Middle East
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The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs
This major new history of the Ottoman dynasty reveals a diverse empire that straddled East and West.
The Ottoman Empire has long been depicted as the Islamic, Asian antithesis of the Christian, European West. But the reality was starkly different: the Ottomans' multiethnic, multilingual, and multireligious domain reached deep into Europe's heart. Indeed, the Ottoman rulers saw themselves as the new Romans. Recounting the Ottomans' remarkable rise from a frontier principality to a world empire, historian Marc David Baer traces their debts to their Turkish, Mongolian, Islamic, and Byzantine heritage. The Ottomans pioneered religious toleration even as they used religious conversion to integrate conquered peoples. But in the nineteenth century, they embraced exclusivity, leading to ethnic cleansing, genocide, and the empire's demise after the First World War.
The Ottomans vividly reveals the dynasty's full history and its enduring impact on Europe and the world.
The Ottoman Empire has long been depicted as the Islamic, Asian antithesis of the Christian, European West. But the reality was starkly different: the Ottomans' multiethnic, multilingual, and multireligious domain reached deep into Europe's heart. Indeed, the Ottoman rulers saw themselves as the new Romans. Recounting the Ottomans' remarkable rise from a frontier principality to a world empire, historian Marc David Baer traces their debts to their Turkish, Mongolian, Islamic, and Byzantine heritage. The Ottomans pioneered religious toleration even as they used religious conversion to integrate conquered peoples. But in the nineteenth century, they embraced exclusivity, leading to ethnic cleansing, genocide, and the empire's demise after the First World War.
The Ottomans vividly reveals the dynasty's full history and its enduring impact on Europe and the world.
Editorial Reviews
"This forceful history takes aim at the notion that the Ottomans represent the antithesis of Western Europe, asking readers ‘to conceptualise a Europe that is not merely Christian.'"―The New Yorker
"Mr. Baer organizes his material according to contemporary concerns…thereby eking out surprisingly fresh insights from this hitherto well-plowed terrain… Highly readable, original and thorough."―Wall Street Journal
"Highly readable... Baer's fine book gives a panoramic and thought-provoking account of over half a millennium of Ottoman and – it now goes without saying – European history."―The Guardian
"Magnificent… [An] important and hugely readable book - a model of well-written, accessible scholarship."
―Financial Times
"Baer offers a fuller, fresher view of the dynasty that ruled an empire for 500 years and helped shape the West as much as the Habsburgs or Romanovs… A major achievement. [Baer] is a writer in full command of his subject."―The Spectator
"A winning portrait of seven centuries of empire, teeming with life and colour, human interest and oddity, cruelty and oppression mixed with pleasure, benevolence and great artistic beauty."―Sunday Times
"A wildly ambitious and entertainingly lurid history."―The Times
"Sweeping… Baer's elegantly written narrative is full of bloody state building…along with intriguing, counterintuitive takes on Ottoman culture."
―Publishers Weekly
"There's no study more masterful than Baer's on the lengthy rule of the Ottoman Empire…Baer is especially skilled at presenting extensive information in an engaging and accessible way."―Library Journal
"A book as sweeping, colorful, and rich in extraordinary characters as the empire which it describes."―Tom Holland, author of Dominion
"A compellingly readable account of one of the great world empires from its origins in thirteenth century to modern times. Drawing on contemporary Turkish and European sources, Marc David Baer situates the Ottomans squarely at the overlap of European and Middle Eastern history. Blending the sacred and the profane, the social and the political, the sublime an...
"Mr. Baer organizes his material according to contemporary concerns…thereby eking out surprisingly fresh insights from this hitherto well-plowed terrain… Highly readable, original and thorough."―Wall Street Journal
"Highly readable... Baer's fine book gives a panoramic and thought-provoking account of over half a millennium of Ottoman and – it now goes without saying – European history."―The Guardian
"Magnificent… [An] important and hugely readable book - a model of well-written, accessible scholarship."
―Financial Times
"Baer offers a fuller, fresher view of the dynasty that ruled an empire for 500 years and helped shape the West as much as the Habsburgs or Romanovs… A major achievement. [Baer] is a writer in full command of his subject."―The Spectator
"A winning portrait of seven centuries of empire, teeming with life and colour, human interest and oddity, cruelty and oppression mixed with pleasure, benevolence and great artistic beauty."―Sunday Times
"A wildly ambitious and entertainingly lurid history."―The Times
"Sweeping… Baer's elegantly written narrative is full of bloody state building…along with intriguing, counterintuitive takes on Ottoman culture."
―Publishers Weekly
"There's no study more masterful than Baer's on the lengthy rule of the Ottoman Empire…Baer is especially skilled at presenting extensive information in an engaging and accessible way."―Library Journal
"A book as sweeping, colorful, and rich in extraordinary characters as the empire which it describes."―Tom Holland, author of Dominion
"A compellingly readable account of one of the great world empires from its origins in thirteenth century to modern times. Drawing on contemporary Turkish and European sources, Marc David Baer situates the Ottomans squarely at the overlap of European and Middle Eastern history. Blending the sacred and the profane, the social and the political, the sublime an...
Readers Top Reviews
Mohit GHeiko WhoD
This was a timely acquisition. I had been looking for a good book on the Ottomans and the author covers this significant period in history in good enough details to keep a casual history reader like me engaged.
J.Giles WainesMoh
The history is very good, very complete especially on the social and economic side. It is a little repetative which is why i did not give it a 5 star rating.
Mr.RamadanyMr.Ram
This book has a very easy to follow style like a novel yet it has all the necessary details to understand the history of one of Europe’s giant powers of the past. It covers events and peoples with insights to understand social and political trends of the time.
Erik PetersonRafa
The Ottomans This is a great mess of a book, which tries in one volume to provide a coherent social as well as a political and military history of the Ottoman Empire, which stretches across 634 years, from 1288 to 1922. This may be too much to ask of any one book, and ‘The Ottomans’ does not really succeed in adequately addressing all of these objectives, but along the way, you do get a good deal of interesting information. You will learn about: -Deviant Dervishes. -Harem Politics. -Succession by Fratricide. -The Unusual Longevity of Palace Eunuchs. -Pederasty. -Rape (No gender is safe). -Mass Slaughters. -Forced Conversions. -Kabbalah and the Latter-day Jewish Messiah Sabbatai Levi -Portents of Disaster. -The Armenian Genocide (one among many). -The Kurdish Genocide (hasn’t happened yet but it is possible given the record so far). Go ahead and read it, but it is best to sip it in small doses and take notes along the way.
