All the sultans of the Ottoman Empire and the years of their reign are divided into several stages in history: from the period of creation to the formation of the republic. These time periods have almost exact boundaries in Ottoman history.

Formation of the Ottoman Empire

It is believed that the founders of the Ottoman state arrived in Asia Minor (Anatolia) from Central Asia (Turkmenistan) in the 20s of the 13th century. Sultan of the Seljuk Turks Keykubad II provided them with areas near the cities of Ankara and Segut for their residence.

The Seljuk Sultanate perished in 1243 under the attacks of the Mongols. Since 1281, Osman came to power in the possession allocated to the Turkmens (beylik), who pursued a policy of expanding his beylik: he captured small towns, proclaimed ghazavat - holy war with the infidels (Byzantines and others). Osman partially subjugates the territory of Western Anatolia, in 1326 he takes the city of Bursa and makes it the capital of the empire.

In 1324, Osman I Gazi dies. He was buried in Bursa. The inscription on the grave became a prayer said by the Ottoman sultans upon ascending the throne.

Successors of the Ottoman dynasty:

Expansion of the empire's borders

In the middle of the 15th century. The period of the most active expansion of the Ottoman Empire began. At this time, the empire was headed by:

Mehmed II the Conqueror - reigned 1444 - 1446. and in 1451 - 1481. At the end of May 1453, he captured and plundered Constantinople. He moved the capital to the plundered city. St. Sophia Cathedral was converted into the main temple of Islam. At the request of the Sultan, the residences of the Orthodox Greek and Armenian patriarchs, as well as the chief Jewish rabbi, were located in Istanbul. Under Mehmed II, the autonomy of Serbia was terminated, Bosnia was subordinated, and Crimea was annexed. The death of the Sultan prevented the capture of Rome. The Sultan did not appreciate it at all human life, but wrote poetry and created the first poetic duvan.
Bayezid II the Holy (Dervish) - reigned from 1481 to 1512. Almost never fought. Stopped the tradition of the Sultan's personal leadership of troops. He patronized culture and wrote poetry. He died, transferring power to his son.
Selim I the Terrible (Merciless) - reigned from 1512 to 1520. He began his reign by destroying his closest competitors. Brutally suppressed the Shiite uprising. Captured Kurdistan, western Armenia, Syria, Palestine, Arabia and Egypt. A poet whose poems were subsequently published by the German Emperor Wilhelm II.
Suleiman I Kanuni (Lawgiver) - reigned from 1520 to 1566. Expanded the borders to Budapest, the upper Nile and the Strait of Gibraltar, the Tigris and Euphrates, Baghdad and Georgia. Conducted many government reforms. The last 20 years have passed under the influence of the concubine and then the wife of Roksolana. The most prolific among the sultans in poetic creativity. He died during a campaign in Hungary.
Selim II the Drunkard - reigned from 1566 to 1574. There was an addiction to alcohol. A talented poet. During this reign, the first conflict between the Ottoman Empire and the Principality of Moscow and the first major defeat at sea occurred. The only expansion of the empire was the capture of Fr. Cyprus. He died from hitting his head on stone slabs in a bathhouse.
Murad III - on the throne from 1574 to 1595. A “lover” of numerous concubines and a corrupt official who was practically not involved in managing the empire. During his reign, Tiflis was captured, and imperial troops reached Dagestan and Azerbaijan.
Mehmed III - reigned from 1595 to 1603. Record holder for the destruction of competitors for the throne - on his orders, 19 brothers, their pregnant women and son were killed.
Ahmed I - reigned from 1603 to 1617. The reign is characterized by a leapfrog of senior officials, who were often replaced at the request of the harem. The Empire lost Transcaucasia and Baghdad.
Mustafa I - reigned from 1617 to 1618. and from 1622 to 1623. He was considered a saint for his dementia and sleepwalking. I spent 14 years in prison.
Osman II - reigned from 1618 to 1622. Enthroned at the age of 14 by the Janissaries. He was pathologically cruel. After the defeat near Khotyn from the Zaporozhye Cossacks, he was killed by the Janissaries for attempting to escape with the treasury.
Murad IV - reigned from 1622 to 1640. At the cost of great blood, he brought order to the corps of the Janissaries, destroyed the dictatorship of the viziers, and cleared the courts and government apparatus of corrupt officials. Returned Erivan and Baghdad to the empire. Before his death, he ordered the death of his brother Ibrahim, the last of the Ottomanids. Died of wine and fever.
Ibrahim ruled from 1640 to 1648. Weak and weak-willed, cruel and wasteful, greedy for female caresses. Deposed and strangled by the Janissaries with the support of the clergy.
Mehmed IV the Hunter - reigned from 1648 to 1687. Proclaimed Sultan at age 6. The true administration of the state was carried out by the grand viziers, especially in the early years. During the first period of reign, the empire strengthened its military power, conquered about. Crete. The second period was not so successful - the Battle of Saint Gotthard was lost, Vienna was not taken, the Janissaries revolt and the overthrow of the Sultan.
Suleiman II - reigned from 1687 to 1691. Enthroned by the Janissaries.
Ahmed II - reigned from 1691 to 1695. Enthroned by the Janissaries.
Mustafa II - reigned from 1695 to 1703. Enthroned by the Janissaries. The first partition of the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699 and the Treaty of Constantinople with Russia in 1700.
Ahmed III - reigned from 1703 to 1730. He sheltered Hetman Mazepa and Charles XII after the Battle of Poltava. During his reign, the war with Venice and Austria was lost, part of the possessions in Eastern Europe, as well as Algeria and Tunisia.

The Turks are a relatively young people. Its age is only a little over 600 years. The first Turks were a bunch of Turkmens, fugitives from Central Asia who fled to the west from the Mongols. They reached the Konya Sultanate and asked for land to settle. They were given a place on the border with the Nicaean Empire near Bursa. The fugitives began to settle there in the middle of the 13th century.

The main one among the fugitive Turkmens was Ertogrul Bey. He called the territory allocated to him the Ottoman beylik. And taking into account the fact that the Konya Sultan lost all power, he became an independent ruler. Ertogrul died in 1281 and power passed to his son Osman I Ghazi. It is he who is considered the founder of the dynasty of Ottoman sultans and the first ruler of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire existed from 1299 to 1922 and played a significant role in world history.

Ottoman Sultan with his soldiers

An important factor contributing to the formation of a powerful Turkish state was the fact that the Mongols, having reached Antioch, did not go further, since they considered Byzantium their ally. Therefore, they did not touch the lands on which the Ottoman beylik was located, believing that it would soon become part of the Byzantine Empire.

And Osman Ghazi, like the crusaders, declared a holy war, but only for the Muslim faith. He began to invite everyone who wanted to take part in it. And from all over the Muslim east, seekers of fortune began to flock to Osman. They were ready to fight for the faith of Islam until their sabers became dull and until they received enough wealth and wives. And in the east this was considered a very great achievement.

Thus, the Ottoman army began to be replenished with Circassians, Kurds, Arabs, Seljuks, and Turkmens. That is, anyone could come, recite the formula of Islam and become a Turk. And on the occupied lands, such people began to be allocated small plots of land to conduct agriculture. This area was called “timar”. It was a house with a garden.

The owner of the timar became a horseman (spagi). His duty was to appear at the first call to the Sultan in full armor and on his own horse in order to serve in the cavalry army. It was noteworthy that the spahi did not pay taxes in the form of money, since they paid the tax with their blood.

