Jason Goodwin | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Jason Goodwin June 1964 (age 60) England |
| Occupation | Writer, historian |
| Language | English |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Genre | Thriller |
| Notable works | The Janissary Tree |
| Spouse | Kate Goodwin |
| Children | 4 |
| Parents | Jocasta Innes (mother) John Michell (father) Richard B. Goodwin (stepfather) |
| Relatives | Daisy Goodwin (half-sister) |
| Website | |
| www | |
Jason Goodwin (born June 1964) is an English writer and historian.
Goodwin attended Sussex House School and Westminster School, before studying history at Trinity College, Cambridge. [1] [2] Following the success of The Gunpowder Gardens or, A Time For Tea: Travels in China and India in Search of Tea, he walked from Poland to Istanbul, Turkey. His account of the journey, On Foot to the Golden Horn, won the John Llewellyn Rhys/Mail on Sunday Prize in 1993.
Subsequently, he wrote Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire, which was featured on the cover of The New York Times Book Review . Later, he became popular as the author of a series of historical mystery novels beginning with The Janissary Tree , which pivot on the Ottoman investigator Yashim, a eunuch living in Istanbul during the 1830s-1840s. The Janissary Tree won the Edgar Award for Best Novel in 2007 and novels in the series have been translated into over 40 languages.
The Snake Stone involves a French archaeologist and Byron's doctor. The Bellini Card takes the action to Venice, and involves Italian painter Gentile Bellini's portrait of Mehmed II. The fourth Yashim novel, An Evil Eye, centres on the Ottoman sultan's harem, and the final Istanbul adventure, The Baklava Club, involves Italian and Polish revolutionaries in Istanbul.
In 2016 Goodwin published a cookbook, Yashim Cooks Istanbul, based on the detective series, which was selected by NPR's Book Concierge [3] as one of its Great Reads of the year. From January 2018 he has written the weekly Spectator column for Country Life magazine. [4]
Goodwin is the son of writers Jocasta Innes and John Michell. [5] However, his parents separated before he was born. Goodwin did not meet his birth father until 1992, at the age of 28, [6] and was raised by his mother's first husband, the film producer Richard B. Goodwin. [7] One of his four half-sisters is the British TV producer and novelist Daisy Goodwin. [7] He is married and has four children.
Osman II, also known as Osman the Young, was the sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 26 February 1618 until his regicide on 20 May 1622.
Turkish cuisine is the cuisine of Turkey and the Turkish diaspora. The cuisine took its current form after numerous cultural interactions throughout centuries, descending from earlier stages of Turkish cuisine, Ottoman cuisine and Seljuk cuisine. Turkish cuisine with traditional Turkic elements such as yogurt, ayran, kaymak, exerts and gains influences to and from Mediterranean, Balkan, Middle Eastern, Central Asian and Eastern European cuisines.
The Battle of Vienna took place at Kahlenberg Mountain near Vienna on 12 September 1683 after the city had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months. The battle was fought by the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, both under the command of King John III Sobieski, against the Ottomans and their vassal and tributary states. The battle marked the first time the Commonwealth and the Holy Roman Empire had cooperated militarily against the Ottomans. The defeat was a turning point for Ottoman expansion into Europe, after which they would gain no further ground. In the ensuing war that lasted until 1699, the Ottomans would cede most of Ottoman Hungary to Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor.
A janissary was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops. They were the first modern standing army, and perhaps the first infantry force in the world to be equipped with firearms, adopted during the reign of Murad II. The corps was established under either Sultans Orhan or Murad I, and dismantled by Mahmud II in 1826.
The Topkapı Palace, or the Seraglio, is a large museum and library in the east of the Fatih district of Istanbul in Turkey. From the 1460s to the completion of Dolmabahçe Palace in 1856, it served as the administrative center of the Ottoman Empire, and was the main residence of its sultans.
A matchlock or firelock is a historical type of firearm wherein the gunpowder is ignited by a burning piece of flammable cord or twine that is in contact with the gunpowder through a mechanism that the musketeer activates by pulling a lever or trigger with their finger. This firing mechanism was an improvement over the hand cannon, which lacked a trigger and required the musketeer or an assistant to apply a match directly to the gunpowder by hand. The matchlock mechanism allowed the musketeer to apply the match himself without losing his concentration.
Devshirme was the Ottoman practice of forcibly recruiting soldiers and bureaucrats from among the children of their Balkan Christian subjects and raising them in the religion of Islam. Those coming from the Balkans came primarily from noble Balkan families and rayah (poor) classes. It is first mentioned in written records in 1438, but probably started earlier. It created a faction of soldiers and officials loyal to the Sultan. It counterbalanced the Turkish nobility, who sometimes opposed the Sultan.
