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£14.99
Published
15 September 2026
Hardback
9781917532167
Ebook
9781917532174
Press Release
Coming soon.
By Benjamin C. Fortna:

 

‘Nuanced, coherent and richly detailed… both illuminating for the lay reader and indispensable for specialists’ M. Şükrü Hanioğlu, Princeton University

Istanbul was once Europe’s largest city, and today Turkey is the fifth most visited country in the world. At its height the Ottoman Empire – the longest-lasting Islamic empire in history – stretched from the borders of Austria to the Persian Gulf, from the steppe to the Sudan.

This brilliant distillation traces Turkey’s rich history from the rise of the Ottoman Empire to the emergence of the Turkish Republic in the early twentieth century, and on to the populist, authoritarian regime of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan today.

From conquest and religion to carpets, from popular music to the politics of headwear (fez or fedora?), Benjamin C. Fortna charts the ironies of Turkish history, caught between east and west, between secularism and theocracy, between the past of an empire that was home to many different cultures and a nation state bent on ethnic unity.

Old Street Publishing The Shortest History of Turkey

‘Nuanced, coherent and richly detailed… both illuminating for the lay reader and indispensable for specialists’ M. Şükrü Hanioğlu, Princeton University

Istanbul was once Europe’s largest city, and today Turkey is the fifth most visited country in the world. At its height the Ottoman Empire – the longest-lasting Islamic empire in history – stretched from the borders of Austria to the Persian Gulf, from the steppe to the Sudan.

This brilliant distillation traces Turkey’s rich history from the rise of the Ottoman Empire to the emergence of the Turkish Republic in the early twentieth century, and on to the populist, authoritarian regime of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan today.

From conquest and religion to carpets, from popular music to the politics of headwear (fez or fedora?), Benjamin C. Fortna charts the ironies of Turkish history, caught between east and west, between secularism and theocracy, between the past of an empire that was home to many different cultures and a nation state bent on ethnic unity.

 14.99
 
 

‘An astute combination of the entertaining and informed’ —Steven Carroll, The Age

 
 
  • ‘A compact yet richly informative account of a nation straddling East and West, tradition and modernity. This book achieves an impressive feat: distilling over two millennia of Turkish history into a narrative that is accessible, nuanced and deeply engaging’
    —Good Reading Magazine
  • 'A marvellous book, fast-moving and thought-provoking. Fortna shows great skill in choosing concise sketches and the unfamiliar details to capture essential qualities of the Ottoman Empire and Turkish Republic often overlooked in other, lengthier accounts. A remarkable achievement.'
    —Dr Fred Anscombe, Birkbeck, University of London
  • 'An insightful new synthesis of Turkish history… Fortna’s book is as informative as it is pleasant to read, and will be a help to students new to Turkey as well as veterans who have been charting the country’s history for years'
    —Professor Christine Philliou, University of California, Berkeley
  • ‘Extremely well told. We enjoy a vicarious excitement at the tales of derring-do … [the book’s] concentration on one man sheds light on the whole of that turbulent period in Turkish history’
    —Asian Affairs on The Circassian
  • ‘A work of first-rate scholarship on a fascinating, tempestuous life’
    —Hurriyet Daily News on The Circassian
 
 
Benjamin C. Fortna

BENJAMIN C. FORTNA is Professor and Director of the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies at the University of Arizona and formerly Professor of the History of the Middle East, SOAS, University of London. His books include The Circassian: A Life of Eşref Bey, Late Ottoman Insurgent and Special Agent.