Ottoman Empire

TheOttoman Empire(/ˈɒtəmən/), also called theTurkish Empire,was animperial realmthat controlled much ofSoutheast Europe,West Asia, andNorth Africafrom the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeasternCentral Europe, between the early 16th and early 18th centuries.
The empire emerged from abeylik, orprincipality, founded in northwesternAnatoliainc.1299by theTurkomantribal leaderOsman I. His successorsconqueredmuch of Anatolia and expanded into theBalkansby the mid-14th century, transforming theirpetty kingdominto a transcontinental empire. The Ottomans ended theByzantine Empirewith theconquest of Constantinoplein 1453 byMehmed II, which marked the Ottomans' emergence as a major regional power. UnderSuleiman the Magnificent(1520–1566), the empire reached the zenith of its power, prosperity, and political development expanding its influence further into Middle East and Central Europe. With its capital atConstantinople(modern-dayIstanbul) and control over a significant portion of theMediterranean Basin, the Ottoman Empire was at the centre of interactions between theMiddle Eastand Europe for six centuries. Ruling over so many peoples, the empire granted varying levels of autonomy to its many confessional communities, ormillets, to manage their own affairs perIslamic law.
While the Ottoman Empire was once thought to have entered aperiod of declineafter the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, modern academic consensus posits that the empire continued to maintain a flexible and strong economy, society and military into much of the 18th century. However, during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768, Ottoman military and bureaucratic systems fell behind those of its chief European rivals, theHabsburgandRussianempires. The Ottomans consequently suffered severe military defeats in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, culminating in the loss of both territory andglobal prestige. In 1826, SultanMahmud IIabolished theJanissary corpsfollowing theAuspicious Incident, which had been roadblocking attempts at reform. This prompted a comprehensive process of reform and modernization known as theTanzimat; over the course of the 19th century, the Ottoman state became vastly more powerful and organized internally, despite suffering further territorial losses, especially in the Balkans, where a number of new states emerged. The Ottoman Empire joined theConcert of Europewith the 1856Treaty of Paris. In the1876 revolution, the Ottoman Empire attemptedconstitutional monarchy, before reverting to a royalist dictatorship underAbdul Hamid II, following theGreat Eastern Crisis.
Over the course of the late 19th century, Ottoman intellectuals known asYoung Turkssought to liberalize and rationalize society and politics along Western lines, culminating in theYoung Turk Revolutionof 1908 led by theCommittee of Union and Progress(CUP), which reestablisheda constitutional monarchy. However, following the disastrousBalkan Wars, the CUP became increasingly radicalized and nationalistic,leading a coup d'état in 1913that established a dictatorship. The CUP joinedWorld War Ion the side of theCentral Powers. It struggled with internal dissent, especially theArab Revolt, and engaged ingenocideagainstArmenians,Assyrians, andGreeks. In theaftermath of World War I, the victoriousAllied Powersoccupied andpartitionedthe Ottoman Empire, which lost its southern territories to theUnited Kingdom and France. The successfulTurkish War of Independence, led byMustafa Kemal Atatürkagainst the occupying Allies, led to the emergence of theRepublic of Turkeyand theabolition of the Ottoman monarchyin 1922.
The wordOttomanis a historicalanglicisationof the name ofOsman I, the founder of the Empire and of the rulingHouse of Osman(also known as the Ottoman dynasty). Osman's name in turn was the Turkish form of the Arabic nameʿUthmān(عثمان). InOttoman Turkish, the empire was referred to asDevlet-i ʿAlīye-yi ʿOsmānīye(دولت عليه عثمانیه),lit.'Sublime Ottoman State', or simplyDevlet-i ʿOsmānīye(دولت عثمانيه‎),lit.'Ottoman State'.
The Turkish word for "Ottoman" (Osmanlı) originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century. The word subsequently came to be used to refer to the empire's military-administrative elite. In contrast, the term "Turk" (Türk) was used to refer to the Anatolian peasant and tribal population and was seen as a disparaging term when applied to urban, educated individuals.In theearly modern period, an educated, urban-dwelling Turkish speaker who was not a member of the military-administrative class typically referred to themselves neither as anOsmanlınor as aTürk, but rather as aRūmī(رومى), or "Roman", meaning an inhabitant of the territory of the formerByzantine Empirein the Balkans and Anatolia. The termRūmīwas also used to refer to Turkish speakers by the other Muslim peoples of the empire and beyond.
In Western Europe, the names Ottoman Empire, Turkish Empire and Turkey were often used interchangeably, with Turkey being increasingly favoured both in formal and informal situations. This dichotomy was officially ended in 1920–1923, when the newly establishedAnkara-basedTurkish governmentchose Turkey as the sole official name. At present, most scholarly historians avoid the terms "Turkey", "Turks", and "Turkish" when referring to the Ottomans, due to the empire's multinational character.
As theRum Sultanatedeclined in the 13th century,Anatoliawas divided into a patchwork of independent Turkish principalities known as theAnatolian Beyliks. One of these, in the region ofBithyniaon the frontier of theByzantine Empire, was led by the Turkishtribal leaderOsman I(d.1323/4),a figure of obscure origins from whom the name Ottoman is derived.Osman's early followers consisted of Turkish tribal groups and Byzantine renegades, with many but not all converts to Islam.Osman extended control of his principality by conquering Byzantine towns along theSakarya River. A Byzantine defeat at theBattle of Bapheusin 1302 contributed to Osman's rise. It is not well understood how the early Ottomans came to dominate their neighbors, due to the lack of sources surviving. TheGhaza thesispopular during the 20th century credited their success to rallying religious warriors to fight for them in the name ofIslam, but it is no longer generally accepted. No other hypothesis has attracted broad acceptance.
In the century after Osman I, Ottoman rule had begun to extend over Anatolia and theBalkans. The earliest conflicts began during theByzantine–Ottoman wars, waged in Anatolia in the late 13th century before entering Europe in the mid-14th century, followed by theBulgarian–Ottoman warsand theSerbian–Ottoman warsin the mid-14th century. Much of this period was characterised byOttoman expansion into the Balkans. Osman's son,Orhan, captured the northwestern Anatolian city ofBursain 1326, making it the new capital and supplanting Byzantine control in the region. The important port ofThessalonikiwas captured from theVenetiansin 1387 and sacked. The Ottoman victory inKosovo in 1389effectively marked theend of Serbian powerin the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe.TheBattle of Nicopolisfor theBulgarianTsardom of Vidinin 1396, regarded as the last large-scalecrusadeof theMiddle Ages, failed to stop the advance of the victorious Ottomans.
As the Turks expanded into the Balkans, theconquest of Constantinoplebecame a crucial objective. The Ottomans had already wrested control of nearly all former Byzantine lands surrounding the city, but the strong defense of Constantinople's strategic position on theBosporusStrait made it difficult to conquer. In 1402, the Byzantines were temporarily relieved when theTurco-MongolleaderTimur, founder of theTimurid Empire, invaded Ottoman Anatolia from the east. In theBattle of Ankarain 1402, Timur defeated Ottoman forces and took SultanBayezid Ias prisoner, throwing the empire into disorder. Theensuing civil warlasted from 1402 to 1413 as Bayezid's sons fought over succession. It ended whenMehmed Iemerged as the sultan and restored Ottoman power.
The Balkan territories lost by the Ottomans after 1402, including Thessaloniki, Macedonia, and Kosovo, were later recovered byMurad IIbetween the 1430s and 1450s. On 10 November 1444, Murad repelled theCrusade of Varnaby defeating the Hungarian, Polish, andWallachianarmies underWładysław III of PolandandJohn Hunyadiat theBattle of Varna, although Albanians underSkanderbegcontinued to resist. Four years later, John Hunyadi prepared another army of Hungarian and Wallachian forces to attack the Turks, but was again defeated at theSecond Battle of Kosovoin 1448.
According to modern historiography, there is a direct connection between the rapid Ottoman military advance and the consequences of theBlack Deathfrom the mid-fourteenth century onwards. Byzantine territories, where the initial Ottoman conquests were carried out, were exhausted demographically and militarily due to the plague, which facilitated Ottoman expansion. In addition, slave hunting  was the main economic driving force behind Ottoman conquest. Some 21st-century authors re-periodize conquest of the Balkans into theakıncı phase, which spanned 8 to 13 decades, characterized by continuous slave hunting and destruction, followed by administrative integration into the Empire.
The son of Murad II,Mehmed the Conqueror, reorganized both state and military, and on 29 May 1453 conqueredConstantinople, ending the Byzantine Empire.Mehmed allowed theEastern Orthodox Churchto maintain its autonomy and land in exchange for accepting Ottoman authority.Due to tension between the states of western Europe and the later Byzantine Empire, most of the Orthodox population accepted Ottoman rule, as preferable to Venetian rule.Albanian resistance was a major obstacle to Ottoman expansion on the Italian peninsula.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Ottoman Empire entered aperiod of expansion. The Empire prospered under the rule of a line of committed and effectiveSultans. It flourished economically due to its control of the major overland trade routes between Europe and Asia.
SultanSelim I(1512–1520) dramatically expanded the eastern and southern frontiers by defeatingShah IsmailofSafavid Iran, in theBattle of Chaldiran.Selim I establishedOttoman rule in Egyptby defeating and annexing theMamluk Sultanate of Egyptand created a naval presence on theRed Sea. After this Ottoman expansion, competition began between thePortuguese Empireand the Ottomans to become the dominant power in the region.
