The Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire, especially under their charismatic leaders Charles V and Suleyman I, were major empires of the early-modern period. Both exercised global power as, respectively, leaders of the universal 'res publica Christiana' and 'dar-es Islam'. However, both lost supreme power in the course of the 17th and 18th centuries and began the transformation to absolutist nation states. This account of the important transition to modern notions of statehood is vital for understanding the reform strategies of both empires in administration, taxation, conduct of foreign policy and formation of the modern state. Both empires adopted differing strategies of survival and development: Austria's 'Enlightened Despotism' and the Austro-Hungarian Empire traced their origins to the Holy Roman Empire; while the Ottoman Empire, reformed and modernized, developed into the nation state of the Republic of Turkey. Mehmet Sinan Birdal draws upon original historical sources and the teachings of Habermas and the Frankfurt School for the doctrine of 'legitimation' as the theoretical basis for political authority in this original and revisionist work for historians, international relations specialists and political scientists.
Charles V's Holy Roman Empire and Suleyman I's Ottoman Empire were the most significant empires of the early-modern era. Both rulers exercised global power as the leaders of the universal res publica Christiana and dar-es Islam, respectively, both subject to exploits of lavishness, extravagance, and self-indulgence with respect to their demonstrations of power and world dominance. The most obvious example of this was Charles V's crowning as the Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Clement V, which included a procession of 20 cardinals, 400 papal guards and 300 knights, as well as a commemorative painting by Parmigianino that depicted Charles being handed the globe by the infant Hercules while being crowned with laurel by Fame. The modality of power reflective of aristocratic society and exhibited by both Charles V and Suleyman I is one of many different style of leadership and Mehmet Sinan Birdal here explores how these power modalities determine the performance of a state in foreign politics and the emergence of the dominant unit in the state system. This book examines the Habsburgs' and Ottomans' transformation from medieval empires with claims of global domination to absolutist nations that recognized the sovereignty of others. In fact the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Austria's Enlightened Despotism developed from the Holy Roman Empire, while the Ottoman Empire, through modernization and reform, became the present-day Republic of Turkey. Drawing upon the teachings of Habermas and the Frankfurt School, as well as original historical sources, Birdal uses the doctrine of legitimation as the theoretical basis for political authority in The Holy Roman Empire and the Ottomans, creating a revisionist work that is an invaluable read for historians, international relations specialists and political scientists alike.
In 1683, an Ottoman army that stretched from horizon to horizon set out to seize the "Golden Apple," as Turks referred to Vienna. The ensuing siege pitted battle-hardened Janissaries wielding seventeenth-century grenades against Habsburg armies, widely feared for their savagery. The walls of Vienna bristled with guns as the besieging Ottoman host launched bombs, fired cannons, and showered the populace with arrows during the battle for Christianity's bulwark. Each side was sustained by the hatred of its age-old enemy, certain that victory would be won by the grace of God. The Great Siege of Vienna is the centerpiece for historian Andrew Wheatcroft's richly drawn portrait of the centuries-long rivalry between the Ottoman and Habsburg empires for control of the European continent. A gripping work by a master historian, The Enemy at the Gate offers a timely examination of an epic clash of civilizations.
In 1543, the Ottoman fleet appeared off the coast of France to bombard and lay siege to the city of Nice. The operation, under the command of Admiral Barbarossa, came in response to a request from François I of France for assistance from Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent in France's struggle against Charles V, the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain. This military alliance between mutual 'infidels', the Christian French King and the Muslim Sultan, aroused intense condemnation on religious grounds from the Habsburgs and their supporters as an aberration from accepted diplomacy. Allies with the Infidel places the events of 1543 and the subsequent wintering of the Ottoman fleet in Toulon in the context of the power politics of the sixteenth century. Using contemporary Ottoman and French sources, it presents the realpolitik of diplomacy with 'infidels' in the early modern era.Th e result is essential reading for students and scholars of European
How did empires rule different peoples across vast expanses of space and time? And how did small numbers of imperial bureaucrats govern large numbers of subordinated peoples? Empires and Bureaucracy in World History seeks answers to these fundamental problems in imperial studies by exploring the power and limits of bureaucracy. The book is pioneering in bringing together historians of antiquity and the Middle Ages with scholars of post-medieval European empires, while a genuinely world-historical perspective is provided by chapters on China, the Incas and the Ottomans. The editors identify a paradox in how bureaucracy operated on the scale of empires and so help explain why some empires endured for centuries while, in the contemporary world, empires fail almost before they begin. By adopting a cross-chronological and world-historical approach, the book challenges the abiding association of bureaucratic rationality with 'modernity' and the so-called 'Rise of the West'.
