The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs

This major new history of the Ottoman dynasty reveals a diverse empire that straddled East and West. The Ottoman Empire has long been depicted as theIslamic, Asianantithesis of theChristian, European West. But the reality was starkly different: the Ottomans multiethnic, multilingual, and multireligious domain reached deep into Europes heart.Indeed, the Ottoman rulers saw themselves as the new Romans. Recounting the Ottomans remarkable rise from afrontier principality to a world empire, historian Marc David Baer traces their debts to their Turkish, Mongolian, Islamic, and Byzantine heritage. The Ottomans pioneered religious toleration even as they used religious conversion to integrate conquered peoples. But in the nineteenth century, they embraced exclusivity, leading to ethnic cleansing, genocide, and the empires demise after the First World War. The Ottomansvividly reveals the dynastys full history and its enduring impact on Europe and the world.