The Ottoman Empire was one of the most diverse political entities of its time. Sultans such as Suleiman I encouraged people of all ethnicities to settle there, and under the millet system, each religious community had its own leader, regulated its own affairs, and educated its own children. This diversity is reflected in the languages spoken in the empire. Turkish was for interacting with the government, Arabic for scholarship and in religious settings, and Persian for literature.

The empire reached its greatest heights under Suleiman I, known in the West as “the Magnificent” and among Ottomans as “the lawgiver” for his creation of a legal code that applied throughout the realm. Under Suleiman and his successors, science flourished, and important advances were made in fields such as astronomy and medicine. The Ottoman Empire began to decline in power following the defeat of its forces by European navies at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. In the seventeenth century, the Ottomans found their power being eclipsed by that of Russia in the Black Sea region.

All images referenced in this podcast can be found at https://openstax.org/books/world-history-volume-2/pages/4-2-the-ottoman-empire

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