#early Turkish tribe systems

[thealchemyofgamecreation]

Crafting "Hakan's War Manager": A Game Designer's Journey of Struggle and Discovery (Part I)

Check out my latest blog article about my suffering when designing our game "Hakan's War Manager". 🎮📚 Discover the challenges of creating a unique war simulation. #GameDesign #Hakan'sWarManager #ObaGames

Game development is a complex and challenging process that demands creativity, passion, and a deep understanding of the target audience. As a game designer, I embarked on a journey to create a unique simulation game that combines the elements of early Turkish tribe systems and ancient warfare history. This led to the birth of “Hakan’s War Manager,” a game where players assume the role of a…

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#alternate universe #ancient warfare #early Turkish tribe systems #game design #Hakan&039;s War Manager #historical accuracy #immersive gameplay #innovative game design #merging history and fiction #military formations #simulation game #sports competition #strategy game #war tactics

[opencommunion]

"Palestine was heralded as ‘a land without a people for a people without a land’, and the Naqab in particular was characterized as a desert in need of technologically advanced (Zionist) pioneers to make it bloom. In actual fact, the estimated 65,000–90,000 Palestinian Arabs populating the Naqab Desert prior to the 1948 war were organized into 95 tribes, and engaged in animal husbandry and seasonal agriculture. Turkish records dating as far back as the sixteenth century show that Palestinian Bedouin owned, cultivated and paid taxes on land; and that cultivation was extensive, particularly in the more fertile, less arid northern and northwestern Naqab. Palestinian Bedouin cultivation in the Naqab was documented by European traveller accounts from the mid- to late-1800s, as well as Zionist explorer accounts from the late 1800s and early 1900s. Reports produced both by British Mandate authorities and the Zionist Movement’s Palestine Land Development Company in the early to mid-1900s indicated that over 2 million dunams were owned and cultivated by Naqab Palestinians. The great majority of Naqab Palestinians held their land under customary Bedouin law. Neither the Ottoman or British Mandate governments ever completed land surveys of the vast Naqab region; however, they both recognized the Naqab Palestinians’ traditional land ownership system, at the collective tribal and individual levels.

... However, prior to the 1948 war, Zionist leaders such as Ben-Gurion denied Naqab Palestinian land ownership, and characterized the Naqab as ‘No Man’s Land. It has no legal owners and anyone who cultivates it with the permission of the government is entitled to become its owner, according to a Turkish law, which still prevails in Palestine’. He rejected the idea of purchasing land in the Naqab, saying to his staff: ‘In the Negev we will not buy land. We will conquer it. You are forgetting that we are at war.’ The 1948 war/Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe) resulted in large-scale expulsion of Palestinian population, and internal displacement of many who remained in the territory that became the State of Israel. Studies of the internally displaced Palestinians have generally not included the Bedouin Palestinians in the Naqab; aside from noting that the official governmental numbers did not include them, or that a much higher proportion of the population was displaced, as compared to other regions. They, indeed, faced the most extensive displacement and dispossession, with 12 of the 19 tribes that remained in the Israeli state forced to move from their fertile lands in the northwestern Naqab to the infertile, arid region of the Seig. This resulted in nearly two thirds of the communities losing their land, property and possessions. Although Israeli authorities initially told them that the displacement was temporary, and they would be allowed to return to their lands, this never occurred. Instead, an arsenal of laws was enacted and applied throughout Israel to transfer Palestinian owned land to the Israeli state. ... Recently uncovered archives and declassified government documents confirm that the displacement and land acquisition was not coincidental, but occurred according to an orderly, large-scale state plan to expel Palestinian citizens from the northwestern Naqab, with the goal of severing their physical ties to the land, and transferring this land to the possession of the state. Moshe Dayan, who commanded the military operation, wrote: ‘It’s now possible to transfer most of the Bedouin in the vicinity of [Kibbutz] Shoval to areas south of the Hebron-Be’er Sheva road. Doing so will clear around 60,000 dunams in which we can farm and establish communities.’ Although security issues were given as a rationale for the transfer, Dayan also clearly stated: ‘Transferring the Bedouin to new territories will annul their rights as landowners and they will become tenants on government lands.’ The military government carried out the operation using a mix of threats, violence, bribery and fraud; but were careful never to give the displaced Naqab Palestinians written transfer orders, because such an operation for the purpose of land acquisition was illegal. Oral Palestinian histories of threats, violence and arrests were confirmed by archival kibbutz and state records. Although the official government story was that Naqab Palestinians voluntarily left their lands, declassified government records from the time document the ‘Bedouin resistance and protests, the stubbornness with which they tried to hold onto their land, even at the cost of hunger and thirst, not to mention the army’s threats and violence’. Archival kibbutz records also documented the military government’s use of many methods to force the Bedouin to leave their lands, including stopping their food supplies for months."

Ismael Abu-Saad, "Al-Naqab: The Unfinished Zionist Settler-colonial Conquest of its Elusive 'Last Frontier,' and Indigenous Palestinian Bedouin Arab Resistance," in Decolonizing the Study of Palestine: Indigenous Perspectives and Settler Colonialism (2023)

#palestine #zionism #colonialism #history #library

[reallifesultanas]

A Valide titulus / The Valide title

The title of Valide was the title of the mother of the Sultan. However, this seemingly logical title has also undergone many changes over the centuries of the sultanate. In this post, I would like to introduce this change and introduce the mother of the sultans from Osman I to the last sultan Mehmed IV's mother.

Valide Hatun

In the early centuries, the title of Valide Sultan did not yet exist, instead, Valide Hatun was in use. Valide was practically the address of the mother, and Hatun was the respectful address of the women, practically something like "My Lady." Thus, mothers were often called Valide Hatun even when their sons were not yet sultans, merely the governor of provinces. The mission of Valide Hatun began long before their son ascended the throne. At that time, these women were still simple concubines living in the sultan’s harem. During this time, their primary task was to take care and raise their children, and later accompany their single son (there could be no more sons because of the one-concubine-one-son law) to his designated province. In the province, it was the job of Valide Hatun to control the court of the young prince and begin to form a harem for his son, disciplining his concubines and grandchildren. If the Valide Hatun had daughters, they also went to the designated province with their mother and younger brother.

Valide Hatun was at the peak of her position when her son was young, so she could deal with all sorts of matters with relative freedom in the province. A great example of this is an account of Selim I’s mother, Ayşe Gülbahar Hatun. Ayşe Gülbahar held a weekly audience in Trabzon, Selim’s provincial post, where everyone listened to her words with great respect. As Selim then grew older and more and more mature, his mother became more and more relegated to the background. It was the same, of course, with all the other Valide Hatuns.

When their son ascended the throne, it became their job to control the harem, to keep it in order. They had no political influence, except in a few exceptional cases. Of course, in addition to their duties, the Valide Hatuns did a lot of charity and, if they had the time, also set up construction projects. In practice, charity and construction have been their right since their sons were escorted to the province. This is why most of the future Valide Hatuns have construction in their sons' former province.

Naturally, as time went on, the tasks of Valide Hatun also became more difficult. Previously, the Ottoman Empire was smaller, the capital and the Sultan's palace were more modest, so it was relatively easy to keep the harem in order. However, after the conquest of Constantinople, the mighty Old Palace became the home of the Sultan’s harem, which was a real little town in the city (you can read more about it here). In parallel with the move to the Old Palace, the political influence of Valide Hatun also increased. And pretty slowly the peak of Valide’s power also shifted. They could no longer live their most influential period in the provinces, but in the capital, during the reign of their sons.

A list of de facto and classic Valide Hatuns, complete with mothers who did not survive until their son's rule:

Halime Hatun, the presumed mother of Osman I. There are many legends circulating about her, so some claim she was a Seljuk Princess, but there is no evidence to suggest this. She was more likely to be a simple commoner or a child of an influential family. It was not typical for beys and rulers of that time to marry slaves or to keep a harem in the classical sense. We don't know anything about Halime's life, how many children she had when she was born when she died ... It's not even certain that she was the mother of Osman I.

Malhun Hatun, mother of Orhan I. Orhan was the first sultan in the classical sense, but even he formed a transition between the true sultanate and the earlier tribal system. Malhun Hatun was said by some to be daughter of an influential tribe, others say she was the daughter of a sheikh. Either way, she was certainly the lawful wife of Osman I and she gave birth to the later Orhan I. She is considered the mother of the Ottoman Empire and the Ottoman family. The date of her birth, the exact number of her children are not known, but we know that she died before 1324. This is indicated by the fact that her son built a complex in 1324 in honor of Malhun. Since this date coincides with the beginning of Orhan's reign, it cannot be ruled out that Malhun passed away much earlier. It is possible that before this date simply Orhan, being not yet a ruler, did not have the opportunity to build anything for his mother’s memory. So, finally, after he ascended the throne, he was able to embark on building a complex as soon as possible so that he could finally pay his respects. Either way, it is likely that Malhun had no control over his rule as she was not alive.

Nilüfer Hatun, mother of Murad I. Nilüfer was the first to rise from a slave to the rank of sultan's mother almost without a doubt. We know that she became Orhan's concubine after 1324, as she is not listed in a report from 1324, which mentions Orhan's other main concubines (who gave birth to children) or his wife. Nilüfer's child, Murad, was born in 1326, but the woman's first mentioning was not made until 1331 when she greeted a certain traveler named Ibn Battuta on behalf of Orhan in Nikea. Based on this and Murad's year of birth, we can calculate that Nilüfer may have been born around 1300, but rather after that. She died in 1383, so she survived the enthronement of her son. And with that, she became the first Valide Hatun in the history of the empire. She ruled for 21 years, however, we do not know much about her actions.

Gülçiçek Hatun, mother of Bayezid I. Contrary to legend, Gülçiçek was a slave, perhaps of Greek descent. It is not known when she became Murad I’s concubine, but her son was born in 1360. We don’t know much about Gülçiçek’s life, the exact number of her children. What is certain, however, is that she reached her son’s reign and during these years she had a mosque built in Bursa. With this, she became the first Valide Hatun to have a mosque built. The time of her death is not known either, so it is not clear that she was alive at the end of her son's reign when Bayezid I was captured by Timur Lenk in 1402. Gülçiçek was buried in Bursa in her own complex.

Devlet Hatun, mother of Mehmed I. Devlet was also a woman of slave origin. In her case, there is no doubt about that, as there is evidence available. She is listed in the records of one of her foundations as Daulat bint-i Abd’Allah, meaning she was the daughter of a non-Muslim and non-Turkish man. We don’t know much about her life, for there was a legal wife in Bayezid I’s life who was much better known, so Devlet didn’t really get into the spotlight. After the abduction and death of Bayezid I, the empire operated under interrgnum rule, so the sons of Bayezid divided the empire together. This ended in 1413 when Devlet's son Mehmed became monarch after defeating his brothers. However, Devlet was not able to enjoy the Valide Hatunship for long, as she died in January 1414 and was buried in Bursa, just after a year-long tenure.

Emine Hatun, Murad II's supposed mother. The identity of Murad's mother is still disputed to this day. In terms of her origins, Emine was a princess of Dulkadir, the child of an influential family. She officially married Mehmed Çelebi in 1403, when the Ottoman interregnum began. Their marriage was purely political, as Mehmed tried to gain - successfully - the support of the Dulkadir family, who eventually became key figures in his enthronement. In addition to Emine, it also arises that Murad's mother was the daughter of a family of noble descent called Şehzade Hatun. But it is also possible that an unnamed and insignificant slave was Murad's mother. We don't know when Emine or Şehzade Hatuns died.

Hüma Hatun, Mehmed II's mother. There are also many legends around Hüma, some say she was a Byzantine princess, others say she was a simple slave, but Venetian and Hungarian origins also arise. Most likely, however, Hüma was a simple slave, as her name suggests. She is mentioned in the records of one of her foundations as "Hatun bint-i Abdullah", which was one of the usual names for women of slave origin. We know very little about Hüma's life, which was not helped by the fact that her son Mehmed refused to ever talk about his mother. What is certain is that in 1343 she followed her son Mehmed to Amasya, where the sultan appointed Mehmed as governor. The next year Sultan Murad became depressed and resigned from the throne, so in 1344 Mehmed took over. At that time Hüma became Valide Hatun, but instead of the young sultan, the Grand Vizier ruled. So there was no real power in the hands of Hüma either. Then, in 1346, Sultan Murad returned, and Mehmed's brief reign came to an end. Hüma spent the next few years in Bursa, and her life from here on again was a set of question marks. Some say she died in 1449 before Mehmed could ascend the throne in 1451, others said that mother and son had arguments, which is why Hüma never followed her son to the conquested Constantinople and therefore never became Valide Hatun to her adult son.

Gülbahar Hatun, Bayezid II's mother. In the case of Gülbahar, too, a foundation document has survived, which clarifies that she was a woman of slave descent. Her origin was Greek or Albanian. In 1455/6 Bayezid was appointed by his father, Mehmed II as governor of Amasya, so Gülbahar and Bayezid traveled there and remained there until 1581 when Mehmed II died. During this time, Gülbahar was very active in Amasya. She held huge fortunes and also dealt a lot with local politics compared to her predecessors. Gülbahar was a rather strong-willed woman who certainly easily coped with the rule of the huge Old Palace after her son's accession to the throne in 1581. Her strong personality is well illustrated by one of her letters, in which she rebukes his adult son, Sultan Bayezid, for not visiting her often enough. In his letter, she writes, "My fortune, I miss you. Even if you don't miss me, I miss you ... Come and let me see you. My dear lord, if you are going on campaign soon, come once or twice at least so that I may see your fortune-favored face before you go. It's been forty days since I last saw you. My sultan, please forgive my boldness. Who else do I have beside you ... ?" Gülbahar's other letters also show that she often advised her son on political matters as well. She eventually died in 1492 after 11 years of rule and was buried in Istanbul. Gülbahar was the first Valide Hatun to rule in Istanbul and to have a significant influence on her son and politics as well.

