A book that uncovers the secrets of the Ottoman past...

Mustafa Armağan, who garnered widespread critical recognition for his successive studies of the Ottomans, rescues history from fairy tales and presents the truth about Ottoman history with an array of original documents.

He clears up a centuries-old debate: what really happened between Baltacı Mehmet Pasha and Russian Tsarina Ekaterina the Second? Armağan also turns his attention to a famous controversy, insisting that the policy of fratricide (the murder of brothers) was a later insertion into the statute book. He also sheds lights on the interesting relationship between Sultan Abulaziz and the renowned composer Wagner, and reveals that Istanbul was actually conquered on June 7, not on May 29 as had previously been thought.

The author negotiates these complex issues in a style not often seen in history books: one that is clear, literary, and accessible.