The Ottomans

There is an excellent website dedicated to the 700th Anniversary of the founding the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans ruled Turkey, the Balkans, and parts of the middle east and North Africa for hundreds of years. To fully undertstand the impact on the Ottoman legacy consider that the Ottomans ruled over Greece and Iraq for longer than the United States has been a nation.

The Ottomans started their ascendance after taking Constantinople from the defunt Byzantines. Eventually the Ottomans decayed themselves and Ottoman rule came to an end officially after World War I. However, it had been falling for nearly 100 years before that and was largely a pawn used by the European powers against each other for most of the 19th century. One of the continuous debates that raged in Constantinople with the Sultans was what to do about modernism. There was a constant pull between adopting European ways or keeping with traditional muslim rule. In the end, liberal western ideology won out. One major turning point in modernization was the elimination of the Janissary Corps in 1826. An event now known as the "Auspicious Incident."

The same fight of modernism vs. traditional Islam is now being raged in the arab world.

I encurage you to peruse the site.