The Ottoman Centuries (Lord Kinross, 1977)

Trying to get better acquainted with this part of the world, and this book was helpful. And most interesting throughout.

Seljuks were supplanted by Ottomans - around 1300. The Muslim conquering waves - starting from Arabia around 700 and working up into Spain, east into Persia, etc. The Arab wave then slowing and consolidating; Ottoman wave coming on. Mehmed the Conqueror; Suleiman the Magnificent.

The story reminds of the Roman Empire in some ways - hardy military types with tolerant government that works very well in expansion mode. Osman's descendants figured out how to settle down and govern. Strangling rival brothers seemed to add stability. The Janissary corps was quite an idea - rely on highly trained Christian slaves, prevent local nobles from building competing constituencies.

Finally took down Constantinople in 1453. Took control over much of what we refer to as the Middle East, much of the Mediterranean. Seems like the Persians could maintain quite a bit of autonomy, benefitting from distance.

It's interesting to think that the Balkan populations and Eastern Europe were bouncing back and forth - Roman, Eastern Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Muslim. The Ottomans were regularly pushing up through Hungary, fighting folks like Vlad the Impaler (a model for Dracula). Ottomans controlled Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, Hungry, etc. for a long time. Ottomans pushed up to Vienna as late as 1683 (Poland's Jan Sobieski was a hero; and Vienna had coffee shops for the first time as the Ottomans left huge stores behind as they fled).

The downhill slide lasted a long time. The Janissary were like the Streltsky or other palace guards - too much power, too many demands, no Peter the Great to take them out. Sultans spent too much time in harem. An attitude that there was nothing to learn from inferior westerners - an attitude that initially had some basis, but became increasingly inaccurate over time.

Some of the problems sounded so typical - large intractable bureaucracy sucking the producers dry. In later centuries, competing interests from Russia, France, Britain. Interests in maintaining the "sick man of Europe" for balance of power purposes. Armenian genocide. German influence into World War I; Ataturk; some very serious efforts to modernize and reform, one can see the genesis of the secular state (so rare in that part of the world, fragile even now).

The book touched on Lepanto and the cultural progress described in this book.