to rule," who had been groomed by his father for a number of responsible positions in the government and was governor of Amasya. Generous in spirit and courageous in battle, Mustafa won the love of the Janissaries, who saw him as a worthy successor to their father.

On the eve of the third Persian campaign, Suleiman, who had entered his sixtieth birthday, for the first time did not want to personally lead the army and handed over the supreme command to Rustem Pasha. But soon messages began to arrive through the messenger Rustem that the Janissaries were showing concern and were demanding, given the Sultan’s age, that they be led by Mustafa. They said, the messenger reported, that the Sultan had become too old to personally go on a campaign against the enemy, and that only the Grand Vizier was now opposed to Mustafa taking his post. The messenger from Rustem also conveyed to the Sultan that Mustafa listened favorably to such inflammatory rumors and that Rustem begged the Sultan, in order to save his throne, to immediately arrive and take command of the army into his own hands. This was a chance for Roksolana. It was easy for her to play on the strings of suspicion in Suleiman’s character, to instill in him hostility towards Mustafa’s ambitions, to instill in him the idea that his son had plans for the Sultan comparable to those that prompted his father, Selim, to depose his own father, Bayazed II .

Deciding whether to go on a hike or not, Suleiman hesitated. He was tormented by doubts associated with the step that he had to take in relation to his own son. Finally, making the case impersonal and theoretical, he tried to obtain an impartial verdict from the Mufti, Sheikh-ul-Islam. The Sultan told him, Busbeck testifies, “that in Istanbul there lived a merchant whose name was pronounced with respect. When he needed to leave home for a while, he entrusted the care of his property and household to the slave who enjoyed his greatest favor, and entrusted his wife and children to his fidelity. Before the master had time to leave, this slave began to steal his master’s property and plot evil against the life of his wife and children; Moreover, he plotted the death of his master.” The question to which the Sultan asked the Mufti to answer was: “What sentence could legally be imposed on this slave?” The Mufti replied that in his opinion, "he deserved to be tortured to death."

Thus, the Sultan's religious consciousness was saved. Marching in an eastern direction, he reached his field headquarters in Eregli in September and summoned Mustafa from Amasya. Friends, speculating about the fate that might await him, begged Mustafa not to comply. But he replied that if he were to lose his life, he could do no better than to return it back to the source from which he came. “Mustapha,” writes Busbecq, “faced a difficult choice: if he entered in the presence of his angry and offended father, he would run an undoubted risk; if he refuses, he will clearly emphasize that he was planning an act of treason. The son chose a bolder and more dangerous path.” He proceeded to his father's camp.

There, Mustafa's arrival caused great excitement. He boldly pitched his tents behind his father's. After the viziers had paid their respects to Mustafa, he rode on a richly decorated war horse, escorted by the viziers and amid the cheers of the Janissaries crowding around him, to the Sultan's tent, where he expected to have an audience. Inside, “everything seemed peaceful: there were no soldiers, bodyguards or accompanying persons. Present, however, were several mute (a category of servants especially highly valued by the Turks), strong, healthy men - his intended killers. As soon as Mustafa entered the inner tent, they resolutely rushed at him, trying with all their might to throw a noose over him. Being a man of strong physique, Mustafa bravely defended himself and fought not only for his life, but also for the throne, for there was no room for doubt that, had he been able to break free and unite with the Janissaries, they would have been so indignant and touched by a feeling of pity in relation to his favorite, that they could not only protect him, but also proclaim him sultan. Fearing this, Suleiman, who was fenced off from what was happening only by the linen curtains of the tent, stuck his head out in the place where his son was at that moment, and threw a fierce and menacing look at the mutes and stopped their hesitation with threatening gestures. After that, in fear, redoubling their efforts, the servants knocked the unfortunate Mustafa to the ground and, throwing a cord around his neck, strangled him.

Mustafa's body, placed on a carpet in front of the tent, was put on display for the entire army. Grief and lamentations were universal: horror and anger gripped the Janissaries. But with their chosen leader dead, lying lifeless, they were powerless.

To appease the soldiers, the Sultan stripped Rustem - no doubt not entirely against the latter's wishes - of his command and other ranks and sent him back to Istanbul. But two years later, after the execution of his successor, Ahmed Pasha, Rustem was again in power as grand vizier, undoubtedly at the insistence of Roksolana.