Suleiman the Magnificent(1520–1566)capturedBelgradein 1521, conquered the southern and central parts of theKingdom of Hungaryas part of theOttoman–Hungarian Wars, and, after his historic victory in theBattle of Mohácsin 1526, he established Ottoman rule in the territory of present-day Hungary and other Central European territories. He then laidsiege to Viennain 1529, but failed to take the city.In 1532, he made anotherattackon Vienna, but was repulsed in thesiege of Güns.Transylvania, Wallachia and, intermittently,Moldavia, became tributary principalities of the Empire. In the east, the Ottoman TurkstookBaghdadfrom the Persians in 1535, gaining control ofMesopotamiaand naval access to thePersian Gulf. In 1555, theCaucasusbecame partitioned for the first time between the Safavids and the Ottomans, astatus quothat remained until the end of theRusso-Turkish War (1768–1774). By this partitioning as signed in thePeace of Amasya,Western Armenia, westernKurdistan, andWestern Georgiafell into Ottoman hands,while southernDagestan,Eastern Armenia,Eastern Georgia, andAzerbaijanremained Persian.
In 1539, a 60,000-strong Ottoman army besieged theSpanishgarrison ofCastelnuovoon theAdriatic coast; the successful siege cost the Ottomans 8,000 casualties,butVeniceagreed to terms in 1540, surrendering most of its empire in theAegeanand theMorea.Franceand the Ottoman Empire, united by mutual opposition toHabsburgrule,became allies. The French conquests ofNice(1543) andCorsica(1553) occurred as a joint venture between French kingFrancis Iand Suleiman, and were commanded by the Ottoman admiralsHayreddin BarbarossaandDragut.France supported the Ottomans with an artillery unit during the 1543 Ottomanconquest of Esztergomin northern Hungary. After further advances by the Turks, the Habsburg rulerFerdinandofficially recognized Ottoman ascendancy in Hungary in 1547. Suleiman died of natural causes during thesiege of Szigetvárin 1566. Following his death, the Ottomans were said to be declining, although this has been rejected by many scholars.By the end of Suleiman's reign, the Empire spanned approximately 877,888 sq mi (2,273,720 km), extending over three continents.
The Empire became a dominant naval force, controlling much of theMediterranean Sea.The Empire was now a major part of European politics. The Ottomans became involved in multi-continental religious wars when Spain and Portugal were united under theIberian Union. The Ottomans were holders of the Caliph title, meaning they were the leaders of Muslims worldwide. The Iberians were leaders of the Christian crusaders, and so the two fought in a worldwide conflict. There were zones of operations in the MediterraneanandIndian Ocean,where Iberians circumnavigated Africa to reach India and, on their way, wage war upon the Ottomans and their local Muslim allies. Likewise, the Iberians passed through newly-ChristianizedLatin Americaandhad sent expeditionsthat traversed the Pacific to Christianize the formerly Muslim Philippines and use it as a base to attack the Muslims in theFar East.In this case, the Ottomans sent armies to aid its easternmost vassal and territory, theSultanate of Acehin Southeast Asia.
During the 1600s, the world conflict between the Ottoman Caliphate and Iberian Union was a stalemate sinceboth were at similar population, technology and economic levels. Nevertheless, the success of the Ottoman political and military establishment was compared to theRoman Empire, despite the difference in size, by the likes of contemporary Italian scholarFrancesco Sansovinoand French political philosopherJean Bodin.
In the second half of the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire came under increasing strain from inflation and the rapidly rising costs of warfare that were impacting both Europe and the Middle East.These pressures led to a series of crises around the year 1600, placing great strain upon the Ottoman system of government.The empire underwent a series of transformations of its political and military institutions in response to these challenges, enabling it to successfully adapt to the new conditions of the seventeenth century and remain powerful, both militarily and economically.Historians of the mid-twentieth century once characterised this period as one of stagnation and decline, but this view is now rejected by the majority of academics.
The discovery of new maritime trade routes by Western European states allowed them to avoid the Ottoman trade monopoly. ThePortuguesediscovery of theCape of Good Hopein 1488 initiateda series of Ottoman-Portuguese naval warsin theIndian Oceanthroughout the 16th century. Despite the growing European presence in the Indian Ocean, Ottoman trade with the east continued to flourish. Cairo, in particular, benefitted from the rise of Yemeni coffee as a popular consumer commodity. As coffeehouses appeared in cities and towns across the empire, Cairo developed into a major center for its trade, contributing to its continued prosperity throughout the seventeenth and much of the eighteenth century.
UnderIvan IV(1533–1584), theTsardom of Russiaexpanded into the Volga and Caspian regions at the expense of the Tatar khanates. In 1571, the Crimean khanDevlet I Giray, commanded by the Ottomans,burned Moscow.The next year, the invasion was repeated but repelled at theBattle of Molodi. The Ottoman Empire continued to invade Eastern Europe in a series ofslave raids,and remained a significant power in Eastern Europe until the end of the 17th century.
The Ottomans decided to conquerVenetian Cyprusand on 22 July 1570, Nicosia was besieged; 50,000 Christians died, and 180,000 were enslaved.On 15 September 1570, the Ottoman cavalry appeared before the last Venetian stronghold in Cyprus, Famagusta. The Venetian defenders held out for 11 months against a force that at its peak numbered 200,000 men with 145 cannons; 163,000 cannonballs struck the walls of Famagusta before it fell to the Ottomans in August 1571. TheSiege of Famagustaclaimed 50,000 Ottoman casualties.Meanwhile, theHoly Leagueconsisting of mostly Spanish and Venetian fleets won a victory over the Ottoman fleet at theBattle of Lepanto(1571), off southwestern Greece; Catholic forces killed over 30,000 Turks and destroyed 200 of their ships.It was a startling, if mostly symbolic,blow to the image of Ottoman invincibility, an image which the victory of the Knights of Malta over the Ottoman invaders in the 1565siege of Maltahad recently set about eroding.The battle was far more damaging to the Ottoman navy in sapping experienced manpower than the loss of ships, which were rapidly replaced.The Ottoman navy recovered quickly, persuading Venice to sign a peace treaty in 1573, allowing the Ottomans to expand and consolidate their position in North Africa.
By contrast, the Habsburg frontier had settled somewhat, a stalemate caused by a stiffening of the Habsburg defenses.TheLong Turkish Waragainst Habsburg Austria (1593–1606) created the need for greater numbers of Ottoman infantry equipped with firearms, resulting in a relaxation of recruitment policy. This contributed to problems of indiscipline and outright rebelliousness within the corps, which were never fully solved.Irregular sharpshooters (Sekban) were also recruited, and on demobilisation turned tobrigandagein theCelali rebellions(1590–1610), which engendered widespread anarchy inAnatoliain the late 16th and early 17th centuries.With the Empire's population reaching 30 million people by 1600, the shortage of land placed further pressure on the government.In spite of these problems, the Ottoman state remained strong, and its army did not collapse or suffer crushing defeats. The only exceptions were campaigns against theSafavid dynastyof Persia, where many of the Ottoman eastern provinces were lost, some permanently. This1603–1618 wareventually resulted in theTreaty of Nasuh Pasha, which ceded the entire Caucasus, except westernmost Georgia, back into the possession ofSafavid Iran.The treaty ending theCretan Warcost Venice much ofDalmatia, its Aegean island possessions, andCrete. (Losses from the war totalled 30,985 Venetian soldiers and 118,754 Turkish soldiers.)
During his brief majority reign,Murad IV(1623–1640) reasserted central authority and recapturedIraq(1639) from the Safavids.The resultingTreaty of Zuhabof that same year decisively divided the Caucasus and adjacent regions between the two neighbouring empires as it had already been defined in the 1555 Peace of Amasya.
TheSultanate of Women(1533–1656) was a period in which the mothers of young sultans exercised power on behalf of their sons. The most prominent women of this period wereKösem Sultanand her daughter-in-lawTurhan Hatice, whose political rivalry culminated in Kösem's murder in 1651.During theKöprülü era(1656–1703), effective control of the Empire was exercised by a sequence ofgrand viziersfrom the Köprülü family. The Köprülü Vizierate saw renewed military success with authority restored in Transylvania, the conquest ofCretecompleted in 1669, and expansion intoPolish southern Ukraine, with the strongholds ofKhotyn, andKamianets-Podilskyiand the territory ofPodoliaceding to Ottoman control in 1676.
This period of renewed assertiveness came to a calamitous end in 1683 when Grand VizierKara Mustafa Pashaled a huge army to attempt a second Ottoman siege ofViennain theGreat Turkish Warof 1683–1699. The final assault being fatally delayed, the Ottoman forces were swept away by allied Habsburg, German, and Polish forces spearheaded by the Polish kingJohn III Sobieskiat theBattle of Vienna. The alliance of theHoly Leaguepressed home the advantage of the defeat at Vienna, culminating in theTreaty of Karlowitz(26 January 1699), which ended the Great Turkish War.The Ottomans surrendered control of significant territories, many permanently.Mustafa II(1695–1703) led the counterattack of 1695–1696 against the Habsburgs in Hungary, but was undone at the disastrous defeat atZenta(in modern Serbia), 11 September 1697.
Aside from the loss of theBanatand the temporary loss ofBelgrade(1717–1739), the Ottoman border on theDanubeandSavaremained stable during the eighteenth century.Russian expansion, however, presented a large and growing threat.Accordingly, KingCharles XII of Swedenwas welcomed as an ally in the Ottoman Empire following his defeat by the Russians at theBattle of Poltavaof 1709 in central Ukraine (part of theGreat Northern Warof 1700–1721).Charles XII persuaded the Ottoman SultanAhmed IIIto declare war on Russia, which resulted in an Ottoman victory in thePruth River Campaignof 1710–1711, in Moldavia.
After theAustro-Turkish War, theTreaty of Passarowitzconfirmed the loss of the Banat, Serbia, and"Little Walachia" (Oltenia)to Austria. The Treaty also revealed that the Ottoman Empire was on the defensive and unlikely to present any further aggression in Europe.TheAustro-Russian–Turkish War(1735–1739), which was ended by theTreaty of Belgradein 1739, resulted in the Ottoman recovery of northernBosnia,Habsburg Serbia(including Belgrade),Olteniaand the southern parts of theBanat of Temeswar; but the Empire lost the port ofAzov, north of the Crimean Peninsula, to the Russians. After this treaty the Ottoman Empire was able to enjoy a generation of peace in Europe, as Austria and Russia were forced to deal with the rise ofPrussia.
