Guns for the Sultan: Military Power and the Weapons Industry in the Ottoman Empire

Guns for the Sultan: Military Power and the Weapons Industry in the Ottoman Empire. By Gábor Ágoston. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-52184313-8. Maps. Photographs. Illustrations. Tables. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xvii, 277. $75.00.

Gábor Ágoston's newest book is a much-needed addition to English language works dealing with Ottoman military affairs. Based on sound archival and other primary sources, it looks at the employment, manufacture, and cost of Turkish gunpowder weapons in the 1400s to 1700s. From the castle smashing kale-kob down to the infantryman's tüfenk (musket), Ágoston starts with a history of Ottoman gunpowder technology, and how it was employed on the battlefield and in siege warfare. He gives equal time to analyses of weapons manufacture, the artisans who did the work, and how...