Yeniköy Anlaşması’nın Ermeniler Üzerindeki Etkileri ve Birinci Dünya Savaşı’nda Rus-Ermeni İşbirliği

Author(s): Nejla Günay / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 16/2015

After the Ottoman Empire lost the first Balkan war, its situation changed drastically. All the weaknesses of the army and the administration came into notice. The issue of the Armenian reforms resulted in the interfering of the Great Powers in the empire’s internal affairs. With the Yenikoy treaty signed between Russia and the Ottoman Empire on February 9th, 1914, the reform demands of the Armenians were met. After that treaty, though, it had been observed that the Armenians started losing allegiance to the state and began arming themselves. Moreover, the Russian pressure on the Ottoman Empire also increased. After the bursting out of the World War I, Armenians thought that they could gain independence from the state with the help of Russia and the other Allied Powers. Therefore, Armenian National Delegacy started recruiting Armenian volunteers to fight in the Russian army. These volunteers were organized as separate units by the Russians. Their duties were to conduct intelligence duties for the Russians and opening the frontiers for the Russian army by performing guerilla wars. Armenians successfully conducted their duties, which resulted in the retreatment of the Turkish army from lots of places, even including Van. However, the Turkish army also put some effort in band activities. In this study, both the effects of Russia and the other Allied Powers on the Armenians and their standpoints towards the Ottoman Empire will be investigated.

Re-interpreting the Past: Shifting Perspectives from a Commercial Archival Fond in the Bulgarian Historical Archive

Author(s): Evguenia Davidova / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2011

This article offers a historiographical interpretation of an exceptionally rich personal archive; namely, fond Number 6: “Tŭrgovska kŭshta [Commercial Company] ‘Khristo P. Tŭpchileshtov’”, kept in Bŭlgarski istoricheski arkhiv (Bulgarian Historical Archive), Narodna Biblioteka (National Library) “Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodiĭ” in Sofia. The analysis is organized around three issues: the biography of the archive’s founder; the acquisition of the archive by the National Library; and the ways the archival material has been interpreted in the Bulgarian historiography. More specifically, I am discussing the ideological motivation behind the arrangement of the documents and their multiple uses in the historical studies during the interwar, socialist, and post-socialist periods. There is a paradoxical situation: the fond Number 6 is not only one of the biggest archival personal collections but also one of the least actually used archives. And yet, one of the most cited in Bulgarian historical research. Accordingly, the fond provides a window into more substantial historiographical issues. I am arguing that the way the fond was catalogued by its first archivist, predetermined the way it was interpreted in the subsequent historiography; namely, within the confines of a national narrative almost ignoring the ample information about the Ottoman, Balkan, and European context.

The Valachi in the Relations between the Hungarian Kingdom and the Ottoman Empire in the Early 1490s

Author(s): Alexandru Simon / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2011

Persons and Events in the Sarandapor Chronicle

Author(s): Denitsa Petrova / Language(s): English Issue: 2/2015

The National Museum of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, holds Lyturgion (Missal) No E 543 from the beginning of the 16th c. which was probably written in the St. Joachim of Osogovo (Sarandapor) Monastery near Kriva Palanka, in today’s Republic of Macedonia. It contains the short Sarandapor Chronicle which follows the world history from the Creation to 1512. The laconic notes mention some important moments of the Ottoman expansion and the subsequent period. The identity of the persons and the events included in the chronicle offer valuable historical information. The Sarandapor Chronicle is a copy of a Serbian work, but the history described in it is not just Serbian – it is pan-Balkan. The monks who compiled the text perceived the persons and events included in it as part of a common history.

