Ottoman Decline Period: How It Began and Its Sultans (1699

In the periodization common in textbooks, the Ottoman decline period is the era that begins with the Treaty of Karlowitz, signed on 26 January 1699, and ends with the Treaty of Jassy of 1792. In these years seven sultans, from Mustafa II to Selim III, sat on the throne. Wars with Russia, the loss of Crimea, revolts and reform attempts modeled on the West came to the fore; the name of the period, however, is debated today.

Quick Summary

In textbooks, the decline period begins with the Treaty of Karlowitz, signed on 26 January 1699.
Textbooks close the decline period with the Treaty of Jassy of 1792 and describe the following era as the period of dissolution.
The sultans of the decline period were Mustafa II, Ahmed III, Mahmud I, Osman III, Mustafa III, Abdülhamid I and Selim III.
The victory at the Prut (1711), the recapture of the Morea and the treaty of 1739 that brought back Belgrade are the successes of the decline period.
The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca of 1774 made Crimea independent; Russia annexed Crimea in 1783.
The name “decline period” comes from great losses such as Hungary and Crimea, but today it is debated.

What event begins the decline period, and how does it end?
The sultans and their reigns
Major events: wars, treaties, revolts
Reform attempts
Why was it given this name, and why is it debated?
Frequently asked questions

With What Event Does the Decline Period Begin?

The framework common in textbooks starts the decline period with the Treaty of Karlowitz. The treaty ended the wars on many fronts that had begun with the Siege of Vienna in 1683 and lasted about sixteen years. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, it was signed on 26 January 1699 at a ceremony attended by all the plenipotentiaries. The Ottoman state lost all of Hungary except Temesvár (Timișoara); the Morea was ceded to Venice, and Podolia to Poland.

According to Feridun Emecen, Karlowitz resulted in the loss of frontier regions that had been expanded through struggle since 1526. In these long wars the Ottomans had for the first time found a broad front arrayed against them. Emecen notes that the withdrawal from Central Europe would also gradually affect the Ottoman presence in the Balkans. A separate treaty was concluded with Russia in Istanbul in 1700, and the fortress of Azov was left to Russia.

Which Treaty Closes the Decline Period?

Textbooks commonly close the decline period with the Treaty of Jassy of 1792 and describe the following era as the period of dissolution. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the texts of the treaty were sealed and exchanged on 10 January 1792; 9 January had first been agreed on for the signing. Kemal Beydilli, who wrote the entry, regards this peace as the beginning of the Nizam-ı Cedid (“New Order”) reforms. The encyclopedia’s entry “Osmanlılar” (Ottomans), by contrast, draws the line at 1774, covering the years 1300–1774 under the heading “classical period” and what follows under “modern periods”.

Sultans of the Decline Period and Their Reigns

The sultans of the decline period begin with Mustafa II, who was on the throne at the time of Karlowitz, and end with Selim III, who was on the throne at the time of the Peace of Jassy. Mustafa II is also counted as the last sultan of the stagnation period, while Selim III’s reign lasted until 1807. The regnal years below follow the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam’s entries on the individual sultans. You can find all the rulers in our article on the Ottoman sultans in order.

Sultan	Reign	Key developments
Mustafa II	1695–1703	Defeat at Zenta (1697), Treaty of Karlowitz (1699); deposed in the Edirne Incident of 1703
Ahmed III	1703–1730	Victory at the Prut (1711), recapture of the Morea, Treaty of Passarowitz (1718), the Tulip Era; gave up the throne in the Patrona Halil Revolt
Mahmud I	1730–1754	Wars with Iran, the Humbarahane (1734), Treaty of Belgrade (1739)
Osman III	1754–1757	Years of long peace; opening of the Nuruosmaniye complex (1755), great fires in Istanbul
Mustafa III	1757–1774	Ottoman-Russian war of 1768, the Chesma raid (1770), Russian invasion of Crimea (1771)
Abdülhamid I	1774–1789	Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca (1774), annexation of Crimea (1783), renewed war in 1787
Selim III	1789–1807	Treaties of Sistova (1791) and Jassy (1792), the Nizam-ı Cedid; deposed in 1807

