1.

Record Nr.

UNISA996247974103316

Autore

Casale Giancarlo

Titolo

The Ottoman age of exploration / / Giancarlo Casale

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York ; ; Oxford, : Oxford University Press, 2010

ISBN

0-19-987404-2

9786612661228

1-282-66122-1

0-19-970338-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (463 p.)

Disciplina

910.9182/409031

Soggetti

Navigation - Turkey - History - 16th century

Turkey History 16th century

Indian Ocean Region Discovery and exploration Turkish

Turkey Commerce History 16th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction : an empire of the mind -- Selim the navigator : 1512-1520 -- Ibrahim Pasha and the Age of Reconnaissance : 1520-1536 -- Hadim Suleiman Pasha's world war : 1536-1546 -- Rustem Pasha versus the Indian Ocean faction : 1546-1561 -- Sokollu Mehmed Pasha and the apogee of empire : 1561-1579 -- A man, a plan, a canal : Mir Ali Beg's expeditions to the Swahili coast : 1579-1589 -- The death of politics.

Sommario/riassunto

In 1517, the Ottoman Sultan Selim nullthe Grimnull 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. This study 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 Turkey and Portugal, as well as materials written on three continents and in half a dozen languages, it presents an unprecedented picture of the global reach of the Ottoman state during the 16th century. It does so through a dramatic recounting of the lives of sultans and viziers, spies, corsairs, soldiers-of-fortune, and women from the imperial harem. 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.