Ancient discovery or mystery,A New Age of Struggle and Reform (1750–1765), part.7

The Ottoman Empire stood on the threshold of a new age. The tulips of the former period had faded, the horselaugh of Sa'dabad's auditoriums had been replaced by the stern meter of dogfaces' thrills and the whispers of courtiers stewing rebellion. Yet the conglomerate endured, vast and complex, stretching from the comeuppance of Arabia to the plains of Hungary, from the Black Sea to the Nile. It was 1750, and the Ottoman story entered a chapter defined by struggle, conservative reform, and the uneasy shadow of Europe's rising powers.