Istanbul during the Ottoman Empire

The history of Istanbul during the Ottoman Empire covers the period from the capture of Constantinople by the Turks on 29 May 1453 to the abolition of the Ottoman Empire in 1922 and the transfer of the capital of Turkey to Ankara on 13 October 1923. For almost five centuries Istanbul was the capital of a vast state that took shape in the 14th–16th centuries as a result of the conquest campaigns of the Turkish sultans. The borders of the Ottoman Empire encompassed territories in three parts of the world – Europe, Asia and Africa. Thus, the ancient city on the shores of the Bosphorus once again became a political and economic centre of world importance. Gradually, Istanbul regained its fame as a major hub of international trade. Although the most important trade routes shifted from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, the Turkish Straits continued to remain a bustling trade artery of the late Middle Ages.

In addition, as the residence of the caliphate, Istanbul acquired the significance of an important religious centre of the Muslim world, incorporating and reworking much from the culture of the Seljuks, Byzantines, Arabs and Persians (from Constantinople, Istanbul inherited the residence of the Ecumenical Patriarch – first among the Orthodox patriarchs of the world). The city represented a miniature model of the Ottoman Empire, with its ethnically and religiously motley population. The Ottoman capital reached its greatest flourishing during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, and most of the enthusiastic descriptions of Istanbul by European travellers and diplomats date to the "century of Suleiman". Since the reign of Mehmed III the gradual decline of the Ottoman Empire began, though this did not immediately affect the prosperous Istanbul. But already after Ahmed I almost no large mosques were built in the city, some monumental buildings were erected over decades, whereas riots and revolts multiplied among both the Janissaries and the capital's lower classes. The deterioration of the economic situation led to stagnation in culture and science, as well as to the ever-increasing influence of Western European powers on all spheres of life in the empire and its capital.