Crimes of the Ottoman state (File 1)
Sunday 24/November/2019 - 06:23 PM
Mahmud al-Batakoshi
The Islamic caliphate was of little importance for the Ottomans who were after money and power only.
People in the House of Osman were the last to come aboard the ship of Islam. Nevertheless, they could not delve deep into this religion.
However, the protégés of the Ottomans promoted them as a religious group to pave the road for their conquests of other countries. As merciless Ottoman armies pushed into other countries, they did nothing but victimize Muslims.
Criticism of the Ottoman state is not criticism of Islam. This criticism is only an assessment of a political system that prevailed over six centuries. The system only worked to protect the interests of the House of Osman, not those of Muslims.
Most Arabs committed a mistake by viewing the Ottoman history with their hearts, not their minds. They did not apply a shred of neutrality to their assessment of this history. Consequently, they accused those who uncovered the facts about the Ottomans of antagonizing Islam.
Ottoman sultans were associated with numerous crimes over the history of their state, which extended over 623 years, since its founding by Osman Gazi in 1299. The crimes European occupiers committed against the Arabs were trifles compared with the atrocities the Ottomans committed against them. They included war crimes and the repression of minorities.
This file focuses on the crimes Ottoman sultans committed against their brothers and children on the road to power. Such crimes led to the collapse of the Ottoman state, which rendered Arab countries an easy prey to British, French, and Italian occupation. The Ottoman occupation of these countries caused their weakness and backwardness.
Chain of blood and treason
Ottoman sultans killed a large number of their brothers and children as they raced for power. They coerced men of religion to sanction their crimes. This history is full of horror. Fathers killed their sons, brothers killed their brothers, and mothers conspired against everybody.
Killing in the name of religion was a traditional sport in the Ottoman state. Mehmed II, also known as Mehmed the Conqueror, was the first to be involved in this sport when he asked his top cleric to issue an edict to allow him to kill political opponents.
The edict, Fatwa in Arabic, also allowed members of the House of Osman who reached power to kill their brothers for the sake of establishing the aspired Ottoman state.
Mehmed II used the same fatwa to justify the killing of his brothers. However, this undermined the Ottoman Empire and led to its eventual downfall at the end.
The strange thing though is that Ottoman sultans killed their children and brothers, even before Mehmed II, who came to power in 1451, got this fatwa from his top cleric. This Ottoman greed for power started at the time of Murad I, the third Ottoman sultan, who ruled from 1362 to 1389. Murad I executed his son, who was only 14 then, after collaborating with the Byzantines.
Murad I entered his son's jail cell one night before killing him and poured concentrated vinegar in his eyes, which caused him to become blind. Having left him to groan for some time, the sultan then executed his son by chocking.
The sultan's eldest son, Bayezid I, followed his example. He killed his brother, lest he should rebel against him. However, this could not save his throne. His wife, Olivera Despina, danced naked in the victory ceremony held by Amir Timur after the Battle of Ankara. Bayezid died in agony as a result.
Olivera was forced to be naked all the time. This was why subsequent Ottoman sultans stopped the tradition of marrying their chambermaids. Nevertheless, as a trend, this was bucked by Suleiman the Magnificent who married his chambermaid, Roxelana.
The history of the Ottoman state is replete with examples of rulers killing their children and brothers in the struggle for power.
The historical drama, Kingdoms of Fire, only mentions a slight amount of the horrors committed by Ottoman sultans who were out to shed blood to reach power.
Selim the Resolute came to power in 1512 after a bloody coup against his father, Bayezid II. He received support from the Janissaries and the Khagan of Crimea. He chased his brothers and their children and killed them all to clear his way to the throne.
The Ottoman state reached the climax of its strength under Suleiman the Magnificent. Ottoman armies reached the gates of Vienna. Nonetheless, the same era was full of catastrophes.
Suleiman the Magnificent started his bloody record by murdering Pargalı Ibrahim Pasha. This was not his only mistake. He was captive to tattling. He killed his son, Sehzade Mustafa, and his suckling babe against the background of his wife. He did not stop here. He also killed his son, Bayezid, and his four children for fear of a coup.
About 121 Ottoman emirs were killed at the hands of their fathers, brothers, and children, according to historical records. Mehmed II was the first to open this bloody record by murdering Çandarlı Kara Halil Hayreddin Pasha in 1453, only because he opposed the sultan on the conquest of Constantinople.
Beautiful faces; bloody hands
Ottoman sultanas were steeped in blood too. Safiye Sultan, the wife of Murad III, prepared chambers in the royal palaces where she allowed the sons and the brothers of sultans to lead a lavish life of drinking. She surrounded them with chambermaids who kept them busy. This was how she ensured that they would not be part of the state's political life. Those disobeying Safiye Sultan's orders were brutally punished. This caused some of the emirs to go made, something Islamic states paid dearly for.
Sultan Ibrahim I was imprisoned in a chamber for 22 years. He then ruled for eight years, during which there was extreme chaos. The same thing happened under Mustafa I who spent his whole life inside one of the chambers and witnessed the execution of his brothers, which made him made too.
Safiye Sultan's brutality did not stop here. She was involved in the killing of Nurbanu Sultan, Murad's mother, by putting poison in her food. She was 66 only then.
Other Ottoman sultanas were no different, including Kosem Sultan, the most famous of the Ottoman sultanas. Kosem Sultana came to power in 1617. She was the longest serving mother sultana.
Ottoman torturers
The Janissaries included torturers whose job was to get rid of opponents. The torturers were thoroughly selected and received orders directly from the Ottoman sultan.
The strange thing was that the torturers were deaf and mute. The deaf and the mute were picked to carry out this job in order not to divulge the plans of the sultans or their conspiracies. The torturers killed the sultans' opponents, using silk ropes. This was an Ottoman tradition.
The torturers executed 60 Ottoman emirs, including emir Mustafa, the crown prince of Suleiman the Magnificent. He was the victim of conspiracies and tattling by women in the royal court.
Senior and elderly state officials were usually killed by the chief torturer. Those losing races were chocked to death and thrown in the Bosporus to become food for its fish.
Selim the Resolute
Selim the Resolute came to power after staging a bloody coup against his father. He was the ninth Ottoman sultan. Apart from overthrowing his father, Selim the Resolute also killed his brothers with help from the Janissaries who abetted whoever paid them more.
Surprisingly enough, Selim the Resolute ordered his army to fight Islamic states, instead of Europe as his predecessors did. In this, he opened a new chapter of treason against Muslims.
He spent eight years in power. Nevertheless, he was the bloodiest of all Ottoman sultans. He killed tens of thousands of innocent Muslims. He allowed corruption to control all aspects of the state.
Selim I made his most important victory by defeating Shah Ismail I, the founder of the Safavid dynasty 1514. He committed the most brutal atrocities as his army pushed toward the Safavid capital of Tabriz. Some of his victims were buried alive. Others were burned to death.
During his eight-year rule, Selim I killed eight of his prime ministers. One of the prime ministers used to write his will every morning before getting out on the road to work at the royal palace.
