Customer Reviews

An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire (Economic & Social History of the Ottoman Empire)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

if someone wants to investigate ottoman history Inalcık's books may be sophisticated guides for him.He managed to approach with a new methodology to ottoman history with a special emphasis on social and economic life.He wrote a lot of papers and books stemming from his own archieval studies which became main sources for ottoman history studies. In this book İnalcık discusses the most neglected period of ottoman social and economic history,with little attention to political history that had been widely discussed by his collegues before.

I wouldn't say that social history enters much into the book. The authors have written a straightforward translation and interpretation of the Ottoman archives laying out patterns in revenue from land taxes and customs fees. Reading like a series of focused essays without quite as much synthesis as I would like, still it was a worthwhile read. Most valuable were the new insights I got into the relative importance of trades routes and the organization of land ownership and taxation over time. Also interesting to see was the primacy of slaves and silk in the customs revenue stream, and the impact of commercial motives on Ottoman military expansion. All in all, this is a fine book for those wanting deep knowledge of the early Ottoman economy, civil and state.

People often avoid books like this because they are not as easy readers as "popular" history books, which often do rely on other people's research. Inalcik's work is amazingly detailed and accurate in details. This book is one of his many valuable contributions to this field. Understanding the economic and social forces at play in this time period has an importance beyond the Ottoman history, as most readers of this book would agree.

According to my knowledge this is the best book ever written about Ottoman History. Instead of reading nonscholar books like Lord Kinross's Ottoman Century's I recommend it to everbody. This book studies economic history of Ottoman empire which is essential to understant political history and so on. A must read for all interested about Ottomna history.

this is simply the best book on economic history of the ottoman empire...you cant find a better study than this wonderful piece of historiography on the subject...