For almost 400 years, the Ottoman Empire controlled most of the territories of Southeast Europe, Turkey and the Middle East. It was founded by brave Turkic horsemen, but the empire soon lost much of its original power and vitality, falling into a state of functional dysfunction that held many secrets.
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10Fratricide
In the early periods, the Ottoman sultans did not practice the principle of primogeniture, when the eldest son is the only heir. Therefore, all available brothers claimed the throne at once, and the losers then went over to the side of enemy states and for a long time caused many problems for the victorious Sultan.
When Mehmed the Conqueror tried to conquer Constantinople, his uncle fought against him from the walls of the city. Mehmed solved the problem with his characteristic ruthlessness. After ascending the throne, he simply ordered the killing of male relatives, including not sparing his infant brother. Later, he issued a law that deprived more than one generation of life: “And the one of my sons who leads the Sultanate must kill his brothers. Most ulema allow themselves to do this anyway. So let them continue to act like this.”
From that moment on, each new sultan took the throne by killing all his male relatives. Mehmed III tore out his beard out of grief when his younger brother asked not to kill him. But he "did not answer a single word," and the boy was executed along with 18 other brothers. The sight of their 19 wrapped bodies being driven through the streets was said to have made the whole of Istanbul cry.
Even after the first round of murders, the rest of the Sultan's relatives were also dangerous. Suleiman the Magnificent watched silently from behind the screen as his own son was strangled with a bowstring; the boy became too popular in the army, so that the Sultan could not feel safe.
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9
In the photo: Kafes, Kuruçeşme, İstanbul The principle of fratricide was never popular with the people and the clergy, so it was quietly abolished after the sudden death of Sultan Ahmed in 1617. Instead, potential heirs to the throne were kept at Topkapi Palace in Istanbul in special rooms known as "Kafes" ("cages").
One could spend one's entire life imprisoned in Kafes under the constant supervision of guards. Imprisonment was generally luxurious in terms of conditions, but with very strict restrictions. Many princes went crazy from boredom, or went into debauchery and drunkenness. When the new sultan was brought to the Gate of the Sovereign so that the viziers could pledge their loyalty to him, it may have been the first time he had gone outside in several decades, which did not bode well for the abilities of the new ruler.
In addition, the threat of liquidation from the ruling relative was constant. In 1621, the Grand Mufti refused Osman II's request to strangle his brother. Then he turned to the chief judge, who made the opposite decision, and the prince was strangled. Osman himself was later overthrown by the military, who were to remove his surviving brother from Kafes by dismantling the roof and pulling him out on a rope. The poor man spent two days without food or water, and was probably too distraught to notice that he had become Sultan.
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8Silent Hell in the Palace
Even for the Sultan, life in Topkapi could be extremely boring and unbearable. It was then considered that it was indecent for the Sultan to talk too much, so a special sign language was introduced, and the ruler spent most of his time in complete silence. Sultan Mustafa found this completely unbearable and tried to lift such a ban, but his viziers refused. Mustafa soon went crazy and threw coins from the shore to the fish so that they would spend them.
Intrigues were constantly woven in the palace and in large quantities, as viziers, courtiers, and eunuchs fought for power. For 130 years, the women of the harem had great influence, a period that became known as the "female sultanate." Dragoman (chief translator) was always an influential person, and always a Greek. Eunuchs were divided along racial lines, with the chief black eunuch and the chief white eunuch often being bitter rivals.
At the center of this madness, the Sultan was under surveillance wherever he went. Ahmet III wrote to the Grand Vizier: “If I go from one room to another, 40 people line up, when I need to put on my pants, I do not feel the slightest comfort in this environment, so the squire must dismiss everyone, leaving only three or four people to I could be calm." Spending their days in complete silence under constant surveillance and in such a poisonous atmosphere, several Ottoman sultans of the last period lost their minds.
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7
The authorities in the Ottoman Empire had complete control over both the life and death of their subjects. Moreover, death was quite commonplace. The first courtyard of the Topkapi Palace, where petitioners and guests gathered, was a terrible place. There were two columns on which severed heads hung and a special fountain in which only executioners could wash their hands. During periodic total “cleansings” in the palace, entire mounds of cut-out tongues of the guilty were piled up in this courtyard, and a special cannon fired every time another body was thrown into the sea.
