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On the edge of Europe
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is the city that was once the heart of a mighty empire.
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From here in Istanbul,
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the glories of the Ottoman Empire came to match those of Ancient Rome.
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Ottoman rulers were of course known for their lavish lifestyles
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and their sumptuous buildings.
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For 600 years, from the Middle Ages to the 20th century,
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one dynasty of Ottoman sultans from a single family
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ruled across huge swathes of the world.
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This is an empire of a million square miles,
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staggeringly wealthy because it's staggeringly well organized.
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The empire stretched south to Baghdad and Cairo,
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controlling the holiest sites of Islam.
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But it also reached deep into Europe
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taking in Sarajevo and threatening the gates of Vienna.
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It was the cradle of a civilisation and a culture
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which has infused Europe
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to Europe's benefit. Europe is the richer for it.
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In this series, I'm discovering why the Ottoman Empire seems to have
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vanished from our understanding of the history of Europe,
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why its story is exciting global interest once more
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and how this year, struggles at the heart of the Ottoman story
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have reignited on the streets they once ruled,
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from Syria to Turkey and Egypt.
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It's remarkable how some of the most important, yet unresolved, issues
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confronting us today, were also faced by the Ottomans -
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the conflicts between the Christian West and the Muslim East,
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the need to reconcile secular politics with religious ideology
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and balancing the demands of the clergy
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with the ambitions of the generals. All this was faced by one dynasty
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that ruled for 600 years, across three continents.
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In this episode, I'm going to explore the huge contrasts
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in the times of two very different Ottoman sultans...
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..the most famous - Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th century...
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..and the troubled reign of Abdul Hamid II
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in the 19th century.
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I want to know what a Muslim world, run from Europe was really like
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and how it has shaped the relationship
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between Islam and Europe today.
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Across the continents,
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down the centuries,
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I'll be trying to get to grips with what we all need to know today
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about Europe's Muslim Emperors.
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This is the magnificent Topkapi Palace,
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the nerve centre of the most powerful Muslim empire
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the world has ever seen.
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It was built by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II
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in the middle of the 15th century.
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Its commanding position overlooks Istanbul,
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the imperial capital he conquered from the Byzantines in 1453,
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declaring the Ottomans successors of the Roman Empire.
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And this is what the Ottoman sultans would have seen when they walk out
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onto this incredible balcony next to the Treasury Room
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in the Topkapi Palace. They would have been able to see in one view
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two of the three continents upon which their empire was built -
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Europe on that side and Asia on that side -
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separated only by the narrow waters of the Bosphorus
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and it just simply takes your breath away.
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Inside are a set of rooms which tell the story
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of the rise of the Ottoman Empire.
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The home of the hareem,
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where Christian slave girls captured in Europe
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provided heirs for the dynasty.
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The home of the Treasury where the empire's vast wealth was secured.
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The home of the sacred treasures of Islam,
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symbols of the Ottoman leadership of the Muslim world.
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This was the epicentre, the heart and soul of Ottoman imperial power.
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In 1520, 70 years after it was built,
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all this was inherited by the most famous of all the Ottoman sultans
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who led the Ottomans into their golden age -
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Suleiman the Magnificent.
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Suleiman was a figure and a name to be conjured with
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in London as in every other capital city of Europe.
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Suleiman's name came up in Shakespeare,
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Suleiman's name was probably on the lips of everybody in the pub.
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A war leader and a great administrator,
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a man of considerable cultural achievement,
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a man who was interested in learning,
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Suleiman is one of the most impressive figures of the age.
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The empire Suleiman inherited had just expanded dramatically.
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After two centuries of Ottoman conquests in Christian Europe
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his father had taken control of new lands
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across Africa and the Arab Muslim world.
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The capture of two cities unlocked vast lands.
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Defeating the Mamluk Empire in modern day Syria
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gave the Ottomans lands extending to the sacred city of Jerusalem.
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Taking Cairo gave them territory as far as the holiest sites of Islam -
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Mecca and Medina.
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The Ottoman sultans now ruled over a vast Muslim population.
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And it altered the equilibrium of the state
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which had up until that point been predominantly Christian.
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It was a change that sealed the future direction of the empire.
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For the Ottomans to take charge of the Arab Muslim world
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was a seismic shift.
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They'd emerged in the late 13th century in what's now Turkey
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as mercenary horsemen whose ancestors had converted to Islam
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centuries after most Arabs
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and who had traditionally worn their religion lightly.
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For the Arab world,
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the Ottoman conquest opened a whole new page in their history.
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Now, for the first time, they found themselves ruled
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not from one of their own cities, but from distant Istanbul.
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The Ottoman conquest led to a shift of the centre of gravity
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away from the Arab world.
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Suleiman had to assert the Ottoman's right to rule Arab Muslims
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from a European capital, which 70 years before his accession,
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was still a Christian city.
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Istanbul's culture, its language and its history
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were all quite different from those of Arab Muslims.
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The first mosque ever built by the Ottomans here shows how soon after
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they conquered the city, they tried to give their imperial capital
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a direct connection to the founder of the faith.
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Just as the tradition of St Peter coming to Rome
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and being buried there gave the Pope his legitimacy in that city,
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the Ottomans discovered their own equivalent on this site.
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Except the remains found here
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were said to be those of a famous close companion
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of the Prophet Muhammad - the Sahaba or disciple-like figure -
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Ayyub Ansari.
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The site of Ayyub Ansari's supposed grave
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became very important for the Ottomans all through their history.
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It still has a great magic about it.
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Ayyub Ansari died, according to tradition,
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during a 7th century attempt on Istanbul
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proposed by the Prophet himself.
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Then, 800 years later,
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Sultan Mehmet II's conquering regime
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miraculously found his remains.
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It's just a legend.
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Probably they did not find anything
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related to Ayyub Ansari,
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but to make this newly taken Christian city
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the Islamic centre of the world,
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they "found",
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"discovered" the tomb of Ayyub al-Ansari
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and it worked.
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In time it became customary for new sultans to walk along this path
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to the shrine as part of their accession ceremony.
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Hence its name - Accession Road.
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If Rome, a city 1,400 miles from Jerusalem,
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could become the centre of Christian authority,
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then for the Ottomans, Istanbul, 2,000 miles from Mecca,
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could become the new centre of Muslim authority.
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And as the Christian world had its Pope,
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the Muslim world had from the time of the Prophet a similar position -
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the Caliph,
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a title that thanks to his father's conquests,
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Suleiman now inherited.
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They were sultans but they also gave themselves the title of Caliph.
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In doing, so they made themselves
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not just the political leaders of the Muslim world,
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but the spiritual leaders, too.
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The word Caliph means "successor" in Arabic.
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Basically, when Prophet Muhammad died, Muslims sat down and said,
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"What are we going to do now?" I mean, they had a political community.
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"Who will be the leader, who will lead us?"
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The Ottomans, Ottoman sultans, defined themselves as Caliphs
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as successors to Prophet Muhammad.
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The title still resonated across the Muslim world.
