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Hello, and welcome to Western Siev
episode three hundred and eight. The sedentary

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Sultan Maraud the Third was twenty years
older than any rival to the claimant at

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the death of Selim the Second.
Hence, there was really no question as

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to who would succeed the deceased Selim. Maraud, assumed to be Maraud the

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Third moved quickly to remove even the
perception of any threat. Upon receiving news

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of his father's death, Maroud ordered
the execution of his younger brothers, who

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were buried together alongside their father Selim. This wasn't easy for Maraud, consider

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the following first hand account of the
murders quote. But the Sultan Maraut,

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who was so compassionate as to be
unable to see bloodshed, waited eighteen hours

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in which he refused to sit on
the imperial throne or to make public his

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arrival in the city, seeking and
discussing a way first to free his nine

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brothers of the blood who were in
the sigurilio, in order that he should

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not break the law of the Ottoman
state. Weeping, he sent the mutes

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to strangle them, giving nine handkerchiefs
with his own hands to the chief of

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the mutes end quote. Unfortunately,
the death of all the heirs spares was

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Ottoman state policy and law. Maraud's
successor, Mehmed the Third, would do

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the same in fifteen ninety five.
The Prince's death was the price of a

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smooth succession. Met Medpopsa continued as
Grand Vizier until fifteen seventy nine, when

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he was assassinated by a disgruntled petitioner. He was truly the last great grand

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Vizier after Pasha. Seven men held
the position for the remaining twenty one years

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of Maraud's reign. It's interesting because
from this point on, the Grand Vizier

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becomes a puppet who could be and
frequently was replaced at the Sultan's whim.

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The Grand Vizier still made a lot
of bureaucratic decisions on a day to day

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basis, but his authority over larger
matters was decisively curtailed. Daily conversations between

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the Vizier and the Sultan were replaced
with correspondence in which the Sultan more or

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less dictated his decisions to the vizier. More than even Selim the Second.

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Maraud preferred to pass his days in
his private chambers rather than his council chamber.

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He was, as a result,
much more susceptible to the influence of

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favorites. While he lived, met
Pasha was able to keep the fractions around

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the Sultan at Bay, but once
he died the boiler truly burst. One

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of these factions was led by Marod's
mother, Nirbannu. Starting with the reign

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of Suleiman, the women of the
royal house had played an increasingly important role

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in public life, and this was
definitely true during Marad's reign and definitely true

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of Nirbanu. She dominated her son
until her death, roughly ten years into

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his reign. Foreign envoys knew how
important it was to gain her favor.

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A visitor from Istanbul in fifteen eighty
two remarked, quote, the wife with

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the queen mother governed everything. One
had to depend on them, or at

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least not have them against you the
end quote. It was long believed that

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Nirbanu was actually Venetian in fact,
but in reality she was Greek from the

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island of Corfu. With Maraud,
the royal household became still more of a

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royal family. On his ascension,
he moved his household to Istanbul from Manissa,

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where as Prince governor he had lived
with his consort and their children.

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In Istanbul, Norbanu made her place
again beside her son, moving into the

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Harem at Tukpai Palace from the old
Palace, where she had retired on Selim's

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death. As queen mother, she
sought the smooth functioning of the Harem and

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stood at the peak of its hierarchy. Her daily stipend was the highest in

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the empire, three times that of
the sultan himself. Nirbanu's sultan transfer of

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residency from the old to the new
palace was celebrated, in fact, with

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a public procession throughout Istanbul. Within
ten years of Morad's ascension, the number

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of women in the Harem had doubled
to more than one hundred. The harem

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requarters were rebuilt to provide more splendid
apartments for the Sultan's mother, extra space

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for the growing number of women.
House there For himself, Maraud built a

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two story domed bedroom pavilion, inner
walls clad with the finest tiles, and

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to this he added baths and a
doomed room next to his bedchamber. All

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of this was essentially showing that this
would be a sultan not to leave the

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capital. Unlike Selim the Second,
Marad essentially lived with his Harim. He

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did not maintain his own totally separate
residency as had been customary before. While

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Marad was largely monogamous for the purpose
of succession throughout much of his reign,

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later on he took a series of
concubines and died, leaving forty nine children.

