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Discovering the Ottomans
"Lyrical yet careful, this introduction to the Ottoman reality will soon become a classic of popular history-writing."—T.J. Winter, University of Cambridge
What was the significance of the Ottoman Empire? What kind of lives did people live? What does the Ottoman Empire mean to us today? Discovering the Ottomans reflects on the life, legacy, and relevance of the Ottomans.
Ilber Ortayli is a leading expert on the Ottomans. He is the director of the Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul, and is also a professor of history at the universities of Galatasaray and Bilkent.
What was the significance of the Ottoman Empire? What kind of lives did people live? What does the Ottoman Empire mean to us today? Discovering the Ottomans reflects on the life, legacy, and relevance of the Ottomans.
Ilber Ortayli is a leading expert on the Ottomans. He is the director of the Topkapi Palace Museum, Istanbul, and is also a professor of history at the universities of Galatasaray and Bilkent.
- GenresHistory
192 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2010
13 people are currently reading
146 people want to read
About the author
İlber Ortaylı
100 books1,007 followersİlber Ortaylı (born 21 May 1947), is a leading Turkish historian, professor of history at the Galatasaray University in Istanbul and at Bilkent University in Ankara. Since 2005 he has been the head of the Topkapı Museum in Istanbul.
As the son of a Crimean Tatar family who fled Joseph Stalin's persecution and deportation, he was born in a refugee camp in Bregenz, Austria on 21 May 1947 and came to Turkey when he was 2 years old. Ortaylı attended elementary school and St. George's Austrian High School in İstanbul and then Ankara Atatürk High School. He graduated from Ankara University Mekteb-i Mülkiye (Faculty of Political Science) and completed his postgraduate studies at the University of Chicago under Professor Halil İnalcık and at the University of Vienna. He obtained his doctorate at Ankara University in the Faculty of Political Sciences. His doctoral thesis was Local Administration in the Tanzimat Period (1978). After his doctorate, he attended to the faculty at the School of Political Sciences of Ankara University. In 1979, he was appointed as associate professor. In 1982, he resigned from his position, protesting the academic policy of the government established after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état. After teaching at several universities in Turkey, Europe and Russia, in 1989 he returned to the Ankara University and became professor of history and the head of the section of administrative history.
İlber Ortaylı is widely known as a polyglot. Apart from Turkish, he also speaks German, Russian, English and French.
He has published articles on Ottoman and Russian history, particular emphasis on cities and the history of public administration, diplomatic, cultural and intellectual history. In 2001, he collected the Aydın Doğan Foundation Award. He is a member of the Foundation for International Studies, the European-Iran Examining Foundation and the Austrian-Turkish Academy of Sciences. A biographical book on İlber Ortaylı, "Zaman Kaybolmaz: İlber Ortaylı Kitabı," was published by Nilgün Uysal in 2006.
