History of the Ottoman Empire

The Byzantine Empire crumbles By 1300, the Byzantine Empire was declining This left nomadic Turks in the area of central Anatolia Many of these people saw themselves as ghazis, warriors for Islam

The Byzantine Empire crumbles The most successful ghazi was Osman, also known as Othman, whose strength came from gunpowder His followers were called Ottomans The second Ottoman leader continued to expand the empire and was Osman’s son, Orkhan I, who named himself sultan (like emperor)

The Ottoman Empire expands Mehmed II (also known as Mehmed the Conqueror) took control of the city of Constantinople and the Bosporus Strait in 1453 Constantinople was in a period of decline – Mehmed opened the city to Jews, Christians, and Muslims and rebuilt the city, renaming it Istanbul

The Ottoman Empire expands His grandson, Selim the Grim, came to power in 1512 and took over Persia, Syria, Palestine, and North Africa He also captured the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina and the city of Cairo, Egypt

The Ottoman Empire expands The Ottoman Empire reached its peak during the reign of Suleyman I (also known as Suleyman the Lawgiver and Suleyman the Magnificent) Suleyman conquered much of the Balkans in Europe, including the city of Belgrade, and then moved into Hungary and Austria

Suleyman’s Social Organization Suleyman’s huge empire required an efficient government and social organization to be effective He created a law code to handle both criminal and civil actions, to simplify the system of taxation, and to reduce government bureaucracy

Suleyman’s Social Organization The sultan had 20,000 personal slaves to staff the palace bureaucracy and an elite force of 30,000 soldiers, called janissaries, who were trained to be loyal to the sultan only Suleyman’s empire was a Muslim empire and followed Islamic law, in accordance with this, Jewish and Christian communities were allowed to worship as they wished

The Ottoman Empire declines When Suleyman died in 1566, the Ottoman Empire began a long period of decline This was in large part due to the tradition Suleyman set of having his brothers killed and cutting his sons of from the world producing a series of weak sultans

The Ottoman Empire declines However, the Ottoman Empire would remain in control until the end of World War I in 1918

The Safavid Empire The Safavid Empire was established as a Shi’a Muslim Empire in Persia in 1499 by a 12-year-old named Isma’il To celebrate his achievements, Isma’il took the title shah (king)

The Safavid Empire Isma’il became a religious tyrant and began putting to death any citizen that would not convert to Shi’ism and Sunnis in surrounding lands (ex. Baghdad)

Safavid Golden Age Shah Abbas took the throne in 1587 and established a Safavid culture that combined the best from the Ottoman, Persian, and Arab worlds

Safavid Golden Age Abbas reformed the military, wiped out corruption in the government, and brought Christians into the empire to prove his religious tolerance which made way for industry, trade, and art exchanges between his empire and European nations

Safavid Golden Age Abbas made the same mistakes in finding a successor as Suleyman – he killed or blinded his ablest sons leading to a quick decline of the empire

Ponder This Why do you think Suleyman and Abbas were so adamant about killing or maiming their family members? Write your answers on your notes