Masters explores the history of Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire and how their identities evolved over four hundred years. While early communities lived within the hierarchy of Muslim law, the nineteenth century witnessed radical change. In response to Western influences, conflict erupted between Muslims and Christians across the empire. This marked the beginning of tensions that informed the rhetoric of religious fundamentalism in the empire's successor states throughout the twentieth century. Thus Masters negotiates the present through the past, contributing to our understanding of...

In a pioneering reinterpretation, the authors challenge the orientalist perception of the Islamic city. By considering the histories of three Ottoman cities in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, they depart from the piecemeal methods of previous studies to emphasize the importance of these cities and to highlight their essentially Ottoman character. While the essays provide an overall view, each can be approached separately. Their exploration of the sources and the agendas of those who have conditioned our understanding of these cities will make them essential reading for students.

Once stretching from Vienna in the north to Iraq and Yemen in the south, the Ottoman Empire has played an integral role in the history of Eurasia and the Middle East. The dynamics and complexity of the present-day Middle East and Balkans cannot be understood without an examination of the history of the Ottoman Empire that ruled these regions for centuries. Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire provides a thorough overview of the history and civilization of the Ottomans, with approximately 450 A-to-Z entries focusing on major events, personalities, institutions, and terms. With signed articles by...