About this item
The Ottoman Empire has long been depicted as theIslamic, Asianantithesis of theChristian, 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 afrontier 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.
About the Author
Marc David Baer (PhD, History, University of Chicago) is Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His first book is Honored by the Glory of Islam: Conversion and Conquest in Ottoman Europe (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008) , winner, Albert Hourani Prize, Middle East Studies Association of North America, Best Book in Middle East Studies. Its Turkish translation is IV. Mehmet Doneminde Osmanl? Avrupa's?nda ?htida ve Fetih (Istanbul: Hil, 2010) ;His second book is The Donme: Jewish Converts, Muslim Revolutionaries, and Secular Turks (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010) , translated into Turkish as Selnikli Donmeler: Musevilikten Donenler, Müslüman Devrimciler, ve Laik Türkler (Istanbul: Do?an, 2011) and translated into Greek.His third book is At Meydan?'nda Ölüm: 17. Yüzy?l ?stanbul'unda Toplumsal Cinsiyet, Ho?gorü ve ?htida (Death on the Hippodrome: Gender, Tolerance, and Conversion in 17th century Istanbul) (Istanbul: Koç Yay?nlar?, 2016) .His fourth book is Sultanic Saviors and Tolerant Turks: Writing Ottoman Jewish History, Denying the Armenian Genocide (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2020) .His fifth book is German, Jew, Muslim, Gay: The Life and Times of Hugo Marcus (New York: Columbia University Press, 2020) .His latest book is The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs (New York: Basic Books, 2021 and London: John Murray, 2021) .