With such internal organization The territory of the Ottoman state began to expand rapidly. In 1324, Osman's son Orhan I captured the city of Bursa and made it his capital. Bursa was just a stone's throw from Constantinople, and the Byzantines lost control of the northern and western regions of Anatolia. And in 1352, the Ottoman Turks crossed the Dardanelles and ended up in Europe. After this, the gradual and steady capture of Thrace began.

In Europe it was impossible to get along with cavalry alone, so there was an urgent need for infantry. And then the Turks created a completely new army, consisting of infantry, which they called Janissaries(yang - new, charik - army: it turns out to be Janissaries).

The conquerors forcibly took boys between the ages of 7 and 14 from Christian peoples and converted them to Islam. These children were well fed, taught the laws of Allah, military affairs, and made infantrymen (janissaries). These warriors turned out to be the best infantrymen in all of Europe. Neither the knightly cavalry nor the Persian Qizilbash could break through the Janissaries' line.

Janissaries - infantry of the Ottoman army

And the secret of the invincibility of the Turkish infantry lay in the spirit of military camaraderie. From the first days, the Janissaries lived together, ate delicious porridge from the same cauldron, and, despite the fact that they belonged to different nations, they were people of the same destiny. When they became adults, they got married and started families, but continued to live in the barracks. Only during vacations did they visit their wives and children. That is why they did not know defeat and represented the faithful and reliable force of the Sultan.

However, having reached the Mediterranean Sea, the Ottoman Empire could not limit itself to just the Janissaries. Since there is water, ships are needed, and the need arose for a navy. The Turks began recruiting pirates, adventurers and vagabonds from all over the Mediterranean Sea for their fleet. Italians, Greeks, Berbers, Danes, and Norwegians went to serve them. This public had no faith, no honor, no law, no conscience. Therefore, they willingly converted to the Muslim faith, since they had no faith at all, and they did not care at all whether they were Christians or Muslims.

From this motley crowd they formed a fleet that was more reminiscent of a pirate fleet than a military one. He began to rage in the Mediterranean Sea, so much so that he terrified the Spanish, French and Italian ships. Sailing in the Mediterranean Sea itself began to be considered a dangerous business. Turkish corsair squadrons were based in Tunisia, Algeria and other Muslim lands that had access to the sea.

Ottoman navy

Thus, from absolutely different nations and tribes formed such a people as the Turks. And the connecting link was Islam and a common military destiny. During successful campaigns, Turkish warriors captured captives, made them their wives and concubines, and children from women of different nationalities became full-fledged Turks born on the territory of the Ottoman Empire.

The small principality, which appeared on the territory of Asia Minor in the middle of the 13th century, very quickly turned into a powerful Mediterranean power, called the Ottoman Empire after the first ruler Osman I Ghazi. The Ottoman Turks also called their state the Sublime Porte, and called themselves not Turks, but Muslims. As for the real Turks, they were considered the Turkmen population living in the interior regions of Asia Minor. The Ottomans conquered these people in the 15th century after the capture of Constantinople on May 29, 1453.

European states could not resist the Ottoman Turks. Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople and made it his capital - Istanbul. In the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire significantly expanded its territories, and with the capture of Egypt, the Turkish fleet began to dominate the Red Sea. By the second half of the 16th century, the population of the state reached 15 million people, and the Turkish Empire itself began to be compared with the Roman Empire.

But by the end of the 17th century, the Ottoman Turks suffered a number of major defeats in Europe. The Russian Empire played an important role in weakening the Turks. She always beat the warlike descendants of Osman I. She took the Crimea and the Black Sea coast from them, and all these victories became a harbinger of the decline of the state, which in the 16th century shone in the rays of its power.

But the Ottoman Empire was weakened not only by endless wars, but also by disgraceful agricultural practices. Officials squeezed all the juice out of the peasants, and therefore they farmed in a predatory way. This led to the emergence of a large amount of waste land. And this is in the “fertile crescent”, which in ancient times fed almost the entire Mediterranean.

Ottoman Empire on the map, XIV-XVII centuries

It all ended in disaster in the 19th century, when the state treasury was empty. The Turks began to borrow loans from French capitalists. But it soon became clear that they could not pay their debts, since after the victories of Rumyantsev, Suvorov, Kutuzov, and Dibich, the Turkish economy was completely undermined. The French then brought a naval fleet into the Aegean Sea and demanded customs in all ports, mining concessions and the right to collect taxes until the debt was repaid.

After this, the Ottoman Empire was called the “sick man of Europe.” She began to quickly lose the conquered lands and turn into a semi-colony European powers. The last autocratic sultan of the empire, Abdul Hamid II, tried to save the situation. However, under him the political crisis worsened even more. In 1908, the Sultan was overthrown and imprisoned by the Young Turks (a pro-Western republican political movement).

On April 27, 1909, the Young Turks enthroned the constitutional monarch Mehmed V, who was the brother of the deposed Sultan. After this, the Young Turks joined the First world war on the side of Germany and were defeated and destroyed. There was nothing good about their rule. They promised freedom, but ended with a terrible massacre of Armenians, declaring that they were against the new regime. But they were really against it, since nothing had changed in the country. Everything remained the same as before for 500 years under the rule of the sultans.

After defeat in the First World War, the Turkish Empire began to die. Anglo-French troops occupied Constantinople, the Greeks captured Smyrna and moved deeper into the country. Mehmed V died on July 3, 1918 from a heart attack. And on October 30 of the same year, the Mudros Truce, shameful for Turkey, was signed. The Young Turks fled abroad, leaving the last one in power Ottoman Sultan Mehmed VI. He became a puppet in the hands of the Entente.

But then the unexpected happened. In 1919, a national liberation movement arose in the distant mountainous provinces. It was headed by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. He led the common people with him. He very quickly expelled the Anglo-French and Greek invaders from his lands and restored Turkey within the borders that exist today. On November 1, 1922, the sultanate was abolished. Thus, the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist. On November 17, the last Turkish Sultan, Mehmed VI, left the country and went to Malta. He died in 1926 in Italy.

And in the country, on October 29, 1923, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey announced the creation of the Turkish Republic. It exists to this day, and its capital is the city of Ankara. As for the Turks themselves, they have been living quite happily in recent decades. They sing in the morning, dance in the evening, and pray during breaks. May Allah protect them!

Ottoman Empire. State formation

At times, the birth of the state of the Ottoman Turks can be considered, of course, conditionally, the years immediately preceding the death of the Seljuk Sultanate in 1307. This state arose in an atmosphere of extreme separatism that reigned in the Seljuk state of Rum after the defeat that its ruler suffered in the battle with the Mongols in 1243 The cities of Bey Aydin, Germiyan, Karaman, Menteshe, Sarukhan and a number of other areas of the sultanate turned their lands into independent principalities. Among these principalities, the beyliks of Germiyan and Karaman stood out, whose rulers continued to fight, often successfully, against Mongol rule. In 1299, the Mongols even had to recognize the independence of the Germiyan beylik.

In the last decades of the 13th century. In the north-west of Anatolia, another practically independent beylik arose. It went down in history under the name Ottoman, after the leader of a small Turkic tribal group, the main integral part which were the nomads of the Oguz Kayi tribe.

