Introduction of the Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire began in earnest in 1299 in the river valley of Sakarya, upon the death of Ertugrul.  Osman, his beloved politically inclined son established the Ottoman Empire by creating a confederation of the Turkish tribes connected by their shared Islamic faith and urgent passion to spread their religious beliefs. He declared himself the first Sultan.  He was the beginning of the driving force that lasted for six centuries.  During their reign of dominance, they began with the severely weakened Sultanate of Selijuq run by Persians of Anatolia and equated with the downfall of the Byzantine Empire.  The Ottoman Empire was so powerfully organized in its attacks and methodology of control that it singlehandedly changed the power of a singular Christian European society to an Islamic direction.  Charles Darwin so aptly stated,” Remember what risks the nations of Europe ran, not so many centuries ago of being overwhelmed by the Turks.”

The Ottoman Empire was one of the most populous and longest empires known in our history.  It was purely encouraged by Islam and Islamic institutions. At the height of its power, it contained 29 provinces and controlled territory in Southeast Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa.

The Ottoman Empire’s jurisdiction permitted the unification of culturally and religiously different groups.  Their system was broken into three court categories; Muslims, non Muslims with appointed Christians and Jewish, and the trade court.  They also accepted the religious law over their peoples, entailing Judaism, Sharia, and Canon which was the Christian law.  All of this was regulated by the administrative Kanun law system by the Turks.  Of course, the Ottoman laws favored Muslims.  Christians and Jews were not treated the same and considered beneath them.  They had the right to worship but also had to pay higher taxes than Muslims.  One of the greatest horrific atrocities was the mass murder in the hundreds of thousands of Christian Armenians during the decline of the Ottoman Empire.  Elliot Engel quotes, “On the eve of World War I, an estimated two million Armenians lived in the Ottoman Empire. Well over one million were deported and hundreds of thousands simply killed.”