Ottoman Empire: References & Edit History

The classical studies of Ottoman history based on Ottoman and European sources (both in German) are Joseph von Hammer (Joseph, Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall), Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches, 10 vol. (1827–35, reprinted 1963); and Johann Wilhelm Zinkeisen, Geschichte des osmanischen Reiches in Europa, 7 vol. (1840–63), which emphasize Ottoman diplomatic and military history based on extensive use of European diplomatic archives and travelers’ reports. A standard 19th-century work in English is Edward Shepherd Creasy, History of Ottoman Turks: From the Beginning of Their Empire to the Present Time, 2 vol. (1854–56; numerous reprintings, including 2011), which was based on von Hammer’s history. Important studies from the 20th century include Stanford J. Shaw and Ezel Kural Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, 2 vol. (1976–77, reprinted 2002–05); and Halil İnalcik and Donald Quataert (eds.), An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1914 (1994), which was reissued as 2 vol. (1997, reprinted 2005).

A popular account for the nonspecialist is Lord Kinross (Patrick Balfour, Baron Kinross), The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire (1977, reprinted 2002); and a general compendium is Gábor Ágoston and Bruce Masters (eds.), Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire (2009). Another survey of the entire Ottoman period is Karen Barkey, Empire of Difference: The Ottomans in Comparative Perspective (2008).

Ottoman rule in southeastern Europe is studied in L.S. Stavrianos (Leften Stavros Stavrianos), The Balkans Since 1453 (1958, reprinted 2005); and Peter F. Sugar, Southeastern Europe Under Ottoman Rule, 1354–1804 (1977, reprinted 1996). The most useful atlases of the Ottoman Empire are Donald Edgar Pitcher, An Historical Geography of the Ottoman Empire from Earliest Times to the End of the Sixteenth Century (1972); and William C. Brice (ed.), An Historical Atlas of Islam (1981).

Paul Wittek, The Rise of the Ottoman Empire (1938), reissued as The Rise of the Ottoman Empire: Studies on the History of Turkey, 13th–15th Centuries (2008), with additional material and ed. by Colin Heywood, is a classic study of Ottoman origins in 13th- and 14th-century Anatolia that emphasizes the importance of the ghazi tradition in Ottoman expansion; while Rudi Paul Lindner, Nomads and Ottomans in Medieval Anatolia (1983, reissued 1997), disputes the ghazi thesis on the basis of more recent research. Halil İnalcik, The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age, 1300–1600 (1973, reprinted 1994), is a scholarly survey of the early period. M.A. Cook (ed.), A History of the Ottoman Empire to 1730 (1976, reprinted 1980), conveniently assembles the excellent articles in The Cambridge History of Islam and The New Cambridge Modern History relating to the Ottoman Empire. Franz Babinger, Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time (1978, reprinted 1992; originally published in German), which is based mainly on European sources, emphasizes Ottoman relations with Europe under Mehmed II the Conqueror. Dorothy Margaret Vaughan, Europe and the Turk: A Pattern of Alliances, 1350–1700 (1954, reprinted 1976), studies diplomatic, economic, and cultural relations between the Ottoman Empire and Europe. Ottoman relations with Safavid Iran are studied in Sydney Nettleton Fisher, The Foreign Relations of Turkey, 1481–1512 (1948); George William Frederick Stripling, The Ottoman Turks and the Arabs, 1511–1574 (1942, reprinted 1977); and Adel Allouche, The Origins and Development of the Ottoman-Safavid Conflict (906–962/1500–1555) (1983). The Ottomans in the Mediterranean world are described in Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, 2 vol. (1972–73, reissued in 3 vol., 2000; originally published in French, 2nd rev. ed., 1966), which is a brilliant study of economic problems and development in the Mediterranean area in the mid-16th century, stressing the importance of population problems, the results of the influx of precious metals from the New World, and shifts in international trade routes. Stephen A. Fischer-Galati, Ottoman Imperialism and German Protestantism, 1521–1555 (1959, reissued 1972), describes the role of the Ottoman threat in the development of the Reformation. Gunther Erich Rothenberg, The Austrian Military Border in Croatia, 1522–1747 (1960), studies Ottoman-Habsburg military relations. Roger Charles Anderson, Naval Wars in the Levant, 1559–1853 (1952, reissued 2005), also treats military matters. Halil İnalcik, The Ottoman Empire: Conquest, Organization, and Economy (1978), is a fundamental study of internal Ottoman economic organization and development.

