Durant W. The Reformation. A History of European Civilization from Wyclif to Calvin: 1300-1564

kind of linear fragrance and joyful tone; and through the complex

whole an artistic logic ran, a contrapuntal harmony of lines more

intricate than Palestrina's madrigals, more graceful than Godiva's

hair.

Some famous Persian rugs survive from this first half of the

sixteenth century. One is a medallion rug with 30,000,000 knots in

wool on a silk warp (380 to the square inch); it lay for centuries

in a mosque at Ardabil, and is now divided between the Victoria and

Albert Museum in London and the County Museum in Los Angeles. In a

cartouche at one end is a verse from Hafiz, and beneath this the proud

words: "The work of the slave... Maqsud of Kashan, in the year 946"

after the hegira- i.e., A.D. 1539. `063112 Also in the Los Angeles

Museum is the immense "Coronation Carpet" used at the crowning of

Edward VII in 1901. The Poldi-Pezzoli Museum at Milan, before the

second World War shattered the building, counted among its greatest

treasures a hunting rug by Ghiyath ad-Din Jami of Yazd, the Bihzad

of rug design. The "Duke of Anhalt Rug," in the Duveen Collection, won

international renown for its golden yellow ground and seductive

arabesques in crimson, rose, and turquoise blue. The rug and the

book are among the unchallengeable titles of Safavid Persia to a

high place in the remembrance of mankind.

III. SULEIMAN AND THE WEST

-

Suleiman succeeded his father Selim I in 1520 at the age of

twenty-six. He had won a name for himself by his courage in war, his

generosity in friendship, and his efficient administration of

Turkish provinces. His refined features and gracious manners made

him welcome in a Constantinople tired of Selim the Grim. An Italian

who saw Suleiman soon after his accession described him as tall, wiry,

and strong, the neck too long, the nose too curved, beard and mustache

thin, complexion sallow and delicate, countenance grave and calm; he

looked more like a student than a sultan. `063113 Eight years later

another Italian reported him as "deadly pale... melancholy, much

addicted to women, liberal, proud, hasty, and yet sometimes very

gentle." Ghislain de Busbeq, ambassador of the Hapsburgs at the Porte,

wrote almost fondly of the Hapsburgs' most persistent enemy:

-

He has always had the character of being a careful and temperate

man; even in his early days, when, according to the Turkish rule,

sin would have been venial, his life was blameless, for not even in

youth did he indulge in wine or commit those unnatural crimes which

are common among the Turks; nor could those who were disposed to put

the most unfavorable construction on his acts bring anything worse

against him than his excessive devotion to his wife.... It is a

well-known fact that from the time he made her his lawful wife he

has been perfectly faithful to her, although there was nothing in

the laws to prevent his having mistresses as well. `063114

-

It is a picture worth noting, but too flattering: Suleiman was

doubtless the greatest and noblest of the Ottoman sultans, and equaled

any ruler of his time in ability, wisdom, and character; but we

shall find him, now and then, guilty of cruelty, jealousy, and

revenge. Let us, however, as an experiment in perspective, try to view

dispassionately his conflict with Christendom.

The military debate between Christianity and Islam was already 900

years old. It began when Moslem Arabs snatched Syria from the

Byzantine Empire (634). It proceeded through the year-by-year conquest

of that Empire by the Saracens, and the conquest of Spain by the

Moors. Christendom retaliated in the Crusades, in which both sides

covered with religious phrases and ardor their economic aims and

political crimes. Islam retaliated by taking Constantinople and the

Balkans. Spain expelled the Moors. Pope after pope called for fresh

crusades against the Turks; Selim I vowed to build a mosque in Rome;

Francis I proposed to the Western powers (1516) that they should

utterly destroy the Turkish state and divide its possessions among

themselves as infidel spoils. `063115 This plan was frustrated by

the division of Germany in religious war, the revolt of the Spanish

communes against Charles V, and the second thought of Francis himself-

to seek Suleiman's aid against Charles. Suleiman may have been saved

by Luther, as Lutheranism owed so much to Suleiman.

