Ottoman-Russian Relations

Author(s):  
Adrian Brisku

Four-centuries-long encounters between the Ottoman Empire and the Grand Duchy of Muscovy/Russian Empire point to complex relations that have been triggered and defined mostly by territorial, trade disputes, and wars, and maintained by diplomatic rivalry and occasional military alliances. Starting as friendly encounters during Sultan Bayezid II reign at the beginning of the 16th century, these relations, essentially and persistently asymmetrical, reveal an initial and long Ottoman dominance over the Muscovy/Russian side; one that lasted from the early 16th to the late 18th century—whereby the two sides shared no direct borders, traded and did not fight each other until the late 17th century—followed by a late 18th-century and mid-19th-century Russian ascendency. This ascendency was achieved largely thanks to the military reform that Tsar/Emperor Peter the Great undertook, namely, the establishment of a standing and professional army and consequentially due to the many wars that Russia won throughout the 19th century; the decisive ones being those fought during the reign of Empress Catherine the Great. The mid-19th century and the early 20th century—which witnessed the implosion of the Russian Empire due to the Bolshevik Revolution and the break-up of the Ottoman Empire by Britain and France—was a long period that saw few and brief military alliances, contested trade relations and yet continued wars. It was ultimately marred by an Ottoman drive to counterbalance Russia’s dominance, while the latter sought to preserve it, by involving other European powers (British and French)—the most crucial moment being the British, French, and Ottoman armies defeating the Russian one in the Crimean War (1853–1856)—transforming their bilateral interactions into multilateral but unsustainable relations.

2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Smiley

AbstractThis article analyzes the changing treaty law and practice governing the Ottoman state's attitude toward the subjects of its most important neighbor and most inveterate rival: the Russian Empire. The two empires were linked by both migration and unfreedom; alongside Russian slaves forcibly brought to the sultans’ domains, many others came as fugitives from serfdom and conscription. But beginning in the late 18th century, the Ottoman Empire reinforced Russian serfdom and conscription by agreeing to return fugitives, even as the same treaties undermined Ottoman forced labor by mandating the return of Russian slaves. Drawing extensively on Ottoman archival sources, this article argues that the resulting interimperial regulations on unfreedom and movement hardened the empires’ human and geographic boundaries, so that for many Russian subjects, foreign subjecthood under treaty law was not a privilege, but a liability.


2019 ◽  
pp. 256-281
Author(s):  
E.M. Kopot`

The article brings up an obscure episode in the rivalry of the Orthodox and Melkite communities in Syria in the late 19th century. In order to strengthen their superiority over the Orthodox, the Uniates attempted to seize the church of St. George in Izraa, one of the oldest Christian temples in the region. To the Orthodox community it presented a threat coming from a wealthier enemy backed up by the See of Rome and the French embassy. The only ally the Antioch Patriarchate could lean on for support in the fight for its identity was the Russian Empire, a traditional protector of the Orthodox Arabs in the Middle East. The documents from the Foreign Affairs Archive of the Russian Empire, introduced to the scientific usage for the first time, present a unique opportunity to delve into the history of this conflict involving the higher officials of the Ottoman Empire as well as the Russian embassy in ConstantinopleВ статье рассматривается малоизвестный эпизод соперничества православной и Мелкитской общин в Сирии в конце XIX века. Чтобы укрепить свое превосходство над православными, униаты предприняли попытку захватить церковь Святого Георгия в Израа, один из старейших христианских храмов в регионе. Для православной общины он представлял угрозу, исходящую от более богатого врага, поддерживаемого Римским престолом и французским посольством. Единственным союзником, на которого Антиохийский патриархат мог опереться в борьбе за свою идентичность, была Российская Империя, традиционный защитник православных арабов на Ближнем Востоке. Документы из архива иностранных дел Российской Империи, введены в научный оборот впервые, уникальная возможность углубиться в историю этого конфликта с участием высших должностных лиц в Османской империи, а также российского посольства в Константинополе.


Author(s):  
K.Yu. Anders-Namzhilova

The article describes the problem of searching for unknown manuscripts in the study of new spiritual literature that occurred in the Russian Empire at the turn of 18th century. The documents of Moscow Ecclesiastical Censor’s Archive are the main information source of church and religious materials written during that period. The Moscow Ecclesiastical Censor was the first specialized authority established by Synod in 1799 for considering the religious compositions. Compositions which were banned by censors couldn’t be printed and for this reason they become unknown even for modern scientific society. However, a lot of these compositions weren’t lost: they are kept in manuscripts which are dispersed throughout different archive and library funds, that’s why they cannot be attributed without the engagement of the censor committee’s archive documents.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-127
Author(s):  
Leah Bornstein-Makovetsky

This article discusses the biographies and economic and public activities of the Ḥatim family in Istanbul in the late 18th century and throughout the 19th century. Most of the attention is focused on R. Shlomo Ḥatim and his son Yitsḥak, who were members of the Jewish elite in Istanbul and settled in Jerusalem at the ends of their lives. R. Shlomo, who is said to have served the Ottoman authorities in Istanbul, settled in Jerusalem more than ten years before the leaders of the Jewish economic elite in Istanbul were executed in the 1820s. His son, surviving this purge, followed much later, immigrating to Israel in 1846, but died immediately thereafter. This article provides insights into the business activities of the Ḥatim family, as well as the activities of Yitsḥak Ḥatim as an Ottoman official in Istanbul. I also discuss two more generations of this family, considered an elite, privileged one, and that was highly esteemed among well-known rabbis in the Ottoman Empire. I also discuss the ties that developed between the communities of Istanbul and Jerusalem in the first half of the 19th century as a result of initiatives of officials in Istanbul and of immigration from Istanbul to Jerusalem.