Educational and technological reformscame about, including the establishment of higher education institutions such as theIstanbul Technical University.In 1734 an artillery school was established to impart Western-style artillery methods, but the Islamic clergy successfully objected under the grounds oftheodicy.In 1754 the artillery school was reopened on a semi-secret basis.In 1726,Ibrahim Muteferrikaconvinced the Grand VizierNevşehirli Damat Ibrahim Pasha, theGrand Mufti, and the clergy on the efficiency of the printing press, and Muteferrika was later granted by Sultan Ahmed III permission to publish non-religious books (despite opposition from somecalligraphersand religious leaders).Muteferrika's press published its first book in 1729 and, by 1743, issued 17 works in 23 volumes, each having between 500 and 1,000 copies.
In North Africa, Spainconquered Oranfrom the autonomousDeylik of Algiers. TheBey of Oranreceived an army from Algiers, but it failed to recaptureOran; the siege caused the deaths of 1,500 Spaniards, and even more Algerians. The Spanish also massacred many Muslim soldiers.In 1792, Spain abandoned Oran, selling it to the Deylik of Algiers.
In 1768 Russian-backed UkrainianHaidamakas, pursuing Polish confederates, enteredBalta, an Ottoman-controlled town on the border of Bessarabia in Ukraine, massacred its citizens, and burned the town to the ground. This action provoked the Ottoman Empire into theRusso-Turkish War of 1768–1774. TheTreaty of Küçük Kaynarcaof 1774 ended the war and provided freedom of worship for the Christian citizens of the Ottoman-controlled provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia.By the late 18th century, after a number of defeats in the wars with Russia, some people in the Ottoman Empire began to conclude that the reforms ofPeter the Greathad given the Russians an edge, and the Ottomans would have to keep up with Western technology in order to avoid further defeats.
Selim III(1789–1807) made the first major attempts tomodernise the army, but his reforms were hampered by the religious leadership and theJanissarycorps. Jealous of their privileges and firmly opposed to change, the Janissaryrevolted. Selim's efforts cost him his throne and his life, but were resolved in spectacular and bloody fashion by his successor, the dynamicMahmud II, whoeliminated the Janissary corpsin 1826.
TheSerbian revolution(1804–1815) marked the beginning of an era ofnational awakeningin theBalkansduring theEastern Question. In 1811, the fundamentalist Wahhabis of Arabia, led by the al-Saud family, revolted against the Ottomans. Unable to defeat the Wahhabi rebels, the Sublime Porte hadMuhammad Ali PashaofKavala, thevali(governor) of theEyalet of Egypt, tasked with retaking Arabia, which ended with the destruction of theEmirate of Diriyahin 1818. Thesuzeraintyof Serbia as a hereditary monarchy under its owndynastywas acknowledgedde jurein 1830.In 1821, theGreeksdeclared waron the Sultan. A rebellion that originated in Moldavia as a diversion was followed by the main revolution in thePeloponnese, which, along with the northern part of theGulf of Corinth, became the first parts of the Ottoman Empire to achieve independence (in 1829). In 1830, the French invaded theDeylik of Algiers.The campaignthat took 21 days, resulted in over 5,000 Algerian military casualties,and about 2,600 French ones.Before the French invasion the total population of Algeria was most likely between 3,000,000 and 5,000,000.By 1873, the population of Algeria (excluding several hundred thousand newly arrived French settlers) had decreased to 2,172,000.In 1831,Muhammad Ali of Egyptrevolted against SultanMahmud IIdue to the latter's refusal to grant him the governorships ofGreater SyriaandCrete, which the Sultan had promised him in exchange for sending military assistance to put down theGreek revolt(1821–1829) that ultimately ended with the formalindependence of Greecein 1830. It was a costly enterprise for Muhammad Ali, who had lost his fleet at theBattle of Navarinoin 1827. Thus began the firstEgyptian–Ottoman War (1831–1833), during which the French-trained army of Muhammad Ali, under the command of his sonIbrahim Pasha, defeated the Ottoman Army as it marched intoAnatolia, reaching the city ofKütahyawithin 320 km (200 mi) of the capital, Constantinople.In desperation, SultanMahmud IIappealed to the empire's traditional arch-rival Russia for help, asking EmperorNicholas Ito send an expeditionary force to assist him.In return for signing theTreaty of Hünkâr İskelesi, the Russians sent the expeditionary force which deterred Ibrahim Pasha from marching any further towards Constantinople.Under the terms of theConvention of Kütahya, signed on 5 May 1833, Muhammad Ali agreed to abandon his campaign against the Sultan, in exchange for which he was made thevali(governor) of thevilayets(provinces) ofCrete,Aleppo,Tripoli,DamascusandSidon(the latter four comprising modernSyriaandLebanon), and given the right to collect taxes inAdana.Had it not been for the Russian intervention, SultanMahmud IIcould have faced the risk of being overthrown and Muhammad Ali could have even become the new Sultan. These events marked the beginning of a recurring pattern where the Sublime Porte needed the help of foreign powers to protect itself.
In 1839, theSublime Porteattempted to take back what it lost to thede factoautonomous, butde jurestill OttomanEyalet of Egypt, but its forces were initially defeated, which led to theOriental Crisis of 1840. Muhammad Ali had close relations withFrance, and the prospect of him becoming the Sultan of Egypt was widely viewed as putting the entireLevantinto the French sphere of influence.As the Sublime Porte had proved itself incapable of defeating Muhammad Ali,theBritish EmpireandAustrian Empireprovided military assistance, and the secondEgyptian–Ottoman War (1839–1841)ended with Ottoman victory and the restoration of Ottoman suzerainty overEgypt Eyaletand theLevant.
By the mid-19th century, the Ottoman Empire was called the "sick man of Europe". Three suzerain states – thePrincipality of Serbia,WallachiaandMoldavia– moved towardsde jureindependence during the 1860s and 1870s.
During theTanzimatperiod (1839–1876), the government's series of constitutional reforms led to a fairly modernconscripted army, banking system reforms, the decriminalization of homosexuality, the replacement of religious law with secular law,and guilds with modern factories. The Ottoman Ministry of Post was established in Istanbul in 1840. American inventorSamuel Morsereceived an Ottoman patent for the telegraph in 1847, issued by SultanAbdülmecid, who personally tested the invention.The reformist period peaked with the Constitution, called theKanûn-u Esâsî. The empire'sFirst Constitutional erawas short-lived. The parliament survived for only two years before the sultan suspended it.
The empire's Christian population, owing to their higher educational levels, started to pull ahead of the Muslim majority, leading to much resentment.In 1861, there were 571 primary and 94 secondary schools for Ottoman Christians, with 140,000 pupils in total, a figure that vastly exceeded the number of Muslim children in school at the time, who were further hindered by the amount of time spent learning Arabic and Islamic theology.Author Norman Stone suggests that the Arabic alphabet, in which Turkish was writtenuntil 1928, was ill-suited to reflect the sounds of Turkish (which is a Turkic as opposed to Semitic language), which imposed further difficulty on Turkish children.In turn, Christians' higher educational levels allowed them to play a larger role in the economy, with the rise in prominence of groups such as theSursock familyindicative of this.In 1911, of the 654 wholesale companies in Istanbul, 528 were owned by ethnic Greeks.In many cases, Christians and Jews gained protection from European consuls and citizenship, meaning they were protected from Ottoman law and not subject to the same economic regulations as their Muslim counterparts.
TheCrimean War(1853–1856) was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining Ottoman Empire. The financial burden of the war led the Ottoman state to issueforeign loansamounting to 5million pounds sterling on 4 August 1854.The war caused an exodus of theCrimean Tatars, about 200,000 of whom moved to the Ottoman Empire in continuing waves of emigration.Toward the end of theCaucasian Wars, 90% of theCircassianswereethnically cleansedand exiled from their homelands in the Caucasus, fleeing to the Ottoman Empire,resulting in the settlement of 500,000 to 700,000 Circassians in the Ottoman Empire.Crimean Tatar refugees in the late 19th century played an especially notable role in seeking to modernise Ottoman education and in first promoting bothPan-Turkismand a sense of Turkish nationalism.
In this period, the Ottoman Empire spent only small amounts of public funds on education; for example, in 1860–1861 only 0.2% of the total budget was invested in education.As the Ottoman state attempted to modernize its infrastructure and army in response to outside threats, it opened itself up to a different kind of threat: that of creditors. As the historian Eugene Rogan has written, "the single greatest threat to the independence of the Middle East" in the 19th century "was not the armies of Europe but its banks".The Ottoman state, which had begun taking on debt with the Crimean War, was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1875.By 1881, the Ottoman Empire agreed to have its debt controlled by theOttoman Public Debt Administration, a council of European men with presidency alternating between France and Britain. The body controlled swaths of the Ottoman economy, and used its position to ensure that European capital continued to penetrate the empire, often to the detriment of local Ottoman interests.
The Ottomanbashi-bazoukssuppressed theBulgarian uprisingof 1876, massacring up to 100,000 people in the process.TheRusso-Turkish War (1877–1878)ended with a decisive victory for Russia. As a result, Ottoman holdings in Europe declined sharply:Bulgariawas established as an independent principality inside the Ottoman Empire;Romaniaachieved full independence; andSerbiaandMontenegrofinally gained complete independence, but with smaller territories. In 1878,Austria-Hungaryunilaterally occupied the Ottoman provinces ofBosnia-HerzegovinaandNovi Pazar.