Every government strives to extend its borders, partly to enlarge

its resources and revenues, partly to create additional protective

terrain between its frontiers and its capital. Suleiman supposed

that the best defense was offense. In 1521 he captured the Hungarian

strongholds of Szabacs and Belgrade; then, feeling safe in the West,

he turned his forces against Rhodes. There the Christians, under the

Knights of St. John, held a heavily fortified citadel directly athwart

the routes from Constantinople to Alexandria and Syria; it seemed to

Suleiman a dangerous alien bastion in an otherwise Turkish sea; and in

fact the pirate ships of the Knights preyed upon Moslem

commerce `063116 in one end of the Mediterranean as the Moslem pirates

of Algeria preyed upon Christian commerce in the other. When Moslems

were taken in these Knightly raids they were usually slain. `063117

Vessels carrying pilgrims to Mecca were intercepted on suspicion of

hostile purposes. "Under all the circumstances," says a Christian

historian, "Suleiman was in no need of justification for an assault on

Rhodes"; `063118 and a distinguished English historian adds: "It was

in the interest of public order that the island should be annexed to

the Turkish realm." `063119

Suleiman attacked with 300 ships and 200,000 men. The defenders, led

by the aged Grand Master Philippe de Villiers de L'Ile-Adam, fought

the besiegers for 145 days, and finally surrendered under honorable

terms: the Knights and their soldiery were to leave the island in

safety, but within ten days; the remaining population were to have

full religious freedom, and were to be exempt from tribute for five

years. On Christmas Day Suleiman asked to see the Grand Master; he

condoled with him, praised his brave defense, and gave him valuable

presents; and to the Vizier Ibrahim the Sultan remarked that "it

caused him great sorrow to be obliged to force this Christian in his

old age to abandon his home and his belongings." `063120 On January 1,

1523, the Knights sailed off to Crete, whence, eight years later, they

passed to a more permanent home in Malta. The Sultan tarnished his

victory by putting to death the son and grandchildren of Prince Djem

because they had become Christians and might be used, as Djem had

been, as claimants to the Ottoman throne.

Early in 1525 Suleiman received a letter from Francis I, then a

captive of Charles V, asking him to attack Hungary and come to the

rescue of the French King. The Sultan answered: "Our horse is saddled,

our sword is girt on." `063121 However, he had long ago made up his

mind to invade Hungary. He set out in April 1526, with 100,000 men and

300 cannon. Pope Clement VII urged Christian rulers to go to the aid

of the threatened state; Luther advised the Protestant princes to stay

home, for the Turks were obviously a divine visitation, and to

resist them would be to resist God. `063122 Charles V remained in

Spain. The consequent rout of the Hungarians at Mohacs was a moral

as well as a physical defeat for Christendom. Hungary might have

recovered from the disaster if Catholics and Protestants, Emperor

and Pope, had labored together; but Lutheran leaders rejoiced in the

Turkish victory, and the army of the Emperor sacked Rome.

In 1579 Suleiman returned, and besieged Vienna with 200,000 men;

from the spire of St. Stephen's, Count Nicholas von Salm, to whom

Ferdinand entrusted the defense, could see the surrounding plains

and hills darkened with the tents, soldiery, and armament of the

Ottomans. This time Luther summoned his adherents to join in the

resistance, for clearly, if Vienna fell, Germany would be the next

object of Turkish attack. Reports ran through Europe that Suleiman had

vowed to reduce all Europe to the one true faith- Islam. `063123

Turkish sappers dug tunnel after tunnel in the hope of blowing up

the walls or setting up explosions within the city, but the

defenders placed vessels of water at danger points, and watched for

movements that would indicate subterranean operations. Winter came,

and the Sultan's long line of communications failed to maintain

supplies. On October 14 he called for a final and decisive effort, and

promised great rewards; spirit and flesh were both unwilling; the

attack was repulsed with great loss, and Suleiman sadly ordered a

retreat. It was his first defeat; yet he retained half of Hungary, and

carried back to Constantinople the royal crown of St. Stephen. He

explained to his people that he returned without victory because

Ferdinand (who had sat the siege out safely in Prague) had refused

to fight; and he promised that he would soon hunt out Charles himself,

who dared to call himself emperor, and would wrest from him the

lordship of the West.

