Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire

by Jason Goodwin

Book Overview

"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

Since the Turks first shattered the glory of the French crusaders in 1396, the Ottoman Empire has exerted a long, strong pull on Western minds. For six hundred years, the Empire swelled and declined. Islamic, martial, civilized, and tolerant, in three centuries...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312420668
• ISBN13: 9780312420666
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.79 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

delightful, fascinating, and deep

This book offers a stark contrast to Kinross' The Ottoman Centuries. Kinross' book is dry, stuffily pedantic, and laden with the details of obscure territorial skirmishes. While I learned the outlines of Ottoman history in Kinross, it was this book that gave me a true flavor for that vanished world - who the people were, why they acted the way they did, and how things appeared in the context of the time. It is a dazzling and confidently erudite tour of life then (without a whiff of pretension), and I was utterly engrossed from the minute I opened the book. Indeed, I was not intending to read this now, but I simply could not put it down when I looked at it out of curiosity. This is not conventional history, but a flowing narrative that skips around in time; the subject matter of the chapters are organized as dense essays on military affairs, the populations within the Empire, and governance practices. The author went directly to the original sources of memoirs, diplomatic correspondence, and military communiques, always good for the beautiful, quirky anecdote. Many readers did not like this loose style, but I thought it made the book extremely fun and readable and vivid. Nonetheless, without Kinross, this would have been a far more difficult read and perhaps at many points incomprehensible. As such, the books are complementary and can be read together at great profit. But this book is a genuine literary masterpiece that left me in awe of the author's talent. The story is incredible: from a small band of tough nomads in the steppes of Asia, several outstanding leaders created the first truly professional army since the Roman age. To the aristocratic knights in Europe - bound by chivalric conventions and a cumbersome military apparatus with untrustworthy mercenaries - the Turks appeared as a terrifying and unstoppable force of fierce and disciplined warriors. For 200 years, they advanced into the heart of Europe and conquered large portions of Asia Minor and North Africa with dreams of world domination that appeared all too credible to contemporary observers. The Ottomans also created a multi-ethnic society that for the times was tolerant and inclusive, did not seek to convert its subjects (they could tax non-Muslims afterall), and was more or less a meritocracy based on ability more than privilege. Unfortunately, once the empiric expansion stopped, most of its virtues became deadly liabilities. During the Renaissance, the Ottoman Empire abruptly stalled and then became famously corrupt and decadent, after a series of leaders who can only be called military geniuses. Their administrative skills never advanced beyond the phenomenally innovative organization of military camps to reinvent the governance of Ottoman society. First, without the pillage income from continual conquest, revenues needed to be raised to pay the standing army. The responsibility for this fell to regional governors, who preyed upon local residents, severel

Ottoman Legacy

"Lords of the Horizons" is not your typical history book. It reads more like historical fiction, which I find absolutely delightful. The book is not dry and drawn out, does not concentrate on agricultural effects on a local mayor along with grain prices fluctuations and does not attempt to bore you to sleep. In fact, "Lords of the Horizons" consists of history, historical trivia, historical anectodes, travel tips, and "a-ha!" bits of information on surrounding areas that you always wondered about (if you ever wondered about them.) True, the novel is biased, the author is obviously enchanted with the Ottoman history and legacy, so if you want a truly scholastic, academic history of the Ottoman Empire, this is not a book for you. This is more of a synopsis of a Westerner's love for this area and its history, although a detailed one. Yes, Armenian genocide is left out, as the book concentrates mainly on the Ottoman Sultans and the janissaries, as well as the life in Constantinople (Istanbul). Even so, I found the book highly readable and informative, a good starting book for further research of the topic.

A kaleidoscopic history of the Ottoman Empire

This is a brilliant short course on the Ottoman Empire. In contrast to conventional histories, this is an exploration of the ethos, temper, and tempo of an imperial power. Using a dazzling array of sources, this is a lucid account of the birth, expansion and decline of the paramount threat to Western Europe for six hundred years. The Turks are followed out of Central Asia, into Anatolia, and up the Danube creating a polyglot state that was a wonder in its day not only for its martial values, but organization, cohesion and tolerance. A wonderful account of what was ,before the France of Louis XIV, the first modern nation-state. Entertaining and enlightening.

dichotomy

Terrific, exotic, very literate highlighting of selected episodes from the history of the Turkish Empire. The book assumes, however, a good bit of knowledge on the reader's part of the history of Constantinople, which I would not have had prior to reading about and visiting Istanbul last year. The many reviews here show a violent split between those who brought that knowledge to the book and enjoyed the author's keen and ironic commentary, and those who could not follow him and/or thought him too elitist. Don't make this your first book on the topic.

A tough read, but well worth it.

Lords of the Horizons is a delicious, impressionistic travelogue through the little-understood Ottoman Empire. It is tricky, often infuriating read, but worth the effort.Goodwin rewards those who pay attention: often word contexts are mentioned once. Miss the one mention that Ragusa is now Dubrovnik, and you will find yourself confused 200 pages later. Bring a map. Part of the book's charm is its evocation of time/place, but with the meager map provided, you'd be lost halfway through the first chapter. A street map of Istanbul will be handy, as well.This is a pain, but well worth it: part of the joy of this book is the discovery of a new world, with places you've never heard like Anatolia, Edirne, Allepo, Smyrna (now Izmir), Ragusa, Bursa, Chios, & Candia. The same goes for all the obscure words scattered everywhere. A dictionary helps, as does the glossary in the back. Best is an encyclopedia with listings of every obscure place and name.Criticisms posted here of the Goodwin's often dense style and frequent use of obscure nomenclature seem odd -- as if readers don't expect to be challenged, or learn anything new in books anymore. I too felt like tossing the book the first time through, but once you start looking things up, going back and retracing references in the index, and re-reading footnotes, the thing starts to make sense, and the book's richness becomes clear.Readers who object to this book on political grounds miss the point: assumed is a certain knowledge that life was mean and often brutal for much of the last 600 years, no less so in the Ottoman sphere than in the Christian. Ferocious bloodlettings are almost breezily mentioned. What matters are not particular battles, or slaughters, but the social and political currents of the empire as it grew and prospered, reached its apex, and slowly declined. Which is why Goodwin barely mentions the Armenian genocide. To him, the empire in its death throws was hardly itself, when "massacre became the stock response to threat." The polyglot, tolerant empire that had given its citizens stability and peace for centuries was gone. That Goodwin's history is in part a eulogy for this lost and forgotten world does not whitewash its failings; they have been documented elsewhere. But it gives us a loving, perspicacious look at world few of us know.