Osmanlı Türkleri | |
|---|---|
 Painting of an Ottoman Turkishsipahi, 1657 | |
| Total population | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Ottoman Empire (esp.Anatolia andBalkans)[1] | |
| Languages | |
| Old Anatolian Turkish[note 4] Ottoman Turkish[note 5] | |
| Religion | |
| PredominantlySunni Islam MinorityAlevism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Turkish people | |
|
TheOttoman Turks (Turkish:Osmanlı Türkleri) were aTurkic ethnic group inAnatolia. Originally fromCentral Asia, they migrated to Anatolia in the 13th century and founded theOttoman Empire, in which they remained socio-politically dominant for the entirety of the six centuries that it existed. Their descendants are the present-dayTurkish people, who comprise the majority of the population in theRepublic of Turkey, which was established shortly after the end ofWorld War I.
Reliable information about the early history of the Ottoman Turks remains scarce, but they take their Turkish nameOsmanlı fromOsman I, who founded theHouse of Osman alongside the Ottoman Empire; the name "Osman" was altered to "Ottoman" when it was transliterated into someEuropean languages over time. The Ottoman principality, expanding fromSöğüt, gradually began incorporating other Turkish-speakingMuslims and non-TurkishChristians into their realm. By the 1350s, they had begun crossing intoEurope and eventually came to dominate theMediterranean Sea. In 1453, thefall of Constantinople, which had served as the capital city of theByzantine Empire, enabled the Ottoman Turks to control all major land routes betweenAsia and Europe. This development forcedWestern Europeans to find other ways to trade with Asians.[2][3][4] Following thedissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Turkish identity ceased to exist; theOttoman Turkish language, which was written using thePerso-Arabic script, developed into the modernLatinized Turkish language.
The Ottomans first became known tothe West in the 13th century, when they migrated from their homeland inCentral Asia westward to theSeljuk Sultanate of Rum inAnatolia. The Ottoman Turks established abeylik in Western Anatolia underErtugrul, the capital of which wasSöğüt. Ertugrul, leader of the nomadicKayı tribe, first established a principality as part of the decayingSeljuk Empire. His sonOsman expanded the principality; the polity and the people were named "Ottomans" by Europeans after him ("Ottoman" being a corruption of "Osman"). Osman's sonOrhan expanded the growing realm into an empire, takingNicaea (present-dayİznik) and crossed theDardanelles in 1362. All coins unearthed inSöğüt during the two centuries before Orhan bear the names ofIlkhanate rulers. The Seljuks were under the suzerainty of the Ilkhanate, and later the Turco-Mongol conquerorTamerlane. The Ottoman Empire came into its own whenMehmed II captured the reducedByzantine Empire's well-defended capital,Constantinople in 1453.[5][6]
The Ottoman Empire came to rule much of theBalkans, theCaucasus, theMiddle East (excluding Iran), andNorth Africa over the course of several centuries, with an advancedarmy andnavy. The Empire lasted until the end of the First World War, when it was defeated by theAllies andpartitioned. Following the successfulTurkish War of Independence that ended with theTurkish national movement retaking most of the land lost to the Allies, the movementabolished the Ottoman sultanate on November 1, 1922, and proclaimed theRepublic of Turkey on October 29, 1923. The movement nullified theTreaty of Sèvres and negotiated the significantly more favorableTreaty of Lausanne (1923), assuring recognition of modern Turkish national borders, termedMisak-ı Milli (National Pact).
Not all Ottoman Empire citizens were Muslims and not all Ottoman Muslims wereTurks, but starting from 1924, every citizen of the newly found Turkish Republic became considered as "Turk". Article 88 of1924 Constitution, which was based on the1921 Constitution, states that the name Turk, as a political term, shall be understood to include all citizens of the Turkish Republic, without distinction of, or reference to race or religion.[7]
The conquest ofConstantinople began to make the Ottomans the rulers of one of the most profitable empires, connected to the flourishing Islamic cultures of the time, and at the crossroads of trade into Europe. The Ottomans made major developments in calligraphy, writing, law, architecture, and military science, and became the standard of opulence.
BecauseIslam is a monotheistic religion that focuses heavily on learning the central text of theQuran and Islamic culture has historically tended towardsdiscouraging or prohibiting figurative art, calligraphy became one of the foremost of the arts.
The early Yâkût period was supplanted in the late 15th century by a new style pioneered byŞeyh Hamdullah (1429–1520), which became the basis for Ottoman calligraphy, focusing on theNesih version of the script, which became the standard for copying the Quran (seeIslamic calligraphy).
The next great change in Ottoman calligraphy came from the style ofHâfiz Osman (1642–1698), whose rigorous and simplified style found favour with an empire at its peak of territorial extent and governmental burdens.
The late calligraphic style of the Ottomans was created byMustafa Râkim (1757–1826) as an extension and reform of Osman's style, placing greater emphasis on technical perfection, which broadened the calligraphic art to encompass thesülüs script as well as the Nesih script.
Ottoman poetry included epic-length verse but is better known for shorter forms such as thegazel. For example, the epic poet Ahmedi (-1412) is remembered for hisAlexander the Great. His contemporary Sheykhi wrote verses on love and romance. Yaziji-Oglu produced a religious epic on Mohammed's life, drawing from the stylistic advances of the previous generation and Ahmedi's epic forms.
By the 14th century, the Ottoman Empire's prosperity made manuscript works available to merchants and craftsmen, and produced a flowering of miniatures that depicted pageantry, daily life, commerce, cities and stories, and chronicled events.
By the late 18th century, European influences in painting were clear, with the introduction of oils, perspective, figurative paintings, use of anatomy and composition.
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| Arab world | ||
| Foreigners | ||