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God's Shadow: Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, and the Making of the Modern World
Critic Reviews
Great
Based on 6 reviews on
The history of the Ottoman Empire--once the most powerful state on earth, ruling over more territory and people than any other world power--has for centuries been distorted, misrepresented, and suppressed in the West. With this "original and wide-ranging" (Wall Street Journal) global history, Alan Mikhail vitally recasts the Ottoman conquest of the world through the dramatic biography of Sultan Selim I (1470-1520). Drawing on previously unexamined sources, and upending prevailing shibboleths about Islamic history and jingoistic "rise of the West" theories, Mikhail's game-changing account radically transforms our understanding of the importance of Selim's Ottoman Empire in the annals of the modern world.
Book Details
- Publisher: Liveright Publishing Corporation
- Publish Date: Aug 31st, 2021
- Pages: 512
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 8.31in - 5.56in - 1.32in - 0.91lb
- EAN: 9781324091028
- Categories: • Middle East - Turkey & Ottoman Empire• Military• Adventurers & Explorers
More books to explore
About the Author
Mikhail, Alan: - A leading historian of his generation, Alan Mikhail, professor of history and chair of the Department of History at Yale University, has reforged our understandings of the past through his prize-winning books on the history of the Middle East.
More books by Alan Mikhail
What people are saying
Strothman Agency
@StrothmanAgency
4 years
The Strothman Agency is a literary agency dedicated to promoting authors of significant books through the entire publishing cycle.
16 Great Book Recommendations You’ll Thank Us For via @glamourmag God’s Shadow by Alan Mikhail, Rec. by: Sandi Tan, author of Lurkers. "If you want a ticket out of 2020, may I recommend this biography of bloodthirsty Ottoman Sultan Selim I ..." https://t.co/52TKkvAzS8
Kaya Genç
@kayagenc
2 years
Kaya Genç, a European Press Prize Laureate, is the author of The Lion and the Nightingale, Under the Shadow, An Istanbul Anthology, and Macera.
In @the_point_mag, an essay on Alan Mikhail’s recent biography of Sultan Selim, God’s Shadow, and Christopher de Bellaigue’s (@bellaiguec) new book, The Lion House, a hybrid of scholarly biography and historical fiction about Sultan Süleyman: https://t.co/VHTIfGtyz0
Critics’ reviews
Praise for this book
Alan Mikhail is a very original and inventive historian.--Orhan Pamuk, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature
The Ottoman Empire lurks behind much of the modern world. Alan Mikhail's new book makes a great introduction to one of the key figures in Ottoman history, Sultan Selim I.--Mary Beard, author of SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome
Alan Mikhail's bold study of Sultan Selim, his conquests, and reforms rightfully gives the Ottoman Empire and Islam a central place in early modern history. An important book and a lively read as well.--Natalie Zemon Davis, author of Trickster Travels: A Sixteenth-Century Muslim Between Worlds
This deeply researched and elegantly written book restores the Ottoman Empire to its rightful place in world history. [Alan] Mikhail deftly reminds us that leaders outside of Europe had a strong hand in shaping the world as we know it.--Annette Gordon-Reed, author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
Alan Mikhail astutely recovers the revealing life of a Turkish sultan who lived in the time of Columbus. Bent on global power, Selim dramatically expanded his Ottoman Empire at the expense of eastern neighbors and European Christians.... By exploring the rivalry and mutual influence of Islam and Christianity in the past, Mikhail offers fresh insights on our world.--Alan Taylor, author of Thomas Jefferson's Education
An impressive revisionist history... Mikhail draws on world-spanning source material to demonstrate the enormous, long-felt influence of the Islamic empire... In sharply drawn chapters, many of which contain enough ideas for a separate book, Mikhail restores the Ottoman Empire to its rightful place as a 'fulcrum' of global power.... A massively ambitious study, largely accessible and percolating with ideas for further study.--Kirkus Reviews, starred review