British Prime MinisterBenjamin Disraeliadvocated restoring the Ottoman territories on the Balkan Peninsula during theCongress of Berlin, and in return, Britain assumed the administration ofCyprusin 1878.Britain later sent troops toEgyptin 1882 to put down theUrabi Revolt(SultanAbdul Hamid IIwas too paranoid to mobilize his own army, fearing this would result in a coup d'état), effectively gaining control in both territories. Abdul Hamid II was so fearful of a coup that he did not allow his army to conduct war games, lest this serve as cover for a coup, but he did see the need for military mobilization. In 1883, a German military mission under General BaronColmar von der Goltzarrived to train the Ottoman Army, leading to the so-called "Goltz generation" of German-trained officers, who played a notable role in the politics of the empire's last years.
From 1894 to 1896, between 100,000 and 300,000 Armenians living throughout the empire were killed in what became known as theHamidian massacres.
In 1897 the population was 19million, of whom 14million (74%) were Muslim. An additional 20million lived in provinces that remained under the sultan's nominal suzerainty but were entirely outside his actual power. One by one the Porte lost nominal authority. They included Egypt, Tunisia, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Lebanon.
As the Ottoman Empire gradually shrank, 7–9million Muslims from its former territories in the Caucasus,Crimea, Balkans, and theMediterraneanislands migrated to Anatolia andEastern Thrace.After the Empire lost theFirst Balkan War(1912–1913), it lost all itsBalkanterritories exceptEast Thrace(European Turkey). This resulted in around 400,000 Muslims fleeing with the retreating Ottoman armies (with many dying fromcholerabrought by the soldiers), and 400,000 non-Muslims fled territory still under Ottoman rule.Justin McCarthyestimates that from 1821 to 1922, 5.5million Muslims died in southeastern Europe, with the expulsion of 5million.
The defeat anddissolution of the Ottoman Empire(1908—1922) began with theSecond Constitutional Era, a moment of hope and promise established with theYoung Turk Revolution. It restored theConstitution of the Ottoman Empireand brought inmulti-party politicswith atwo-stage electoral system(electoral law) under theOttoman parliament. The constitution offered hope by freeing the empire's citizens to modernise the state's institutions, rejuvenate its strength, and enable it to hold its own against outside powers. Its guarantee of liberties promised to dissolve inter-communal tensions and transform the empire into a more harmonious place.Instead, this period became the story of the twilight struggle of the Empire.
Members ofYoung Turksmovement who had once gone underground now established their parties.Among them "Committee of Union and Progress", and "Freedom and Accord Party" were major parties. On the other end of the spectrum were ethnic parties, which includedPoale Zion,Al-Fatat, andArmenian national movementorganised underArmenian Revolutionary Federation. Profiting from the civil strife, Austria-Hungary officially annexedBosnia and Herzegovinain 1908. The last of theOttoman censuseswas performed in1914. Despitemilitary reformswhich reconstituted theOttoman Modern Army, the Empire lost its North African territories and the Dodecanese in theItalo-Turkish War(1911) and almost all of its European territories in theBalkan Wars(1912–1913). The Empire faced continuous unrest in the years leading up toWorld War I, including the31 March Incidentand two further coups in1912and1913.
The Ottoman Empire enteredWorld War Ion the side of theCentral Powersand was ultimately defeated.The Ottoman participation in the war began with the combinedGerman-Ottoman surprise attackon theBlack Seacoast of theRussian Empireon 29 October 1914. Following the attack, the Russian Empire (2 November 1914)and its alliesFrance(5 November 1914)and theBritish Empire(5 November 1914)declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Also on 5 November 1914, the British government changed the status of theKhedivate of EgyptandCyprus, which werede jureOttoman territories prior to the war, toBritish protectorates.
The Ottomans successfully defended theDardanellesstrait during theGallipoli campaign(1915–1916) and achieved initial victories against British forces in the first two years of theMesopotamian campaign, such as theSiege of Kut(1915–1916); but theArab Revolt(1916–1918) turned the tide against the Ottomans in the Middle East. In theCaucasus campaign, however, the Russian forces had the upper hand from the beginning, especially after theBattle of Sarikamish(1914–1915). Russian forces advanced into northeasternAnatoliaand controlled the major cities there until retreating from World War I with theTreaty of Brest-Litovskfollowing theRussian Revolutionin 1917.
In 1915 the Ottoman government and Kurdish tribes in the region started the extermination of its ethnic Armenian population, resulting in the deaths of up to 1.5million Armenians in theArmenian genocide.The genocide was carried out during and after World War I and implemented in two phases: the wholesale killing of the able-bodied male population through massacre and subjection of army conscripts to forced labour, followed by the deportation of women, children, the elderly and infirm ondeath marchesleading to theSyrian desert. Driven forward by military escorts, the deportees were deprived of food and water and subjected to periodic robbery,rape, and systematic massacre.Large-scale massacres were also committed against the Empire'sGreekandAssyrianminorities as part of the same campaign of ethnic cleansing.
TheArab Revoltbegan in 1916 with British support. It turned the tide against the Ottomans on the Middle Eastern front, where they seemed to have the upper hand during the first two years of the war. On the basis of theMcMahon–Hussein Correspondence, an agreement between the British government andHussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, the revolt was officially initiated at Mecca on 10 June 1916.The Arab nationalist goal was to create a single unified and independentArab statestretching fromAleppo, Syria, toAden, Yemen, which the British promised to recognise.
TheSharifian Army, led by Hussein and theHashemites, with military backing from the BritishEgyptian Expeditionary Force, successfully fought and expelled the Ottoman military presence from much of theHejazandTransjordan. The rebellion eventually tookDamascusand set up a short-lived monarchy led byFaisal, a son of Hussein.
Following the terms of the 1916Sykes–Picot Agreement, the British and French later partitioned the Middle East intomandate territories. There was no unified Arab state, much to Arab nationalists' anger. Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria became British and French mandates.
Defeated in World War I, the Ottoman Empire signed theArmistice of Mudroson 30 October 1918.Istanbul was occupiedby combined British, French, Italian, and Greek forces. In May 1919, Greece alsotook control of the area around Smyrna(now İzmir).
Thepartition of the Ottoman Empirewas finalized under the terms of the 1920Treaty of Sèvres. This treaty, as designed in theConference of London, allowed the Sultan to retain his position and title. Anatolia's status was problematic given the occupied forces.
A nationalist opposition arose in theTurkish national movement. It won theTurkish War of Independence(1919–1923) under the leadership ofMustafa Kemal(later given the surname "Atatürk"). The sultanate was abolished on 1 November 1922, and the last sultan,Mehmed VI(reigned 1918–1922), left the country on 17 November 1922. TheRepublic of Turkeywasestablishedin its place on 29 October 1923, in the new capital city ofAnkara. Thecaliphatewas abolished on 3 March 1924.
Several historians, such as British historianEdward Gibbonand the Greek historianDimitri Kitsikis, have argued that after the fall of Constantinople, the Ottoman state took over the machinery of the Byzantine (Roman) state and that the Ottoman Empire was in essence a continuation of the Eastern Roman Empire under aTurkishMuslimguise.The American historianSperos Vryoniswrites that the Ottoman state centered on "a Byzantine-Balkan base with a veneer of the Turkish language and the Islamic religion".Kitsikis and the American historianHeath Lowryposit that the early Ottoman state was a predatory confederacy open to both Byzantine Christians and Turkish Muslims whose primary goal was attaining booty and slaves, rather than spreading Islam, and that Islam only later became the empire's primary characteristic.Other historians have followed the lead of the Austrian historianPaul Wittek, who emphasizes the early Ottoman state's Islamic character, seeing it as a "jihadstate" dedicated to expanding theMuslim world.Many historians led in 1937 by the Turkish historianMehmet Fuat Köprülüchampioned theGhaza thesis, according to which the early Ottoman state was a continuation of the way of life of the nomadicTurkic tribeswho had come from East Asia to Anatolia via Central Asia and the Middle East on a much larger scale. They argued that the most important cultural influences on the Ottoman state came fromPersia.
The British historianNorman Stonesuggests many continuities between the Eastern Roman and Ottoman empires, such as that thezeugariontax of Byzantium became the OttomanResm-i çifttax, that thepronoialand-holding system that linked the amount of land one owned with one's ability to raise cavalry became the Ottomantimarsystem, and that the Ottoman land measurement thedönümwas the same as the Byzantinestremma. Stone also argues that although Sunni Islam was the state religion, the Ottoman state supported and controlled theEastern Orthodox Church, which in return for accepting that control became the Ottoman Empire's largest land-holder. Despite the similarities, Stone argues that a crucial difference is that the land grants under thetimarsystem were not hereditary at first. Even after they became inheritable, land ownership in the Ottoman Empire remained highly insecure, and the sultan revoked land grants whenever he wished. Stone argued this insecurity in land tenure strongly discouragedTimariotsfrom seeking long-term development of their land, and instead led them to adopt a strategy of short-term exploitation, which had deleterious effects on the Ottoman economy.
Before the reforms of the 19th and 20th centuries, thestate organisation of the Ottoman Empirewas a system with two main dimensions, the military administration, and the civil administration. The Sultan was in the highest position in the system. The civil system was based on local administrative units based on the region's characteristics. The state had control over the clergy. Certain pre-Islamic Turkish traditions that had survived the adoption of administrative and legal practices from IslamicIranremained important in Ottoman administrative circles.According to Ottoman understanding, the state's primary responsibility was to defend and extend the land of the Muslims and to ensure security and harmony within its borders in the overarching context oforthodoxIslamic practice and dynastic sovereignty.
The Ottoman Empire, or as a dynastic institution, the House of Osman, was unprecedented and unequaled in the Islamic world for its size and duration.In Europe, only theHouse of Habsburghad a similarly unbroken line of sovereigns (kings/emperors) from the same family who ruled for so long, and during the same period, between the late 13th and early 20th centuries. The Ottoman dynasty was Turkish in origin. On eleven occasions, the sultan was deposed (replaced by another sultan of the Ottoman dynasty, who were either the former sultan's brother, son or nephew) because he was perceived by his enemies as a threat to the state. There were only two attempts in Ottoman history to unseat the ruling Ottoman dynasty, both failures, which suggests a political system that for an extended period was able to manage its revolutions without unnecessary instability.As such, the last Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI (r.1918–1922) was adirect patrilineal (male-line) descendantof the first Ottoman sultanOsman I(d.1323/4), which was unparalleled in both Europe (e.g., the male line of the House of Habsburg became extinct in 1740) and in the Islamic world. The primary purpose of theImperial Haremwas to ensure the birth of male heirs to the Ottoman throne and secure the continuation of the direct patrilineal (male-line) power of the Ottoman sultans in the future generations.
