The Ottoman Empire and the World Around It - Course Information

~ ON SOVEREIGNTY AND SUBJECTS ~ 49
Ottoman bureaucrats were attuned to the social and technological limits of their
control and that as a result, well into the eighteenth century, the Empire could be
governed quite satisfactorily even if vast stretches of the subjects’ lives remained
outside the purview of the imperial bureaucracy.
~ The Empire in 1639/1048–9
Protecting Ottoman territories in 1639/1048–9: the eastern
frontier
An Ottoman official who considered the situation of the state he served as it
appeared in 1639/1048–9, had some reason for guarded optimism, for it seemed
that Murad IV (r. 1623–40/1032–50) had stabilized the Empire both domestically
and in the international arena. Presumably members of the governing class were
most appreciative of the fact that the sultan had succeeded in retaking Baghdad
from the Iranians (1638/1047–8). This is a likely conclusion even though the
conquest of Eriwan (Revan), celebrated with some fanfare, and the construction
of a handsome pavillion in the Topkapı Palace, proved to be quite short-lived.
Military successes also would explain why Evliya Çelebi (1611–1684/1019–96),
who was related to court circles even though not personally a high Ottoman official,
was appreciative of Murad IV, whose campaigns had dominated the writer’s
youth and young adulthood. Where members of the subject population, such as
the Serres Greek Orthodox priest Papa Synadinos were concerned, they presumably
were more impressed by the fact that this sultan had thoroughly intimidated
janissaries and other would-be rebels, who so often robbed ‘ordinary’ taxpayers,
both Muslim and non-Muslim. 89 Given these points in the ruler’s favour, the
bloodshed involved, which was considerable, apparently was regarded as tolerable
by quite a few contemporaries, or at least by those who put down their
thoughts in writing. 90
Concluding the peace of K. as. r-i Shīrīn involved the Ottomans’ renouncing
control over the Caucasus, which had seemed so important during the sixteenth
century. 91 But then the Ottoman occupations of this area, where numerous principalities
and ethnic groups coexisted, always had been short-lived. By the late
1630s/1039–49, the ‘buffer zone’ that separated Ottoman from Iranian territory
at least had become thoroughly stabilized. A special bureau in the central government
was responsible for relations with the Kurdish princes of eastern Anatolia,
and one of its senior officials had even produced a manual of advice concerning
the manner in which these local potentates were to be treated. Aziz Efendi
impressed upon his readers, presumably for the most part his colleagues and
future successors, that these princes, due to their staunch Sunni loyalties, were of
great importance in Ottoman border control, and should therefore be treated with
forbearance. 92 Unfortunately we do not know whether Shah ‘Abbās’ policy of
reducing the Kızılbaş tribesmen to a subordinate position, and balancing their