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 the 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)
FATIHA LAW.
3 messages
In this topic we will talk about the Mehmed II Fatih Law and what the “Women's Sultanate” is.
A little history. What kind of power awaits our Nurbana, the wife of Sultan Selim II?
The Women's Sultanate was a historical period in the life of the Ottoman Empire that lasted just over a century. It is characterized by the transfer of actual power into the hands of four mothers of the sultans’ sons, whose sons, the ruling padishahs, obeyed them unconditionally, making decisions on domestic, foreign policy, and national issues.
So these women were:
Afife Nurbanu Sultan (1525-1583) - Venetian by origin, birth name Cecilia Baffo.
Safiye Sultan (1550-1603) - Venetian by origin, birth name Sofia Baffo.
Mahpeyker Kösem Sultan (1589-1651) - Anastasia, most likely from Greece.
Hatice Turhan Sultan (1627-1683) - Nadezhda, originally from Ukraine.
The correct date for the “Women’s Sultanate” should be considered 1574, when Nurbanu became Valide Sultan. And it is Nurbana Sultan who should be considered the first representative of the historical period of the Ottoman Empire called the “Women’s Sultanate”.
Nurbanu began leading the harem in 1566. But Nurban managed to seize real power only during the reign of her son Murad III.
In the year of his accession to the throne, Murad III, succumbing to the influence of Nurbanu's mother and the Grand Vizier Mehmed Pasha Sokollu, who was an obedient executor of Nurbanu's will, gave the order to execute all his half-brothers, explaining his decision with the Mehmed Fatih Law on Fratricide, issued in 1478. Before this, the Law had not been used for 62 years, so there was no need for it.
When Suleiman ascended the throne, at that time he had no competing brothers.
Also, when his son Selim ascended the throne, he (Selim) no longer had brothers. (Mustafa and Bayazet were executed by Suleiman, Cihangir died of natural causes and he was not a contender for the throne due to illness, and Mehmet was specifically infected with smallpox back in Manisa by competitors for the throne.
21 years later, when Sultan Murad III, the son of Selim II, dies, the new Sultan, the son of Murad III, Mehmed III, will again use this law and again this will be done at the insistence of the Sultan’s mother, Valide Safiye Sultan.
Mehmed III executed 19 of his half-brothers in 1595. This year will go down in history as the bloodiest year of application of the Fatih Law.
After Mehmed III, Ahmed I will ascend the throne, whose concubine will be the famous Kösem, in the future the powerful and cunning Valide Sultan.
Ahmed I will introduce the practice of imprisoning the brothers of the ruling sultans in one of the palace pavilions, in the “Cafes” (translated as “Cage”), which, however, is not the abolition of the Fatih law, but only complements it with the right to choose - death or a cell for life imprisonment And Kösem Sultan did not make any effort to introduce this practice, since she was able to interfere in the decisions of the sultans much later.
Let us only mention that the ruling Sultan Murad IV, son of Kösem, in 1640, left without heirs, for fear of competition, tried to kill his brother, another son of Kösem. However, Kösem, who had enormous power at that time, would prevent this, because otherwise, the rule of the Ottoman dynasty would have ended, and the Ottomans ruled the empire for 341 years.
To be fair, we note that the Fatih Law was in force until the beginning of the 20th century, until the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist. The last time it was used was in 1808, when Sultan Mahmud II, who had taken the throne, killed his brother Sultan Mustafa IV.
Who is Mehmet Fatih? Whose name made powerful sultanas and their heirs to the throne tremble with fear throughout almost the entire existence of the Ottoman Empire?
The mention of the name Mehmet Fatih made Hurrem Sultan and her sons tremble, only Mahidevran slept peacefully, not fearing that her son would come under attack.
The fault is none other than the LAW OF FRATRICIDE, a law that was invented and introduced by Mehmet Fatih (Conqueror), the ancestor of Sultan Suleiman, the same one who conquered Constantinople and renamed it Istanbul. The law allows the reigning brother to kill all the remaining brothers so that later they do not encroach on his throne.
Mustafa, the son of Mahidevran, did not fall under the Fatih law, since he was the eldest and main heir to the Ottoman throne. Of course, Makhidevran was lucky in this, because before him the Sultan had sons from previous concubines - from Fulane and Gulfem. But they died of illness during the years of epidemics, and THEREFORE, Mustafa became the first and main contender for the Ottoman throne.
Mahidevran was not afraid of the Fatih law.
After Mustafa, the Sultan had 6 children from his new beloved concubine and future wife, Hurrem: daughter Mihrimah and 5 sons (Mehmet, Abdallah, Selim, Bayazet, Jihangir.) Abdallah died in infancy, so they did not consider it necessary to introduce him into the series, it wasn't even mentioned.