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To support their claim to the title of Caliph
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the Ottomans seized from their conquered Arab lands
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sacred treasures of unimaginable importance to Muslims.
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They took all the relics associated with the Prophet Muhammad
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from Mecca as well as from Cairo to bring back as a very sacred booty,
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that would give the high seat of religiosity
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that the Ottomans required.
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Tradition has it that this ornate trunk,
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kept here in the Palace of the Sultans,
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contains the mantel of the Prophet.
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A cloak that had belonged to the founder of the faith.
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After the Prophet's death,
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Muslim leaders had used the cloak to legitimize their power.
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Now the Ottomans did the same.
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Even in the modern age, the symbolism of the cloak,
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and its connection to the Prophet, has a powerful appeal.
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Here in Kandahar, in 1996, as the Taliban overran Afghanistan,
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the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, brandished another cloak,
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claiming it had once belonged to the Prophet Muhammad.
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Sacred artefacts and the title Caliph
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strengthened the Ottoman's legitimacy
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within the Muslim world and beyond.
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As a universal title, the Caliph was historically considered
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as a patron, if not a ruler,
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of all Muslims and the Ottomans very much play
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on this notion of patronage,
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that they become the patrons and protectors of Muslims everywhere.
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The Ottomans called themselves the guardians of the holy places.
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Now, that's just words,
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but they followed up on their words,
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by putting a distinctive architectural stamp
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on Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.
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Suleiman the Magnificent spent millions
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putting a new coat of decoration on the Dome of the Rock.
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It glistened and shone in the sun, it was brand new, it was sparkling
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and it was very warmly received.
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And above all, it's an act of possession,
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it's an act of appropriation, it says
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there's a new boss and this is his mark.
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And that was a message to the rest of the Islamic world.
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Suleiman was Caliph but he wasn't only interested in defining
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himself as the defender of the faith.
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First and foremost, he was emperor
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and he wanted to be as strong as possible in that role.
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Centred in the Topkapi, Suleiman's imperial
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administration brought stability to his Muslim
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empire of the 16th century that would be
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the envy of his successors and many in the modern world.
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Today, Sharia law and the tension between the power of the state and the power
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of religion divides almost every Muslim country in the world.
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The violence of the Taliban.
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LOUD EXPLOSION
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The terrorism of Al-Qaeda and their affiliates,
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the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood to power in Egypt, all are aspects
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of the struggle about how far Sharia law should influence the daily
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and political life of Muslim societies.
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Five centuries ago, Suleiman the Magnificent tackled this
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dilemma head-on.
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Suleiman's legal reforms were
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so central to the success of the Ottoman Empire that
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many people regard it as the greatest gift he left to his people.
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So much so, that while Suleiman is known in the West
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as Suleiman the Magnificent, in Turkey he is known by another name.
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To Turks he's known as Suleiman Kanuni - Suleiman the Lawgiver.
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Suleiman's dynamic Ottoman
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state of the 16th century faced crimes not
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catered for by the Sharia, written nine centuries earlier.
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One very good example is counterfeiting currency.
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Is this theft? Traditionally, no.
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Theft has a very specific
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definition in Islamic law, which is to stick your hand into
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an enclosed place and snatch something out of it.
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Counterfeiting currency is not this.
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Forgery of official state papers, what is this?
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Again, it does not fit under any of the classically
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defined headings of Islamic jurisprudence.
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The solution was the Kanun,
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Suleiman's legal code that carefully balanced the Sharia with
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the authority of the sultan and the needs of his empire.
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What is really the concern, in terms of power, is
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the will of the sultan -
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and that can go against the Sharia in some cases,
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but what they do then is they twist, either the Sharia or
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the Kanun, the regal law, in order to make it comply with each other.
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Because it's essential that at an ideological level
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the religious law is not contradicted.
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But really what makes the empire run is the sultan's law.
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Under Sharia law even crimes of murder could be
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settled by family members paying off the victim's family with blood money.
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Suleiman's new legal system meant the state could have the last word.
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Basically, they would say, to litigants,
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"You can go to the Sharia courts, you resolve your disputes,
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"you reach a settlement, but after you reach a settlement, we that is
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"society, we that is the sultan, we that is the state, have the right
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"to adjudicate the same case
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"according to another, parallel legal system
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"that most often results in imprisonment."
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Suleiman made sure that his laws were pre-eminent,
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but he did it in a subtle way.
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He wanted to make sure that he was not openly challenging Sharia
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and in doing so, he set a precedent that would be
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followed by Ottoman rulers who came after him.
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SIREN WAILS
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Despite the clashes on Istanbul streets this year,
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the distinctive nature of Turkey's history
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during and after Ottoman times means these protests are quite
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different from those seen in the Arab Spring.
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This is now a democratic country that's elected an openly
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Islamic government after three generations of secular rule.
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But right at the heart of these protests are threads that Suleiman
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would have recognised well about the place of man's law and God's law.
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Under Suleiman's Ottoman Empire, there was a clear separation.
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Affairs of state were controlled by a prime minister called
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the Grand Vizier.
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Religious affairs were controlled by a new position - the Grand Mufti.
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They set up a hierarchy in a system that used
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to be not hierarchical, they set up the head of the Muslim clergy,
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the Mufti of Istanbul - call him the "bishop", if you want, of Istanbul,
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to make things simple - who basically rules over the entire clergy.
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Now, this is something that did not exist in Islam.
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And this is what gives the Ottomans the power to set up
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a structure that is centred and is dependent on the palace,
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on the sultan.
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It is about, quote/unquote, nationalizing the clergy.
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With a stable state
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supported by a clear separation of religious and secular power,
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Suleiman set about a physical transformation of his entire empire.
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The way he did it underlines the sultan's power over his subjects.
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One extraordinary story reveals how Suleiman's reign saw
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the creation of Ottoman buildings admired to this day.
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The greatest of these was built by this man.
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This is Suleiman's chief architect, Mimar Sinan.
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Today he's little-known outside Turkey
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but he was without question one of the greatest
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figures behind the Ottomans' enduring cultural legacy.
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Each age gets its great architect who fuses the ideas
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and the aesthetic and the politics of the age into iconic buildings.
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Sinan was that for the Ottomans.
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I've come to the building Sinan saw as his own masterpiece.
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The Selimiye Mosque in Edirne.
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It is seen as one of the greatest achievements of Islamic architecture.
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But there's something
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surprising about the man behind this exquisite building that historians,
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including Teyfur Erdogdu,
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have pieced together from details of his life.
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Sinan was most probably an Orthodox Christian.
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That possibility holds deep ironies.
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It seems Sinan ultimately rose to
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hold his position as the Ottomans' chief architect because,
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like hundreds of thousands of Ottoman subjects, he was taken as a
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child from a Christian family under a system known as the Devshirme.
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They were brought to Istanbul,
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they were converted to Islam, they were all slaves of the Sultan.
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It was a way of building a patrimonial army for the Sultan,
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a very close, very loyal army.
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This was a direct infringement
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of the holiness of the Christian family.
