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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cultural sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa : an encyclopedia. v. cm. -- (SAGE reference) Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents: v. 1. Middle East / [edited by] Andrea L. Stanton -- v. 2. Africa / [edited by] Edward Ramsamy -- v. 3. East and Southeast Asia / [edited by] Peter J. Seybolt -- v. 4. South, Central, and West Asia / [edited by] Carolyn M. Elliott ISBN 978-1-4129-8176-7 (cloth) 1. Culture--Middle East--Encyclopedias. 2. Culture--Africa--Encyclope-dias. 3. Culture--Asia--Encyclopedias. I. Stanton, Andrea L. HM626.C843 2012 306.09--dc23 2011036143
12 13 14 15 16 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Vice President and Publisher: Rolf A. JankeSenior Editor: Jim Brace-ThompsonProject Editor: Tracy BuyanCover Designer: Gail BuschmanEditorial Assistant: Michele ThompsonReference Systems Manager: Leticia GutierrezReference Systems Coordinator: Laura NottonMarketing Manager: Kristi Ward
Contents
About the Volume Editor viIntroduction viiRegional Map ixReader’s Guide xiList of Articles xvList of Contributors xixChronology xxviiArticles by Chronological Period Part I: Prehistory to 1250 1 Part II: 1250 to 1920 123 Part III: 1920 to Present 233Glossary 381Resource Guide 389Appendix: Country Statistics 393Volume 1 Index 399Photo Credits 426
Volume 1
Andrea L. Stanton teaches in the Religious Studies Department at the University of Denver. Trained as a historian (Ph.D., Columbia University, 2007), her research focuses on the 20th-century Middle East, and particularly the intersections between technol-ogy, communications media, and identity forma-tion. Her dissertation, now undergoing revision as a manuscript, analyzes the history and impact of the Palestine Broadcasting Service, which broadcast from Jerusalem from 1936 to 1949. Her most recent work considers expressions of religious identity in print and broadcast media and investigates the sometimes con-flictual, sometimes cooperative relationship between new technologies and claims to religious authority. A forthcoming article examines government manage-
vi
ment of religious broadcasts in Palestine in the 1930s and 1940s. She connects this to a broader history of Middle Eastern states controlling religious communi-ties’ access to radio and television, including the com-plications engendered by the satellite phenomenon that started in the late 1990s.
She has previously taught at Sarah Lawrence Col-lege and the American University of Beirut, and currently serves on the Board of the Syrian Studies Association as editor of the association’s quarterly newsletter. She also serves as editor of H-Levant, an academic listserv with over 900 members, and as a manuscript reviewer for the Digest of Middle East Studies and the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies.
About the Volume Editor
xix
List of Contributors
Faina C. Abaya-UlindangMindanao State University
Mohamed Alaa Abdel-MoneimAmerican University and Cairo University
Hamid AbdollahyanUniversity of Tehran
Tosin Funmi AbiodunUniversity of Texas at Austin
Ahmed AchratiHoward Community College
Benjamin T. AcostaClaremont Graduate University
Lady Jane AcquahUniversity of Texas at Austin
Nassef M. AdiongMiddle East Technical University
Razi AhmadUniversity of Arizona
Hossam I. AhmedUniversity of Utah
Akram Al ArissChampagne School of Management
Allison AlexyLafayette College
Adam AliUniversity of Toronto
Shatha AlmutawaUniversity of Chicago
Asaad Al-SalehUniversity of Utah
Katherine AlthlathiniAmerican University in Cairo
Vivian Djokotoe AmantanaWestern Oregon University
Kyle David AndersonCentre University
Grace AnnorOhio University
Anatoliy AnshinRussian State University for the Humanities
Arif ArshadIndependent Scholar
Meera AsharCity University of Hong Kong
