Q. & A. 711 to 1707 with solved Papers css 1971 to date

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exemption of their children from the devsirme tribute imposed in the Balkans.
Muhammad’s conquest of Constantinople was not of major strategic importance, since the Ottomans had been able to bypass it as they advanced into Europe. Yet its capture deprived Europe of a base that, in the hands of an effective relief force, might have undermined the Ottoman defense system. Possession of the great commercial, administrative, and military centre facilitated the assimilation, control, and defense of the sultan’s conquests, while control of the waterways between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean established a stranglehold on European trade with the hinterlands to the north and east and provided considerable new revenue. The conquest made the Ottomans heirs to the imperial tradition as the conquered city once again became the capital of an extensive empire.5
Lane-Poole says, ”The conquest of Constantinople is the great event of Muhammad’s reign. Yet it was by no means his sole achievement. He overthrew the wallachain tyrant, vlad the Impaler and completed the final annexation of Serbia and Bosnia.” According to Hitti, ”The conquest in 1453 of Constantinople by Muhammad the conqueror formally ushered in a new era, that of the empire. The new giant installed himself astride the Bosphorus with one foot in Asia and the other in Europe. His expanding domain made him heir not only to Byzantine but also through the destruction of the Mamluk power, to the successor states of the Arab Caliphate.”7 Organization of the Empire
With the prestige brought by the conquest of Constantinople, now called Istanbul by the Turks, Muhammad II moved ahead to become absolute ruler of a centralized empire, essentially the emperor of a restored Eastern Roman and caliphal empire, with worldwide implications. The first step was the Turkish nobility as a dominating political force and to wipe out all members of the Ottoman family who had any aspirations for the throne. In any case, a move against the Turkish nobility and particularly the Candarh family had long been desired by Muhammad, who blamed Candarh
5 Encyclopedia of Bntannica, Vol IX. P 6
6 Lane-Poole, Turkey. P. 88

7Hitti. PP 709-710

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810 Political and Cultural History of Islam
Halil (with some justice) for his deposition in 1446 and for the latter’s continued opposition to the conquest of Constantinople. On June 1, 1453, only two days after the conquest, Candhar Halil was dismissed as grand wazir on false charges of having received bribes from the Byzantines for opposing the attack. His property was confiscated, and he was imprisoned along with most members of his family.
His replacement with Muhammad’s close adviser Zaganos Pasha, member of the devsirme class, began a new tradition whereby the most important positions of the central government were reserved for the slaves of the sultan. Large-scale confiscations of timars and private properties soon reduced the power of the major Turkish families; they were awarded to devsirme members, who then accelerated their rise to power. The grand wazir now became the sultan’s absolute representative in the processes of government, the only other member of the ruling class whose word had to be obeyed by all without question or appeal. He was entrusted with the imperial seal, which had to applied to all state decrees, not only those of the sultan himself but also lesser regulations issued by other principal officials. The principal provincial officials also were put under the direct control of the grand wazir, who at the same time was given fiefs and revenues that made the wealthiest Ottoman after the sultan.8
Zaganos’ power as grand wazir was further increased by his appointment as governor of Rumeli, which gave him control of the army in both the capital and Europe. Efforts were made to enlarge and strengthen the Kapikulu army, in particular the Janissary infantry and the Topcu artillery corps. They were given the most modern fire weapons of the time, muskets and cannon, making them the most potent of the sultan’s military forces. To assure Janissary loyalty Muhammad installed his own slaves as commanders and created new divisions of slaves not involved in the previous political conflicts, expanding the devsirme system of recruiting young Christians to provide the needed men. Thus with the support of the powerful and obedient grand wazir and the Janissary corps, Muhammad was able to gain autocratic authority over all his subjects.
This is not say that the sultan left his supports unchecked. His aim was to create a balance of forces so that no group would
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have sufficient power to control him. Therefore, some important administrative functions were withheld from the grand wazir and given to three other major officials, the Kazasker (chief judge), Defterdar (chief treasurer), and Nisaci (chief scribe), who controlled the hierarchies of the religious, financial, and scribal administrations respectively. Nor did Muhammad wish to substitute devsirme
domination for that of the Turkish nobility thus he did not
eliminate the latter. Many Turkish notable families kept their properties and were retained in positions, leaving them about equal to the devsirme. By balancing the Turkish aristocracy and the devsirme, Muhammad could play them off and hence assure himself of the loyalty and support of both. He reduced the power of the individual frontier beys by increasing their numbers while reducing the soldiers each could command in war and by placing them more directly under the command of the beylerbeyi of Rumeli than previously.9
The sultan also sought the support of the Christian religious leaders. He assured the Greek Orthodox clergy that it would retain its religious freedom, both internally and against the possibility of union with Rome; he appointed the chief opponent of union, Gennadius Scolarious, as patriarch, and gave him civil as well as religious authority over Orthodox Christians in the empire to assure his support of the new regime. Thus was created the millet system of autonomous self-government under religious leaders, later extended to the Armenians, the Jews, and the other major non-Muslim minorities. In return the millet leaders found their self-interest cemented to that of the sultan, since it was by his order that they were given more extensive power over their followers than had been the case in the Christian states that had previously dominated the area. The complete Ottoman conquest of Southeastern Europe once again united most of the Christians in the area, Greek and Slave alike, under the authority of the Greek patriarchate, making the church a particular beneficiary of the Ottoman expansion and further uniting the interests of patriarch and sultan. Muhammad H’s Aims of World Domination and Policies of