"This is a book about a people who no longer exist. The word "Ottoman" does not refer to any point on the map. The Ottoman Empire grew and then declined for six centuries. From a beylik lost in the hills of Anatolia, which few in the world had heard of, it turned into a state that absorbed the remnants of Byzantium and seized the lands of its heirs. The empire stretched from the Danube to the Nile, taking control of the trade routes connecting the Middle East and Europe... For the next three centuries, she lived - decrepit and dilapidated, clumsy and thoroughly corrupt. She was still an amazing country - only now her decline was extraordinary."