The two former Mamluk officials Sultan Selim appointed to be governors of Damascus and Cairo could not have been more different. One had fought valiantly against the Ottomans at Marj Dabiq while the other betrayed his leaders.
As soon as the Sultan died in 1520, the loyal governor of Damascus sought to restore the Mamluk empire. This led to another defeat by the Ottoman army who went on to plunder Damascus murdering 3,000 civilians while taking other hostage. Another revolt in Cairo was suppressed and Mamluk influence ended.
The Ottoman civil service and high ranking military were appointed from slave recruits taken from Christian Balkan villages in their early teens. Bizarrely this meant Arabs were underrepresented in the power elite of the early Ottoman empire.
Suleyman the Magnificent instigated law and order reforms. He made clear the relationship between government and tax-payers in a way that was ahead of its time. It covered everything from irrigation
to security all the way down to village level.
Sultan Suleyman II was one of the most successful rulers of the Ottoman Empire and he finished what his father started in conquoring the Arab world in his forty-six year reign. He took Baghdad and Basra from the Persian Safavid Empire 1520-1566 and was welcomed by the Sunni population as a liberator after years of Shiite Safavid persecution.
Central Arabia and Morocco were the only Arab territories to remain outside the Ottoman Empire.
The turn of the 16th century saw Spain conquor the Iberian peninsular ending eight centuries of Muslim rule. Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella then pursued holy war across the Muslim kingdoms where the Moriscos (refugees from Muslim Spain) took refuge. Ceuta and Melilla still survive as Spanish possessions on the Moroccan coastline.
North African Muslim dynasties put up little resistance to the Spaniards and paid tribute to the Spanish crown. This led to proud fishermen taking their jihad to sea in the West where they were known as the Barbary corsairs. This led to Algeria agreeing to succumb to Ottoman rule in exchange for military support. The Barbarys took Tunis and Algiers for the Ottomans. Charles the V took it back with massive fleet carrying horses and soldiers. A gale prevented the Spaniards finishing the job in Algiers for the loss of 150 ships and 12,000 men (not dissimilar to how weather prevented a French fleet from landing in Bantry 1798 to support Wolfe Tone's Irish revolution against the British). Tripoli and Tunis were taken in the sixteenth century. However, rule gradually shifted to local civil rulers and the Ottomans satisfied themselves with a small income from the territories and sovereignty over strategic Muslim territory. This arrangement worked until the 19th century and European colonization of North Africa.
As soon as the Sultan died in 1520, the loyal governor of Damascus sought to restore the Mamluk empire. This led to another defeat by the Ottoman army who went on to plunder Damascus murdering 3,000 civilians while taking other hostage. Another revolt in Cairo was suppressed and Mamluk influence ended.
The Ottoman civil service and high ranking military were appointed from slave recruits taken from Christian Balkan villages in their early teens. Bizarrely this meant Arabs were underrepresented in the power elite of the early Ottoman empire.
Suleyman the Magnificent instigated law and order reforms. He made clear the relationship between government and tax-payers in a way that was ahead of its time. It covered everything from irrigation
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| Suleyman the Magnificent |
Sultan Suleyman II was one of the most successful rulers of the Ottoman Empire and he finished what his father started in conquoring the Arab world in his forty-six year reign. He took Baghdad and Basra from the Persian Safavid Empire 1520-1566 and was welcomed by the Sunni population as a liberator after years of Shiite Safavid persecution.
Central Arabia and Morocco were the only Arab territories to remain outside the Ottoman Empire.
The turn of the 16th century saw Spain conquor the Iberian peninsular ending eight centuries of Muslim rule. Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella then pursued holy war across the Muslim kingdoms where the Moriscos (refugees from Muslim Spain) took refuge. Ceuta and Melilla still survive as Spanish possessions on the Moroccan coastline.
North African Muslim dynasties put up little resistance to the Spaniards and paid tribute to the Spanish crown. This led to proud fishermen taking their jihad to sea in the West where they were known as the Barbary corsairs. This led to Algeria agreeing to succumb to Ottoman rule in exchange for military support. The Barbarys took Tunis and Algiers for the Ottomans. Charles the V took it back with massive fleet carrying horses and soldiers. A gale prevented the Spaniards finishing the job in Algiers for the loss of 150 ships and 12,000 men (not dissimilar to how weather prevented a French fleet from landing in Bantry 1798 to support Wolfe Tone's Irish revolution against the British). Tripoli and Tunis were taken in the sixteenth century. However, rule gradually shifted to local civil rulers and the Ottomans satisfied themselves with a small income from the territories and sovereignty over strategic Muslim territory. This arrangement worked until the 19th century and European colonization of North Africa.
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| French conquest of Algeria 1852 |
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