Ayşe Gülbahar, mother of Selim I. Ayşe Gülbahar is mentioned in one of her foundation documents as "Hatun bint-i Abd-us-Samed", which was a typical mention for Christian-born Balkan and Anatolian converts. Based on this, it is probable that Ayşe Gülbahar was an Anatolian or Balkan slave who then became the concubine of Bayezid II. Ayşe Gülbahar, as I mentioned above, had high-arching eyebrows like angular hats over her dark, deep-set eyes, she shot daggers at those who prostrated in deference to her. Certainly the similar features of her son, Selim I was inherited from her. Ayşe Gülbahar gave birth to her only son Selim in 1470, with whom they lived in the harem of Bayezid until Selim became governor of Trabzon. In Trabzon, Ayşe Gülbahar had great influence, but as her son became more and more mature, she became more and more relegated to the background. Ayşe Gülbahar did not reach Selim's reign as she died in Trabzon presumably sometime before 1511. In 1514 her son, Selim had a complex built in Trabzon in memory and honor of his mother.

Valide Sultan

During his reign, Bayezid II created the title of Sultan (Sultana), which his daughters could use. Thanks to the rank of Sultan, the female members of his family rose well above the other Hatuns (women). However, Bayezid did not extend the title to his own mother, Gülbahar. Selim I's mother, Ayşe Gülbahar, died before Selim ascended the throne. Thus, in the end, it was Suleiman I who extended the title of Sultan to his mother. Thus, not only his aunts, sisters, and daughters could hold the title of Sultan, but also his mother, Ayşe Hafsa. With this, Ayşe Hafsa became the first Valide Sultan. However, this change in responsibilities did not mean anything. The Valide Sultan was still responsible for keeping the imperial harem in order after her son ascended the throne, supervising the sultan's family (concubines, children). As much as the remit remained the same, so much changed in the addressing. Previously, Valide Hatun was a respectful address for mothers, so they were already called that in the provinces. Valide Sultan, on the other hand, was clearly only a title reserved for the sultan's mother.

Murad III brought a huge change for the rank of Valide Sultan. Until then, Valide Sultan was only a respectful name for the sultan's mother, there was no official, legal title for it. By official, legal title, I mean, such as the Grand Vizier or the Chief eunuch. These positions had specific responsibilities and were not just addressing, but real titles, positions. It was Murad III who, on his accession to the throne in 1574, made the title of Valide Sultan a registered, official and legal title. This was a huge step forward for the Valide Sultan of all time. From then on, her role became official. She was not only the sultan’s mother but a person in her own right as Valide Sultan. Previously, the Valides signed their letters and foundation documents as the mother of the Sultan XY, but from then on they could sign them as the XY Valide Sultan.

The changes created by Murad III practically lasted until the end of the empire’s existence. Though the Valide Sultan over time lost the prominent influence she represented in the 16th and 17th centuries. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the power of Valides reached unprecedented levels. Due to unfit sultans, child sultans, and the evolution of the geopolitical situation, several of them were de facto or official regents. After the end o their regencies, their primary role was to keep the sultans’ harem in order, but they also paid special attention to charity and politics. In the 16th and 17th centuries, no Valide Sultan could be found without a political role.

List of Valide Sultans, supplemented by mothers who did not survive their son's reign:

Ayşe Hafsa Sultan, mother of Suleiman I. Ayşe Hafsa was the concubine of Selim I, who gave birth to at least three children. We don't know much about her early years. Hafsa was the first slave to hold the title of Sultan after her son, Suleiman, ascended the throne. The rule of Ayşe Hafsa was quite similar to her predecessor, Gülbahar. Hafsa led Suleiman’s harem in the Old Palace, creating a balance between her son’s concubines, paying attention to the well-being of her grandchildren, and doing plenty of charity. Hafsa was loved and respected by all, she was one of the most adored Valide Sultans. She was politically minimally active, had her own men, and when her son asked for her opinion, she tried to help him. However, Hafsa never wanted to overrule her son, so she didn’t even deal with politics more than necessary. She was Valide Sultan for 14 years, and after her death in 1534 she became the first slave-origin woman to receive an imperial burial. A longer biography is available at link.

Hürrem Sultan, Selim II's mother. Hürrem was a woman of Ruthenian origin who gave birth to six children to Sultan Suleiman I. Hürrem played a real form-breaking role, as she was associated with the abolition of several previous rules (one-concubine-one-son, marriage of sultans, residence of concubines) and associated with the creation of several new roles (Haseki Sultan title, harem leadership, sending princes alone to the province, etc.). However, Hürrem never saw her son Selim II to became a sultan, as he ascended the throne in 1566 and she died in 1558. A longer biography is available at link.

Nurbanu Sultan, Murad III's mother. Nurbanu was a slave of Venetian origin who then became the concubine of Selim II and gave him several children. We do not know much about her early years as she came into the public consciousness when in 1566 Selim ascended the throne. Nurbanu is a special woman in several aspcts: she was the first to hold the rank both of Haseki Sultan and Valide Sultan; and she also was a legal wife. To show his respect for his mother Murad III created a real official title out of the Valide Sultan title, making Nurbanu the first to wear it. Throughout her life, she did a lot of charity, building projects, and also had a huge influence on politics, her son asked for her opinion on everything. She was a Valide Sultan for 9 years from 1574 until her death in 1583. A longer biography is available at link.

Safiye Sultan, Mehmed III's mother. She was a concubine of Albanian descent, raised and taught by Suleiman I's granddaughter, Hümaşah Sultan. She gifted the girl to the later Murad III, with whom she had several children. Safiye reached both hell and heaven as she had a privileged status as Haseki Sultan and then was exiled and then became a legal wife. She reached the peak of her power as Valide Sultan when she ruled instead of her son Mehmed, who was unfit to rule. She was not popular at all, there were several uprisings against her persona, during which several of her supporters were executed. Safiye was the first Valide Sultan (and probably even the first Valide) to survive her sultan-son. This created an unusual situation, and it was not clear to her grandson Ahmed I what to do with his grandmother. Eventually, due to her unpopularity, Safiye was sent to the Old Palace, which has become the palace for the family of the deceased sultans so far. The influential Safiye, who had previously ruled the empire, found it difficult to bear this and felt it as an exile. It was for this reason that, in revenge, she completely damaged the Sultan's harem in Topkapi Palace, making her own return permanently impossible. Seeing her grandson and the rule of two more sultans, she finally died around 1620. A longer biography is available at link.

Handan Sultan, mother of Ahmed I. Handan was a slave of Bosnian origin who was raised and educated by Selim II's daughter, Gevherhan Sultan. Handan could not prevail at a young age as her tyrant's mother-in-law, Safiye suppressed all of Mehmed III's concubines. Handan found herself finally in the spotlight in 1603, when Mehmed died and the son of Handan, ascended the throne. The young sultan, Ahmed, was only 13 years old, so regents were needed beside him. Sultan Ahmed had two regents, his mother Handan and his teacher. Handan was an unofficially appointed regent but practically ruled instead of her son for months, attended audiences, organized political cleansing (to get rid of Safiye Sultan's men). Handan's life ended quite early, and due to her death in 1605, she became one of the shortest reigning Valide Sultans, with only 2 years of reign. At the same time, we must not forget that she was the first female regent of the empire. A longer biography is available at link.

Halime Sultan, mother of Mustafa I. Unlike Handan, Halime, who was also Mehmed III's concubine, was intolerant of Safiye Sultan's bullying and she tried to pick up the fight with her mother-in-law. Her ambitions were also shared by her son, Mahmud, who repeatedly spoke openly against his grandmother and father, the Sultan. The battle between Safiye and Halime ended in the summer of 1603, when, under pressure from Safiye, the sultan executed Mahmud. The life of  Halime was spared, but soon her other son, the toddler Mustafa was separated from her. Mustafa struggled with serious mental problems, which is why it was surprising when, after Ahmed I's death, he was finally chosen as heir. Ahmed was the first sultan not to execute his brothers when he ascended the throne, and this led to a change in the order of inheritance. From then on, it was not the sultan's son who followed the sultan on the throne, but the eldest living prince. Due to Mustafa’s tragic mental state, Halime ruled instead of him as the first official regent. In times of political instability, Mustafa was dethroned but was soon proclaimed sultan again. This made Halime the first Valide Sultan to be the Valide Sultan twice with the same son. After Mustafa's second dethronement, mother and son continued to live in isolation for many years. A longer biography is available at link.

Mahfiruz Hatun, mother of Osman II. Mahfiruz was Ahmed I's concubine, who, although was the eldest son's mother, was not Ahmed's favorite concubine. We know quite a bit about Mahfiruz's personality and actions due to her early death. Not living long enough to see her son's accession to the throne in 1618, she never became Valide Sultan. Her name also suggests this, as she was buried as Mahfiruz Hatun, not as Mahfiruz Sultan. A longer biography is available at link.

Kösem Sultan, the mother of Sultans Murad IV and Ibrahim I. Kösem, of Greek descent, found herself in a rather volatile political and geopolitical situation when her partner Ahmed I passed away. During the chaos of inheritance, she lost her eldest son, whom Osman II executed. Osman soon suffered a similar fate after being brutally murdered by rebellious Janissaries. The chaotic period ended in 1623 when Kösem's son Murad has proclaimed a sultan at just 11 years old. Kösem ruled as regent instead of him for many years, then when her son became old enough to rule, she retired. Kösem did a lot of charity during her Valide Sultanship and sought to be a political adviser to his son. Murad - not having a living son - was succeeded by his younger brother Ibrahim, who was also the son of Kösem. Ibrahim was mentally ill, like his uncle, so instead, Kösem ruled as an unofficial regent. Due to her two sons, Kösem was practically Valide Sultan from 1623 to 1648, so for 25 years. Eventually, Ibrahim was dethroned and replaced by his six-year-old son, Mehmed IV. The pashas asked the experienced Kösem Sultan to teach the young sultan and his mother Turhan Hatice to rule. And until then they asked Kösem to rule as a regent again. However, she acted differently and began to rule violently. This ended with her execution in 1651. She was the first and only Valide Sultan to be executed. A longer biography is available at link.

Turhan Hatice Sultan, Mehmed IV's mother. Turhan, of Russian descent, had a rather difficult youth as the concubine of the mentally ill Ibrahim I. The difficult period finally ended in 1651, when Turhan became the official regent to her son. She performed this task for only a few years and then handed over power to the Grand-Vizier. Throughout Turhan's life, she was politically very active, her son regularly sought his mother's opinion, and many times Turhan ruled by herself as her son did not like to rule. During her life, Turhan defended with all her might his foster sons, whom Mehmed wanted to execute at one point in his reign. Turhan Hatice was a truly respected and beloved Valide Sultan, who did a lot of charity and also carried out monumental constructions during her long reign. She was the longest reigning Valide, having held office for 32 years. At her death in 1683, the whole empire mourned and the people believed that the empire had lost its last strong and stable pillar. Unfortunately, they were right, Turhan's son was soon dethroned because he was unable to rule properly without his mother's advices. A longer biography of Turhan Hatice is available at: link.

Saliha Dilşub Sultan, Suleiman II's mother. Saliha Dilaşub, like Turhan and Ibrahim I’s other concubines, experienced rather confusing times in her youth. It is likely that Kösem Sultan wanted to use her and her son during a coup against Mehmed IV and Turhan Hatice in 1651. The coup was unsuccessful, Kösem Sultan was executed, however, Mehmed and his mother forgave Saliha and her son Suleiman. Moreover, Turhan protected Saliha's son throughout her life. Saliha Dilaşub lived in the Old Palace for almost forty years, separated from her son during the whole reign of Mehmed IV. Finally, after the dethronement of Mehmed in 1687, Saliha was able to leave the Old Palace to became a Valide Sultan to her son. Unfortunately, however, she did not enjoy this for long, as she died only after 2.5 years of rule. Her reign thus remained relatively gray, and although her philanthropy is known, she did not have time to activate herself politically. A longer biography is available at link.

Hatice Muazzez Sultan, Ahmed II's mother. Along with Saliha Dilaşub and Turhan, Muazzez was also the concubine of Ibrahim I and had a rather hard youth. We know very little about Muazzez's life, presumably, she had a daughter besides Ahmed. She spent 40 years in the Old Palace. During Mehmed’s reign, she barely met her son Ahmed. In September of 1687, a huge fire destroyed the Old Palace, and Muazzez, fearing the fire had a heart attack and died a few days later. Barely two months after her death, Saliha Dilaşub, who was "imprisoned" along with her, was able to leave the Old Palace, as her son Suleiman II became the sultan. Muazzez's son Ahmed II succeeded Suleiman in 1691. A longer biography is available at link.

Emetullah Rabia Gülnüş Sultan, mother of Mustafa II and Ahmed III. She was a woman of Greek descent who from a slave became the last influential woman of the Sultanate of Women. She was both a Haseki and Valide Sultan in her life, so she held the two most important titles of the era. In her youth, she had a huge influence as a favorite and was very active politically. When her partner, Mehmed IV was dethroned, Emetullah was forced into the Old Palace, which she could only leave in 1694, when she became a Valide Sultan to her son Mustafa II. She raised her former influence to even higher levels, having an amazing influence on political life and her son. Unfortunately, this aroused the disapproval of the pashas. Finally, her son was dethroned in 1703, and also Mustafa soon died of natural causes. Emetullah mourned her son and then, learning from her mistakes, throughout the reign of Ahmed III's, she remained in the background and worked closely with the pashas. Lots of charities, construction can be linked to her. Due to her two sons' reigns, she was a Valide Sultan for a total of 20 years. A longer biography is available at link.

