Verhältnis der Muslime und Nichtmuslime im Osmanischen Reich 2. Teil

Banja-Baschi-Moschee in Sofia, Bulgarien. Osmanisch, 16. Jahrhundert

Ich hatte in dem vorherigen Posting bereits einige grundlegende Dinge angesprochen, damit einige Missverständnisse für eine weitere Diskussion aufgeklärt werden können. Nun geht es konkreter um die folgenden Gruppen im Osmanischen Reich:

Verhältnis Muslime - Christen - Juden

Es folgen wie schon in dem ersten Artikel dieser kleinen Serie einige Zitate um das Verhältnis der obigen Gruppen mal zu beleuchten:

Bernard Lewis: Stern, Kreuz und Halbmond. 2000 Jahre Geschichte des Nahen Ostens. München 1997. S. 162 ff.:

In der früheren Konfrontation [zwischen dem OR und seinen christlichen Nachbarn] waren Beflügelung und Dogmatismus auf beiden Seiten und größere Toleranz auf türkischer Seite zu finden. Während des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts zogen die Flüchtlinge -jene, »die mit den Füßen wählten«, [...] - von Westen nach Osten und nicht, wie in unserer Zeit, von Osten nach Westen. Die Flucht der 1492 aus Spanien vertriebenen Juden in die Türkei ist gut dokumentiert, aber sie war keineswegs ein Einzelfall. Andere Flüchtlingsgruppen - etwa abweichlerische Christen, die von der in ihren Ländern tonangebenden Kirche verfolgt wurden - fanden in den osmanischen Ländern Zuflucht. [...]
Die Flüchtlinge waren nicht die einzigen europäischen Nutznießer der osmanischen Oberhoheit. Auch das Schicksal der Bauern in den eroberten Provinzen verbesserte sich erheblich. Die osmanische Reichsregierung brachte Einheit und Sicherheit in Gegenden, in denen vorher Konflikte und Chaos geherrscht hatten, mit wichtigen sozialen und wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen. Im Laufe der Eroberungskriege war ein großer Teil des alten grundbesitzenden Erbadels vernichtet worden, und seine herrenlosen Güter gingen als Lehen an osmanische Soldaten über. [...] Es war nicht mit Erbrechten oder einer feudalherrschaftlichen Rechtsprechung verknüpft. Die Bauern dagegen verfügten in der Regel über einen erblichen Besitztitel, der gemäß osmanischem Brauch sowohl vor Zerstückelung als auch vor Eigentumskonzentration geschützt war. Damit hatten sie auf ihren Höfen größere Freiheit als unter den früheren christlichen Herrschern. Ihre Steuern wurden auf niedrigem Niveau festgesetzt und - verglichen mit den Praktiken der ehemaligen und auch der benachbarten Regime - auf humane Weise eingetrieben. Wohlstand und Sicherheit trugen erheblich dazu bei, die Bauern mit anderen, weniger attraktiven Aspekten der osmanischen Herrschaft zu versöhnen, und waren weitgehend für den langen Frieden in den osmanischen Provinzen verantwortlich, bis nationalistische Ideen aus dem Westen für eine Explosion sorgten. Noch im 19. Jahrhundert äußern sich europäische Balkanbesucher positiv über das Wohl und die Zufriedenheit der Bauernschaft, gemessen an den Verhältnissen in Teilen des christlichen Europa. Noch auffälliger war der Kontrast im 15. und 16.Jahrhundert, also im Zeitalter der großen europäischen Bauernaufstände. [...] Unterdrückte Bauern [christlicher Nachbarreiche der Osmanen] richteten ihre Hoffnung auf die Feinde ihrer Grundherren. Martin Luther warnte in seiner im Jahre 1541 veröffentlichten »Vermahnung zum Gebet wider den Türken«, daß die von habgierigen Fürsten, Grundeignern und Städtern ausgebeuteten Armen vielleicht lieber unter den Türken als unter solchen Christen leben würden. Sogar die Verteidiger der etablierten Ordnung waren von der politischen und militärischen Leistungsfähigkeit des türkischen Reiches in seiner Glanzzeit beeindruckt. Ein beachtlicher Teil der umfangreichen europäischen Literatur über die türkische Bedrohung behandelt die Vorzüge der türkischen Ordnung und empfiehlt, ihr nachzueifern.

