History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Volume 1: Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire 1280 - 1808

History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey #1

by Stanford J. Shaw

Empire of the The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1280–1808 is the first book of the two-volume History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. It describes how the Ottoman Turks, a small band of nomadic soldiers, managed to expand their dominions from a small principality in northwestern Anatolia on the borders of the Byzantine Empire into one of the great empires of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe and Asia, extending from northern Hungary to southern Arabia and from the Crimea across North Africa almost to the Atlantic Ocean. The volume sweeps away the accumulated prejudices of centuries and describes the empire of the sultans as a living, changing society, dominated by the small multinational Ottoman ruling class led by the sultan, but with a scope of government so narrow that the subjects, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, were left to carry on their own lives, religions, and traditions with little outside interference.

Genres: History, Middle East, Nonfiction, Islam

368 pages, Paperback

First published October 29, 1976

About the author

American historian, best known for his works on the late Ottoman Empire, Turkish Jews, and the early Turkish Republic.

Shaw and his Turkish wife Ezel Kural deny that there was an genocide of Armenians, and claim that the Armenians just were removed from the war zone along the Russian border.

Shaw worked at the private Bilkent University in Turkey. Died at 2006

Reviews

[Rafał Roman Małek · Rating 2 out of 5]

As good as it may be, omitting - or should I say straight up falsifyig - historical facts of grand importance is quite horryfing. Battle of Khotyn in 1621, according to author didn't happen. At this point we can't be sure if rest is really accurate, or if we should discard this one altogethet.

[A. Sacit · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume (Vol 1) covers the history of the Ottoman Empire up to the Tanzimat period (1280-1808). Insights provided into the administration, military, and social structure of the Empire is outstanding. When it comes to information on the Ottoman architecture, the most visible legacy of that bygone era to this day (mosques, palaces, hamams, and others), is conspicuously absent from the book even though cultural developments on literature and poetry are covered in some detail. A most valuable source on the Ottoman history by a pioneering historian.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stanford Shaw’s History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey is better known for the controversy engendered by claims in its second volume, but the first volume is relatively less problematic, even if it has been noted for containing many factual errors. A detailed, academic-level review of the contents would be outside the scope of a Goodreads review, however, and thus the best way to engage it in a broader review is to look over its themes and presentation.

The book does not contain an explicit introduction, which reflects the lack of an overarching theme or thesis in the work. This is compounded by the absence of a conclusion at the end, and while this might be understandable given that it is the first of two volumes, a recapitulatory chapter that highlighted the main points would have been beneficial. Thus, the book begins instead with a review of pre-Ottoman Turkish history that is appropriately the shortest chapter, since it is not the main focus of the text, and sources for this period at the time of its publication in the 1970s would have been limited.

The author then proceeds to look at the initial period of Ottoman history, from its founding in 1280 to the interregnum that lasted from 1402-1413. Once again, the dearth of available sources limits what he is able to say about this period. Chapter three takes a brief look at Mehmet I and Murat II’s restoration of the Ottoman Empire through 1451, before finally picking up momentum with “The Apogee of Ottoman Power” between 1451-1566. Here, he covers what he considers to be the greatest of the Ottoman Sultans, including Mehmet the Conqueror and Suleyman the Magnificent. In the context of when it was written, nothing stands out in his analysis as either groundbreaking or questionable, and his fifth chapter makes some attempt to analyze Ottoman society, albeit mostly through the lens of economics and politics.

Chapter six is also the beginning of Part Two, which essentially engages the “decline” thesis of the Ottoman Empire, even if he does not always express it as such. An idea that comes up frequently in this part is the notion of “traditional reform”, wherein the Ottoman attempts to deal with the challenges that they faced to their regional supremacy always centered around the idea of “restoring” the Ottoman system to how it had functioned at its peak, as outlined in Part One. The few reformers who attempted to look beyond the past as a paradigm for the state were quickly ousted from their positions of power and their changes undone. This, according to Shaw, is the reason that the Ottomans fell into decline and were unable to adapt, because powerful actors in the state refused to allow transformations that stepped outside of the traditional Ottoman framework. This notion is the closest that Shaw gets to having a thesis for the work, although it is not developed explicitly.

Until 1683, however, the author suggests that there was some hope for reform, as the state still had the potential to adopt other paths forward. The sixth chapter engages these developments, while chapter seven covers most of what has been referred to as the “stagnation” period by taking his narrative to 1808 and Mustafa IV’s failed attempts to undo reforms started by his predecessor Selim III. Shaw’s concluding chapter looks at the Ottomans during this period through a societal lens, but again is fairly limited outside of engagement with some of the literary cultural developments of the time.

The book ends rather abruptly and, as mentioned, has no explicit conclusion. This is disappointing because the narrative is fairly dense, with some chapters being very lengthy, which not only makes retention difficult, but also makes it easy to get lost while reading, as many names are mentioned briefly and in rapid succession without enough depth or attention to aid in sorting them all out in one’s head. Although it is comprehensive, I was also unclear as to what it added to the historiography, aside from its age making it one of the earlier full surveys of the Ottoman Empire. The work is written for academics, but I am not certain that it would be worth reading for anyone today, even for students of the region who are curious as to why it was considered an important work in the field. Overall, I cannot speak much to the historical accuracy of History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, but it would have been nice to see an explicit referencing structure to better understand how his sources were used to support his narrative and garner a better idea of what potential biases might lurk in what he chose.

[Félix · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite dry but well-structured textbook that focuses on major military, political and cultural event. A bit “Who did what when” with only occasional contextualization. Mostly helpful if you have some idea of the Ottoman history, because otherwise I guess you'd feel quite lost. Especially considering Shaws stained reputation, quite hard to critically contextualize the ample informations in this book.

[Gero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Niektóre poglądy autora są dość kontrowersyjne, ale pomimo tego całkiem solidna pozycja, szczególnie początek. Nie jestem w stanie stwierdzić za to niestety ile błędów merytorycznych usunięto podczas korekty i nowego wydania, ale błędy ortograficzne, interpunkcyjne i po prostu mylenie nazwisk i miejsc jest nagminne, także literówki czy wyrazy najprawdopodobniej poprawione przez autokorektę (!). Wystarczy przejrzeć książkę raz, by zobaczyć mnóstwo błędów. Nie jest to jednak wina autora, więc sama książka jest całkiem niezła i polecam ją dla zainteresowanych tematyką.