 In the history of the Turks, the onset of its third period came in the late 11th century. The Oguz Turks, a nomadic tribe, came south through the Iranian Plateau and established the great Seljuk dynasty in the first half of the 11th century. In 1071, the Seljuks triumphantly defeated the Byzantine army in the decisive battle of Manzikert and succeeded in advancing into Anatolia in great numbers. A member of the Seljuk dynasty established the Anadolu (Rum)-Seljuk dynasty in 1077, and under this dynasty many Turks settled in Anatolia, attributing to the spread of Islam in the region. However in 1243, the Mongols conquered the Anadolu-Seljuk dynasty and Anatolia disintegrated into small Turkish principalities.
At the end of the 13th century, a Muslim-Turk group lead by Osman appeared in the northwestern part of Anatolia near the border of the Byzantine Empire. This was the beginning of the Ottoman Empire. In 1326 Orhan, the second leader of the Ottoman dynasty conquered Bursa and made it their capital and it was during his reign that the Ottoman state evolved as a principality. In the 1360s, the third leader of the Ottoman dynasty, Murad I, became the first to advance into the Balkans, and from then on the Ottomans continued their conquest in Anatolia and the Balkans. In 1453, the seventh ruler Mehmed II, conquered Istanbul and declared it the capital of the Ottoman Empire.
In the 16th century the Ottoman Empire conquered Egypt and Syria -both at the time considered the center of the Islamic world-and later acquired the two holly cities of Mecca and Medina. The Ottoman Empire thus became the “Islamic-Universal Empire”.
Until its demise in 1922, the Ottoman Empire ruled for over six and half centuries as a superpower in the Mediterranean world, although considered to have only an ominous presence by the Western world. The Ottomans flowered a magnificent culture from the center of which was the opulent Topkapi Palace. |