Exemplarisch aus einem Standardwerk: Donald Quataert: The Ottoman Empire. Cambridge 2005:
Rezension auf deutsch: SEHEPUNKTE - Rezension von: The Ottoman Empire 1700-1922 - Ausgabe 8 (2008), Nr. 10
Zitat: "...wird eine unverzichtbare Lektüre im Schul- und Universitätsstudium werden."
Ich könnte noch weitere Rezensionen auch aus Fachzeitschriften zitieren, letztlich kommen alle Rezensenten zum Urteil, dass dieses Buch so fundiert ist, dass es als Standardwerk gelten wird. Das nur vorbeugend, damit nicht jemand denkt, es wäre irgendein Buch, und man könne ignorieren was dort steht:

Peaceful relations among Ottoman subjects were the norm over most of the period and the Ottoman system worked relatively well for almost all of its history.

ad hoc Übersetzung, wichtig, weil es ein Gesamturteil über 600 Jahre osmanischer Geschichte darstellt:
Das friedliche Zusammenleben der osmanischen Untertanen war die Norm über die meiste Zeit und das osmanische System arbeitete relativ gut für fast seine gesamte Geschichte.



Er schreibt es nochmals im Buch zusammenfassend, da es offenbar nicht oft genug betont werden kann:

Despite all stereotypes and preconceptions to the contrary, inter-Ottoman group relations during most of Ottoman history were rather good relative to the standards of the age.

weitere zusammenfassende Beurteilungen und Zurechtrückungen von Vorurteilen:

Thus, the issue of nationalism, on which there is profound confusion among scholars and the general public, takes center stage. In an older view, nationalism – sentiments of uniqueness, superiority, and the claim for independence – preceded and gave birth to the nation state. Persons felt they were part of an oppressed national group that had been and was being deprived of its economic, political, and cultural rights. And so they demanded the right to a state independent of Ottoman domination. In more recent arguments, the state is said to have come into being first; with nationalism emerging only subsequently. That is, the new state, to preserve itself, sponsored and created national identity formation within its borders.

One popular myth – that now has been debunked – had it that the Balkan economies were dying under oppressive Ottoman misadministration and needed freedom to survive. In fact, recent scholarship has shown the exact opposite to have been true; ...
[In Bulgarien z.B. im der Mitte des 19. Jh.; weiter:]
Generally, it turns out, the Balkans on the eve of their separation witnessed growing not declining prosperity....
... the period following independence brought economic decline ...
... Hence, we can no longer use economic decline to explain the emergence of separatist movements.

Noch weitere wichtige Feststellungen zur Identität, wichtig, da ja immer wieder von heutigen Verhältnissen auf damalige Verhältnisse unzulässigerweise verallgemeinert wird:

One’s religion – as Muslim, Christian, or Jew – was an important means of differentiation in the Ottoman world. Indeed, ethnic terms confusingly often described what actually were religious differences. ...
 ... Stereotypes present distorted and inaccurate pictures of Ottoman sub- jects living in sharply divided, mutually impenetrable, religious commu- nities called millets that date back to the fifteenth century. In this incorrect view, each community lived apart, in isolation from one another, adja- cent but separate. ...
... Recent scholarship shows this view to be fundamentally wrong on almost every score. ...
... In the first quotation are the words of Bulgarian émigré intelligentsia who were seeking to promote a separate Bulgarian nation state and break from Ottoman rule.1 To justify this separation, they invented a new past in which the Ottomans had abruptly ended the Bulgarian cultural renais- sance of the medieval era, destroying its ties to the West and preventing Bulgaria from participating in and contributing to western civilization. And yet, hear two other Bulgarian Christian voices speaking distinctly differently about Bulgarian Muslims, the first during the period just be- fore formal independence in 1908 and the other a few years later:

