Early Ottoman Cultural Syncretism and the Muslim Sunni “Confessionalization”

Another feature typical of the early Ottoman state was its highly pragmatic attitude toward Christians and Jews. The Ottomans did not encourage massive conversions to Islam, as that would lead to diminishment of treasury incomes, in part com­posed of special taxes imposed on non-Muslims.

734 DARIUSZ KOLODZIEJCZYK

Map 26.1. The Growth of the Ottoman Empire.

Source: Zielinska and Kolodziejczyk, 2003, Poznajemy dzieje cywilizacji. Historia i spoleczenstwo. Podr^cznik dla klasypiqtej szkolypodstawowej. Copyright: Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne.

requirement of conversion.^[1829] Many young members of the Greek and Balkan aristocracy, including members of the imperial Palaiologan dynasty, were forcibly converted and trained in the sultan's palace to be subsumed into the highest admin­istrative and military echelons of the empire.^[1830] Also the system of levy of Christian children into the palace service and janissary corps, known as dev^irme, assured the constant flow of non-Turkish newcomers, often of humble origin, to the top posts in the imperial structure. Although the careers of these newcomers were linked with forced conversion, they were not barred from maintaining contacts with relatives who remained Christian and who could make parallel careers in the Orthodox Church hierarchy or in trade. Perhaps the best known is the case of Mehmed Sokollu, a dev^irme adept and Muslim convert from the Serbian petty noble family of Sokolovici, who in the sixteenth century ascended to the post of grand vizier and remained in power during the reigns of three successive sultans.

The examples of swift careers at the Ottoman court accomplished by strangers of humble origin made a huge impression in feudal Europe. Several writers of the Italian Renaissance idealized the Ottoman realities and presented the Ottoman court as ruled by purely meritocratic standards. Some European authors and art­ists dedicated their works to the sultan in the hope of gaining his patronage, while others—including the great Leonardo—considered entering his service.^[1833] Some sultans, most notably Mehmed II, “entered the game” by extending patronage to Greek writers, Italian artists, and by commissioning commemorative medals and jewels in Western workshops. The adoption by Mehmed II of the formal title kayser-i Rum (“Caesar of Rome”) after the conquest of Constantinople was the best proof of his universal ambitions extending to both the eastern and western Mediterranean. Until the early sixteenth century, the Ottoman chancery displayed purely cosmo­politan ambitions, issuing documents in Ottoman Turkish, but also in Persian, Greek, Latin, Italian, Serbian, and Church Slavonic, addressed to domestic as well as foreign communities and their leaders.^[1834]

Older historiography often perceived Mehmed II as the paragon of Ottoman ruler who set lasting standards for the state organization, typical of the “classical age” of the empire.^[1835] Yet, his rule was hardly typical. The conquest of Constantinople gave him such great charisma in the eyes of his subjects that he could openly defy the Muslim clergy and almost openly ignore Muslim law.

These unusual circumstances had already ceased under Mehmed's son and suc­cessor Bayezid II (1481-1512). His rule was repeatedly challenged by his younger brother, who was able to find refuge first in Mamluk Egypt, then on Rhodes, and finally in Rome. Forced to seek legitimacy, Bayezid endeared himself with the Muslim clergy, restored the pious properties confiscated by his father, and earned— as the only sultan in Ottoman history—the honorary title of Veli (lit. “Saint”) which referred less to his devotion than to his dependency on the ulema. Not by coin­cidence, Bayezid's reign also witnessed the naissance of Ottoman court historiog­raphy whose adepts aimed to depict the past sultans as infallibly pious warriors and the protectors of Islamic law.

The Ottomans' Sunni Muslim identity was further strengthened during the reign of Selim I (1512-1520). His military confrontation with Shah Ismail, who imposed Shiite Islam as the state religion of Iran, resulted in the brutal persecution of Shiites in Asia Minor, suspected by the sultan of maintaining secret contacts with the shah. As the result of two brilliant campaigns against the Safavids and the Mamluks, marked by the victorious battles at Qaldiran (1514) and Marj Dabik (1516), within less than four years the Ottomans became masters of eastern Anatolia, greater Syria, Egypt, and the Hejaz.