Based on original documents, official records, memoirs, and published sources, this book provides a global perspective and interpretation of the role of Islamic modernism and Sultan Abdulhammid II's foreign and internal policies in the transformation of the Muslim world and especially the Ottoman state, the Middle East, and the Balkans.

Combining international and domestic perspectives, this book analyzes the transformation of the Ottoman Empire over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It views privatization of state lands and the increase of domestic and foreign trade as key factors in the rise of a Muslim middle class, which, increasingly aware of its economic interests and communal roots, then attempted to reshape the government to reflect its ideals.

This may be Karpat's magnum opus ... The result is a book that is destined to become a classic.