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While this might seem unimportant at first, blush all these details, this

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is a real change in how sultan's
behaved. Previously, sultan's had been moving

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targets. They had always gone on
campaigns with their armies. The goal was

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military expansion. After the death of
Suleiman, and certainly after the death of

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Selim the Second, this is no
longer the case. The sultan remained sedentary

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and the armies increasingly stayed at home. Parallel to the rise of the Harim

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as a critical government institution under Marad
was the rise of his male favorites.

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Marad by and large promoted the interests
of those who had been close to him

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in his formative years. Probably the
most interesting of these was Shaikh Suka,

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an uneducated religious mystic, to whom
Murad had been close to for years before

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his ascension. The Sultan relied on
Suka to interpret his dreams and forecast his

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destiny. This wasn't totally unusual,
Sunni Islam had long had a mystical aspect

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to it at this point. What
was unusual was the extent to which the

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mystic was able to wield political power
within the council. Again, what we're

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seeing here is less of an emphasis
on what we might call military matters and

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more on domestic policy, which is
a major change for the Ottoman state.

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But of course, the Ottomans still
had a first class military, perhaps the

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best in all of Europe, and
they intended to use it. Maraud continued

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sell them the seconds aggressive policies in
North Africa and to an extent, in

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the Western Mediterranean. Morocco quickly became
an Ottoman satellite. In fifteen seventy eight,

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Portugal and Spain, kind of Philip's
support was half hearted at best,

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attacked Morocco, but the Ottomans were
ultimately able to keep their puppet royal family

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in control of the region. In
fifteen eighty, Maraud and Philip of Spain

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signed a peace treaty, bringing to
an end what had been a half century

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long conflict in the Western Mediterranean.
Critically, this freed up both sides to

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focus on issues closer to home and
which were both prioritized by most states.

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Meanwhile, the Ottomans made two last
efforts to break Portuguese power in the Indian

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Ocean, one in fifteen eighty five
and another in fifteen eighty nine, but

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it was clear by this point that
Portuguese naval superiority was going to win out

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and so and yet another region.
Ottoman power was clearly on the decline,

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But the biggest military conflict of Maraud's
reign was in the East. We tend

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to think of the Ottomans only when
they impacted as in Western Europe, but

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it's worth remembering that to a large
extent, the Ottoman Empire faced the other

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direction. In fifteen seventy eight,
war broke out again between the Ottomans and

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the Iranians. The dispute this time
was over the Caucus Mountains and the regions

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which surrounded them. This was a
long war that lasted until sixteen thirty nine.

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It was in many ways a legacy
of Mehmet Pasha. He believed a

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firm Ottoman presence in the Caucauses was
needed to check the growth of Muscovite power.

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South Iran was relatively incidental, but
needed to be pushed out so that

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the Ottoman state could create a buffer. The war would be left, though,

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to another senior official, La la
Mustafa, as the Caucus was the

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theater of war. The eastern Anatolian
frontier city of Erzerum was the forward base

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for the Ottoman campaign against Iran.
Having sailed to Tresbon and then marched south

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over the mountains, La la Mustafa
and his army mobilized at Eziram during the

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summer of fifteen seventy eight. The
Sapovids and their client states in the Caucuses

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were in so much disarray and confusion
that the Ottomans were able to advance through

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Georgia and occupying Tiflis, which is
actually the capital of modern Georgia, as

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they went to reach the principalities all
the way to the north. By the

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summer, several of the princes of
the regions had already submitted to the Ottomans,

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who now occupied parts of the Chivrin
area on the western shore of the

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Caspian. Unfortunately, Lala Mustafa was
recalled due to a series of palace intrigues

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which are simply too confusing to go
through here, and he was ultimately appointed

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the second vizier after Mehmed Pasha was
assassinated in fifteen seventy nine. Mustafa did

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not reap many rewards from this posting, however, he died in fifteen eighty.

