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Distinctive Facts About The Mighty Ottoman Empire

Khalid Elhassan August 13, 2020 35 min

Battle of Ankara - Timurid Empire — Tamerlane gloating over the captured Bayezid I. Wikimedia

39. The First Empire of the Turks

Head of Kul Tigin, a Gokturk general and prince. Pintrest

In the sixth century AD, the Ottoman Turks’ predecessors established the Gokturk Empire, a vast Steppe confederacy extending from the frontiers of China to the Caspian Sea. It was the largest nomad empire yet. These new lords of the Steppe were skilled in ironwork, and developed a runic script.

However, for all its extent, the Turkish Steppe confederacy remained a tribal polity, with all the ferocity and fragility that goes with that. Succession disputes and internal strife between competing clans and rival claimants for rule tore the Turkish Empire apart on multiple occasions, before it finally collapsed for good in 734.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.