Abolition of the Ottoman sultanate
The abolition of the Ottoman Sultanate by the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on 1 November 1922 ended the Ottoman Empire, which had lasted since 1299. On 11 November 1922, at the Conference of Lausanne, the sovereignty of the GNAT exercised by the Government in Ankara over Turkey was recognized; the last sultan, Mehmed VI, departed the Ottoman capital, Constantinople, on 17 November 1922. The legal position was solidified with the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne on 24 July 1923; the Ottoman entry into World War I along the Central Powers occurred on 11 November 1914. The Middle Eastern theatre of World War I ended with the signing of the Armistice of Mudros on 30 October 1918; the Occupation of Constantinople by British and Italian forces occurred on 13 November 1918. The partitioning of the Ottoman Empire began with the Treaty of London and continued with multiple agreements unilateral among the Allies. British troops began to occupy the key buildings of the Empire and arrest nationalists after the establishment of military rule on the night of 15 March 1920.
On 18 March 1920 the Ottoman parliament met and sent a protest to the Allies that it was unacceptable to arrest five of its members. That marked the end of the Ottoman political system. Sultan Mehmed VI dissolved the General Assembly of the Ottoman Empire on 11 April 1920; the Constantinople government, with the bureaucracy, but without the parliament, was left active with the Sultan as the decision maker. The Treaty of Sèvres on 10 August 1920 finalized the partitioning of the Empire. At the time, in waves 150 politicians were exiled to Malta; the Turkish national movement, led by Mustafa Kemal, established the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in Ankara on 23 April 1920. The Grand National Assembly of Turkey waged the Turkish War of Independence; the war was against the monarchist Constantinople government. Sultan Mehmed VI was the Caliph; the Constantinople government, without a parliament, formed the Kuva-yi Inzibatiye, known as the "Army of the Caliphate", to defeat the Grand National Assembly's Kuva-yi Milliye.
Conflicts occurred at Bolu, Düzce, Adapazarı, along the other revolts during the Turkish War of Independence. The Caliphate army was sympathetic to Islamism, hence the name, armed by the British; the strategic goal of the Caliphate army and of the British was to prevent the National Forces advancing towards the Bosporus straits. The Army of the Caliphate was defeated by the Kuva-yi Milliye. Although the Kuva-yi Milliye was regarded as the first step of resistance in the liberation of Turkey, irregular warfare was abandoned later. Before the Greek war began, Kuva-yi Milliye became the seed of an organized Turkish army, which became the Turkish Armed Forces with the declaration of a Republic; the Ottoman Empire's sovereignty was embodied in the dynasty of Osman I, its founder and namesake. His family had ruled since 1299 in an unbroken lineage throughout the empire's history; the Ottoman dynasty maintained supreme authority over the Ottoman Empire's polity. The sultan was head of state and head of government.
The Grand Viziers and polity established by the Ottoman Constitution functioned at the pleasure of the Sultan. An Allied invitation was given to both the Constantinople and Ankara governments to appear at the Conference of Lausanne. Mustafa Kemal was determined. On 1 November 1922, the Grand National Assembly declared that the Sultanate's Constantinople government was no longer the legal representative; the Grand National Assembly resolved that Constantinople had not been the capital of the nation since its occupation by the Allies. Furthermore, they declared; the abolition of the Sultanate ended the Ottoman Empire. After hearing of the resolution, Mehmed VI sought refuge aboard the British warship Malaya on 17 November; the remaining ministers in his government accepted the new political reality. There is no official document that declared the state capitulated by the Ottoman Government or Sultan; the Conference of Lausanne, on 11 November 1922, recognized the sovereignty of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey replacing the Ottoman Empire.
