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Reviews of Lords of the Horizons : A History of the Ottoman Empire by Jason Goodwin
Amazon.com
Jason Goodwin, a young English journalist, writes history as if it were
today's breaking news, and with Lords of the Horizon, he delivers an
anecdote-filled and breezy account of the long, troubled career of the
Ottoman Empire. That empire endured for nearly 600 years and
embraced not only a large territory--stretching, at one point, from the
border of Iran to the gates of Vienna--but also hundreds of ethnic groups
and three dozen nations. United under the banner of a tolerant form of
Islam, the Ottoman Turks forged a culture that, Goodwin writes, "was
such a prodigy of pep, such a miracle of human ingenuity, that
contemporaries felt it was helped into being by powers not quite
human--diabolical or divine, depending on their point of view."
Drawing on memoirs by European visitors as well as standard histories of
the era, Goodwin traces the Ottoman Empire from its origins in the
14th-century collapse of the Byzantine state to its centuries-long decline
and final collapse at the end of World War I. Along the way, he writes
of
the Ottomans' addiction to wealth (and to hiding their gold in fabulous
hoards), the pleasure they took in holding picnics in their lush cemeteries,
and the prowess of their elite military both in battle and in organized
crime. ("The janissaries were magnificent extortionists," Goodwin notes.
"People paid them not to burn their homes and business, then they paid
them to come and put the fires out.") Full of vivid detail, Goodwin's
narrative makes for an enjoyable introduction to this historically influential,
but little understood, culture. --Gregory McNamee
The New York Times Book Review, Fouad Ajami
...a work of dazzling beauty.... Goodwin's is a gift akin to that of Jan
Morris, the rare coming together of historical scholarship and curiosity
about distant places with luminous writing...
From Kirkus Reviews , February 15, 1999
A delightfully picaresque history, brimming with memorable anecdotes
and outrageous personalities. English travel writer Goodwin (A Cup of
Tea: Travels Through China and India in Search of Tea, 1991) guides us
on a highly impressionistic journey. We begin in the foothills of Turkey,
where the Ottoman Turks revered the horse and reveled in making war.
(They also helped to destroy the Christian crusaders of the 14th century.)
The Ottomans were Sunni Muslims, relatively tolerant of religious
diversity. In 1453, under Sultan Mehmet, they seized Constantinople,
making it their capital. Goodwin writes brilliantly about the siege of
that
Byzantine city, describing its complex defensive fortifications and how
Mehmet breached them with a revolutionary weapon, the cannon. Under
Suleyman the Magnificent, Ottoman power reached its zenith. Suleyman's
army overran Belgrade in 1521 and later assaulted Vienna. Finally, the
European powers united to stop the ``infidel'' Ottoman onslaught. In
1571, the Ottomans suffered their first major defeat at the Battle of
Lepanto. Nevertheless, they consolidated their power in the Balkans,
Egypt, Persia, Russia, and all over Central Asia. Goodwin argues
convincingly that the key to Ottoman success, besides an obvious skill
at
war, was their open-mindedness regarding cultures and institutions: The
Ottoman umbrella made room for Spanish Jews, Orthodox Greeks,
Venetian merchants, Albanian tribesmen, Arab bedouins, and others.
With the coming of the industrial revolution in Europe, however, the
Ottomans fell behind. Palace intrigues, factional rivalries, military
disloyalty, and nationalist rebellions in Greece and Egypt combined to
sap
the empire of its strength. Yet it survived, miraculously, into the 20th
century, like some crazy old aunt locked in the attic. Throughout,
Goodwin relishes the exotic, the bizarre, the picturesque. In explaining
the
decline of Ottoman military virtue, he cites Sultan Ibrahim, who
overindulged in drink and the harem, where he ``rode his girls like horses
through rooms lined in fur.'' An elegantly written, thoroughly entertaining
work of popular history. (25 b&w illustrations) -- Copyright ©1999,
Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
The Times - London
"A fascinating read .... [Goodwin] has a knack of catching the prevailing
mood of the Empire during all its phases, which makes the book a perfect
companion for anyone who visits Turkey." (The Times (London))
Book Description
Lords of the Horizons : A History of the Ottoman Empire by Jason Goodwin
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 it advanced from the dusty
foothills of Anatolia to rule on the Danube and the Nile; at the Empire's
height, Indian rajahs and the kings of France beseeched its aid. For the
next three hundred years the Empire seemed ready to collapse, a prodigy
of survival and decay. Early in the twentieth century it fell. In this
dazzling
evocation of its power, Jason Goodwin explores how the Ottomans rose
and how, against all odds, they lingered on. In the process he unfolds
a
sequence of mysteries, triumphs, treasures, and terrors unknown to most
American readers.
This was a place where pillows spoke and birds were fed in the snow;
where time itself unfolded at a different rate and clocks were banned;
where sounds were different, and even the hyacinths too strong to sniff.
Dramatic and passionate, comic and gruesome, Lords of the Horizons is
a history, a travel book, and a vision of a lost world all in one.
Synopsis
Lords of the Horizons : A History of the Ottoman Empire by Jason Goodwin
Dramatic and passionate, comic and gruesome, "Lords of the Horizons"
is a history of the Ottoman Empire, a travel book, and a vision of a lost
world, all in one. 30 illustrations.
About the Author of
Lords of the Horizons : A History of the Ottoman Empire, Jason Goodwin
Historian, journalist, and travel writer, Jason Goodwin lives in West
Sussex, England, with his wife and two sons. A regular contributor to The
New York Times and Cond Nast Traveler, Jason Goodwin received the
John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for On Foot to the Golden Horn.
Lords of the Horizons : A History of the Ottoman Empire by Jason Goodwin
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