Book | The Last Muslim Conquest by Gábor Ágoston

Mavi Boncuk | 

The Last Muslim Conquest: The Ottoman Empire and Its Wars in Europe

Gábor Ágoston[1]

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press (June 22, 2021)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 688 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0691159327
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0691159324

The Ottomans have long been viewed as despots who conquered through sheer military might, and whose dynasty was peripheral to those of Europe. The Last Muslim Conquest transforms our understanding of the Ottoman Empire, showing how Ottoman statecraft was far more pragmatic and sophisticated than previously acknowledged, and how the Ottoman dynasty was a crucial player in the power struggles of early modern Europe.

In this panoramic and multifaceted book, Gábor Ágoston captures the grand sweep of Ottoman history, from the dynasty’s stunning rise to power at the turn of the fourteenth century to the Siege of Vienna in 1683, which ended Ottoman incursions into central Europe. He discusses how the Ottoman wars of conquest gave rise to the imperial rivalry with the Habsburgs, and brings vividly to life the intrigues of sultans, kings, popes, and spies. Ágoston examines the subtler methods of Ottoman conquest, such as dynastic marriages and the incorporation of conquered peoples into the Ottoman administration, and argues that while the Ottoman Empire was shaped by Turkish, Iranian, and Islamic influences, it was also an integral part of Europe and was, in many ways, a European empire.

Rich in narrative detail, The Last Muslim Conquest looks at Ottoman military capabilities, frontier management, law, diplomacy, and intelligence, offering new perspectives on the gradual shift in power between the Ottomans and their European rivals and reframing the old story of Ottoman decline.