The last Sultan, Mehmed VI, departed Constantinople on 17 November 1922. A list of 600 names to the Conference of Lausanne was presented, were to be declared personae non gratae; the list, a who's who of the Ottoman Empire, had the purpose of eliminating the ruling elite of the Ottomans. Negotiations at Lausanne limited the number to 150, the treaty was signed on 24 July 1923; the Ottoman Dynasty embodied the Ottoman Caliphate since the fourteenth century, starting with the reign of Murad I. The Ottoman Dynasty kept the title Caliph, power over all Muslims, as Mehmed's cousin Abdülmecid II took the title; the Ottoman Dynasty left as a political and religious successor to Muhammad and a leader of the entire Muslim community without borders in a post Ottoman Empire. Abdülmecid II's title was challenged in 1916 by the leader of the Arab Revolt King Hussein bin Ali of Hejaz, who denounced Mehmet V, but his kingdom was defeated and annexed by Ibn Saud in 1925. Greek and Serb subjects left the empire during the decline and modernization of the Ottoman Empire, while the Albanian and Armenian subjects left or were killed during Defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.
By 1922 most of the remaining inhabitants of Turkey were Muslims of either Turkish or Kurdish ethnicity. The Grand National Assembly of Turkey declared itself the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923. T
Islamic calligraphy
Islamic calligraphy is the artistic practice of handwriting and calligraphy, based upon the alphabet in the lands sharing a common Islamic cultural heritage. It includes Arabic Calligraphy and Persian calligraphy, it is known in Arabic as meaning Islamic line, design, or construction. The development of Islamic calligraphy is tied to the Qur'an. However, Islamic calligraphy is not limited to religious subjects, objects, or spaces. Like all Islamic art, it encompasses a diverse array of works created in a wide variety of contexts; the prevalence of calligraphy in Islamic art is not directly related to its non-figural tradition. It is noteworthy, for instance, that the Prophet Muhammad is related to have said: "The first thing God created was the pen."Islamic calligraphy developed from two major styles: Kufic and Naskh. There are several variations of each, as well as regionally specific styles. Islamic calligraphy has been incorporated into modern art beginning with the post-colonial period in the Middle East, as well as the more recent style of calligraffiti.
The traditional instrument of the Islamic calligrapher is the qalam, a pen made of dried reed or bamboo. The ink is in color and chosen so that its intensity can vary creating dynamism and movement in the letter forms; some styles are written using a metallic-tip pen. Islamic calligraphy can be applied to a wide range of decorative mediums other than paper, such as tiles, vessels and stone. Before the advent of paper and parchment were used for writing. During the 9th century, an influx of paper from China revolutionized calligraphy. While monasteries in Europe treasured a few dozen volumes, libraries in the Muslim world contained hundreds and thousands of books. For centuries, the art of writing has fulfilled a central iconographic function in Islamic art. Although the academic tradition of Islamic calligraphy began in Baghdad, the center of the Islamic empire during much of its early history, it spread as far as India and Spain. Coins were another support for calligraphy. Beginning in 692, the Islamic caliphate reformed the coinage of the Near East by replacing Byzantine Christian imagery with Islamic phrases inscribed in Arabic.
This was true for dinars, or gold coins of high value. The coins were inscribed with quotes from the Qur'an. By the tenth century, the Persians, who had converted to Islam, began weaving inscriptions onto elaborately patterned silks. So precious were textiles featuring Arabic text that Crusaders brought them to Europe as prized possessions. A notable example is the Suaire de Saint-Josse, used to wrap the bones of St. Josse in the Abbey of St. Josse-sur-Mer, near Caen in northwestern France; as Islamic calligraphy is venerated, most works follow examples set by well-established calligraphers, with the exception of secular or contemporary works. In the Islamic tradition, calligraphers underwent extensive training in three stages, including the study of their teacher's models, in order to be granted certification. Kufic is the oldest form of the Arabic script; the style emphasizes rigid and angular strokes, which appears as a modified form of the old Nabataean script. The Archaic Kufi consisted of about 17 letters without diacritic accents.
