THE OTTOMAN STATE

The Ottoman state

The Ottoman state

The Ottoman Empire which is connected the three continents, Asia, Europe and Africa, covering many religions, cultures, languages, peoples, climate, and various social and political structures appeared and began organizing between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. Osmanli Dynasty, named after the first leader Osman, emerged from the many small states and principalities of the emirates, which are located on the boundary edge of the plains and foothills of the Byzantine Anatolia. They have expanded into South-Eastern Europe, the Anatolian plateau, and thence to the Heartlands Arabs, the dominant cities of Mecca and Medina. By the mid-sixteenth century, from the Danube to the Nile, from the Anatolian land sacred city of Islam, the Turks gained a multi-ethnic, multi-religious empire.

First, while the Turks conquered the land in the Balkans, they purchased predominantly Christian population, and it is only with the expansion of the empire in the Arab lands in the sixteenth century, the balance between Christian and Muslim population was achieved. Perhaps the main task of the empire was to create a coherent and lasting dominance over this vast array of peoples. Ottomans' achievements in the empire were based on their successful negotiations between the conflicting, but also additional political structures, organizational forms and their cultural significance. In his efforts to build such a rule, and law, they should balance the ruling Christians and Jews, Slavs, trees and Armenians, Muslims, Sunnis, Shia and Sufi beliefs of many, to include each and every one of their communities and their local traditions, but also to collect taxes and control groups. It had to be done, allowing space for local autonomy, claims negotiation rules. It is for this reason regardless of religion would be in place, it should be about the legitimacy and the rule of the state. For centuries, the Turks were strong imperial government, who claimed Islam as their main source of legitimacy. They gave Islam a place of honor in the empire and built many mosques and religious institutions represent the superiority of Islam.'s rulers understood themselves as rulers of the empire, but also the caliph, the leader of a Sunni Muslim. Vis-?-VIS world this remains a powerful source of Islamic unity and strength, but within the Empire, Islam has played a limited role. And despite these manifestations of loyalty and devotion to the religious world of Orthodox Sunni Islam, the Ottoman society for centuries remained free of large-scale religious conflict.

This conclusion has been interpreted in different ways. For Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Islam has been less divisive than Catholicism because Mohammed gave unity to his political system. More recently, many scholars have argued that because Islam and politics are not in conflict, not similar to the Enlightenment occurred in these Islamic societies. In some versions it is seen as negative and may be the source of the lack of modernity in contemporary Islam. In other versions, the absence of strong struggle between state and religion is seen ...