Ottoman Hungary () encompassed the parts of the Kingdom of Hungary which were under the rule of the Ottoman Empire between the occupation of Buda in 1541 and the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. The territory was referred to as Macaristan in Ottoman Turkish (which remains the Turkish name for Hungary). For most of its duration, Ottoman Hungary covered Southern Transdanubia and almost the entire region of the Great Hungarian Plain.
Ottoman Hungary was divided for administrative purposes into eyalets (further divided into sanjaks) and principalities (vassals). Ownership of much of the land was distributed to Ottoman soldiers and officials with the remaining territory being retained by the Ottoman state. As a border territory, much of Ottoman Hungary was heavily fortified with troop garrisons. Remaining economically under-developed, it became a drain on Ottoman resources. During the centuries long three-way Hungarian–Habsburg–Ottoman wars the Hungarian population was highly decimated.
In 1686, Buda was recaptured from the Ottomans, and in 1687, after the Second Battle of Mohács, the Hungarian parliament recognized that the inheritance of the Hungarian crown had passed to the Habsburgs. The imperial armies pushed the Turks out of Hungary relatively quickly and occupied Transylvania as well. Following the defeat of the Ottomans in the Great Turkish War, the Ottomans recognized the loss of the Ottoman Hungary by the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699. The remaining Ottoman occupied territories (that encompassed the southern border regions of the Kingdom of Hungary), Temeşvar Eyalet, Syrmia and Belgrade, were reconquered by the Habsburgs during the Austro-Turkish War between 1716 and 1718, the cession of these regions was acknowledged by signing of the Treaty of Passarowitz in 1718.
Background
Since the 1360s, Hungary had been confronted with the Ottoman Empire. The Kingdom of Hungary led several crusades, and campaigns and carried out several defensive operations and sieges against the Ottomans. Hungary bore the brunt of the Ottoman wars in Europe during the 15th century and successfully halted the Ottoman advance. From 1490, after the death of King Matthias of Hungary, royal power declined in Hungary, and the Black Army of Hungary was disbanded. In contrast, by the 16th century, the power of the Ottoman Empire had gradually increased, along with the territory they controlled in the Balkans. The Kingdom of Hungary was further weakened by the peasants revolt led by György Dózsa in 1514, and during the reign of Louis II of Hungary (1516–1526), internal dissension divided the nobility.
In 1521, Hungary was invaded by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. The key border fortress of Belgrade, considered the southern gate of the Kingdom of Hungary, was captured by the Ottomans following the Third Siege of Belgrade. The Sultan launched an attack against the Kingdom of Hungary, defeating its smaller army at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, during which King Louis II of Hungary died.
After the death of the Hungarian king, both the Austrian Habsburg family and the Hungarian noble Zápolya family claimed the whole kingdom. King John I of Hungary ruled the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom, and the Habsburgs ruled the western part of Hungary. The Habsburgs tried several times to unite all of Hungary under their rule, but the Ottoman Empire prevented that by supporting the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom. King John I died in 1540, the Habsburg forces besieged Buda, the Hungarian capital, in 1541. Sultan Suleiman led a relief force and defeated the Habsburgs, the Ottomans captured the city by a trick during the Siege of Buda and the south central and central areas of the kingdom came under the authority of the Ottoman Empire, therefore Hungary was divided into three parts. The north-western rim of the Hungarian kingdom remained unconquered and recognised members of the House of Habsburg as Kings of Hungary, giving it the name "Royal Hungary". The Eastern Hungarian Kingdom is the predecessor of the Principality of Transylvania, which was established by the Treaty of Speyer in 1570 and the Eastern Hungarian King became the first Prince of Transylvania. The Principality of Transylvania was a semi-independent state, and a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire, it continued to be part of the Kingdom of Hungary in the sense of public law, John Sigismund's possessions belonged to the Holy Crown of Hungary, and was a symbol of the survival of Hungarian statehood. The boundary between the three territories thereupon became the frontline in the Ottoman–Habsburg wars over the next 150 years.