Diacritical markings were added during the 7th century to help readers with pronunciation of the Qur'an and other important documents, increasing the number of Arabic letters to 28. Although some scholars dispute this, Kufic script was developed around the end of the 7th century in Kufa, from which it takes its name; the style developed into several varieties, including floral, plaited or interlaced and square kufic. Due to its straight and orderly style of lettering, Kufic was used in ornamental stone carving as well as on coins, it was the main script used to copy Qur'ans from the 8th to 10th century and went out of general use in the 12th century when the flowing naskh style become more practical. However, it continued to be used as a decorative element to contrast superseding styles. There was no set rules of using the Kufic script. Due to the lack of standardization of early Kufic, the script differs between regions, ranging from square and rigid forms to flowery and decorative ones. Common varieties include a technique known as banna'i.
Contemporary calligraphy using this style is popular in modern decorations. Decorative Kufic inscriptions are imitated into pseudo-kufics in Middle age and Renaissance Europe. Pseudo-kufics is common in Renaissance depictions of people from the Holy Land; the exact reason for the incorporation of pseudo-Kufic is unclear. It seems that Westerners mistakenly associated 13th-14th century Middle Eastern scripts with systems of writing used during the time of Jesus, thus found it natural to represent early Christians in association with them; the use of cursive scripts coexisted with Kufic, cursive was used for informal purposes. With the rise of Islam, a new script was needed to fit the pace of conversions, a well-defined cursive called naskh first appeared in the 10th century. Naskh translates to "copying," as it became the standard for transcribing manuscripts; the script is the most ubiquitous among other styles, used in Qur'ans, official decrees, private correspondence. It became the basis of modern Arabic print.
Standardization of the style was pio
Anatolia
Anatolia known as Asia Minor, Asian Turkey, the Anatolian peninsula or the Anatolian plateau, is the westernmost protrusion of Asia, which makes up the majority of modern-day Turkey. The region is bounded by the Black Sea to the north, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Armenian Highlands to the east and the Aegean Sea to the west; the Sea of Marmara forms a connection between the Black and Aegean Seas through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits and separates Anatolia from Thrace on the European mainland. The eastern border of Anatolia is traditionally held to be a line between the Gulf of Alexandretta and the Black Sea, bounded by the Armenian Highland to the east and Mesopotamia to the southeast. Thus, traditionally Anatolia is the territory that comprises the western two-thirds of the Asian part of Turkey. Nowadays, Anatolia is often considered to be synonymous with Asian Turkey, which comprises the entire country. By some definitions, the area called the Armenian highlands lies beyond the boundary of the Anatolian plateau.
The official name of this inland region is the Eastern Anatolia Region. The ancient inhabitants of Anatolia spoke the now-extinct Anatolian languages, which were replaced by the Greek language starting from classical antiquity and during the Hellenistic and Byzantine periods. Major Anatolian languages included Hittite and Lydian among other more poorly attested relatives; the Turkification of Anatolia began under the Seljuk Empire in the late 11th century and continued under the Ottoman Empire between the late 13th and early 20th centuries. However, various non-Turkic languages continue to be spoken by minorities in Anatolia today, including Kurdish, Neo-Aramaic, Arabic, Laz and Greek. Other ancient peoples in the region included Galatians, Assyrians, Cimmerians, as well as Ionian and Aeolian Greeks. Traditionally, Anatolia is considered to extend in the east to an indefinite line running from the Gulf of Alexandretta to the Black Sea, coterminous with the Anatolian Plateau; this traditional geographical definition is used, for example, in the latest edition of Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary, Under this definition, Anatolia is bounded to the east by the Armenian Highlands, the Euphrates before that river bends to the southeast to enter Mesopotamia.
To the southeast, it is bounded by the ranges that separate it from the Orontes valley in Syria and the Mesopotamian plain. Following the Armenian genocide, Ottoman Armenia was renamed "Eastern Anatolia" by the newly established Turkish government. Vazken Davidian terms the expanded use of "Anatolia" to apply to territory referred to as Armenia an "ahistorical imposition", notes that a growing body of literature is uncomfortable with referring to the Ottoman East as "Eastern Anatolia". Most archeological sources consider the boundary of Anatolia to be Turkey's eastern border; the highest mountains in "Eastern Anatolia" are Mount Ararat. The Euphrates, Araxes and Murat rivers connect the Armenian plateau to the South Caucasus and the Upper Euphrates Valley. Along with the Çoruh, these rivers are the longest in "Eastern Anatolia"; the oldest known reference to Anatolia – as “Land of the Hatti” – appears on Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets from the period of the Akkadian Empire. The first recorded name the Greeks used for the Anatolian peninsula, Ἀσία echoed the name of the Assuwa league in western Anatolia.
