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This comprehensive study presents an overview of the Ottoman Empire--or, rather, its ruling class--from its emergence in late medieval times through its maturation in early modern times. Lucidly written, Colin Imber's book lays out this large subject for a non-specialist audience. It is important at the outset, however, to be aware of what the book does and does not do. Imber himself states in the Introduction that his approach to the subject is "narrow." To wit, the book examines the institutions and practices of Ottoman government--"the structure of power" of the title--through the empire's formative centuries and into the stressful first half of the 17th century. It does not concern itself, except peripherally, with society, religion, or culture--in other words, with the subject population's own experiences and responses to the power exercised on it. What this study does, it does extremely well, by virtue of the author's wide reading in both the primary sources and the secondary literature and his own previous contributions to the study of dynastic ideology, law, and the navy, and his reconstruction of a chronology of the early centuries.
Following a long and dense account ("Chronology") that details the creation of the empire and its first significant losses in the 17th century, Imber takes up a variety of topics in individual chapters. Given the book's focus on power, which Imber regards as residing above all with the sultanate, the first two chapters treat "The Dynasty" (its structure, reproduction, and modes of legitimation) and "Recruitment" (the non-dynastic cadres of the ruling...