Ottoman Empire - Impero ottomano

Exquisite-kfind.pngTo learn more, see: European history.

L'Ottoman Empire, also known as Turkish Empire, was one of the great empires of the Old World, from the fourteenth to the early twentieth century. At the height of his power, he controlled most of the Middle East, of Balkans and parts of North Africa, with a sphere of influence in much of theEurope, ofAsia andAfrica. The empire collapsed at the end of WWI and was replaced by the modern Turkey.

History

The Porta del Saluto, which leads to the Second Courtyard of the Topkapi Palace, imperial seat between the 15th and 19th centuries. No one, except officials and ambassadors, was allowed to go through this gate. Even if you were honored enough to let you pass, you had to dismount here, as crossing on horseback was a privilege reserved only for the sultan.

The Turks trace theirs origin toCentral Asia. Their current homeland in Anatolia (Asia Minor) has been home to many civilizations throughout history, including theAncient Greece and theByzantine empire. The Ottoman Empire was not the first Turkish empire based in Anatolia, but it was certainly the most influential. Starting from Selim I (r. 1512-1520) who took control of theHegiaz, the region surrounding the Islamic holy cities of Mecca is Medina, its sultans claimed the title of Caliph of Islam and they declared that the empire was a Muslim caliphate.

The Ottoman Empire was founded from Osman I, from which the state takes its name, inNorthwestern Anatolia in 1299, when one of the many small Turkish kingdoms emerged after the collapse of the Seljuk sultanate of Rum, the previous Turkish empire, following theMongol invasion. Taking full advantage of its position on the borders of the Byzantine Empire which was greatly weakened at the time, the Ottoman state grew quickly, crossing the European mainland and taking the Castle of Gallipoli in 1354. With the expansion of the empire into the Balkans, it also annexed the other Turkish kingdoms in Anatolia one by one, although it was briefly blocked by a interregnum decade, when five pretenders to the throne, along with their supporters, fought against each other across the country after the 1402 defeat of the Ottoman sultan Bayezid I by the warlord of theCentral AsiaTamerlane (probably from the lineage of Genghis Khan). Regardless, in 1453, the Ottomans under Muhammad II they managed to conquer Constantinople , the Byzantine capital, and in the process they desecrated many of the great churches and converted them into mosques. This impressive achievement for the Turks helped to spread theIslam in some parts of the Balkans, and it was a disgrace to the Christians, giving rise to fantasies about new crusades that ultimately never materialized. The name of Constantinople was changed to Istanbul, although the imperial official continued to call their seat Kostantiniyye until the end, and was the capital of the Ottoman Empire for over 450 years.

There fall of Constantinople it had a decisive impact on Europe. The Turks demonstrated the superiority of firearms, which soon became common in European armies. Christian scholars who left Constantinople contributed to the Renaissance in Italy and in other parts of Europe. The interruption of the Silk Road encouraged Europeans to find a sea route to Asia, inspiring the voyages of Columbus about Americas, De Gama's journey east on the Cape route around theAfrica and the next journey of Magellan in a westerly direction around the world.

Meanwhile, the Ottomans largely saw themselves as one multi-nation, multireligious as well as an Islamic empire that was responsible for the preservation and extension of the heritage of Rome, as successors of the Byzantine Empire which they defeated. But also for the protection of Islamic holy places de Mecca, Medina is Jerusalem. As an indication of the tolerance for non-Muslims which existed throughout much of its history, the Ottoman Empire welcomed Jewish refugees from persecution in Spain after Reconquista of 1492 of that country by the Christians. While the slavery was prevalent in the empire until the 19th century, slaves had legal protection and some of them could achieve high social status, such as Mehmed Pasha Sokolović (1506-1579), a SerbianBosnian who became the Grand Vizier and de facto the ruler of the Empire. Since the empire limited the slavery of Christians, Jews and Muslims, many slaves were pagan prisoners of theCentral Africa is Oriental, although through the system devşirme, many Christian boys were also separated from their families and forced to join the military and civilian apparatus of the empire. The slaves had various positions: for war galleys, sexual services and domestic service. An elite of slaves could become bureaucrat, harem guard or janissary (the elite soldiers of the Sultan).

The reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520-1566), better known in Turkey as "the Legislator" due to his administrative reforms, is often seen as a kind of golden age for the empire. At that time, the Sublime Porte, as it was informally known to the Ottoman government, which directly ruled a good portion of thecentral Europe, and most of the Middle East he was born in North Africa, and exercised sovereignty over a wide range of vassal states in parts of theEastern Europe he was born in Caucasus. Furthermore, the period saw the Ottomans exert influence in parts of the world far beyond the imperial borders, in areas as diverse as the Morocco west to the Poland to the north, along the coast of East Africa, e Aceh to Sumatra at the farthest edge of the Indian Ocean.

As trade moved from the Mediterranean and the Silk Road to the high seas, the empire entered an era of slow but steady decline. The two failed sieges of Vienna in 1529 and 1683 were the culminating point of the Ottoman expansion into Europe, and the following centuries were a series of alternating periods of uprisings, reforms, westernization efforts and, ironically, unprecedented luxury among the ruling elite - with festivals along the sweet waters of Europe they wore there sweet life to a new level during theit was tulips (1718-1730) - which put a strain on the imperial economy already in crisis. L' age of nationalism it arrived in the 19th century and imperial authority began to shatter in the peripheral areas of the "Sick of Europe" where non-Turks were the majority. However, up to his collapse extraordinarily painful during the WWI, the Ottoman Empire was a great power, in most cases a rival of theAustrian Empire, ofRussian Empire andPersian empire. It barely survived the first two, but the latter's latest incarnation fell only in the Iranian revolution of 1979, nearly six decades after the end of the Ottoman Empire.

Towards the end of the Ottoman Empire's existence, it repressed an independence movement by Armenians and systematically killed between 800,000 and 1.5 million Armenians - a crime living in the infamy of the Armenian genocide. The modern state of Turkey denies that genocide has occurred and this issue continues to be a sore point in diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey.

The Ottoman Empire ceased to exist in 1922 when the sultanate was abolished by a new republican government which, in an attempt to distance itself from the imperial past, settled in the then remote Anatolian city of Ankara.

The Ottomans promoted the Arts including music, pottery, architecture which incorporated many Byzantine motifs and techniques of calligraphy and cooking, the styles of which still have a great influence on the Balkans and the Arab world as well as modern Turkey today.

Tongue

The official language of the empire was the Turkish Ottoman, which differed from vernacular Turkish and is almost completely incomprehensible to modern Turkish speakers without some training. It has been handed down in a completely different script (Persian variant of Arabic script with some specific characters of Ottoman Turkish), and its vocabulary is very, very liberally sprinkled with Arabic and especially Persian words - in fact it can be considered a collage of Persian and Arabic words that have stuck to a Turkish grammar. In most of the larger Turkish cities, it is possible to attend classes of varying length and depth for Ottoman Turkish.

However, this was the language of the palace, of the ruling elite and of some literary types; ordinary people in the streets talked a myriad of languages depending on the place (often the common language also differed between neighborhoods of the same city) and ethnicity, but it was not unusual to see a Turk speaking Greek or an Armenian who spoke Turkish and so on. Indeed, the first novel written in Turkish, Akabi Hikayesi, it was written in 1851 by Vartan Pasha, a Armenian ethnic, and published exclusively using the Armenian alphabet.

Arabic was used locally in parts of the empire and was also the language of Islamic culture. During the last two centuries of the empire, learn the French it was fashionable even among the elites. Ottoman Francophilia has left a lasting impact on modern Turkish - take, for example, the Turkish names for the ancient cities of Ephesus (Ephes , derived from the French Éphèse, rather than the original Greek) and Troy (Truva, from Sluts ).

Destinations

Turkey

Most of the Ottoman heritage in what is now Turkey resides in Marmara region, where the empire began and grew. Curiously, the rest of the country is mostly devoid of important monuments built during the Ottoman era: most of the historical places date back to the Seljuk and Turkish kingdoms prior to the Ottomans, or are remnants of the civilizations that called Anatolia the homeland before. upon the arrival of the Turks.