As the name "Asia" broadened its scope to apply to other areas east of the Mediterranean, Greeks in Late Antiquity came to use the name Μικρὰ Ἀσία or Asia Minor, meaning "Lesser Asia" to refer to present-day Anatolia. The English-language name Anatolia itself derives from the Greek ἀνατολή meaning “the East” or more “sunrise”; the precise reference of this term has varied over time originally referring to the Aeolian and Dorian colonies on the west coast of Asia Minor. In the Byzantine Empire, the Anatolic Theme was a theme covering the western and central parts of Turkey's present-day Central Anatolia Region; the term "Anatolia" is Medieval Latin. The modern Turkish form of Anatolia, derives from the Greek name Aνατολή; the Russian male name Anatoly and the French Anatole share the same linguistic origin. The term "Anatolia" referred to a northwestern Byzantine province. By the 12th century Europeans had started referring to Anatolia as Turchia, it has also been called "Asia Minor". In earlier times, it was called" Rûm" by the Seljuqs.
During the era of the Ottoman Empire mapmakers outside the Empire referred to the mountainous plateau in eastern Anatolia as Armenia. Other contemporary sources called the same area Kurdistan. Geographers have variously used the terms east Anatolian plateau and Armenian plateau to refer to the region, although the territory encompassed by each term overlaps with the other. According to archaeologist Lori Khatchadourian this difference in terminology "primarily result from the shifting political fortunes and cultural trajectories of the region since the nineteenth century."Turkey's First Geography Congress in 1941 created two regions to the east of the Gulf of Iskenderun-Black Sea line named the Eastern Anatolia Region and the Southeastern Anatolia Region, the former corresponding to the weste
Kurds
Kurds or the Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group of Western Asia inhabiting a contiguous area known as Kurdistan. Geographically, those four adjacent and often-mountainous areas include southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, northern Syria. There are exclaves of Kurds in central Anatolia and Khorasan. Additionally, there are significant Kurdish diaspora communities in the cities of western Turkey, in particular Istanbul, while a Kurdish diaspora has developed in Western Europe in Germany. Numerically, the Kurds are estimated to number anywhere from a low of 30 million, to as high as 45 million. Kurds speak the Kurdish languages, such as Kurmanji and Southern Kurdish. Religiously, although the majority of Kurds belong to the Shafi‘i school of Sunni Islam, there are prominent numbers of Kurds who practice Shia Islam and Alevism. Minority of the Kurdish people are adherents to Yarsanism, Yazidism and Christianity. After World War One and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the victorious Western allies made provision for a Kurdish state in the 1920 Treaty of Sevres.
However, that promise was nullified three years when the Treaty of Lausanne set the boundaries of modern Turkey and made no provision for a Kurdish state, leaving Kurds with minority status in their respective countries. This fact has led to numerous genocides and rebellions, along with the current ongoing armed guerrilla conflicts in Turkey and Syria / Rojava. Although Kurds are the majority population in the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, because of their statelessness, Kurdish nationalist movements continue to pursue greater cultural rights and independence throughout Greater Kurdistan. Kurdish is a collection of related dialects spoken by the Kurds, it is spoken in those parts of Iran, Iraq and Turkey which comprise Kurdistan. Kurdish holds official status in Iraq as a national language alongside Arabic, is recognized in Iran as a regional language, in Armenia as a minority language; the Kurdish languages belong to the northwestern sub‑group of the Iranian languages, which in turn belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family.
