Celali riots

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The Celali uprisings ( Turkish Celalî ayaklanmaları ) were a series of uprisings in Anatolia against the authority of the Ottoman Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries. The name goes back to a revolt of the heretical preacher Sheikh Celal in 1519 near Tokat . Celal called out to be Mehdi . Celal's name was henceforth used by the Ottoman administration to denote similar uprisings in order to defame them as heretical. Great Celali uprisings took place in 1526–28, 1595–1610, 1654–55, and 1658–59. Although the ethnic factor in these uprisings reflected the general pattern of the Ottoman population, they can safely be described as fundamentally Turkish uprisings. Especially the seminomadic and nomadic Turkmen clans, who played a role in the founding of the empire and now saw themselves more and more ousted from power, since more emphasis was placed on boys' reading and professional troops in their place , played a major role. The uprisings stopped during the reign of Murad IV . They were the largest and longest lasting in the history of the Ottoman Empire and demanded a heavy toll on the empire and its Turkish inhabitants.

The decisive feature of the uprisings was that, although they began as a civil unrest and reaction against the deteriorating living conditions, later the rebels themselves became oppressors, demanding land from the peasants and thus triggering further uprisings against themselves. The Sekbans (irregular troops of musketeers) and Sipahis (cavalrymen supported by fiefs) were involved in the great uprisings . The uprisings were not aimed at overthrowing the Ottoman government, but were a reaction to the social and economic crisis triggered by various factors such as the devaluation of the currency, high taxation, the collapse of the boy reading system through the admission of Muslims in the army and the increase in the number and power of Janissaries in Istanbul and the provinces.

reasons

  • Oppressed Peasants and the Crumbling Tımar System : The Ottoman tax system was based on agriculture and the greater part was driven in by the peasants who worked for the local feudal lords. The feudal lords were in turn taxed by the local administration for their mukataa . When the tax rates for the local administration were increased due to the devaluation of the currency or because of the very high government expenditures caused by new conquests or military campaigns, the feudal lords also illegally increased the taxes they charged the peasants. Meanwhile, the appraisers who set the tax on the lands began demanding bribes so that they would not tax the land higher. As a result, many peasants gave up their work for the feudal lords and moved to larger provinces, where they either served as secbans in the government troops or became vagabonds. The population in the big cities grew rapidly and with it unemployment. In wartime the secbans served the governors and were regularly paid, but in peacetime they were not paid and resorted to banditry. By their very nature, the first uprisings were merely robberies by Sekbans who, on the orders of their rulers, worked with bandits to extort more money from the population. They were later joined by Sipahis who had lost their benefices, vagabonds and Turkmen and Kurdish nomads.
  • Corrupt Officials : With the collapse of the governor system of the boy harvest and the high taxes, the governors and local officials began to raise their unofficial tax rates and exploit the labor of the peasants. At the same time, bribery grew.
  • Oppressed Alevis and the growing non-Turkish influence at the royal court : When Selim I conquered Egypt , he took on the title of caliph and thus became the spiritual leader of the Sunni world. He decided to end the rule of the Safavid ruler Shah Ismail , whom he viewed as the leader of the heretical Shiites . So Selim I cooperated with the local feudal rulers and bloody oppressed the Alevi population in Anatolia and at the same time started a war against Ismail. As a result, many Alevis and those who felt connected to Ismail because of their common Turkish origins joined the rebellious groups.

Big uprisings

  • Celalî (1519) : While Selim I was on his Egyptian campaign, an Alevi preacher named Celal gathered 20,000 people near Bozok (today Yozgat province) and marched to Tokat with rebellious intent. Restless Turkmen groups also joined him. Sekbans , Sipahis who had lost their Tımar (fiefdom), highly taxed peasants and dissatisfied city dwellers followed them to Tokat. Selim I sent the Beylerbey of Rumelia , Ferhad Pascha, and the Bey of Dulkadir , Şehsuvaroğlu Ali, to fight the rebels, and Celal was killed. Even so, the unrest did not decrease, especially among the Turkmen community, the Sekbans and the Sipahis.
  • Baba Zünnun (1525) : In the region that corresponds to today 's Mersin Province , Baba Zünnun and other local religious leaders began a revolt against the Bozok Bey, prompted by the increase in property tax by local officials and the harsh attitude of the decadent tax collectors . After the local officials and rebel leaders were killed, the fighting stopped.
  • Calendar Çelebi (1528) : During the reign of Sultan Suleyman I , at a time when the empire was suffering from financial hardship due to military campaigns, an inventory of the taxed lands was ordered to increase state revenues. Many of the appraisers overestimated the lands to keep part of it for themselves. While Suleyman was marching against Hungary, angry masses revolted near Ankara and Kırşehir under the leadership of a former sipahi named Calendar Çelebi. Their number quickly grew to 30,000 men. When he received news of the size of the uprising, Suleyman I sent the Grand Vizier Pargalı Damat İbrahim Pasha with the Kapikuli troops, which consisted mostly of Janissaries . On May 27, 1528, a great battle took place in which the revolt was bloodily suppressed.
  • Karayazıcı (1598) : Especially after the 1550s, there were many minor incidents due to the growing repression by local governors and the collection of new and high taxes. After the beginning of the wars against Persia, especially after 1584, the janissaries began to occupy the peasants' land in order to extort money and also to lease it dearly, which resulted in the state's tax revenues falling significantly. In 1598 the Sekban leader Karayazıcı Abdülhalim united the frustrated groups in Anatolia, forced the cities to pay tribute and became the governor of a small district. He refused to leave the district to his successor, rebelled and killed the new official with the help of insurgent vagabonds and peasants. He was offered the office of governor of Çorum province, but refused, and when troops were sent against him, he withdrew with his strength to Urfa. There he sought refuge in the fortress and made it the center of his resistance for 18 months. Fearing a mutiny by his people, he left the fortress and was defeated by government troops. He died of natural causes in 1602. His brother Deli Hasan conquered Kütahya in Western Anatolia, but later went over to the government for a bribe. The Celali uprisings nevertheless continued under the leadership of Janbuladoglu in Aleppo and Yusuf Pascha and Calendaroğlu in Western Anatolia. They were finally ended by Grand Vizier Kuyucu Murad Pasha , who had a large number of Celalis killed in 1610.

During the remainder of the 17th and 18th centuries, the Celalis caused periodic unrest in Anatolia, reflecting the reaction of the people in the provinces to the growing power of the Janissaries.

See also

swell