The Ottoman Empire began at 1300 in northwestern Anatolia under the leadership of Osman and his group of nomad Turkish zealous Muslim warriors and grew rapidly to encompass the entirety of the Muslim world. In 1453, Sultan Mehmed II laid siege to the port city if Constantinople, the last remnant of a dying Byzantine Empire and the symbol of the Eastern Roman Christian empire and soon captured the city and renamed it as Istanbul. In 1514, Selim I established a general border with the Safavid Empire when he defeated the Iranian armies at the Battle of Chaldiran and conquered Egypt and Syria as part of his empire. The period from 1520-1566 is viewed as the golden age of the Ottoman Empire as Suleiman the magnificent began his rule of the empire. During this reign, Algeria and Tunis voluntarily joined the empire and Belgrade (Serbia) as well as a few other Greek lands was conquered. The Ottoman Empire, unlike the Mughal or the Saffavid, made and maintained a large navy, which it used to defend its interests from the encroaching Europeans. In the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, it protected its port city of Aden and its traders from the Portuguese navy and in the Mediterranean Sea, the Venetian traders were forced to pay a large tribute for their right to trade.

During their conquest of the Christian Balkans and Eastern Europe, the Ottomans established a levy on all male Christian children and the Christian communities had to contribute at least one male child to the army. These children were then converted to Islam, educated and incorporated into the elite Janissary corps within the empire. The system of recruiting the children is known as the Dev Shirme. The Janissaries were paid through the central treasury while the original forces of Turkish horsemen were given land grants. During the reign of Suleiman, the army was powerful enough to defeat the Iranians but the navy was quickly defeated by the Christian European nations. Thus the Ottoman Empire quickly became a land empire even though it tried to reassert itself on the sea. In the Ottoman system, the Sultan was seen as the protector of the common people (the “raya” meaning the flock of the sheep) and the raya supported the Sultan and his armies politically and economically (taxes). But in reality, the people were decentralized and did not have much contact with the elite ruling class – as their religious leaders had more influence on them. However, under the sultans, the Ottomans prospered, especially in their education system. Astronomy and the study of European sailing techniques were at an all time high and there was a strong interest in the European science and then intermingled with the knowledge of the Muslim world.

During the famed Tulip Period from 1718 to about 1730, the rich enjoyed the luxury good from Europe such as the Dutch tulip motifs for the tiles in their homes. But from 1585 onwards, the empire started to experience slow decline. The size and the cost of the Janissaries and their upkeep increased dramatically and the new world silver created much inflation in the empire. The period known as 1650-1750 became known as the Period of crisis as the empire became more decentralized and the Janissary corps began to play more political and less military role in the empire. The Sultan’s influence in the political life decreased as they became a figurehead, local administrators became more powerful, the janissary corps became businesslike and political and the Dev Shirme was discontinued. By the middle of the 18^th century, the Ottoman Empire was at its last phase and the military decline was complete as shown by numerous defeats at the hands of the Russians and by 1923 the empire was finished for good.  All three empires were characterized by their unwillingness to follow in the footsteps of European Maritime Revolution and their sole land-based ambitions. Influx of new world silver began to undermine their economies as inflation rose and European involvement in their empire had both positive and negative impacts that shaped their internal policies. The Safavids and Mughals had more in common even though the Mughals and the Ottomans were Sunni Muslims.