Giancarlo Casale’s The Ottoman Age of Exploration makes it a point to introduce the concept of global politics to the study of the Age of Exploration and early modern Ottoman history. Giancarlo Casale is currently a professor at the University of Minnesota and specializes in the history of the early modern Ottoman Empire. Casale main purpose in this text was to provide a cohesive narration of the Ottoman Age of Exploration. Casale makes the important distinction that the European age of exploration was not the only significant narrative to be examined for this period of exploration for trade, new goods and new trade routes. Casale also wanted to demonstrate the way that the “Ottomans of the 16th century were able to create a new integrated
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After Selim’s conquest of the Mamluk territories in 1516, there was a growing interest in the commercial prospects in the East. Casale attributes most of this growing commercial interest to a merchant named Malik Ayaz, who advocated trade in the East in opposition to the Portuguese. After Selim’s conquest of Egypt, he focused on increasing commercial trade in the region. Selim’s work ended up “paving the way by establishing a precedent for state policies that were responsive to commercial interests in a way the Mamluk policies had never been.” This work also initiated an imperial claim for power by the Ottomans, which happened to have direct parallels with the Portuguese crown. Casale’s long-term connections between the work done by Selim I and the benefits of the spice trade for the Ottoman empire are well written and easy to understand due to the organization of Casale’s narration. Casale’s use of organization through political figures to narrate the Ottoman Age of Exploration also allowed the reader a deeper insight to the intricacies of the Muslim world, rather than making broad assumptions that may actually only apply to a small number of
After Selim’s conquest of the Mamluk territories in 1516, there was a growing interest in the commercial prospects in the East. Casale attributes most of this growing commercial interest to a merchant named Malik Ayaz, who advocated trade in the East in opposition to the Portuguese. After Selim’s conquest of Egypt, he focused on increasing commercial trade in the region. Selim’s work ended up “paving the way by establishing a precedent for state policies that were responsive to commercial interests in a way the Mamluk policies had never been.” This work also initiated an imperial claim for power by the Ottomans, which happened to have direct parallels with the Portuguese crown. Casale’s long-term connections between the work done by Selim I and the benefits of the spice trade for the Ottoman empire are well written and easy to understand due to the organization of Casale’s narration. Casale’s use of organization through political figures to narrate the Ottoman Age of Exploration also allowed the reader a deeper insight to the intricacies of the Muslim world, rather than making broad assumptions that may actually only apply to a small number of