3. We saw previously that control of the Middle East had
changed hands several times.
• By the 1300’s, it was the Ottomans’ turn.
The Ottoman Empire was begun by a Turkish warrior
king, Osman I, who successfully laid siege to several
Byzantine forts.
• He was succeeded by his son, Orkan I, who conquered
the important Byzantine city Adrianople.
• Subsequent sultans kept expanding the borders,
usually at Byzantine expense.
4. Tamerlane (Timur the Lame) threw a kink in Ottoman
expansion.
• He claimed descent from Genghis Khan and may at
least have been married into the Khan family.
• He conquered a great deal of territory in central Asia
and into the Middle East.
• He’s actually considered a hero to many in central
Asia, such as in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, etc., while
he’s a villain to Persians and Arabs since he
overthrew their rule and destroyed their cities.
5. • He wars with the Ottomans and even captures the
Ottoman sultan, Bayezid, in the Battle of Ankara.
• Tamerlane wanted to restore power to the Seljuks
who he thought were the rightful rulers of Anatolia
because they had been granted rule by the Mongols.
6. • To say Tamerlane was brutal is being too kind. He laid
waste to cities and slaughtered their inhabitants:
70,000 people in Isfahan (and stacked their skulls into
pyramids), another 100,000 prisoners executed in
Delhi, 70,000 in Tikrit, 90,000 in Baghdad.
• It’s estimated that Tamerlane’s conquering claimed
anywhere from 7 million to 20 million lives.
7. • He was called “the Lame” because of a leg wound he
sustained as a child.
Reconstruction based on
exhumation of his body
in 1941.
10. After recovering from Tamerlane and settling out who
was going to be the new sultan, the Ottomans went
back on the offensive.
• Constantinople was the prize the sultan Mehmet II
wanted. It was wealthy, it controlled the Bosporus
Strait sea and land traffic, it wasn’t Muslim, it had
resisted conquering for nearly a thousand years, and it
was the continuation of the Roman Empire.
Conquering it would be good for bragging rights alone.
11. Mehmed II –
He was only 12 when
he became sultan and
he conquered
Constantinople at age
21
12. Selim the Grim comes along in 1512
• He overthrew his father and then executed all his
brothers and nephews.
• The family killing was to eliminate the possibility of
anyone else with a possible claim to the throne
trying to overthrow him. It was risky to be in the
Ottoman royal family.
13. • Selim was known to have a fiery temper and executed
several viziers who he didn’t think were doing well
enough.
• One vizier jokingly asked to be told when he was
going to be executed so he could put his affairs in
order. Selim responded that he had been thinking
about it for awhile, but just hadn’t found a good
replacement yet. When he had, he’d make sure to
tell the vizier.
14. • Selim went on to conquer
Egypt, which was under
control of the Mamluke
dynasty and also Mecca
and Medina.
15. Suleiman the Magnificent/Lawgiver
• Sultan from 1520 to 1566.
• The most powerful sultan and under whom the
Ottoman Empire reached its peak of power.
• He continued conquering into Europe, including the
Balkans and most of Eastern Europe – nearly to Vienna.
Once again, Europe seemed seriously threatened by
the Muslims from the east (guess they should have
given the Byzantines more help in 1453).
17. • Suleiman also formed a legal code covering instances
falling outside Islamic sharia, hence his title of
‘lawgiver.’
• He was a good ruler who promoted people based on
merit rather than wealth or contacts.
• Also allowed for religious tolerance. Jews were not to
be oppressed and Christians could continue practicing
their own religion.
• This was more practicality than high-mindedness.
People tend not to care who governs them so long
as they can live their lives the way they want. A
content populace is one which won’t rebel.
18. You can’t pull off this
look.
Suleiman could.
He was magnificent.
19. Military
• There were different levels of the military, but the elite
corps were the Janissaries.
• They were non-Muslim boys who were taken from
their families at a young age: about 12-16. This
was part of the devshirme tax.
• The boys would be trained in fighting and cultural
arts and to think of the sultan as a father.
20. • They were cut off from their biological families and
their new family was the Janissaries. While not
forced to convert to Islam, the vast majority did.
• Since they converted, their sons would be
Muslims and inelligible for the devshirme and the
Janissaries. This prevented a powerful hereditary
class from developing, like what happened with
the Mamlukes and Seljuks.
21. The Decline
• After Suleiman, a series of bad sultans have control of
the Empire.
• They get pasted at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, for
example.
22. • Lepanto was a naval battle between Ottoman forces
and a loose alliance of Europeans, led by the Venetians
under Don Juan. The Ottomans were commanded by
Ali Pasha.
• The Ottomans had been gobbling up territory and
seemed nearly unstoppable. They threatened to
take the island of Cyprus, which the Venetians
owned (though the Venetians had previously made
agreements with the Ottomans).
• Venice appealed for aid, but not many were
interested – Venice was a republic, which the
monarchies didn’t like, wealthy, and powerful.
• The pope eventually answer because he can’t
allow a Muslim entity to dictate to a Christian
one.
23. • The Ottomans had 230 galleys and 60 galliots, while
the Holy League had just 206 galleys and 6 galleasses.
• A galley wasn’t all that much more advanced from
ancient triremes. They were oar powered and relied
and ramming or boarding to defeat enemy ships.
• Galliots were small, light, maneuverable galleys.
• Galleasses were a new innovation. They were a
hybrid between sail and oar power, were larger,
and, most importantly, used cannons.
24. • The battle started out with the galleasses at the front,
just hammering the Ottoman ships, which couldn’t even
get in range of the new ships.
• Most of the battle gets fought on the flanks and it
was ugly. Ultimately, Ali Pasha is captured, killed,
and his head displayed on a pike.
27. • The whole commander’s head on a pike thing
seriously demoralized the rest of the Ottomans
who withdrew from the battle. The Holy League
had won.
• The final tally was:
• Holy League: 9,000 dead or wounded and 12
galleys lost
• Ottomans: 30,000 dead or captured, 137 ships
captured (and all their loot), and 50 ships
sunk.
• Another 15,000 galley slaves were freed.
28. • Lepanto had three major effects
• First, it marked the end of the seemingly invincible
Ottoman Muslims. After so many years of
conquering and pushing back Christian boundaries,
they were soundly beaten.
• Second, it effectively ended the Ottomans as a naval
force in the Mediterranean and paved the way for it
to become Europe’s lake.
• Third, it presaged the end of the galleys and that
type of warfare. After this, sail and cannon would
rule the seas and would require new types of naval
warfare.