What was the religion of the Ottoman Empire how did they use this religion?

Answer 1

Religion played a central role in the Ottoman Empire. Islamic Law, known properly as Shari'a, was implemented throughout the Ottoman Empire and formed the basis for societal organization. In addition, Ottoman subjects who were non-Moslem were identified and represented by Millets. These Millets were representative councils whose membership consisted of all people who were of the same ethnic religion. (For example, all Greek Orthodox were under one Millet and all Armenian Apostolic Christians were governed by their Millet.)

Answer 2

Concerning Muslims
There are several ways that the Caliph, and the Sunni Religious Order he led in the Ottoman Empire, as well as the Islamic Law helped the Ottoman Sultans and the other secular authorities maintain power.

Geographic Organization: One of the key ways that the mosques served the Ottoman Empire was by keeping parish records of the Ottoman subjects. This allowed the sultan to know how many births and deaths there were in every village in the empire as well as know how many able-bodied men could be summoned as footsoldiers should the need arise. Since the mosques were managed by the government's religious ministry, these records were directly accessible to the sultan. Additionally, since most Imams could read, even though the population in general could not, the mosque could become a place where imperial proclamations could be read out to the population after the khobta or sermon. This allowed for easy dissemination of information from the government to the general population.

Military Assistance: In many parts of the Ottoman military, there were Sufi Mystics who served as patriotic military chaplains. They would provide zeal and patriotism to rally the Ottoman soldiers to the defense of the Empire for religious motives and take care of the soldiers' spiritual concerns. In this way, they helped to motivate the armies.

Dispute Resolution: Al-Qanun (the Religious Law) and the Qadis (Religious Legal Scholars / Judges) served to provide legal and equitable remedies to the people. Al-Qanun was enforceable from religious courts to all secular domains, so the disputes resolved in the religious courts and overseen by the Caliph had actual effect and restored domestic tranquility. Additionally, by allowing the Qadis to oversee the allocation of justice, the sultan was freer to allocate funds to imperial construction products or military endeavors, allowing the Ottomans to more effectively police their territory and expand it.

Cultural Unity: The dominance of Sunni Islam in all parts of the Ottoman Empire helped solidify a unified culture, especially in places like the Arab World, where most of the population resented Turkish control over Non-Turks. The loyalty to the Caliph in all parts of the Sunni Islamic World gave implicit legitimacy to the Ottoman Empire even from those Sunni Muslims who otherwise would consider rebelling and restoring local Non-Turkish power.

Sultan's Impunity: With the Caliph established as the supreme moral authority, the sultan was not required to be as moral as he would otherwise be required. This allowed the sultan to be crueler to his prisoners and enemies and to violate standards of decency (such as drinking alcohol or having a harem of over four women) without being impeached for it. In many cases, the sultan used direct force to compel obedience and not needing to save face afterwards permitted this to continue. Conversely, the Caliph would have to live a life of piety.

Concerning Non-Muslims
Non-Muslims who lived in the Ottoman Empire were called Dhimmi, or second-class citizens. They lacked a number of fundamental rights such as freedom of movement, freedom of settlement, access to all occupations, and additional taxation because they were Non-Muslim. Each Dhimmi group, like the Armenians, Greeks, Jews, and so forth were organized into Millets which were community representative groups. Each Millet would report to a centralized Millet representative in Istanbul who would have direct dealing with the Imperial Palace. This would allow the Millets to air their grievances, but was more often used as a method to control the Millets and make them less resistive to Ottoman Occupation.

Admittedly, life under the Ottomans was far superior to most contemporaneous Empires. Spain was by far a more religiously and culturally intolerant place during this period as were France and England.

Finally, the Ottomans' most egregious crime was the policy of devşirme, where Christian families in the Balkans region had to submit to Ottoman soldiers stealing their children to bring to them to Istanbul where they would have no contact with their parents for years and be trained to be the elite Janissary Core and be converted to Islam. No Muslim was even allowed to join the Janissaries because the devşirme system was so effective in producing recruits loyal only to the Emperor because they feared him.

Answer 3

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