Representative image for the article on the Ottoman Decline Period: sepia-toned portrait of a bearded Ottoman sultan wearing a large white turban — Portrait of a turbaned, bearded Ottoman sultan (representative image)

Several sultans of the decline period came to the throne after spending many years under watch in the palace. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, Osman III became sultan at the age of fifty-eight and was the şehzade (prince) who had stayed longest in the Şimşirlik apartment, known as the kafes (“cage”). Abdülhamid I, too, came to the throne at forty-nine without any experience in affairs of state. Mustafa II, by contrast, was the last Ottoman sultan to go on campaign at the head of his armies.

Major Events of the Decline Period

The decline period did not consist of defeats alone. According to Feridun Emecen, until the last quarter of the 18th century the Ottomans fought their rivals effectively and were mostly successful in military terms. In his view, it was really the war of 1768 that laid bare the sorry state of the military system.

The video below, which explains the decline period with maps, also briefly introduces the sultans.

The Edirne Incident and the Prut Campaign (1703–1713)

After Karlowitz, failure in the wars and the lost territories gave rise to general discontent. In 1703 a revolt over ulufe (soldiers’ pay) by about 200 cebecis (armorers) who were to be sent to Georgia soon turned into an uprising against the state. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the ostensible target of the revolt was the sultan’s tutor, the Sheikh al-Islam Feyzullah Efendi. At the end of this episode, known as the Edirne Incident, Mustafa II left the throne to his brother Ahmed III.

According to Emecen, the idea of taking revenge for Karlowitz never left the minds of the statesmen. Two developments led to a new campaign: King Charles XII of Sweden, defeated by the Russians at Poltava, took refuge with the Ottomans, and the Russians staged provocations on the border. In 1711 the sadrazam (grand vizier) Baltacı Mehmed Pasha met the Russian army commanded by Tsar Peter on the banks of the river Prut and won a great victory. With the Peace of the Prut and the Treaty of Edirne of 1713, Azov passed back to the Ottomans. We described these wars in detail in our article on the Ottoman-Russian wars.

The Recapture of the Morea and the Treaty of Passarowitz (1714–1718)

Having found relief in the north, the state wanted to recover the Morea, which had been ceded to Venice at Karlowitz. In December 1714 Ahmed III entrusted this task to the grand vizier Damat Ali Pasha, and the Morea peninsula was taken back from the Venetians. Austria, however, also entered the war on Venice’s side. Damat Ali Pasha fell in battle at Petrovaradin in 1716, and the fortress of Belgrade was then lost as well.

Peace came with the Treaty of Passarowitz, signed on 21 July 1718 during the grand vizierate of Nevşehirli Damat İbrahim Pasha. According to Emecen, the region of Temesvár, Lesser Wallachia (Oltenia) and Belgrade were ceded to Austria; Hungary was thus lost completely. Venice recovered the island of Cerigo (Kythira), which it had lost in the war, and gained coastal towns such as Butrint and Preveza; the Morea, however, remained in Ottoman hands. Abdülkadir Özcan writes that with this treaty the state began to lose its standing as a strong power in the eyes of Europe.

The Tulip Era and the Patrona Halil Revolt (1718–1730)

The years from Passarowitz to 1730 are a relatively prosperous interval of peace within the decline period. According to Emecen, in this phase the Ottomans began to understand that not everything could be won by war, and to grasp the importance of diplomacy. We described these years, later given the name Tulip Era, in detail in our article on what the Ottoman Tulip Era meant. The period closed with the Patrona Halil Revolt of 1730, in which anger fed by losses on the Iranian front and by new taxes exploded. Ahmed III was forced to leave the throne to his nephew Mahmud I.

