Ottoman Empire: Encyclopedia II - Ottoman Empire - Culture

Ottoman Empire - Culture

Ottoman culture covers expressive activities and the symbolic structures that happened under the umbrella of the Ottoman Empire. That is an inclusive statement for all the religious and ethnic cultures of the state. Also, there is a specific intersecting culture that originated from living multi-culturally that reached its highest levels among the Ottoman elites. Ottoman elites were not monolithic, but composed of many different ethnic and religious people.

With the turn of the 19th century, nationalistic states including Turkey began to write their own history. Most of the references to Ottoman culture were buried either in the archives or destroyed. What we know about that period mainly originates from opposing state archives and their official view points. These references cannot be claimed fair or inclusive. It is also hard to reach defending views given the fact that Ottomans ceased to exist. Current studies show that empire culture was very rich and colorful.

Contrary to wide spread beliefs, coming from a nomadic culture, Ottoman Turks were in peace with different cultures that they came in contact with. Originally, Ottomans belonged to central-Asian culture. Ottomans later integrated Persian and Byzantine cultures into their way of life, instead of being assimilated into these cultures. When considering the Turkish folkloric or Ottoman elite art, we can see that they have conserved the colors and symbols that were inherited from their origins. Ottoman elites used Persian in their art to express their own inner world. The Ottoman court life was a harmony of Turkish and the Persian Shahs, but had many Byzantine and European influences.

This Ottoman multicultural perspective reflects on their policies. One of the reasons that the Ottoman Empire lasted this long was the high tolerance policies pursued originating from their nomadic inheritance. This statement should be taken as a comparison to assimilative medieval times (east and west). The Ottoman State pursued multi-cultural and multi-religious politics. When we talk about Ottoman tolerance, we talk about the structures that accommodate different perspectives. A good example was the Ottoman justice system. Another can be cited with the local governors to the regions. As the Ottomans moved further west, the Ottoman leaders themselves absorbed some of the culture of the conquered regions. With the intercultural marriages, the new cultural structures were gradually added to the Ottomans, creating the characteristic Ottoman elite culture. When compared to common Turkish arts (folkloric), the assimilation of the Ottoman elites to these new cultures is apparent.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Culture", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki