Malcolm describes the paths taken through the eastern Mediterranean and its hinterland by an eminent Venetian-Albanian family – among them an archbishop in the Balkans, the captain of the papal flagship at Lepanto, the power behind the throne in the Ottoman province of Moldavia, and a dragoman (interpreter) at the Porte – previously almost invisible to history. Through them he casts the world between Venice and Istanbul in a fresh light, illuminating subjects as diverse as espionage, slave-ransoming and the grain trade. It is a masterpiece of both scholarship and storytelling, creating a panoramic picture of interrelations between the Christian and Ottoman worlds.

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