Ottoman Empire Research Paper

The Ottoman Empire had many great leaders that advanced it politically and militaristically. Osman led the Turks during the late 1200’s and expanded the empire into Anatolia. Murad I transformed the military into an unstoppable force. Out of this army came many Sultans. Murad II fought the Poles at Vama and had an amazing victory in 1444. Mehmed II was known as the Conqueror for his conquests of nearby lands, including Constantinople. After taking the city, he renamed it Istanbul. During the late Middle Ages, they formed a comprehensive government system. However, due to the size of the empire, it was too hard to control. The political structures of the empire were also amazing. The Blue Mosque was built by Sultan Ahmed I with his spoils of

Religion had an over-arching say in what the empire did since it was rooted in Islam and had state-run judicial and educational systems. It encouraged others from different religions to take political power and created alliances across different political and racial groups, therefore uniting the empire and making it stronger. When there was a dispute on how to rule the country, the Ottomans would take the best ideas from other cultures and make them their own. Lastly, they had a very strong slave-based military and developed mortars to launch massive steel balls into the enemy using

Astronomy was needed to know when to pray and what direction to face. They used the sun and moon to make these observations. The first observatories were in the Ottoman Empire. To keep track of their massive empire, an extensive knowledge of geography was needed. The Samarkand School of Geography existed for that very purpose. The Ottomans created centres for military training and engineering. Many other institutions existed, like Dar el-Hikmah in Cairo. The empire’s conquest of Constantinople closed the trade route between Asia and Europe, and internal trade grew. This lead to economic stability. What little trading that did happen took backseat to things like agriculture. Coastal cities such as Aleppo and Damascus became important for sea trade. The Ottoman Empire was Muslim, but was tolerant of “The People of the Book”- Christians and Jews. They had autonomy and, in some places, a popular majority. They could practice their religion freely so long as they payed the tax, called a jizya. It was not perfect however; for example, any dispute between a Muslim and non-Muslim was settled in a Muslim court. Islam was fully formed by the time of the Ottomans, and it played an important part in daily life. There was tension throughout the empire because of Islam. Orthodox and Sufi Muslims had enmity towards each other due to opposing