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Ottoman Hungary
Ottoman Hungary (Hungarian: Török hódoltság) describes the
history of southern and central Medieval Hungary which was
conquered and ruled by the Ottoman Empire from 1541 to 1699. The
Ottoman rule was scattered and covered mostly the southern
territories of the former medieval Kingdom of Hungary, namely
almost the entire region of the Great Hungarian Plain (except the
northeastern parts) and Southern Transdanubia.

Ottoman occupation of the

Contents Hungarian Kingdom – 1629
History
Administration
Ethnic changes during the Ottoman rule
Immigration
Culture
Muslim schools
Religion
Gallery
See also
References
Sources
External links

History
By the sixteenth century, the power of the Ottoman Empire had increased gradually, as did the
territory controlled by them in the Balkans, while the Kingdom of Hungary was weakened by the
peasants' uprisings. Under the reign of Louis II Jagiellon (1516–1526), internal dissentions divided
the nobility.

Instigating war by feigned diplomatic insult, Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–1566) attacked the
Kingdom of Hungary and captured Belgrade in 1521. He did not hesitate to launch an attack against
the weakened kingdom, whose smaller, badly led army (approximately 26,000 Hungarian soldiers
compared to 45,000 Ottoman soldiers) was defeated on 29 August 1526 at the Battle of Mohács. Thus
he became influential in the Kingdom of Hungary, while his semi-vassal, named John Zápolya, and
his enemy Ferdinand I both claimed the throne of the Kingdom. Suleiman went further and tried to
crush Austrian forces, but his Siege of Vienna in 1529 failed after the onset of winter forced his
retreat. The title of king of Hungary was disputed between Zápolya and Ferdinand until 1540. After
the seizure of Buda by the Ottomans in 1541,[1] the West and North recognized a Habsburg as king
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("Royal Hungary"), while the central and southern counties were

annexed by the Ottoman Sultan and the east was ruled by the son of
Zápolya under the name Eastern Hungarian Kingdom which after
1570 became the Principality of Transylvania. Whereas a great many
of the 17,000 and 19,000 Ottoman soldiers in service in the Ottoman
fortresses in the territory of present-day Hungary were Orthodox
and Muslim Balkan Slavs,[2] Southern Slavs were also acting as
akıncıs and other light troops intended for pillaging in the territory
of present-day Hungary.[3]

In these times, territory of present-day Hungary began to undergo

The political situation around changes due to the Ottoman occupation. Vast lands remained
1572: The Habsburg Kingdom of unpopulated and covered with woods. Flood plains became marshes.
Hungary (Royal Hungary), The life of the inhabitants on the Ottoman side was unsafe. Peasants
Principality of Transylvania, and fled to the woods and marshes, forming guerrilla bands, known as
Ottoman eyalets
the Hajdú troops. Eventually, the territory of present-day Hungary
became a drain on the Ottoman Empire, swallowing much of its
revenue into the maintenance of a
long chain of border forts.
However, some parts of the
economy flourished. In the huge
unpopulated areas, townships bred
cattle that were herded to south
Germany and northern Italy - in
some years they exported 500,000
head of cattle. Wine was traded to The 1881 map of Hungary
The political situation around the Czech lands, Austria and showing the boundaries of the
1683: The Habsburg Kingdom of Poland.[4] almost completely destroyed
Hungary (Royal Hungary), Imre Hungarian settlement areas
The defeat of Ottoman forces led by
Thököly's Principality of Upper during the Ottoman occupation
Hungary (existed between 1682-Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha of Hungary
1685), Principality of at the Second Siege of Vienna in
Transylvania, and Ottoman 1683, at the hands of the combined
eyalets (Budin Eyalet, Varat armies of Poland and the Holy
Eyalet, Eğri Eyalet, Temeşvar
Roman Empire under John III
Eyalet, Kanije Eyalet, Uyvar
Sobieski, was the decisive event
Eyalet)
that swung the balance of power in
the region.[5] Under the terms of
the Treaty of Karlowitz, which
ended the Great Turkish War in 1699, the Ottomans ceded to
Habsburgs much of the territory they had previously taken from the
medieval Kingdom of Hungary. Following this treaty, the members
of the Habsburg dynasty administered a much enlarged Habsburg
Kingdom of Hungary (previously they controlled only area known as
"Royal Hungary"; see Kingdom of Hungary (1526–1867)).