On Some Features of the Portrait of Çiftlik Hired Workers in the 17th – Mid-18th Century

Author(s): Stefka Parveva / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2015

The study aims at adding some features to the portrait of the people hired to work at çiftliks. We do this with the help of the inheritance inventories of several men and one woman who passed away while working at çiftliks in the Sofia, Rousse and Vidin districts which were recorded in the kadi sicills of Sofia, Rousse and Vidin during the 17th – mid-18th centuries.In the first place we shall analyze the ways in which the çiftlik lands were cultivated as well as the people involved in this. Attention is paid to the main components of the contract relations between the çiftlik holders and the farmhands, ortakçis and kesimcis, to their labour obligations and the structure of the payment, to the difficulties encountered by the various institutions in the sphere of the taxation when the interests of the state and of the çiftlik-holders did not meet.At a second level, using the inheritance estates of several workers at the çiftliks – farmhands and ortakçis (peasants and citizens, men and one woman, Christians and Muslims), we explore the main features of their portrait. The sources at hand reveal that they were not necessarily only poor people without any property. We reach the conclusion that although the majority of the farmhands were primarily poor and landless people, the çiftlik economy attracted people of different property status. For some of them, and these were probably the majority of the hired workers, labour at the çiftliks may have been the major source of livelihood but for others it was an opportunity for additional income for the family.

Emergence and Development of Vaqf Çiftliks during the 16th – Early 18th Cenrturies. The Case of Sofu Mehmed Paşa and His Vaqf Çiftlik

Author(s): Paulina Andonova / Language(s): English Issue: 4/2015

Sofu Mehmed Paşa became a vezir during the reign of Sultan Süleyman I (1520 – 1566). He served as beylerbey of Rumeli, Bosna, later – of Budin. He was the founder of a vaqfwhich included a mosque, a medrese and an imaret in Sofia to which he dedicated revenues from villages and mezraas in the regions of Pleven, Drama and Dimotika, numerous buildings in Sofia, Edirne, Selanik. The vaqf immovable properties included also a çiftlik in the village of Vrajdebna, the kaza of Sofia.The case of Sofu Mehmed Paşa’s çiftlik is worth examining closely because it gives a chance to trace the genesis and characteristics of that type of land-holding and its transformation from mülk to askeri çiftlik via vaqf çiftlik. It means that the sources allow us to investigate the three çiftlik modifications – mülk, vaqf and askeri çiftliks. This case demonstrates the possibility for a small plot of land to develop into a market-oriented and profitable farm-estate in the course of time through the medium of the religious foundation, vaqf, and other favourable conditions.

Das andere Edirne. Typische und bleibende Abweichungen

Author(s): Ulrike Tischler-Hofer / Language(s): German Issue: 4/2015

It is argued that “typical and sticky patterns of Otherness” shape Edirne, the first Ottoman capital in Europe. This Otherness lies less in the amazing Selimiye complex alone than in the elder monuments and (proto-Bektaşi) traditions. The leading arguments are based on considerations concerning urbanity and human geography which characterize Edirne as part of the Eurasian Ottoman core. The examination shows that this old core-tradition inherent to Edirne and based on religiously motivated fighting spirit was conserved in an atmosphere of provinciality during the 400 years lasting pax ottomanica and revived in the late 19th century on the background of fundamental political, economic and social change that affected the Ottoman Empire and Edirne in particular.

Алар, К. Между Черно море и Дунав. Добруджа 1855. Предговор и бележки Бернар Лори

Author(s): Nikolay Poppetrov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1-2/2015

A presentation of “Entre mer Noire et Danube. Dobroudja” by Camille Allard, edited by Bernard Lory

Nahija Mostar u svjetlu prvih osmanskih popisa

Author(s): Dijana Pinjuh / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 1/2015

Based on the first Ottoman censuses after the conquest of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the major part of the paper gives an overview of the situation in the newly formed nahiye of Mostar. The conquest resulted in a large number of deserted and half-deserted settlements. With privileges and release from certain duties the new authorities tried to make the exiled population return to their homes, but also to populate the area with new inhabitants. The measures that were taken reflected positively on the return of the population, therefore only a few years after the conquest the number of deserted places was reduced. Although it would be expected to find all the conquered places recorded, it was not quite so. Only the places and homes that were burdened with feudal dues were included into census, therefore it is difficult to estimate the precise number of inhabited villages and households.

