Question

In what ways was the Ottoman Empire influenced both by previous Islam empires and the Byzantine Empire?

Answer 1

The Ottoman Empire began as one of the small Turkish states that emerged in Asia Minor during the decline of the Seljuk Empire. The Ottoman Turks gradually controlled the other Turkish states, survived the Mongol invasions and under the reign of Mehmed II (1451-1481) ended what was left of the Byzantine Empire.

The origin of the Ottoman Turks can be found in the steppes of Central Asia, in Turkestan, in an ethnic group dedicated to transhumant livestock, especially horses, and to commerce, with semi-nomadic practices. The Turks soon relate to the Muslim cultures of their environment, engage with them in business relations and adopt Islam in their Sunni branch. This contact could be due to the silk route, as the Muslim merchants would probably pass through the territories where the Ottomans lived. The first entries of Turkish tribes in the region that would later be the Ottoman Empire occur in the military, when the armies of the Abbasid Caliphate needed soldiers for internal struggles and against the Christians and Byzantines during the ninth century. Therefore, they resorted to border territories recruiting the population. Within the Abbasid Caliphate it can already be seen how the Turks are climbing positions in the army and the administration. The slow penetration of Turkish tribes in this area was carried out in two ways: through the progressive occupation of the territory by the tribal groups and through the struggle against the Byzantine Empire, which had dominated this region for a long time and which they annulled militarily.