The History of the Ottomans

Text in Arabic. This book is one of the most important Orientalist works that explores Ottoman history written by the English historian Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy in the middle of the 19th century.

The book is divided into twenty-five chapters, most of which follow the chronological order of events, except for some chapters which shed light on certain details concerning the administrative or military systems of the state and its development.

Sir Edward Creasy relied mainly on Joseph von Hammer-Purgstall, or, in other words, he followed his path in the writing of Ottoman history until 1774, but on the other hand, as he himself noted, his book is not a shortcut to von Hammers work.

At the time, von Hammers work was not translated into English but relied on many contemporary European sources of events, memoirs and reports of leaders, diplomats and travelers who were sometimes subject to bias.

Additionally, von Hammer included partial studies that dealt with political, economic and social dimensions and analyses, comparisons and causalities of events.

Sir Edward Creasy provides an English perspective on the circumstances and the events during the period after 1774 and until the period after the Crimean War (1853-1856), where this book ends, which is undoubtedly one of the most important times in contemporary history.