The Ottoman Empire (see: names of the Empire) was a Turkish empire that existed from 1299 to 1922. At the height of its power in the 16th and 17th centuries, it spanned three continents, controlling much of Southeastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, stretching from the Strait of Gibraltar (and in 1553 the Atlantic coast of North Africa beyond Gibraltar) in the west to the Caspian Sea and Persian Gulf in the east, from the edge of Austria and Slovakia and the hinterland beyond Ukraine in the north to Sudan and Yemen in the south. At its height (see: extent of Ottoman territories), the Ottoman Empire was among the most powerful countries of the world. Ottomans began to see themselves as the rulers of a "Universal Empire" and heirs to both Roman and Islamic traditions, hence "unification of cultures". [1] The empire was at the center of interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds for six centuries. In the course of its lifespan, it undertook more than once programs of both Islamization and modernization (reform), blurring the difference between the West and the East.[2] The "golden age" of the Ottoman Empire was marked by Suleiman the Magnificent. The Empire's achievements in urban life were reflected in the establishments of Koca Mimar Sinan Ağa, and in the navy by Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha. The Ottoman Empire was the only Islamic power to seriously challenge the rising power of Western Europe between the 14th and 19th centuries. With Istanbul (or Constantinople) as its capital, the Empire was in some respects an Islamic successor of earlier Mediterranean empires - the Roman and Byzantine empires. The empire steadily declined during the 19th century and met its demise after its defeat in World War I in the Middle Eastern theatre. In the aftermath of the war, the Ottoman government collapsed and the empire's lands were partitioned. The new countries created from the remnants of the empire at present number 40 (including the disputed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus). In Anatolia, an emergent Turkish national movement waged the Turkish War of Independence, leading to the foundation of the Republic of Turkey. The new republic abolished the Caliphate and Sultanate and declared the Ottoman Dynasty as persona non grata of Turkey. Fifty years later, in 1974, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey granted descendants of the former dynasty the right to acquire Turkish citizenship.(source Wikipedia)... hope this is what your looking for