It is interesting that the Turks did not specifically create a corps of executioners. This work was performed by the palace gardeners, who divided their time between executions and growing delicious flowers. They beheaded most of their victims. But shedding the blood of members of the royal family and high-ranking officials was forbidden; they would be strangled. As a result, the head gardener was always a huge, muscular man who was capable of strangling any vizier at a moment's notice.
In the early periods, the viziers were proud of their obedience, and any decision of the Sultan was accepted without complaint. The famous vizier Kara Mustafa very respectfully greeted his executioner with the humble words “Let it be so,” while kneeling with a noose around his neck.
In subsequent years, attitudes towards this type of business management changed. In the 19th century, Governor Ali Pasha fought so hard against the Sultan's men that he had to be shot through the floorboards of his house.
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6
There was one way for the faithful vizier to avoid the wrath of the Sultan and stay alive. Beginning in the late 18th century, a custom arose that a convicted grand vizier could avoid execution by defeating the head gardener in a race through the palace gardens.
The condemned man was brought to a meeting with the head gardener, and after an exchange of greetings, the vizier was presented with a cup of frozen sherbet. If the sherbet was white, it meant that the Sultan had granted a reprieve. If it is red, then an execution must take place. As soon as the vizier saw the red sherbet, he had to immediately run away.
The viziers ran through the palace gardens between shady cypress trees and rows of tulips, while hundreds of eyes watched them from behind the windows of the harem. The convict's goal was to reach the fish market gate on the other side of the palace. If the vizier reached the gate before the head gardener, he was simply exiled. But the gardener was always younger and stronger, and, as a rule, was already waiting for his victim at the gate with a silk cord.
However, several viziers managed to avoid execution in this way, including Hachi Salih Pasha, the last to participate in this death race. After running with the gardener, he became the governor of one of the provinces.
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5Mauling of Viziers
In theory, the Grand Vizier was second in command to the Sultan, but it was he who was executed or thrown into the crowd whenever things went wrong. Under Sultan Selim the Terrible there were so many great viziers that they always began to carry their wills with them. One day one of them asked Selim to let him know in advance if they were going to execute him, to which the Sultan cheerfully replied that there was already a queue lined up to replace him.
The viziers also had to reassure the people of Istanbul, who had the habit of coming to the palace and demanding execution in case of any failures. It must be said that people were not afraid to storm the palace if their demands were not met. In 1730, a rag-clad soldier named Patrona Ali led a crowd into the palace and they were able to take control of the empire for several months. He was stabbed to death after trying to get a butcher to lend him money for the ruler of Wallachia.
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4
Perhaps the most terrible place in the Topkapi Palace was the imperial harem. It numbered up to 2,000 women - the wives and concubines of the Sultan, most of them were bought or kidnapped as slaves. They were kept locked up in the harem, and for a stranger, one look at them meant immediate death. The harem itself was guarded and controlled by the Chief Black Eunuch, whose position was one of the most powerful in the empire.
Very little information has reached us about the living conditions in the harem and about the events taking place within its walls. It was believed that there were so many concubines that the Sultan had never even seen some of them. And others were so influential that they participated in the administration of the empire. Suleiman the Magnificent fell madly in love with a concubine from Ukraine, whose name was Roksolana, married her, and made her his main adviser.
Roxolana's influence was so great that the Grand Vizier ordered the kidnapping of the Italian beauty Julia Gonzaga in the hope that she could capture the attention of the Sultan. The plan was foiled by a brave Italian who broke into Julia's bedroom and carried her away on horseback just before the kidnappers arrived.
Kösem Sultan had even more influence than Roksolana, effectively ruling the empire as regent for her son and grandson. But Turhan’s daughter-in-law did not give up her position without a fight, and Kösem Sultan was strangled with a curtain by Turhan’s supporters.
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3Tax in blood
In the early Ottoman period, there was a devşirme (“blood tax”), a type of tax in which boys from the Christian subjects of the empire were taken into the service of the empire. Most of the boys became janissaries and slave soldiers, who were always at the forefront of all Ottoman conquests. The tax was collected irregularly only when the empire's available number of soldiers fell short. As a rule, boys aged 12-14 were taken from Greece and the Balkans.
