At the height of its power (16th-17th century), it spanned three continents,
controlling much of Southeastern Europe, Western Asia and North Africa.
The Ottoman Empire contained 29 provinces and numerous vassal states, some
of which were later absorbed into the empire, while others gained various
types of autonomy during the course of centuries. The empire also temporarily
gained authority over distant overseas lands through declarations of allegiance
to the Ottoman Sultan and Caliph, such as the declaration by the Sultan of Aceh
in 1565; or through the temporary acquisitions of islands in the Atlantic Ocean,
such as Lanzarote (1585).

The empire was at the centre of interactions between the Eastern and Western
worlds for six centuries. With Constantinople (Istanbul) as its capital city,
and vast control of lands around the eastern Mediterranean during the reign
of Suleyman the Magnificent (ruled 1520 to 1566), the Ottoman Empire was, in
many respects, an Islamic successor to the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire.

 

The Ottoman dynasty is known in Turkish as Osmanlı, meaning "House of
Osman". The first rulers of the dynasty never had called themselves
sultans, but rather beys, or "chieftain", roughly the Turkic equivalent
of Emir, which would itself become a gubernatorial title and even a
common military or honorific rank. Thus they still formally acknowledged
the sovereignty of the contemporary Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm and its
successor, the Ilkhanate.

The first Ottoman to actually claim the title of sultân was Murad I,
who ruled from 1359 to 1389. The title sultan (سلطان)-in Arabic, was
in later Arabic-Islamic dynasties originally the power behind the
throne of the Caliph in Bagdad and it was later used for various
independent Muslim Monarchs. This title was more prestigious then
Emir; it was not comparable to the title of Malik 'king' or the
originally Persian title of Shah. With the Conquest of Constantinople
in 1453, the road was open for the Ottoman state to become an empire,
with Sultan Mehmed II taking the title of pâdişah (پادشاه), a Persian
title meaning "lord of kings" claiming superiority to the other kings,
that title was abandoned when the empire declined and lost its might.

In addition to such secular titles, the Ottoman sultan became the
Caliph of Islam, starting with Selim I, who became khalif after
the death of the last Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutawakkil III, the last
of Abbasid Caliphs in Cairo.

In Europe, Ottoman padishah was often referred to informally by such terms
unrelated to the Ottoman protocol as the Grand Turk and the Grand Signor.

The sultans further adopted in time many secondary formal titles
as well, such as "Sovereign of the House of Osman", "Sultan of
Sultans" (roughly King of Kings), and "Khan of Khans".

As the empire grew, sultans adopted secondary titles expressing the
empire's claim to be the successor in law of the structures of the
absorbed states. Furthermore they tended to enumerate even regular
provinces, not unlike the long lists of -mainly inherited- feudal
titles in the full style of many Christian European monarchs.

Some early Ottoman Sultans even had to accept the vassal status in the
eyes of a foreign kingmaker. For example, Tamerlane appointed in 1402
the Ottoman Sultan (deposed in 1410) Sulayman Chelebi Khan, who was
styled as-Sultan ul-Azam, Sayyid us-Saladin ul-Arab wal Ajam, Malik
ur-Rikaab ul-Umam, Ghiyas ud-Daula wa ud-Dunya, Sultan ul-Islam was
ul-Muslimin, as-Sultan ibni us-Sultan, Hasib-i-Nasib-I-Zaman, Amir of
Rumelia. Again his brother, who ended the Interregnum after the defeat
of Ottomans to Tamerlane, Mehmed I also held his post with a fief from
Tamerlane. However the next Ottoman ruler (6th Sultan of House of Osman)
was Sultan Murad Khan II (1421 - 1451) took the title 'Abu'l Hayrat,
Sultan ul-Mujahidin, Khan of Khans, Grand Sultan of Anatolia and Rumelia,
and of the Cities of Edirne and Filibe.

When Mehmed II conquered Constantinople on May 29, 1453, he claimed the
title Emperor of the Roman Empire and protector of the Eastern Orthodox
Church. He appointed the Patriarch of Constantinople Gennadius Scholarius,
whom he protected and whose stature he elevated into leader of all the
Eastern Orthodox Christians. As emperor of the Romans he laid claim to all
Roman territories, which at the time before the Fall of Constantinople,
however, extended to little more than the city itself, plus some areas in
Morea (Peloponnese) and the Empire of Trebizond.

