premise: By the mid-17th century the Ottoman Empire had reached its greatest extent, stretching from Batumi at the eastern end of the Black Sea to Algeria, taking in Mesopotamia, Palestine, the shores of the Red Sea (including Mecca and Medina), Egypt, Anatolia, Greece, the Balkans, Hungary, Moldavia, the North African coast, the Crimea, and southern Ukraine.
hypothesis: The Ottoman Empire ruled many areas of North Africa, South-Eastern Europe and the Middle East in the 17th century.