Turks are a relatively young people. His age is only 600 years old. The first Turks were a bunch of Turkmens, fugitives from Central Asia, who fled from the Mongols to the west. They reached the Konya Sultanate and asked for land for a settlement. They were given a place on the border with the Empire of Nicaea near Bursa. The fugitives began to settle there in the middle of the 13th century.
The main among the fugitive Turkmens was Ertogrul-bey. He called the territory allotted to him the Ottoman beylik. And taking into account the fact that the Konya Sultan lost all power, he became an independent ruler. Ertogrul died in 1281 and power passed to his son Osman I Ghazi. It is he who is considered the founder of the dynasty of the Ottoman sultans and the first ruler of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire existed from 1299 to 1922 and played a significant role in world history.
Ottoman sultan with his warriors
An important factor contributing to the formation of a powerful Turkish state was the fact that the Mongols, having reached Antioch, did not go further, as they considered Byzantium their ally. Therefore, they did not touch the lands on which the Ottoman beylik was located, believing that it would soon become part of the Byzantine Empire.
And Osman Gazi, like the crusaders, declared a holy war, but only for the Muslim faith. He began to invite everyone to take part in it. And seekers of fortune began to flock to Osman from all over the Muslim East. They were ready to fight for the faith of Islam until their swords became dull and until they got enough wealth and wives. And in the east it was considered a very big achievement.
Thus, the Ottoman army began to be replenished with Circassians, Kurds, Arabs, Seljuks, Turkmens. That is, anyone could come, pronounce the formula of Islam and become a Turk. And on the occupied lands, such people began to allocate small plots of land for farming. Such a site was called "timar". He represented a house with a garden.
The owner of the timar became a rider (spagi). It was his duty to appear at the first call to the Sultan in full armor and on his own horse in order to serve in the cavalry. It was noteworthy that spagi did not pay taxes in the form of money, since they paid the tax with their blood.
With such an internal organization, the territory of the Ottoman state began to expand rapidly. In 1324, Osman's son Orhan I captured the city of Bursa and made it his capital. From Bursa to Constantinople, a stone's throw, and the Byzantines lost control over the northern and western regions of Anatolia. And in 1352, the Ottoman Turks crossed the Dardanelles and ended up in Europe. After this, the gradual and steady capture of Thrace began.
In Europe, it was impossible to get by with one cavalry, so there was an urgent need for infantry. And then the Turks created a completely new army, consisting of infantry, which they called Janissaries(yang - new, charik - army: it turns out Janissaries).
The conquerors took by force from the Christian nations boys aged 7 to 14 years old and converted to Islam. These children were well fed, taught the laws of Allah, military affairs and made foot soldiers (Janissaries). These warriors turned out to be the best foot soldiers in all of Europe. Neither the knightly cavalry, nor the Persian Qizilbash could break through the line of the Janissaries.
Janissaries - infantry of the Ottoman army
And the secret of the invincibility of the Turkish infantry was in the spirit of camaraderie. Janissaries from the first days lived together, ate delicious porridge from the same cauldron, and, despite the fact that they belonged to different nations, they were people of the same fate. When they became adults, they got married, started families, but continued to live in the barracks. Only during the holidays they visited their wives and children. That is why they did not know defeat and represented the faithful and reliable force of the Sultan.
However, having reached the Mediterranean Sea, the Ottoman Empire could not confine itself to the Janissaries alone. Since there is water, ships are needed, and a need arose for a navy. The Turks began to recruit pirates, adventurers and vagabonds from all over the Mediterranean for the fleet. Italians, Greeks, Berbers, Danes, Norwegians went to serve them. This public had no faith, no honor, no law, no conscience. Therefore, they willingly converted to the Muslim faith, since they did not have any faith at all, and it did not matter to them who they were, Christians or Muslims.
From this motley crowd, a fleet was formed that looked more like a pirate than a military one. He began to rage in the Mediterranean, so much so that he horrified the Spanish, French and Italian ships. The very same navigation in the Mediterranean began to be considered a dangerous business. Turkish corsair squadrons were based in Tunisia, Algeria and other Muslim lands that had access to the sea.
