CHAPTER 11: DECLINE
CHAPTER 11: DECLINE
Key points from this chapter:
The Ottoman Empire fell into decline following the death of Sulayman I in 1566
Sultan Mahmud I recognised the need to reform the empire and began to model it after European states
Sultan AbdulHamid II attempted to bring the empire back in line with traditional Islamic teachings
Islam also declined in other parts of the world such as Africa and Southeast Asia
In the 10th chapter of the book, the author explains how the Muslim world declined and was eventually brought to its knees by European powers. The summary of this chapter is split into six sections.
First period of Ottoman decline
Reformation and second period of Ottoman decline
Sultan AbdulHamid II’s reign
Decline of Muslim rule in India
Decline of Islam in Africa
Decline of Islam in southeast and central Asia.
Sh. Abul Hassan Ali Nadwi states at the beginning of chapter 6 of Islam and The World that it is impossible to know exactly when the decline of a nation started. This is the exact case with the Ottomans too. It could be argued that their decline started with the failed siege of Vienna in 1529 or the failed siege of Malta in 1565 or as the author states, after the death of Sulayman I in 1566. The author mentions two reasons to support his view. Firstly, the Ottomans could no longer win on the battlefield against European powers as they had lost their technological superiority and also did not possess the same “zealous warrior attitude” of their ancestors. Secondly, the empire had “reached its natural maximum size”. By the time the Ottoman army left Istanbul and arrived at the walls of the enemy fortresses, the campaigning season was nearly over. With their military inferiority to European powers recognized, the Ottomans signed the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699 where they were forced to cede territory for the first ever time. As a military state that relied on way booty to keep their economy strong, their inability to win battles led to economic problems.
To make matters worse, the Sultans, whose role it was to personally lead armies and attend to matters of the state, withdrew into their palaces to live more secluded lives. Administration roles and military command were delegated down to others who looked to increase their power instead of governing the state. The problem of poor leadership was further exacerbated when Sultan Ahmed I ended the practice of Fratricide and forced dynasty members to live in seclusion in the Harem. Although his intentions may have been noble, this meant that whoever succeeded the sultan, had no experience in governance or military leadership.
Ottoman scholars also failed to recognise the scientific advancements made by European powers due to a disdain they had developed for them. They felt this way towards them because for so long, Europe had been in the Dark Ages and so the Ottoman scholars did not give much attention to the Europeans when they made scientific discoveries. Realising their weaknesses, “Ottoman viziers recognized the era of expansion was over by the 1600s” and “were pragmatic enough to recognize that unending conflict with their Western neighbours would end in disaster”. Ottoman weaknesses were made visible to the world following a series of unsuccessful wars with Russia and Austria and “complete partition of the empire in the late 1700s was only prevented by the eruption of the French Revolution and Europe’s preoccupation with it”. The Ottomans also made a series of political and economic concessions which led to a significant loss in trade control. Although “the tide had turned in Christian Europe’s favour for good”, the Ottoman Empire was too mighty to fall just yet.
Ottoman sultans recognised the need for reformations and this started with Sultan Mahmud II. He established ministries for different aspects of governance as opposed to the earlier system of competing viziers. After a bloody battle, he also ended the Janissary Corps and established Nizam -I cedid which was a new military system modelled on European armies. Education was also reformed and modelled after European systems. Even government clothing was changed from traditional robes to military jackets and trousers.
The reforms continued with his successor Abdul Majid I in what is known as the Tanzimat period. In this period, the Ottomans exerted great effort in modelling themselves after the Europeans. They created a postal system, a national bank, a proto-parliament and even a national anthem. Education was further reformed to be more like the French system where secular sciences were given precedence over religious sciences. Although this caused a lot of backlash from the Ottoman scholarly class, the reforms continued. Abdul Majid II also replaced Sulayman I’s 16th-century kanun with a new one modelled on the French system. Through these reforms, the Ottomans were chopping away at their Islamic tradition which had given them their legitimacy.
