For over six hundred years the Ottoman Empire swelled and declined; rising from a dusty fiefdom in the foothills of Anatolia to a power which ruled over the Danube and the Euphrates, with the richest court in Europe. But its decline was prodigious and protracted.
“A fascinating read… a perfect companion for anyone who visits Turkey and wants to make sense of it and those countries it once ruled'” (The Times)
“As plush as a Turkish carpet… Godwin weaves together the threads of barbarism and civilisation with dazzling panache” (Piers Brendon Mail on Sunday)
“So rich, so detailed and so astonishing as to be a book of wonders in itself” (Jan Morris Independent)
“Perhaps the most readable history ever written on anything” (Time Out)