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Recently the Middle East has had a new phenomenon and that is a soap opera called "Hareem Al-Sultan," an Arabic-dubbed Turkish soap-opera who's Turkish name translates as "Magnificent Century."

It takes artistic license and glorifying (and slightly sexualising, for appeal:p) The politics and internal relations of the court of Sultan Suleiman the Lawgiver, or the Magnificent as he is known in the West.

I am deriving from the point of my first timeline thread.

It has got me thinking to the might of the Supreme State (which is what we generally called the period of the Ottomans.) A lot of its defeats and diplomatic mismanagements were at the hands of its attempted expansion into the Balkans and Europe, and only later claimed the Caliphate and only half-heartedly took advantage of lesser Muslim powers, states, and nations on its frontiers in extremely profitable regions.

Another influence for this thread came after reading a book on the Ottoman administration of the Arabian Gulf emirates, etc.

There existed a nominal claim to the Arabian Peninsula, be it however lightly enforced. However, how could greater cooperation for Khedeival Egypt and strengthening strong holds in Libya, the Sahahra, and further down into Sub-Saharan and Sahelian Africa have affected the Supreme State?

First of all I would propose such a State to consist of only core Turkish-speaking areas of the Balkans, and at an early stage focus on African and Asian expansion (perhaps into Indonesia?) around the time of European exploration.

Some ideas that I need help discussing and I think creative collaboration would help with:

1) Ottoman expulsion of the Portuguese from the Indian Ocean via Mameluke vassals/later subjects. Ironically, this first occurred during Sultan Suleiman's reign. This idea includes a much more capable, stronger Ottoman Navy.

2) Granada and the Moors in Spain.

3) Vassalage/Cooperation/Incorporation of the Maghreb including Morocco-proper.

4) Maintaining a strategic alliance with multiple European powers to maintain its strong hold in the Islamic Balkans (i.e. more than France or stronger.)

5) Vassalage of Ethiopia as another millet of the empire, and further developing relations with Somali and Yemeni sultanates and tribes. This would/could naturally lead to:

6) Vassalage/cooperation of and with Oman (at any given time) which, depending on the era, could lead to strengthening a hold on East Africa and Zanjbar specifically.

I have so many ideas that are all over the place but what I would like to focus on is an expansion of the Ottomans as deep as Uganda and the northern Congo area, with effective Islamisation, if not Ottoman administration of hinterlands in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian Ocean, and less of a focus on what would be a more set-in-stone European border (which would have a serious constant threat of Russian designs on Constantiniya I am sure.)

Let's commence discussion :eek:
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