Turks and Bulgarians lived together and were good neighbors. On holidays they exchanged pleasantries. We sent the Turks kozunak and red eggs at Easter, and they sent us baklava at Bayram. And on these occasions we visited each other.2 In Khaskovo, our neighbors were Turks. They were good neighbors. They got on well together. They even had a little gate between their gardens. Both my parents knew Turkish well. My father was away fighting [during the Balkan Wars]. My mother was alone with four children. And the neighbors said: “You’re not going anywhere. You’ll stay with us . . . ” So Mama stayed with the Turks . . . What I’m trying to tell you is that we lived well with these people.

Thus, as the various quotations demonstrate, some Bulgarian Christian writers emphasize the differences between “Bulgarians” and “Turks” while others stress the everyday, friendly relations existing between two sets of neighbors ...
... The overwhelming majority of Ottoman subjects were not seeking separation or withdrawal. ... [etwas, was entweder vielen Diskutanten unbekannt ist, oder einfach unter dem Teppich gekehrt wird]
... Let me begin with the assertion that there was nothing inevitable about these conflicts – all were historically conditioned, that is, produced by quite particular circumstances that evolved in a certain but not unavoidable manner. Other outcomes historically were possible but did not happen because of the way in which events unfolded. Nor, it is important to repeat, are these struggles ancient ones reflecting millennia-old hatreds. Rather, each can be explained with reference to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, through the unfolding of specific events rather than inherent animosities of an alleged racial or ethnic nature. But because these contemporary struggles loom so large and because we assume that present-day hostilities have ancient and general rather than recent and specific causes, our understanding of the Ottoman inter-communal record has been profoundly obscured. ...
... In sum, the vast majority of Ottoman subjects in 1914 – of whatever religion and ethnicity – were not seeking to break away but instead retained their identities as Ottoman subjects. ...
... Differences among subjects always existed but only sometimes, as seen, did these lead to conflicts and violence. But, as in all societies, communal bigotry, intolerance, and violence flared intermittently for different economic, social, and political reasons. Thus, after Greek Uniates left Greek Orthodoxy and established their own church in 1701, the “hostility of the Orthodox Christians towards these perceived renegades degenerated into threats, persecution and riots in which members of one Christian sect burned down the churches of another rite.”7 In another example, Orthodox Christians in Damascus, in 1840, found the mutilated bodies of a high-ranking cleric of the Spanish monastery and his servant near some Jewish homes. And so local Christians whipped up charges of the blood libel, saying that Jews needed Christian blood for their religious rituals, forcing the arrest and torture of some wealthy Jewish merchants. Similarly, when a Greek child drowned in a river near Izmir at Easter time, local Greeks blamed the Jews and began assaulting them. Both the scale and the frequency of violence among Ottoman communal groups increased during the nineteenth century. ...
... Peaceful relations among Ottoman subjects were the norm over most of the period and the Ottoman system worked relatively well for almost all of its history. These statements, true as they are, will be passionately rejected by many. Images of the “Terrible Turk,” the “Bulgarian horrors” and the Armenian massacres resonate powerfully today, both in the historical imagination and the politics of the early twenty-first century. My goal here is to demystify the violence of the nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire, which certainly had its share of inter-communal strife, by placing it in its wider historical context. Overall, this violence should be understood as part of a global process that has given birth to nation states everywhere, including the Middle East, Europe, the United States, and east and south Asia. By contextualizing this violence, I do not seek to minimize or justify it. ...
... Ottoman Muslims had no monopoly on bringing death to their neighbors. As early as the 1840s, Maronite Christians and Druze in the Lebanon and Syrian regions began fighting one another. During the initial phases of the Greek war of independence, Orthodox Christian Greeks in 1821 slaughtered Ottoman Muslims in the city of Tripolis. In 1876, Christians in Bulgaria murdered 1,000 Muslims and triggered the Muslim slaughter of 3,700 Christians, the so-called “Bulgarian horrors” when the European press focused on Christian suffering but ignored that of Muslims. Further, Middle East violence was not confined to the nineteenth century. ... Likewise, the pages of American and European history are soaked in the blood of innocent, civilian, victims. ...
... In the more than thirty countries that now exist in territories once occupied by the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman past until recently has been largely ignored and/or considered in extremely negative terms. With some exceptions, this remains the situation today in the former Balkan provinces. ... Given the presence of the Ottoman Empire in many of these successor states for five to six centuries – an extraordinarily long period of time – the overall lack of public awareness and debate at first seems remarkable. ...
... In the former imperial lands, some nationalists continue to wax elo- quent about the cultural destruction wrought by the Ottomans. This is ironic, for the heterogeneous variety of cultures, customs, and lan- guages that presently exist in the successor states in fact is powerful testimony to the light hand of the Ottoman state on society. That is, the very fact that peoples who were speaking Bulgarian or Greek and professing Christianity at the moment of the Ottoman conquest still retained those languages and religion many centuries later following the departure of the Ottomans, speaks to Ottoman tolerance of linguistic and religious difference. ...

