HAWKINS A.: The History of Turkish or Ottoman Empire from its foundation in 1300 to the peace of Belgrade in 1740.London 1787 First edition,in 8vo,complete in four volumes,contemporary full leather with some wear mostly at edges and joints, spines faded and with wear, text clean and bright,overall in very good condition. William Hawkins was a respectable scholar with serious historical research, this work was his most ambitious literary project. The history was designed to be a comprehensive reference for the British public during a time when the Eastern Question was becoming a major part of British foreign policy and was seriously based in Mignot account. The work is full of valuable information on the Christian populations of the Ottoman Empire at a moment,in 1787,that the British Empire was increasingly concerned with the Mediterranean. This work sits between the older, often quite legendary Turkish histories,like Knolles, and the more modern, documented histories of the 19th century. While it still contains some European biases of the era, it moves away from seeing the Ottomans purely as infidels and begins to treat the Empire as a complex political system.