Ottoman navy
Thus, from completely different peoples and tribes, such a people as the Turks was formed. And the connecting link was Islam and a single military destiny. During successful campaigns, Turkish soldiers captured captives, made them their wives and concubines, and children from women of different nationalities became full-fledged Turks born on the territory of the Ottoman Empire.
The small principality, which appeared on the territory of Asia Minor in the middle of the 13th century, very quickly turned into a powerful Mediterranean power, called the Ottoman Empire after the first ruler Osman I Gazi. The Ottoman Turks also called their state the High Port, and they called themselves not Turks, but Muslims. As for the real Turks, they were considered to be the Turkmen population living in the interior regions of Asia Minor. The Ottomans conquered these people in the 15th century after the capture of Constantinople on May 29, 1453.
European states could not resist the Ottoman Turks. Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople and made it his capital - Istanbul. In the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire significantly expanded its territories, and with the capture of Egypt, the Turkish fleet began to dominate the Red Sea. By the second half of the 16th century, the population of the state reached 15 million people, and the Turkish Empire itself began to be compared with the Roman Empire.
But by the end of the 17th century, the Ottoman Turks suffered a series of major defeats in Europe.. The Russian Empire played an important role in weakening the Turks. She always beat the warlike descendants of Osman I. She took away the Crimea, the Black Sea coast from them, and all these victories became a harbinger of the decline of the state, which in the 16th century shone in the rays of its power.
But the Ottoman Empire was weakened not only by endless wars, but also by ugly farming. Officials squeezed all the juice out of the peasants, and therefore they ran the economy in a predatory way. This led to the emergence of a large number of waste lands. And this is in the "fertile crescent", which in ancient times fed almost the entire Mediterranean.
Ottoman Empire on the map, XIV-XVII centuries
It all ended in disaster in the 19th century, when the state treasury was empty. The Turks began to borrow loans from the French capitalists. But it soon became clear that they could not pay their debts, since after the victories of Rumyantsev, Suvorov, Kutuzov, Dibich, the Turkish economy was completely undermined. The French then brought a navy into the Aegean and demanded customs in all ports, mining as concessions, and the right to collect taxes until the debt was repaid.
After that, the Ottoman Empire was called the "sick man of Europe." She began to quickly lose the conquered lands and turn into a semi-colony of European powers. The last autocratic sultan of the empire, Abdul-Hamid II, tried to save the situation. However, under him the political crisis worsened even more. In 1908, the Sultan was overthrown and imprisoned by the Young Turks (a political movement of the pro-Western republican persuasion).
On April 27, 1909, the Young Turks enthroned the constitutional monarch Mehmed V, who was the brother of the deposed sultan. After that, the Young Turks entered the First World War on the side of Germany and were defeated and destroyed. There was nothing good in their reign. They promised freedom, but ended up with a terrible massacre of Armenians, saying that they were against the new regime. And they really were against it, since nothing has changed in the country. Everything remained the same as before it was 500 years under the rule of the sultans.
After the defeat in the First World War, the Turkish Empire began to agonize. Anglo-French troops occupied Constantinople, the Greeks captured Smyrna and moved inland. Mehmed V died on July 3, 1918 from a heart attack. And on October 30 of the same year, the Mudros truce, shameful for Turkey, was signed. The Young Turks fled abroad, leaving the last Ottoman sultan, Mehmed VI, in power. He became a puppet in the hands of the Entente.
But then the unexpected happened. In 1919, a national liberation movement was born in the distant mountainous provinces. It was headed by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. He led the common people. He very quickly expelled the Anglo-French and Greek invaders from his lands and restored Turkey within the borders that exist today. On November 1, 1922, the Sultanate was abolished. Thus, the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist. On November 17, the last Turkish sultan, Mehmed VI, left the country and went to Malta. He died in 1926 in Italy.
And in the country on October 29, 1923, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey announced the creation of the Republic of Turkey. It exists to this day, and its capital is the city of Ankara. As for the Turks themselves, they have been living quite happily for the last decades. In the morning they sing, in the evening they dance, and in between they pray. May Allah protect them!
I recently read a book about Suleiman's mother. She wanted to put the first son Mustafa. But everything turned out wrong, and as a result, Selim, who was named after Suleiman's father, ascended the throne. As a ruler, he was good.
