Promotion to positions of power largely depended on merit.

Religion was incorporated in the state structure, and the Sultan was regarded as 'the protector of Islam'.

The Ottoman Empire was successfully ruled by a single family for 7 centuries.

Power was always transferred to a single person, and not split between rival princes.

There were many reasons why the Ottoman Empire was so successful: Why was the Empire successful? The recipe for success

Much of the coastal strip of North Africa.

One legacy of the Islamic Ottoman Empire is the robust secularism of modern Turkey.

It declined further during the next centuries, and was effectively finished off by the First World War and the Balkan Wars. The Empire began to decline after being defeated at the Battle of Lepanto (1571) and losing almost its entire navy. The Ottoman Empire reached its height under Suleiman the Magnificent (reigned 1520-66), when it expanded to cover the Balkans and Hungary, and reached the gates of Vienna. It replaced the Byzantine Empire as the major power in the Eastern Mediterranean. It was an empire inspired and sustained by Islam, and Islamic institutions. The Ottoman Empire was the one of the largest and longest lasting Empires in history.

Age of empires 2 turks