Ottoman Empire

Understand

The Turks trace their origin to Central Asia. Their current homeland in Anatolia (Asia Minor) has been home to many civilizations throughout history, including Ancient Greece and the Byzantine Empire. The Ottoman Empire was not the first Turkish empire based in Anatolia, but it was certainly the most influential.

Rise

The Ottoman Empire was founded by Osman I, after whom the state is named, in northwestern Anatolia in 1299, as one of the several Turkish petty kingdoms emerged after the collapse of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum, the preceding Turkish empire, as a result of the Mongol invasion. Taking full advantage of its location on the borders of the Byzantine Empire that was much weakened by that time, the Ottoman state quickly grew, crossing over to the European mainland by taking the Gallipoli Castle in 1354. As the empire expanded into the Balkans, it also annexed the other Turkish kingdoms in Anatolia one by one. This was briefly stalled by a decade-long interregnum, when five claimants to the throne, along with their supporters, fought against each other all over the land, after the 1402 defeat of Ottoman sultan Beyazıt I 'the Thunderbolt', by Central Asian warlord Tamerlane (arguably of Genghis lineage). Regardless, in 1453, the Ottomans under Mehmet the Conqueror succeeded in conquering Constantinople, the Byzantine capital, and in the process desecrated many of the great churches and converted them to mosques, while also claiming Byzantine and therefore Roman culture as their own, as evidenced by the later sultans' main title, Kayser-i Rum (literally Ceasar / Kaiser of Rome). This impressive achievement for the Turks helped to spread Islam in parts of the Balkans, and was a disgrace for the Christians, giving rise to fantasies about new Crusades that in the end never materialized. Contrary to popular belief, Constantinople's name was not officially changed to Istanbul (which, in fact, is the Ottoman Turkish rendition of Istinpolin, a Greek appellation common folk used to refer to the city) in 1453, the imperial officialdom called the city Kostantiniyye (which literally translates to Constantinople in Ottoman Turkish) till the collapse of the empire, as it served the Ottomans' claim of being the continuation of Rome.

Peak (or Classical Age)

The fall of Constantinople had a decisive impact on Europe. The Turks proved the superiority of gunpowder weapons, which soon became common in European armies. Christian scholars leaving Constantinople contributed to the Renaissance in Italy and other parts of Europe. The disruption of the Silk Road encouraged Europeans to find a sea route to Asia, inspiring the Voyages of Columbus to the Americas, Da Gama's trip eastbound on the Cape Route around Africa, and Magellan's subsequent voyage westbound around the world. 1453 also saw the end of the Hundred Years War between England and France, and is today often considered the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of Early Modern Europe.

Especially after 1453, the Ottomans saw themselves as a diverse and tolerant Islamic empire, protecting and synthesizing Greco-Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic cultures, as they tried to keep this vision of themselves until the 19th century. Perhaps most famously, the Ottomans under Beyazıt II welcomed Jewish refugees from persecution in Spain after the 1492 Reconquista of Al-Andalus by the Christians. Despite its relatively tolerant nature for its time, however, it is important to keep in mind that the Ottomans were, in every way, an empire, which meant that it relied on the subjugation of many people under its rule. Slavery was prevalent in the empire well into the 19th century, and even if slavery in the Ottomans generally differed from the chattel slavery practiced in many other places in Europe and Asia, it still makes up many of the most painful stories people have of the Ottoman Empire, even today. Nevertheless, slaves had some legal protection, could rise to high social status, and even become the Grand Vizier — the de facto ruler of the empire, rather than the more figurehead-like Sultan — as was the case with Mehmed Pasha Sokolović, and most slaves, having no other choice, used the system as an alternate, more difficult method of 'climbing the social ladder'. In theory, the empire restricted enslavement of Christians, Jews, and Muslims, and many slaves were captive pagans from Central and East Africa. However, through the devşirme system, many Christian boys were separated from their families and were forced to enroll in the military and civilian apparatus of the empire, and had various assignments: supporting roles in war galleys, providing sexual services to noblemen, and sometimes domestic service. An elite of slaves could become bureaucrats, harem guards, or janissaries (the Sultan's elite soldiers).

The next important event of Ottoman history was when Selim I (r. 1512–1520) took control of the Hejaz, the region surrounding the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina. The Ottoman sultans replaced the Islamic caliphates that had ruled the Arab peninsula since the 7th century, themselves claiming the title Caliph of Islam, and declared the empire to be a Muslim caliphate. While symbolically a turning point of the empire, in reality, this title had lost its original power very long ago, and therefore also had little influence over Ottoman society in general.

The reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520–1566), better known in Turkey as "the Lawgiver" due to his many reforms, is often seen as some sort of golden age for the empire. By this time, the Sublime Porte, as the Ottoman government was informally known after the gate leading to the first courtyard of the Topkapı Palace, and later the gate of the Grand Vizier's office nearby, was directly ruling over a good portion of Central Europe, and most of the Middle East and North Africa, and was exercising suzerainty over a wide range of vassal states in parts of Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. In addition, the period saw the Ottomans exerting influence in parts of the world well beyond the imperial borders, in areas as diverse as Morocco in the west to Poland in the north, down the East African coast, and Aceh on Sumatra at the farther rim of the Indian Ocean.

