I was going to link to a few more posts, but Rydra_Wong pretty much has it covered, so if you want to keep following this discussion, just go on over there. Anything I have to add is only going to be tertiary metatext at this time, and my time's a lot better spent working on my own issues than commenting on anybody else's.
Reading list from the library: Orientalism by Edward Said and Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire. Any other suggestions are welcome.
Jason Goodwin's Lords of the Horizon is a great, sweeping overview of the rise and fall of the Ottoman Empire. Goodwin (who has moved on to fiction now -- detective novels, I think) started out as a travel writer and his love of Istanbul and the Turkish people is evident in the book. To be clear, tho', it's not a rigorous, historical read.
Me, I've never managed to make it all the way through Orientalism.
Good to know! Our library has that one, too.
Thanks so much!