Customer Reviews

Armies of the Ottoman Turks, 1300-1774 (Men at Arms Series, 140)

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4 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Like all Osprey books this title is an excellent visual source; though the text is also useful it does not go very deep. Buy this book for the pictures! As always, Mr. McBride's artwork is fabulous, richly portraying the beautiful arms and armor of the Ottoman Turks and the skilled warriors that used them.

Again, the text is not worthless or as far as I can tell inaccurate; in fact, I found this book to be one of Nicolle's best. The three-page chronology in the back, along with the examination of the tactics used at various battles are the most useful parts.

In summary, like the similar Osprey titles 'Saladin and the Saracens', 'Armies of the Muslim Conquest', and 'The Armies of Islam 7th-11th Centuries', this book's text would be a great introduction, but the photographs and especially the color plates can be used and enjoyed by anyone with an interest in the last and the greatest of the medieval Islamic Turkish states.

This is a misleading work in its entirety, especially the history section. Both the text and the drawings look like they came from WWII era history books. Recent re-evaluations of Ottoman historical records have led to a dramatic change of perspective, by eminent scholars such as Heath Lowry and Rhoads Murphey, on everything from the non-Turkish contributions to the founding of the empire (2 out of the 4 founders were Catalan mercenaries in Byzantine employ), to the reason why "gazi state" is a complete misnomer, and finally the pragmatism and flexibility in military organization that led to such brilliant early successes. These and many other essential factors are missing here. I would strongly recommend not wasting resources on this shoddy relic, and instead sampling more recent scholarly works, including ones by the aforementioned authors, and downloading more accurate and better drawn pictures of Ottoman soldiers for free on the web.

"Armies of the Ottoman Turks 1300-1774" by David Nicolle briefly reviews the history, armies, weapons, uniforms, and battles of the Ottoman Empire. There are eight striking full-color plates illustrated by Angus McBride that help give the history a visual representation. As with other Osprey Men-at-Arms volumes, there is a lot of information in the 40 pages (including index) and serves as a great introduction to the topic.

As good as an introduction this book is, the author does use some technical terms that may confuse someone new to the subject. However, with a little work consulting a dictionary, one can get through most of this difficulty. "Armies of the Ottoman Turks 1300-1774" also includes several maps, most of which are helpful (one of them is hard to read because it is jammed with the names of cities and it is hard to easily tell where the bodies of water and land meet). Furthermore, a chronology of the conquests and losses sums up nearly 500 years of the rise and fall of the Ottoman Turks.

I found this book to be a great resource in learning about the Ottoman Turks. The costumes, arms, and armor of the Ottoman Turks are interesting and elegant. I enjoyed not only learning about their military conquests, but also the images of who they were.

This is one source of good information that can be gotten without a large price tag on it. It gives a good detail on the weapons, armour and tatics that can be gotten in a form that is good for western readers. A 5/5 for this one.

while it was a good intro into the subject quite a few of the visuals (of the soldiers) were not quite correct. i do not want to dis-credit the author but the figures varry at times greatly from the original ones you can see in the Istanbul Musuem of War History and various Turkish resources. at times it seems as if a 'Christian' soldier was taken as a base model and made to look 'orientish' by the painter/illustrator. otherwise like i said a good read.