Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire (Ottoman Turkish: دولت عالیه عثمانیه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, see also the other names of the state) (1299 to 1922) was a Turkish state which, at the height of its power (16th – 17th centuries), spanned three continents (see also the extent of Ottoman territories), controlling much of Southeastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, stretching from the Strait of Gibraltar (and in 1553 the Atlantic coast of North Africa beyond Gibraltar) in the west to the Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf in the east, from the edge of Austria and Slovenia and beyond Ukraine in the north to Sudan and Yemen in the south. Ottomans began to see themselves as the rulers of a "Universal Empire" and heirs to both Roman and Islamic traditions, hence "unification of cultures".[1] With Istanbul (or Constantinople) as its capital, the Ottoman Empire was in some respects an Islamic successor to earlier Mediterranean empires — the Roman and Byzantine empires.

The empire was at the center of interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds for six centuries. In the course of its lifespan, it undertook, more than once, programs of both Islamization and modernization (reform), blurring the difference between the West and the East. The Ottoman Empire reached its territorial peak in the 17th century. Culturally, the Empire portrayed itself as the Islamic successor of earlier Mediterranean empires (the Roman and Byzantine empires). From a diverse system of Millets, to a multi-ethnic state (Ottomanism), it developed its own distinctive culture, influential both in the European and Islamic worlds.[3]

The Empire was the only Islamic power to seriously challenge the rising power of Western Europe between the 15th and 19th centuries.