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Celali-Aufstände

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Jelali (Turkish Celalî), were a series of rebellions in Anatolia against the Ottoman Empire in 16th and 17th centuries. The first revolt occurred in 1519 during sultan Selim I's reign near Tokat under the leadership of Celâl, an Alawite preacher. Major revolts later occurred in 1526-28, 1595-1610, 1654-55, and 1658-59. They were brought to an end during the reign of Murad IV. These rebellions are the largest and longest lasting in the history of the Ottoman Empire.

The distinguishing characteristic of the revolts was that although they initially started out as a civil unrest in reaction against deteriorating living conditions, in time rebellious groups turned out against the people to be oppressors claiming land from common people, and such caused the continuation of the revolts to be against them. The major uprisings involved the sekbans (irregular troops of musketeers) and sipahis (cavalrymen maintained by land grants). The rebellions were not attempts to overthrow the Ottoman government but were reactions to a social and economic crisis stemming from a number of factors: a depreciation of the currency, heavy taxation, a decline in the devshirme system by admission of Muslims into the army, and an increase in the number and dominance of the janissaries (sultan's household troops) both in the capital Istanbul and in the provinces.

Causes

  • Oppressed peasants and declining timariot system. The Ottoman taxation system was based on agriculture and the major share was collected off from peasants toiling for the local feudal lords who were in turn taxed by the local government to pay the mukataa. When tax rates were raised for the local governors due to devaluation of the currency and enormous expenses of the state caused by newly conquered lands and military campaigns, the feudal agricultural lords illegally increased the amount of tax they demanded from the peasants. In the meanwhile, land evaluators started to demand bribes to refrain from assessing higher values for land value taxes. Consequently, many peasants started to quit being laborers for feudal lords, emigrating to larger provinces either to join governors' forces as sekbans or to become vagabonds (levends). These numerous peasants were required to pay even further taxes for disrupting the system, but still, the population increased in large cities and unemployment rate increased sharply.
During wartime the sekbans served the governors and drew regular pay. In peacetime, however, they were not paid, and they resorted to banditry. The first rebellions were, in nature, merely raids by sekbans commanded by their governors and joined by levends to extort more money from the public. They were later joined by sipahis, who had lost their land grants, levends, and Turkmen and Kurdish nomads.
  • Degenerate officials. With the decline of the devshirme governor system, and high taxes, the governors and local officials increased their unofficial tax rates and started to exploit the workforce of the peasants. In parallel to these developments, bribery increased.
  • Oppressed Alawites and increasing Arab and Persian influences in the royal court. When Selim I conquered Egypt, he was invested the caliphate and became the holy ruler of the Sunni world. He was resolved on putting down the Safavid ruler Shah Ismail I who he viewed as the leader of the "heretic" Shiites, and thus Selim cooperated with feudal lords in violently suppressing the Alawite population in Anatolia, at the same time started a war against Ismail. Many Alawites and those who felt close to Shah Ismail for his Turkic origins consequently joined the rebellious groups.

Major revolts

  • Celalî (1519). While Selim I was on his Egyptian campaign, an Alawite preacher called Celal gathered about 20,000 people near Bozok (current day Yozgat) and marched to Tokat to organise riots. He had also Turkmen groups joining his forces, restless because of the oppression towards liberal Muslims in Anatolia. Sekbans, sipahis who had lost their timar (fief), highly taxed peasants and discontent townspeople also marched to Tokat.
Selim I sent the Grand Governor (Beylerbeyi) of Rumelia Ferhat Pasha and the Bey of Dulkadir, Sehsuvaroglu Ali over to quell the rebels, and Celal was killed. However unrest did not subside, especially within the Turkmen community, sekbans and sipahis.
  • Baba Zünnun (1525). At Icel Province, as a reaction to the increase of land taxes by the local clerk, and the harsh attitude of decadent tax collectors caused Baba Zünnun and some other religious leaders start a revolt against the feudal lord the bey of Bozok. The local clerk and the leaders of the rebellion were killed and the clashes subsided.
  • Kalender Çelebi (1528). During the reign of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, when the empire suffered financial hardships, an inventory of the taxed lands was ordered to be made. Many of the evaluators assessed much higher values for the lands to collect more tax. In addition of course, the extravagant palace expenditures, the never-ending wars, and capitulations with France aggravated discontent especially among peasants and tradesman.
While Suleiman was at a campaign over Hungary, disgruntled crowds near Ankara and Kirsehir revolted under the leadership of a man called Kalender Çelebi. Their number grew in short time to 30,000. With the news of the large scale of the rebellion, Suleiman sent the Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha with the kapikulu forces mostly composed of Janissaries. A big battle took place on May 27, 1528 and the revolt was bloodily suppressed.
  • Karayazici (1598). Especially after 1550s, with the increase of oppression by local governors and levying of new illegal and high taxes, minor incidents took place in increasing frequency. After the beginning of the wars with Persia, especially after 1584, Janissaries began to seize the lands of the peasants, illegally extort money from the people, lend money with high interest rates, thus causing the tax revenues of the state to seriously drop.
In these circumstances, in 1598 a sekban leader, Karayazici Abdülhalim (Abd al-Halim), united the dissatisfied groups in Anatolia, forcing the towns to pay tribute and took up to be the governor of a small district. However, he denied to overturn the district to his successor, he rebelled and killed the new officer with the help of rebellious levends and peasants. He was offered the governorship of Çorum, but he did not agree and when Ottoman forces were sent against them, instead he retreated with his forces to Urfa, seeking refuge in a fortified castle, making it the center of resistance for 18 months. Out of fright that his forces would plot mutiny against him, he left the castle, was defeated by government forces, and died some time later in 1602 of natural causes. His brother Deli Hasan then seized Kutahya, in western Anatolia, but later he and his followers were won over by grants of governorships.

The Jelali unrests, however, continued under the leadership of Janbuladoglu in Aleppo and Yusuf Pasha and Kalenderoglu in western Anatolia. They were finally suppressed by the grand vizier Kuyucu Murad Pasha, who by 1610 had eliminated a large number of Jelalis.

During the rest of the 17th and the 18th century, Jelalis continued their periodic depredations in Anatolia, representing a provincial reaction against the increasing power of the Janissaries.


See also

References

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