This book is Justin McCarthy’s magnum opus, based on the collection of documents and literature during his professional life as historian. There are numerous volumes written about Ottoman-Turco-British relations which range from the history of British literature to military histories, diplomatic and economic histories, biographies, autobiographies, memoirs as well as cultural impressions in opera, theatre, as well as about archeology. There were also popular histories on the sultans, imaginary lives in the harem and even sexual conduct written as if the author had been privy to all these scenarios. Orientalist paintings, also mostly imaginary provided visual samples of the forbidden. Consequently, high culture contributed to an imagined reality, which catered to fantasies about the East. Immorality and decadence were associated with the Orient in the public mind. Further yet was a politically loaded concept, the Eastern Question, which the Great Powers projected towards the Ottoman Empire by the 19th century.

This book is Justin McCarthy’s magnum opus, based on the collection of documents and literature during his professional life as historian. There are numerous volumes written about Ottoman-Turco-British relations which range from the history of British literature to military histories, diplomatic and economic histories, biographies, autobiographies, memoirs as well as cultural impressions in opera, theatre, as well as about archeology. There were also popular histories on the sultans, imaginary lives in the harem and even sexual conduct written as if the author had been privy to all these scenarios. Orientalist paintings, also mostly imaginary provided visual samples of the forbidden. Consequently, high culture contributed to an imagined reality, which catered to fantasies about the East. Immorality and decadence were associated with the Orient in the public mind. Further yet was a politically loaded concept, the Eastern Question, which the Great Powers projected towards the Ottoman Empire by the 19th century.