Three years later, Roksolana herself died, bitterly mourned by the Sultan. She was buried in the tomb that Suleiman built for her behind his huge new Sulaymaniyah mosque. This woman achieved her goals, and perhaps, if not for her intrigues, the history of the Ottoman Empire would have taken a different course. She ensured the succession of the empire to one or the other of her two sons: Selim, the eldest and her favorite, who was an uninterested drunkard, and Bayazed, the middle, incomparably more worthy successor. Moreover, Bayazed was a favorite of the Janissaries, in whom he resembled his father and from whom he inherited the best qualities of his nature. The youngest of the brothers, Jihangir, a hunchback, not distinguished by either a sound mind or a strong body, but the most devoted admirer of Mustafa, fell ill and died, struck by sadness and fear for his future fate, shortly after the murder of his half-brother.

The two remaining brothers felt mutual hatred, and in order to separate them from each other, Suleiman gave each the opportunity to command in different parts of the empire. But within a few years a civil war broke out between them, in which each was supported by his own local armed forces. Selim, with the help of his father's troops, defeated Bayazed near Konya in 1559, forcing him with four sons and a small but efficient army to seek refuge at the court of the Shah of Iran, Tahmasp. Here Bayazed was first received with royal honors and gifts due to an Ottoman prince. To this, Bayazed responded to the Shah with gifts, which included fifty Turkmen horses in rich harness and a demonstration of horsemanship by his cavalrymen that delighted the Persians. This was followed by a diplomatic exchange of letters between the Sultan's envoys, who demanded the extradition or, optionally, execution of his son, and the Shah, who resisted both, based on the laws of Muslim hospitality. At first, the Shah hoped to use his hostage to bargain for the return of lands in Mesopotamia that the Sultan had seized during the first campaign. But it was an empty hope. Bayazed was taken into custody. In the end, the Shah was forced to bow his head to the superiority of the Ottoman armed forces and agreed to a compromise. According to the agreement, the prince was to be executed on Persian soil, but by the people of the Sultan. Thus, in exchange for a large sum of gold, the Shah handed Bayazed over to the official executioner from Istanbul. When Bayazed asked for the opportunity to see and hug his four sons before they died, he was advised to “move on to the task at hand.” After that, a cord was thrown around the prince's neck, and he was strangled.

Following Bayazed, his four sons were strangled. The fifth son, only three years old, met, by order of Suleiman, the same fate in Bursa, being given into the hands of a trusted eunuch assigned to carry out this order.

By that time, the accumulated wealth of the Ottomans had reached a dangerous level: wealth loves idleness, develops a taste for pleasure and strives for constant growth. Corruption began to crowd out virtue, and effort became meaningless. Any merit could be bought. Gold eclipsed everything else. Each position attracted profitability.

So, the road to the throne for Roksolana’s eldest son, Selim II (1566–1574), nicknamed the Drunkard, was open, the goal was achieved, the seeds of decline were sown.

Yes, time is fleeting, centuries fly by, but the role of an extraordinary and, moreover, beloved woman in the life of even a great statesman is unshakable, the only difference is in the target orientation of each of them, and world history is proof of this.

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Vanished Empires

Irina Parasyuk (Dortmund)

B In 1299, Osman, the son of the Turkic ruler Ertogrul, became the founder of the dynasty and the first sultan of the Ottoman state. It must be said that the Turkic tribe, to which on belonged, considered the seizure of neighboring lands not only necessary, but alsoocstill sacred.Tato a littleeOsmanskoestatesogradually turnedocb into a huge empire.

Kaiser-i Rum

The Ottoman state knew different times and different rulers:

Orhan, whose army landed on the European shore of the Dardanelles and, taking Gelibolu (Gallipoli), strengthened its position in Europe;

Bayazet, who conquered Bulgaria, Macedonia and Thessaly;

Mehmed, who reigned in Asia Minor and concluded peace treaties with his Christian neighbors;

His son, Murad II, who took possession of Thessalonica, Corinth, Patras, and part of Albania;

And finally, Mehmed II. Led by him, on May 29, 1453, the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire.

The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI, fell in battle. The birthplace of Orthodoxy, Byzantium, ceased to exist. Its lands became part of the Ottoman state, from then on called empire. Sultan Mehmed II added to his titles the “Caesar of Rome” - Kaiser-i Rum.