In addition to all of the above, Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska was afraid of this damned law more than anyone, because she knew that having reigned, Mustafa would kill her sons, no matter how kind or merciful he may seem - the law is the law, and the Council will insist on the implementation of this law in order to live in peace, without fear that one of the brothers would encroach on the throne.
And now more about the Fatih law:
In 1478, Mehmet II Fatih the Conqueror introduced the law “On Succession to the Throne,” the second more common name is the law “On Fratricide.”
The law states: “Any person who dares to encroach on the Sultan’s throne must be immediately executed. Even if my brother wants to take the throne. Therefore, the heir who becomes Sultan must immediately execute his brothers to maintain order.”
Mehmed II introduced his law at the end of his reign. It was supposed to serve the heirs of Mehmed II as reliable protection from pretenders to the throne who were dissatisfied with the power of their opponents, primarily from the siblings and half-brothers of the ruling Sultan, who could openly oppose the Padishah and start a rebellion.
To prevent such unrest, the brothers were to be executed immediately after the new sultan ascended the throne, regardless of whether they encroached on the throne or not. This was very easy to do, since it was impossible to deny that at least once in their lives the legitimate shehzade did not think about the throne.
And finally, we note that the Fatih Law was in force until the beginning of the 20th century, until the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist. The last time it was used was in 1808, when Sultan Mahmud II, who had taken the throne, killed his brother Sultan Mustafa IV.
The Ottoman Empire lasted until 1922 and collapsed due to defeat in the First World War.
The Fatih Law or what the great Hurrem Sultan feared most in the world.
Law of Fatih. A cruel and immutable rule of the existence of the powerful Ottoman dynasty, an inevitable fate that plunges into horror the powerful sultanas who gave birth to their ruler Shehzade. How was this custom established, which gave rise to many intrigues at the foot of the Sultan’s throne?
Just the thought that her sons would become victims of the Fatih Law made Hurrem Sultan’s heart clench with burning anxiety. On the contrary, Makhidevran was not very worried that this norm would bring misfortune to her son Mustafa in the future. The fact is that Mehmet Fatih legalized real fratricide- the heir who was lucky enough to become the chosen one of Allah and ascend the throne was obliged to kill his brothers in order to avoid unrest and disobedience.
Mustafa was lucky: he was the eldest boy among the children of Sultan Suleiman and was not subject to the Fatih Law. Of course, if the sons from previous favorites, Gulfem and Fulane, had survived, then Makhidevran would have had to desperately intrigue to save the life of his only shehzade. However, fate for the time being allowed the ruler’s main wife to remain calm and not think about the sad fate of the mother who lost her son.
But over the heads of the sons of the red-haired Hurrem Sultan, the Law of Fatih swung like the sword of Damocles. The mother of five boys understood perfectly well that if the son of her rival became the sultan, they would not live. No matter how kind and understanding brother Mustafa is, he will stop at nothing to save the state from collapse and civil war. The law is strong, but it's law. The Council will insist on its implementation, denying kinship feelings in the name of the interests of the country.
More about the Fatih Law
Mehmed Fatih, who carried out many glorious campaigns, became famous among his subjects not only as a conqueror, but also as a legislator. The Law on Succession to the Throne, issued in 1478, which went down in the annals of history as the law on fratricide, stated that any person who dared to encroach on the throne of the ruler should be executed. Even if it is a close relative. It followed from this that the new sultan would first of all be obliged to destroy all potential rivals for supreme power.
This norm appeared at the end of the reign of Mehmed II and was supposed to help consolidate the rights to the throne of the heirs of Fatih himself, and not his half-brothers and uncles, who had the opportunity to oppose the reigning padishah and lead the population dissatisfied with the rule. For the purposes of internal security, the empire had to immediately secretly or openly eliminate male competitors, especially since there were always reasons: every legitimate shehzade dreamed of the throne at least once in his life.
The last time the law on fratricide was implemented was in 1808, when Mahmud II dealt with his brother Mustafa IV. Subsequently, this norm will cease to exist with the collapse of the Ottoman state after the defeat in the First World War in 1922.
Fatih Law: in the struggle for power, all means are fair
Any empire rests not only on military conquests, economic strength and a powerful ideology. An empire cannot exist for a long time and develop effectively without a stable system of succession to supreme power. What anarchy in an empire can lead to can be seen in the example of the Roman Empire during its decline, when virtually anyone who offered more money to the praetorians, the capital’s guard, could become emperor. In the Ottoman Empire, the question of the procedure for coming to power was regulated primarily by the Fatih law, cited by many as an example of cruelty and political cynicism.
