What is a good book to read about the Ottoman Empire for someone with basic-level information on the empire?

by foreveraloneshort
Chamboz

That depends on what you mean by "basic-level information." Do you mean that you've already read up on the general history of the empire and are now looking for something more in-depth than an introductory textbook (in which case, it would be good for us to know what topics and periods you're interested in), or that you have just a passing familiarity with the empire and are now looking for a scholarly overview?

If the latter, my two standard recommendations are Caroline Finkel's Osman's Dream (2005) and Douglas Howard's A History of the Ottoman Empire (2017). Both cover the empire's entire chronological span. The former is a traditional, straightforward political-military narrative, while the latter abandons a grand narrative structure in favor of including much wider topical information, and is also much more recent.