The West took him seriously enough. Rome fell into a panic;

Clement VII, for once resolute, taxed even the cardinals to raise

funds to fortify Ancona and other ports through which the Ottomans

might enter Italy. In April 1532, Suleiman marched westward once more.

His departure from his capital was a well staged spectacle: 120 cannon

led the advance; 8,000 Janissaries followed, the best soldiers in

the realm; a thousand camels carried provisions; 2,000 elite

horsemen guarded the holy standard- the eagle of the Prophet;

thousands of Christian captive boys, dressed in cloth of gold and

plumed red hats, flaunted lances with innocent bravery; the Sultan's

own retinue were men of giant stature and handsome mien; among them,

on a chestnut horse, rode Suleiman himself, robed in crimson velvet

embroidered with gold, under a white turban inset with precious

stones; and behind him marched an army that in its final mustering

numbered 200,000 men. Who could resist such splendor and power? Only

the elements and space.

To meet this avalanche Charles, after much pleading, received from

the Imperial Diet a grant to raise 40,000 foot and 8,000 horse; he and

Ferdinand provided 30,000 additional men at their own expense; and

with these 78,000, gathered in Vienna, they awaited siege. But the

Sultan was delayed at Guns. It was a small town, well fortified, but

garrisoned with only 700 troops. For three weeks they fought back

every Turkish attempt to break through the walls; eleven times these

were pierced, eleven times the defenders blocked the opening with

metal, flesh, and desperation. At last Suleiman sent a safeconduct and

hostages to the commander, Nicholas Jurischitz, inviting him to a

conference. He came, and was received with honors by the Grand Vizier;

his courage and generalship were sorrowfully praised; the Sultan

presented him with a robe of honor, guaranteed him against further

attack, and sent him back to his citadel under a handsome escort of

Turkish officers. The invincible avalanche, defeated by 700 men,

passed on to Vienna.

But there too Suleiman missed his prey. Charles would not come out

to fight; he would have been foolish to forfeit the advantage of his

defenses for the gamble of the open field. Suleiman reckoned that if

he had failed to take Vienna held by 20,000 men with no emperor or

king in sight, he would hardly do better against 78,000 inspired by

a young monarch who had publicly announced that he would welcome death

in this contest as the noblest worldly end to which a Christian

could aspire. The Sultan turned away, ravaged Styria and Lower

Austria, and took stray captives to grace his retreat. It could have

been no comfort to him to hear that while he was marching uselessly

back and forth across Hungary Andrea Doria had chased the Turkish

fleet into hiding, and had captured Patras and Coron, on the

Peloponnesian coast.

When Ferdinand sent an emissary to Constantinople to seek peace

Suleiman welcomed him; he would grant peace "not for seven years,

not for twenty-five years, not for a hundred years, but for two

centuries, three centuries, indeed forever- if Ferdinand himself would

not break it," and he would treat Ferdinand as a son. `063124 However,

he asked a heavy price: Ferdinand must send him the keys to the city

of Grau in token of submission and homage. Ferdinand and Charles

were so eager to free their arms against Christians that they were

ready to make concessions to the Turks. Ferdinand sent the keys,

called himself Suleiman's son, and acknowledged Suleiman's sovereignty

over most of Hungary (June 22, 1533). No peace was made with

Charles. Suleiman recaptured Patras and Coron, and dreamed of

straddling Vienna and Tabriz.

He took Tabriz, and turned west again (1536). Putting theology

aside, he agreed to co-operate with Francis I in another campaign

against Charles. He offered the most amiable terms to the King:

peace should be made with Charles only on his surrendering Genoa,

Milan, and Flanders to France; French merchants were permitted to

sail, buy, and sell throughout the Ottoman Empire on equal terms

with the Turks; French consuls in that realm were to have civil and

criminal jurisdiction over all Frenchmen there, and these were to

enjoy full religious liberty. `063125 The "capitulations" so signed

became a model for later treaties of Christian powers with Eastern

states.

Charles countered by forming an alliance of the Empire, Venice,

and the papacy. Ferdinand joined in; so short was forever. Venice bore

the brunt of the Turkish attack, lost her possessions in the Aegean

and on the Dalmatian coast, and signed a separate peace (1540). A year

later Suleiman's puppet in Buda died, and the Sultan made Hungary an

Ottoman province. Ferdinand sent an envoy to Turkey to ask for

peace, and another to Persia urging the Shah to attack the Turks.

