Sultan Selim I

The Ottoman Empire was a hub of flourishing intellectual fervor, geopolitical power, and enlightened pluralistic rule. At the helm of its ascent was the omnipotent Sultan Selim I (1470-1520), who, with the aid of his extraordinarily gifted mother, Gülbahar, hugely expanded the empire, propelling it onto the world stage. Aware of centuries of European suppression of Islamic history, Alan Mikhail centers Selim's Ottoman Empire and Islam as the very pivots of global history, redefining such world-changing events as Christopher Columbus's voyages - which originated, in fact, as a Catholic jihad that would come to view Native Americans as somehow "Moorish" - the Protestant Reformation, the transatlantic slave trade, and the dramatic Ottoman seizure of the Middle East and North Africa. Drawing on previously unexamined sources and written in gripping detail, Mikhail's groundbreaking account vividly recaptures Selim's life and world. An historical masterwork, God's Shadow radically reshapes our understanding of a world we thought we knew.A leading historian of his generation, Alan Mikhail, Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History at Yale University, has reforged our understandings of the past through his previous three prize-winning books on the history of Middle East.

Ottoman naval technology underwent a transformation under the rule of Sultan Selim III. New types of sailing warships such as two- and three-decked galleons, frigates and corvettes began to dominate the Ottoman fleet, rendering the galley-type oared ships obsolete. This period saw technological innovations such as the adoption of the systematic copper sheathing of the hulls and bottoms of Ottoman warships from 1792-93 onwards and the construction of the first dry dock in the Golden Horn. The changing face of the Ottoman Navy was facilitated by the influence of the British, Swedish and French in modernising both the shipbuilding sector and the conduct of naval warfare. Through such measures as training Ottoman shipbuilders, heavy reliance on help from foreign powers gave way to a new trajectory of modernization. Using this evidence Zorlu argues that although the Ottoman Empire was a major and modern independent power in this period, some technological dependence on Europe remained.

The father of the legendary Ottoman sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, Selim I ("The Grim") set the stage for centuries of Ottoman supremacy by doubling the size of the empire. Conquering Eastern Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt, Selim promoted a politicized Sunni Ottoman* identity against the Shiite Safavids of Iran, thus shaping the early modern Middle East. Analyzing a wide array of sources in Ottoman-Turkish, Persian, and Arabic, H. Erdem Cipa offers a fascinating revisionist reading of Selim's rise to power and the subsequent reworking and mythologizing of his persona in 16th- and 17th-century Ottoman historiography. In death, Selim continued to serve the empire, becoming represented in ways that reinforced an idealized image of Muslim sovereignty in the early modern Eurasian world.

An “arresting” (New York Times Book Review) revisionist history demonstrating how Islam and the Ottoman Empire made our modern world. The history of the Ottoman Empire—once the most powerful state on earth, ruling over more territory and people than any other world power—has for centuries been distorted, misrepresented, and suppressed in the West. With this “original and wide-ranging” (Wall Street Journal) global history, Alan Mikhail vitally recasts the Ottoman conquest of the world through the dramatic biography of Sultan Selim I (1470–1520). Drawing on previously unexamined sources, and upending prevailing shibboleths about Islamic history and jingoistic “rise of the West” theories, Mikhail’s game-changing account radically transforms our understanding of the importance of Selim’s Ottoman Empire in the annals of the modern world.

Sultan Selim I was an extraordinary sultan who virtually re-established the Ottoman state. This work relates his approach to developments in his time with an objective style and comparative analysis. It is an important reference for those who seek serious information about the period in which he lived. The book focuses on the life of Sultan Selim I: his childhood, princedom, struggle for power, sultanate, approaches to matters with the East, his struggle with Shah Ismail, his first and second campaigns to the East, and period of caliphate from many aspects. This notable work, which almost leaves no dark point about the period, is the fruit of a praiseworthy study.

In Selim III, Social Order and Policing in Istanbul at the End of the Eighteenth Century Betül Başaran examines Selim III’s social control measures and Istanbul’s dynamic population, urging us to go beyond mechanistic models of borrowing that focus primarily on European influence in discussions of Ottoman “modernity”.

A fascinating look at one of the most important engineering achievements of recent times. This book chronicles in detail the various phases of the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, which is the third to connect Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus straits. From its design and engineering concept to its realization, this book offers detailed insights through a historical essay, texts, interviews, illustrations, diagrams, and stunning photography. The book pays particular attention to the engineering accomplishments of the bridge, through a series of drawings and photographs that explain the process of its realization and its operative functionality. It also captures, through specially commissioned images by renowned photographer Michel Denancé, the experience of the traveler crossing the bridge from Europe to Asia, its presence as a major work of infrastructure in the landscape, and its relation to the city of Istanbul.