Most Kurds are either bilingual or multilingual, speaking the language of their respective nation of origin, such as Arabic and Turkish as a second language alongside their native Kurdish, while those in diaspora communities speak three or more languages. According to Mackenzie, there are few linguistic features that all Kurdish dialects have in common and that are not at the same time found in other Iranian languages; the Kurdish dialects according to Mackenzie are classified as: Northern group Central group Southern group including Kermanshahi and LakiThe Zaza and Gorani are ethnic Kurds, but the Zaza–Gorani languages are not classified as Kurdish. Commenting on the differences between the dialects of Kurdish, Kreyenbroek clarifies that in some ways and Sorani are as different from each other as is English from German, giving the example that Kurmanji has grammatical gender and case endings, but Sorani does not, observing that referring to Sorani and Kurmanji as "dialects" of one language is supported only by "their common origin... and the fact that this usage reflects the sense of ethnic identity and unity of the Kurds."
The number of Kurds living in Southwest Asia is estimated at close to 30 million, with another one or two million living in diaspora. Kurds comprise anywhere from 18% to 20% of the population in Turkey as high as 25%. Kurds form regional majorities in all four of these countries, viz. in Turkish Kurdistan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Iranian Kurdistan and Syrian Kurdistan. The Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group in West Asia after the Arabs and Turks; the total number of Kurds in 1991 was placed at 22.5 million, with 48% of this number living in Turkey, 18% in Iraq, 24% in Iran, 4% in Syria. Recent emigration accounts for a population of close to 1.5 million in Western countries, about half of them in Germany. A special case are the Kurdish populations in the Transcaucasus and Central Asia, displaced there in the time of the Russian Empire, who underwent independent developments for more than a century and have developed an ethnic identity in their own right; this groups' population was estimated at close to 0.4 million in 1990.
"The land of Karda" is mentioned on a Sumerian clay-tablet dated to the 3rd millennium B. C; this land was inhabited by "the people of Su". Other Sumerian clay-tablets referred to the people, who lived in the land of Karda, as the Qarduchi and the Qurti. Karda/Qardu is etymologically related to the Hebrew term Ararat. Qarti or Qartas, who were settled on the mountains north of Mesopotamia, are considered as a probable ancestor of the Kurds. Akkadians were attacked by nomads coming through Qartas territory at the end of 3rd millennium B. C. Akkadians distinguished them as Guti, they conquered Mesopotamia in 2150 B. C. and ruled with 21 kings. Many Kurds consider themselves descended from the Medes, an ancient Iranian people, use a calendar dating from 612 B. C. when the Assyrian capital of Nineveh was conquered by the Medes. The claimed Median descent is refl
Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion teaching that there is only one God, that Muhammad is the messenger of God. It is the world's second-largest religion with over 1.8 billion followers or 24% of the world's population, most known as Muslims. Muslims make up a majority of the population in 50 countries. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful and has guided humankind through prophets, revealed scriptures and natural signs; the primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the verbatim word of God, the teachings and normative example of Muhammad. Muslims believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith, revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Abraham and Jesus. Muslims consider the Quran in its original Arabic to be the final revelation of God. Like other Abrahamic religions, Islam teaches a final judgment with the righteous rewarded paradise and unrighteous punished in hell. Religious concepts and practices include the Five Pillars of Islam, which are obligatory acts of worship, following Islamic law, which touches on every aspect of life and society, from banking and welfare to women and the environment.
The cities of Mecca and Jerusalem are home to the three holiest sites in Islam. Aside from the theological narrative, Islam is believed to have originated in the early 7th century CE in Mecca, by the 8th century the Umayyad Islamic Caliphate extended from Iberia in the west to the Indus River in the east; the Islamic Golden Age refers to the period traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 13th century, during the Abbasid Caliphate, when much of the Muslim world was experiencing a scientific and cultural flourishing. The expansion of the Muslim world involved various caliphates, such as the Ottoman Empire and conversion to Islam by missionary activities. Most Muslims are of one of two denominations. About 13 % of Muslims live in the largest Muslim-majority country. Sizeable Muslim communities are found in the Americas, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Europe, Mainland Southeast Asia, the Philippines, Russia. Islam is the fastest-growing major religion in the world. Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root S-L-M which forms a large class of words relating to concepts of wholeness, submission and peace.
