The Ottomans
Khans, Caesars and Caliphs
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The Ottomans
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Narrated by:
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Jamie Parker
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By:
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Marc David Baer
About this listen
A major new history of the 600-year dynasty that connected East to West as never before.
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. In their breadth and versatility, the Ottoman rulers saw themselves as the new Romans.
Recounting the Ottomans' remarkable rise from a frontier principality to a world empire, Marc David Baer traces their debts to their Turkish, Mongolian, Islamic and Byzantine heritage, how they used both religious toleration and conversion to integrate conquered peoples, and how, in the 19th century, they embraced exclusivity, leading to ethnic cleansing, genocide and the dynasty's demise after the First World War. Upending Western concepts of the Renaissance, the Age of Exploration, the Reformation, this account challenges our understandings of sexuality, orientalism and genocide.
Radically retelling their remarkable story, The Ottomans is a magisterial portrait of a dynastic power and the first to truly capture its cross-fertilisation between East and West.
©2021 Marc David Baer (P)2021 Hodder & Stoughton LimitedListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"A book as sweeping, colorful, and rich in extraordinary characters as the empire which it describes." (Tom Holland)
Brilliant
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Fascinating history
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Compelling story
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The level of details and how those details are linked!
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outstanding
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Accurate and balanced presentation of History
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However I could not really get over the last few chapters of the book. When it comes to modern history I sense some orientalism at play. This is quite ironic as mr Bear manages to stay objective throughout the majority of the book, i think. But at the end he takes the liberty to use the term genocide when it comes to the Armenian question. Without downplaying the severity of the suffering of the Armenian people in the great war, we must not forget that genocide is a juridical therm. Turkey has never been convicted by international law for genocide because the highly complex and obscure nature of it all. So calling it a genocide is historically incorrect.
Also the rise of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk has a one sided view, predominantly negative. For the Turkish people he is like a Washington or Churchill figure, someone of great significance. Besides being a reformer that enters Turkey into the modern age, he has been a genius as a military commander from his early days in Gallipoli untill the ragtag army he led into rebelion against the allied forces carving out modern day Turkey. Ataturk is a whole nother chapter in turkish history that deserves a book on its own. The way mr Baer ends the book is like Mustafa Kemal pasha is a continuation of the young turks. But he is a whole new phenomenon.
I have traveled Europe to quite an extent and almost all western countries commemorate only their own fallen soldiers whilst Mustafa Kemal who was a commander in the Gallipoli front losing tens of thousends of men every day, raised a monument after the war for the turks and allied forces. with this written on it;
Those heroes who shed their blood and lost their lives! You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country to of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.
Atatürk, 1934
one way or another it will shock you
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Enthralling
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This struck me as a very balanced overview, with some really thought-provoking analysis. Baer follows a roughly chronological approach, but as the book progresses he explains why this is less tight as it goes on, which I felt worked very well. As well as describing and narrating, he takes time for analysis of cultural aspects of Ottoman life that don’t suit a chronological telling - the role of women; homosexuality; how Western Europe depicted Ottomans in Orientalising ways; etc.
Between the consistently interesting content and the perfect narration by Jamie Parker, this was all I could want from a history audiobook.
Consistently fascinating, thorough & analytical
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So interesting
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