Saliha Sultan, mother of Mahmud I. She was a woman of Serbian descent. As the concubine of Sultan Mustafa II, she had no prominent influence but had the opportunity to learn a lot from her mother-in-law, Emetullah Rabia Gülnüş. She gave birth to her son in 1696, and soon after, in 1703, Mustafa was dethroned and so she moved to the Old Palace. There, however, she did not accept her exile, she constantly was building relationships. In 1730 she was finally could leave Old Palace as her son, Mahmud I, ascended the throne. She was a Valide Sultan for 9 years and similarly to her predecessor, Emetullah Rabia Gülnüş, she gained amazing power. Everyone was trying to get into her graces to ensure their own advancement. They tried to win over the influential Valide with gifts. During her tenure, she embarked on several smaller construction projects, so there are several fountains she built in Istanbul. One such is the Azapkapı Saliha Sultan Fountain, the most beautiful water architectural monument in Istanbul.

Şehsuvar Sultan, mother of Osman III. She was the concubine of Mustafa II, but she could enjoy the spotlight for only a short period. Her child was born in 1699, and in 1703 she found herself in the Old Palace after the dethronement of Mustafa II. Like Saliha, Şehsuvar could no longer raise her son as the princes were taken to Topkapi Palace. Finally, in 1754, she was able to find herself on her son's side again when Osman became the new sultan of the empire. Osman, who had barely been able to meet his mother for decades, refused to immediately hold the coronation ceremony, as he only wanted to spend three days with his mother. Şehsuvar's reign was quite short, as she was a Valide Sultan for only 1.5 years. She died in 1756. No political, charitable or construction projects took place during this time. In some political cases, however, her role is possible, so she cannot be considered completely politically inactive.

Mihrişah Kadın, was Mustafa III's mother. She was the concubine of Ahmed III, and gave birth to three sons with quite large age differences (1710, 1717, 1728). After the dethronement of Ahmed III in 1730, Mihrişah was moved to the Old Palace, where she died two years later, 25 years before her son's accession. During her lifetime, she had some minor construction projects though she could never have been Valide Sultan.

Rabia Şermi Kadın, mother of Abdul Hamid I. Şermi was Ahmed III's concubine, with whom she had only one child, in 1725, Abdul Hamid. Şermi died in 1732, more than 40 years before her son accession. During her short life she could not leave a deep mark on history, she only had a single fountain built. Her son later named one of his children, Rabia, in her honor, but the little girl died shortly after her birth.

Mihrişah Sultan, Selim III's mother. Mihrişah was the concubine of Mustafa III. It is an interesting coincidence that Mustafa's mother was also called Mihrişah. The beautiful Georgian slave became the concubine of Mustafa in 1757. She had three children, but only Selim reached adulthood, as her two daughters died as infants. We don't know much about her youth, but she certainly had great wealth even then, because according to surviving documents, the sultan himself owed to her. After the sudden death of her partner in 1774, she was exiled to the Old Palace, from where she could only return 15 years later when her son Selim ascended the throne. Mihrişah was a Valide Sultan for 16 years alongside Selim. During these years, she strongly supported her son’s innovations. The renovation of the harem of Topkapi Palace can be linked to her name, but she also had several construction projects. Mihrişah and her son were very close to each other, they discussed everything and according to some Selim visited his mother every morning. Regardless, Mihrişah did not use her influence, did not interfere in politics, but rather spent her time in religion and charity. She died in 1805.

Sineperver Sultan, Mustafa IV's mother. In 1774 she became Abdul Hamid's concubine and in 1779 gave birth to her son. So far, Sineperver has buried a son. Because of the tragic memory, she asked for prayers for Mustafa's health after his birth and she paid the debt of prisoner so they could be released. Her prayers were heard, Mustafa reached adulthood, so did Sineperver’s daughter, Esma Sultan. Her other daughter, Fatma, on the other hand, died as her first child, Ahmed. In 1789 Abdul Hamid died and Sineperver moved to the Old Palace. She was able to leave it in 1807, when her son, Mustafa IV became sultan. Unfortunately, Mustafa's reign was rather short, he sat on the throne for barely 1 year, then he was dethroned and soon executed. Sineperver dedicated her remaining years to her only living child, Esma Sultan. She died in 1828.

Nakşidil Sultan, Mahmud II's mother. For a long time there was a theory that she was a distant relative of Josephine, Napoleon's wife. But it has now been proven that she was a slave of Georgian descent. She gave birth to her son Mahmud in 1785 as the concubine of Abdul Hamid. Unfortunatelly Abdul Hamid died in 1789 and Nakşidil moved to the Old Palace. In 1808 her stepson, Mustafa IV ascended the throne. He then executed his predecessor Selim III and also sent assassins against Nakşidil's son Mahmud. Nakşidil hid her son, so he survived and soon became a sultan in a coup. In return for Mustafa IV's attempted murder, Mahmud executed his half-brother immediately after his accession to the throne. Nakşidil moved back to Topkapi Palace during a huge ceremony. She was the last Valide to travel from the Old Palace to Topkapi in such way. One reason for this was that the dynasty began to favor other imperial palaces over Topkapi. (Actually it was Nakşidil whose idea was to change palace.) In the early years of Mahmud’s reign, he regularly consulted with his mother. The Valide Sultan did a lot of charity and also had smaller to larger construction projects. Nakşidil was a Valide Sultan for 9 years since she died of tuberculosis in 1817. Her son Mahmud, her daughter-in-law, Bezmialem and her grandson Abdulmejid also died of this disease.

Bezmialem Sultan, mother of Abdulmejid I. The woman of Georgian descent became Mahmud II's concubine in 1822. Bezmialem was raised by Mahmaud II’s half-sister, Sineperver’s daughter, Esma Sultan. Maybe that’s where her sophistication and intelligence comes from. In 1823, she gave birth to her only child, Abdulmejid. In 1839 Mahmud died and Abdulmejid became sultan. After her son's accession, Bezmialem ruled as Valide Sultan for 14 years. Abdulmejid was only 16 years old when he ascended the throne, so his mother helped him a lot in the early years. There was a very close link between mother and son, often corresponding with each other, letters never written by secretaries but by themselves, with their own hands. When the sultan left the capital, he always made his mother the head of the capital for the duration of his absence. Bezmialem was a dedicated philanthropist that the people loved immensely. She also made her construction projects known as well as her political influence. Bezmialem died of tuberculosis in 1853. Her son was shocked after hearing the news. After the death of his mother, the sultan spent an astonishing amount of money on the funeral.

Pertevniyal Sultan, mother of Abdulaziz. She gave birth to her only child, Abdulaziz in 1830 after becoming a concubine of Mahmud II. She was either Kurdish or Romanian descent. After Mahmud's death in 1839, Abdulaziz's brother Abdulmejid ascended the throne. Then in 1861 Abdulmejid also died and Abdulaziz followed. Pertevniyal was Valide Sultan for 15 years, during which time she gained amazing influence and wealth. She had unlimited power on her son, which she regularly used to influence the ruler. During her reign she repeatedly hosted influential guests in the harem. One such occasion almost ended in a diplomatic scandal as she slapped the French guest. However, in addition to her strong and sudden nature, she did a lot of charity and built. Pertevniyal's son was dethroned in 1876 and locked up in Topkapi Palace. A similar fate awaited Pertevniyal. Abdulaziz couldn't stand the confinement and cut his veins with scissors. The possibility of murder also arose, but all doctors who examined Abdulaziz's body ruled out this. Pertevniyal was shocked. The ascension of Abdul Hamid brought some relief for her as he loved Pertevniyal very much and he took care of the woman. For the rest of Pertevniyal's life, she retired and raised, taught children entrusted to her care. She died in 1884.

Şevkefza Sultan, mother of Murad V. She, a Georgian woman became Abdulmejid's concubine in 1839. In 1840 she gave birth to her son, Murad, who was soon followed by a little girl who died early. Şevkefza is a relatively gray character in history, having been Valide Sultan for only 3 months as her son was very quickly dethroned because of his mental condition. After Murad V's dethronement in 1876, Şevkefza wanted to put her son back on the throne in a coup, but Murad showed no interest. Şevkefsa finally died in 1889 from some kind of neck cancer.

Tirimüjgan Kadın, mother of Abdul Hamid II. She was a beautiful woman of Armenian descent who became a consort of Sultan Abdulmejid in 1839. Her son Abdul Hamid was born in 1842. Beside him, she had two other children, but they died early. Tirimüjgan was a woman with poor health, though she nevertheless tried to give everything to her son. She was finally died in 1852. She entrusted her son to Nergisnihal Hanım, one of her servants, who remained with Abdul Hamid for the rest of his life. In addition, Tirimüjgan was close to the Sultan's other concubine, Perestu, so that the Sultan eventually left Abdul Hamid to Perestu's care. Perestu had already raised another orphaned child, Cemile Sultan, as she had no children of her own. Cemile and Abdul Hamid eventually grew up in the same household. When Abdul Hamid became Sultan in 1876, he nominally gave Perestu the rank of Valide Sultan, making her the last great Valide of the empire. Abdul Hamid nicely asked Perestu not to interfere in politics, which she agreed happyly. Perestu's life was charity as she was a kind nature who was not a fan of politics anyway. She died in 1904 after 28 years of rule.

Gülcemal Kadın, mother of Mehmed V. She was a woman of Bosnian descent who had three children from Abdulmejid. She died of tuberculosis in 1851, and her children were raised by Servetseza Kadın. Mehmed ascended the throne in 1909, but Servetseza did not survive until that day because in 1878 she died.

Gülüstü Hanım, Mehmed VI's mother. Gülüstü came from an Abkhazian noble family and became the concubine of Sultan Abdulmejid in 1854, and in 1861 she gave birth to her second child, a son, Mehmed. Not much time was given to her and her children, having died out of cholera in 1865. Her little daughter was entrusted to the care of Verdicenan Kadın, and Mehmed was raised by Şayeste Hanım. Şayeste was also a descendant of an Abkhaz noble family, but she had a hard time coming out with Mehmed. Mehmed left his foster mother's mansion at the age of 16 with three if his faithful servants. Although the relationship between the two of them was not perfect, Mehmed later took care of Şayeste because he was grateful to her for raising him. Mehmed became sultan in 1918, while Şayeste died in 1912, so she never became Valide. However, judging by the relationship between the two of them, probably she would not have been a Valide even if she was still alive when Mehmed ascended the throne.

List of the Valides based on their tenure:

Turhan Hatice Sultan 34 years 11 months 2 days

Rahime Perestu Sultan 28 years 3 months 11 days 

Kösem Sultan 24 years 10 months 29 days 

Nilüfer Hatun 21 years 

Emetullah Rabia Gülnüş 20 years 9 months 

Mihrişah Sultan 15 years 6 months 9 days 

Pertevniyal Sultan 14 years 11 months 5 days 

Bezmialem Sultan 13 years 10 months 

 Ayşe Hafsa Sultan 13 years 5 months 19 days 

Gülbahar Hatun 11 years 

Nakşidil Sultan 9 years 25 days 

Saliha Sultan 9 years 1 day 

Nurbanu Sultan 8 years 11 months 23 days 

Safiye Sultan 8 years 11 months 7 days 

Gülçiçek Hatun 3 years 1 month 4 days 

Dilaşub 2 years 1 month 27 days 

Hüma 2 years 1 month 

Handan Sultan 1 year 10 months 18 days 

Halime Sultan 1 year 6 months 26 days 

Şehsuvar 1 year 4 months 

Sineperver Sultan 1 year 1 month 29 days

Devlet Hatun 6 months 18 days 

Şevkefza Sultan 3 months 1 say

*    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

A Valide rang a mindenkori szultán édesanyjának rangja volt. Azonban ez a logikusnak tűnő titulus is rengeteg változáson ment át a szultánátus évszázadai során. Ezen posztomban szeretném bemutatni ezt a változást és megismertetni az szultánok édesanyját I. Oszmántól az utolsó szultán VI. Mehmed édesanyjáig.

Valide Hatun

A korai évszázadokban a Valide Sultan titulus még nem létezett, helyette a Valide Hatun volt használatban. A Valide gyakorlatilag az édesanya megszólítása, a Hatun pedig az asszonyok tiszteletteljes megszólítása volt, gyakorlatilag olyasmi, mint az "Asszonyom". Így a Valide Hatunt már akkor Valide Hatunnak hívták gyakorta, mikor fia még nem volt szultán, csupán provincia irányítója. A Valide Hatun feladata már jóval azelőtt elkezdődött, hogy fia trónra lépett volna. Ekkoriban még csak egyszerű ágyasok voltak ezek a nők, akik a szultán háremében éltek. Ez idő alatt gyermekeik ellátása és nevelése volt az elsődleges felataduk, majd később egyetlen fiukat (nem lehetett több fiuk az egy ágyas - egy fiú törvény miatt) elkísérték annak kijelölt provinciájába. A provinciában a Valide Hatun feladata volt, hogy a fiatal herceg udvartartását kézben tartsa és elkezdje fia háremének kialakítását, az ágyasokat és unokákat fegyelmezze. Amennyiben voltak lánygyermekei a Valide Hatunnak, akkor ők is anyjukkal és öccsükkel tartottak a kijelölt provinciába.

