Content area
Full Text
Suraiya Faroqhi is such a fixture in Ottoman social and economic history that one might not expect her to undertake a book dealing with Ottoman foreign relations. Yet, it is precisely her grounding in socioeconomic history that makes The Ottoman Empire and the World Around It such an insightful work. The book examines the empire's relations with the major European states, as well as with Iran and India, from the mid-16th through the late 18th century. This period, not coincidentally, coincides with what was until recently known as the era of Ottoman "decline," a concept that Faroqhi has played a leading role in repudiating. Her book thus constitutes one of the first examinations of Ottoman foreign relations in light of "post-decline paradigm" reconceptualizations. However, strictly speaking, it is not a foreign-policy study. It combines a "cultural encounters" approach with a postmodern sensibility, relatively new to the Ottoman field, regarding the Ottoman Empire's self-perception and projection of imperial identity.
Following an exposition of problems inherent in the study of Ottoman engagement with the "outside world," Faroqhi devotes chapter 2 to exploring the Ottomans' chief foreign rivalries and alliances at four critical junctures: 1560, the date of the...