Page 11 - ISLAM Rock n Roll

Mehmed iv. Nevertheless, Kösem Sultan, like other Ottoman women was also known for distributing her wealth through pious works and architectural patronage. One of her projects was the Çinili Mosque, built in 1640 on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus at Üsküdar.
For the most part, however, for the Ottomans the 16th–17th centuries were a time of military defeat. In 1571, their expansion in the Mediterranean Sea was halted at
the Battle of Lepanto, o present-day Greece, where the Ottoman navy was defeated by a coalition of the Spanish, Portuguese and Venetian navies. The Ottoman advance into continental Europe also halted at Vienna in 1683. One of the aims of the Ottoman Empire had always been the conquest of Central Europe and the lands of the Hapsburgs, a Germanic dynasty that dominated large areas of Europe. Under Sulayman i, the Ottomans failed to take the opportunity to capture Vienna, a er a long siege in 1529. The animosity between the Hapsburgs and the Ottomans simmered on until the Ottomans eventually took advantage of both the weakness of the Hapsburgs a er
the ravages of the Black Death in 1679 and the preoccupation of their allies in the empire with the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) in central Europe. A er considerable preparation, the Ottomans, led by the vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha (d. 1683), began
a second siege of Vienna on 14 July 1683 which lasted until 12 September. Then, a coalition including Austro-Hungarian and Polish forces routed the Ottomans and li ed the siege. Defeat at the Battle of Vienna and the loss of some 20,000 of their troops was a blow to the Ottomans, forcing them to cede territory to the European powers, particularly the Hapsburgs and the Russians.
However, wars with both the Hapsburgs and the Russians continued through- out the 18th century, in which the Ottomans experienced varying degrees of success. Against the Russians, Ahmad iii (d. 1730) forged alliances with France and in 1709 gave refuge to Charles xii of Sweden (d. 1718) during his war with Peter the Great
(d. 1725). Although the Ottomans made great gains against the Russians during this period, advancing far into what is now Ukraine, they continued to be pursued by the Hapsburgs. But Ahmad iii’s reign, known as the Tulip Era, was also one of cultural revival. Political and commercial relations with France brought merchant ships to Istanbul, infusing its culture and society with European taste and styles. The sultan built new palaces and gardens along the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn, as well as libraries, printing presses and translation bureaus, while royal patronage of the arts produced new types of ceramics and miniature paintings. However, this royal extravagance and the taxes imposed to pay for it were resented by the people, and in 1730 a coalition led by the merchant Patrona Halil (d. 1730) made up of urban groups, the poor and leading religious o cials deposed Ahmad iii. By the end of the 18th century, a new era of political reforms and modernisation would begin.
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Late 16th-century painting of
the Battle of Lepanto (1571) by
an unknown artist. The battle between the Ottomans and a coalition of Genoese, Venetian, and Spanish forces took place
on the Greek coast. An estimated 25,000 Ottomans and 8,000 coalition soldiers were killed.
The Ottomans’ defeat may have been the moment that stopped the Ottomans’ conquest of mainland Europe, the nal blow being the Battle of Vienna in 1683.
Painting of Patrona Halil
(d. 1730) by the Flemish-French painter Jean Baptiste Vanmour (d. 1737). On 28 September 1730, Halil, an Albanian Janissary and mariner, led a rebellion against Sultan Ahmet iii (d. 1736). Provoked by grievances against the sultan and his vizier including excesses of the court, the terms of Ottoman treaties with Russia and France, war with Iran and failure to pay salary arrears, Halil and his supporters’ actions sent shock waves through the Ottoman establishment, ultimately forcing Ahmet iii’s abdication and the accession of Mahmud i (d. 1754) to the throne.