Sultans (Cassettes) [Audio Cassette]

Noel Barber (Author)

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks (May 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786106824
• ISBN-13: 978-0786106820
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,267,024 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, December 17, 2001

By 

C. Sellers "oncogenic" (belton, tx United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sultans (Hardcover)

This book has been highly maligned by a previous reviewer. The reviewer seems to forget that every tragedy against the greek and the armenian detailed in the book by the turks, is true and documented, and in addition the author spends many pages skewering the false notion of the innocent greeks, and notes in detail every time the greeks wronged the turks. It is a shame that his judgement was so clouded and I suspect that the entire book was not read.
What made this book so enjoyable is the writing, a history written like a spy novel. Noel Barber can run the gamut from very dry (very british humor) to pulse pounding murder mystery, to war room of analysis of battlefield tactics, insight into the desceptive world of diplomacy and yet still very reverently accounts greek, armenian and turkish massacres. This follows the Ottman empire from the height of its powers under Suleiman the Magnificient to the Turkey's final emanicipator Kamal Attaturk. Each sultan is given a mini-biography, filled with "Ripley's believe it or not"-like facts, designed to amaze and yet all are true, yet three sultans are studied in detail and to great effect, evoking, emotions from awe to pity, Suleiman the Magnificent, Abdul Hamid II and Kamal Attaturk. Napoleon, Lord Nelson, Churchill, Queen Elizabeth I, Henry VIII, Benjamin Disreali, Queen Victoria and Czar Nicolas all make cameo appearances. It reads more like a novel than a history and yet it is astoundingly accurate. Not only is it a history of the turks, because the Ottomans controlled so much of the muslim world for nearly 500 years, it is also a history of the muslim world and really endlessly fascinating, but what Noel Barber excellently does is tell the private and public lives and struggles of each of the sultans and how that related to the world at the time. This book could have been much more been haughtily named, "The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire," and it would have been equally accurate. But ultimately what makes this a great book is Barber's storytelling that makes the sultans charactures and yet fully realised humans at the same time.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The Sultans" Will Not Disappoint!, June 9, 2005

By 

Jeffrey Peter A. Hauck "Guerrilla Reader" (Pennsylvania USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Sultans (Hardcover)

The subject of author Noel Barber's vast, astonishing, and brilliantly readable work of history, "The Sultans," is the bizarre story of the Ottoman Empire as seen through the lives and actions of its Sultans, with their absolute power and terrifying cruelty, their love of pomp and magnificence and their overwhelming venality and corruption.

In this detailed tome, The men, the events, the daily life and the strange customs of the Turkish court are described in vibrant detail. The text begins from Turkey's emergence as a great power in the Sixteenth Century and through the centuries to the death of Kermal Ataturk, who overthrew the Sultanate to establish a new and more modern form of government. This book is a unique and fascinating record of four centuries of glory, debauchery, splendor and cruelty. This book will not disappoint the interested reader. I rate it at five stars for great narrative structure with no hyperbole.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The weak rulers of the Ottoman Empire., December 11, 2003

By 

Kevin M Quigg (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Sultans (Hardcover)

I think Barber does a good job detailing the rule of the Sultans. In the introduction, Barber states his primary interest is detailing the rule of the Sultans (including the Young Turks and Ataturk) after the first ten Sultans. Those that followed the ten (with the exception of Ataturk) brought the Empire down through their weak rule and disastrious decisions. Barber uses many sources (most Western) for his story of the Ottoman Empire. I enjoyed this book because the author does a good job of making the material interesting. I also read the author's book about the Hungarian Revolution and found it a worthwhile read also.
I did not disagree much with the author. Barber threw in several references to some of the Sultans preferences for homosexuality, and I think this interfered with the story. Overall, a good read on the Sick Man of Europe.