<P> Ottoman responses to this European economic challenge are relatively unknown, and even the extensive and costly Ottoman industrial efforts of the 1840s seemingly have been dismissed as the casual, if not comical games of disinterested bureaucrats...What were the nature and magnitude of these Ottoman responses? What were Ottoman objectives? What main factors contributed to their failures? What if any achievements resulted? </P> <P> The complexity and multi-faceted nature of the Ottoman economy does not lend itself to the analyses that have been provided to date . Faroqhi cites earlier scholars (Gibbs and Bowen) who realised with the commencement of archival studies, details as well as major generalisations would need to be modified or even totally discarded . She cites errors present in secondary literature passed over by generations, </P> <P> Some errors may be just amusing, such as the story that the heads of the Ottoman religious - cum - legal hierarchy, the seyhulislams, if executed, were ground to death in a gigantic mortar and pestle...Others are more serious and have much hampered research, such as the inclination to explain anything and everything by Ottoman decline . </P> <P> Jonathan Grant questioned an inexorable decline thesis by considering military technology, showing the Ottomans could reproduce the latest military technology (however it is disputed whether the help of foreign expertise was necessary or not from the 15th century onwards Kenneth Chase (2003)) maintaining this relative position through two technology diffusions until the 19th century . They failed to keep pace with technology from the industrial revolution becoming dependant on imported weapons . </P>

Reasons for the decline of the ottoman empire