ANNO 1579 the dream of an ottoman indian ocean
At the dawn
of the 16th century, in the centre of the inhabited world the Ottoman Empire
was a confident world power after centuries of spectacular growth from the back
lands of Anatolia into Europe. Although
this empire would eventually collapse in the 20th century, it reached the
summit of its power in the second half of the 16th century. After the Sultans Selim and Suleyman the Great had
conquered Egypt and large parts of Eastern Europe, the Ottomans were becoming a hybrid empire filled with all
sorts of people. There were Christians, Jews, and a large share of the world’s
Muslims, a fast spreading religion between 800 and 1500 CE. The main question in my
research paper was to analyse how the Ottoman leaders unfolded plans to
dominate not just the Mediterranean World but also the Indian Ocean around the
1570s decade.
Banner image: The island of Hormuz was the core of Portuguese Indian Ocean trade in the 16th century. From here the Ottoman vessels were blocked, at times landlocking the Ottoman traders. فارسی: Hormuz City in Hormuz Island, one of the Iranian islands in Persian Gulf, Wikipedia Commons
Banner image: The island of Hormuz was the core of Portuguese Indian Ocean trade in the 16th century. From here the Ottoman vessels were blocked, at times landlocking the Ottoman traders. فارسی: Hormuz City in Hormuz Island, one of the Iranian islands in Persian Gulf, Wikipedia Commons
The Historical Atlas by William R. Shepherd, 1923 - Courtesy of The General Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin
Wikipedia Commons
Wikipedia Commons
In the last thirty years there has been an academic debate about the Ottoman Empire and its aspirations in great detail, but it seems difficult to retrieve their intentions in the 16th century concerning the structural expansion of their trading networks. The literature I read suggests a combination of Ottoman networks in religion, trade and military force to explain their efforts. As we can
see on a Dutch map below, by the mid-17th century the Indian Ocean would become
familiar trading ground for Dutch, English as this sea always had been for the
local peoples of the Asian coastal emporia and isles. The Ottomans back in 1550
were mostly concerned with stopping the Portuguese from blocking the Red Sea by
way of maintaining large fleets at the isle of Hormuz. When you look at the
map, there are several bottlenecks along
the trade route by sea, the main three being Hormuz, Aden and Malacca (not on
this map). In general there had developed a network of Iranian
traders spreading the silk overland from the Safavid Empire, and Muslim traders
along with Hindus from India and Portuguese trading in spices.
One of my goals was to specify the Muslim traders, and to see whether the Ottomans were the dominant Muslim power in the whole Indian Ocean area. It seems that the growth of the Great Moghuls and the ambition of Safavid Iran were two major obstacles for the Ottoman religious aspirations. When the Sultan Akbar of the Moghul Empire, located in central India entered the scene, he reinvented Islam for his own purposes, while he was also a remarkable philosophical leader. After a while Akbar challenged the Ottomans protection of the Muslim holy places like Mecca and started to pay for pilgrimage of Sunni Muslims. This was just one example of a leader in the 16th century fulfilling his own ambitions within the Ottoman desired sphere of power. Although the Safavid Empire was part of the Shia branch of Islam, and did not challenge Ottoman religious authority directly, in the world of trade they were a ambiguous and unsettling neighbour for the Ottoman Empire.
One of my goals was to specify the Muslim traders, and to see whether the Ottomans were the dominant Muslim power in the whole Indian Ocean area. It seems that the growth of the Great Moghuls and the ambition of Safavid Iran were two major obstacles for the Ottoman religious aspirations. When the Sultan Akbar of the Moghul Empire, located in central India entered the scene, he reinvented Islam for his own purposes, while he was also a remarkable philosophical leader. After a while Akbar challenged the Ottomans protection of the Muslim holy places like Mecca and started to pay for pilgrimage of Sunni Muslims. This was just one example of a leader in the 16th century fulfilling his own ambitions within the Ottoman desired sphere of power. Although the Safavid Empire was part of the Shia branch of Islam, and did not challenge Ottoman religious authority directly, in the world of trade they were a ambiguous and unsettling neighbour for the Ottoman Empire.
Pieter van der Aa (1659-1733)
De Kusten van Arabie het Roode Meer,en Persie Zee van Bassora voor by 't Nau van Ormus Tot aan den Indus, Guzaratte en Kaap Comorin
Wikipedia
Commons
De Kusten van Arabie het Roode Meer,en Persie Zee van Bassora voor by 't Nau van Ormus Tot aan den Indus, Guzaratte en Kaap Comorin
Wikipedia
Commons
Conclusion - The ottoman empire 1530-1630
Image: Anonymous 16th century Turkish painting depicting the Ottoman fleet protecting shipping in the Gulf of Aden. The three peaks on the left symbolize Aden. (Wikipedia Commons) |
I also concluded that the internal dynamics of the Ottoman Empire, especially their power structure was an unbalanced system, if one would like to control an overseas empire with efficiency. The Ottomans were used to keeping local leadership in place after they conquered a region or province. In the case of the Indian Ocean trade this system certainly backfired. For over two centuries there were rebellions in the Yemen, a crucial area to access the ocean, the Red Sea and the coastlines of Africa.