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Over the next several years, a
series of Ottoman officials did their best

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to consolidate Ottoman control over generally speaking, what is today Georgia. However,

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the task there was difficult for much
the same reasons that it had been in

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Yemen. Local power was volatile and
the terrain difficult. By the end of

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the sixteenth century, the character of
warfare was changing in both the East and

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the West. Previously, particularly in
Iran, the ability of the enemy to

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avoid a pitched battle by simply disappearing
into the countryside had often prevented Ottoman efforts

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to attain a decisive victory, But
the recent campaigns on that demonstrated that a

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more what we would call static style
of warfare was becoming the norm, involving

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fortresses that had to be reduced by
lengthy sieges if territory was to be won

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and held on the Habsburg Ottoman border. After the Truce of fifteen sixty eight,

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the Habsburgs and their allies took refuge
behind essentially a forward line of strongholds

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intended to protect the interior from enemy
incursions, and these had their counterparts on

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the Ottoman side of the frontier.
In fifteen ninety three, war broke out

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between the Holy Roman Empire really Austria
at this point Hungary and the Ottoman Empire.

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And this is another one of those
lengthy wars that would last until sixteen

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o six. The gains and losses
enjoyed and suffered by the Ottomans, Habsburg's

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and Hungarians alike over the thirteen years
of this war illustrated just how wearying this

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sort of war or affair was,
and generally speaking, how inconclusive it has

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become. The first two years achieved
absolutely nothing on either side. Early in

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fifteen ninety five, the Sultan died
and was smoothly succeeded by his twenty nine

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year old son, Met the third. Fortunately, he inherited a state that

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was generally speaking in disarray, and
it was clear that a new strategy was

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needed to raise the prestige of both
the sultan and the empire. At a

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meeting convened by the new Grand Vizier, it was agreed that, in what

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was a radical departure from recent practice, the new Sultan, even though it

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was totally inexperienced, would lead the
army in battle, something that no sultan

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had done since Souleman's final campaign in
fifteen sixty six. In June of fifteen

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ninety six, the Ottoman Imperial Army
set out to join the forces which had

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been holding the line on the frontier. Aim was to capture a fortress called

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Aguer, which lay on the route
between Austria and Transylvania, and which,

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together with the client states of Moldovia
and Wallachia, had sought Habsburg protection.

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Aga air fell, and the Ottoman
Army, with its tartar reinforcements, then

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encountered the Transylvanians and the main Habsburg
army on a nearby plane on the twenty

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fifth of October. From closely contested
field battle, which ensued the only actual

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field battle of the entire war,
the Ottomans emerged victorious. At first,

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it seemed that they had lost,
and only the fierce attack on the Habsburg

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forces as they plundered the Ottoman camp
turned the day. The Sultan, though

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not relishing his role as commander in
chief, had suggested to his new Grand

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Vizier that he should return to Istanbul. The following years saw fortresses and towns

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change hands as vassal states, which
as Wallachia and Transylvania repeatedly switched sides,

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ultimately exhausted the two main powers.
The Habsburgs and the Ottomans finally agreed to

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a peace treaty in sixteen oh five, which was signed in sixteen oh six.

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The Ottomans got some meager and I
do mean really meager territorial gains,

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and the Holy Roman Emperor got recognition
as an equal. Basically, this meant

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that the Emperor could finally stop paying
yearly tribute to the Sultan, which was

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crucial to the balance of power in
the region, as the Ottomans could no

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longer use their enemies' money to fight
them domestically, The last quarter of the

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sixteenth century was a difficult time for
the Ottoman state, as it was for

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many war and European states up to
this point. The various Ottoman conquests essentially

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driven economic growth, but after roughly
fifteen seventy those days were over. As

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a result, to pay for the
war with Iran and everybody else, the

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Sultan began a policy of debasing the
silver coinage. The problem is that those

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on fixed salaries bureaucrats and military officials
in particular, now effectively had their salaries

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cut in half. The debased coins
could no longer buy as much. This

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was a European wide problem. Really, that was just worse in the Automan

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Empire. It wasn't bad or great
everywhere else. It was just terrible for

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the Ottomans in Western Europe. Even
if no one debased the coinage, the

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influx of silver from the Americas still
brought down the value of existing coins.

