الاثنينية ::المكتبة

مكتبة الاثنينية

The Decline of the Ottoman Empire and its Effect on the Arab Provinces

Like other Arab provinces, Medina lay under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, which began to decline in power by the end of the seventeenth century. Many events marked the period of the Empire’s decline, e.g. "the retreat from Vienna was the first of a series of setbacks which culminated in the loss of Budapest to the Austrians (1686) and was interrupted in 1699 by the Treaty of Carlowitz. But this brought the Turks no lasting security" ⁽¹⁾.

It seems that the insecurity of the Empire affected the administration which controlled the affairs of the Arab provinces, causing a grievous division between the various authorities in evrey province, as is stated by Gibb and bowen: "At the root of the disorders which afflicted both subjects and administration in nearly every part of the Empire was the conflict between the central authority, represented by the paşa, and the ambitions and feuds of the local troops, supplemented in all the Arab provinces by the law-lessness of the Beduin tribes" ⁽²⁾.