The Tanzimat period continued with Sultan Abdul Aziz. However, this failed to stop the Ottoman decline. Instead, coupled with rising nationalism in the West and Greek independence from the Ottomans, the decline continued further. A group known as the ‘Young Ottomans’ deposed Abdul Aziz in 1876, arguing that he was not liberal enough. They installed his nephew Murad V who, unable to handle the burden of the Sultanate, had a nervous breakdown and was replaced with his brother Abdul Hamid II.
Abdul Hamid II, to the surprise of the Young Ottomans who put him on the throne, was not like his immediate predecessors. He had a strong Islamic identity, and was a poet and a wrestler. “Unlike his extravagant predecessors, he shunned the luxury of the new, expensive palaces along the Bosphorus in favour of more humble accommodation at the smaller and more remote Yıldız Palace.”(p228). The new Sultan immediately set about making his own changes by firstly restoring power to the Sultan. He did this by indefinitely suspending the constitution written by his liberal grand vizier “ostensibly because of the war with Russia “(p228). The title of Caliph, long unused by previous sultans, was brought back by Abdul Hamid II and he used this to promote pan-Islamism and protect and unite Muslims across the world. Further attempting to bring back the Islamic identity of the Ottoman Empire, he built the Hejaaz railway which connected Istanbul to Baghdad and the Hejaz. In 1908, Abdul Hamid II built a university in China to assist in the education of the Hui Muslims. In an act of great defiance, he once refused to sell land in Palestine to the leader of the Zionists, Theodore Herzl, in exchange for large portions of the Ottoman national debt being paid off. German military advisers were brought in to help modernise and train the Ottoman army while new naval ships were bought from the United States, France and Britain. With a reduction in corruption, more efficient governance by officials led to an increase in revenue. He also developed education further with many elementary and secondary schools being established throughout the empire and by 1895, over a million students were in education leading to a jump in the literacy rate.
Despite his efforts to stop it, liberalism had already taken root in the empire and was too strong to stop. He was overthrown by the ‘Young Turks’ in 1909. Although this group then installed two more sultans, power remained with the ‘Young Turks’. With the deposition of Sultan Abdul Hamid II, the hope of an Ottoman revival was lost and thirteen years later, the Ottoman Empire collapsed.
In Asia, the Mughal empire, which was an amalgamation of different rulers who swore fealty to the Mughal Emperor, was crippled by a series of civil wars following the death of Aurangzeb. In total, five emperors ruled in the twelve years after the death of the Aurangzeb. This turmoil led to a collapse of Mughal central authority and although local rulers still recognised Mughal authority, they acted very autonomously. Even when Emperor Muhammad Shah provided stability during his 30-year reign, the “fragmentation of the Mughal Empire had already begun”. A period similar to the Taifa period in Andalus started with many ethnic and religious groups declaring their own states.
As these states rose and fell, the British interfered in the region through the East India Trading Company. They offered economic and military support to the constantly warring states. Within the next few decades, the British strengthened their position along much of the Indian coast by obtaining trading rights as well as gaining authority as tax collectors and government advisors. They even installed a government of their own choice in Bengal in 1757. Like any company, the purpose of this company was to generate profits and not to rule. They therefore exploited the rights of the workers with Muslims suffering the most as the British wanted to ensure that Mughal rule could never rise again in India. The Muslims were also in the fertile regions of India which the British had their eyes on.
The Company’s rule in India did not last long as the local population rebelled against them. Although the rebellions were quelled, the Company’s rule in India came to an end as the British confiscated their lands and established the British Raj in 1858. Although many different ethnic and religious groups took part in the rebellion, the British mainly blamed the Muslims and as a punishment for Sultan Bahadur Shah II’s support for the rebellion, the Mughal empire was officially abolished. The Muslims in India were now under the rule of the British and although the author does not mention it, it is important to note that the Muslims were brutally persecuted. S.R Wasti writes “mass massacres, indiscriminate hangings, inhumane tortures and large scale confiscation of properties were some of the means adopted by the British for the purpose”. For a more detailed breakdown, it is recommended to read Belemkki Belkacem’s ‘The Impact of British Rule on The Indian Muslim Community in The Nineteenth Century’.
