Some Important Events during the Ottomans Rule

Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz

Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I, known as “Yildrimâ€‌ (Thunderbolt)
On 21st of the Islamic month of Zil-Hijjah in 798 AH the Ottoman army led by Sultan Bayezid I, known as “Yildrimâ€‌ (Thunderbolt), inflicted a crushing defeat on an alliance of Christian powers led by Hungary’s King Sigmund I with as many as 130,000 of Europe 's best trained soldiers. In the Battle of Nicopolis, near River Danube, the European army lost 100,000 soldiers, while 20,000 Christian troops fled the battlefield leaving behind as captives about ten thousand of their compatriots and co-religionists, many of whom became Muslim.

Crushing defeat of the Hungarian and Polish armies by the Ottomans
On November 10, 1444 AD, the Ottoman army under Sultan Murad II inflicted a crushing defeat on the Hungarian and Polish armies commanded by Władysław III of Poland and Hunyadi Janos of Hungary in the Battle of Varna in eastern Bulgaria. It was the final battle of the Crusade of Varna and King Wladyslaw was killed. The Turks captured some 80 thousand prisoners. This was one of the most important events in European history and established Muslim rule over a large part of southeastern Europe.

Sultan Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire
On November 6, 1494 AD, Sultan Suleiman I of the Ottoman Empire was born in Trabazon. He succeeded to the throne at the age of 26 and ruled for 46 years till his death at the age of 72. He greatly expanded the Turkish Empire into south-central Europe as well as the North African coast of the Mediterranean Sea, which was dominated by his fleets. He also seized from the Safavid Empire, Iraq and parts of Anatolia, such as Van and Erzurum, but failed to further expand towards the east and the Caucasus, because of the stiff resistance of the Iranians. Three times he attempted to invade Iran in 22 years from 1532 to 1555, but the astute policy of Shah Tahmasp I aborted his attempts and he was forced to sign a peace treaty with the Safavids. In his internal policy he instituted legislative changes relating to society, education, taxation, and criminal law. His canonical law fixed the form of the empire for centuries after his death, and for this reason he is called “Qanuniâ€‌ (Legislator). He was also a poet and became a great patron of culture, overseeing the golden age of the Ottoman's artistic, literary and architectural development, for which he is often called “Magnificentâ€‌. He spoke five languages: Ottoman Turkish, Chaghtai Turkic, Persian, Arabic, and Serbian. He has left behind a divan of Persian poetry.

Selim II, the 11th Ottoman Sultan and the 3rd self-styled Turkish caliph
On December 12, 1574 AD, Selim II, the 11th Ottoman Sultan and the 3rd self-styled Turkish caliph, died at the age of 50 after an incompetent reign of 8 years, as a result of drunkenly slipping on the wet floor of a bath-house, and fatally injuring his head. Son of Suleiman the Magnificent and the Rutherian (Polish-Ukrainian) concubine, Khurram Sultan (original name: Alexandra Lisowska), he succeeded to the throne through intrigue and fraternal dispute. Despite claiming to be caliph and having a powerful fleet that controlled the Mediterranean Sea, he refused the pleas for help by the Spanish Muslims during the 3-year Morisco Revolt (1568-71) in Granada, southern Spain. As a result the uprising was ruthlessly crushed by a joint Christian army of Spain, Austria, and Italy, in the aftermath of which hundreds of thousands of Spanish Muslims were forcibly Christianized and all books and documents in Arabic burned.

The Ottoman Sultan, Osman II
On November 3, 1604 AD, the Ottoman Sultan, Osman II, was born to Sultan Ahmad and his Greek wife Maria – renamed Mah-Firuzeh Khadija on becoming Muslim. He ascended the throne at the young age of 14, as a result of a palace coup against his uncle Mustafa I. Four years later in 1622 he was strangled to death by his vizier, following his plans to reorganize the army and the administrative system in the wake of the treaty imposed on humiliating terms in the Moldavian Wars when he personally led the Turkish forces into Poland, after securing the eastern borders with Safavid Iran by signing the Treaty of Serav with Shah Abbas I. He was fluent in Arabic, Persian, Greek, Latin and Italian.

