Ottoman Empire Trivia
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99 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.
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Q 01Which region of northwestern Anatolia, on the Byzantine frontier, was the cradle of the Ottoman beylik?
Bithynia
Bithynia, the Byzantine province south of the Sea of Marmara around Nicaea, was the beylik's cradle; the victory at Bapheus in 1302 opened it to Ottoman expansion.
Q 02Which city did Osman's son Orhan capture in 1326 and make the new Ottoman capital?
Bursa
Bursa fell to Orhan in 1326 after a long blockade and became the first Ottoman capital; the early sultans were buried there.
Q 03Which Serbian prince led the army against Sultan Murad I at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389?
Lazar Hrebeljanovic
Prince Lazar Hrebeljanovic commanded the Christian coalition at Kosovo Polje on 15 June 1389 and was captured and executed after the battle, in which Murad I also died.
Q 04Which Turco-Mongol conqueror defeated the Ottomans at Ankara in 1402 and captured Sultan Bayezid I?
Timur
Timur (Tamerlane) routed Bayezid I at Ankara on 20 July 1402 and held him captive until his death in 1403; the Ottoman Interregnum followed.
Q 05Which sultan conquered Constantinople on 29 May 1453?
Mehmed II
Mehmed II, in his early twenties, entered the city on 29 May 1453 and made it his capital, earning the epithet Fatih, 'the Conqueror'.
Q 06How long did the final siege of Constantinople last in 1453?
53 days
The siege lasted 53 days, from 6 April to 29 May 1453, when the walls were breached and Emperor Constantine XI died in the fighting.
Q 07How 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 08What was the giant Ottoman cannon that hurled 600-pound stone balls at Constantinople called?
Basilica
The bombard, named the Basilica, was cast by the Hungarian founder Orban; about 8 metres long, it could be fired only around seven times a day.
Q 09Which practice did the Conqueror of Constantinople legalise to preserve the state?
Royal fratricide
The Conqueror's law code sanctioned royal fratricide, allowing a new sultan to execute his brothers 'for the good of the order of the world'; the practice lasted into the early 17th century.
Q 10Which sultan's conquests led the Ottoman rulers to adopt the title of caliph?
Selim I
Selim I's conquest of Mamluk Egypt and the Hejaz in 1516-17 made the sultan guardian of the holy cities, the basis of the later Ottoman claim to the caliphate.
Q 11At which 1514 battle did the Ottomans defeat Shah Ismail of Safavid Iran?
Chaldiran
At Chaldiran, in August 1514, Ottoman cannon and Janissary muskets broke the Safavid cavalry, and the Ottomans briefly occupied Tabriz.
Q 12By what epithet is Suleiman the Magnificent known in Turkish tradition?
The Lawgiver
Turks call Suleiman Kanuni, 'the Lawgiver', for codifying the empire's secular kanun laws during his 1520-1566 reign.
Q 13At which 1526 battle did Suleiman break the Kingdom of Hungary?
Mohacs
At Mohacs on 29 August 1526 Suleiman's army destroyed the Hungarian host in under two hours; King Louis II drowned while fleeing.
Q 21Which sultan abolished the Janissary corps in 1826?
Mahmud II
Mahmud II had the rebellious Janissaries bombarded in their barracks in June 1826 and dissolved the corps, replacing it with a modern army.
Q 22Which 1571 Holy League naval victory was the last major Western battle fought almost entirely between galleys?
Lepanto
At Lepanto on 7 October 1571 the Holy League fleet under Don John of Austria destroyed most of the Ottoman galleys; Miguel de Cervantes was wounded in the battle.
Q 23Which Polish king led the relief of Vienna in 1683, sweeping away Kara Mustafa Pasha's army?
John III Sobieski
John III Sobieski led the great cavalry charge of 12 September 1683 that broke the Ottoman lines before Vienna; Kara Mustafa was executed for the defeat.
Q 14Which captain defended Szigetvar to the death against Suleiman's last campaign in 1566?
Nikola Zrinski
Nikola Zrinski led the final sortie from the burning fortress of Szigetvar on 7 September 1566, dying with his garrison shortly after Suleiman himself had died in camp.
Q 15Which Catholic king allied with Suleiman against Austria and Spain, jointly taking Nice in 1543?
Francis I
Francis I of France, Charles V's rival, made the Franco-Ottoman alliance of 1536; in 1543 Barbarossa's fleet and the king's troops jointly besieged Nice.
Q 16Under what name is Hurrem Sultan, Suleiman's legal wife, better known in Europe?
Roxelana
Roxelana, a name meaning 'the Ruthenian', was how Europeans knew Hurrem; born in Ruthenia, she was enslaved by Crimean Tatars and sold to the palace in Constantinople.
Q 17What name is given to the 1533-1656 period when imperial consorts and mothers held great power?
The Sultanate of Women
The Sultanate of Women began with Hurrem's influence over Suleiman and peaked under Kosem Sultan, who was murdered in 1651 in a feud with Turhan Hatice.
Q 18Which family of grand viziers effectively ran the empire from 1656 to 1703?
The Koprulu
The Koprulu viziers, beginning with Koprulu Mehmed Pasha in 1656, restored order and finances; under Fazil Ahmed the conquest of Crete was completed in 1669.
Q 19What did the elite Janissary infantry take their name from?
New soldier
Janissary comes from Turkish yeniceri, 'new soldier'; the corps was founded under Murad I in the 14th century as the sultan's household infantry.
Q 20What was the devshirme?
The forced levy of Christian boys for state service
The devshirme was the forced levy of Christian boys for state service: taken mainly from the Balkans, they were converted and trained for the Janissaries or the palace, and many rose to grand vizier.
Q 24Which 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 25Who persuaded the grand vizier and clergy in 1726 to allow a printing press for non-religious books?
Ibrahim Muteferrika
Ibrahim Muteferrika, a Hungarian-born convert, won a fatwa and Ahmed III's firman in 1727 and printed his first book, an Arabic-Turkish dictionary, in 1729.
Q 26Which Egyptian governor was tasked with crushing the Wahhabi revolt, destroying the Emirate of Diriyah in 1818?
Muhammad Ali Pasha
Muhammad Ali Pasha, the sultan's governor of Egypt from 1805, sent his sons against the Wahhabis; the campaign ended with the razing of Diriyah in 1818.
Q 27What nickname was given to the Ottoman Empire by the mid-19th century?
The Sick Man of Europe
Tsar Nicholas I is credited with calling the empire 'the sick man of Europe' in 1853, as its hold on the Balkans weakened.
Q 28What was the name of the 1839 to 1876 reform period that modernised the Ottoman state?
Tanzimat
The Tanzimat ('reorganisation') opened with the Gulhane Edict of 1839 and brought conscription, secular courts and the 1856 Reform Edict promising equality for non-Muslims.
Q 29Which American inventor received an Ottoman patent for the telegraph in 1847?
Samuel Morse
Samuel Morse's telegraph was demonstrated to Sultan Abdulmecid at a Bosporus palace in 1847; the sultan tested it himself and issued Morse a patent.
Q 30Which sultan reverted the empire to absolute monarchy after the 1876 constitution?
Abdul Hamid II
Abdul Hamid II prorogued parliament in February 1878 and ruled by decree for thirty years, until the 1908 revolution forced him to restore the constitution.