For a while now. I've been trying to search if the Ottoman Empire was the stabilizing factor of the middle east, was there order?. I've only came across reading that there were revolts but all empires have revolts. I just wanted to know know if the Ottoman empire.
Provided peace in the middle east, the same way the Persian empire, under Cyrus the Great did it.
Was the Ottoman Empire aware of the boundaries of certain groups? (Armenians - Kurdish - Egyptian - Syrians - Jewish, etc.).
Thanks for your time. Just been really curious on the Ottoman Empire and its impact. If there is a link, please show it, I dont mind. Sorry if this has been posted already.
The Rise of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East was certainly not peaceful, but once it was established it served as a stabilizing factor. This was mainly due to the Ottomans being "gentle authoritarians" who did not, usually, violently oppress their citizens, but who did actively work to subvert anti-Ottoman sentiment.
How useful the Ottoman Empire was for the Middle East can be seen by what happened after it was forcibly removed, tribal groups became more important than nations and this meant even killing and fighting adjacent tribes within their own country for power. The Ottoman government's policies of tolerance and segmented provincial control worked well for a region as fractured as the Middle East.
Now for your second question about ethnic groups. The Ottomans certainly knew that their territory was occupied by a number of different ethnic groups. I don't have any information on Ottoman census keeping with me right now, but the Ottoman government's data likely only became more accurate as time went on.
For all things Ottoman I would recommend Caroline Finkel's excellent book "Osman's Dream" and for a look at more recent Middle Eastern history Thomas L. Friedman's book "From Beirut to Jerusalem" is great.