The successor to the throne after Suleiman the Magnificent was Selim, the son of Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Sultan (in Europe, better known as Roksolana). According to historical data, Selim had a penchant for drunkenness and was much more interested in poetry and the development of culture than in governing the country.
After Suleiman the First the Magnificent, his third son Selim became the ruler of the Ottoman Empire. Selin was the fourth child of Roksolana and Suleiman the First. He didn’t go down in history, but got into trouble as Selim II, had the nicknames Selim Drunkard and Selim Blondin. Didn't show anything special.
The throne passed after the death of Suleiman to his red-haired son Selim. This is Suleiman's 3rd child. He executed the first son himself, the second and fifth sons died a non-violent death, the fourth was killed by Selim. So it was with them that only 1 brother, the heir to the throne, should survive.
After the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, his third son Selim II ruled, he was also called Selim the Drunkard because of his addiction to wine, which was not highly welcomed by the Ottomans. He ruled for a short time from 1566 to 1574. And he lived a total of 50 years. Historians claim that it was from Selim that the decline of the Omani Empire began. Well, they know better.
Selim had many children. Two from his beloved wife Nurbanu Sultan (a boy and a girl) and 8 more children from other concubines. Six of these children are boys. harem) and left to his heir Murad a larger state than he himself received from his father. Selim had a poetic gift. Several gazelles of his composition have survived to our time.
After the death of Sultan Suleiman in the beloved series Magnificent Century which was based on real historical events His son Selim became the ruler of the Ottoman Empire.
Only Selim survived from the sons of Suleiman.
Dzhihangir died of illness, and Bayezet, along with the children, Selim ordered to be killed.
What you will not do for the sake of the throne, of course it is terrible.
Sultan named Suleiman went down in history as Magnificentquot ;. So, and after him, his heir, the third son, born from Hürrem, entered the throne. This son's name was Selim. Selim went down in history as Drunkardquot ;, because his passion for wine was excessive.
After Sultan Suleiman Magnificent the throne was taken by the third son of the Sultan and Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Selim. In history, he is known as Selim Drunkard (because of his passion for wine) or Selim Blondequot ;. He ruled the Ottoman Empire for 9 years.
After his death, the throne was taken by his son Murad.
After Sultan Suleiman, his son Kherem Sultan Selim ascended the throne. Selim was not the eldest son. And not even the eldest son Kherem. The eldest son of the Sultan was Mustafa. But he was executed by the Sultan. their son Mehmet died at the age of 20. After Mehmet, the eldest son remained Selim. Also Beyazet and Zhehangir. Beyazet was executed by order of Selim, and Zhehangir died mourning the death of the eldest son of the Sultan and Mahidevran Mustafa.
According to history, after Suleiman the Magnificent, one of the joint sons with Alexandra Anastasia Lisowska Sultan ascended the throne - Selim.
The story also tells that Selim was a drunkard and a poet. And as a ruler, he did not particularly show himself.
The Ottoman Empire arose in 1299 in the northwest of Asia Minor and lasted 624 years, having managed to conquer many peoples and become one of the greatest powers in the history of mankind.
From the spot to the quarry
The position of the Turks at the end of the 13th century looked unpromising, if only because of the presence of Byzantium and Persia in the neighborhood. Plus the sultans of Konya (the capital of Lycaonia - regions in Asia Minor), depending on which, albeit formally, the Turks were.
However, all this did not prevent Osman (1288-1326) from expanding and strengthening his young state. By the way, by the name of their first sultan, the Turks began to be called the Ottomans.
Osman was actively engaged in the development of internal culture and carefully treated someone else's. Therefore, many Greek cities located in Asia Minor preferred to voluntarily recognize his supremacy. Thus, they "killed two birds with one stone": they both received protection and preserved their traditions.
Osman's son Orkhan I (1326-1359) brilliantly continued his father's work. Declaring that he was going to unite all the faithful under his rule, the Sultan set off to conquer not the countries of the East, which would be logical, but the western lands. And Byzantium was the first to stand in his way.
By this time, the empire was in decline, which the Turkish Sultan took advantage of. Like a cold-blooded butcher, he "chopped off" area after area from the Byzantine "body". Soon the entire northwestern part of Asia Minor came under the rule of the Turks. They also established themselves on the European coast of the Aegean and Marmara Seas, as well as the Dardanelles. And the territory of Byzantium was reduced to Constantinople and its environs.