H.A.R. Gibb (Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb) and Harold Bowen, Islamic Society and the West: A Study of the Impact of Western Civilization on Moslem Culture in the Near East, vol. 1 in 2 parts (1950, reprinted 1969), emphasizes Ottoman organization in the 18th century but adds considerable information on earlier periods based on examination of Turkish and Western sources. Stanford J. Shaw, The Financial and Administrative Organization and Development of Ottoman Egypt, 1517–1798 (1962), studies the Ottoman provincial and financial systems as applied in Egypt based on exhaustive research in Ottoman archives; it is summarized in Shaw’s article “Landholding and Land-Tax Revenues in Ottoman Egypt,” in Peter Malcolm Holt (ed.), Political and Social Change in Modern Egypt: Historical Studies from the Ottoman Conquest to the United Arab Republic (1968), pp. 91–103. Anthony Dolphin Alderson, The Structure of the Ottoman Dynasty (1956, reprinted 1982), details the Ottoman imperial institution and the development of the Ottoman dynasty. Extensive accounts of popular customs are Suraiya Faroqhi, Towns and Townsmen of Ottoman Anatolia: Trade, Crafts, and Food Production in an Urban Setting, 1520–1650 (1984); Bernard Lewis, Istanbul and the Civilization of the Ottoman Empire (1963, reprinted 1990); Raphaela Lewis, Everyday Life in Ottoman Turkey (1971, reissued 1988); Fanny Davis, The Ottoman Lady: A Social History from 1718 to 1918 (1986); and Halil İnalcik, From Empire to Republic: Essays on Ottoman and Turkish Social History (1995). The Ottoman millet system is discussed in Stanford J. Shaw, The Jews of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic (1991); Benjamin Braude and Bernard Lewis (eds.), Christians and Jews in the Ottoman Empire, 2 vol. (1982); and Avigdor Levy (ed.), Jews, Turks, Ottomans: A Shared History, Fifteenth Through the Twentieth Century (2002).

Walter Livingston Wright, Jr. (trans. and ed.), Ottoman Statecraft: The Book of Counsel for Vezirs and Governors (1935, reissued 1971), is a 17th-century Ottoman analysis of decline. Thomas M. Barker, Double Eagle and Crescent: Vienna’s Second Turkish Siege and Its Historical Setting (1967), is a detailed study of the Eastern Question relative to the Ottoman Empire in the late 17th century. Lavender Cassels, The Struggle for the Ottoman Empire, 1717–1740 (1966), discusses a similar topic in readable fashion. Mary Lucille Shay, The Ottoman Empire from 1720 to 1734 As Revealed in Despatches of the Venetian Baili (1944, reprinted 1978), describes Ottoman life during the Tulip Period, based on the reports of Venetian consuls in Istanbul. Matthew Smith Anderson, The Eastern Question, 1774–1923: A Study in International Relations (1966, reprinted 1991), an outline of diplomacy, is also of interest. Stanford J. Shaw, Between Old and New: The Ottoman Empire Under Sultan Selim III, 1789–1807 (1971), is a detailed study of the Ottoman reform effort in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with an account of the diplomatic and military relations with Europe and of problems in the Balkan, Anatolian, and Arab provinces. Carter V. Findley, Bureaucratic Reform in the Ottoman Empire: The Sublime Porte, 1789–1922 (1980), also addresses reform efforts as they continued until the end of the empire.