“So that there is order on earth”

In 1478, Mehmed II issued an absolutely remarkable law: “Which of my sons who ascends the throne has the right to kill his brothers so that there is order on earth.” The reason seemed to be “worthy” - the desire to avoid a struggle for power in the future.

During the existence of the Ottoman Empire, 78(!) princes were killed: brothers, sons, grandsons, nephews... Not counting wives, concubines, slaves - they were drowned in leather bags or, as a special favor, strangled with a silk cord... Cruel !

True, we can remember that Elizabeth and Mary Stuart were cousins. And Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great also did not quite deal with their sons in a fatherly manner.

It is incomprehensible to the mind, but it is a fact: the cruelty of the Ottoman sultans was combined with a love of science and literature, patronage of scientists and poets, theologians and musicians, and even religious tolerance. However, relative tolerance towards the “infidels” existed only on the conditions of their complete submission. But in general, everything happened...

The Bulgarians will never forget the brutal defeat of the April Uprising of 1876, when, according to various sources, from 25 to 50 thousand Bulgarians died. And the tragedy of the village of Batak, the only Christian one surrounded by Muslim villages (up to 5,000 children and women alone were slaughtered).

OThe Serbs suffered from the arbitrariness of the Janissaries. Uprisings broke out and were brutally suppressed.

BThis world knows the tragedy of the Armenian people...

It is impossible to talk and write about this casually, in a nutshell and within the framework of a small magazine article...

Therefore, just a few stories about the sultans. And about those women who in this Muslim country were not only inhabitants of harems.

Fatih

Mehmed II was called Fatih, i.e. conqueror. The author of the “law on fratricide” was immensely cruel and extravagant. They said that, dressed in rags, he loved to wander around the city. Death awaited everyone who recognized him, and those who supposedly did not recognize him were killed anyway - for deception.

Having become the Sultan, he destroyed everyone who could even hypothetically stand in his way. Among the victims was his nine-month-old(!) brother...

Having taken Constantinople, Fatih gave the city up for plunder. Three days later he rode into the Hagia Sophia on a white horse. From then until 1935, the Hagia Sophia mosque stood on the site of this Orthodox church...

Mehmed issued a decree “providing freedom to all who remained alive.” But still (according to various sources) from 30 to 50 thousand inhabitants were sold into slavery.

Along with the women's, Mehmed had a harem with beautiful boys. Luke Notaras, commander-in-chief of the Byzantine fleet, refused to give his 14-year-old son to Mehmet's harem, for which he was executed. The boy suffered the same fate.

With all this... Mehmed II tried to preserve the Christian values of Constantinople, the new capital of the Ottoman Empire. He established connections with the abbots of Christian churches and missions. The Greeks received the right to a self-governing community headed by a patriarch, subordinate to the sultan.

Mehmed sought to collect all the achievements of European science and literature, sometimes using very original methods. For example, he demanded tribute from conquered cities... in manuscripts. They were translated into Turkish. It was under Mehmed that Turkish became a real language, with grammar and spelling.

The Janissary palace school began to prepare the educated elite of society. The main criteria were intelligence and abilities. Origin and religion did not play a role - even slaves were taken there! The principle “You have strength, you don’t need intelligence” was replaced by another: “A strong body needs a smart head.”

“He ruined his country and enriched ours”

These words were spoken by Mehmed's son, Bayezid II, upon learning that on March 31, 1492, their Catholic Majesties Ferdinand and Isabella issued the Alhambra Decree on the expulsion of Jews from Spain. He called Ferdinand a fool and allowed Jews to settle in Istanbul.

As you know, it is impossible to walk from Spain to the Ottoman Empire. Getting there by land is the same. The sea route was the only one and incredibly dangerous. A huge number of refugees have accumulated in the port of Kadesh. But the ships were afraid to go to sea. Because pirates of all stripes were patiently waiting for them there. The situation seemed hopeless...

In August, a Turkish flotilla led by Admiral Kamal Reis approached Kadesh. He announced that Sultan Bayezid II was taking the Jews under his protection.

This show of force proved to be a very effective means. The sea route has become safe. About 150 thousand Spanish Jews found shelter in the Ottoman Empire.

