62 Facts About Ottoman Empire

1.

Ottoman Empire, known as the Turkish Empire, was an empire that controlled much of Southeast Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa between the 14th and early 20th centuries.

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2.

Under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman Empire marked the peak of its power and prosperity, as well as the highest development of its governmental, social, and economic systems.

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3.

Thus, over the course of the 19th century, the Ottoman Empire state became vastly more powerful and organized internally, despite suffering further territorial losses, especially in the Balkans, where a number of new states emerged.

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4.

Turkish word for "Ottoman Empire" originally referred to the tribal followers of Osman in the fourteenth century.

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5.

The Ottoman Empire prospered under the rule of a line of committed and effective Sultans.

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6.

Ottoman Empire then laid siege to Vienna in 1529, but failed to take the city.

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7.

In 1539, a 60, 000-strong Ottoman army besieged the Spanish garrison of Castelnuovo on the Adriatic coast; the successful siege cost the Ottomans 8, 000 casualties, but Venice agreed to terms in 1540, surrendering most of its empire in the Aegean and the Morea.

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8.

France and the Ottoman Empire, united by mutual opposition to Habsburg rule, became strong allies.

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9.

The Ottoman Empire continued to invade Eastern Europe in a series of slave raids, and remained a significant power in Eastern Europe until the end of the 17th century.

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10.

The final assault being fatally delayed, the Ottoman Empire forces were swept away by allied Habsburg, German, and Polish forces spearheaded by the Polish king John III Sobieski at the Battle of Vienna.

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11.

Accordingly, King Charles XII of Sweden was welcomed as an ally in the Ottoman Empire following his defeat by the Russians at the Battle of Poltava of 1709 in central Ukraine.

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12.

The Treaty revealed that the Ottoman Empire was on the defensive and unlikely to present any further aggression in Europe.

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13.

In 1768 Russian-backed Ukrainian Haidamakas, pursuing Polish confederates, entered Balta, an Ottoman Empire-controlled town on the border of Bessarabia in Ukraine, massacred its citizens, and burned the town to the ground.

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14.

In 1883, a German military mission under General Baron Colmar von der Goltz arrived to train the Ottoman Army, leading to the so-called "Goltz generation" of German-trained officers who were to play a notable role in the politics of the last years of the empire.

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15.

Defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire began with the Second Constitutional Era, a moment of hope and promise established with the Young Turk Revolution.

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16.

The Ottoman Empire faced continuous unrest in the years leading up to World War I, including the 31 March Incident and two further coups in 1912 and 1913.

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17.

Ottoman Empire entered World War I on the side of the Central Powers and was ultimately defeated.

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18.

Partition of the Ottoman Empire was finalized under the terms of the 1920 Treaty of Sevres.

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19.

Several historians such as British historian Edward Gibbon and the Greek historian Dimitri Kitsikis have argued that after the fall of Constantinople, the Ottoman state took over the machinery of the Byzantine state and that in essence, the Ottoman Empire was a continuation of the Eastern Roman Empire under a Turkish Muslim guise.

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20.

The American historian Speros Vryonis wrote that the Ottoman Empire state was centered on "a Byzantine-Balkan base with a veneer of the Turkish language and the Islamic religion".

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21.

The American historian Heath Lowry and Kitsikis posit 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 only later Islam became the primary characteristic of the empire.

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22.

The Divan, in the years when the Ottoman Empire state was still a Beylik, was composed of the elders of the tribe.

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23.

The Ottoman Empire was always organized around a system of local jurisprudence.

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24.

Legal administration in the Ottoman Empire was part of a larger scheme of balancing central and local authority.

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25.

Ottoman Empire 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 local millet.

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26.

The jurisdictional complexity of the Ottoman Empire was aimed to permit the integration of culturally and religiously different groups.

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27.

The Ottoman Empire 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".

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28.

The Ottoman Empire state tended not to interfere with non-Muslim religious law systems, despite legally having a voice to do so through local governors.

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29.

Since the closing of the ijtihad, 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.

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30.

The Ottoman Empire military was a complex system of recruiting and fief-holding.

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31.

The main corps of the Ottoman Empire Army included Janissary, Sipahi, Akinci and Mehteran.

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32.