Zarazne bolesti u Hercegovini u doba turske vladavine

Author(s): Robert Jolić / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 1/2015

It has long been known that registers provide exceptional data related to demographic trends and changes in the specific area they cover. An increasing number of people, both professionals and amateurs, use them not only for the purpose of drafting family trees, but also to reconstruct the overall life processes of a place or a parish. The same applies to Herzegovina, although there is still plenty of work to do.In this paper, the author demonstrates the value of data hidden in the registers related to a very specific and selected topic: infectious diseases in the west-Herzegovinian territory during the Ottoman rule. Unfortunately, not all registers from this period have been preserved, moreover only few of them were saved, which makes the data incomplete and insufficient. However, combined with other sources, primarily lists of Catholic population from this period and records of contemporary (Franciscan) annals, there can be found extremely valuable and up to now completely unknown data.The author gives a particularly detailed analysis of great plague that affected a large part of Europe in 1814, including the area of Herzegovina. In two years the plague killed millions in Europe and halved the Catholic population in Bosnia and Herzegovina. For other religious communities the situation was even worse, but there were no details due to the fact that their registers did not exist. However, it is completely clear that the effects of the plague in Herzegovina were not nearly as devastating as in Bosnia, and some parishes indeed remained spared from it, especially Ruzici and Posusje. The worst situation was in the parish of Brotnjo that lost half of its population, which was in line with the total BH average.Apart from plague, the paper, based almost exclusively on preserved registers, analyzes the other infectious diseases, especially cholera and smallpox, and to a lesser extent, measles and dysentery.Only exceptionally high birth rate at the time saved the Catholics from complete extinction. Constant pressure of unbearable persecution and levies from the Turkish authorities and tyrants, regularly on the brink of starvation, with today unimaginable infant mortality rate of probably 50 %, and from time to time subjected to devastating plague and other contagious diseases, they managed to resist only giving birth to offspring. The number of Catholics in the early 18th century had dropped to only 20 thousand, in the early 19th century it rose to almost 120,000, and then the plague between 1814 and 1818, again halved and reduced that number to 50,000. Since then, the population has been constantly growing, despite World War I and what was called Spanish fever, an unprecedented infectious disease that ensued at the end of the war, despite the huge losses in manpower during World War II, and especially after the war, and despite the ongoing migrations which started in the 60s of the 20th century reaching thus its historical peak. Finally, in the Homeland war numerous Catholic Croats were expelled from their homes, particularly in Bosnian Posavina and Krajina and the number again halved in comparison to the 70s or 80s of the 20th century. It is hard to imagine that the number of Catholics will in the near future recover again, as it normally happened in previous centuries. The reason: there is no such birth rate that has been in the previous centuries the strongest bulwark against extinction.

Холерната епидемия в българската армия през Първата балканска война

Author(s): Slavi Slavov / Language(s): Bulgarian Issue: 1-2/2013

During the Balkan War of 1912–1913, the Bulgarian army was successfully advancing in Eastern Thrace when it was attacked by massive cholera epidemic. It was carried by the Ottoman army in the very first month of the war, and had a significant influence on the course of hostilities. The strongest spread of the disease coincided with the fighting on November 4th to 5th at Tchataldja, and in no small measure contributed to the failure of the First and Third Bulgarian armies attacking the last fortified line before Constantinople. Bulgarian Government and the High Command tried to limit the scale and effects of cholera, but did not have sufficient resources and capacity to fight with it. No matter how late and limited, the measures taken still gave significant results. They gradually led to a reduction in morbidity and reduce mortality among already infected soldiers. Cholera epidemic caused the deaths of thousands and brought suffering to still more tens of thousands of Bulgarian soldiers. The danger was not taken into account in time, which together with the lack of preventive measures against the disease led to severe depletion of human and material resources of the Bulgarian Army.

The Evolution of Fifteenth Century Ottoman Fortresses in the Balkans

Author(s): Uğur Altuğ / Language(s): English Issue: 3-4/2014

Based on the information from the tahrir, mevâcib and mukataa registers, the study shows how the policies of conquest and centralization, which shaped Ottoman mentality and institutions, also affected the evolution of fortresses in the Balkans in the fifteenth century; their structure, their personnel and equipment. The analysis of these fortresses, their structure and the policies which governed them makes it possible to understand one of the keystones of Ottoman sovereignty in the Balkans. This study tries to explain the dynamic and evolving structure of the Ottoman fortresses and the new policies to which they gave rise.