According to Turkish historical tradition, part of the Kayi tribe migrated to Anatolia from Central Asia, where the Kayi leaders served for some time in the service of the rulers of Khorezm. At first, the Kay Turks chose the land in the Karajadag region to the west of present-day Ankara as a place of nomadism. Then some of them moved to the areas of Ahlat, Erzurum and Erzincan, reaching Amasya and Aleppo (Aleppo). Some nomads of the Kayi tribe found refuge on fertile lands in the Çukurova region. It was from these places that a small Kaya unit (400-500 tents) led by Ertogrul, fleeing the Mongol raids, headed to the possessions of the Seljuk Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad I. Ertogrul turned to him for protection. The Sultan granted Ertogrul uj (outlying region of the sultanate) on the lands captured by the Seljuks from the Byzantines on the border with Bithynia. Ertogrul took upon himself the obligation to defend the border of the Seljuk state in the territory of the uj given to him.

The Uj of Ertogrul in the area of Melangia (Turkish: Karacahisar) and Sögüt (northwest of Eskişehir) was small. But the ruler was energetic, and his soldiers willingly participated in raids on neighboring Byzantine lands. Ertogrul’s actions were greatly facilitated by the fact that the population of the border Byzantine regions was extremely dissatisfied with the predatory tax policy of Constantinople. As a result, Ertogrul managed to slightly increase his income at the expense of the border regions of Byzantium. It is difficult, however, to accurately determine the scale of these aggressive operations, as well as the initial size of Uj Ertogrul himself, about whose life and activities there is no reliable data. Turkish chroniclers, even early ones (XIV-XV centuries), set out many legends associated with initial period composition of the Ertogrul beylik. These legends say that Ertogrul lived for a long time: he died at the age of 90 in 1281 or, according to another version, in 1288.

Information about the life of Ertogrul’s son, Osman, who gave the name to the future state, is also largely legendary. Osman was born around 1258 in Söğüt. This mountainous, sparsely populated area was convenient for nomads: there were many good summer pastures, and there were also plenty of convenient winter nomads. But, perhaps, the main advantage of Ertogrul’s uj and Osman, who succeeded him, was the proximity to Byzantine lands, which made it possible to enrich themselves through raids. This opportunity attracted representatives of other Turkic tribes who settled in the territories of other beyliks to the detachments of Ertogrul and Osman, since the conquest of territories belonging to non-Muslim states was considered sacred by the adherents of Islam. As a result, when in the second half of the 13th century. The rulers of the Anatolian beyliks fought among themselves in search of new possessions, the warriors of Ertogrul and Osman looked like fighters for the faith, ruining the lands of the Byzantines in search of booty and with the aim of territorial seizures.

After the death of Ertogrul, Osman became the ruler of Uj. Judging by some sources, there were supporters of transferring power to Ertogrul’s brother, Dündar, but he did not dare to speak out against his nephew, because he saw that the majority supported him. A few years later, a potential rival was killed.

Osman directed his efforts to conquer Bithynia. The area of his territorial claims became the regions of Brusa (Turkish Bursa), Belokoma (Bilejik) and Nicomedia (Izmit). One of Osman's first military successes was the capture of Melangia in 1291. He made this small Byzantine town his residence. Since the former population of Melangia partly died and partly fled, hoping to find salvation from the troops of Osman, the latter populated his residence with people from the beylik of Germiyan and other places in Anatolia. Christian temple at the behest of Osman, it was turned into a mosque, in which his name began to be mentioned in khutbas (Friday prayers). According to legends, around this time, Osman, without much difficulty, obtained from the Seljuk Sultan, whose power had become completely illusory, the title of bey, receiving the corresponding regalia in the form of a drum and a horsetail. Soon Osman declared his uj an independent state, and himself an independent ruler. This happened around 1299, when the Seljuk Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad II fled from his capital, fleeing his rebellious subjects. True, having become practically independent of the Seljuk Sultanate, which nominally existed until 1307, when the last representative of the Rum Seljuk dynasty was strangled by order of the Mongols, Osman recognized the supreme power of the Mongol Hulaguid dynasty and annually sent part of the tribute he collected from his subjects to their capital. The Ottoman beylik freed itself from this form of dependence under Osman's successor, his son Orhan.

At the end of XIII - early XIV V. The Ottoman beylik significantly expanded its territory. Its ruler continued to raid Byzantine lands. Actions against the Byzantines were made easier by the fact that his other neighbors did not yet show hostility towards the young state. Beylik Germiyan fought either with the Mongols or with the Byzantines. Beylik Karesi was simply weak. The rulers of the Chandar-oglu (Jandarids) beylik located in the north-west of Anatolia did not bother Osman’s beylik, since they were mainly busy fighting the Mongol governors. Thus, the Ottoman beylik could use all its military forces for conquests in the west.

Having captured the Yenisehir region in 1301 and built a fortified city there, Osman began preparing the capture of Brusa. In the summer of 1302, he defeated the troops of the Byzantine governor Brusa in the battle of Vafey (Turkish Koyunhisar). This was the first major military battle won by the Ottoman Turks. Finally, the Byzantines realized that they were dealing with a dangerous enemy. However, in 1305, Osman’s army was defeated in the Battle of Levka, where Catalan squads in the service of the Byzantine emperor fought against them. Another civil strife began in Byzantium, which facilitated further offensive actions of the Turks. Osman's warriors captured a number of Byzantine cities on the Black Sea coast.

In those years, the Ottoman Turks made their first raids on European part territory of Byzantium in the Dardanelles region. Osman's troops also captured a number of fortresses and fortified settlements on the way to Brusa. By 1315, Brusa was practically surrounded by fortresses in the hands of the Turks.

Brusa was captured a little later by Osman's son Orhan. born in the year of the death of his grandfather Ertogrul.

Orhan's army consisted mainly of cavalry units. The Turks did not have siege engines. Therefore, the bey did not dare to storm the city, surrounded by a ring of powerful fortifications, and established a blockade of Brusa, cutting off all its connections with the outside world and thereby depriving its defenders of all sources of supply. Turkish troops used similar tactics subsequently. They usually captured the outskirts of the city, expelled or enslaved local population. Then these lands were settled by people resettled there by order of the bey.

The city found itself in a hostile ring, and the threat of starvation loomed over its inhabitants, after which the Turks easily captured it.

The siege of Brusa lasted ten years. Finally, in April 1326, when Orhan's army stood at the very walls of Brusa, the city capitulated. This happened on the eve of the death of Osman, who was informed of the capture of Brusa on his deathbed.

Orhan, who inherited power in the beylik, made Bursa (as the Turks began to call it), famous for crafts and trade, a rich and prosperous city, his capital. In 1327, he ordered the first Ottoman silver coin, the akçe, to be minted in Bursa. This indicated that the process of transforming the Ertogrul beylik into an independent state was nearing completion. An important step On this path there were further conquests of the Ottoman Turks in the north. Four years after the capture of Brusa, Orhan's troops captured Nicaea (Turkish Iznik), and in 1337 Nicomedia.

When the Turks moved towards Nicaea, a battle took place in one of the mountain gorges between the emperor’s troops and the Turkish troops, led by Orhan’s brother, Alaeddin. The Byzantines were defeated, the emperor was wounded. Several assaults on the powerful walls of Nicaea did not bring success to the Turks. Then they resorted to the tried and tested blockade tactics, capturing several advanced fortifications and cutting off the city from the surrounding lands. After these events, Nicaea was forced to surrender. Exhausted by disease and hunger, the garrison could no longer resist the superior enemy forces. The capture of this city opened the way for the Turks to the Asian part of the Byzantine capital.