■Tanzimat'tan Sonra Mahalli İdareler (Provincial administration after Tanzimat) (1974)
■Türkiye'de Belediyeciliğin Evrimi (Evolution of manucipality in Turkey; with Ilhan Tekeli, 1978)
■Türkiye İdare Tarihi (Administrative history of Turkey) (1979)
■Osmanlı İmparatorluğunda Alman Nüfuzu (German influence in the Ottoman Empire) (1980)
■Gelenekten Geleceğe (From tradition to the future) (1982)
■İmparatorluğun En Uzun Yüzyılı (The longest century of the Empire) (1983)
■Tanzimat'tan Cumhuriyet'e Yerel Yönetim Geleneği (Local administration tradition from Tanzimat to the Republic) (1985)
■İstanbul'dan Sayfalar (Pages from Istanbul) (1986)
■Studies on Ottoman Transformation (1994)
■Hukuk ve İdare Adamı Olarak Osmanlı Devletinde Kadı (Kadıs as a legal and administrative figures in the Ottoman State) (1994)
■Türkiye İdare Tarihine Giriş (Introduction to the history of Turkish administration) (1996)
■Osmanlı Aile Yapısı (Family structure in the Ottoman Empire) (2000)
■Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nda İktisadi ve Sosyal Değişim (Economic and social change in the Ottoman Empire) (2001)
■Osmanlı Barışı (Ottoman peace) (2004)
■Osmanlı’yı Yeniden Keşfetmek 1 and 2 (Rediscovering the Ottoman Empire) (2006)
■Kırk Ambar Sohbetleri (Kırk ambar conversations) (2006)
■Eski Dünya Seyahatnamesi (Travelogue of the old world) (2007)
As the son of a Crimean Tatar family who fled Joseph Stalin's persecution and deportation, he was born in a refugee camp in Bregenz, Austria on 21 May 1947 and came to Turkey when he was 2 years old. Ortaylı attended elementary school and St. George's Austrian High School in İstanbul and then Ankara Atatürk High School. He graduated from Ankara University Mekteb-i Mülkiye (Faculty of Political Science) and completed his postgraduate studies at the University of Chicago under Professor Halil İnalcık and at the University of Vienna. He obtained his doctorate at Ankara University in the Faculty of Political Sciences. His doctoral thesis was Local Administration in the Tanzimat Period (1978). After his doctorate, he attended to the faculty at the School of Political Sciences of Ankara University. In 1979, he was appointed as associate professor. In 1982, he resigned from his position, protesting the academic policy of the government established after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état. After teaching at several universities in Turkey, Europe and Russia, in 1989 he returned to the Ankara University and became professor of history and the head of the section of administrative history.
İlber Ortaylı is widely known as a polyglot. Apart from Turkish, he also speaks German, Russian, English and French.
He has published articles on Ottoman and Russian history, particular emphasis on cities and the history of public administration, diplomatic, cultural and intellectual history. In 2001, he collected the Aydın Doğan Foundation Award. He is a member of the Foundation for International Studies, the European-Iran Examining Foundation and the Austrian-Turkish Academy of Sciences. A biographical book on İlber Ortaylı, "Zaman Kaybolmaz: İlber Ortaylı Kitabı," was published by Nilgün Uysal in 2006.
■Tanzimat'tan Sonra Mahalli İdareler (Provincial administration after Tanzimat) (1974)
■Türkiye'de Belediyeciliğin Evrimi (Evolution of manucipality in Turkey; with Ilhan Tekeli, 1978)
■Türkiye İdare Tarihi (Administrative history of Turkey) (1979)
■Osmanlı İmparatorluğunda Alman Nüfuzu (German influence in the Ottoman Empire) (1980)
■Gelenekten Geleceğe (From tradition to the future) (1982)
■İmparatorluğun En Uzun Yüzyılı (The longest century of the Empire) (1983)
■Tanzimat'tan Cumhuriyet'e Yerel Yönetim Geleneği (Local administration tradition from Tanzimat to the Republic) (1985)
■İstanbul'dan Sayfalar (Pages from Istanbul) (1986)
■Studies on Ottoman Transformation (1994)
■Hukuk ve İdare Adamı Olarak Osmanlı Devletinde Kadı (Kadıs as a legal and administrative figures in the Ottoman State) (1994)
■Türkiye İdare Tarihine Giriş (Introduction to the history of Turkish administration) (1996)
■Osmanlı Aile Yapısı (Family structure in the Ottoman Empire) (2000)
■Osmanlı İmparatorluğu'nda İktisadi ve Sosyal Değişim (Economic and social change in the Ottoman Empire) (2001)
■Osmanlı Barışı (Ottoman peace) (2004)
■Osmanlı’yı Yeniden Keşfetmek 1 and 2 (Rediscovering the Ottoman Empire) (2006)
■Kırk Ambar Sohbetleri (Kırk ambar conversations) (2006)
■Eski Dünya Seyahatnamesi (Travelogue of the old world) (2007)
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
November 12, 2023
Fascinating insight into the Ottoman Empire written by a professor at a Turkish university who tells it like it was...this is the Ottomans seen from the Turkish side and it's so wonderful to gain this perspective. Ortayli has a really engaging style and it's refreshing to read his comments about how observers from the occident may have misinterpreted the Ottomans and all they stood for.
