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The Ottoman economy underwent major transformations in the 16th and 17th centuries. Like many early modern empires, the Ottomans relied on agriculture, but the rise of global trade networks and the influx of American silver created new economic opportunities—and challenges. As in Europe, these ties to a global silver economy sometimes caused inflation and price fluctuations, prompting the Ottomans to implement economic and administrative reforms.
The bureaucracy expanded to oversee tax collection and state finances. The older Timar system, which linked land grants to military service, was gradually replaced by tax farming, allowing wealthy individuals to purchase the right to collect taxes. This system provided roughly 20% of state revenue, funding the growing bureaucracy and professional army—but it also gave more power to local elites.
After losses to the Holy League and the strain of ongoing wars, the empire reformed its budget so that provinces covered local expenses while sending surplus revenue to the central government. Egypt was particularly productive, helping the central treasury keep pace with inflation. Cairo also benefited from the rise of coffee as both a local staple and a major export. By the end of the 16th century, coffeehouses had spread across the empire, and coffee became an increasingly important commodity in Ottoman trade alongside spices, silk, and textiles.
To encourage trade and respond to the shift from overland to maritime routes, the Ottomans sometimes signed capitulations, or trade agreements, with European powers such as France and Venice. These agreements granted privileges to foreign merchants and, combined with Ottoman tolerance, attracted Jewish merchants fleeing persecution in Europe. Over time, however, European powers increasingly challenged Ottoman trade monopolies.
A New Islamic Golden Age?
A New Islamic Golden Age?
The Ottoman Empire served not only as a commercial hub but also as a center of cross-cultural scholarship and artistic exchange that fascinated and influenced Renaissance Europe. Scholars, architects, and artists traveled across the empire, drawing inspiration from Persian, Arab, Byzantine, and European traditions. Under Suleiman and his successors, Istanbul became a cosmopolitan center of learning and patronage that European diplomats, artists, and travelers sought to study and emulate. Throughout the Renaissance and even after, both European and Ottoman artists and architects borrowed inspiration and techniques from one another, blending styles, motifs, and innovations in architecture, painting, and decorative arts.
Monumental architecture—mosques, bridges, and palaces—blended Ottoman, Persian, and European influences, demonstrating imperial power and cultural sophistication. Mimar Sinan, of Greek or Armenian Christian origin and trained through the Janissary system, rose to become Suleiman’s chief architect and engineer. Drawing inspiration from the Hagia Sophia, he sought to surpass its grandeur in works such as the Süleymaniye and Selimiye Mosques, defining the Classical Ottoman style that later inspired European observers who viewed Istanbul as a “New Rome.”
Patronage also extended to the arts and sciences, including calligraphy, miniature painting, textiles, ceramics, geography, medicine, astronomy, and mathematics. Ottoman artistic and intellectual production circulated across borders: European mapmakers drew from Ottoman cartography, physicians translated Arabic and Turkish medical texts, and artists borrowed Ottoman motifs. Wealth, bureaucracy, and culture were closely intertwined—economic growth funded monumental projects, the bureaucracy sustained administration, and cultural achievements reinforced legitimacy at home and prestige abroad. Through this combination of economic strength, administrative innovation, and cultural promotion, the Ottoman Empire projected power, legitimacy, and prestige both within its borders and across the Muslim world.
The Valide Sultan Mosque (New Mosque)
The Valide Sultan Mosque (New Mosque)
The Valide Sultan Mosque, also known as the New Mosque, underscores the rising influence of the female relatives of the sultan during the Sultanate of Women period. In 1597, Safiye Sultan—the wife of Sultan Murad III and Valide Sultan (Queen Mother) of Sultan Mehmed III—ordered the construction of the mosque in Istanbul.
Topkapi Palace
Topkapi Palace
After his conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Sultan Mehmed II (the Conqueror) ordered the building of Topkapi Palace (New Palace) along the Bosphorus Strait. Greek historian Michael Critobulus (a contemporary of Mehmed) wrote that the sultan "took care to summon the very best workmen from everywhere – masons and stonecutters and carpenters ... For he was constructing great edifices which were to be worth seeing and should in every respect vie with the greatest and best of the past." Sultan Suleiman later expanded the palace to reflect the growing power of the empire. The palace served as the main residence of the sultans, housing to about 4,000 people. It was also home to the imperial treasury, used to finance the state.
Suleymaniye Mosque
Suleymaniye Mosque
Designed by the architect Sinan and commissioned by Suleiman, the Süleymaniye Mosque is still one of the best-known sights of Istanbul. For 462 years, the Süleymaniye Mosque was the largest mosque in the city, until it was surpassed by the Çamlıca Mosque in 2019.
Scholarship & Learning
Scholarship & Learning
The Ottomans also actively supported learning and scholarship, building numerous libraries and collecting both local and foreign manuscripts. Medical texts from the empire illustrated new surgical instruments and even depicted women performing surgeries. At the invitation of Sultan Murad III, the polymath Taqi al-Din built the Constantinople Observatory to study the motion of planets and moons. He also developed steam turbines and mechanical clocks, conducted research on the refraction of light, and used European celestial and terrestrial globes sent to Istanbul through diplomatic gift exchanges.
Other scholars flourished in the empire as well. For example, Musa bin Hamun, a Spanish Jewish physician who settled in the Ottoman Empire after the expulsion of Jews from Spain, wrote one of the first treatises dedicated to dentistry. Thus, much like earlier Muslim states, the Ottomans supported cross-cultural learning and innovation, making the empire a hub of knowledge and scientific advancement in the early modern world.
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