The Ottoman Empire grew powerful under Suleiman the Great in the 16th century through military conquests. However, the Empire began declining in the 17th century due to military defeats, weak rulers, and internal revolts. The Tanzimat reforms in the 1850s failed to stop the decline due to continued losses and revolts. After World War 1, the Ottoman Empire was partitioned and the new nation of Turkey was formed under Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who modernized Turkey and established it as a secular Muslim state through his six principles of republicanism, reformism, nationalism, populism, statism, and secularism.

1. World Power, Sick Man, and the Rise of
Secular Turkey, 1300-1930

3. Period of Growth
Succeeded Seljuk Turks as great Muslim power
in Middle East.
Greatest Emperor was Suleyman (1494-1566).
Military conquests—Captured Belgrade in 1521;
turned away from Vienna in 1529.
Ordered construction of Suleiman Mosque
Relied on Janissaries, soldiers who eventually
displace Ottoman nobility.
Ottoman counterweight—France and
Ottomans allied versus Austrian Habsburgs.

4. Suleiman Mosque in Istanbul; built between 1550 and 1567

5. Decline
Military Defeat—Lepanto in 1571; Vienna—1683
Russian expansion to Black Sea and Austrian
expansion in Balkans
Weak Rulers: Selim (1566-1574) “The Glutton”;
Ibrahim (1640-1648) drowned 280 concubines in the
Bosphorus.
Internal disruptions—Janissaries revolt

6. Continued Decline
Revolts in the Balkans (Serbia in 1804; Greece in 1821
Failed Reforms—Selim III (1789-1807)—attempts to
introduce European style military opposed by clerics
and Janissaries.
1850s—Tanzimat reforms of bureaucracy fail due to
military losses (Crimea) and continued Balkan revolts.

7. Why the Decline
Doctrine of Closed Revelation
European incursions (British Land Bridge to India;
Russian and Habsburg expansionism; European
devotion to Holy Land)

8. Pre-WWI Reform Movements
Prime Minister Midhat Pasha and the
Constitution of 1876—unitary state, free press,
freedom of conscience, equality before the law;
and equitable taxation.
Sultan fired Midhat in 1877.
Russia defeats Ottomans in 1876-1877 war.
Young Turks emerge calling for Constitution of
1876.
Struggle between Young Turks and Sultan over
constitution interrupted by WWI.

9. Midhat Pasha, as PM
Sought to make
Ottoman State more modern
Through the Constitution
Of 1876.

10. Ottoman Dismemberment
Ottomans support Central Powers in WWI.
Treaty of Sevres/Lausanne break up Ottoman Empire.
France and Britain get Syria and Palestine; Truncated
country of Turkey is created.
Turkey under Mustafa Kemal [1881-1938] (Ataturk)
becomes secular Muslim State.

12. Ataturk’s Six Arrows
Republicanis Reformism
m Nationalism
Populism Statism
Secularism

13. WESTERNIZATION OF ISLAM
The State, a lay institution, religion a private matter
“Disestablishment” of Islam, Islamic piety to take the
form of Reform Jewish piety
From Arabic to Turkish call to prayer
Islam, the test case for the whole traditional heritage
Sufism banned, Madrasa college suppressed

14. TURKISH INTERPRETATION OF RELIGION, ISLAM
“The Golden Age” of Islam, common among
non-Turks, limited to early history, in the
remote past
Islam proper ended with 1258 CE?
For Turks Islamic history both recent and
continuing
Their reading of history is not fundamentally
apologetics.
Turks engage in “self-criticism”
History un-terminated process with Turks as
active participants