The Ottoman Empire
From the Anatolian frontier to the end of the sultanate
The Ottoman dynasty takes its name from Osman I, a Turkoman frontier leader on the Seljuk-Byzantine borderlands of north-western Anatolia around 1300. His son Orhan took Bursa and carried the Ottomans across the Dardanelles into Europe; Mehmed II took Constantinople in 1453; and the empire came to span three continents before the Grand National Assembly abolished the sultanate in 1922. Abdulmecid II, elected caliph after that abolition, held the office until it too was abolished in March 1924.
This collection gathers the encyclopaedia's Ottoman coverage in sequence: Ertuğrul, Osman, and Orhan at the dynasty's beginnings; the sultans of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the battle of Nicopolis, and the conquest of Constantinople; Topkapı Palace and Bosnia and Herzegovina under Ottoman rule; Selim I and Suleiman; the admirals and the cartographer of the sixteenth-century Mediterranean; Roxelana, Kösem Sultan, and the Blue Mosque; the Köprülü grand viziers; and the sultans of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the empire's dissolution, and the last caliph.
In This Collection
Ottoman Empire (1299-1922 CE)
The Ottoman Empire ruled for over 600 years, spanning three continents at its height. Founded by Osman I in 1299 CE, it became one of history's most powerful em…
Ertuğrul Ghazi: Father of the Ottoman Dynasty
Ertuğrul Ghazi was leader of the Kayı tribe of Oghuz Turks and father of Osman I, founder of the Ottoman Empire. Operating on the Seljuk-Byzantine frontier in t…
Osman I: Founder of the Ottoman Dynasty
Osman I (c. 1258-c. 1324) was the Turkoman frontier leader from whom the Ottoman dynasty takes its name. No written source survives from his lifetime, and almos…
Orhan Ghazi: The Second Ottoman Ruler
Orhan Ghazi (c. 1281-1362) took Bursa, Nicaea and Nicomedia from the Byzantines, made Bursa his capital, and carried the Ottomans across the Dardanelles into Eu…
Murad I: The Conquest of the Balkans
Murad I (1326-1389) ruled the Ottoman state for some twenty-seven years, moving its capital to Edirne in Europe, reducing the Balkan principalities to vassalage…
Bayezid I: The Thunderbolt
Bayezid I (r. 1389-1402), known as Yildirim, the Thunderbolt, expanded the Ottoman state across the Balkans and Anatolia before his defeat and capture by Timur …
Battle of Nicopolis (1396 CE)
The Battle of Nicopolis, fought on 25 September 1396, was a decisive Ottoman victory over a combined Western European crusading army under Sigismund of Hungary.…
Murad II: The Sultan Who Twice Left the Throne
Murad II (1404-1451) completed the recovery of the Ottoman state after its collapse at Ankara in 1402. He reigned twice, abdicating in 1444 and returning to win…
Mehmed II: The Conqueror and the Making of an Empire
Mehmed II (1432-1481) took Constantinople in 1453 and spent the following three decades converting the Ottoman state into a centralised empire, codifying its la…
Conquest of Constantinople - The Fall of Byzantium
The historic conquest of Constantinople by Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II on May 29, 1453 CE, ending the Byzantine Empire and establishing Ottoman dominance in southe…
Topkapi Palace - Heart of the Ottoman Empire
Topkapi Palace (1459-1856 CE) served as the primary residence and administrative headquarters of Ottoman sultans for nearly four centuries. Located on Seraglio …
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Islamic Heritage in the Balkans
The westernmost region of sustained Muslim presence in Europe. Ottoman rule from 1463 until the Austro-Hungarian occupation of 1878 produced a distinctive Bosni…
Bayezid II: The Consolidator
Bayezid II (1447-1512), eighth Ottoman sultan, followed his father Mehmed II's relentless conquests with three decades of consolidation. He defeated his brother…
Selim I: The Conquest of the Arab Lands
