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

Ottoman State System and their Decline
851
exported grains and stock on a large scale. Again, by tradition, Ottoman Muslims, especially the Turks, trained every male child in some profession or craft, be he a prince or an ordinary child. Women were also trained to embroider and to weave, beside attending to the land in the rural districts. The household goods, furniture, clothing, cotton, silk and woollen lextiles, leather for bookbinding or trunks, pottery, silverware, carpet and embroidery were mostly made by Muslims. Except silver, all the raw material for these industries existed in the empire. Trade and hand industry were under highly organised guilds which classified the producers and protected them, controlling at the same time all the commerce within the empire. All the means of transport, mules and camel caravans as well as sailing vessels were also in the hands of Muslims and Turks
”The non-Muslims, though to some degree producers and workers, were in the main intermediaries of exports Naturally they reaped the greatest benefit from the introduction of machinery while the Muslim Turks lost their hold over the sea transport, and their hand-made products, though infinitely more beautiful, were unable to comete with the machine-made goods that folded their markets. In addition to this economic advantage, exemption from military service enabled the Christians to increase and prosper, while Muslim elements, especially the Turks, became impoverished, decreased in number and remained in ignorance. The empire, in its decline, just like the Byzantine Empire in its decline, was drawing all its manpower mainly from Anatolia.’’
The economic deterioration of the Empire was accelerated by the system of Capitulations The Capitulations \\ere commercial treaties made with foreign commercial interests residing in the empire and granting them exemption from certain taxes and other special rights in judicial matters The system existed during the period of the Byzantine rule. The Ottomans ratified all such existing rights. Muhammad, the Conqueror, confirmed the Genoese rights in

1453 and Sula\man the Magnificent signed a treaty of ”Friendship and Commerce” \\ith France in 1535 and similar commercial treaties were made with other powers.

”But when the Ottoman Empire weakened, the Capitulations, which had been mere treaties of commercial adjustment, took a different complexion. After each Turkish defeat the victorious Power
Hdhdel dib. op en . PP 41-42

852
Political and Cultural History of Islam

imposed a new clause in the Capitulations in its own favour. These newly-acquired privileges were not only commercial ; some of them were jurisdictional and legal. The subjects of foreign Powers resident in Turkey began to demand special and separate judicial treatment. Some of the Christian subjects of the empire acquired foreign protection. Any of them assaulting an Ottoman subject was judged by the Consul of the Power sitting as a court. When an Ottoman subject happened to assault a foreigner, quite after the Powers sent their fleets to bully the Sublime Porte. Further, the Sublime Porte could not adopt any economic policy without the Capitualary Powers interfering. No tariffs could be raised or abolished without their consent, railways could not be built where they were a necessity, economically or from a strategic point of view. The worst of it \\as that the Powers never agreed among themselves.”8
Another source of weakness of the Ottoman Empire was the presence of large Christian majorities in the Balkan countries. As soon as the countries of Western Europe became strong, prosperous nation-States, these Christian groups began to aspire for national independence. They were encouraged by the European Powers and thus became pawns in the international game for the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. The two trump cards of the Powers were religion and nationalism.
Attempts at Reforms
’Abdul Hamid I was the first to perceive the weakness of the Ottoman Empire. In 1774, he managed to engage European experts and artisans to train the Turkish army. The next sovereign to make an attempt at reforming the empire was Saleem in (1787 - 1807). He was an ardent admirer of the principles of the French Revolution and he sent one of his friends, Ishaq Bey, to study Western institutions. He also created the nucleus of a new army called ”Nazm-i Jadid” which was formed on Western lines and trained by European experts He also founded several schools, the first institutions of higher learning and technical education outside the domain of religious colleges. The school of engineering was one of them. Saleem further attempted to rebuild the civil administration on the principle of local responsibility, the people in the province electing their provincial representatives and having a voice in the management of their own affairs. This brought him into conflict with the pro\incial governors
I