The Ottoman ruler, Sultan Ahmad
On November 22, 1617 AD, the Ottoman ruler, Sultan Ahmad I, died after a reign of 14 years, during which he suffered setbacks both in Europe and against the Safavid Empire of Iran. Shah Abbas I and his famous general Allahverdi Khan shattered the Ottoman forces in Azarbaijan and regained Georgia and the parts of the Caucasus occupied by the Turks, forcing Damad Nasuh Pasha, the Grand Vizier of Ahmad I to sign the treaty recognizing Iran’s rights and settling the border between the two empires. Ahmad I is remembered mainly for the construction of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque (also known as the Blue Mosque), one of the masterpieces of Islamic architecture in Istanbul.

The Ottoman Empire defeated a coalition of European armies
On 20th of the Islamic month of Moharram in 1079 AH (corresponding to 1669 AD), the Ottoman Empire defeated a coalition of European armies to take over Crete from the Republic of Venice. Crete, the 5th largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, was under Turkish rule for over two centuries till 1898, when it was seized by a joint British-French- Italian-Russian force, which in 1913 handed it to Greece at the end of the 2nd Balkans War with the Turks. Over half of Crete’s population was made up of local Cretan Muslims, many of whom were forcibly converted to Christianity and the rest expelled by the Greeks to Turkey, Syria, and Egypt by 1923.
Among the Cretan Muslims, who spoke Greek as their mother tongue and not Turkish, there were many who followed the Bektashi Sufi order founded by Iranian mystic, Haji Bektash Vali of Nishapur, Khorasan, and were hence followers of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt. All the mosques and Tekiyes were either destroyed or turned into churches by the Greek Christians, who a century earlier had remove all traces of four centuries of Turkish Muslim rule from Greece. It is worth recalling that Islam was brought to Crete a thousand and two centuries ago by Spanish Muslims, who ruled this island as the Emirate of Ikritish for almost 150 years from their capital Rabdh al-Khandaq (modern Heraklion).

The Ottomans and the Russians wars over Poland
On October 6, 1768 AD, in continuation of Russia’s expansionist policies Empress Catherine the Great attacked Poland, prompting the Ottoman Empire to declare war on Russia. During the 18th century, the Ottomans and the Russians fought many wars, but their fight over Poland is considered as the most important. The Turks who were in a state of decline suffered major defeats in the naval and ground battles until the year 1774, in which an armistice was signed by the two empires to end confrontation. Based on the treaty, the Muslim populated Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea in what is now Ukraine was declared a Russian protectorate and was later annexed by Moscow. Meanwhile, Poland ceased to exist and was divided among Austria, Prussia, and Russia.

The Ottoman Province of "Yunanistan"
On October 20, 1827 AD, the Battle of Navarino in Greece resulted in the defeat of a combined Turkish-Egyptian armada by the British, French, and Russian navies in the port of the same name in Pylos. As many as 6,000 Muslim soldiers lost their life while 60 warships were sunk. The revolt in the Ottoman Province of "Yunanistan" that had begun in 1821 with the support of leading European Christian powers ended in 1829 with the formal separation of this province and it's renaming as Greece. In short, the Greek Revolt turned into the genocide of Muslims and within a few years all traces of four centuries of Turkish rule of Greece were removed through barbaric crimes by the Christians, who destroyed mosques, converted many into churches and massacred or expelled ethnic Greek Muslims.

The First Balkan War
On October 8, 1912 AD, the First Balkan War began with tiny Montenegro declaring war on the Ottoman Empire – with the support of major west European powers. The Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkan Peninsula in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913. By the early 20th century, Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro and Serbia had achieved independence from the Ottoman Empire. In 1912, these countries formed the Balkan League. The First Balkan War broke out when the League attacked the Ottoman Empire on 8 October and was ended seven months later by the Treaty of London. After five centuries, the Ottoman Empire lost virtually all of its possessions in the Balkans, and large number of European Muslims began to be persecuted in these regions.
On October 17, 1912 AD, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia declared war on the tottering Ottoman Empire, joining Montenegro in the First Balkan War that resulted in further loss of the Turkish Muslim territories in Europe.