Worringer on Imber, 'The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: the Structure of Power'

H-Levant Worringer on Imber, 'The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power'

Review published on Saturday, May 1, 2004

Colin Imber. The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. xiv + 405 pp. $27.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-333-61386-3; $19.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-333-61387-0.

Reviewed by Renee Worringer (School of History, Philosophy, Religion, and Classics, University of Queensland) Published on H-Levant (May, 2004)

Until recently the Ottoman historian was at a marked disadvantage when teaching an undergraduate course on the Ottoman Empire's rise and interactions with Europe. There was an absence of suitable general histories explaining the particulars behind the emergence of the Ottoman principality on the Byzantine-Seljuk frontier; its subsequent expansion into the Balkans and into Anatolia, culminating in the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453; and ultimately Ottoman ascension to the status of world empire. As a result, the Ottomanist was forced to assemble myriad collections of book chapters, articles, and essays from different publications into an accessible form. At times the chronology of events leading to the establishment of the Ottoman state was lost in the scramble to collect materials explicating the minutiae of Ottoman governing structures and dynastic power. Other times, historiographical debates and the effects of earlier Western and Turkish nationalist approaches to Ottoman history had to be ignored to convey basic information about what happened when, what battles were fought, or what territories were annexed and by which reigning Ottoman Sultan. Several long-overdue monographs have now been published in an attempt to respond to this deficiency in the field. In addition to Daniel Goffman's dynamic and engaging The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe (2002), the scholar now has Colin Imber's very readable and well-organizedThe Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power (2002) at his or her disposal.

Imber describes his task very clearly in his introduction: to write a general Ottoman history that would "serve to introduce the non-specialist to the field, and to provide a context which makes it possible to read the specialist works" (pp. xiii). In addition, he hopes to give Ottomanist specialists themselves "a straightforward chronology of events which has hitherto been lacking" (pp. xiii-xiv). Thus, the first quarter of the book is devoted to a useful, if densely packed, chronological summary of Ottoman historical development that draws on Imber's previous scholarship on the early Ottoman period (for example, his The Ottoman Empire 1300-1461 [1990]). His intimate knowledge of original sources and the use of linguistic interpretation result in a reexamination of the accuracy and historical meaning of terms such as ghazi (pp. 120-121). What could have been merely a dry list of the many Ottoman conquests and defeats over time is instead a vibrant discussion of the multiculturalism of the Ottoman Empire. It describes the Empire from its inception as a heterodox frontier society taking advantage of political rivalries among Byzantine claimants to the throne, local Balkan rulers, and other Muslim principalities in Anatolia--and whose warrior-leaders were Turkish and nominally Muslim--to its later form as an imperial state influenced by the historical legacies of Turco-Mongolian, Perso-Islamic and Byzantine traditions, which incorporated aspects of these into a new administrative apparatus. In this chronology he delves into topics such as the political nature of

Citation: H-Net Reviews. Worringer on Imber, 'The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power'. H-Levant. 01-22-2014. https://networks.h-net.org/node/7801/reviews/8250/worringer-imber-ottoman-empire-1300-1650-structure-power Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-Levant the Ottoman elite as a predominantly Muslim and Turkish-speaking class whose origins were often non-Muslim and non-Turkish (p. 3); Ottoman sürgün or deportation policies towards various groups in the Empire as a management strategy designed to create stability in the realm; and the violent attempt by Timur to reassert Islamized Mongol overlordship and governing patterns in Anatolia through the defeat of Ottoman forces at Ankara in 1402, resulting in the capture and subsequent death of Sultan Bayezid, the division of his territory among his sons, and Ottoman civil war lasting two roughly decades. Imber presents the Ottoman reemergence after this interregnum in a subsection titled "Conquest and Consolidation, 1451-1512," a period in which the Ottoman state definitively acquired an imperial capital after its siege of Constantinople, expanded its territories, and put in place its choices for administrative organization as an expression of power (pp. 27-28). From here the reader embarks upon a detailed account of Ottoman expansion further into Europe and the Mediterranean where it warred with Christian land and naval powers, as well as toward the Islamic heartlands, encountering the Mamluk realm centered in Cairo, and the Turcomankizilbas tribes on its Eastern flank, the clients of the fledgling Safavid state on its Iranian frontier. Imber argues, with clearly presented evidence, that in this era the Ottomans had to deal simultaneously with pretenders to the throne and rebellions in provincial areas as it undertook a campaign to improve military technology. What results in the sixteenth century is "the Apogee of Empire, 1512-1590" (p. 44), during which Ottoman Sultan Selim I defeated the Safavids (1514) and subdued the Mamluk Sultanate (1517). These successes launched what would shortly become his heir Süleyman the Magnificent's (r. 1520-1566) role as world emperor. In addition to Süleyman's campaigns, that essentially converted the Mediterranean into an Ottoman lake and allowed the Sultan to rival the Habsburg dynast as Holy Roman Emperor, his father's "acquisition from the Mamluks of the three Holy Cities of Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem gave the Ottoman Sultan primacy among Islamic monarchs, and bolstered his claim to be the sole defender of Islamic orthodoxy against Safavid heresy" (p. 48). The chronology highlights Ottoman achievements during Süleyman's forty-six-year reign and the years immediately following.