In a religious context it means "voluntary submission to God". Islām is the verbal noun of Form IV of the root, means "submission" or "surrender". Muslim, the word for an adherent of Islam, is the active participle of the same verb form, means "submitter" or "one who surrenders"; the word sometimes has distinct connotations in its various occurrences in the Quran. In some verses, there is stress on the quality of Islam as an internal spiritual state: "Whomsoever God desires to guide, He opens his heart to Islam." Other verses connect Islam and religion together: "Today, I have perfected your religion for you. Still others describe Islam as an action of returning to God—more than just a verbal affirmation of faith. In the Hadith of Gabriel, islām is presented as one part of a triad that includes imān, ihsān. Islam was called Muhammadanism in Anglophone societies; this term has fallen out of use and is sometimes said to be offensive because it suggests that a human being rather than God is central to Muslims' religion, parallel to Buddha in Buddhism.
Some authors, continue to use the term Muhammadanism as a technical term for the religious system as opposed to the theological concept of Islam that exists within that system. Faith in the Islamic creed is represented as the six articles of faith, notably spelled out in the Hadith of Gabriel. Islam is seen as having the simplest doctrines of the major religions, its most fundamental concept is a rigorous monotheism, called tawḥīd. God is described in chapter 112 of the Quran as: "He is God, the One and Only. Muslims repudiate polytheism and idolatry, called Shirk, reject the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. In Islam, God is beyond all comprehension and thus. God is described and referred to by certain names or attributes, the most common being Al-Rahmān, meaning "The Compassionate" and Al-Rahīm, meaning "The Merciful". Muslims believe that the creation of everything in the universe was brought into being by God's sheer command, "Be, it is" and that the purpose of existence is to worship or to know God.
He is viewed as a personal god who responds whenever a person in distress calls him. There are no intermediaries, such as clergy, to contact God who states, "I am nearer to him than jugular vein." God consciousness is referred to as Taqwa. Allāh is the term with no plural or gender used by Muslims and Arabic-speaking Christians and Jews to reference God, while ʾilāh is the term used for a deity or a god in general. Other non-Arab Muslims might use different names as much as Allah, for instance "Tanrı" in Turkish, "Khodā" in Persian or "Ḵẖudā" in Urdu. Belief in angels is fundamental
Ottoman Navy
The Ottoman Navy known as the Ottoman Fleet, was established in the early 14th century after the Ottoman Empire first expanded to reach the sea in 1323 by capturing Karamürsel, the site of the first Ottoman naval shipyard and the nucleus of the future Navy. During its long existence, it was involved in many conflicts and signed a number of maritime treaties. At its height, the Navy extended to the Indian Ocean, sending an expedition to Indonesia in 1565. For much of its history, the Navy was led by the position of the Kapudan Pasha; this position was abolished in 1867, when it was replaced by the Minister of the Navy and a number of Fleet Commanders. After the end of the Ottoman Empire and the declaration of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the Navy's tradition was continued under the modern Turkish Naval Forces; the first Turkish naval fleet in Anatolia, which consisted of 33 sail ships and 17 oar ships, was formed at the port of Smyrna by Tzachas in 1081, following his conquest of Smyrna, Kysos and Teos on the Aegean coast of Anatolia in that same year.
Tzachas's fleet raided Lesbos in 1089 and Chios in 1090, before defeating a Byzantine fleet near the Oinousses Islands off Chios on 19 May 1090, which marked the first major naval victory of the Anatolian Turks in a naval battle. In 1091 Tzachas's fleet raided the islands of Samos and Rhodes in the Aegean Sea, but was defeated and driven out by the Byzantine admirals Constantine Dalassenos and John Doukas. In 1095 Tzachas's fleet raided the strategic port city and Gulf of Adramyttium on the Aegean coast of Anatolia and the city of Abydos on the Dardanelles Strait. Seljuq sultan of Rûm Kayqubad I formed a naval arsenal there. Alanya became the homeport of the Seljuk fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. Kayqubad I formed a fleet in the Black Sea based in Sinope, under the command of Amir Chupan, conquered parts of the Crimean peninsula and Sugdak on the Sea of Azov; the conquest of the island of Kalolimno in the Sea of Marmara in 1308 marked the first Ottoman naval victory. The Ottoman fleet made its first landings on Thrace in 1321.
