Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire

For six hundred years the Ottoman Empire swelled and declined. Islamic martial civilized and tolerant it advanced in three centuries from the dusty foothills of Anatolia to rule on the Danube and the Nile; at its height Indian rajahs and the kings of France beseeched the empires aid. In its last three hundred years the empire seemed ready to collapse a prodigy of survival and decay. In this striking evocation of the empires power Jason Goodwin explores how the Ottomans rose and how against all odds they lingered on. In doing so he also offers a long look back to the origins of problems that plague present-day Kosovars and Serbs.