ABSTRACT
The Ottomans originated as vassals of the Turkish Seljuk sultans of Rum. The Rum Seljuks ruled over a substantial empire in Anatolia and the Middle East between the late eleventh to the early fourteenth centuries, since in medieval Middle Eastern geography “Rum” was another name for Anatolia. Nomadic conquerors are at first usually very successful in a military sense against sedentary opponents, because they have a strong sense of asabiya created and reinforced by their difficult nomadic lives. Murad II’s young son Mehmed II had briefly been sultan between 1444 and 1446, but came to the Ottoman throne on a more permanent basis following Murad’s death in 1451. Sultan Mehmed’s conquest and remaking of Constantinople into an Islamic capital decisively established the Ottoman Empire as the dominant military force in the Balkans and the eastern Mediterranean. The Ottomans also placed an embargo on all silk traffic between Persia, the Ottoman lands, and Europe that was kept in place for several years after Chaldiran.