The first Ottoman fortress in Europe was built in 1351, the Anatolian shores of the strategic Bosporus Strait near Constantinople in 1352, both shores of the strategic Dardanelles Strait were conquered by the Ottoman fleet. In 1373 the first landings and conquests on the Aegean shores of Macedonia were made, followed by the first Ottoman siege of Thessaloniki in 1374; the first Ottoman conquest of Thessaloniki and Macedonia were completed in 1387. Between 1387 and 1423 the Ottoman fleet contributed to the territorial expansions of the Ottoman Empire on the Balkan peninsula and the Black Sea coasts of Anatolia. Following the first conquests of Venetian territories in Morea, the first Ottoman-Venetian War started. In the meantime, the Ottoman fleet continued to contribute to the expansion of the Ottoman Empire in the Aegean and Black Seas, with the conquests of Sinop and the reconquest of Thessaloniki from the Venetians. Albania was reconquered by the Ottoman fleet with landings between 1448 and 1479.
In 1453 the Ottoman fleet participated in the historic conquests of Constantinople, Gökçeada and Thasos. The conquest of the Duchy of Athens and the Despotate of the Morea was completed between 1458 and 1460, followed by the conquest of the Empire of Trebizond and the Genoese colony of Amasra in 1461, which brought an end to the final vestiges of the Byzantine Empire. In 1462 the Ottoman fleet conquered the Genoese islands of the northern Aegean Sea, which were administered by the Gattilusio family, including their capital Mytilene in the island of Lesbos; this was followed by the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1463-1479. In the following period the Ottoman fleet gained more territory in the Aegean Sea, in 1475 set foot on Crimea on the northern shores of the Black Sea; until 1499 this was followed by further expansion on the Black Sea coasts and on the Balkan peninsula. The loss of Venetian forts in Montenegro, near the strategic Castelnuovo, triggered the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1499-1503, during which the Turkish fleet of Kemal Reis defeated the Venetian forces at the Battle of Zonchio and the Battle of Modon.
By 1503 the Ottoman fleet raided the northeastern Adriatic coasts of Italy, captured the Venetian lands on Morea, the Ionian Sea coast and the southeastern Adriatic Sea coast. According to Kâtip Çelebi a typical Ottoman fleet in the mid-17th century consisted of 46 vessels whose crew was 15,800 men two-thirds were oarsmen, the remainder fighters. Starting from the conquest of Syria in 1516, the Ottoman fleet of Selim I started expanding the Ottoman territories towards the Levant and the Mediterranean coasts of North Africa. Between 1516 and 1517 Algeria was conquered from Spain by the forces of Oruç Reis, who declared his allegiance to the Ottoman Empire, followed by the conquest of Egypt and the end of the Mameluke Empire in 1517. In 1522 the strategic island of Rhodes the seat of the Knights of St. John, was conquered by the naval fleet of Kurtoğlu Muslihiddin Reis. In 1527 the Ottoman fleet participated in the conquest of Dalmatia, Croatia and Bosnia. In 1529 the Ottoman fleet under Salih
Culture of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman culture evolved over several centuries as the ruling administration of the Turks absorbed and modified the cultures of conquered lands and their peoples. There was a strong influence from the customs and languages of Islamic societies, notably Arabic, while Persian culture had a significant contribution through the Persianized Seljuq Turks, the Ottomans' predecessors. Despite newer added amalgamations, the Ottoman dynasty, like their predecessors in the Sultanate of Rum and the Seljuk Empire, were Persianised in their culture, language and customs, therefore, the empire has been described as a Persianate empire." Throughout its history, the Ottoman Empire had substantial subject populations of Orthodox subjects, Armenians and Assyrians, who were allowed a certain amount of autonomy under the confessional millet system of Ottoman government, whose distinctive cultures enriched that of the Ottoman state. As the Ottoman Empire expanded it assimilated the culture of numerous regions under its rule and beyond, being influenced by Byzantium, the Arab culture of the Islamic Middle East, the Persian culture of Iran.
