Spies, Scandals, and Sultans : Istanbul in the Twilight of the Ottoman Empire

to earlier eras in Ottoman history. It is an Egyptian perspective of the Ottoman administration in one of its most problematic periods and is highly critical of every aspect of life in the capital city_not least, the elaborate spy system. Spies, Scandals, and Sultans takes on the theme of modernization and the role of more traditional values, including Islamic ones, in the process of setting the goals for a modern Middle Eastern state_a process that was to come to fruition after World War One in the creation of the modern state of Turkey. This first English translation should arouse intense interest among historians of the Ottoman Empire and Egypt, as well as those who study modernization in the Middle East and the status of Islam within both traditional and modernizing societies in the region. Spies, Scandals, and Sultans has a great deal to say about the processes of decline and the causes for it, and the ever increasing role of European nations in the establishment of priorities within the Ottoman

government system. [Publisher's text]