A Valide Hatun egyébként pozíciójának csúcsán akkor volt, míg fia ifjú volt, így annak provinciájában viszonylagos szabadsággal foglalkozhatott mindenféle ügyekkel. Erre remek példa egy I. Szelim édesanyjáról, Ayşe Gülbahar Hatunról írt beszámoló. Ayşe Gülbahar hetente tartott audienciát Trabzonban, Szelim provinciális posztján, ahol mindenki hatalmas tisztelettel hallgatta szavait. Ahogy aztán Szelim egyre idősebb lett és egyre jobban beletanult az uralkodásba, anyja mind inkább háttérbe szorult. Ugyanígy volt ez természetesen az összes többi Valide Hatunnal is.

Mikor fiuk trónra lépett a Valide Hatun feladata lett, hogy a háremet irányítsa, rendben tartsa. Politikai befolyásuk nem volt, néhány kivételes esetet leszámítva. Természetesen feladataik mellett a Valide Hatunok rengeteget jótékonykodtak és amennyiben volt rá idejük, építkezési projekteket is létrehoztak. Gyakorlatilag a jótékonykodás és építkezés onnantól kezdve jogukban állt, hogy fiukat elkísérték provinciába. Emiatt van az, hogy a legtöbb majdani Valide Hatunnak fia egykori provinciájában van építkezése.

Természetesen ahogy az idő haladt a Valide Hatun feladatai is nehezedtek. Korábban az Oszmán Birodalom is kisebb volt, a főváros és a szultáni palota is szerényebb volt, így a háremet is relatíve könnyű volt rendben tartani. Konstantinápoly elfoglalása után azonban a hatalmas Régi Palota lett a szultán háremének otthona, ami egy valódi kis város volt a városban (bővebben itt olvashattok róla). Párhuzamosan a Régi Palotába költözéssel a Valide Hatun politikai befolyása is egyre növekedett. És szépen lassan a Valide hatalmának csúcsa is áthelyeződött. Többé már nem a provinciákban élhették meg a legbefolyásosabb időszakukat, hanem a fővárosban, fiuk uralma alatt.

A de facto and klasszikus Valide Hatunok listája, kiegészítve azokkal az anyákkal, akik nem érték meg fiuk uralmát:

Halime Hatun, I. Oszmán feltételezett édesanyja. Sok a róla keringő legenda, így néhányan azt állítják, hogy Szeldzsuk hercegnő volt, azonban nincs erre utaló bizonyíték. Valószínűbb, hogy egyszerű közember volt, vagy egy befolyásosabb család gyermeke. Az ekkori bégek, uralkodók ugyanis nem volt jellemző, hogy rabszolgákkal házasodtak volna vagy a klasszikus értelemben vett háremet tartottak volna. Nem tudunk semmit Halime életéről, arról, hogy hány gyermeke volt, mikor született, mikor halt meg... Még az sem bizonyos, hogy ő volt I. Oszmán édesanyja.

Malhun Hatun, I. Orhan édesanyja. I. Orhan volt az első klasszikus értelemben vett szultán, ám még ő is átmenetet képezett a valódi szultánátus és a korábbi törzsi rendszer között. Malhun Hatun egyesek szerint befolyásos törzsből származott, mások szerint egy sejk lánya volt. Akárhogy is, bizonyosan I. Oszmán hites felesége volt és ő adott életet a későbbi I. Orhannak. Őt tartják az Oszmán Birodalom és az Oszmán család anyjának. Születési ideje, gyermekeinek  pontos száma nem ismert, ám azt tudjuk, hogy 1323-ban halt meg. Erre utal legalábbis, hogy fia 1324-ben építtetett tiszteletére komplexumot. Mivel ez a dátum egybe esik Orhan uralkodásának kezdetével, az sem zárható ki, hogy Malhun jóval előbb elhunyt. Lehetséges, hogy egyszerűen fiának - lévén nem volt még uralkodó - nem volt lehetősége adózni anyja emléke előtt. Így végül trónra lépése után tudott leghamarabb belefogni egy komplexum építésbe, hogy végre leróhassa tiszteletét. Akárhogy is, valószínűsíthető, hogy Malhun, fia uralmát nem, vagy alig érte meg. Ebben az értelemben pedig ő sem viselhette a Valide Hatun rangot.

Nilüfer Hatun, I. Murad édesanyja. Nilüfer volt az első, aki szinte minden kétséget kizáróan rabszolgasorból emelkedett a szultán anyjának rangjára. Mindemellett azt is tudjuk róla, hogy 1324 után lett Orhan ágyasa, ugyanis nem szerepel egy 1324-es jegyzékben, mely említi Orhan többi fő ágyasát (akik gyermeket szültek a szultánnak) vagy feleségét. Nilüfer gyermeke, Murad 1326-ban született, ám a nő első feltételezett említésére csupán 1331-ben került sor, mikoris egy bizonyos Ibn Battuta nevű utazót üdvözölt Orhan nevében Nikeában. Ez alapján és Murad születési éve alapján úgy kalkulálhatunk, hogy Nilüfer 1300 körül születhetett, de inkább utána. 1383-ban hunyt el, bőven megérve fia szultánná avanzsálását. Ezzel pedig ő lett az első Valide Hatun a birodalom történetében. 21 évig uralkodott, azonban nem tudunk sokat cselekedeteiről.

Gülçiçek Hatun, I. Bayezid édesanyja. A legendákkal ellentétben Gülçiçek rabszolga volt, talán görög származású. Nem tudni mikor vált I. Murad ágyasává, de fia a későbbi I. Bayezid 1360-ban született. Nem sokat tudunk Gülçiçek életéről, gyermekeinek pontos számáról. Az azonban bizonyos, hogy megérte fia uralkodását és ezen évek során építtetett egy mecsetet Bursa városában. Ezzel pedig ő lett az első Valide Hatun, aki mecsetet építtetett. Halálának ideje sem ismert, így az sem világos, hogy megérte e fia uralmának végét. I. Bayezidet ugyanis 1402-ben elkapta Timur Lenk és az ő fogságában hunyt el hamarosan. Gülçiçeket saját komplexumában helyezték örök nyugalomra Bursában.

Devlet Hatun, I. Mehmed édesanyja. Devlet szintén rabszolga származású asszony volt. Esetében ehhez kétség sem fér, hiszen bizonyítékok állnak rendelkezésre. Egy alapítványának irataiban úgy szerepel, mint Daulat bint-i Abd'Allah, ami annyit jelent, hogy egy nem muszlim és nem türk férfi lánya volt. Nem sokat tudunk életéről, ugyanis I. Bayezid életében jelen volt egy hites feleség, aki jóval ismertebb volt, így Devlet nem jutott igazán a reflektorfénybe. I. Bayezid elrablása majd halála után a birodalom interrgnum kormányzásban működött, tehát Bayezid fiai megosztva a birodalmat együtt uralkodtak. Ennek 1413-ban lett vége, mikor Devlet fia, Mehmed testvéreit legyőzbe egyeduralkodó lett. Devlet nem sokáig élvezhette azonban a Valide Hatun rangot, ugyanis 1414 januárjában halt meg és Bursában temették el, mindössze 1 év Valideség után.

Emine Hatun, II. Murad feltételezett édesanyja. II. Murad anyjának kiléte a mai napig vitatott. Származását tekintve Emine egy Dulkadir hercegnő volt, befolyásos család gyermeke. 1403-ban ment hivatalosan is feleségül Mehmed Çelebihez, mikor az Oszmán interregnum elkezdődött. Házasságuk tisztán politikai volt, ugyanis Mehmed így próbálta megszerezni - sikeresen - a Dulkadir család támogatását, akik végül kulcsfigurái lettek szultánná válásában. Emine mellett felmerül az is, hogy II. Murad anyja egy Şehzade nevű szintén nemesi származású család lánya volt. De az sem kizárt, hogy egy névtelen és jelentéktelen rabszolga volt Murad anyja. Nem tudjuk, hogy Emine mikor hunyt el.

Hüma Hatun, II. Mehmed édesanyja. Hüma körül is sok a legenda, egyesek szerint bizánci hercegnő volt, mások szerint egyszerű rabszolga, de a velencei és magyar származás is felmerül. A legvalószínűbb azonban, hogy Hüma egyszerű rabszolga volt, erre utal ugyanis neve és az, hogy egyik alapítványának irataiban "Hatun binti Abdullah" néven szerepel, ami a rabszolga eredetű ágyasok egyik megszokott megnevezése volt. Hüma életéről nagyon keveset tudunk, melyen az a tény sem segített, hogy fia II. Mehmed elutasította, hogy valaha is anyjáról beszéljen. Annyi bizonyos, hogy 1343-ban követte fiát, Mehmedet Amasyába, ahová a szultán nevezte ki Mehmedet mint helytartót. A következő évben II. Murad szultán depressziós lett és lemondott a trónról, így 1344-ben Mehmed vette át a feladatait. Ekkor Hüma Valide Hatun lett ugyan, de a fiatal szultán helyett elsősorban a nagyvezír uralkodott. Így pedig nem volt valódi hatalom Hüma kezében. 1346-ban aztán Murad szultán visszatért, és Mehmed rövid uralmának vége szakadt. Hüma a következő éveket Bursában töltötte, élete innentől pedig újra kérdőjelek halmaza. Egyesek szerint 1449-ben meghalt mielőtt Mehmed trónra léphetett volna 1451-ben, mások szerint anya és fia összekülönböztek, emiatt nem követte Hüma sosem fiát az időközben elfoglalt Konstantinápolyba és emiatt nem lett sohasem Valide Hatun felnőtt fia mellett.

Gülbahar Hatun, II. Bayezid édesanyja. Gülbahar esetében is fenn maradt egy alapítványi okirat, ami egyértelműsíti, hogy rabszolga származású nő volt. Esetében felmerül a görög vagy albán származás is. 1455/6-ban Bayezidet édesapja kinevezte Amasya kormányzójává, így Gülbahar és Bayezid oda utaztak és ott is maradtak 1581-ig, II. Mehmed haláláig. Ezidő alatt Gülbahar igen sokat tevékenykedett Amasyában. Hatalmas vagyonokat tartott kezében és elődeihez képest sokat foglalkozott a helyi politikával is. Gülbahar meglehetősen erőskezű nő volt, aki minden bizonnyal könnyedén megbírkózott a hatalmas Régi Palota irányításával fia 1581-es trónralépése után. Erős személyiségét jól mutatja egyik levele, melyben fiát - a már szultán Bayezidet - korholja, amiért az nem látogatja meg elég gyakran. Levelében így ír: "Mindenem, hiányzol. Ha én nem is hiányzom neked, te nagyon hiányzol nekem... Gyere, látogass meg, hadd lássalak. Drága uram, hamarosan hadjáratra mész, kérlek gyere előtte egyszer-kétszer, hogy lássam drága arcodat mielőtt elhagyod a várost. Már negyven napja nem láttalak. Drága szultánom, bocsásd meg nyersségem, de kim van nekem rajtad kívül...?" Gülbahar más leveleiből kitűnik az is, hogy gyakran adott tanácsot fiának politikai ügyekben is. Végül 1492-ben halt meg 11 évnyi uralkodás után és Isztambulban temették el. Gülbahar volt az első Valide Hatun, aki Isztambulban uralkodhatott és akinek jelentős befolyása volt fiára és a politikára is.

Ayşe Gülbahar, I. Szelim édesanyja. Ayşe Gülbahar egyik alapítványi okiratában "Hatun binti Abd-us-Samed" néven szerepel, ami tipikus említés volt a keresztény származású balkáni és anatóliai áttértek számára. Ez alapján valószínűsíthető, hogy Ayşe Gülbahar anatóliai vagy balkáni rabszolga volt, aki aztán II. Bayezid ágyasa lett. Ayşe Gülbaharról, ahogy fentebb is említettem feljegyezték, hogy hegyesen ívelt fekete szemöldöke volt, mélyen ülő fekete szemekkel, amelyeknek egyetlen pillantásával ölni tudott, ha valaki felbosszantotta. Minden bizonnyal tőle örökölte ezen tulajdonságát I. Szelim. Ayşe Gülbahar 1470-ben adott életet fiának, Szelimnek, akivel Bayezid háremében éltek egészen addig, míg Szelim nem lett Trabzon kormányzója. Trabzonban Ayşe Gülbahar nagy befolyással bírt, ám ahogy fia egyre jobban beletanult az uralkodásba, egyre inkább háttérbe szorult. Ayşe Gülbahar nem érte meg Szelim uralkodását, még Trabzonban meghalt feltehetőleg 1511 előtt valamikor. 1514-ben fia, Szelim Trabzonban építtetett egy komplexumot anyja emlékére és tiszteletére.

Valide Sultan

II. Bayezid uralkodása során - nem teljesen tisztázott, hogy mikor - létrehozta a Sultan (szultána) titulust, melyet lányai használhattak. A szultána rangnak köszönhetően családjának nő tagjai is jóval a többi Hatun (asszony) fölé emelkedtek. A titulust azonban Bayezid nem terjesztette ki saját édesanyjára, Gülbaharra. I. Szelim édesanyja, Ayşe Gülbahar pedig azelőtt elhunyt, mielőtt Szelim trónra lépett volna. Így végül I. Szulejmán volt az, aki kiterjesztette a szultána titulust édesanyjára is. Így nem csak nővérei, húgai és lányai viselhették a szultána rangot, de édesanyja, Ayşe Hafsa is. Ezzel Ayşe Hafsa lett az első Valide Sultan. A feladatkörökben ez a változás nem jelentett azonban semmit. A Valide Sultan feladata volt fia trónra lépése után a birodalmi hárem rendben tartása, a szultán családjára (ágyasai, gyermekei) való felügyelés. Amennyire változatlan maradt a feladatkör, annyira változott meg a megszólítás. Korábban a Valide Hatun az anyák tiszteletteljes megszólítása volt, így már a provinciákban is így szólították őket. A Valide Sultan viszont egyértelműen csak a szultán anyjának fenntartott megszólítás volt.