Subsequent sultans continued the expansion of Eastern Europe, where they successfully fought against Serbia and Macedonia. And Bayazet (1389-1402) was "marked" by the defeat of the Christian army, which King Sigismund of Hungary led on a crusade against the Turks.
From defeat to triumph
Under the same Bayazet, one of the most severe defeats of the Ottoman army happened. The Sultan personally opposed Timur's army and in the Battle of Ankara (1402) he was defeated, and he himself was taken prisoner, where he died.
The heirs by hook or by crook tried to ascend the throne. The state was on the verge of collapse due to internal unrest. Only under Murad II (1421-1451) did the situation stabilize, and the Turks were able to regain control of the lost Greek cities and conquer part of Albania. The Sultan dreamed of finally cracking down on Byzantium, but did not have time. His son, Mehmed II (1451-1481), was destined to become the killer of the Orthodox empire.
On May 29, 1453, the hour of X came for Byzantium. The Turks besieged Constantinople for two months. Such a short time was enough to break the inhabitants of the city. Instead of everyone taking up arms, the townspeople simply prayed to God for help, not leaving churches for days. The last emperor, Constantine Palaiologos, asked for help from the Pope, but he demanded in return the unification of churches. Konstantin refused.
Perhaps the city would have held out even if not for the betrayal. One of the officials agreed to the bribe and opened the gate. He did not take into account one important fact - the Turkish Sultan, in addition to the female harem, also had a male one. That's where the comely son of a traitor got.
The city fell. The civilized world has stopped. Now all the states of both Europe and Asia have realized that the time has come for a new superpower - the Ottoman Empire.
European campaigns and confrontations with Russia
The Turks did not think to stop there. After the death of Byzantium, no one blocked their way to rich and unfaithful Europe, even conditionally.
Soon, Serbia was annexed to the empire (except for Belgrade, but the Turks would capture it in the 16th century), the Duchy of Athens (and, accordingly, most of all of Greece), the island of Lesbos, Wallachia, and Bosnia. 
In Eastern Europe, the territorial appetites of the Turks intersected with those of Venice. The ruler of the latter quickly enlisted the support of Naples, the Pope and Karaman (Khanate in Asia Minor). The confrontation lasted 16 years and ended with the complete victory of the Ottomans. After that, no one prevented them from "getting" the remaining Greek cities and islands, as well as annexing Albania and Herzegovina. The Turks were so carried away by the expansion of their borders that they successfully attacked even the Crimean Khanate.
Panic broke out in Europe. Pope Sixtus IV began to make plans for the evacuation of Rome, and at the same time hastened to announce a Crusade against the Ottoman Empire. Only Hungary responded to the call. In 1481, Mehmed II died, and the era of great conquests ended temporarily.
In the 16th century, when internal unrest in the empire subsided, the Turks again directed their weapons at their neighbors. First there was a war with Persia. Although the Turks won it, the territorial acquisitions were insignificant.
After success in North African Tripoli and Algiers, Sultan Suleiman invaded Austria and Hungary in 1527 and laid siege to Vienna two years later. It was not possible to take it - bad weather and mass diseases prevented it.
As for relations with Russia, for the first time the interests of states clashed in Crimea.
The first war took place in 1568 and ended in 1570 with the victory of Russia. Empires fought each other for 350 years (1568 - 1918) - one war fell on average for a quarter of a century.
During this time, there were 12 wars (including the Azov, Prut campaign, Crimean and Caucasian fronts during the First World War). And in most cases, the victory remained with Russia.
Dawn and sunset of the Janissaries
Talking about the Ottoman Empire, one cannot fail to mention its regular troops - the Janissaries.
In 1365, on the personal order of Sultan Murad I, the Janissary infantry was formed. It was completed by Christians (Bulgarians, Greeks, Serbs, and so on) at the age of eight to sixteen years. Thus, devshirme worked - a blood tax - which was imposed on the unbelieving peoples of the empire. It is interesting that at first the life of the Janissaries was quite difficult. They lived in monasteries-barracks, they were forbidden to start a family and any household.
But gradually the Janissaries from the elite branch of the military began to turn into a highly paid burden for the state. In addition, these troops were less and less likely to take part in hostilities.