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Hence, this was a period in
general of widespread inflation. It was just

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worse than the Ottoman Empire. Moreover, by debasing the coinage, that meant

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the tax income to Istanbul went down. To make up the difference, the

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Sultan issued new taxes and borrowed money
from wealthy individuals within the empire. Note

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the Ottoman state did not raise foreign
loans until actually the nineteenth century, and

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of course debasement of the coinage led
to yet another janissary revolt, forcing Maraud

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to sacrifice the local officials that these
elite soldiers blamed for their financial losses.

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This was also a new development in
the Ottoman state, the consistent scapegoating of

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financial troubles on other people within the
government, making matters worse. The two

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most important elite corps, the janissaries
and the Palace cavalry, often supported different

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palace factions, so whoever was an
ascendant kept their favorites safe, those in

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decline watched as their palace contacts lost
their heads. Oftentimes, this factional violence

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played itself out in the streets of
Istanbul as well. The financial and social

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distress that accompanied the debasement of the
coinage came at a time when the costs

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of warfare had reached unprecedented levels.
As fighting methods had now changed, the

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provincial cavalry forces, supported by agricultural
taxes paid in lieu of an obligation to

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appear on campaign, were just not
as effective anymore in an age of defensive

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siege based warfare, and as the
borders of Empire expanded, provincial cavalrymen lost

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their enthusiasm for campaigning. They had
scarcely recovered from the exhausting Iranian War that

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lasted from fifteen seventy eight to fifteen
ninety, when their services were once again

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required on the Habsburg frontier and then
back again on the Iranian one. As

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one Palace official would write in fifteen
ninety seven, these cavalrymen had not seen

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peace for twenty years. Infantry,
which when we're talking about the Ottoman Army,

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really just means the musket bearing janissaries, were more useful than cavalry and

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modern warfare, and their numbers grew
as a result, from around eight thousand

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and fifteen twenty seven to thirteen thousand, five hundred by the time of the

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Salt and Sellem the second's death in
fifteen seventy four, and to almost forty

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thousand by sixteen oh nine. Like
other salaried state employees whose numbers also grew,

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they had to be paid in cash
and on time. By the way,

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if you wanted to avert a rebellion
or trouble. The government was now

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in a dilemma. The rapid increase
in the numbers of salaried troops couldn't continue

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indefinitely. And so it reached out
for other sources of manpower. A solution

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which appealed because it was cheap,
was to just enlist men from the peasantry,

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the prime requirement now being Muslims who
could wield a musket, and these

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men would serve for the term of
a campaign, after which time they would

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be demobilized. This innovation openly flouted
the fiction the peasants were disbarred from serving

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in the combat army, being only
employed to perform various auxiliary tasks alongside the

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elite fighting troops and the provincial cavalry. It soon became clear, though,

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that even if they had not been
troublemakers prior to enlistment, men already disaffected

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by over taxation and their inability to
make ends meet became a major disruptive element.

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After demobilization, they retained their guns
and did not return to their previous

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occupations. The allegiance of these men
could often be bought by whoever could pay

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them, be he a bandit or
maybe a fractious servant of the state.