  • 1 Istanbul - The great Ottoman capital for centuries has been home to the largest Ottoman heritage in the world.
  • 2 Söğüt - This small hill town in northwestern Turkey was the first capital of the Ottoman state, where it started as a semi-nomadic principality in what were then the Byzantine borderlands.
  • 3 Bursa - The first major city that the Ottomans had taken control of, Bursa, is considered the cradle of Ottoman civilization and is the site of most of the earliest Ottoman monuments, including the mausoleum of all the sultans up to Muhammad the Conqueror, who captured Constantinople and transferred the throne there.
  • 4 Edirne - There is a lot of Ottoman heritage to see in this European co-capital of the empire, including the Selimiye Mosque, which many think is the zenith of Ottoman architecture.
  • 5 Safranbolu - Well preserved Ottoman era old city in Northern Turkey which is on the World Heritage List.
  • 6 Iznik - Famous for its majolica and the 16th century ceramic industry (known as İznik Çini, whose name derives from China). Iznik tiles were used to decorate many of the mosques, a Istanbul and elsewhere in the empire, designed by the famous Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan.
  • 7 Manisa is 8 Amasya - Two cities, more or less equidistant from the throne of Istanbul, where the hereditary princes favored (şehzade) exercised their administrative skills before the luckiest of them replaced their father as sultan - a situation that sentenced the unfortunate brothers to death (so that there were no other pretenders to the throne) until Ahmet's abolition of fratricide I in 1603. Both cities are characterized by many monuments built by the princes, as well as by their mothers (who traditionally accompanied their children), during their service as local rulers. Manisa also has the distinction of being the site of the Mesir Macun festival, initiated during the time of Suleiman the Magnificent as governor, and inscribed on the list of intangible cultural heritage of UNESCO.

Europe

The old bridge of Mostar. The Ottomans had many bridges built throughout their domains, both to facilitate trade and to easily move their army.

In addition to Turkish region of Marmara, i Balkans they are the place where you can best experience what is left of the Ottomans: almost all cities south of the Danube have at least one or two buildings that maintain a connection with the Ottomans, albeit sometimes in a ruinous state. Below is a selection of the cities that have best preserved their Ottoman heritage.

