| List of Illustrations | |
| Acknowledgements | |
| 1 | Prologue: Origins of the Turks, to 1281 | 1 |
| The Turks and Islam | 6 |
| The Seljuks | 8 |
| Anatolia | 18 |
| Mongol rule in Anatolia | 30 |
| 2 | The First Ottomans, 1281-1446 | 33 |
| Turkish Anatolia | 36 |
| Interregnum and reconstitution of the Empire | 51 |
| Those in power | 53 |
| Mehmet I and Murat II | 58 |
| 3 | The Ottoman Classical Age, 1446-1566 | 65 |
| The reign of sultan Mehmet II | 67 |
| The reign of sultan Bayezit II | 78 |
| The reign of sultan Selim I | 80 |
| The reign of Suleyman the Magnificent | 87 |
| The achievement of the first ten sultans | 94 |
| 4 | The Ottoman State | 101 |
| Rule in the age of Suleyman | 111 |
| Provincial government | 121 |
| The military | 123 |
| Merit and advancement | 126 |
| The non-Muslims of the Empire | 127 |
| Economic organization | 132 |
| 5 | Destabilization, 1566-1789 | 145 |
| The Ottomans and Europe | 148 |
| The Ottoman economy | 151 |
| Destabilization at the centre | 158 |
| Rebellion and decentralization in Ottoman Asia | 165 |
| Ottoman attempts at reform | 174 |
| Survival of the Empire | 190 |
| 6 | Imperialism and Nationalism | 193 |
| The contraction of the Ottoman Empire | 196 |
| The Ottomans and the Europeans | 199 |
| The nationalism of the Ottoman minorities | 204 |
| Turkish nationalism | 209 |
| The nationalism of other ethnic groups | 210 |
| The alliance of imperialism and nationalism | 211 |
| 7 | Environment and Life | 213 |
| Ottoman crops and animals | 221 |
| Nomads | 224 |
| Villages | 226 |
| Towns and cities | 236 |
| Provincial cities | 238 |
| Istanbul | 244 |
| 8 | Turkish Society and Personal Life | 259 |
| Marriage and the family | 262 |
| Male and female | 271 |
| Life and death | 277 |
| 9 | Reform, 1789-1912 | 283 |
| Sultan Selim III | 288 |
| Sultan Mahmud II | 291 |
| The age of the Tanzimat | 295 |
| The Ottoman constitution | 302 |
| The reign of Abdulhamit II | 305 |
| The Young Turk revolution | 315 |
| The government of the Committee of Union and Progress | 319 |
| Success or failure? | 324 |
| 10 | The Human Disaster | 327 |
| The Crimean Tatars | 331 |
| Exile in the East | 333 |
| The Caucasian exiles | 335 |
| Greek independence | 337 |
| Serbia and Bulgaria, 1875-78 | 339 |
| The Balkan Wars | 341 |
| The effects of imperialism and nationalism | 344 |
| 11 | The Great War, 1912-18 | 347 |
| The Balkan Wars | 353 |
| The sides are drawn | 354 |
| The war | 358 |
| The defeat of the Empire | 366 |
| 12 | Revival, 1918-23 | 369 |
| The Turkish national resistance | 376 |
| The Grand National Assembly | 379 |
| The war in the east | 379 |
| The war in the south | 381 |
| The war in the west | 382 |
| The price of war | 386 |
| The Turks and the Turkish Republic | 388 |
| Glossary | 389 |
| Index | 393 |