The story of Ottoman history is a complicated and complex one. It involves not only the Ottoman dynasty itself but also the many peoples who operated and ruled the
empire and were ruled by it – the Turks, the Arabs, the Serbs, the Greeks, the Armenians, the Jews, the Bulgars, the Hungarians, the Albanians, and many others. It constitutes the history of the major religious groups among the subjects, the Muslims, the Jews, and the Christians. It takes into account relations between the Ottomans and their neighbors in Europe and Asia, complicated stories of wars, conquests, diplomacy, and territorial losses that much later were called the Eastern Question. It includes the history of the political, administrative, and social institutions incorporated into this multinational and multicultural empire. It demands discussion of the rise and fall, the birth, efflorescence, and decline of the empire. [HISTORY OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND MODERN TURKEY Volume I: Empire of the Gazis: The Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1280-1808, Stanford Shaw, Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles