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A Times Literary Supplement and History Today Book of the Year

‘An astonishing and thrilling story.’ Stephen Greenblatt

The Ottoman Empire was a hub of flourishing intellectual fervour, geopolitical power, and enlightened pluralistic rule. At the helm of its ascent was the omnipotent Sultan Selim I (1470-1520).

Alan Mikhail centres Selim’s Ottoman Empire and Islam as the very pivots of global history, redefining such world-changing events as Christopher Columbus’s voyages, the Protestant Reformation, and the transatlantic slave trade. Mikhail’s ground-breaking account vividly recaptures Selim’s life, radically reshaping our understanding of a world we thought we knew.