Transformation

The century after Suleiman's death was a period of decentralization for the empire, with periods such as the Sultanate of Women, when women in court held a large amount of de facto power over the empire. Therefore, a general decrease of the non-ceremonial roles of the Ottoman sultan and an increase of oligarchical power of the court took place. This led to territorial stagnation, as evidenced by the two unsuccessful sieges of Vienna in 1529 and especially 1683, which were the high-water mark of the Ottoman expansion in Europe, but it also led to one of the golden ages of Ottoman art, when Ottoman classical music, miniature, and architecture flourished. These pieces incorporated influences from all over the empire, with Byzantine, Arabic, Hellenic, Romani, Armenian, Sephardic, Persian, and Turkic cultural elements mixing to create a rich synthesis. However, throughout the 19th and until the end of the 20th century, Turkish states tried to limit the influence of Ottoman art, so much so that the Turkish government banned Ottoman music on radios throughout the 1930s, and generally opposed Ottoman-style art, as it perceived it as anti-modernity for its positive depiction of old morals, such as hijab-wearing and Ottoman non-heteronormativity. This meant that these art forms were largely replaced by their Western counterparts in modern times, and most of them don't have an active community, the big exception being Ottoman classical music, which rejuvenated in the 1950s with figures such as Zeki Müren and Münir Nurettin Selçuk.

Decline

As commerce shifted from the Mediterranean and the Silk Road to the high seas, the empire entered an era of slow but steady decline. With an eye towards turning the tide, the empire began to increasingly orient itself towards the West from the Tulip period of the early 18th century. This era was characterized by the incorporation of art styles then in vogue in Europe into Ottoman traditions, but the resultant beautification projects that still adorn Istanbul and elsewhere to this day drained the already straining state treasury further. The major blow to the Ottoman Empire, however, was the age of nationalism that arrived in the 19th century, and imperial authority began to shatter in the outlying areas of the "Sick Man of Europe" where Turks (which was a loose term for all lower-class non-Arab Muslims at that time) were a minority. This led to a movement of these Turks forming their own identity and laid the foundations of Turkish nationalism. This also meant that the once multi-ethnic empire changed its stance on minorities, from integration and slow assimilation, to complete and forced assimilation. By the time of the First World War, the Ottomans were a more-or-less failed state which was de facto ruled by an ultranationalist military junta composed of the "Three Pashas". As the ultranationalists' stance on minorities changed again, this time from assimilation to annihilation, the Three Pashas used the war as an excuse to systematically murder between 800,000 and 1.5 million Armenians — a crime that lives in infamy as the Armenian Genocide. Despite the fact that a good deal of non-Armenians, with some being Turks, joined into the resistance against the genocide, sometimes resorting to hiding Armenians in the face of death, the modern state of Turkey actively denies it, and imprisons people who have made public statements supporting its recognition by claiming that they have insulted 'Turkishness'.

The Ottoman Empire ceased to exist in 1922 when the sultanate was abolished by a new secular republican government under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk which, to distance itself from the imperial past, based itself in the then-remote Anatolian town of Ankara.

Destinations

Turkey

The bulk of the Ottoman heritage in what is now Turkey rests in the Marmara region, where the empire started and grew. Curiously, the rest of the country is mostly devoid of any major monuments built during the Ottoman era—most historic sights either date back to the Seljuks and Turkish petty kingdoms pre-dating the Ottomans, or are remnants of the civilizations that called Anatolia home prior to the arrival of the Turks altogether.

Istanbul, 41.013611°, 28.9550°. The grand Ottoman capital for centuries is home to the largest Ottoman heritage anywhere in the world.
Söğüt, 40.0168°, 30.1813°. This small hillside town in northwestern Turkey was the first capital of the Ottoman state, where it began as a semi-nomadic principality in what was then the Byzantine borderlands.
Bursa, 40.1833°, 29.0667°. The first major city conquered by the Ottomans, Bursa is considered the cradle of Ottoman civilization, and is the site of most early Ottoman monuments, including the mausolea of all sultans up to Mehmet the Conqueror, who captured Constantinople and moved the throne there.
Edirne, 41.6667°, 26.5667°. There is much Ottoman heritage to see in this European co-capital of the empire, including the Selimiye Mosque, which many think is the zenith of Ottoman architecture. 2015-09-01
Safranbolu, 41.2593°, 32.6741°. Well-preserved Ottoman-era old town in northern Turkey that is in the World Heritage list.
Iznik, 40.429°, 29.7195°. Famous for its faïence pottery-making industry from the 16th century (known as the İznik Çini, whose name is derived from China). Iznik tiles were used to decorate many of the mosques, in Istanbul and elsewhere in the empire, designed by famous Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan. 2015-09-24
Manisa 📍 and Amasya 📍. Two towns, roughly equidistant to the throne in Istanbul, where the favoured crown princes (şehzade) practiced their administrative skills before the luckier one of them replaced their father as the sultan — a situation which doomed the unlucky brothers to death (so that there are no other claimants to the throne) until fratricide was abolished by Ahmet I in 1603. Both towns feature lots of monuments built by the princes, as well as by their mothers (who were traditionally accompanying their sons), during their service as the local rulers. Manisa also has the distinction of being the site of the Mesir Macun festival, started during Suleiman the Magnificent's time as governor there, and inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
Doğubeyazıt. The hilltop İshak Pasha Palace in the outskirts is one of the few surviving Turkish palaces outside the Ottoman and preceding Seljuk political centres, and is certainly the only one that far east. It was started in 1685 by its eponymous pasha, who belonged to a local dynasty, the members of which were hereditarily appointed as governors to the eastern frontier.