How did they live in a Muslim country? Calm and serene? No! Where they did everything they could even to the sultans and their relatives, the Jews, of course, were no exception.

Were they equal among equals? Hno! Jews (like Christians) were obliged to pay a poll tax and land tax as being one step lower than Muslims.

The essence of the then attitude towards Jews was in one phrase: “According to the Koran, all rayats (non-Muslims) have the same rights, and only Muslims are their masters.”

But… nevertheless, the Jews lived according to their religious laws. There were no Jewish ghettos or what in Russia was called the Pale of Settlement. In the service of the sultans, they held the positions of translators, doctors, tax and customs collectors, and sometimes advisors and diplomats. They were military leaders and naval commanders. They cast cannons and produced ammunition, and opened a printing house in Istanbul with the country's first printing press. The economy of the state actually rested on Jews and Christians.

And most importantly, in difficult times, the Ottoman Empire extended a helping hand to the persecuted. And simply put, she saved many from physical extermination.

During the reign of Suleiman I, the position of the Jews strengthened. About 30 thousand of them lived in Istanbul alone (and there were 44 synagogues). There is a known case when Suleiman I personally asked Pope Paul IV not to oppress Jewish traders in the papal domains, where they traveled on state affairs.

A little later, the doctor Solomon Ashkenazi arrived in Venice as an ambassador of the Ottoman Empire. The Christian world of that time, in which Jews were discriminated against (and sometimes exterminated), was shocked. But nothing, they became indignant and fell silent - it was dangerous to quarrel with the powerful Porte, no matter who represented it...

Kanuni

Legislator - this is what Suleiman I was called in Turkey. In Europe he is known as Suleiman the Magnificent.

His father Selim I made life easier for his son by executing his other children. He left the younger one, Suleiman, alive so that the Ottoman family would not be extinguished. According to “family tradition,” upon coming to power, Suleiman I executed his nephew and his two sons. Since there was no one else to execute at that time, he moved on to other matters.

The Ottoman Empire lived under Sharia law. If there was no suitable law, the judge or ruler “pulled by the ears” the real case to the existing Sharia law. One could only guess about the justice of such decisions.

Suleiman issued a series of laws that covered all aspects of government. The book of laws consisted of three parts: the first contained articles on fines and punishments for crimes, the second on taxes, and the third on the rights and obligations of non-Muslims.

During the 46 years of Suleiman I's reign, the Ottoman Empire strengthened its power. Admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa (former king of the Barbary pirates) defeated the fleets of the European powers, taking control of the Mediterranean and Black Seas. The port of Halic-Galata has become one of the largest ports in the Mediterranean.

By the way, King Francis I of France, initially an apologist for the crusade against the Turks, found a generous ally in Suleiman.

Waging two dozen wars, Suleiman included Serbia, parts of Hungary, North Africa and the Middle East into the empire... Diplomatic wisdom, a strong army, gold ducats - everything was used.

And new dams, canals, bridges, mosques, madrassas, caravanserais were built...

And there was also...

Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska

“Giving joy”... Suleiman’s beloved woman, whom the whole world knows under the name Roksolana. Suleiman married Hurrem, breaking the three-hundred-year-old custom of not marrying concubines. After his marriage, he dissolved the harem. Their marriage was monogamous - something unheard of in those days...

The daughter of a priest from the town of Rohatyn is Anastasia Lisovskaya. Either sold, or donated first to the Grand Vizier, then to Suleiman. Nicknamed Roksolana. Smart, talented, strong-willed. She sang, played, knew several languages. By hook or by crook, she paved the way to the throne.

She was called the witch who made the Sultan drunk. A ruthless intriguer who destroyed his sons for the sake of her son Selim.

Suleiman, indeed, strangled his eldest son Mustafa, who was aiming to take his place. And at the same time, his five sons, his grandchildren, just in case. What was Hyurem’s role in this... probably was!

But in those days when the law “not you, then you” was in effect, one can only blame her for not wanting to end her life at the bottom of the Bosphorus.

Apparently, she did not forget the path from Nastya to Haseki, the “dear to the heart” wife of the Sultan. Like all the humiliations along the way. She ordered the slave market to be razed and a mosque, madrasah, almshouse, and hospital erected in its place.

