The Ottomans, Their Rise, Accomplishments, Decline and Their Historians

There are many works about the Ottomans, an abundance which does not necessarily mean a good history of the subject. Repetition of some claims does not always mean they are true. Yet, in respect to Ottoman history, the well known "illusory truth effect, ' is very much at work. Most historians repeat or follow the same well treaded paths traced by Ottoman historians of the 19th century. Those historians were completing their works when Turkey was not just 'the sick man of Europe' but was also 'the great enemy, the persecutor of Christians.' Such 'a moribund cruel persecutor' was not only the heir to the former rich Byzantine realm but also ruled over vast lands. To ambitious and greedy imperial Europe what a spoil of war such lands would be. In order to grab them, besides the use of force, plentifully available (and the enemy was sick anyway), all else that was needed were good excuses. Historical narrative and other forms of discourse, including in the media of the time, and by leading political and Church voices, came on hand. In the 'sickness and barbarism of the Ottoman Turk' there was found plenty of fodder for such a discourse. The line was traced, and despite some deviations, because so much repeated over the decades and in so many works, this has become and remains the predominant view of Ottoman Turkey. This work, based mainly on facts, not on claims, marks yet another deviation but of greater substance, for it looks at Ottoman Turkey from an angle much wider than other works have hitherto done.