Und noch ein Hinweis auf einen Mythos des Balkans, dass zum Beispiel gerne immer von "angestammten" (womöglich sogar seit Jahrhunderten) Siedlungsräumen spricht, dabei aber übersieht, dass vielfach Grenzziehungen recht willkürlich sind. Laut Encyclopaedia of Islam, Artikel Sirb:


Die Serben innerhalb Serbiens waren im 19. Jahrhundert anfangs nur zu 1-20% autochtone Serben. Der Rest sind serbischsprachige Immigranten, die im Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts in Serbien einströmten.
Weiteres dazu im Vorposting dieser Serie in der Dissertation von Michael Kreutz.


Aus: Crampton, R. J.: A Concise History of Bulgaria. Cambridge 1997. S. 30.:

Ottoman Rule in the Bulgarian Lands

The vigorous but self-righteous Christians of the Victorian era created the impression that their co-religionists under Ottoman domination had suffered continual persecution for 500 years. It was not so. Ottoman history is certainly not free from terrible incidents of hideous outrage, but in Europe these were occasional. Many, if not most, followed acts of rebellion and if this does not excuse the excess it perhaps goes some way to explain it. Other outbursts were spontaneous, localised and random, the result usually of a peculiar combination of personal, political, social or economic factors. It would be unwise to imagine the Ottoman empire as some form of lost, multi-cultural paradise, but on the other hand it would also be wrong to deny that at some periods in its history the empire assured for all its subjects, irrespective of religion, stability, security and a reasonable degree of prosperity.

Osmanischer Staatsmann Hüseyin Hilmi Pascha (1855–1922/1923).
Er stammte von einer griechisch-muslimischen Familie auf Lesbos ab

Und wer die Grundlagen obiger Urteile selber begutachten möchte, und die entsprechende Sprachkompetenz mitbringt, kann sich gerne in den Archiven die Dokumente anschauen, die osmanischen Fermane, Gerichtsurteile, Erlasse, Verträge, usw. z.B. bezüglich der osmanischen Balkanprovinzen.

Beispielsweise mal im türkischen Staatsarchiv auf: "Balkanlarda Osmanlı Medeniyeti" klicken.
Leider ist die Darstellung dieser Schaubilder aus vergangenen Ausstellungen nicht sehr geglückt. Aber vielleicht kann ja jemand aufgrund dieser Bilder weiter recherchieren, wo man die Originale dann einsehen kann.

Viel besser ist diese Seite des Staatsarchivs, wo man die frei zugänglichen PDFs herunter laden kann, darunter auch komplette Ebooks, teils in englisch oder zumindest englische Zusammenfassungen.
Ein interessantes Beispiel sei hier angeführt, welches von osmanischen Originalquellen Transkriptionen bietet, sowie türkische und englische Zusammenfassungen der Dokumente:

Das erste im unteren Buch vorgestellte Ferman von Sultan Mehmed II. dem Eroberer bezüglich Bosniens, kann man auch hier in ungefährer deutscher Übersetzung anschauen:
Erlass vom Sultan 1448

Gökkubbe altında birlikte yaşamak: Belgelerin diliyle Osmanlı hoşgörüsü 

Living together under the same sky: The land of tolerance Ottoman. 

