The Ottoman and Safavid Empires in the 17Th Century the Ottoman Empire

Introduction: The Ottoman and Safavid Empires in the 17th century The Ottoman Empire Claire Norton The Ottoman Empire was a poly-ethnic, multi-faith, Islamic empire with substantial Christian and Jewish populations that stretched from cen- tral Europe east to Mesopotamia, west along the north African coast to Morocco, south to the Ḥijāz and Yemen and north of the Black Sea to the Crimea. Although the 16th century, especially the reign of Sultan Süleyman (r. 1520-66), has been conventionally interpreted by modern historians and Ottoman chroniclers as a golden age of Ottoman rule, the empire continued to thrive in the 17th century, expanding territorially to its largest extent, flourishing economically and demonstrating institu- tional and political flexibility in adapting to a changing world, including continuing interaction with early modern European states and its east- ern neighbour the Safavid Empire.1 The century began with the conclusion of the Habsburg-Ottoman Long War (1593-1606), which saw relatively few gains for either side, although the Ottomans secured their continued presence in Hungary with the capture of Egri (1596) and Nagykanizsa (1600) castles. The middle of the century saw the Ottomans, under the political and military guidance of grand viziers from the Köprülü family, capture Uyvar and Novigrad on the Habsburg-Ottoman border, finally take full control over Crete with the Venetian surrender of the capital Candia in 1669, gain control over Mesopotamia from the Safavids, and capture Kamaniçe from the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1672. This town became the administrative centre of a new eyalet (province). However, it was not a century of uninterrupted military success. The protracted campaigns and sieges, which generally ended with limited gains for the Ottomans, suggest that the empire had reached its territorial limits, a situation confirmed by the loss of Ottoman Hungary following the unsuccessful second Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683. The 17th century was also, however, a period of 1 D. Goffman, The Ottoman Empire and early modern Europe, Cambridge, 2002, p. 192. 2 introduction cooperation and interaction between the Ottomans and various Euro- pean states; their relations reflected a pragmatism that surpassed reli- gious difference to the extent that: [b]y the last decades of the seventeenth century, the Ottoman Empire was as integrated into Europe as it would ever be […] The Europe of Louis XIV and Charles II […] considered the Ottomans – as friend or foe – along with the other states of Europe in their diplomatic, commercial, and military policies. This was an Ottoman Europe almost as much as it was a Venetian or Habsburg one.2 It was also a century in which dynastic succession and politics continued to evolve. The succession practice of sultans changed from a short-lived system of what could be considered essentially a form of primogeniture, which was in place for much of the 16th century and had effectively replaced the practice of the sultan’s sons battling each other for the throne in pre- vious centuries, to one of agnatic seniority, in which the throne went to the eldest male relative of the sultan, regardless of age or competence.3 Seventeenth-century Ottoman sultans tended to lead more secluded, sedentary lives than their predecessors, a shift reflected in contemporary Ottoman political theory and legitimising strategies that now empha- sised the divinely ordained nature of sultanic authority and lineage and the qualities of piety and generosity rather than heroism, military accom- plishments and administrative skills.4 The exception to this was Murad IV (r. 1623-40), who led Ottoman forces during the Ottoman-Safavid con- flict and whose reign tended more towards absolute rule by the sultan rather than by an oligarchy of elites; this was possibly influenced by the death of his brother Osman II (r. 1618-22) at the hands of the janissar- ies in 1622. Towards the end of the 16th century, following the death of Sokullu Mehmed Pasha, there was increased involvement in the political hierarchy of a new social group centred on the sultan’s household and including the sultan’s unofficial companions, palace eunuchs and members of the royal family. A degree of stability was provided by Kösem Sultan (1589-1651), who, in her roles as haseki sultan (consort) of Ahmed I (r. 1603-17), valide sultan (mother of the sultan) of Murad IV and Ibrahim I (r. 1640-8) and regent for her sons, exercised considerable 2 Goffman, Ottoman Empire, pp. 224-5. 3 L.P. Pierce, The Imperial harem. Women and sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire, New York, 1993, see especially ch. 4. 4 E. Fetvacı, Picturing history at the Ottoman court, Bloomington IN, 2013, especially ch. 4..

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