Ghazi thesis

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The Ghazi thesis is a model developed in the 1930s by the orientalist Paul Wittek to explain the early history of the Ottoman Empire . The early Ottoman princes were driven by a special religious zeal to bring war to their Christian neighbors. This ethos was latent throughout the history of the Ottoman Empire from its inception to its dissolution. After many years of dominance, the Ghazi thesis has been questioned since the 1980s.

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Wittek summarized his results in three guest lectures, which he gave in 1938 at the Royal Asiatic Society in London. The much acclaimed book The rise of the Ottoman empire emerged from the lecture series .

Wittek develops his thesis in contrast to the Ottoman tradition. In the 16th century, the official historiographers tried to classify the first Ottoman princes in line with legendary ancestors such as Oghus Khan . Because of the legendary nature of these family trees, Wittek completely rejects the idea that the Ottomans developed from a tribal culture.

Instead of blood and family relationships, the early Ottomans were held together by the zeal to take up the fight with non-Muslims.

“They were a community of Ghazis, of champions of the Mohammedan religion; a community of Muslim march-warriors, devoted to the struggle with the infidels in their neighborhood. "

- Paul Wittek

The Ghazi ethos is primarily religiously motivated, but also has racial traits.

Using the paradigm of the Ghazi ethos, Wittek tells the early history of the Ottoman Empire in detail, from the beginning of the Beylik period to the conquest of Constantinople . He also suggests that the Ghazi ethos has never ceased to have an effect and that this model could also explain the recent decline of the Ottoman Empire around 1920.

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For his thesis, Wittek cites only two short sources from early Ottoman history in his book The rise of the Ottoman Empire .

On the one hand, Wittek derives the virtues of a Ghāzī from the chronicle İskender-nāme 'Alexanderbuch' of Ahmedi . As an instrument of God, the ghazi would protect the pious, eliminate the unbelievers and in return gain eternal life. This makes it clear, as Wittek concludes, that the word “Ghazi” denotes a holy warrior.

On the other hand, Wittek refers to an inscription on a mosque in Bursa from the year 1337. The donor of the inscription, an Ottoman prince, is referred to as "Ghazi" and his predecessor as well. From this Wittek concludes that the Ottoman princes felt obliged to the Ghazi ethos.

Historiography and Criticism

After having been accepted in historical studies for more than 50 years, the Ghazi thesis has again been controversial since the 1980s.

Reference was made several times to Wittek's handling of the sources. Lowry has shown that Wittek misquoted the inscription from the mosque in Bursa. In the chronicle cited, too, Wittek overlooked the author's intention, namely to present Ottoman history not factually, but praising it as a sequence of religious wars. In addition, the word “Ghazi” had many more meanings among contemporaries than just “holy warrior”. Indeed, the meaning of the "looter" seems to have predominated.

With his nomad thesis, Rudi Lindner proposed an alternative to the Ghazi thesis. The early Ottomans were not a highly ideological community, but a tribal association. Unlike today's tribal societies, this was not formed through blood and family relationships, but was based on shared interests, such as the needs for pasture land and spoils of war.

literature

  • Paul Wittek: The Rise of the Ottoman Empire. Studies in the History of Turkey, 13th – 15th Centuries . Edited by Colin Heywood. Royal Asiatic Society Books. Routledge, London / New York 2012, ISBN 978-0-7007-1500-8 . (Annotated new edition of Wittek's work; English)
  • Heath W. Lowry: The Debate to Date (PDF, 9 S .; 89 kB), first chapter from Lowry's work The Nature of the Early Ottoman State. SUNY Press, New York 2003, ISBN 978-0-7914-5636-1 . (English)

supporting documents

  1. ^ Colin Heywood: Wittek and the Austrian Tradition. In: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Volume 120, 1988, p. 12.
  2. ^ Paul Wittek: The rise of Ottoman empire . London 1938, p. 7.
  3. ^ A b Paul Wittek: The rise of Ottoman empire . London 1938, p. 14.
  4. ^ Paul Wittek: The rise of Ottoman empire . London 1938, p. 17.
  5. ^ Paul Wittek: The rise of Ottoman empire . London 1938, pp. 30-51.
  6. ^ Paul Wittek: The rise of Ottoman empire . London 1938, pp. 2, 3 and 5.
  7. ^ Paul Wittek: The rise of Ottoman empire . London 1938, p. 15.
  8. ↑ A detailed overview of the individual requests to speak is provided by Heath Lowry: The Nature of the early Ottoman state . New York 2003, pp. 5-12.
  9. ^ Heath Lowry: The Nature of the early Ottoman state . New York 2003, pp. 34-41.
  10. ^ Heath Lowry: The Nature of the early Ottoman state . New York 2003, pp. 15-30.
  11. ↑ Colin Imber: What does ghazi actually mean . In: Barlim-Harding and Imber (eds.): The balance of truth . Istanbul 2000, pp. 165-178.
  12. ↑ Rudi Lindner: What was a normadic tribe? In: Comparative Studies in Society and History . 24/4 (1982), pp. 689-711 and Rudi Lindner: Nomads and Ottomans in medieval Anatolia . Bloomington, Indiana 1983.