Ottoman officials collected all the boys in the village and checked names against baptismal records from the local church. Then the strongest were selected, at the rate of one boy for every 40 households. Selected children were sent on foot to Istanbul, the weakest were left to die on the roadsides. A detailed description of each child was prepared so that they could be tracked if they escaped.
In Istanbul, they were circumcised and forcibly converted to Islam. The most beautiful or intelligent were sent to the palace, where they were trained so that they could join the elite part of the Sultan's subjects. These guys could eventually reach very high ranks, and many of them became pashas or viziers, like the famous Grand Vizier from Croatia Sokollu Mehmed.
The rest of the boys joined the Janissaries. They were first sent to work on farms for eight years, where they learned Turkish and grew up. At the age of 20, they officially became Janissaries - the elite soldiers of the empire with iron discipline and ideology.
There were exceptions to this tax. It was forbidden to take away from the family the only child or children from men who served in the army. For some reason, orphans and Hungarians were not accepted. Residents of Istanbul were also excluded on the grounds that they "have no sense of shame." The system of such tribute ceased to exist at the beginning of the 18th century, when the children of the Janissaries were allowed to become Janissaries
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2
Slavery remained a major feature of the Ottoman Empire until the end of the 19th century. Most slaves came from Africa or the Caucasus (the Circassians were especially valued), and the Crimean Tatars provided a constant flow of Russians, Ukrainians and even Poles. It was believed that Muslims could not legally be enslaved, but this rule was quietly forgotten when the recruitment of non-Muslims ceased.
Renowned scholar Bernard Lewis argued that Islamic slavery emerged independently of Western slavery and, therefore, had a number of significant differences. For example, it was easier for Ottoman slaves to gain freedom or occupy high positions. But there is no doubt that Ottoman slavery was incredibly cruel. Millions of people died from raids or from
exhausting work in the fields. This is not even mentioning the castration process used to obtain eunuchs. As Lewis pointed out, the Ottomans brought millions of slaves from Africa, but there are now very few people of African descent in modern Turkey. This speaks for itself.
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1
In general, the Ottoman Empire was quite tolerant. Apart from the devshirme, they made no real attempt to convert their non-Muslim subjects to Islam and welcomed the Jews when they were expelled from Spain. Subjects were never discriminated against, and the empire was practically run by Albanians and Greeks. But when the Turks themselves felt threatened, they could act very cruelly.
Selim the Terrible, for example, was very concerned that the Shiites, who rejected his authority as a defender of Islam, could be double agents for Persia. As a result, he swept through the east of his empire, destroying livestock and killing at least 40,000 Shiites.
As the empire weakened, it lost its former tolerance, and minorities had a hard time. By the 19th century, massacres became more and more common. In the terrible year of 1915, just two years before the collapse of the empire, the massacre of 75 percent of the Armenian population was organized. About 1.5 million people died then, but Turkey still refuses to fully recognize these atrocities as the Armenian genocide.
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Conclusion
This was an article Secrets of the Ottoman Empire. TOP 10 interesting facts. Thank you for your attention!
Fatih Law- a law of the Ottoman Empire that allows one of the heirs to the throne to kill the others in order to prevent wars and unrest.
Law of fratricide
Formulation
The "law on fratricide" is contained in the second chapter ( bāb-ı sānī) Eve-name of Mehmed II. The two versions of the wording of the law, preserved in the sources, have only minor spelling and stylistic differences from each other. The following is a version from a text published by Mehmed Erif Bey in 1912:
Original text (pers.)
و هر کمسنه یه اولادمدن سلطنت میسر اوله قرنداشلرین نظام عالم ایچون قتل ایتمك مناسبدر اکثر علما دخی تجویز ایتمشدر انکله عامل اولهلر
Original text (Turkish)
Ve her kimseye evlâdımdan saltanat müyesser ola, karındaşların Nizâm-ı Âlem için katl eylemek münasiptir. Ekser ûlema dahi tecviz etmiştir. Anınla amil olalar
Lyrics
The so-called Fatih law of fratricide can be found in the Qanun-nama of Mehmed II in the second part, setting out the rules of the court and state organization. The text of Kanun-name has not reached us in the original language; only copies of the 17th century have survived. For a long period it was believed that Mehmed could not legalize fratricide. Doubters believed that Europeans had invented this law and falsely attributed it to Fatih. The supposedly irrefutable proof of this, from their point of view, was that the law existed for a long time in the only list of Kanun-name in the Vienna archive. However, during the research, other specimens were found dating back to the times of the Ottoman Empire. Historians Halil Inalcık and Abdulkadir Özcan have shown that Kanun-name, except for a small part of it, was created by Fatih, but the lists that have survived to this day contain inclusions dating back to the reign of Fatih’s son and his successor Bayezid II.
