Ottoman Empire | Facts, History, & Map - Encyclopedia Britannica

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• Introduction & Top Questions
• The Ottoman state to 1481: the age of expansion
  • Origins and expansion of the Ottoman state, c. 1300–1402
    • Osman and Orhan
    • Murad I
    • Bayezid I
  • Restoration of the Ottoman Empire, 1402–81
    • Mehmed I and Murad II
    • Mehmed II
  • Ottoman institutions in the 14th and 15th centuries
    • Changing status of the Ottoman rulers
    • Institutional evolution
    • Military organization
• The peak of Ottoman power, 1481–1566
  • Domination of southeastern Europe and the Middle East
    • Bayezid II
    • Selim I
    • Süleyman I
  • Classical Ottoman society and administration
• The decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1566–1807
  • Internal problems
    • The triumph of the devşirme
    • Corruption and nepotism
    • Economic difficulties
    • Social unrest
  • External relations
  • Reform efforts
  • Military defeats and the emergence of the Eastern Question, 1683–1792
  • Imperial decline in the 18th and early 19th centuries
    • Resistance to change
    • Contacts with the West
    • Military reforms
    • Selim III and the nizam-ı cedid
• The empire from 1807 to 1920
  • Rule of Mahmud II
    • Internal reform
    • Move toward centralization
  • The Tanzimat reforms (1839–76)
    • Purpose of the Tanzimat
    • Reform in education
    • Reforms in law
    • Obstructions to reforms
  • The 1875–78 crisis
  • The Ottoman constitution, 1876
  • Rule of Abdülhamid II
    • Pan-Islamism
    • Preservation of the empire
    • The Young Turk Revolution of 1908
  • Dissolution of the empire
    • Rise of the CUP
    • Internal developments
    • Turkish nationalism
    • Foreign relations
    • The people
    • World War I, 1914–18
    • Allied war aims and the proposed peace settlement
• Sultans of the Ottoman Empire

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics Images & Videos At a Glance Ottoman Empire summary Ottoman Empire Timeline Key People of the Ottoman Empire Decline of the Ottoman Empire Quizzes The Ottoman Empire and the Middle East Turkish and Ottoman History Quiz Understanding the Ottoman Empire Related Questions

• Where did the Ottoman Empire start?
• How did the Ottoman Empire start?
• Why was the Ottoman Empire called “the sick man of Europe”?
• How did the Ottoman Empire end?
• How did Mehmed II come to power?

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External Websites

• ABC listen - Late Night Live - The Ottomans
• World History Encyclopedia - Ottoman Empire
• The History Files - Ottoman Empire
• National Geographic - Why the Ottoman Empire rose and fell
• International Digital Organization for Scientific Information - How the Mamluk Historians Welcomed the Ottomans (PDF)
• PBS LearningMedia - An Ottoman Region | 1913: Seeds of Conflict
• History World - History of the Ottoman Empire
• Eleanor Roosevelt College - The Ottoman Empire (1700-1922) (PDF)
• Humanities LibreTexts - The Ottoman Empire

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• Ottoman Empire - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
• Ottoman Empire - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Ottoman Empire historical empire, Eurasia and Africa Ask Anything Quick Summary Homework Help Written by Stanford Jay Shaw Emeritus Professor of Turkish and Judeo-Turkish History, University of California, Los Angeles. Editor in Chief, International Journal of Middle East Studies. Author of History of the Ottoman... Stanford Jay ShawAll Fact-checked by Britannica Editors Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Britannica Editors Last updated Jan. 16, 2026 •History Britannica AI Ask Anything Quick Summary Table of Contents Table of Contents Quick Summary Ask Anything Top Questions

Where did the Ottoman Empire start?

The Ottoman Empire was founded in Anatolia, the location of modern-day Turkey. Originating in Söğüt (near Bursa, Turkey), the Ottoman dynasty expanded its reign early on through extensive raiding. This was enabled by the decline of the Seljuq dynasty, the previous rulers of Anatolia, who were suffering defeat from Mongol invasion.

How did the Ottoman Empire start?

