28 - Ottoman Empire (abridged)

Ottoman empire

dynasty established beginning in the 13th century by Turkic peoples from Central Asia; most early territory was in Asia Minor; captured Constantinople in 1453 and made it the capital of an empire that spanned three continents and lasted over 600 years

devshirme

Ottoman policy of taking boys from Christian peoples to be trained as Muslim slave-soldiers; the "blood tax"

Janissaries

infantry divisions that dominated Ottoman armies; forcibly conscripted as boys in conquered areas of the Balkan peninsula of southeast Europe, legally slaves; translated military service into political influence, particularly after 15th century

vizier

Ottoman equivalent of the Abbasid wazir; head of the Ottoman bureaucracy; often more powerful than the sultan

Mehmed II, the Conqueror

(1432-1481) Ottoman sultan responsible for conquest of Constantinople in 1453; destroyed what remained of Byzantine empire

Istanbul

capital of the Ottoman empire; formerly Constantinople which was conquered by Mehmed II in 1453

Aya Sofya (Hagia Sophia)

world's largest building at the time of its construction in Constantinople in 537 CE by Byzantine emperor Justinian and head church of Eastern Orthodox Christianity; converted to a mosque by Mehmed the Conqueror

Topkapi palace

main residence and administrative headquarters of the Ottoman sultans in Istanbul; built by Mehmed the Conqueror

Selim the Grim

(r. 1512-1520) grandson of Mehmed the Conqueror; Ottoman sultan who captured Mecca, Medina, and Cairo; made Ottomans the leading Sunni Muslim state and shifted the empire's center away from southeast Europe toward the Middle East

Suleiman the Magnificent

(r. 1520-1566) greatest Ottoman sultan; aka the Lawgiver; significantly expanded the empire in Europe, the Middle East, and north Africa; dominated Mediterranean Sea; ruled the Ottoman empire at its economic, military, political, and cultural peak

millets

self-governing religious communities of the Ottoman empire living under Muslim sharia, Christian canon law, or Jewish halakha

Suleymaniye

great mosque in Istanbul blending Byzantine and Islamic architectural styles

Khayr al-Din Barbarossa Pasha

Ottoman admiral under Suleiman; established Turkish naval dominance over the Mediterranean in the 1500s

siege of Vienna 1683

deepest and final advance of the Ottoman Turks into central Europe; Polish king John III Sobieski repelled the Turkish attack