The Balkans A History Of

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Greeks in their privileges, renewed the rights secured to Christian foreigners by the Greek emperors, and
proclaimed that, for his accession to the throne, there should not be made a Moslem the more or a Christian
the less. Moreover, during the thirty years left to him of life, Mohammed devoted himself to precisely those
tasks which would have fallen to a Greek emperor desirous of restoring Byzantine power. He thrust back
Latins wherever they were encroaching on the Greek sphere, as were the Venetians of the Morea, the
Hospitallers of Rhodes, and the Genoese of the Crimea: and he rounded off the proper Byzantine holding by
annexing, in Europe, all the Balkan peninsula except the impracticable Black Mountain, the Albanian
highlands, and the Hungarian fortress of Belgrade; and, in Asia, what had remained independent in the
Anatolian peninsula, the emirates of Karamania and Cappadocia.
Before Mohammed died in 1481 the Osmanli Turco-Grecian nation may be said to have come into its own. It
was lord de facto et de jure belli of the eastern or Greek Empire, that is of all territories and seas grouped
geographically round Constantinople as a centre, with only a few exceptions unredeemed, of which the most
notable were the islands of Cyprus, Rhodes, and Krete, still in Latin hands. Needless to say, the Osmanlis
themselves differed greatly from their imperial predecessors. Their official speech, their official creed, their
family system were all foreign to Europe, and many of their ideas of government had been learned in the past
from Persia and China, or were derived from the original tribal organization of the true Turks. But if they
were neither more nor less Asiatics than the contemporary Russians, they were quite as much Europeans as
many of the Greek emperors had been--those of the Isaurian dynasty, for instance. They had given no
evidence as yet of a fanatical Moslem spirit--this was to be bred in them by subsequent experiences--and their
The Balkans - A History Of Bulgaria--Serbia--Greece--Rumania--Turkey 123
official creed had governed their policy hardly more than does ours in India or Egypt. Mohammed the
Conqueror had not only shown marked favour to Christians, whether his rayas or not, but encouraged letters
and the arts in a very un-Arabian spirit. Did he not have himself portrayed by Gentile Bellini? The higher
offices of state, both civil and military, were confided (and would continue so to be for a century to come)
almost exclusively to men of Christian origin. Commerce was encouraged, and western traders recognized
that their facilities were greater now than they had been under Greek rule. The Venetians, for example,
enjoyed in perfect liberty a virtual monopoly of the Aegean and Euxine trade. The social condition of the
peasantry seems to have been better than it had been under Greek seigneurs, whether in Europe or in Asia, and
better than it was at the moment in feudal Christendom. The Osmanli military organization was reputed the
best in the world, and its fame attracted adventurous spirits from all over Europe to learn war in the first
school of the age. Ottoman armies, it is worth while to remember, were the only ones then attended by
efficient medical and commissariat services, and may be said to have introduced to Europe these alleviations
of the horrors of war.
Had the immediate successors of Mohammed been content--or, rather, had they been able--to remain within
his boundaries, they would have robbed Ottoman history of one century of sinister brilliance, but might have
postponed for many centuries the subsequent sordid decay; for the seeds of this were undoubtedly sown by the
three great sultans who followed the taker of Constantinople. Their ambitions or their necessities led to a great
increase of the professional army which would entail many evils in time to come. Among these were
praetorianism in the capital and the great provincial towns; subjection of land and peasantry to military
seigneurs, who gradually detached themselves from the central control; wars undertaken abroad for no better [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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