The beginning of decomposition was laid in 1683, when, along with Christian children, Muslims began to be taken as Janissaries. Wealthy Turks sent their children there, thereby solving the issue of their successful future - they could make a good career. It was the Muslim Janissaries who began to start families and engage in crafts, as well as trade. Gradually, they turned into a greedy, impudent political force that interfered in state affairs and participated in the overthrow of objectionable sultans.
The agony continued until 1826, when Sultan Mahmud II abolished the Janissaries.
The death of the Ottoman Empire
Frequent troubles, inflated ambitions, cruelty and constant participation in any wars could not but affect the fate of the Ottoman Empire. The 20th century turned out to be especially critical, in which Turkey was increasingly torn apart by internal contradictions and the separatist mood of the population. Because of this, the country fell behind the West in technical terms, so it began to lose the once conquered territories.
The fateful decision for the empire was its participation in the First World War. The allies defeated the Turkish troops and staged a division of its territory. On October 29, 1923, a new state appeared - the Republic of Turkey. Mustafa Kemal became its first president (later, he changed his surname to Atatürk - "father of the Turks"). Thus ended the history of the once great Ottoman Empire.
The Ottoman Empire in its heyday could well claim the title of world empire. Its possessions were located in Asia, Europe and Africa, the army for a long time was considered practically invincible, the treasures belonging to the sultans and their entourage seemed countless to Europeans.
Grandson of the Saint, son of the Terrible
The Ottoman Empire reached its peak in the 16th century, during the reign of the Sultan Suleiman I, nicknamed the “Legislator” by the subjects, and “Magnificent” by the Europeans.
Of course, the splendor and grandeur of the era of Suleiman I would not have been possible without the success of his predecessors. Suleiman's grandfather, Sultan Bayezid II Nicknamed "The Saint", he managed to consolidate the previous conquests for the empire, extinguish internal conflicts and give the country decades of development without great upheavals.
Bayazid's grandson, Suleiman, was born in 1495 in Trabzon, in the family of the Sultan's son. Selima and Aisha Sultan Hafsa, daughters of the Crimean Khan Mengli I Giray. At a very young age, Suleiman was appointed deputy of his grandfather in the Crimean Khanate, a vassal of the Ottoman Empire.
This place turned out to be the safest in the Ottoman Empire during the last years of the reign of Bayezid II. Selim, who feared that his father would hand over the throne to his brother, gathered troops and rebelled against his father in 1511, but was defeated, after which he took refuge in the Crimea under the protection, oddly enough, of his own son.
However, in 1512, a rather atypical event happened: 64-year-old Bayezid II, in order to end internal strife and prevent a split in the empire, voluntarily abdicated in favor of Selim.
Sultan Selim I said that his father was waiting for an "honorable resignation", but a month later Bayezid was gone. Most likely, the new monarch decided, just in case, to hasten the natural process.
In the Muslim Ottoman Empire, there were no problems with the heirs to the throne - the harem produced them in abundance. This gave rise to a bloody tradition - the new sultan, when ascending the throne, got rid of his half-brothers. Selim I, who received the nickname "Terrible", according to this tradition, took the lives of about 40 of his brothers, adding to them many other male relatives. After that, the monarch took up the arrangement of the state, cracking down on 45 thousand Shiites in Asia Minor. “To rule means to punish severely,” was the motto of Selim I.
16th century humanist
The eight-year reign of Selim I flew by in battles and executions. The Sultan, who finally consolidated the supremacy of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East, was killed not by an enemy bullet or a conspiracy, but by a plague that struck him on the eve of the next military campaign.
Miniature depicting Suleiman the Magnificent with an army on a campaign against Nakhichevan (summer 1554). Photo: Public Domain
So in 1520, Suleiman I ascended the throne of the Ottoman Empire. Foreign ambassadors wrote from Istanbul that the “mad lion” was replaced by a “gentle lamb”.
Suleiman really, unlike his father, was not famous for his increased bloodthirstiness, but by the standards of his era, he was a fairly balanced and fair person.
His coming to power was not accompanied by mass executions of relatives. This is partly due to the fact that the massacres of the times of his father deprived Suleiman of serious competitors in the struggle for the throne. But the subjects of the empire noted the bloodless beginning of the reign of the new sultan and appreciated him.