CONTENTS

Prologue 1

part i. emergence 15

1 The Early Ottomans 17

Turks and the Byzantine World 17

Holy Warriors and Marcher Lords 19

Historical Contingency and Accidents 23

Material Rewards and Religious Legitimation 26

Balkan Geopolitics 28

The Crusade of Nikopol 32

2 Defeat and Recovery 35

Timur and the Defeat at Ankara 35

Pillars of Power: Timars and Sancaks 40

Pillars of Power: The Child Levy and the Standing Army 42

Strategies of Conquest 46

Halting the Ottoman Advance: King Sigismund’s Buffer States 53

Danubian Border Defense 61

The Habsburg-Jagiellonian Rivalry 63

Europe’s Last Offensive Crusade: Varna 1444 65

Bows, Firearms, and Military Acculturation 68

3 Constantinople 73

The Conquest of Constantinople 73

Claiming Universal Sovereignty 79

A New Imperial Capital 81

A New Cadre of Viziers 83

Controlling the Military 88

A New Palace and the Imperial Council 90

Ottoman Constantinople and Europe 94

4 Conquests 103

Belgrade 1456: European Crusade—Ottoman Defeat 103

Manipulating Internal Strife: From the Morea

to the Crimea 106

Ottoman Threat and Dynastic Rivalry in Central Europe 112

Challenge from the East: Akkoyunlus and Safavids 119

The Conquest of the Mamluk Sultanate 129

Missed Opportunity: The Indian Ocean 133

European Reactions and Ottoman Naval Preparations 138

Changing Balance of Power along the Danube 144

part ii. clash of empir es 149

5 Süleyman in Hungary 151

Süleyman and the Collapse of the Danubian Defense 151

Mohács: 1526 159

The “Greatest Victory”? 169

Contested Accessions 170

Damage Control 178

6 Imperial Rivalries 188

Ottoman-Habsburg Rivalry 188

Quest for Universal Kingship 197

Realpolitik and the Partition of Hungary 200

Ottoman-Safavid Struggle for Supremacy 213

Trouble in Transylvania 217

Death at Szigetvár 225

7 Overreach 229

The Red Sea and the Indian Ocean 229

Muscovy and the Ottomans 235

Cyprus and the Battle of Lepanto 240

After Lepanto 244

Small Wars: The Bosnian-Croatian Frontier 247

The Long War in Hungary 251

Defeat and Consolidation: The Safavid Frontier 258

part iii. sinews of empir e 263

8 Resources and Military Power 265

Mapping Empires, Frontiers, and Resources 266

The Ottoman Army 275

Ottoman Naval Power 284

The Gunpowder Revolution and the Ottomans 288

Habsburg Military Commitments and Border Defense 298

9 Military Transformations 306

Habsburg Military Transformation 306

Habsburg War Finance and the Estates 309

Ottoman Army Growth 315

The Metamorphosis of the Janissaries 321

Provincial Forces and the Rise of the Kapu Halkı 324

Ottoman War Finance 328

10 Lawfare and Diplomacy 334

Competing Titles and Claims of Sovereignty 335

Instruments of Ottoman Lawfare: Truces and Peace Treaties 339

From Short-Term Truce to Perpetual Peace 343

Ad Hoc Embassies and Resident Ambassadors 349

Language and Diplomacy 358

11 Embassies, Dragomans, and Intelligence 365

European Embassies as Centers of Espionage

in Constantinople 365

Embassy Dragomans and Intelligence 375

The Porte’s Dragomans and Intelligence 383

Agents of Many Masters 389

Ottoman Intelligence Gathering 392

Intelligence on the Frontiers 395

part iv. frontiers a nd wars of exhaustion 405

12 Borders and Border Provinces 407

Survey Books and Sovereignty 407

Border Demarcations 412

Geography and Border Defense 421

Border Provinces and Administrative Strategies 425

13 Contested Bulwark of Islam 430

Fortifications and Garrisons 430

Guardians of the Frontier 440

The Cost of Defense 447

Condominium and the Geography of Sovereignty 453

14 Wars of Exhaustion 460

War with Venice: Dalmatia and Crete 460

Transylvania and Its Rebel Princes 466

Disciplining Vassals and Stabilizing the Northern Frontier 472

Habsburg-Ottoman Wars 480

The Last Conquests: Candia and Kamieniec 486

The Ottoman Siege of Vienna 490

Wars against the Holy League 495

 Epilogue 511

Acknowledgments 519

Chronology 525

Glossary of Terms 533

Glossary of Place-Names 537

Notes 541

Bibliography 597

Index 647

REVIEWS 

  "An intellectual tour de force that does not mince words."—Abdullah Drury, Muslim World Book Review

 "An impressive book, well written, making good use of both Ottoman and Western sources, and crafted to keep the reader engaged."—Michigan War Studies Review "[W]hen it comes to the role of the Ottomans in the history of central Europe . . . the book succeeds brilliantly… Ágoston has also succeeded in what I think will stand for a long time as the definitive political and military narrative of the Ottomans in southeastern and central Europe. Over and over again his command of the facts provides the reader with a strong basis for comparing the various powers and their capabilities at the level of population, natural resources, military technology and so on and so forth. . . . Any future research on this area in the early modern period will find Ágoston’s book to be enormously useful, indeed essential, when writing their own studies."—Molly Greene, European Legacy 

 "Gábor Ágoston has written a much-needed overview of Ottoman warfare from the early state along the Byzantine frontier to the empire’s wars with the Holy League in the late seventeenth century. The Last Muslim Conquest successfully combines the work of several regional historiographies and makes important interventions. Along with a narrative and analysis of the wars in this period, Ágoston includes detailed chapters on Ottoman military organization, tactics, and technology. The Last Muslim Conquest also balances both older historiography that over-emphasized religious antagonism as well as newer research that focuses more on cultural contacts between the Ottomans and Europe."—Samuel Stevens, International Journal of Military History and Historiography

 "Ottomanists, military historians, and non-specialists will find The Last Muslim Conquest an accessible book and one that can provide starting points for further research. Ágoston’s work is an analytical narrative of early modern Ottoman military history that has been needed for some time."—Samuel Stevens, International Journal of Military History and Historiography "Unique."—Colin Imber, Journal of the American Oriental Society 

 "Remarkable in combining a high level of detail with a remarkable clarity of exposition. . . . The richness and brilliant organization of his material and the careful attention to detail invite wider speculation."—Colin Imber, Journal of the American Oriental Society 

 "An outstanding, highly readable study of the Ottoman military, a calm defense of the emphasis on Europe and on conflict on the European frontier in Ottoman historiography, and a work of deeply informed, mature scholarship."—Douglas Howard, Journal of the Ottoman and Turkish Studies Association "Fascinating and wonderfully rich in detail."—Virginia H. Aksan, author of Ottoman Wars, 1700–1870: An Empire Besieged 

 "The appearance of any work by Gábor Ágoston is a matter of significance for those interested in early modern military history, but the range, scholarship, and intellectual ambition of this book make it of particular importance. In assessing the Ottomans, Ágoston provides a crucial corrective to many standard views on Western military history."—Jeremy Black, author of War and Technology

 "Gábor Ágoston's The Last Muslim Conquest is an authoritative, wide-ranging, and up-to-date account of the decisive Ottoman impact on early modern Europe, by one of its leading present-day historians."—Hamish Scott, author of The Birth of a Great Power System, 1740–1815 “A substantial contribution to Ottoman military history.” –Mark L. Stein, Journal of Royal Asiatic Society

[1] Gábor Ágoston joined Georgetown University’s Department of History in 1998 as a specialist on the Ottoman Empire. Before Georgetown, he taught Ottoman, Hungarian, and Balkan history at the Universities of Budapest (ELTE) and Pécs (JPTE), Hungary. His research has focused on the Ottoman Empire and its Habsburg, Russian and Safavid imperial rivals, and on Ottoman and European warfare, diplomacy, and intelligence gathering. 

In 2003, he was visiting professor at the University of Vienna, Austria. In 2008 and 2009 he taught at Georgetown's McGhee Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies in Alanya, Turkey, and in 2018 at Georgetown’s Doha, Qatar, campus. He is the author of ten monographs and collected studies on Ottoman history, including Guns for the Sultan: Military Power and the Weapons Industry in the Ottoman Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and The Last Muslim Conquest: The Ottoman Empire and Its Wars in Europe (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2021). 

He has written more than ninety scholarly articles and book chapters in English, Turkish, and Hungarian on Ottoman, European, and Hungarian history. He is also the co-author of the first English-language Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire (2009) and the co-editor of the upcoming Cambridge History of War.