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God's Shadow: Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, and the Making of the Modern World
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About God's Shadow: Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, And
Product Description Best Books of the Year • Times Literary Supplement, Publishers Weekly, History Today Longlisted • Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Editors' Choice • New York Times Book Review “A stunning work of global history. . . . Alan Mikhail offers a bold and thoroughly convincing new way to think about the origins of the modern world. . . . A tour de force.” ―Greg Grandin Long neglected in world history, the Ottoman Empire was a hub of intellectual fervor, geopolitical power, and enlightened pluralistic rule. At the height of their authority in the sixteenth century, the Ottomans, with extraordinary military dominance and unparalleled monopolies over trade routes, controlled more territory and ruled over more people than any world power, forcing Europeans out of the Mediterranean and to the New World. Yet, despite its towering influence and centrality to the rise of our modern world, the Ottoman Empire’s history has for centuries been distorted, misrepresented, and even suppressed in the West. Now Alan Mikhail presents a vitally needed recasting of Ottoman history, retelling the story of the Ottoman conquest of the world through the dramatic biography of Sultan Selim I (1470–1520). Born to a concubine, and the fourth of his sultan father’s ten sons, Selim was never meant to inherit the throne. With personal charisma and military prowess―as well as the guidance of his remarkably gifted mother, Gülbahar―Selim claimed power over the empire in 1512 and, through ruthless ambition, nearly tripled the territory under Ottoman control, building a governing structure that lasted into the twentieth century. At the same time, Selim―known by his subjects as “God’s Shadow on Earth”―fostered religious diversity, welcoming Jews among other minority populations into the empire; encouraged learning and philosophy; and penned his own verse. Drawing on previously unexamined sources from multiple languages, and with original maps and stunning illustrations, Mikhail’s game-changing account “challenges readers to recalibrate their sense of history” (Leslie Peirce), adroitly using Selim’s life to upend prevailing shibboleths about Islamic history and jingoistic “rise of the West” theories that have held sway for decades. Whether recasting Christopher Columbus’s voyages to the “Americas” as a bumbling attempt to slay Muslims or showing how the Ottomans allowed slaves to become the elite of society while Christian states at the very same time waged the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade, God’s Shadow radically reshapes our understanding of the importance of Selim’s Ottoman Empire in the history of the modern world. 16 pages of color illustrations; 40 black-and-white illustrations Review " God’s Shadow is full of fine details of this cross-cultural encounter, but its most arresting aspect is Mikhail’s second claim: that 'the Ottoman Empire made our modern world.' He calls his book 'a revisionist account … demonstrating Islam’s constituent role in forming some of the most fundamental aspects of the history of Europe, the Americas and the United States.' From it, he says, 'a bold new world history emerges, one that overturns shibboleths that have held sway for a millennium. Whether politicians, pundits and traditional historians like it or not, the world we inhabit is very much an Ottoman one'.... The story is always interesting.... The highest praise for a history book is that it makes you think about things in a new way." ― Ian Morris, New York Times Book Review "Captivating.... A welcome and important corrective, Mikhail's recalibration of the modern era is ambitious and provocative.... Mikhail writes authoritatively, as one would expect from so accomplished a historian. He writes accessibly and vividly, too, which means that the book, while scholarly, is readable, enjoyable, and relatable.... A terrific guide to the Ottomans during a period of profound change." ― Peter Frankopan, Air Mail "Mikhail’s ambition