And further. During his long reign, Suleiman never tried to seize Ukrainian lands. And this was attributed to the influence of Roksolana.

Her name is often associated with the so-called. Women's Sultanate - the period when the mothers of the sultans were in power. But that's not true. She died before her son became Sultan Selim II. Therefore, she was not Valide Sultan (queen mother).

Female Sultanate

There were four of them. European women who actually ruled the Ottoman Empire.

The first was Nurbanu - the Venetian Secilia Baffo, the beloved wife of Selim II. In 1574, her son Murad III took the throne.

Valide Nurbanu's opinion was decisive for the Sultan in both state and personal affairs. By the way, with the full consent of his European mother, Murad executed five of his half-brothers.

His concubine, Sophie, also a Venetian, had enormous power. During Murad’s lifetime, the Venetian Giovanni Moro wrote: “... she interferes in the internal affairs of the state, she is very respected in this, the Sultan listens to her and considers her sensible and wise.”

It must be said that Murad III was very prolific - he left behind 20 sons and 27 daughters.

Having become valid Sultan under her son Mehmed III, Sophia did not object to the execution of 19 (!) of his brothers. This bloody record was never broken. At the same time, both Nurbanu and Sofie were educated women, they built mosques, madrassas, baths and hospitals, and were engaged in charity work. Nurbanu corresponded with Catherine de Medici, Safiye corresponded with the Queen of England.

But the Greek woman Kösem Sultan did not allow the childless Murad IV to kill his brother Ibrahim. Murad IV became Sultan while a child. And all power was in the hands of his mother Kösem. After the death of Murad IV, his surviving brother Ibrahim became sultan. He had the nickname “mad”, “ruled” mainly in the harem. And the country was ruled, again, by Kösem.

One of Ibrahim’s concubines, Ukrainian Nadezhda, gave birth to his son Mehmed in 1642.

In 1648, the baby's grandmother, Kösem, helped overthrow Ibrahim and turned a blind eye to his murder.

So, a six-year-old child became Sultan Mehmed IV. And the rules... again Grandma Kosem. But not for long. The former Nadezhda, now Valide Turhan, sent her to a better world three years later and took power into her own hands. She conducted state affairs, surrounding herself with knowledgeable and intelligent subjects, and enjoyed their support and respect.

In May 1656, the Maltese defeated the Ottoman fleet at the Dardanelles. There was also unrest within the country. Under pressure from Turhan, Mehmed Köprülü became the grand vizier. He dismissed the chief admiral, with the help of the Janissaries he suppressed military riots, executed about thirty pashas... For calling for an uprising against the Ottomans in Wallachia, the Orthodox patriarch was hanged - an unheard of story... This cruelty, however, put an end to the rebellions. Under the command of Köprülü, military affairs also improved.

Turhan built two fortresses on the European and Asian banks of the Dardanelles. She completed the New Mosque in Istanbul, begun by Safiye Sultan, a school, a market, a cemetery, public baths...

Turhan was the last representative of the Women's Sultanate.

And her son, Sultan Mehmed IV, was glorified, albeit indirectly, by the great Russian artist Repin.

“The Cossacks are writing a letter...”

It was Mehmed IV who was destined for the letter from the Zaporozhye Cossacks. It seems that they annoyed the Sultan greatly, and he wrote them a letter. Quite polite, although somewhat immodest:

“I, Sultan... brother of the Sun and Moon, grandson and viceroy of God on earth... trustee of God himself... (further in the same spirit)... I command you, Zaporozhye Cossacks, to surrender to me voluntarily... and Don't make me worry!"

The Cossacks, after consulting, composed an answer. This brilliant example of the epistolary genre, unfortunately, cannot be reproduced due to the use of profanity. The mildest expressions: "... damn son and brother, Lucifer's own secretary... You pig face..." Unfortunately, they do not convey all the merits of the letter.

By the way, all over the world the nationality of a child is determined by the mother. So the epistolary masterpiece was addressed... exactly, to his own Ukrainian, albeit on the Ottoman throne...

"The Sick Man of Europe"

This is how the once great Ottoman Empire was called in the 19th century. Even Sultan Selim III (1789-1807) tried to carry out reforms according to the Western European model. However, the corrupt authorities and the army leadership did not accept the experience of the “infidels”.