The Wars with Iran and the Treaty of Belgrade (1730–1739)

Mahmud I first eliminated Patrona Halil, who had all but placed the state under his tutelage. He then dealt with the wars with Iran, which had continued intermittently since 1723; after 1733 the upper hand passed to Nader, the shah of Iran. According to Emecen, the treaty of 1746 restored the borders of the Treaty of Zuhab (Qasr-e Shirin) of 1639. The Ottoman ulema (religious scholars), for their part, vehemently rejected Nader Shah’s proposal that the Jaʿfari school be recognized as a fifth madhhab (school of law).

In the west, meanwhile, Russia attacked Azov in 1736, and the following year Austria joined the war as well. The Russians took Azov and Ochakov (Özü), while the Austrians attacked Niš and entered Wallachia. The Ottoman army regrouped and recovered Niš; in 1739 it defeated the Austrians in the battles between Belgrade and Grocka (Hisarcık) and took back Belgrade. Under the Treaty of Belgrade, signed the same year, the Austrians withdrew north of the Danube. According to Emecen, the fortress of Azov was demolished and a buffer zone was created between the two states.

From the Long Peace to Küçük Kaynarca (1739–1774)

The French ambassador Villeneuve, who had mediated the peace, had the capitulations renewed and expanded in 1740. According to Özcan, this opened a long era of peace that would last until 1768. According to Kemal Beydilli, however, these years of peace were lost years in which the necessary renewal was not carried out. After Russia’s interference in the internal affairs of Poland and its attacks on Crimea and Ottoman territory, war was declared in September 1768 without any of the necessary preparations. The Russians quickly overran Crimea, occupied Wallachia and Moldavia and advanced as far as the Danube.

In July 1770 the Russian fleet that had come from the Baltic burned the Ottoman fleet at Chesma (Çeşme). After the rout at Kozludzha (Kozluca) in June 1774, the army camp at Shumen (Şumnu) was besieged. Under the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca, signed on 21 July 1774, Crimea became an independent khanate, while its religious allegiance to the caliph was preserved. Kinburn, Kerch and Yenikale were ceded to Russia, and the payment of a war indemnity of 15,000 kese (purses) in three installments was accepted.

The treaty’s articles concerning the Orthodox, however, are debated. Münir Aktepe writes that with this treaty the Russians gained the status of protector of the Ottoman Orthodox. Beydilli, on the other hand, states that it is now regarded as a historical fact that the seventh and fourteenth articles were deliberately misinterpreted by Russia.

The Loss of Crimea, Sistova and Jassy (1783–1792)

According to Beydilli, seizing Crimea, which had become legally independent with Küçük Kaynarca, was the main goal of Russia under Catherine II. The Convention of Aynalıkavak of 1779 did not change this goal either, and Russia annexed Crimea in 1783. The state, which was not ready for war, officially recognized this with a deed (senet) it issued in January 1784. Anti-Russian feeling in public opinion also had an effect, and in 1787 war was declared on Russia. The real aim of the war was to recover Crimea; Austria, for its part, joined the war as Russia’s ally.

On the Russian front the war went badly. Abdülhamid I suffered a stroke while reading the dispatch reporting the fall of the fortress of Ochakov, and he died in 1789. His successor, Selim III, made an alliance with Prussia in 1790; peace was made with Austria at Sistova on 4 August 1791 without any significant loss of territory. After the rout at Măcin in 1791, however, the leading men of the army called for peace and submitted this decision to the sultan in a joint petition (mahzar).

Beydilli describes this as a boycott without precedent in Ottoman history. In a hatt-ı hümayun (imperial rescript), Selim III assessed the Russians’ insistence on the border question with the words “We have no soldiers, we have no strength, and they know it”. Under the Treaty of Jassy the river Dniester (Turla) was accepted as the border, and the dream of recovering Crimea came to an end.

Reform Attempts in the Decline Period

The defeats of the decline period also set off a search for ways to reorganize the army on the European model. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, Mahmud I asked İbrahim Müteferrika about the causes of the defeats, and this question led to the writing of the Usulü’l-hikem. The French convert Humbaracı Ahmed Pasha (Comte de Bonneval) was charged with reforming the Bombardiers Corps (Humbaracı Ocağı). In 1734 the pasha opened a barracks and school in Üsküdar called the Hendesehane or Humbarahane; the encyclopedia regards it as the first example of the later engineering schools (mühendishanes).

