Who is the Ottoman Empire?

The Ottoman Empire was created by Turkish tribes in Anatolia (Asia Minor) in about 1300. The name Ottoman is a term of the dynasty; it is derived from Osman I, or Uthman in Arabic. He was the nomadic Turkman chief who founded the empire and the dynasty. It grew to be one of the most powerful states in the world during the 15th and 16th centuries. The Ottoman period spanned more than 600 years and came to an end only in 1922, when it was replaced by the Turkish Republic and various successor states in southeastern Europe and the Middle East. At its height, the empire encompassed most of southeastern Europe to the gates of Vienna (Austria), including present-day Hungary, the Balkan region, Greece, and parts of Ukraine; portions of the Middle East now occupied by Iraq, Syria, Israel, and Egypt; North Africa as far west as Algeria; and large parts of the Arabian Peninsula.