in 1530 the center of the Empire was Istanbul , with approximately 30 million inhabitants . It was built by Muhammad II in the capital, where Muslims lived together in a cosmopolitan context , Christians and Jews .
The city, which in the mid-sixteenth century had grown to about 400,000 inhabitants and reached about 600,000 at the end of the century, became the administrative, political and, thanks to its large port, commercial center of the empire.
The core of military power was the Janissary Corps , a sort of Praetorian guard made up of Christian renegades .
To the various religious confessions, the Ottoman power, which also had the character of a theocracy, granted a condition of relative tolerance, seen as an instrument of consensus and therefore of political and social control.
At the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, many Jews expelled from Spain sought refuge in the empire .
Wise was the ability to exploit the mutual hostilities between different confessions and ethnic groups.
It was Mohammed II who gave Ottoman power its structure and issued regulations aimed at ensuring administrative uniformity and juridical law of the empire, on the basis of Muslim canon law (shari'a) .
To consolidate their power, the sultans did not hesitate to proceed with the extermination of family members who could make claims to the throne.
The viziers acted as prime minister. , often men of humble origins.
The provinces of the empire and vassal states were governed by pasha and governors .
Suleiman the Magnificent he proceeded to separate the private treasury from the public one and organized a very efficient tax system.
Under the rule of the sovereign was the Council formed by ministers, senior officials and military leaders .
In a military empire like the Ottoman one, the army , divided into a central permanent nucleus (Janissaries and cavalry) and in the decentralized territorial forces , had assumed a privileged position.
Military successes were decisively linked to the excellence of artillery .
The fleet made use of the important competition of privateers.
The ruling class was marked by the ways of life dictated by Sunni Islam and ruled over Muslim, Christian and Jewish subjects.
The population was divided into two broad categories:military and tax-exempt officials on one side and subjects, made up of artisans, peasants, non-Muslims on the other. subject to taxes.
The ruling elite showed the ability to recruit soldiers, politicians, men of culture, scientists, technicians, artists even from subject peoples to their service.
The Christian peasants of the conquered areas were grateful for having been freed from serfdom and personal burdens of feudal matrix.