Looking Back on the Ottomans

The Islamic empire of the 19th and 20th centuries had an entirely different sense of identity than the Islamic empire of the 16th and 17th centuries because the policies of the reformed empire renounced its strictly Islam lifestyle for a secular nationalist society, abolishing the distinguishing characteristic of the empire. During the the 16th and 17th centuries, the Ottoman empire represented the Islamic world. Islam was the empire's official religion, and, although people of other customs were permitted to live within its boundaries, they were not equal to those who followed the Islamic faith. They were forced to pay the jizya, a special tax imposed upon non Muslims, and their sons and daughters could be taken and trained to enter the harem or join the janissaries. Other religions were accepted, but Islam was the true religion of the Ottoman empire. In contrast, the Ottoman empire of the 19th and 20th centuries found that it could not exist by creating boundaries between its own people through its divisive religious policy. The Young Ottomans believed that the empire should be reformed based on western values, both reform of the people and the government. Although the Sultan Abd al-Hamid II abrogated the constitution that served to westernize the government, the Young Turks soon formed, demanding that people in the "Turkish nation" live a secular public life rather than one reliant on the Islam. Those still tied to the idea of Islamic superiority acquiesced to the nationalist ideas that erupted from the old Ottoman empire. The Law of Public Rights declared the secularization of all public services, finalizing the Young Turks' goals of a secular society. With the advancement of the western world, the Ottoman empire that had been so tightly bound to its seat of Islamic power transformed by necessity into a more Western empire.