Europe

In addition to Turkey's Marmara region, the Balkans are where you can best experience what is left of the Ottomans — almost any town south of the Danube has at least a building or two that has a connection with the Ottomans, although sometimes in a ruinous state. To this day, Albania, Kosovo and Bosnia & Herzegovina remain Muslim-majority countries, albeit largely secular with relaxed religious observances. Below is a selection of cities that best preserved their Ottoman heritage.

Sarajevo 📍 and Skopje 📍. The capitals of Bosnia & Herzegovina and North Macedonia feature preserved Ottoman old towns. Skopje's Ottoman heritage can primarily be found in its Stara Čaršija ("old bazaar") district, while that of Sarajevo in Baščaršija ("main bazaar").
Konjic. This was a major Ottoman waystation on the route between Sarajevo and Mostar downriver. During the Austrian rule that followed, it kept its prominency, and its cityscape is a beautiful blend of Ottoman and Western styles.
Mostar, 43.3375°, 17.8150°. The stone bridge spanning over the River Neretva that had to be rebuilt after the Yugoslav Wars is one of the most iconic Ottoman monuments in the region. Elsewhere in the city is also full of Ottoman architecture.
- The nearby villages of Počitelj 📍 and Blagaj 📍 are two rural communities with very well-preserved Ottoman architecture; Blagaj also features a Sufi (a mystical Islamic sect) lodge at the source of the local river, in an extremely scenic setting surrounded by sheer canyon walls.
Trebinje. The Ottoman old town isn't overrun by tourists unlike its better known counterparts elsewhere in the Balkans, while the impressive Arslanagić Bridge spans over the local river, conveying traffic between Istanbul, the imperial seat, and Dubrovnik, a major power of yore as Ragusa, since the 17th century.
Višegrad, 43.783333333°, 19.283333333°. Another one of the important Ottoman stone bridges in the area, not least because it forms the setting of the Bridge Over the Drina, a novel by Nobel Prize winner Ivo Andrić.
Foča. Upriver from Višegrad and its bridge on the Drina, the Stara čaršija ("old bazaar") part of the town is rich in Ottoman buildings, in the form of several mosques, a clock tower, a caravanserai, and many houses.
Podgorica. The Montenegrin capital is better known for its trademark Yugoslav modernist architecture due to the near-total destruction caused by WWII bombings. Nevertheless, the Stara Varoš (old city) district, forming the Ottoman Podgorica of the 15th to the 19th centuries, survived largely intact, and it features several attractions along its winding streets: a clock tower, a couple of mosques, a bridge, and a citadel.
Novi Pazar. The town was started by the Ottomans in the 15th century as an alternative marketplace to the nearby Staro Trgovište ("old market"). Thus, its name combines Serbian and Turkish words and means "new market" (or "new bazaar"). Novi Pazar is the cultural capital of the Bosniaks of Serbia, and is rich in Ottoman monuments as well as Eastern Orthodox sites from pre-Ottoman Old Serbia.
Niš, 43.319166666667°, 21.896111111111°. On one of the main routes between the imperial seat and its European possessions, the local fortress of this Serbian town was rebuilt by the Ottomans in the 18th century, with numerous contemporary buildings inside. Pleasant Kazandzijsko sokace, a pedestrianized street in the old town, is lined by cafes in buildings originally built for the local craftsmen during the Ottoman rule. A far gloomier relic from the era is the Skull Tower, a remnant of the Ottoman effort to suppress the First Serbian Uprising (1804–1813).
Pristina, 42.6667°, 21.1667°. The Kosovar capital features an Ottoman old town, complete with various mosques, bathhouses, public fountains and a clocktower, that were left intact through the extensive rebuilding of the city by communists. The suburb of Mazgit 📍 in the outskirts of the city is the site of the tomb of Murat I, the Ottoman sultan who was killed here in 1389 during the Battle of Kosovo, fought between the medieval Serbian Kingdom and the Ottomans. His remains were later removed to the mausoleum in the then-capital Bursa, though.
Prizren, 42.2088°, 20.7416°. Referred to as the cultural capital of Kosovo, Prizren maintains its Ottoman streetscape.
Peja 📍 and Gjakova. Other old towns in Kosovo with much Ottoman heritage.
Tetovo. The Ottoman Kalkandelen is the site of a fairly unique mosque, adorned with paintings rather unconventional for Islamic art inside out, a bathhouse, an active Bektashi (an unorthodox Islamic order influenced much by Sufism) lodge, a fortress, and a number of mansions.
Ohrid, 41.116944°, 20.801667°. While better known for its earlier heritage dating back to the Byzantine and Bulgarian Empires, the whitewashed residential buildings along narrow cobbled streets of the old town of Ohrid are typical of the Ottoman civilian architecture, and wouldn't be out of place in Turkish heartland. For something more atypical, head to nearby Resen, to see the neo-classical, early 20th century estate built by Ahmed Niyazi Bey, a local landlord and an Ottoman revolutionary. The construction of the building, still known by the locals as the Saraj (from Turkish saray, "palace"), however, outlasted not only its prospective owner (who died in 1912), but also the Ottoman Empire, taking almost two decades between 1905 and 1922.