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And the idea that their children
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should be brought up as Muslims, that was deeply resented.
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The fact Sinan served in the sultan's elite army,
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known as the Janniseries, is one of the key details of his life
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that have convinced many historians that he was indeed born a Christian.
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The Muslim children, according to
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Ottoman rule, could not be taken for the Janniseries army.
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This twist in the story of the Ottomans' greatest architect
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embodies the power of the Sultan over his subject's talents.
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But as the man behind so many mosques, there was an added irony.
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In the 15th century and for much of the 16th century, it was permissible for a sultan
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to build a mosque in the city only if he had defeated Christians.
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And Sinan the Muslim convert
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built this very mosque with the spoils of the Ottoman
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conquest of Christian Cyprus.
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Sinan's enduring legacy changed
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the skyline of Istanbul and cities throughout the empire.
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He built 135 mosques and over 350 buildings in total,
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dwarfing even the great achievements of Sir Christopher Wren in England.
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If he were in our society,
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he'd be a lord with a string of initials after his name.
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You have the reports of one European monarch after another,
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who go and see Istanbul and they come back with bated breath,
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and they say, "You have to see this to believe it."
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They're blown away by the size and the splendour and the ambition
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of these building projects.
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That was a rare kind of empire. A rare kind of self-confidence.
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Europeans may have noted
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the magnificence of Suleiman's court and his capital,
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but they were also well aware of his military threat.
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Suleiman spent a quarter of his reign on the battlefield
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and expanded the empire almost to the peak of its power.
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He captured Baghdad and brought modern-day Iraq under his rule.
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He did the same with Budapest and Hungary.
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Victory first at Rhodes and then in key Greek provinces gave him
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00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:22,080
control of the Eastern Mediterranean.
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The Ottoman sultan really stood out
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as perhaps the most powerful man in the world
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in the 16th and 17th centuries.
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Ruling over this vast territory with all of the wealth
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that the empire enjoyed,
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the Ottomans were able to put together an army that was
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really the fear of Europe.
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In that sense, you could point to the time of Suleiman as a period in
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which Europe was really in awe of and terrified by the Ottoman Empire.
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Such fear fed propaganda,
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00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:02,640
and there was plenty of it about on both sides,
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including this woodcut by a contemporary of Suleiman,
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the German artist Albrecht Durer.
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It is no wonder that people in Christian Europe
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think of the Turk as a figure of fear.
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When you're thinking of the horsemen of the apocalypse,
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the people that are going to bring the end of the world,
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and you depict that in paintings as Durer does,
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one of the horsemen is depicted as a Turk.
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Children are told that if they aren't
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quiet in the evenings, if they don't go to sleep, a Turk will get them.
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If you asked any European,
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"Who are the Muslims?",
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they would have said, "The Turks, the Ottomans.
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"They're the ones that we are afraid of."
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But the question is, what did Europe mean to Suleiman,
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and what, if anything, did Europe represent to the Ottomans?
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Suleiman viewed European powers as rivals he could dominate.
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00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:15,240
But the fate of his dynastic family would remain entwined with
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00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:19,800
the rival dynastic families of Europe for centuries to come.
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The growing influence of the great tsars of Russia.
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The newly-Protestant dynasty of Tudor England.
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And the Holy Roman Empire of the Catholic Hapsburgs.
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Suleiman's time was a time of great personalities of rulers.
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I mean there was Henry VIII, of course,
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00:28:40,880 --> 00:28:45,240
there was Ivan the Terrible in Russia and in Europe,
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his main rival for glory in this wider world of rulers
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00:28:49,640 --> 00:28:51,600
was the Hapsburg ruler,
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00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:56,760
Charles V, in Austria and Germany and, really, Central Europe.
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00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:07,280
Suleiman's European campaigns were highly strategic
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and followed the pattern
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of his father's conquests in the Arab lands.
395
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Triumphs in Damascus
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and Cairo had made the Ottomans dominant across Muslim Arabia.
397
00:29:17,080 --> 00:29:21,000
Having taken Hungary, he was only one step away from his most
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00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:25,080
strategic target - the Hapsburg capital, Vienna.
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00:29:25,080 --> 00:29:28,480
Suleiman knew victory here would deliver vast
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00:29:28,480 --> 00:29:33,680
tracts of Europe into Ottoman hands, from Spain to the Netherlands.
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00:29:33,680 --> 00:29:37,840
They get to the walls of Vienna.
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00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:41,800
But we are talking here about a non-Western force
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00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:43,640
that has got that far,
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that, in a sense, seems to be dominating the agenda.
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00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:51,160
In a way, yes, there was a territorial contest
406
00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:57,960
and, yes, there was religious contest to some degree but largely,
407
00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:01,280
one can could say that it was a contest between two
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00:30:01,280 --> 00:30:06,040
great leaders who wanted to appear more magnificent than the other.
409
00:30:06,040 --> 00:30:09,720
In Suleiman's reign, the Ottomans had every
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reason to think theirs was the more magnificent dynasty,
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00:30:13,120 --> 00:30:18,120
ahead in wealth, power and military technology.
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00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:23,640
After 46 years in power, in 1566, Suleiman the Magnificent died.
413
00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:28,640
He was laid to rest in the Suleymaniye Mosque
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built for him by Sinan.
415
00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:34,640
Suleiman never captured Vienna, but in the following century,
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his successors would target it once more.
417
00:30:37,280 --> 00:30:40,840
And within a decade of Suleiman's death, major rifts in Europe
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would play into the Ottomans' hands and give them a new ally - England.
419
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There's an absolutely key moment in the relationship between
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the Ottomans and the English in the middle of the 16th century and that
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00:30:55,920 --> 00:31:03,000
is in the year 1570 when the Pope finally excommunicates Elizabeth I.
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The minute that happens, England is free to trade with the Ottomans.
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00:31:07,960 --> 00:31:11,840
The Ottomans and Protestant England had common
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ground in their opposition to Europe's Catholics.
425
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Just as the Ottoman Empire was reaching its peak, Europe was in turmoil and in conflict
426
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:27,000
because of the divisions between Protestants and Catholics.
427
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:33,560
It was a golden opportunity to pursue a policy of divide and rule.
428
00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:38,200
In the 1590s, fresh from confronting the Catholic Spanish Armada,
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00:31:38,200 --> 00:31:42,160
Elizabeth I herself entered into a correspondence, in Arabic,
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00:31:42,160 --> 00:31:44,200
with the Ottoman court.
431
00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:47,520
All part of this new-found axis of power the English hoped to
432
00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:49,840
build with the Ottomans.
433
00:31:49,840 --> 00:31:52,120
These exchanges between Elizabeth I
434
00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:55,760
and the Ottoman sultan show the friendly exchange of gifts.
435
00:31:55,760 --> 00:31:59,600
The relationship between the English and the Ottomans was
436
00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:01,080
predominantly about trade
437
00:32:01,080 --> 00:32:03,840
but some have suggested that the politics of their
438
00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:07,000
relationship was made easier by the fact that
439
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:08,760
they had a common enemy -
440
00:32:08,760 --> 00:32:11,000
the Hapsburgs.
