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Learn The Ottoman Empire

Six centuries of a dynasty that ruled from the Balkans to Baghdad and Cairo.

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The Ottoman Empire began as a small Turkish principality in northwest Anatolia around 1300, traditionally founded by Osman I. Its sultans took Constantinople in 1453, conquered the Mamluk lands of Syria and Egypt in 1516 and 1517, and under Suleiman reached deep into Hungary. For centuries it governed many religions and languages through a sophisticated state. Nineteenth century reforms, nationalist movements and the First World War brought its end, with the sultanate abolished in 1922. Learnr builds short lessons that follow the empire from frontier state to modern successor nations.

How to learn The Ottoman Empire, step by step

Build a timeline of sultans and turning points. Anchor on Osman around 1300, the defeat by Timur at Ankara in 1402, Mehmed II taking Constantinople in 1453, Suleiman from 1520 to 1566, the failed siege of Vienna in 1683, the Tanzimat from 1839, and the abolition of the sultanate in 1922.
Learn how the state recruited and ruled. Study the devshirme, which took Christian boys from Balkan families for the army and administration, the janissary corps, and the timar land grants that supported cavalry. These institutions explain both the empire's early strength and later struggles to reform.
Study religious diversity with precision. Non-Muslims were protected subjects who paid extra taxes and ran many communal affairs through their own leaders. Historians debate how formal the so-called millet system was before the nineteenth century, so learn the term along with that caveat.
Question the decline story. Older books describe a long decline after Suleiman. Recent scholarship, such as Baki Tezcan's work, sees transformation instead: new elites, tax farming and changing relations with Europe. Read both views and look at the evidence each one uses.
Handle the empire's end carefully. Follow the Balkan wars, the 1908 Young Turk revolution and entry into World War I. Study the Armenian Genocide of 1915, recognized by most genocide scholars and many states and denied by the Turkish government, and the expulsions and population exchanges that followed the war.
Read travelers and Ottoman writers. Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq's Turkish Letters give a Habsburg envoy's view of Suleiman's court, and Evliya Çelebi's Book of Travels offers an Ottoman's own observations. Caroline Finkel's Osman's Dream ties it all into one narrative.

What you'll learn

Trace Ottoman expansion from Anatolia into the Balkans, the Arab lands and Hungary
Explain institutions such as the devshirme, the janissaries and the timar system
Describe how the empire governed Muslims, Christians and Jews
Evaluate the older "decline" narrative against current scholarship
Explain the Tanzimat reforms, the Young Turks and the empire's end after World War I

What's inside your The Ottoman Empire course

A sample path Learnr builds for The Ottoman Empire. Your real course adapts to your goal and level.

1. Osman and the frontier beginnings
2. Mehmed II and the conquest of Constantinople
3. Selim I, Suleiman and the empire at its widest
4. Government, religion and society
5. Change and reform from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century
6. The Young Turks, World War I and the successor states

How long does it take to learn The Ottoman Empire?

A thorough overview of six centuries takes about 6 to 10 weeks at 3 to 4 hours a week. Specializing in one era, region or community, or learning Ottoman Turkish to read archives, is a much longer undertaking.

What you need before you start

No prior study is needed. Some background on the Byzantine Empire and early Islamic history helps, and a map stretching from Vienna to Baghdad is essential.

Common mistakes to avoid

Calling the Ottoman Empire simply "Turkey" or treating it as a Turkish nation-state. It was a multiethnic dynastic empire, and Turkey was one of its successor states.
Accepting the "sick man of Europe" label as a full explanation. The empire lasted more than six hundred years and reformed itself repeatedly.
Viewing Ottoman history only through European wars, while skipping its Arab provinces, its economy and the daily lives of its many communities.

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The Ottoman Empire questions, answered

When did the Ottoman Empire end?

The sultanate was abolished in November 1922, and the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed in October 1923. The caliphate, held by the Ottoman dynasty, was abolished in March 1924.

What were the janissaries?

Elite infantry of the Ottoman army, originally recruited through the devshirme. They became a powerful political force, sometimes deposing sultans, and Mahmud II abolished the corps by force in 1826.