The Ottoman Age of Exploration

by Giancarlo Casale

This is a new book that argues that the Ottoman Empire had a maritime interest in the Indian Ocean which we have underrated. We have found it overly easy to think about the Ottomans in terms of a land empire, which they obviously were, but they were also an important maritime power and we ought to be using that to re-examine our standard assumptions about the West, after the 15th century, being the only source of maritime power, until you get the Japanese borrowing Western technology and ideas at the end 19th century.