Ottoman Period in Jerusalem
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| Hasan Bey Mosquefrom Jaffa |
When the Ottoman Turks defected the Mameluke forces in 1517, Palestine came under the rule of a new empire that was to dominate the entire Near East for the next 400 years. At the outset, particularly during the reign of Sultan Suleiman, known in Arabic as "the Law maker," but better known as Suleiman the Magnificent, Jerusalem flourished. Walls and gates, which had lain in ruins since the Ayyubid period, were rebuilt. The ancient aqueduct was reactivated and public drinking fountains were installed. After Suleiman's death, however, cultural and economic stagnation set in, Jerusalem again became a small, unimportant town. For the next 300 years its population barely increased, while trade and commerce were frozen; Jerusalem became a backwater.
Although the renewal of Jerusalem's Jewish community is attributed to the activity of Nahmanides, who arrived in the city in 1267, the community's true consolidation occured in the 15th and 16th centuries, with the influx of Jews who had been expelled from Spain.
The 19th century witnessed far-reaching changes, along with the gradual weakening of the Ottoman Empire. Political change in Jerusalem and indeed throughout the country was accelerated as part of a policy of Europeanization. European institutions in Jerusalem, particularly those of a religious character, enjoyed growing influence. Foreign consulates, merchants and settlers, grew in numbers and in power
These foreigners brought in their wake many innovations: modern postal systems run by the various consulates; the use of the wheel for modes of transportation; stagecoach and carriage, the wheelbarrow and the cart; and the oil-lantern. These were among the first signs of modernization in the city. By mid-century the first paved road ran from Jaffa to Jerusalem; by 1892 the railroad had reached the city.
The Wall and the Damascus Gate
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| The Wall and the Damascus |
The wall that encloses the present-day Old City of Jerusalem was built in the sixteenth century by the Ottoman ruler Suleiman the Magnificent. Originally it had seven gates; an eighth, aptly named New Gate, was added in the late nineteenth century in the wall's northwest sector.
The largest and most splendid of the portals is Damascus Gate. Located on the wall's northern side, it is adjacent to ruins attesting that this has been the site of the city's main entrance since ancient times. The gate's defenses include slits for firing at attackers, thick doors, and an opening from which boiling oil could be spilled on assailants below.
Albania
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| A Mosque in the Dunavat District |
The relationship between the Ottoman State and , Albania began after 1325. Albania became an Ottoman territory during the reign of Murad 11 (1421-1451). The country was divided into "timars" in accordance with the Ottoman economic system. The first known and published Ottoman document is a sanjak-i defter dated 835/1431 (H.Ynalcik, Survey of suret-i defter-i sanjak-i Arnavid, Ankara, 1954). Albania, occupying a much larger region then today, became an independent State in 1912.
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| Halwati Tekke 1782 |
Algeria
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| BeylerBeyi Palace from Algeria |
Algeria occupies almost the same territories today as it. did during the Ottoman period. The renowned Barbarossa Brothers, Arudj and Khayr al-din; volunteered in 922/1516for Ottoman sovereignty in order to protect Algeria from the Spanish attacks in the Mediterranean Sea. After Khayr al-din became the Admiral of the Ottoman Fleet, Algeria was governed first by beylerbeys then by pashas sent from the Capital until the l6th century. A sort of regency was then established first by aghas of military origin by the dominance of beys who ruled with the help of beys autonomously until the French conquest of Algeria in 1837.Examples of Ottoman architectural works can still be found in Algiers, Constantine, Tlemçen and Ouhran. including mainly mosques, mausoleums, palaces, fortresses, barracks, bridges, fountains and aqueducts.This architecture is characterised by clean white exterior walls and block-like volumes common to North Africa. However, the centralised plan of the mosques reflects the innovations of the Capital. Furthermore, certain arche forms, bricks covering roofs, compositions in plasterwork made of flowers stemming from vases and the use of tiles to decorate palaces indicate to what extent the modes and styles of Istanbul penetrated into the regional architecture of Algeria.
The grand tradition of Ottoman architecture, established in the 16th century, was derived from two main sources. One was the rather complex development of new architectural forms that occurred all over Anatolia, especially at Manisa, Iznik, Bursa, and Selçuk in the 14th and early 15th centuries. In addition to the usual mosques, mausoleums, and madrasahs, a number of buildings called tekke s were constructed to house dervishes (members of mystical fraternities) and other holy men who lived communally. The tekke (or zeviye) was often joined to a mosque or mausoleum. The entire complex was then called a külliye. All these buildings continued to develop the domed, central-plan structure, constructed by the Seljuqs in Anatolia. The other source of Ottoman architecture is Christian art. The Byzantine tradition, especially as embodied in Hagia Sophia, became a major source of inspiration. Byzantine influence appears in such features as stone and brick used together or in the use of pendentive dome construction. Also artistically influential were the contacts that the early Ottomans had with Italy. Thus, in several mosques at Bursa, Tur., there are stylistic parallels in the designs of the exterior facade and of windows, gates, and roofs to features found in Italian architecture. A distinctive feature of Ottoman architecture is that it drew from both Islamic and European artistic traditions and was, therefore, a part of both. 
The apogee of Ottoman architecture was achieved in the great series of külliyes and mosques that still dominate the Istanbul skyline: the Fatih külliye (1463–70), the Bayezid Mosque (after 1491), the Selim Mosque (1522), the Sehzade külliye (1548), and the Süleyman külliye (after 1550). The Sehzade and Süleyman külliyes were built by Sinan, the greatest Ottoman architect, whose masterpiece is the Selim Mosque at Edirne, Tur. (1569–75). All of these buildings exhibit total clarity and logic in both plan and elevation; every part has been considered in relation to the whole, and each architectural element has acquired a hierarchic function in the total composition. Whatever is unnecessary has been eliminated. This simplicity of design in the late 15th and 16th centuries has often been attributed to the fact that Sinan and many Ottoman architects were first trained as military engineers. Everything in these buildings was subordinated to an imposing central dome. A sort of cascade of descending half domes, vaults, and ascending buttresses leads the eye up and down the building's exterior. Minarets, slender and numerous, frame the exterior composition, while the open space of the surrounding courts prevents the building from being swallowed by the surrounding city. These masterpieces of Ottoman architecture seem to be the final perfection of two great traditions: a stylistic and aesthetic tradition that had been indigenous to Istanbul since the construction of the Byzantine church of Hagia Sophia in the 6th century and the other Islamic tradition of domical construction dating to the 10th century.