The highest position in Islam,caliph, was claimed by the sultans starting withSelim I,which was established as the Ottoman Caliphate. The Ottoman sultan,pâdişâhor "lord of kings", served as the Empire's sole regent and was considered to be the embodiment of its government, though he did not always exercise complete control. The Imperial Harem was one of the most important powers of the Ottoman court. It was ruled by thevalide sultan. On occasion, the valide sultan became involved in state politics. For a time, the women of the Harem effectively controlled the state in what was termed the "Sultanate of Women". New sultans were always chosen from the sons of the previous sultan.The strong educational system of thepalace schoolwas geared towards eliminating the unfit potential heirs and establishing support among the ruling elite for a successor. The palace schools, which also educated the future administrators of the state, were not a single track. First, theMadrasa(Medrese) was designated for the Muslims, and educated scholars and state officials according to Islamic tradition. The financial burden of the Medrese was supported byvakifs, allowing children of poor families to move to higher social levels and income.The second track was a freeboarding schoolfor the Christians, theEnderûn,which recruited 3,000 students annually from Christian boys between eight and twenty years old from one in forty families among the communities settled inRumeliaor the Balkans, a process known asDevshirme(Devşirme).The Devshirme falls within modern definitions ofgenocide.
Though the sultan was the supreme monarch, the sultan's political and executive authority was delegated. The politics of the state had a number of advisors and ministers gathered around a council known asDivan. The Divan, in the years when the Ottoman state was still aBeylik, was composed of the elders of the tribe. Its composition was later modified to include military officers and local elites (such as religious and political advisors). Later still, beginning in 1320, a Grand Vizier was appointed to assume certain of the sultan's responsibilities. The Grand Vizier had considerable independence from the sultan with almost unlimited powers of appointment, dismissal, and supervision. Beginning with the late 16th century, sultans withdrew from politics and the Grand Vizier became thede factohead of state.
Throughout Ottoman history, there were many instances in which local governors acted independently, and even in opposition to the ruler. After the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, the Ottoman state became a constitutional monarchy. The sultan no longer had executive powers. A parliament was formed, with representatives chosen from the provinces. The representatives formed theImperial Government of the Ottoman Empire.
This eclectic administration was apparent even in the diplomatic correspondence of the Empire, which was initially undertaken in theGreek languageto the west.
TheTughrawere calligraphic monograms, or signatures, of the Ottoman Sultans, of which there were 35. Carved on the Sultan's seal, they bore the names of the Sultan and his father. The statement and prayer, "ever victorious", was also present in most. The earliest belonged to Orhan Gazi. The ornately stylizedTughraspawned a branch of Ottoman-Turkishcalligraphy.
The Ottoman legal system accepted thereligious lawover its subjects. At the same time theQanun(orKanun), dynastic law, co-existed with religious law orSharia.The Ottoman Empire was always organized around a system of localjurisprudence. Legal administration in the Ottoman Empire was part of a larger scheme of balancing central and local authority.Ottoman power revolved crucially around the administration of the rights to land, which gave a space for the local authority to develop the needs of the localmillet.The jurisdictional complexity of the Ottoman Empire was aimed to permit the integration of culturally and religiously different groups.The Ottoman system had three court systems: one for Muslims, one for non-Muslims, involving appointed Jews and Christians ruling over their respective religious communities, and the "trade court". The entire system was regulated from above by means of the administrativeQanun, i.e., laws, a system based upon the TurkicYassaandTöre, which were developed in the pre-Islamic era.
These court categories were not, however, wholly exclusive; for instance, the Islamic courts, which were the Empire's primary courts, could also be used to settle a trade conflict or disputes between litigants of differing religions, and Jews and Christians often went to them to obtain a more forceful ruling on an issue. The Ottoman state tended not to interfere with non-Muslim religious law systems, despite legally having a voice to do so through local governors. The IslamicSharialaw system had been developed from a combination of theQur'an; theHadīth, or words ofMuhammad;ijmā', or consensus of the members of theMuslim community;qiyas, a system of analogical reasoning from earlier precedents; and local customs. Both systems were taught at the Empire's law schools, which were inIstanbulandBursa.
The Ottoman Islamic legal system was set up differently from traditional European courts. Presiding over Islamic courts was aQadi, or judge. Since the closing of theijtihad, or 'Gate of Interpretation',Qadis throughout the Ottoman Empire focused less on legal precedent, and more with local customs and traditions in the areas that they administered.However, the Ottoman court system lacked an appellate structure, leading to jurisdictional case strategies where plaintiffs could take their disputes from one court system to another until they achieved a ruling that was in their favour.
In the late 19th century, the Ottoman legal system saw substantial reform. This process of legal modernisation began with theEdict of Gülhaneof 1839.These reforms included the "fair and public trial[s] of all accused regardless of religion", the creation of a system of "separate competences, religious and civil", and the validation of testimony on non-Muslims.Specific land codes (1858), civil codes (1869–1876), and a code of civil procedure also were enacted.
These reforms were based heavily on French models, as indicated by the adoption of a three-tiered court system. Referred to asNizamiye, this system was extended to the local magistrate level with the final promulgation of theMecelle, a civil code that regulated marriage, divorce, alimony, will, and other matters of personal status.In an attempt to clarify the division of judicial competences, an administrative council laid down that religious matters were to be handled by religious courts, and statute matters were to be handled by the Nizamiye courts.
The first military unit of the Ottoman State was an army that was organized by Osman I from the tribesmen inhabiting the hills of western Anatolia in the late 13th century. The military system became an intricate organization with the advance of the Empire. The Ottoman military was a complex system of recruiting and fief-holding. The main corps of theOttoman Armyincluded Janissary,Sipahi,AkıncıandMehterân. The Ottoman army was once among the most advanced fighting forces in the world, being one of the first to use muskets and cannons. The Ottoman Turks began usingfalconets, which were short but wide cannons, during theSiege of Constantinople. The Ottoman cavalry depended on high speed and mobility rather than heavy armor, using bows and short swords on fastTurkomanandArabianhorses (progenitors of theThoroughbredracing horse),and often applied tactics similar to those of theMongol Empire, such as pretending to retreat while surrounding the enemy forces inside a crescent-shaped formation and then making the real attack. The Ottoman army continued to be an effective fighting force throughout the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries,falling behind the empire's European rivals only during a long period of peace from 1740 to 1768.
The modernization of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century started with the military. In 1826 Sultan Mahmud II abolished the Janissary corps and established the modern Ottoman army. He named them as theNizam-ı Cedid(New Order). The Ottoman army was also the first institution to hire foreign experts and send its officers for training in western European countries. Consequently, the Young Turks movement began when these relatively young and newly trained men returned with their education.
TheOttoman Navyvastly contributed to the expansion of the Empire's territories on the European continent. It initiated the conquest of North Africa, with the addition ofAlgeriaand Egypt to the Ottoman Empire in 1517. Starting with the loss of Greece in 1821 and Algeria in 1830, Ottoman naval power and control over the Empire's distant overseas territories began to decline. SultanAbdülaziz(reigned 1861–1876) attempted to reestablish a strong Ottoman navy, building the largest fleet after those of Britain and France. The shipyard at Barrow, England, built its firstsubmarinein 1886 for the Ottoman Empire.
However, the collapsing Ottoman economy could not sustain the fleet's strength for long. SultanAbdülhamid IIdistrusted the admirals who sided with the reformistMidhat Pashaand claimed that the large and expensive fleet was of no use against the Russians during the Russo-Turkish War. He locked most of the fleet inside theGolden Horn, where the ships decayed for the next 30 years. Following the Young Turk Revolution in 1908, the Committee of Union and Progress sought to develop a strong Ottoman naval force. TheOttoman Navy Foundationwas established in 1910 to buy new ships through public donations.
The establishment ofOttoman military aviationdates back to between June 1909 and July 1911.The Ottoman Empire started preparing its first pilots and planes, and with the founding of the Aviation School (Tayyare Mektebi) inYeşilköyon 3 July 1912, the Empire began to tutor its own flight officers. The founding of the Aviation School quickened advancement in the military aviation program, increased the number of enlisted persons within it, and gave the new pilots an active role in the Ottoman Army and Navy. In May 1913, the world's first specialized Reconnaissance Training Program was started by the Aviation School, and the first separate reconnaissance division was established.In June 1914 a new military academy, the Naval Aviation School (Bahriye Tayyare Mektebi) was founded. With the outbreak of World War I, the modernization process stopped abruptly. TheOttoman Aviation Squadronsfought on many fronts during World War I, fromGaliciain the west to the Caucasus in the east andYemenin the south.
The Ottoman Empire was first subdivided into provinces, in the sense of fixed territorial units with governors appointed by the sultan, in the late 14th century.
TheEyalet(alsoPashalikorBeylerbeylik) was the territory of office of aBeylerbey("lord of lords" or governor), and was further subdivided intoSanjaks.
TheVilayetswere introduced with the promulgation of the "Vilayet Law" (Teskil-i Vilayet Nizamnamesi)in 1864, as part of the Tanzimat reforms.Unlike the previous eyalet system, the 1864 law established a hierarchy of administrative units: the vilayet,liva/sanjak/mutasarrifate,kazaandvillage council, to which the 1871 Vilayet Law added thenahiye.
