Ottoman Warfare 1500-1700 [Hardcover]

Rhoads Murphey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1999

Ottoman Warfare is an impressive and original examination of the Ottoman military machine, detailing its success in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Focusing primarily on the evolution of the Ottoman military organization and its subsequent impact on Ottoman society in a period of change, the book redresses the historiographical imbalance in the existing literature, analyzing why the Ottomans were the focus of such intense military concern.Several books have been written on the fiscal, technological, tactical, and political dimensions of Ottoman military history; little has been attempted, however, to recreate or evoke the physical and psychological realities of war as experienced by Ottoman soldiers. Rhoads Murphey seeks to rectify this imbalance, favoring operational matters and providing a detailed study of a number of campaigns: we are offered, for example, vivid descriptions of life in the trenches with the diggers at Baghdad in 1638, who dug a total of five miles at 50 yards a day. Murphey's analysis does not focus on the Ottoman's success or failure in particular campaigns per se; he focuses on understanding the actual process of how the Ottoman military machine worked.This long-awaited work will become the definitive study of Ottoman warfare in the early modern period, and will be invaluable to those studying the Ottoman Empire and early modern European history in general.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'This is an informative, well written work which serves both as a reliable text-book and as a stimulus to further debate.'|I English Historical Review --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

From the Back Cover

Ottoman Warfare is an impressive and original examination of the Ottoman military machine, detailing its success in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Focusing primarily on the evolution of the Ottoman military organization and its subsequent impact on Ottoman society in a period of change, the book redresses the historiograpichal imbalance in the existing literature, analyzing why the Ottomans were the focus of such intense military concern.

Several books have been written on the fiscal, technological, tactical, and political dimensions of Ottoman military history; little has been attempted, however, to recreate or evoke the physical and psychological realities of war as experienced by Ottoman soldiers. Rhoads Murphey seeks to rectify this imbalance, favoring operational matters and providing a detailed study of a number of campaigns: we are offered, for example, vivid descriptions of life in the trenches with the diggers at Baghdad in 1638, who dug a total of five miles at 50 yards a day. Murphey's analysis does not focus on the Ottoman's success or failure in particular campaigns per se; he focuses on understanding the actual process of how the Ottoman military machine worked.

This long-awaited work will become the definitive study of Ottoman warfare in the early period and will be invaluable to those studying the Ottoman Empire and early modern European history in general. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (February 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813526841
• ISBN-13: 978-0813526843
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,168,328 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best study of Ottoman warfare in print, November 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Ottoman Warfare 1500-1700 (Paperback)

Rhoads Murphey clears up a lot of mystification brought into the subject by authors who previously relied solely upon Western sources for understanding the Ottoman state. Some, for example, would talk about the Ottoman Empire as the perfect military state, designed around conquest, and others, thinking more of Ottoman decline, of the corruption, inefficiency, and lack of technical skill of their forces. Yet, a study of Ottoman history reveals, naturally, that neither of these extremes were true, and that the Ottomans had to contend with many of the same difficulties, military and administrative, that all of the western European states were attempting to overcome. For someone who really wants to learn how the Ottomans achieved what the did, and failed to achieve some of their more ambitious goals, this book is refreshing in that it teaches rather than obscures.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkable masterpiece, May 3, 2000

By 

"muslimhistorian" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ottoman Warfare 1500-1700 (Paperback)

Murphey should get an astounding applause for his work. There is an incredible appeal that 'drains' you right into the pages of endless original arguments. The Ottoman Devlet (not Empire if you read the book carefully, I borrowed Maksudoglu terms for the Ottoman) finally received a fair judgement for their history. The research was acurately done with rare details, those which never surfaced before, which cleared out any pontless subjectivity mostly found on previous studies of the Ottomans. 'The sick man' was made 'sick' in the first place.

The rationalization of the Ottoman military might was the best part in the book. I am not surprised if this work becomes a classic.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Military history that actually looks at the military, May 5, 2009

By 

Senna777 "cartfan" (california) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Ottoman Warfare 1500-1700 (Paperback)

Rhodes Murphey produced a nice narrative on Ottoman warfare from 1500-1700. The book pays a great deal of attention to the logistical side of warfare. He tries to combat the idea that the Ottomans were technologically superior during the period. Weaponry was quite similar, and the Ottomans were able to outnumber and defeat either weak powers or wanning powers. They were unable to succeed in open sea warfare against Portuguese galleons, and their navy was very weak. Murphey suggests this is clearly the result of expense; thus, it was too expensive to man and outfit a fleet of war ships. The Ottomans were a land army, and one of their major strengths was their logistics and standing army. However, the standing army was also a plague for the Ottomans as it sucked a great deal of money from the treasury. The Janissary corps, though very good, probably hurt the state more than it helped. They were very expensive, and hardly made up the majority of any army on any campaign.

Just to play the devils advocate for a moment. The Ottoman army was large in number, and had some very good untis. However, there defeat of Constantinople was not all that impressive. The Greeks were a wanning power, and the city was hardly defended. When the Ottomans faced more western powers they were soundly defeated...hence the Portuguese Galleons easily out maneuvered and destroyed the Ottoman gallies. This seems to come out in the book, that is the invulnerability and deep weakness of the ottomans. They had a very good system in place, the weapons to match any European power (excluding the navy), and the money to do so. It seems that Murphey brings the Ottoman military downa few knotches; they were not that unstobable.

It reminds me of the romanticized view one takes of the British army in the 18th century, and how the native American's were able to out manuever and defeat them...yet one forgets that the British army was pathetic compared to the continental powers, so in reality the native feat was not all that impressive. I am not suggesting the Ottoman military was pathetic or that Rhodes feels the same way--only that he brings forth several problems and debunks a few "myths".