Minerva

(This text was formed from article of P. Sevket. It just includes some specific information from the article. That's why, it doesn't include the complete article.) The Ottoman Empire was a crossroads of intercontinental trade. The early Ottoman enterprise was not a religious state in the making, but rather a pragmatic one. The Ottoman government secured the pilgrimage routes and tried to make the pilgrims' money transactions easier. After than, Islamic State features had been occuring day by day. The prohibition of interest in Islam prevented the development of credit because, while the practice of riba, the Arabic term for usury and interest, is sharply denounced in a number of passages in the Qur’an and in all subsequent Islamic religious writings.  During the heated debate about interest rate, Ebusuud Efendi, the prominent, state appointed religious leader (Seyhulislam) of the period, defended the practice from a purely practical point of view arguing that ab