The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs

An authoritative history of the Ottoman dynasty, revealing a diverse empire that straddled East and West.

Panoramic and thought-provoking. — The Guardian

The Ottoman Empire has long been depicted as the Islamic, Asian antithesis of the Christian, European West. But the reality was starkly different: the Ottomans’ multiethnic, multilingual, and multireligious domain reached deep into Europe’s heart.

Indeed, the Ottoman rulers saw themselves as the new Romans. Recounting the Ottomans’ remarkable rise from a frontier 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 empire’s demise after the First World War.

The Ottomans vividly reveals the dynasty’s full history and its enduring impact on Europe and the world.