SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This study examines the administration of the Ottoman army during the series of military campaigns which were conducted annually against the Hapsburgs in Hungary between 1593 and 1606. In 1526 the Ottoman army under Suleyman the Magnificent beat the Hungarian army at the battle of Mohacs, resulting in a power struggle between the Ottomans and the Hapsburgs in Hungary. Between 1541 and 1566 the Ottomans established full control over the central part of the country through measures which included the taxation of the inhabitants and the garrisoning of strongholds. A peace treaty between Ottoman and Hapsburg was concluded in 1568, and a state of official peace existed until the renewed outbreak of war in 1593; after the treaty of Zsitvatorok in 1606, peace was again maintained until the 1660s. The introduction is followed by a short chapter outlining the events of the Ottoman presence in Hungary between 1526 and 1606; the main body of the study discusses how the Ottomans mobilised an army to fight on the northwest border of the Empire, kept this army fed, and attempted to ensure that sufficient money was available to fund it. The administration of the provision of three of the elements which comprise the logistic bases of warfare are therefore discussed in three Parts: in Part I, manpower; in Part II, food; and in Part III, finance. This study is based on contemporary Ottoman documents and chronicles. By asking of the contemporary Ottoman data the same sorts of questions as are asked of their material by historians of western Europe, it is hoped that those aspects of the Ottoman Empire with which we are here concerned may be better understood. It should thus become possible to escape from the broad generalisations which often characterise the views of those unfamiliar with the primary sources for Ottoman history. This is a study of a particular epoch in the history of Central Europe; it is an attempt to demonstrate the valuable contribution which Ottoman source material can make to European history.