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I've been thinking about the Ottoman Empire for a while, since this thread by Indagare. I also have a soft spot for Greeks, especially the Byzantine and Ottoman kind. And so I've kind of mentally map a timeline about a surviving and successfull Ottoman Empire where the Ott. Greeks are still an important, powerful and accepted minority. So I'll focus a lot on the Greeks along the way.

A lot of things have to go right for the Empire to survive. I personally don't think that Mahmud II, Abdülmecid, Abdülaziz, Abdülhamid II were weak or bad sultans, just the task was so big, Anyway, let's assume most key elements go in the Ottomans' direction, and that Ottoman leaders, from luck or from higher skill, make much better decisions, better than in OTL. Unlike what some people think I'm very sure my Empire should not rule over deserts or Arab tribes - it won't be a a federation of nationalities, it will have a 65%-73% Turkish majority, a very large Greek minority and a few other people (of course, a lot of Slavophones, Karamanlides, Albanians, Hayhurums, etc. among "Greeks", a lot of Laz, Hemshin, Bosniaks, Pomaks, Albanians, Circassians, even Kurmanji Kurds etc. among "Turks"; but all well integrated). The Empire, in the 21st cent. will have the eastern Balkans and Greek Macedonia. I really have no idea where exactly in Syria and Kurdistan the Empire's borders should be to best separate it from the Arab world.

Many things will be different in my timeline, starting from the Byzantine Civil wars, but the consequences will add up slowly and history will deviate only slightly till it will start looking really different. For instance, in my TL Murad I is the son of Theodora Kantakouzene. Afterwards, perhaps Selim III crushes the Janissaries in the 1790's or perhaps not. Either way some sort of Greek revolt will happen but there will be deep divisions among the Greeeks and eventually some Greeks end up fighting on the Empire's side.

Perhaps the Tanzimat works even better than in OTL. The Empire's Constitution is much more influenced by Prussian constitutionalism and even Abdülhamid maintains it pro forma during his de facto autocratic reign. I personally do not think that he was a bad leader. Anyway the Empire will come out on top in 1877-78. Abdülhamid II's reign will last till about 1912 or so. Then the Young Turks will take over during the following sultan who will be more of a constitutional monarch. The Empire will join WWI on the German side after the Russian Revolution, and thus after the German defeat, it will lose its Arab lands but not much else. Something to this effect.

Here are, more or less, the Empire's European borders (could hold more territory, though):


The Harem

I'll start my brainstorming into this timeline idea by asking what you guys think will become of the Imperial Harem. A very important part of the reforms in my TL will be the ending of the system of seclusion of Imperial Princes. In OTL, this was already on its way out with only some parts of the family secluded, and not forever. This system served a very important purpose in the 17th and 18th cent., but after Tamzimat it's become an obstacle. At the time of Abdülmecid the seniority succession was already entranched. In the future switching to primogeniture and to constitutional government will eliminate any need for the seclusion.

So let's say that during the time of Abdülmecid, for some reason, perhaps for personal reasons, he ends the seclusion of princes. Over time, formal marrige for Sultans and Imperial Princes will be brought back. Another issue is slavery. Slave trade was supressed in OTL by the Sultan/Caliph between the 1830's and 1871. By the late 1890's slavery itself would have been virtually illegal because the Caliph according to the Shari'a can gut any source of slaves thus eliminating slavery in itself from the entire Muslim world. But for some reason, for the purposes of the Harem, the Sultans still allowed, for instance, the Circassians to sell themselves (or their daughters) into slavery. Apparently the Circassian ethnic cleansing/"crisis" led to a resurgence of the concubinage system - upward mobility probably is the culprit especially in self-enslavement cases. Perhaps they thought that the Harems, while containg what were ma malakat aymanukum, did not constitute slavery according to Western standards. After all the denizens of the Imperial Harem, at least were actually paid actual money, by the day, for their service (I'm talking of the servant cariyes, not the Sultan's consorts, who were treated more like wives). People accepted the abolition of slavery in general as a good thing, other than the Saudi Wahabis, who rebelled (even at that time!). But there was an argument regarding Harem slavery that "it is different" - the slaves are "just part of the family", they are part of "elite households" and the like.

In my TL there will be an even more clear-cut break from slavery and it would be enforced during the Islamist and (in my TL) also rather successful Abdülhamid. Slavery would be eliminated more thoroughly than in OTL - whoever wanted more wives could do well and marry them (up to 4). Whoever wanted servants could employ them. The victorious and traditionalist sultan would be the only one (other than Ataturk, in conditions of almost total collapse) to be able to pass such measures in just a generation.

But what to do with the Imperial Harem? What will happen to it? Will the Sultans give up their İkbals (Lady Consorts - usually up to 6) and Gözdes (Favourites - up to 4 or at times even 10)? Especially since bringing back of formal marriage will probably mean that the Sultan's gov'ment will want the Sultan's 4 official marriages to be used politically. So the Sultans, especially Abdülhamid II, might want to keep their concubines. Will they do some sort of clever trick, setting up some kind of "Imperial Palaces Service" whose members will be ma malakat aymanukum for Shari'a purposes but employees or some sort of military-like volunteers for international law purposes?

After all in India slavery was forbidden either in the 1840's or when the British took over directly. Yet monarchs like the Nizam of Hyderabad had concubines. But in Sunni Islam concubines are not just "secondary" wives, they can only be slaves, or at least ma malakat aymanukum. So how did that work? And if such a thing is attempted, when will it end? With some sort of Reza Shah type alt-Ataturk? Or will it end?

Edit: If you also have ideas about the borders, please share.
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