Crescent Dawn – The Rise of the Ottoman Empire and the Making of the Modern Age, Si Sheppard.
A detailed account of the great expansion of the Ottoman Empire in its first three centuries, from its origins as one of many small powers in Anatolia to almost its peak, ruling much of the Balkans, the Middle East, Egypt and North Africa, and threatening to break out into the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Covers Ottoman expansion into the Balkans, Egypt, the Middle East and North Africa, the defeat of the Mamluks and the long wars with the revived Persians, as well as the rise of Ottoman naval power. Ends with a look at the Portuguese entry into the Indian Ocean, and the European search for Prestor John, a mythical Christian ruler eventually merged in the western mind with the rulers of Ethiopia, part of a wider attempt to find allies against the Ottoman power
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