Suleiman marched west (1543), took Grau and Stuhlweissenburg, and

incorporated more of Hungary into the pashalik of Buda. In 1547,

busy with Persia, he granted the West a five-year armistice. Both

sides violated it. Pope Paul IV appealed to the Turks to attack Philip

II, who was more papal than the popes. `063126 The death of Francis

and Charles left Ferdinand a freer hand to come to terms. In the Peace

of Prague (1562) he acknowledged Suleiman's rule in Hungary and

Moldavia, pledged a yearly tribute of 30,000 ducats, and agreed to pay

90,000 ducats as arrears.

Two years later he followed his brother. Suleiman had survived all

his major enemies, and how many popes had he not outlived? He was

master of Egypt, North Africa, Asia Minor, Palestine, Syria, the

Balkans, Hungary. The Turkish navy ruled the Mediterranean, the

Turkish army had proved its prowess east and west, the Turkish

government had shown itself as competent in statesmanship and

diplomacy as all its rivals. The Christians had lost Rhodes, the

Aegean, Hungary, and had signed a humiliating peace. The Ottomans were

now the strongest power in Europe and Africa, if not in the world.

IV. OTTOMAN CIVILIZATION

1. Government

-

Were they civilized? Of course; the notion that the Turks were

barbarians as compared with the Christians is a self-propping

delusion. Their agricultural methods and science were at least as good

as those of the West. The land was tilled by tenants of feudal

chieftains who in each generation had to earn their holdings by

serving the sultan satisfactorily in administration and war. Except in

textiles, ceramics, and perhaps in arms and armor, industry had not

yet developed a factory system as in Florence or Flanders, but Turkish

craftsmen were famous for their excellent products, and the absence of

capitalism was not mourned by rich or poor. The merchants had not

reached in sixteenth-century Islam the political influence or social

position then accorded to them in Western Europe. Trade between Turk

and Turk was noted for its relative honesty, but between Turk and

Christian no holds were barred. Foreign commerce was mostly left to

foreigners. Moslem caravans moved patiently over the ancient and

medieval land routes into Asia and Africa, even across the Sahara; and

caravansaries, many of them set up by Suleiman, offered the merchant

and traveler resting places on the way. Moslem vessels, till 1500,

controlled the sea routes from Constantinople and Alexandria through

the Red Sea to India and the East Indies, where exchange was made with

goods borne by Chinese junks. After the opening of India to Portuguese

merchants by the voyage of Da Gama and the naval victories of

Albuquerque, the Moslems lost control of the Indian Ocean, and

Egypt, Syria, Persia, and Venice entered into a common commercial

decline.

The Turk was a man of the earth and the sea, and gave less thought

to religion than most other Mohammedans. Yet he too reverenced

mystics, dervishes, and saints, took his law from the Koran, and his

education from the mosque. Like the Jews, he shunned graven images

in his worship, and looked upon Christians as polytheistic

idolaters. Church and state were one: the Koran and the traditions

were the basic law; and the same ulema, or association of scholars,

that expounded the Holy Book also provided the teachers, lawyers,

judges, and jurists of the realm. It was such scholars who, under

Mohammed II and Suleiman I, compiled the definitive Ottoman codes of

law.

At the head of the ulema was the mufti or sheik ul-Islam, the

highest judge in the land after the sultan and the grand vizier. As

sultans had to die, while the ulema enjoyed a collective permanence,

these theologian-lawyers were the rulers of everyday life in Islam.

Because they interpreted the present in terms of past law, their

influence was strongly conservative, and shared in the stagnation of

Moslem civilization after Suleiman's death. Fatalism- the Turkish

qismet or lot- furthered this conservatism: since the fate of

every soul had been predetermined by Allah, rebellion against one's

lot was impiety and shallowness; all things, death in particular, were

in the hands of Allah, and must be accepted without complaint.

Occasionally a freethinker spoke too frankly, and, in rare

instances, was condemned to death. Usually, however, the ulema allowed

much liberty of thought, and there was no Inquisition in Turkish

Islam.

