Ottoman Empire facts

Turks. For most of his life, Vlad fought the Ottomans, who considered Wallachia as part of their empire. According to (most likely exaggerated) popular story, in 1462 Mehmed II retreated with his army after being sickened by the sight of 20,000 impaled corpses outside the Vlad's capital of Târgoviște.

Foot whipping. This criminal is being prepared to falaka, a type of punishment used in the Ottoman Empire and Middle East. Foot whipping is effective due to the clustering of nerve endings in the feet and the structure of the foot, with its numerous small bones and tendons. The wounds inflicted are particularly painful and take a long time to heal. Falaka was used for centuries as a way of torture and punishment.

Christian children. When a Christian boy was recruited, first he would be sent to selected Turkish families to learn to speak Turkish and culture of Ottoman society. Later they were trained in tough Enderun school, eventually converting to Islam. The more talented ones received a higher standard of education to become engineers, architects, physicians and scientists. Janissaries belonged to the Sultan, carrying the title kapıkulu "slaves of the Porte".

Cossacks were deeply Orthodox and formed highly democratic militaristic communities. In 1676, they received a letter from Mehmed IV, who demanded that they submit to Turkish rule. The letter was full of sultan's titles, which the Cossacks parodied in their reply, calling the sultan "Babylonian scullion, Macedonian wheelwright, brewer of Jerusalem, goat-f****r of Alexandria, swineherd of Greater and Lesser Egypt, pig of Armenia, Podolian thief, catamite of Tartary, hangman of Kamyanets, and fool of all the world and underworld".

Turkey. The name “Ottoman” comes from the Osman dynasty, which ruled Turkey from 13th century until 1922.

Morocco. The name of fez comes from the city of Fes, Morocco, where it became fashionable among Andalusian Arabs in the 17th century. The fez got widely popular in the Ottoman Empire after 1829, when Sultan Mahmud II ordered his civil officials to wear the plain fez, and also banned the wearing of turbans.

Ottoman Empire. The Battle of Lepanto (7 October 1571) was a naval engagement between the allied Christian forces of the Holy League and the Ottoman Empire. It was the largest naval battle in Western history since classical antiquity, involving more than 400 warships. The victory of the Holy League marked the turning-point of Ottoman expansion into the Mediterranean, although the Ottoman wars in Europe would continue for another century.