  • 9 Sarajevo is 10 Skopje - The capitals of the Bosnia-Herzegovina and of North Macedonia they are characterized by well-preserved ancient Ottoman cities. Skopje's Ottoman heritage lies mainly in its own old bazaar.
  • 11 Mostar - The stone bridge across the Neretva River, which had to be rebuilt after the Yugoslav wars, is one of the most important Ottoman monuments in the region.
    • The neighboring villages of 12 Počitelj is 13 Blagaj they are two rural communities with very well preserved Ottoman architecture; Blagaj also has a Sufi lodge (a mystical Islamic sect) at the source of the local river, in an extremely scenic environment surrounded by the sheer walls of the canyon.
  • 14 Višegrad - Another of the important Ottoman stone bridges in the area, also because it frames the Bridge over the Drina, novel by Nobel laureate Ivo Andrić.
  • 15 Niš - On one of the main routes between the imperial seat and its European possessions, the local fortress of this Serbian city was rebuilt by the Ottomans in the 18th century, with numerous contemporary buildings inside. The pleasant Kazandzijsko sokace, a pedestrian street in the old town, is lined with cafes in buildings originally built for local craftsmen during Ottoman rule. A much darker relic of the era is the Skull Tower, a remnant of the Ottoman effort to suppress the first Serbian revolt (1804-1813).
  • 16 Pristina - The capital Kosovar features an Ottoman historic center, complete with various mosques, spas, public fountains, and a clock tower that have been left intact through the extensive reconstruction of the city by the Communists. The suburb of 17 Mazgit on the outskirts of the city is the site of the tomb of Murat I, the Ottoman sultan who was killed here in 1389 during the battle of Kosovo, fought between the medieval Serbian kingdom and the Ottomans. His remains, however, were later transferred to the mausoleum of the then capital Bursa.
  • 18 Prizren - Referred to as the cultural capital of Kosovo, Prizren retains its Ottoman urban landscape.
  • 19 Peja - Another old town in Kosovo with a lot of Ottoman heritage.
  • 20 Kratovo - In its heyday this Macedonian city was one of the most important mining towns in the empire, and was the site of a mint that produced the coins of the Ottoman currency akçe.
  • 21 Ohrid - Although best known for its earlier legacy dating back to the Byzantine and Bulgarian Empires, the whitewashed residential buildings along the narrow cobbled streets of the old city of Ohrid are typical of Ottoman civil architecture and would not be out of place in the heart of Turkey.
  • 22 Bitola — Manastir it was a favorite of the Ottomans and considered one of the largest cities in the European part of the empire from an economic, political and cultural point of view, with importance given to one of the imperial military academies and a dozen consulates who were there. While an Ottoman clock tower, bazaar and a few mostly abandoned mosques can be found in Bitola, don't expect to find the usual oriental vibe: the local pedestrian street Širok Sokak is lined with colorful neoclassical buildings dating back to the late 19th century, when westernization efforts in the empire peaked.
  • 23 Kavala - A historic Greek city adorned with many Ottoman structures. Among these is the residence of the native Mehmet Ali Pasha, an Ottoman commander who later became ruler of theEgypt and declared war on the Ottoman authority.
  • 24 Thessaloniki - A city with a continuous history of 3000 years, which preserves the relics of its Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman past.
  • 25 Ioannina - Known as Yanya by the Ottomans, this pretty old town was the home of Ali Pasha, most likely a local Albanian. In and around the citadel, there are many buildings that date back to his rule when he was Ottoman governor in the 18th century along with the old Fethiye mosque built in 1430. Most of the Pasha's palace, however, is in ruins.
  • 26 Plovdiv - While the Bulgaria remained under Ottoman rule for centuries (longer than some regions of modern Turkey), most of the Bulgarian cities underwent large-scale reconstruction after the country's independence. Plovdiv is an exception, having remarkably preserved its historic center full of traditional Ottoman architecture, including the Dzhumaya / Hüdavendigar Mosque. Dating back to 1363, this is considered to be the oldest mosque in Europe except for those built in Spain from the Moors and, of course, those of the Turkey.
  • 27 Esztergom - The Ottomans controlled the famous Esztergom Castle for two periods, between 1543 and 1595, and subsequently between 1605 and 1683, making it their furthest base along the Danube. The still popular military march Estergon Kalesi tells the story of the last, desperate Ottoman defense of the castle. The district of Viziváros ("Watertown"), just below the castle and right on the river bank, was the main Turkish settlement in the city, with scant ruins of scattered Ottoman buildings and a reconstructed mosque (except for the top of its minaret) which is a museum and a cafe.
  • 28 Pécs - The historic Hungarian city is the site of the Kászim Mosque with a very well preserved interior, converted into a Roman Catholic church with the addition of a Jesus on the cross. West of Pécs, 29 Szigetvár is where Suleiman the Magnificent died of natural causes during his siege of the local castle in 1566. It is widely believed that a local hill is where his heart and internal organs were buried (the rest of his body was brought to Istanbul for burial). The Hungarian-Turkish Friendship Park in the city, with the sculptures of Sultan Suleiman and Zrínyi Miklós, the general in charge of the castle during the siege, commemorates the Battle of Szigetvár.
  • 30 Eger - Marks the most extreme extension of Ottoman rule in Europe, the lone minaret of this Hungarian city is the northernmost built by the Ottomans, with the adjacent mosque (long gone) in favor of a small square.
  • 31 Bachčysaraj - The seat of the Khanate of Crimea, which, although nominally autonomous from the Ottoman Empire, adopted much of its aesthetics and culture.
  • 32 Nicosia - Be there half Turkish that the Greek one of the Cypriot capital are characterized by many Ottoman buildings, including the Great Inn, various mosques, some of which were born as Roman Catholic cathedrals and bathing establishments that are still in operation.

Middle East and Africa

Sabil-Kuttab of Katkhuda, a combined monumental fountain (street level) and a Koranic school (upstairs) in Cairo dating from 1744.

Already regions with a history long before that of the Ottoman conquest, many places of the Middle East and parts ofAfrica however they offer something to experience for travelers seeking Ottoman heritage.

  • 33 Damascus - One of the most important cities of the empire, Damascus is home to a large number of Ottoman-built mosques, bazaars and tombs, including that of the last Ottoman sultan exiled from Turkey after the proclamation of the republic, although how many of they will escape the destruction caused by the current civil war.
  • 34 Aleppo - The largest city in the Syria it was another favorite of the Ottomans. Most of the old city, including the bazaars and mosques, date back to Ottoman rule, but as with Damascus, not much could be left untouched after the civil war ended.
  • 35 Beirut - The center of Beirut has a rich collection of buildings from the Ottoman era, although many mansions dating back to that time are in an advanced stage of neglect.
  • 36 Acres - Many Ottoman-built structures, including a mosque, spa, bazaar and large caravanserai dot the historic city enclosed by the Ottoman walls.
  • 37 Jerusalem - Although Jerusalem is not of Ottoman origin, except for the walls that enclose the Old City (built by Suleiman the Magnificent), the Ottomans went to great lengths to ensure that the buildings, including those held sacred by non-Muslims, and the community of this sacred city, which they ruled for 400 years, had remained intact.
  • 38 Jaffa - Jaffa was the main port of the area during the Ottoman period. This status is marked by a clock tower which was built under the command of Abdülhamit II (r. 1876–1909), whose interest in clock towers saw many of them built in major Ottoman cities.
  • 39 Be'er Sheva - Established by the empire at the dawn of the 20th century to counter the growing British influence in the neighbor Sinai and in the rest ofEgypt, the old city features a grid plan which is quite rare in the region and is one of the few planned communities founded by the Ottomans.
  • 40 Mecca is 41 Medina - The sultans often considered themselves servants, and not rulers, of the holiest cities ofIslam, and as such almost all of them, as well as many other members of the dynasty, tried and left a mark on these cities during their rule, although most of these monuments are neglected by the present Saudi authorities; some of the most important monuments were destroyed albeit amid the protests of the current Turkish leaders.
  • 42 Cairo - The main center of Ottoman power and culture in North Africa.
  • 43 Suakin - Once the main Ottoman port on the Red Sea and the seat of the Ottoman province of Habesh, some inhabitants of this Sudanese city still celebrate their Ottoman roots.
  • 44 Algiers - Captured by the famous Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa in 1516, Algiers became the most important center of Ottoman power in the Maghreb. More or less autonomous from the throne in the distant Constantinople, was placed under the dominion of important Ottoman sailors, who, using the area as a base, pursued a policy of piracy in the Mediterranean, especially against Spanish navigation. In the following centuries, these Barbary corsairs as they are known in the West, broke into the coastal areas up toIceland and to the new ones United States of America. Among what remains of the Ottomans in Algiers are various mosques, including the beautiful Ketchaoua Mosque in the old city. Nearby 45 Constantine it also houses the palace of the last Ottoman governor of the city, who served before the French occupation in 1837.

What see

A 16th-century Ottoman miniature depicting the Battle of Mohács, now on display in Szigetvár Castle

The most common elements of imperial architecture Ottoman they include arches and domes, which were heavily influenced by Byzantine architecture. It is also possible to see some influence from the structures of the Turks in Asia adapted from the nomadic lifestyle, such as yurts. The vernacular architecture most commonly associated with the Ottomans is still visible in the urban fabric of various historical centres throughout Turkey and the Balkans. Wood was used extensively, often wholly wooden or half-timbered buildings in bright colors that spanned several floors. These were swept by fires of devastating size century after century and for this reason they are not traceable. In the last centuries of the empire, there were attempts to combine Baroque and Rococo in Ottoman architecture, but these experiments did not spread much further Istanbul and the former capital of Bursa.

The visual arts traditional Ottomans include marbling ebru / paper and miniature, both developed in accordance with the Islamic prohibition on depictions of living beings. The Ottoman miniature, known as nakış by the Ottomans, it had a very different perspective understanding from that commonly accepted in the West, and was often seen as a way of supporting written material in a book rather than pure art. Topkapi Palace has a collection of miniatures, but walking around Istanbul's new metro stations will reveal many modern interpretations of the miniature.

Even the handwriting ( hat ) was a common art; Turkish calligraphy, which graces most major mosques, is often considered the finest form of Islamic calligraphy.

The Ottomans had a long tradition of tile making (çini), with the main laboratories in the cities of İznik is Kütahya south of Istanbul. While visiting the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul or any other grand mosque elsewhere will please those with a passing interest in tiles, two sites of particular note are the Rüstem Pasha Mosque in Eminönü, Istanbul and the Yeşil Türbe ("Green Tomb") in Bursa.

The Museum of Islamic Arts a Sultanahmet, Istanbul, hosts a beautiful exhibition of wood carvings is carpets dating back to the Ottoman period.

Karagöz and Hacivat are the main characters of the traditional play of shadows developed during the early Ottoman era, once a major form of entertainment, it is now more commonly associated with the nocturnal festivities held during the Ramadan in Turkey and in North Africa. In Greece, where tradition is also alive, it is called Karagiozis.

What to do

Immerse yourself in a hammam (thermal establishment). The Ottomans were avid builders and spa-goers, and as such, many places that were once the possessions of the empire still feature Ottoman-era establishments that usually take advantage of local hot springs.

