Western literature about the Osmanl¿ Devlet, however scholarly it may seem, comprises a great deal of misleading material: " ... for too long the Ottomans have been studied without use of any of their sources, resulting in serious distortion and error. No history of France would be considered methodologically sound and balanced if it were written on the basis of English and Italian observations." (Stanford J. Shaw and Ezel Kural Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Cambridge University Press, 1992, II, x.) While addressing this major methodological failing, this book is based on Osmanl¿ sources and represents an entirely new approach.