Home › Books › The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs
The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs
by
68/99
Critics
52/99
Readers
n/a
Scholars
70/99
Rating
66/99
Volume
42/99
Rating
62/99
Volume
—
Sign in to add to your shelf, rate, or review this book.
About This Book
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.
Preview
Reviews
"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."
"In his latest book, Baer...expertly captures the undercurrents of Ottoman history that he says made the empire's rule perilous at times ..."
"This immersive study makes the Ottomans seem less exotic but more fascinating."
"Despite these lapses, Baer's is 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."
"Baer doesn't stint on such glaring complications to his diversity-prioritizing approach."
"Baer's account of the rise, growth, stagnation and fall of the house of Osman over more than 600 years...is a major achievement He is a writer in full command of his subject and of a wide range of Turkish and western sources."
Reader Reviews
0 reviewsSign in to write a review.
No reader reviews yet. Be the first!