KATE FLEET, European and Islamic Trade in the Early Ottoman State: The Merchants of Genoa and Turkey, Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999). Pp. 214. $59.95 cloth.

Abstract

Kate Fleet is curator of the Skilliter Centre for Ottoman Studies, Newnham College, Cambridge. Her book is a study of trade between Genoa and Asia Minor from about 1300 to shortly after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453, a time period corresponding to commercial strength of Genoa and the development of the Ottoman state toward empire. Citing the scarcity of Turkish sources, other than chronological lists, Fleet depends heavily on Western materials, particularly notary deeds in the Genoese archives and published primary sources such as Balducci Pegolotti's La practica della mercatura. She also includes, however, some Arabic and Ottoman Turkish sources.