The blockade of Nicomedia, which received military aid and food by sea, lasted for nine years. To take possession of the city, Orhan had to organize a blockade of the narrow bay of the Sea of Marmara, on the shores of which Nicomedia was located. Cut off from all sources of supply, the city surrendered to the mercy of the victors.

As a result of the capture of Nicaea and Nicomedia, the Turks captured almost all the lands north of the Gulf of Izmit up to the Bosphorus. Izmit (this name was henceforth given to Nicomedia) became a shipyard and harbor for the nascent Ottoman fleet. The Turks' exit to the shores of the Sea of Marmara and the Bosphorus opened the way for them to raid Thrace. Already in 1338, the Turks began to ravage the Thracian lands, and Orhan himself with three dozen ships appeared at the walls of Constantinople, but his detachment was defeated by the Byzantines. Emperor John VI tried to get along with Orhan by marrying his daughter to him. For some time, Orkhan stopped raiding the Byzantine possessions and even provided military assistance to the Byzantines. But Orkhan already considered the lands on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus as his possessions. Having arrived to visit the emperor, he located his headquarters precisely on the Asian coast, and the Byzantine monarch with all his courtiers was forced to arrive there for a feast.

Subsequently, Orhan's relations with Byzantium deteriorated again, and his troops resumed raids on the Thracian lands. Another decade and a half passed, and Orhan's troops began to invade the European possessions of Byzantium. This was facilitated by the fact that in the 40s of the 14th century. Orhan managed, taking advantage of the civil strife in the beylik of Karesi, to annex to his possessions most of the lands of this beylik, which reached the eastern shores of the Dardanelles Strait.

In the middle of the 14th century. The Turks strengthened and began to act not only in the west, but also in the east. Orhan's beilik bordered on the possessions of the Mongol governor in Asia Minor Erten, who by that time had become an almost independent ruler due to the decline of the Ilkhan state. When the governor died and turmoil began in his possessions caused by the struggle for power between his sons-heirs, Orhan attacked the lands of Erten and significantly expanded his beylik at their expense, capturing Ankara in 1354.

In 1354, the Turks easily captured the city of Gallipoli (Turkish: Gelibolu), whose defensive fortifications were destroyed by an earthquake. In 1356, an army under the command of Orhan's son, Suleiman, crossed the Dardanelles. Having captured several cities, including Dzorillos (Turkish Chorlu), Suleiman’s troops began to move towards Adrianople (Turkish Edirne), which was perhaps the main goal of this campaign. However, around 1357, Suleiman died without realizing all his plans.

Turkish military operations in the Balkans soon resumed under the leadership of Orhan's other son, Murad. The Turks managed to take Adrianople after the death of Orhan, when Murad became ruler. This happened, according to different sources, between 1361 and 1363. The capture of this city turned out to be a relatively simple military operation, not accompanied by a blockade or a protracted siege. The Turks defeated the Byzantines on the outskirts of Adrianople, and the city was left virtually undefended. In 1365, Murad moved his residence here from Bursa for some time.

Murad took the title of Sultan and went down in history under the name Murad I. Wanting to rely on the authority of the Abbasid caliph, who was in Cairo, Murad's successor Bayezid I (1389-1402) sent him a letter, asking for recognition of the title of Sultan of Rum. Somewhat later, Sultan Mehmed I (1403-1421) began to send money to Mecca, seeking recognition by the sheriffs of his rights to the title of Sultan in this holy city for Muslims.

Thus, in less than a hundred and fifty years, the small beylik Ertogrul was transformed into a vast and militarily quite strong state.

What was the young Ottoman state like at the initial stage of its development? Its territory already covered the entire north-west of Asia Minor, extending to the waters of the Black and Marmara seas. Socio-economic institutions began to take shape.

Under Osman, his beylik was still dominated social relations, inherent in tribal life, when the power of the head of the beylik was based on the support of the tribal elite, and aggressive operations were carried out by its military formations. Large role in the formation of the Ottoman state institutions played by the Muslim clergy. Muslim theologians, ulemas, performed many administrative functions, and the administration of justice was in their hands. Osman established strong ties with the Mevlevi and Bektashi dervish orders, as well as with the Ahi, a religious guild brotherhood that enjoyed great influence in the craft layers of the cities of Asia Minor. Relying on the ulema, the top of the dervish orders and the ahi, Osman and his successors not only strengthened their power, but also justified their aggressive campaigns with the Muslim slogan of jihad, “the fight for faith.”

Osman, whose tribe led a semi-nomadic life, did not yet possess anything except herds of horses and herds of sheep. But when he began to conquer new territories, a system arose of distributing lands to his associates as a reward for their service. These awards were called timars. Turkish chronicles state Osman's decree regarding the terms of the grants as follows:

“The timar that I give to someone should not be taken away without reason. And if the one to whom I gave the timar dies, then let it be given to his son. If the son is small, then still let him tell him that during the war his servants will go on campaigns until he himself becomes fit.” This is the essence of the timar system, which was a type of military-feudal system and over time became the basis social structure Ottoman state.

The timar system took on a complete form during the first century of the existence of the new state. The supreme right to grant timars was the privilege of the Sultan, but already from the middle of the 15th century. The Timars also complained to a number of high dignitaries. Land plots were given to soldiers and military leaders as conditional holdings. Subject to fulfilling certain military duties, holders of timars, timariots, could pass them on from generation to generation. It is noteworthy that the Timariots, in essence, did not own the lands that were the property of the treasury, but the income from them. Depending on these incomes, properties of this kind were divided into two categories - timars, which brought up to 20 thousand akche per year, and zeamet - from 20 to 100 thousand akche. The real value of these amounts can be imagined in comparison with the following figures: in the middle of the 15th century. the average income from one urban household in the Balkan provinces of the Ottoman state ranged from 100 to 200 akce; In 1460, 1 akce could buy 7 kilograms of flour in Bursa. In the person of the Timariots, the first Turkish sultans sought to create a strong and loyal support for their power - military and socio-political.

In a historically relatively short period of time, the rulers of the new state became owners of large material assets. Even under Orhan, it happened that the ruler of the beylik did not have the means to ensure the next aggressive raid. The Turkish medieval chronicler Hussein cites, for example, a story about how Orhan sold a captive Byzantine dignitary to the Archon of Nicomedia in order to use the money obtained in this way to equip an army and send it against the same city. But already under Murad I the picture changed dramatically. The Sultan could maintain an army, build palaces and mosques, and spend a lot of money on celebrations and receptions for ambassadors. The reason for this change was simple - since the reign of Murad I, it became law to transfer a fifth of military booty, including prisoners, to the treasury. Military campaigns in the Balkans became the first source of income for the Ottoman state. Tributes from the conquered peoples and military booty constantly replenished his treasury, and the labor of the population of the conquered regions gradually began to enrich the nobility of the Ottoman state - dignitaries and military leaders, the clergy and beys.

Under the first sultans, the management system of the Ottoman state began to take shape. If under Orhan military affairs were decided in a close circle of his close associates from among the military leaders, then under his successors viziers - ministers began to participate in their discussions. If Orkhan managed his possessions with the help of his closest relatives or ulemas, then Murad I from among the viziers began to single out a person who was entrusted with the management of all affairs - civil and military. Thus arose the institution of the Grand Vizier, who remained for centuries the central figure of the Ottoman administration. The general affairs of the state under the successors of Murad I, as the highest advisory body, were in charge of the Sultan's Council, consisting of the Grand Vizier, the heads of the military, financial and judicial departments, and representatives of the highest Muslim clergy.