The second surprise was that Suleiman I allowed the merchants and artisans from the countries captured by his father, who were in captivity, to return to their homeland.
This approach of Suleiman made it possible to establish trade relations between the Ottoman Empire and its neighbors. At the same time, the Europeans had the idea that the "affectionate lamb" is safe and does not pose a military threat.
This was a serious mistake. Suleiman I, despite all his moderation and balance, dreamed of military glory. During his reign, he conducted 13 military campaigns, 10 of which were in Europe.
conqueror of the world
A year after his accession to the throne, he invaded Hungary, taking the fortress of Šabac on the Danube, and laid siege to Belgrade. In 1552, the troops of Suleiman occupied the island of Rhodes, in 1524 the Ottomans, having defeated the Portuguese fleet in the Red Sea, completely brought the Red Sea under their control. In 1525, a vassal of the Ottoman Empire Khair ad Din Barbarossa took control of Algeria. In the summer of 1526, the Ottomans utterly defeated the Hungarian army, taking tens of thousands of people into captivity.
King Janos II of Hungary Sigismund Zápolya at a reception with Suleiman I, 1556. Photo: Public Domain
In 1529, Suleiman I besieged Vienna with 120,000 troops. Padi is the capital of Austria, and the history of Europe could develop in a completely different direction. However, what the Austrian troops could not do was done by epidemics - having lost up to a third of the army due to illness, the Sultan lifted the siege and went back to Istanbul.
Subsequent wars undertaken by the European powers against Suleiman I ended unsuccessfully for them. The sultan no longer stormed Vienna, but almost completely subjugated Hungary, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slavonia, and Transylvania turned into a vassal of the empire.
Why Transylvania - Austria itself pledged to pay tribute to the Ottoman Empire.
Suleiman I, who successfully expanded the borders, had difficult relations with the Muscovite state, albeit indirect ones. The Crimean Khan, a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, raided Russian lands, even reaching Moscow. Kazan and Siberian khans counted on help in the fight against Moscow. The Ottomans periodically participated in raids on Russian lands, but did not plan a large-scale invasion.
For Suleiman, who besieged Vienna, Moscow was too remote a province to divert forces and resources to it. The Sultan preferred to do business in "civilized Europe", where in 1536 he entered into a secret alliance with the French king. Francis I, helping him in the fight against the Spanish king Charles V for dominance over Italy.
French military and statesman Francois I of Lorraine and Suleiman I, c. 1530. Photo: Public Domain
patron of the arts
Between endless battles and campaigns, the Sultan tried to rebuild and streamline the lives of his subjects, becoming the initiator of the creation of secular laws. Before Suleiman I, the life of the empire was regulated exclusively by Sharia, but he rightly considered that a huge state in which different peoples and different faiths live cannot normally exist only on the basis of religious postulates.
Some of the internal reforms conceived by Suleiman I were not successful. This is largely due to the endless military campaigns waged by the empire.
But the Sultan, who wrote poetry himself, made a great contribution to the development of culture and architecture. Under him, three mosques were built, which are considered masterpieces of world architecture - Selimiye, Shahzade and Suleymaniye.
The “Magnificent Age” of Suleiman I was marked by the construction of luxurious palaces, the rich interiors of which are known to modern fans of television series based on the film of the same name.
It was in these interiors that the personal life of Suleiman I proceeded, no less intense than his conquests.
It is believed that the concubines in the Sultan's harem were disenfranchised slaves, toys of the monarch. This is only true at first glance. A smart and enterprising woman, even in the status of a concubine, could not only win the favor of the Sultan, but also subordinate him to her influence.
Roksolana: deceit and love
That was the kind of woman Khurem Sultan, she is Roksolana, she is Anastasia Lisovskaya. The exact name of this woman is unknown, but this Slav, captured as a girl and ended up in the harem of Suleiman, had a huge impact on the history of the Ottoman Empire.
Beloved wife of Suleiman I Roksolana. Reproduction of a drawing by Théodore de Banville. Photo: Public Domain
According to historians, Roksolana was the daughter of a priest and managed to get an elementary education before falling into captivity. Among her "colleagues" in the harem, she stood out not only for her special beauty, but also for her sharp mind, which allowed her to take a special place in the life of the Sultan.