USLOVNA SLOBODA KRETANJA

Author(s): Olga Zirojević / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 181/2014

ULOGA SEVASTOPOLJA U PRODORU NA MEDITERAN OD NJEGOVOG OSVAJANJA DO NOVOG RUSKO-OSMANSKOG RATA 1787. GODINE

Author(s): Marija V. Kocić / Language(s): Serbian Issue: 16/2015

Russian annexation of Crimea in 1783 (populated mostly by Tatar population) started the realisation of the integration of “New Russia” into administrative system, which was conducted mostly in accordance with plans and recommendations of Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin. His efforts led to Sevastopol becoming a naval base, which called for hiring a significant number of workers in the period from 1783 to 1787. Colonisation policy which accompanied these efforts did not yield significant results during its first years. In order to show power over “newly conquered territories”, a visit of Catherine II to Sevastopol was organised in 1787. Demonstration of power, which was supposed at the same time to display the success of Russia in Crimea, soon after the beginning of the new Russian-Ottoman was 1787–1791., indicated the main problem of such politics. Communication with the Mediterranean still was impossible, and will remain so until the moment when the Porte, pressured by the European public, decided to open up straits for navigation.

PALJEVINA UŽICA I ISELJAVANJE MUSLIMANA

Author(s): Fikret Karčić / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 62/2015

This text presents the testimony of Miladin T. Radović, a baker from Uzice, about the fire in this city in 1862 and the emigration of Muslims from this part of Serbia. In the introduction notes the basic facts are given regarding the context of this incident. The testimony shows that the fire was set deliberately in Muslim area in Uzice with intention to speed up the evacuation of Muslims prior to the decision regarding this was brought at the international conference in Kanlica near Istambul.

Posljednji svjedok ubojstva: Frankopani i Celjski u petnaestome stoljeću

Author(s): Robert Kurelić / Language(s): Croatian Issue: 50/2016

A codex preserved at the National Library in Vienna contains a report composed by an anonymous soldier who participated in the botched crusade to lift the siege of Belgrade in November 1456 after John Hunyadi, the captain general of Hungary, had already repulsed the sultan, only to die of the plague soon afterwards. The report details the last days of Count Ulrich II Cilli, Hunyadi’s chief rival in Hungary, who was lured into the fortress together with King Ladislas V and then slain the following day by Hunyadi’s elder son Ladislas and his partisans. It also mentions the name of one of Cilli’s allies who fought vainly to defend him from his assailants: George I. Frankopan, a member of the leading Croatian baronial dynasty at the time and a cousin of Ulrich’s. The Cilli followed a carefully planned policy of combining mercenary service to great houses in the region and marrying well above their station to advance. This strategy paid off with the help of two Hungarian kings, Louis the Great and Sigismund of Luxemburg. The former arranged the marriage of the Cilli with daughters of the Bosnian ban and the Polish king, whereas the latter married Barbara Cilli. At the beginning of the 15th century, the Cilli married into the house of Frankopan and started to exert their influence on other prominent families in the region, such as the Görz, the Garai, or the Rosenberg. The tragic death of Elizabeth Frankopan in 1422, rumoured to have been slain by her husband, caused a long-lasting feud between the two houses, mended only after her son Ulrich II Cilli assumed the leadership of his dynasty. In the last decade of his life, Cilli managed to become the shadow behind the throne of Ladislas V, amassing power and titles in the process. In the end, various members of his Frankopan kindred seem to have forged closer ties with him and followed his policies in the Kingdom and abroad. He appears to have managed to bend most of his partners to his will, eclipsing them with ambition and political prowess.