In the 1540s, the total of the four principal fortresses of Buda Ottoman soldiers in the territory
(2,965), Pest (1,481), Székesfehérvár (2,978) and Esztergom (2,775) of present-day Hungary
were 10,200 troops.[6]

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The number of Ottoman garrison troops stationed in Ottoman Hungary vary, but during the peak
period in the mid-16th century it rose to between 20,000 and 22,000 men. As a force of occupation
for a country the size of Hungary, even confined to central portions it was a rather low-profile military
presence in much of the country and a relatively large proportion of it was concentrated in a few key
fortresses.[7]

In 1640 when the front remained relatively quiet, 8,000 Janissary supported by an undocumented
number of local recruits was sufficient to garrison the whole of the Eyalet of Budin.[7]

Administration
The Hungarian Ottoman province covered about 91,250 km2
(35,230  sq  mi).[8] The territory was divided into Eyalets
(provinces), which were further divided into Sanjaks, with the
highest ranking Ottoman official being the Pasha of Budin. At
first, Ottoman-controlled territories in present-day Hungary
were part of the Budin Eyalet. Later, new eyalets were
formed: Temeşvar Eyalet, Zigetvar Eyalet, Kanije Eyalet, Eğri
Eyalet, and Varat Eyalet. Administrative centers of Budin,
Zigetvar, Kanije and Egir eyalets were located in the territory
of present-day Hungary, while Temeşvar and Varat eyalets
that had their administrative centers in the territory of
present-day Romania also included some parts of present-
day Hungary. Pashas and Sanjak-Beys were responsible for
administration, jurisdiction and defense. The Ottomans' only
interest was to secure their hold on the territory.
The Sublime
Porte (Ottoman rulers) became the sole landowner and
managed about 20 percent of the land for its own benefit,
apportioning the rest among soldiers and civil servants. The
Ottoman landlords were interested mainly in squeezing as
much wealth from the land as quickly as possible. Of major
importance to the Sublime Porte was the collection of taxes.
Taxation left little for the former landlords to collect; Most of Ottoman soldiers besiege Estolnibelgrad
the nobility and large numbers of burghers emigrated into (probably Székesfehérvár) in Hungary.
the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary ("Royal Hungary")
province. Wars, slave-taking, and the emigration of nobles
who lost their land caused a depopulation of the countryside. However, the Ottomans practiced
relative religious tolerance and allowed the various ethnicities living within the empire significant
autonomy in internal affairs. Towns maintained some self-government, and a prosperous middle class
developed through artisanry and trade.

Ethnic changes during the Ottoman rule

As a consequence of the 150 years of constant warfare between the Christian states and Ottomans,
population growth was stunted, and the network of ethnic Hungarian medieval settlements, with their
urbanized bourgeois inhabitants, perished. The ethnic composition of the territory that had been part
of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary was fundamentally changed through deportations and
massacres, so that the number of ethnic Hungarians in existence at the end of the Ottoman period
was substantially diminished.[9]

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The economic decline of Buda the capital city during the Ottoman conquest characterized by the
stagnation of population. The population of Buda was not larger in 1686 than two centuries earlier in
the 15th century.[10] The Ottomans allowed the Hungarian royal palace to fall into ruins.[11] The
Ottomans later transformed the palace into a gunpowder store and magazine,[12] which caused its
detonation during the siege in 1686. The Christian Hungarian population significantly shrank in the
next decades, due to them fleeing to the Habsburg-ruled Royal Hungary, especially by 1547 the
number of the original Christian population of Buda was down to about a thousand, and by 1647 it
had fallen to only about seventy.[13] The number of Jewish and Gypsy immigrants became dominant
during the Ottoman rule in Buda.[14]

The Hungarian inhabitants of cities moved to other places

when they felt threatened by the Ottoman military presence.
Without exception, in the cities that became Ottoman
administrative centers the Christian population decreased.
The Hungarian population remained only in some cities,
where the Ottoman garrisons were not installed.[15] From the
early 17th century, Serbian refugees were the ethnic majority
in large parts of Ottoman-controlled Hungary. That area
included territories between the great rivers Sava, Drava, and
the Danube–Tisza Interfluve (the territory between the The Holy League took Buda after a long
Danube and Tisza rivers).[16] siege in 1686

