The Rise of Ottoman Empire

The Rise of Ottoman Empire

In the late 13th century, Osman I founded a minor Beylik (principality) in what is now Turkey. This Beylik outmaneuvered more strong neighbors to become the massive Ottoman empire in just a few generations. What factors aided its meteoric rise?

The Anatolian peninsula was a patchwork of Turkic states at the time of Osman, wedged between a disintegrating Byzantine Empire and the weakening Seljuk Sultanate of Rum.

Osman was the first in a long series of Ottoman leaders known for their intellectual prowess. They increased their power by fighting alongside particular factions when needed and fighting against them when the time was right, sometimes preferring political and military utility over ethnic or religious affinity.

Following Osman's death, his son Orhan developed a sophisticated military structure and tax collecting system aimed at quickly expanding the country's territory. The Balkans, in southeast Europe, were the Ottomans' first significant advance.

Turkic troops were mixed with Byzantine and other Balkan Christian converts in the military. They kidnapped hundreds of young Christian boys from villages throughout the Balkans, converted them to Islam, and trained them to join the Janissaries, a strong military elite force.

The enslaved lads who were seized may advance to the post of vizier in the Ottoman administration. Converting to Islam and taking posts in the Ottoman administration was also permitted, though not encouraged, for conquered rulers.

Non-Muslims of Abrahamic religions, on the other hand, were granted religious freedom in return for a fee known as Jizya, as well as other harsh stipulations, such as not being permitted to join the army.

He kidnapped Beyazit and imprisoned him in an iron cage, igniting a ten-year succession battle that threatened to bring the Ottoman Empire to its knees. Sultan Murad II stemmed the trend, although he fell short of one of his loftiest ambitions: capturing Constantinople, the Byzantine capital.

The Ottomans had invaded or subjugated most of the Anatolian Beyliks, as well as the Balkans, by the end of the 14th century. However, while Sultan Beyazit I focused on Western expansion, the Central Asian monarch Timur struck from the east in the first part of the 15th century.

He kidnapped Beyazit and imprisoned him in an iron cage, igniting a ten-year succession fight that almost destroyed the Ottoman empire. Sultan Murad II reversed the trend but fell short of one of his loftiest ambitions: conquering Constantinople, the Byzantine capital.

Sultan Mehmed II, often known as Mehmed the Conqueror, promised to succeed where his father had fallen short. He recruited a Hungarian engineer to manufacture the world's biggest cannon, used Serbian miners to construct tunnels beneath the city's fortifications, and ordered his fleet of ships to be moved overland, approaching the city from an unexpected direction, in preparation for the attack on Constantinople. In the spring of 1453, he lay siege to the city, and Constantinople fell to the Ottomans.

It would become the Ottoman capital, known as Istanbul, which means "to the city" in Greek. Constantinople was a shadow of its former splendor by the time Mehmed II captured it. It blossomed once more during Ottoman authority. Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Persian, Arabic, Bulgarian, Albanian, and Serbian are all spoken in Istanbul on a regular basis.

Architects like the well-known Sinan crammed the city with magnificent mosques and other structures commissioned by the sultans. The Ottomans transported goods like coffee to Europe via Istanbul. They were in the midst of a golden period of economic expansion, geographical conquest, art, and building.

They brought together artisans from all across Europe, Africa, and the United States to develop a unique combination of cultural innovation in the Middle East and Central Asia. Iznik pottery, for example, was created utilizing Ming period methods and reinterpreted with Ottoman patterns.

The Ottoman Empire would continue to grow, consolidating its political power and profitable commercial routes. The empire spanned over 600 years and extended from Hungary to the Persian Gulf, from the Horn of Africa to the Crimean Peninsula at its height.