Can You Ace This Quiz on the Ottoman Empire?

Many Christians and Jews living in lands under Ottoman rule were recognized as semi-autonomous communities, known as millets. Each millet was subject to Ottoman laws, including special taxation for non-Muslims and being required to provide military troops. But the millets also had their own religious leaders, and were largely allowed to govern their internal affairs.

Formed in the 14th century, the Janissary served as soldiers during wartime and provided protection to the sultans, eventually amassing power that they used to try to influence domestic affairs. The Janissary’s resistance to modernization resulted in a decline in the Ottoman army’s strength, and the organization’s collapse following a Janissary rebellion in 1826.

Also known as Hurrem Sultan (or “the cheerful one”), Roxelana was a favorite concubine of Sultan Suleiman I (also known as Suleiman the Magnificent), who broke with tradition by marrying and emancipating her. Roxelana was an advisor to the sultan, and also commissioned new public works, reaching a rare level of influence for a woman in the Ottoman Empire.

Topkapi was built by Mehmed the Conqueror after he captured Istanbul (then called Constantinople) from the Byzantines in 1452. Later sultans expanded the palace, which served as both the empire’s administrative center and the personal residence of the sultan. Following Muslim tradition at the time, the sultan, his family, and all female servants and slaves lived in a separate section of the palace, known as the harem.

Osman I was the son of a local chieftain in Anatolia, a region that constitutes the Asian portion of modern-day Turkey. After assuming power in 1299, Osman expanded his territory and power by conquering lands held by the Byzantine Empire, most notably the city of Bursa in 1326. The Arabic form of his name, Uthmān, is the namesake of the Ottoman Empire built by his successors.

At its peak in the 16th century, the Ottoman Empire encompassed 7.6 million miles, including much of the modern-day Middle East, as well as parts of Europe, Asia, North Africa, and the Mediterranean. Its growth was the result of a strong military and centralized power structure, but internal disputes between rivals for the throne, as well as a series of military defeats in the 17th century, began to weaken the empire.

Suleiman became sultan in 1520 BCE and quickly got to work. His overhaul of the Ottoman legal system earned him the nickname "the lawgiver,” and he encouraged a new period of artistic, scientific, and architectural advancement. Under Suleiman, the Ottomans became a naval power and gained territory in Persia, North Africa, and Europe, including Hungary, which remained part of the empire for 150 years.

When World War I broke out in 1914, the Ottomans joined Germany and Austria-Hungary against the Allied Powers of France, Russia, Britain, and others (including the United States). Their defeat in 1918 exacerbated internal divisions and led to the collapse of the empire in 1922. It was replaced by the secular Republic of Turkey, ending more than 600 years of Ottoman Islamic rule.

By the early 20th century, the Ottoman Empire had lost much of its territory, thanks to a combination of successful independence movements in Ottoman-controlled lands, and a series of disastrous military campaigns against Russia. The once-vast empire’s influence had been so drastically reduced that in its weakened state it was frequently referred to as the “sick man of Europe.”

The word "sultan" is derived from an Arabic term for strength or authority, and it was originally used to describe figures of religious power in the Islamic world. By the 11th century BCE, political leaders of smaller tribes had adopted the title. Following the emergence of the Ottoman Empire in the 14th century, all Ottoman rulers were known as sultans, and their respective dynasties as sultanates.