The Ottoman Empire Series | Episode 4: Why Did the Empire Stay United Despite Religious Differences?

【If religions differ, conflict follows—that was the common sense of the world】

Even today, religious conflicts occur all over the world.

Ethnicities differ.
Languages differ.
Cultures differ.

And above all,
if religions differ, values themselves differ.
That is why, historically, multi-ethnic states did not last long.

The ruling ethnic group imposes its religion.
Resistance occurs.
Rebellions occur.
They are suppressed.
Hatred deepens further.

Through this cycle, many empires collapsed from within.
However, the Ottoman Empire was different.

Muslims,
Greek Orthodox,
Armenian Church,
Jews,
Catholics—

while countless religious communities existed,
it survived as a single state for over six hundred years.
Why was that possible?

The answer lies in

not unifying religion

.

【Instead of erasing religion, they preserved it】

A typical dynasty would spread its own religion to the lands it conquered.
This was also a sign of power.

The Roman Empire,
in its later period, made Christianity the state religion.

European nations, too,
had kings and religion as one.

But the Ottomans were different.
Of course, the Emperor (Sultan) was a Muslim.
The state was also an Islamic state.
Even so,

Christians could remain Christians.
Jews could remain Jews.

They did not force conversion.
Of course, differences in tax systems and the like existed.
However,

they were relatively tolerant of

“faith itself.”
This was an extremely rare concept for the time.

【Europe was in an era of religious wars】

Let us look at Europe at that time.
In the 15th to 17th centuries, the Reformation began in Europe.

Catholics and
Protestants

asserted their own justice,
and religious wars that claimed millions of lives continued.
A representative example is the Thirty Years' War.

Even among fellow Christians,
they killed each other just because their denominations were different.

In other words, in the world at that time,
it was rare to acknowledge each other's religions.
Amidst that, only the Ottoman Empire
had created a state that recognized religious communities as a system.

【The invention called the Millet system】

The greatest characteristic of the Ottoman Empire is the

Millet system

.
Simply put, this was

a system that granted autonomy to each religion

.
For example, Greek Orthodox had their own churches.

They had leaders.
They had courts.
They had education.
Marriage and inheritance,
basically, were handled within the community.

The same went for Armenians.
The same went for Jews.

In other words, the state
did not intervene in minor religious issues.
Pay taxes.
Pledge loyalty to the state.

As long as they kept those conditions,
they could live as a community.

【What the state managed was not religion, but order】

This is the most important point.
The Ottoman Empire did not command people

“what to believe.”

What the state sought was
not religion, but order.
Pay taxes.

Maintain public safety.
Do not start rebellions.
Show loyalty to the state.
That is all.

In other words,

faith was left to the community,
and the state only managed order.
That is why, even in a huge empire,

there was no need to directly control every detail.

【An untold secret story: Jews who escaped from Spain】

In 1492, the Reconquista was completed in Spain.
Then, an expulsion decree for Jews was issued.
Many Jews lost their property and were driven from their homes.

At this time, there was a country that actively accepted them.
It was the Ottoman Empire.

The Sultan at the time, Bayezid II,

is said to have remarked,

“The King of Spain has impoverished his own country and enriched ours.”
In fact,

Jewish merchants, doctors,
financiers,
and craftsmen
greatly developed the Ottoman economy.

Religious tolerance
was not just humanitarianism.
It was also a national strategy.

【Religious differences were not a weakness, but a national asset】

Ordinary states try to reduce differences.

Unify language.
Unify religion.
Unify culture.

They think it is easier to govern that way.
However, the Ottoman Empire had the exact opposite idea.

Do not erase religious differences.
Do not erase ethnic differences either.
Incorporate each community into the state as it is.

Then what happens?
Each community begins to maintain order by itself.

The church functions as a church.
The Jewish community functions as a community.
Religious leaders keep the believers together.

In other words, even without the state managing them directly,
each maintains order autonomously.
The Ottoman Empire created a structure where the state existed above that.

The state does not manage everything.
Communities manage communities, and the state manages the whole.

This dual structure was the secret to a rule that lasted six hundred years.

【Even after conquering, they utilized local elites】

It was not just religion.
The Ottoman Empire was also unique in how it handled human resources.

Even when they conquered new lands,
they rarely removed all local influential figures.