Two identical manuscripts in the Austrian National Library in Vienna (Cod. H. O. 143 and Cod. A. F. 547). One manuscript, dated 18 March 1650, was published in 1815 by Joseph Hammer under the title Codex of Sultan Muhammad II and was translated into German with omissions. About a century later, Mehmed Arif Bey published the text of an older manuscript dated October 28, 1620, entitled Ḳānūnnnāme-i āl-i’Os̠mān(“Code of the Ottomans”). Other copies besides these two were unknown until the discovery of the second volume of Koji Hussein's unfinished chronicle Beda'i'u l-veḳā"i, "Founding Times". Koca Hussein, in his own words, used notes and texts stored in archives.
Copy of the chronicle (518 sheets, in Nesta'lī Du-Duktus, sheet dimensions 18 x 28.5 cm, 25 lines per page) was purchased from a private collection in 1862 in St. Petersburg and ended up in the Leningrad branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where it is stored (NC 564). The first facsimile publication of this manuscript after lengthy preparation took place in 1961.
Another, shorter and incomplete list of Kanun-name (in which the law of fratricide is absent) can be found in the work of Hezarfen Hüseyin-effendi (died 1691) in the work “Telshiyu l-bekan-fa-āavānīn-i āl-i'Os̠mān ", "Summary of explanations of the laws of the House of Osman." According to the preface, it was written by a certain Leysad Mehmed b. Mustafa, the head of the state chancellery (tevvi'i) in three sections or chapters. The creation of the manuscript dates back to the time when Karamanli Mehmed Pasha (1477-1481) was the grand vizier.
One of the first Ottoman chroniclers to comment on Kanun-name and quote it was Mustafa Ali Effendi (1541-1600).
Succession to the throne and dynastic assassinations
Before the introduction of the Fatih Law
For a long time after the formation of the Ottoman state, there was no direct transfer of power from one ruler to the next in the ruling dynasty. In the east, in particular in the countries of Dar al Islam, as a legacy of nomadic times, a system was preserved in which all family members descended from the founder of the dynasty in the male line had equal rights ( Ekber-i-Nesebi). The Sultan did not appoint a successor; it was believed that the ruler did not have the right to determine in advance which of all the contenders and heirs would receive power. As Mehmed II said about it: “The Almighty calls the Sultan.” The appointment of an heir was interpreted as an intervention in divine predestination. The throne was occupied by one of the applicants whose candidacy received the support of the nobility and ulema. There are indications in Ottoman sources that Ertogrul's brother, Dundar Bey, also claimed leadership and the title of chief, but the tribe preferred Osman to him.
In this system, all the sons of the Sultan theoretically had equal rights to the throne. It did not matter who was older and who was younger, whether it was the son of a wife or a concubine. From a very early time, following the traditions of the peoples of Central Asia, a system was established in which all the sons of the ruling sultan were sent to the sanjaks in order to gain experience in managing the state and the army under the leadership of the lala. (Under Osman there were no sanjaks yet, but all his male relatives (brothers, sons, father-in-law) ruled various cities. In addition to administrative, until 1537, Ottoman princes also gained military experience, taking part in battles, commanding troops. When the Sultan died, the new sultan became the one who had previously managed to arrive in the capital after the death of his father and take the oath from officials, ulemas and troops.This method contributed to the coming to power of experienced and talented politicians who were able to build good relations with the elite of the state and receive their support. For example, after the death of Mehmed II, letters were sent to both of his sons informing him of this. The Sanjak of Cema was closer; it was believed that Mehmed was more favorable towards him; Cema was supported by the Grand Vizier. However, Bayezid's party was stronger. Occupying key positions (Beylerbey of Rumelia, Sancakbeys in Antalya), Bayezid's supporters intercepted the messengers traveling to Cem, blocked all the roads, and Cem was unable to arrive in Istanbul.
