Vassal and tributary states of the Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire had a number of tributary and vassal states throughout its history. Its tributary states would regularly send tribute to the Ottoman Empire, which was understood by both states as also being a token of submission. In exchange for certain privileges, its vassal states were obligated to render support to the Ottoman Empire when called upon to do so. Some of its vassal states were also tributary states.

These client states, many of which could be described by modern terms such as satellite states or puppet states, were usually on the periphery of the Ottoman Empire under suzerainty of the Sublime Porte, over which direct control was not established. The Ottoman Empire maintained relationships with various states, some of which were under their direct rule (provinces) and others that were vassal states or tributary states, meaning they recognized Ottoman suzerainty but retained a degree of autonomy.

Functions Ottomans first demanded only a small yearly tribute from vassal princes, as a token of their submission. They later demanded that a vassal prince's son should be held as hostage, that the prince should come to the Palace once a year and swear allegiance, and that he should send auxiliary troops on the sultan's campaigns. Vassal princes were required to treat the sultan's friends and enemies as their own. If the vassal failed in these duties, his lands would be declared as darülharb (lit. territory of war) open to the raids of the Ghazis. The Ottomans considered as their vassals all states whose rulers agreed to pay tribute. Even the Habsburgs fell into this category after Ferdinand I (1526–64) agreed to buy peace from the Ottomans in 1533. In fact, the Habsburgs were tributary (vassal?) in name only, as was Ragusa. Transylvania depended much more on the goodwill of the Ottomans than did those ruling in either Vienna or Ragusa, and the so-called Danubian Principalities, (Moldavia and Wallachia) were indeed vassal states in the strictest legal sense of the term. The territories the Ottomans had conquered were either administered as provinces or transformed into vassal states, such examples as Fezzan, which was an independent state conquered and turned into a vassal state. The Ottomans established a pattern of government within their own territories or principalities that were incorporated gradually through tribute and military alliance before there full annexation.https://books.google.com/books?id=QjzYQd5G-1EC&pg=PA53 The Ottomans would give local dynasty that would recognize themselves as vassals, particularly in border zones,https://books.google.com/books?id=QjzYQd5G-1EC&pg=PA601 this policy allowed local ruler to have local authority exchange for tribute such as military support and coinage, public rituals such as naming the sultan in khutba,https://books.google.com/books?id=GaGBAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA91 while recognize the ottomans as head ruler, and serve as buffer zones.

Forms Some states within the eyalet system included sancakbeys who were local to their sanjak or who inherited their position (e.g., Samtskhe, some Kurdish sanjaks), areas that were permitted to elect their own leaders (e.g., areas of Albania, Epirus, and Morea (Mani Peninsula) was nominally a part of Aegean Islands Province but Maniot beys were tributary vassals of the Porte, or de facto independent eyalets (e.g., the Barbaresque 'regencies' Algiers, Tunisia, Tripolitania in the Maghreb, and later the Khedivate of Egypt). Egypt specifically had a unique case, Muhammad Ali Pasha became its Ottoman Governor but transformed himself to be its de facto ruler. He went to war with the Ottoman Sultan twice and established a dynasty that would rule Egypt until the revolution of 1952, even after the Ottoman sovereignty ended in 1914. Outside the eyalet system were states such as Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania which paid tribute to the Ottomans and over which the Porte had the right to nominate or depose the ruler, garrison rights, and foreign policy control. They were considered by the Ottomans as part of Dar al-'Ahd, thus they were allowed to preserve their self-rule, and were not under Islamic law, like the empire proper; Ottoman subjects, or Muslims for that matter, were not allowed to settle the land permanently or to build mosques.Romanian historian Florin Constantiniu points out that, on crossing into Wallachia, foreign travelers used to hear church bells in every village, which were forbidden by Islamic law in the Ottoman empire. Territories Subject to the Caliphate. The Muslims of India (Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh),Özcan, Azmi; Pan-Islamism, the Ottoman Empire, Indian Muslims, and England (1877–1914), TDV İslam Araştırmaları Merkezi Publications (2005) Sri Lanka,Casale, Giancarlo, Two Examples of Ottoman Discovery Literature from the mid-Sixteenth Century the Maldives, Afghanistan, Singapore,Reid, Anthony, The Ottomans in Southeast Asia, Asia Research Institute, Working Paper Series No. 36, February 2005, pp. 9–13 Malaysia,Reid, Anthony, The Ottomans in Southeast Asia, Asia Research Institute, Working Paper Series No. 36, February 2005, pp. 9, 14 Indonesia,Göksoy, İ. H., Ottoman-Aceh Relations according to the Turkish Sources, First International Conference on Aceh and Indian Ocean Studies, 23–27 February 2007, Banda Aceh, Indonesia Brunei, Comoros, Kenya,Uğur, Hatice, A Sultanate in Ottoman Africa: Zanzibar, Istanbul: Küre Yayınları, 2005 Tanzania, Mozambique, the South of Africa,Uçar, Ahmet, Ottomans in South Africa / A 140-Year Legacy, Tez Yayınları (2000) the western Turkestan Khanates (the Khanates of Khiva, Bukhara, and Kokand),Ottoman–Turkestan Relations with Documents (16th–20th Centuries) – Ankara: Başbakanlık Basımevi, 2004. – XX, (Republic of Turkey, Prime Ministry, General Directorate of State Archives, Ottoman Archives Department; publication no. 70) and eastern Turkestan.Buğra, Mehmet Emin, The History of Eastern Turkestan. pp. 336Âtıf, Mehmet, The History of Kashgar, Kırıkkale, 1998, pp. 296 Zanzibar sultanate Some states, such as Ragusa, paid tribute for the entirety of their territory and recognized Ottoman suzerainty. Others, such as the Sharif of Mecca, recognized Ottoman suzerainty but were subsidized by the Porte. The Ottomans were also expected to protect the Sharifate militarily – as suzerains over Mecca and Medina, the Ottoman sultans were meant to ensure the protection of the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages and safe passage of pilgrims. The Amir al-hajj was a military officer appointed by the Sultanate to ensure this. During the nineteenth century, as Ottoman territory receded, several breakaway states from the Ottoman Empire had the status of vassal states (e.g. they paid tribute to the Ottoman Empire), before gaining complete independence. They were, however, de facto independent, including having their own foreign policy and their own independent military. This was the case with the principalities of Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria Some states paid tribute for possessions that were legally bound to the Ottoman Empire but not possessed by the Ottomans, such as the Habsburgs for parts of Royal Hungary or Venice for Zante.

