The Ottoman military - the backbone of the empire throughout its lifespan
Ottoman infantry being trained to shoot at enemy aircraft on the Strimon front in Greek Macedonia, 1917. German pilots noted that their Ottoman allies tended to fire on any aircraft, friendly or otherwise.
Without doubt, the Ottoman military remained the backbone of the empire throughout its lifespan. It is very difficult to envisage the empire without taking into consideration its military. However, as a state it neither ‘‘lived for war’’ nor for ‘‘a near perfect military society’’ as some have suggested. The Ottoman Empire was one of the greatest and longest-lasting empires of the world and, more precisely, it was the last Mediterranean empire. At its zenith in the seventeenth century, the empire occupied an area that stretched from the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean to the Caspian Sea, and from Poland in the north to the Indian Ocean in the south. Even though certain provinces like Hungary, the Danubean Principalities, and the Caucasian and Iranian frontier regions experienced almost continuous warfare, most of the other provinces enjoyed long periods of peace and prosperity, thanks to the efficiency of the Ottoman bureaucracy. In fact, it is entirely proper to label the empire as more bureaucratic than military. However, the military is credited with being the first to introduce modern bureaucratic methods and techniques (such as tax and census registers, detailed bookkeeping, and archives), regular and fair taxation, well-designed law codes, and complex networks of transportation and communication (not only in the Middle East but in Europe as well).
Against the overly simplistic and negative views, the Ottoman military played decisive roles in the formation and evolution of both European and Middle Eastern military art and science. Arguably, the Ottomans initiated the revival of an infantry-based standing army (the first since the fall of Rome) well before any in Europe. The elite Janissary regiments, which were the first modern light infantry units of the world, introduced for the first time standard uniforms with rank and branch tabs, state-owned weapons and arsenals, military bands, and social security benefits for the deceased and elderly. Likewise, land-based seasonally mobilized timariot cavalry, which provided their own horses, weapons, and equipment, were the first modern light cavalry troops. Musters and reviews, which ensured minimum standards of dress, equipment, and detailed inspection, were Ottoman standard operating procedure decades before their employment in Europe. In terms of logistics, the Ottoman soldiers had better rations, better medical and sanitation arrangements, and qualitatively and quantitatively better supply. In order to provide high levels of logistics superiority, the empire employed thousands of men and organized them into self-sufficient corps. The system worked well most of the time, thanks to the efficient financial bureaucracy, which managed to extract taxes and resources from the population without provoking opposition and destroying the local economy. Because of these pioneering initiatives and many victorious campaigns, European generals, politicians, and even philosophers like Machiavelli and Montesquieu developed a grudging admiration for the Ottoman military.
The greatest achievement of the Ottoman Empire was building an efficient bureaucracy and military, based on the principles of conservatism, pragmatism, elasticity, and tolerance. Instead of imposing a clean break with the past, the empire had a tendency to preserve or transform the existing systems into systems of its own. The empire was tolerant in accommodating, to a certain extent, the assimilation of various cultures and ethnic groups into its patrimonial realm. The Christian military classes of the Balkan countries are very good examples in this sense. By using various methods of coercion, offering incentives, and preserving the privileges of these classes, the empire easily conquered and kept the Balkans for centuries. Local notables were bonded closely to the empire and its military through an elaborate system of entitlements (as well as by the allocation and redistribution of resources). While the empire’s military elite included a disproportional number of ethnic Turks, the Ottoman military emerged as the engine in the creation of a multiethnic, multireligious, and multicultural empire.
Similarly, its inherent pragmatism and adaptability were instrumental in enabling the free borrowing and learning of useful technology and methods from its enemies. Of course, methods of pragmatism, coexistence, and cohabitation were not always successful, which was why the empire had to send strong expeditionary forces time and again to reassert its power as well as maintain strong garrisons on distant frontiers. In addition to well-trained, well-armed and well-led troops, this unique synthesis was the key to the success of the Ottoman military against enemies (real or potential) on all sides.
Even the catastrophic Treaty of Karlowitz did not hamper the military might of the empire. Although it lost important provinces and border defense systems, it survived for another two centuries (outliving, in fact, most of its ardent enemies) by transforming its military to adapt to developments in the west. Obviously, the transformation, adaptation, and reform processes were laden with inconsistencies, contradictions, corruption, and half-hearted efforts, but these attempts eventually led to the creation of a professional officer corps and a sturdy standing army. Most contemporary observers and modern scholars tend to exaggerate the impact of the contending Great Powers and balance of power system for the longevity of the empire, whereas ignoring or underestimating the contributions of the Ottoman military, which fought not only against foreign adversaries on two fronts most of the time, but also against ever-present internal security threats.
The profound dilemma for the Ottoman military was that the reforms required to resist western expansion and insure the integrity of the empire turned out to be a double-edged sword, requiring enormous financial resources and provoking intense domestic and foreign hostility, thereby weakening further the entire state. Moreover, and unfortunately for the empire, most of the reformers were ill equipped to understand the relationship between the failures of military reforms and the overall inadequacy of the politico-administrative structure, agrarian economy, and social fabric.
At the start of the twentieth century, the Ottoman military was in the midst of a dramatic transformation in which its frustrated officers (who had learned their trade from decades’ long counterinsurgency operations against nationalist Balkan guerrillas) dethroned the sultan and tried to transform completely the empire along modern European lines. This eleventh-hour attempt fell victim to a series of disastrous wars. Although its endurance in the face of World War I deserves praise, in the end, the Ottoman military failed the acid test of total warfare.
In November 1918, the Ottoman military did not quit the war, as Lenin remarked about the Russian army, by ‘voting with its feet’. Unlike Austro-Hungary which literally disintegrated, or Germany which had to surrender immediately its war fleet and heavy weapons and suffered huge difficulties to contain its now rebellious army and navy, the Ottoman military managed to reserve its discipline, cohesion, and surviving divisions (most of which were composed of ethnic Turks from the Anatolian heartland).
Even though the armistice obligated the Ottoman military to demobilize its combat units quickly, the actual demobilization proceeded slowly and came to a full stop with the start of a new war—this time to save what was remained of the empire in 1919–1921—against Greek, French, Italian, and Armenian forces. A new generation of combat-tested battlefield commanders, under the supreme leadership of Mustafa Kemal Pasha, found a willing audience within the ranks of the postwar Ottoman military. Most of the surviving Ottoman officers (including reserves and retirees), as well as the conscripts, were drawn to the nationalist cause. Almost overnight, regiment after regiment abandoned the Istanbul-based government and joined the forces of liberation. By changing its loyalty from the sultan to the Turkish nationalist cause, the Ottoman military also transformed itself from the Sultan’s army to the new Turkish Nationalist Army well before the successful end of the Independence War.
