Ottoman Origins, European Echoes

This major history of the Ottoman Empire examines its rise and fall in connection with European history. However, the approach does not subsume Ottoman identity nor ascribe its well documented religious tolerance, secularism and modernity to European influences, just the opposite. Whereas many conventional histories of Europe credit these societal developments to the fallout from convulsive “wars of religion” during the 16th and 17th centuries, Baer, a professor of history at London School of Economics, maintains that a closer look at Ottoman rule in parts of Southeastern Europe as early as the 14th century reveals precedent for religious tolerance that had roots in the traditions of the nomadic, pre-Islamic peoples from the Central Asian Steppe, the cradle of the Ottoman Empire. Meanwhile, under the Ottoman sultans, secular law carried as much, if not more, weight as religious law. To this day, Ottoman urban design remains a feature in cities from Hungary to Egypt, the legacy of an empire whose impact lingers still.