The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars and Caliphs

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The book is structured really well: Baer divides the historical periods loosely depending on the character of that period in Ottoman history and gives you an introduction to that, explaining the main themes of the period, before delving deeper into every monarch in that particular time. I loved Christophe de Bellaigue’s book on SUleyman the Magnificent, but I wanted more detail on how exactly he Empire was administered, given the diversity of ethnicities, and languages, and this book gave me that, and more. The Ottomans more or less followed the model of the Roman Empire, with provinces governed by Ottoman administrators, and the option of advancing your fortunes if you converted to Islam ( exactly the model followed by Constantine and his successors, that led to the spread of Christianity in Europe). The Ottoman Emperors made success and belonging as a citizen of the Empire contingent on Islam, which that meant that anyone, regardless of ethnicity, nationality, language, could rise through the ranks in the court, diplomacy, business or the military. Analogously, in Europe at the time, it would be much more rare to have several courtiers, or army leaders, or businessmen, whose language and ethnicity were completely different-there was an odd Eugene of Savoy , of course, in the Hapsburg Court, but this was a lot more commonplace in the Ottoman Empire.He also explains the quite unique Janissary guard, formed entirely of children taken from conquered provinces, trained in IStranbul to be the Emperor’s elite fighting force. Apart from the life of the Emperors, Baer shows you how daily life and trade were conducted, and evolved, and rebellions quelled-the story of Sabbatai Zvi was one of the most interesting historical episodes I’ve read. In the author's view, Murad I's legacy lay not only in the territorial expansion of the empire, but in the pursuit of two policies which would contribute to later Ottoman success and stability, namely the Collection (devşirme) and the codification in law of fratricide on dynastic succession. The Collection The Ottoman Empire was surprisingly tolerant and modern, according to this sweeping chronicle. Historian Baer ( Honored by the Glory of Islam) recaps the Empire’s rise—at its 17th-century peak it ruled most of the Middle East and southeastern Europe—and long decline within a larger European context, emphasizing its entwinement with European geopolitics and culture and its seething intellectual and religious currents, which paralleled the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment. He also highlights its innovative multiculturalism and social engineering. The Ottomans’ Muslim-dominated society incorporated Christians, Jews, and ethnic minorities respectfully, Baer notes, until a 20th-century turn to Turkish ethno-nationalism precipitated the Armenian genocide, and its early system of converting Christian slave children to Islam and training them for the military and governmental posts produced a meritocratic army and administration. 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. He claims, for instance, that the sultan’s fabled harem was an epicenter of female political empowerment, and that sexual relations between men and boys were de rigueur among elites. This immersive study makes the Ottomans seem less exotic but more fascinating. (Oct.) Publishers Weekly

The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars and Caliphs (Audio Download The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars and Caliphs (Audio Download

Europe’s new-found tolerance never fully extended to Muslims. This laid the ground for tragedy in the later history of the Ottoman Empire. The Greek war of independence set the tone. What started off as localized revolts, metastasized into the first instances of modern ethnic cleansing. The western powers insisted that the Sultan protect the Christians in the Empire, while at the same time the Emperor of Russia expelled the Tatars from the Crimea and the Circassians from the Caucasus. It was a classic case of “do as I say, not as I do.” The Europeans Powers acquiesced in the fiction that killing or displacing Muslims was an unavoidable aspect of the wars of national liberation, while what the Turks did to defend their own territories constituted atrocities. This hypocrisy insidiously facilitated the greatest atrocity of all, the massacre of the Armenians during World War One. As a result, when the Ottoman Empire collapsed, it elicited little regret. I have enjoyed several historical books of late, from the Greeks to the Persians and so I looked forward to “The Ottomans” by Marc David Baer. The intention of the book is to reposition the Ottoman Empire in our minds and highlight how they impacted history with a less biased perspective.

The author thus tells the history of the Ottomans to try to refute that view. He speaks of their alliances with the Byzantines at times, the multinational, multiethnic, and multireligious nature of the Empire, its frequent tolerance, and how it saw itself as the next iteration of the Roman Empire, its leaders as Caesars, and the people of southeastern Europe as Rumis, or Romans. I have no problem with Professor Baer's arguments about the way he argues for the way the Ottoman empire differed in many attractive ways from the way things were done in Europe, particularly with regard to religious toleration. But Baer is not the first academic or popular historian to pass on this information. Philip Mansel in his 'Constantinople:City of the World's Desire' published over thirty years ago is rich in praise for many aspects of the Ottoman empire. Mansell's is a popular history so aimed at a broad audience and there are countless others including more academic works who have covered this ground.

