Rageh Omaar attempts to establish how two parallel narratives have emerged from history, one that is commonly seized on to portray the Ottomans as religious zealots or bent on holy war, another that reveals an empire more ready than others to tolerate differences and driven by much more secular motives.

Rageh finds out more about the massive contrasts in the times of two very different Ottoman sultans. They are Suleiman the Magnificent in the Golden Age of the 16th century and the troubled reign of Abdul Hamid II during the 19th century'.

Rageh finds out how this great empire was finally destroyed, and its achievements were mainly lost in the trauma of its final years.