Ottoman government deliberately pursued a policy for the development of Bursa, Edirne, and Istanbul, successive Ottoman capitals, into major commercial and industrial centers, considering that merchants and artisans were indispensable in creating a new metropolis.To this end, Mehmed and his successor Bayezid, also encouraged and welcomed migration of the Jews from different parts of Europe, who were settled in Istanbul and other port cities like Salonica. In many places in Europe, Jews were suffering persecution at the hands of their Christian counterparts, such as in Spain, after the conclusion of theReconquista. The tolerance displayed by the Turks was welcomed by the immigrants.
The Ottoman economic mind was closely related to the basic concepts of state and society in the Middle East in which the ultimate goal of a state was consolidation and extension of the ruler's power, and the way to reach it was to get rich resources of revenues by making the productive classes prosperous.The ultimate aim was to increase the state revenues without damaging the prosperity of subjects to prevent the emergence of social disorder and to keep the traditional organization of the society intact. The Ottoman economy greatly expanded during the early modern period, with particularly high growth rates during the first half of the eighteenth century. The empire's annual income quadrupled between 1523 and 1748, adjusted for inflation.
The organization of the treasury and chancery were developed under the Ottoman Empire more than any other Islamic government and, until the 17th century, they were the leading organization among all their contemporaries.This organisation developed a scribal bureaucracy (known as "men of the pen") as a distinct group, partly highly trained ulama, which developed into a professional body.The effectiveness of this professional financial body stands behind the success of many great Ottoman statesmen.
Modern Ottoman studies indicate that the change in relations between the Ottoman Turks and central Europe was caused by the opening of the new sea routes. It is possible to see the decline in the significance of the land routes to the East as Western Europe opened the ocean routes that bypassed the Middle East and the Mediterranean as parallel to the decline of the Ottoman Empire itself.TheAnglo-Ottoman Treaty, also known as theTreaty of Balta Limanthat opened the Ottoman markets directly to English and French competitors, can be seen as one of the staging posts along with this development.
By developing commercial centers and routes, encouraging people to extend the area of cultivated land in the country and international trade through its dominions, the state performed basic economic functions in the Empire. But in all this, the financial and political interests of the state were dominant. Within the social and political system they were living in, Ottoman administrators could not see the desirability of the dynamics and principles of the capitalist and mercantile economies developing in Western Europe.
Economic historianPaul Bairochargues thatfree tradecontributed todeindustrialisationin the Ottoman Empire. In contrast to theprotectionismof China, Japan, and Spain, the Ottoman Empire had aliberal tradepolicy, open to foreign imports. This has origins incapitulations of the Ottoman Empire, dating back to the first commercial treaties signed with France in 1536 and taken further withcapitulationsin 1673 and 1740, which lowereddutiesto 3% for imports and exports. The liberal Ottoman policies were praised by British economists, such asJohn Ramsay McCullochin hisDictionary of Commerce(1834), but later criticized by British politicians such as Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who cited the Ottoman Empire as "an instance of the injury done by unrestrained competition" in the 1846Corn Lawsdebate.
A population estimate for the empire of 11,692,480 for the 1520–1535 period was obtained by counting the households in Ottoman tithe registers, and multiplying this number by 5.For unclear reasons, the population in the 18th century was lower than that in the 16th century.An estimate of 7,230,660 for the first census held in 1831 is considered a serious undercount, as this census was meant only to register possible conscripts.
Censuses of Ottoman territories only began in the early 19th century. Figures from 1831 onwards are available as official census results, but the censuses did not cover the whole population. For example, the 1831 census only counted men and did not cover the whole empire.For earlier periods estimates of size and distribution of the population are based on observed demographic patterns.
However, it began to rise to reach 25–32 million by 1800, with around 10 million in the European provinces (primarily in the Balkans), 11 million in the Asiatic provinces, and around 3 million in the African provinces. Population densities were higher in the European provinces, double those in Anatolia, which in turn were triple the population densities of Iraq andSyriaand five times the population density of Arabia.
Towards the end of the empire's existence life expectancy was 49 years, compared to the mid-twenties in Serbia at the beginning of the 19th century.Epidemic diseases and famine caused major disruption and demographic changes. In 1785 around one-sixth of the Egyptian population died from the plague and Aleppo saw its population reduced by twenty percent in the 18th century. Six famines hit Egypt alone between 1687 and 1731 and the last famine to hit Anatolia was four decades later.
The rise of port cities saw the clustering of populations caused by the development of steamships and railroads. Urbanization increased from 1700 to 1922, with towns and cities growing. Improvements in health and sanitation made them more attractive to live and work in. Port cities like Salonica, in Greece, saw its population rise from 55,000 in 1800 to 160,000 in 1912 and İzmir which had a population of 150,000 in 1800 grew to 300,000 by 1914.Some regions conversely had population falls—Belgrade saw its population drop from 25,000 to 8,000 mainly due to political strife.
Economic and political migrations made an impact across the empire. For example, theRussianand Austria-Habsburg annexation of the Crimean and Balkan regions respectively saw large influxes of Muslim refugees—200,000 Crimean Tatars fleeing to Dobruja.Between 1783 and 1913, approximately 5–7 million refugees arrived into the Ottoman Empire. Between the 1850s and World War I, about a million North Caucasian Muslims arrived in the Ottoman Empire as refugees.Some migrations left indelible marks such as political tension between parts of the empire (e.g., Turkey and Bulgaria), whereas centrifugal effects were noticed in other territories, simpler demographics emerging from diverse populations. Economies were also impacted by the loss of artisans, merchants, manufacturers, and agriculturists.Since the 19th century, a large proportion of Muslim peoples from the Balkans emigrated to present-day Turkey. These people are calledMuhacir.By the time the Ottoman Empire came to an end in 1922, half of the urban population of Turkey was descended from Muslim refugees from Russia.
Ottoman Turkishwas the official language of the Empire.It was anOghuzTurkic languagehighly influenced byPersianandArabic, though lower registries spoken by the common people had fewer influences from other languages compared to higher varieties used by upper classes and governmental authorities.Turkish, in its Ottoman variation, was a language of military and administration since the nascent days of the Ottomans. The Ottoman constitution of 1876 did officially cement the official imperial status of Turkish.
The Ottomans had several influential languages: Turkish, spoken by the majority of the people in Anatolia and by the majority of Muslims of the Balkans except some regions such asAlbania,Bosniaand theMegleno-Romanian-inhabitedNânti;Persian, only spoken by the educated;Arabic, spoken mainly in Egypt, theLevant,Arabia, Iraq, North Africa,Kuwaitand parts of theHorn of AfricaandBerberin North Africa. In the last two centuries, usage of these became limited, though, and specific: Persian served mainly as a literary language for the educated,whileArabicwas used for Islamic prayers. In the post-Tanzimatperiod French became the common Western language among the educated.
Because of a low literacy rate among the public (about 2–3% until the early 19th century and just about 15% at the end of the 19th century), ordinary people had to hirescribesas "special request-writers" (arzuhâlcis) to be able to communicate with the government.Some ethnic groups continued to speak within their families and neighborhoods (mahalles) with their own languages, though many non-Muslim minorities such as Greeks and Armenians only spoke Turkish.In villages where two or more populations lived together, the inhabitants often spoke each other's language. In cosmopolitan cities, people often spoke their family languages; many of those who were not ethnicTurksspoke Turkish as a second language.
Sunni Islamwas the prevailingDīn(customs, legal traditions, and religion) of the Ottoman Empire; the officialMadh'hab(school of Islamicjurisprudence) wasHanafi.From the early 16th century until the early 20th century, the Ottoman sultan also served as thecaliph, or politico-religious leader, of theMuslim world. Most of the Ottoman Sultans adhered toSufismand followedSufi orders, and believed Sufism was the correct way to reach God.
Non-Muslims, particularly Christians and Jews, were present throughout the empire's history. The Ottoman imperial system was charactised by an intricate combination of official Muslim hegemony over non-Muslims and a wide degree of religious tolerance. While religious minorities were never equal under the law, they were granted recognition, protection, and limited freedoms under both Islamic and Ottoman tradition.
Until the second half of the 15th century, the majority of Ottoman subjects were Christian.Non-Muslims remained a significant and economically influential minority, albeit declining significantly by the 19th century, due largely to migration andsecession.The proportion of Muslims amounted to 60% in the 1820s, gradually increasing to 69% in the 1870s and 76% in the 1890s.By 1914, less than a fifth of the empire's population (19.1%) was non-Muslim, mostly made up of Jews and Christian Greeks, Assyrians, and Armenians.
Turkic peoplespracticed a form ofshamanismbefore adopting Islam. TheMuslim conquest of Transoxianaunder theAbbasidsfacilitated the spread of Islam into the Turkic heartland of Central Asia. Many Turkic tribes—including theOghuz Turks, who were the ancestors of both the Seljuks and the Ottomans—gradually converted to Islam and brought religion to Anatolia through their migrations beginning in the 11th century. From its founding, the Ottoman Empire officially supported theMaturidi school ofIslamic theology, which emphasizedhuman reason,rationality, the pursuit of science andphilosophy(falsafa).The Ottomans were among the earliest and most enthusiastic adopters of theHanafischool of Islamic jurisprudence,which was comparatively more flexible and discretionary in its rulings.
The Ottoman Empire had a wide variety of Islamic sects, includingDruze,Ismailis,Alevis, andAlawites.Sufism, a diverse body of Islamicmysticism, found fertile ground in Ottoman lands; many Sufi religious orders (tariqa), such as theBektashiandMevlevi, were either established, or saw significant growth, throughout the empire's history.However, some heterodox Muslim groups were viewed as heretical and even ranked below Jews and Christians in terms of legal protection; Druze were frequent targets of persecution,with Ottoman authorities often citing the controversial rulings ofIbn Taymiyya, a member of the conservativeHanbali school.In 1514, Sultan Selim I ordered the massacre of 40,000 Anatolian Alevis (Qizilbash), whom he considered afifth columnfor the rivalSafavid Empire.
