Editing Little Ice Age (section)

=== Middle East ===
The Ottoman LIA occurred from the early 14th century until the mid-19th century, with its most intense phase taking place between the 16th and 17th centuries. 

From the 14th to 15th century, the Ottoman Empire transformed from a small group of soldiers to a major world power.<ref name="White 1">{{Cite book |last=White |first=Sam |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511844058 |title=The Climate of Rebellion in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire |date=2011-08-15 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-00831-1 |pages=1|doi=10.1017/cbo9780511844058 }}</ref> By the end of the 16th century, the LIA began <ref name="White 1" /> and had a profound impact on the Ottoman economy, society, and culture. During February 1621, it is noted that the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul had frozen over completely.<ref>{{Cite book |last=White |first=Sam |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511844058 |title=The Climate of Rebellion in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire |date=2011-08-15 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-00831-1 |pages=123|doi=10.1017/cbo9780511844058 }}</ref> In the years 1265, 1277 and 1297–1298 Byzantine sources describe extremely harsh cold. Also, around 1300, there were harsh winters in 1298/1299 in the Middle East.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Raphael |first=Sarah Kate |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004244733 |title=Climate and Political Climate |date=2013-01-15 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-24473-3 |pages=22|doi=10.1163/9789004244733 }}</ref> This is followed by a drought which takes place in Asia Minor in 1302-1304 while there is the flooding of the Sangarious River in the summer of 1302.

The Ottoman Empire, whose territories stretched across three continents, and its economy was based on agriculture and trade, had a diverse range of climates and ecosystems, and was greatly affected by this phenomenon.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Ágoston |first=Gábor |title=Ottoman conquests |date=2011-11-13 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781444338232.wbeow464 |page=545 |access-date=2023-04-26 |place=Oxford, UK |publisher=Blackwell Publishing Limited |doi=10.1002/9781444338232.wbeow464 |isbn=978-1-4051-9037-4 |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of War}}</ref> The Ottoman Empire was one of the largest and most powerful empires in the world during the Little Ice Age. The effects of the Little Ice Age on the Ottoman Empire were significant, leading to changes in agricultural practices, increased food prices, and social unrest. During the 1590s the beginning of a wave of extremely cold winters began and the middle eastern longest drought in six centuries marked the beginning of the Little Ice Age in the Middle East.<ref>{{cite book |last=White |first=S. |year=2012 |title=Water on Sand: Environmental histories of the Middle East and North Africa |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=72}}</ref> Due to the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the late 16th century,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Itzkowitz |first=Norman |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226098012.001.0001 |title=Ottoman Empire and Islamic Tradition |date=1980 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-38806-9 |pages=67 |doi=10.7208/chicago/9780226098012.001.0001}}</ref> the population of the empire reached around 30 million people which led to a shortage of land and an increase in tax.<ref>{{cite book |chapter=The Changing Ottoman Empire |date=2010 |chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9780755621231.ch-014 |title=Greece, the Hidden Centuries |pages=281 |access-date=2023-04-26 |publisher=I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd|doi=10.5040/9780755621231.ch-014 |isbn=978-1-78076-238-8 }}</ref> The second half of the 16th century included inflation and rising cost in both the Middle East and Europe. The effect of this large population and lack of supplies created a strain on the Ottoman government.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gerber |first=Haim |date=September 1996 |title=An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1914. Edited by Halil Inalcik. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Pp. xxxix, 1026. $120.00 |type=book review |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022050700017216 |journal=The Journal of Economic History |volume=56 |issue=3 |pages=413–414 |doi=10.1017/s0022050700017216 |s2cid=154949743 |issn=0022-0507}}</ref>

The cooling climate disrupted agricultural production, leading to food shortages and famines. The Ottoman Empire did not often have a shortage of grain due to its location, close to the Danube, Nile and the Black Sea, however, once the Little Ice Age began that all changed, and grain was rare<ref name="White 32">{{Cite book |last=White |first=Sam |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511844058 |title=The Climate of Rebellion in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire |date=2011-08-15 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-00831-1 |pages=32|doi=10.1017/cbo9780511844058 }}</ref> due to the cooler temperatures which led to a shorter growing season, resulting in lower crop yields and decreased food production. The effects of the colder climate were exacerbated by extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods, and storms, which further reduced crop yields.<ref name="White 32"/> Each ancient Middle Eastern empire had a significant supply of food: the Byzantines had Anatolia and Syria, the Abbasids had the lower Tigris-Euphrates region, as well as Khurasan and Bukhara, and the Ottomans had Egypt.<ref name="archive.aramcoworld.com">{{Cite magazine |first=William J. |last=Griswold |title=Saudi Aramco World: Whither the Weather |date=September–October 1978 
|volume=29 |issue=5 |url=https://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/197805/whither.the.weather.htm |access-date=2023-04-26 |magazine=Saudi Aramco World |pages=22–27}}</ref> However, there was an inherent political risk in such agricultural dependency, which finally materialised. Farmers who are unable or unwilling to relocate may be driven into revolt against the established authority if weather patterns shift. Nomads had the flexibility to move in response to climate shifts, unlike settled peasants who were unwilling to leave their traditional lands.<ref name="archive.aramcoworld.com"/> The impact of the Little Ice Age on the Ottoman Empire was not limited to agriculture and trade. The cooling climate led to changes in migration patterns, as some regions became uninhabitable while others became more attractive. This in turn affected the demographics of the empire and contributed to the emergence of new political and social structures.

The lengthy drought as well as the cold winters led to the destruction of imperial systems which all led to a series of uprisings collectively known as the [[Celali rebellions|Celali Rebellion]], c. 1596–1610. The rebellion became the longest-lasting internal challenge to state power in the Ottoman Empire's six centuries of existence.<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=What the Ottoman Empire can teach us about the consequences of climate change – and how drought can uproot peoples and fuel warfare |first=Andrea |last=Duffy |magazine=The Conversation |via=Colorado State University |date=9 June 2021 |url=https://inst.colostate.edu/news/what-the-ottoman-empire-can-tell-us-about-climate-change/ |access-date=2023-04-26 |language=en-US}}</ref> The goal of the Celali Rebellion was not to overthrow the Ottoman government; rather, it was an attempt to get newly appointed governorships.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Robinson |first=Nova |date=May 2019 |title=Betty Anderson, A History of the Modern Middle East: Rulers, Rebels, and Rouges (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2016). Pp. 540. $44.95 paper. {{text|ISBN}}: 9780804783248 |type=book review |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0020743819000114 |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |volume=51 |issue=2 |pages=321–323 |doi=10.1017/s0020743819000114 |s2cid=167176658 |issn=0020-7438}}</ref> The Ottoman Empire did not fully recover from the Little Ice Age for around a hundred years, even then they were considered weakened with a large population loss.<ref>{{Cite book |last=White |first=Sam |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511844058 |title=The Climate of Rebellion in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire |date=15 August 2011 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-00831-1 |pages=2 |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511844058}}</ref>