Religion In The Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire was one of the largest empires of the world. It lasted for more than 6 centuries. The Ottoman Muslim Turks governed the Ottoman Empire. It controlled Western Asia, South East Europe, and North Africa. The Ottoman Empire was inspired and motivated by Islam. Although it was kind of an Islamic empire, there were Christians and Jews, but for many reasons they were second class people. The Ottoman Empire was a long lasting powerful empire.

Religion affected the Ottoman Empire in so many ways. It had an affect on almost everything in the empire. Some of the things that religion affected were Social Classes, Language, Art, Economy and the Military.Social classes was effected by religion by that christians were treated as second class citizens. Language was effected by religion by that  only muslims knew how to read and write arabic because of the Quran. In art, the muslims couldn't draw pictures nude or draw pictures of god, so they had this fancy handwriting called calligraphy. Economy was one of the most things that were affected by religion. Muslims made christians and Jews pay taxes due to the fact that they are under a muslim rule and muslim protection. Lastly, the military was affected by religion the most. Only muslims were required to fight for the empire while Christians and Jews could choose wether to go or not. If they chose to fight for the empire as muslim (even though they weren't) then he and  his daily will be relieved from the heavy taxes they were put on them. Religion had a really huge effect on the Ottoman Empire.

There were three religions in the Ottoman Empire. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. The main religion in the empire was Islam. Even though Muslims did not force their religion on others, they treated Christians and Jews as second-class citizens. Christians and Jews had limited freedom. Christians and Jews were not treated like Muslims. For Example, Christians and Jews were not allowed to carry weapons with them or ride better horses than the Muslims because that would be overlooking those of Muslims. In the end, Christians and Jews had really harsh limitations.

The Ottoman Empire spoke three languages. Turkish, Persian and Arabic. Most of the people spoke Turkish because it was it was the main and official language. Persian was a hard and complicated language. Not all the people spoke it. Only the educated spoke in Persian. Arabic is the only one that came with religion. It came with Islam. Every Muslim read Arabic because it was the language of Islam so they knew Arabic well. In the end, Islam identified Arabic.

Art was one of the aspects that religion had an effect on in the Ottoman Empire. Muslims denied representing god with pictures o they used something called Calligraphy. Calligraphy was sort of like handwriting, but it was a type of visual art. They used to write words in a fancy way-representing god and that was the way of their art. Calligraphy was their way of representing god.

Religion had a huge affect on the Economy of the Ottoman Empire. Religion gave the Muslims advantages of taxes on Christians and Jews for not converting to Islam. According to the Islamic Shareea, people with different faiths living under a Muslim rule have to pay taxes called Cizya. In other words, who ever that does not convert to Islam had to pay Cizya (gizya) or taxes. Another reason for making Christians and Jews pay taxes was matter of protection. That meant that because they are under Muslim rule and Muslim protection they had to pay for these services.

            

The military was one the things that got affected by religion. Non-Muslim men weren’t required to go to for the empire like Muslims did. All Muslim men (that are healthy and have no sisters or parents to take care of) are required to fight for the empire. Muslims even made a deal with the Christians and Jews. If they go into battle with the Holy Muslim Army and pretend as Muslims, they and their family will be relieved from the Cizya or taxes. Religion helped the Military to grow and expand.

            

Religion really helped the empire to grow and expand. Religion affected almost everything the empire was all about. Although Christians and Jews were kind of treated harshly, the managed put up with these things. Religion had a great effect on the whole empire. If it was not for religion, the empire would not have been successful as it was.

Bibliography/ Citation:


-Wikipedia Organization. “The Ottoman Empire.” Accessed November 26, 2011.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire

-BBC. “The Ottoman Empire.” Accessed November 26, 2011.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/ottomanempire_1.shtml

-Wikipedia Organization. “Islamic Calligraphy.” Accessed November 26, 2011.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_calligraphy

-Globaled Organization. “Turkish Toleration.” Accessed December 3, 2011.

http://www.globaled.org/nyworld/materials/ottoman/turkish.html

-Wikipedia Organization. “Language.” Accessed November 29, 2011.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire#Language

Outline

How did religion affect the Ottoman Empire?


