ABSTRACT
During the sixteenth century, the Mongol-ravaged central Islamic lands recovered their political unity and cultural vitality. A new imperial synthesis developed, represented by the Mughal Empire of Delhi in the east, the Safavid Empire of Iran in the center, and the Ottoman Empire in the west. Improvements in the Ottoman land army made most formidable military force of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Ottoman conquest of the Arab lands established the sultans as the supreme rulers within the universal Islamic community. The Ottoman ruling elite comprised three major groupings: the military, the civil service, and the religious establishment. The Ottoman slave system offered limitless opportunities to the young men who became a part of it; there are recorded instances of Christian—and Muslim—parents attempting to arrange for their sons to be taken in the devshirme levies. Greek Orthodox community laid the foundation for Russia's claim to be the protector of the entire Greek Orthodox millet within the Ottoman Empire.
