An ambitious, scholarly history of an 600-year empire that, at its height, stretched from Central Asia to the Levant, Danube and North Africa. A long-time resident of Turkey with a doctorate in Ottoman Studies, Finkel draws on Turkish sources to paint a nuanced portrait of a multi-ethnic, geographically diverse, strained dominion, an empire like that of that he Holy Roman Empire and Hapsburgs.  (EUR200, $18.95)