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The Seljuqs Before The Ottoman Empire

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The Seljuqs Before the Ottoman Empire, there was a great empire of Sunni Muslims that spread from Iran into Turkey known as the Seljuqs. The Seljuqs were established in Iran and were not content with this. The Seljuqs were constantly battling the Byzantines for their land. In a battle in 1071, the Seljuqs battled with the Byzantine and won by faking a retreat to lead the Byzantines to the exact position that they wanted. They then unleased a rain of arrows on the Byzantines and flanked them from three different sides. This shows how advanced they were in military combat. As a result of this victory, they captured Romanus and released him for a ransom of land. The Seljuqs were ghazis, warriors of faith. They believed that they were fighting …show more content…

This defeat weakened the Ottoman Empire severely. However, Mehmed I and Murad II reunited the Ottoman dominions by enforcing the timars and ghulam systems. Through these systems, when the Ottomans would take a land they would record the population, sources of wealth and the tax rates for that area. The tax money would be given to many of the loyal warriors of the sultan. The ghulam system was the Ottoman slave system. Murad II restored the economy of the Ottomans. He also reclaimed lands that were taken by Tamerlane. The process of bringing the empire back to its strength did not happen without opposition from the inside. Chandarli Khalil Pasha who was the grand vizier, wanted to contain the urge of new conquests. He did not want to sacrifice all that had been regained. He felt that the greed of the leaders would lead to the loss of the dominance of the empire once …show more content…

During this time, the Empire had a population of over thirty million people. In this time, there was a very simple structure to the Ottoman state. There were the Reaya (the subjects), and the Askeri (the military). The subjects paid taxes and the military received the taxes. This was a very important structure to the Ottomans and was maintained strictly by the Sultan. The Ottomans were a people of administrative law and were very strict on the execution of these laws. At the local level, administration rested on the Sharia. Although the Ottomans were an Islamic empire, they did allow other religions within the empire; they were just taxed more if they did not

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