Religious Culture and Life during the Rise of the Ottoman Empire (Based on the Accounts of the Historian Nashree)

Religion, as well as being a social judgemental value for the political power of the empire, was also a symbol of power and legitimacy from her early beginnings. Because, there was a religion-state unity in the early days of the empire. Though this feature drew attention considerably, it does not seem to have been dealt comprehensively enough. Upon this observation, the book, Kitâb-ı Cihan-nümâ (Djihān-nümā), written by Mehemmed Neshri (d. 1520), regarded as one of the historians during the rise of Ottoman Empire, has been examined in this study; and religious culture and way of life during the rise of Ottoman Empire have been attempted to clarified through examples. The topic has been divided into two titles as “The Understanding of Religious Culture by the Statesmen and Rulers” and “People’s understanding of religion and life style”. Under these titles, the understanding of jihad/warring, religious belief and practical applications have been analysed via examples from real life from the point of religious language with a view to both the rulers and the common people.