Why Did The Ottoman Empire Live So Much Longer Than Other Turkish Empires?

The first Asian Turkish empire, about which detailed information is available, is the Great Hun Empire. Although the history of the Huns goes back to the millennium BC as a clan name, the foundation of the state is dated to 220 BC. The founder of the Hun State is Teoman. The process of the state to become an empire is after Teoman was killed by his eldest son Mete in a military coup. After Mete seized power, the state grew rapidly and became an empire that could fight head-to-head with China.

The Hun Empire is not only the first Turkish empire in the geography of Turkestan. He is also a prototype and role model of the Turkish empires to be established after him. Another feature of this empire is that it was the longest living Turkish Empire established in the geography of Turkestan. The Hun Empire lived for about 300 years. After that, the Turkish empires established in Turkestan were much shorter-lived (There are some Turkish states that lived quite a long time outside the geography of Turkestan, such as the Mughal Empire, which was founded in India and lived for 330 years. However, these states continued their existence as a great empire as much as the Hun Empire. did not last long).

It is considered that the main reason for the short-lived existence of the empires established in the geography of Turkestan is the living conditions imposed on the Turkish communities by the characteristics of the geography that makes up the region called Turkistan, and the resulting social structure. This geography is not very suitable for agriculture. For this reason, Turks have emerged as very dynamic communities that mainly live on animal husbandry since prehistory. The social and political structuring of Turkish communities, which move in a very wide geography and at very far distances from each other, was also formed according to these lifestyles.

Turkish communities living in places far from each other in the steppe were organized in such a way as to be able to manage and defend themselves, such as family, clan and clan unity. Turkish tribes live as state prototypes in every region. In other words, they are almost like mobile states with military and political organizations. Whenever a strong and talented leader emerged in one of them, he was able to assemble these segregated communities in a short time like Lego pieces to form a big picture, namely an empire.

When we look at the Göktürk Empires, it is understood that they did this as follows. The tribe mobilized by a strong leader first seeks ways to unite with the tribes around it without fighting. Thus, it grows without loss. If there are tribes that do not want to unite, these tribes are usually attacked with a night raid, those who resist are neutralized, but the people are not destroyed. On the contrary, people who accept cooperation from among the tribes are brought to the administration and thus the defeated tribes are joined to the central state.

For this reason, Bilge Kagan in the Orkhon Inscriptions, while talking about the other Turkish tribes he fought, says that almost all of the ancient Middle East kings, especially the Assyrians, instead of boasting about killing their enemies, as mentioned in the inscriptions that have survived to the present day, that he appointed a manager (usually belonging to the tribes he defeated) and settled them in a region. . In other words, he mentions that instead of destroying or expelling the tribes he defeated, he reorganized them and articulated them to the state.

In this way, new tribes joined to the state serve in the army and get their share of the victories. As the victories increase and the gains grow, the participation accelerates and a great empire is established in which almost all the steppe peoples come together in the time of a single ruler. This situation is clearly seen when the lives of İlteriş Kagan, Genghis Khan and other great leaders are examined.

This organizational structure of Turks and other steppe peoples enables the establishment of large empires faster than agricultural societies could ever achieve, but this is the reason why these states collapsed at the same speed. These tribes, which quickly united around a strong leader, disintegrate at the same rate and continue to live on their own when bad administrators and incompetent leaders emerge. Because the empire structure does not assimilate other communities and does not change their organizational structure, as in China. Thus, the tribes, which were joined to the central authority by strong leaders, can live independently as small state structures when the central authority weakens.

This situation is similar to the fact that the image that emerges after hours of trying and putting together many Lego pieces is distorted and chaotic with a single blow. But since each part preserves its original structure, no part is destroyed and it is almost as if a new leader emerges who will unite them again. it starts to clip. For this reason, the Turks established many empires that grew in a short time and spread to the entire Turkestan geography, and after a while, they dispersed at the same speed. There is no other example of this in the world.

I think some leaders must have realized this drawback in ancient times. For example, Bilge Kagan may have thought of establishing fortified cities and accepting Buddhism, a religion suitable for settled life. He may have been inspired by the Turkish cities on the Silk Road, which broke up the size of the fortified cities and formed a more holistic structure than small parts based on individuals and families. But his vizier and father-in-law, Bilge Tonyukuk, who thought that this would cause disaster, gave up on this idea because he objected to the lifestyle of the people, the scarcity of the population and natural conditions.

However, as the Turkish tribes moved towards the Middle East and Indian geography, when they came into contact with the societies and states they encountered, they necessarily made some changes in their social and state structures in order to adapt to this new geography and to preserve their existence. The most important example of this is that they set up a central army and administrative organization with the people they trained from non-Turkish elements and Turkish tribes. They even created a language called Urdu, which means the army language for this structure in the geography of India and is the official language of Pakistan today, but this situation created some problems as it differentiated the army from the Turkish masses, which were the founding elements of the state.

The same situation was experienced in the Great Seljuk Empire. For this reason, people recruited from different elements in the Ottomans were first given to the Turkish family, brought up according to Turkish culture, learned Turkish and Islamized. Thus, the state was not only freed from dependence on nomadic Turkish tribes that acted on their own when they wanted to, but also managed to subdue these tribes by using central forces when they tried to create a centrifugal current.

The fact that the recruited elements spoke the same language with the Turkmen masses who founded the state also caused the soldiers of the central army of the state and the Turkmen cavalry gathered during the expeditions to easily agree and coalesce in the wars. Thus, a hybrid army emerged in which light cavalry and light infantry fought together.

As the central army of the state fused with the soldiers of the nomadic Turkmen, the Turkmen masses also fused and integrated with the state. Because everyone who can hold a gun in the Turks is a soldier, the merging of the soldiers with the state means the merging of the tribes with the state. For this reason, even though some rebellions broke out from time to time, the Turkmen masses continued to be loyal to the state instead of dividing, even when the rulers of the state were weak people.

One of the reasons for this is that the noble families that held the large tribes together during the rise of the Ottoman Empire were removed from their tribes by assigning administrators to distant regions or they were eliminated as a result of their murder. In this process, as the tribes were divided and some of them were settled in the newly acquired lands, the power of the Turkmen communities in Anatolia was weakened, and the Turkmens, who were cut off from their own roots and clan ties and settled in new lands, became loyal subjects of the state, since their security and even their existence depended on the strength of the state.

In other words, the Ottoman Empire emerged and rose as a success not only of military and political achievements, but also of applied social engineering. The basis of this is the evolution that emerged in the military structure. Since the nomadic Turkish communities lived in the form of military societies, the society was also transformed by transforming the military structure. In this way, the Ottoman Empire became a long-lived empire incomparable with the Turkish empires that were established before.

Of course, there are many economic, political, social, geopolitical and cyclical reasons for the establishment of the Ottoman Empire, becoming a great power and living for a very long time. However, it is considered that the most important reason is the reorganization of the army structure as a result of a combination of the nomadic Turkish military culture and the military cultures of the agricultural societies that the Turks came into contact with during their arrival in the Anatolian geography, making it the world's first hybrid army since the first years of the establishment of the state.