The Ottoman Empire army was once among the most advanced fighting forces in the world, being one of the first to use muskets and cannons.

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33.

The Ottoman Empire Turks began using falconets, which were short but wide cannons, during the Siege of Constantinople.

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34.

The Ottoman cavalry depended on high speed and mobility rather than heavy armor, using bows and short swords on fast Turkoman and Arabian horses, and often applied tactics similar to those of the Mongol Empire, such as pretending to retreat while surrounding the enemy forces inside a crescent-shaped formation and then making the real attack.

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35.

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.

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36.

The Ottoman Empire army was the first institution to hire foreign experts and send its officers for training in western European countries.

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37.

Sultan Abdulaziz attempted to reestablish a strong Ottoman Empire navy, building the largest fleet after those of Britain and France.

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38.

Ottoman Empire locked most of the fleet inside the Golden Horn, where the ships decayed for the next 30 years.

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39.

The Ottoman Empire started preparing its first pilots and planes, and with the founding of the Aviation School in Yesilkoy on 3 July 1912, the Empire began to tutor its own flight officers.

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40.

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.

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41.

The Anglo-Ottoman Empire Treaty, known as the Treaty of Balta Liman that opened the Ottoman Empire markets directly to English and French competitors, would be seen as one of the staging posts along with this development.

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42.

In contrast to the protectionism of China, Japan, and Spain, the Ottoman Empire had a liberal trade policy, open to foreign imports.

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43.

From its founding, the Ottoman Empire officially supported the Maturidi school of Islamic theology, which emphasized human reason, rationality, the pursuit of science and philosophy.

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44.

Ottoman Empire had a wide variety of Islamic sects, including Druze, Ismailis, Alevis, and Alawites.

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45.

Likewise, Ottoman Empire Jews came under the authority of the Haham Basi, or Ottoman Empire Chief Rabbi, while Armenians were under the authority of the chief bishop of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

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46.

Ottoman Empire replaced the Arabic alphabet with Latin letters, ended the religious school system, and gave women some political rights.

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47.

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.

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48.

Until the 19th century, Ottoman Empire prose did not contain any examples of fiction: there were no counterparts to, for instance, the European romance, short story, or novel.

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49.

Ottoman Empire Divan poetry was a highly ritualized and symbolic art form.

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50.

Until the 19th century, Ottoman Empire prose did not develop to the extent that contemporary Divan poetry did.

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51.

Early Ottoman Empire architecture experimented with multiple building types over the course of the 13th to 15th centuries, progressively evolving into the Classical Ottoman Empire style of the 16th and 17th centuries, which was strongly influenced by the Hagia Sophia.

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52.

The last Ottoman Empire period saw more influences from Western Europe, brought in by architects such as those from the Balyan family.

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53.

Ottoman Empire constructions were still abundant in Anatolia and in the Balkans, but in the more distant Middle Eastern and North African provinces older Islamic architectural styles continued to hold strong influence and were sometimes blended with Ottoman Empire styles.

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54.

Tradition of Ottoman Empire miniatures, painted to illustrate manuscripts or used in dedicated albums, was heavily influenced by the Persian art form, though it included elements of the Byzantine tradition of illumination and painting.

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55.

Ottoman Empire illumination covers non-figurative painted or drawn decorative art in books or on sheets in muraqqa or albums, as opposed to the figurative images of the Ottoman Empire miniature.

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56.

Art of carpet weaving was 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.

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57.

Ottoman Empire classical music was an important part of the education of the Ottoman Empire elite.

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58.

Traditional shadow play called Karagoz and Hacivat was widespread throughout the Ottoman Empire and featured characters representing all of the major ethnic and social groups in that culture.

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59.

Ottoman Empire cuisine refers to the cuisine of the capital, Constantinople, and the regional capital cities, where the melting pot of cultures created a common cuisine that most of the population regardless of ethnicity shared.

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60.

Ottoman Empire calculated the eccentricity of the Sun's orbit and the annual motion of the apogee.

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61.

Ottoman Empire experimented with steam power in Ottoman Egypt in 1551, when he described a steam jack driven by a rudimentary steam turbine.

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62.

Since, the Ottoman Empire is credited with the invention of several surgical instruments in use such as forceps, catheters, scalpels and lancets as well as pincers.

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