Crescent Dawn
The Rise of the Ottoman Empire and the Making of the Modern Age
The first world war did not start in the 20th century or in the rivalries between European colonial empire builders. Crescent Dawn proves that the first truly global conflict raged centuries ago between the rising House of Osman and a patchy coalition of transcontinental rivals, desperate to halt the apparently inexorable Ottoman advance into Europe, Asia, and Africa.
This book explores the origins, trajectory, and implications of this Ottoman bid for imperial hegemony. It recreates in vivid detail the epic clashes that defined the era, from the battles of Nicopolis, Varna, Kosovo, Mohács, and Lepanto to the sieges of Constantinople, Belgrade, Rhodes, Vienna, and Malta, and brings to life its legendary personalities. On one side are the Ottoman sultans, the empire-builders remembered by history as the Thunderbolt, the Conqueror, the Grim, and the Magnificent. Ranged against them are popes, princes, and privateers, from the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to the Safavid Shah Ismail I.
In its vivid exploration of the lives and legacies of these key individuals, Crescent Dawn explains how everything from globalization to the contemporary divides between Catholic and Protestant and Sunni and Shia can be traced to the age of Ottoman expansion and how it shaped our modern world.
This is a groundbreaking new history of the wars of the Ottoman expansion, a global conflagration that crisscrossed three continents and ultimately defined the borders and future of modern Europe.
But this is not the story of a clash of civilizations between East and West. Europe was not united against the Ottoman Empire, and while religious imperatives were critical to the motivations of all the key actors involved, these in no way fell neatly along the Christian-Muslim divide. Si Sheppard expertly charts how alliances shifted as the world lurched from the Medieval era to the Renaissance and Reformation.
Crescent Dawn features all the legendary figures of the period - from Mehmed the Conqueror and Suleiman the Magnificent to Charles V and Vasco da Gama - and locations as varied as the sumptuous palaces of Constantinople and the bloody battlefields of the Balkans.
This colorful history brings the great battles of the age to life and clearly shows how the wars for and against Ottoman expansion constituted the first true world war.
OSPREY PUBLISHING
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in Great Britain in 2025
Si Sheppard, 2025
ISBN: HB 9781472851468
Maps by BOUNFORD
Index by Fionbar Lyons
Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI (Group) UK Ltd, Croydon CRO 4YY
Hardback
528 pages
9 x 6 x 2.5 inches