This collection of papers by Prof. İlber Ortaylı mainly deals with the political, economic, social and cultural transformations which Ottoman Empire has undergone in its last centuries. These areas of transformation, namely millet conception in the Ottoman Empire, modernization, tendecies in historiography, structural and judicial changes in familial relationship, provincial and urban structure in the Ottoman Empire and relationship between Russia and Ottoman Empire, determined the tittles for the chapters of the book.

Prof. Ortaylı meticulosly examining the archives and sources about the late Ottoman history, gives a comprehensive and multifaceted Picture of the Empire.