History

The Ottoman Caliphate refers to the claim of the Ottoman Empire’s sultans to be the caliphs, or politico-religious leaders, of the Muslim world from the 16th century until the empire’s dissolution in the early 20th century. Here are the key points to understand about the Ottoman Caliphate:

The Ottoman sultans claimed the title of caliph after conquering Mamluk Egypt in 1517 under Sultan Selim I. This strengthened the Ottoman claim to leadership in the Muslim world, as the sultan now controlled the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.[2]

Islam was the dominant religion in the Ottoman Empire, though it remained a multi-religious state with substantial Christian and Jewish populations. The sultans adhered to Sunni Islam and most followed Sufi orders.[4] The Ottomans used their Islamic identity to legitimize their rule.[10]

The Ottoman Empire was not a purely theocratic state. Alongside Islamic law (sharia), the empire had a secular legal code (kanun) and institutions.[9] Non-Muslims had some autonomy under the millet system but had an inferior status to Muslims.[1][4]

The Ottoman Caliphate’s power and prestige gradually declined along with the empire itself from the late 16th century onwards, as the Ottomans fell behind European powers militarily and economically.[2][3] However, the Ottomans continued to use the caliphate to exert influence, such as in the 19th century when the British had the Ottoman caliph order Muslims in India to comply with British rule.[2]

The Ottoman Caliphate was abolished in 1924, two years after the empire’s dissolution, as part of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s secular reforms in the newly established Republic of Turkey.[2][12] This brought a formal end to the Ottoman dynastic claim to leadership of the Muslim world after over 400 years.

In summary, the Ottoman Caliphate provided religious legitimacy and symbolic leadership over Muslims for much of the Ottoman Empire’s history, even as the empire itself declined. But real power lay in the Ottoman sultans and state institutions, which mixed Islamic and secular traditions.

Citations:
[1] https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/islam-ottoman-empire
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Caliphate
[3] https://www.britannica.com/place/Ottoman-Empire/The-decline-of-the-Ottoman-Empire-1566-1807
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire
[5] https://www.worldhistory.org/Ottoman_Empire/
[6] https://edwardwimberley.com/courses/10580/ottoman.pdf
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_the_classical_Ottoman_Empire
[8] https://naasr.org/products/decline-and-fall-of-the-ottoman
[9] https://www.britannica.com/place/Ottoman-Empire/Ottoman-institutions-in-the-14th-and-15th-centuries
[10] https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/ottomanempire_1.shtml
[11] https://themedialine.org/mideast-streets/the-fall-of-the-ottoman-empire-and-its-consequences-in-the-middle-east/
[12] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolution_of_the_Ottoman_Empire
[13] https://www.britannica.com/place/Ottoman-Empire
[14] https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/ottoman-empire/background
[15] https://www.britannica.com/place/Ottoman-Empire/Classical-Ottoman-society-and-administration
[16] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_the_late_Ottoman_Empire
[17] https://www.britannica.com/summary/Ottoman-Empire
[18] http://www.bethunecollege.ac.in/econtent/2021/ishaniChoudhury-History/Q1-ottoman-admnistrtion-text.pdf
[19] https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/whp-1750/xcabef9ed3fc7da7b:unit-1-the-world-in-1750/xcabef9ed3fc7da7b:1-3-expanding-to-a-global-scale/a/read-ottoman-empire-beta

Political geography around 1900

Modern reconstructions of historical political geography. Distinguish formal sovereignty, military occupation, protectorate relationships, and direct administration. In 1900 Egypt was British-occupied but remained nominally Ottoman; Britain declared its formal protectorate in 1914. Hatching should not be read as identical government arrangements everywhere. Modern boundary lines are orientation aids.

Ottoman territory and neighboring powers, circa 1900

Locate Ottoman territory alongside British occupation and protectorate arrangements, French colonial holdings, and independent Persia. This map supplements the earlier expansion map without equating a sultan’s formal claims with uniform effective control.

Map source: Dr. Michael Izady, Gulf/2000, Columbia University. Original map · Collection. Personal reference use; copyright remains with the author.

Source and interpretation: Gulf2000 map collection.

The Ottoman empire was terrible and very oppressive

• Reddit - Dive into anything
• I just watched the debate with this idiot historian and as a Serbian I am getting triggered.
• The Ottoman empire wasn’t this amazing multicultural state in which the minorities only had to pay some extra taxes and they were left alone to themselves. The Ottoman empire was incredibly oppressive, and being conquered by them was horrific.
• A brief history from a Serbian prospective:
  • 1. The Ottoman empire invaded Serbia and we had the Battle of Kosovo. Which ended up being a draw but since Serbia didn’t have any manpower left after the battle. We got conquered and had to live under Ottoman oppression for 500 years. So they pretty much came and killed most adult men, what an amazing way to join this wonderful multicultural state.
  • 2. Devshirme or blood tax is when the Ottomans come and they take young boys away from their families. They forcibly convert the little boys to Islam and castrate them. Then they train them to become soldiers(These are the real life Unsullied from game of thrones) and bureaucrats for the lovely empire.
  • 3. Serbia and most other places desperately tried to become independent way before the First World War and the Ottoman collapse. These Uprisings unfortunately failed and the local populations were punished for the uprisings, here is a wiki quote about the aftermath.
       ”soon as Turkish rule was re-established in Serbia, villages were burned and thousands were sent into slavery. Belgrade became the scene of brutal vengeance. On 17 October 1813 alone, 1,800 women and children were sold into slavery.45 Various acts of violence and confiscation of property also took place. Islamized Serbs and Albanians in particular participated in such actions.46”
  • 4. Today no one wants to go back to the Ottoman rule. Not on the Balkans, the Middle east, or North Africa. This should say everything you need to know about how other places around the world enjoyed their time under the Ottoman empire.
  • Destiny should do a bit of research and do a better job of pushing back against these morons. One way of pushing back could be to compare the Ottoman empire to the British empire. Since all of these lefties hate the British empire and they would never say how awesome and multicultural it was.
  • Forgot to mention this chic tower the Ottomans build for us. They even used locally sourced materials for it. Thank god there wasn’t any horrible nationalism during that time.
  • 

Persecution of Christians

60.11.2 Christianity

Persecution of Christians
The Ottoman Christian Genocide « World Without Genocide - Making It Our Legacy