Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was a Turkish army officer, reformist statesman, and the first President of Turkey. He is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey. His surname, Atatürk (meaning "Father of the Turks"), was granted to...

Mehmed Talat Pasha was one of leaders of the Young Turks, an Ottoman statesman, grand vizier (1917) , and leading member of the Sublime Porte from 1913 until 1918. He is infamously tied to the Armenian Genocide possibly even more than the o...

Mehmet VI was the 36th and last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, reigning from 1918 to 1922. The brother of Mehmed V, he succeeded to the throne as the eldest male member of the House of Osman after the 1916 suicide of Abdülaziz's son Yusuf Iz...

Abdul Hamid II was the 34th sultan of the Ottoman Empire. He oversaw a period of decline in the power and extent of the Empire, ruling from 31 August 1876 until he was deposed on 27 April 1909. Abdülhamid II was the last Ottoman Sultan to r...

Hormuzd Rassam was a native Assyrian Assyriologist, British diplomat and traveller who made a number of important discoveries, including the clay tablets that contained the Epic of Gilgamesh, the world's oldest literature. In addition, he f...

Selim III, Ottoman sultan (1789-1807), nephew and successor of Abd al-Hamid I to the throne of the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). He suffered severe defeats in the second of the Russo-Turkish Wars with Catherine II, but suffered no major territor...

Ahmed III was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and a son of Sultan Mehmed IV (1648–87). His mother was Mâh-Pâre Ummatullah (Emetullah) Râbi'a Gül-Nûs; Valide Sultan, originally named Evmania Voria, who was an ethnic Greek. He was born at Hajiog...

Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha was an Ottoman military leader and grand vizier who was a central character in the empire's last attempts at expansion into both Central Europe and Eastern Europe. In 1683, he launched a campaign northward...

Murad III was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1574 until his death. He was the eldest son of sultan Selim II (1566–74), and succeeded his father in 1574. From him descend all succeeding Sultans, through his marriage to his maternal re...

Selim II Sarkhosh, also known as "Selim the Sot (Mest)" or "Selim the Drunkard", was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1566 until his death. He was born in Constantinople a son of Suleiman the Magnificent and his fourth and favourite wi...

Uluj Ali was a Muslim corsair of Italian origin, who converted to Islam and later became an Ottoman admiral (Reis) and Chief Admiral of the Ottoman Fleet in the 16th century. He was also known by several other names in the Christian countri...

Suleiman I, also called Süleyman I and nicknamed the Lawmaker or the Magnificent, was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1520 to 1566 and successor to Selim I. He was born on November 6, 1494 at Trabzon, Turkey. The Ottoman Empire reache...

Dragut was an Ottoman Greek Admiral and privateer who also served as Bey of Algiers; Beylerbey of the Mediterranean; and first Bey, later Pasha, of Tripoli. Under his naval command the Ottoman Empire's maritime power was extended across Nor...

Hayreddin Barbarossa was an Ottoman admiral of the fleet who was born in the Ottoman island of Midilli (Lesbos) and died in Constantinople (Istanbul), the Ottoman capital. Barbarossa's naval victories secured Ottoman dominance over the Medi...

Selim I, also known as "the Excellent," "the Brave" or the best translation "the Stern", Yavuz in Turkish, the long name is Yavuz Sultan Selim; was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. He was also the first Ottoman Sultan to...