Christians and Jews received a large measure of religious freedom

under the Ottomans, and were permitted to rule themselves by their own

laws in matters not involving a Moslem. `063127 Mohammed II

deliberately fostered the Greek Orthodox Church because the mutual

distrust of Greek and Roman Catholics served the Turks in countering

crusades. Though the Christians prospered under the sultans, they

suffered serious disabilities. Technically they were slaves, but

they could end that status by accepting Mohammedanism, and millions

did. Those who rejected Islam were excluded from the army, for

Moslem wars were ostensibly holy wars for the conversion of

infidels. Such Christians were subject to a special tax in lieu of

military service; they were usually tenant farmers, paying a tenth

of their produce to the owner of their land; and they had to surrender

one infant out of every ten to be brought up as a Moslem in the

service of the sultan.

The sultan, the army, and the ulema were the state. At the

sultan's call each feudal chieftain came with his levy to form the

sipahis or cavalry, which under Suleiman reached the remarkable

figure of 130,000 men. Ferdinand's ambassador envied the splendor of

their equipment: clothing of brocade or silk in scarlet, bright

yellow, or dark blue; harness gleaming with gold, silver, and

jewelry on the finest horses that Busbeq had ever seen. An elite

infantry was formed from captive or tributary Christian children,

who were brought up to serve the sultan in his palace, in

administration, and above all in the army, where they were called

yeni cheri (new soldiers), which the West corrupted into

Janissaries. Murad I had originated this unique corps (c. 1360),

perhaps as a way of freeing his Christian population from

potentially dangerous youth. They were not numerous- some 20,000 under

Suleiman. They were highly trained in all the skills of war, they were

forbidden to marry or engage in economic activities, they were

indoctrinated with martial pride and ardor and the Mohammedan faith,

and they were as brave in war as they were restlessly discontent in

peace. Behind these superlative soldiers came a militia of some

100,000 men, kept in order and spirit by the sipahis and the

Janissaries. The favorite weapons were still the bow and arrow and the

lance; firearms were just coming into use; and at close quarters men

wielded the mace and the short sword. Suleiman's army and military

science were the best in the world at that time; no other army equaled

it in handling artillery, in sapping and military engineering, in

discipline and morale, in care for the health of the troops, in the

provisioning of great numbers of men through great distances. However,

the means were too excellent merely to serve an end; the army became

an end in itself; to be kept in condition and restraint it had to have

wars; and after Suleiman the army- above all, the Janissaries-

became the masters of the sultans.

The conscripted and converted sons of Christians formed most of

the administrative staff of the central Turkish government. We

should have expected that a Moslem sultan would fear to be

surrounded by men who might, like Scanderbeg, yearn for the faith of

their fathers; on the contrary, Suleiman preferred these converts

because they could be trained from childhood for specific functions of

administration. Very likely the bureaucracy of the Ottoman state was

the most efficient in existence in the first half of the sixteenth

century, `063128 though it was notoriously subject to bribery. The

Diwan or Divan, like the cabinet in a Western government, brought

together the heads of administration, usually under the presidency

of the grand vizier. It had advisory rather than legislative powers,

but ordinarily its recommendations were made law by a kanun or

decree of the sultan. The judiciary was manned by qadis (judges) and

mullas (superior judges) from the ulema. A French observer remarked

the diligence of the courts and the promptness of trials and

verdicts, `063129 and a great English historian believed that "under

the early Ottoman rulers the administration of justice was better in

Turkey than in any European land; the Mohammedan subjects of the

sultans were more orderly than most Christian communities, and

crimes were rarer." `063130 The streets of Constantinople were policed

by Janissaries, and were "probably freer from murders than any other

capital in Europe." `063131 The regions that fell under Moslem rule-

Rhodes, Greece, the Balkans- preferred it to their former condition

under the Knights or the Byzantines or the Venetians, and even Hungary

thought it fared better under Suleiman than under the

Hapsburgs. `063132

Most of the administrative offices of the central government were

located in the serai or imperial quarters- not a palace but a

congeries of buildings, gardens, and courts, housing the sultan, his

seraglio, his servants, his aides, and 80,000 of the bureaucracy. To

Durant W. The Reformation. A History of European Civilization from Wyclif to Calvin: 1300-1564

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.