ABSTRACT
The long-lived Ottoman Empire, which lasted from 1299 to 1922, covered a wide swath of the Middle East, North Africa, and southeastern Europe. Led by Turkish leaders called sultans, the Ottoman Empire became the dominant force in this part of the world in the 1400s to 1600s and threatened central Europe until the failure of their siege of Vienna in 1683. Western chroniclers traditionally characterized the rise of the Ottoman Empire as deeply hostile to non-Muslims. This portrayal is badly flawed. In fact, the Ottomans married their princes into Orthodox Christian families and used young Christian slaves from the Balkans to populate the Janissary corps, the elite Ottoman guard. The official Ottoman policy toward outsiders–called aman–was one of toleration and protection of outsiders within their territory. Foreigners even became part of the ruling elite. The policy of toleration was, for other reasons, questionable in the eyes of some Ottomans.
