Drew,

Yes it is a worthwhile book. He does a good job of documenting the Ottoman influence on firearms. So are you going to learn siyaqat so you can read the Ottoman chancery records? He really is great researcher. I can not imagine how much work went into those tables of cannon production by foundry or the maps of arsenals!

Mostly I found it interesting the way he documents "the cross-cultural interactions of the Ottomans with Europe from the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries." By for more complete than any other source I have read to date.

Pete