Useful Enemies: Islam and The Ottoman Empire in Western Political Thought, 1450-1750

Based the author's Carlyle lectures, Useful Enemies explores the theme of Western ideas of Islam and the Ottoman empire across three centuries.

Format: Hardback
Length: 512 pages
Publication date: 02 May 2019
Publisher: Oxford University Press

From the fall of Constantinople in 1453 until the eighteenth century, many Western European writers held an almost obsessive fascination with the Ottoman Empire. Typically, they reacted to it with fear and distrust, and such feelings were reinforced by the deep hostility of Western Christendom towards Islam. Yet, there was also a significant curiosity about the social and political system on which the immense power of the sultans was based. In the sixteenth century, particularly, when Ottoman territorial expansion was rapid and Ottoman institutions seemed particularly robust, there was even open admiration.

In this groundbreaking book, Noel Malcolm traverses these vital centuries of East-West interaction, examining the diverse ways in which thinkers in the West interpreted the Ottoman Empire as a political phenomenon and Islam as a political religion. Useful Enemies sheds light on how the concept of "oriental despotism" originated as an attempt to challenge a previously positive analysis of Ottoman state power. As it evolved, it intertwined with Western debates about monarchy and government. Noel Malcolm also demonstrates how a negative portrayal of Islam as a religion designed for political purposes was embraced by radical writers, who extended the criticism to all religions, including Christianity itself.

By examining the works of numerous renowned thinkers, including Machiavelli, Bodin, and Montesquieu, as well as many less well-known ones, Useful Enemies illuminates the long-term development of Western ideas about the Ottomans and Islam. Noel Malcolm shows how these ideas became intertwined with internal Western debates about power, religion, society, and war. Discussions of Islam and the Ottoman Empire were thus closely linked to mainstream thinking in the West on a wide range of critical topics.

Weight: 754g
Dimension: 237 x 172 x 42 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780198830139