In this issue we are changing our usual focus on the Ottoman wars with Europe to look east toward Georgia and Persia. Most of what we in the West know about the Ottomans comes from their European opponents and their focus was almost exclusively on the Balkans and the Levant.

But the Ottoman Empire was a world empire stretching for thousands of miles across three continents. The Ottomans had first come out of Asia and it was in Asia that their oldest and most hated enemy, the Persians, lived.

Possibly the longest and bloodiest struggle in Ottoman history was the war of 1723-1746 against the Persians. That 20-year struggle is covered in some depth in the first part of Brian Vizek's two-part article on the Ottoman wars of the 18th century.

To round out our coverage of the eastern Ottoman Empire we are also providing some brief information on the Persians and taking a look at Erzurum, the Ottoman eastern military capital.

The Napoleonic period marked about the only period in Ottoman history in which the Ottomans were not at war with the Persians, but did not last long. In 1820 the two enemies were once again at war.

However, what many people do not know is that Napoleon almost brought these two enemies together in a French alliance against the British in India. While that is long story in itself, which hopefully we can cover in detail in some future issue, we have included in this issue a very short peice on the short-lived treaty of Finckenstein and the almost war in India.