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In an era of poor communications,
local ties were usually stronger than loyalty to

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some far off government. In Istanbul, and the population's experience of the demands

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of central government for taxes and manpower
was hardly more favorable than at the hands

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of so called rebels with whom they
lived. It was primarily in Anatolia that

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troops were raised from the peasantry,
and it was Anatolia then that suffered the

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most violent effects of the ensuing brigandridge
and outright rebellion. And honestly, things

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weren't even any better for the cavalry, because as soon as cavalry realized they

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weren't going to be paid any longer
because they weren't needed for modern styles of

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warfare, they too became outlaws and
only added to the problems that were already

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exacerbated throughout Anatolia. And it wasn't
just financial issues that plagued the Ottomans.

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At the start of the seventeenth century, huge chunks of the empire whented a

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complete rebellion. The Kourgs declared their
independence in northern Syria just as the Ottomans

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were engaged with the Saphovitz andss.
In sixteen oh six, the governor of

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Aleppo rose in rebellion, as did
parts of Anatolia. Aleppo and Anatolia were

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quickly brought to heal and the rebellious
governor put to death in sixteen ten,

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but modern Lebanon then rebelled in sixteen
ten, though again this rebellion was quickly

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crushed and there were lesser revolts as
well. Egypt was constantly a problem for

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the Ottomans throughout the seventeenth century.
Tripoli and Tunis both revolted several times in

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the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. To a large extent, Increasingly,

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the Ottomans dealt with these incessant rebellions
by co opting their leaders into the regime.

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Rebel leaders either now found themselves defeated
and executed, or increasingly just made

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a new local official in their home
region. This was an effective and cheap

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way of ending a rebellion, but
it did diffuse the Sultan's power. The

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Cossacks along the Black Sea coast and
a group we're going to talk about more

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in coming out episodes, were yet
another of the Ottoman's steadily growing problems.

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With the appearance of the Ottomans on
the northern Black Sea coast in the later

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fifteenth century, and the ensuing connection
between this and the Crimean Turks the politics

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of the step were effectively transformed,
forcing Polish and Ukrainian nobles of the borderlands

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with the Empire to recruit Cossack warriors
to defend their new territories against Tartar raids.

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Soon after fifteen thirty eight, when
Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent led a successful

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campaign against Moldovia, he designated the
northern Black Sea coast from the Nista River

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to the boh a new province.
But there were subsequent Cossic attacks on strongholds

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and on herdsmen and travelers, which
caused the Ottomans mounting concern as thousands of

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captives as well as livestock, arms, and all sorts of other goods were

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seized in the region where the Sultan
had tried to bring some sort of secure

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already really without effect. In sixteen
oh three, the Ottomans began yet another

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war, and this time again with
the Shah of Iran. It wasn't a

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smart move. The Ottoman state was
already stretched to the limit, and yet

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the Sultan met the second by then
made the decision to go to war regardless.

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In May of sixteen oh five,
the two armies met near to Briz,

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in present day Iran. The result
was a disaster for the Ottomans,

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whose army quit the field, leaving
behind their equipment and provisions. Steadily,

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the Iranians pushed the Ottomans out of
their caucuses and then the strongholds that they

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held. In sixteen eleven, the
two sides reached a deal whereby the border

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between the two kingdoms would revert back
to that of fifteen fifty five, which

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was a massive win for Iran.
These years and the ones that followed them,

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were honestly truly a time of troubles
for the Ottoman Empire. The work

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of contemporary men who were writing li
utters back and forth reflected the anxiety of

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the empire and the crisis that everyone
observed. One author, who was writing

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at the turn of the millennium named
four main Islamic states that in existence the

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regional empires of the Ottomans, Safavids, Mughals in India and Osbeks, all

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of which had been forged since the
Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century and had

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Turkish and step nomadic roots. He
noted that unlike the Mughals, who claimed

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descent from the Timurids and the Uzbeks, who claimed direct descent from Jenghis Khan.

