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A History of the Ottoman Empire
Covering the full history of the Ottoman Empire, from its genesis in post-Mongol Eurasia to its dissolution after the Great War in Europe, this textbook takes a holistic approach, considering the Ottoman worldview - what it was, how it came together, and how it fell apart. Douglas A. Howard stresses the crucial role of the Ottoman sultans and their extended household, discusses the evolution of the empire's fiscal model, and analyzes favorite works of Ottoman literature, emphasizing spirituality, the awareness of space and time, and emotions, migration, violence, disease, and disaster. Following how people spent their time, their attitudes towards authority, how they made their money, and their sense of humor and sense of beauty, this illustrated textbook is an essential resource for graduate and advanced undergraduate, courses on the history of the Ottoman Empire, the Middle East, Islamic history, and the history of Eastern Europe. The book includes over eighty illustrations, maps and textboxes.
394 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2017
67 people are currently reading
730 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
July 12, 2023
Douglas Howard este turcolog. A publicat multe cărți și articole despre istoria și cultura turcilor.
Capitolele pot fi împărțite în două. Prima parte cuprinde ”istoria evenimențială”, cu sultani, bătălii și cuceriri. A doua parte este dedicată transformărilor din economie, administrație, cultură și armată.
Nu vă așteptați la foarte multe informații dintr-o carte de trei sute de pagini despre un stat care s-a întins pe șase secole și trei continente.
Capitolele pot fi împărțite în două. Prima parte cuprinde ”istoria evenimențială”, cu sultani, bătălii și cuceriri. A doua parte este dedicată transformărilor din economie, administrație, cultură și armată.
Nu vă așteptați la foarte multe informații dintr-o carte de trei sute de pagini despre un stat care s-a întins pe șase secole și trei continente.
January 24, 2018
The description of this book on Amazon and GoodReads is 100% accurate. The book is well written, informative, and takes a humanistic approach to its subject matter that I enjoyed and often find lacking in many history books. The approach gives the reader a glimpse into the national soul of an Ottoman citizen, particularly a citizen of Turkish decent. One comes away with a sense of the character of an Ottoman citizen and the Ottoman world outlook that also helps explain how the Empire was able to govern such a diverse group of peoples for so long.
However, be warned that this is not intended as an introduction to the history of the Ottoman Empire. As advertised, if you consider it as a college history textbook, it is designed for graduate and advanced undergraduate students. I do not think it is as accessible to the general reader as some of the academic reviewers suggest. The author assumes the reader has a basic understanding of the Empire's general formation, territory, diverse cultures and place in Islamic history. If one does not have such a basic understanding, one may spend a lot of time looking up events and people on Google to get a framework to better understand the context of what you are reading.
However, be warned that this is not intended as an introduction to the history of the Ottoman Empire. As advertised, if you consider it as a college history textbook, it is designed for graduate and advanced undergraduate students. I do not think it is as accessible to the general reader as some of the academic reviewers suggest. The author assumes the reader has a basic understanding of the Empire's general formation, territory, diverse cultures and place in Islamic history. If one does not have such a basic understanding, one may spend a lot of time looking up events and people on Google to get a framework to better understand the context of what you are reading.
October 6, 2022
In his grief the words of the Qur'an came to mind, It is He Who gives life and death; and He has power over all things. Opening his eyes, it was as if the tops of the fruit trees were smiling at him. "Note us as well," they were saying, "Do not only look at the ruins."
This was a really interesting overview of a part of history I really didn't know that much about. It's definitely written in a fairly academic style, and there were a few times I had to Google what was being talked about—Howard does tend to reference historical treaties and events without actually explaining what they involved—but overall it's a very good read. The account of the English guy describing how the Ottomans were crazy for coffee was a nice inclusion, because it really helps to remind you that although history is a lot of dates and wars and stuff like that, it's really just about people's lives. I think that Howard shows that well. 3.5 stars.
