Useful Enemies
Islam and the Ottoman Empire in Western Political Thought, 1450-1750
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Useful Enemies
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Narrated by:
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Michael Page
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By:
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Noel Malcolm
About this listen
From the fall of Constantinople in 1453 until the 18th century, many Western European writers viewed the Ottoman Empire with almost obsessive interest. Typically they reacted to it with fear and distrust; and such feelings were reinforced by the deep hostility of Western Christendom toward Islam. Yet there was also much curiosity about the social and political system on which the huge power of the sultans was based. In the 16th century, especially, when Ottoman territorial expansion was rapid and Ottoman institutions seemed particularly robust, there was even open admiration.
In this path-breaking audiobook, Noel Malcolm ranges through these vital centuries of East-West interaction, studying all the ways in which thinkers in the West interpreted the Ottoman Empire as a political phenomenon - and Islam as a political religion. Examining the works of many famous thinkers (including Machiavelli, Bodin, and Montesquieu) and many less well-known ones, Useful Enemies illuminates the long-term development of Western ideas about the Ottomans and about Islam. Malcolm shows how these ideas became intertwined with internal Western debates about power, religion, society, and war.
©2019 Noel Malcolm (P)2020 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about Useful Enemies
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jonathan Mark Sidaway
- 02-07-24
Beautifully read.
Istanbul the first place I went to outside Britain, so this was a fascinating read/hear for me. A deliciously erudite picking-over of the period before that excoriated by the now-discredited Said.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- platosdunce
- 25-07-20
History is Drama
Fantastic tour through the politics and realities of Europe and Britain in relation to the Ottoman Empire, the projected Other, and how the Sultan and the Islamic religion was depicted for propaganda purposes. A needed corrective and lesson as Islam is of course once more the Other, having filled the void left by the Soviets and the dreaded spectre of Communist tyranny, there was naturally a need for another totalitarian ideology to remind us of our wonderful liberty. One must confess that the mention of the Ottoman empire I recall from secondary school history was one of a tyrant who dominated his people and imposed religious obedience through fear and violence, and of course the similarity with the Roman Catholic Church's Inquisition and burning of heretics was the salutary lesson every good Church of England schoolboy was to learn. Thank God then for King Harry and Queen Bess. This book quietly dispels such simplistic notions with facts, facts and damned facts. It is also superbly read, the narrator brings great pace and rhythm to the task, and it goes some way to answering the puzzling question, if Islam is supposedly so bad why are its adherents so keen to retain it. I remember my amusement when one person I worked with who enjoyed drinking, snorting and cavorting was horrified at the idea of eating food that might be haram, and it wasn't mere conditioning but a serious belief that that would, unless exigent circumstances obliged him, be an offence to his God, whereas the other behaviour was a kink in his character that Allah would remove with time. Highly recommended.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Christine
- 26-09-20
Excellent source material
I enjoyed this book a great deal, largely because of the use of non-English (mostly) contemporary source materials that really gave an idea of what the Europeans thought about the Ottomans and religion. I particularly like the bits that compared Christianity and Islam, and I think it was a great attempt to be unbiased. I don’t think Michael Page was a good choice for narrator, and I had to slow him down a bit in order to concentrate, but don’t let it deter you from this wonderful philosophical and theological adventure.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- J. Wexler
- 24-01-22
BORING
Heres a spoiler of a sort. The is no story here. What there is, is a dry as a bone recitation of what Western Europeans THOUGHT they new about the Ottoman Empire.
Thats it. No personalities. No organization in an interesting manner. Drone, drone, drone.
I wasted my money
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1 person found this helpful