Started by Mehmet the Conqueror, they were expanded by a succession of sultans who were as interested in philosophy and the arts as they were in conquest and concubines.
In the middle of the 1990s, for the first time since India became independent in August 1947, the country's economy expanded by an annual average of more than 9% four years in succession, that is until the impact of the ongoing international recession saw the Indian economy decelerate.