ABSTRACT
From the eleventh century to the fourteenth the new Turkish Empire produced extraordinary sultans, men of great ability and organizing capacity. The fact that the empire governed more justly and humanely than its predecessors, and than the neighboring powers, gave it stability and insured its continuance in a region where the native population much outnumbered the rulers. Able administrators, austere and clean fighters, makers of law, patrons of art, the Ottoman Turks created an Ottoman citizenship which was envied by the members of the neighboring states; and they created an art and a life which have left as much of a mark on the world as any ancient empire, and a greater one than any medieval state.
