The
Ottoman Empire was one of the largest and longest-lasting empires in history.
In this powerful and complex empire, the production and consumption of food
reflected the lives of people from sultans to soldiers. Food bound people of
different classes and backgrounds together, defining identity and serving
symbolic functions in the social, religious, political and military spheres.
Bountiful Empire: A History of Ottoman Cuisine examines the food of the
Ottoman Empire as it changed and evolved over more than five centuries.

            Starting with an overview
of the earlier culinary traditions in which Ottoman cuisine was rooted, such
as those of the Central Asian Turks, Abbasids, Seljuks and Byzantines, the
book focuses on diverse aspects of this rich culinary culture, including
etiquette, cooks, restaurants, military food, food laws and food trade. This
meticulously researched account draws on more than six hundred primary and
secondary sources, ranging from archive documents to poetry, and includes
over one hundred illustrations. It is a fresh and lively insight into an
empire that until recent decades has been sidelined or viewed through
orientalist spectacles.