Hatalmas változást hozott III. Murad uralma a Valide Sultan rang számára. Addig ugyanis a Valide Sultan csupán egy tiszteletteljes megnevezése volt a szultán anyjának, nem volt hivatalos, bejegyzett titulus. Hivatalos, bejegyzett titulus alapján azt értem, mint amilyen például a Nagyvezír vagy a Fő eunuch volt. Ezek a tisztségek meghatározott feladatkörrel bírtak és nem csak megszólítások voltak, hanem valódi titulusok, tisztségek. III. Murad volt az, aki 1574-es trónralépésekor a Valide Sultan titulust egy bejegyzett, hivatalos ranggá tette. Ez hatalmas előrelépés volt a mindenkori Valide Sultan számára. Innentől szerepe hivatalossá vált, nem csupán a szultán anyja volt, hanem saját jogán Valide Sultan. Korábban a Validék leveleiket, alapítványi irataikat úgy jegyezték, mint a XY szultán anyja, innentől kezdve azonban XY Valide Sultanként írhatták alá.

A III. Murad által létrehozott változások gyakorlatilag a birodalom fennállásának végéig megmaradtak. Ugyanakkor a Valide Sultan idővel elveszítette azt a kiemelt befolyást, amit a 16. és 17. században képviselt. A 16. és 17. században ugyanis a Validék hatalma sosem látott szinteket ért el. Az alkalmatlan szultánok, a gyermek szultánok és a geopolitikai helyzet alakulása miatt többük volt de facto vagy klasszikus értelemben vett régens. Régensségük lejárta után, alapvető szerepük továbbra is fiuk háremének rendben tartása volt, ám emellett kiemelt figyelmet szenteltek a jótékonykodás és politika felé. A 16. és 17. században nem találni olyan Valide Sultant, akinek ne lett volna politikai szerepe.

A Valide Sultan rang viselőinek listája, kiegészítve azokkal az anyákkal, akik nem érték meg fiuk uralmát:

Ayşe Hafsa Sultan, I. Szulejmán édesanyja. Ayşe Hafsa I. Szelim ágyasa volt, aki legalább három gyermeknek adott életet. Korai éveiről nem tudunk sokat. Hafsa volt az első rabszolga, aki a szultána rangot viselhette, mikor fia, Szulejmán trónralépése után ezt engedélyezte neki. Ayşe Hafsa uralma meglehetősen hasonlított nagynevű elődjéhez, Gülbaharéhoz. Hafsa irányította Szulejmán háremét a Régi Palotában, egyensúlyt teremtett fia ágyasai között, odafigyelt unokái jólétére és rengeteget jótékonykodott. Hafsát mindenki szerette és tisztelte, ő volt az egyik legimádottabb Valide Sultana. Politikailag minimálisan volt aktív, megvoltak a saját emberei, és ha fia kikérte véleményét, igyekezett segíteni őt. Azonban Hafsa sosem akarta felülbírálni fiát, emiatt nem is foglalkozott a szükségesnél többet a politikával. 14 évig lehetett Valide Sultan fia mellett, és ő lett az első rabszolga eredetű személy, aki birodalmi temetést kapott 1534-es halála után. Hosszabb életrajza itt érhető el: link.

Hürrem Sultan, II. Szelim édesanyja. Hürrem ruténiai származású nő volt, aki hat gyermeket szült a szultánnak, I. Szulejmánnak. Hürrem igazi formabontó szerepet töltött be, hiszen envéhez fűződik több korábbi szabály megszűnése (egy ágyas - egy fiú, szultánok házassága, ágyasok lakhelye) és új szerepkörök betöltése (Haseki Sultan rang, hárem vezetés, fiai egyedül provinciába küldése stb). Ugyanakkor Hürrem sosem érte meg, hogy fia II. Szelim 1566-ban trónra lépjen, mert 1558-ban elhunyt. Hosszabb életrajza itt érhető el: link.

Nurbanu Sultan, III. Murad édesanyja. Nurbanu velencei származású rabszolgából lett ágyas volt, aki több gyermekkel ajándékozta meg II. Szelimet. Korai éveiről nem tudunk sokat, akkor került be a köztudatba, mikor 1566-ban II. Szelim trónra lépett. Nurbanu több szempontból véve is különleges nő: ő volt az első, aki egyszerre viselhette a Haseki Sultan rangot és lehetett hites felesége a szultánnak, majd férje halálával, fia tróra lépésével Valide Sultan is lett. Hogy anyja iránti tiszteletét megmutassa III. Murad valódi hivatalos titulust kreált a Valide Sultan rangból, így Nurbanu lett ennek első viselője. Élete során rengeteget jótékonykodott, építtetett és a politikára is hatalmas befolyása volt, fia mindenben kikérte véleményét. 1574-től haláláig, 1583-ig, tehát 9 évig volt Valide Sultan. Hosszabb életrajza itt érhető el: link.

Safiye Sultan, III. Mehmed édesanyja. Albán származású ágyas volt, akit I. Szulejmán unokája, Hümaşah Sultan nevelt és taníttatott ki. Ő ajándékozta a lányt a későbbi III. Muradnak, akinek több gyermeket is szült. Safiye ifjú korában megjárta a mennyet és poklot, volt kiemelt státuszú Haseki Sultan és volt száműzött asszony is, majd hites feleség. Hatalmának csúcsát Valide Sultanként érte el, amikor gyakorlatilag fia, a meglehetősen alkalmatlan III. Mehmed helyett uralkodott. Egyáltalán nem volt népszerű Valide, több felkelés is történt személye ellen, mely felkelések során több kegyeltjét is kivégezték. Safiye volt az első Valide Sultan (sőt valószínűleg az első Valide), aki túlélte fiát. Ezzel pedig szokatlan helyzet állt elő, unokája I. Ahmed számára nem volt egyértelmű, mihez kezdjen nagyanyjával. Végül népszerűtlensége miatt Safiyét a Régi Palotába küldték, ami az elhalálozott szultánok családjának helyt adó palota lett eddigre. A korábban a birodalmat irányító, befolyásos Safiye nehezen viselte ezt és száműzetésként élte meg. Épp emiatt bosszúból teljesen megrongálta a szultán Topkapi Palotában található háremét, amivel végleg ellehetetlenítette saját visszatérését. Unokáját és még két szultán uralmát megtapasztalva, 1620 körül hunyt el. Hosszabb életrajza itt érhető el: link.

Handan Sultan, I. Ahmed édesanyja. Handan bosnyák származású rabszolga volt, akit egy született szultána, II. Szelim leánya, Gevherhan Sultan nevelt és taníttatott. Handan fiatal korában nem érvényesülhetett, zsarnok anyósa, Safiye ugyanis elnyomta III. Mehmed összes ágyasát. Handan végül 1603-ban került a reflektorfénybe, mikoris III. Mehmed meghalt és örököse, Handan fia lépett trónra. Az ifjú szultán, Ahmed csupán 13 éves volt, így szükség volt régensekre is mellette. Ahmed szultánnak két régense volt, édesanyja Handan és tanítója. Handan nem hivatalosan kinevezett régens volt, ám gyakorlatilag hónapkig fia helyett uralkodott, meghallgatásokon vett részt, politikai tisztogatást szervezett (hogy megszabaduljon Safiye Sultan embereitől). Handan élete meglehetősen korán véget ért, 1605-ös halála miatt az egyik legrövidebb ideig uralkodó Valide Sultan lett, mindössze 2 évnyi uralkodással. Ugyanakkor nem felejthetjük el, hogy ő volt az első női régense a birodalomnak. Hosszabb életrajza itt érhető el: link.

Halime Sultan, I. Musztafa édesanyja. Handannal ellentétben, Halime, aki szintén III. Mehmed ágyasa volt, nem tűrte Safiye Sultan zsarnokoskodását és igyekezett felvenni a harcot az anyóssal. Ambícióit fia, Mahmud herceg is osztotta, aki többször beszélt nyíltan nagyanyja és apja, a szultán ellen. Safiye és Halime harca 1603 nyarán zárult le, mikor a szultán, Safiye nyomására kivégeztette Mahmud hereceget. Az összetört Halime életét megkímélték, ám hamarosan elszakították tőle másik fiát, Musztafát, akit évekig alig láthatott. Musztafa komoly mentális problémákkal küzdött, ezért is volt meglepő, mikor I. Ahmed halála után végül őt választották örökösnek. Ahmed volt az első szultán, aki trónralépésekor nem végeztette ki fiú testvéreit, ez pedig az öröklésirend megváltozásához vezetett. Innentől nem a fia követte a szultánt a trónon, hanem a legidősebb élő herceg. Musztafa tragikus mentális állapota miatt Halime uralkodott fia helyett, első hivatalos régensként. A politikailag instabil időkben Musztafát trónfosztották, ám hamarosan újra szultánná kiáltották ki. Ezzel pedig Halime lett az első Valide Sultan, aki ugyanazon fia mellett kétszer is Valide Sultan lehetett. Musztafa második trónfosztása után egymástól elzárva élt tovább anya és fia hosszú évekig. Hosszabb életrajza itt érhető el: link.

Mahfiruz Hatun, II. Oszmán édesanyja. Mahfiruz I. Ahmed ágyasa volt, aki bár a legidősebb fiú anyja volt, nem ő volt Ahmed kedvenc ágyasa. Mahfiruz személyéről, tetteiről meglehetősen keveset tudunk korai halála miatt. Nem érte meg fia, II. Oszmán 1618-as trónralépését, így sohasem lehetett Valide Sultan. Erre utal neve is, hiszen Mahfiruz Hatunként temették el, nem pedig Mahfiruz Sultanként. Hosszabb életrajza itt érhető el: link.

Kösem Sultan, IV. Murad és I. Ibrahim szultánok édesanyja. A görög származású Kösem meglehetősen ingatag politikai és geopolitikai helyzetben találta magát, mikor kedvese I. Ahmed elhunyt. Az örökösödési káosz során elvesztette legidősebb fiát, akit II. Oszmán végeztetett ki. Hamarosan Oszmán is hasonló sorsra jutott, miután fellázadt janicsárok brutáisan meggyilkolták. A kaotikus időszaknak 1623-ban szakadt vége, mikor Kösem fiát IV. Muradot tették meg szultánnak, mindössze 11 évesen. Kösem régensként uralkodott fia helyett hosszú évekig, majd mikor fia elég idős lett az uralkodáshoz, visszavonult. Kösem rengeteget jótékonykodott Valide Sultansága alatt és igyekezett politikai tanácsadója lenni fiának. Muradot - nem lévén élő fia - öccse Ibrahim követte a trónon, aki szintén Kösem fia volt. Ibrahim mentálisan beteg volt, hasonlóan nagybátyjához, így helyette Kösem uralkodott nem hivatalos régensként. Két fia mellett Kösem gyakorlatilag 1623-tól 1648-ig, tehát 25 évig volt Valide Sultan. Végül Ibrahimot trónfosztották és helyébe gyermekét, IV. Mehmedet ültették. A pasák a tapasztalt Kösem Sultant kérték fel, hogy tanítsa be az ifjú szultánt és annak édesanyját Turhan Haticét az uralkodásra. Amíg pedig ez megtörténik, Kösem újra régensi pozícióban találta magát. Ez azonban más volt, mint a korábbi régensségei, meglehetősen megváltozott a szultána és erőszakosan kezdett uralkodni, melynek 1651-es kivégzése vetett véget. Ő volt az első és egyetlen Valide Sultan akit kivégeztek. Hosszabb életrajza itt érhető el: link.

Turhan Hatice Sultan, IV. Mehmed édesanyja. Az orosz származású Turhannak meglehetősen nehéz ifjú kora volt a mentálisan beteg I. Ibrahim ágyasaként. A nehéz időszaknak végül 1651-ben szakadt vége, mikor Turhan lett a hivatalos régens fia mellett. Ezt a feladatot csupán néhány évig látta el, majd átadta a hatalmat a fővezírnek. Turhan élete során végig politikailag igen aktív volt, fia rendszeresen kérte ki anyja véleményét, sokszor pedig Turhan maga döntött, lévén fia nem kedvelte az uralkodást. Turhan élete során minden erejével védte nevelt fiait is, akiket IV. Mehmed ki akart végeztetni uralkodásának egy pontján. Turhan Hatice rengeteget jótékonykodó, igazán tisztelt és szeretett Valide Sultan volt, aki monumentális építkezéseket is eszközölt hosszú uralma alatt. Ő volt a leghosszabb ideig uralkodó Valide is, hiszen 32 évig volt hivatalban. 1683-ban bekövetkezett halálakor az egész birodalom gyászba borult és úgy vélte a nép, hogy a birodalom elveszítette utolsó erős és stabil oszlopát. Sajnos igazuk volt, Turhan fiát hamarosan trónfosztották, mert anyja tanácsai nélkül képtelen volt megfelelően uralkodni. Turhan Hatice hosszabb életrajza itt érhető el: link.

Saliha Dilşub Sultan, II. Szulejmán édesanyja. Saliha Dilaşub hasonlóan Turhanhoz és I. Ibrahim más ágyasaihoz meglehetősen zavaros időket élt meg fiatal korában. Valószínűsíthető, hogy Kösem Sultan egy puccs során őt és fiát szerette volna felhasználni IV. Mehmed és Turhan Hatice ellen 1651-ben. A puccs nem járt sikerrel, Kösem Sultanát kivégeztették, IV. Mehmed és anyja azonban megbocsájtottak Salihának és fiának, Szulejmánnak is. Sőt, Turhan egész életében védelmezte Saliha fiát is. Saliha Dilaşub majd negyven éven keresztül élt a Régi Palotában, fiától elszakítva IV. Mehmed uralkodása során. Végül Mehmed trónfosztása után 1687-ben Saliha elhagyhatta a Régi Palotát, hogy végre fia oldalán Valide Sultan lehessen. Sajnos azonban nem sokáig élvezhette ezt, hiszen nem sokkal később, mindössze 2,5 év uralkodás után elhunyt. Validesége így viszonylag szürke maradt, és bár jótékonykodása ismert, politikailag nem volt ideje aktivizálódni. Hosszabb életrajza itt érhető el: link.