Ortayli doesn't spare modern day Turks from his opinions though as he's of the opinion that the Turkish education system doesn't represent the Ottomans correctly and that Turkey is destroying the historic centre of Istanbul which means the modern day people lose important connections with their history.
Superb book and one for me to keep for reference.
Ortayli doesn't spare modern day Turks from his opinions though as he's of the opinion that the Turkish education system doesn't represent the Ottomans correctly and that Turkey is destroying the historic centre of Istanbul which means the modern day people lose important connections with their history.
Superb book and one for me to keep for reference.
December 17, 2017
Every time I read something about the history and culture of Turkey I have a warm and profound feeling. Such books bring back fond memories of my times in the country as both a tourist and English teacher. I owe a lot to a number of Turkish people I have known or encountered over the years. I can say that I grew up, matured in Turkey.
Discovering the Ottomans is a series of historical and cultural essays by one of Turkey's scholars, İlber Ortaylı. Among other accomplishments he was the director of Topkapı Palace Museum in Istanbul which is one of the first places I visited in that ancient city. I have fond memories still of the excellent tour guides and the many friendly and curious Turkish school children on the palace's grounds. There is a essay in the book about the 15th century palace of the sultans called 'Ottoman Palaces and the Topkapı Palace'. It's a magical place with many beautiful and precious artifacts and decorations.
The book contains essays on Ottoman architecture, government, family structure, recruitment into the Ottoman elite, schooling of the elite, travel writing penned by Europeans about the empire, the founder of the Ottoman Empire Mehmet the Conqueror or as the Turks call him Fatih Sultan Mehmet, autonomous provinces within the empire, and the Ottoman Empire as the last Roman Empire or heirs of the Byzantine (Eastern Romans) or Rum. Mehmet the Conqueror declared himself 'Kayser-i Rum' which means 'Caesar of the Romans' after the fall of Constantinople. Dr. Ortaylı points out that for many years after, the capital city of the Ottoman Turks was called 'Constantiniye' before it became known as Istanbul.
I enjoyed this book. It had some really delightful information especially for a history and cultural lover like me. The one thing I wish the author had included was the role that Africans brought over to Turkey or who came on their own played in the history of the Ottoman Empire. One of the first pilots of African ancestry was Ahmet Ali Çelikten whose mother was African and his father was an Afro-Turk. He was an Ottoman aviator during WWI.
Another prominent Turkish scholar and historian has been also recommended to me, Halil İnalcık, as also very good. I would be willing to read more of Dr. Ortaylı's books, those translated into English since my Turkish is very limited.
There is a description in Discovering the Ottoman which really brings back memories. When I read it I paused afterwards, smiled, and reminisced.
'On entering Sultanahmet Square, you will notice that the calls to prayer from the minarets of Sultanahmet and from the minarets of neighboring mosques follow each other in the manner of a canon. You will hear this, too, the way they end up chanting in unison.'
I love listening to the call to prayer even though I'm Christian. I witnessed this unison of the azan in Sultanahmet Square in Istanbul some years ago when one of my colleagues and I were leaving a nearby restaurant one evening. It was beautiful and otherworldly, and I remember telling my friend it's almost like they are singing together. Where I lived and worked in Istanbul at that time I had never heard all the azans in unison before. This is a tradition in that square.
