The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman Caliphate (1299 - 1922) was a multi-ethnic and multi-religious Turkish-ruled state.
At the height of its power (16th - 17th century), it spanned three continents, controlling much of Southeastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, stretching from the Strait of Gibraltar (and, in 1553, the Atlantic coast of Morocco beyond Gibraltar) in the west to the Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf in the east, from the edge of Austria, Slovakia and parts of Ukraine in the north to Sudan, Eritrea, Somalia and Yemen in the south. The Ottoman Empire contained 29 provinces, in addition to the tributary principalities of Moldavia, Transylvania, and Wallachia.
The empire was at the centre of interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds for six centuries. The Ottoman Empire was in many respects an Islamic successor to earlier Mediterranean empires. Namely the Roman and Byzantine empires. As such, the Ottomans regarded themselves as the heirs to both Roman and Islamic traditions, and hence rulers of a Universal Empire through this unification of cultures.
Universal Empire
unification of cultures