Islam also declined in Africa starting from the late 18th century with Napolean’s attempted invasion of Egypt in 1789. His march into Egypt was halted by Ottoman commander Mehmet Ali who forced Napolean to scurry back to Europe. Mehmet Ali then declared himself as an independent ruler whilst nominally realising Ottoman authority. He then reformed Egypt into a more European-style state which increased European influence in the region and led to the French-financed construction of the Suez Canal in 1869. The growing role of European nations in Egypt led to demonstrations of nationalism by its population. Amidst this disturbance, the British and French invaded under the pretext of protecting their financial investments in 1882. As a result, “Egypt was under military occupation by the British, although it officially remained Ottoman territory until 1914”.
Further to the west in North Africa, European navies gained the upper hand against the Ottomans, in the late 1700s. Algeria fell in 1830 to the French who recognised the region as part of France due to its shorter distance compared to its other territories. This led to hundreds of thousands of French citizens moving to Algeria and reducing the native population to second-class citizens. The author again does not take note of the mass murders and persecution that followed but it is important to understand this. Some sources claim that somewhere between 500,000 and 1 million Algerians were killed in the French conquest. Tunisia then fell to France in 1881 and Libya to Italy in 1911. Morocco managed to retain its independence but soon developed into a protectorate of France and Britain. North Africa, which had been under the control of the Muslims since Uqba ibn Nafi’s expedition to the region, had fallen some 1300 years later to European control.
In West Africa, coastal cities relied heavily on Europeans for trade. From here, the Europeans moved into mainland West Africa at speed. The colonisation of Muslim West Africa was spearheaded by the French and most of the region was subjugated to French control by the late 1800s. The British spearheaded the colonisation of East Africa. They weakened Oman by splitting it into two and turning it into a British protectorate. This system of divide and conquer, which worked so well for European imperial powers, proved its effectiveness in reducing the “once-wealthy and powerful East African coast to just another European dependency”. Soon, all of Muslim Africa would come under European control or influence and to this day, the land is stained by the crimes committed by the colonisers.
In central Asia, the Turks were divided “into numerous petty states scattered throughout the deserts”. The Russians began to annex lands in Central Asia in the 1800s using their economic ties as an excuse. However, their expanding control over the world did not go unnoticed. Britain, concerned over Russia’s expansion, attempted to take Afghanistan. This led to the ‘Great Game’ in which the two global powers divided Central Asia into two. By the close of the 19th century, Russia expanded their domain all the way to Khorasan whilst the Afghan highlands formed a buffer for the British against Russian imperialism to the south. Although neither could conquer Persia, their political influence extended into the region. The Arab sheikhdoms in South Persia were under the influence of the British whilst the “Russians held sway in Tehran”.
In Southeast Asia, the Dutch established the Dutch East India Trading Company and took the Malay Archipelago. Similar to the East India Trading Company, the Dutch company did not look to govern but generate profits. Therefore, they did not hesitate to use military force to explaoit the region for their own gains. In 1621 they massacred 10,000 people in the Banda Islands to secure their control over the nutmeg crop. In 1641, the Dutch forced the Portuguese out of Malacca. Dutch rule was not, however, without disturbance as the local Muslim sultanates in Java and Sumatra revolted and remained a constant thorn in the side of the Dutch. Through an amalgamation of their vast economic resources and technological superiority, the Dutch established a vast empire in southeast Asia and thus Islam declined in the region.
In conclusion, the downfall of the final era of Muslim glory came about at the hands of the Europeans who used the decadence of the Muslims to their advantage. They saw it as the ‘white man’s burden’ to conquer the world and teach their way of life to the native people they subjugated. It is important to note that they did not do this out of ignorance of Muslim history but it was perhaps because of their knowledge of the strength of Muslim unity. At the close of the First World War, “arbitrary borders were drawn by Europeans which did not take into account local identities or political histories in an effort to divide up Muslim political capital and make the conquered territories easier to subjugate and rule”. Since this decline, the Muslims have struggled to find their strength and bring about their former glory.