Ottoman
Osmani
عثمانی
Turkish; of or pertaining to the tribe that conquered
Asia Minor in the 13th century (Former empire centred in
Anatolia) ; It was named after Osman I (1259-1326), a Turkish
Muslim prince in
Bithynia who conquered neighbouring regions once held by the
Seljuk dynasty and founded his own ruling line around 1300.
Ottomans first invaded Europe in 1345, sweeping through the
Balkans. Though defeated by Timur in 1402, by 1453 the Ottomans, under Fatih
Sultan Mehmed II (the Conquerer; 1429-81), had destroyed the
Byzantine Empire and captured its capital,
Constantinople. Renamed as
Islambul and later
Istanbul which served as the Ottoman capital. Under Selim I (1467-1520) and his son Süleyman I (the Magnificent), the
Ottoman Empire became the largest in the world. Suleyman took control of parts of
Persia, most of
Arabia, and large sections of
Hungary and the Balkans. By the early 16th century the Ottomans had also defeated the
Mamluk dynasty in
Syria and
Egypt; and their navy under Barbaros soon seized control of much of the Barbary Coast. Beginning with Selim, the Ottoman sultans also held the title of Caliph, the spiritual leader of Islam. Ottoman power began to decline in the late 16th century after the imperial fleet was destroyed at the Battle of Lepanto (1571). Ottoman forces repeatedly besieged
Vienna. Their final effort at taking the
Austrian capital in 1683 failed. That failure and subsequent losses led them to relinquish Hungary in 1699. Corruption and decadence gradually undermined the government. In the 18th century the Russo-Turkish Wars and wars with
Austria and
Poland further weakened the empire, which in the 19th century came to be called the "sick man of Europe." Most of its remaining European territory was lost in the Balkan Wars (1912-13). It sided with
Germany in
World War I (1914-18); postwar treaties dissolved the empire, and in 1922 the sultanate was abolished by
Ataturk, who proclaimed the Republic of
Turkey the following year.
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