During Selim's reign, the Ottoman Empire saw an unprecedented and rapid expansion into the Middle East, particularly theconquest of the entire Mamluk Sultanate of Egypton the early 16th century. These conquests further solidified the Ottoman claim of being anIslamic caliphate, although Ottoman sultans had been claiming the title of caliph since the reign of Murad I (1362–1389).The caliphate was officially transferred from the Mamluks to the Ottoman sultanate in 1517, whose members were recognized as caliphs until theoffice's abolition on 3 March 1924by theRepublic of Turkey(and the exile of the last caliph,Abdülmecid II, to France).
In accordance with the Muslimdhimmisystem, the Ottoman Empire guaranteed limited freedoms to Christians, Jews, and other "people of the book", such as the right to worship, own property, and be exempt from the obligatory alms (zakat) required of Muslims. However, non-Muslims (ordhimmi) were subject to various legal restrictions, including being forbidden to carry weapons, ride on horseback, or have their homes overlook those of Muslims; likewise, they were required to pay higher taxes than Muslim subjects, including thejizya,which was a key source of state revenue.Many Christians and Jews converted to Islam to secure full social and legal status, though most continued to practice their faith without restriction.
The Ottomans developed a unique sociopolitical system known as themillet, which granted non-Muslim communities a large degree of political, legal, and religious autonomy; in essence, members of a millet were subjects of the empire but not subject to the Muslim faith or Islamic law. A millet could govern its own affairs, such as raising taxes and resolving internal legal disputes, with little or no interference from Ottoman authorities, so long as its members were loyal to the sultan and adhered to the rules concerningdhimmi.A quintessential example is the ancient Orthodox community ofMount Athos, which was permitted to retain its autonomy and was never subject to occupation or forced conversion; even special laws were enacted to protect it from outsiders.
TheRumMillet, which encompassed most Eastern Orthodox Christians, was governed by the Byzantine-eraCorpus Juris Civilis(Code of Justinian), with theEcumenical Patriarchdesignated the highest religious and political authority (millet-bashi, orethnarch). Likewise,Ottoman Jewscame under the authority of theHaham Başı,or OttomanChief Rabbi, whileArmenianswere under the authority of thechief bishopof theArmenian Apostolic Church.As the largest group of non-Muslim subjects, the Rum Millet enjoyed several special privileges in politics and commerce; however, Jews and Armenians were also well represented among the wealthy merchant class, as well as in public administration.
Some modern scholars consider the millet system to be an early example ofreligious pluralism, as it accorded minority religious groups official recognition and tolerance.
Beginning in the early 19th century, society, government, and religion were interrelated in a complex, overlapping way that was deemed inefficient by Atatürk, who systematically dismantled it after 1922.In Constantinople, the Sultan ruled two distinct domains: the secular government and the religious hierarchy. Religious officials formed the Ulama, who had control of religious teachings and theology, and also the Empire's judicial system, giving them a major voice in day-to-day affairs in communities across the Empire (but not including the non-Muslim millets). They were powerful enough to reject the military reforms proposed by SultanSelim III. His successor SultanMahmud II(r. 1808–1839) first won ulama approval before proposing similar reforms.The secularisation program brought by Atatürk ended the ulema and their institutions. The caliphate was abolished, madrasas were closed down, and the sharia courts were abolished. He replaced the Arabic alphabet with Latin letters, ended the religious school system, and gave women some political rights. Many rural traditionalists never accepted this secularisation, and by the 1990s they were reasserting a demand for a larger role for Islam.
The Janissaries were a highly formidable military unit in the early years, but as Western Europe modernized its military organization technology, the Janissaries became a reactionary force that resisted all change. Steadily the Ottoman military power became outdated, but when the Janissaries felt their privileges were being threatened, or outsiders wanted to modernize them, or they might be superseded by the cavalrymen, they rose in rebellion. The rebellions were highly violent on both sides, but by the time the Janissaries were suppressed, it was far too late for Ottoman military power to catch up with the West.The political system was transformed by the destruction of theJanissaries, a powerful military/governmental/police force, which revolted in theAuspicious Incidentof 1826. Sultan Mahmud II crushed the revolt, executed the leaders and disbanded the large organization. That set the stage for a slow process of modernization of government functions, as the government sought, with mixed success, to adopt the main elements of Western bureaucracy and military technology.
The Janissaries had been recruited from Christians and other minorities; their abolition enabled the emergence of a Turkish elite to control the Ottoman Empire. A large number of ethnic and religious minorities were tolerated in their own separate segregated domains called millets.They were primarilyGreek,Armenian, orJewish. In each locality, they governed themselves, spoke their own language, ran their own schools, cultural and religious institutions, and paid somewhat higher taxes. They had no power outside the millet. The Imperial government protected them and prevented major violent clashes between ethnic groups.
Ethnic nationalism, based on distinctive religion and language, provided a centripetal force that eventually destroyed the Ottoman Empire.In addition, Muslim ethnic groups, which were not part of the millet system, especially the Arabs and the Kurds, were outside the Turkish culture and developed their own separate nationalism. The British sponsored Arab nationalism in the First World War, promising an independent Arab state in return for Arab support. Most Arabs supported the Sultan, but those near Mecca believed in and supported the British promise.
At the local level, power was held beyond the control of the Sultan by theayansor local notables. The ayan collected taxes, formed local armies to compete with other notables, took a reactionary attitude toward political or economic change, and often defied policies handed down by the Sultan.
After the 18th century, the Ottoman Empire was shrinking, as Russia put on heavy pressure and expanded to its south; Egypt became effectively independent in 1805, and the British later took it over, along with Cyprus. Greece became independent, and Serbia and other Balkan areas became highly restive as the force of nationalism pushed against imperialism. The French took over Algeria and Tunisia. The Europeans all thought that the empire was a sick man in rapid decline. Only the Germans seemed helpful, and their support led to the Ottoman Empire joining the central powers in 1915, with the result that they came out as one of the heaviest losers of the First World War in 1918.
The Ottomans absorbed some of the traditions, art, and institutions of cultures in the regions they conquered and added new dimensions to them. Numerous traditions and cultural traits of previous empires (in fields such as architecture, cuisine, music, leisure, and government) were adopted by the Ottoman Turks, who developed them into new forms, resulting in a new and distinctively Ottoman cultural identity. Although the predominant literary language of the Ottoman Empire was Turkish, Persian was the preferred vehicle for the projection of an imperial image.
Slaverywas part of Ottoman society,with most slaves employed as domestic servants. Agricultural slavery, like that in the Americas, was relatively rare. Unlike systems ofchattel slavery, slaves under Islamic law were not regarded as movable property, and the children of female slaves were born legally free. Female slaves were still sold in the Empire as late as 1908.During the 19th century the Empire came under pressure from Western European countries to outlaw the practice. Policies developed by various sultans throughout the 19th century attempted to curtail theOttoman slave tradebut slavery had centuries of religious backing and sanction and so was never abolished in the Empire.
Ottomans adopted Persian bureaucratic traditions and culture. The sultans also made an important contribution in the development of Persian literature.
Language was not an obvious sign of group connection and identity in the 16th century among the rulers of the Ottoman Empire,Safavid IranandAbu'l-Khayrid ShibanidsofCentral Asia.Hence the ruling classes of all three polities were bilingual in varieties of Persian and Turkic.But in the century's final quarter, linguistic adjustments occurred in the Ottoman and Safavid realms defined by a new rigidity that favoured Ottoman Turkish and Persian, respectively.
In the Ottoman Empire, eachmilletestablished a schooling system serving its members.Education was therefore largely divided on ethnic and religious lines: few non-Muslims attended schools for Muslim students, and vice versa. Most institutions that served all ethnic and religious groups taught in French or other languages.
Several "foreign schools" (Frerler mektebleri) operated by religious clergy primarily served Christians, although some Muslim students attended.Garnett described the schools for Christians and Jews as "organised upon European models", with "voluntary contributions" supporting their operation and most of them "well attended" and with "a high standard of education".
The two primary streams of Ottoman written literature are poetry andprose. Poetry was by far the dominant stream. The earliest work of Ottoman historiography for example, theİskendernâme, was composed by the poetTaceddin Ahmedi.Until the 19th century, Ottoman prose did not contain any examples of fiction: there were no counterparts to, for instance, the Europeanromance, short story, or novel. Analog genres did exist, though, in bothTurkish folk literatureand inDivan poetry.
Ottoman Divan poetry was a highly ritualized and symbolic art form. From thePersian poetrythat largely inspired it, it inherited a wealth of symbols whose meanings and interrelationships—both of similitude (مراعات نظيرmura'ât-i nazîr/تناسبtenâsüb) and opposition (تضادtezâd) were more or less prescribed. Divan poetry was composed through the constant juxtaposition of many such images within a strict metrical framework, allowing numerous potential meanings to emerge. The vast majority of Divan poetry waslyricin nature: eithergazels(which make up the greatest part of the repertoire of the tradition), or kasîdes. But there were other common genres, especially the mesnevî, a kind ofverse romanceand thus a variety ofnarrative poetry; the two most notable examples of this form are theLeyli and MajnunofFuzuliand theHüsn ü AşkofŞeyh Gâlib. TheSeyahatnâmeofEvliya Çelebi(1611–1682) is an outstanding example of travel literature.
Until the 19th century,Ottoman prosedid not develop to the extent that contemporary Divan poetry did. A large part of the reason was that much prose was expected to adhere to the rules ofsec(سجع, also transliterated asseci), orrhymed prose,a type of writing descended from the Arabicsaj'that prescribed that between each adjective and noun in a string of words, such as a sentence, there must be a rhyme. Nevertheless, there was a tradition of prose in the literature of the time, though it was exclusively nonfictional. One apparent exception wasMuhayyelât(Fancies) byGiritli Ali Aziz Efendi, a collection of stories of the fantastic written in 1796, though not published until 1867. The first novel published in the Ottoman Empire wasVartan Pasha's 1851The Story of Akabi(Turkish:Akabi Hikyayesi). It was written in Turkish but withArmenianscript.