During the reign of Murad I, the Ottoman financial department received its initial design. At the same time, the division of the treasury into the personal treasury of the Sultan and the state treasury, which had been maintained for centuries, arose. An administrative division also appeared. The Ottoman state was divided into sanjaks. The word “sanjak” means “banner” in translation, as if recalling the fact that the rulers of the sanjaks, the sanjak beys, personified civil and military power locally. As for the judicial system, it was entirely under the jurisdiction of the ulema.

The state, which developed and expanded as a result of wars of conquest, took special care to create a strong army. Already under Orhan the first important steps in this direction. An infantry army was created - the Yaya. During the period of participation in campaigns, infantrymen received a salary, and in peacetime they lived by cultivating their lands, being exempt from taxes. Under Orhan, the first regular cavalry units, the mucellem, were created. Under Murad I, the army was strengthened by peasant infantry militia. Militias, azaps, were recruited only for the duration of the war and during the period of hostilities they also received a salary. It was the azaps who compiled the initial stage development of the Ottoman state the main part of the infantry army. Under Murad I, the Janissary Corps began to form (from “yeni cheri” - “new army”), which later became the striking force of the Turkish infantry and a kind of personal guard of the Turkish sultans. It was staffed by the forced recruitment of boys from Christian families. They were converted to Islam and trained in a special military school. The Janissaries were subordinate to the Sultan himself, received salaries from the treasury and from the very beginning became a privileged part of the Turkish army; the commander of the Janissary corps was one of the highest dignitaries of the state. Somewhat later than the Janissary infantry, sipahi cavalry units were formed, which also reported directly to the Sultan and were paid. All these military formations ensured the sustainable successes of the Turkish army during a period when the sultans were increasingly expanding their conquest operations.

Thus, by the middle of the 14th century. The initial core of the state was formed, which was destined to become one of the largest empires of the Middle Ages, a powerful military power that in a short time subjugated many peoples of Europe and Asia.