The next subsection, "The Ottoman Times of Trouble, 1590-1650," rounds out the chapter with a discussion of multiple Ottoman crises starting at the turn of the seventeenth century. These were, first, military in nature and then, in later decades, dynastic, before order and territory were temporarily restored under Sultan Murad IV (d. 1640). Imber purports to end the chronology in 1650, which he views as "the close of a period of crisis which brought an end to the Empire's expansion and brought changes to the structure of its institutions" (p. xiv). The last paragraphs summarize the accession to the throne of the child-Sultan Mehmed IV (r. 1648-1687), whose grandmother Kösem and mother Turhan were engaged in the dynastic politics of what was previously known in pejorative terms as "The Sultanate of the Women." It is remarked that Turhan's surrender of power to the astute Köprülü Grand Vezirs did not stave off the eventual downturn in Ottoman fortunes marked by the second failed siege of Vienna in 1683 and the Treaty of Carlowitz (1699) that was to officially recognize such losses.

Imber then delves into the specifics of Ottoman structures of power in subsequent chapters. In chapter 2, Imber explores the Ottoman dynasty, reproductive politics, and the evolution of succession practices, integrating many of the findings of Leslie Peirce's specialized work on the Ottoman imperial period in her The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire (1993), while incorporating his own knowledge of early Ottoman marital alliances, the succession struggles between sons, the implementation of a policy of royal fratricide, and allegiances with political figures

Chapter 3 discusses recruitment into the Ottoman ruling apparatus, the origins and functioning of the devshirme levy that produced "Slaves of the Porte" and the Janissary corps. Chapter 4 describes the Palace system, its physical layout in different periods, the arrangement of the dynastic household, its servants and their education, and an in-depth review of the development, composition, and duties of the various offices of the Ottoman Imperial Council. Chapter 5 compares the administration and personnel of revenue-generating provincial territories. Imber emphasizes Ottoman flexibility and variability in manipulating these arrangements to suit both local circumstances and the state's economic or strategic needs at a given time. Additionally, the author clarifies Ottoman terminology denoting the various categories of landholding. Imber traces pre-Ottoman practices influencing the allocation of timars and the timar-holder's military responsibilities to the imperial center through a reading of original Ottoman regulations and decrees. As the Empire matured into an imperial feudal bureaucracy and provincial postings became shorter-term appointments in the late-sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a system of civilian tax farming developed to meet the fiscal requirements of the Ottoman treasury. Imber describes this process.

Chapter 6 provides thorough insight into the Ottoman understanding and application of Islamic or Shari'ah law and the promulgation of its secular counterpart, or kanun. In addition, he describes the possible career paths and duties of members of the Ottoman religious class, theulema , comprising teachers, judges, and muftis. Chapters 7 and 8 review the development of the Ottoman military from raiding bowmen on horseback to an organized cavalry, the Janissary corps, the use of troops, and Ottoman siegecraft. Shipbuilding and the formation of a navy accompanied Ottoman assertion of power in the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. Advancements in weaponry such as the adoption of cannon and firearm technology logically affected Ottoman military strategy. Continued improvements in warfare technology among the Ottomans' opponents would eventually serve to eclipse the Empire's strength in battle. All of these elements are described as well.

The book contains five maps accessible to the unfamiliar reader: the Anatolian principalities later destroyed and/or incorporated into the Ottoman state; the expansion of the Ottoman state between the late 1300s and the end of the sixteenth century; the Ottoman Empire in the seventeenth century; the Ottoman-Habsburg frontier in the Balkans circa 1600; and Ottoman provinces, circa the sixteenth century. A useful glossary appears at the back of the book; a bibliography, nicely organized according to the chapter topics outlined above, facilitates research for newcomers to the field. Noticeably lacking in this monograph, however, is an Ottoman family tree portraying the extended dynasty similar to the diagrams in Peirce's study of dynastic politics or in Donald Quataert'sThe Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922 (2000). For those unfamiliar with the names of Ottoman Sultans and the time and length of their respective reigns, the chronology of events might be difficult to follow without such a basic reference tool. Future editions of this book should include some form of dynastic map. Imber masterfully achieves the task he sets out to do in his introduction, producing a comprehensive

Imber effectively sets a high standard for future work to be done by scholars of the latter half of the Ottoman Empire's existence. For the history student, he has provided a valuable educational tool. For the specialist, this is a well-researched and coherent narrative of the Ottoman rise to power based on original sources. He introduces some of the historiographical debates within the field of Ottoman history without overwhelming the historian who is unfamiliar with them. His depth of knowledge assists in defining the field of Ottoman history itself. This book is a must for anyone who teaches Ottoman history at the undergraduate or graduate level; Ottomanists specializing in any period should add this to their shelves as a fundamental text from which to proceed into any further study of the Ottoman state apparatus and Ottoman methods of rule.

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Citation: Renee Worringer. Review of Imber, Colin, The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power. H-Levant, H-Net Reviews. May,URL: 2004. http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=9420

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