STANHOPE PRIZE ESSAY—1859.
THE
CAUSES OF THE SUCCESSES
OF THE
OTTOMAN TURKS.
BY
JAMES SURTEES PHILLPOTTS,
SCHOLAR OF NEW COLLEGE.
OXFORD:
T. and G. SHRIMPTON.
M DCCC LIX.
THE CAUSES OF THE SUCCESSES OF THEOTTOMAN TURKS.
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By the fall of the Seljukian dynasty in Asia Minor,a vast number of Turks, scattered over the fertiletracts of Western Asia, were left without any organizedgovernment. The Emirs of the Seljouks in their differentdistricts tried to set up separate kingdoms forthemselves, but their power was successfully exercisedonly in making depredations upon each other. Forsome time they were under the sway of the Khans ofPersia, but the decline of the Mogul Empire after thedeath of Cazan, freed them from this control1. Duringthis time of general anarchy, a clan of OghouzTurks, under Ertogruhl, settled in the dominions ofAlaeddin, the chief of Iconium. These Turks wereof the same family as the Huns and Avars, and theother Barbarian hordes, whose invasions had continuallydevastated Europe for nearly ten centuries2; norhad the energy and restless activity of their race yetbegun to fail. They were all united by the affinityof race, as well as by their language, and by the commonbond of the Sunnite creed. In return for Ertogruhl’sservices in war Alaeddin gave him a grant ofterritory in the highlands of Phrygia. The warlikespirit of Ertogruhl’s son Othman, raised him to the2rank of an independent chieftain, and he soon madehimself master of strong positions on the borders ofthe Greek Empire. With ill-judged parsimony, theEmperor Michael had disbanded the militia, whoguarded the passes of Mount Olympus, and had thusleft Bithynia open to attack. Orchan, the son of Othman,took advantage of these favourable occurrences,enlarged his territory at the expense of the Greeks,and by uniting several of the scattered Turkish tribesunder one head, laid the foundation of the OttomanEmpire.
Thus the circumstances of the times were throughouteminently favourable to the Ottomans. The fallof the Seljouk monarchy, and the consequent diffusionof the Turkish population, had given free scope totheir enterprising spirit. Through the civil wars ofthe Byzantine Emperors and the disputes of the Venetiansand Genoese, they were enabled to gain theirfirst footing in Europe. Had Amurath’s attempt toextend his kingdom over the Christian nations ofThrace and Roumelia been made in the 11th century,he would have roused all Europe in common resistanceto his rising power. But in 1388, the Servian confederacycould obtain no aid from Western Christendom.As long as Richard II. was king of England,and Charles VI. of France—while Germany was ruledby the dissolute Winceslaus—Amurath had little tofear from the powers of the West3. Spain was toomuch occupied by her wars with the Moslems at hometo think of the sufferings of her Christian brethren in3the East. Nor was there any danger that the rivalpopes of Avignon and Rome would forget their