Abimbola O. AsojoUniversity of Oklahoma
Serpil Atamaz-HazarUniversity of Arizona
xx List of Contributors
Abdellatif AttafiCollege of Charleston
Mark AuslanderBrandeis University
Kobina AyitteyOhio University
Heba AzizUniversity of Alexandria
Tierno S. BahSmithsonian Institution
Jayant Bhalchandra BapatMonash University
James BarryMonash University
Jennifer E. BeamerUniversity of Alberta
Abdessamad BelhajPázmány Péter Catholic University
Alexandre BenodUniversité Jean Moulin–Lyon 3
Lars BergerUniversity of Salford
Thomas J BerghuisUniversity of Sydney
Amos J. BeyanWestern Michigan University
Nilanjana BhattacharyaVisva-Bharati University
Laurel Birch de AguilarUniversity of Edinburgh
Shampa BiswasWhitman College
Sarah BoslaughKennesaw State University
Odette Boya RestaJohns Hopkins University
Joyce Tang BoylandAlverno College
Jaquelene BrintonUniversity of Kansas
Walton Brown-FosterCentral Connecticut State University
Elizabeth Summer BucknerStanford University
Noah ButlerNorthwestern University
Qing CaoLiverpool John Moores University
Christina CappyUniversity of Wisconsin, Madison
James CaseyPrinceton University
Elizabeth ChackoGeorge Washington University
Nawaraj ChaulagainHarvard University
Pin-Hsi ChenUniversity of Pittsburgh
Sheng Yao ChengNational Chung Cheng University
Jepkorir Rose Chepyator-ThomsonUniversity of Georgia
Sam CherribiEmory University
Omar ChetaNew York University
Peter A. CoclanisUniversity of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Justin CorfieldGeelong Grammar School
Bezen Balamir CoskunZirve University
Russ CrawfordOhio Northern University
Christopher CusackKeene State College
Peter T. DanielsIndependent Scholar
Anandini DarRutgers University
Kamala Kanta DashMonash University
Gareth DaveyHong Kong Shue Yan University
Carmen De MicheleLudwig-Maximilians University Munich
Alper Y. DedeZirve University
Marco DemichelisUniversity of Genoa
Anitha DeshamudreUniversity of North Carolina, Charlotte
Eric G. DinmoreHampden-Sydney College
Courtney DorrollUniversity of Arizona
List of Contributors xxi
Philip DorrollEmory University
Teresa M. Downing-MatibagIowa State University
Richard Jean Dumbrill Sr.University of London
Debalina DuttaPurdue University
Mohan DuttaPurdue University
el-Sayed el-AswadUnited Arab Emirates University
Moulay Youness ElboustyEmory University
Alix Méav Ellinwood-JeromeCollege of William & Mary
Aykan ErdemirMiddle East Technical University, Ankara
Ifeanyi EzeonuBrock University
Thomas FeldhoffGoethe University Frankfurt
Mario D. FenyoBowie State University
Matthew James ForssIndependent Scholar
Kim FouldsTeachers College, Columbia University
Vanessa FrangvilleUniversité Jean Moulin–Lyon 3
John T. FriedmanUtrecht University
Allen FromherzGeorgia State University
Caren J. FrostUniversity of Utah
Kazuya FukuokaSaint Joseph’s University
Benjamin GeerUniversity of London
Ioannis GeorganasFoundation of the Hellenic World
Christina GhanbarpourUniversity of California, Irvine
Mohammad GharipourMorgan State University
Fatma Müge GöçekUniversity of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Francis Ebenezer GodwyllOhio University
Casey GolomskiBrandeis University
June GrassoBoston University
John Aron GrayzelUniversity of Maryland
Fiona Rose GreenlandUniversity of Michigan
Terje GrønningUniversity of Oslo
Allison HahnUniversity of Pittsburgh Honors College
Michael R. HallArmstrong Atlantic State University
Shak HanishNational University
Kelly J. HansenUniversity of British Columbia
Rachel S. HarrisUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Reza HasmathUniversity of Toronto
John C. HawleySanta Clara University
Zackery M HeernUniversity of Utah
Kevin HewisonUniversity of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Jun Seong HoAcademy of Korean Studies
Elaine HsiehUniversity of Oklahoma
Yongguang HuState University of New York, Binghamton