The conqueror of Constantinople was Sultan Mehmed II Fatih Ghazi 'Abu'l
Fath (1451 - 1481, 7th Sovereign of the House of Osman), was still
'simply' styled Kaysar-i-Rum (=Emperor of [Byzantium = the second] Rome,
Caesar of Rome), Khan of Khans, Grand Sultan of Anatolia and Rumelia,
Emperor of the three Cities of Constantinople, Edirne and Bursa, Lord
of the two lands and the two seas and the first to adopt the 'imperial
style Padishah.

Around 1500 the full style of naming of the ruling Sultan had become
practically stabilised, e.g. in 1601 Sultan Mehmed III was called:

Sultan Hân N.N., Padishah, Hünkar, Hakan ül-Berreyn vel-Bahreyn; Sovereign
of the House of Osman, Sultan of Sultans, Khan of Khans, Commander (Caliph)
of the Faithful and Successor of the Prophet of the Lord of the Universe,
Custodian of the Holy Cities of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, Caesar of the
Roman Empire, Emperor of The Three Cities of Constantinople, Adrianople and
Bursa, and of the Cities of Damascus and Cairo, of all Azerbaijan, of the
Magris, of Barka, of Kairouan, of Aleppo, of Arabic Iraq and of Acem, of Basra,
of Al-Hasa, of Dilen, of Ar Raqqah, of Mosul, of Parthia, of Diyarbakır, of
Cilicia, of the Vilayets of Erzurum, of Sivas, of Adana, of Karaman, Van, of
Barbary, of Abyssinia, of Tunisia, of Tripoli, of Damascus, of Cyprus, of
Rhodes, of Candia, of the Vilayet of the Morea, of the Marmara Sea, the Black
Sea and also its coasts, of Anatolia, of Rumelia, Baghdad, Greece, Turkistan,
Tartary, Circassia, of the two regions of Kabarda, of Georgia, of the plain of
Kypchak, of the whole country of the Tartars, of Kefe and of all the neighboring
countries, of Bosnia and its dependencies, of the City and Fort of Belgrade, of
the Vilayet of Serbia, with all the castles, forts and cities, of all Albania,
of all Eflak and Bogdania, as well as all the dependencies and borders, and
many other countries and cities.

 

The Ottoman State was an absolute monarchy during much of its existence. The sultan
was at the apex of the hierarchical Ottoman system and acted in political, military,
judicial, social, and religious capacities under a variety of titles. He was
theoretically responsible only to God and God's law (the Islamic şeriat, known in
Arabic as sharia), of which he was the chief executor. His heavenly mandate was
reflected in Irano-Islamic titles such as "shadow of God on Earth" (zill Allah
fi'l-alem) and "caliph of the face of the earth" (halife-i ru-yi zemin). All offices
were filled by his authority, and every law was issued by him in the form of a decree
called firman. He was the supreme military commander and had the official title to
all land. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Ottoman sultans came to regard
themselves as the successors of the Roman Empire, hence their occasional use of the
titles Caesar (kaysar) and Emperor. Following the conquest of Egypt in 1517, Selim
I also adopted the title of caliph, thus claiming to be the universal Muslim ruler.
Newly enthroned Ottoman rulers were girded with the Sword of Osman, an important
ceremony that served as the equivalent of European monarchs' coronation. A non-girded
sultan was not eligible to have his children included in the line of succession.

Although theocratic and absolute in theory and in principle, the sultan's powers were
limited in practice. Political decisions had to take into account the opinions and
attitudes of important members of the dynasty, the bureaucratic and military
establishments, as well as religious leaders. From the 17th century onwards, the
empire entered into a long-term period of stagnation, during which the sultans were
much enfeebled. Many of them ended up being deposed by the powerful Janissary corps.
Despite being barred from inheriting the throne, women of the Imperial Harem-especially
the reigning sultan's mother, known as the Valide Sultan-also played an important
behind-the-scenes political role, effectively ruling the empire during the period known
as the sultanate of women.

