The Ottoman dynasty was founded at the end of the 13th century.

In Asian dynasty ruled by Muslims, the Ottoman Empire was by the mid-15th century a multilingual,

multiracial, multireligious and multiethnic empire that stretched into Europe, Africa and Asia.

What we have largely forgotten, though, is that the Ottoman Empire was an integral part

of European culture and territory, and therefore is an integral part of European history.

And rightfully, including the Ottomans in our history, changes our understanding of what

being European means.

In today's podcast, we consider just one century of the history of the Ottoman Empire.

From the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by Mehmet II, through to the death of Solomon

the Magnificent in 1566.

We reposition the Ottomans at the heart of the diplomatic, political, economic and cultural

world of Europe.

Guiding me through is Professor Mark David Baer, Professor of International History at the

London School of Economics and Political Science, and a prize-winning author whose new book

looks at 600 years of Ottoman history, and is simply called The Ottomans, Khan's, Seasers

and Caliphs.

So it is lovely to talk to you about this fabulous new book.

I'm very excited to have a chance to discuss in some detail some of the aspects of it.

And I'd like to pick up the story a little bit earlier than we normally do on not just the

tutors in the 1450s, because it feels like if we're going to talk about the Ottomans

and the Renaissance period, we need to talk about the conquests of Constantinople and

what it meant for international politics.

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