LaRese HubbardCalifornia State University, Long Beach
Tin-bor Victoria HuiUniversity of Notre Dame
Wonjae HwangUniversity of Tennessee
Dina A. IbrahimSan Francisco State University
A.R.M. ImtiyazTemple University
Heather InwoodOhio State University
xxii List of Contributors
Abdul JabbarCity College of San Francisco
W. James JacobUniversity of Pittsburgh
Julio A. JeldresMonash University
Xiaoqian JiUniversity of Pittsburgh
Hong JiangNorthwestern University
Hyejung JuUniversity of Oklahoma
J. Seraphin KamdemSOAS, University of London
Kristen KaoUniversity of California, Los Angeles
Hasan KaratasNew York University
Loveleen KaurMonash University
Sarah Elizabeth KeilIndiana University
Jay KeisterUniversity of Colorado, Boulder
Mohammed Abdul Mujeeb KhanUniversity of Tokyo
Belinda KongBowdoin College
Mickie KosterLonestar College
Eric Mark KramerUniversity of Oklahoma
Bill Kte’piIndependent Scholar
Vani S. KulkarniYale University
Andrew KurtGeorgia State University
Priya LalNew York University
Robert G. LaunayNorthwestern University
Samantha LaurenUniversity of California, Santa Barbara
Robert LawlessWichita State University
Anthony A. LeeUniversity of California, Los Angeles
Che-Wei LeeUniversity of Pittsburgh
Hee Sook Lee-NiiniojaOxford Brookes University
Stefano A.E. LeoniUniversity of Urbino
Hongling LiangCity University of Hong Kong
Pei-Yin LinUniversity of Cambridge
Isidore LobnibeWestern Oregon University
Matthew L. LongChatfield College
Rui Oliveira LopesUniversity of Lisbon
Jonathan Z. LudwigRice University
Brandon D. LundyKennesaw State University
Solomon Chiemene MadubuikeBowen University
Driss MaghraouiAl-Akhawayn University
Cuong T. MaiUniversity of Vermont
Sebastian MaiselGrand Valley State University
Sarasij MajumderKennesaw State University
Ntambwe MalanguUniversity of Limpopo
Josep MartíSpanish Council of Scientific Research CSIC
Sara MartinsGoldsmiths University of London
Mary MazzilliUniversity of London–SOAS
Babacar M’BayeKent State University
Deric McNishUniversity of Colorado, Boulder
Liuxi MengKennesaw State University
Aaron L. MillerKyoto University
Patit Paban MishraSambalpur University
List of Contributors xxiii
Kamaludeen Mohamed NasirUniversity of Western Sydney
Barry MowellBroward College
Debali Mookerjea-LeonardJames Madison University
Fatima Mueller-FriedmanUtrecht University
Sucharita Sinha MukherjeeSaint John’s University
Todd S. MunsonRandolph-Macon College
Jennifer MurtazashviliUniversity of Pittsburgh
Todd Eric MyersSan Diego State University
Jeffrey NeilsonUniversity of Sydney
Sajjad NejatieUniversity of Toronto
Karen W. NgonyaOhio State University
Elizabeth NgumbiOhio University
Thien-Huong NinhUniversity of Southern California
Segun ObasaUniversity of Texas at Austin
‘BioDun J. OgundayoUniversity of Pittsburgh
Benjamin Akíntúndé OyètádéUniversity of London
Cenk OzbayUniversity of Southern California
Ramazan Hakki OztanUniversity of Utah
Gairoonisa PalekerStellenbosch University
Sharon L. ParkerZayed University
Michael John PatonUniversity of Sydney
Hillary PedersenIndependent Scholar
Daniel C. PetersonBrigham Young University
Ihor PidhainyMarietta College
Scopas S. PoggoOhio State University
Xun zhang PomponioSt. Olaf College
Elizabeth Rholetter PurdyIndependent Scholar
Marina PyrovolakiAmerican University of Beirut
Danielle Ooyoung PyunOhio State University
Tahera QutbuddinUniversity of Chicago
Harith Bin RamliOxford University
Edward RamsamyRutgers University
Francesca RecchiaIndependent Scholar
Alena RettováUniversity of London
Wylene RholetterAuburn University
David Alexander RobinsonEdith Cowan University
Jack Drake RollinsIndiana University, Bloomington
Ashok K. RoyKennesaw State University
Emrah SahinMcGill University
Abdulkareem Said RamadanGettysburg College
Takuya SakuraiUniversity of Oklahoma
Anthony Mawuli SallarOhio University
Samiparna SamantaFlorida State University
Natasha SarkarNational University of Singapore