441
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:14,640
The Hapsburgs were really a global empire who were
442
00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:17,080
sort of squeezing everyone else out, they were Catholic.
443
00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:21,000
On the other side you had the Protestant powers rising,
444
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:24,520
who were hoping to elbow in on the resources
445
00:32:24,520 --> 00:32:27,680
and territories which were controlled by the Hapsburgs.
446
00:32:27,680 --> 00:32:32,160
The Ottomans, for their part, were keen to push the Hapsburgs
447
00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:33,920
back in Central Europe.
448
00:32:36,160 --> 00:32:40,040
But the point was simply "the enemy of my enemy is my friend."
449
00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:56,280
150 years after Suleiman had last tried,
450
00:32:56,280 --> 00:32:59,320
Ottoman forces once more attempted the unthinkable -
451
00:32:59,320 --> 00:33:03,320
to defeat, in the heart of Europe, the Catholic Hapsburgs.
452
00:33:05,040 --> 00:33:07,920
In 1683, the Ottoman armies were
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00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:11,440
here at the gates of Vienna, laying siege to the city that was
454
00:33:11,440 --> 00:33:14,840
then the capital of the Hapsburg Empire.
455
00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:24,920
The Ottomans camped outside the city.
456
00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:27,800
This moment had been feared since the days of Suleiman.
457
00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:35,280
The Pope, Innocent XI, made sure military assistance came
458
00:33:35,280 --> 00:33:38,000
from Bavaria, Saxony and Poland.
459
00:33:39,720 --> 00:33:41,520
The Ottomans siege of Vienna is
460
00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:46,800
still cited as a key foundation stone of a supposed clash of civilisations.
461
00:33:46,800 --> 00:33:49,680
But was it?
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00:33:49,680 --> 00:33:53,160
For the Christian forces preparing to defend Vienna,
463
00:33:53,160 --> 00:33:55,360
this was a holy war.
464
00:33:55,360 --> 00:33:58,640
But for the Ottoman sultans targeting Vienna, it wasn't
465
00:33:58,640 --> 00:34:00,800
so much about converting Christians.
466
00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:08,480
What this really wasn't about was a religious war.
467
00:34:08,480 --> 00:34:11,160
Now, it's understandable that that was how it was
468
00:34:11,160 --> 00:34:13,840
seen in Christian Europe and obviously, if the Ottomans had
469
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:17,280
extended their power, there would have been a completely different
470
00:34:17,280 --> 00:34:20,960
world for Muslims in the area that they took over, but this was
471
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:25,600
not fundamentally about religion in 1683, this is about power.
472
00:34:38,720 --> 00:34:41,080
On September 12th 1683,
473
00:34:41,080 --> 00:34:45,040
the Christian force reached the plains outside Vienna where
474
00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:47,000
the Ottomans awaited them.
475
00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:53,840
In a now legendary charge, they routed the Ottoman army,
476
00:34:53,840 --> 00:34:56,240
in a single day.
477
00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:03,000
Of course it's taken as a major failure
478
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:05,920
but more than the failure in 1683, what really throws
479
00:35:05,920 --> 00:35:10,080
the Ottomans off is the consequences of that failure
480
00:35:10,080 --> 00:35:13,600
that is the decade or so of wars that the Austrians will
481
00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:18,400
organise against the Ottomans after the defeat, taking advantage of that defeat.
482
00:35:22,760 --> 00:35:26,800
The Ottomans didn't capture Vienna and they lost Hungary
483
00:35:26,800 --> 00:35:30,160
and as a result, their pride, their prestige, was damaged.
484
00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:35,600
From this, the future destiny of Europe was shaped.
485
00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:42,120
There remain very deep-rooted memories
486
00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:44,840
of the Ottoman threat in Europe.
487
00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:49,040
There are countries such as Austria which continue to think of Turkey
488
00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:50,760
in terms of that former threat.
489
00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:56,920
The legacy of the Ottoman Empire
490
00:35:56,920 --> 00:35:59,280
is of the subjugation of European peoples,
491
00:35:59,280 --> 00:36:01,800
and the expansion of territory by brutal military means.
492
00:36:01,800 --> 00:36:03,840
I don't think we should attempt to glamorise it
493
00:36:03,840 --> 00:36:06,560
and I don't think we should feel the smallest nostalgia for it.
494
00:36:10,120 --> 00:36:13,840
The defeat here in Vienna would have a major impact on the Ottomans
495
00:36:13,840 --> 00:36:18,680
and would define how Europe would look at them for centuries to come.
496
00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:26,440
It is understandable that the question of Turkey joining the European Union
497
00:36:26,440 --> 00:36:31,400
looks totally different if you're in Vienna, or if you're in Cyprus,
498
00:36:31,400 --> 00:36:35,000
to how it looks in Britain, because in Britain, of course, we've never
499
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:39,640
had the direct military challenge. We were aware of the Ottomans
500
00:36:39,640 --> 00:36:43,520
but they weren't so central a part of our anxieties or our fears.
501
00:36:45,480 --> 00:36:48,120
To me, this goes some way to explaining
502
00:36:48,120 --> 00:36:52,680
why for many Europeans, this was the defining moment that meant
503
00:36:52,680 --> 00:36:56,360
that any future European union would be a Christian union.
504
00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:11,920
After their defeat at Vienna in the 18th century, the Ottomans
505
00:37:11,920 --> 00:37:14,040
would fall into a long period of decline.
506
00:37:14,040 --> 00:37:17,600
The following two centuries would witness a profound
507
00:37:17,600 --> 00:37:20,800
shift in the balance of power between the Ottomans and Europe.
508
00:37:20,800 --> 00:37:24,080
Instead of the Ottomans at the gates of Vienna, it would be the
509
00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:26,880
Russians at the gates of Istanbul.
510
00:37:26,880 --> 00:37:31,160
In its Arab lands, the Ottomans would be shut out of the holy sites
511
00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:35,120
and in Europe the empire would be mocked not feared, and propped up
512
00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:38,360
until it suited the great powers to carve it up.
513
00:37:38,360 --> 00:37:41,360
The world was changing.
514
00:37:50,480 --> 00:37:53,680
The West had taken off and developed in technology
515
00:37:53,680 --> 00:37:57,360
in military terms, in educational terms.
516
00:37:57,360 --> 00:37:59,640
It had had an enlightenment.
517
00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:02,280
It's industrialisation - the coming
518
00:38:02,280 --> 00:38:06,080
of mass production that really marks out the European
519
00:38:06,080 --> 00:38:09,600
states from the rest of the world and actually explains the growth of
520
00:38:09,600 --> 00:38:11,160
empire apart from anything else -
521
00:38:11,160 --> 00:38:12,920
the fact that you've got machine guns,
522
00:38:12,920 --> 00:38:16,640
steamships, those are the things that mark the big differences.
