First, Mehmed the Conqueror ruled from 1451 to 1481 ad expanded Ottoman control to the Balkans. The Ottoman reached its greatest expansion under Suleiman the Magnificent …show more content…
Either way, they were not allowed to have children which prevented the whole hereditary noble’s problem. This system eventually broke down as the Janissaries lobbied to be allowed to have families. Before all this happened, the structure and system of the Ottoman Empire was working very well. Together, the Ottoman Empire and Venice grew wealthy by facilitating trade: The Venetians had ships and nautical expertise; the Ottomans has access to many of the most valuable goods in the world, especially pepper and grain. Working together across cultural and religious divides, they both became very rich. During this time, the Ottomans became one of the most powerful political entities in the world under Suleiman the Magnificent.
Perhaps Suleiman’s greatest accomplishment and the one he is most remembered for is his reform of the legal code. The Ottoman legal code had two facets. The first was the Shari’ah, the unchanging divinely ordained laws according to Islamic tradition, which is derived from the Quran and the actions of Prophet Muhammad. The second was the laws dictated by the sultan of the time, known as Kanuns. These sultanate laws covered aspect of life not explicitly covered by the Shari’ah, such as taxes, police regulation, and other day to day affairs of the