[A] richly detailed, epic history. . . . The book is notable for its revisionist views of the role of Islam and the empire in defining and shaping the New World. . . . History buffs will doubtless enjoy its challenges and rewards.--Michael Cart, Booklist
Readers gain insight into the incredible influence of the Ottoman civilization at the dawn of modern history. But Mikhail goes even further, placing Ottoman civilization in its global context. He shows that it is no accident that Columbus's 1492 voyage coincides with the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, or that Martin Luther could use the Sultan's long shadow as fuel against the Pope. Global economics and politics are well illuminated, as are the connections and relationships between Eurasia and the Americas. Excellent maps and illustrations throughout detail the cities, societies, and cultural regions in circa 1500.... A wonderful, exciting, engaging, scholarly yet accessible work for all readers of world history, a book that addresses a critical but often overlooked axis of global history.--Library Journal, starred review
In this revelatory and wide-ranging account, Yale historian Mikhail . . . recreates the life of Sultan Selim I (1470-1520) and makes a convincing case for the outsize impact of the Ottoman Empire and Islamic culture on the history of Europe and the Americas. . . . Mikhail also sheds new light on female political power during the era, and offers intriguing discussions on topics ranging from the Sunni-Shiite split to the discovery of coffee. Written with flair and deep insight, this thought-provoking account is both a major historical work and a genuine page-turner.--Publishers Weekly, starred 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
If you want a ticket out of 2020, may I recommend this biography of bloodthirsty Ottoman Sultan Selim I (1470-1520)? It not only argues that Columbus's voyage to America happened because Europeans were busy avoiding the Turks, it'll also tell you that the Turks had a thing for moles (in 1470, a Sufi mystic predicted that the next sultan would have seven moles, and indeed Selim was born with seven). There's also fratricide (a rite of passage for sultans-to-be), insane concubine politics, and circumcision festivals, and it sent me down a rabbit hole reading up on sultans. How's this for a jetpack out of the present: Look up Ibrahim the Mad (1615-1648), who was raised in a gilded cage, loved plus-size ladies, and drowned 280 women from his harem when he was paranoid that another man had 'tampered with' them.--Sandi Tan - Glamour
Mikhail, chair of Yale's history department and a specialist in Ottoman history, makes it his mission to demonstrate how this utterly compelling leader helped define his age, bending the world to his will. And he succeeds with a flourish.... Mikhail offers a refreshingly Ottoman-centric picture of the 15th- and 16th-century Mediterranean.--Justin Marozzi - The Spectator
[A] refreshingly readable history book that offers a new world view.... It challenges conventional Eurocentric narratives about the Matamoros ("moorslaying") Christopher Columbus and the triggers for the Protestant Reformation. A radical picture of the Ottoman Empire emerges "as a unified juggernaut" conquering and controlling three continents, while Europe was a "mosaic of squabbling polities". How I wish I'd been in Damascus when Selim discovered the tomb of Ibn 'Arabi.--Diana Darke - Times Literary Supplement
What people are saying
Strothman Agency
@StrothmanAgency
4 years
The Strothman Agency is a literary agency dedicated to promoting authors of significant books through the entire publishing cycle.
16 Great Book Recommendations You’ll Thank Us For via @glamourmag God’s Shadow by Alan Mikhail, Rec. by: Sandi Tan, author of Lurkers. "If you want a ticket out of 2020, may I recommend this biography of bloodthirsty Ottoman Sultan Selim I ..." https://t.co/52TKkvAzS8
Kaya Genç
@kayagenc
2 years
Kaya Genç, a European Press Prize Laureate, is the author of The Lion and the Nightingale, Under the Shadow, An Istanbul Anthology, and Macera.
In @the_point_mag, an essay on Alan Mikhail’s recent biography of Sultan Selim, God’s Shadow, and Christopher de Bellaigue’s (@bellaiguec) new book, The Lion House, a hybrid of scholarly biography and historical fiction about Sultan Süleyman: https://t.co/VHTIfGtyz0