But it was not to a purer moral principle that the system owed its origin. The clear sight of their rulers perceived that some toleration was necessary for the well-being of their composite empire. But the ruling genius of their creed was not tolerant then, any more than it is now. The institution of the Janissaries was in accordance with the tenets of their religion. But the protection of their Christian subjects was the conciliatory measure of a wise legislator, not of a devout Mahometan. Oh the one hand the compulsory conversion of a large portion of their hardier slave-population furnished them with a rich harvest of soldiers, while their toleration in other respects procured for them the contentment of their less warlike subjects.
The truth of the remark of Machiavelli that a man cannot found a state without opportunities, was not impugned by the rise of Othman and his dynasty. The divisions of the Seljukians seemed to invite the exaltation of some new power. A widely diffused Turkish population was left without a ruler. The imbecility of the Persian and Eastern Empires afforded ample scope for purposes of aggression. The distracted state of Christendom prevented any combination against the intrusion of Mussulmans in Europe.
Such were the external circumstances that favoured the rise of the Ottomans. But the great internal Causes of their successes we have traced to the genius of their early Sultans, and to their military organization, under which latter head must be included their peculiar feudal system and the institution of their Janissary corps. There were other incidental causes of their greatness, such as the warlike spirit common to the Tartar race and the Mahometan religion, the absolute position of the supreme head which gave unity to the empire, and its early progress in prudent legislation.
The failure of the two great elements of their power mainly caused their decline. The empire needed vigorous rulers; the Sultans after Solyman have been characterized by a native statesman as “either fools or tyrants.” It required a well-disciplined army; but after Solyman, the discipline of the Janissaries decayed; their very system was corrupted; they admitted native Turks into their body; they began to take wives and to ply trades, becoming turbulent citizens rather than soldiers; and with their decay fell the military organization of the state.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Gibbon, vol. viii. p. 20.
[2] Ibid. vol. viii. p. 2. n.
[3] Creasy, History of Ottomans, vol. i, p. 43.
[4] Gibbon, vol. viii. p. 153.
[5] See an Article in the Christian Remembrancer for April, 1855, p. 232.