King Osman.. the young sultan who wanted to reform the Ottoman army, so the Janissaries killed him

The death of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1566 AD was the beginning of the Ottoman Empire’s abandonment of its golden age, with which the state reached an area of ​​about 22 million square kilometers (larger than the United States and China combined). After Suleiman, a number of sultans took power, who were characterized by severe political and military weakness. This situation was reflected in the conquests and wars of the Ottoman Empire, as it was subjected to major setbacks, with which the Janissaries, the men soldiers in the Ottoman army, had to rest and preserve their personal gains at the expense of the state.

A number of administration men and scholars noticed the causes of the defect, and therefore they submitted to the successive sultans memoranda and books calling for reforms and showing the best approaches to achieving them. Majalis", describing society and the Ottoman government, paying special attention to the opulence of the ruling class and its danger to the army and its men.

Serious challenges

After their naval defeat and the destruction of the state fleet in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 AD, the Ottomans were no longer able to maintain their supremacy in the Mediterranean, and thus the King of Spain consolidated his position in Europe.

By the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the Ottoman Empire faced many serious challenges in the east and west. In the east, the war with the Safavid state in Iran continued on the fronts of Azerbaijan, Iraq and eastern Anatolia, and in the west the wars of Austria, Poland and Germany continued.

The Ottoman Empire's reliance on expanding its army was based on the "dusherma" system, or the gathering and selection of non-Muslims who lived in villages and regions of the Balkans - and we have discussed this system and its importance in our article "Dusherma... Did the Ottomans extract the sons of Christians and forcibly recruited them?"

However, corruption and bribery gnawed at the structure of that system.

This led to the arrival of incompetent individuals to senior administrative and military positions in the state, and helped to disrupt the central army system "Qabu Quli/Golo", and led to the emergence of powerful centers of these men in the army and administration[1].

The Turkish historian "Khalil Inalcık" believes that the main reason for the turmoil and chaos that disrupted the life of the Ottoman Empire in that period lies in the great burden that was placed upon it as a result of the wars with Iran and Austria.

After their naval defeat and the destruction of the state fleet in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 AD, the Ottomans were no longer able to maintain their supremacy in the Mediterranean, and then the King of Spain consolidated his position in Europe, in addition to the massacre of Protestants in France who supported the Ottomans[2].

With the decline of the Ottoman naval dominance, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and English piracy became active, which began to impose its control over local forces along the shores of the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, and even over all trade between East and West when the British established the East India Company in 1600 AD.

Ottoman Sultan "Ahmed Khan I"

The Ottoman Sultan "Ahmed Khan I" died in 1617 AD, and several children and young sultans succeeded him on the throne.

Because of the influence of some women in the Ottoman palace, and the jealousy of Prince "Shahzadeh" Othman II bin Ahmed I, the statesmen chose the man, "Mustafa I", the brother of the late Sultan "Ahmed III", but he did not show the required reasonableness, and he resorted to recklessness and foolishness, and from Then, a year after assuming power, the Sultanate's Grand Mufti, "Sheikh al-Islam", in agreement with senior ministers and administration officials issued a fatwa disqualifying him, and the choice was made on "Othman II," who was 14 years old at the time.

Osman II and the Poland War

Osman II (networking sites)

Despite the recentness of the age of Othman, who was known in Ottoman history as "Genç", meaning the young Othman or the boy, he was distinguished at that time by two remarkable qualities. The first was that he closely contemporary with the policy of his father, "Ahmed III" in administration and governance, which included interest The details of the state after it were left to the prime ministers since the late era of his grandfather, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, and the second is the high culture that the young sultan enjoyed, as he knew Arabic, Persian, Latin, Greek and Italian languages, and even was a literary poet who wrote in Persian, factors that all those around him from the palace women realized To the ministers and army officers from the Janissaries and the Sebah, and most of them hid their concern about the intelligence and power of the new sultan.