This was a really interesting overview of a part of history I really didn't know that much about. It's definitely written in a fairly academic style, and there were a few times I had to Google what was being talked about—Howard does tend to reference historical treaties and events without actually explaining what they involved—but overall it's a very good read. The account of the English guy describing how the Ottomans were crazy for coffee was a nice inclusion, because it really helps to remind you that although history is a lot of dates and wars and stuff like that, it's really just about people's lives. I think that Howard shows that well. 3.5 stars.
June 26, 2017
Decent, but rather overly-intricate for an introductory text.
April 2, 2018
A holistic history of the Ottoman empire from its origins to its dismemberment, Douglas A. Howard was able to combine the chronology of a history textbook with the rich and enlightening detail that gives the book a human perspective to many of the events and moments covered.
Quoting Said Nursi in the last paragraph of the book, he captures the continuous cycles of destruction and despair, hope and rebirth that have defined human history- "The Ottoman Empire was dead, the Van citadel a gravestone over its entombed remains. The world was collapsing upon him. In his grief the words of the Qur’an came to mind; It is He Who gives life and death; and He has power over all things. Opening his eyes, it was as if the tops of the fruit trees were smiling at him. “Note us as well,” they were saying, “Do not only look at the ruins.”
Quoting Said Nursi in the last paragraph of the book, he captures the continuous cycles of destruction and despair, hope and rebirth that have defined human history- "The Ottoman Empire was dead, the Van citadel a gravestone over its entombed remains. The world was collapsing upon him. In his grief the words of the Qur’an came to mind; It is He Who gives life and death; and He has power over all things. Opening his eyes, it was as if the tops of the fruit trees were smiling at him. “Note us as well,” they were saying, “Do not only look at the ruins.”
July 10, 2024
Parts 5/5, parts 2/5. I am quite well informed on history in general but this was my first book on the Ottomans.
Pros:
- goes through different aspects such as religion, warfare, culture, politics, demographics, economy
- good overview
- certain very interesting examples, such as that the local Greeks were more interested in looting and slaving during the Greek "war of independence", whereas the actual Greek independence struggle was something Europeans highlighted and fought for as a result of romantic readings of ancient Greek epics
Cons:
- quite unstructured and not so easy to follow
- at times it felt like a text book for 1st year of uni, adapted to the attention span of 20y olds and time span of a 5w course, instead of catering to history buffs who want to learn
Pros:
- goes through different aspects such as religion, warfare, culture, politics, demographics, economy
- good overview
- certain very interesting examples, such as that the local Greeks were more interested in looting and slaving during the Greek "war of independence", whereas the actual Greek independence struggle was something Europeans highlighted and fought for as a result of romantic readings of ancient Greek epics
Cons:
- quite unstructured and not so easy to follow
- at times it felt like a text book for 1st year of uni, adapted to the attention span of 20y olds and time span of a 5w course, instead of catering to history buffs who want to learn
July 26, 2025
This book is very informative while at the same time glossing over some major things. Halfway through, we're informed of how a sultan, upon taking the throne, killed all his brothers in order to eliminate competition. Thinking this was weird as hell, I went online to read up more on it ('cause, of course, the book didn't say too much) only to find out that THIS WAS A VERY COMMON THING THAT HAD BEEN HAPPENING FOR CENTURIES THAT THE BOOK HAD NEVER EVEN BROUGHT UP YET.
Just a few pages earlier, there's a section titled The Long War in Hungary. It's only 2 paragraphs. Guess the war wasn't that long after all.
With how much of the history is glossed over or handwaved away, it's easy to conclude that this is very blatantly a book written by a college professor with the mindset of "you'll need this book for my class, but my class has these other classes as a requirement, so my book won't talk about what you talked about in these other classes 'cause you've already covered that".
Other than that, the actual writing and sentence structure could definitely be improved. The common lack of comma and convoluted sentence structures or ambiguous choice of words ( "records" the noun or the verb? who knows!) often forced me to re-read a sentence in order to even understand it.
Just a few pages earlier, there's a section titled The Long War in Hungary. It's only 2 paragraphs. Guess the war wasn't that long after all.
With how much of the history is glossed over or handwaved away, it's easy to conclude that this is very blatantly a book written by a college professor with the mindset of "you'll need this book for my class, but my class has these other classes as a requirement, so my book won't talk about what you talked about in these other classes 'cause you've already covered that".
