This two-volume reference provides university and high school students—and the general public—with a wealth of information on one of the most important empires the world has ever known. Arranged in topical sections, this two-volume encyclopedia will help students and general readers alike delve into the fascinating story of an empire that continues to influence the world despite having been dissolved almost 100 years ago. Detailed entries describe the people, careers, and major events that played a central role in the history of the Ottoman Empire, covering both internal developments in Ottoman society and the empire's relationship with the powerful forces that surrounded it. Readers and researchers will find information pertaining to archaeology, geography, art history, ethnology, sociology, economics, religion, philosophy, mysticism, science and medicine, international relations, and numerous other areas of study. Many of the entries are enriched with material from Turkish and Persian primary sources written by courtiers, authors, and historians who were present at the time of major military campaigns or other important events in Ottoman history. These and other annotated primary documents will give students the opportunity to analyze events and will promote critical thinking skills. The language used throughout is accessible and based on the assumption that the reader is not familiar with the long, rich, and complex history of the Ottoman state.

Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1280-1808 is the first book of the two-volume History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. It describes how the Ottoman Turks, a small band of nomadic soldiers, managed to expand their dominions from a small principality in northwestern Anatolia on the borders of the Byzantine Empire into one of the great empires of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe and Asia, extending from northern Hungary to southern Arabia and from the Crimea across North Africa almost to the Atlantic Ocean. The volume sweeps away the accumulated prejudices of centuries and describes the empire of the sultans as a living, changing society, dominated by the small multinational Ottoman ruling class led by the sultan, but with a scope of government so narrow that the subjects, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, were left to carry on their own lives, religions, and traditions with little outside interference.

The A to Z of the Ottoman Empire is an in-depth treatise covering the political, social, and economic history of the Ottoman Empire, the last member of the lineage of the Near Eastern and Mediterranean empires and the only one that reached the modern times both in terms of internal structure and world history.

Barbara Nadel's The Ottoman Cage is a spicy thriller set in Istanbul's back alleys. Inspector Cetin Ikmen and forensic pathologist Arto Sarkissian have been friends since childhood, and their work together in Istanbul's criminal justice system has only served to cement their friendship. When they're both called to a flat to investigate the death of a twenty-year-old, there is no reason to think their relationship will alter. The case, however, is a strange one. Ikmen learns from the neighbours that they have never seen the man enter or leave the flat. The only visitor they're aware of is a solitary, well-dressed Armenian. Stranger still is that the limbs of the body are withered, and the victim seems to have been kept prisoner inside a gilded cage. What is it that's making Ikmen's old friend Arto, himself an Armenian, especially uncomfortable about the case?

The Ottoman Empire was one of the most powerful empires in history, known for its military prowess, multi-cultural make-up, and advances in art and architecture. Positioned at the crossroads of East and West, at its height it encompassed most of Southeastern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. In existence from the late 13th century until 1922, the Ottoman legacy can still be felt today throughout the Balkans and the Arab world in the areas of politics, diplomacy, education, language, and religion. This comprehensive volume is a valuable addition to world history curricula and adds a level of historical understanding to the current conflicts within the Western and Islamic worlds.

Volume 2 of The Cambridge History of Turkey examines the period from the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 to the accession of Ahmed I in 1603. During this period, the Ottoman Empire moved into a new phase of expansion, emerging in the sixteenth century as a dominant political player on the world scene. With territory stretching around the Mediterranean from the Adriatic Sea to Morocco, and from the Caucasus to the Caspian Sea, the Ottomans reached the apogee of their military might in a period seen by many later Ottomans, and historians, as a golden age in which the state was strong, the sultan's might unquestionable, and intellectual life and the arts flourishing. In this volume, leading scholars assess the considerable expansion of Ottoman power and effervescence of the Ottoman intellectual and cultural world. They also investigate the challenges that faced the Ottoman state, particularly in the later period, as the empire experienced economic crises, revolts and drawn-out wars.

An important book on the monetary history of the Ottoman empire by a leading economic historian.

Kosova history from the London Conference to the International Protectorate

Like England's Charles II, the Ottoman Empire took "an unconscionable time dying." Since the seventeenth century, observers had been predicting the collapse of this so-called Sick Man of Europe, yet it survived all its rivals. As late as 1910, the Ottoman Empire straddled three continents. Unlike the Romanovs, Habsburgs, or Hohenzollerns, the House of Osman, which had allied itself with the Kaiser, was still recognized as an imperial dynasty during the peace conference following World War I. "The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire" offers a provocative view of the empire's decline, from the failure to take Vienna in 1683 to the abolition of the Sultanate by Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) in 1922 during a revolutionary upsurge in Turkish national pride. The narrative contains instances of violent revolt and bloody reprisals, such as the massacres of Armenians in 1896, and other "ethnic episodes" in Crete and Macedonia. More generally, it emphasizes recurring problems: competition between religious and secular authority; the acceptance or rejection of Western ideas; and the strength or weakness of successive Sultans. The book also highlights the special challenges of the early twentieth century, when railways and oilfields gave new importance to Ottoman lands in the Middle East. Events of the past few years have placed the problems that faced the last Sultans back on the world agenda. The old empire's outposts in the Balkans and in Iraq are still considered trouble spots. Alan Palmer offers considerable insight into the historical roots of many contemporary problems: the Kurdish struggle for survival, the sad continuity of conflict in Lebanon, and the centuries-old Muslim presence in Sarajevo. He also recounts the Ottoman Empire's lingering interests in their oil-rich Libyan provinces. By exploring that legacy over the past three centuries, "The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire" examines a past whose effect on the present may go a long way toward explaining the future. Praise for "The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire" "Alan Palmer writes the sort of history that dons did before 'accessible' became an academic insult. It is cool, rational, scholarly, literate."--John Keegan "A scholarly, readable and balanced history."--"The Independent on Sunday" "A marvellously readable book based on massive research."--Robert Blake