Bitola, 41.028°, 21.32°. Manastır was a favorite of the Ottomans and considered to be one of the greatest cities of the European portion of the empire economically, politically and culturally, with such an importance bestowed upon that one of the imperial military academies and a dozen of consulates were located here. While an Ottoman clock tower, bazaars and a few, mostly derelict, mosques stand in Bitola, don't expect to find the usual Oriental atmosphere here — the local pedestrian street Širok Sokak is lined by colourful neo-classical buildings that date back to the late 19th century, when the westernization efforts in the empire reached a climax.
Prilep. The old bazaar is the Ottoman commercial district, with an elegant 19th century clock tower, often considered to be the most beautiful in North Macedonia, in its centre.
Veles. As Köprülü, this was the hometown of the Köprülü family, which provided the empire six grand viziers, and several other high ranking officials. Ottoman monuments include a clock tower, started in the 18th century as a watchtower, and is another candidate to be the finest clock tower in the country, as well as a mosque.
Štip. Various Ottoman buildings, including mosques, a bridge, a covered bazaar, and historic houses.
Kratovo, 42.066666°, 22.183333°. In its heyday this Macedonian town was one of the most important mining towns of the empire, and was the site of a mint which manufactured the coins of the Ottoman currency akçe.
Berat and Gjirokastër. A duo in southern Albania, UNESCO-listed as a single World Heritage site due to their extremely well-preserved Ottoman old towns, cascading down from the hillsides very beautifully.
Ioannina, 39.6695°, 20.8550°. Known as Yanya by the Ottomans, this pretty old town was the home of Ali Pasha, most likely a local Albanian. In and around the citadel, many buildings that date back to his rule as the Ottoman governor in the 18th century still stand as does the older Fethiye Mosque built in 1430. Most of the Pasha's palace, though, lays in ruins.
Northwest Pelion, 39.31026°, 23.10236°. During the Ottoman era, this Thessalian peninsula dominated by Mount Pelion had a mixed population of Greeks and Turks. Combining the elements of traditional Greek and Ottoman architectures, outstanding mansions were built by the local merchants along the sycamore-shaded, cobbled streets of the hillside villages. Among particularly worth visiting are Makrinitsa, Portaria, Milies, and Agios Vlasios.
Kastoria. Has plenty of traditional Ottoman townhouses with bay windows.
Veria. From the days the town was the Ottoman Karaferiye, a "twin baths", several mosques, and many pretty houses survive in the highly picturesque, hilltop Barbuta district, which also had a large Ottoman Jewish community.
Thessaloniki, 40.6333°, 22.9529°. A city with a continuous 3,000-year history, preserving relics of its Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman past. 2015-09-21
Serres. A major trade and agricultural (growing cotton, and later, tobacco) centre during its more than five centuries under Ottoman rule, Serez has a number of intact Ottoman-era mosques, and, true to its commercial roots, a covered bazaar which now serves as the local museum.
Drama. The site of the 'bridge' (actually an aqueduct) that is the theme of a popular late Ottoman folk song.
Kavala, 40.9371°, 24.4080°. A historic Greek town adorned with many Ottoman structures. Among them is the residence of native Mehmet Ali Pasha, an Ottoman commander who later became the ruler of Egypt and waged war against the Ottoman authority.
Komotini. The town has a sizable ethnic Turkish population and a substantial number of monuments from the Ottoman era, when it was a major hub connecting Constantinople with its European domains.
Didymoteicho. Since Dimetoka was one of the earliest Ottoman castles in the European mainland, it hosts one of the oldest Ottoman mosques in the continent, a bathhouse, and a number of other Ottoman structures.
Plovdiv, 42.1500°, 24.7500°. While Bulgaria remained under Ottoman rule for centuries (longer than some regions in modern Turkey), most Bulgarian cities underwent large-scale reconstructions after the Bulgarian independence. Plovdiv is an exception, having remarkably preserved its old town full of traditional Ottoman architecture, including the Dzhumaya/Hüdavendigar Mosque. Dating back to 1363, this is considered to be the oldest mosque in Europe except those built in Spain by the Moors, and of course, those in Turkey. 2015-10-02
Stara Zagora. The Ottoman Eski Zağra burnt down during the Russo-Ottoman war of 1877-78 (after which Bulgaria gained its independence), so there is not much to see from the Ottoman epoch or the previous eras, although the Eski Dzamija Mosque with a beautifully painted interior was spared, and now serves as a museum.