The Fatih Law of Succession came into being thanks to one of the most famous and successful sultans of the Ottoman Empire. Sultans of the Ottoman Empire: 600 years of conquest, luxury and power 
, Mehmed II (reigned 1444-1446, 1451-1481). The respectful epithet “Fatih”, that is, Conqueror, was given to him by his admiring subjects and descendants in recognition of his outstanding services in expanding the territory of the empire. Mehmed II really did his best, conducting numerous victorious campaigns both in the East and in the West, primarily in the Balkans and Southern Europe. But his main military act was the capture of Constantinople in 1453. By that time, the Byzantine Empire had actually ceased to exist, its territory was controlled by the Ottomans. But the fall of the great city, the capital of a monumental empire, was a momentous event, marking the end of one era and the beginning of the next. An era in which the Ottoman Empire had a new capital, renamed Istanbul, and it itself became one of the leading forces in the international arena.
However, there are many conquerors in the history of mankind, much less great conquerors. The greatness of a conqueror is measured not only by the scale of the lands he conquered or the number of enemies he killed. First of all, this is a concern for preserving what was conquered and turning it into a powerful and prosperous state. Mehmed II Fatih was a great conqueror - after many victories, he thought about how to ensure stability for the empire in the future. First of all, this required a simple and clear system of inheritance of power. By that time, one of the mechanisms had already been developed. It consisted in the principle on which the life of the Sultan’s harem was built - “one concubine - one son.” Sultans very rarely entered into official marriage; usually their children were born to their concubines. To prevent one concubine from gaining too much influence and starting intrigues against the sons of other concubines, she could only have one son from the Sultan. After his birth, she was no longer allowed to have intimacy with the ruler. Moreover, when the son reached more or less sane age, he was appointed governor of one of the provinces - and his mother had to accompany him.
In politics, brothers are the most dangerous
However, difficulties with inheriting the throne still remained - the sultans were not limited in the number of concubines, so they could have many sons. Taking into account the fact that every adult son could be considered a rightful heir, the struggle for future power often began even before the death of the previous sultan. In addition, even after gaining power, the new Sultan could not be completely calm, knowing that his brothers were capable of revolting at any moment. Mehmed II himself, having finally come to power, resolved this issue simply and radically - he killed his half-brother, a potential rival in the struggle for power. And then he issued a law according to which the Sultan, after ascending the throne, has the right to execute his brothers in order to maintain the stability of the state and to avoid future revolts.
Fatih Law in the Ottoman Empire Ottoman Empire: the southern bridge between East and West 
formally operated for more than four centuries, until the end of the sultanate, which was abolished in 1922. At the same time, one should not make Mehmed II a fanatic, who supposedly bequeathed to his descendants to mercilessly destroy all his brothers. The Fatih Law did not say that every new sultan was obliged to kill his closest relatives. And many sultans did not resort to such radical measures. However, this law gave the head of the empire the right, through such intra-family “bloodletting,” to ensure the political stability of the entire state. By the way, this law was not the cruel whim of the maniac Sultan: it was approved by the legal and religious authorities of the Ottoman Empire, who considered that such a measure was justified and expedient. The Fatih Law was often used by the sultans of the Ottoman Empire. Thus, upon his accession to the throne in 1595, Sultan Mehmed III ordered the death of 19 brothers. However, the last case of application of this emergency legal norm was noted long before the fall of the empire: in 1808, Murad II, who came to power, ordered the murder of his brother, the previous Sultan Mustafa IV.
Fatih Law: laws and series
It is unlikely that such a large number of non-Turkish people, that is, those who did not study the actions of Mehmed II in a school history course, would remember about the Fatih law in our time, if not for the notorious TV series “The Magnificent Century”. The fact is that the screenwriters made the Fatih law one of the main plot springs of the entire narrative. According to the script, Hurrem, the famous concubine and beloved wife of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, began to weave her intrigues against other concubines and the eldest son of Sultan Suleiman. At the same time, her main activity was directed precisely against the Fatih law on succession to the throne. The logic was this: Sultan Suleiman had an eldest son, born of another concubine. Consequently, it was he who had the highest chances of taking his father's throne. In this case, the new Sultan could use the Fatih law and kill his brothers, the sons of Hurrem.
Therefore, Hurrem Sultan allegedly sought to get Suleiman to repeal this law. When the Sultan did not want to repeal the law even for the sake of his beloved wife, she redirected her activities. Not being able to abolish the law as a threat to her sons, she decided to abolish the root cause - and began to intrigue against her eldest son Suleiman in order to discredit him in the eyes of his father, and, if possible, destroy him. This activity led to the strengthening of the influence of Hurrem, who thus became the founder of the tradition that in the history of the Ottoman Empire is known as the “Women’s Sultanate”.
The version as a whole is interesting and not devoid of logic, however, it is just an artistic version. Hurrem Sultan is not an activist of the “Women’s Sultanate”; this phenomenon, characterized by the great influence of the women of the harem on the political situation in the country and even on the supreme power, arose half a century after her death.
