Born as a military frontier principality at the turn of the Fourteenth century, Turkey developed into the dominant force in Anatolia and the Balkans, growing to become the most powerful Islamic state after 1517 when it incorporated the old Arab lands. This distinctively Eastern culture, with all its[...]
From the historian's perspective, the Ottomans in their heyday could claim a more absolute monarchy than any of the truly European empires, a more successful record in quelling rebellion and the rise of national settlement, and the development and maintenance of more effective lines of communication[...]