Nesebar. The pretty old town on a Black Sea island is filled to the brim with wooden late Ottoman townhouses that share the same jettied style with those in Turkey's northern regions.
Balchik. Whitewashed, jettied Ottoman houses are greatly aided to create an Oriental atmosphere in this town by the seaside palace of Queen Marie of Romania (1875–1938), who seemingly instructed her Italian architects to emulate classical Ottoman architecture as best as they could.
Veliko Tarnovo. The seat of medieval Bulgaria has an old town full of wooden Ottoman houses, and several inns.
Lovech. The town was known to the Ottomans as Altın Lofça, "Lovech the Golden", as it was on a major trade route. The old town district, Varosha, has much Ottoman architecture and the local river is spanned by one of the few covered bridges in the world, lined by shops, although the current structure is a 1925 replica built after the original suffered a fire.
Budapest. Budin was the capital of a frontier province. While nothing remains of the riverside Turkish settlement of Tabán (whatever left of it was replaced by an urban park in the 1930s), the tomb of Gül Baba, a Sufi saint who lived his years on the Buda hills, is still a reminder of the Ottoman rule of the city. A more significant Ottoman legacy is perhaps the bath culture — some of the public baths of Budapest are indeed housed in Ottoman buildings, albeit highly modified in the meantime.
Esztergom, 47.7856°, 18.7403°. The Ottomans controlled the famed Esztergom Castle between 1543 and 1683, except for a decade-long interim from 1595 onward. The castle, along with the stockade fort of Ciğerdelen 📍 just across the river in what is now Štúrovo, Slovakia, served as the Ottomans' furthest base along their much beloved Danube. The still-popular military march Estergon Kalesi tells the tale of the last, desperate Ottoman defence of the castle. The Viziváros ("Watertown") district, just below the castle and right on the bank of the river, was the main Turkish settlement in the town, with scant ruins of the Ottoman buildings scattered about and a reconstructed mosque (except for the top of its minaret) that is a museum and cafe.
Pécs, 46.0711°, 18.233°. The historic Hungarian town is the site of the Kászim pasa Mosque with a very well preserved interior, converted to a Roman Catholic church with the addition of a Jesus on the cross. West of Pécs, Szigetvár 📍 is where Suleiman the Magnificent died of natural causes during his siege of the local castle in 1566. A local hilltop is widely believed to be where his heart and internal organs were buried (the rest of his body was taken to Istanbul for interment). The Hungarian-Turkish Friendship Park in town, featuring the sculptures of the Sultan Suleiman and Zrínyi Miklós, the general in charge of the castle during the siege, commemorates the Battle of Szigetvár.
Eger, 47.9030°, 20.3734°. Marking the furthest extent of the Ottoman rule in Europe, the lonely minaret of this Hungarian town is the northernmost one built by the Ottomans, with the adjoining mosque long since disappeared in favour of a small square.
Medgidia. Founded in 1856 to house refugees from the Crimean War that concluded in that year, as one of the very few planned communities built by the Ottomans. The name of the town, as well as that of an active local mosque, commemorates the reigning Ottoman sultan when the foundation stones were laid: Abdulmejid I (r. 1839–1861)
Bendery. Captured by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1538, and reinforced by Mimar Sinan soon afterwards, the Bender Kalesi on the Dniester served as a major base in the northern frontier, and played a crucial role during the wars with Austria and Russia.
Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi. Long fought over, and finally taken in 1484 by a combined Ottoman-Crimean army of 350,000 troops and over 100 ships, the Akkerman Castle became the main Ottoman stronghold in the north of the Black Sea for more than the next three centuries.
Bakhchysarai, 44.7500°, 33.8500°. The seat of the Crimean Khanate, which, although nominally autonomous from the Ottoman Empire, adopted much of the Ottoman aesthetics and culture.
Mytilene. This is the capital of Lesvos, one of the largest Greek islands, which saw a large Turkish settlement during the Ottoman era, and raised many Ottoman seamen, including Haireddin Barbarossa. The castle area has many Ottoman remains.
Chios. Another Greek island with much Ottoman heritage.
Rhodes. The island was taken by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1522, after the second Ottoman attempt, from the Knights Hospitaller. As such, its architecture combines elements of medieval Gothic, Ottoman, and latter Italian influences.
Nicosia, 35.166667°, 33.366667°. Both the Turkish and Greek halves of the Cypriot capital feature many Ottoman buildings, including the Great Inn, various mosques, some of which started life as Roman Catholic cathedrals, and bathhouses that are still in operation.

