The rest of the Ottoman Empire’s elite had to earn their positions regardless of birth. This 16th-century miniature painting depicts the army of Süleiman the Magnificent marching into Europe.

Douglas A. Howard stresses the crucial role of the Ottoman sultans and their extended household, discusses the evolution of the empire's fiscal model, and analyzes favorite works of Ottoman literature ...

The Last Days of the Ottoman empire: 1918-1922. By Ryan Gingeras. Allen Lane; 368 pages; $47.95 and £30 As it turned out, more than six centuries of Ottoman rule ended with a whimper rather than ...

The Ottoman empire lasted almost 600 years, from the early 1300s until the aftermath of the first world war. The word Ottoman derives from the Arabic version of Osman – the name of its first ruler.