Europeans read Ottoman decline as a loss of strength and will, not mere power

Evidence

More recently, the Ottoman decline has often been cited as a paradigm for the decline and fall of the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe. The parallels are indeed striking—both in the challenge and in the collapse. For a while it seemed that the Ottoman power—centralized, disciplined and inspired by a militant and expansionist ideology—would inevitably triumph over a weak, irresolute and divided Europe. But it did not, and in time the Europeans came to realize that the sick man was losing both his strength and his will. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1737

Categorization

• XREF: ‘Losing his strength and will’ maps onto the will/volition deficit trope in Orientalist portraiture of the East as passive and exhausted.