The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors

- Season 1

(2013)

The unlikely roots of the Ottomans are revealed by Rageh Omaar. From nomadic horsemen, in a rural backwater of modern day Turkey, they became rulers of a vast empire spanning three continents. At an incredible speed they came to rule over Baghdad and Cairo in the south, where they controlled the holiest sites of Islam - Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem, and they reached deep into Europe, taking in Sarajevo and threatening the gates of Vienna.

Rageh Omaar explores the huge contrasts in the times of two very different Ottoman sultans. The most famous Suleiman the Magnificent in the golden age of the 16th century and the troubled reign of Abdul Hamid II in the 19th century when the Ottomans were dubbed 'the Sick Man of Europe'. Rageh also examines the cultural legacy as well as the physical, religious and political architecture of Ottoman rule to find out what a Muslim world run from Europe was really like.

Rageh discovers how this great empire was finally destroyed, why its achievements were largely lost in the trauma of its final years, and how the fall out from its collapse created tensions that still resonate across Europe and the Middle East today. Following the end of the First World War, Rageh considers how the carve-up of former Ottoman lands created a legacy of tension and conflict that continues to this day.