Selim I (1470-1520) ruled for eight years and doubled the Ottoman Empire, defeating the Safavids at Chaldiran in 1514 and conquering the Mamluk Sultanate of Syr…
Suleiman the Magnificent: The Golden Age of the Ottoman Empire
Suleiman I (r. 1520-1566), known as 'the Magnificent' in the West and 'the Lawgiver' in the Islamic world, presided over the Ottoman Empire at its zenith. His r…
Oruc Reis: The Elder Barbarossa
Oruc Reis (c. 1474-1518), known as Baba Aruj and the first of the brothers called Barbarossa, was a corsair captain who seized Algiers in 1516 and ruled it unti…
Hayreddin Barbarossa: Grand Admiral of the Ottoman Fleet
Hayreddin Barbarossa (c. 1478-1546) succeeded his brother Oruc at Algiers in 1518, placed it under Ottoman sovereignty, and rose to command the Ottoman navy as …
Turgut Reis: The Seaman of Tripoli
Turgut Reis (c. 1485-1565), known in Europe as Dragut, rose from gunner to Ottoman admiral and Pasha of Tripoli. A former galley slave of the Genoese, he took T…
Piri Reis: Cartographer of the Ottoman Sea
Piri Reis (c. 1465-1553) was an Ottoman captain, cartographer and author of the Kitab-i Bahriye, the most detailed sailing guide to the Mediterranean of its age…
Roxelana: The Slave Girl Who Became the Most Powerful Woman in the Ottoman Empire
Roxelana (c. 1502-1558), known as Hürrem Sultan, rose from slavery to become Sultan [Suleiman the Magnificent](/articles/suleiman-the-magnificent)'s legal wife …
Kösem Sultan
Kösem Sultan (c. 1589-1651), also known by her harem name Mahpeyker, was the wife of Sultan Ahmed I and mother of Sultans Murad IV and Ibrahim I. As valide sult…
Blue Mosque: The Sultan Ahmed Mosque of Istanbul
The Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmed Mosque) in Istanbul, built between 1609-1616 CE, is one of the most magnificent examples of Ottoman architecture and a masterpiece…
Murad IV: Discipline, Prohibition, and the Recovery of Baghdad
Murad IV (1612-1640) became Ottoman sultan at eleven, took personal control at twenty in 1632, and imposed order by force. He banned tobacco, alcohol and coffee…
Mehmed IV: The Hunter and the Koprulu Recovery
Mehmed IV (1642-1693) reigned thirty-nine years from the age of six. His reign spanned the near-collapse of the 1650s, the Kopruluu recovery, the capture of Can…
Koprulu Mehmed Pasha: The Grand Vizier Who Restored Ottoman Authority
Koprulu Mehmed Pasha (c. 1575-1661) became Ottoman grand vizier in 1656 on the condition of unrestricted authority. He broke the factions of the capital by mass…
Koprulu Fazil Ahmed Pasha: The Scholar Vizier
Koprulu Fazil Ahmed Pasha (1635-1676) served fifteen years as Ottoman grand vizier, the longest tenure of the era. Trained as a scholar, he took Candia in 1669 …
Abdulmecid I: The Sultan of the Tanzimat
Abdulmecid I (1823-1861) became Ottoman sultan at sixteen and presided over the Tanzimat, the empire's most sweeping programme of legal and administrative refor…
Abdulhamid II: The Last Sultan to Rule
Abdulhamid II (1842-1918) ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1876 to 1909, the last sultan to exercise real power. He promulgated the empire's first constitution, su…
Mehmed V Resad: The Constitutional Sultan
Mehmed V (1844-1918) reigned as Ottoman sultan from 1909 to 1918 as a constitutional figurehead while the Committee of Union and Progress governed. His reign sa…
Mehmed VI Vahideddin: The Last Ottoman Sultan
Mehmed VI Vahideddin (1861-1926) was the thirty-sixth and last Ottoman sultan, reigning from 1918 to 1922. He governed under Allied occupation, his government s…
Fall of the Ottoman Empire
Comprehensive history of the decline and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire from the 19th century through World War I to the establishment of the Turkish Republi…
Abdülmecid II: The Last Caliph
Abdulmecid II (1868-1944) was elected the last Ottoman caliph in November 1922 after the Grand National Assembly abolished the sultanate, and held the office un…