523
00:38:17,840 --> 00:38:21,280
The Ottomans were not interested
524
00:38:21,280 --> 00:38:24,640
in international trade, they didn't keep an eye open on the Americas,
525
00:38:24,640 --> 00:38:29,920
and their long-term fate was to be brought down by that provincialism.
526
00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:33,840
They thought they were safe within their empire.
527
00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:36,800
And the rest of the world developed at speed.
528
00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:42,840
The Ottomans were living in a rapidly changing world.
529
00:38:42,840 --> 00:38:47,720
The Industrial Revolution in Britain was about to reshape the country.
530
00:38:47,720 --> 00:38:50,560
The French Revolution would bring forward ideas
531
00:38:50,560 --> 00:38:54,280
and political movements based on equality and nationalism.
532
00:38:54,280 --> 00:38:57,920
The entire social and industrial landscape of Europe was being
533
00:38:57,920 --> 00:39:02,480
altered, and the Ottomans stood in danger of being left behind.
534
00:39:08,560 --> 00:39:13,240
Where once the Ottomans had been conquerors, now they faced invasion.
535
00:39:13,240 --> 00:39:17,240
In the 1790s, the shifting balance of power between Europe
536
00:39:17,240 --> 00:39:19,120
and the Ottomans had a landmark moment.
537
00:39:19,120 --> 00:39:22,200
Napoleon was able to invade Ottoman Egypt, demonstrating
538
00:39:22,200 --> 00:39:25,000
overwhelming superiority.
539
00:39:29,080 --> 00:39:32,200
When the French first arrived off the coast of Egypt in 1798,
540
00:39:32,200 --> 00:39:36,720
Egyptian society remained convinced
541
00:39:36,720 --> 00:39:40,800
that their society, Ottoman, Muslim,
542
00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:45,120
was the superior society, that they were in every way,
543
00:39:45,120 --> 00:39:49,400
a greater civilisation than anything that Europe had to throw at them.
544
00:39:49,400 --> 00:39:55,120
So great was the shock, then, when the French armies landed, and were
545
00:39:55,120 --> 00:40:01,760
able to deploy superior technology, and superior tactics to inflict
546
00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:05,560
a series of defeats that led to the French occupation of Egypt.
547
00:40:08,720 --> 00:40:12,080
But soon after the French invasion of Egypt,
548
00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:16,440
a more dramatic demonstration of Ottoman weakness came in 1805.
549
00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:20,880
This time it was not from Europe but from within their Arab Muslim lands.
550
00:40:24,720 --> 00:40:27,760
Having been feared in Europe for being Muslim, they now
551
00:40:27,760 --> 00:40:32,520
faced rebellion for not being Muslim enough.
552
00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:35,560
The desert of modern-day Saudi Arabia was
553
00:40:35,560 --> 00:40:37,120
home to the Wahhabis.
554
00:40:37,120 --> 00:40:40,120
Their challenge to the Ottomans had echoes of the Barbarians'
555
00:40:40,120 --> 00:40:42,920
challenge to the Romans.
556
00:40:42,920 --> 00:40:46,480
The Wahhabis brought a distinct form of Islam that was to threaten
557
00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:51,200
the Ottoman Empire and their control of Islam's holiest sites.
558
00:40:51,200 --> 00:40:53,720
Wahhabism is a puritanical
559
00:40:53,720 --> 00:40:57,240
and very austere interpretation of Islam that seeks to return
560
00:40:57,240 --> 00:41:01,400
to the practice of Islam as it was at the time of the Prophet Mohammad.
561
00:41:07,640 --> 00:41:11,320
The central pillar of Islam, essential for all Muslims
562
00:41:11,320 --> 00:41:15,840
who have the means is The Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca
563
00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:19,400
which the Ottomans had controlled since the 16th century.
564
00:41:19,400 --> 00:41:22,760
Even for someone brought up as a Muslim,
565
00:41:22,760 --> 00:41:26,040
one of the strangest paradoxes in this whole story,
566
00:41:26,040 --> 00:41:29,120
and something that I think very few Muslims realise,
567
00:41:29,120 --> 00:41:32,480
is that despite the 600-year history of the Ottoman Empire,
568
00:41:32,480 --> 00:41:35,360
not one sultan performed the Hajj themselves.
569
00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:38,120
To me, that is extraordinary.
570
00:41:46,120 --> 00:41:48,440
The Wahhabi rebels wanted
571
00:41:48,440 --> 00:41:51,280
a return to core Muslim doctrine and by the early
572
00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:54,840
years of the 19th century they'd swept down from the highlands
573
00:41:54,840 --> 00:41:59,760
and seized the holiest cities of Mecca and Medina from the Ottomans.
574
00:41:59,760 --> 00:42:03,800
Then they declared that the holy sites were no longer
575
00:42:03,800 --> 00:42:07,600
part of the Ottoman Empire and began to prevent Ottoman Muslims
576
00:42:07,600 --> 00:42:10,960
entering the city and completing the Hajj.
577
00:42:10,960 --> 00:42:13,000
They started challenging
578
00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:17,000
the sultan in a very important aspect, which is that he
579
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:21,360
is not Muslim enough. He is not serious enough about protecting
580
00:42:21,360 --> 00:42:25,000
and upholding the principals of the faith.
581
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:28,960
This was a serious blow to the Ottoman sultan who
582
00:42:28,960 --> 00:42:33,000
had as one of his most important and most prestigious titles
583
00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:35,160
"the protector of the two holy sites."
584
00:42:38,360 --> 00:42:41,040
The Wahhabi revolt suspended
585
00:42:41,040 --> 00:42:44,720
Ottoman control of the holy sites for more than a decade.
586
00:42:44,720 --> 00:42:48,600
The Ottomans eventually reclaimed Mecca and Medina but the revolt
587
00:42:48,600 --> 00:42:53,080
sowed the seeds of contemporary political fundamentalist Islam.
588
00:42:53,080 --> 00:42:57,280
It is the descendants of the Wahhabis who now rule Saudi Arabia
589
00:42:57,280 --> 00:43:00,760
and today they are the protectors of the holy sites.
590
00:43:09,640 --> 00:43:12,960
By the 19th century, the Ottomans' view
591
00:43:12,960 --> 00:43:17,080
of the world looked very different than in the times of Suleiman.
592
00:43:17,080 --> 00:43:18,720
Now the very capital the dynasty
593
00:43:18,720 --> 00:43:20,880
won from the Christian Byzantine Empire
594
00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:24,600
400 years earlier, and the strategic sea routes they
595
00:43:24,600 --> 00:43:27,840
controlled, were being targeted by the Ottomans, nearest neighbour -
596
00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:30,240
Russia.
597
00:43:30,240 --> 00:43:34,160
At the heart of this threat was a Russian ambition
598
00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:37,880
to conquer the Ottoman Empire, seize control of Istanbul,
599
00:43:37,880 --> 00:43:44,160
restore it as the seat of Eastern Orthodox Christianity
600
00:43:44,160 --> 00:43:49,320
and in the process, gain access to the strategic straits
601
00:43:49,320 --> 00:43:52,960
that meant the Russians could, from the Black Sea,
602
00:43:52,960 --> 00:43:55,560
access the Mediterranean at will.