Ahmed III (networking sites)

Because some influential people in the state, such as the Grand Vizier and Sheikh al-Islam, chose his mentally disturbed uncle Mustafa the First in the Sultanate, preferring him to his inherent right to the throne, the first decisions Othman took after his ascension to the throne was to dismiss the Grand Vizier “Corgo Muhammad Pasha” from his position, and remove his position. The most important powers of the Sheikh of Islam and the Mufti of the Ottoman Empire are to appoint teachers and judges, which made it a right exclusive to the Sultan alone[4].

Perhaps Uthman II wanted from behind that, not only to take revenge on those, but also to eliminate the centers of power in the state, so that they would not turn against him as they did with those who preceded him.

Soon, Sultan Osman II faced two serious problems on the regional and international scene, the first of which was the Ottoman-Safavid war on the eastern front, and the Ottoman-Polish (Polish) war in eastern Europe. This connection is to end the war with Iran through the treaty known as "Nasuh Pasha", which was actually signed in September 1618[5].

As for the Polish problem, it arose due to the encroachment of the Polish forces on the Ottoman borders, and the establishment of many war fortresses near them, a year before Osman II ascended to power, ie in 1617 AD.

In the face of the Poles daring to interfere in the affairs of the state of Baghdan (Moldavia), and their occupation of the Khotyn fortress of Baghdan, Sultan Osman II issued his decision to wage war against them there, and sent an Ottoman army backed by the Crimean Tatar Khanate forces that were under the banner of the Ottoman Empire at the time.

That war took place in September 1620 AD, and the Poles suffered 10,000 deaths in the Battle of Iasi, followed by two weeks of the Battle of Torla, where the Polish army was crushed, and about 60,000 soldiers were killed, and only 400 soldiers escaped and fled to their country. The Ottoman army captured all the defenders of the Polish army, and that successful campaign was led by the veteran minister "Iskander Pasha".

Despite these victories, the Sultan wanted by declaring war on Poland to achieve two goals that had not been achieved until then, the first of which is the restoration of the "Khotyn" fortress occupied by the Poles, and the second and most important of which is the occupation of Poland and the declaration of its subordination to the Ottoman Empire, in order to pay attention to the growing Russian danger in the Caucasus and northern Crimea.

There is no doubt that the goal of subjugating Poland was very ambitious from the young sultan, so Othman II decided to lead the military campaign against the Poles himself, and the last military campaign in which an Ottoman sultan before him participated in was nearly a quarter of a century ago.

Senior statesmen did not want this war, and they did not even want the Sultan to lead the campaign himself. Despite the arrival of a Polish diplomatic mission to conclude a peace agreement between the two sides, mediated by the English ambassador in Istanbul, the Sultan rejected it and insisted on war.

Prior to his departure from Istanbul, the Sultan sent to the Sheikh of Islam "Assaad Effendi", asking him for a fatwa to kill the eldest of his six brothers - Prince Muhammad - who was 16 years old at the time;

Fearing that he would take advantage of his absence and turn against the government, however, the Mufti of the Sultanate rejected the fatwa to kill Prince Muhammad, and in hopes of the position of Sheikh Al-Islam and the Mufti of the Sultanate, the Mufti of Askar Al-Rumli (European Ottoman army) Sheikh “Tashkobrizada Kamal Al-Din Effendi” issued a fatwa permitting that, and then he was killed Prince Muhammad treacherously before the sultan’s departure to the Poland war, and it was reported from him that he prayed before his death on his brother Othman that God not allow him to rule and make the affairs of the Sultanate a pity for him, which is what has already been achieved [7].

In September 1621, the Ottoman forces reached the borders of the Khotyn fortress - located today in the far southwest of Ukraine near the borders of Moldova - and the forces were estimated at about 100,000 soldiers under the command of Osman II, while the number of the Polish forces and their allies was estimated at about 60 thousand soldiers.

The Poles adopted the defensive enclosure tactic revolving around the castle walls with high earthen reinforcements, in addition to heavy cannons and rifles.

