Ottoman Empire

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Turkish:

Devlet-i Aliyye-i Osmniyye
Turkish: Osmanl
mparatorluu

Empire

12991923

Flag (18441923)

Coat of arms
(1882 design)

Motto

Devlet-i Ebed-mddet[1]

"The Eternal State"

Anthem
various
(during 18081922)

The Ottoman Empire at its greatest extent, in 1683

Capital

St

(1299
1335)
Bursa

(1335
1363)
Edirne[2]

(1363
1453)
Constantinopl
e[dn 1]

(1453
1922)

Languages

Ottoman
Turkish(official
)
many others

Religion

Islam

Government

Absolute
monarchy

(1299
1876)
(1878

1908)
(1920
1922)
Constitutional
monarchy

(1876
1878)
(1908
1920)

Sultan

12991326

Osman

19181922

Mehmed

VI

(first)

(last)

Caliph

13621389

Murad

19221924

Abdlmecid

II

(first)

[3]

(last)

Grand Vizier

13201331

Alaeddin

Pasha

(first

19201922

Ahmed Tevfik

Pasha(last)

Legislature

General
Assembly

Upper house

Senate

Lower house

Chamber of

Deputies

History

Founded
1299

Interregnum
14021414

Transformation from
-sultanate to empire
1453

1st Constitutional
18761878

2nd Constitutional
19081920

Sultanate
-abolished[dn 2]

1 November
1922

Republic of
-Turkeyestablished[dn

29 October

3]

1923

Caliphate abolished
3 March 1924

Area

1683

5,200,000 km

[4]

(2,007,731
sq mi)

1914

1,800,000 km

[5]

(694,984 sq
mi)

Population

1856 est.

35,350,000

1906 est.

20,884,000

1912 est.[6]

24,000,000

Currency

Ake, Para, Su
ltani,Kuru, Lir
a

Preceded by

Anatolia
n beyliks
Sultanat
e of
Rm
Byzantin
e Empire
Karama
nids

Kingdom
of
Bosnia

Bulgaria
n
Empire

Succeeded by

Turkish
Provisional
Governmen
t
First
Hellenic
Republic
Khedivate
of Egypt
Condominiu
m of Bosnia
and
Herzegovin
a
Principality
of Serbia
Provisional
Governmen
t of Albania

Serbian
Empire

Kingdom
of
Hungary

Kingdom
of
Croatia
Mamluk
Sultanat
e of
Egypt

Kingdom of
Romania
Principality
of Bulgaria
British
Cyprus
Mandatory
Iraq
Emirate of
Diriyah
French
Algeria

Tunisia
Yemen
Hospitall
ers of
Tripolita
nia

Algeria

French
Tunisia
Sheikhdom
of Kuwait

Empire
of
Trebizon
d
Despota
te of the
Morea

Today part of

[show]

Warning: Value not

specified for
"continent"

Part of a series on the

History of Turkey

Prehistory[show]

Bronze Age[show]

Classical Age[show]

Medieval Age[show]

Ottoman Era[show]

Republic of Turkey[show]

By topic[show]

Timeline

Turkey portal

The Ottoman Empire (/tmn/; Ottoman Turkish:

, Devlet-i Aliyye-i
Osmniyye, Modern Turkish: Osmanl mparatorluu or Osmanl Devleti), also historically
referred to as the Turkish Empire or Turkey, was a Sunni Islamic state founded in 1299
by Oghuz Turks under Osman I in northwestern Anatolia. With conquests in the
Balkansby Murad I between 1362 and 1389, the Ottoman sultanate was transformed into a
transcontinental empire and claimant to caliphate. The Ottomans overthrew the Byzantine
Empire in 1453 with Mehmed II's conquest of Constantinople.
[7]

[8][9][10]

During the 16th and 17th centuries, in particular at the height of its power under the reign
of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire was a powerful multinational, multilingual
empire controlling much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia, the Caucasus,North Africa, and
the Horn of Africa. At the beginning of the 17th century the empire contained 32
provinces and numerous vassal states. Some of these were later absorbed into the empire,
while others were granted various types of autonomy during the course of centuries.
[11]

[dn 4]

With Constantinople as its capital and control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, the
Ottoman Empire was at the centre of interactions between the Eastern and Westernworlds
for six centuries. Following a long period of military setbacks against European powers and
gradual decline, the empire collapsed and was dissolved in the aftermath ofWorld War I,
leading to the emergence of the new state of Turkey in the Ottoman Anatolian heartland, as
well as the creation of modern Balkan and Middle Easternstates.
[12]

Contents

[hide]