In addition, it is again worth remembering that the Fatih law did not provide for the inevitable reprisal of the Sultan against his brothers. It is characteristic that in some cases the law was circumvented: for example, in 1640, before his death, Sultan Murad IV ordered the death of his brother. However, the order was not carried out, since if it was carried out there would be no direct heirs in the male line. True, the next Sultan went down in history as Ibrahim I the Madman, so the big question is whether the order was not carried out correctly - but that’s another story...
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Fatih Law
Fatih Law
Name of the law
Founder of the Law
Fatih Law- one of the sacred traditions of the Ottoman Empire, used by the sultans upon accession to the throne. The Fatih Law called upon the sultans who received the throne to kill all their brothers and their male descendants in order to prevent internecine wars in the future.
Cases of murder of close relatives during the struggle for power in the Ottoman dynasty occurred from the very first days. When a rival in the struggle for the throne was executed, all his sons were often executed, regardless of age. Before Murad II, in all cases, only guilty princes were executed: rebels and conspirators, opponents in the armed struggle. Murad II was the first to impose punishment on the innocent minor brothers, ordering them to be blinded absolutely without their guilt. His son, Mehmed II, immediately after ascending the throne executed his newly born brother. Later, the Sultan issued a collection of laws, one of the provisions of which recognized the killing of innocent shehzade for the sake of maintaining order as legal.
The Ottomans inherited the idea that shedding the blood of members of the dynasty was unacceptable, so the relatives of the sultans were executed by strangling them with a bowstring. The sons of the Sultan killed in this way were buried with honor, usually next to their deceased father. Bayazid II and Selim I did not apply the Fatih law during their accession, since relations with their brothers were sorted out with arms in hand. Suleiman I was survived by only one son, therefore, in its pure form, the Fatih law was applied from the accession of Murad III in 1574 until the death of Murad IV in 1640:
Murad III, the eldest son of Selim II, upon his accession to the throne in 1574, exercised his right to execute innocent young brothers under the Fatih law. The number of those executed is estimated at five or nine. Mehmed III, the eldest son of Murad III, also ordered the execution of his young brothers upon his accession to the throne. He had 19 of them. Fearing a conspiracy on the part of his own sons, Mehmed introduced the harmful custom of not sending sehzade to sanjaks, but keeping them with him on the territory of the Sultan’s palace. Ahmed I, the eldest son of Mehmed III who survived him, twice ordered the execution of Mustafa, but both times troubles occurred, forcing the superstitious Sultan to cancel the order. Ahmed's son, Osman, ordered the execution of his brother, Mehmed. Osman himself was soon overthrown and killed. Murad IV ordered the execution of at least two of his minor brothers. Despite never having any sons who survived infancy, Murad ordered the execution of his last brother and only heir, Ibrahim, but he was saved by his mother and Ibrahim succeeded Murad on the throne. Ibrahim was killed later, after the rebellion of the Janissaries and overthrow.
Subsequently, the Fatih law was no longer applied. It is estimated that 60 sehzade were executed throughout the history of the Ottoman Empire. Of these, 16 were executed for rebellion and 7 for attempted rebellion. All others - 37 - for reasons of general benefit.
Magnificent century
Mustafa swears that he will never execute Mehmed
The law ordering the death of one's brothers upon accession to the throne is first mentioned in the third season. While hunting, Suleiman tells his son Mehmed about this, and he, meeting Mustafa, asks him if his brother can execute his brother. Shehzade swear to each other that no matter which of them ascends the throne, he will never execute the other.
Execution of Bayezid and his sons
In the fourth season, the Fatih law is mentioned in almost every episode. There are three contenders for the throne - Sehzade Mustafa, Selim and Bayazid. The mother of Selim and Bayezid Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska is ready to do anything to ensure that the throne goes to one of her children, and for this purpose she begins to weave intrigues around Mustafa. Bayezid and Mustafa swear to each other that if one of them ascends the throne, he will not kill the other, but the mothers of Shehzade actively oppose this. After the execution of Mustafa, only two rivals remain - Selim and Bayezid, and each of them knows that either the throne or death awaits him. Behind Selim is his father, behind Bayezid is his mother. More than one battle takes place between the shehzade, and as a result, their youngest shehzade ends up in Persian captivity, from where Selim ransoms him and executes him along with all his sons in order to ensure a quiet reign for himself.
