In consequence of a mysterious decision taken by Mustafa Kamal's secular Republic of Turkey to not only change the city's name, but to also take steps that eventually ensured that the name, Constantinople, would no longer be used, this writer had to retrieve the name "Constantinople" from the museums of history in order for this book to be written. Why did the secular Turkish leader change the name of the city? Why did the name "Constantinople" have to suffer that mysterious fate? This book brings clarity to that subject.This writer is convinced that the mysterious disappearance of the name "Constantinople" from the modern-day vocabulary and discourse is directly linked to the status and role of the city in both Islamic and Christian eschatology.

This skillfully written text presents the full sweep of Ottoman history from its beginnings on the Byzantine frontier in about 1300, through its development as an empire, to its late eighteenth-century confrontation with a rapidly modernizing Europe. Itzkowitz delineates the fundamental institutions of the Ottoman state, the major divisions within the society, and the basic ideas on government and social structure. Throughout, Itzkowitz emphasizes the Ottomans' own conception of their historical experience, and in so doing penetrates the surface view provided by the insights of Western observers of the Ottoman world to the core of Ottoman existence.

Imran N. Hosein was born in Trinidad, West Indies. He studied Islamunder the guidance of the distinguished Islamic scholar, Maulana Dr.Muhammad Fadlur Rahman Ansari, at the Aleemiyah Institute ofIslamic Studies, Karachi in Pakistan. He also did post-graduate studiesin Philosophy at Karachi University, and in International Relations atthe University of the West Indies, Trinidad, and the Graduate Instituteof International Studies, Geneva, Switzerland. Those who serve us with poison will eventually swallow it and poison themselves."Vladimir Putin, President of Russia"And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, andthe mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and inthe rocks of the mountains."Revelation 6:15

In a narrative that is at once thoughtful and passionate, an award-winning historian reveals the history of peaceful coexistence between Muslims, Christians, and Jews over the course of fourteen centuries until the present day. The harsh reality of religious conflict is daily news, and the rising tensions between the West and Islam show no signs of abating. However, the relationship between Muslims, Christians, and Jews has not always been marked with animosity; there is also a deep and nuanced history of peace. From the court of caliphs in ancient Baghdad, where scholars engaged in spirited debate, to present-day Dubai, where members of each faith work side by side, Karabell traces the forgotten legacy of tolerance and cooperation these three monotheistic religions have enjoyed—a legacy that will be vital in any attempt to find common ground and reestablish peace.

Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1280-1808 is the first book of the two-volume History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. It describes how the Ottoman Turks, a small band of nomadic soldiers, managed to expand their dominions from a small principality in northwestern Anatolia on the borders of the Byzantine Empire into one of the great empires of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Europe and Asia, extending from northern Hungary to southern Arabia and from the Crimea across North Africa almost to the Atlantic Ocean. The volume sweeps away the accumulated prejudices of centuries and describes the empire of the sultans as a living, changing society, dominated by the small multinational Ottoman ruling class led by the sultan, but with a scope of government so narrow that the subjects, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, were left to carry on their own lives, religions, and traditions with little outside interference.

Today's Arab world was created at breathtaking speed. In just over one hundred years following the death of Mohammed in 632, Arabs had subjugated a territory with an east-west expanse greater than the Roman Empire, and they did it in about one-half the time. By the mid-eighth century, Arab armies had conquered the thousand-year-old Persian Empire, reduced the Byzantine Empire to little more than a city-state based around Constantinople, and destroyed the Visigoth kingdom of Spain. The cultural and linguistic effects of this early Islamic expansion reverberate today. This is the first popular English-language account in many years of this astonishing remaking of the political and religious map of the world. Hugh Kennedy's sweeping narrative reveals how the Arab armies conquered almost everything in their path, and brings to light the unique characteristics of Islamic rule. One of the few academic historians with a genuine talent for story telling, Kennedy offers a compelling mix of larger-than-life characters, fierce battles, and the great clash of civilizations and religions.