Ottomans

The Ottomans were the leading faction of the Ottoman Empire, who formed the base of the state's military and ruling classes. They are named after Sultan Osman I, the founder of the dynasty which ruled the Ottoman empire during its 620-year history. By 1453, the Ottomans had conquered the city of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire and locked all land routes to Europe forcing the Europeans to find other ways to trade with Eastern countries. At the height of their power in the 16th and 17th century under the leadership of the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificient, the Ottomans were comprised of diverse, multinational, multilingual citizens.

History

Rise of the Ottomans

The Ottomans first came into light to the West in 1227 when they migrated westward into the Seljuk Empire, in Anatolia where the Ottomans created a state, along with establishing a principality, in Western Anatolia under Ertugrul. His son Osman I expanded the principality, after whom both the empire and the people were named as "Ottomans". Along the way the Ottomans created enemies from conquered states such as Shahkulu, who was Turkmen from Eastern Anatolia. But the Ottoman Empire came into its own when Mehmed II captured the city of Constantinople from the Byzentines on 29th May, 1453, deposing the last Emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos.

War with Wallachian

In 1476, the Ottomans under the Grand Vizier Ishak Pasha participated in the Ottoman military crackdown on a Hungrarian uprising, entering a war with Wallachian and defeating the rebel Count, a Templar named Vlad Tepes.

During the later half of the 15th century, they brokered a truce with the Assassins, via their leader Ishak Pasha. This act led to Vali cel Tradat's betrayal of the assassins. Having served the Assassins for nearly a decade, he left them to join the Templars, taking the truce with the Ottomans as betrayal by the Assassins.

Internal rifts

Sultan Bayezid II led the Ottomans into a war with the remnants of the Byzantine Empire, led by Manuel Palaiologos, a Templar, who were trying to take the empire back. Bayezid had originally chosen his son Ahmet as the next Sultan, but he soon faced fierce opposition from the Ottoman Janissaries, who were supporting his other son, Selim, and aiding him in his ascension to the throne. Selim then begun a tough war agains his father in order to dethrone him from the title of Sultan. In 1512, Bayezid eventually handed over the throne to Selim instead of Ahmet, and Selim became the new Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

Selim pushing Ahmet off a cliff

As soon as he became the Sultan, Selim marched over to Constantinople to find his brother Ahmet facing off against the Assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Selim, revealing to Ahmet that their father had ultimately chosen him as his successor, started strangling Ahmet and eventually pushed him off a nearby cliff, killing him, reasoning that Ahmet, who was secretly a high-ranked member of the Templars, had betrayed of the Ottomans when he formed an alliance with the Byzantine Templars.

Under Suleiman

In 1520, a tragedy robbed Selim of the Sultanate, and Suleiman, at 26, succeeded him. His reforms greatly improved the Empire's bureaucratic system, which would later be described as a "well-oiled engine," despite its significant size.

During his rule, Suleiman expanded his Empire to its furthest points, stretching it from Algeria to the Persian Gulf, and from Austria down to Egypt. Respecting the diversity of those under his authority, he was always careful to honor their cultures, traditions, and religions.

Ottoman Janissaries

Main article: Janissaries

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A group of Janissaries

The Ottoman Janissaries were specially trained elite soldiers serving as the private guard to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. They were also the first standing Ottoman army, and the mainstay of the Ottoman army during the 1453 invasion of Constantinople, led by Sultan Mehmet II.

During 16th century Constantinople, the citizens greatly feared the Janissaries and were prone to mistreating them. The Janissaries also patroled the city looking for any Byzantine guards. Ezio, whenever pursued by the Janissaries, used this to his advantage by creating a tension between them using bombs or dead bodies and escaping.

Ottomans and the Assassins

Main article: Turkish Assassins

Levantine Assassin Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad journeyed to Constantinople in 1204, which was under the Byzantine rule then, to establsih an Assassin Order there but was unable to do so in the face of the Fourth Crusade. Later the Polo brothers, Niccolò and Maffeo Polo were able to establish the Constantinople Assassins Guild.

Later Ishak Pasha brokered a truce between the Ottomans and the Assassins and began recruiting Ottoman citizens to the brotherhood. After he died, the task fell to the Master Assassin Yusuf Tazim, himself a recruit of Pasha.

When Sultan Bayezid II gave refuge to escaped Jews from the Inquisition of Queen Isabella I in Spain and King Manuel I in Portugal realizing the people will make his own empire stronger, the King of Spain, Ferdinand II - under the influence of the Templars - tried to send his own agents with the refugees to infiltrate Constantinople. This was foiled by the Italian Assassins, who killed the agents and took their places and worked on establishing the guild properly.

Yusuf also succesfully led the Turkish Assassin, alongside the Venetian Assassins to help end the Venetian-Ottoman war. Rodrigo Borgia tried to disrupt this peace by sending his mercenaries to Constantinople. The Assassins, in constant vigil for such tactics by Borgia, attacked the ship headed for Constantinople and thwarted this attempt.

The Assassins had initially stolen maps from the famed Ottoman admiral and cartographer Piri Reis in order to keep up with Templars' expedition of the New World. Reis later also joined the Assassin Order as a scholar and technician, eventually becoming a Master Assassin specializing in bomb crafting.

Ezio being introduced to the Ottoman Assassins

In 1511, the leader of the Italian Assassins, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, journeyed to the Ottoman Assassins' headquarters in Constantinople with the intention of finding the five keys needed to open Altaïr's library underneath Masyaf fortress. Greeted by Yusuf Tazim, Ezio was quickly taken in and introduced to various techniques that the Ottoman Assassins used, including bombs and hookblades, a modification of the hidden blade made by the Ottoman Assassins themselves. Ezio, along with Yusuf and a handful of his high ranked sub-ordinates, led the Ottoman Assassins against the Byzantine Templars and Shehzade Ahmet, who was a Templar himself and aspiring to the title of Sultan.

Trivia

• The Ottomans show up as yellow dots in the mini-map, while the Byzantines show up as red.

Gallery

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  An in-game image of a 16th century Ottoman soldier.
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  An in-game image of an Ottoman Janissary.
• Artwork of an Ottoman soldier.
  Artwork of an Ottoman soldier.
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  Agile Ottoman fighter.
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  Artwork of an Ottoman Janissary.
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  Concept artwork of an Ottoman Rifleman.