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Turkey: A Muslim mullah flanked by two Christian priests, Ottoman Empire, possibly Konya, c. late 19th century

Turkey: A Muslim mullah flanked by two Christian priests, Ottoman Empire, possibly Konya, c. late 19th century

The Great Ottoman Empire or Turkish Empire or Sublime Ottoman State was a Turkish empire which lasted from 27 July 1299 to 1 November 1922 (623 years), when the Sultanate was abolished.

The Ottoman Empire was one of the largest and longest lasting empires in history; such that the Ottoman State, its politics, conflicts, and cultural heritage in a vast geography provide one of the longest continuous narratives. During the 16th and 17th centuries, in particular at the height of its power under the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, the empire was one of the most powerful states in the world – a multinational, multilingual empire that stretched from the southern borders of the Holy Roman Empire to the outskirts of Vienna, Royal Hungary (modern Slovakia) and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the north to Yemen and Eritrea in the south; from Algeria in the west to Azerbaijan in the east; controlling much of southeast Europe, Western Asia and North Africa.

With Constantinople as its capital and vast control of lands around the Mediterranean basin, the empire was at the center of interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds for over six centuries.

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