The Ottomans Build a Vast Empire
TURKS MOVE INTO BYZANTIUM--How did the
Ottoman Empire begin?
name:_________________________________
date:______________________hr:________
In 1300, the world of the eastern Mediterranean was also changing. The
Byzantine Empire was fading. The Seljuk Turk state had been destroyed.
Anatolia, the area of modern Turkey, was now inhabited by groups of nomadic
Turks. They saw themselves as ghazis, or Muslim warriors for Islam. They
raided the lands where non-Muslims lived.
The most successful ghazi was Osman. Western Europeans thought his name
was Othman. They called his followers Ottomans. Between 1300 and 1326,
Osman built a strong but small kingdom in Anatolia. Leaders who came after
Osman called themselves sultans, or “ones with power.” They extended the
kingdom by buying land. They also formed alliances with other chieftains and
conquered everyone they could.
TheOttomansruledinakindlyway.Muslimshadtoserveinthearmybut
paidnotaxes.Non-Muslimspaidtaxbutdidnotserveinthearmy.Many
joinedIslamjusttoavoidthetax.Mostpeopleadjustedeasilytotheirnew
rule.
Onewarriordidnot.HewasTimurtheLame.HeconqueredRussiaand
Persia.In1402,hedefeatedtheOttomanforcesandcapturedthesultan
andtookhimtoSamarkandinacage.1.WhoweretheOttomans?
POWERFULSULTANSSPURDRAMATICEXPANSION--Howdidtheempiregrow?
InAnatolia,thefoursonsofthelastsultanfoughtforcontroloftheempire.MehmedIwoncontrol.His
sonandthefoursultanswhocameafterhimbroughttheOttomanEmpiretoitsgreatestpower.Oneof
them—MehmedII—tookpowerin1451.Hebuiltaforceof100,000footsoldiersand125shipsto
gaincontrolofConstantinople.In1453,hetookthecityandthewaterwayitcontrolled.Mehmedmade
thecityhiscapital.HerenameditIstanbul.Therebuiltcitybecamehometopeoplefromalloverthe
OttomanEmpire.
Otheremperorsusedconquesttomaketheempiregrow.After1514,SelimtheGrimtookPersia,Syria,
andPalestine.HethencapturedArabia,tooktheMuslimholycitiesofMedinaandMecca,andgained
controlofEgypt.
2.WhowasMehmedII?
SULEYMANTHELAWGIVER;THEEMPIREDECLINESSLOWLY--WhywasSuleymanthe
Lawgiveragreatleader?
SuleymanItookpowerin1520andruledfor46years.HebroughttheOttomanEmpiretoitsgreatestsizeand
mostimpressiveachievements.HeconqueredpartsofsoutheasternEurope.Hewoncontroloftheentire
easternMediterraneanSeaandtookNorthAfricaasfarwestasTripoli.
Suleymanrevisedthelawsoftheempire.HispeoplecalledhimSuleymantheLawgiver.Suleymanruledhis
empirewithahighlystructuredgovernment.Thousandsofslavesservedtheroyalfamily.Thepolicyofmaking
peopleslaveswascalleddevshirme.Thejanissarieswereanenslavedgroupofsoldiers.TheywereChristians
takenaschildrenandmadeslaves.Theyweretrainedassoldiersandfoughtfiercelyforthesultan.Otherslaves
heldimportantgovernmentjobs.
Theempireallowedpeopletofollowtheirownreligion.JewsandChristianswerenotmistreated.Hisempire
wasalsoknownforgreatworksofartandmanyfinebuildings.
AlthoughtheempirelastedlongafterSuleyman,itspentthenextfewhundredyearsindecline.Thatmeansits
powerslipped.NoneofthesultanswereasaccomplishedasSuleymanhadbeen.
3.WhatweretwoofSuleyman’saccomplishments?
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Name
Date
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BUILDING VOCABULARY
The Muslim World Expands
A. Matching Match the description in the second column with the term or name in
the first column. Write the appropriate letter next to the word.
____ 1. ghazi
a. Persian title meaning king
____ 2. sultan
b. Ottoman policy of drafting boys from conquered Christian territories,
educating them, converting them to Islam, and training them as soldiers
____ 3. janissary
c. Mughal emperor who expanded the empire to its greatest size but
drained its resources by waging war
____ 4. devshirme
d. nonviolent religious group that blended Buddhism, Hinduism, and
Sufism
____ 5. shah
e. warrior for Islam
____ 6. Mughal
f. Muslim Turks and Afghans who invaded India and built an empire
there between the 1500s and the 1700s
____ 7. Sikh
g. elite force of soldiers trained to be loyal to the Ottoman sultan only
____ 8. Aurangzeb
h. Turkish title meaning “overlord” or “one with power”
B. Evaluating Write T in the blank if the statement is true. If the statement is false,
write F in the blank and then write the corrected statement on the line below.
____ 1. The Safavid Empire, a Shi’a Muslim dynasty that ruled in Persia between the 16th
and 18th centuries, was begun by a teenaged military leader named Isma’il.
____ 2. Timur the Lame was a conqueror from Samarkand who helped expand the Ottoman Empire.
________________________________________________________________________
____ 3. Shah Jahan, an emperor of the Mughal Empire, built the Taj Mahal as a memorial to his wife.
________________________________________________________________________
____ 4. The Mughal Empire was started by Aurangzeb.
________________________________________________________________________
C. Writing Write a paragraph describing the main contribution of each of the following Ottoman rulers.
Osman
Mehmed II
48 Unit 4, Chapter 18
Suleyman the Lawgiver
© McDougal Littell Inc. All rights reserved.