*Includes pictures *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading "Ours are treasures unheard of . . . tents, sheep, cattle and no small number of camels . . . it is victory as nobody ever knew before, the enemy now completely ruined, everything lost for them. They must run for their sheer lives . . . General Starhemberg hugged and kissed me and called me his saviour." - Polish King John III Sobieski There are certain events that are famous not so much in themselves, noteworthy as they might be, but on account of their role in the context of history. Seismic shifts pivot upon the outcome of such events, and many of them come from battles, for it is an unfortunate but irrefutable fact of history that humanity is shaped by the force of arms. Salamis, Hastings, Agincourt, Waterloo, Sedan, and Stalingrad all fit into this category, and the 1683 Battle of Vienna or Kahlenberg (named after a hill near the city) can also, with eminent justification, be placed in the list of era-changing conflicts. For nearly 1,000 years, there had been a clash for the souls, hearts, and bodies of societies across Europe, Africa, and Asia. The conflict between Christianity and Islam has been one of the defining factors in Europe and the Middle East, and while this dichotomy might be an excessively simple and incomplete explanation, there is no doubt that it has generated the world today. From Arabia, Islam surged forth onto the world stage in the 7th century as a religion carried by the force of arms. By the middle of the 8th century, the Islamic Caliphate had conquered the Levant, parts of North Africa, and even parts of Spain, all regions which had converted to Christianity in the previous three centuries. An Islamic invasion of France was turned away at the Battle of Poitiers in 732, and a Western counter-offensive known as the Reconquista lasted about 700 more years. Away from Europe, Christian and Muslim forces fought the Crusades around the Holy Land. Toward the end of the 17th century, the preeminent Islamic power in the world was the Ottoman Empire. From lowly beginnings as a vassal of the Anatolian Sultanate of Rum Osman I, from whom the empire was named, it expanded into the lands of the Christian Byzantine Empire, and by 1683, the year of the Battle of Vienna, the Ottomans ruled Asia Minor, the Middle East (with the exception of Iran), northern Africa to the borders of Morocco, the Balkan Peninsula up to the lands of modern Poland, as well as portions of Poland, Ukraine, Crimea, and Georgia. The sultan was styled "His Imperial Majesty the Padishah (Emperor), Commander of the Faithful and Successor to the Prophet of the Lord of the Universe." He was considered by his subjects to be the Caliph, the supreme leader of the faithful throughout the world. The duty of holy jihad was vested by the umma in his hands, and the sultans had successfully overpowered the forces of the Christian princes time and time again. The long conflict between the Habsburgs and the Ottomans would finally come to a head in 1683 outside the city of Vienna, the center of Habsburg power in central Europe. It would be no exaggeration to say that Vienna was one of the most important battles not only in the conflict between Islam and Christendom, but in the entire history of the world. If the Habsburgs had lost that battle, it is highly likely that Islamic civilization rather than Christian would dominate much of Europe. The Battle of Vienna (1683): The History and Legacy of the Decisive Conflict between the Ottoman Turkish Empire and Holy Roman Empire chronicles the dramatic siege, and how the Christian forces turned back the Ottomans. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the battle like never before.
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, German clockwork automata were collected, displayed, and given as gifts throughout the Holy Roman, Ottoman, and Mughal Empires. In Animating Empire, Jessica Keating recounts the lost history of six such objects and reveals the religious, social, and political meaning they held. The intricate gilt, silver, enameled, and bejeweled clockwork automata, almost exclusively crafted in the city of Augsburg, represented a variety of subjects in motion, from religious figures to animals. Their movements were driven by gears, wheels, and springs painstakingly assembled by clockmakers. Typically wound up and activated by someone in a position of power, these objects and the theological and political arguments they made were highly valued by German-speaking nobility. They were often given as gifts and as tribute payment, and they played remarkable roles in the Holy Roman Empire, particularly with regard to courtly notions about the important early modern issues of universal Christian monarchy, the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, the encroachment of the Ottoman Empire, and global trade. Demonstrating how automata produced in the Holy Roman Empire spoke to a convergence of historical, religious, and political circumstances, Animating Empire is a fascinating analysis of the animation of inanimate matter in the early modern period. It will appeal especially to art historians and historians of early modern Europe. E-book editions have been made possible through support of the Art History Publication Initiative (AHPI), a collaborative grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This skillfully written text presents the full sweep of Ottoman history from its beginnings on the Byzantine frontier in about 1300, through its development as an empire, to its late eighteenth-century confrontation with a rapidly modernizing Europe. Itzkowitz delineates the fundamental institutions of the Ottoman state, the major divisions within the society, and the basic ideas on government and social structure. Throughout, Itzkowitz emphasizes the Ottomans' own conception of their historical experience, and in so doing penetrates the surface view provided by the insights of Western observers of the Ottoman world to the core of Ottoman existence.