Hatice Muazzez Sultan, II. Ahmed édesanyja. Saliha Dilaşubbal és Turhannal együtt Muazzez is I. Ibrahim ágyasa volt és meglehetősen hányatott ifjúkor jutott neki. Helyzete később sem változott, hiszen végig a Régi Palotában töltötte IV. Mehmed uralkodását, alig találkozva fiával, Ahmeddel. Muazzez életéről nagyon keveset tudunk, feltételezhető, hogy Ahmed mellett volt egy lánya is. 1687 szemptemberében hatalmas tűzvész pusztított a Régi Palotában és Muazzez attól rettegve, hogy elevenen elég, szívrohamot kapott és néhány nappal később elhunyt. Alig két hónappal halála után a vele együtt "raboskodó" Saliha Dilaşub elhagyhatta a Régi Palotát, hiszen fia II. Szulejmán lett a szultán. Muazzez fia 1691-ben követte Szulejmánt, II. Ahmed néven. Hosszabb életrajza itt érhető el: link.

Emetullah Rabia Gülnüş Sultan, II. Musztafa és III. Ahmed szultánok édesanyja. Görög származású nő volt, aki rabszolgából lett a Nők szultánátusának utolsó befolyásos asszonya. Élete során volt Haseki és Valide is, a kor két legfontosabb rangját viselte és a legjobbaktól tanult. Ifjúkorában, IV. Mehmed kedvenceként is hatalmas befolyással bírt és politikailag is igen aktív volt. Mikor kedvesét trónfosztották Emetullah a Régi Palotába kényszerült, melyet csak 1694-ben hagyhatott el, mikor Valide Sultan Emetullahból fia II. Musztafa oldalán. Korábbi befolyását még magasabb szintekre emelte, elképesztő befolyással bírt a politikai életre és fiára, amely felkeltette a pasák rosszallását is. Végül fiát trónfosztották 1703-ban, majd hamarosan természetes okokból el is halálozott Musztafa. Emetullah meggyászolta fiát, majd tanulva hibáiból, másik fia, III. Ahmed uralkodása során végig a háttérben maradt és a pasákkal szorosan együttműködött. Rengeteg jótékonyság, építkezés köthető nevéhez. Két fia mellett összesen 20 évig lehetett Valide Sultan. Hosszabb életrajza itt érhető el: link.

Saliha Sultan, I. Mahmud édesanyja. Szerb származású nő volt, akinek II. Musztafa szultán ágyasaként nem volt kiemelt befolyása ám lehetősége volt rengeteget tanulni anyósától, Emetullah Rabia GÜlnüştől. 1696-ban adott életet fiának, majd nemsokkal később, 1703-ban Musztafa trónfosztásával a Régi Palotába költöztették. Itt azonban nem fogadta el háttérbe szorulását, folyamatosan kapcsolatokat épített. 1730-ban végül újra fellélegezhetett, ugyanis fia, I. Mahmud trónra lépett. Fia mellett 9 évig volt Valide Sultan és hasonlóan nagynevű elődjéhez, Emetullah Rabia Gülnüşhöz elképesztő hatalomra tett szert. Mindenki az ő kegyeibe próbált férkőzni, hogy önmaga előrejutását biztosítani tudja. Igyekeztek ajándékokkal lekenyerezni a befolyásos Validét. Uralkodása során több kisebb építkezési projektbe belekezdett, így Isztambulban több általa építtetett kút is fellelhető. Egyik ilyen, az Azapkapı Saliha Sultan Kút Isztambul legszebb vízi építészeti emléke.

Şehsuvar Sultan, III. Oszmán édesanyja. II. Musztafa ágyasa volt, akinek még annyi rivaldafény sem jutott, mint Salihának, ugyanis elő gyermeke 1699-ben született, majd 1703-ban már a Régi Palotában találta magát II. Musztafa trónfosztása után. Hasonlóan Salihához, Şehsuvar sem nevelhette tovább fiát, hiszen a hercegeket a Topkapi Palotába vitték. Végül 1754-ben újra fia oldalán találhatta magát, mikor az III. Oszmán néven a birodalom új szultánja lett. Oszmán, aki évtizedek óta alig találkozhatott anyjával elutasította, hogy azonnal megtartsák a szultánná avatási ceremóniát, ugyanis három napig csak az édesanyjával kívánt időt tölteni. Şehsuvar uralkodása elég rövid volt, ugyanis csupán 1,5 évig lehetett Valide Sultan, mert 1756-ban elhunyt. Ezidő alatt sem politikai sem jótékonysági vagy építkezési projekt nem történt. Néhány politikai ügyben azonban sejthető a szerepe, így nem tekinthető politikailag teljesen inaktívnak.

Mihrişah Kadın, III. Musztafa édesanyja. III. Ahmed ágyasa volt, aki három fiút is szült a szultánnak meglehetősen nagy korkülönbségekkel (1710, 1717, 1728). III. Ahmed trónfosztása után 1730-ban a Régi Palotába költöztették Mihrişaht, ahol két évvel később, 25 évvel fia trónra lépése előtt meghalt. Élete során néhány kisebb építkezési projektje volt még úgy is, hogy sosem lehetett Valide Sultan.

Rabia Şermi Kadın, I. Abdul Hamid édesanyja. Şermi is III. Ahmed ágyasa volt, akinek egyetlen gyermeket szült, 1725-ben, Abdul Hamidot. Şermi több mint 40 évvel fia trónralépése előtt halt meg, 1732-ben. Rövid élete során nem tudott mély nyomot hagyni a történelemben, egyetlen kutat építtetett. Fia később az ő tiszteletére nevezte el egyik gyermekét, Rabiának, ám a kislány nemsokkal születése után meghalt.

Mihrişah Sultan, III. Szelim édesanyja. Mihrişah III. Musztafa ágyasa volt. Érdekes egybeesés, hogy Musztafa édesanyját is Mihrişahnak hívták. A szépséges grúz rabszolga 1757-ben lett Musztafa ágyasa. Három gyermeke született, ám közülük egyedül Szelim élte meg a felnőttkort, két lánya csecsemőként elhunyt. Fiatalkoráról nem sokat tudunk, de minden bizonnyal már ekkor is nagy vagyonnal bírt, ugyanis fenn maradt dokumentumok alapján maga a szultán is tartozott neki. Párja 1774-es hirtelen halála után a Régi Palotába száműzték, ahonnan csak 15 évvel később térhetett vissza, mikor fia, Szelim trónra lépett. Mihrişah 16 évig volt Valide Sultan fia, Szelim mellett. Ezen évek során erőteljesen támogatta fia innovációit. Az ő nevéhez köthető a Topkapi Palota háremének felújítása, de több építési projektje is volt. Mihrişah és fia igen közel álltak egymáshoz, mindent megvitattak és egyesek szerint Szelim minden egyes reggel meglátogatta édesanyját. Ettől függetlenül Mihrişah nem használta ki befolyását, nem avatkozott politikába, inkább vallással és jótékonykodással töltötte idejét. 1805-ben hunyt el.

Sineperver Sultan, IV. Musztafa édesanyja. 1774-ben lett Abdul Hamid ágyasa, majd 1779-ben adott életet fiának. Eddigre Sineperver eltemette már egy fiát. A tragikus emlék miatt Musztafa születése után imákat kért fia egészségéért és minden adósság miatt börtönben ülőnek kifizette adósságát, hogy szabadon bocsáttassanak. Imái meghallgatásra leltek, Musztafa megérte a felnőttkort, akárcsak Sineperver lánya, Esma Sultan. Másik lánya, Fatma viszont első gyermeke, Ahmed sorsára jutott és gyermekként elhunyt. 1789-ben Abdul Hamid meghalt, Sineperver pedig a Régi Palotába költözött. Innen 1807-ben távozhatott, mikor fia, IV. Musztafa szultán lett. Sajnálatos módon Musztafa uralma meglehetősen rövid volt, alig 1 évig ült a trónon, majd trónfosztották és hamarosan kivégezték. Sineperver hátralévő éveit egyetlen élő gyermekének, Esma Sultannak szentelte. 1828-ban halt meg.

Nakşidil Sultan, II. Mahmud édesanyja. Sokáig tartotta magát a teória, hogy Napóleon feleségének Josephinnek távoli rokona, mára azonban bebizonyosodott, hogy grúz származású rabszolga volt. Abdul Hamid ágyasaként 1785-ben adott életet fiának Mahmudnak, ám nem sokáig élvezhette a szultán ágyasaként őt megillető figyelmet. Abdul Hamid 1789-ben elhunyt, Nakşidil pedig a Régi Palotába költözött. 1808-ban mostoha fia, IV. Musztafa lépett trónra, aki elődjét III. Szelimet meggyilkoltatta és merénylőket küldött Nakşidil fia, Mahmud ellen is. Nakşidil elrejtette fiát, így túlélte és puccsal hamarosan szultán lett belőle. Mahmud trónra lépése után azonnal kivégeztette féltestvérét, IV. Musztafát. Nakşidil fia trónralépésével hatalmas ceremónia során költözött vissza a Topkapi Palotába. Ő volt az utolsó Valide, aki a szokásoknak megfelelően így utazott a Régi Palotából a Topkapiba. Ennek egyik oka az volt, hogy pont az ő javaslatára a Topkapi helyett más birodalmi palotákat kezdett előnyben részesíteni a dinasztia. Mahmud uralkodásának korai éveiben rendszeresen konzultált édesanyjával. A Valide Sultan sokat jótékonykodott és voltak kisebb nagyobb építkezési projektjei is. Nakşidil 9 évig lehetett Valide Sultan, mivel 1817-ben tuberkolózisban meghalt. Fia, Mahmud, menye Bezmialem és unokája, Abdulmejid is ebben a betegségben haltak meg.

Bezmialem Sultan, I. Abdulmejid édesanyja. A grúz származású nő, 1822-ben lett II. Mahmud ágyasa. Bezmialemet II. Mahmud féltestvére, Sineperver lánya, Esma Sultan nevelte fel. Talán innen ered kifinomultsága és intelligenciája. 1823-ban adott életet egyetlen gyermekénetk, Abdulmejidnek. 1839-ben II. Mahmud meghalt és Abdulmejid lett a szultán. Fia trónra lépése után Bezmialem 14 évig uralkodott Valide Sultanként. Abdulmejid csupán 16 éves volt, amikor trónra lépett, így anyja igen sokat segítette a korai években. Igen szoros volt a kapocs anya és fia között, gyakran leveleztek egymással, mely leveleket sosem titkárok írták helyettük, hanem önmaguk, saját kezükkel. Amikor a szultán elhagyta a fővárost, mindig anyját tette meg a főváros fejévé távolléte idejére. Bezmialem elhivatott jótékonykodó volt, amiért a nép mérhetetlenül szerette. Emellett építkezési projektjei is ismertté tették, valamint politikai befolyása. Bezmialem tuberkolózisban halt meg 1853-ban, fia pedig összeomlott a hírtől. Anyja halála után a szultán elképesztő mennyiségű pénzt költött a temetésre.

Pertevniyal Sultan, Abdulaziz édesanyja. II. Mahmud kurd vagy román származású ágyasa egyetlen gyermekének, Abdulaziznak 1830-ban adott életet. II. Mahmud 1839-es halála után Abdulaziz bátyja, Abdulmejid lépett trónra. 1861-ben aztán Abdulmejid is elhunyt és Abdulaziz következett. Pertevniyal 15 évig volt Valide Sultan, mely idő alatt elképesztő befolyásra és vagyonra tett szert. Fián korlátlan hatalma volt, melyet ki is használt, rendszeresen befolyásolva az uralkodót. Uralma során többször látott vendégül befolyásos vendégeket a háremben. Az egyik ilyen alkalomnak majdnem diplomáciai botrány lett a vége, mert felpofozta a francia vendéget. Lobbanékony természete mellett azonban rengeteget jótékonykodott és építkezett. Pertevniyal fiát 1876-ban trónfosztották és elzárták a Topkapi Palotában. Hasonló sors várt Pertevniyalra is. Abdulaziz nem bírta elviselni a bezártságot és egy ollóval felvágta ereit. Felmerült a gyilkosság lehetősége is, de az Abdulaziz testét megvizsgáló összes orvos kizárta ezt. Pertevniyal összetört. Egy kis enyhülést hozott számára II. Abdul Hamid trónralépése, aki nagyon szerette Pertevniyalt, így gondoskodott az asszonyról. Pertevniyal élete hátralévő részében a gondjaira bízott gyermekeket nevelt, tanított és visszavonultan élt. 1884-ben halt meg.

Şevkefza Sultan, V. Murad édesanyja. A grúz nő 1839-ben lett Abdulmejid ágyasa. 1840-ben adott életet fiának, Muradnak, akit hamarosan egy kislány követett, aki korán elhunyt. Şevkefza viszonylag szürke szereplője a történelemnek, mindössze 3 hónapig volt Valide Sultan, mivel fiát igen gyorsan trónfosztották mentális állapota miatt. V. Murad 1876-os trónfosztása után Şevkefza szerette volna fiát puccsal visszaültetni a trónra, de Murad nem mutatott érdeklődést. Şevkefsa végül 1889-ben hunyt el valamilyen nyaki daganat következtében.

