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