The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300-1600

385 Pages·2001·7.36 MB·English

by  Halil Inalcik

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
The Classical Age 1300–1600
Halil Inalcik
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Preface
Note on Transliteration
Part One: An Outline of Ottoman History, 1300–1600
Introduction: The Periods of Ottoman History
1 The Origins of the Ottoman State
2 From Frontier Principality to Empire, 1354–1402
3 The Interregnum and Recovery
4 The Definitive Establishment of the Ottoman Empire, 1453–1526
5 The Ottoman State as a World Power, 1526–96
6 The Decline of the Ottoman Empire
Part Two: The State
7 The Rise of the Ottoman Dynasty
8 The Manner of Accession to the Throne
9 The Ottoman Concept of State and the Glass System
10 Law: Sultanic Law (Kânûn) and Religious Law (Şerîat)
11 The Palace
12 The Central Administration
13 The Provincial Administration and the Timar System
Part Three: Economic and Social Life
14 The Ottoman Empire and International Trade
15 The Ottoman Cities and Road Network, Urban Population, Guilds and
Merchants
Part Four: Religion and Culture in the Ottoman Empire
16 Learning, the Medrese and the Ulema
17 Ottoman Scholarship
18 The Triumph of Fanaticism
19 Popular Culture and the Tarîkats – Mystic Orders
Genealogy of the Ottoman Dynasty
A Chronology of Ottoman History
Glossary
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Also By Halil Inalcik
Copyright

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1 Portrait of Mehmed the Conqueror by Gentile Bellini
2 The Topkap Palace, seen from Galata (From G.J.Grelot, Relation nouvelle
d’un voyage de Constantinople Paris, 1680)
3 Plan of Seraglio Point (From A.I.Melling, Voyage Pittoresque de
Constantinople, Paris, 1819)
4 The first court of the Topkap Palace, between the Bâb-i Hümâyûn (Imperial
Gate) and the Orta Kap (Middle Gate) (Hünernâme, Library of the Topkap
Palace, Hazîne kitaplar , no. 1532, p. 15v. This work was composed
between 1580 and 1585)
5 The east side of the second court, between the Orta Kap and the
Bâbussaâde (Hünemâme, p. 18v)
6 The west side of the second court, showing the imperial council in session
for the payment of the Janissaries (Hünernâme, p. 19r)
7 The east side of the third court and garden (Hünemâme, p. 231v)
8 The west side of the third court and garden (Hünernâme, p. 232r)
9 The Imperial Council in session (Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, Cod. 8615).
10 Sultan Süleymân hearing the complaint of an old woman during a hunting
expedition (Süleymânnâme, Topkap , Hazîne no. 1517).
11 The accession of Mehmed II (Hünernâme, p. 153v)
12 An ambassador of the Emperor in the presence of the sultan
(Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, Codex Vindobonensis 8626)
13 Christian children levied by the government, led to work in their white caps
(Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, 8626)
14 Acemî oğlans, who are to become Janissaries, learning how to use muskets
(Nationalbibliothek, Vienna. Cod. 8615. dated 1586)
15 Çavuşes (Nationalbibliothek, Vienna. God. 8626)
16 The Janissaries on parade (Loc. cit.)
17 Janissary commanders (Loc. cit.)
18 The ağa of the Janissaries (Loc. cit.)
19 Sipâhîs of the Porte on a hunting trip with the sultan (Loc. cit.)
20 Exercises at the Okmeydan in Istanbul (Nationalbibliothek, Vienna. Cod.
8615)
21 Head-gunners (Nationalbibliothek, Vienna. Cod. 8626)
22 The grand vizier, Sinan Pasha, and four other viziers precede the coffin in
the funeral procession of an important man (Loc. cit.)
23 The doorkeepers of the deceased precede the coffin at a funeral (Loc. cit.)
24 Çavuşes carrying the coffin (Loc. cit.)
25 Armed sipâhîs (Loc. cit.)
26 Frontier raiders (Loc. cit.)
27 Bride riding beneath a baldachin (Loc. cit.)
28 Bride’s mother riding with friends (Loc. cit.)
29 Turkish ladies sitting in a drawing-room (Loc. cit.)
30 Turkish lady going to the bath-house (Nationalbibliothek, Vienna. 8626)
31 Passengers on board ship (Museo Civico Correr, Venice. MS Cigogna 1971)
32 Boys to be circumcised led in ceremony through the streets of Istanbul
(Nationalbibliothek, Vienna. Cod. 8626)
33 Children carrying the Koran, collecting alms (Loc. cit.)
34 Traders at an army camp (Nusretnâme, Library of the Topkap Palace,
Hazîne kitaplar , no. 1365, p. 93r)
35 Tailors in a procession on the occasion of the circumcision of Prince
Mehmed in 1582 (Sûrnâme, Library of the Topkap Palace, Hazîne kitaplar ,
no. 1344, p. 119r)
36 Glass-makers in the same procession (Loc. cit., p. 29r)
37 A model of a mill in the same procession (Loc. cit., p. 127r)
38 A kebab-maker in the same procession (Loc. cit., p. 341r)
39 A view of the Covered Bazar, Istanbul, in the nineteenth century (From Th.
Allom)
40 Peddlers at the foot of the column of Arcadius at the Avret-pazar (Museo
Civico Correr, Venice. MS Cigogna 1971)
41 Shopkeepers (Loc. cit.)
42 Rest in a caravanserai (Loc. cit.)
43 A mill on a brook in Bulgaria (Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, Cod. 8626)
44 Turks at the eating table and a Janissary playing a lute (Nationalbibliothek,
Vienna. Cod. 8615)
45 Offering a drink to people in the Street for God’s sake (Nationalbibliothek,
Vienna. Cod. 8626)
46 Feeding dogs in the Street for God’s sake (Loc. cit.)
47 Amusements for old and young during a festival (Loc. cit.)
48 Exercise of the cavalry, cirid, outside the city walls of Istanbul (Loc. cit.)
49 Punishment of a woman at the cadi’s court (Loc. cit.)
50 A man who did not comply with the order of the Subashi to clean up the
Street at his front door is punished by falancka (falaka) (Loc. cit.)
51 Muslim priests, hocas, at a funeral (Loc. cit.)
52 Members of dervish orders at a procession (Loc. cit.)
53 The astronomer Takiyyüddin in his observatory, AD 1580 (From F.Edhem
Bey and I.Stchoukine, Les Miniatures orientaux illustrés de la Bibliothèque
de l’Université de Stamboul, Paris 1933, fig. 6)
54 Mosque of Mehmed the Conqueror with the medreses below (Archive of the
Turkish Ministry of Tourism and Press)
55 Süleymâniye Mosque, built 1550–57 (Loc. cit.)
56 Mosque of Sultan Ahmed I, also called Blue Mosque, built 1609–1617 (Loc.
cit.)
57 The Castle of Rumeli-Hisar , built in 1452 (Archive of the Turkish Ministry
of Tourism and Press)
LIST OF MAPS
1 The expansion of the Ottoman Empire 1300–1600
2 Trade Routes in the Ottoman Empire