-Introduction Paragraph:

• Background Information.
• Brief view of how religion affected the empire.

-Paragraph 1: Social Classes-- was there classes? How were christians treated? Were muslims treated any differently?

-Paragraph 2: Language- How many languages were there?- how did religion affect it?

-Paragraph 3: Art- How was art like? were they allowed to draw people nude? what type of art did they have?

-Paragraph 4:  Economy- How did religion affect economy? 


-Paragraph 5: How did religion affect the military? Did muslims and christians fight together? Did only muslims fight?

Concluding Paragraph..................

Diary of the Conquistadors

Dear Diary,

            I am a Conquistador from Europe that just arrived on a new land. I had sailed from Europe for land, money, and fame. My main goal is to become rich and take land and take whats in it and name it after myself for fame. Of course  I wasn't alone, I had fellow European mates that helped me through my journey. I couldn't have done it without them.

            I finally arrived on land. When I arrived, I saw temples and a really strange thing. I saw weird looking people that looked disgusting and uncivilized. They were so uncivilized that in the beginning, they thought we weren't humans because we had boats, horses and weapons that they didn't have. Even though they looked uncivilized, they had what everyone wanted and didn't have much of, gold. They had it but didn't know what its used for or what to do with it. They had everything that can make them civilized but they didn't know how to use them. So, I decided to destroy our ships so that all the Europeans would only put their focus on the gold and not escaping. The Aztec people thought that I was crazy to destroy our ships they were really scared from us for some reason. In the end we finally got what we wanted.

Why did Lutheranism appeal to the princes?

            

            For the princes, converting to Lutheranism was a great opportunity to have positive effects on what they owned. By only following Lutheranism, they would have more land and be wealthier. Princes only followed Lutheranism because of what it had and because they also wanted to be wealthier. Princes followed Lutheranism for many reasons but, the main reasons were to get more land and money.

The princes no longer had to divert revenues to Rome or ecclesiastical taxes. That means that the princes no longer had to pay taxes to rome nor the church. Instead of paying taxes to rome, the princes charged taxes to become more wealthier. Taxes gave the money and money lead to wealth and wealth lead to power.

Lutheranism gave princes lots of lands. Lutheranism allowed princes to shut down monasteries and seize their land and wealth. More land meant more money and more money meant more power. This is one of the main reasons princes converted to Lutheranism, so that they would have more land.

Lutheranism allowed the princes to choose there own minsters. That relieved them from struggles of from local bishops. They chose the minsters and didn't have to worry about any struggles of power because their the ones who chose them.

The princes finally saw that the Catholic Church was focusing on money and power rather than helping people. They realized that buying indulgences doesn't work and are sinful and that it is not fair for the poor because they might not afford them. They also believed that Jesus is the head of the church and the pope. So they finally converted to Lutheranism.

Lutheranism gave the princes wealth and power that the Catholic Church didn't provide or offer. The princes preferred Lutheranism because it gave the more power and wealth that they couldn't dream of.The princes automatically converted for the money and the power. They saw that the Catholic Church is wrong in many ways so they converted.

Sandro Botticelli

How was Europe changed by the Crusades?

There are many different reasons why Europe changed from being religious to having liberal thinking. The three main reasons were the Church, Intellectual development, and the Commerce. These changes have an effect on Europe until this day.


The Commerce's  effected europe by that it increased ship buliding, also expanded markets, and finally banks loaned money to people. The intellectual development was that europe had a liberal thinking. Which meant that europe was open to new ideas.


Intellectual development was one of the most important changes in Europe. Europe after that, was secular and open to new ideas. Europe was interested in learning the Middle Eastern culture. They loved the Middle East and thought that they had exciting and fun ideas.

Other changes that weren't that important were politics, Feudalism, Social development, Material development, and Voyages of discovery. These changes didn't change europe as mush as the three main reasons. Thats why they weren't that important.

Honestly, in my opinion, the most important changes were the same as the three main reasons that I mentioned before. I chose them because when I compared the changes by today's Europe, I found that they kind of made sense for whats in Europe now. Thats why I thought they were the three main reasons in Europe's changes.