Daily Life In The Ottoman Empire Read Online Free Page A

but it did not manifest
itself to outsiders until a century later.
     
     
    MILITARY CHALLENGE FROM IRAN
     
    The first signs of Ottoman military weakness appeared at
the beginning of the 17th century on the battlefields of eastern Anatolia as a rejuvenated
Iranian state under the charismatic Shah Abbas (1587–1629) attacked and
defeated Ottoman forces in Azerbaijan and the south Caucasus. The Iranians
moved at blazing speed, catching Ottoman garrisons in Azerbaijan and the
Caucasus by surprise and capturing the city of Tabriz in 1603 and Nakhchivan in
1604. Shortly after, Yerevan (Erivan) and Kars were sacked. Using Armenia as
his base, Shah Abbas invaded and occupied the entire eastern Caucasus as far
north as Shirvan.
    The crisis caused by the campaigns of Shah Abbas coincided
with the death of Mehmed III (1595–1603) and the accession of Ahmed I
(1603–1617), who mobilized a large force against Iran. When the two armies
clashed in September 1605, however, the Iranians scored an impressive victory
against the larger Ottoman force. In addition to Azerbaijan and the Caucasus,
the Safavids captured southeastern Anatolia and Iraq. The defeat undermined the
Ottoman rule in Anatolia and the Arab world. Kurdish and Turcoman tribal chiefs
defected, and a series of revolts erupted, particularly in Syria, where the
Kurds staged an uprising against the Ottoman state.
    During the reign of Murad IV (1623–1640), the Ottomans
tried to restore peace and order in Anatolia and remove Iranian forces from
Iraq. After several long campaigns against Iran, the Ottoman army captured the
city of Baghdad and re-established Ottoman control over the Arab Middle East
that lasted until the end of the First World War. In May 1639, on the plain of
Zahab near the town of Qasr-i Shirin/Kasr-i Şirin (in present-day western
Iran), the Ottoman Empire and Iran signed a peace treaty that ended nearly one
hundred forty years of hostility between the two Islamic states. The treaty
established the Ottoman sultan as the master of Iraq while the Safavids
maintained control over Azerbaijan and southern Caucasus.
     
     
    KÖPRÜLÜ VIZIERS
     
    When Murad IV died in February 1640, he was succeeded by
his brother Ibrahim (1640–1648), who had lived his entire life in the royal
harem and had no training or experience in ruling an empire. While Ibrahim
became increasingly infatuated with the pleasures of the inner palace, his
mother, his tutor, the grand vizier, the chief eunuch, and janissary
commanders, vied for power and influence. When Ibrahim was murdered and his son,
Mehmed IV (1648–1687), ascended the Ottoman throne, the new ruler remained a
pawn at the hands of those who surrounded him—his grandmother, mother, the
grand vizier, and the chief eunuch.
    In 1656, the financial crisis, political chaos, and the
failure of the Ottoman navy to lift the Venetian siege of the capital, finally
forced the sultan to appoint Mehmed Köprülü as grand vizier, thus inaugurating
the rise to power of a family of Köprülü ministers, who tried to restore the
authority of the Ottoman state by imposing peace and order and introducing
badly needed reforms.
    The son of an Albanian father, the first Köprülü grand
vizier, Mehmed Köprülü, had served many masters and patrons both within the
palace and in various provinces, acquiring a reputation for competence and
honesty. He and his son, Köprülüzade Fazil Ahmed, who succeeded his father in
1661 and dominated Ottoman politics until 1676, crushed antigovernment revolts
in Anatolia and re-established the authority of the central government in the
provinces. Both father and son pursued a foreign policy aimed at checking the
Habsburg intervention in Transylvania and defeating the alliance of Catholic
forces known as the Holy League, which had been organized under the leadership
of the Pope. When Christian and Ottoman forces clashed near the village of St.
Gotthard in August 1664, the Ottomans were defeated and lost many