Further Reading
Explore the books, articles, and resources that helped shape 'Before He Was Red'. By blending fact and fiction, I didn’t aspire to recreate history, but to create my plausible version of it. To quote William Boyd: “Fiction allows you to explore the gaps where history is silent."
Resources
DIVE-DEEPER: NON-FICTION
- The Sultan: The Life of Abdul Hamid II by Joan Haslip
- Reform in the Ottoman Empire, 1856-1876 by Roderic H. Davison
- The Dervish of Windsor Castle by L. Adler and R. Dalby
- The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire by Lord Kinross
- Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire by Jason Goodwin
- The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire by Leslie P. Peirce
- Portrait of a Turkish Family by Irfan Orga
- Constantinople: City of the World’s Desire, 1453-1924 by Philip Mansel
- The Imperial Harem of the Sultans: Memoirs of Leyla (Saz) Hanimefendi
- Orientalism by Edward Said
- The Ottomans: Khans, Caesars and Caliphs by Marc David Baer
- Black Eunuchs of The Ottoman Empire: Networks of Power in the Court of the Sultan by George Junne
- The Concubine, the Princess, and the Teacher: Voices from the Ottoman Harem translated and edited by Douglas Scott Brookes
PODCASTS: SIT BACK AND LISTEN
- Ottoman History Podcast
- Empire with William Dalrymple and Anita Anand
FICTION: IN THE SAME VEIN
- The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
- Cicero trilogy: Dictator, Lustrum, Imperium by Robert Harris
- Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières
- The Architect's Apprentice by Elif Shafak
- The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin
- My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk
- A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
- The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah