ABSTRACT
The Ottoman universal message was Muslim, an Islam generally tolerant (in theory more than practice) of multi-ethnic, multi-religious communities: to become Ottoman was to assume a cultural, rather than an ethnic, identity. Ottoman patronage of Sunni Islam, and the persistent belief among large segments of the Muslim and non-Muslim populations in the impartiality of shari’a justice constituted a powerful unifying ideology. The Ottoman military system consisted of a standing army, the Janissary corps, and the artillery corps; a fief-based cavalry (sipahi) as well as various auxiliary forces, most often drawn from the proximate terrain of the battlefield, and from both Muslim and non-Muslim populations. Imperial pageantry as a reinforcement and recruitment tool is a considerable argument for the regularity with which the Ottomans mounted large campaigns. However, the Ottomans demonstrated a particular aptitude for logistical systems, explaining their sustained battlefront success even well into the eighteenth century.