Bryce SasakiWestern Washington University
Amita SatyalRutgers University, Newark
Leonardo SchiocchetBoston University
Sven Alexander SchottmannMonash University
xxiv List of Contributors
John SchroederSt. Mary’s College of Maryland
Ulrike SchuerkensÉcole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
Alexander Hugo SchulenburgIndependent Scholar
Peter J. SeyboltUniversity of Vermont
Yochanan ShachmuroveCity College of New York
Purnima ShahDuke University
Mordecai George SheftallShizuoka University
Nahda ShehadaErasmus University Rotterdam
Robert J. ShepherdGeorge Washington University
Chuan-kang ShihUniversity of Florida
Vicensia ShuleUniversity of Dar es Salaam
Benjamin R. SiegelHarvard University
Kapila D. SilvaUniversity of Kansas
Rita J. SimonAmerican University
Srini SitaramanClark University
Nancy SnowCalifornia State University, Fullerton
Andrea L. StantonUniversity of Denver
Matthew StavrosUniversity of Sydney
James McLeod Steele Jr.University of Southern California
Lior Betzalel SternfeldUniversity of Texas at Austin
Kearsley StewartNorthwestern University
Chen-Jui SuUniversity of Pittsburgh
Mike Tadashi SugimotoPepperdine University
Shunichi TakekawaRitsumeikan Asia Pacific University
Naoko TakemaruUniversity of Nevada, Las Vegas
Nicholas Charles TappEast China Normal University
Betsy TaylorVirginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Alexis B. TenganIndependent Scholar
Aysecan TerziogluCity University of New York
Tharaphi ThanUniversity of London
Christina TornsBriarcliffe College
Marcella Bush TrevinoBarry University
Lik Hang TsuiUniversity of Oxford
Krzysztof UlanowskiUniversity of Gdansk
Pheroze UnwallaSOAS, University of London
Ivan Vander biesenCatholic University of Leuven/McGill University
Rodolfo M. VegaUniversity of Pittsburgh
Lavanya VemsaniShawnee State University
Elena VezzadiniUniversity of Bergen
Florent VillardUniversité Jean Moulin–Lyon 3
Anne J. WaliaulaIndependent Scholar
Ken Walibora WaliaulaUniversity of Wisconsin, Madison
John WalshShinawatra University
J. Thomas WalzerIndependent Scholar
Ning WangArizona State University
Cy Ashley WebbStanford University
R. Charles WellerYale University
Christine M. WestphalSuffolk University
List of Contributors xxv
Ken WhalenUniversity of Brunei Darussalam
J. Tia WheelerUniversity of St. Andrews
Mark Douglas WhitakerKookmin University
James H. WilliamsGeorge Washington University
Alex WilsonOhio University
Khonsura A. WilsonCalifornia State University, Long Beach
Justin T. WinslettUniversity of Oxford
Chuen-Fung WongMacalester College
Pichamon YeophantongAustralian National University
Almaz ZewdeHoward University
Xiaowen ZhangAugustana College
Willa ZhenUniversity of London
Liren ZhengCornell University
Jonathan ZilbergUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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discovery in 1927 at Baba Gurgur in Iraq demon-strated, nowhere was that oil more apt to be found than in the Middle East.
By the end of World War I, the role that oil had played in the international system dramatically changed. During World War I, the main difference between the Allied forces of England, France, and the United States and those of Germany, Austria-Hun-gary, and Ottoman Turkey was not just tactics and leadership but oil supply. World War I showed that a nation could not be secure without a steady supply of oil.
Although Western oil companies pumped and exported nearly all of the oil to fuel the rapidly expanding automobile industry and other Western industrial developments, the kings and emirs of the oil states became immensely rich, enabling them to consolidate their hold on power and giving them a stake in preserving Western hegemony over the region. Oil wealth also had the effect of stultifying whatever movement toward economic, political, or social reform might have emerged in the Arab world.
