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The Ottomans

On sale

14th October 2021

Price: £14.99

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Selected: ebook / ISBN-13: 9781473695726

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE

A SUNDAY TIMES PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR

‘Magnificent . . . Important and hugely readable’ William Dalrymple, Financial Times

‘A wildly ambitious and entertainingly lurid history’ James Barr, The Times

‘A panoramic and thought-provoking account’ Guardian

‘A winning portrait of seven centuries of empire, teeming with life and colour’ Sunday Times

‘Superb, gripping and refreshing’ Simon Sebag Montefiore

‘Sweeping, colorful, and rich in extraordinary characters’ Tom Holland

The major new history of 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, when in reality, their multiethnic, multilingual, and multireligious domain reached deep into Europe’s heart. Recounting their remarkable rise to a world empire, Marc David Baer traces their debts to their Turkish, Mongolian, Islamic and Byzantine heritage. Upending Western accounts of the Renaissance, the Age of Exploration and the Reformation, The Ottomans is a magisterial portrait that vividly redefines the dynasty’s enduring impact on Europe and the world.

Reviews

Eugene Rogan, author of The Fall of the Ottomans
A compellingly readable account of one of the great world empires from its origins in thirteenth century to modern times ... Blending the sacred and the profane, the social and the political, the sublime and the absurd, Baer brings his subject to life in rich vignettes. An outstanding book
James McDougall, University of Oxford
Baer's colourful, readable book is informed by all the newest research on his massive subject. In showing how an epic of universal empire, conquest and toleration turned into the drama of nationalism, crisis, and genocide, he gives us not only an expansive history of the Ottomans, but an expanded history of Europe.
Peter Sarris, University of Cambridge
Marc David Baer's The Ottomans is a scintillating and brilliantly panoramic account of the history of the Ottoman empire, from its genesis to its dissolution ... It challenges and transforms how we think of 'East' and 'West,' 'Enlightenment,' and 'modernity,' and directly confronts the horrors as well as the achievements of Ottoman rule
Library Journal
Expertly captures the undercurrents of Ottoman history ... There's no study more masterful
Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The Romanovs and Jerusalem
A superb, gripping and refreshing new history - finely written and filled with fascinating characters and analysis - that places the dynasty where it belongs: at the centre of European history
All About History
A thrilling history of one of the world's largest empires
Katherine Pangonis
Provocative and engaging, this book is a refreshing new study of the Ottoman Empire and its legacy . . . Populated by vivid characters and descriptions of events this book is well-paced, rich and beautifully executed. Essential reading not only for those interested in the history of the Middle East, but also for those interested more broadly in the history of Europe, the history of Empire and the politics of genocide
James Barr, The Times
A wildly ambitious and entertainingly lurid history
Sunday Times
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
Guardian
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
Alex Churchill, History Hack podcast
An epic, sweeping history of the Ottoman Empire . . . It's absolutely fabulous
Literary Review
[Baer's] enlightening forays into the side alleys of Ottoman history make this book very enjoyable . . . splendid
New Yorker
Forceful history
Anthony Sattin, Spectator
A fuller, fresher view of the dynasty that ruled an empire for 500 years and helped shape the West . . . A major achievement
William Dalrymple, Financial Times
Magnificent . . . Like a swift Ottoman caique cutting through the Sweet Waters of Asia, Baer's taut prose splices stereotypes and makes us think twice about long-held assumptions . . . [An] important and hugely readable book - a model of well-written, accessible scholarship
Roger Crowley, Aspects of History
[A] fascinating, thought-provoking book that wears its learning lightly. It asks us not only to rethink the Ottomans, but also to consider what exactly constitutes being European.
The Sunday Times
Baer's portrait teems with life and colour
Tom Holland, author of Dominion
A book as sweeping, colorful, and rich in extraordinary characters as the empire which it describes