Excerpt from Turkey, Ancient and Modern: A History of the Ottoman Empire From the Period of Its Establishment to the Present Time, With AppendixTar, empire of the Sultan has for ages been in vested with a high degree of interest. During its early progress, the mystery and vagueness of what little was known of its military organization, and the marvellous incidents which were constantly illustrating its annals, caused the nations to regard it with some what of the indefinite dread which aerial meteors were wont to excite. In more modern times, notwithstanding the termination of its career of conquest, the interest attached to it has become greatly enhanced by the romantic beauty of its capital, the chivalrous courage of its subjects, the important geographical position which it occupies in the centre of the ancient world, and by its having been regarded as the keystone of the arch of European politics.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.