Discovering the Ottomans is a series of historical and cultural essays by one of Turkey's scholars, İlber Ortaylı. Among other accomplishments he was the director of Topkapı Palace Museum in Istanbul which is one of the first places I visited in that ancient city. I have fond memories still of the excellent tour guides and the many friendly and curious Turkish school children on the palace's grounds. There is a essay in the book about the 15th century palace of the sultans called 'Ottoman Palaces and the Topkapı Palace'. It's a magical place with many beautiful and precious artifacts and decorations.
The book contains essays on Ottoman architecture, government, family structure, recruitment into the Ottoman elite, schooling of the elite, travel writing penned by Europeans about the empire, the founder of the Ottoman Empire Mehmet the Conqueror or as the Turks call him Fatih Sultan Mehmet, autonomous provinces within the empire, and the Ottoman Empire as the last Roman Empire or heirs of the Byzantine (Eastern Romans) or Rum. Mehmet the Conqueror declared himself 'Kayser-i Rum' which means 'Caesar of the Romans' after the fall of Constantinople. Dr. Ortaylı points out that for many years after, the capital city of the Ottoman Turks was called 'Constantiniye' before it became known as Istanbul.
I enjoyed this book. It had some really delightful information especially for a history and cultural lover like me. The one thing I wish the author had included was the role that Africans brought over to Turkey or who came on their own played in the history of the Ottoman Empire. One of the first pilots of African ancestry was Ahmet Ali Çelikten whose mother was African and his father was an Afro-Turk. He was an Ottoman aviator during WWI.
Another prominent Turkish scholar and historian has been also recommended to me, Halil İnalcık, as also very good. I would be willing to read more of Dr. Ortaylı's books, those translated into English since my Turkish is very limited.
There is a description in Discovering the Ottoman which really brings back memories. When I read it I paused afterwards, smiled, and reminisced.
'On entering Sultanahmet Square, you will notice that the calls to prayer from the minarets of Sultanahmet and from the minarets of neighboring mosques follow each other in the manner of a canon. You will hear this, too, the way they end up chanting in unison.'
I love listening to the call to prayer even though I'm Christian. I witnessed this unison of the azan in Sultanahmet Square in Istanbul some years ago when one of my colleagues and I were leaving a nearby restaurant one evening. It was beautiful and otherworldly, and I remember telling my friend it's almost like they are singing together. Where I lived and worked in Istanbul at that time I had never heard all the azans in unison before. This is a tradition in that square.
February 8, 2023
A beautiful description of various aspects of the Ottoman Empire.
April 2, 2022
My friends and I used this book during our tour of Istanbul. It was concise, summative, and interesting, so it efficiently did the job of elevating us from ignorant bafoons to mildly informed tourists! I would say that this is a casual read rather than a serious/intense historical assesment though. Like the mans will never even entertain an opposing opinion. He says his take, often hot and controversial, then moves on.
We found this funny but I still had to dock stars for how much of this book is just the mans ranting LMAO especially about some conservation committee? He will give one page of history and the next page is him upset about people ruining that history. He was also very upset about some public discourse he vaguely referenced. I have no idea what he was referring to but I hope he's found peace since.
We found this funny but I still had to dock stars for how much of this book is just the mans ranting LMAO especially about some conservation committee? He will give one page of history and the next page is him upset about people ruining that history. He was also very upset about some public discourse he vaguely referenced. I have no idea what he was referring to but I hope he's found peace since.
September 18, 2024
Quick and easy to digest history whilst travelling around the country.
-1 star for the chapter on antiquities, fell asleep
-1 star for the chapter on antiquities, fell asleep
March 27, 2025
It was ok
October 28, 2023
It's an interesting introduction that ranges on a series of topics from Fatih Sultan Mehmed to cuisine. The best chapters come towards the end. 'Sultans', 'Pashas' and 'The Imperial Council' explain the defining traits of Ottoman administration rather well without going too in-depth. I liked the section about the Ottoman family much less. Instead of expanding on the topic, this part focuses on criticising the tendency the author sees in modern Turkish culture towards the nuclear family, which, according to him, is detrimental to the population at a time of financial crisis by eliminating the safety nets provided by the traditional extended family. But this scree is off topic given modern Türkyie is not the Ottoman Empire and the volume purports to be about the Ottomans
August 31, 2022
Turkish history is fascinating in many aspects and Turkey is a tourist destination for millions of people every year. However, present day Turkey is much different from what it used to be in times of the ottomans. Nowadays almost homogeneous ethnic Turkey is a product of the desintegration of the once powerful Ottoman Empire, which comprised many national groups and religions (millet) and had their own separate status in certain matters.
