The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs

by Marc David Baer

Kindle Edition

Published October 5, 2021

About the author

Professor Baer earned his BA degree at Northwestern University and his PhD at the University of Chicago. Before joining LSE in 2013, Baer taught at Tulane University, New Orleans, and the University of California, Irvine.

Professor Baer’s research focuses on the connected histories of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in European and Middle Eastern history, from the early modern era to the modern .

His first book, Honored by the Glory of Islam: Conversion and Conquest in Ottoman Europe (Oxford, 2008, Turkish translation, IV. Mehmet Döneminde Osmanlı Avrupasında İhtida ve Fetih, Hil, 2010), analyzes how Muslim proselytizers conceived and practiced converting other Muslims, as well as Christians and Jews to their interpretation of Islam. Honored by the Glory of Islam was awarded the Albert Hourani Prize of the Middle East Studies Association of North America as the best book in Middle East Studies, 2008. The monograph was also short listed as the best first book in the History of Religions by the American Academy of Religion, 2009. He ends Honored by the Glory of Islam with the conversion to Islam of a group of messianic Jews in seventeenth-century Ottoman Salonika, which is the focus of his second monograph, The Dönme: Jewish Converts, Muslim Revolutionaries, and Secular Turks (Stanford, 2010, Turkish translation, Selânikli Dönmeler: Musevilikten Dönenler, Müslüman Devrimciler, ve Laik Türkler, Doğan, 2011). The Dönme is the first complete history of a secretive Ottoman community from its origins to its dissolution in twentieth-century Istanbul. The Dönme was named finalist, Sephardic Culture category at the National Jewish Book Awards, 2010.

Reviews

[G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book offers a profound reflection on the cyclical nature of empires and the dangerous illusions of superiority that divide us. As the author notes, "He declares with an exaggerated self confidence that the other is inferior. But what makes him superior? What makes us and them, self and other, East and West, Muslim, Christian, and Jew any different? By narrating history to establish a connection to the past and to ourselves, we find the answer." Watching modern powers lash out to hold onto their fading dominance proves that history is constantly repeating itself, fueled by the same propaganda fed to us in classrooms and the media.

Breaking this unending cycle requires us to look at our past with total honesty. The book powerfully reminds us: "Our ancestors breathe through us, Because our lives have been shaped by their actions, their entangled histories are worth discovering and placing in the right context, especially if such histories are unfamiliar yet closer to us than we realised." Rather than blindly believing that the nation or empire we come from is the most glorious, we have to accept that every power rises, falls, and commits both good and bad acts. True progress comes from shedding these inherited biases and using the successes and mistakes of the past to shape a better future.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A readable surface-level history, but I would have liked more detail on certain aspects of the empire, such as the economy, military, etc. It largely reads as a recitation of the major political events and battles.

[Carl O Acker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A history of power ,violence and ethnic cleansing.

The Ottoman's influence and history reflect the
conflicts of power and ethnic and religious identity and how these aspects of humanity have contributed to great suffering.