Before Mehmed II, cases of murder of close relatives in the dynasty occurred more than once. Thus, Osman contributed to the death of his uncle, Dundar Bey, without forgiving him for the fact that Dundar claimed to be a leader. Savci, the son of Murad, with the help of the Byzantines, rebelled against his father, was captured and executed in 1385. Yakub, according to legend, was killed on the orders of his brother, Bayazid, on the Kosovo field after the death of Murad. The sons of Bayazid fought against each other for a long time, and as a result, Mustafa Celebi was executed in 1422 (if he did not die in 1402), Suleiman Celebi in 1411, probably Musa Celebi in 1413. In addition, Mehmed, who turned out to be the winner in this fratricidal war, ordered Orhan’s nephew to be blinded for his participation in the conspiracy and connection with Byzantium. Mehmed's son, Murad, executed only one of his brothers - Mustafa "Kyuchuk" in 1423. He ordered the other brothers - Ahmed, Mahmud, Yusuf - to be blinded. Beloved son of Murad, Alaeddin Ali(1430-1442 / 1443) according to the traditional version set out by Babinger, he was executed along with his sons for an unknown reason on the orders of his father.
Before Murad, in all cases the execution or blinding of a relative was provoked by the executed person: rebels and conspirators were executed, opponents in armed struggle were executed. Murad was the first to order the underage brothers to be blinded. His son, Mehmed II, went further. Immediately after julyus (assuming power), Murad's widows came to congratulate Mehmed on his accession to the throne. One of them, Hatice Halime Khatun, a representative of the Jandarogullar dynasty, recently gave birth to a son, Küçük Ahmed. While the woman was talking with Mehmed, on his orders, Ali Bey Evrenosoglu, the son of Evrenos Bey, drowned the baby. Ducas attached special importance to this son, calling him "porphyry-born" (born after his father became sultan). In the Byzantine Empire, such children had priority in inheriting the throne. Moreover, unlike Mehmed, whose mother was a slave, Ahmed was born from a dynastic union. All this made the three-month-old baby a dangerous opponent and forced Mehmed to get rid of him. Murder (execution) during the accession of an innocent baby brother only to prevent possible problems was not practiced by the Ottomans before. Babinger calls this “the inauguration of the law of fratricide.”
After the introduction of the Fatih Law
Suleiman did not have to kill his brothers, Mustafa and Bayezid
5 Murad Brothers 3
19 brothers of Mehmed 3 + son Mahmud
Mehmed, Osman's brother
three brothers murad 4 + wanted ibrahim
Mustafa 4
The practice of sending shehzade to sanjaks ceased at the end of the 16th century. Of the sons of Sultan Selim II (1566-1574), only his eldest son, the future Murad III (1574-1595), went to Manisa; in turn, Murad III also sent only his eldest son, the future Mehmed III (1595-1603), there. Mehmet III was the last sultan to go through the “school” of management in the sanjak. For another half century, the eldest sons of the sultans would bear the title of Sanjakbeys of Manisa, living in Istanbul.
With the death of Mehmed in December 1603, his third son, thirteen-year-old Ahmed I, became the sultan, since the first two sons of Mehmed III were no longer alive (Shehzade Mahmud was executed by his father in the summer of 1603, Shehzade Selim died earlier from illness). Since Ahmed was not yet circumcised and had no concubines, he had no sons. This created an inheritance problem. Therefore, Ahmed's brother, Mustafa, was left alive, contrary to tradition. After the appearance of his sons, Ahmed was twice going to execute Mustafa, but both times he postponed the execution for various reasons. In addition, Kösem Sultan, who had her own reasons for this, persuaded him not to kill Mustafa Ahmed. When Ahmed died on November 22, 1617, at the age of 27, he left seven sons and a brother. Ahmed's eldest son was Osman, born in 1604.
cafe
The policy of fratricide was never popular with the people and clergy, and when Ahmed I died suddenly in 1617, it was abandoned. Instead of killing all potential heirs to the throne, they began to be imprisoned in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul in special rooms known as Kafes (“cages”). An Ottoman prince could spend his entire life imprisoned in Kafes, under constant guards. And although the heirs were, as a rule, kept in luxury, many shehzade (sons of the sultans) went crazy from boredom or became debauched drunkards. And this is understandable, because they understood that they could be executed at any moment.
see also
Literature
- “Eve-name” of Mehmed II Fatih on the military-administrative and civil bureaucracy of the Ottoman Empire // Ottoman Empire. State power and socio-political structure. - M., 1990.
