‘If history teaches us one thing, though, it is that despite their flaws and despite the ravages that violence in history inflicts on any entity, the Turks managed to produce something extraordinary.
They gave us, and by far, the largest crop of great military leaders and statesmen in history. These leaders literally shaped world history and left a permanent legacy not just in respect to Turkey, but also in lands stretching over three continents at least (Africa, Europe and Asia), impacting on Muslims, Christians, and also Jews. No nation produced as many great rulers in diverse lands, in history, as the Turkish.’
The Great Turks charts the military and other accomplishments by men of Turkish origins during the Crusades (1095-1291), in Medieval India, during the great Ottoman apogee, and finally looks at the role of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
Amongst these figures, some are very well known, Othman, Mehmet II, and Suleyman, for instance. Others, such as Zangi and Baybars, are much less known. Hardly anyone is aware, on the other hand, that the Turkish dynasties and their capable leaders, such as Mohammed Ghuri or Balban, played a definite role in the greatness of Muslim India.
This is the first work which looks at the decisive role, whether military or in state building, played by these and other Great Turks on three continents.
The book includes a variety of maps and pictures.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr Salah Eddine Al-Djazairi is an experienced historian, researcher and writer with over 30 years of academic experience. He has lectured, tutored and researched at the University of Constantine in Algeria, the University of Manchester’ Geography Department and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). He has also given many public lectures as invited speaker at various institutions in the UK and online.
He has published academic articles in leading journals, contributed to well-known encyclopaedias, and written books on topics such as environmental degradation and desertification in the Muslim World, the history of science and technology, Muslim civilization, and the Crusades.
He is known and liked by his readers for his unique style of being rigorously academic in his research and providing plenty of footnotes yet being accessible and clear to a wider audience, debunking myth and pointing out distortions, and not mincing his words. The strength of his work lies also in using Muslim as well as non-Muslim sources in different languages, old and new.
When he isn’t writing, he likes to sit in silence and think. He can also be found cooking, going on long walks and spending time in nature..
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