Just purchased the Ottoman Age of Exploration, I can already tell I'll love it.
In the opening the author asks us to imagine a Byzantine revival where "victorious Byzantine legions marched ever further, conquering provinces like Syria and Egypt that had been lost to them for centuries, and later, spreading into distant and unfamiliar lands as Yemen, the Sudan, and the the horn of Africa. Then, from these advanced bases, imagine that Byzantine fleets began to conduct patrols of the Indian Ocean, to organize massive expeditions against enemy strongholds in Hormus and Gujarat, and to send crack military teams to support their allies from place as remote from one another and from the imperial capital as Indonesia and the Swahilia Coast."
Okay, let's.
In the opening the author asks us to imagine a Byzantine revival where "victorious Byzantine legions marched ever further, conquering provinces like Syria and Egypt that had been lost to them for centuries, and later, spreading into distant and unfamiliar lands as Yemen, the Sudan, and the the horn of Africa. Then, from these advanced bases, imagine that Byzantine fleets began to conduct patrols of the Indian Ocean, to organize massive expeditions against enemy strongholds in Hormus and Gujarat, and to send crack military teams to support their allies from place as remote from one another and from the imperial capital as Indonesia and the Swahilia Coast."
Okay, let's.