Middle East and Africa

Already regions with a history that reaches far before the Ottoman conquest, many places in the Middle East and parts of Africa nevertheless offer something to experience for travellers seeking Ottoman heritage.

Damascus, 33.5209°, 36.3065°. One of the most important cities of the empire, Damascus hosts a wide number of Ottoman-built mosques, bazaars, and tombs, including that of the last Ottoman sultan who was exiled from Turkey after the republic was proclaimed, although it is yet to be seen how many of them will escape the destruction wrought about by the current civil war.
Aleppo, 36.2167°, 37.1667°. Syria's largest city was another favorite of the Ottomans. Most of the old town, including bazaars and mosques, dates back to the Ottoman rule, but as with Damascus, not much might be left intact after the civil war ends. 2016-01-06
Beirut, 33.886944°, 35.513056°. Downtown Beirut has a rich collection of Ottoman-era buildings, although many mansions dating back to the era are in an advanced stage of dereliction.
Akko, 32.926°, 35.084°. Many Ottoman-built structures, including a mosque, a bathhouse, a bazaar, and a large caravanserai dot the historic city of Acre, enclosed by Ottoman city walls.
Jerusalem, 31.7833°, 35.2167°. While Jerusalem is not Ottoman in origin, except for the walls that enclose the Old City (built by Suleiman the Magnificent), the Ottomans had taken great lengths to ensure that the buildings—including those held sacred by non-Muslims—and the community of this sacred city, that they ruled for 400 years, remain intact.
Jaffa, 32.0500°, 34.7500°. Jaffa was the primary port of the area during the time of the Ottomans. This status is marked by a clocktower which was built at the command of Abdülhamit II (r. 1876–1909), whose affection for clocktowers saw many of them built in major Ottoman cities. 2016-01-06
Beer Sheva, 31.25888889°, 34.79777778°. Established by the empire at the dawn of the 20th century to counter the growing British influence in nearby Sinai and the rest of Egypt, the old town of Beer Sheva features a grid plan that is rather uncommon in the region, and is one of the few planned communities founded by the Ottomans. 2018-02-05
Mecca 📍 and Medina 📍. The sultans often viewed themselves as servants, and not rulers, of the holiest cities of Islam, and as such almost every one of them, as well as many other members of the dynasty, tried and left a mark to these cities during their time on the throne, although most of these monuments are neglected by the current Saudi authorities, to say the least; some of the most important have been razed to the ground, to the protests of present-day Turkish leaders.
Cairo, 30.05°, 31.233°. The main centre of Ottoman power and culture in North Africa.
Rosetta. Rosetta became the main Egyptian port during the Ottoman rule, surpassing Alexandria. Its castle — where the Rosetta Stone was found — along with many mosques and mansions were built by the Ottomans, marking its importance.
Suakin, 19.1081°, 37.3332°. Once the main Ottoman harbor on the Red Sea and the seat of the Ottoman province of Habesh, some locals in this Sudanese town still celebrate their Ottoman roots.
Susa, 32.896667°, 21.963056°. Home to an exiled community of Greek-speaking Muslims (locally known as "Turkish Greeks") who arrived from Crete and mainland Greece shortly after the Greco-Turkish War in 1897.
Algiers, 36.7000°, 3.2167°. Captured by the famed Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa in 1516, Algiers became the most important centre of Ottoman power in the Maghreb. More or less autonomous from the throne in distant Constantinople, it was put under the rule of prominent Ottoman seamen, who, using the area as a base, pursued a policy of piracy in the Mediterranean, especially against Spanish shipping. In the following centuries, these Barbary corsairs as they are known in the West, raided coastal areas as far away as Iceland and the newly emerging United States of America. Among what remain of the Ottomans in Algiers are various mosques, including the beautiful Ketchaoua Mosque in the old town. Nearby Constantine 📍 also features the palace of the last Ottoman governor of the town, who served before the French occupation in 1837. 2015-12-30
Dellys. Dellys has a remarkable Ottoman old town (Casbah).
Oran. The Bey's Palace and the Hassan Pasha Mosque are both ornate Ottoman-era buildings combining the elements of Ottoman and local architectural styles.

See

The most common elements of the imperial Ottoman architecture include arches and domes, which were strongly influenced by Byzantine architecture. It is also possible to see some influence from the structures of the Turks in Asia adapted from the nomadic lifestyle, such as yurts. The vernacular architecture most commonly associated with the Ottomans is still visible in the urban fabric of various old towns throughout Turkey and the Balkans. It made extensive use of wood — often brightly colored timbered or half-timbered buildings that reached several floors high in the Ottoman cities. These were swept by fires of devastating scales century after century because of this. In the later centuries of the empire, there were attempts to combine the Baroque and rococo into the Ottoman architecture, but these experiments didn't spread much beyond Istanbul and the former capital of Bursa.