Impact on Other TradeIn the pre-oil era trade, shipping and pearling were the main economic activities in the region. These economic activities dominated the decisions regard-ing production process and mode of production. Hence, they determined the political, social, and cul-tural institutions of the region. The mode of produc-tion was changed with the involvement of Britain, and the technological changes in pearl production were replaced with those based on oil. The new era generated considerable affluence but brought few changes in political structures and regimes. When oil was discovered and oil revenues prevailed, the other revenues from the original economic basis of the region’s wealth vanished but the social hierarchies remained. Since the rise of oil revenues, the old mer-chant class has become less and less influential on government. While revenues have accumulated, and as many members of the ruling family have become more and more interested in business, pre-oil sepa-ration between the sheikh-dominated governmental realm and the merchant class–dominated business realm began to disappear. The discovery of large oil reserves has most profoundly impacted the culture and people of Middle Eastern countries. Because the
world depends on petroleum as a primary source of fuel, the discovery of oil has created many trading opportunities for the Middle East, thus, the Middle Eastern societies opened up to Western influence.
Bezen Balamir CoskunZirve University
See Also: European Economic Impact; Imperialism; World War I.
Further ReadingsNiblock, Tim, ed. Social and Economic Development in the
Arab Gulf. London: Croom Helm, 1980.Rumaihi, M. G. “The Mode of Production in the Arab Gulf
Before the Discovery of Oil.” In Social and Economic Development in the Arab Gulf, Tim Niblock, ed. London: Croom Helm, 1980.
Waldron Grutz, Jane. “Prelude to Discovery.” Saudi Aramco World (January/February 1999).
Ottoman Asian Conquests Ottoman expansion in Asia mostly took place in the 15th and 16th centuries and covered Asia Minor, the Caucasus, the Fertile Crescent, and the Arabian Peninsula. The Ottoman empire in the 14th century largely remained in western Anatolia. Only after their incorporation of the north Anatolian cities of Ankara (1354) and Amasya (1387) did the Ottomans become a major player in the affairs of central and eastern Ana-tolia. The Ottomans spent the rest of the 15th century annexing the remainder of Anatolia, west of the diago-nal line extending from Trebizond (southeastern Black Sea port) to Cilicia in south-central Anatolia. The 16th century witnessed almost exponential growth of the Asian territories of the empire. In the first two decades of this century, the Ottomans conquered eastern Ana-tolia, the southern Caucasus, the Fertile Crescent, and the Arabian Peninsula. The fact that these territo-ries remained in Ottoman hands until the end of the empire in the 20th century leads to the conclusion that the Ottomans were partially successful in incorporat-ing these lands into their imperial system.
The first major Asian conquest by the Ottomans was the Byzantine city of Brusa, which was located in
1250 to 1920 Ottoman Asian Conquests 171
northwestern Anatolia and fell into Ottoman hands in 1326. Until the conquest of the central Anatolian city of Ankara in 1354, the Ottomans enlarged their territories in Asia Minor mostly at the expense of the Byzantine Empire. After the succession of the ener-getic Bayezid I (“the Thunderbolt,” d. 1402) to the Ottoman throne, the Ottomans quickly annexed the Anatolian territories ruled by various Turkish princi-palities. Bayezid I went on to conquer cities located in eastern and southern Anatolia (Erzincan, Malatya, and Elbistan), the latter two belonging to the Mamluk Empire. However, Bayezid I’s imperial project, along with his army, was crushed by Tamerlane near Ankara in 1402. Timur returned the territories conquered by the Ottomans to their previous rulers. For the next century, the Ottoman Empire strived to recoup the lands conquered by Bayezid I, in addition to making relatively small acquisitions like the Black Sea ports of Amasra (1454) and Trebizond (1461). The 15th cen-tury closed with a prolonged war between the Otto-mans and the Mamluks (1484–91) for domination in Cilicia, located in southern Anatolia. Although the Ottomans were mostly unsuccessful, they demon-strated that they would be a formidable enemy to the Mamluks in the following century.
The 16th century is, in many respects, the zenith of the Ottoman Empire. This century started with an eastern threat coming from a young mystic/war-rior Shah Ismail, the founder of the Safavid Empire. The Ottomans were initially on the defensive because of the dynastic struggle among various princely fac-tions. The contending princes included Selim I (“the Grim,” d. 1520), who later succeeded to the Ottoman throne (1512) and expanded the Asian holdings of the empire to an unmatched extent in merely eight years. Under Selim I’s rule, Ottomans first reacted to Shah Ismail’s activities in Anatolia in a decisive manner, defeating his army in Caldiran (1514) in eastern Ana-tolia and annexing his territories in the southern Cau-casus and eastern Anatolia. Selim I then turned his attention south to the Syrian territories under Mam-luk rule. In 1516 and 1517 he defeated the Mamluks twice, in northern Syria and then near Cairo, respec-tively. The Ottomans took over Mamluk territories in Syria, Egypt, and the Arabian Peninsula, but they had to deal with two rebellions (Canberdi Gazali in 1521 and Ahmet Paşa in 1524) while they spent the next 10 years consolidating their hold over these newly
acquired territories. The incorporation of the Arab territories was quite successful—no significant rebel-lion occurred until the early 19th century.
