Day of Empire_ How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance--And Why They Fall - Amy Chua [94]
By about 1570, Joseph Nasi—now one of the leading entrepreneurs in the country—had also become one of the most powerful individuals in the Ottoman court. A close advisor to the sultan, and a major influence in foreign affairs (in 1569, he helped persuade the Dutch to rise against Spain with the promise of Ottoman support), Nasi was rewarded with the governorship of Naxos and the Cyclades Archipelago, as well as the Italian title of duke. Nasi's story illustrates not only how high an “infidel” could rise in the Ottoman Empire, but also how loosely some of the official restrictions on non-Muslims were (at least in some cases) applied. It is most unlikely that Nasi rode only donkeys and mules to the imperial court or that his celebrated mansion near Istanbul was no taller than any Muslim houses. Moreover, as one of the most prominent imperial tax collectors, Nasi in practice, if not in the eyes of the law, must have exercised considerable authority over many Muslims.5
Another major component of Ottoman tolerance was its embrace of Muslim converts. Notwithstanding extraordinary individuals such as Nasi, Ottoman society was generally characterized by a hierarchy, at the top of which was the askeri, or ruling class, open almost exclusively to Muslims. But almost anyone in the empire, of any ethnicity or social class, could become a Muslim and a member of the askeri. Moreover, converted Muslims were every bit as good as “natural-born” Muslims, with virtually no limits on their success. Thus Busbecq, the Hapsburg ambassador to the Ottoman Empire during Suleyman's reign, wrote admiringly:
It is by merit that men rise in the service, a system which insures that posts should be assigned to the competent…[The Ottomans] do not believe that high qualities are either natural or hereditary…but that they are partly the gift of God, and partly the result of good training, great industry, and…zeal…Honors, high posts and judgeships are the rewards of great ability and good service. This is the reason that they are successful in their undertakings.
The ability of enterprising Muslim converts to rise almost without limit stood in marked contrast to the situation in Catholic Spain, where Jews whose families had long converted to Christianity were frequently banned from holding high positions because of their “impure blood” and for centuries risked being burned at the stake.6
Ottoman strategic tolerance was, nonetheless, distinctly pre-modern and certainly not rooted in the respect for human rights or individual liberty familiar today, as attested by the fascinating Ottoman system for the recruitment and training of the special imperial guard known as the Janissaries. Every year, the Ottomans collected as a “tax” a certain percentage of boys ages eight to twenty from conquered Christian lands. Muslims were not eligible as recruits, because it was thought that young Christians given the chance to convert and rise in an alien land would be more zealous and more loyal. Until the seventeenth century, the youths came mainly from the Balkan peasantry, including Albanians, Bulgarians, Croats, Serbians, and Greeks; later, boys were also drawn from Russia and Ukraine.
Considered the sultan's property, the youths were completely severed from their families, converted to Islam, and trained to be either soldiers or administrators and officials in the Ottoman bureaucracy. Harsh restrictions were imposed. “Slaves of the state,” all the recruits were bound to celibacy and lifetime service. The most promising among them were handpicked and prepared for entry to the askeri. At these elite schools, students became fluent in Persian and Arabic, studied the Koran, and were groomed for military