The Ottoman Empire Under Suleiman

Regents Themes Places and Regions – What lands came under the control of the Ottoman Empire? Belief Systems – How did the Ottoman Empire extend Muslim influence and permit freedom of worship for people of other religions? Culture – What contributions did the Ottomans make to the arts and literature? Change – Why did Europeans seek new trade to East Asia?

What Lands came under Ottoman Rule?

Reasons for Ottoman Success

Gun Powder

Fall of Constantinople 1453

Ottoman Bureaucracy: A government divided up into parts. Each part or branch of the government has a special function. The Sultan wielded “absolute power” but often governed through the vizier.

Search for New Trade Routes In the 1400s, Europeans wanted to get around Italian and then Ottoman Muslim “middlemen” and gain direct access to Asian Trade. Control of trade made the Ottomans a powerful force to be reckoned with.

A Turkish Port

How did the Ottoman empire extend Muslim influence and permit freedom of worship for people of other religions? Ottoman leaders furthered Muslim influence by recruiting military and govt. officers from conquered groups. Some Christian families in the Balkans were required to turn their young sons over to the government. The boys were converted to Islam and trained for service. The best soldiers became janissaries, members of an elite force in the Ottoman army.

Tolerance Non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire were organized into religious communities called millets. Each millet was allowed to maintain its own religious traditions as long as it obeyed Ottoman law. Thomas Fuller says in The Historie of The Holy Warre published in 1639, ‘…to give the Mohammadans their due, they are generally good fellows in this point [the virtue of tolerance] and Christians among them may keep their consciousness if their tongues be fettered, not to oppose the doctrine of Mohammad.’

Balkan Peninsula

The Ottoman Empire Under Suleiman 5 GOVERNMENT SOCIETY ARTS Suleiman had absolute power. Ottoman law was based on Sharia. Poets produced works in the Turkish language. Painters produced detailed miniatures and illuminated manuscripts. Society was divided into four classes, with “men of the pen” and “men of the sword” at the top.

Ottoman Art The Hagia Sophia

More Ottoman Art

Suleiman the Lawgiver Ottoman law was based on the Sharia or Islamic law based on the Quran. Ottoman law was organized on the order of Suleiman the Magnificent (1520 – 1566). Today, however, Turkey is considered a secular state. Secular means non-religious.

Decline Eventually the Ottoman is going to experience a period of long decline giving rise to the title “the sick man of Europe.”

The Big Picture

WW I

Legacy

The Real Ottoman Empire Resistance is Futile!