Lords of the Horizons: History of the Ottoman Empire - Hardcover

Goodwin, Jason

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0701136693 ISBN 13: 9780701136697

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 1998

Synopsis

This is an evocation of the power of the Ottoman Empire, which swelled and declined over a period of six centuries, rising from a dusty fiefdom in the foothills of Anatolia to a power which ruled on the Danube and the Euphrates. The royal line bent, but never broke, from Osman, born in a desert tent around 1280, to Abdul Mecid, who died in a Paris flat in 1942. For 300 years the Empire held sway amid murmurs of imminent collapse. At its height Istanbul had the wealthiest court in Europe, whose aid was sought by Indian princes and French kings. Its religion was Islamic (but its subjects largely not), its ceremony Byzantine, its dignity Persian, its wealth Egyptian, its alphabet Arabic, its aesthetic Dalmatian, its cruelty and gallantry all its own - and excessive. The decline was prodigious, protracted, and total: after World War I the Ottoman Empire was no more. The book charts its history from the first campaigns to the Charge of the Light Brigade, from the Crusades to the Dardanelles, and aims to bring to life details of Ottoman life: caravans carrying parcels of spice and bags of gold, Western emissaries witnessing executions, distant sentries on far frontiers, jewels, meals, shadow plays and stray dogs.

About this title

Review:

"A work of dazzling beauty...the rare coming together of historical scholarship and curiosity about distant places with luminous writing." --"The New York Times Book Review"
"A meditation on a vanished world that hovers like an apparition over today's grim headlines." --"The New York Times Book Review"
"Jason Goodwin's deftly written and beguiling history of the Ottoman Empire is particularly pertinent today, when the cauldron of ancient hatred once more boils over, but his prose would be welcome at any time."
---"The Boston Globe"
"May be read with pleasure and profit by everyone, not least the traveler headed east of Vienna and west of Baghdad."--"The Wall Street Journal"
"A delightfully picaresque history, brimming with memorable anecdotes and outrageous personalities." --"Kirkus Reviews"

A work of dazzling beauty...the rare coming together of historical scholarship and curiosity about distant places with luminous writing. "The New York Times Book Review"

A meditation on a vanished world that hovers like an apparition over today's grim headlines. "The New York Times Book Review"

Jason Goodwin's deftly written and beguiling history of the Ottoman Empire is particularly pertinent today, when the cauldron of ancient hatred once more boils over, but his prose would be welcome at any time. "The Boston Globe"

May be read with pleasure and profit by everyone, not least the traveler headed east of Vienna and west of Baghdad. "The Wall Street Journal"

A delightfully picaresque history, brimming with memorable anecdotes and outrageous personalities. "Kirkus Reviews""

A work of dazzling beauty...the rare coming together of historical scholarship and curiosity about distant places with luminous writing. The New York Times Book Review

A meditation on a vanished world that hovers like an apparition over today's grim headlines. The New York Times Book Review

Jason Goodwin's deftly written and beguiling history of the Ottoman Empire is particularly pertinent today, when the cauldron of ancient hatred once more boils over, but his prose would be welcome at any time. The Boston Globe

May be read with pleasure and profit by everyone, not least the traveler headed east of Vienna and west of Baghdad. The Wall Street Journal

A delightfully picaresque history, brimming with memorable anecdotes and outrageous personalities. Kirkus Reviews

"

"A work of dazzling beauty...the rare coming together of historical scholarship and curiosity about distant places with luminous writing." --The New York Times Book Review

"A meditation on a vanished world that hovers like an apparition over today's grim headlines." --The New York Times Book Review

"Jason Goodwin's deftly written and beguiling history of the Ottoman Empire is particularly pertinent today, when the cauldron of ancient hatred once more boils over, but his prose would be welcome at any time." --The Boston Globe

"May be read with pleasure and profit by everyone, not least the traveler headed east of Vienna and west of Baghdad." --The Wall Street Journal

"A delightfully picaresque history, brimming with memorable anecdotes and outrageous personalities." --Kirkus Reviews

From the Author:

Love it or hate it - this is the book that changed my life! So if you'd like to know more about it - or about The Janissary Tree, my new thriller set in Ottoman Istanbul - you might want to take a look at jasongoodwin.net.

About this edition

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0701136693
• ISBN 13: 9780701136697
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368