Reknown Turkish historian, İlbert Ortaylı, presents in a vivid way how ancient ottomans were at Discovering the Ottomans
Reknown Turkish historian, İlbert Ortaylı, presents in a vivid way how ancient ottomans were at Discovering the Ottomans
November 17, 2023
After reading his book, once more I understood how ignorant I'm.
January 8, 2025
Interesting insight into the Ottoman Empire from a Turkish point of view. In terms of structure and chronology, a bit all over the place. Good read nonetheless
March 17, 2025
I think he is a little loud
May 17, 2025
Great but not the kind of book I’d like to read honestly
Read
December 25, 2025review upcoming
November 5, 2023
The Masterpiece from Mr.Ortaylı. He overviews the general principles of the Ottoman s civillization,culture and Politics in a tasty way.For those which are beginners to understand who ottomans is, that s great start!
October 15, 2024
Um pequeno livro que abrange a história dos Otomanos e acima de tudo a sua cultura, os seus hábitos e a sua perspectiva sobre a sociedade.
Comprei-lo durante a minha viagem à Turquia e acho que foi uma excelente introdução ao império Otomano e para conhecer mais profundamente a sua cultura, sem entrar numa aula demasiado académica. Muito fácil de ler, para quem domina o inglês e se interessa por Istanbul e pela Turquia é recomendável.
Só tenho a apontar o texto algo repetitivo (o que, suponho, é inerente à “mania” dos otomanos de não se modernizarem ao longo dos séculos e manterem as mesmas tradições) e “parcial”: aqui e ali o autor decide expor a sua própria perspectiva sobre os tempos modernos, o bom e o mau, ainda que fique sempre uma dúvida quanto à verdadeira posição do autor e se esta corresponde à da população geral turca. Não desgostei, para dizer a verdade, dessa tendência, porque permitiu-me perceber um pouco sobre a “herança” de mentalidade dos turcos e a sua história moderna.
Comprei-lo durante a minha viagem à Turquia e acho que foi uma excelente introdução ao império Otomano e para conhecer mais profundamente a sua cultura, sem entrar numa aula demasiado académica. Muito fácil de ler, para quem domina o inglês e se interessa por Istanbul e pela Turquia é recomendável.
Só tenho a apontar o texto algo repetitivo (o que, suponho, é inerente à “mania” dos otomanos de não se modernizarem ao longo dos séculos e manterem as mesmas tradições) e “parcial”: aqui e ali o autor decide expor a sua própria perspectiva sobre os tempos modernos, o bom e o mau, ainda que fique sempre uma dúvida quanto à verdadeira posição do autor e se esta corresponde à da população geral turca. Não desgostei, para dizer a verdade, dessa tendência, porque permitiu-me perceber um pouco sobre a “herança” de mentalidade dos turcos e a sua história moderna.
May 14, 2013
كتاب جيد مؤلفه مدير لمتحف (توبكاي)في تركيا يتحدث بشكل بسيط وممتع عن الدولة العثمانية وعن جوانبها الإجتماعية والسياسية وهو يصلح لكي يكون مدخل لمن يريد أن يطلع على تاريخ الدولة العثمانية .
والكتاب مترجم .
والكتاب مترجم .
July 18, 2020
An enjoyable if superficial introduction to several of the major themes of the Ottoman Empire.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews