Scholarly debates concerning cities in the Islamic world have focused on whether there actually is an Islamic city, and have often been framed by the paradigms of nationalism and modernization. Declaring at the outset that they do not believe there is a typical Islamic city, the authors of this volume attempt to redirect scholarly discussion of cities in the Islamic world by presenting narratives of the socio-economic developments of early modern Ottoman Aleppo, Izmir, and Istanbul. They argue that the history of each city must be understood according to its internal dynamics. In so doing they aim to integrate Ottoman urban history into the study of world history and global cities, and demonstrate how fruitful comparative studies are for the field of Ottoman studies.