Traditional Ottoman visual arts include ebru/paper marbling and miniature, both developed in compliance with the Islamic ban on depictions of living things. The Ottoman miniature, known as nakış by the Ottomans, had a very different perspective understanding than that has been commonly accepted in the West, and was often seen as a way of backing up of the written material in a book rather than pure art. The Topkapı Palace has a miniature collection but strolling through the newer stations of the Istanbul Metro will reveal many modern interpretations of miniature.

Calligraphy (hat) was also a common art; Turkish calligraphy, gracing most of the major mosques, is often thought to be the most refined form of the Islamic calligraphy.

The Ottomans had a long tradition of tilemaking (çini), with the main workshops in the towns of İznik and Kütahya south of Istanbul. While visiting the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul or any major mosque elsewhere will satisfy those with a passing interest in tiles, two sites of special note are the Rüstem Pasha Mosque in Eminönü, Istanbul and the Yeşil Türbe ("Green Tomb") in Bursa.

The Islamic Arts Museum in Sultanahmet, Istanbul hosts a good exhibition of woodcarving and carpets dating back to the Ottoman period.

Karagöz and Hacivat are the main characters of traditional Turkish shadow play, developed during the early Ottoman era. Once one of the main forms of entertainment, it is now more commonly associated with the night festivities held during the Ramadan in Turkey as well as in North Africa. In Greece, where the tradition is also alive, it is called Karagiozis.

Do

Soak up in a hamam (bathhouse). The Ottomans were avid builders and frequenters of bathhouses, and as such, many locations which were once the possessions of the empire still feature Ottoman-era bathhouses that usually take advantage of the local thermal springs.

The Mehter was the Ottoman military band taken to the battlefields with the rest of the army to instill courage for the Ottoman units, and fear in the opposing army. Cymbals, drums, and especially zurna, a high-pitched wind instrument, are the most dominant instruments in Mehter music. While many of the municipalities affiliated with the nationalist party found Mehter bands out of their staff, the real thing is a unit of the Turkish Armed Forces — which is perhaps the only one in the Turkish Army to allow, and indeed encourage, its members to grow facial hair — and performs weekly in Istanbul's Military Museum.

As for the music of the court, the tradition of classical Ottoman music (Osmanlı klasik musikisi) also - somewhat inaccurately - called Turkish art music (Türk sanat müziği), a heterophonic music that is usually, but not always, performed by a solo singer and a small ensemble, is also alive today. A varied and large number of scales (makam) form the basis of classical Ottoman music, which are also the main source of musicality in the pieces, as they are often not harmonized by multiple chords. A full show (fasıl), ideally conducted in the same scale throughout, follows the sequence of an instrumental prelude (peşrev), instrumental improvisations (taksim) and vocal compositions (şarkı / beste), and is ended by an instrumental postlude (saz semaisi). While often called classical Turkish music, it is influenced by Byzantine, Arabic, Persian, Balkan folk music as well, and this is often cited as the reason why the politicians of the early republican period were hostile to this type of music. Despite this, Ottoman music has survived to this day, even if most of its composers, especially the Non-Muslim ones are unknown in Turkey, as most of its usage is now restricted to rakı tables, and unfortunately, it does not carry most of the elegant reputation that Western classical music does in people's minds, despite their similarly rich histories. Catching up with the frequent public concerts of the Üsküdar Musical Society on the Asian side of Istanbul, often considered the most respected of the social clubs offering classes in classical Ottoman music, maybe a good way of entering the vast world of this genre.

Other folk dances and genres in the Ottoman Empire are also still popular in former Ottoman lands and are sometimes included in the periphery of classical Ottoman music. These include hora / oro, a usually high-tempo circle dance_, sirto / syrtos,_ one of the national dances of Greece which was also favored by sultans of the Empire, especially Abdülmecid, who wrote the piece Hicazkar Sirto, kasap / hasapiko, the genre of one of the best-known Istanbulite folk songs Istanbul Kasap Havası, köçekçe / cocek, a highly diverse style that was used for many purposes, including what is now known as 'Oriental belly dance'; contrary to popular belief and depictions of female dancers, this was originally exclusively meant for cross-dressing men - called köçeks - to dance to.

Ottoman music is also performed in the Arab world and particularly the Levant, where it is considered classical Arab music, and somewhat similarly to the way Ottoman cuisine affected the cuisines of Balkan lands that were long part of the Ottoman Empire, Ottoman music also greatly influenced what is now considered traditional music in lands like Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia.

Combining ancient Greek, Persian, and Turkic styles and traditions, oil wrestling was the epitome of Ottoman sports. Kırkpınar, held annually near Edirne has been considered to be the most prestigious tournament, with its champions often supplied by the Balkan regions such as Deliorman/Ludogorie. Continuously running since 1360 (although it had to be relocated 35 km eastwards after its original location in the namesake river meadows in Samona, today Ammovouno in the Greek region of Western Thrace, was lost by Ottomans at the end of the Balkan War in 1912), it is in the UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list, and holds the Guinness World Record for being the oldest running sports competition.

