The story of the Nations - Turkey

The story of the Nations - Turkey

The history of Turkey has yet to be written. The standard authority is Von Hammer's Geschichte dt"J Osmanischm Reiches, of which  there is a French  translation, and from which  many books  have  been  compiled in many languages. In English, Von Hammer found an able condenser in Sir Edward Creasy, whose History of the Ottoman Turks is the best concise work we possess on the subject. Von Hammer, however, is not always accurate, despite his  laborious  research, and he is generally dull.   A Turkish scholar, possessed of a sense of literary form, who would take the Austrian's facts, collate them with the native annalists and historiographers, and present them with all the advantages of skillful arrangement and charm of style, would render a real service to historical  literature. The present volume, however, makes no pretensions to fill the gap. All that is here attempted is  to draw the main outlines of Turkish history in bold strokes, and thus try to leave a connected impression on the reader's mind. In so small a compass it is impossible to be detailed.