God's Shadow: The Ottoman Sultan Who Shaped the Modern World

A Times Literary Supplement and History Today Book of the Year

The Ottoman Empire was a hub of flourishing intellectual fervour, geopolitical power, and enlightened pluralistic rule. At the helm of its ascent was the omnipotent Sultan Selim I (1470-1520). Alan Mikhail centres Selim's Ottoman Empire and Islam as the very pivots of global history, redefining such world-changing events as Christopher Columbus's voyages, the Protestant Reformation, and the transatlantic slave trade.

Mikhail's ground-breaking account vividly recaptures Selim's life, radically reshaping our understanding of a world we thought we knew.