603
00:43:55,560 --> 00:44:00,200
The threat of a rising Russia was feared in European capitals.
604
00:44:00,200 --> 00:44:03,640
In an unlikely twist, the countries that once feared the Ottomans
605
00:44:03,640 --> 00:44:08,000
now gave them economic and military backing.
606
00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:12,680
For most of the 19th century, Britain sees
607
00:44:12,680 --> 00:44:15,720
the Ottoman Empire as a buffer which keeps Russia
608
00:44:15,720 --> 00:44:20,640
out of the Mediterranean and keeps Russia away from Central Asia,
609
00:44:20,640 --> 00:44:24,640
is an important part, therefore, of Britain's power politics.
610
00:44:24,640 --> 00:44:27,920
By the middle of the 19th century, power was
611
00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:32,240
no longer concentrated in the sultan's palace by the Bosphorus.
612
00:44:32,240 --> 00:44:36,040
The Ottomans were now dependent on decisions made in European
613
00:44:36,040 --> 00:44:38,720
capitals of the great powers.
614
00:44:38,720 --> 00:44:42,240
It was in this weakened state that the Ottoman Empire was given
615
00:44:42,240 --> 00:44:46,000
the title which would hang around its neck for the rest of the century -
616
00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:48,400
The Sick Man of Europe.
617
00:44:50,160 --> 00:44:54,360
In 1876, the last of the long line of descendents of Suleiman
618
00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:59,640
to have any hope of reviving the health of the Ottoman empire came to the imperial throne.
619
00:44:59,640 --> 00:45:03,360
The inheritance of Sultan Abdul Hamid II was the polar
620
00:45:03,360 --> 00:45:06,720
opposite of what greeted Suleiman the Magnificent.
621
00:45:06,720 --> 00:45:09,640
This was an empire on a life support system.
622
00:45:09,640 --> 00:45:13,480
An old-world dynasty colliding with a modern world.
623
00:45:16,280 --> 00:45:19,160
Attempting to prove they could move with the times,
624
00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:22,840
Abdul Hamid's 19th-century predecessors had
625
00:45:22,840 --> 00:45:25,960
embarked on far-reaching modernization of Ottoman society.
626
00:45:25,960 --> 00:45:29,280
Known by the Turkish word for reorganisation,
627
00:45:29,280 --> 00:45:32,520
the Tanzimat reforms tried at breakneck speed
628
00:45:32,520 --> 00:45:34,720
to catch up with Europe in every
629
00:45:34,720 --> 00:45:39,160
area of social and economic life.
630
00:45:39,160 --> 00:45:41,880
It's, of course, a message to the West that says,
631
00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:46,640
"We are moving in the direction of your model,
632
00:45:46,640 --> 00:45:50,240
"we're adopting for the reorganisation of the army,
633
00:45:50,240 --> 00:45:53,440
"the reorganisation of our finances."
634
00:45:53,440 --> 00:45:57,480
It really becomes an all-encompassing
635
00:45:57,480 --> 00:46:02,800
programme of transformation, of modernity, of Westernisation.
636
00:46:02,800 --> 00:46:06,640
It was one of the most ambitious and far-reaching
637
00:46:06,640 --> 00:46:11,000
programmes of reform ever attempted, and it could have worked.
638
00:46:12,960 --> 00:46:16,200
One symbol of the change was in people's dress.
639
00:46:16,200 --> 00:46:18,960
Men in the empire had for centuries worn the turban
640
00:46:18,960 --> 00:46:22,640
but under the reforms it was deemed to be backwards and oriental.
641
00:46:22,640 --> 00:46:26,880
A new hat, the Fez, became the uniform of government officials
642
00:46:26,880 --> 00:46:29,640
and the army and then spread across society.
643
00:46:29,640 --> 00:46:32,600
A huge Western-style factory was built on the banks
644
00:46:32,600 --> 00:46:36,880
of the Bosphorus to churn out the new hats in their millions.
645
00:46:36,880 --> 00:46:39,880
There are changes to do with education, public transport,
646
00:46:39,880 --> 00:46:42,840
there are changes to do with the attempt to help the economy.
647
00:46:42,840 --> 00:46:46,400
So there are changes, but they're not coming fast enough.
648
00:46:46,400 --> 00:46:49,000
The sick man could have cured himself
649
00:46:49,000 --> 00:46:52,600
but he realised too late what he needed to do.
650
00:46:52,600 --> 00:46:58,360
But by that time, the Ottomans had become almost fossilised.
651
00:46:59,880 --> 00:47:04,560
The fez, like many of the Tanzimat, reforms was part of attempts,
652
00:47:04,560 --> 00:47:06,120
not just to modernise,
653
00:47:06,120 --> 00:47:11,320
but to bind the population of the empire behind a unified identity.
654
00:47:11,320 --> 00:47:15,040
They'd previously called this identity "Ottomanism" - a concept
655
00:47:15,040 --> 00:47:19,640
that played up the diverse multiethnic multi-faith nature
656
00:47:19,640 --> 00:47:26,520
of Ottoman peoples which had been a feature of the empire through the centuries.
657
00:47:26,520 --> 00:47:29,520
But now they were confronting the rival idea
658
00:47:29,520 --> 00:47:31,320
that was tearing it apart -
659
00:47:31,320 --> 00:47:34,480
nationalism.
660
00:47:34,480 --> 00:47:37,080
One by one, subject peoples in the European provinces
661
00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:40,360
who had accepted Ottoman rule for centuries,
662
00:47:40,360 --> 00:47:45,520
suddenly began to demand self-rule or independence.
663
00:47:52,560 --> 00:47:55,440
19th-century Russia used the power of nationalism
664
00:47:55,440 --> 00:47:59,640
and religion to loosen the Ottomans' grip on their European empire.
665
00:47:59,640 --> 00:48:03,320
Christians and Muslims on a familiar collision course.
666
00:48:05,320 --> 00:48:08,240
Russia grieved over the fact that there
667
00:48:08,240 --> 00:48:15,680
so many Christians under Muslim domination.
668
00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:21,080
Russia started to see
669
00:48:21,080 --> 00:48:24,680
the Ottomans, the slow Ottoman decline as an opportunity to
670
00:48:24,680 --> 00:48:28,960
install their influence in the Balkans,
671
00:48:28,960 --> 00:48:34,320
agitating through the local Christian populations and that then accentuated
672
00:48:34,320 --> 00:48:39,320
this sense that it was a Muslim/Christian clash going on.
673
00:48:39,320 --> 00:48:43,600
The subject Christian populations begin to
674
00:48:43,600 --> 00:48:49,600
think of rising and this leads in many cases to very severe
675
00:48:49,600 --> 00:48:53,120
reprisals from the Turkish side.
676
00:48:53,120 --> 00:49:00,360
In the 1870s, word of the brutality of some Ottoman reprisals began to make waves in Europe.