- Kinross Lord.. - Litres, 2017.
- Petrosyan Yu.A. Ottoman Empire . - Moscow: Science, 1993. - 185 p.
- Finkel K. History of the Ottoman Empire: Osman's Vision. - Moscow: AST.
- Encyclopaedia of Islam / Bosworth C.E. - Brill Archive, 1986. - Vol. V (Khe-Mahi). - 1333 p. - ISBN 9004078193, 9789004078192.(English)
- Alderson Anthony Dolphin. The Structure of the Ottoman Dynasty. - Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956. - 186 p.(English)
- Babinger F. Sawdji / In Houtsma, Martijn Theodoor. - Leiden: BRILL, 2000. - Vol. IX. - P. 93. - (E.J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936). - ISBN 978-0-691-01078-6.
- Colin Imber. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power. - New York: en: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. - P. 66-68, 97-99. - 448 p. - ISBN 1137014067, 9781137014061.(English)
To eliminate chaos in choosing the head of state, fratricide was legalized in the Ottoman Empire.
In all the Turkish states that existed before the Ottoman Empire, there was no system of transferring power from one person to another. Each member of the dynasty had the right to lead the state. History knows many examples of how this situation caused chaos, regularly leading to violent conflicts in the struggle for the throne. Typically, members of the dynasty were not threatened as long as they did not lay claim to the throne. There were also cases where those who resisted were eventually pardoned. Nevertheless, this situation caused the death of tens of thousands of people.
First fratricide
After the death of the first Ottoman Sultan Osman Gazi in 1324, in the absence of a struggle for the sultanate between his three sons, Orhan Gazi inherited the throne. In 1362, his son Murad I ascended the throne, who fought for power with the brothers Ibrahim and Halil, removing them from control in Eskisehir. According to rumors, the heirs challenged Murad I for the throne. With their killing, brotherly blood was shed for the first time.
Having inherited the throne from Murad I in 1389, Bayezid I the Lightning had his brother Yakub Çelebi killed on the battlefield, although his brother was not in conflict over the succession. The period of interregnum after the death of Bayezid I turned out to be a difficult test for the Ottomans. The power struggle between Bayezid's four sons continued for 11 years, and the Ottoman Empire found itself in crisis. It was this time that paved the way for the legalization of fratricide in the empire.
Code of Laws of Mehmed II
When Mehmed II the Conqueror ascended the throne, the Ottoman Empire had not yet recovered from the turmoil of the Ottoman interregnum. Having conquered Istanbul, Mehmed II brought the lands of the Ottoman Empire back together. When compiling a code of laws on state organization, Mehmed II also included a clause related to the succession of the sultanate:
“If one of my children becomes the head of the sultanate, then to ensure public order he must kill his brothers. Most ulema ( recognized and authoritative experts on the theoretical and practical aspects of Islam - approx. lane) approves of this. Let this rule be observed."
Mehmed the Conqueror was not the first ruler to introduce fratricide into practice. He only legitimized a practice that had developed much earlier. And in doing this, he proceeded primarily from the experience of the interregnum period (1402-1413).
Fratricide
Fratricide must be considered within the context of a specific time period. The phenomenon of fratricide, characteristic of the Ottoman Empire, is a question throughout Turkish history. It is based primarily on the absence of any system or institution of succession to the throne.
In order to eradicate fratricide, there is a need to create such a system of inheritance. This could not be done for a long time, but from the beginning of the 17th century the principle of the eldest member of the dynasty ascending the throne was introduced. However, this did not solve all the problems of the procedure for changing the ruler. The traditional confinement of the heirs to the throne in the palace, in a room called “shimshirlik,” also left an unfavorable imprint. Most rulers who grew up in this way were never able to learn about the life and workings of the state apparatus, which ultimately led to their inability to participate in the process of government.
