100 free Ottoman Empire trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Ottoman Empire trivia quiz spans six centuries, from a small principality in northwestern Anatolia to the abolition of the sultanate in 1922. The easy questions are the ones every history student meets: who founded the dynasty, which city fell in 1453, which sultan was called the Magnificent and what nickname Europe gave the empire in its decline. From there it moves into the mechanics of Ottoman power: the devshirme child levy, the Janissaries, the grand viziers, the harem and the title of caliph. The harder end is for history buffs and pub-quiz specialists: Timur's capture of Bayezid at Ankara, the ships dragged over greased logs into the Golden Horn, the giant cannon Basilica, Roxelana and the Sultanate of Women, the Kopruluvizierate, Sobieski at Vienna, Charles XII as an Ottoman guest, the printing press of 1726, Samuel Morse's Ottoman patent, the fleet left to rot in the Golden Horn and the exact dates the sultanate and caliphate were abolished. Architecture, cuisine and science get their questions too. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for the empire, its sultans and its battles before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Byzantine Empire, Turkey and World War I quizzes next.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01From whom does the Ottoman Empire take its name?
Osman I
He was a Turkoman tribal leader whose beylik emerged in northwestern Anatolia around 1299.
Q 02Which region of northwestern Anatolia, on the Byzantine frontier, was the cradle of the Ottoman beylik?
Bithynia
A Byzantine defeat at the Battle of Bapheus in 1302 helped Osman's rise.
Q 03Which city did Osman's son Orhan capture in 1326 and make the new Ottoman capital?
Bursa
The empire's later capitals were Edirne and, from 1453, Constantinople.
Q 04Which Serbian prince led the army against Sultan Murad I at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389?
Lazar Hrebeljanovic
It was one of the largest battles of the Late Middle Ages, fought about 5 km from modern Pristina.
Q 05Which Turco-Mongol conqueror defeated the Ottomans at Ankara in 1402 and captured Sultan Bayezid I?
Timur
The resulting civil war between Bayezid's sons lasted from 1402 to 1413.
Q 06Which sultan conquered Constantinople on 29 May 1453?
Mehmed II
He allowed the Eastern Orthodox Church to keep its autonomy in exchange for accepting Ottoman rule.
Q 07How long did the final siege of Constantinople last in 1453?
53 days
It began on 6 April, and Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos led the defence.
Q 08How did the besieging sultan get his ships into the Golden Horn past the Byzantine chain barrier in 1453?
He dragged them overland on greased logs
The road of greased logs ran across Galata on the north side of the Golden Horn.
Q 09What was the giant Ottoman cannon that hurled 600-pound stone balls at Constantinople called?
Basilica
The foundries employed Turkish founders such as Saruca and at least one foreigner, Orban.
Q 10Which practice did the Conqueror of Constantinople legalise to preserve the state?
Royal fratricide
He wanted to avoid the strain that earlier civil wars had placed on Ottoman unity.
Q 11Which sultan's conquests led the Ottoman rulers to adopt the title of caliph?
Selim I
He also annexed Mamluk Egypt and created a naval presence on the Red Sea.
Q 12At which 1514 battle did the Ottomans defeat Shah Ismail of Safavid Iran?
Chaldiran
He then annexed the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and created a naval presence on the Red Sea.
Q 13What is Suleiman the Magnificent called in Turkish, for his reform of the legal system?
The Lawgiver
His reign from 1520 to 1566 made the empire a global power.
Q 14At which 1526 battle did Suleiman break the Kingdom of Hungary?
Q 21What was the devshirme?
The forced levy of Christian boys for state service
Often called the blood tax, it is first recorded in 1438 and produced many grand viziers.
Q 22Which sultan abolished the Janissary corps in 1826?
Mahmud II
His predecessor Selim III had lost his throne and life trying to reform the army.
Q 23Which 1571 Holy League naval victory was the last major Western battle fought almost entirely between galleys?
Lepanto
Miguel de Cervantes fought in it and later wrote Don Quixote.
Mohacs
He captured Belgrade in 1521 and Rhodes in 1522, then failed to take Vienna in 1529.
Q 15How old was Suleiman when he set out on his thirteenth and final campaign, to Szigetvar, in 1566?
72
He had not led an expedition in person for about 13 years.
Q 16Which Catholic king allied with Suleiman against Austria and Spain, jointly taking Nice in 1543?
Francis I
Ottoman admirals Hayreddin Barbarossa and Dragut commanded the joint ventures.
Q 17Under what name is Hurrem Sultan, Suleiman's legal wife, better known in Europe?
Roxelana
Probably born in Ruthenia, she was captured by Crimean Tatars and sold via the Crimean slave trade to Constantinople.
Q 18What name is given to the 1533-1656 period when imperial consorts and mothers held great power?
The Sultanate of Women
Kosem Sultan's rivalry with her daughter-in-law Turhan Hatice ended in Kosem's murder in 1651.
Q 19Which family of grand viziers effectively ran the empire from 1656 to 1703?
The Koprulu
Their era saw the conquest of Crete completed in 1669.
Q 20What did the elite Janissary infantry take their name from?
New soldier
They were perhaps the first infantry force in the world equipped primarily with firearms.
Q 24Which Polish king led the relief of Vienna in 1683, sweeping away Kara Mustafa Pasha's army?
John III Sobieski
The defeat led to the Treaty of Karlowitz in 1699 and permanent territorial losses.
Q 25Which Swedish king took refuge in the Ottoman Empire after Poltava in 1709?
Charles XII
The result was an Ottoman victory in the Pruth River Campaign of 1710-11.
Q 26Who persuaded the grand vizier and clergy in 1726 to allow a printing press for non-religious books?
Ibrahim Muteferrika
Sultan Ahmed III granted the permission despite objections from calligraphers.
Q 27Which Egyptian governor was tasked with crushing the Wahhabi revolt, destroying the Emirate of Diriyah in 1818?
Muhammad Ali Pasha
He later fought two wars against the Porte itself, nearly seizing the Levant.
Q 28What nickname was given to the Ottoman Empire by the mid-19th century?
The Sick Man of Europe
Serbia, Wallachia and Moldavia moved towards full independence in the 1860s and 1870s.
Q 29What was the name of the 1839 to 1876 reform period that modernised the Ottoman state?
Tanzimat
Reforms included a conscripted army, secular law and, notably, the decriminalisation of homosexuality.
Q 30Which American inventor received an Ottoman patent for the telegraph in 1847?
Samuel Morse
Sultan Abdulmecid personally tested the invention.