Ottoman Empire (Ottoman Porte, Ottoman Empire - other commonly used names) is one of the great empires of human civilization.
The Ottoman Empire was created in 1299. The Turkic tribes, under the leadership of their leader Osman I, united into one strong state, and Osman himself became the first sultan of the created empire.
In the 16th-17th centuries, during the period of its greatest power and prosperity, the Ottoman Empire occupied a huge area. It extended from Vienna and the outskirts of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the north to modern Yemen in the south, from modern Algeria in the west to the coast of the Caspian Sea in the east.
The population of the Ottoman Empire within its largest borders was 35 and a half million people; it was a huge superpower, the military power and ambitions of which had to be reckoned with by the most powerful states in Europe - Sweden, England, Austria-Hungary, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Russian state(later the Russian Empire), the Papal States, France, and influential countries of the rest of the planet.
The capital of the Ottoman Empire was repeatedly moved from city to city.
From its founding (1299) until 1329, the capital of the Ottoman Empire was the city of Söğüt.
From 1329 to 1365, the capital of the Ottoman Porte was the city of Bursa.
From 1365 to 1453, the capital of the state was the city of Edirne.
From 1453 until the collapse of the empire (1922), the capital of the empire was the city of Istanbul (Constantinople).
All four cities were and are located on the territory of modern Turkey.
Over the years of its existence, the empire annexed the territories of modern Turkey, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia, Slovenia, Hungary, part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Romania, Bulgaria, part of Ukraine, Abkhazia, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Lebanon, the territory of modern Israel, Sudan, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, Albania, Palestine, Cyprus, part of Persia (modern Iran), southern regions of Russia (Crimea, Rostov region , Krasnodar region, Republic of Adygea, Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Region, Republic of Dagestan).
The Ottoman Empire lasted 623 years!
Administratively, the entire empire at its peak was divided into vilayets: Abyssinia, Abkhazia, Akhishka, Adana, Aleppo, Algeria, Anatolia, Ar-Raqqa, Baghdad, Basra, Bosnia, Buda, Van, Wallachia, Gori, Ganja, Demirkapi, Dmanisi, Gyor, Diyarbakir, Egypt, Zabid, Yemen, Kafa, Kakheti, Kanizha, Karaman, Kars, Cyprus, Lazistan, Lori, Marash, Moldova, Mosul, Nakhchivan, Rumelia, Montenegro, Sana, Samtskhe, Soget, Silistria, Sivas, Syria, Temesvar, Tabriz, Trabzon, Tripoli, Tripolitania, Tiflis, Tunisia, Sharazor, Shirvan, Aegean Islands, Eger, Egel Hasa, Erzurum.
The history of the Ottoman Empire began with the struggle against the once strong Byzantine Empire. The future first sultan of the empire, Osman I (reigned 1299 - 1326), began to annex region after region to his possessions. In fact, the modern Turkish lands were being united into a single state. In 1299, Osman called himself the title of Sultan. This year is considered the year of the founding of a mighty empire.
His son Orhan I (r. 1326 – 1359) continued his father's policies. In 1330, his army conquered the Byzantine fortress of Nicaea. Then, during continuous wars, this ruler established complete control over the coasts of the Marmara and Aegean Seas, annexing Greece and Cyprus.
Under Orhan I, a regular army of Janissaries was created.
The conquests of Orhan I were continued by his son Murad (reigned 1359 – 1389).
Murad set his sights on Southern Europe. In 1365, Thrace (part of the territory of modern Romania) was conquered. Then Serbia was conquered (1371).
In 1389, during the battle with the Serbs on the Kosovo field, Murad was stabbed to death by the Serbian prince Milos Obilic who sneaked into his tent. The Janissaries almost lost the battle after learning of the death of their sultan, but his son Bayezid I led the army into the attack and thereby saved the Turks from defeat.
Subsequently, Bayezid I becomes the new sultan of the empire (reigned 1389 - 1402). This sultan conquers all of Bulgaria, Wallachia (the historical region of Romania), Macedonia (modern Macedonia and Northern Greece) and Thessaly (modern Central Greece).
In 1396, Bayezid I defeated the huge army of the Polish king Sigismund near Nikopol (Zaporozhye region of modern Ukraine).
However, not all was calm in the Ottoman Porte. Persia began to lay claim to its Asian possessions and the Persian Shah Timur invaded the territory of modern Azerbaijan. Moreover, Timur moved with his army towards Ankara and Istanbul. A battle took place near Ankara in which the army of Bayezid I was completely destroyed, and the Sultan himself was captured by the Persian Shah. A year later, Bayazid dies in captivity.
The Ottoman Empire faced a real threat of being conquered by Persia. In the empire, three people proclaim themselves sultans at once. In Adrianople, Suleiman (reigned 1402 - 1410) proclaims himself sultan, in Brousse - Issa (reigned 1402 - 1403), and in the eastern part of the empire bordering Persia - Mehmed (reigned 1402 - 1421).
Seeing this, Timur decided to take advantage of this situation and set all three sultans against each other. He received everyone in turn and promised his support to everyone. In 1403, Mehmed kills Issa. In 1410, Suleiman unexpectedly dies. Mehmed becomes the only Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. During his remaining years of reign, there were no aggressive campaigns; moreover, he concluded peace treaties with neighboring states - Byzantium, Hungary, Serbia and Wallachia.
However, internal uprisings began to break out more than once in the empire itself. The next Turkish Sultan - Murad II (reigned 1421 - 1451) - decided to restore order in the territory of the empire. He destroyed his brothers and stormed Constantinople, the main stronghold of unrest in the empire. On the Kosovo field, Murad also won a victory, defeating the Transylvanian army of governor Matthias Hunyadi. Under Murad, Greece was completely conquered. However, then Byzantium again established control over it.
His son - Mehmed II (reigned 1451 - 1481) - managed to finally take Constantinople - the last stronghold of the weakened Byzantine Empire. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine Palaiologos, was unable to defend the main city Byzantium.
Mehmed II put an end to the existence of the Byzantine Empire - it completely became part of the Ottoman Porte, and Constantinople, which he conquered, became the new capital of the empire.
With the conquest of Constantinople by Mehmed II and the destruction of the Byzantine Empire, a century and a half of the true heyday of the Ottoman Porte began.
Throughout the 150 years of subsequent rule, the Ottoman Empire waged continuous wars to expand its borders and captured more and more new territories. After the capture of Greece, the Ottomans waged war with the Venetian Republic for more than 16 years and in 1479 Venice became Ottoman. In 1467, Albania was completely captured. In the same year, Bosnia and Herzegovina was captured.
In 1475, the Ottomans began a war with the Crimean Khan Mengli Giray. As a result of the war, the Crimean Khanate becomes dependent on the Sultan and begins to pay him yasak
(that is, tribute).
In 1476, the Moldavian kingdom was devastated, which also became a vassal state. The Moldavian prince also now pays tribute to the Turkish Sultan.
In 1480, the Ottoman fleet attacks the southern cities of the Papal States ( modern Italy). Pope Sixtus IV announces crusade against Islam.
Mehmed II can rightfully be proud of all these conquests; he was the sultan who restored the power of the Ottoman Empire and brought order within the empire. The people gave him the nickname “Conqueror”.
His son Bayazed III (reigned 1481 – 1512) ruled the empire during a short period of intra-palace unrest. His brother Cem attempted a conspiracy, several vilayets rebelled and troops were gathered against the Sultan. Bayazed III advances with his army towards his brother’s army and wins, Cem flees to the Greek island of Rhodes, and from there to the Papal States.
Pope Alexander VI, for the huge reward received from the Sultan, gives him his brother. Cem was subsequently executed.
Under Bayazed III, the Ottoman Empire began trade relations with the Russian state - Russian merchants arrived in Constantinople.
In 1505, the Venetian Republic was completely defeated and lost all its possessions in the Mediterranean.
Bayazed begins a long war with Persia in 1505.
In 1512, his youngest son Selim conspired against Bayazed. His army defeated the Janissaries, and Bayazed himself was poisoned. Selim becomes the next Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, however, he did not rule it for long (reign period - 1512 - 1520).
Selim's main success was the defeat of Persia. The victory was very difficult for the Ottomans. As a result, Persia lost the territory of modern Iraq, which was incorporated into the Ottoman Empire.
Then begins the era of the most powerful sultan of the Ottoman Empire - Suleiman the Great (reigned 1520 -1566). Suleiman the Great was the son of Selim. Suleiman ruled the Ottoman Empire for the longest time of all the sultans. Under Suleiman, the empire reached its greatest borders.
In 1521, the Ottomans take Belgrade.
In the next five years, the Ottomans captured their first African territories - Algeria and Tunisia.
In 1526, the Ottoman Empire made an attempt to conquer the Austrian Empire. At the same time, the Turks invaded Hungary. Budapest was taken, Hungary became part of the Ottoman Empire.
Suleiman's army besieges Vienna, but the siege ends in the defeat of the Turks - Vienna was not taken, the Ottomans left with nothing. They never managed to conquer the Austrian Empire in the future; it was one of the few states Central Europe, which withstood the power of the Ottoman Porte.
Suleiman understood that it was impossible to be at enmity with all states; he was a skilled diplomat. Thus an alliance was concluded with France (1535).
If under Mehmed II the empire was revived again and the largest amount of territory was conquered, then under Sultan Suleiman the Great the area of the empire became the largest.
Selim II (reigned 1566 – 1574) – son of Suleiman the Great. After his father's death he becomes Sultan. During his reign, the Ottoman Empire again entered into war with the Venetian Republic. The war lasted three years (1570 - 1573). As a result, Cyprus was taken from the Venetians and incorporated into the Ottoman Empire.
Murad III (reigned 1574 – 1595) – son of Selim.
Under this sultan, almost all of Persia was conquered, and a strong competitor in the Middle East was eliminated. The Ottoman port included the entire Caucasus and the entire territory of modern Iran.
His son - Mehmed III (reigned 1595 - 1603) - became the most bloodthirsty sultan in the struggle for the Sultan's throne. He executed his 19 brothers in a struggle for power in the empire.
Beginning with Ahmed I (reigned 1603 – 1617) – the Ottoman Empire began to gradually lose its conquests and decrease in size. The golden age of the empire was over. Under this sultan, the Ottomans suffered a final defeat from the Austrian Empire, as a result of which the payment of yasak by Hungary was stopped. The new war with Persia (1603 - 1612) inflicted a number of very serious defeats on the Turks, as a result of which the Ottoman Empire lost the territories of modern Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Under this sultan, the decline of the empire began.
After Ahmed, the Ottoman Empire was ruled for only one year by his brother Mustafa I (reigned 1617 – 1618). Mustafa was insane and after a short reign was overthrown by the highest Ottoman clergy led by the Grand Mufti.
Osman II (reigned 1618 – 1622), son of Ahmed I, ascended the sultan’s throne. His reign was also short - only four years. Mustafa undertook an unsuccessful campaign against the Zaporozhye Sich, which ended in complete defeat from the Zaporozhye Cossacks. As a result, a conspiracy was committed by the Janissaries, as a result of which this sultan was killed.
Then the previously deposed Mustafa I (reigned 1622 - 1623) again becomes sultan. And again, like the last time, Mustafa managed to hold out on the Sultan’s throne for only a year. He was again dethroned and died a few years later.
