Lords of the Horizons
Lords of the Horizons

Author: Jason Goodwin

Publisher: Macmillan + ORM

Published: 2014-06-10

Total Pages: 430

ISBN-13: 1466874872

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"A work of dazzling beauty...the rare coming together of historical scholarship and curiosity about distant places with luminous writing." --The New York Times Book Review Since the Turks first shattered the glory of the French crusaders in 1396, the Ottoman Empire has exerted a long, strong pull on Western minds. For six hundred years, the Empire swelled and declined. Islamic, martial, civilized, and tolerant, in three centuries it advanced from the dusty foothills of Anatolia to rule on the Danube and the Nile; at the Empire's height, Indian rajahs and the kings of France beseeched its aid. For the next three hundred years the Empire seemed ready to collapse, a prodigy of survival and decay. Early in the twentieth century it fell. In this dazzling evocation of its power, Jason Goodwin explores how the Ottomans rose and how, against all odds, they lingered on. In the process he unfolds a sequence of mysteries, triumphs, treasures, and terrors unknown to most American readers. This was a place where pillows spoke and birds were fed in the snow; where time itself unfolded at a different rate and clocks were banned; where sounds were different, and even the hyacinths too strong to sniff. Dramatic and passionate, comic and gruesome, Lords of the Horizons is a history, a travel book, and a vision of a lost world all in one.

The Black Eunuchs of the Ottoman Empire
The Black Eunuchs of the Ottoman Empire

Author: George H. Junne

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2016-06-22

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 0857728938

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The Chief Black Eunuch, appointed personally by the Sultan, had both the ear of the leader of a vast Islamic Empire and held power over a network of spies and informers, including eunuchs and slaves throughout Constantinople and beyond. The story of these remarkable individuals, who rose from difficult beginnings to become amongst the most powerful people in the Ottoman Empire, is rarely told. George Junne places their stories in the context of the wider history of African slavery, and places them at the centre of Ottoman history. The Black Eunuchs of the Ottoman Empire marks a new direction in the study of courtly politics and power in Constantinople.

We the People
We the People

Author: Ted Byfield

Publisher: CHRISTIAN HISTORY PROJECT

Published: 2011-06

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 9780986939600

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Catlorian Ii
Catlorian Ii

Author: R.L. Pool

Publisher: LifeRich Publishing

Published: 2017-05-10

Total Pages: 699

ISBN-13: 1489712739

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The first moves in the battle for Tael have been made and the Savonel is once again whole. Now, innocents are being enslaved and powerful artifacts that could be used to devastating effect were being sought by the agents of the evil one. Men and women of strength, valor and conscience must place themselves willingly between the innocents and those agents. These must also remove those same artifacts from the hand of the evil master, Lord Banshee. Morgan DeVilleforte, a skilled mercenary of honor, is one of those adventurers determined to do whatever is necessary to defend the innocent. She and a group of diverse adventurers now chase evil across the face of Catlor to bring justice and vengeance. The great Lord Commander Dekion DeLough embarks on a mission of mercy with Lilith the Sorceress, a rogue daku bent on defending those who cannot defend themselves and bringing about an end to the enmity of her race to all others. She also seeks two powerful artifacts to keep them from the hands of evil. Other brave souls Mages, clerics, mercenaries and rangers join them down dangerous paths in order to free, protect and deliver those from forced captivity to the light of the sun of Tael. Catlorian II: Temples continues the exploits of men and women of valor bent on thwarting Lord Banshee in his one-minded pursuit of vengeance against an entire world.

Women Who Ruled
Women Who Ruled

Author: Claudia Gold

Publisher: Quercus Publishing

Published: 2015-04-02

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 1784292354

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'Poisoners', 'whores', 'witches' and 'murderers' - or so their enemies claimed. From Queen Nefertiti of Egypt, to the villainous Catherine de Medici and her flying squadron, to England's 'Gloriana' Elizabeth I, and the modern phenomenon of female prime ministers - Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher and Benazir Bhutto - Claudia Gold looks at three and a half thousand years of history to examine the lives of fifty of the world's most exceptional rulers - all of them women. Each biographical profile sets its subject clearly in the culture and context of its time, enabling the author not only to tell the stories of these 50 astonishing women, but also to provide a fascinating and informative alternative social history.

Tulipomania
Tulipomania

Author: Mike Dash

Publisher: Crown

Published: 2010-02-10

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 0307560821

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A vivid narration of the history of the tulip, from its origins on the barren, windswept steppes of central Asia to its place of honor in the lush imperial gardens of Constantinople, to its starring moment as the most coveted—and beautiful—commodity in Europe. In the 1630s, visitors to the prosperous trading cities of the Netherlands couldn't help but notice that thousands of normally sober, hardworking Dutch citizens were caught up in an extraordinary frenzy of buying and selling. The object of this unprecedented speculation was the tulip, a delicate and exotic Eastern import that had bewitched horticulturists, noblemen, and tavern owners alike. For almost a year rare bulbs changed hands for incredible and ever-increasing sums, until single flowers were being sold for more than the cost of a house. Historians would come to call it tulipomania. It was the first futures market in history, and like so many of the ones that would follow, it crashed spectacularly, plunging speculators and investors into economic ruin and despair. This colorful cast of characters includes Turkish sultans, Yugoslav soldiers, French botanists, and Dutch tavern keepers—all centuries apart historically and worlds apart culturally, but with one thing in common: tulipomania.