Friday, September 6, 2019
The Ottoman Empire Paper Essay Example for Free
The Ottoman Empire Paper Essay The Ottoman Empire was one of the ancient yet one of the most powerful and influential world empires. The history of this empire begins sometimes during the 13th century. In their bid to enlarge their territory they took no consideration to any limits or boundaries be it religious, tribal or otherwise. This empire is also viewed as one of the civilized empires of the modern times. The empire was more of a military administration than a state. The empire is considered to have lasted a considerably longer time than any other empire.  The rulers of this empire were known as Sultans or Hunkar or Emperors and were all Islam. Suleyman the Great was the Sultan who ruled the longest while Amurath ruled for only three months making him the shortest ruling sultan.            The sultans always emerged from the Ottoman family who were strict followers of the Quran. Honesty, hard work and charity were principles that led the Ottoman Empire. Sermons were always read in the name of the reigning Sultan at that time. Any property belonging to the Sultan was known as Royal or imperial.            Having discussed that much on the establishment and general history of the Ottoman of the empire, it is of utmost importance to now look at the empire more critically and find out impacts of the Ottoman Empire especially on the Umma Muslims.            Though the Ottoman Empire was one of the most powerful and civilized ancient empires of the world, it also had its weak points during its reign. This paper specifically focuses on some of those weak points and particularly the mismanagement that was witnessed when the empire was in power leading to division among the Umma Muslims. A critical analysis of the Ottoman Empire reveals various setbacks that the dynasty experienced and this affected directly or indirectly the unity of the Ottoman Muslims. According to the traditions of the Ottoman Empire, when a Sultan died one of his sons would become the next Sultan. However there were no proper strategies as to who would become the next Sultan. There was therefore no clear criterion of selecting a Sultan. This led to bloodshed as the one who eventually emerged victorious had to eliminate his rivals for order and calmness to prevail. This obviously went against the teachings of the Muslim religion. Some Muslims supported the method while others were totally opposed to it as it contravened the teachings of the Holy Quran. This led to division among the Muslims.            Another issue that led to the division of the Umma Muslims was the level of respect accorded to the sultans. The Sultans were almost equated to Allah the God of the Muslims. For instance during prayers sermons were read in the name of the current Sultan. Some Muslims however felt that this was blasphemous because ordinarily sermons were supposed to be read in the name of Allah the Mighty one. This therefore led to division among Muslims thereby breaking the unity between them.            As discussed earlier Sultan Suleyman served for 40 years and therefore goes down the history of books as the longest serving Sultan.  The major role of the Sultan was to ensure that justice and fairness was exercised. Cases of injustice were rare as the Sultan made sure that the laws were followed to the letter. Any injustice and unfairness called for the direct intervention of the Sultan. Scholars and theologians believe that one of the reasons why the Ottoman dynasty declined and eventually collapsed was because the Sultans who succeeded Sultan Suleyman were not keen on protecting the interests of the citizens in terms of justice. The neglect by their leaders led to Umma Muslims to lack loyalty for their leaders and thereby there was disunity among them.            When Sultan died his son Selim II took over the leadership of the dynasty. His behavior was absolutely intolerable and contributed a great deal in causing disunity among the Muslims. He was an addict of alcohol and would spend most of his days drinking therefore forgetting his administrative role. He was also a lover of women and a sex addict vices that are heavily condemned in the Holy Quran. Due to his negligent nature, he completely disengaged himself from making decisions that affected the common people directly or indirectly. This made the Muslims to be disloyal to the Sultan and thereby led to a lot of division. As a consequence the Ottoman dynasty came tumbling down marking the end of the great dynasty. (Paul, 1971)            At the end of the sixteen century Ottoman was still a very strong dynasty and influential too. However the Sultan style of leadership was slowly becoming unpopular thus losing ground. In its place was the bureaucratic power method of ruling. However this method of power was actually the pathway to the decline and collapse of the world’s most influential empire.  This was so because bureaucracy led to corruption neglecting the needs and interests of the people. As a result, there was a lot of unpopularity of the government among the common people. This led to division among the Muslims and eventually the dynasty collapsed. (Leslie, 2003)            Historians also believe that another major contribution to disunity among the Ottoman Muslims was inequality by successors of Sultan Suleiyman. As discussed earlier during the reign of Sultan Suleiyman the Central government was accessible so that any person who had grievances would present them before the leaders. However with the change of leaders, the new leaders ranked themselves so highly that they were not accessible. The Muslims lost faith in their leaders; consequently there was disunity and eventual collapse of the dynasty. The leaders promoted people to power without using the right criteria. There was gross unfairness and this brought about strife among the common people. This in turn led to divisions among the Muslims as some felt that they were discriminated against in their own country. At some point the leaders exuded high level of negligence as far as matters pertaining people were concerned. The common people revolted and as a result there was disunity. This led to internal attacks.            