The declining powers of the sultans are evidenced by the difference in reign lengths
between early sultans and later ones. Suleiman I, who ruled the empire when it was at
its zenith in the 16th century, had a reign of 46 years, the longest in Ottoman history.
Murad V, who ruled in the late 19th-century period of decline, had the shortest reign on
record: he was in power for just 93 days before being deposed. Constitutionalism was
only established during the reign of Murad V's successor, Abdülhamid II, who thus became
the empire's last absolute ruler and its first constitutional monarch. Abdülhamid II's
grandson, Prince Ertuğrul Osman, who has been living in exile in New York City since 1939,
is the current head of the Ottoman Dynasty and pretender to the defunct Ottoman throne.

The table below lists Ottoman sultans, as well as the last Ottoman caliph, in chronological
order. The tughras were the calligraphic seals or signatures used by Ottoman sultans. They
were displayed on all official documents as well as on coins, and were far more important
in identifying a sultan than his portrait. The "Notes" column contains information on each
sultan's parentage and fate. When a sultan's reign did not end through a natural death,
the reason is indicated in bold. For earlier rulers, there is usually a time gap between the
moment a sultan's reign ended and the moment his successor was enthroned. This is because
the Ottomans in that era practiced what historian Quataert has described as "survival of the
fittest, not eldest, son": when a sultan died, his sons had to fight each other for the throne
until a victor emerged. Because of the infighting and numerous fratricides that occurred, a
sultan's death date therefore did not always coincide with the accession date of his successor.
In 1617, the law of succession changed from survival of the fittest to a system based on
agnatic seniority (ekberiyet), whereby the throne went to the oldest male of the family.
This in turn explains why from the 17th century onwards a deceased sultan was rarely succeeded
by his own son, but usually by an uncle or brother. Agnatic seniority was retained until the
abolition of the sultanate, despite unsuccessful attempts in the 19th century to replace it
with primogeniture.

