Long neglected in world history, the Ottoman Empire was a hub of flourishing intellectual fervor, geopolitical power, and enlightened pluralistic rule. At the helm was the omnipotent Sultan Selim I (1470-1520), who—aided by his extraordinarily gifted mother, Gülbahar—propelled the empire onto the world stage. Yale's Alan Mikhail centers Selim's Ottoman Empire and Islam as the very pivots of global history, and his groundbreaking history brings a different context to Christopher Columbus's voyages, the Protestant Reformation, and the transatlantic slave trade.