According to modern estimations, the proportion of

Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin was around 80% at the end of the 15th century, and non-
Hungarians hardly were more than 20% to 25% of the total population.[17][18][19][20] The Hungarian
population began to decrease at the time of the Ottoman conquest,[17][18] The decline of the
Hungarians was due to the constant wars, Ottoman raids, famines, and plagues during the 150 years
of Ottoman rule.[17][18][21] The main zones of war were the territories inhabited by the Hungarians, so
the death toll depleted them much faster than other nationalities.[17][21]

The three parts of Hungary; the Habsburg Hungary, Ottoman Hungary and Transylvania, experienced
only minor differences in population increase in the 17th century.[22]

Immigration

According to data presented in the most authoritative studies, the collective population of all three
regions grew from about 3.5 million inhabitants at the close of the 16th century to about 4 million by
the close of the 17th century.[22] This increase was before the immigration to Hungary from other
parts of the Habsburg Empire.[23] The Ottoman–Habsburg wars of the 17th century were fought
intermittently and affected populations occupying a much narrower band of territory.[22] Thus
wartime dislocations in Hungary do not seem to have seriously affected mortality rates among the
general civilian population.[22] The breakdown of social order and other economic links between
contiguous regions that is associated with prolonged warfare of the medieval pattern was largely
absent in Ottoman warfare of the 17th century.[22] The most severe destructions were experienced
during the Hungarian time of troubles, when between 1604 and 1606 the worst effects of the
controlled confrontation between Ottoman-Habsburg forces were magnified many times over by
Hungary's descent into civil war during the Bocskay rebellion.[22]

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Hungary's population in the late 16th century was in Ottoman Hungary 900,000, in Habsburg
Hungary 1,800,000 and 'free' (Transylvania) Hungary 800,000, making a total of 3,500,000
inhabitants for the whole of Hungary.[23]

The population growth in Ottoman Hungary during the 17th century was slight: from 900,000 to
approximately 1,000,000 inhabitants, a rate similar to that experienced in Royal Hungary and
Transylvania.[23]

Culture
Despite the continuous warfare with the Habsburgs, several Ottoman Muslim cultural centres sprang
up in this far northern corner of the Empire. Examples of Ottoman architecture of the classical period,
seen in the famous centres of Constantinople and Edirne, were also seen in the territory of present-
day southern Hungary, where mosques, bridges, fountains, baths and schools were built. After the
Habsburg reclamation, most of these works were destroyed and few survive to this day. The
introduction of Turkish baths, with the building of the Rudas Baths, was the beginning of a long
tradition in the territory of present-day Hungary. No less than 75 hammams (steam baths) were built
during the Ottoman age.

Muslim schools

During the 16th and 17th century there were about Five Bektashi convents or dervish lodges
established across Hungary, two in Buda, one in Eğri, another one in Székesfehérvár and one in
Lippa.[24] In the seventeenth century, 165 elementary (mekteb) and 77 secondary and academic
theological schools (medrese) were operating in 39 of the major towns of the region. The elementary
schools taught writing, basic arithmetics, and the reading of the Koran and of the most important
prayers. The medreses carried out secondary and academic training within the fields of Muslim
religious sciences, church law and natural sciences. Most medreses operated in Budin (Buda), where
there were twelve. In Peçuy (Pécs) there were five medreses, Eğri had four. The most famous medrese
in Ottoman-controlled territory of present-day Hungary was that of Budin (Buda), built by the Serb
Mehmed-pasha Sokolović during his seventeen years of governing (1566–1578).

In the mosques, people not only prayed, but were taught to read and write, to read the Koran, and
prayers. The sermons were the most effective form of political education. There were numerous
elementary and secondary schools besides the mosques, and the monasteries of the Dervish orders
also served as centers of culture and education. The spread of culture was supported by the libraries.
The school library of Mehmed-pasha Sokolović in Budin (Buda), contained, besides Muslim religious
sciences, other literature, works on oratory, poetry, astronomy, music, architecture, and medical
sciences.

Religion

The Ottomans practiced relative religious tolerance, and Christianity was not prohibited. Islam was
not spread by force in the areas under the control of the Ottoman Sultan,[25] however, Arnold
concludes by quoting a 17th-century author who stated:

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Meanwhile he [the Turk] wins [converts] by craft

more than by force, and snatches away Christ by fraud
out of the hearts of men. For the Turk, it is true, at the
present time compels no country by violence to
apostatise; but he uses other means whereby
imperceptibly he roots out Christianity...[26]

The relative religious tolerance of the Ottomans enabled

Protestantism in Hungary (such as the Reformed Church in
Hungary) to survive against the oppression of the Catholic The mosque of Pasha Qasim in
Pécs, now used as a Catholic
Habsburg-ruled Hungarian domains.
church
There were approximately 80,000 Muslim settlers in Ottoman-
controlled territory of present-day Hungary; being mainly
administrators, soldiers, artisans and merchants of Crimean
Tatar origin. The religious life of the Muslims was supervised by
the mosques that were either newly built or transformed from
older Christian churches. Payment for the servants of the
mosques, as well as the maintenance of the churches, was the
responsibility of the Ottoman state or charities.

