How the Ottomans Built a 600-Year Empire

How a frontier beylik became a global superpower.

INTRO — A FRONTIER BAND THAT BECAME AN EMPIRE

The Ottoman Empire began in the least likely way:
as a tiny warrior clan on the edge of the crumbling Byzantine world.

In 1299, Osman I ruled a small beylik in northwest Anatolia.
No one believed this frontier faction would one day conquer:

• Constantinople

• Egypt

• Syria

• The Balkans

• Mesopotamia

• North Africa

Yet for over 600 years, the Ottomans shaped the politics, economics, and culture of a vast region.

How did they last so long?
Why did they rise?
And why, eventually, did they fall?

To understand the modern Middle East and southeastern Europe, you must understand the empire that ruled them for centuries.