1 Name

2 History

2.1 Rise (12991453)

2.2 Expansion and apogee (14531566)

2.3 Stagnation and reform (15661827)

2.3.1 Revolts, reversals, and revivals (15661683)

2.3.2 Russian threat grows

2.4 Decline and modernization (18281908)

2.5 Defeat and dissolution (19081922)

3 Territorial evolution

4 Government

4.1 Law

4.2 Military

5 Administrative divisions

6 Economy

7 Demographics

7.1 Language

7.2 Religion

7.2.1 Islam

7.2.2 Christianity and Judaism

8 Culture

8.1 Literature

8.2 Architecture

8.3 Decorative arts

8.4 Performing arts

8.5 Cuisine

9 Science and technology

10 Sports

11 See also

12 Notes

13 References

14 Further reading

15 External links

Name[edit]
Main article: Names of the Ottoman Empire
The word "Ottoman" is a historical anglicisation of the name of Osman I, the founder of the
Empire and of the ruling House of Osman (also known as the Ottoman dynasty). Osman's
name in turn was derived from the Persian form of the name Umn of ultimately
Arabic origin. In Ottoman Turkish, the empire was referred to as Devlet-i Aliyye-yi
Osmniyye (
) , or alternatively Osmanl Devleti () . In Modern
Turkish, it is known as Osmanl mparatorluu ("Ottoman Empire") orOsmanl Devleti ("The
Ottoman State").
[13]

[dn 5]

In the West, the two names "Ottoman Empire" and "Turkey" were often used
interchangeably, with "Turkey" being increasingly favored both in formal and informal
situations. This dichotomy was officially ended in 192023 when the newly established
Ankara-based Turkish government chose Turkey as the sole official name.
[14]

History[edit]
Main article: History of the Ottoman Empire

Rise (12991453)[edit]
Main article: Rise of the Ottoman Empire
Further information: Ottoman dynasty and Kay tribe
Erturul, father of Osman I, founder of the Ottoman Empire, arrived
in Anatolia from Merv(Turkmenistan) with 400 horsemen to aid the Seljuks of Rum against
the Byzantines. After the demise of the Turkish Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in the 14th century,
Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent, mostly Turkish states, the socalled Ghazi emirates. One of the emirates was led by Osman I (12581326), from whom
the name Ottoman is derived. Osman I extended the frontiers of Turkish settlement toward
the edge of the Byzantine Empire. It is not well understood how the Osmanli came to
dominate their neighbours, as the history of medieval Anatolia is still little known.
[15]

[16]

[17]

Battle of Nicopolis in 1396. Painting from 1523.

In the century after the death of Osman I, Ottoman rule began to extend over the Eastern
Mediterranean and the Balkans. Osman's son, Orhan, captured the city of Bursa in 1324 and
made it the new capital of the Ottoman state. The fall of Bursa meant the loss of Byzantine
control over northwestern Anatolia. The important city of Thessaloniki was captured from
the Venetians in 1387. The Ottoman victory at Kosovo in 1389 effectively marked the end of
Serbian power in the region, paving the way for Ottoman expansion into Europe. The Battle
of Nicopolis in 1396, widely regarded as the last large-scalecrusade of the Middle Ages,
failed to stop the advance of the victorious Ottoman Turks.
[18]

[19]

With the extension of Turkish dominion into the Balkans, the strategic conquest of
Constantinople became a crucial objective. The empire controlled nearly all formerByzantine
lands surrounding the city, but the Byzantines were temporarily relieved when the TurkishMongolian leader Timur invaded Anatolia from the east. In the Battle of Ankara in 1402,
Timur defeated the Ottoman forces and took Sultan Bayezid I as a prisoner, throwing the
empire into disorder. The ensuing civil war lasted from 1402 to 1413 as Bayezid's sons
fought over succession. It ended when Mehmet I emerged as the sultan and restored
Ottoman power, bringing an end to theInterregnum, also known as the Fetret Devri.
[20]

Part of the Ottoman territories in the Balkans (such as Thessaloniki, Macedonia and Kosovo)
were temporarily lost after 1402 but were later recovered by Murad II between the 1430s and
1450s. On 10 November 1444, Murad II defeated the Hungarian, Polish,
and Wallachian armies under Wadysaw III of Poland (also King of Hungary) and Jnos
Hunyadiat the Battle of Varna, the final battle of the Crusade of Varna, although Albanians
under Skanderbeg continued to resist. Four years later, Jnos Hunyadi prepared another
army (of Hungarian and Wallachian forces) to attack the Turks but was again defeated by
Murad II at the Second Battle of Kosovoin 1448.
[21]

Expansion and apogee (14531566)[edit]

Main article: Growth of the Ottoman Empire
The son of Murad II, Mehmed II, reorganized the state and the military, and
conquered Constantinople on 29 May 1453. Mehmed allowed the Orthodox Church to
maintain its autonomy and land in exchange for accepting Ottoman authority. Because of
bad relations between the states of western Europe and the later Byzantine Empire, the
majority 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.
[22]

[22]

[23]

Battle of Mohcs in 1526[24]

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Ottoman Empire entered a period of expansion. The
Empire prospered under the rule of a line of committed and effective Sultans. It also
flourished economically due to its control of the major overland trade routes between Europe
and Asia.
[25][dn 6]

Sultan Selim I (15121520) dramatically expanded the Empire's eastern and southern
frontiers by defeating Shah Ismail of Safavid Persia, in the Battle of Chaldiran. Selim I
established Ottoman rule in Egypt, and created a naval presence on the Red Sea. After this
Ottoman expansion, a competition started between the Portuguese Empire and the Ottoman
Empire to become the dominant power in the region.
[26]

[27]