677
00:49:00,360 --> 00:49:03,320
There were a series of Bulgarian nationalist
678
00:49:03,320 --> 00:49:06,200
attacks on Ottoman positions, in which both Ottoman soldiers
679
00:49:06,200 --> 00:49:09,160
and Muslim villagers were killed.
680
00:49:09,160 --> 00:49:13,360
The Ottomans responded, both out of revenge and out of a wish to
681
00:49:13,360 --> 00:49:17,520
re-establish their control of the Bulgarian territories.
682
00:49:17,520 --> 00:49:20,760
But this retaliation grew increasingly violent
683
00:49:20,760 --> 00:49:23,800
and came to be picked up by the European press.
684
00:49:23,800 --> 00:49:27,240
There is a huge outcry in Europe,
685
00:49:27,240 --> 00:49:31,160
because of press reports coming out of Bulgaria which suggest that
686
00:49:31,160 --> 00:49:35,960
tens of thousands of Bulgarian peasants have been massacred
687
00:49:35,960 --> 00:49:38,920
by marauding bashi-bazouks,
688
00:49:38,920 --> 00:49:41,880
the irregular forces of the Ottoman Empire.
689
00:49:41,880 --> 00:49:47,760
The press painted the new Ottoman sultan, Abdul Hamid II as "the red sultan",
690
00:49:47,760 --> 00:49:51,080
as though his hands were personally bloodied by what was
691
00:49:51,080 --> 00:49:52,720
going on in Bulgaria.
692
00:49:52,720 --> 00:49:57,240
But, in fact, these figures appear to have been wildly exaggerated,
693
00:49:57,240 --> 00:49:59,440
not the first time and not the last time that
694
00:49:59,440 --> 00:50:02,880
massacres in the Balkans have been wildly exaggerated.
695
00:50:02,880 --> 00:50:06,720
But by the time it had filtered through to the presses of Europe
696
00:50:06,720 --> 00:50:13,080
it was a very simple case of violent, nasty Muslims killing poor
697
00:50:13,080 --> 00:50:15,120
defenceless Christian peasants.
698
00:50:15,120 --> 00:50:19,720
It's true to say that as the Ottoman Empire grows weaker,
699
00:50:19,720 --> 00:50:24,320
so the position of the Christians deteriorates.
700
00:50:26,360 --> 00:50:28,360
The violence in the Balkans
701
00:50:28,360 --> 00:50:31,760
created a wave of revulsion that swept across Europe.
702
00:50:31,760 --> 00:50:34,920
It brought two political giants into conflict
703
00:50:34,920 --> 00:50:37,160
in the House of Commons.
704
00:50:37,160 --> 00:50:40,520
Now, the Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli, discovered that,
705
00:50:40,520 --> 00:50:43,920
in the aftermath of the massacres, his policy of support
706
00:50:43,920 --> 00:50:48,240
for the Ottomans was completely at odds with public opinion in Britain.
707
00:50:48,240 --> 00:50:51,760
Up until now, Disraeli has been supporting
708
00:50:51,760 --> 00:50:54,960
the Ottoman Empire at all costs.
709
00:50:54,960 --> 00:50:57,720
Britain has been underwriting the Ottoman Empire
710
00:50:57,720 --> 00:51:01,440
and a lot of British businessmen and a lot of British financiers have
711
00:51:01,440 --> 00:51:07,480
made a fortune out of the debt which is sustaining the Ottoman Empire.
712
00:51:07,480 --> 00:51:12,160
So Disraeli is representing real economic interests.
713
00:51:12,160 --> 00:51:16,760
Opposing Disraeli, and denouncing what he described as "the Bulgarian horrors,"
714
00:51:16,760 --> 00:51:19,680
was the other great statesman of the Victorian age,
715
00:51:19,680 --> 00:51:20,920
William Gladstone.
716
00:51:20,920 --> 00:51:23,640
Gladstone understands that he can
717
00:51:23,640 --> 00:51:27,160
represent the Ottoman Empire as an essentially barbaric empire of
718
00:51:27,160 --> 00:51:32,680
uncontrollable Muslims who will kill Christian peasants
719
00:51:32,680 --> 00:51:34,040
at the drop of a hat
720
00:51:34,040 --> 00:51:38,640
and he will be able to denounce Disraeli's policy as immoral.
721
00:51:38,640 --> 00:51:42,680
The controversy leads people to say it's totally
722
00:51:42,680 --> 00:51:46,720
wrong to keep in place the Ottoman regime for great power reasons,
723
00:51:46,720 --> 00:51:50,560
to keep Russia at a distance, because this is a barbaric regime.
724
00:51:50,560 --> 00:51:56,080
What's interesting is you can see some of the language used in the late 20th and early 21st century
725
00:51:56,080 --> 00:51:59,960
about autocratic Islamic rulers like the Shah of Iran in the 1970s
726
00:51:59,960 --> 00:52:02,880
or President Mubarak of Egypt more recently.
727
00:52:02,880 --> 00:52:07,240
And the idea being that you should not be sustaining them in power.
728
00:52:08,600 --> 00:52:11,200
The British government withdrew their support
729
00:52:11,200 --> 00:52:15,480
which had held strong since the Crimean War 20 years earlier
730
00:52:15,480 --> 00:52:20,760
when the French and British sent troops to bolster the Ottomans against the Russians.
731
00:52:20,760 --> 00:52:24,600
But now the sick man was on his own.
732
00:52:24,600 --> 00:52:28,760
The Russians responded by marching into the Balkans.
733
00:52:28,760 --> 00:52:34,760
What I've got here is a collection of Victorian newspapers.
734
00:52:34,760 --> 00:52:40,320
As you can see, the war between Russia and Turkey was the big news of the day.
735
00:52:40,320 --> 00:52:44,440
The Ottomans and the Russians had been to war many times previously
736
00:52:44,440 --> 00:52:46,160
but this was significant,
737
00:52:46,160 --> 00:52:49,320
because this would be the war that would finally break
738
00:52:49,320 --> 00:52:52,160
the Ottoman grip on its European territories.
739
00:52:53,880 --> 00:52:56,600
Two centuries after the Ottomans stood at
740
00:52:56,600 --> 00:52:58,080
the gates of Vienna,
741
00:52:58,080 --> 00:53:01,960
the Russian army soon stood at the gates of Istanbul.
742
00:53:01,960 --> 00:53:06,080
And the great powers forced the warring sides to a settlement.
743
00:53:07,280 --> 00:53:10,080
Led by Bismarck, the Congress of Berlin carved
744
00:53:10,080 --> 00:53:13,360
up most of the remaining Ottoman lands in the Balkans.
745
00:53:22,840 --> 00:53:27,720
The Ottomans' centuries as a European power were passing into history,
746
00:53:27,720 --> 00:53:32,320
and for its long-mixed population, trouble was being stored up.
