The Ottoman Empire began in earnest in 1299 in the river valley of Sakarya by a man named Osman. He created a confederation of the Turkish tribes connected by their shared Islamic faith and urgent passion to spread their religious beliefs, declaring himself the first Sultan. He was the beginning of the driving force that was one of the most populous and longest empires in our history lasting for six centuries. During their reign of dominance, they began with the severely weakened Sultanate of Selijuq run by Persians of Anatolia and equated with the downfall of the Byzantine Empire. The Ottoman Empire was so powerfully organized in its attacks and methodology of control that it singlehandedly changed the power of a singular Christian European society to an Islamic direction. At the height of its power, it contained 29 provinces and controlled territory in Southeast Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa. Charles Darwin so aptly stated,” Remember what risks the nations of Europe ran, not so many centuries ago of being overwhelmed by the Turks.”
Firstly, religion was important to all of Europe, Africa, and Eastern Asia prior, during, and after the life of the Ottoman Empire. Religion was a quintessential part of human existence from the time they were born, taught by their parents and passed on generation to generation. The Turks believed in Islam which they considered to not only be a religion, but also a complete way of life. The Turkish were determined if at all possible, to convert all other religions to theirs in the lands they had conquered. It is to their credit, they were quite tolerant of other religious beliefs within their empire for those who simply felt too strongly about their existing faiths to convert.
The Ottoman Empire began as a group of Turks known as Muslims because of their faith in Islam. They fervently believed in one, unique incomparable God who had complete authority over human destiny and in life after death. They believed only through Islam, you learned mercy, forgiveness, and peace. They believed in the chain of 17 prophets that included Abraham, Moses, and Jesus but especially believed God’s final eternal message to mankind came from the Prophet Mohammad through the archangel Gabriel. They believed they were giving God their complete submission to his will, referring to him as ‘Allah’. They followed the Devine Law known as Sharia to the letter knowing doing so would please God and protect their souls. They thoroughly believed their powers of persuasion, observation and intelligence making them a super power was purely due to the power of Islam. Under the Muslim millet, any and all Muslims regardless of common heritage, language, or citizenship prospered beautifully under the Ottoman Empire as they were all treated equally and given the same privileges.
In the Quran, millet was always referred to as religion and a religious community; its actual meaning is nation stemming from the Arabic word millah. It alluded to all religions; Christian, Judaism, Muslim, and I suppose, even non-believers. Bear in mind, the millet system was already in existence when Ottoman conquered Constantinople, they merely continued the practice as they were hard driven soldiers and not in the least bit interested in the internal and private affairs of inferior people who were non-believers of Islam. However, in order to control the masses of their religiously diverse population as a corporation at an age where technology in administration and communication were nearly non-existent, they developed a hierarchical government structure where each man’s place was clearly defined. Superiors were held accountable for the performance and conduct of the people under their authority and the discharge of governmental responsibility were closely regulated. The Ottomans realized to have a successful centralized government; they had to be quite flexible and realistic. In the 19th century, while still preserving its original meanings it also came to signify the modern concept of nation and nationality. The system under Islamic rules, allowed all minorities of other faiths to rule themselves with separate legal courts concerning individual law with little interference from the Ottoman government as long as a Muslim was not involved in the case. By the nineteenth century, the two largest millets were Muslim and Greek Orthodox.