Besides Sunni Islam, a number of dervish communities also

flourished including the bektashis, the halvetis, and the mevlevis.
The famous Gül Baba monastery of Budin (Buda), sheltering 60
dervishes, belonged to the bektasi order. Situated close to the
janissaries camp, it was built by Jahjapasazáde Mehmed Pasha,
the third begler bey (governor) of Budin. Gul Baba's tomb (türbe)
is to this day the northernmost site of Islamic conquest.[27]

Another famous monastery of its time was that of the halveti

dervishes. Built around 1576 next to the türbe of Sultan Süleyman Minaret of Eger
I the Magnificent (1520–1566) in Sigetvar (Szigetvár), it soon
became the religious and cultural centre of the area. A famous
prior of the zavije (monastery) was the Bosnian Šejh Ali Dede. The monastery of Jakovali Hasan Paša
in Peçuy (Pécs) was another famous location. Its most outstanding prior was Mevlevian dervish
Peçevi Arifi Ahmed Dede, a Turk and native of Peçuy.

By the end of the sixteenth century, around 90% of the inhabitants of Ottoman Hungary were
Protestant, most of them being Calvinist.[28]

Gallery

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The Pasha of Budin Coffee shop Köçek dancer with Slave woman
(Buda) receives the castanets. Ottoman musician
envoy of the miniature by Balázs
Ottoman Sultan. Szigetvári Csöbör,
1570.

See also
Islam in Hungary
Transformation of the Ottoman Empire#Hungary - on the Ottoman defensive system in Hungary.
Magyarabs
Ottoman–Habsburg wars