Kösem Empire
Little Mustafa I before his execution in prison
The Law of Fatih is mentioned in the first episode. Ahmed talks about his childhood, marred by the death of his brothers and the cruelty of his father, who died due to illness and thereby allowed Ahmed to ascend to the throne. In front of Sehzade, his elder brother, Mahmud, was killed, and Dervish Pasha later recalls that if he had not poisoned Mehmed III, Ahmed himself would have been executed. Following the law, the new Sultan must take the life of his younger brother Mustafa, but cannot do this despite pressure from both his mother and Safiye Sultan. He makes several attempts to kill the boy, but each time something stops him. As a result, Ahmed never commits a crime, which deserves universal recognition. However, because of his mercy, Mustafa has to sit in a cafe all his life, which is why the latter goes crazy.
Execution of Shehzade by order of Halime Sultan
After Ahmed’s death, Fatih’s law becomes perhaps the main character of the series: in order to protect both his children and all the sehzade who will still be born in the Empire, Kösem Sultan cancels the fratricide. On behalf of her husband, she passes a new law on “the eldest and wisest,” according to which the eldest of the Ottoman family becomes the sultan. But this does not help to stop the bloodshed: on the orders of Valide Halima Sultan, who does not take into account the new order, all the nephews of the new padishah are almost executed, twice. Osman II, having finally ascended the throne, repeals the law adopted by his stepmother and returns fratricide. This makes it possible to execute his brother, Sehzade Mehmed. Also, during Ahmed’s life, Iskender, the “lost shehzade,” is executed, but later he turns out to be alive, and Kösem, in order to ensure a calm reign for his son in the future and deprive Safiye Sultan of an heir, does everything to deal with him. During the second reign of the insane Mustafa, in order to preserve order, the children of Kösem are again almost executed, and Osman is killed by the Janissaries. His son, Mustafa, is also executed.
Execution of Shehzade Bayezid
In the second season, the Law of Fatih reigns from the first episode to the last: as soon as Sultan Murad takes power into his own hands, his brothers begin to fear for their freedom, and then for their lives. Gulbahar Sultan, as soon as he arrived at the palace, immediately begins to tell his son that one day the Sultan will execute him anyway, and therefore it is necessary to overthrow the current padishah before this happens. As soon as Shehzade Kasym commits an offense, he is imprisoned in a cafe, and a few years later, due to the intrigues of his mother, he is completely executed. Despite all the attempts of Valide Kösem Sultan to save the lives of all the shehzade, Bayezid is the first to die at the hands of the executioners, having gotten involved in his mother’s game, Kasim is killed second, and Ibrahim, who also spent several years in the cafe, is literally protected by Kösem with his body. Later, the padishah executes the elderly Mustafa I, still sitting in the cafe.
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Süleyman ve Roksolana / Suleiman and Roksolana
Fatih Law
Why is it needed?! And who invented it?!
Well, first of all, let me remind you, for those who forgot or simply did not know what this law is called. The Fatih Law is the same law that allows you to kill all your brothers and completely interrupt their line (that is, kill all their descendants in the male line), if (you are lucky) you took the throne, that is, became the Sultan.
To begin with, not much about the creator of this very law. Sultan Mehmed II, popularly known as Fatih, which means Conqueror, was the Ottoman Sultan from 1444 to 1446 and from 1451 to 1481. (Great-grandfather of Sultan Suleiman Kanuni).
Mehmed II was born on March 29, 1432 in Edirne. He was the fourth son of Murad II by his concubine Huma Khatun (presumed to be of Greek descent).
When Mehmet was six years old, he was sent to the sanjak-saruhan of Manisa, where he remained until August 1444 (until he was 12 years old), that is, until he took the throne.
At the time of his accession to the throne, Mehmed II ordered the drowning of his half-brother Akhmed-Kuchuk. After this, in fact, Mehmed II legitimized this custom with his decree, which read: “Whichever of my sons who ascends the throne has the RIGHT to kill his brothers so that there is order on earth.” Most experts in judicial affairs approved of this law. THIS IS HOW THE FATIHA LAW APPEARED.
In fact, this sultan became famous not only for his famous laws, he led numerous conquests during the Balkan Wars and conquered Serbia, Herzegovina, and Albania. In 1467, Mehmed II approached the possessions of the Mamluk rulers of the Karamanids - Ak-Koyunlu - Memluk. In 1479, the Sultan launched a campaign against the Venetians, who controlled the vast territory of Albania. Mehmed II besieged the fortresses of Shkoder (Ishkodra) and Kruja (Akcahisar). His most important conquest, for which he actually received the nickname “Fatih,” was the conquest of Constantinople in May 1453 (at that time he was 21 years old).
Wives and concubines:
Since the beginning of the reign of Sultan Mehmet II (from 1444), the main element of Ottoman family policy was living with concubines without officially marrying them, as well as the main principle (which I think many people have heard of) “one concubine one son ( shehzade)", as well as the policy of limiting childbearing for wives from noble families, was carried out through sexual abstinence. Inside the Sultan's harem, a kind of policy was probably used to prevent those concubines who had already given birth to sons from entering the Sultan's bed. One of the reasons for applying the “one concubine, one son” policy was that the mothers of the Sultan’s children, when sending their sons to govern the sanjaks, accompanied them and headed their household in the provinces.
