Slaves in the Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire existed from year 1453 to 1918 and was one of the largest and most well organized empires in world history. The Ottomans were very successful and conquered enormous territories with their large and professional standing armies. The Ottoman Empire was a slave society and slavery was very popular among the Ottomans. As much as one-fifth of the population in Istanbul were slaves, but there were not as many in the more remote areas. The sultan owned all property and had enormous power, and that was partly because he had so many slaves. That gave him much more control than if he had hired freemen, since slaves were always loyal but freemen could not be trusted in the same way. I am going to write about male and female slaves in the Ottoman Empire; what their status and rights were, what work they had to do and who they were.…