OTTOMAN EMPIRE

CATEGORY
1. POLITICAL SYSTEM

DESCRIPTION
The Ottomans inherited a rich mixture of political
traditions from vastly disparate ethnic
groups: Turks, Persians, Mongols, Mesopotamian and, of
course, Islam. The Ottoman state, like the Turkish,
Mongol, and Mesopotamian states rested on a principle of
absolute authority in the monarch.
LEADER:
The central function of the ruler or Sultan in Ottoman
political theory was to guarantee justice in the land. The
primary task of the Sultan was to personally protected his
people from the excesses of government, such as
predatory taxation and the corruption of local officials
For the Ottomans, the ruler could only guarantee this
justice if he had absolute power. Absolute authority was at
the service of building a just government and laws rather
than elevating the ruler above the law as Europeans have
interpreted the Sultanate.
The Sultan also assumed the title of Caliph, or supreme
temporal leader, of Islam. The Ottomans claimed this title
for several reasons: the two major holy sites, Mecca and
Medina, were part of the Empire, and the primary goal of
the government was the security of Muslims around the
world, particularly the security of the
Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.
As Caliph,

the Sultan was

responsible

for Islamic orthodoxy. Almost all of the military conquests

and annexations of other countries were done for one of
two

reasons:

to

guarantee

the

safe

passage

of Muslims to Mecca (the justification for invading nonMuslim territories) and the rooting out of heterodox or
heretical Islamic practices and beliefs (the justification for

2. SOCIAL STRUCTURE

invading or annexing Muslim territories)

The Ottoman Empire was organized into a very
complicated social structure, because it was a large, multiethnic and multi-religious empire.
Ottoman society was divided between Muslims and nonMuslims, with Muslims theoretically having higher
standing than Christians or Jews.
Ones place in the social hierarchy was determined on the
basis of his/her skills. Which means that those with
maximum merit were placed over others with less skills or

3. SOCIAL CLASS

merit.
Four Major Classes
Men of the Pen
Includes highly educated people like scientists,
lawyers, judges and doctors.
Men of the Sword
Consisted of people who were good with the
warfare equipments and mainly had military
training and skills.
They protected the country against enemies and
worked on other jobs while the war front was
silent.
Men of the Negotiation
Includes of those people who were merchants,
artisans and tax collectors.
Men of the Husbandry
This class mainly consisted of farmers and herders
who owned their land and produced food for the
rest of the empire and for themselves.

4. ECONOMY/TRADE
SYSTEM

The city of Istanbul was the crossroads of trade

between the East and West. Caravans and ships
carried silk, tea, spices and porcelain. From the
Black Sea and southern Russian came ships with

furs, grain and amber and from Europe mirrors

and drugs. Ships from Venice and Genoa carried
goods to Europe.
The Ottomans inherited the Seljuk caravan stops
(kervansaray) which were about 25 miles apart on
the main trade routes of the empire to protect the
caravan trade and the Ottoman navy dealt with
pirates in its waters.
Licenses were needed for merchants, sea captains
and others in business.
When an employee left a company, the
government was notified.
Markets were patrolled by a kadi (judge) with the
power to punish on the spot those who tried to
cheat.
Profit was limited to 10% and the government
tried to insure trade was conducted fairly and
moved securely over the trade routes
Foreign trade needed the permission of the
government and exports were tightly controlled.
The main exports were leather, skins and wool.
Items needed for the military such as wood for
shipbuilding, minerals and food were rarely
allowed to be exported.
The early Moslem leaders recognized the
importance of commerce to the health of the
empire and welcome productive immigrants such
as the Jews who were expelled from Spain in the
1492. Almost every man in Turkey was engaged
in some trade, even the sultan learned a trade.
Mehmed I made bow strings, Selin I was a
goldsmith. And demonstrated the nobility of work.
5. TECHNOLOGIES

Sextant
Instrument with chords

 Astronomical clock
Istanbul Observatory
Astronomical tables
Ottoman sipahi (cavalry)
Musket
Cannon
Swords
6. KNOWLEDGE/
INVENTIONS/WRITINGS

Paper bank notes, rather than coins.

The Ottoman Empire formalized postal delivery services.
It also created formalized identity documents.
They introduced steam powered commuter ferries.
Ottoman Turkish alphabet
Astronomical studies in the Islamic civilization started in
the very early days. Observations of the sun and the moon
and the calculation of the prayer times required precision.
The observatory was one of the most highly developed
institutions of science and learning in Islam and one of the
high-water marks of the Muslim civilization.
Marine Geography and navigation

7. RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

8. ART AND
ARCHITECTURE

ART

Founded on the principles of Islam

United by Islamic beliefs
Churches were converted into mosques
Tolerant of other religions, especially Christians and Jews
Encouraged loyalty from other religious faith groups

Calligraphy had a prestigious status under the Ottomans,

The Diwani script is a cursive and distinctively Ottoman
style of Arabic calligraphy developed in the 16th and early
17th centuries. It was invented by Housam Roumi,
reaching its greatest development under Sleyman I the
Magnificent
The Ottoman tradition of painting miniatures, to illustrate
manuscripts or used in dedicated albums, was heavily
influenced by the Persian art form, though it also included
elements of the Byzantine tradition of illumination and

painting.
The art of carpet weaving was particularly significant in
the Ottoman Empire, carpets having an immense
importance both as decorative furnishings, rich in religious
and other symbolism, and as a practical consideration, as it
was customary to remove one's shoes in living quarters
Architectures
Ottoman architecture was a synthesis of Iranian-influenced
Seljuk architectural traditions.
As seen in the buildings of:
Konya, Mamluk architecture, and Byzantine
architecture
Selimiye Mosque in Edirne and the Suleiman
Mosque in Constantinople work by the 16thcentury architect and engineer Mimar Sinan
Blue Mosque, considered the last great building of
classical Ottoman architecture.
9. RIVER SYSTEM
10. CITY-STATE

Danube River in Bulgaria to the Euphrates River

The Ottoman Empire emerged circa 1300 with the
establishment by the first Ottoman ruler, Osman, of a
small principality bordering on Byzantine territory in
western Anatolia. It reached its greatest extent in 1590,
when the empire comprised central Hungary, the Balkan
Peninsula, Anatolia, Mespotamia, Syria and Palestine,
western Arabia, Egypt, and lands in the Caucasus and
western

Iran.

In

Europe,

Transylvania,

Walachia,

Moldavia, and the Crimea were tributary principalities,

while in North Africa, Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers were
semiautonomous provinces. Between 1603 and 1606, the
Ottomans lost the lands in Iran and the Caucasus that had
been ceded to them in 1590. In 1669, however, they took
control of Crete
Constantinople was its capital city, and vast control of
lands around the eastern Mediterranean during the reign of
Suleiman the Magnificent (ruled 1520 to 1566), the
Ottoman Empire was, in many respects, an Islamic

successor to the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire.

References:
http://www.allaboutturkey.com/ottoman2.htm
http://www.hierarchystructure.com/ottoman-empire-social-hierarchy/
http://asianhistory.about.com/od/turkeyhistoryculture/fl/The-Armenian-Genocide-1915.htm
http://ottomanempire.info/economy.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/ottomanempire_1.shtml
http://www.muslimheritage.com/article/ottoman-contributions-science-and-technology#section2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_the_Ottoman_Empire#Architecture
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Ottoman_Empire.aspx
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Atlas_of_the_Ottoman_Empire
http://www.softschools.com/timelines/ottoman_empire_timeline/159/