Ottoman Sultans

Osman was a bey (or "chieftain") of the Söğüt tribe (based in western Turkey) who declared independence from the Seljuk Turks in 1299. The name of the Ottoman Empire derives from him. Osman's grandson Murad I was the first to take the title Sultan (derived from an Arabic word meaning "strength, authority"). Murad and his successors expanded the growing realm into Europe, conquering Serbia and Bulgaria and eating into Byzantine territory. Constantinople finally fell in 1453 to Mehmed II, marking the end of the Byzantine Empire, and the city became the Ottomans' new capital.

The empire continued its expansion over the next century. Selim I conquered Egypt and Syria, and his son Süleyman the Magnificent conquered Hungary and portions of Persia and North Africa. The empire reached its peak under Süleyman and began a slow decline after his death in 1566. After Murad IV, who ruled until 1640, the sultans were generally ineffective leaders who left much of the actual governance to their viziers.

Slow to adopt technological advances and having lost much territory in war, the empire was referred to as the "sick man of Europe" in the 19th century. The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 stripped the sultan of power, and the position was officially abolished in 1922.