Muslim Empires Essay
The Ottoman Turks consisted of Turkic-speaking http://coursework23286.mystrikingly.com/ nomadic people who had spread westward from Central Asia in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries. They were located in the northwestern corner of the peninsula, which allowed them to expand westward and eventually take over empires between the Mediterranean and the Black Seas. The sultan was the supreme authority in both a political and a military sense. Administrative and military power were centralized under the bey, who was only a tribal leader, tribal law was before Muslim law.
The Ottoman authorities were Sunni Muslims.
The sultan assigned duties to a supreme religious authority, who then maintained a system of schools to educate Muslims. There were some who believed in Sufism or other doctrines, but the government allowed it as long as they were still loyal to the empire. Non-Muslims had to pay a head tax since they were exempt from military service. The Ottoman Empire was divided into four main occupational groups: peasants, artisans, merchants, and pastoral people.
