Capture of Niş (1737)

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Capture of Niş (1737)
Part of the Austro-Turkish War (1737–1739)
DateOctober 1737 [a]
Location
Niş, Ottoman Empire
(Under Habsburg occupation)
43°19′9″N21°53′46″E / 43.31917°N 21.89611°E / 43.31917; 21.89611
Result Ottoman victory [1]
Territorial
changes		 Ottomans recapture Niş
Belligerents
Flag of the Ottoman Empire (1844-1922).svg  Ottoman Empire Banner of the Holy Roman Emperor without haloes (1400-1806).svg  Habsburg monarchy
Commanders and leaders
Flag of the Ottoman Empire (1844-1922).svg Ahmed Pasha [b] Banner of the Holy Roman Emperor without haloes (1400-1806).svg Doxat Morez
Strength
12,000–80,000 6,000
Casualties and losses
Minimal, if any [c] Unknown, if any [c]
Europe relief laea location map.jpg
Battle icon (crossed swords).svg
class=notpageimage|
Location within Europe
Reliefkarte Serbien.png
Battle icon (crossed swords).svg
Capture of Niş (1737) (Serbia)

The capture of Niş [d] was the recapturing of Niş undertaken by the Ottomans in October 1737 as part of the Austro-Turkish War (1737–1739). After losing it in a bloodless siege, the Ottomans retook the city after three months of Habsburg occupation. [2]

Contents

Background

Although Austria put on a guise of peace at first, as Nicolae Iorga puts it, they "dropped their masks" and waged war on the Ottoman Empire in July 1737 in the hopes of gaining land in the Balkans whilst the Ottomans were preoccupied with their war against Russia, which the Habsburgs had allied with recently. [3] [4]

The invading Habsburg army was divided into four, each assigned tens of thousands of soldiers and many field marshals. Prince Hildburghausen was sent to Bosnia, the focal point of the war, with 150,000 men; Count Khevenhüller was sent to establish a front at Vidin with 30,000 soldiers; Duke Leszczyński and Count Seckendorff were sent to Serbia with 20,000 troops; Count Wallis was to command a 10,000-strong army in an invasion of Wallachia and Moldavia, both under Ottoman suzerainty. [5] [6]

Prelude

After the siege of Niş by Field marshal Philippi three months ago, a presence of 6,000 Habsburg soldiers was established in the fortress of the city. [7] When Count Seckendorff received false news that Köprülüzâde Hafız Ahmed Pasha was marching towards Niş with an army of 120,000, he did his best to save the castle. He gave orders to Count Khevenhüller, located on the banks of the Timok, to rush to the aid of the city; Prince Hildburghausen‘s army was to progress towards Niş from the Sava. However, this was all in vain. [2]

Siege

Having learned about the small garrison of Niş, Beylerbey of Rumelia Köprülüzâde Hafız Ahmed Pasha sent a force of 12,000 men from Sofya to besiege the city whilst Field marshal Seckendorff was busy in Bosnia. Upon the first call to surrender, Doxat Morez agreed that he would surrender the city if 100,000 Ottoman soldiers joined the siege within 15 days. However, this period had not ended yet when Ahmed Pasha arrived at the city with 80,000 soldiers and renewed his call for an immediate surrender. [b] Left with no other choice and with only 32 days worth of supplies, Doxat surrendered the city; the siege had lasted a few days and ended on 18 or 20 October 1737. The terms of the surrender allowed for the safe passage of the garrison and others to Passarowitz and Belgrad. [2] [9]

Aftermath

With the Ottomans regaining Niş, the Serbian front of the war collapsed. As soon as Doxat Morez made it Belgrad, he was arrested and tried for disobeying orders and surrendering Niş too easily. He was sentenced to death and executed in March 1738; Doxat’s death was a painful one as he received multiple cuts to his body with a sabre before being beheaded. [10]

Count Seckendorff, the leading commander of the Habsburg invasion into Ottoman Serbia, was stripped of his role as Field marshal and arrested for not coming to the aid of Doxat. A false accusation waged against him by other commanders was that he did not attempt to help Doxat. Seckendorff was kept under imprisonment in Vienna until he was released by Empress Maria Theresa in 1740, a year after the war with the Ottomans had ended. [7]

Notes

  1. ↑ The exact duration of the siege is unknown, but it lasted for a few days leading up until 18 or 20 October 1737.
  2. 1 2 It is possible that Ahmed Pasha was not actually present at the siege since although Zinkeisen claims the pasha marched onto Niş with 80,000 men, this information has not been confirmed by other historians who wrote on the topic. Some (such as Mustafa Cezar) have stated the original force of 12,000 was enough for Doxat to surrender. [8]
  3. 1 2 It is not known whether the siege was a bloodless one as sources fail to mention casualties or that the siege ended without fatalities (if the siege was indeed bloodless).
  4. ↑ Turkish: Niş’in ele geçirilmesi; German: Die einnahme von Nissa; Serbian: Освајање Ниша, romanized: Osvajanje Niša

Citations

  1. ↑ Somel, Selçuk A. [in Turkish] (2010). The A to Z of the Ottoman Empire. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. LV. ISBN   9780810875791.
  2. 1 2 3 Zinkeisen, Johann W. [in German] (2011) [1857]. Afyoncu, Erhan (ed.). Osmanlı İmparatorluğu Tarihi [History of the Ottoman Empire](PDF) (in Turkish). Vol. 5. Translated by Epçeli, Nilüfer. Istanbul: Yeditepe Yayınevi. pp. 506–507. ISBN   9786054052691.
  3. ↑ Iorga 2024, p. 1493.
  4. ↑ Hochedlinger, Michael (2003). Austria's Wars of Emergence , pp. 212–218.
  5. ↑ Uzunçarşılı, p. 267.
  6. ↑ von Hammer-Purgstall, Joseph. Çevik, Mümin (ed.). Büyük Osmanlı Tarihi [Great Ottoman History] (in Turkish). Vol. 14. Translated by Özdek, Refik. Istanbul: Üçdal Neşriyat. p. 231.
  7. 1 2 Uzunçarşılı, p. 271.
  8. ↑ Cezar, Mustafa [in Turkish] (1971). Mufassal Osmanlı Tarihi [Detailed Ottoman History](PDF) (in Turkish). Vol. 1–6. Istanbul: Güven Yayınevi. p. 2499.
  9. ↑ Iorga 2024, p. 1496.
  10. ↑ Bikić, Vesna; Miladinović-Radmilović, Nataša (2015). Gerdau-Radonić, Karina; McSweeney), Kathleen (eds.). "Beheading at the Dawn of the Modern Age: The Execution of Noblemen During Austro-Ottoman Battles for Belgrade in the Late 17th Century". Trends in Biological Anthropology. 1: 61.

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References

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