There were also secondary vassals such as the Nogai Horde and the Circassians who were (at least nominally) vassals of the khans of Crimea, or some Berbers and Arabs who paid tribute to the North African beylerbeyis, who were in turn Ottoman vassals themselves. Other tribute from foreign powers included a kind of protection money, sometimes called a "horde tax" (similar to the Danegeld), paid by the Tsardom of Russia or the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was usually paid to the Ottoman vassal khans of Crimea rather than to the Ottoman sultan directly.

List of Ottoman tributaries and vassals

Byzantine Empire (1371 – 20 February 1403, 1424 – 6 April 1453)TheOttomanEmpireAComprehensiveHistory.pdf Despotate of the Morea (1422–1470) Empire of Trebizond (1456–1461) Lordship of Prilep (1371–1395) Dejanović noble family (1371–1395) Principality of Wallachia (Eflâk Prensliği), 1396–1397, 1417–1861 with some interruptions. Principality of Moravian Serbia (1389–1402) Despotate of Serbia (1402–1459) Second Bulgarian Empire (14th century) Principality of Moldavia (Boğdan Prensliği), 1456–1457, 1503–1861 with some interruptions. Duchy of Saint Sava (1470–1482) Republic of Ragusa (1458–1684/1699) 1707–1806/1808) Republic of Venice (1475–1603) Republic of Poljica (16th century?) (1533–1540–1606), tributary state Archduchy of Austria (1547–1604, 1664) Kingdom of Bohemia, briefly in 1620 under Frederick I of Bohemia Duchy of Syrmia(1527–1530) Crimean Khanate (Kırım Hanlığı), 1478–1774 Grand Principality of Moscow 1521 during the Crimean invasion of RussiaHistoire moderne depuis le grand schisme d'occident (1378) jusqu'à 1789, Volume 1. Emile Lefranc.Histoire Des Gouvernemens Du Nord, Ou De l'Origine & des Progres du Gouvernement des Provinces-Unies, du Danemark, de la Suede ... Ouvrage traduit de l'Anglois de M. Williams. Volume 3.Atlas Historique Des États Européens, Et De Tous Les Pays En Rapport Avec L'Europe: Composé D'Une Suite De Cartes Géographiques Et De Tableaux Chronologiques Et Généalogiques. Christian Kruse, Friedrich Kruse. Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1503–16th century): paid a Tributary to the khansKolankowski, Dzieje Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego, p. 441.See the instruction dated 27 November 1500, in Lietuvos Metrika (1427-1506 Budjak Horde (1697–1774–1812?) Circassian principalities and societies Kabardia (?–1739) Ochakov steppe or Yedisan (1684–1760s) Jamboyluq Horde (also known as Perekop Horde)В. В. Панашенко. Джамбуйлуцька орда Astrakhan Khanate (1523 and 1549) Yedishkul Horde Lesser Nogai Horde the Dobrud Horde Tsardom of Russia (1511–1547–1594–1689)https://cdn2.islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/dosya/13/C13023857.pdfhttps://ia902908.us.archive.org/12/items/waq76579/01_76579.pdf page 397Dikmetaş, Turan (July 2005). Osmanlı Sultanları (in Turkish). İstanbul: Birleşik Basım Pazarlama Ltd. Şti. p. 135. III. MURAT 175 / 1595 ANI VE HATIRAThttps://web.archive.org/web/20180504035458if_/http://dergiler.ankara.edu.tr/dergiler/44/682/8675.pdf The Crimean khanate had done over several raids, while the Russians did agree to pay them tribute occasionally.History of the Ottoman State - Volume 1 Technically (but not de facto), Russia was a tributary of the Crimean khanate as the remaining successor of the Golden Horde, which was hard to defeat until about the 17th century Former Golden Horde Khanates Kazan KhanateGenç, Yusuf İhsan, Prime Ministry Ottoman State Archives Directorate; Ankara, 2005 (1521–1531, 1533–1546, 1546–1551)Safa Giray ruled Kazan for 23 years as the Ottoman representative While Sahib I Giray Who was enthroned as Khan. declared himself an Ottoman vassal in 1521–1524https://www.academia.edu/4534684/The_Collapse_of_Kazan_Khanate_450_years_ago Budjak Horde (1620–1697–1812?) Kasim Khanate (1486–1512)Öztuna, Yılmaz, "States and Dynasties: Islamic States", Vol. 1, Ministry of Culture Publications, Ankara 1996, pp. 551-552 Lesser Nogai Khanate (1548–1711)Mühimme Defteri XXXVIII; 98 Bashkir Khanate (1656–1738)Öztuna, Yılmaz, "States and Dynasties: Islamic States", Vol. 1, Ministry of Culture Publications, Ankara 1996, pp. 554 came under Ottoman protection.