Books by John Julius Norwich
“The book is very readable, and Norwich does a wonderful job of identifying, beyond national concerns, the kinds of challenges that these four figures faced in a 16th-century environment. Norwich was not a professional historian and he tells their stories from a personal perspective. There’s a risk to his book because it places the individual person at the center, but it’s a great introduction to a global understanding of 16th-century history. As you’re reading you notice, ‘Oh! this happened to Süleyman. Then the same thing happened to Francis I. How come?’ And you start thinking about the dynamics of the period…There are a couple of mistakes in the Ottoman sections. But it’s entertaining to read and I enjoyed it tremendously. He was a great writer. It shows that with the right mindset, you don’t have to know Ottoman Turkish to have a decent understanding of the Ottomans.” Read more...
The best books on Sultan Süleyman
Kaya Şahin, Historian
Interviews where books by John Julius Norwich were recommended
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1
Suleymanname: The Illustrated History of Suleyman the Magnificent
by Esin Atil (editor) -
2
The Age of Sinan: Architectural Culture in the Ottoman Empire
by Gülru Necipoglu -
3
Bureaucrat and Intellectual in the Ottoman Empire: The Historian Mustafa Ali
by Cornell Fleischer -
4
Empress of the East: How a Slave Girl Became Queen of the Ottoman Empire
by Leslie Peirce -
5
Four Princes: Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent and the Obsessions that Forged Modern Europe
by John Julius Norwich
The best books on Sultan Süleyman, recommended by Kaya Şahin
The best books on Sultan Süleyman, recommended by Kaya Şahin
The Ottoman ruler Süleyman was one of the most powerful men in early modern Europe and highly adept at building his reputation for posterity. In European languages, he is still often graced with the epithet ‘the Magnificent.’ The reality was much more mixed, as a new biography of Süleyman shows. Historian Kaya Şahin talks us through books to better understand Sultan Süleyman and the world he lived in.
