OTTOMANS

Turkish dynasty created by Osman (Othman) the First. From the fourteenth to the sixteenth century, the Ottomans created a vast empire in western Asia, eastern Europe, and north Africa. In 1453 their troops took Constantinople, ending the reign of the Byzantine Christian empire. They controlled Palestine for four hundred years beginning in 1516.

Under Ottoman rule Palestine was divided into three mutasarrifiyahs: Nablus and Acre, linked with Beirut, and Jerusalem, which dealt directly with the Ottoman government in Istanbul. Within the Ottoman Empire non-Muslim religious communities were organized into units called millets, each of which collected its own taxes, established its own educational institutions, and administered its own laws relating to personal affairs; thus Jews and Christian sects had full religious freedom during this period. In 1831 the Egyptian viceroy Muhammad Ali Pasha and his son Ibrahim invaded Palestine, establishing a harsh regime while opening the area to Christian and other Western influences. In 1840, however, the British, Austrians, and Russians forced the Egyptians out and Palestine was restored to the Ottoman Empire, which adopted widespread reforms and encouraged foreign colonies. Among these were a few Zionist agricultural settlements, the earliest of which was established by Russian Jews in 1882.

Ottoman control over Palestine ended in 1917–1918, with the arrival of British troops during World War I, and officially ceased in 1922, when the Ottoman Empire, which had been allied with Germany, was formally dismantled. At that time the modern nation of Turkey was created and Palestine came under British Mandate.