The legalization of fratricide and the killing of heirs to the throne, even if they did not claim the throne, give the Ottomans a special position throughout Turkish history. In particular, thanks to fratricide, the Ottoman Empire was able to maintain its integrity - unlike the Turkish states that existed before the Ottoman Empire.
When analyzing Turkish history, it becomes obvious that the struggle for the throne often ended in the collapse of the state. The Ottomans, who, while maintaining their integrity, were able to ensure the power of a single ruler, achieved superiority over Europe due to this, too.
Is the code of laws of Mehmed the Conqueror not real?
Those who do not want to tarnish the Sultan's name and refuse to attribute the law of fratricide to Mehmed II argue that the famous code of laws was in fact compiled by the West. How else can you explain the fact that it exists in a single copy and is located in Vienna? Meanwhile, the research carried out made it possible to discover new versions of this code.
After the Conqueror
The meaning of the clause, which was included in the code of laws by Mehmed II, was rethought immediately after the death of the Sultan, when a struggle broke out between his two sons Bayezid II and Cem Sultan, which lasted several years. The first years of Sultan Selim's Yavuz Sultanate will go down in history as the period when the brothers' dispute over the throne reached its climax.
Executions played an important role in the administration of justice in the Ottoman Empire. Many statesmen paid with their lives for their mistakes. However, the activities of those deserve special attention.
Requirements for the position of executioner
One of the main requirements for executioners was muteness and deafness. This explains their legendary ruthlessness. They simply did not hear the screams of their victims and remained, literally deaf, to their suffering.
The rulers of the Ottoman state began to resort to the services of executioners from the 15th century. Usually they were chosen from among the Croats or Greeks. In addition, five people were allocated from the Bostanji Janissary detachment to carry out executions during military campaigns. The executioners had their own boss, who was responsible for their activities. The chief of the “civilian” executioners, in turn, was subordinate to the commander of the bostanji. Among other things, his duties included the execution of government officials.
Potential executioner candidate, began his practice of “backpack master” as an assistant from one of his more experienced colleagues, until he learned all the intricacies of his craft. Executioners knew the anatomy of the human body no worse than doctors and could cause their victim both maximum suffering and quickly send him to the next world without any suffering.
It is also interesting that the executioners never married and after death they seemed to completely disappear from society, which would experience a certain moral discomfort if the descendants of people of this profession were present in their ranks.
Methods used by executioners
The order to kill one or another guilty member of the nobility came from the head of the bostanji, who for this purpose summoned the chief executioner. The Ottoman state paid great attention to the position in society of the person sentenced to execution. For example, if the Grand Vizier was executed, he was usually strangled, and ordinary Janissaries cut off the head with an ax. One of the copies of such an ax, by the way, is on display in the Topkapi Museum.
If a member of the ruling dynasty was sentenced to death, then a bow string was used to kill him, with which he was strangled. It was a very “clean” death without the slightest trace of blood, which was reserved for members of the “chosen caste.”
Civil servants were usually beheaded with a sword. However, not all those sentenced to death could get off so easily: those found guilty of theft, murder, piracy and robbery were subjected to painful execution by hanging on a hook by the rib, impaling or even crucifixion.
Where were the executions carried out?
The main prisons during the Ottoman Empire were Edikül, Tersane and Rumeli Hisar. Convicts sentenced to galleys, prisoners of war and those sentenced to hard labor were kept in Tersan. Those who were sentenced to relatively short terms were placed in Edikül or Rumeli Hisar. Ambassadors of those states with which the Ottomans were at war were also imprisoned here.
In the Topkapi Palace, between the Babus Salam towers, there was a secret passage to the premises where the executioners were and where the convicted Ottoman nobles were taken. The last thing they saw in their lives was the courtyard of the Sultan's palace.
It was here that the famous Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha was strangled. Before Babus-Salam, the executioners placed the heads of the people they executed on columns for the edification of the public. Another place of execution was the area near the fountain in front of the palace. It was in it that the executioners washed their bloody swords and axes.
The accused whose cases were pending were kept either in Balykhane Castle or in Ediküle. They recognized their fate by the color of the sherbet that the guards brought them. If the color was white, then it meant acquittal, and if it was red, then it meant conviction and death penalty. The execution took place after the condemned man drank his sherbet to death. The body of the executed was thrown into the Sea of Marmara, the heads were sent to the Grand Vizier to confirm the fact of execution.