Roksolana was the fourth concubine of Suleiman, but after six years of her stay in the harem, the monarch became so attached to her heart that he officially married her. In addition, most of the sons of Suleiman from the first concubines died in infancy, and Roksolana "provided" the Sultan with heirs.
Roksolana's favorite was the son Selim, and in order to clear the path to the throne for him, the mother decided to get rid of her main rival, his half-brother, through intrigues Mustafa, son of the third concubine, Circassian Mahidevran Sultan.
Suleiman saw Mustafa as an heir, but Roksolana managed to “set up” a competitor by fabricating letters on his behalf to the Iranian Shah. Thus, Mustafa was exposed as a traitor plotting. As a result, Mustafa was called to the headquarters of his father, who was on another campaign, and strangled by the guards almost in front of Suleiman.
A close friend of Suleiman I, the Grand Vizier, also fell victim to the intrigues of Roksolana. Ibrahim Pasha, who actually played the role of head of the government of the Ottoman Empire and led the country while the monarch was on military campaigns. Not appreciating in time the seriousness of Roksolana's influence on Suleiman, Ibrahim Pasha was accused of "working for France" and executed.
Roksolana managed to elevate Selim to the throne after the death of his father, and then the Ottoman Empire was in for a surprise. Poetry and art lover Selim II turned out to be an ardent admirer of ... alcohol. Unbelievable, but true - the Sultan of the Muslim Empire went down in history under the nickname "Drunkard". Historians to this day find it difficult to answer the question of how this became possible, but they tend to blame Slavic genes and the influence of the mother for this.
Gone empty handed
The cheerful disposition of the drunkard Selim had a most detrimental effect on the fate of the Ottoman Empire - it was under him that her army began to suffer the first major defeats from the European powers. After the "Magnificent Age" of his father, Selim outlined the first signs of the beginning of the decline ...
But that was later. The reign and life of Suleiman the Magnificent ended in a military campaign, during the siege of the Sigtevar fortress in Eastern Hungary. The sultan was killed not by an enemy saber, but by a disease, which, in general, is not surprising for a 71-year-old man, whose age for that era was already extremely advanced.
Suleiman I died on the night of September 6, 1566. According to legend, before his death, he called his commander-in-chief and expressed his last will to him: that his tabut (funeral stretcher) be carried by the best healers of the empire, that precious stones and gold coins be scattered along the entire path of the funeral procession, and that his hands stick out of the taboo and be everything visible. The shocked warlord dared to ask the dying man to explain his strange wishes. Suleiman grinned and replied: let everyone see that the best healers are powerless before the illness that took the Sultan to the grave; let everyone know that all our wealth accumulated during life remains in this world; let everyone know that Suleiman the Magnificent, the great ruler of the Ottoman Empire, left this life empty-handed.
Suleiman I was buried in a mausoleum at the cemetery of the Suleymaniye mosque he built, next to the mausoleum of his beloved wife Roksolana.
All sultans of the Ottoman Empire and the years of government history are divided into several stages: from the period of creation to the formation of the republic. These time periods have almost exact boundaries in the history of Osman.
Formation of the Ottoman Empire
It is believed that the founders of the Ottoman state arrived in Asia Minor (Anatolia) from Central Asia (Turkmenistan) in the 20s of the XIII century. The Sultan of the Seljuk Turks, Keykubad II, provided them with areas near the cities of Ankara and Segyut for living.
The Seljuk Sultanate in 1243 perished under the blows of the Mongols. Since 1281, Osman came to power in the possession allocated to the Turkmens (beylik), who pursued a policy of expanding his beylik: he seized small towns, proclaimed a gazzavat - a holy war against the infidels (Byzantines and others). Osman partially subdues the territory of Western Anatolia, in 1326 takes the city of Bursa and makes it the capital of the empire.
In 1324, Osman I Ghazi dies. They buried him in Bursa. The inscription on the grave became the prayer that the Ottoman sultans recited when they ascended the throne.
