The Turkic Muslim empire that ruled Anatolia, the Middle East, North Africa, and southeastern Europe for six centuries — the longest-lasting Islamic empire, the inheritor of Byzantium, the context for modern Turkey and much of the contemporary Middle East, and a civilization whose complexity Western historical writing has systematically underestimated.
The Ottoman Empire lasted longer than the Roman Empire at its greatest extent. It governed more religious and ethnic diversity than any contemporary European state. It produced architecture, law, literature, and bureaucracy of the highest order. European historical writing spent two centuries calling it 'the sick man of Europe.' That verdict says more about European imperialism than about the Ottomans.