Conclusion

Abstract

Historical writing was absolutely central to the ways in which English authors engaged intellectually and culturally with the Ottoman Empire and what it meant to them. The histories of the Turks published throughout the period of Ottoman expansion into Europe and the Mediterranean, not only outlined the episodes and context of this advance, but made sense of them for an English audience. These works placed the story of the Ottoman dynasty within wider meta-narratives from their supposed ‘Scythian’ origins, to biblically framed eschatology, and in doing so English authors sought to give answers to fundamental questions such as, ‘Who were the Turks?’, ‘Where did they come from?’, ‘How and why had they conquered such as vast area so rapidly?’, and ‘What was to be done about them?’.