This book is the first comprehensive historical account of this century-long struggle for global dominance, a struggle that rage from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Straits of Malacca, and from the interior of Africa to the steppes of Central Asia. Based on extensive research in the archives of Turkey and Portugal, as well as materials written on three continents and in a half-dozen languages, the author presents an unprecedented picture of the global reach of the Ottoman state during the sixteenth century.