1. Emine Gülbahar Hatun: mother of Cevher Hatun and adoptive mother of Bayezid II (As the adoptive mother of Bayezid and the widow of Mehmed, she received a title equal to the title Valide Sultan that appeared later. She died in 1492 in Istanbul. She was buried in the Fatih Mosque. In memory of her adoptive mother After her death, Bayezid II built the Khatuniye Mosque in Tokat).
2. Sitti Mükrime Hatun: was the LEGAL wife of Mehmet, daughter of the sixth ruler of Dulkadirida Suleiman Bey and biological mother of Bayezid II. (Her son ascended the throne 14 years later, after the death of Mükrime. Mehmed's other wife Emine Gülbahar Hatun received the then equivalent title of Valide Sultan, like his adoptive mother).
3. Gulshah Khatun: mother of the beloved son of Sultan Mehmed II - Shehzade Mustafa (1450-1474). (Shehzade died of illness in June 1474, at the age of 24. His death was blamed on the Grand Vizier Mahmud Pasha, who had a bad relationship with Mustafa. He was strangled, but buried in his mausoleum, which he built and bears his name. And most importantly, on the day of his funeral, the Sultan declared mourning, which was a sign of his changeable character).
4. Chichek Khatun: mother of Shehzade Cem
5.Helena Khatun
6.Anna Khatun
7.Alexis Khatun
Sons: Sultan Bayezid II, Shehzade Mustafa, Shehzade Cem and Shehzade Korkut.
Daughters: Cevger Khatun, Seljuk Khatun, Hatice Khatun, Iladi Khatun, Ayse Khatun, Hindi Khatun, Aynishah Khatun, Fatma Khatun, Shah Khatun, Huma Sultan and Ikmar Sultan. (I think many people are interested in why the first daughters were called Khatun, and the last 2 Sultans, I explain, before the reign of Bazid II, the daughters of the Sultan were called Khatun, and after his ascension to the throne, the daughters of the Sultans began to be called Sultanas).
Mehmed II died when he moved from Istanbul to Gebze for the final formation of the army (for the next campaign). While in the military camp, Mehmed II fell ill and died suddenly, as was supposed from food poisoning or due to his chronic illness. There was also a version of poisoning. The body of the ruler was brought by Karamani Ahmet Pasha to Istanbul and was laid out for farewell for twenty days. On the second day after Bayezid II ascended the throne, the body was interred in the mausoleum of the Fatih Mosque. The funeral took place on May 21, 1481.
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For almost 400 years, the Ottoman Empire ruled the territory of modern Turkey, southeastern Europe and the Middle East. Today, interest in the history of this empire is greater than ever, but few people know that the stop had many “dark” secrets that were hidden from prying eyes.
1. Fratricide
Early Ottoman sultans did not practice primogeniture, in which the eldest son inherits everything. As a result, there were often a number of brothers laying claim to the throne. In the first decades, it was not uncommon for some of the potential heirs to take refuge in enemy states and cause a lot of problems for many years.
When Mehmed the Conqueror was besieging Constantinople, his uncle fought against him from the walls of the city. Mehmed dealt with the problem with his usual ruthlessness. When he ascended the throne, he executed most of his male relatives, including even ordering his infant brother to be strangled in his cradle. He later issued his infamous law, which stated: " One of my sons who should inherit the Sultanate must kill his brothers"From that moment on, each new sultan had to take the throne by killing all his male relatives.
Mehmed III tore out his beard in grief when his younger brother begged him for mercy. But at the same time he “did not answer him a word,” and the boy was executed along with 18 other brothers. And Suleiman the Magnificent silently watched from behind a screen as his own son was strangled with a bowstring when he became too popular in the army and began to pose a danger to his power.
2. Cages for sekhzade
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.
3. The palace is like a quiet hell
Even for the Sultan, life in Topkapi Palace could be extremely gloomy. At that time, it was believed that it was indecent for the Sultan to talk too much, so a special form of sign language was introduced, and the ruler spent most of his time in complete silence.
Mustafa I considered that this was simply impossible to bear and tried to abolish such a rule, but his viziers refused to approve this ban. As a result, Mustafa soon went crazy. He often came to the seashore and threw coins into the water so that “at least the fish would spend them somewhere.”
The atmosphere in the palace was literally saturated with intrigue - everyone was fighting for power: viziers, courtiers and eunuchs. The women of the harem gained great influence and eventually this period of the empire became known as the "Sultanate of Women." Ahmet III once wrote to his grand vizier: " If I move from one room to another, then 40 people line up in the corridor, when I get dressed, then security is watching me... I can never be alone".