The next sultan, Murad IV (reigned 1623-1640), was the younger brother of Osman II. He was one of the most cruel sultans of the empire, who became famous for his numerous executions. Under him, about 25,000 people were executed; there was not a day on which at least one execution was not carried out. Under Murad, Persia was reconquered, but Crimea was lost - more Crimean Khan the Turkish Sultan did not pay yasak.
The Ottomans also could not do anything to stop the predatory raids of the Zaporozhye Cossacks on the Black Sea coast.
His brother Ibrahim (r. 1640 – 1648) lost almost all of his predecessor's gains in the relatively short period of his reign. In the end, this sultan suffered the fate of Osman II - the Janissaries plotted and killed him.
His seven-year-old son Mehmed IV (reigned 1648 – 1687) was elevated to the throne. However, the child sultan did not have actual power in the first years of his reign until he reached adulthood - the state was ruled for him by viziers and pashas, who were also appointed by the Janissaries.
In 1654, the Ottoman fleet inflicted a serious defeat on the Venetian Republic and regained control of the Dardanelles.
In 1656, the Ottoman Empire again begins a war with the Habsburg Empire - the Austrian Empire. Austria loses part of its Hungarian lands and is forced to conclude an unfavorable peace with the Ottomans.
In 1669, the Ottoman Empire begins a war with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth on the territory of Ukraine. As a result of a short-term war, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth loses Podolia (the territory of modern Khmelnitsky and Vinnytsia regions). Podolia was annexed to the Ottoman Empire.
In 1687, the Ottomans were again defeated by the Austrians, and they fought against the Sultan.
CONSPIRACY. Mehmed IV was dethroned by the clergy and his brother, Suleiman II (reigned 1687 - 1691), ascended the throne. This was a ruler who was constantly drunk and completely uninterested in state affairs.
He did not last long in power and another of his brothers, Ahmed II (reigned 1691-1695), ascended the throne. However, the new Sultan also could not do much to strengthen the state, while the Sultan the Austrians inflicted one defeat after another on the Turks.
Under the next sultan, Mustafa II (reigned 1695-1703), Belgrade was lost, and the resulting war with the Russian state, which lasted 13 years, greatly undermined the military power of the Ottoman Porte. Moreover, parts of Moldova, Hungary and Romania were lost. The territorial losses of the Ottoman Empire began to grow.
Mustafa's heir, Ahmed III (reigned 1703 - 1730), turned out to be a brave and independent sultan in his decisions. During his reign, for some time, Charles XII, who was overthrown in Sweden and suffered a crushing defeat from the troops of Peter, acquired political asylum.
At the same time, Ahmed began a war against the Russian Empire. He managed to achieve significant success. Russian troops led by Peter the Great were defeated in Northern Bukovina and were surrounded. However, the Sultan understood that further war with Russia was quite dangerous and it was necessary to get out of it. Peter was asked to hand over Charles to be torn to pieces for the coast of the Azov Sea. And so it was done. The coast of the Azov Sea and adjacent territories, together with the Azov fortress (the territory of modern Rostov region Russia and the Donetsk region of Ukraine) was transferred to the Ottoman Empire, and Charles XII was transferred to the Russians.
Under Ahmet, the Ottoman Empire regained some of its former conquests. The territory of the Venetian Republic was reconquered (1714).
In 1722, Ahmed made a careless decision to start a war with Persia again. The Ottomans suffered several defeats, the Persians invaded Ottoman territory, and an uprising began in Constantinople itself, as a result of which Ahmed was overthrown from the throne.
His nephew, Mahmud I (reigned 1730 – 1754), ascended the Sultan’s throne.
Under this sultan, a protracted war was waged with Persia and the Austrian Empire. No new territorial acquisitions were made, with the exception of the reconquered Serbia and Belgrade.
Mahmud remained in power for a relatively long time and turned out to be the first sultan after Suleiman the Great to die a natural death.
Then his brother Osman III came to power (reigned 1754 - 1757). During these years, there were no significant events in the history of the Ottoman Empire. Osman also died of natural causes.
Mustafa III (reigned 1757 - 1774), who ascended the throne after Osman III, decided to recreate the military power of the Ottoman Empire. In 1768, Mustafa declared war on the Russian Empire. The war lasts six years and ends with the Kuchuk-Kainardzhi Peace of 1774. As a result of the war, the Ottoman Empire loses Crimea and loses control over the northern Black Sea region.
Abdülhamid I (r. 1774-1789) accedes to the Sultan's throne just before the end of the war with Russian Empire. It is this Sultan who ends the war. There is no longer order in the empire itself, fermentation and discontent begin. The Sultan, through several punitive operations, pacifies Greece and Cyprus, and calm is restored there. However, in 1787, a new war began against Russia and Austria-Hungary. The war lasts four years and ends under the new Sultan in two ways - Crimea is completely lost and the war with Russia ends in defeat, and with Austria-Hungary the outcome of the war is favorable. Serbia and part of Hungary were returned.
Both wars were ended under Sultan Selim III (reigned 1789 – 1807). Selim attempted profound reforms of his empire. Selim III decided to liquidate
Janissary army and introduce a conscript army. During his reign, the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte captured and took Egypt and Syria from the Ottomans. Great Britain took the side of the Ottomans and destroyed Napoleon's group in Egypt. However, both countries were lost to the Ottomans forever.
The reign of this sultan was also complicated by the Janissary uprisings in Belgrade, to suppress which it was necessary to divert a large number of troops loyal to the sultan. At the same time, while the Sultan is fighting the rebels in Serbia, a conspiracy is being prepared against him in Constantinople. Selim's power was eliminated, the Sultan was arrested and imprisoned.
Mustafa IV (reigned 1807 – 1808) was placed on the throne. However, a new uprising led to the fact that the old Sultan, Selim III, was killed in prison, and Mustafa himself fled.
Mahmud II (reigned 1808 – 1839) was the next Turkish sultan to attempt to revive the power of the empire. He was an evil, cruel and vengeful ruler. He ended the war with Russia in 1812 by signing the Treaty of Bucharest, which was beneficial for himself - Russia had no time for the Ottoman Empire that year - after all, Napoleon and his army were in full swing towards Moscow. True, Bessarabia was lost, which went under peace terms to the Russian Empire. However, all the achievements of this ruler ended there - the empire suffered new territorial losses. After the end of the war with Napoleonic France, the Russian Empire provided military assistance to Greece in 1827. The Ottoman fleet was completely defeated and Greece was lost.
Two years later, the Ottoman Empire forever lost Serbia, Moldova, Wallachia, and the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. Under this sultan, the empire suffered the greatest territorial losses in its history.
The period of his reign was marked by mass riots of Muslims throughout the empire. But Mahmud also reciprocated - a rare day of his reign was not complete without executions.
Abdulmecid is the next sultan, the son of Mahmud II (reigned 1839 - 1861), who ascended the Ottoman throne. He was not particularly decisive like his father, but was a more cultured and polite ruler. The new Sultan concentrated his efforts on carrying out domestic reforms. However, during his reign, the Crimean War took place (1853 - 1856). As a result of this war, the Ottoman Empire received a symbolic victory - Russian fortresses on the sea coast were razed, and the fleet was removed from Crimea. However, the Ottoman Empire did not receive any territorial acquisitions after the war.
Abdul-Mecid's successor, Abdul-Aziz (reigned 1861 - 1876), was distinguished by hypocrisy and inconstancy. He was also a bloodthirsty tyrant, but he managed to build a new powerful Turkish fleet, which became the reason for a new subsequent war with the Russian Empire, which began in 1877.
In May 1876, Abdul Aziz was overthrown from the Sultan's throne as a result of a palace coup.
Murad V became the new sultan (reigned 1876). Murad lasted on the Sultan's throne for a record short time - only three months. The practice of overthrowing such weak rulers was common and had already been worked out over several centuries - the supreme clergy, led by the mufti, carried out a conspiracy and overthrew the weak ruler.
Murad's brother, Abdul Hamid II (reigned 1876 - 1908), ascends the throne. The new ruler unleashes another war with the Russian Empire, this time the Sultan’s main goal was to return the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus to the empire.
The war lasted a year and pretty much frayed the nerves of the Russian emperor and his army. First, Abkhazia was captured, then the Ottomans moved deep into the Caucasus towards Ossetia and Chechnya. However, the tactical advantage was on the side Russian troops- in the end the Ottomans are defeated
The Sultan manages to suppress an armed uprising in Bulgaria (1876). At the same time, war began with Serbia and Montenegro.
This sultan, for the first time in the history of the empire, published a new Constitution and made an attempt to establish a mixed form of government - he tried to introduce a parliament. However, a few days later the parliament was dissolved.
The end of the Ottoman Empire was close - in almost all its parts there were uprisings and rebellions, which the Sultan had difficulty coping with.
In 1878, the empire finally lost Serbia and Romania.
In 1897, Greece declared war on the Ottoman Porte, but the attempt to free itself from the Turkish yoke failed. The Ottomans occupy most of the country and Greece is forced to sue for peace.
In 1908, an armed uprising took place in Istanbul, as a result of which Abdul Hamid II was overthrown from the throne. The monarchy in the country lost its former power and began to be decorative.
The triumvirate of Enver, Talaat and Dzhemal came to power. These people were no longer sultans, but they did not last long in power - an uprising took place in Istanbul and the last, 36th sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed VI (reigned 1908 - 1922), was placed on the throne.
The Ottoman Empire was forced into three Balkan Wars, which ended before the outbreak of the First World War. As a result of these wars, the Porte loses Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Macedonia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia, and Slovenia.
After these wars, due to the inconsistent actions of the Kaiser's Germany, the Ottoman Empire was actually drawn into the First World War.
On October 30, 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered the war on the side of the Kaiser's Germany.
After the First World War, the Porte lost its last conquests, except for Greece - Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya.
And in 1919, Greece itself achieved independence.
There is nothing left of the once former and powerful Ottoman Empire, only the metropolis within the borders of modern Turkey.
The question of the complete fall of the Ottoman Porte became a matter of several years, and maybe even months.
In 1919, Greece, after liberation from the Turkish yoke, attempted to take revenge on the Porte for centuries of suffering - the Greek army invaded the territory of modern Turkey and captured the city of Izmir. However, even without the Greeks, the fate of the empire was sealed. A revolution began in the country. The leader of the rebels, General Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, gathered the remnants of the army and expelled the Greeks from Turkish territory.
In September 1922, the Porte was completely cleared of foreign troops. The last sultan, Mehmed VI, was overthrown from the throne. He was given the opportunity to leave the country forever, which he did.
On September 23, 1923, the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed within its modern borders. Ataturk becomes the first president of Turkey.
The era of the Ottoman Empire has sunk into oblivion.