After 1,100 years in power, the primarily Christian Byzantine Empire was crushed with the capture of Constantinople in 1453 by Sultan Mehmet and became the Ottoman’s capital. This had a tremendous effect on Christian Europe. In 1454, Mehmet established the first Greek Orthodox millet which was comprised of all orthodox in one single community in spite of the language difference, ethnic backgrounds and the fact that the religious chain of command was definitely Greek dominated. This included; Greek Orthodox, Albanians, Macedonians, Vlachs, Georgians, Serbs, Romanians, Arab Christians and Bulgarians. Mehmed II appointed Gennadios II Scholarios as the Ecumenical Patriarch, known as the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople. His authority was greatly increased under Ottoman. Firstly, he was now responsible for the religious and spiritual affairs of millions of Orthodox Slavs that had previously been under independent Bulgarian and Serbian churches. Secondly, the Patriarch’s authority now expanded to include administrative, financial, and legal responsibilities of a civil nature. By the 16th century, he was also in control of the Orthodox communities in Arabic speaking lands. Needless to say, the devout orthodox followed him to the letter as he was recognized as the highest religious and political leader of all Orthodox peoples of the Sultan of the Ottoman, and considered the successor of Saint Andrew the Apostle. It is their belief God revealed himself in Jesus, the incarnation of Christ, his crucifixion and resurrection. Orthodox means right belief or right thinking. Their approach to theology, tradition and worship was drawn in part from the Greeks, Middle Eastern, Russia, and Slav regions. They ardently believe the Holy Spirit is in and as the guide to the Church working through the whole body of the Church, as well as through priests and bishops. The Orthodox follows the Old Testament of the Bible using the ancient Jewish translation into Greek called the Septuagint and sings their prayers to the Eucharist. All of the above orthodox fervently followed their beliefs for the safe passage of their souls into heaven with Jesus.
It was a common practice to take Christian boys and convert them to Muslim to serve under the Sultan, and hundreds of others after converting, were trained and educated to serve the military. Because Islam was the dominant religion, certain practices had to be followed; only Muslims could rule, Muslims absolutely could not convert to other religions, non-Muslims could not attempt to convert Muslims without suffering serious consequences, and non- Muslims attire was different than Muslims. Another difference was the fact adult Christians and Jews living in an Islamic state were required to pay a special tax called the jizya that Muslims did not have to pay. This tax was paid in agreement between the Christians and the Muslims for tolerance of their religious practices and protection of their Islamic state. The common denominator between Muslims and the Orthodox Christians was both prayed in song several times per day starting at dawn and finishing at sunset. The one major legacy of the Ottoman Empire in modern day Turkey as we know it is the non-conformists who follow secularism don’t believe a person with a religious faith should be given special consideration from the state. From the beginning of time until the end, religion is the property of the people and of God.
In conclusion, one of the great successes of the Ottoman Empire was the unity of the social structure of its highly diverse populations through its millet system where the people kept their own religious laws, traditions, and language under the general protection of the sultan. Plurality was the key to the endurance of the Empire. Ultimately, the Empire’s somewhat high degree of tolerance for ethnic differences demonstrated to be one of its greatest strengths in merging the new regions but this non-absorbent procedure became a weakness after the rise of nationalism. The Ottoman Empire survived 38 Sunni Sultans and was controlled by religion. Without question, they would have preferred all of their conquered subjects to believe exactly as they did and dreamt of a world under Islam.
Christopher Hitchens, a well known controversial writer of religion and politics who passed away last month quoted; “Faith is the surrender of the mind; it’s the surrender of reason, it’s the only thing that makes us different from other mammals. It’s our need to believe, and to surrender our skepticism and our reason.”
Globale.org. “Turkish Toleration.” Accessed December 10, 2011. http://www.globaled.org/nyworld/materials/ottoman/Turkish.html
Bbc.co,uk. “Ottoman Empire (1301-1922).” Accessed December 10, 2011.
Onlinelibrary.wiley.com. “THE MILLET SYSTEM IN THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY OTTOMAN EMPIRE.” April 03, 2007. Accessed December 10, 2011. http://www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1478-1913.1967.tb01260.x/abstract
Transanatolie.com. “The Ottoman Empire 1700-1922.” Accessed December 10, 2011. http://www.transanatolie.com/english/turkey/Turkey
Goodreads.com. Elians, Habesci. “The Present State Of The Ottoman Empire.” Kessinger Publishing, LLC 2009. Accessed December 10, 2011. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7564333-the-present-state-of-the-ottoman-empire
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