Another major issue that brought about division due to poor management of power by the leaders was the issue of succession upon the death of a Sultan. As already discussed if the deceased Sultan was without an heir or that he had several sons there was stiff contest that always led to bloodshed. Scholars strongly believe that this may have played a major role in division of the Umma and the eventual collapse of the kingdom.            A notable distinction between the Ottoman Empire and other empires was that they were during the Ottoman Empire there was freedom especially for the non-Muslims to practice their own religion. This brought division among the Muslims as some felt that other religions were equated to their religion and this they found to be very offensive. As a result there were massacres and discrimination.  This led to a great division among the Muslims most of whom felt that though no religion should be equated with the Muslim religion Massacre was a sin as it contravened the Holy Quran.            There was also an element of divide and rule that leaders in power used in attempt to gain popularity. The leaders would therefore incite the people against their own. The people fought each other over small disputes but this was the plan of the leaders in order to rule them more easily. This was a great power mismanagement that saw the Muslims divide into big factions depending on whose side they actually belonged. (Shaw, 1977)            There was great self-centeredness and selfishness among the leaders which again brought division. This was especially so when it came to sharing of resources. There was unfair sharing and distribution of resources that brought hatred and thus division among the Muslims. The leaders only considered themselves and their families forgetting the rest of the people. Some people felt sidelined and as a result there were factions and consequently these groupings led to division among the Umma Muslims.            Another challenge that the Ottoman Empire faced was classification of Muslims. The Shia Muslims, the Umma and other classifications. Every class felt that they dominated the rest. This again brought about division because all classes of Muslims felt that they would want to be considered superior to the rest. This eventually brought about division among the Muslims as no group agreed to be treated as lesser of the other. The major division came about when some groups demanded that the rest of the groups must convert and become one of their own.            Division also arose when the dynasty made arrangements to fight other kingdoms. The empire could not reach an agreement as to who would go to the war. This again brought division because those not selected felt that they were not given an opportunity to fight for themselves thus there were differences on these grounds.            There is also clear mismanagement of the empire by the leaders when they did not give ample protection to their own. Most of the promises made by their leaders were never fulfilled or honored. The leaders who took after Suleiman put their interests first and forgot the people. The people were neglected and those who were treated well were just a small group. This discrimination resulted to obvious indifferences thereby there was disunity among people who were once united.(Donald,2005) As discussed earlier, after the death of sultan Suleyman, so many things changed. Corruption was very rampant especially when it came to provision of basic social amenities to the people. Services that were normally offered free had to be paid for and as result there was agitation and revolt among the people leading to division.            There was a gross alteration of rules, laws and policies that governed the people. The leaders made alterations in their favor. The common people were very disappointed and began to rebel. The rebellions and revolts ended up in bringing divisions among the once united Umma Muslims community.            The other major cause of rift was education in that there are those who were provided with good quality education while the rest could only access the traditional education. This in turn was reflected in terms of development so that those with high quality education were seen to develop more than the rest. This led to social classification and thereby division.            From the various issues discussed it is very clear that decline and eventual collapse of the Ottoman kingdom was caused by issues affecting them internally and not attacks and conquest by Europe and other world powers. It is the mismanagement by their leaders that led to the division of the Umma Muslims and finally the most powerful and influential dynasty in the ancient times collapsed. Works Cited Quartaert Donald. The Ottoman Empire. London, Cambridge University Press, 2005 Peirce Leslie. Law and Gender in the Ottoman Court, New York. University of California Press, 2003 Shaw Stanford. History of the Ottoman Empire. London, Cambridge University Press, 1977 Wittek Paul. Rise of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey, B. Franklin, 1971
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