The Ottoman Empire, one of the greatest empires established throughout history, was formed by a group of nomadic people that started as warriors hired by Islamic leaders. They captured Bursa in 1326 which allows them to have a fixed location. The empire spread throughout most of the Middle East, most of North Africa, and several countries in Europe, including modern Greece, Rumania, Hungary, Albania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. In the Middle East, the Ottomans were ruling Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Iraq. They did not want to spread east though because most of the land was ruled by Muslim rulers and they did not want to fight Muslim against Muslim.
The Ottoman Empire is responsible for many changes that happened across the globe over the past hundred years. They did some extreme changes, and some minor changes; including the spread of culture, religion, and language in many different countries.
The Ottoman Empire was an Islamic empire with an aim of spreading Islam throughout the world. They captured Athens in 1458 then spread further until most of Greece was in their hands. They made a lot of changes there. For example, they forced them to pay the jizya, which is a tax all the non-Muslims in the empire were forced to pay. If the tax was not paid, this can result in losing their protection, converting them into a slave, or might be even forced to death. They took young boys from their families, forced them to convert into Islam, to be trained by skilled scouts then were enrolled in the Ottoman military; the girls were also taken to work as slaves at a harem. These practices were part of the devshirme system. The millet system was very important as well in the Ottoman Empire; which is basically providing protection to small groups of people with a religion other than Islam (Christianity, Judaism, etc.) since they were a very small amount of people within the empire, so they needed the protection from the leaders. They were also provided with freedom. There was the timar system too; which is the government loaning land to certain people called raya, these people were expected to work on the land and pay a certain amount of the income they get out of these lands as tax.
During the rule of the ottomans on Greece, the economy has dropped down and became progressively worse for many reasons; one of them was that heavy taxation was placed. Yet it played a very important role on where the Empire got a lot of its money from, which is trade. Europe traded with China using the Silk Road, but when the Ottoman Empire was formed it made it difficult for them to trade using that road because of the Empire’s location and so Greece blocked them from passing by, so in order for them to get through they would have to pay the empire and the Europeans could not afford that. The Empire itself was very wealthy though, due to the conquering of new lands and war with other countries.
Capitulations were a series of contracts made between the Ottoman rulers and European rulers, France in particular. That was a major change as well, made better relationships between Europe and the Ottomans. The first agreement was for the Ottomans to allow French merchants trade in Ottoman ports for free, without having to pay tax, and to import and export goods at a low price. But the European merchants backed up by the power of their countries were able to abuse the capitulations to the disadvantage of the Ottomans.
The Ottoman Empire was considered as a “Dar Al-Islam” which is House of Islam in Arabic, it means that it’s a place where Muslims can practice their religion freely, as it is populated with mostly Muslims and is surrounded by Muslim territories so the government promises them protection from both the inside and the outside. The idea was first introduced by the Sunni Muslim jurist Imam Abu Hanifa with the cooperation of Abu Yusuf Mahammad, Zufar, and others. “Dar Al-Harb” on the other hand is referring to the countries where the Muslims are not protected, and the Muslim law is not enforced in matter of worship. According to Abu Hanifa “The Muslims must be able to enjoy peace and security; and has common frontiers with some Muslim countries (other Dar Islam’s).”
As the Ottoman Empire spread towards the west, south, and some of the northern parts, they took their culture with them and spread it. Since it was an Islamic empire, they spoke the language of Islam which is Arabic; but also had a lot of Persian culture contributing. Some of the food for example that you may find in some of the countries that were once ruled by the Ottoman Empire are the Mulukeya, Shish Kebab, Döner Kebab (also known as Shawerma), Lahmacun also known as Lahm Bi’ajin (meat with dough), Baklava also known as Ba’lawa, Sucuk also known as Salami (used in a way similar to bacon), Mahshi, Mercimek also known as Lentil Soup, etc. You would most likely find those in Egypt, Syria, Turkey, and maybe in the States or in Europe but in only certain types of restaurants. By the time the Ottoman Empire controlled these countries, no other country grew the type of plants, vegetables and seeds that they grew. (e.g.: Cumin, Mint, Onion, Parsley, Red and Black pepper, Garlic, etc.) They were very unique and had different types of food than all other countries.
To conclude, the fall of the Ottoman Empire was because of both internal and external conflicts. After the Europeans had found a new route to China, they started using it, and so they stopped passing by the Ottoman Empire and the income of the Empire decreased. Then they discovered the Americas and brought back lots of goods including silver, and that caused inflation which is decreasing the value of something when the substance increases so much. So every pound, or in that case dollar, you own will buy a smaller percentage of a good. In addition to internal conflicts, like the untrained and corrupt leaders and the janissaries that escape to Europe, weakens the government which leads to a lot of damages within the Empire. It fell in 1918.
*Citation:
Shaw and Shaw. History of the Ottoman Empire, pp. 115-117
Shaw and Shaw. History of the Ottoman Empire, pp. 132-139
Lewis, Bernard. Race and Slavery in the Middle East: An Historical Enquiry. Oxford University Press. 1990.
W Lowry, Heath. “The Nature of the Early Ottoman State.”
Ye’or, Bat. “The Dhimmi: Jews and Christians Under Islam.” Fairleigh Dickinson University Press. 1985.
Ramadan, Tariq. “Western Muslims and the Future of Islam.”