Ankara: Başbakanlık Basımevi, 2006. - XV, 364 s. - (T.C. Başbakanlık Devlet Arşivleri Genel Müdürlüğü Osmanlı Arşivi Daire Başkanlığı; yayın nu. 77)

Gökkubbe altında birlikte yaşamak: Belgelerin diliyle Osmanlı hoşgörüsü-kısım 1.pdf

Gökkubbe altında birlikte yaşamak: Belgelerin diliyle Osmanlı hoşgörüsü-kısım 2.pdf

Gökkubbe altında birlikte yaşamak: Belgelerin diliyle Osmanlı hoşgörüsü-kısım 3.pdf

Gökkubbe altında birlikte yaşamak: Belgelerin diliyle Osmanlı hoşgörüsü-kısım 4.pdf

Gökkubbe altında birlikte yaşamak: Belgelerin diliyle Osmanlı hoşgörüsü-kısım 5.pdf

Gökkubbe altında birlikte yaşamak: Belgelerin diliyle Osmanlı hoşgörüsü-kısım 6.pdf

Hier mal das Inhaltsverzeichnis auf englisch, um zu zeigen, über welche Themen dort Quellen veröffentlicht wurden:

TOLERANCE
• Ferman issued by Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror ensuring the Bosnian priests to practise their religious life in freedom
• Letter of gratitude by the inhabitants of Tuzla for giving the religious freedom
• Letter of gratitude in Serbian written by the Christian people of Bosnia concerning the permission to build new churches
• Letter of gratitude by some administrators of monasteries in Bosnia for giving the religious freedom
• Letter of gratitude in Serbian written by the administrators of three monasteries concerning the permission to build new churches
• Assistance by the Ottoman Treasury to complete the construction of a church in Yenibazar, Bosnia
• Letter of gratitude in Serbian written by the Christian inhabitants of Princan, a district in the kaza of Tashlica, Yenibazar, concerning the assistance by the Ottoman Treasury to complete the construction of the church built by themselves
• Prevention of collecting excessive taxes illegally from the inhabitants in Semendire
• Prevention of oppressions and collecting excessive taxes illegally from the inhabitants in Semendire
• Taking necessary precautions to prevent the disorder of security in Serbia
• Demand of the nobles of Greek nation in Bergos for allowance to repair their church
• Assistance demanded for completing the construction of the church in the sandjak of Islimye
• Solving the problems connected to the determination of clerical limits of the Bulgarian Exarchate, through the ferman of the Sultan
• Ferman issued by Sultan Abdulaziz, concerning the establishment of an independent Bulgarian Exarchate
• Decree sent to the Vaivode of Walachia to investigate the events around Transylvania and to ensure the security of people
• Decree sent to the Vaivode of Moldavia concerning non interference with the worship of  vladikas, metropolitans and priests
• Change of the day, Sunday, on which the open market of Yenishehr-i Fenar has been set up because it coincides with the day of Christian feast
• Speech of Pope Leon the 13th in the ceremony of his anniversary of beginning of papacy in the Church of Ragüza in which He praises the Ottoman Sultan
• Assistance to the Maruni School to be built in Rome
• Praying of Greek Orthodoxes and Jews  in their places of worship in Vienna on the birthday of Abdülhamid II
• Assistance to Armenian Catholic Patriarchate suffering from lack of money
• Exemption of all priests from customs taxes
• Ferman issued by Sultan Selim III concerning non collection of the excessive official marriage taxes from the Greeks and Armenians living in Istanbul
• Gratitude of the Greek Patriarchate for the ferman of Sultan Abdülmecid giving the priviliges since beginning of His reign
• Photograph of Armenian Church in Darülaceze, Istanbul
• Building a church for Catholics in Darülaceze
• Open of Synogogue in Darülaceze
• Photograph of Orthodox Church in Darülaceze, Istanbul
• Ferman issued by Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror concerning the demand of the priests of Jerusalem to practise their religious life in freedom
• Decree for taking care of cleanliness and forbidding improper actions in holy places in Jerusalem
• Gratitude of the Abyssinians concerning the permission to build a church in Jerusalem
• Building a place of worship for Druses in Süveyde
on the condition that all expenses are covered by the Ottoman Treasury
• Change of the day of the open market of Adabazari coinciding with the day of Christian feast
• Ferman of Tanzimat
• Not to load the horses and the mules used as pack animals in an excessive way