Tirimüjgan Kadın, II. Abdul Hamid édesanyja. Örmény származású, gyönyörű nő volt, aki 1839-ben lett Abdulmejid szultán kegyeltje. Fia Abdul Hamid 1842-ben született meg, két másik gyermekét pedig korán elvesztette. Tirimüjgan beteges nő volt, aki ettől függetlenül igyekezett mindent megadni fiának. Végül a halál 1852-ben elragadta. Fiát Nergisnihal Hanımra, egyik szolgálójára bízta, aki élete végéig Abdul Hamid mellett maradt. Emellett Tirimüjgan közel állt a szultán egy másik ágyasához, Perestuhoz, így végül a szultán Abdul Hamidot Perestu gondjaira bízta. Perestu akkor már nevelt egy másik elárvult gyermeket, Cemile Sultant, lévén neki magának nem volt saját gyermeke. Cemile és Abdul Hamid végül egy háztartásban nőttek fel. Mikor Abdul Hamid 1876-ban szultán lett névlegesen Perestunak adta a Valide Sultan rangot, amivel ő lett az utolsó nagy Validéje a birodalomnak. Abdul Hamid nyomatékosan megkérte Perestut, hogy ne avatkozzon politikába, amit az asszony szívesen teljesített is. Perestu élete a jótékonykodás volt, kedves természet volt, aki nem rajongott egyébként sem a politikáért. 1904-ben halt meg 28 évnyi uralkodás után.

Gülcemal Kadın, V. Mehmed édesanyja. Bosnyák, nemesi származású asszony volt, aki három gyermeket szült az uralkodónak, Abdulmejidnek. 1851-ben tuberkolózisban halt meg, gyermekeit Servetseza Kadın nevelte fel. Mehmed 1909-ben került trónra, Servetseza azonban nem érte meg ezt a napot, mert 1878-ban ő is meghalt.

Gülüstü Hanım, VI. Mehmed édesanyja. Gülüstü abkház nemesi családtól származott és 1854-ben lett Abdulmejid szultán ágyasa, majd 1861-ben életet adott második gyermekének, egy fiúnak, Mehmednek. Nem sok közös idő adatott meg neki és gyermekeinek, lévén 1865-ben kolerában meghalt. Kislányát Verdicenan Kadın gondjaira bízták, Mehmedet pedig Şayeste Hanım nevelte fel. Şayeste is abkház nemesi család sarja volt, azonban nehezen jött ki Mehmeddel. Mehmed 16 éves korában elhagyta nevelőanyja lakását három hű szolgálójával. Bár kettejük kapcsolata nem volt felhőtlen, Mehmed később is gondoskodott Şayestéről, mert hálás volt neki, amiért felnevelte. Mehmed 1918-ban lett szultán, míg Şayeste 1912-ben halt meg, így sosem lett Valide. Azonban kettejük viszonyából következtetve valószínűleg akkor sem lett volna Valide, ha még életben van Mehmed trónra lépésekor.

A Validék listája, uralkodásuk ideje alapján:

Turhan Hatice Sultan 34 év 11 hónap 2 nap

Rahime Perestu Sultan 28 év 3 hónap 11 nap

Kösem Sultan 24 év 10 hónap 29 nap

Nilüfer Hatun 21 év

Emetullah Rabia Gülnüş 20 év 9 hónap

Mihrişah Sultan 15 év 6 hónap 9 nap

Pertevniyal Sultan 14 év 11 hónap 5 nap

Bezmialem Sultan 13 év 10 hónap

Ayşe Hafsa Sultan 13 év 5 hónap 19 nap

Gülbahar Hatun 11 év

Nakşidil Sultan 9 év 25 nap

Saliha Sultan 9 év 1 nap

Nurbanu Sultan 8 év 11 hónap 23 nap

Safiye Sultan 8 év 11 hónap 7 nap

Gülçiçek Hatun 3 év 1 hónap 4 nap

Dilaşub 2 év 1 hónap 27 nap

Hüma 2 év 1 hónap

Handan Sultan 1 év 10 hónap 18 nap

Halime Sultan 1 év 6 hónap 26 nap

Şehsuvar 1 év 4 hónap

Sineperver Sultan 1 év 1 hónap 29 nap

Devlet Hatun 6 hónap 18 nap

Şevkefza Sultan 3 hónap 1 nap

#Osman I #Orhan I #murad i #bayezid i #mehmed i #murad ii #mehmed ii #Bayezid II #selim i #Suleiman I #Selim II #Murad III #Mehmed III #Ahmed I #Mustafa I #Osman II #Murad IV #ibrahim I #Mehmed IV #Suleiman II #Ahmed II #Mustafa II #Ahmed III #mahmud i #osman iii #mustafa iii #abdulhamid i #selim iii #mustafa iv #mahmud ii

[glitterminator]

Who is white?

What is a white????

i am greek and the greek gene-pool is a fuckery of middle eastern, slavic, turkish, vlach and whatever else genes, which results in greeks being a variety from the most stereotypically middle eastern person to blonde, fair and white and blue eyes

Also we weren't colonizers, but we also didn't colonize because we had been occupied by the Ottoman Empire and literally cockblocking the entire spice trade routes to Asia, which RESULTED in the pillaging fiesta that Western Europe got into these years. After being freed from the Ottoman Empire rule (hugely because Western Europe wanted it and sponsored it) we always had Western Europeans messing with our business, deciding on our politics, meddling with our elections, making Greece a battleground for their own conflicts, fetishizing Classical Greece for their own self-stroking purposes of being "democratical", and bringing a Bavarian king to rule who was A FUCKING TEENAGER. We continued to have kings from Western Europe all the way to 1970s, with the last one's wife, Freideriki, being from a family of LITERAL NAZIS. They sponsored and infiltrated everything, also later in Junta when the entire thing was orchestrated by the fucking CIA. Even today they control most of our stuff with indirect or more direct ways. I won't even mention WW1 and WW2 and the fuckery that was the consecutive civil war we had in which the west was fighting communist Russia on greek ground and it's responsible for a lot of shit we still have today in our state system.

A few weeks ago I had a German team saying that we are white and we have white privilege just like them.

So, are greeks white?

If we go with the looking factor (how we look), some of us look white and some of us don't. I would say a majority of people look white, but apart from the few people that have balkan roots and they are the blonde-white-blue eyes person, I don't think WASPs treat us as their own when they see us. In conclusion, most of us have a white looking privilage with quite a few exceptions.

If we go with the being factor (what we are genetically), we are a gene clusterfuck of middle eastern and balkan from a lot of different tribes and communities, so by no means we are "white" (yes, even the balkan side, which I will explain)

If we go with the heritage and culture factor (what we say to ourselves that we are), ever since the modern greek state was formed after the Ottoman rule lifting (early-middle 19th century) the West tries to convince us that we are "the continuation of the ancient greeks, highly intellectual and cultured" so we should stop being socially loud, expressive, emotional, etc etc (which I consider parts of both Balkan and Middle Eastern cultures, maybe more Middle Eastern?)**. But all greeks know that we are not like Western Europeans the way e.g. Dutch and German people look alike in terms of how they behave in public, how they communicate with their family, etc. We could not be more different. And we might not get attacked for it on the street, but we are getting side-eyed when we talk with each other on the street, when we socialize, when we greet the cashier with too much of a friendly tone. We often don't get accepted for jobs because they "clock" us for being different than the norm there.

**Actually, the whole minimalism wave kinda attacked traditional patterns in various cultures and you can definitely see it today in Greece too; people are ashamed to bring out their yiayia's stuff because they are too colorful and "folklore", and I guess we are not alone in this.

I would suggest a split of whites to WASPs and Balkan Whites, from Russia down to Greece. Yes, we carry the white looking privilage most of the time depending on the country, but when we talk or act in any way we are recognised as "different", and we are the poor, ex-communist countries.

We are second-class whites.

"But this is for classist reasons, not of actual racism", the German team told me

Racism in itself cannot cut itself off of classism, you fucking dingus. Nobody hates the rich Indians who shop shoes in Milan. Nobody hates the Saudi Arabian riches or the Asian millionaires. They hate the immigrants, they hate the refugees, because they hate the POOR. So racism is also depending on the person's class, not only skin color, and most of the times with the PERCEIVED class. Greeks are also poor AF but by looking more middle-class they manage to pass, along with their white privilege if they have any. And still, nobody hates Onassis, but they say that Romani and Greek people are brawlers, sex offenders and criminals in the UK.

WASPs treat us like the poor, bad at handling money, EU beggars when we immigrate, and all the racist stereotypes they might attach to us (greedy, lazy, low-efford, show-offs, loud, noisy and nosey, uncivilised, etc) TO THIS DAY.

Of course we don't have it nearly as hard as BIPOC people who deal with a lot or racism and xenophobia, but we deal with a fair share of it along with crushing poverty. And some people here actually face racism because they "look" BIPOC (I won't even talk about the hell Balkan immigrants and refugees to Greece went and are still going through and how much shit they deal with). So, how do you navigate this through the simple logic on "looking at how dark your skin is", even though so much more stuff are responsible for someone being racist?

#greek history #balkan #Balkan history #wasp #racism #xenophobia #whiteness

[budapestbug]

The Royal Palace of Budapest Budapest’s cityscape from the Danube bank is part of UNESCO’s world heritage. A distinguishing feature of this view is Castle Hill and the castle itself, a system of fortifications from mediaeval times which encloses the Palace of the Buda Castle and the historical residential quarter. Mongolians, Turks, Austrians, Germans fought here, and most of the population still remembers the siege of the last major strongpoint of the city in the World War II. During the centuries Buda Castle was sieged no less, then 31 times. The imposing Buda Castle overlooks the city from its elevated position atop Várhegy (Castle Hill), rising forty-eight meters above the Danube. Actually Buda Castle is more, than a fortress, in medieval times the castle – together with the Watercity at its bottom – meant the ancient city of Buda, and for this reason Buda Castle is one of the biggest castle complex of the world. The first castle was built in the thirteenth century after Mongol tribes had invaded Hungary. King Béla IV built a keep surrounded by thick walls in 1243. No trace of this castle remains and historians aren’t even sure of its precise locations. The foundations of today’s castle, which would later be besieged no less than thirty-one times, were laid in the fourteenth century when King Lajos the Great built a castle in Romanesque style, which was completed in 1356. Some forty years later, during the reign of Sigismund of Luxembourg, this early castle was replaced by a Gothic-style palace. It was one of the grandest palaces in Europe with an impressive large Knights’ Hall. Fifty years later the great Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus thought the palace built by Sigismund was too sober and small so he ordered the construction of a new palace in Renaissance style. A palace garden was also created during Matthias’ reign, which marked a high point in Budapest’s history. Artists and craftsmen from across the continent – mainly from Italy – were lured by the city’s prosperity. But from this early splendor of Buda Castle nothing remained. When Budapest was recaptured after the Turkish ruled the city between 1541 and 1686, the complex was completely in ruins. Hungary’s new rulers, the Habsburgs, built a new, smaller palace between 1714 and 1723 at the south end of Castle Hill, away from the old houses, and cobblestone streets. Buda Castle district was seriously damaged during WWII, and reconstructions took a long time. Being invaded repeatedly, followed by rebuilding in the style of the period, today, the old castle part has a mixture of architectural styles, ranging from Gothic to Baroque. Historical sights include Matthias and Mary Magdalene Church, medieval and baroque palaces, merchant’s houses, charming, crooked streets following the shape of the hill, a Labyrinth, the Old City Hall and the Trinity statue. In the old houses you find some good restaurants and coffees, like Ruszwurm. And the bastions and walls, better to say the restores walls remained too, offering a walking promenade for the the visitors. http://www.budapestdaytrips.com/…/4-hour-private-guided-to…/

[militant-holy-knight]

In light of President Obama’s recent remarks comparing the brutality of the Islamic State to the Crusades, it might be time to take a fresh look at those events. Were they really the one-sided Dark Ages barbarism we have been taught? Were they an early manifestation of Western imperialism and global conquest?

In his landmark book, “God’s Battalions” (HarperOne 2009), Baylor University social sciences professor Rodney Stark suggests otherwise. It is a well-researched chronicle, including 639 footnotes and a bibliography of about 300 other works, yet reads like an adventure story full of military strategy and political intrigue.

What Prompted the Crusades

He begins in the final years of Mohammed and describes how a newly united Arab people swept through (Zoroastrian) Persia and the (Orthodox Christian) Byzantine-  controlled areas of Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and North Africa. (Byzantine refers to the Greek-speaking eastern remainder of the Roman Empire.) Eventually Arabs took over control of the Mediterranean islands, most of Spain, and the southern part of Italy, and even reached as far as 150 miles outside of Paris before being turned back by the Franks, or early French.

The Muslims were brutal in their conquered territories. They gave pagans a choice of converting to Islam or being killed or enslaved. Jews and Christians (other People of the Book) were usually but not always treated somewhat better, and allowed to retain their beliefs but under conditions of Sharia subjugation. But the Muslim-held territories were not monolithic. Stark writes:

‘Perhaps the single most remarkable feature of the Islamic territories was the almost ceaseless internal conflict; the intricate plots, assassinations, and betrayals form a lethal soap opera. North Africa was frequently torn by rebellions and intra-Islamic wars and conquests. Spain was a patchwork of constantly feuding Muslim regimes that often allied themselves with Christians against one another.’

Not surprisingly, there was intense Christian resistance and determination to take back lost territories. Especially effective were the Normans and the Franks in Spain and Italy.