Due to historically close ties with France,French literatureconstituted the major Western influence on Ottoman literature in the latter half of the 19th century. As a result, many of the same movements prevalent in France during this period had Ottoman equivalents; in the developing Ottoman prose tradition, for instance, the influence ofRomanticismcan be seen during the Tanzimat period, and that of theRealistandNaturalistmovements in subsequent periods; in the poetic tradition, on the other hand, the influence of theSymbolistandParnassianmovements was paramount.
Many of the writers in the Tanzimat period wrote in several different genres simultaneously. This diversity was, in part, due to Tanzimat writers' wish to disseminate as much of the new literature as possible, in the hopes that it would contribute to a revitalization of Ottomansocial structures.
The media of the Ottoman Empire was diverse, with newspapers and journals published in languages includingFrench,Greek,andGerman.Many of these publications were centered inConstantinople,but there were also French-language newspapers produced inBeirut,Salonika, andSmyrna.Non-Muslim ethnic minorities in the empire used French as alingua francaand used French-language publications,while some provincial newspapers were published inArabic.The use of French in the media persisted until theend of the empirein 1923 and for a few years thereafter in theRepublic of Turkey.
The architecture of the empire developed from earlierSeljuk Turkish architecture, with influences fromByzantineandIranianarchitecture and other architectural traditions in the Middle East.Early Ottoman architectureexperimented with multiple building types over the course of the 13th to 15th centuries, progressively evolving into theClassical Ottoman styleof the 16th and 17th centuries, which was also strongly influenced by theHagia Sophia.The most important architect of the Classical period isMimar Sinan, whose major works include theŞehzade Mosque,Süleymaniye Mosque, andSelimiye Mosque.The greatest of the court artists enriched the Ottoman Empire with many pluralistic artistic influences, such as mixing traditionalByzantine artwith elements ofChinese art.The second half of the 16th century also saw the apogee of certain decorative arts, most notably in the use ofIznik tiles.
Beginning in the 18th century, Ottoman architecture was influenced by theBaroque architecturein Western Europe, resulting in theOttoman Baroquestyle.Nuruosmaniye Mosqueis one of the most important examples from this period.The last Ottoman period saw more influences from Western Europe, brought in by architects such as those from theBalyan family.Empire styleandNeoclassicalmotifs were introduced and a trend towardseclecticismwas evident in many types of buildings, such as theDolmabaçe Palace.The last decades of the Ottoman Empire also saw the development of a new architectural style called neo-Ottoman or Ottoman revivalism, also known as theFirst National Architectural Movement,by architects such asMimar KemaleddinandVedat Tek.
Ottoman dynastic patronage was concentrated in the historic capitals of Bursa, Edirne, and Istanbul (Constantinople), as well as in several other important administrative centers such asAmasyaandManisa. It was in these centers that most important developments in Ottoman architecture occurred and that the most monumental Ottoman architecture can be found.Major religious monuments were typically architectural complexes, known as akülliye, that had multiple components providing different services or amenities. In addition to a mosque, these could include amadrasa, ahammam, animaret, asebil, a market, acaravanserai, aprimary school, or others.These complexes were governed and managed with the help of avakıfagreement (Arabicwaqf).Ottoman constructions were still abundant in Anatolia and in the Balkans (Rumelia), but in the more distant Middle Eastern and North African provinces olderIslamic architecturalstyles continued to hold strong influence and were sometimes blended with Ottoman styles.
The tradition ofOttoman miniatures, painted to illustrate manuscripts or used in dedicated albums, was heavily influenced by thePersianart form, though it also included elements of theByzantinetradition ofilluminationand painting.A Greek academy of painters, theNakkashane-i-Rum, was established in theTopkapi Palacein the 15th century, while early in the following century a similar Persian academy, theNakkashane-i-Irani, was added.Surname-i Hümayun(Imperial Festival Books) were albums that commemorated celebrations in the Ottoman Empire in pictorial and textual detail.
Ottoman illuminationcovers non-figurative painted or drawn decorative art in books or on sheets inmuraqqaor albums, as opposed to the figurative images of theOttoman miniature. It was a part of the Ottoman Book Arts together with the Ottoman miniature (taswir), calligraphy (hat),Islamic calligraphy, bookbinding (cilt) andpaper marbling(ebru). In the Ottoman Empire,illuminated and illustrated manuscriptswere commissioned by the Sultan or the administrators of the court. In Topkapi Palace, these manuscripts were created by the artists working inNakkashane, the atelier of the miniature and illumination artists. Both religious and non-religious books could be illuminated. Also, sheets for albumslevhaconsisted of illuminated calligraphy (hat) oftughra, religious texts, verses from poems or proverbs, and purely decorative drawings.
The art of carpetweavingwas particularly significant in the Ottoman Empire, carpets having an immense importance both as decorative furnishings, rich in religious and other symbolism and as a practical consideration, as it was customary to remove one's shoes in living quarters.The weaving of such carpets originated in thenomadiccultures of central Asia (carpets being an easily transportable form of furnishing), and eventually spread to the settled societies of Anatolia. Turks used carpets, rugs, andkilimsnot just on the floors of a room but also as a hanging on walls and doorways, where they provided additional insulation. They were also commonly donated to mosques, which often amassed large collections of them.
Ottoman classical musicwas an important part of the education of the Ottoman elite. A number of the Ottoman sultans have accomplished musicians and composers themselves, such asSelim III, whose compositions are often still performed today. Ottoman classical music arose largely from a confluence ofByzantine music,Armenian music,Arabic music, andPersian music. Compositionally, it is organized around rhythmic units calledusul, which are somewhat similar tometerin Western music, andmelodicunits calledmakam, which bear some resemblance to Westernmusical modes.
Theinstrumentsused are a mixture of Anatolian and Central Asian instruments (thesaz, thebağlama, thekemence), other Middle Eastern instruments (theud, thetanbur, thekanun, theney), and—later in the tradition—Western instruments (the violin and the piano). Because of a geographic and cultural divide between the capital and other areas, two broadly distinct styles of music arose in the Ottoman Empire: Ottoman classical music and folk music. In the provinces, several different kinds offolk musicwere created. The most dominant regions with their distinguished musical styles are Balkan-Thracian Türküs, North-Eastern (Laz) Türküs, Aegean Türküs, Central Anatolian Türküs, Eastern Anatolian Türküs, and Caucasian Türküs. Some of the distinctive styles were:Janissary music,Roma music,Belly dance,Turkish folk music.
The traditionalshadow playcalledKaragöz and Hacivatwas widespread throughout the Ottoman Empire and featured characters representing all of the major ethnic and social groups in that culture.It was performed by a single puppet master, who voiced all of the characters, and accompanied bytambourine(def). Its origins are obscure, deriving perhaps from an older Egyptian tradition, or possibly from an Asian source.
Ottoman cuisineis the cuisine of the capital, Constantinople (Istanbul), and the regional capital cities, where the melting pot of cultures created a common cuisine that most of the population regardless of ethnicity shared. This diverse cuisine was honed in the Imperial Palace's kitchens by chefs brought from certain parts of the Empire to create and experiment with different ingredients. The creations of the Ottoman Palace's kitchens filtered to the population, for instance throughRamadanevents, and through the cooking at theYalısof thePashas, and from there on spread to the rest of the population.
Much of the cuisine of former Ottoman territories today is descended from a shared Ottoman cuisine, especiallyTurkish, and includingGreek,Balkan,Armenian, andMiddle Easterncuisines.
The main sports Ottomans were engaged in wereTurkish wrestling, hunting,Turkish archery, horseback riding,equestrian javelin throw, arm wrestling, and swimming. European model sports clubs were formed with the spreading popularity offootballmatches in 19th century Constantinople. The leading clubs, according to timeline, wereBeşiktaş Gymnastics Club(1903),Galatasaray Sports Club(1905),Fenerbahçe Sports Club(1907),MKE Ankaragücü (formerly Turan Sanatkarangücü)(1910) in Constantinople. Football clubs were formed in other provinces too, such asKarşıyaka Sports Club(1912),Altay Sports Club(1914) andTurkish Fatherland Football Club(laterÜlküspor) (1914) ofİzmir.
Over the course of Ottoman history, the Ottomans managed to build a large collection of libraries complete with translations of books from other cultures, as well as original manuscripts.A great part of this desire for local and foreign manuscripts arose in the 15th century.Sultan Mehmet IIorderedGeorgios Amiroutzes, a Greek scholar fromTrabzon, to translate and make available to Ottoman educational institutions the geography book ofPtolemy. Another example isAli Qushji– anastronomer,mathematicianandphysicistoriginally fromSamarkand– who became a professor in two madrasas and influenced Ottoman circles as a result of his writings and the activities of his students, even though he only spent two or three years in Constantinople before his death.
Taqi al-Dinbuilt theConstantinople observatory of Taqi ad-Dinin 1577, where he carried out observations until 1580. He calculated theeccentricityof the Sun's orbit and the annual motion of theapogee.However, the observatory's primary purpose was almost certainlyastrologicalrather than astronomical, leading to its destruction in 1580 due to the rise of a clerical faction that opposed its use for that purpose.He also experimented withsteam powerinOttoman Egyptin 1551, when he described asteam jackdriven by a rudimentarysteam turbine.
Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğluwas the author of the first surgical atlas and the last majormedical encyclopaedia from the Islamic world.The Ottoman Empire is credited with the invention of several surgical instruments in use such asforceps,catheters,scalpels and lancetsas well aspincers.
In the early 19th century,Egypt under Muhammad Alibegan usingsteam enginesfor industrial manufacturing, with industries such asironworks,textile manufacturing,paper millsandhullingmills moving towards steam power.Economic historian Jean Batou argues that the necessary economic conditions existed in Egypt for the adoption ofoilas a potential energy source for its steam engines later in the 19th century.