The nature of the early Ottoman state /
Drawing on surviving documents from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, The Nature of the Early Ottoman State provides a revisionist approach to the study of the formative years of the Ottoman Empire. Challenging the predominant view that a desire to spread Islam accounted for Ottoman success du...
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| Format: | Licensed eBooks |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Albany :
State University of New York Press,
2003.
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| Series: | SUNY series in the social and economic history of the Middle East.
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| Online Access: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/jj.18252303 |
| Summary: | Drawing on surviving documents from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, The Nature of the Early Ottoman State provides a revisionist approach to the study of the formative years of the Ottoman Empire. Challenging the predominant view that a desire to spread Islam accounted for Ottoman success during the fourteenth-century advance into Southeastern Europe, Lowry argues that the primary motivation was a desire for booty and slaves. The early Ottomans were a plundering confederacy, open to anyone (Muslim or Christian) who could meaningfully contribute to this goal. It was this lack of a strict religious orthodoxy, and a willingness to preserve local customs and practices, that allowed the Ottomans to gain and maintain support. Later accounts were written to buttress what had become the self-image of the dynasty following its incorporation of the heartland of the Islamic world in the sixteenth century. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (ix, 197 pages) |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 177-189) and index. |
| ISBN: | 1417524073 9781417524075 0791456358 9780791456354 0791456366 9780791456361 9780791487266 0791487261 |