In the reign of Mustafa III, with the technical assistance of Baron de Tott, the fortresses of the Straits were strengthened, and the Tophane (cannon foundry) and the Artillery Corps (Topçu Ocağı) were reformed. The artillery school (Topçu Mektebi), opened in 1772 in the middle of the war, could operate for only about a year. The Rapid-Fire Artillery Corps (Sürat Topçuları Ocağı), founded in January 1774, could not change the course of the war either. According to Beydilli, Mustafa III grasped the need to set the Janissary corps in order but did not dare to make a serious attempt to do so.

In the reign of Abdülhamid I, the Imperial Naval Engineering School (Mühendishâne-i Bahrî-i Hümâyun), opened in 1775, began training naval officers. Under the grand vizier Halil Hamid Pasha (1782–1785), new laws were issued for the timariot sipahis (cavalrymen holding land grants) and the Janissary corps. When France recalled its experts during the war of 1787, however, these innovations stalled for a time.

The truly comprehensive step came after the Peace of Jassy. Selim III set about creating an army trained in the European manner and a new navy; this renewal became known as the Nizam-ı Cedid. According to Beydilli, Selim III was the first to state openly the need to take European institutions as a model and to apply it on a broad scale. The reforms, however, came to an end when Selim III was deposed in the Kabakçı Mustafa revolt of May 1807.

Why Is This Era Called the Decline Period?

Behind the name “decline period” lie concrete losses. Hungary was lost with Karlowitz and Passarowitz, and Crimea with Küçük Kaynarca and the annexation of 1783. According to Beydilli, the war of 1768 exposed Ottoman weakness with full clarity and documented Russia’s rise as a great power. King Frederick the Great of Prussia had described this war as “a war of the blind against the one-eyed”.

The treasury and the institutions were also under strain. According to Beydilli, when Mustafa III saw in the first years of the war that all the reserves in the treasury had been used up, he borrowed from his son Selim and his daughter Şah Sultan. According to the same author, the state was entirely removed from, and even unaware of, developments in Europe, which was going through great intellectual and economic change in the Age of Enlightenment. According to the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam, the Prussian envoy Diez, too, was saying in May 1789 that the renewal of “a state that has been in decline for more than 100 years” would take many years.

Even so, present-day historiography uses the name “decline period” with caution. Indeed, the TDV Encyclopedia of Islam’s entry “Osmanlılar” does not make it the heading of a period; Feridun Emecen treats the era up to 1774 as the classical period. Abdülkadir Özcan, too, remembers Mahmud I as the sultan who gave the state its last brilliant period. We discussed the terms of Karlowitz and the criticisms directed at period labels in detail in our article on why the Ottoman stagnation period began.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did the Ottoman decline period begin?

According to the framework common in textbooks, the decline period began with the Treaty of Karlowitz, signed on 26 January 1699.

How many years did the decline period last?

In the textbook framework, the decline period covers the ninety-three years between Karlowitz (1699) and Jassy (1792).

Who were the sultans of the decline period?

The decline period had seven sultans: Mustafa II, Ahmed III, Mahmud I, Osman III, Mustafa III, Abdülhamid I and Selim III.

Which period does the Tulip Era fall in?

The Tulip Era is the span of years within the decline period between the Treaty of Passarowitz of 1718 and the Patrona Halil Revolt of 1730. It falls in the reign of Ahmed III.

Conclusion

In textbooks, the decline period is the era between the treaties of Karlowitz (1699) and Jassy (1792). During this time Hungary and Crimea were lost, while Russia emerged as a great power. Yet the victory at the Prut, the recapture of the Morea and the Treaty of Belgrade show that the picture was not one of defeat alone.

The wound opened by the defeats also gave rise to the search for reform that stretched from the Humbarahane to the Nizam-ı Cedid. That is why the decline period can be read not only as a story of collapse but also as an age of transition in which the state tried to restructure itself in the face of Europe.