'House of İslam' and the 'House of War' with the Ottoman Sultan - successor to the early Caliphs - as supreme ruler of the Islamic vvorld. However, in this ground-breaking study of the Ottoman Empire in the early modern period, Suraiya Faroqhi demonstrates that there was no 'iron curtain' between the Ottoman and 'other' worlds but rather a long-established network of connections - diplomatic.trading and financial, cultural and religious.These extended beyond regional contacts to the empires of Asia and the burgeoning'modern' states of Europe - England, France, the Netherlands andVenice. Of course, military conflict was a constant factor in these relationships, but the overriding reality was 'one vvorld' and contact betvveen cultured and pragmatic elites - even 'gentlemen travelling for pleasure' - as well as pilgrimage and close artistic contact vvith the European Renaissance.