Ottoman leadership did manage to keep up trading profits over the centuries, this was in part due to the shift of silk trade from Iran towards Ottoman emporia like Izmir. Also the Ottoman trading cities of Basra, Cairo and Tripoli were juggernauts in trading between Europe and Asia and remained important. The dream of an Ottoman domination of the Indian Ocean was unrealistic in this time of hybrid empires and European traffic on the oceans of the world. Perhaps most important of all was the internal rebellions the Ottomans faced from 1590 onwards, in part caused by the divisions within the Islam and imperial overstretch.
Ottoman leadership did manage to keep up trading profits over the centuries, this was in part due to the shift of silk trade from Iran towards Ottoman emporia like Izmir. Also the Ottoman trading cities of Basra, Cairo and Tripoli were juggernauts in trading between Europe and Asia and remained important. The dream of an Ottoman domination of the Indian Ocean was unrealistic in this time of hybrid empires and European traffic on the oceans of the world. Perhaps most important of all was the internal rebellions the Ottomans faced from 1590 onwards, in part caused by the divisions within the Islam and imperial overstretch.
Further reading / Sources used in research:
Primary source:
Mirat ul Memalik (The Mirror of Countries) – vertaling beschikbaar op: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/16CSidi1.asp. ‘Sidi Ali Reis (16th Century CE): , 1557 CE’ - geraadpleegd op 12 april 2014.
Secondary sources:
Alam, Muzaffar; Subrahmanyam, Sanjay . Writing the Mughal World: Studies on Culture and Politics. Columbia University Press, 2013
Aslanian, Sebouh David. From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean : The Global Trade Networks of Armenian Merchants from New Julfa. Berkeley, CA, USA: University of California Press, 2011
Brummett, Palmira Johnson . Ottoman Seapower and Levantine Diplomacy in the Age of Discovery. New York: SUNY press 1994
Casale, Giancarlo. the Ottoman Age of Exploration. Oxford University Press, 2010
Chaudhuri, Kirti N. Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean: An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750. Cambridge University Press 1985
Couto, Dejanirah ; Loureiro, Rui. Revisiting Hormuz: Portuguese Interactions in the Persian Gulf Region in the Early Modern Period. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2008
de Iongh , R. C. Handbook of Oriental Studies, Deel 3. Leiden: BRILL, 1977
Faroqhi, Suraiya N ; Fleet, Kate. The Cambridge History of Turkey . Cambridge University Press, 2006
Faroqhi, Suraiya N. Ottoman Empire and the World Around It. London, GBR: I.B. Tauris, 2005
Floor, Willem; Herzig, Edmund. Iran and the World in the Safavid Age: Iran Heritage Foundation, Volume 2 International Library of Iranian Studies. London: I.B.Tauris, 2012
Gascoigne, Bamber. The Great Moghuls . London: Jonathan Cape, 1971
Goffman, Daniel . The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2002
Halikowski Smith, Stefan C. A. Reinterpreting Indian Ocean Worlds : Essays in Honour of Kirti N. Chaudhuri . Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011
İnalcık, Halil; Quataert, Donald. An economic and social history of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1914. Cambridge University Press, 1994
Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. The Political Economy of Commerce: Southern India 1500–1650. Cambridge South Asian Studies 2002
Wink, André. Volume 3 van Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Indo-Islamic Society, 14th-15th Centuries. Leiden; Boston, BRILL, 2004
Primary source:
Mirat ul Memalik (The Mirror of Countries) – vertaling beschikbaar op: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/16CSidi1.asp. ‘Sidi Ali Reis (16th Century CE): , 1557 CE’ - geraadpleegd op 12 april 2014.
Secondary sources:
Alam, Muzaffar; Subrahmanyam, Sanjay . Writing the Mughal World: Studies on Culture and Politics. Columbia University Press, 2013
Aslanian, Sebouh David. From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean : The Global Trade Networks of Armenian Merchants from New Julfa. Berkeley, CA, USA: University of California Press, 2011
Brummett, Palmira Johnson . Ottoman Seapower and Levantine Diplomacy in the Age of Discovery. New York: SUNY press 1994
Casale, Giancarlo. the Ottoman Age of Exploration. Oxford University Press, 2010
Chaudhuri, Kirti N. Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean: An Economic History from the Rise of Islam to 1750. Cambridge University Press 1985
Couto, Dejanirah ; Loureiro, Rui. Revisiting Hormuz: Portuguese Interactions in the Persian Gulf Region in the Early Modern Period. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2008
de Iongh , R. C. Handbook of Oriental Studies, Deel 3. Leiden: BRILL, 1977
Faroqhi, Suraiya N ; Fleet, Kate. The Cambridge History of Turkey . Cambridge University Press, 2006
Faroqhi, Suraiya N. Ottoman Empire and the World Around It. London, GBR: I.B. Tauris, 2005
Floor, Willem; Herzig, Edmund. Iran and the World in the Safavid Age: Iran Heritage Foundation, Volume 2 International Library of Iranian Studies. London: I.B.Tauris, 2012
Gascoigne, Bamber. The Great Moghuls . London: Jonathan Cape, 1971
Goffman, Daniel . The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2002
Halikowski Smith, Stefan C. A. Reinterpreting Indian Ocean Worlds : Essays in Honour of Kirti N. Chaudhuri . Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011
İnalcık, Halil; Quataert, Donald. An economic and social history of the Ottoman Empire, 1300-1914. Cambridge University Press, 1994
Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. The Political Economy of Commerce: Southern India 1500–1650. Cambridge South Asian Studies 2002
Wink, André. Volume 3 van Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Indo-Islamic Society, 14th-15th Centuries. Leiden; Boston, BRILL, 2004