It is known from history that suspects and accused in medieval Europe were subjected to various types of brutal torture; Amsterdam even has a torture museum.
There was no such practice in the Ottoman state, since Islam prohibits torture. But, in some cases, for political reasons or in order to demonstrate a certain lesson to society, those who committed serious crimes were subjected to torture. One of the most common types of torture was hitting the heels with sticks - “falaka”.
Those who extorted money and property from people, committed robberies, killed government officials, undermined the foundations of state power, were also tortured before carrying out the death sentence.
The strength of the Ottoman sultans lay in the fact that when they issued their decrees, the “firmans,” everyone without exception, had to obey them and no one dared to disobey, since everyone knew that serious punishment awaited the disobedient.
Ildar Mukhamedzhanov
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Shehzade was the name given to boys born to his sultan, or. When the prince was 5-6 years old, he began to study in a special school for sehzade, built in the 15th century. The school premises are richly decorated, with a large fireplace, bookcases, music stands, vaulted mirrored ceilings and decorations, which are proof of the care with which the future heirs to the throne and their education were treated.
Until the age of 8, princes lived with their mothers and nannies, and after this age they mostly communicated only with their mentor and servants, and saw their parents only on special occasions.
Brocade caftan of Sultan Ahmed I, which he wore when he was still a shehzade.
The shehzade circumcision ceremony was carried out with great luxury and was accompanied by celebrations. Three months before the ceremony, all viziers, provincial rulers and senior government officials were notified so that they could arrive at the celebration, which often began to be prepared a year in advance, and could last from ten days to a month. The invited guests gave the shehzade and his family members gifts according to their status, and then had fun and were treated to feasts on the occasion of such an important event.
When the prince turned 13-14 years old, he was given his own chambers in the harem. If shehzade’s father died, then he remained a recluse in the same room, which is why it was called “cafes” (“cage”). Shehzade, who led a secluded life, was assigned a staff of twelve servants, a storeroom, eunuchs and his own maintenance.
The windows of the sehzade room overlook the Bosphorus (Topkapi Palace).
The reign of the Sultan ended not only in the event of his death. Thus, Murad II (1421-1451) voluntarily left the throne to his son, the future Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror. Bayezid II was forced to leave the throne in favor of his younger son Selim. Osman II, Ibrahim I and Mustafa IV were dethroned.
Those who ascended the throne sat on the golden throne,
installed in front of the Gate of the White Eunuchs, and accepted congratulations.
The chief eunuch informed the prince about the death of his father (or his abdication). He should have taken sehzade by the hand and lead him to his father’s body, after which the heir to the throne appeared before the Grand Vizier and Sheikh al-Islam, who were the first to recognize the new monarch and begin preparationsfor the ceremony of ascension of the new Sultan to the throne. This was immediately announced to the people, and invitations to the ceremony were sent to all important government officials.
The Sultan's throne was located at the Gate of the White Eunuchs (Gate of Bliss). The guests lined up according to seniority, the Sultan came out, sat on the throne, and the ceremony participants, one after another, approached him, fell to their knees and kissed the foot of the throne, thereby recognizing the new ruler. The ceremony was completed by the Sheikh al-Islam, the Grand Vizier and other viziers.
Gate of the White Eunuchs (Topkapi Palace)
After this, in accordance with tradition, the Sultan was girded with a sword in the Eyup Mosque. This event was in some way analogous to the European coronation ceremony. On the day of the ceremony, the Sultan had to come from Topkapi Palace to the mosque by boat. The Sultan went ashore and mounted his horse, which slowly moved along the street between the rows of representatives of the nobility, saluting troops and the graves of the rich - Eyup was one of the most prestigious cemeteries in Istanbul. At the entrance to the mosque, he had to dismount and walk to a small rise in the courtyard between the mausoleum of Ayub al-Ansari and the mosque building itself, where an old plane tree stood. Here he was girded with three swords: the sword of Osman, the sword of the fourth righteous caliph Ali and the sword of Sultan Selim I Yavuz. Then the new sultan entered the city on horseback through the Edirne gate, visiting the graves of his predecessors and also the Hagia Sophia Mosque, after which he returned to the Topkapi Palace.