4. Gardener with executioner duties
The Ottoman rulers had complete power over the life and death of their subjects, and they used it without hesitation. Topkapi Palace, where petitioners and guests were received, was a terrifying place. It had two columns on which severed heads were placed, as well as a special fountain exclusively for the executioners so that they could wash their hands. During periodic cleansing of the palace from unwanted or guilty people, entire mounds of the tongues of victims were built in the courtyard.
Interestingly, the Ottomans did not bother to create a corps of executioners. These duties, oddly enough, were entrusted to the palace gardeners, who divided their time between killing and growing delicious flowers. Most victims were simply beheaded. But it was forbidden to shed the blood of the Sultan's family and high-ranking officials, so they were strangled. It was for this reason that the head gardener had always been a huge, muscular man, capable of quickly strangling anyone.
5. Death Race
For offending officials there was only one way to avoid the wrath of the Sultan. Beginning in the late 18th century, a custom arose where a convicted grand vizier could escape his fate by defeating the head gardener in a race through the palace gardens. The vizier was called to a meeting with the head gardener and, after an exchange of greetings, he was presented with a cup of frozen sherbet. If the sherbet was white, then the Sultan granted the vizier a reprieve, and if it was red, he had to execute the vizier. As soon as the condemned man saw the red sherbet, he immediately had to run through the palace gardens between the shady cypress trees and rows of tulips. The goal was to reach the gate on the other side of the garden that led to the fish market.
The problem was one thing: the vizier was being pursued by the head gardener (who was always younger and stronger) with a silk cord. However, several viziers managed to do so, including Haci Salih Pasha, the last vizier who was the last to participate in such a deadly race. As a result, he became the sanjak bey (governor) of one of the provinces.
6. Scapegoats
Although grand viziers were theoretically second only to the sultan in power, they were typically executed or thrown into the crowd as a scapegoat whenever something went wrong. During the time of Selim the Terrible, so many great viziers changed that they began to always carry their wills with them. One vizier once asked Selim to let him know in advance if he was executed soon, to which the Sultan replied that a whole line of people had already lined up to replace him. The viziers also had to calm the people of Istanbul, who always, when they didn’t like something, came in a crowd to the palace and demanded execution.
7. Harem
Perhaps the most important attraction of the Topkapi Palace was the Sultan's harem. It consisted of up to 2,000 women, most of whom were purchased or kidnapped slaves. These wives and concubines of the Sultan were kept locked up, and any stranger who saw them was executed on the spot.
The harem itself was guarded and controlled by the chief eunuch, who because of had enormous power. Today there is little information about living conditions in a harem. It is known that there were so many concubines that some of them almost never caught the eye of the Sultan. Others managed to gain such enormous influence over him that they took part in resolving political issues.
So, Suleiman the Magnificent fell madly in love with the Ukrainian beauty Roksolana (1505-1558), married her and made her his main adviser. Roxolana's influence on imperial politics was such that the Grand Vizier sent the pirate Barbarossa on a desperate mission to kidnap the Italian beauty Giulia Gonzaga (Countess of Fondi and Duchess of Traetto) in the hope that Suleiman would take notice of her when she was brought into the harem. The plan ultimately failed, and Julia was never kidnapped.
Another lady - Kesem Sultan (1590-1651) - achieved even greater influence than Roksolana. She ruled the empire as regent in place of her son and later grandson.
8. Blood tribute
One of the most famous features of early Ottoman rule was the devşirme ("blood tribute"), a tax levied on the non-Muslim population of the empire. This tax consisted of the forced recruitment of young boys from Christian families. Most boys were recruited into the Janissary Corps, an army of slave soldiers who were always used in the first line of Ottoman conquests. This tribute was collected irregularly, usually resorting to devshirma when the sultan and viziers decided that the empire might need additional manpower and warriors. As a rule, boys aged 12-14 years were recruited from Greece and the Balkans, and the strongest were taken (on average, 1 boy per 40 families).
The recruited boys were rounded up by Ottoman officials and taken to Istanbul, where they were entered into a registry (with detailed descriptions, in case any escaped), circumcised, and forcibly converted to Islam. The most beautiful or intelligent ones were sent to the palace, where they were trained. These guys could achieve very high ranks and many of them eventually became pashas or viziers. The remaining boys were initially sent to work on farms for eight years, where the children simultaneously learned Turkish and developed physically.
By the age of twenty, they officially became Janissaries, the elite soldiers of the empire, renowned for their iron discipline and loyalty. The blood tribute system became obsolete in the early 18th century, when the children of the Janissaries were allowed to join the corps, which thus became self-sustaining.