History
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, Turks, and other Ottoman Muslims including Albanians, Greek Muslims and Muslim Balkan Slavs, Southern Slavs were also acting as akıncıs and other light troops intended for pillaging in the territory of present-day Hungary.Inalcik Halil: "The Ottoman Empire"
In these times, the territory of present-day Hungary began to undergo changes due to the Ottoman occupation. Vast lands remained unpopulated and covered with woods. Flood plains became marshes. The life of the inhabitants on the Ottoman side was unsafe. Peasants fled to the woods and marshes, forming guerrilla bands, known as 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 Czech lands, Austria and Poland.
The defeat of Ottoman forces led by Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha at the Second Siege of Vienna in 1683, at the hands of the combined armies of Poland and the Holy Roman Empire under John III Sobieski swung the balance of power in the region. Still, in 1686, Buda was recaptured by the Ottomans. In 1699, under the terms of the Treaty of Karlowitz, which ended the Great Turkish War, 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 (2,965), Pest (1,481), Székesfehérvár (2,978) and Esztergom (2,775) were 10,200 troops.Ottoman Warfare 1500-1700, Rhoads Murphey, 1999, p.227
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.Ottoman Warfare 1500–1700, Rhoads Murphey, 1999, p.56
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.
Administration
The Hungarian Ottoman province covered about . 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 Eğri 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 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 the nobility and large numbers of burghers emigrated into the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary ("Royal Hungary") province.
After the final Ottoman conquest of Hungary in 1541, there were frequent border raids by Ottoman and Crimean troops toward Christian border lands, during which civilian were killed or captured, marched away and sold in to slavery in the Ottoman Empire at the slave markets of Istanbul and Sarajevo.Sefiloğlu M. S. (2023). Manhunt On The Austrian Border; Evliya Çelebi, Slave Raids And Enslavement Fenerbahçe Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimleri Dergisi 2023;3(1), 47-60 Between 1522 and 1717, Tatars, soldiers from the Crimean Khanate, often participated in the Ottoman campaigns in the Hungarian border zones, and during these campaigns the tatars often captured slaves in Hungary and Austria; the long way back to the Crimea did provide opportunity for prisoners to escape, but many were abducted to Crimea, where they were either ransomed (if they were rich), or (if they were poor) sold on the Crimean slave trade.Ransom Slavery Along the Ottoman Borders: Early Fifteenth-early Eighteenth Centuries. (2007). Nederländerna: Brill. p.201-202
Wars, slave raids, 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 a degree of autonomy in internal affairs. Towns maintained some self-government, and a prosperous middle class developed through artisanry and trade.
Ethnic changes under Ottoman rule
For more than 150 years, the territory of Hungary was a battleground between the forces of the great powers. The military conflict was constant during the entire period of the Ottoman rule. Hungary endured a great number of Ottoman military campaigns and sieges from 1521 to 1568, at the same time when Hungary had an ongoing struggle between its two kings (Austrian Habsburg family and the Hungarian noble Zápolya family). From 1591, and between 1593 and 1606, during the Long Turkish War, there were armed conflicts involving large military forces. From 1660 and between 1663 and 1664, during the Austro-Turkish War, also between 1683 and 1699 during Hungary's War of Liberation from the Ottoman occupation, the opposing sides fielded armies of about 50,000 soldiers in every year. During the Ottoman rule, the relative calm periods were also not peaceful, the wars were ongoing at the borders. The raids were daily, primarily intended for tax collection and plundering, which caused significant damage in the Hungarian settlement areas: material destruction, population displacement, kidnapping and killing people. In the 17th century, the campaigns waged by Principality of Transylvania caused also similarly significant losses.
The decay of the southernmost counties of the Kingdom of Hungary had started long before the Ottoman rule, the Ottomans had already invaded Hungary's southern parts between 1390 and 1400.