Turkey a Short History

Turkey a Short History

Roderic H. Davison

The Eothen Press

Modern Turkey is the heir to two thousand years of Turkish History that began with tribesmen in Eastern Asia. Turkey: a Short History recounts their migration westward, the establishment of a flourishing Seljuk sultanate in Anatolia, and the rise of the mighty Ottoman Empire from the remains of the Seljuk state. The Ottoman sultans and vezirs, with their armies, took Constantinople and all Europe up to Vienna, and Arab southwest Asia and North Africa as well. The brilliant civilization of the Empire, at its apogee in the sixteenth century, declined over the following three hundred years in comparison with that of Europe. Westernization followed, blending more secular influences with the Islamic. When World War I shattered the Empire, a vigorous Turkish Republic arose, led by Kemal Ataturk, which charted new ways. Professor Davison describes in detail the striking changes which have occurred in modern Turkey, as well as the grave problems the country faces as a developing nation.
A new chapter brings this account of Turkish history up to 1988. It is largely written by Professor C.H. Dodd, Chairman of the Modern Turkish Studies Programme in the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

Roderic H. Davison is professor of history, emeritus, at George Washington University and has also taught at Princeton, Harvard and Johns Hopkins universities. His publications include Reform in the Ottoman Empire, 1856-1876 (Princeton, 1963), The Near and Middle East: An Introduction to History and Bibliography (American Historical Association, 1959) and, more recently, studies in Ottoman Diplomacy at the time of the Kuchuk Kaynarja treaty and of the Congress of Berlin. He is a former president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America and of the Turkish Studies Association, and is former vice-president of the Middle East Institute, Washington.