Samuel Williams is a Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Social Anthropology in Halle, Germany. His research examines the economy and politics of cultural heritage, particularly in contemporary Istanbul, and he has held prior appointments at the Courtauld Institute of Art, Musée du Quai Branly, and the Max Planck – Cambridge Centre for Economy, Ethics, and Social Change.
Ottoman Architecture is the first modern history of the architectural tradition commissioned by the Ottoman state. Produced for the Vienna World’s Fair in 1873, this magnificently illustrated volume codifies the empire’s 600-year architectural history into a series of developmental stages, emphasizing the efflorescence of the Ottoman classical tradition during the sixteenth century. This is an Ottoman scholarly legacy that is of immense interest to researchers in the fields of anthropology, art history, history, and West Asian studies, while the translation (from French) will be of great use to students, scholars, and a general readership.