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The Ottomans lacked a claimed legitimacy based
on descent, nor did they have

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a religious ideology that could be traced
back to the prophet, as of course,

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the Sapovids in Iran did. He
observed their earlier claims legitimacy based on

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the ideologies of their descent from the
Uzgud claim of Central Asia, or perhaps

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as the inheritors of the former empire
of the Seljuk Turks, or frankly,

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as the only true warriors for Islam. All of these, all of these

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basis of legitimacy, he wrote,
were irrelevant. What had given the Ottomans

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their unquestioned legitimacy was first and foremost, a tangible dynastic order committed to universal

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justice, dispensed by a strong central
authority. This, however, the author

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claimed, and dissipated since the time
of Selim the Second, or perhaps even

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earlier, when Suleman allowed his favorites
a hand in the affairs of state.

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As well as producing pessimistic analysis,
the Islamic millennium engendered a yearning for a

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well ordered world, which the Ottoman
intellectuals imagined had existed in the past was

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gone in the present. Territorial victories
were now just less easy to win,

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and the Sultan had retired from active
involvement in the business of the government.

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The vicious struggle for a share in
the spoils accruing to those in power was

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profoundly shocking to men who had been
raised under the old order, the order

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when the sultan was an ultimate command. The Ottoman Empire, of course,

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was not alone in this. Government
by favorites had become kind of the order

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of the day, particularly in Spain
and France after the turn of the millennium.

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In fact, one author in Europe
wrote criticizing Philip the third Philip the

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second Son that he quote should not
be content with simply having supreme power and

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then merely sleeping and relaxing, but
should be the first in government, in

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council and in the offices of the
state end quote. So the Ottoman state

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wasn't alone in this. But the
biggest issue that remained was the changing nature

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of the sultanate, because this was
the biggest change. European kings really had

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stopped being conquerors for some time now, but the changing nature of the Ottoman

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Sultanate was something that was definitely new. Sultans were no longer warriors now to

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an extent. The reasons for this
change were practical. Wars were now fought

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hundreds of miles from Istanbul, and
because warfare was now almost exclusively siege driven,

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these wars lasted longer. Hence,
if the Sultan went on campaign,

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he might be gone for years,
which just wasn't feasible to keep the government

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in Istanbul functioning. Another change was
the increasing connections between religious and political authority.

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Under Suleyman and those before him,
religious authorities had by and large state

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above and away from the political fray. Now they were increasingly engaging with political

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authorities and sometimes replacing them, issuing
state policy themselves. This change is going

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to lead the Ottoman state to turn
away from some of the advances of Western

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science, much as we will see
to its detriment. As the New Millennium

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in New Century unfolded, there were
hints that the state religion of the Ottomans

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was becoming puritanical, even dogmatic.
There were new laws, laws restricting the

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apparel of Christians and Jews. The
drinking of alcohol banned completely briefly, albeit

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Yet, although it became increasingly intolerant
of latitudes within the practice of Islam and

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was prepared to pursue those who went
beyond the bounds of acceptab in the expression

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of Muslim faith, the Ottoman Empire
still remained remarkably tolerant of non Muslim minorities

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who separate and unequal. Of course, status was guaranteed by law in exchange

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for the payment of the poll tax, as it had been for centuries.

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Jews remained prominent in commerce, and
many were successful tax farmers. During much

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of the sixteenth century. They were
as close to the Ottoman dynasty, employed

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00:30:30.160 --> 00:30:36.920
as physicians to the sultans and as
diplomats. However, as the sixteenth century

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and seventeenth century, especially war on, Jews began to lose a lot of

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their legal protections and as a result
saw their status decline throughout the empire.

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Likewise, between fifteen eighty and sixteen
ten, Orthodox Christians lost many of the

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legal protections they had previously enjoyed.
Many Greek Orthodox churches, by example,

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were converted to mosques during this period. Now, while this episode might make

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it seem like all was lost for
the Ottomans, remember you would have said

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the same for the Romans during the
Crisis of the third century. The Romans

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recovered, as we know, and
to an extent, so would the Ottomans,

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as we will see in a future
episode. But for the moment,

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we're going to wheel back west and
return to England and it's Virgin Queen