ABSTRACT
The first government of the Ottomans was indistinguishable from the military. The base of the Ottoman Empire was Islam. Religion was intimately bound up with the ideology and legitimacy of the government. At no time did the sultans claim to be rulers of a Turkish empire, even though they were themselves Turks, their empire was founded on Turkish soldiers, the state language was Turkish, and the sultans traced their lineage to Central Asia. Ottoman sultans drew their power from the image of the great king that had existed since ancient times. From the time of the Babylonians to the Byzantines, the image of state power in the Middle East and Balkans had been of a monarch with unconditional authority who was chosen by God to rule. The symbol of the Ottoman sultanate was at the centre of all political life in the Balkans and almost all of the Middle East.