The military of the Ottoman Empire was the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire. It was founded in 1299 and dissolved in 1922.
Mimar Sinan also known as Koca Mi'mâr Sinân Âğâ, was the chief Ottoman architect, engineer and mathematician for sultans Suleiman the Magnificent, Selim II and Murad III. He was responsible for the construction of more than 300 major structures, including the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, the Kanuni Sultan Suleiman Bridge in Büyükçekmece, and the Mehmed Paša Sokolović Bridge in Višegrad, as well as other more modest projects such as madrasa's, külliyes, and bridges. His apprentices would later design the Sultan Ahmed Mosque in Istanbul and the Stari Most bridge in Mostar.
The Islamic Sacred Relics, also known as the Holy Relics, known collectively as the Sacred Trust, consist of religious relics sent to the Ottoman Sultans between the 16th century to the late 19th century.
Bezmiâlem Sultan, called also Bazimialam Sultan, was a consort of Sultan Mahmud II, and Valide sultan to their son, Sultan Abdulmecid I of the Ottoman Empire.
The Eyüp Sultan Mosque is a mosque in Eyüp district of Istanbul, Turkey. The mosque complex includes a mausoleum marking the spot where Ebu Eyüp el-Ansari, the standard-bearer and companion of the prophet Muhammad, is said to have been buried. On a much older site, the present building dates from the beginning of the 19th century.
Kösem Sultan, also known as Mahpeyker Sultan, was the Haseki Sultan as the chief consort of the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I, Valide Sultan as a mother of sultans Murad IV and Ibrahim and Büyük Valide Sultan as a grandmother of Sultan Mehmed IV. She became one of the most powerful and influential women in Ottoman history as well as a central figure during the period known as the Sultanate of Women.
Ottoman cuisine is the cuisine of the Ottoman Empire and its continuation in the cuisines of Greece, Turkey, the Balkans, Caucasus, Middle East and Northern Africa.
The Janissary Tree is a historical mystery novel set in Istanbul in 1836, written by Jason Goodwin. It is the first in the Yashim the Detective series, followed by The Snake Stone, The Bellini Card, An Evil Eye and The Baklava Club. The series features Yashim, an eunuch detective, who is resourceful and learned in both the Ottoman culture and that of the West, enjoys the trust of the Sultan and high officials, and prefers to live in a rather bohemian lodging outside the palace complex. The novel deals with the fictional aftermath of the Auspicious Event, the disbanding of the Janissaries, once elite troops of the Ottoman Empire.
The Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards celebrate the best travel writing and travel writers in the world. The awards include the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year and the Edward Stanford Award for Outstanding Contribution to Travel Writing.
Baklava is a layered pastry dessert made of filo pastry, filled with chopped nuts, and sweetened with syrup or honey. It was one of the most popular sweet pastries of Ottoman cuisine. It is also enjoyed in Arabian, Persian & Greek cuisine.
Eunuchs have appeared in many films, works of literature, and in popular culture.
The gunpowder empires, or Islamic gunpowder empires, is a collective term coined by Marshall G. S. Hodgson and William H. McNeill at the University of Chicago, referring to three early modern Muslim empires: the Ottoman Empire, Safavid Empire and the Mughal Empire, in the period they flourished from mid-16th to the early 18th century. These three empires were among the most stable empires of the early modern period, leading to commercial expansion, and patronage of culture, while their political and legal institutions were consolidated with an increasing degree of centralization. They stretched from Central Europe and North Africa in the west to Bengal and Arakan in the east. Hodgson's colleague William H. McNeill expanded on the history of gunpowder use across multiple civilizations including East Asian, South Asian and European powers in his "The Age of Gunpowder Empires". Vast amounts of territory were conquered by the gunpowder empires with the use and development of the newly invented firearms, especially cannon and small arms, in the course of imperial expansion. Like in Europe, the introduction of gunpowder weapons prompted changes such as the rise of centralized monarchical states.
Belgrad Forest is a mixed deciduous forest lying adjacent to Istanbul, Turkey. It is named after the village next to the forest, settled by thousands of Serbs who were deported to the capital Constantinople from the city of Belgrade in 1521, when it fell to the Ottomans. Geographically, the forest is located at the easternmost point of the Thracian Peninsula. Forest terrain is divided between Sarıyer and Eyüp districts. Several historical reservoirs lie within the forest.
