The Ottoman Age of Exploration

by Casale, Giancarlo

• ISBN13: 9780195377828
• ISBN10: 0195377826
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-02-25
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In the year 1517, the Ottoman Sultan Selim "the Grim" conquered Egypt and brought his empire for the first time in history into direct contact with the trading world of the Indian Ocean. During the decades that followed, the Ottomans became progressively more engaged in the affairs of this vast and previously unfamiliar region, eventually to the point of launching a systematic ideological, military and commercial challenge to the Portuguese Empire, their main rival for control of the lucrative trade routes of maritime Asia. The Ottoman Age of Exploration is the first comprehensive historical account of this century-long struggle for global dominance, a struggle that raged from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Straits of Malacca, and from the interior of Africa to the steppes of Central Asia. Based on extensive research in the archives of both Turkey and Portugal, as well as supporting materials written on three continents and in a half dozen languages, it presents an unprecedented picture of the global reach of the Ottoman state during the sixteenth century. Challenging traditional narratives of Western dominance, it argues that the Ottomans were not only active participants in the Age of Exploration, but ultimately bested the Portuguese in the game of global politics by using sea power, dynastic prestige, and commercial savoir faire to create their own imperial dominion throughout the Indian Ocean.

Author Biography

Giancarlo Casale is a McKnight Land Grant Professor of History at the University of Minnesota.

Table of Contents

Map and Illustration	p. xv
A Note on Sources	p. xvii
Introduction : An Empire of the Mind	p. 3
Selim the Navigator
Ibrahim Pasha and the Age of Reconnaissance
Hadim Suleiman Pasha'World War
Rustem Pasha versus the Indian Ocean Faction
Sokollu Mehmed Pasha and the Apogee of Empire
A Man, a Plan, a Canal: Mir Ali Beg's Expeditions to the Swahili Coast
The Death of Polities	p. 180
Notes	p. 205
Works Cited	p. 249
Index	p. 271
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