As for the forces supporting them, they remained on the outskirts of the fortress and took the offensive tactic against the Crimean Tatars loyal to the Ottomans.

The war between the two sides lasted for more than a month, and the best leaders of the Ottoman army fell into it, such as the famous Qaraqash Pasha, the governor of Boden in Hungary, as well as Doganci Ali Pasha, the governor of Qaraman.

It is true that the Ottomans diplomatically restored the Khotyn fortress, and the Poles agreed to demolish all the castles close to the Ottoman borders, pay the annual tax to the Crimean Khanate, as well as facilitate the transfer of Ottoman soldiers from Eastern Europe to Hungary through Polish lands at any time they wanted, but there are Fundamental problems that Sultan Othman II himself saw in this campaign, the signs of which appeared and followed him afterwards to write the end of his reign [8].

Sultan Othman II saw the extent to which the Janissaries soldiers (the elite soldiers and knights in the Ottoman army) failed to fight during this battle, and he punished the retarded ones by preventing them from some of their financial decisions, which negatively affected them;

Which led to the deterioration of the relationship between them and the Sultan.

So, the Sultan snatched a diplomatic victory over his enemies, but lost militarily to a smaller Polish army.

The Sultan also saw that the reason for the martyrdom of Qara Gash Pasha, the Ottoman governor of Hungary and the feat of military leader, was the backwardness and regression of the Janissaries led by the Grand Vizier Hussein Pasha, and therefore Sultan Osman returned to Istanbul and harbored in himself what his teacher Omar Effendi advised him, who came in the next rank. After Sheikh Al-Islam Asaad Effendi.

Omar Effendi advised the Sultan that it is necessary to carry out immediate reforms on the two most important sectors of the Ottoman army, which are the "Qapu Golo" and "the Janissary", by replacing them with other soldiers from Anatolia, Egypt and the Levant, and training them according to modern systems that do not allow their influence to spread, as happened with the Janissaries and Qapu Golo, which was approved by the Sultan, was immediately sent to his governors in the provinces of Anatolia, Egypt and the Levant to prepare for it.

In order for the young Osman to carry out this plan, Omar Effendi advised him to perform the pilgrimage first, and then return at the head of his new army to Istanbul.

When the Janissaries realized this plan, they stood in the way of the sultan’s pilgrimage, relying on ancient fatwas issued since the time of Sultan Selim I that there was no need for the sultans’ pilgrimage because of the length of the journey and the consequent turmoil and turmoil in the vast country as a result of their absence from the throne.

Soon, the soldiers gathered in front of the royal palace, not in refusal of the young sultan's pilgrimage, of course, but in fact out of fear for their necks from the new army, which was planned to enter Istanbul with the sultan when he returned from the pilgrimage.

Events developed quickly, and the demands of the Janissaries and Qabu Golo soldiers rose, and they demanded the Sultan to kill his teacher Omar Effendi and six of those close to him, and in the face of the Sultan’s refusal to infringe on his sovereignty, the matter worsened and the Janissaries rushed with their swords towards the “Topkapi” palace, and they arrested the young Sultan and executed him by hanging. This was after 4 years and a few months after he assumed the Sultanate, in May 1622 AD [9].

In the year 1826 AD, Sultan “Mahmoud II” succeeded in eliminating the Janissaries through a horrific massacre in Istanbul in which he used cannons to crush and crush them, and over the course of two whole centuries from the killing of Othman the young man to the massacre of the Janissaries, these soldiers stood as a thorn in the throat of the Ottoman Empire, and constituted a major cause of the causes Its military and technical backwardness resulted from their rejection of all ideas of military and administrative reform in the country.

The incident of Sultan Othman II, the “young man,” was the first assassination incident carried out by the state’s soldiers against its sultan and its supreme leader. Hence, it had an impact on the defeats of the Ottomans and their weakness in front of their enemies later, as well as the determination of the sultans who wished for reform to get rid of them, until This was already achieved after two centuries.

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