Eat

Drink

Often purpoted to be unintentionally introduced to Europe by the Ottomans through the sacks of roasted beans left behind during the hasty retreat after the Siege of Vienna of 1529 was lifted, the coffee culture is one of the biggest legacies of the Ottoman Empire in the lands it ruled over once: whether it be called Turkish, Bosnian, Greek, Arabic or Armenian, this popular beverage, cooked in copper pots (cezve/ǆezva/ibrik) and served strong in small cups, is prepared more or less the same way. Yemen had been the main coffee supplier of the empire since the 16th century, when coffeehouses quickly appeared all over the Ottoman cities — indeed it was the loss of Yemen during World War I that turned the Turks to the tea-drinking nation that it is, quite unwillingly at first.

Despite the Islamic ban on alcoholic beverages, wine was widely produced by the Christian subjects of the empire, especially the Greeks and Albanians, and enjoyed by many, including the Muslim Turks, in _meyhane_s (Persian for "wine house"). Every now and then when a new sultan acceded to the throne and wanted to let everyone know how a good devout boy he was in an effort to secure the support of the powerful religious authorities, he would ban the production of wine and shut down all the _meyhane_s, but these all turned out to be temporary measures. The current national firewater of the Turks, rakı, came about much later, and its production and consumption exceeded those of wine only in the late 19th century. Other anise-flavored drinks, very similar to rakı both in taste and history, are widely drunk in the areas formerly ruled by the Ottomans, and are known by the names of ouzo (Greece), mastika (Bulgaria), zivania (Cyprus), and arak (the Levant).

Şerbet, a refreshing and very lightly sweet drink made of rose petals and other fruit and flower flavors, was a very popular summer beverage. Nowadays, it is customarily served in Turkey when celebrating the recent birth of a baby and may be available seasonally at some of the traditional restaurants. Hoşaf, from Persian for "nice water" is another variation on the theme, made by boiling various fruits in water and sugar.

Fermented from millet or wheat depending on the location, boza is a very thick, sourish-sweet ale with a very low alcohol content — although the Janisarries' favourite version, Tatar boza, was comparable to wine in alcohol by volume and was often infused with opium for an even stronger hit. Boza is still quite popular in pretty much every part of the former empire, and is often associated with winter in Turkey (and may not be possible to find in summers), but rather considered a summer beverage in the Balkans. On a linguistic sidenote, the English word "booze" might be derived from the name of this drink, through Bulgarian buza according to some theories, and pora, its counterpart in Chuvash, an old Turkic language spoken in the Volga Region of Russia, might be the origin of Germanic bier/"beer", etc.

One of the major stereotypes of the Ottomans in the West might be the image of an old man, with his huge turban, sitting in the shade of a tree and in no hurry puffing away his hookah (nargile), maybe with a little bit of opium for some added effect. Nargile is still popular in some of the formerly Ottoman areas, in particular Turkey, the Middle East and parts of the Balkans. In Istanbul, you can find nargile cafes with interior designs recalling the Ottoman days in the districts of Tophane and Beyazıt-Çemberlitaş, where you will be served hookahs of tobacco or non-tobacco (and non-psychoactive) herbs, the latter for bypassing the modern laws against indoor tobacco smoking, as well as hot drinks.

Talk

The official language of the empire was Ottoman Turkish, which differed from vernacular Turkish and is almost completely incomprehensible for modern Turkish speakers without some training. It was written in a totally different script (Persian variant of the Arabic script with some characters specific to Ottoman Turkish), and its vocabulary is very, very liberally sprinkled with Arabic and especially Persian words — in fact it can be considered a haphazard collage of Persian and Arabic words stuck onto a Turkic grammar. In most larger Turkish cities, it is possible to attend classes of varying lengths and depths for Ottoman Turkish.

However, this was the language of the palace, the ruling elite and some literary types; the common folk on the streets spoke a plethora of languages depending on the location (often the common language would differ even between districts of the same city) and ethnicity, but it was also not unusual to see a Turk speaking Greek or an Armenian speaking Turkish and so on. Indeed, the first novel written in Turkish, Akabi Hikayesi was penned in 1851 by Vartan Pasha, an ethnic Armenian, and published exclusively using the Armenian alphabet.

Arabic was used locally in parts of the empire, and was also the language of Islamic scholarship. Hungarian and Chagatai (the predecessor of modern Uzbek) also had some official capacity, and were periodically used in relations with the west and the east, respectively. During the last couple centuries of the empire, learning French was also in fashion among the elite, to the point of enacting some laws originally in French. The Ottoman Francophilia left a lasting impact on modern Turkish — take, for example, the Turkish names for the ancient cities of Ephesus (Efes, derived from French Éphèse, rather than the Greek original which the English name approximates) and Troy (Truva, from Troie).

Ottoman Empire - multiethnic empire with the monarchs from the Ottoman dynasty (1299–1922)