Ottoman

The House of Osman ruled the Ottoman state for over six centuries and claimed descent from the Kayı branch of the Oghuz Turks. Ertuğrul, its earliest historically known figure, settled at Söğüt on the Byzantine frontier; his son Osman I, whose name gave rise to Ottoman, founded the beylik around 1299. Osman and Orhan took Bursa in 1326 and crossed into the Balkans, and Murad I's Kosovo victory in 1389 made the Ottomans a Balkan power.

Timur ended Bayezid I's run of victories and captured him at Ankara in 1402; Mehmed I closed the Interregnum. Mehmed II took Constantinople in 1453; Selim I's Mamluk conquests of 1516—1517 added Egypt, Mecca, Medina and the caliph title. Under Suleiman the Magnificent, victor of Mohács and besieger of Vienna, the empire ranked among the strongest powers, with a mature law code.

The failed 1683 Vienna siege and 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz opened a long retreat before Austria and Russia. Mahmud II broke the Janissary corps in 1826 and was pressing centralizing reforms in 1837.