Death in the Hippodrome consists of Marc David Baer’s articles which have been published various academic journals, and focuses on the 17th century – the black hole of the Ottoman history.

Baer studies the reasons of the rise of the fundamentalist Kadızâdeli movement that emphasizes the necessity of violence in order to create a “more Muslim” community, and explains the islamizing efforts of the governments under the impression of this very movement.

Baer claims that the 1660 Constantinople fire which has affected the Christian and Jewish neighborhoods was seen as an opportunity to islamize the city by the Ottoman dynasty. He also says that the concept of conversion which seems to be a way to escape from their old lives by non-Muslim women contributes the effort to islamize the city.

Baer argues that within tolerance, there is an inequality, and the Ottomans have managed the gender, religion, and class distinctions through this very inequality.