The same cannot be said about the Ottoman-Ira-nian frontier, which not only marked the territories of two imperial systems but also of two diverging reli-gious traditions. The Ottomans adopted the Sunni creed, while their Safavid rivals were the champions of Shiite beliefs, two different Islamic sects. Also, the difficulty of the terrain, which is mostly covered by mountains and has no naval access, made control of the acquired territories in the southern Cauca-sus and Iraq highly problematic for the Ottomans. Major cities of the region—Tabriz, Baghdad, Shirvan, Yerevan, and Mosul—continuously changed hands between the Ottoman and Safavid empires until the demise of the latter in 1723. Following the collapse of the Safavid Empire, the Ottomans were quick to seize the opportunity and reconquered major west-ern Iranian cities, such as Tabriz and Hamedan. But after 1730, the newly established Qajar dynasty was able to reclaim these cities, for the last time in the name of Iran.
Hasan KaratasNew York University
See Also: Mamluk Dynasty; Ottoman Origins; Safavid and Shi’i Iran; Süleyman the Magnificent; Tamerlane.
A regional map by Emanuel Bowen (ca. 1752) illustrates Asian territories of the Ottoman Empire and the Persian Safavid Empire.
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172 Ottoman Balkan Conquests
Further ReadingsCasale, Giancarlo. The Ottoman Age of Exploration.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.Finkel, Caroline. Osman’s Dream: The Story of the Ottoman
Empire, 1300–1923. New York: Basic Books, 2006.Har-El, Shai. Struggle for Domination in the Middle
East: The Ottoman-Mamluk War, 1485–91. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1995.
Imber, Colin. The Ottoman Empire, 1300–1650: The Structure of Power. 2nd ed. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
Inalcik, Halil. An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Ottoman Balkan ConquestsThe Balkan region was conquered by the Ottomans in the 14th and 15th centuries. It became the richest and most important part of their empire. Until its expan-sion into the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire drew most of its wealth from taxation of this rich region and most of the recruits of the devshirme system that served in the administration and the Janissary corps. Ottoman presence in the Balkans was impor-tant because it put them in close proximity to the rest of Europe and formed a new base from which the empire could expand further into Europe, as well as into eastern and central Anatolia and the Middle East. The Balkans remained under Ottoman control until the nationalist independence movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries resulted in rebellions that loosened the Ottoman grip over the region and eventually saw the emergence of independent states.
BackgroundThe Balkan region was in a weak position in the 14th century. It had lost its political unity after the Fourth Crusade temporarily conquered Constantinople in 1204. The Balkan Peninsula became fragmented with Byzantines, Serbian princes, the Genoese, and the Venetians all vying for economic and political control and fighting against one another. The Ottomans were able to exploit this state of disunity and weakness to conquer what later became the most important part of their empire.
Orhan’s (r. 1324–62) forces had been enlisted by the Genoese to aid them in their fights against the Venetians and the Byzantines. They even ferried the Ottoman forces across the Bosporus. However, it was the Byzantine emperor, John V Kantakouzinos, who requested help from Orhan and invited a band of Turks, led by his son Süleyman, to garrison the fort of Tzympe in Thrace in 1354. This was the Ottomans’ first permanent stronghold in the Balkans. In the next few years, Süleyman’s forces proceeded to occupy a number of forts and towns in Gallipoli. The Byzan-tine sources attribute these successes to a huge earth-quake that weakened the defenses of these forts; how-ever, the Ottoman sources do not mention this event.
Enter the OttomansThe Ottomans became a major player in the poli-tics and warfare of the Balkans. Initially, they allied
During their conquest of Bulgaria, the Ottomans captured the Belogradchik Fortress in 1396 and expanded it for protection.
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