2008 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadir Özbek

This article lays groundwork for a more systematic history of the Ottoman gendarmerie (jandarma), here with special emphasis on the men in the corps and their working conditions. The gendarmerie, which before 1879 reform the Ottomans called asakir-i zabtiye, was a provincial paramilitary police organization established by bureaucrats of the Tanzimat state during the 1840s on an ad hoc basis. This force later acquired a more uniform and centralized character, becoming the empire's principal internal security organization. Through this paramilitary police institution, 19th-century Ottoman bureaucrats aimed to extend their authority into the provinces, which at that time could be described as only marginally under Ottoman sovereignty according to contemporary definitions of the term. From the late 18th century on, extending state sovereignty to recognized territorial boundaries emerged as a vital need for most European states as well as the Ottoman Empire. Along with other modern military and civil institutions and modern administrative practices, introducing various types of paramilitary provincial police forces enabled governments in Europe to enhance and extend their authority over territories in which it had been limited. The gendarmerie thus emerged in both Europe and in the Ottoman Empire as integral to modern state formation and its technologies of government. Although acknowledging the Pan-European context of the gendarmerie's emergence and its theoretical ramifications, the present article is concerned more with the Ottoman context within which this police corps was established, evolved, and took on a uniquely Ottoman form.


DIYÂR ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-57
Author(s):  
Elena Smolarz

By examining patterns of ransoming strategies, this paper generates insights about the interactions between state, economic and social actors across the Russian-Kazakh frontier in the early 19th century. Generally, first encounters across borders and boundaries include violence and invasion. Accordingly, the enslavement and subsequent ransoming of captured people represent common practices in frontier regions. Analyses of these processes illuminate the nature of interactions between different actors along the border. Securing release of slaves through ransom was a regular component of Russian foreign policy from the 16th century onwards. Imperial institutions were established for ransoming Russian Christian brothers-in-the-faith and, later, for other subjects of the Russian Empire who had been enslaved by the Ottoman Empire and Central Asian Khanates. With imperial financing, the Orenburg Border Commission (1799-1859) co-ordinated the ransoming process and developed networks for achieving the release of Russian subjects held in the Kazakh Steppe, in Khiva and Bukhara. Actors involved in these networks were of heterogeneous descent, including Russian imperial officials, Bukharian and Khivan merchants, Kazakh officials, as well as Russian agents. Drawing on archival research, this article explores ransoming networks and strategies along the Russian-Kazakh frontier and probes the motives of the actors involved.


Istoriya ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6 (104)) ◽  
pp. 0
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Kozub

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of diplomatic ceremonial in the Ottoman Empire in the 18th century. Special attention is paid to such elements of the protocol as the meeting of foreign representatives, the presentation of gifts, the meal, the location of officials during the reception, and some other features. The authors analyze the notes and reports of Russian diplomats who visited the receptions of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and the Grand Vizier. Thanks to these sources, it was possible to learn the details of the ceremony and note the fact that Russian diplomats tried to describe what was happening at the receptions in such a way as to emphasize a special attitude towards themselves. In confirmation of this, the authors provide excerpts from preserved sources. In addition, the article draws attention to the fact that many elements of the protocol depended on the status of foreign representatives. In the Ottoman Empire, hierarchy played a significant role. The envoy could not be treated with the same dishware as the ambassador, and the ambassador, in turn, could not be treated with the same dishware as the Grand Vizier. The conclusion drawn in this article is that some elements of the diplomatic ceremonial could change depending on the representatives of which state came to the audience in the Ottoman Empire. Russian ambassadors and envoys were treated more hospitably than representatives of other states because of the Russian Empire's victories in the two Russo-Turkish wars. At receptions with Russian diplomats, there were changes in the protocol by decree of the Ottoman Sultan, in order to demonstrate respect not only for Russian officials, but also for the state as a whole.


Administory ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 88-111
Author(s):  
Nathalie Patricia Soursos ◽  
Anna Ransmayr

Abstract From the late 18th century to the end of the Habsburg Monarchy in 1918, Vienna’s two Greek Orthodox communities administered a remarkable number of endowments. By founding endowments the benefactors acted between several spaces and subspaces. The transgression of boundaries by endowments addressed to the benefactors’ hometowns in the Ottoman Empire as well as the instability of these boundaries in the 19th century led to various problems in the interaction with the state authorities. But also endowments given to Viennese institutions were sometimes problematic, depending on the benefactors’ character as either Ottoman or Habsburg subjects. In contrast to Ottoman subjects, Habsburg subjects could also endow real estate and thus show their integration into the Viennese bourgeoisie. In this article we discuss the legal frameworks for the administration of endowments in the two Greek communities in Vienna as well as its practical realization in interaction with the Habsburg authorities.


2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 104-119

This paper discusses the interaction between the discourses of empire and nation as it emerged in the debates about the proper object of research and the criteria for legitimacy of the newly founded discipline of ethnography in the Russian Empire in the last decades of the 18th and throughout the 19th century. A special emphasis will be laid upon the particular features of the appearance and evolution of ethnographic preoccupations in the Russian Empire starting with the second half of the 18th century, when the first attempts at the synthesis and classification of ethnographic enquiries can be discerned, and spanning the first half of the 19th century. In this context, the case of Bessarabia represents an illustrative example of the uneasy interaction between the specialized and supposedly “objective” knowledge of learned experts and the agendas of the central and local authorities and officials. My basic goal has been to uncover the relationship between the “imperial” and the “universalistic” dimensions of Russian ethnography.


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