The Rise of the Ottoman Empire ─ Studies in the history of Turkey, thirteenth-fifteenth centuries

"Paul Wittek's The Rise of the Ottoman Empire was first published by the Royal Asiatic Society in 1938 and has been out of print for more than a quarter of a century. The present reissue of the text also brings together translations of his other studies on Ottoman history; five closely interconnected writings from the founding of the state to the Fall of Constantinople. All but one of these pieces reproduces the texts of lectures or conference papers delivered by Wittek between 1936 and 1938 when he was teaching at UniversitAc LibrAc in Brussels, Belgium. The journals in which they were originally published are for the most part inaccessible except in specialist libraries, in a period when Wittek's activities as an Ottoman historian are coming under increasing study within the Anglo-Saxon world of scholarship. An introduction by Colin Heywood sets Wittek's work in its historical and historiographical context for the benefit of those students not privileged to experience it firsthand. This book is an interesting contribution to studies on Asian and Middle East history"--

Paul Wittek (1894--1978) was one of the leading Ottoman historians of his generation. After serving in the old k. u. k. Armee in Galicia, Italy and Turkey, and an eventful career in Austria, Turkey and Belgium, in 1949 he became the first holder of the Chair of Turkish at the University of London.

Colin Heywood has taught Middle Eastern history at a number of American universities and at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, where he took courses with Wittek in the 1950s. He is currently a member of the Maritime Historical Studies Centre, University of Hull; his areas of active research include the early modern maritime history of the Mediterranean and the intellectual legacy of Wittek’s contributions to Ottoman history.