The Ottoman Empire began at the very end of the 13th century with a series of raids from Turkic warriors (known as ghazis) led by Osman I, a prince (bey) whose father, Ertugrul, had established a power base in Söğüt (near Bursa, Turkey). Osman and his warriors took advantage of a declining Seljuq dynasty, which had been severely weakened by the Mongol invasions. The Ottoman dynasty continued to expand for several generations, controlling much of southeastern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa at its peak. Osman’s grandson Murad I laid the foundation for an institutionalized Ottoman state, continued by Murad’s son Bayezid I.

Why was the Ottoman Empire called “the sick man of Europe”?

After the peak of Ottoman rule under Süleyman the Magnificent in the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire struggled to maintain its bloated bureaucracy and decentralized political structure. Several attempts at reform kept the empire afloat but mostly addressed immediate issues, and any success was short-lived. The most far-reaching of these reforms, the Tanzimat, contributed to a debt crisis in the 1870s. Its fragile state left it unable to withstand defeat in World War I, and most of its territories were divided as spoils as the empire disintegrated.

How did the Ottoman Empire end?

The Ottoman Empire disintegrated and was partitioned after its defeat in World War I. The empire had already been in decline for centuries, struggling to maintain a bloated bureaucracy or a centralized administrative structure after various attempts at reform. The problem was exacerbated further by the rise of more localized interests across the empire, such as the rise of nationalist movements. Upon the Ottomans’ defeat in World War I, a combination of nationalist movements and partition agreements among the Allied powers forced its disintegration into numerous territories, with Turkey as the empire’s immediate successor.

Ottoman Empire, empire created by Turkish tribes in Anatolia (Asia Minor) that grew to be one of the most powerful states in the world during the 15th and 16th centuries. The Ottoman period spanned more than 600 years and came to an end only in 1922, when it was replaced by the Turkish Republic and various successor states in southeastern Europe and the Middle East. At its height the empire encompassed most of southeastern Europe to the gates of Vienna, including present-day Hungary, the Balkan region, Greece, and parts of Ukraine; portions of the Middle East now occupied by Iraq, Syria, Israel, and Egypt; North Africa as far west as Algeria; and large parts of the Arabian Peninsula. The term Ottoman is a dynastic appellation derived from Osman I (Arabic: ʿUthmān), the nomadic Turkmen chief who founded both the dynasty and the empire about 1300.

The Ottoman state to 1481: the age of expansion

The first period of Ottoman history was characterized by almost continuous territorial expansion, during which Ottoman dominion spread out from a small northwestern Anatolian principality to cover most of southeastern Europe and Anatolia. The political, economic, and social institutions of the classical Islamic empires were amalgamated with those inherited from Byzantium and the great Turkish empires of Central Asia and were reestablished in new forms that were to characterize the area into modern times.

Quick Facts Date: c. 1300 - 1922 (Show more) Major Events: World War I Napoleonic Wars French Revolutionary wars Fall of Constantinople Armenian Genocide (Show more) Key People: Kemal Ataturk Mehmed II Philip II Leopold I Janos Hunyadi (Show more) Related Topics: Young Turks Sinan, the Ottoman Empire’s Master Architect Janissary Associations for the Defense of Rights Blue Mosque (Show more) Related Places: Cyprus Banat Antioch Rumelia Bulgaria (Show more) On the Web: National Geographic - Why the Ottoman Empire rose and fell (Jan. 16, 2026) (Show more) See all related content Show More

Origins and expansion of the Ottoman state, c. 1300–1402

In their initial stages of expansion, the Ottomans were leaders of the Turkish warriors for the faith of Islam, known by the honorific title ghāzī (Arabic: “raider”), who fought against the shrinking Christian Byzantine state. The ancestors of Osman I, the founder of the dynasty, were members of the Kayı tribe who had entered Anatolia along with a mass of Turkmen Oğuz nomads. Those nomads, migrating from Central Asia, established themselves as the Seljuq dynasty in Iran and Mesopotamia in the mid-11th century, overwhelmed Byzantium after the Battle of Manzikert (1071), and occupied eastern and central Anatolia during the 12th century. The ghazis fought against the Byzantines and then the Mongols, who invaded Anatolia following the establishment of the Il-Khanid (Ilhanid) empire in Iran and Mesopotamia in the last half of the 13th century. With the disintegration of Seljuq power and its replacement by Mongol suzerainty, enforced by direct military occupation of much of eastern Anatolia, independent Turkmen principalities—one of which was led by Osman—emerged in the remainder of Anatolia.