The Great Ottoman Empire or Turkish Empire was founded in 1299 in the lands of northwestern Anatolia by a descendant of the medieval Oghuz tribe. In 1362 and 1389, Murad I conquered the Balkans, which transformed the Ottoman Sultanate into a caliphate and transcontinental empire. And Mehmed the Conqueror occupied Constantinople in 1453, which marked the end of the Byzantine Empire. Here are some interesting facts about the history of the Ottoman Empire that may surprise you.

Origin of the Omani Empire

Ottoman Empire(Osmanlı İmparatorluğu) was an imperial power that existed from 1299 to 1923 (634 years!!). This is one of the largest empires that ruled the borders of the Mediterranean Sea. During her rule, she included Anatolia, the Middle East, parts of North Africa and Southeastern Europe.

Ottoman names...

French translation Ottoman name “Bâb-i-âlî” - “high gate”. This was connected with the ceremony of welcoming foreign ambassadors, which was given by the Sultan at the Palace Gate. It was also interpreted as indicating the Empire's position as a link between Europe and Asia.

Founding of the Ottoman Empire

The empire was founded by Osman I in last year 13th century.

4 Ottoman capitals

The capital of the Ottoman Empire was old Constantinople, now for over 6 centuries, which was the center of interaction between the Western and Eastern Worlds. But before that, the Ottomans had three more main cities. Initially, it was Söğüt, then 30 years later it took this post, from Bursa the capital of the Ottoman Empire moved to Edirne, this was in 1365, and then, in the year of the conquest of Constantinople, the capital moved to it. Ankara, the fifth in a row, became the capital only after the formation of the Turkish Republic, although by the time the capital was moved to Edirne, Ankara had already been captured for ten years.

Türkiye

After World War I, during which much of Ottoman territory was captured by the Allies, Ottoman elites established Turkish war for independence.

On top of the Ottoman

The empire reached its zenith under Suleiman I (Qanuni or Suleiman the Magnificent) in the 16th century, when the Ottomans extended from the Persian Gulf (east) to Hungary (northwest), and from Egypt (south) to the Caucasus (north).

12 wars of the Ottomans with the Russian Empire

The Ottomans fought with Russia 12 times at different times with different authorities and different distribution of territories. The Ottoman Empire won only 2 times during the Prut campaign and on the Caucasus front, 2 times the status quo was determined - under Mehmed 4th and Mahmud 2nd, and under Crimean War there were no official winners. The remaining 7 wars against the Ottomans were won by the Russian Empire.

Stage of weakening of the Ottomans

In the 17th century, the Ottomans were weakened both internally and externally in costly wars against Persia, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Russia and Austria-Hungary. It was a time of drafts in the constitutional monarchy, in which the Sultan already had little energy. During that period, sultans ruled starting from Ahmed the First. And in the 19th century, around the reign of Mahmud II, the Ottomans were losing their power due to the increase in the strength of European powers.

Formation of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal Pasha, a distinguished army officer during the Gallipoli-Palestine campaign, was officially sent from Istanbul to take control of the victorious Caucasian army and reorganize it. This army played an important role in the Turkish victory for independence (1918-1923), and the Turkish Republic was founded on October 29, 1923 from the remnants of the collapsed Ottoman Empire.

Vizier...

Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, the founder of the Albanian political dynasty in the Ottoman Empire, was appointed to his position as grand vizier by Turhan, the mother of the seven-year-old ruler Mehmed IV.

Military classes of the Ottomans

The vizier, like the sultan, also served as a military commander in the cavalry. In addition, men who took on Islamic religious and judicial positions automatically became military men.

Distribution of positions

From the mid-15th century to the early 17th century, the means of establishing judicial, military and political posts were fairly clear. Graduates of Muslim colleges called madrassas were appointed judges in the provinces, imams or teachers in these same madrassas. Speaking of the highest judicial positions, this was exclusively the domain of elite families.

How was life for the main one?

The head of the cavalry unit had allotments; he was a Muslim by birth, which gave him the right to feudal inheritance. In other words, he could leave his plots as an inheritance to his relatives.

Something about viziers

The viziers and governors of the Ottoman Empire were typically former Christian converts.

36 Ottoman sultans

The Ottoman Empire ruled for 634 years. The famous Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent sat on the throne the longest - he reigned for 46 years. The shortest reign was that of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed V - about a year, who was also called crazy.

Replacing empires

The Ottoman Empire, with its intelligence and endurance, completely replaced Byzantium as a major power in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Multiple chronology of significant events in the Ottoman Empire

Chronology important events in the Ottoman Empire not only the 16th can be distinguished interesting facts, but also 16 points with dates in different centuries. So, for example:

1299 - Osman I founded the Ottoman Empire
1389 - The Ottomans conquered most of Serbia
1453 - Mehmed II captured Constantinople to end the Byzantine Empire
1517 - The Ottomans conquered Egypt, making it part of the empire
1520 - Suleiman the Magnificent becomes ruler of the Ottoman Empire
1529 - Siege of Vienna. The attempt was unsuccessful, which stopped the rapid expansion of the Ottomans in European lands
1533 - Ottomans conquer Iraq
1551 - Ottomans conquer Libya
1566 - Suleiman dies
1569 - Most of Istanbul burned down in a great fire
1683 - The Turks were defeated at the Battle of Vienna. This signals the beginning of the empire's decline
1699 - The Ottomans relinquished control of Hungary to Austria
1718 - The era of tulips begins. What did reconciliation mean in some European countries, introduction to science, architecture, and so on?
1821 – Beginning of the Greek War of Independence
1914 - The Ottomans joined the "Central Forces" side in World War I
1923 - The Ottoman Empire dissolves and the Turkish Republic becomes a country