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The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs
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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.
Reviews
"Baer's elegantly written narrative is full of bloody state building—a new sultan was expected to murder his brothers to keep them from challenging him for the throne—along with intriguing, counterintuitive takes on Ottoman culture ..."
"The book is marred by a predictable anti-western slant, with the enlightened Ottomans often compared favourably to the backward or intolerant European Christians ..."
"In his latest book, Baer...expertly captures the undercurrents of Ottoman history that he says made the empire's rule perilous at times ..."
"This book is impressively well-structured ..."
"Eventually, religious and ethnic minorities helped persecute one another en masse as the empire fell behind in the late 19th century, beset with poverty, rebellions, weak sultans and recurrent lawlessness ..."
"Baer does not allow himself this licence, but focuses on reinterpreting history and pushing back against centuries of prejudice."
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