Product Description

The Ottoman Empire had reached the peak of its power, presenting a very real threat to Western Christendom when in 1683 it suffered its first major defeat, at the Siege of Vienna.  Tracing the empire’s conflicts of the next two centuries, The Ottoman Wars: An Empire Besieged examines the social transformation of the Ottoman military system in an era of global imperialism

Spanning more than a century of conflict, the book considers challenges the Ottoman government faced from both neighbouring Catholic Habsburg Austria and Orthodox Romanov Russia, as well as - arguably more importantly – from military, intellectual and religious groups within the empire.  Using close analysis of select campaigns, Virginia Aksan first discusses the Ottoman Empire’s changing internal military context, before addressing the modernized regimental organisation under Sultan Mahmud II after 1826. 

Featuring illustrations and maps, many of which have never been published before, The Ottoman Wars draws on previously untapped source material to provide an original and compelling account of an empire near financial and societal collapse, and the successes and failures of a military system under siege.  The book is a fascinating study of the decline of an international power, raising questions about the influence of culture on warfare. 

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #228720 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 624 pages

From the Back Cover

The Ottoman Empire had reached the peak of its power, presenting a very real threat to Western Christendom when in 1683 it suffered its first major defeat, at the Siege of Vienna.  Tracing the empire’s conflicts of the next two centuries, The Ottoman Wars: An Empire Besieged examines the social transformation of the Ottoman military system in an era of global imperialism

Spanning more than a century of conflict, the book considers challenges the Ottoman government faced from both neighbouring Catholic Habsburg Austria and Orthodox Romanov Russia, as well as - arguably more importantly – from military, intellectual and religious groups within the empire.  Using close analysis of select campaigns, Virginia Aksan first discusses the Ottoman Empire’s changing internal military context, before addressing the modernized regimental organisation under Sultan Mahmud II after 1826. 

Featuring illustrations and maps, many of which have never been published before, The Ottoman Wars draws on previously untapped source material to provide an original and compelling account of an empire near financial and societal collapse, and the successes and failures of a military system under siege.  The book is a fascinating study of the decline of an international power, raising questions about the influence of culture on warfare. 

Dr. Virginia Aksan is Associate Professor in the Department of History at McMaster University, Ontario, Canada.  She has written for numerous journals and is the author of An Ottoman Statesman in War and Peace: Ahmed Resmi Efendi, 1700-1783 (1995). 

About the Author

Virginia Aksan is Assistant Professor at McMaster University, Canada. She is passionate about recovering the lives and histories of the people who lived at the time of the Ottoman Empire and this was reflected in her first book, about an Ottoman ambassador, An Ottoman Statesman in War and Peace: Ahmed Resmi Efendi 1700-1783 (1995).

Customer Reviews

A fine book, well worth the long wait
For whatever reason, this has been a long time coming: its arrival has been rumoured for years. Finally it is here, and the result amply fulfils the anticipation. Professor Aksan's scholarship in journal articles and detailed archival work provides a sure foundation for a study with a great range, over both time and space.

At no point does the quality or insight of the narrative falter, and reaching the author's conclusion in 1870, this reader's feelng is: what a pity it could not extend for another two decades to take in the events of the 1870s and 1880s. Few books of six hundred pages read so easily and with such assurance.

At last, students will have a reliable and usable text that will fill the vast gaps that hitherto existed in the study of Ottoman warfare. It redresses the imbalance created by the plethora of good work on the 16th and 17th centuries. Now the Ottoman military role and campaigning in the later period can be properly assessed, as Aksan provides a corrective to earlier (and sometimes mistaken) views of the military and Ottoman society. She shows how a number of western 'reformers' hired by the Ottomans presented a skewed and usually egotistical view of Ottoman capacity. By contrast, Habsburg commanders who experienced the sharp edge of Ottoman tenacity, speed, and courage in battle had a rather less dismissive view.

The author has synthesised a huge body of published material (although the coverage of German language sources is quite slender). The MODERN WARS IN PERSPECTIVE series has produced a series of remarkable books: this ranks with the very best.