Sultan of the Ottoman Empire | |
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Imperial
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Suleiman I (1520–1566)
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Details | |
Style | His Imperial Majesty |
First monarch | Osman I (c. 1299–1323/4) |
Last monarch | Mehmed VI (1918–1922) |
Formation | c. 1299 |
Abolition | 1 November 1922 |
Residence |
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Appointer | Hereditary |
The sultans of the Ottoman Empire (Turkish: Osmanlı padişahları), made up solely of the members of the Ottoman dynasty (House of Osman), ruled over the transcontinental empire from its inception in 1299 to its dissolution in 1922. At its height, the Ottoman Empire spanned from Hungary in the north to Yemen in the south, and from Algeria in the west to Iraq in the east. Administered at first from the city of Bursa, the empire's capital was moved to Edirne in 1363 following its conquest by Murad I, and then to Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) in 1453 following its conquest by Mehmed II.
The Ottoman Empire's early years have been the subject of varying narratives due to the difficulty of discerning fact from legend. The empire came into existence at the end of the thirteenth century, and its first ruler (and the namesake of the Empire) was Osman I. According to later, often unreliable Ottoman tradition, Osman was a descendant of the Kayı tribe of the Oghuz Turks. The eponymous Ottoman dynasty he founded endured for six centuries through the reigns of 36 sultans. The Ottoman Empire disappeared as a result of the defeat of the Central Powers with whom it had allied itself during World War I. The partitioning of the Empire by the victorious Allies and the ensuing Turkish War of Independence led to the abolition of the sultanate in 1922 and the birth of the modern Republic of Turkey in 1923.