The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars and Caliphs - AbeBooks The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars and Caliphs - AbeBooks

Baer traces the origins of the Ottoman dynasty from its humble beginnings as a nomadic tribe in Anatolia to its rise as a super power, a global empire that spanned three continents and six centuries. He highlights the Ottoman heritage of Byzantine-Roman, Turco-Mongol, and Muslim influences, and how they shaped the Ottoman identity and worldview. He also explores the Ottoman practices of religious conversion, patronage, diplomacy, warfare, reform, succession politics which culminated into fratricide and how they changed over time in response to internal and external challenges and eventually the empire collapsed and how The author correctly recognizes how the Ottoman Empire is generally only tangentially studied and appreciated: it is known for finally capturing Constantinople and eliminating the Byzantine Empire; it was romanticized as the land of sultans and his harem; it represented a continual threat to central Europe; they were part of the Central Powers. Yet the Ottomans are seen as wholly Other, Eastern; not part of the European world. 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 Marc David Baer's work on the history of the Ottomans is quite good. It offers up a great picture of the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire. While his central thesis of the Ottomans being "European" is a bit of a stretch, it might be better to say "They were a large part of European history". Simply because the Ottomans invaded Europe and then established a multi-ethnic,multi-linguistic, and multi-religious state (at least in the beginning) does not make them "European", any more than the Mongol Empire that was similarly an invading force that also established a similar Empire.The greatest strength of this book is that it does more than just recount the history of the Ottoman Empire. It connects that history to questions of how the Ottomans viewed themselves, how others viewed them, and how those perceptions changed over time. This goes to the core of what the book is about. The Ottoman state was, doubtless, dual nature by design. The Muslim, Turkish sultans in still predominantly Christian Anatolia and later completely Christian Thrace could only rule by co-opting, allying and converting local elites, Greeks, Slavs, Italians, Jews and Armenians. The Ottoman court continued to recruit outsiders down to the 19th century, when defeated Polish revolutionaries joined the sultan’s army as pashas (and converted to Islam). In its heyday, the empire forcefully recruited Christian boys into the elite infantry units, the Janissaries, and kidnapped Christian girls for the imperial harem. As a result of this latter practice, Muslim sultans could converse easily in Greek or Italian, the language of their mothers. Mehmet II, the conqueror of Constantinople, Baer reminds us, collected scientific and literary works in both those languages.

The Ottomans by Marc David Baer review – when east met west

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 I’d never understood the Crimean War at all – it’s just this mess that Victorian Britons return from – and I still can’t say it makes sense to me, any more than any war makes sense, but at least Baer’s history puts it in some kind of context. Likewise, the Balkan wars must interest students of military history, early tryouts for the new technologies of mass slaughter more extensively employed in World War I, with the Ottoman Army trained and directed by Germans. 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 and the absurd, Baer brings his subject to life in rich vignettes.An outstanding book.”— Eugene Rogan, author of The Fall of the Ottomans How indeed did Filippo Brunelleschi, a goldsmith with no formal architectural training, manage to create the most sublime monument of the Renaissance? Perhaps because the Ilkanid Oljeittu's turquoise-blue, double-shell, domed mausoleum, built at the beginning of the fourteenth century at Sultaniye in Iran, anticipated Brunelleschi's double-shell, domed cathedral in Florence by a century. It may in fact have been its inspiration." TheOttoman EmpirehaslongbeendepictedastheIslamic, Asianantithesis of theChristian, European West.But the reality was starkly different:theOttomans’multiethnic, multilingual, and multireligiousdomainreached deep intoEurope’sheart.Indeed, the Ottoman rulers saw themselves asthe new Romans.Recountingthe Ottomans’remarkable risefrom afrontier principalityto a world empire,historian Marc DavidBaertraces theirdebts totheir Turkish, Mongolian, Islamic, and Byzantine heritage.The Ottomans pioneeredreligioustoleration even as they used religious conversion to integrate conquered peoples.But in the nineteenth century, theyembraced exclusivity, leading toethnic cleansing,genocide, and theempire’s demiseafterthe First World War.I did not know just how integrated the Ottoman Empire was with Europe, with regards to trade and military campaigns ( I didn’t know, for instance, that the Ottoman Army and Navy were one of the allies of the British in Nelson’s Egyptian campaign, the French and Ottomans had a military alliance for nearly two and a half centuries, the Ottoman troops wintering in Marseille during a campaign, the Ottomans were a major part of the Crimean War, though they’re not mentioned at all ). When accounts are written of seafring nations, the Ottomans aren’t mentioned-though they should have been, and there are excellent chapters on the Ottoman Navy. A thorough history of the Ottoman Empire from its origin in Anatolia in the 13th century until its collapse in the early 20th century.