Book excerpt: Frontiers of Ottoman Studies provides a comprehensive overview of the surge in research into Ottoman history and culture over the past two decades. The first volume reflects the growing interest in the provinces, communities and cultures outside the imperial capital of Istanbul and covers four major areas: politics and Islam; economy and taxation; development of Ottoman towns and Arab and Jewish communities. Chapters on Ottoman legal and fiscal institutions provide a fascinating insight into the Ottoman government's interaction with the Empire's subjects, while reviews of Egypt and the Arab provinces emphasise the stirrings of Arab nationalism in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries that ultimately contributed to the demise of the Empire.