In the late summer of 1894, Sultan Abdülhamid II ordered several battalions of Ottoman soldiers to destroy Armenian 'bandits' operating in the remote mountains of Sasun. Over a three-week period, these soldiers systematically murdered men, women, and children, beginning a chain of events which led directly to the Hamidian massacres of 1895 to 1897 and prefigured many of the patterns of the Medz Yeghern (Great Crime) of 1915–1917. Taking a microhistorical approach, Owen Robert Miller examines how the Ottoman State harnessed three nascent technologies (modern firearms, steamboats, and telegraphs) to centralize authority and envisage new methods of conquest. Alongside developing an understanding of how the violence took place, this study explores how competing narratives of the massacre unfolded and were both disseminated and repressed. Emphasizing the pivotal significance of geography and new technologies, The Conquest of the Mountains reveals how the tragic history of these massacres underscores the development of Ottoman State authoritarianism.

‘A beautifully written, richly sourced exploration of the incessant exercise of state violence directed at the people in the mountains of the East. Deeply researched and a pathbreaking analysis on the Ottoman conquest of the mountains. Impressively expands the source base that scholars have thus far utilized in telling the history of massacres in the Sasun region in 1893–1894.'

Ümit Kurt - The University of Newcastle, Australia

Owen Robert Miller's riveting work dismantles the foundations of Ottoman historiography and reveals a hidden history of the Armenian genocide before 1915, exposing the brutal reality and unravelling a complicated story of Ottoman state violence cleverly masked as communal conflict. A gripping exploration that challenges perceptions and brings the hidden truth to light.

Kamal Soleimani - El Colegio de México