Other than that, the actual writing and sentence structure could definitely be improved. The common lack of comma and convoluted sentence structures or ambiguous choice of words ( "records" the noun or the verb? who knows!) often forced me to re-read a sentence in order to even understand it.
August 10, 2025
Douglas A. Howard nimmt uns mit durch die Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches. Allerdings könnte dieses Buch 800 Seiten mehr gut vertragen. So ist es eine unglaublich dichte Schilderung einer langen Geschichte, religöser und kultureller Entwicklungen und der Personen, die jeweils die einzelnen Stationen reflektieren.
Ich denke ich hätte mit einem Text, der sich nur auf einen dieser Aspekte konzentriert hätte, mehr gelernt, aber wenn ich das nachgeholt habe, werde ich zu diesem Werk nochmal zurückkehren.
Ich denke ich hätte mit einem Text, der sich nur auf einen dieser Aspekte konzentriert hätte, mehr gelernt, aber wenn ich das nachgeholt habe, werde ich zu diesem Werk nochmal zurückkehren.
September 22, 2019
Quite a good book which seemed to move the focus away from the politics and military expositions that many other books on this subject make emphasis on. In this book, it’s the culture (and the mix of cultures within the empire), lifestyle and religion which are the core focus.
For what it set out to do I think it did a good job, considering the broad time period this book covered.
For what it set out to do I think it did a good job, considering the broad time period this book covered.
September 13, 2024
Hiç beklediğim gibi bir Osmanlı tarihi değildi. Ama yine de benim hoşuma gitti.
Osmanlı insanının evren tahayyülünü, duygu düşünce dünyasını, olaylar karşısındaki tavrını ve bunların tarihsel seyrini merak ediyorsanız ve divan edebiyatı da seviyorsanız bu kitap size göre.
Ben Türkçesini okudum. Çeviri bir iki ciddi hata hariç güzel.
Osmanlı insanının evren tahayyülünü, duygu düşünce dünyasını, olaylar karşısındaki tavrını ve bunların tarihsel seyrini merak ediyorsanız ve divan edebiyatı da seviyorsanız bu kitap size göre.
Ben Türkçesini okudum. Çeviri bir iki ciddi hata hariç güzel.
November 21, 2022
A well written and detailed history of the Ottoman Empire form its genesis in 1300 to its end in the 20th century!
If only there was a family tree of all the empires sultans, it would definitely make remembering them easier…
If only there was a family tree of all the empires sultans, it would definitely make remembering them easier…
July 26, 2018
Excellent history of the Ottoman Empire written from the Ottoman point of view.
May 24, 2020
This doesn't seem to be a good beginning book on the topic of Ottoman History. It seems to presuppose a certain level of knowledge of the Ottoman Empire. It combines a narrative with cultural and financial/economic history - which is a good thing, but I think it's a book you would want to read after reading a more general History of the Empire.
April 1, 2025
A fantastic overview of Ottoman history. Also a good resource for a jumping off point. I have a ton of new research ideas after reading this. Highly recommend.
December 6, 2025
Informal Review:
As a dedicated history textbook intended for a course, this is one of the best I’ve read. I was unaware what social history even really was when I picked up this book, thinking that it was a general historical survey. Needless to say, this book did not provide me what I was looking for, but it began to open my eyes to the discipline of today. This is the type of book every history student should read, though if you’re not reading in tandem with a course I would recommend a more ‘traditional’ study before coming to this book. Nonetheless, I believe Howard accomplishes a lot and that this is a piece of scholarship worthy of praise.
As a dedicated history textbook intended for a course, this is one of the best I’ve read. I was unaware what social history even really was when I picked up this book, thinking that it was a general historical survey. Needless to say, this book did not provide me what I was looking for, but it began to open my eyes to the discipline of today. This is the type of book every history student should read, though if you’re not reading in tandem with a course I would recommend a more ‘traditional’ study before coming to this book. Nonetheless, I believe Howard accomplishes a lot and that this is a piece of scholarship worthy of praise.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews