The culture of Turkey or the Turkish culture combines a heavily diverse and heterogeneous set of elements that have been derived from the various cultures of the Eastern European, Eastern Mediterranean, Caucasian, Middle Eastern and Central Asian traditions. Many of these traditions were initially brought together by the Ottoman Empire, a multi-ethnic and multi-religious state spanning across Southern Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
Adnan Menderes, İsmet İnönü, and the other members of the Parliament wearing a white tie and top hat.
Namık Kemal was a prominent Turkish poet, novelist, playwright and journalist of the late-19th-century Ottoman Empire.
Karagöz and Hacivat are the lead characters of the traditional Turkish shadow play, popularized during the Ottoman period.
Sami Frashëri (1850–1904) and his wife Emine, May 1884.
Culture of the Ottoman Empire
The culture of the Ottoman Empire evolved over several centuries as the ruling administration of the Turks absorbed, adapted and modified the various native cultures of conquered lands and their peoples. There was influence from the customs and languages of nearby Islamic societies such as Jordan, Egypt and Palestine, while Persian culture had a significant contribution through the Seljuq Turks, the Ottomans' predecessors. Despite more recent amalgamations, the Ottoman dynasty, like their predecessors in the Sultanate of Rum and the Seljuk Empire were influenced by Persian culture, language, habits, customs and cuisines.Throughout its history, the Ottoman Empire had substantial subject populations of Orthodox subjects, Armenians, Jews and Assyrians, who were allowed a certain amount of autonomy under the millet system of the Ottoman government, and whose distinctive cultures were adopted and adapted by the Ottoman state.
Reconstruction of an Ottoman style library, in the Topkapı Palace museum
Tile walls of the harem of the Topkapi Palace
Details of Süleymaniye Mosque, one of the best examples of Ottoman architecture
16th-century wool carpet from Ushak, Turkey