Ostavština Mehmed-paše Kukavice

Author(s): Dragana Amedoski / Language(s): Bosnian Issue: 65/2016

In the year 1762, confiscated assets of assassinated Bosnian vali Mehmed Pasha Kukavica was directed to Istanbul. More than a hundred various objects were the content of the shipment that was to be sold on public bid subsequently hold in the indoor Sultan’s chambers of Topkapý Palace. Among confiscated assets there were: various types of weapons, military and horse equipment, several clothing and some some household appliances. The subjected document is of great importance because it testifies on private property of the Mehmed Pasha Kukavica, and at the same time provides insight into the assets of the social elite in the mid of 18th Century.

Naki Tezel’in “Yıkılan Köprü” Adlı Eserine Millî Mücadelenin Yansımaları

Author(s): Elif ÖKSÜZ GÜNEŞ / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 34/2024

The National Struggle is the period during which the Ottoman Empire, with its multinational structure, fought against both external forces and those who, under the threat of territorial integrity by the Allied Powers, mistakenly believed they could secure significant positions by aligning with the occupiers. In this process, the ignorance of corrupt individuals who collaborated with the “other” and remained passive in military and political spheres against the occupations harmed the Turkish war of independence. Their actions facilitated the enemy’s claim, which purported to bring civilization and prosperity to Western Anatolia, making their actions appear legitimate. This situation, as recorded in official history, is also reflected in literary texts that mirror the intellectual and emotional values of national life. Naki Tezel, a significant folklore researcher, in his only storybook “Yıkılan Köprü,” brings to the fictional realm those who possess national consciousness and those who lack it in the Turkish people’s struggle to protect their sovereignty. This study will evaluate the reflections of the painful process of the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire and the establishment of a national state in “The Fallen Bridge” within the themes of “being oneself,” “corruption,” and “alienation/lack of national consciousness.”

ÂŞIK PAŞA’YA GÖRE ALPLIĞIN ŞARTLARI VE AT ŞARTININ OSMANLI KORSAN GAZİ SAZ ŞAİRLERİNDEKİ DEĞİŞİMİ

Author(s): Göksel Gökçe / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 44/2023

In this study, one of the conditions of the alp, which is included in Asik Pasha's work named Garibname, to have a horse and the adaptation of the corsair bards of the Ottoman era to this condition is discussed. In his work, Asik Pasha described the ideal warrior type, who should fight to protect the country and the people from the enemies of religion, with nine items and put a good horseback riding in the fourth place. Within the scope of the study, the horse element in the poems of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries corsair ghazi bards of the Algerian field of the Ottoman period was examined and It is aimed to reveal one of the transformations of the concept of ghazi, which has great importance for the Ottoman history, depending on the changing and developing life standards. During the analysis, the text commentary method was applied and the concepts contained in the poems were explained in terms of their relations with the topic. In addition, it has been determined that the condition of owning a horse in the Garibname was replaced by the ship in the Ottoman navy, the corsair ghazis made similarities between their ships and horses by means of various rhetoric, and through the emerging similarity, they mentioned Ali's horse Duldul, one of the leading figures of the ghaza culture. Also it has been seen that these ghazis gave names to the ships too like naming horses and one of these names was similar to name of the famous poet Koroglu's horse, Kır At. As a result, it has been concluded that when it comes to military, innovation and development of equipment made a change on everything inclueded traditions which have strict rules. Moreover, the horse that has a great importance to Turkish history, has not disappear completely and it has continued to appear in poems of ghazi bards in even big changes.

Ágoston, Gábor. The Last Muslim Conquest: The Ottoman Empire and Its Wars in Europe

Author(s): Hümeyra Bostan Berber / Language(s): Turkish Issue: 8/2024

Review of: Ágoston, Gábor. The Last Muslim Conquest: The Ottoman Empire and Its Wars in Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021. XV+664 Pages This is a review of Gábor Ágoston’s book: The Last Muslim Conquest: The Ottoman Empire and Its Wars in Europe, in which he examines Ottoman war strategy, military technology, the administration and logistics of military campaigns, diplomacy and intelligence gathering techniques both in the context of the Ottoman and Habsburg Empires and in a broader perspective. One of the important goals of the book is to show how the Ottoman Empire shaped Europe, especially in the Balkans. It will be a reference book for Ottoman historians, students of history, and anyone interested in the Ottoman Empire.