9. Slavery as a tradition
Although devşirme (slavery) was gradually abandoned during the 17th century, it continued to be a key feature of the Ottoman system until the end of the 19th century. Most slaves were imported from Africa or the Caucasus (the Adyghe were especially valued), while Crimean Tatar raids provided a constant influx of Russians, Ukrainians and Poles.
It was originally forbidden to enslave Muslims, but this rule was quietly forgotten when the supply of non-Muslims began to dry up. Islamic slavery developed largely independently from Western slavery and therefore had a number of significant differences. For example, it was somewhat easier for Ottoman slaves to gain freedom or achieve some kind of influence in society. But there is no doubt that Ottoman slavery was incredibly cruel.
Millions of people died during slave raids or from backbreaking work. And that's not even mentioning the castration process that was used to fill the ranks of eunuchs. The mortality rate among slaves is illustrated by the fact that the Ottomans imported millions of slaves from Africa, while very few people of African descent remained in modern Turkey.
10. Massacres
With all of the above, we can say that the Ottomans were a fairly loyal empire. Apart from devshirme, they made no real attempts to convert non-Muslim subjects. They accepted Jews after they were expelled from Spain. They never discriminated against their subjects, and the empire was often ruled (we are talking about officials) by Albanians and Greeks. But when the Turks felt threatened, they acted very cruelly.
Selim the Terrible, for example, was very alarmed by the Shiites, who denied his authority as a defender of Islam and could be "double agents" for Persia. As a result, he massacred almost the entire east of the empire (at least 40,000 Shiites were killed and their villages were razed to the ground). When the Greeks first began to seek independence, the Ottomans resorted to the help of Albanian partisans, who committed a series of terrible pogroms.
As the empire's influence declined, it lost much of its former tolerance for minorities. By the 19th century, massacres became much more common. This reached its climax in 1915, when the empire, just two years before its collapse, massacred 75 percent of the entire Armenian population (about 1.5 million people).
Continuing the Turkish theme, for our readers.
Over the six centuries of its existence, the Ottoman Empire saw both its greatest triumphs and humiliating defeats. She undeniably played one of the key roles in world history, being closely connected with both the Christian world and the world of the East. In the Ottoman emperors, European ambitions were intertwined with the severity of eastern despotism, forcing them to keep a whole staff of executioners at court, executing violators of the law of the great eastern empire.
In books about the history of the Ottoman Empire, executions are often given a separate chapter - so many traditions and features have accumulated in the work of executioners over almost 6 centuries! Each class in the empire had its own methods of execution: for example, commoners who might not have committed serious crimes were often subjected to the most painful executions, such as being hung on a hook by the rib, impaled or quartered. Civil servants were usually beheaded with a sword, but for the upper class, including employees of the Sultan's court and his entourage, exclusively bloodless methods of execution were chosen: for example, strangulation with a bowstring or a silk scarf. But for different classes, not only certain methods of execution were relied upon, but also certain executioners. Thus, the lower classes were executed by executioners who were selected from the palace guards of the Sultan's court. Mostly, they were deaf so that their hand would not tremble when they heard the terrible screams of the condemned during the execution. The elite could only be executed by the head of the palace guard, who tried to finish his job as quickly and painlessly as possible for the condemned.
Each case was considered separately by the Supreme Court, and at this time the convicted person awaited the verdict in Topkapi Palace. He learned the court's decision in a very peculiar way: the guard brought him a bowl of sherbet. Each accused wanted to get a cup of white drink - this would mean that all charges would be dropped. If the sherbet was red, it meant the death penalty. Then the convict drank the drink and within three days the death sentence was carried out. This procedure was the same for all classes.
But for some people who occupied a particularly high position in the state, hope of avoiding execution remained even after they were presented with red sherbet. The head of the palace guard offered the convict a test: to win a race through the palace to the place of execution - the entire distance took about 300 meters. If a prisoner was the first to arrive at the place of execution, his punishment was immediately commuted, replacing the death penalty with exile from the state. If the head of the guard wins, he immediately executes the convict by strangulation.
Despite the apparent simplicity of the competition, the prisoner’s chances of a favorable outcome were extremely small: only athletes served in the palace guard, and it was extremely difficult to defeat them. In addition, the guards knew perfectly well all the tricks and traps of the path along which they would run. In the entire history of the tradition, only a few prisoners managed to avoid death, ahead of the head of the palace guard. One of the lucky ones, Haji Salih Pasha, convicted in November 1822, was able to win the competition. He was doubly lucky: the Sultan not only replaced his death penalty with exile, but also offered him the post of governor-general of Damascus. However, such cases were rather the exception to the rule: the head of the guard usually easily won the race.
How exactly this tradition appeared is unknown. The first mentions of it date back to the end of the 18th century, and it ends approximately closer to the middle of the 19th century.
Illustration: “The Grand Vizier gives an audience in Kubbealti”, Jean Baptiste Vanmour
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