747
00:53:34,320 --> 00:53:37,720
The Ottomans had controlled many of what
748
00:53:37,720 --> 00:53:40,040
we see as Europe's pressure points -
749
00:53:40,040 --> 00:53:42,600
Kosovo, Serbia and here, Bosnia.
750
00:53:43,920 --> 00:53:46,280
GUNFIRE
751
00:53:47,720 --> 00:53:49,560
EXPLOSION
752
00:53:49,560 --> 00:53:52,320
Perhaps more than any people in today's Europe,
753
00:53:52,320 --> 00:53:55,480
it's those in Sarajevo and Bosnia who best understand
754
00:53:55,480 --> 00:53:57,200
the nature of nationalism -
755
00:53:57,200 --> 00:53:59,480
the force that destroyed the Ottoman Empire
756
00:53:59,480 --> 00:54:04,480
and that re-emerged in the 1990s to destroy the state of Yugoslavia.
757
00:54:07,000 --> 00:54:11,680
I can't tell you what we had here.
758
00:54:11,680 --> 00:54:15,160
That was really hell.
759
00:54:15,160 --> 00:54:17,600
It was hell.
760
00:54:19,640 --> 00:54:21,680
With memories of the war still raw,
761
00:54:21,680 --> 00:54:26,280
many in present-day Sarajevo reject the lure of ethnic nationalism.
762
00:54:26,280 --> 00:54:31,040
# Allah, Allah... #
763
00:54:31,040 --> 00:54:35,080
This multi-faith choir was set up to cross the lines that recently
764
00:54:35,080 --> 00:54:36,680
divided the nation.
765
00:54:40,360 --> 00:54:42,040
And here, today, some lament
766
00:54:42,040 --> 00:54:46,160
the passing of the multi-culturalism of the Ottoman era.
767
00:54:50,600 --> 00:54:53,200
During the Ottoman period there was
768
00:54:53,200 --> 00:54:57,880
a respect for each other, no matter what your religion is.
769
00:54:57,880 --> 00:55:00,800
This is something that we can definitely take as a good thing
770
00:55:00,800 --> 00:55:04,320
from that period and allow people to be
771
00:55:04,320 --> 00:55:06,440
what they are.
772
00:55:06,440 --> 00:55:09,920
I certainly hope we can look at that period
773
00:55:09,920 --> 00:55:13,240
and pick up the tolerance that existed during that time
774
00:55:13,240 --> 00:55:17,320
and transfer it to this period, if that's even possible.
775
00:55:19,320 --> 00:55:23,160
In the case of the Ottomans, what is most
776
00:55:23,160 --> 00:55:27,600
impressive to us is that they were able to think through
777
00:55:27,600 --> 00:55:33,520
a system of government that did not depend on ethnic sovereignty.
778
00:55:43,120 --> 00:55:45,160
At the end of the 19th century,
779
00:55:45,160 --> 00:55:48,400
the Ottoman Empire lost most of the Christian European territories
780
00:55:48,400 --> 00:55:52,520
captured from the Byzantine Empire over 500 years earlier.
781
00:55:52,520 --> 00:55:55,920
The key territories of the empire were now Turkey itself
782
00:55:55,920 --> 00:55:58,680
and the predominantly Muslim provinces
783
00:55:58,680 --> 00:56:00,600
of North Africa and Arabia.
784
00:56:00,600 --> 00:56:04,480
The late Ottoman Empire was a much more Islamic empire
785
00:56:04,480 --> 00:56:08,400
than the earlier Ottoman Empire had been in terms of its demography.
786
00:56:08,400 --> 00:56:11,480
The percentage of the population that was Muslim was much higher
787
00:56:11,480 --> 00:56:15,320
after the Balkan provinces had gained their independence.
788
00:56:15,320 --> 00:56:18,400
PRAYER SOUNDS
789
00:56:18,400 --> 00:56:23,800
In a bid to hold together what remained of the Ottoman Empire,
790
00:56:23,800 --> 00:56:27,440
it was Sultan Abdul Hamid II, more than any of his predecessors,
791
00:56:27,440 --> 00:56:32,720
who tried to tap into the unifying power of Islam.
792
00:56:34,080 --> 00:56:37,400
Abdul Hamid II made more use of Islam
793
00:56:37,400 --> 00:56:40,920
than any other caliph, he really tried to play the Islam card -
794
00:56:40,920 --> 00:56:47,240
and he clearly saw the potential power of Islam as a political ideology
795
00:56:47,240 --> 00:56:51,120
and as one of the glues that would hold the Ottoman Empire together.
796
00:56:55,280 --> 00:57:00,160
But a new generation was growing up during Abdul Hamid's rule
797
00:57:00,160 --> 00:57:02,640
who were not calling for a more Islamic empire.
798
00:57:02,640 --> 00:57:07,600
They demanded a more modern empire, and these young Turks would
799
00:57:07,600 --> 00:57:10,920
come to play a central role in the Ottomans' fate.
800
00:57:10,920 --> 00:57:14,280
But events elsewhere in the Ottomans' former lands
801
00:57:14,280 --> 00:57:17,880
were about to the deliver their empire a final, fatal blow.
802
00:57:17,880 --> 00:57:20,480
On a Sunday morning in June, 1914, just by this
803
00:57:20,480 --> 00:57:25,800
bridge here in Sarajevo, a young nationalist saw a car carrying
804
00:57:25,800 --> 00:57:29,760
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife
805
00:57:29,760 --> 00:57:31,520
trying to turn around.
806
00:57:31,520 --> 00:57:34,400
The driver had taken the wrong route to the palace.
807
00:57:34,400 --> 00:57:37,760
As the car tried to reverse, the young nationalist stepped
808
00:57:37,760 --> 00:57:40,960
forward and shot the Archduke and his wife.
809
00:57:40,960 --> 00:57:45,160
As they were rushed to hospital, few in Bosnia or in Europe realised
810
00:57:45,160 --> 00:57:49,880
that this assassination would lead to a chain of events that would end
811
00:57:49,880 --> 00:57:55,400
in the destruction of the Ottoman Empire and change the history of the world.
812
00:57:58,440 --> 00:58:02,680
In the concluding episode, I'll trace how events a hundred years ago
813
00:58:02,680 --> 00:58:06,920
mirrored those of today with protests on the streets of Istanbul
814
00:58:06,920 --> 00:58:08,720
calling for change.
815
00:58:10,600 --> 00:58:13,920
How the final death throes of the empire haunted its subjects
816
00:58:13,920 --> 00:58:17,800
and created a vacuum in the Muslim world as the roles of sultan
817
00:58:17,800 --> 00:58:21,960
and caliph were abolished and Ottoman lands carved up.
818
00:58:23,600 --> 00:58:27,680
And how rising from the ashes was a new Turkish state that many
819
00:58:27,680 --> 00:58:31,640
have held up as a model for the region the Ottomans once ruled.
820
00:58:31,640 --> 00:58:33,760
And that is now being forced into steering
821
00:58:33,760 --> 00:58:38,480
a path between its Ottoman past and its modern-day destiny.
822
00:59:03,080 --> 00:59:06,040
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