User:Rjensen/sandbox/Ottoman

Social-political-religious structure
RJ author 5-15-2018 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ottoman_Empire&action=edit&section=22

Society, government and religion was inter-related in complex ways after about 1800, in a complex overlapping, inefficient system that Ataturk systematically dismantled after 1922. In Constantinople, the Sultan ruled two distinct domains the secular government and the religious hierarchy. Religious officials formed the Ulama Who had control of religious teachings and theology, and also the Empire's judicial system, Giving them a major voice in day-to-day affairs in communities across the Empire (but not including the non-Moslem millets). They were powerful enough to reject the military reforms proposed by Sultan Selim III. His successor Sultan Mahmud II (r. 1808–1839) first won ulama approval before proposing similar reforms.

The political system was transformed by the destruction of the Janissaries in the Auspicious Incident of 1826. They were very powerful military/governmental/police force that revolted. Sultan Mahmud II crushed the revolt, executed the leaders, and disbanded the large organization. That set the stage for a slow process of modernization of government functions, as the government sought, with mixed success, to adopt the main elements of Western bureaucracy and military technology. The Janissaries had been recruited from Christians and other minorities; their abolition enabled the emergence of a Turkish elite to control the Ottoman Empire. The problem was that the Turkish element was very poorly educated, lacking higher schools of any sort, and locked into a Turkish language that used Arabic alphabet that inhibited wider learning. The large number of ethnic and religious minorities were tolerated in their own separate segregated domains called "milletts". They were primarily Greek, Armenian or Jewish. In each locality they governed themselves, spoke their own language, ran their own schools, cultural and religious institutions, and paid somewhat higher taxes. They had no power outside the millett. The Imperial government protected them, and prevented major violent clashes between ethnic groups. However the millets showed very little loyalty to the Empire. Ethnic nationalism, based on distinctive religion and language, provided a centripetal force that eventually destroyed the Ottoman Empire. In addition, Muslim ethnic groups, which were not part of the millett system, especially the Arabs and the Kurds, were outside the Turkish culture and develop their own separate nationalism. The British sponsored Arab nationalism in the First World War, promising an independent Arab state in return for Arab support.

At the local level, power was held beyond the control of the Sultan by the "ayan" or local notables. The ayan collected taxes, formed local armies to compete with other notables, took a reactionary attitude toward political or economic change, and often defied policies handed down by the Sultan.

The economic system made little progress. Printing was forbidden until the 18th century, for fear of defiling the secret documents of Islam. The millets, however, Were allowed their own presses, using Greek, Hebrew, Armenian and other languages that greatly facilitated nationalism. The religious prohibition on charging interest foreclosed most of the entrepreneurial skills among Muslims, although it did flourish among the Jews and Christians.

After the 18th century, the Ottoman Empire was clearly shrinking, as Russia put on heavy pressure and expanded to its south; Egypt became effectively independent in 1805 and the British later took it over, along with Cyprus. Greece became independent, and Serbia and other Balkan areas became highly restive is the force of nationalism pushed against imperialism. The French took over Algeria and Tunisia. Europeans all thought it was a sick man in rapid decline. Only the Germans seemed helpful, in their support led to the Empire joining the central powers in 1915, and coming out one of the heaviest losers of the First World War in 1918.