________________________________________________________________________
Name
Date
CHAPTER
12
RETEACHING ACTIVITY
The Mongol Conquests
Section 2
Determining Main Ideas The following questions deal with the development of the
Mongol empire. Answer them in the space provided.
1. What made Genghis Khan a great conqueror?
____________________________________________________________________________
2. What led to the split of the Mongol empire?
____________________________________________________________________________
3. What things did the Mongol people pride themselves on?
____________________________________________________________________________
4. Why is the period between the mid-1200s to the mid-1300s called the Mongol Peace?
____________________________________________________________________________
Determining Main Ideas Write your answers in the blanks provided.
5. Nomadic peoples who herded domesticated animals: ______________________________
6. A Mongol clan leader who wanted to unify the Mongols under his leadership and accepted
7. A period in Mongol history in which the Mongols imposed law and order across Eurasia:
____________________________________________________________________________
8. Members of a group who traveled together and were descended from a common ancestor:
____________________________________________________________________________
9. The four regions of the Mongol empire: ________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
10. A vast area of dry grassland stretching across Eurasia: ______________________________
62 Unit 3, Chapter 12
© McDougal Littell Inc. All rights reserved.
the title of “universal ruler” of the Mongols: ______________________________________
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Name
CHAPTER
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Section 1
© McDougal Littell Inc. All rights reserved.
S
Date
HISTORYMAKERS
Suleyman
Warrior, Man of Justice
“I who am the sultan of sultans, the sovereign of sovereigns, the dispenser of
crowns to the monarchs on the face of the earth . . . to thee who are Francis,
king of the land of France.”—Suleyman, in the opening of a letter to Francis I of
France
uleyman the Magnificent greatly expanded the
Ottoman Empire from its base in modern Turkey,
and the same ruler—also known as Suleyman the
Lawgiver—brought tight imperial control and fair
laws to his realm. Furthermore, this sultan sponsored a growth in the arts that rivaled the European
Renaissance. He ruled for 46 years and was perhaps the most accomplished leader of the 1500s.
Suleyman was the son of Selim I, who ruled the
Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Suleyman was
an only son, which may have benefited him greatly.
Under later sultans—including himself—the contest for power between the heirs often resulted in
one or more of their deaths.
Spared this infighting, Suleyman was prepared
for the crown. As a boy, he was given the task of
governing two provinces. When his father died, the
26-year-old Suleyman already had 16 years of experience in government.
Suleyman quickly set out to increase the size of
his kingdom. Ottoman military strength lay with the
elite corps of soldiers called janissaries. These soldiers were recruited as young boys from conquered
Christian territories and trained expressly for combat. Suleyman had to give the janissaries an outlet,
so he turned these fierce troops on others.
Suleyman’s conquests were many. He made
Hungary a puppet state by defeating it and putting
his own ruler on the throne. In 1522, he captured
the Greek island of Rhodes, taking the strong castle
of the Knights Hospitalers—the last Christian remnant of the Crusades in the eastern Mediterranean.
Europeans were amazed by his treatment of the
captives. The knights themselves were allowed to
leave the island with their weapons, and the common citizens were spared any violence.
However, in 1529 the Ottomans failed to capture Vienna, Austria, despite a long siege.
Nevertheless, Suleyman later conquered lands
from the Persian shahs to the east and won Egypt
to the south. His navies took almost complete control of the Mediterranean Sea. These victories
made the Ottoman Empire huge and wealthy.
Suleyman received about $80 million a year in
income. In contrast, the king of France had a yearly
income of only about $1 million. With this wealth,
Suleyman lived a life of luxury that helped earn for
him his reputation as the Magnificent.
However, Suleyman was most renowned as the
Lawgiver. He gave an educated slave named Lutfi
Pasa the task of compiling a new code of laws. It
established standard penalties throughout the empire
for such crimes as robbery and murder. It also
sought to remove corruption from government and
to ensure that local political officials rose on the basis
of merit and not bribery. The sultan was a fair ruler.
A Venetian once wrote that “provided he were
well-informed, [Suleyman] did wrong to no one.”
Suleyman took other steps to improve his peoples’ lives as well. He rebuilt the water systems at
Mecca and Jerusalem, the two holy sites visited
each year by large numbers of pilgrims. He
enhanced the beauty of Istanbul by building palaces
and mosques. His chief architect was Pasha Sinan,
a Christian slave who was so skilled that he
designed over 300 structures, including mosques,
schools, hospitals, palaces, and other buildings.
Many of the minarets, the slender towers attached
to mosques, and domes seen in Istanbul today date
from Suleyman’s time.
In poetry, history, and science, Ottoman culture
flourished as well. The geographer Piri Reis published books that contained maps with a current
understanding of the known world. One of these
showed the third voyage of Christopher Columbus,
undertaken just two decades earlier.
Questions
1. Recognizing Facts and Details What kind of
experience for becoming sultan did Suleyman have?
2. Drawing Conclusions Why did Suleyman
embark on new conquests?
3. Making Judgments Is “the Magnificent” or “the
Lawgiver” a more appropriate name for Suleyman?
The Muslim World Expands 59