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Historical person
Kemal Reis was an Ottoman corsair and admiral who entered formal service under Bayezid II. He campaigned throughout the Mediterranean, fought Venice and other Christian powers, and helped transport Muslim and Jewish refugees from Iberia to Ottoman territories. He died in 1511 when his ship was lost in a storm.
Historical fiction about the late fifteenth-century Mediterranean can use Kemal Reis to connect state warfare with privateering, commerce, migration and naval technology. His career also provides a counterpoint to land-centred accounts of Ottoman expansion, showing how the empire projected power from North Africa and the Aegean to the western Mediterranean.
Series
The Ottoman Cycle follows the Greek brothers Skiouros and Lykaion after conscription separates them within the recently conquered city of Constantinople. One escapes into the streets while the other enters the Janissaries, placing their relationship on opposite sides of the political and religious order created by Mehmed II…
All books in this series
