Scholars Unravel Middle East S1E13: Why didn’t the Ottomans explore the Americas? Were the Ottomans a Turkish Empire? And how Islam entered Ottoman ethos and geopolitics?
The Ottomans didn't explore the Americas because they didn't need to. The Ottomans were much wider polity than merely being a Turkish Empire. And the ambitions and life story of one Ottoman Sultan explains how the Ottomans became the custodian of Islam's holy cities.
These are the short answers to the questions posed in the title. But the long answer is way more interesting. The Ottoman Empire - the superpower of its time - writ large in Christian Europeans' minds.
In this episode, my guest, Dr. Alan Mikhail, explains the impact of the Ottomans in shaping the European mindset. He also shares with us the story of Sultan Selim I, the Ottoman ruler who double the size of his empire in just a few years.
🚩About My Guest:
Dr. Alan Mikhail is a professor of history and chair of the Department of History at Yale University. He is the author of several award-winning books , including:
- Under Osman’s Tree: The Ottoman Empire, Egypt, and Environmental History ;
- Nature and Empire in Ottoman Egypt: An Environmental History, &
- God’s Shadow: Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, and the Making of the Modern World.
📽️Subscribe to our YouTube channel 🖱️Support Our Program: We appreciate your financial support of our program. https://historybehindnews.com/support
Adel Aali
Host, Unravelling the Middle East
Host, History Behind News Podcast
Unravelling the Middle East podcast is a production of the History Behind News program.
Music attributions:
1. Opening and closing music of the program:
Santur: Peyman Heydarian playing on the Santur some Iranian music. Recorded with a Sony PCM-D50 at the School of Oriental and African Studies of London on April 7th 2011.
Music available on at https://freesound.org/people/xserra/sounds/125654/
Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0 DEED)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
This music has been cut in shorter pieces and its volume has been adjusted in different portions of our program.
2. Background music to guest introduction:
The Desert | The Grand Score
https://www.free-stock-music.com/alexander-nakarada-the-desert.html
The Desert | The Grand Score by Alexander Nakarada (CreatorChords) | https://creatorchords.com
Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com
Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ The volume and lengths of this piece have been modified.
3. Background music to promoting History Behind News episodes:
The Success by Keys of Moon | https://soundcloud.com/keysofmoon. Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The volume and lengths of this piece have been modified.