As with many Ottoman Turkish art forms, the poetry produced for the Ottoman court circle had a strong influence from classical Persian traditions. By the 19th century and the era of Tanzimat reforms, the influence of Turkish folk literature, until largely oral, began to appear in Turkish poetry, there was increasing influence from the literature of Europe. Tevfik Fikret, born in 1867, is considered the founder of modern Turkish poetry. Prior to the 19th century, Ottoman prose was non-fictional, was much less developed than Ottoman poetry, in part because much of it followed the rules of the Arabic tradition of rhymed prose. A number of genres - the travelogue, the political treatise and biography - were current. From the 19th century, the increasing influence of the European novel, that of the French novel, began to be felt. Şemsettin Sami's Taaşuk-u Tal'at ve Fitnat considered the first Turkish novel, was published in 1872. Ottoman architecture was a synthesis of Iranian-influenced Seljuk architectural traditions, as seen in the buildings of Konya, Mamluk architecture, Byzantine architecture.
The most significant figure in the field, the 16th-century architect and engineer Mimar Sinan, was a Muslim convert of Armenian descent, having a background in the Janissaries. His most famous works were the Suleiman Mosque in Constantinople. One of his pupils, Sedefkar Mehmed Agha, designed the early 17th century Blue Mosque, considered the last great building of classical Ottoman architecture. Calligraphy had a prestigious status under the Ottomans, its traditions having been shaped by the work of Abbasid calligrapher Yaqut al-Musta'simi of Baghdad, whose influence had spread across the Islamic world, al-Musta'simi himself being of Anatolian origin; the Diwani script is a cursive and distinctively Ottoman style of Arabic calligraphy developed in the 16th and early 17th centuries. It was invented by Housam Roumi; the decorative script was distinguished by its complexity of line and by the close juxtaposition of the letters within words. Other forms included the flowing, rounded Nashki script, invented by the 10th-century Abbasid calligrapher Ali Muhammad ibn Muqlah, Ta'liq, based on the Persian Nastalīq style.
Noted Ottoman calligraphers include Seyyid Kasim Gubari, Şeyh Hamdullah, Ahmed Karahisari, Hâfiz Osman. The Ottoman tradition of painting miniatures, to illustrate manuscripts or used in dedicated albums, was influenced by the Persian art form, though it included elements of the Byzantine tradition of illumination and painting. A Greek academy of painters, the Nakkashane-i-Rum was established in the Topkapi Palace in the 15th century, while early in the following century a similar Persian academy, the Nakkashane-i-Irani, was added; the art of carpet weaving was significant in the Ottoman Empire, carpets having an immense importance both as decorative furnishings, rich in religious and other symbolism, as a practical consideration, as it was customary to remove one's shoes in living quarters. The weaving of such carpets originated in the nomadic cultures of central Asia, was spread to the settled societies of Anatolia. Turks used carpets and patterned kilims not just on the floors of a room, but as a hanging on walls and doorways, where they provided additional insulation.
They were commonly donated to mosques, which amassed large collections of them. Hereke carpets were of high status, being made of silk or a combination of silk and cotton, intricately knotted. Other significant designs included "Palace", "Yörük", Milas or "Türkmen" carpets. "Yörük" and "Türkmen" represented more stylized designs, whereas naturalistic designs were prevalent in "Palace". The Ottoman Empire was noted for the quality of its gold- and silversmiths, for the jewelry they produced. Jewelry had particular importance as it was given at weddings, as a gift that could be used as a form of savings. Silver was the most common material used, wit