IMMIGRANTS
• Settlement of the tribe of Müdeccen, migrating from Spain, in Adana and its surroundings
• Settlement of the Kurs migrating from Temeshvar and Belgrade in Sophia
• Support by the Ottoman State for the Hungarian King Rakozcy suffering from Austrian oppression on the condition that he remains an ally of the Ottomans
• Emptying necessary places for the residence of the Hungarian King Rakozcy Ferenc in Rodoscuk(Tekirdag)
• Today view of the house allocated for the residence of the Hungarian King Rakozcy in Tekirdag
• Letter of gratitude sent by Carlos, the King of Sweden, concerning the consideration and interest shown to himself
• Settlement of the Polish refugees coming to Istanbul in Selanik and its surroundings
• List of the Jews who were expelled from Spain and Portugal and were settled in Edirne according to the Registerbook (Tahrir) dated 1519
• Translation of the petition sent by Paris Cemiyyet-i Umumiyye-i Musaviyye (the General Jewish Association of Paris)
• Acceptance of taking refuge of the group consisting of the Crimean Jews in the Ottoman State
• Assistance to the people coming from the Crimea to the Ottoman territories without discrimination of race and religion
• Plans of the houses in which the refugees coming from the Crimea to the Ottoman territories will be located
• Demand of Mr. Hermozi, the member of the Greek National Assembly, for taking refuge in the Ottoman State
• Grant of salaries to  the members of Serbian Senate and the nobles of Serbia taking refuge in the Ottoman State
• Demand of those from the Malakan tribe of the Russian citizenship, for taking refuge in the Ottoman State
• Demand of Mehmed Khan, the Sultan of Horasan, exiled by Persia to Tebriz for taking refuge in the Ottoman State
• Grant of salary and rank to Mülküm Khan, the advisor of the Persian Embassy in Istanbul, who demanded to take refuge in the Ottoman State
• Writing of Exterior Affairs concerning the demand of Melik Mansour, the brother of Persian Shah, for taking refuge in the Ottoman State
• Demand of the inhabitants of Selmas who suffer from oppression in Persia for taking refuge in the Ottoman State
• Grant of money to the the Greek families who had migrated from Sivas to Russia and are now returning back to the Ottoman State
• Demand of the 3 Greek people from the village of Göklen, Bulgaria, who suffer from Bulgarian oppression for taking refuge in the Ottoman State
• Demand of Ali bin Halife and Hüseyin bin Musi, the Tunisian commanders, and their men for taking refuge in the Ottoman State
• Letter of repentance written by the heads of the Armenian committee
• Letter in Armenian written by the repentant heads of the Armenian committee asking for taking refuge in the Ottoman State
• Settlement of the 13 repentant Armenian rebels in the village of Akças›rt, the sandjak of Genç, who are forgiven by the Sultan
• Demand of Suud, the little son of Ibnü’r-Reshid, for taking refuge in the Ottoman State
• Acceptance of the inhabitants of Polonez Köy to the Ottoman citizenship giving up the Polish citizenship
• Giving the permission to build a school, a church, and a bell tower in Polonez Köy, Beykoz, Istanbul

