God's Shadow
Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, and the Making of the Modern World

Fascinating look at the life and times of Sultan Selim, known as Selim the Grim in European historiography. Selim was one of the great conquering imperial sultans and expanded the realm of Ottoman power across Europe the Middle East and North Africa during his reign. He ended the Mamluk Empire and d......more

The opening didn't bode well. "The ideological wind propelling the white sails of Columbus's three ships was the fifteenth-century world's most exigent political struggle--the one between Catholic Europe and the Muslim Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman empire, contrary to nearly all accounts of world hist......more

An intriguing (and fluid) read that advances an unusual hypothesis: that the discovery of the new world was not linked as much to scientific progress and curiosity as held by the common wisdom, but primarily instigated by fear of the Turks taking over Europe in late 15th century / early 16th century......more

The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 was a turning point in history. They soon enforced their control over the trade routes between the East and West. European merchants were denied direct access to Asia, forcing them to procure the wares through Ottoman traders at immense profits to the l......more

I picked this up from the "New" shelf at the library, in part because I've been reading Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall trilogy about Henry VIII, and this is at the same time period and -- as the author argues -- critically influenced western European history in ways that are seldom appropriately acknowle......more