The Mehter was there Ottoman military band carried on the battlefields with the rest of the army to instill courage in the Ottoman units and fear in the opposing army. The cymbals, the drums and in particular the zurna , a high-wind instrument, are the most dominant instruments in Mehter's music. While many of the municipalities affiliated with the Nationalist Party have found Mehter groups outside their group, this is still a unit of the Turkish Armed Forces - which is perhaps the only one in the Turkish army to allow, and indeed encourage, its members to grow a beard - and exhibits weekly in the Istanbul Military Museum.

As for civil Ottoman music, also the tradition of Turkish classical music (Türk sanat musikisi), a heterophonic music usually performed by a solo singer and a small ensemble, is still alive today. A large and varied number of scales (makam) forms the basis of Ottoman classical music. A complete show (fasıl), ideally conducted in the same scale, follows the sequence of an instrumental prelude (peşrev), instrumental improvisations (taksim) and vocal compositions (şarkı), and ends with an instrumental postlude (saz semaisi). Turkish classical music is said to be influenced by Byzantine music as well, and is often associated with the culture of drinking rakı in general public opinion. Going to one of the frequent public concerts of the Üsküdar Musical Society on the Asian side of Istanbul, often considered the most respected of the social clubs offering Ottoman classical music lessons, can be a good way to enter the vast world of this genre.

Ottoman music is also performed in the Arab world and particularly in the Levant, where it is considered classical Arab music, and somewhat similar to how Ottoman cuisine influenced the cuisines of the Balkan lands that have long been part of the Empire Ottoman, Ottoman music also strongly influenced what is now considered traditional music in countries such as Bulgaria, Greece is Serbia.

Kitchen

Exquisite-kfind.pngTo learn more, see: Middle Eastern cuisine is Balkan cuisine.
The kitchens of the Palazzo Vecchio a Edirne

The kitchens of the Topkapi Palace they were often the source of many of the dishes that are popular in Turkey and other regions to this day, with chefs experimenting on a daily basis with any ingredients they could get their hands on, including nuts and fruit.

There early Ottoman cuisine it was characterized by the lack of various foods that were unknown in the Old World before voyages of Columbus in the Americas, such as tomatoes, peppers and potatoes, which are now ubiquitous in the kitchens of the once Ottoman areas. The dolma (large peppers stuffed with rice and various, such as minced meat) was instead made with quince, an ingredient now almost completely forgotten in Turkish cuisine. Others common ingredients they were rice, eggplant and some birds such as quail. There are many common eggplant dishes in regional cuisines, such as karnıyarık , moussaka, imam bayıldı, dolma of stuffed aubergines and fried aubergines. The latter, or rather thanks to the small incidents that occurred during its preparation, was the main responsible for the fires that destroyed the Ottoman cities. As the empire was located on major trade routes such as the Silk Road, even the various ones spices they were widely available.

The Ottomans were big fans of soups; the derivations of their word soup, çorba , can be found in any language spoken by the Russia in the north toEthiopia in the south. The yahni, one stew of meat, various vegetables and onions which is common in regional cuisines, was often the main meal.

Börek / burek, savory pies stuffed with cheese, meat, spinach, potatoes or mushrooms depending on the place, it was (and is) eaten as a quick dish at any time of the day. Pogača / poğaça, of Byzantine origin is another similar variety of baked bread stuffed with cheese or sour cream and common throughout the Balkans up to Slovakia.

THE side dishes based on yogurt derived, or coated, from the Ottomans include cacık / tsatsiki / tarator, which often includes diluted yogurt, cucumbers, garlic, and olive oil and can be considered a cold soup or yogurt salad and a simple ayran, the yoghurt drink, which is salty in Turkey, but without salt, is better known simply as yoghurt in the Balkans.

Pastırma / basturma, the seasoned beef air dried was of two types: the Anatolian type was heavily seasoned with fenugreek and more often than not this is the only type available in Turkey today. On the other hand, only salt is added to the rumelian type, which has a much heavier "smoky" flavor and is common in the Balkans.

The Ottomans were great moles dessert. The dessert from the former empire best known to outsiders is probably the baklava, which may have ancient origins of the Mesopotamia , ofCentral Asia o bizantina (spesso equivalenti a strati di pane con miele sparsi nel mezzo nella sua forma originale), ma erano gli chef del Palazzo Topkapi che lo avevano portato alla forma attuale. Altri dolci inventati dagli chef del palazzo e diffusi nell'impero includono lokma / loukoumades (impasti fritti e imbevuti di sciroppo), güllaç (che prende il nome da güllü aş, "farina di rose"), un derivato della baklava in cui sottili strati di pasta vengono lavati con latte e acqua di rose al posto dello sciroppo, tavuk göğsü, un budino di latte cosparso di carne di petto di pollo (sì, questo è un dessert), kazandibi, una varietà di tavuk göğsü che aveva un lato volutamente troppo cotto e bruciato, e, naturalmente, delizia turca ( lokum / rahatluk ), un pasticcio di gel di amido e noci, aromatizzato con acqua di rose.

