The political and geographical entity governed by the Muslim Ottoman Turks Their empire was centered in present-day Turkey, and extended its influence into southeastern Europe as well as the Middle East Driven from their Asiatic homelands by the Mongols, the Ottoman Turks pressed into the Balkan provinces of the Byzantine Empire In the fourteenth century, they began their conquest of Byzantine territory Europe was only temporarily able to resist their advance: the turning point came at the Battle of Varna in 1444 when a European coalition army failed to stop the Turkish advance Only Constantinople remained in Byzantine hands and its fall in 1453 seemed inevitable after Varna The Turks subsequently established an empire in Anatolia and southeastern Europe which lasted until the early twentieth century
a former Turkish empire that was founded about 1300 by Osman and reached its greatest territorial extent under Suleiman in the 16th century; collapsed after World War I
Turkic empire established in Asia Minor and eventually extending throughout Middle East; responsible for conquest of Constantinople and end of Byzantine Empire in 1453; succeeded Seljuk Turks following retreat of Mongols (p 503)
a Turkish sultanate of southwestern Asia and northeastern Africa and southeastern Europe; created by the Ottoman Turks in the 13th century and lasted until the end of World War I; although initially small it expanded until it superseded the Byzantine Empire