#	Sultan	Portrait	Reigned from	Reigned until	Tughra	Notes
1	Osman I		c. 1299	c. 1324		Son of Ertuğrul Bey; Reigned until his death.
2	Orhan		c. 1324	c. 1360		Son of Osman I and Mal Hatun; Reigned until his death.
3	Murad I Hüdavendigar		c. 1360	1389		Son of Orhan and Nilüfer Hatun; Reigned until his death; Killed on the battlefield at the Battle of Kosovo.
4	Bayezid I the Thunderbolt		1389	1402		Son of Murad I and Gülçiçek Hatun; Captured on the battlefield at the Battle of Ankara (de facto end of reign); Died in captivity in Akşehir on 8 March 1403.
The Ottoman Interregnum (1402-1413)
5	Mehmed I		1413	1421		Son of Bayezid I and Devlet Hatun; Reigned until his death.
6	Murad II		1421	1444		Son of Mehmed I and Emine Hatun; Abdicated of his own free will in favour of his son Mehmed II.
7	Mehmed II the Conqueror		1444	1446		Son of Murad II and Hüma Hatun; Surrendered the throne to his father after having asked him to return to power.
	Murad II		1446	3 February 1451		Second reign; Forced to return to the throne following a Janissary revolt; Reigned until his death.
	Mehmed II the Conqueror		3 February 1451	3 May 1481		Second reign; Captured Constantinople in 1453; Reigned until his death.
8	Bayezid II		19 May 1481	25 April 1512		Son of Mehmed II and Mükrime Hatun; Abdicated; Died near Didymoteicho on 26 May 1512.
9	Selim I the Grim		25 April 1512	21 September 1520		Son of Bayezid II and Ayşe Hatun; Reigned until his death.
10	Suleiman I the Magnificent or the Lawgiver		30 September 1520	6 or 7 September 1566		Son of Selim I and Hafsa (Hafize) Hatun; Reigned until his death.
11	Selim II the Sot		29 September 1566	21 December 1574		Son of Suleiman I and Hürrem Sultan (Roxelana); Reigned until his death.
12	Murad III		22 December 1574	16 January 1595		Son of Selim II and Nur Banu Sultan; Reigned until his death.
13	Mehmed III		27 January 1595	20 or 21 December 1603		Son of Murad III and Safiye Sultan; Reigned until his death; Assassinated.
14	Ahmed I		21 December 1603	22 November 1617		Son of Mehmed III and Handan Sultan; Reigned until his death.
15	Mustafa I		22 November 1617	26 February 1618		Son of Mehmed III and an unknown woman; Deposed in favour of his young nephew Osman II.
16	Osman II		26 February 1618	19 May 1622		Son of Ahmed I and Mahfiruz Sultan; Reigned until his death; Assassinated by the Janissaries.
	Mustafa I		20 May 1622	10 September 1623		Second reign; Returned to the throne after his nephew's assassination; Deposed and confined until his death in Istanbul on 20 January 1639.
17	Murad IV		10 September 1623	8 or 9 February 1640		Son of Ahmed I and Kösem Sultan (Mahpeyker); Reigned until his death.
18	Ibrahim		9 February 1640	8 August 1648		Son of Ahmed I and Kösem Sultan (Mahpeyker); Deposed in a coup led by the Grand Mufti; Assassinated in Istanbul on 18 August 1648.
19	Mehmed IV		8 August 1648	8 November 1687		Son of Ibrahim and Hatice Turhan Sultan; Deposed following the Ottoman defeat at the Battle of Mohács; Died in Edirne on 6 January 1693.
20	Suleiman II		8 November 1687	22 June 1691		Son of Ibrahim and Saliha Dilâşub Sultan; Reigned until his death.
21	Ahmed II		22 June 1691	6 February 1695		Son of Ibrahim and Hatice Muazzez Sultan; Reigned until his death.
22	Mustafa II		6 February 1695	22 August 1703		Son of Mehmed IV and Emetullah Rabia Gülnûş Sultan; Deposed in a Janissary revolt; Died in Istanbul on 8 January 1704.
23	Ahmed III		22 August 1703	1 or 2 October 1730		Son of Mehmed IV and Emetullah Rabia Gülnûş Sultan; Deposed in a Janissary rebellion led by Patrona Halil; Died on 1 July 1736.
24	Mahmud I		2 October 1730	13 December 1754		Son of Mustafa II and Saliha Sultan; Reigned until his death.
25	Osman III		13 December 1754	29 or 30 October 1757		Son of Mustafa II and Şehsuvar Sultan; Reigned until his death.
26	Mustafa III		30 October 1757	21 January 1774		Son of Ahmed III and Mihrimah Sultan; Reigned until his death.
27	Abdülhamid I		21 January 1774	6 or 7 April 1789		Son of Ahmed III and Rabiâ Sultan; Reigned until his death.
28	Selim III		7 April 1789	29 May 1807		Son of Mustafa III and Mihrişah Sultan; Deposed in a Janissary revolt due to his reforms; Assassinated in Istanbul on 28 July 1808.
29	Mustafa IV		29 May 1807	28 July 1808		Son of Abdülhamid I and Ayşe Sine (Seniye Perver Sultan); Deposed in a rebellion led by Alemdar Mustafa Pasha; Executed in Istanbul on 17 November 1808.
30	Mahmud II		28 July 1808	1 July 1839		Son of Abdülhamid I and Nakşidil Sultan; Disbanded the Janissaries in 1826; Reigned until his death.
31	Abdülmecid I		1 July 1839	25 June 1861		Son of Mahmud II and Bezmialem Sultan; Reigned until his death.
32	Abdülaziz		25 June 1861	30 May 1876		Son of Mahmud II and Sultana Pertevniyal; Deposed by his ministers; Found dead (suicide or murder) five days later.
33	Murad V		30 May 1876	31 August 1876		Son of Abdülmecid I and Şevkefza Sultan; Deposed due to his illness; Ordered to reside in Çırağan Palace where he died on 29 August 1904.
34	Abdülhamid II the Red Sultan		31 August 1876	27 April 1909		Son of Abdülmecid I and Tirimüjgan Sultan; Constitutional rule established, suspended then restored; Deposed after the 31 March Incident; Confined to Beylerbeyi Palace where he died on 10 February 1918.
35	Mehmed V		27 April 1909	3 July 1918		Son of Abdülmecid I and Gülcemal Sultan; Reigned as a figurehead until his death.
36	Mehmed VI		4 July 1918	1 November 1922		Son of Abdülmecid I and Gülistan Sultan; Sultanate abolished; Left Istanbul on 17 November 1922; Died in exile in Sanremo, Italy on 16 May 1926.
The Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (1922-1923)
	Abdülmecid II (Caliph only)		18 November 1922	3 March 1924		Son of Abdülaziz and Hayranıdil Kadınefendi; Elected caliph by the TBMM; Exiled after the abolition of the caliphate; Died in Paris, France on 23 August 1944.