Vari ristoranti a Istanbul e in altre grandi città turche affermano di far rivivere la cucina ottomana: controllate attentamente i loro menu per trovarne uno rispettabile e fedele alle autentiche ricette del palazzo. Più sembrano insoliti, meglio è.

Drinks

Questo caffè è disponibile nella maggior parte dell'ex impero

La cultura del caffè è una delle più grandi eredità dell'Impero Ottomano nelle terre su cui ha governato una volta: che si chiami Turkish , bosniaca , greca , araba or armena , questa bevanda popolare, cotta in pentole di rame (cezve / džezva / ibrik) e servita forte in coppette, si prepara più o meno allo stesso modo. Lo Yemen era stato il principale fornitore di caffè dell'impero sin dal XVI secolo, quando i caffè apparvero rapidamente in tutte le città ottomane - in effetti fu la perdita dello Yemen durante la WWI che trasformò i turchi nella nazione che beve tè come è oggi, inizialmente controvoglia.

Nonostante il divieto islamico sulle bevande alcoliche, the wine era ampiamente prodotto dai sudditi cristiani dell'impero, soprattutto greci e albanesi, e apprezzato da molti, compresi i turchi musulmani, nelle meyhane (persiano per "casa del vino"). Ogni tanto, quando un sultano devoto saliva al trono, vietava la produzione di vino e chiudeva tutti i meyhane , ma si trattava di misure temporanee. L'attuale bevanda nazionale dei turchi, il rakı, venne introdotta molto più tardi, e la sua produzione e il suo consumo superarono quelli del vino solo alla fine dell'Ottocento. Altre bevande aromatizzate all'anice, molto simili al rakı sia nel gusto che nella storia, sono ampiamente bevute nelle aree precedentemente governate dagli Ottomani e sono conosciute con i nomi di ouzo (Grecia), mastika (Bulgaria), zivania (Cyprus), e arak (il Levante).

Lo Şerbet, una bevanda rinfrescante e leggermente dolce a base di petali di rosa e altri aromi di frutta e fiori, era una bevanda estiva molto popolare. Al giorno d'oggi, è abitualmente servita in Turchia quando si celebra la recente nascita di un bambino e può essere disponibile stagionalmente in alcuni dei ristoranti tradizionali. L'Hoşaf, dal persiano "bella acqua", è un'altra variazione sul tema, fatta bollendo vari frutti in acqua e zucchero.

There Boza, una birra molto densa, agrodolce con una gradazione alcolica molto bassa a base di miglio o grano a seconda della posizione, è ancora popolare in quasi tutte le parti dell'ex impero. È spesso associata all'inverno in Turchia (e potrebbe non essere possibile trovarla in estate), ma nei Balcani è piuttosto considerata una bevanda estiva. Una nota linguistica, la parola inglese "alcol" potrebbe essere derivata dal nome di questa bevanda, attraverso la buza bulgara secondo alcune teorie, e pora, la sua controparte in ciuvascio, un'antica lingua turca parlata nella regione del Volga in Russia, potrebbe essere l'origine della bara / "birra" germanica , ecc.

Uno dei principali stereotipi degli ottomani in Occidente potrebbe essere l'immagine di un uomo anziano, con il suo enorme turbante, seduti all'ombra di un albero e non hanno fretta sbuffando il narghilè (nargile), magari con un po' di oppio per qualche effetto aggiunto. The Nargile è ancora popolare in alcune delle ex parti dell'impero, specialmente in Turchia, Middle East e parti dei Balcani. TO Istanbul, nei quartieri di Tophane e Beyazıt-Çemberlitaş , potete trovare caffè narghilè con interni dal design che ricordano i tempi ottomani, dove vi verranno serviti narghilè di tabacco o erbe non a base di tabacco (e non psicoattive), queste ultime per aggirare le moderne leggi contro il fumo di tabacco all'interno dei locali, oltre alle bevande calde.

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