References
1. Melvin E. Page, Colonialism: an international social, cultural, and political encyclopedia, ABC-
CLIO, 2003, p. 648 [1] (https://books.google.com/books?id=qFTHBoRvQbsC&pg=PA648&dq=seiz
ure+buda+1541&hl=en&ei=zafQTOW8NsrJswbuwt3NCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnu
m=3&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=seizure%20buda%201541&f=false)
2. Kontler 1999, p. 145.
3. Inalcik Halil: "The Ottoman Empire"
4. "The Effects of Turkish Rule in Hungary" (http://www.hungarianhistory.com/lib/hunspir/hsp25.htm).
Hungarian History.
5. "Part I - The Decline of the Ottoman Empire - MuslimMatters.org" (https://muslimmatters.org/2011/
12/20/part-i-the-decline-of-the-ottoman-empire/). muslimmatters.org.
6. Ottoman Warfare 1500-1700, Rhoads Murphey, 1999, p.227
7. Ottoman Warfare 1500–1700, Rhoads Murphey, 1999, p.56
8. Keul, István (2009). Early Modern Religious Communities in East-Central Europe: Ethnic
Diversity, Denominational Plurality, and Corporative Politics in the Principality of Transylvania
(1526-1691) (https://books.google.com/books?id=5J09mqMWiogC&pg=PA41). BRILL. p. 41.
ISBN 9004176527.
9. Csepeli, Gyorgy (1996). "The changing facets of Hungarian nationalism - Nationalism
Reexamined" (https://web.archive.org/web/20110514143926/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_
m2267/is_n1_v63/ai_18501094/). Social Research. Archived from the original (http://findarticles.c
om/p/articles/mi_m2267/is_n1_v63/ai_18501094/) on 14 May 2011. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
10. András Gerő, János Poór (1997). Budapest: a history from its beginnings to 1998, Volume 86 van
Atlantic studies on society in change , Volume 462 van East European monographs (https://book
s.google.com/books?id=sONnAAAAMAAJ&q=%22population+of+Buda%22&dq=%22population+
of+Buda%22). Social Science Monographs. p. 3. ISBN 9780880333597.
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11. Andrew Wheatcroft (2010). The Enemy at the Gate: Habsburgs, Ottomans, and the Battle for
Europe (https://books.google.com/books?id=uOYWBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA206). Basic Books.
p. 206. ISBN 9780465020812.
12. Steve Fallon, Sally Schafer (2015). Lonely Planet Budapest (https://books.google.com/books?id=j
OJzBgAAQBAJ&pg=PT443). Lonely Planet. ISBN 9781743605059.
13. Peter F. Sugar, Péter Hanák, Tibor Frank, A History of Hungary, Indiana University Press, 1994
pp. 11-143.[2] (https://books.google.com/books?id=SKwmGQCT0MAC&pg=PA1&dq=Hungarian+
conquest&hl=en&ei=MwqvTOLICM_IswaqusmwDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&
ved=0CCQQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=three%20kabar&f=false)
14. Ga ́bor A ́goston, Bruce Alan Masters (2009). Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire Facts on File
Library of World History Gale virtual reference library (https://books.google.com/books?id=QjzYdC
xumFcC&pg=PA95). Infobase Publishing. p. 96. ISBN 9781438110257.
15. IM Kunt and Christine Woodhead (2014). Suleyman the Magnificent and His Age: The Ottoman
Empire in the Early Modern World (https://books.google.com/books?id=66msAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA8
7). Routledge. pp. 87–88. ISBN 9781317900597.
16. Carl Skutsch (2013). Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities (https://books.google.com/books?id=y
XYKAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1082). New York City: Routledge. p. 1082. ISBN 9781135193881.
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Britannica Online (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/276730/Hungary)
18. A Country Study: Hungary (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+hu002
8)). Federal Research Division, Library of Congress. Retrieved 6 March 2009.
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Boundary" (https://web.archive.org/web/20090303212328/http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/
LimitsinSeas/IBS047.pdf) (PDF). US Bureau of Intelligence and Research. Archived from the
original (http://www.law.fsu.edu/library/collection/LimitsinSeas/IBS047.pdf) (PDF) on 3 March
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Budapest, Hungary, 2005. ISBN 978-963-352-002-4 CM
21. Steven W. Sowards. "Twenty-Five Lectures on Modern Balkan History (The Balkans in the Age of
Nationalism), Lecture 4: Hungary and the limits of Habsburg authority" (http://staff.lib.msu.edu/so
wards/balkan/lecture4.html). Michigan State University Libraries. Retrieved 11 May 2009.
22. Ottoman Warfare 1500–1700, Rhoads Murphey, 1999, p.173-174
23. Ottoman Warfare 1500–1700, Rhoads Murphey, 1999, p.254
24. Sudár, Balázs (2008). BEKTAŞI MONASTERIES IN OTTOMAN HUNGARY. Akadémiai Kiadó.
pp. 227–248 Vol. 61, No. 1/2.
25. The preaching of Islam: a history of the propagation of the Muslim faith By Sir Thomas Walker
Arnold, pg. 135-144
26. The preaching of Islam: a history of the propagation of the Muslim faith By Sir Thomas Walker
Arnold, pg. 136
27. Christina Shea, Joseph S. Lieber, Erzsébet Barát, Frommer's Budapest & the Best of Hungary,
John Wiley and Sons, 2004, p 122-123 [3] (https://books.google.com/books?id=_cbLvyml5kkC&p
g=PA122&dq=northernmost+G%C3%BCl+baba&hl=en&ei=PqnQTObmE4_0sgaOseCnCQ&sa=X
&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=northernmost%20
G%C3%BCl%20baba&f=false)
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University Press. p. 153. ISBN 0814325610.

 This article incorporates public domain material from the Library of Congress Country Studies
website http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/ (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/).

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Encyclopaedia Humana Hungarica: Cross and Crescent: The Turkish Age in Hungary (1526–
1699)
Balázs Sudár: Baths in Ottoman Hungary in "Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae",
Volume 57, Number 4, 7 December 2004, pp. 391–437(47)

Sources
Kontler, László (1999). Millennium in Central Europe: A History of Hungary. Atlantisz Publishing
House. ISBN 963-9165-37-9.
Fodor, Pál; Dávid, Géza, eds. (2000). Ottomans, Hungarians, and Habsburgs in Central Europe:
The Military Confines in the Era of Ottoman Conquest (https://books.google.com/books?id=V9vo
m-ZAElcC). BRILL. ISBN 9004119078.

External links
Cross and Crescent: The Turkish Age in Hungary (1526-1699) (http://mek.oszk.hu/01900/01911/h
tml/)

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