Meanwhile, the external debt was growing, the economy was in decline, the poor and illiterate population was hostile to both the authorities and the reformers.

In 1865, a secret society of “new Ottomans”, supporters of the constitutional system, appeared. On December 23, 1876, the first Turkish constitution was proclaimed.

The next attempt to modernize the Ottoman Empire was made with the help of Germany. William II considered Turkey as his outpost for an offensive in the East. The Turkish army was modernized. Germany received a concession to build a railway from Berlin to the Persian Gulf.

At the turn of the twentieth century, the Young Turks became the political successors of the “new Ottomans”, who proclaimed that all peoples are brothers. However, the ruling “Turkish brothers” were in the minority, other “brothers” saw and understood this, and the idea of “brotherhood,” alas, only struck a spark of interethnic hostility. Then the leader of the Young Turks, Enver Pasha, put forward the doctrine of pan-Turkism: “A Turkish donkey is better than a foreign prophet.” From a spark “a flame was ignited”, and how it ended is reminiscent of the monuments in Yerevan, Los Angeles, Burgas...

Defeat in the First World War was the death sentence of the brilliant Porte.

P.S. The Ottoman state lasted 624 years. On November 17, 1922, Mehmed VI, the 36th Ottoman monarch, left Istanbul forever on an English ship. On October 29, 1923, Türkiye was proclaimed a republic, and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk became its first president.

Grand Vizier and Divan) of the Ottoman Empire.

The Sublime Porte - in the language of Turkish officials means the residence of the Turkish Sultan, as well as the seat of the Turkish government, and finally, the Turkish monarchy itself. In the latter sense, the name V. Porta was also adopted by Europeans. The expression Sublime Porte has the same meaning.

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Notes

Excerpt characterizing Porta

“And drink,” said one of the officers, who did not want to quarrel.
“Yes, and drink,” Nikolai picked up. - Hey, you! Another bottle! - he shouted.

In 1808, Emperor Alexander traveled to Erfurt for a new meeting with Emperor Napoleon, and in high society in St. Petersburg there was a lot of talk about the greatness of this solemn meeting.
In 1809, the closeness of the two rulers of the world, as Napoleon and Alexander were called, reached the point that when Napoleon declared war on Austria that year, the Russian corps went abroad to assist their former enemy Bonaparte against their former ally, the Austrian emperor; to the point that in high society they talked about the possibility of a marriage between Napoleon and one of the sisters of Emperor Alexander. But, in addition to external political considerations, at this time the attention of Russian society was especially keenly drawn to the internal transformations that were being carried out at that time in all parts of public administration.
Life, meanwhile, the real life of people with their essential interests of health, illness, work, rest, with their interests of thought, science, poetry, music, love, friendship, hatred, passions, went on as always, independently and without political affinity or enmity with Napoleon Bonaparte, and beyond all possible transformations.
Prince Andrei lived in the village for two years without a break. All those enterprises on estates that Pierre started and did not bring to any result, constantly moving from one thing to another, all these enterprises, without showing them to anyone and without noticeable labor, were carried out by Prince Andrei.
He had, to a high degree, that practical tenacity that Pierre lacked, which, without scope or effort on his part, set things in motion.
One of his estates of three hundred peasant souls was transferred to free cultivators (this was one of the first examples in Russia); in others, corvee was replaced by quitrent. In Bogucharovo, a learned grandmother was written out to his account to help mothers in labor, and for a salary the priest taught the children of peasants and courtyard servants to read and write.
Prince Andrei spent half of his time in Bald Mountains with his father and son, who was still with the nannies; the other half of the time in the Bogucharov monastery, as his father called his village. Despite the indifference he showed Pierre to all the external events of the world, he diligently followed them, received many books, and to his surprise he noticed when fresh people came to him or his father from St. Petersburg, from the very whirlpool of life, that these people, in knowledge of everything that is happening in foreign and domestic policy, they are far behind him, who sits in the village all the time.

porta - door, gate listen)) is the name adopted in the history of diplomacy and international relations for the government (office of the grand vizier and divan) of the Ottoman Empire, which collapsed after the First World War.

It was named after the gate leading to the courtyard of the great vizier (Turkish Bâb-ı Âli, Bab-y Ali). The name has been applicable since the 15th century (the beginning of the greatness of the Ottoman Empire).