Customer Reviews

The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age 1300-1600

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Prof. Inalcik truly earns the reputation as one of the world's leading historians on the Ottoman Empire. The book explains the history, administration and social life of the Ottoman Empire during this time masterfully in seperate sections. An appendix of terms in Turkish and Ottoman is provided at the back for quick explanations, since the historical matter is rather heavy for a lay person.
A good historical reference book for Middle Eastern History, especially to get a true understanding of the Ottoman's Empire building brilliance between 1300-1600.

Professor Inalcik is one of the best in documenting the long history of the Ottoman Empire. To many readers, this book might look boring and excessively academic. But to other readers, especially those who are interested in taking a deep look into the history of the Middle East in general and the Ottoman Empire in particular, this is one of the must-read books.
The book is full of details of the Ottoman bureaucracy, the Janissaries (the army), conspiracies among rulers and would sultans, the social status of the different people of the empires and of course the Ottoman political situation and that of its treasury.
For those interested in modern Turkish history, this might not be their best read as it highlights the history of the Ottomans up until the days of the zenith of their rule. The book does not go as far as depicting how the Muslim Ottoman Empire was transformed into the sick Turkish man of Europe.
Overall, the book is highly recommended for readers interested in Middle Eastern affairs.

For the past several decades, few scholars have been as dominant in their fields as has Halil Inalcik. His half century of scholarship on the Ottoman empire has defined our understanding of it, and the generation of scholars he trained continue to advance our knowledge further still. Though he wrote several books and articles about various aspects of Ottoman history, this book is his best-known work. Originally published in 1973 as part of the Praeger "History of Civilization" series, it offers a sweeping survey of Ottoman imperial development, from its origins as a small frontier principality to his peak as a dominant power spanning three continents.

Inalcik divides this examination into four parts. The first part consists of six chapters chronicling the political history of this period, describing its path of conquest and the numerous struggles - both internal and external - that took place along the way. These provide useful context for the next three sections, as Inalcik then adopts a thematic approach, examining the Ottoman state, its economic and social life, and its religion and culture in the other three sections. Most of these chapters are short, but they are all rich in details about the institutions and practices of the Ottomans.

Despite its age, Inalcik's book remains an essential resource for anyone seeking to learn about the Ottoman empire. Its analysis has never been bettered, and even after the decades of additional scholarship its assessments still hold up well. Readers seeking a more comprehensive narrative history would do better to turn to Caroline Finkel's more recent study, Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire, but for those who want a general understanding of how the government, economy, and culture of the Ottoman empire functioned and flourished during its glory days this is a good place to start.

Prof. Inalcik's _The Ottoman Empire: the classical age_ is a great introduction to the origins and rise of the Ottoman Empire, from mountain bandits to conquorers of the eastern Mediterranean and Balkans. The organization of the book causes a little repetition, but the history is superb.

The book is broken into four parts: the first is a general outline of the political rise and growth of the empire. In it, Inalcik brings up some points that certainly caused me to reassess the importance of the Ottomans - among them, their role in helping the Reformation become a success by (inadvertently) causing the Habsburgs to agree to the Treaties of Trent and of Augsberg, thereby allowing Protestant enclaves to continue and thrive, and the importance the Ottomans had in the birth and growth of the Renaissance.

The remaining sections address in detail the domestic and foreign policy of the Ottoman state, its economic and social life, and the nature of religion and culture in Ottoman lands. The information here was detailed and certainly helped broaden my understanding of the the influence the Ottomans had in the Balkans and Levant. His discussion of religion, in particular drew my attention. The Ottoman empire, mind you, was not only tolerant of Judiasm and Christianity, but the Sultan went so far as to see himself as the protector of Orthodox Christianity from the influence of Rome - much in the same way the Ottomans sought to protect Protestants, although this rationale may have been more out of political expedience than genuine religious fervor. Similarly his discussion of the complex relationship between Sultan and the religious class was excellent.

Because of the book was topically rather than strictly chronologically organized, it did become repetitive in places, particularly during the remarkable reign of Beyezid II (1481 - 1512) due to the number of far-reaching changes socially, politically and econcomically during that time. I also wish he had given more attention in his discussion of Ottoman society to the role of women (beyond those in the Sultan's harem), and of the bazzari (merchant) classes.

Inalcik keeps the narrative moving at a brisk pace, giving details to support the larger historical themes managing to provide enough historical examples without becoming bogged down in minutate. This is perfect for amateur historians or those interested in a deeper understanding of Balkan and Near Eastern culture and institutions. A recommended read.

It seems that I am the first person to write a negative review of this book. The main problem with this book is that it is badly written. It seems that the author had a bunch of information and just put them next to each other. Some might try to explain this by saying that this is an academic book and not an introduction, but this excuse does not stand. There are so many books out there that are advanced and yet well written and are very hard to let go before you have finished reading them.
In the introduction the author mentions that his friend Bernard Lewis talked him into writing this book. At that moment I had a strange feeling that somewhere in the book we will have an explanation for the downfall of the Ottoman Empire that serves the Bush doctrine, and the author did not let me down. Apparently one of the reasons for the decline of the Empire was that the extremists became more powerful than the moderate elite and that the Empire did not let go of its near-eastern institutions for the more modern European ones. Instead, the author should have described how the then-powerful institutions of the Ottoman Empire stopped functioning properly after the mothers of the Sultans became too powerful and the janissaries turned their weapons in the wrong direction from outside of the borders, to the interior. The downfall of the Empire was not due to Europe becoming more efficient, this was a by-product of the downfall. The downfall was the result of an internal disease which reduced the Sultan to a puppet, made the janissaries a dominant minority and hence alienated the people.

It is a good book in explaining the system that made a small tribe an empire. It looks like a text book. Do not expect a great flow as in a biography or a historical novel.