The Ottoman Empire: The Untold Story to Its Rise and Fall

Fascinating subject. Very interesting, and told without devolving into dry recitation of names and dates. Poorly edited with misspellings and grammar errors aplenty. Often worded awkwardly. Still worth reading.

This book gives a detailed overview of the Ottoman Empire from its beginnings in Asia through its demise in Europe. It's' a very good introduction to efforts to understand and learn about the Arab world. After reading it you should read other books on the subject including the "The Closed Circle" by David Pryce-Jones.

The book was inaccurate and poorly written, wish I had read the reviews before I bought. If you fix the inaccurate information, like stating that the Hagia Sophia was a mosque built by the Ottoman Empires and showed it architectural advancement it used to teach a sixth grade class. The Hagia Sophia was a church built by the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople and converted to a Mosque when the Ottomans took over. Made it to chapter 2 and had to delete from my Kindle.

I only made it three pages in before i read "For example, the Hagia Sophia, a very famous mosque, was built by the Ottomans". This statement is so patently false i couldn't believe it made it into any book that has an editing process. Hagia Sofia was built by Justinian 900 years before the Ottomans ever occupied Constantinople, and if not common knowledge, it's at least an easily verifiable fact. I stopped reading at this point, who knows what other misconceptions or fabrications are in here?

Not very well written and rather stop and start

I'm really sorry I don't read reviews - at least when using Amazon App on my smart phone - but I think I should expect Amazon to do some vetting of the material it sells its customers! I literally thought I was reading a google translation from Turkish - Can't believe I made it to the 4th reign, I guess I was waiting for the punchline. This is complete and utter crap, wikipedia references, poor spelling, no attention to detail (It's Murat not Murad, moron) - Hagia Sophia an example of Ottoman architecture, seriously!!! I don't blame the author, someone told him this s*** would make money, I blame myself for reason above and amazon for peddling it. DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY

In just the fourth paragraph of the introduction the author mentions that the Empire left the world "some architectural and literary advancements. For example, the Hagia Sophia, a very famous mosque, was built by the Ottomans." Anyone with even a passing knowledge of architecture, or the history of Constantinople or the Roman Empire knows Hagia Sophia was built as a church under the Roman Emperor Justinian and consecrated in 537 AD centuries before the Ottoman Empire was founded in 1299. It stood as an architectural marvel and the largest church in Christendom until the Turks conquered Constantinople in 1453 and converted it to a mosque. There are many other historical inaccuracies, grammatical and editing errors and it reads as though English is not the author's first language.(e.g. "However, if a ruler comes in and lets the believe believe what they like, marry who they like..., the people will feel freedom.") I plowed through it anyway hoping I could at least some insight as to why the Ottoman armies were so successful in battle or something I didn't know or couldn't find in Wikipedia. There is some of this on offer here but I was left wondering if the explanations were valid or accurate because so much was off. For instance, the author states the paintings produced in the Empire "began to illustrate impressionism". Really? Also he mentions Murad III conversed with the leader of England about a possible alliance against Spain. Twice he says this is Catherine I, not Elizabeth I. I only gave this the 2nd star because if this is your introduction to the history of the Ottoman Empire you will at least learn some of the history and succession of Sultans but there are many flaws and very little, if any, insight. I don't know of one to recommend, but there must be several histories of the Ottoman Empire better than this one.

even basic facts are garbled , for example I know no queen of England called Catherine , it does require a great effort to make such an interesting history so repelling. I did not manage to get halfway , could be for kids had it not be so boring

This book summarizes the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire quite well, starting from the rise of the Turkish identity in Anatolia to the end of the empire after World War I. There are a few mistakes here and there like how, the author mentions Murad IV corresponding with "Catherine I of England" when it should've been Elizabeth I( I do believe he might've confused Elizabeth I with Catherine the Great of Russia). If anyone was looking for more detailed insights into the lives of various Sultans or details about campaigns(each of which will probably fill multiple books in their own), they might be disappointed. But it works well as an introduction to this part of history that's often overlooked in Europe but nonetheless defines a good deal of the politics of the larger empires, including the British Empire. For example, the Crimean War that immortalized Florence Nightingale, the "lady with the lamp" was fought against the Ottomans. Timur, who was the common ancestor of the Mughals, fought and defeated Ottoman Sultan Bayezid I and the empire revived and got off the ground only after the death of Timur and the diminishing of the Timurids. History is much like a jigsaw puzzle with many pieces required to understand the whole and nothing can truly be understood in isolation. The history of the Ottomans, the Muslim empire that took over from the Spanish Ayyubids as far as checking the European powers went, is one such piece of the puzzle.