5 pillars and Ottoman history

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5 pillars and Ottoman history
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All Muslims undertake 5 basic pillars of Islam
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Pillars of Islamic Practice

• Shahada I bear witness that there is no God but
  God and Muhammad is the Messenger of God
• Salat/Prayer (5 prayers 3/5 times a day)
• Sawm/Fasting the month of Ramadan
• Zakat/Giving alms (2.5 percent of wealth)
  purifies wealth)
• Hajjpilgrimage made once in a lifetime to Mecca
  to circumambulate the Kaba

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Law

• All pious Muslims also believe that Islamic law
  (Sharia), a more expansive concept of law than
  we have in the West, is one of the fundaments of
  Islamic practice.
• Which laws exactly are part of that is less
  important than the principle of trying to work
  out a Divine plan for the world through societal
  regulation (law).

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Law

• Islamic law is based on 4 sources, (the Quran,
  accounts of what the Prophet said and did, human
  reasoning by analogy, the consensus of legal
  scholars.)
• It covers many aspects of life (personal status,
  contracts, crime, basic behavior, ritual,
  government.)
• It includes five categories of action (required,
  recommended, neutral, disliked, prohibited.)

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Law

• It is not codified in a single code
• It allows for re-interpretation
• But one must use the 4 sources (and ancillary
  sources or bases for legal reasoning such as
  social welfare or need.)
• Using such tools, reformers have made the law
  malleable, especially in the late 19th and 20th
  centuries (NOTE this can be a progressive or
  regressive element, contrary to first impressions)

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Historical Sketch of Ottomans

• Ottomans/Osmanli
• One of several Turkic groups that raid Anatolia
  and stay in the 13th century, after the Mongols
  have come and gone.
• 1326 Orhon son of Osman conquers BursaOne way to
  date beginning
• 14th and 15th centuries see conquest of much of
  SE Europe and all of Anatolia
• Constantinople falls in 1453

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Ottomans up to early 16th Century
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Mehmet Fatih (the Conqueror)(conquers
Constantinople in 1453)
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Full extent of Ottoman Empire

• 16th century sees Ottoman Empire expand to become
  the dominant world power.
• 1516 and 1517 the Arab lands are initially
  conquered by Selim the Grim
• During the reign of Sulayman the Magnificent
  (qanuni) (1520-66) the Ottomans conquer much of
  Eastern and Central Europe. Sulayman first
  besieges Vienna, the capital of the Hapsburg
  Empire in 1529, although he has to withdraw that
  winter.
• Later Ottomans in 1683 will make another attempt
  at this, but are defeated.

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Sulayman the Magnificent
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Ottomans in 16th and 17th Centuries
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Ottomans eclipsed

• Several battles at the end of the 17th century
  indicate beginning of European military
  superiority
• 1690s, Ottomans fight Russians and Austrians and
  are defeated by both. 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz
  with Austria cedes Hungary to the Hapsburgs
• 1700 treaty with Peter the Great of Russia
  recognizes Russian right to Northern Black Sea
• 18th Century sees other defeats as Ottomans
  forced to cede more and more territory and
  rights.
• Europeans begin to claim rights of protection
  over non-Muslim minorities

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Ottoman Institutions

• 1. Gazi state, with legitimation in fighting for
  expansion
• Theoretically take on Caliphate from the rump
  Abbasids in 1517 after conquest of Cairo
• 2. Slave Elite. Paradoxical?
• Devshirmelevy of young boys from the European
  provinces. These boys were converted to Islam,
  trained and educated, and appointed to positions
  commensurate with their abilities.
• Made into military and civilian administrators
  and elite.
• Being taken from family was clearly hard, but
  this was a good thing for the boys themselves (or
  their careers) and families tried to have their
  boys taken into devshirme.

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Institutions

• 3. Army comprised of two main units Janissaries
  and Sipahis.
• Janissaries were a standing army. 40,000 at the
  time of Sulayman the Magnificent.
• Sipahis were a landed cavalry that were given
  land in exchange for service when called up.
• Janissaries will be put down later in 19th
  century
• 4. Religious Establishment
• 5. Millet system

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Millets

• The Ottoman Empire was organized around
  religio-ethnic groups called millets, each of
  which was largely self-governing. Thus the
  various Christian sects, and the various Jewish
  sects, and the Shiites (who were not in the
  majority) were each governed by their own law,
  courts, etc.
• Thus, in pre-modern times, there was great
  diversity, or a tapestry of cultures.

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Nationalism and millet system incompatible

• Millet system, in many ways very tolerant and
  open, destroyed by nationalism.
• Inspired by ideas coming from France and England,
  idea of Greek nation leads to war of Gk.
  independence in 1821-1832.
• This is inspired by the revolutionary ideals of
  the French revolution, but also by an idea rooted
  in the European Rennaissance, of the link of
  European civilization to ancient Greece and Rome.
  In this depiction, the Ottomans are the other.

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Ottomans in 19th century

• The long nineteenth century (from the French
  revolution (1789) to the end of WWI (1918)) sees
  Ottomans losing power relative to Europe
• Attempts at reform are made, which succeed but
  not enough to keep European powers at bay.

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Empire dismantled after WWI

• Ottoman Empire among losers in WWI.
• Empire dismantled in treaty of Lausanne (1923)
• Arab parts placed under British and French
  control
• Greek and Turkish populations exchanged