Administrators,
merchants,
religious leaders,
craftsmen—

the people who supported the local society were often utilized as they were.
Of course, loyalty to the state was required.
Taxes were also paid.

However, if you destroy the local society that has been built up until then,
governance takes enormous time and cost.
It was more rational to use the existing mechanisms.

In other words, the Ottoman Empire chose
to “incorporate” the conquered lands,
rather than “remake” them.

【Acknowledging differences reduces rebellions】

You can see it if you look at history.
Many rebellions

start from frustrations like
“our culture was taken away,”
“our religion was denied,”

or “our lives were changed.”

In the Ottoman Empire,
of course, it was not that there were no rebellions at all.

But at least,
large-scale rebellions based on religion itself were relatively few.
This is because their lives themselves were protected.

What was important for the state

was not to control the inside of people's hearts.
It was to function stably as a state.

Herein lay the realism characteristic of the Ottoman Empire.

【An untold secret story: Churches were protected by the Ottoman Empire】

This may come as a surprise.
The Ottoman Empire was an Islamic state.
However, in the conquered city of Constantinople,
they preserved the Greek Orthodox Church itself.

They appointed a Patriarch,
and officially recognized the church organization.

In other words, they did not ban religion.
They positioned it as part of the state system.

Furthermore, at the end of the 15th century, when the Alhambra Decree was issued in Spain to expel the Jews,
many Jews migrated to the Ottoman Empire.
They thrived in commerce, finance, medicine, and crafts,
contributing significantly to the development of the empire.

In Europe at the time, religious differences were a reason for persecution.
On the other hand, in the Ottoman Empire,
those differences were transformed into the vitality of the state.

[Differences from Previous Kingdoms]

Let's organize this here.
Many kingdoms would:

Conquer.
↓
Impose religion.
↓
Resistance occurs.
↓
Rebellion occurs.
↓
Suppress with military force.
↓
Conflict deepens further.

They repeated this cycle.
However, the Ottoman Empire was different.

Conquer.
↓
Recognize religious communities.
↓
Entrust autonomy.
↓
Demand only loyalty to the state.
↓
Communities maintain order themselves.
↓
The state can govern with less burden.

In short, the Ottoman Empire was,
not a state that dominated religion, but a state that utilized religion.

[The Reason Only the Ottomans Remained United]

The Ottoman Empire had a structure that reduced conflict.

Recognize religious communities.
↓
Each conducts self-governance.
↓
Sense of belonging to the community is maintained.
↓
Resistance to the state decreases.
↓
Governance costs go down.
↓
Can govern even wider regions.
↓
Can accept more ethnic groups.

As long as this cycle continues,
the empire is unlikely to collapse from within even as it expands.

That is why the Ottoman Empire,
despite being a multi-ethnic state, lasted for over 600 years.

[This Was State Design]

The Millet system was
not just a religious policy.
It was state design itself.

Do not erase ethnicities.
Do not erase religions.
Do not erase cultures.
Acknowledge differences.

However, share order as a state.
This design philosophy
held the massive empire together.

The Roman Empire
bound people together through common law.

The Ottoman Empire
bound people together through a system that acknowledged differences.

The methods are different.
But what they aimed for was the same.

To maintain a massive state for a long period.

That is the common point between both empires.

[Summary]

The Ottoman Empire was
not a state that unified religion.
It was a state designed on the premise that religions are different.

It is okay for people to be different.
It is okay for cultures to be different.
It is okay for faiths to be different.

The state demanded only one thing.
To maintain order.

That is why, for the long period of 600 years,
it was able to maintain a massive multi-ethnic state.

Even today,

immigrant nations,
federal states,
multi-ethnic states,

various countries

are facing the challenge of

"how to govern differences."
The Ottoman Empire was a state that showed one historical answer to that question.

Next Episode Preview

Ottoman Empire Series |
Episode 5: How Was the World's Strongest Army Created?

A strong state requires a strong army.
However, the Janissary corps raised by the Ottoman Empire was not just an elite unit.
It was a revolutionary military system for its time: a "professional group directly under the state."

Why were they feared as the strongest in the world?
And what kind of mechanism supported that strength?
Next time, we will decipher the structure of the military organization that propelled the Ottoman Empire into a world empire.

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