Successors of the Osmanid dynasty:
Expanding the boundaries of the empire
In the middle of the XV century. the period of the most active expansion of the Ottoman Empire began. At this time, the empire was headed by:
- Mehmed II the Conqueror - ruled 1444 - 1446 and in 1451 - 1481. At the end of May 1453 he captured and sacked Constantinople. Moved the capital to the plundered city. Sophia Cathedral was converted into the main temple of Islam. At the request of the Sultan, the residences of the Orthodox Greek and Armenian patriarchs, as well as the chief Jewish rabbi, were located in Istanbul. Under Mehmed II, the autonomy of Serbia was terminated, Bosnia was subordinated, Crimea was annexed. The death of the Sultan prevented the capture of Rome. The Sultan did not value human life at all, but he wrote poetry and created the first poetic duvan.
- Bayazid II Saint (Dervish) - ruled from 1481 to 1512. Practically did not fight. He stopped the tradition of personal leadership of the Sultan's troops. He patronized culture, wrote poetry. He died, passing power to his son.
- Selim I the Terrible (Merciless) - ruled from 1512 to 1520. He began his reign by destroying the closest competitors. Brutally crushed the Shiite uprising. Captured Kurdistan, the west of Armenia, Syria, Palestine, Arabia and Egypt. A poet whose poems were subsequently published by the German Emperor Wilhelm II.
- Suleiman I Kanuni (Legislator) - ruled from 1520 to 1566. He extended the borders to Budapest, the upper reaches of the Nile and the Strait of Gibraltar, the Tigris and Euphrates, Baghdad and Georgia. He carried out many government reforms. The last 20 years have passed under the influence of the concubine, and then the wife of Roksolana. The most prolific among the sultans in poetic creativity. He died during a campaign in Hungary.
- Selim II the Drunkard - ruled from 1566 to 1574. There was an addiction to alcohol. Talented poet. During this reign, the first conflict of the Ottoman Empire with the Moscow principality and the first major defeat at sea took place. The only expansion of the empire is the capture of Fr. Cyprus. He died from hitting his head on stone slabs in the bathhouse.
- Murad III - on the throne from 1574 to 1595 A "lover" of numerous concubines and a corrupt official who practically did not manage the empire. Under him, Tiflis was captured, the imperial troops reached Dagestan and Azerbaijan.
- Mehmed III - ruled from 1595 to 1603. Record holder for the destruction of competitors to the throne - on his orders, 19 brothers, their pregnant women and son were killed.
- Ahmed I - ruled from 1603 to 1617. The board is characterized by a leapfrog of senior officials, who were often replaced at the request of the harem. The empire lost Transcaucasia and Baghdad.
- Mustafa I - ruled from 1617 to 1618. and from 1622 to 1623. He was considered a saint for dementia and sleepwalking. He spent 14 years in prison.
- Osman II - ruled from 1618 to 1622. He was enthroned at the age of 14 by the Janissaries. He was pathologically cruel. After the defeat near Khotyn from the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, he was killed by the Janissaries for trying to escape with the treasury.
- Murad IV - ruled from 1622 to 1640 At the cost of a lot of blood, he brought order to the corps of the Janissaries, destroyed the dictatorship of the viziers, and cleared the courts and the state apparatus of corrupt officials. He returned Erivan and Baghdad to the empire. Before his death, he ordered to kill his brother Ibrahim, the last of the Osmanids. Died of wine and fever.
- Ibrahim - ruled from 1640 to 1648. Weak and weak-willed, cruel and wasteful, avid for women's caresses. Displaced and strangled by the Janissaries with the support of the clergy.
- Mehmed IV the Hunter - ruled from 1648 to 1687. Proclaimed sultan at the age of 6. The true government of the state was carried out by the grand viziers, especially in the early years. In the first period of the reign, the empire strengthened its military power, conquered Fr. Crete. The second period was not so successful - the battle of Saint Gotthard was lost, Vienna was not taken, the Janissaries rebelled and the Sultan was overthrown.
- Suleiman II - ruled from 1687 to 1691. He was elevated to the throne by the Janissaries.
- Ahmed II - ruled from 1691 to 1695. He was elevated to the throne by the Janissaries.
- Mustafa II - ruled from 1695 to 1703. He was elevated to the throne by the Janissaries. The first division of the Ottoman Empire under the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699 and the Treaty of Constantinople with Russia in 1700
- Ahmed III - ruled from 1703 to 1730. He hid Hetman Mazepa and Charles XII after the Battle of Poltava. During his reign, the war with Venice and Austria was lost, part of the possessions in Eastern Europe, as well as Algeria and Tunisia, were lost.
