The Last Ottomans

A new study of the international and local politics surrounding the Muslim minority of Western Thrace (Greece) in the 1940s, based on previously unseen archival material. Addresses the minority's complex identity, its relations with other communities in the area, the international diplomacy of WWII and strategic considerations of the Cold War.

Twice a princess, twice exiled, Neslishah Sultan had an eventful life. When she was born in Istanbul in 1921, cannons were fired in the four corners of the Ottoman Empire, commemorative coins were issued in her name, and her birth was recorded in the official register of the palace. After all, she was an imperial princess and the granddaughter of Sultan Vahiddedin. But she was the last member of the imperial family to be accorded such honors: in 1922 Vahiddedin was deposed and exiled, replaced as caliph-but not as sultan-by his brother (and Neslishah's other grandfather) Abdülmecid; in 1924 Abdülmecid was also removed from office, and the entire imperial family, including three-year-old Neslishah, were sent into exile. Sixteen years later on her marriage to Prince Abdel Moneim, the son of the last khedive of Egypt, she became a princess of the Egyptian royal family. And when in 1952 her husband was appointed regent for Egypt's infant king, she took her place at the peak of Egyptian society as the country's first lady, until the abolition of the monarchy the following year. Exile followed once more, this time from Egypt, after the royal couple faced charges of treason. Eventually Neslishah was allowed to return to the city of her birth, where she died at the age of 91 in 2012. Based on original documents and extensive personal interviews, this account of one woman's extraordinary life is also the story of the end of two powerful dynasties thirty years apart.

A study of the period of armed conflict following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East.

A monumental work of history that reveals the Ottoman dynasty's important role in the emergence of early modern Europe The Ottomans have long been viewed as despots who conquered through sheer military might, and whose dynasty was peripheral to those of Europe. The Last Muslim Conquest transforms our understanding of the Ottoman Empire, showing how Ottoman statecraft was far more pragmatic and sophisticated than previously acknowledged, and how the Ottoman dynasty was a crucial player in the power struggles of early modern Europe. In this panoramic and multifaceted book, Gábor Ágoston captures the grand sweep of Ottoman history, from the dynasty's stunning rise to power at the turn of the fourteenth century to the Siege of Vienna in 1683, which ended Ottoman incursions into central Europe. He discusses how the Ottoman wars of conquest gave rise to the imperial rivalry with the Habsburgs, and brings vividly to life the intrigues of sultans, kings, popes, and spies. Ágoston examines the subtler methods of Ottoman conquest, such as dynastic marriages and the incorporation of conquered peoples into the Ottoman administration, and argues that while the Ottoman Empire was shaped by Turkish, Iranian, and Islamic influences, it was also an integral part of Europe and was, in many ways, a European empire. Rich in narrative detail, The Last Muslim Conquest looks at Ottoman military capabilities, frontier management, law, diplomacy, and intelligence, offering new perspectives on the gradual shift in power between the Ottomans and their European rivals and reframing the old story of Ottoman decline.

The Sultans of the Ottoman Dynasty ruled over a vast transcontinental empire for more than six centuries. Of the thirty-six Ottoman Sultans emerged extraordinary commanders, brilliant statesmen, highly talented sportsmen, masterful musicians, distinguished calligraphers, notable poets, and renowned composers. This book illustrates these men.

"Jeremy Salt's manuscript "The last Ottoman wars" is a unique, timely, and humane study of warfare and its many costs in a region that has been fought over and upon for centuries. The Ottoman Empire and its surrounding territories, which in this work covers the Balkans to eastern Anatolia and the Caucasus, was during the last decades of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth a place of political unrest and constant military action. Historians have since chronicled and contested questions of how, what, where, when, and why battlefield or diplomatic strategies failed or succeeded as they did in Ottoman-European conflicts. So too have historians questioned how and to what degree the actions of generals and statesmen, as well as financiers, resulted in ruin for millions of Ottoman peoples, specifically Armenians and other Ottoman Christians. Overlooked, according to Salt, have been millions of Ottoman Muslims, who during the time period in question were massacred and displaced before the advance and against the retreat of invading armies. This manuscript is, as Salt writes, an attempt "to bring these invisible victims of war back into the picture." "The Last Ottoman Wars" offers readers a glimpse into the daily lives of Ottoman Muslims, and indeed all ordinary Ottoman citizens. Instead of following the nations and individuals desperate to get what spoils they could from an empire in decline, Salt centers his focus on those left to live with what remained after nearly all had been taken. These people, at the edge of modernity, lived with malnutrition, disease, internecine violence, and crumbling infrastructures a generation before World War I and immediately after its devastation"--Provided by publisher.

This illustrated textbook covers the full history of the Ottoman Empire, from its genesis to its dissolution.

‘Perhaps the most readable history ever written’ Time Out Lords of the Horizons charts the Ottoman Empire's swirling epic history; dramatic — detailed and alive — a journey, and a world all in one. The Ottoman Empire has long exerted a strong pull on Western minds and hearts. For over six hundred years the Empire swelled and declined; rising from a dusty fiefdom in the foothills of Anatolia to a power which ruled over the Danube and the Euphrates with the richest court in Europe. But its decline was prodigious, protracted, and total. ‘A fascinating read...a perfect companion for anyone who visits Turkey and wants to make sense of it’ The Times