The Vault is Slate’s history blog. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @slatevault, and find us on Tumblr. Find out more about what this space is all about here. The Ottoman Empire, which at the ...

Douglas A. Howard stresses the crucial role of the Ottoman sultans and their extended household, discusses the evolution of the empire's fiscal model, and analyzes favorite works of Ottoman literature ...

In 1221 on the plains of current-day Turkmenistan lay the city of Merv. The town faced a Mongol besiegement under one of Genghis Khan’s sons and opened its gates in the hopes of experiencing mercy.

Prussia was undoubtedly one of the most important actors in Europe’s Early- and Late Modern periods. It has a fascinating history and geographically and politically, up until the early 18th century, ...

Introduction -- 1. The establishment and survival of Ottoman rule in the Arab lands, 1516-1798 -- 2. Institutions of Ottoman rule -- 3. Economy and society in the early modern era -- 4. A world of ...

The Last Days of the Ottoman empire: 1918-1922. By Ryan Gingeras. Allen Lane; 368 pages; $47.95 and £30 As it turned out, more than six centuries of Ottoman rule ended with a whimper rather than a ...

When The Promise arrives in theaters on Friday, the film — starring Oscar Isaac, Charlotte Le Bon and Christian Bale — will do so just in time: its dramatization of a story that takes place amid the ...

Acknowledgements -- A note on spelling and transliteration -- List of figures. Introduction. Part 1 Approaching the sources : Texts in context: relating primary to secondary sources -- The trouble ...

The "Sick Man of Europe" label, originating with the 19th-century Ottoman Empire, described nations in decline due to political, economic, and social issues. The Ottoman Empire faced military defeats, ...