Review of the book" Useful Enemies: Islam and the Ottoman Empire in Western Political Thought"

Abstract

The author Noel Malcolm was born in 1956 in England. He holds a PhD in history from the University of Cambridge. He started his career working in journalism, specializing in writing political articles for several English newspapers and magazines. Malcolm devoted himself entirely to writing in 1995, and was honored in 2013 for his book on Thomas Hobbes. Noel Malcolm has produced many books. He was particularly interested in the history of the Balkans and the relationship between the Ottoman Empire and the West, which began in the 15^th century. One of the advantages of his writings is his reliance on original historical documents and sources due to his knowledge of many languages. This book started as a series of lectures he delivered in 2001 at the University of Oxford, entitled "Islam, the Ottomans, and Eastern Despotism in Western Political Thought from the Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenment." These lectures gained special importance after the attacks of September 11, which he called at first "War on Terrorism." The book sheds light on the changes that the West's vision of the Islamic world and the Ottoman Empire underwent from the 15^th to the 18^th centuries.