Cheap History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey: Volume 1, Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire 1280-1808 (Book) (Stanford J. Shaw) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey: Volume 1, Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire 1280-1808

To be used with great caution
This, the second of a two-volume work, ought to have been a standard history of the Ottoman Empire; it falls far short of expectations, however, due to the very large number of simple factual errors it contains, as well as the authors' bias toward nationalist Turkish interpreations of the recent past. This imbalance consistently permeates the book, wherein the authors seem to see themselves as having to "defend" the Ottomans against their critics, and is most extreme in the treatment of the Armenian Genocide. (The vehemence seen in some of the reviews below evidences the strong and partisan passions that beset this issue; while the authors' language is more temperate than that of some of the reviewers, they are not much more objective.)

This book, long awaited by Ottomanists, proved to be rather an embarrassment to the field when it appeared. Readers should be aware that it is both unreliable and very partisan.

---

Excellent, scholarly and very accurate!
Very impressive research into an extremely important chapter of history that encompasses over 200 years in one of the most important empires of the world! Provides a wealth of statistics from many credible sources, and presents a very objective, scholarly account of events. ONe of the best books I've ever read--HIGHLY recommended!!!

---

Russian Records on Methods Employed for Turkish Holocaust
Prof Shaw's excellent documentation of the Turkish history is, in fact, in line with the Russian view of the Turkish Holocaust. I also agree with the respectable scholars and Prof Shaw that the Armenian denial makes it worse. Besides, we are talking about the Turkish people that were directly impacted by the Armenian genocide of the Muslim people in Russian Armenia and Eastern Anatolia. Turks never stop writing about the genocide they have experienced in 1914. Referring to notes from the personal diary of Russian General L. Odishe Liyetze on the Turkish front, he wrote, "On the nights 11-12 March alone Armenian butchers bayoneted and axed to death Muslim people in areas surrounding Erzincan. These barbars threw their victims into pits, most likely dug according to their sinister plans to extinguish Muslims, in groups of 80. My adjutant counted and unearthed 200 such pits. This is an act against our world of civilization." On March 12, Lieut-colonel Griyaznof wrote (from an official Russian account of the Turkish Holocaust), "Roads leading to villages were littered with bayoneted torsos, dismembered joints and carved out organs of Muslim peasants...alas! mainly of women and children." "The killings were organized by the doctors and the employers, and the act of killing was committed solely by the Armenian Army. Large holes were dug and the defenceless Muslim people were slaughtered like animals next to the holes. Later, the murdered Muslims were thrown into the holes. The Armenian who stood near the hole would say when the hole was filled with the corpses: 'Seventy dead bodies, well, this hole can take ten more.' Thus ten more Muslims would be cut into pieces, thrown into the hole, and when the hole was full it would be covered over with soil. The Armenians responsible for the act of murdering would frequently fill a house with eighty Muslims, and cut their heads off one by one. Following the Erzincan massacre, the Armenians began to withdraw towards Erzurum... The Armenian renegades among those who withdrew to Erzurum from Erzincan raided the Moslem villages on the road, and destroyed the entire population, together with the villages."

Great work and keep up the good work.