WESTERN WORLD
• Name-i hümayun sent by Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent to French King François in which He expresses His pleasure to hear the improvement of the relations between France and England
• Name-i hümayun sent by Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent to François II, the French King, concerning the continuation of friendship between the two states
• Name-i hümayun sent by  Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent to the King of Portugal
concerning the development of friendship between the two states
• Copy of the ahd-name given by Sultan Murad Khan III to the Doge of Venice
• Letter of promise sent by Stanislavos, the Polish King, ascending to the throne to the Polish kingdom newly in which He promises to remain loyal to the treaty of peace signed between the Ottoman State and Poland
• Acceptance of the independence of Poland by the Ottoman State and the sign of the protocol of consulate between the two sides
• Treaty of commerce based on friendship and equailty signed between the Ottoman State and Denmark
• Appointment of Baron Oserlovan, the extraordinary mediator envoy of Austria, as a
representative in the treaty to be signed between Belgium and the Ottoman State
• Demand of France for the Ottoman State to accept the independence of Belgium
• Treaty of friendship and commerce signed between the Ottoman State and Belgium
• Construction of a fountain on behalf of  Willhelm II, the German Emperor, in the square of Sultanahmed, Istanbul
• Acceptance of the bronze crown sent by Willhelm II, the German Emperor, to be put in the tomb of Selahaddin Eyyubi
• Permission given unofficially to the sportsmen from the Ottoman State to participate in the Olympics
• Sending an inscription by the Ottoman State to be put in the monument to be erected on behalf of the President Washington in the United States of America
• Sending camels to the United States of  America as presents
• Assistance to the victims of forest fires in the United States of America
• Letter of gratitude for assisting to the poor people in Ireland

ISLAMIC COUNTRIES
• Sending the allowance needed to repair Kaaba and its water conduits
• Copy of the treaty signed between the Ottoman State and Nadir Bahadir, the Shah of Persia, concerning captives, trade, sect, and pilgrims
• Supply of food for needy people in Beirut and Jebel-i Lübnan (Mount Lebanon)
• Supply of provisions and money for starving people in India
• Vivid interest shown by the people to the Ertoghrul frigate of the Ottoman fleet during the visit of Bombay in India
• Demand of the King of Jawa for the Ottoman citizenship
• Demand of the Government of Achin (on the island of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean), which is ruled by Alaeddin Mansour, and its inhabitants for Ottoman citizenship
• Demand of the Muslim community in Kimberley in South Africa who celebrate the birthday of Abdülhamid II for building an Ottoman School in their city
• Ferman issued by Sultan Selim II ordering to dig a canal connecting the Mediterranean with the Red Sea
• Map of the railroad of Hejaz


Nun fällt es natürlich sofort auf, dass die Auswahl an Dokumenten in obigem Ebook recht einseitig ausfällt, so dass der Eindruck beim unbedarften Leser erweckt wird, im Osmanischen Reich herrschte "Friede, Freude, Eierkuchen". Dem ist natürlich nicht so. Der offensichtliche Wunsch zu beschönigen tritt klar hervor.
Aber diese Dokumente helfen zumindest dem Klischee ein wenig entgegenzutreten, das Osmanische Reich wäre vor allem nur ein grausamer Unterdrücker seiner nichtmuslimischen Bevölkerung - daher auch die (veraltete) Floskel vom "osmanischen Joch". Und es mag für manchen Leser durchaus überraschend sein zu lesen, dass das osmanische Reich Erlaubnisse zum Bau von Kirchen und dergleichen erteilte, welches ja bei vielen Lesern als eines der Verbote in islamischen Ländern gilt.
Wie dem auch sei, obige Historiker und Osmanisten kennen ja durchaus unterschiedliche Dokumente in den diversen Archiven, und kommen zu den zitierten Urteilen über das Zusammenleben von Muslimen und Nichtmuslimen. Und dieses differenzierte Bild ist fern der grausamen Klischees über das Osmanische Reich, welches teilweise bei uns noch tradiert wird, oder welches auf dem Balkan oder anderen Nachfolgestaaten des Osmanischen Reiches weit verbreitet ist - sich aber auch dort langsam auf dem Rückzug befindet, denn die Quellen sprechen immer deutlicher eine andere Sprache.


(Bildquellen: Wikimedia Commons 1, 2)