The Ottomans

Khans, Caesars, and Caliphs

By: Marc David Baer

Narrated by: Jamie Parker

This major new history of the Ottoman dynasty reveals a diverse empire that straddled East and West.

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 19th 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.

©2021 Marc David Baer (P)2021 Basic Books

Critic reviews

“A compellingly readable account of one of the great world empires from its origins in 13th century to modern times. Drawing on contemporary Turkish and European sources, Marc David Baer situates the Ottomans squarely at the overlap of European and Middle Eastern history. Blending the sacred and the profane, the social and the political, the sublime and the absurd, Baer brings his subject to life in rich vignettes. An outstanding book.” (Eugene Rogan, author of The Fall of the Ottomans)

“Marc David Baer’s colorful, readable book is informed by all the newest research on his massive subject. In showing how an epic of universal empire, conquest and toleration turned into the drama of nationalism, crisis, and genocide, he gives us not only an expansive history of the Ottomans but an expanded history of Europe.” (James McDougall, University of Oxford)

“Marc David Baer’s The Ottomans is a scintillating and brilliantly panoramic account of the history of the Ottoman empire, from its genesis to its dissolution. Baer provides a clear and engaging account of the dynastic and high politics of the empire, whilst also surveying the Ottoman world’s social, cultural, intellectual and economic development. What emerges is an Ottoman Empire that was a direct product of and an active participant in both European and global history. It challenges and transforms how we think of ‘East’ and ‘West’, ‘Enlightenment’, and ‘modernity’, and directly confronts the horrors as well as the achievements of Ottoman rule.” (Peter Sarris, University of Cambridge)

Excellent

Not a lot to say except excellent. It was through yet not exhaustively detailed. It was a 10/10

Very thorough coverage

Well delivered and entertaining, this audio book did a great job of articulating a very complex history of the Ottoman Empire from beginning to end.

Excellent writing an narrative

Excellent writing an narrative a must for Western educated people like myself. Interesting and expanding horizons

A good start on The Ottomans

The author’s knowledge is abundantly clear. I found it very educational particularly for describing the various tribes and their religious affinities. The author covers the topic from inception to closure. There were issues towards later years of the Ottomans which the book does not comprehensively cover (role of a multitude of covert operations by the British in particular and German positioning for Palestine) but I think it may have dragged the later chapters and also got off topic. Overall it’s a good read/listen if you are interested in the topic.

Good Book, some questionable focuses

Overall this was a decent book for a higher level review of Ottoman history. Focused more on the great men than on other items, but nonetheless learned more about this dynasty and empire than I previously knew.

My only complaint was the authors constant use of pedophilic language when talking about the Ottoman history with older men having sex with young boys. There was a whole chapter dedicated to this topic, which I had to skip after about half of the chapter. The language was simply beyond descriptive. And although we must learn about the history including the things we would rather not discuss, I felt that the author constantly using the phrases "beautiful boys" and "boy lovers" to be just disgusting and down right pedophilic.

With this complaint aside, the rest of the book was back to business and overall I thought it was well done and I powered through the book in a fairly short period of time.

A Good Mix

I’ve read some history books that too much “name, place, date, ‘next!’” And I’ve read others that were too focused on individuals to give a broad perspective. I really felt like the author’s writing style was the best of both worlds. It’s a good mix, explaining the events going on and how life felt to the subjects and ruling class of the empire

epic review of ottoman history

such a fun way to explore the ottoman empire before my trip to turkey. very happy with my experience reading this book

Eye opening

Totally changes and enlightened one’s perception of European and Middle Eastern history. Especially this changes the perception of the first world war and the subsequent wars genocide and murder that happened in year what happened during World War II was part and parcel started by the ottomans. Highly recommend.

Great Listening!

Thoroughly enjoyed the telling of the Ottoman Empire. I love this period of history and as a Westerner learned so much about the politics and society during the 1300-1700's when the empire was flourishing.

Great except for pronunt of Turkish names

The only thing that made this audiobook hard to listen to for me was the many mispronounced names of Turkish people and places. Although most were clear from context, the mispronunciations caused quite a bit of distraction for me as a Turkish speaker. I wish the recordings had been checked by a Turkish speaker, especially for a book about Turkish history.