Biography of ancient rulers of turkey

Ottoman sultans family tree

At its height, the Ottoman Empire spanned an area from Hungary in the north to Yemen in the south and from Algeria in the west to Iraq in the east. The Ottoman Empire's early years have been the subject of varying narratives, due to the difficulty of discerning fact from legend. The empire came into existence at the end of the 13th century, and its first ruler and the namesake of the Empire was Osman I.

The partitioning of the Empire by the victorious Allies and the ensuing Turkish War of Independence led to the abolition of the sultanate in and the birth of the modern Republic of Turkey in In Ottoman usage the word "Padisha" was usually used except "sultan" was used when he was directly named. Names of the sultan in languages used by ethnic minorities : [ 4 ].

History of turkey pdf

The Ottoman Empire was an absolute monarchy during much of its existence. By the second half of the fifteenth century, the sultan sat at the apex of a hierarchical system and acted in political, military, judicial, social, and religious capacities under a variety of titles. He was the supreme military commander and had the official title to all land.

Although absolute in theory and in principle, the sultan's powers were limited in practice. Political decisions had to take into account the opinions and attitudes of important members of the dynasty, the bureaucratic and military establishments, as well as religious leaders. Despite being barred from inheriting the throne, [ 12 ] women of the imperial harem —especially the reigning sultan's mother, known as the valide sultan —also played an important behind-the-scenes political role, effectively ruling the empire during the period known as the Sultanate of Women.

Constitutionalism was established during the reign Abdul Hamid II , who thus became the empire's last absolute ruler and its reluctant first constitutional monarch. The table below lists Ottoman sultans, as well as the last Ottoman caliph, in chronological order. The tughras were the calligraphic seals or signatures used by Ottoman sultans.