The Golden Middle Ages Belonged to Europeans

Western scholars have often characterized this clash of cultures as an Islamic Golden Age versus a European Dark Age, but Stark demolishes this as a myth. He says the best of the Islamic culture was appropriated from the people Muslims conquered—the Greeks, Jews, Persians, Hindus, and even from heretical Christian sects such as the Copts and Nestorians. He quotes E.D. Hunt as writing, “the earliest scientific book in the language of Islam [was a] treatise on medicine by a Syrian Christian priest in Alexandria translated into Arabic by a Persian Jewish physician.” Stark writes that Muslim naval fleets were built by Egyptian shipwrights, manned by Christian crews, and often captained by Italians.  When Baghdad was built, the caliph “entrusted the design of the city to a Zoroastrian and a Jew.” Even the “Arabic” numbering system was Hindu in origin.

And, while it is true that the Arabs embraced the writings of Plato and Aristotle, Stark comments,

‘However, rather than treat these works as attempts by Greek scholars to answer various questions, Muslin intellectuals quickly read them in the same way they read the Qur’an – as settled truths to be understood without question or contradiction…. Attitudes such as these prevented Islam from taking up where the Greeks had left off in their pursuit of knowledge.’

Meanwhile, back in Europe was an explosion of technology that made ordinary people far richer than any people had ever been. It began with the development of collars and harnesses that allowed horses to pull plows and wagons rather than oxen, doubling the speed at which people could till fields. Plows were improved, iron horseshoes invented, wagons given brakes and swivel axels, and larger draft horses were bred. All this along with the new idea of crop rotation led to a massive improvement in agricultural productivity that in turn led to a much healthier, larger, and stronger population.

Technology was also improving warfare with the invention of the crossbow and chain mail. Crossbows were far more accurate and deadly than conventional archery, and could be fired with very little training. Chain mail was almost impervious to the kind of arrows in use throughout the world. Mounted knights were fitted with high-back saddles and stirrups that enabled them to use more force in charging an opponent, and much larger horses were bred as chargers, giving the knights a height advantage over enemies. Better military tactics made European armies much more lethal. Stark writes:

It is axiomatic in military science that cavalry cannot succeed against well-armed and well-disciplined infantry formations unless they greatly outnumber them…. When determined infantry hold their ranks, standing shoulder to shoulder to present a wall of shields from which they project a thicket of long spears butted in the ground, cavalry charges are easily turned away; the horses often rear out of control and refuse to meet the spears.

In contrast, Muslim warriors were almost exclusively light cavalry, riding faster but lighter horses bareback with little armor, few shields, and using swords and axes. Their biggest advantage was their use of camels, which made them much more mobile than foot soldiers and gave them the ability to swoop in and out of the desert areas to attack poorly defended cities.

Muslims Slaughter, Rape, and Pillage

These differences provided Crusader armies with huge advantages, but what would prompt hundreds of thousand Europeans to leave their homes and travel 2,500 miles to engage an enemy is a desert kingdom—especially after the Muslim conquest of Europe had been turned back?

In 638 Jerusalem surrendered to Muslim invaders, and mass murders of Christian pilgrims and monks became commonplace.

There had been long-festering concern about the fate of Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land. After his conversion to Christianity in the early 300s, the Roman Emperor Constantine built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on the site of what was believed to be Jesus’ tomb, and other churches in Bethlehem and on the Mount of Olives. These sites prompted a growing number of European pilgrims to visit the Holy Land, including Saint Jerome, who lived in Bethlehem for the last 32 years of his life as he translated the Bible from Greek and Hebrew into Latin. By the late fifth century, Stark reports, more than 300 hostels and monasteries offered lodging to pilgrims in Jerusalem alone.

But in 638 Jerusalem surrendered to Muslim invaders, and mass murders of Christian pilgrims and monks became commonplace. Stark includes a list of select atrocities in the eight and ninth centuries, but none worse than the some 5,000 German Christians slaughtered by Bedouin robbers in the tenth century.

Throughout this period, control of Palestine was contested by several conflicting Muslim groups. Stark writes, “In 878 a new dynasty was established in Egypt and seized control of the Holy Land from the caliph in Baghdad.” One hundred years later, Tariqu al-Hakim became the sixth caliph of Egypt and initiated an unprecedented reign of terror, not just against Christians but against his own people as well. He burned or pillaged some 30,000 churches, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the tomb beneath it.

Soon enough, newly converted Turkish tribes came out of the north to seize Persia and Baghdad (by 1045) and press on to Armenia, overrunning the city of Ardzen in 1048, where they murdered all the men, raped the women, and enslaved the children. Next they attacked the Egyptians, in part because the Turks were Orthodox Sunnis and the Egyptians were heretical Shiites. While the Turks did not succeed in overthrowing the Egyptians, they did conquer Palestine, entering Jerusalem in 1071. The Turks promised safety to the residents of Jerusalem if they surrendered the city, but broke this promise and slaughtered the population. They did the same in Ramla, Gaza, Tyre, and Jaffa.

Emperor Alexius Pleads for Help

Finally, they threatened Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. Emperor Alexius Comnenus wrote to Pope Urban II in 1095, begging for help to turn back the Turks. This was remarkable given the intense hostility between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Perhaps the pope saw an opportunity to unite or at least reduce tensions between the two Christian churches, but he responded with a call to create an army that would go to the Middle East.

Without ongoing support from Europe, the Crusaders could not survive constant attacks from the Muslims.

I am not going to regurgitate all the battles of the Crusades themselves. It is a fascinating history well worth studying in part for its parallels and lessons for today. Let’s just say that the Crusaders were extremely effective militarily, often defeating far larger Muslim armies, despite having traveled some 2,500 miles into an alien desert climate. Their biggest enemies were disease, starvation, and political betrayal. Plus, the Crusades were expensive and home countries grew weary of paying the taxes needed to support them (sound familiar?)

The Crusaders ended up establishing their own kingdoms in the Holy Land, which lasted for about 200 years or, as Stark notes, almost as long as the United States has existed; but without ongoing support from Europe they could not survive constant attacks from the Muslims.

How the Crusades Were Different from Military Action of the Day

So, what to make of all this?

The Crusaders were unique in that they did not seek to plunder or enslave.

Actually, the Crusaders were unique in that they did not seek to plunder or enslave. They didn’t even try to forcibly convert anyone to Christianity. Their sole interest was to protect the pilgrims and Christian holy sites. They sometimes sacked cities that refused to provide food to a hungry army, but they didn’t take riches back to Europe. There were few riches to be found. Rather than exploiting indigenous resources to benefit Europe, Europe sent money and resources to the Middle East. Pilgrims were quite lucrative for host countries, just as tourism is today.

War was a nasty and brutal business at the time, and had been for all of recorded history. Cities fortified themselves as protection against invading armies. A siege of a city meant surrounding the area and cutting off supplies until the population surrendered, often by starving. In the Bible, II Kings 6:24-33 relates the story of the siege of Samaria, in which two starving women agree to kill and eat their sons.

The rule of war at the time was that, if a city surrendered, the population would be spared, but if it resisted and the invading army had to take it by force all the inhabitants would be killed or enslaved. But Stark notes that Muslim armies often violated even this rule—promising sanctuary, then slaughtering the population that surrendered. (Before we get too smug and condescending about the savagery of these ancients, let’s not forget the rocket bombing of London, the firebombing of Dresden, and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki a mere 70 years ago.)

Muslim armies often promised sanctuary, then slaughtered the population that surrendered.

One way in which Muslim fighters today have advanced over their forebears is that during the Crusades they did not adopt new tactics to counter the technological advantage of the Europeans. They never used crossbows or shielded infantry, even after several hundred years of fighting. Today, Muslim warriors quickly evolve to make the most of Western technology, although they still never seem to develop anything of their own.

An Enduring Clash Between Inquiry and Submission

One final thought on this. As Stark indicates above, there is in too many Muslim countries a sense of obedience that precludes robust debate or new ideas, let alone technological innovation. In his classic, “The World is Flat,” Thomas Friedman quotes Osama bin Laden as saying,

‘It is enough to know that the economy of all Arab countries is weaker than the economy of one country that had been part of our (Islamic) world when we used to truly adhere to Islam. That country is the lost Andalusia. Spain is an infidel country, but its economy is stronger that our economy because the ruler there is accountable. In our countries, there is no accountability or punishment, but there is only obedience to the rulers and prayers of long life for them. (pp. 400-401)’

Friedman confirms that this is based on a 2002 report, the first Arab Human Development Report. This report, written by Arabs, found that Spain had a larger gross domestic product than all 22 Arab states combined!

I think Stark is closer to the mark than bin Laden. The problem is a cultural way of thinking that starts with the Qur’an and the Prophet and emphasizes unquestioning obedience. The very name of the religion, Islam, means “submission.” The thinking of bin Laden that emphasizes punishing poor rulers is a complete misunderstanding how progress is made. European cultures place a high value on questioning everything, even the divinity of Jesus Christ. Certainly there have been exceptions to this, but in the sweep of history it is an unmistakable trait.

So we have perhaps the starkest conflict of worldviews imaginable: on one hand, a robust and virtually unlimited spirit of inquiry, and on the other a fervent dedication to universal obedience and submission. How this plays out is the story of our times.

#politics #history #rants

[qforqazaq]

Old Turkic Script

What’s up, people?

I am finally back to get you that cultural meta teased in the 91-Men Emes MV review, oh yeah. Let’s kick it off with the Old Turkic script, shall we?

Old Turkic script aka Orkhon-Yenisei runes is the script used by the Göktürks aka the Original Turkic People of Altay.

Again, a little disclaimer here: please-please-please keep in mind Turkic does not equal Turkish, as Turkic refers to the large ethnolinguistic group that includes many different descendent nations and languages while Turkish are the people and the national language of Turkey. Hence, Turkish is a part of the Turkic ethnolinguistic group, as German is a part of Germanic group, not vice versa. We’re clear on that? Good, let’s carry on.

So, the Old Turkic script.

Was first discovered in the form of 8th-century stele inscriptions in the Orkhon Valley of the modern day Mongolia, hence the first part of the runes’ name. There is also a Yenisei variant from 9th century that was used by the Yenisei Kirghizs (aka the ancestors of the modern Kyrgyz people of Kyrgyzstan btw) in Siberia, hence the second part of the name.

The alphabet was used by the Göktürks and other early Turkic Khanates during the 8th to 10th centuries to record (guess what) the Old Turkic language that is, as you probably guessed, a direct ancestor of the Kazakh language. The scientists are not quite sure about the origins of the Orkhon script: some say it was derived from variants of Aramaic alphabet, others - that it was derived from Chinese characters, derivation from tamgas explanation holds its ground too (tamga - a seal or stamp used by Eurasian nomads as an emblem of a particular tribe, clan or family. Still sort of used by Kazakh tribes, I suppose? Very casually so, without much fanatism. I’ll touch on tamgas whenever I get to talk about the Kazakh tribal system.) As a Scandinavian history nerd, I personally always had strong associations with the Younger Futhark script of the Medieval Vikings.

As I’ve mentioned earlier, the Old Turkic script was mostly inscribed on stone steles, hence comes the visual similarity with the Scandinavian runes as they were also carved on a stone block, and you must understand the logistics of writing anything on stone is much different from writing on a piece of parchment, for example. What were the content of those stele inscriptions? Pretty much boasting about “how cool the dude who leads us is”. I know, nothing new. Ah, and by the way, the words in Orkhon-Yenisei are written from right to left.

Nowadays, the Old Turkic script is usually used and pretty much worshipped by the followers of the Pan-Turkism ideology. For some Kazakhs the Orkhon script is sort of a way to discover, appreciate and go back to the ethnic pagan origins as it usually comes with rediscovering of Tengrism as a national and historical legacy, which, I think, is quite cool in its unique fashion.

Conclusion? Ancient runes are tight! hip and trendy.

And major kudos to the Ninety One and Co’s creative decision to highlight and shoutout to this part of history incorporating it in the pop culture piece.

#Old Turkic #Tengrism #Pan-Turkism #kazakh #Kazakhstan #Qazaq #Qazaqstan #linguistics #Younger Futhark #Orkhon-Yenisei Runes #ancient scripts #Turkic people #Ninety One #Men Emes

[arcticdementor]

Civilization is collapsing, the revolutionary political crisis is approaching, but, worse than that Heartiste has stopped posting on game, and Roosh has turned tradcuck. So even though I have sworn this is not going to be a game blog, and my life has demonstrated times without number that no end of men are better qualified to post on game than I am, I guess I will have to step into the gap, at least a little bit.

The three magic words are not “I love you”

The three magic words are “You are mine”.

…

I have followed the Sixteen Commandments of Poon both instinctively, and through long and painful experience, long before Heartiste started blogging, and they are the greatest short summary of that small part of game that can be put into readily intelligible words.

Game, however is more readily intelligible if we understand it through the lens of Evolutionary Game Theory, which should be understood as a materialistic account of the spiritual truths of the first part of the Book of Genesis, Evolutionary Game theory being, for higher animals, primarily evolutionary psychology, evolutionary psychology being in large part the application of game theory in the context of natural selection, the moral consequences of material and effective causation, the Logos.

Evolutionary Game theory is an account in terms of material and effective causation, in terms of chance and necessity, the Book of Genesis tells us something about how the consequences of Evolutionary Game Theory are the Will of Gnon.

…

For about the cost of two dates, you can have a hooker, and it is not an adequate substitute. Hookers are only a marginal improvement over masturbation. What progressives offer men, a rotating series of hookups, is just not what most men want, as revealed by men’s actions.

…

Look at the typical male polyamorist. He is psychologically scarred and mentally crippled for life. Having a bunch of whores rather than owning a woman, or better, owning two women, just really sucks brutally. Those guys are traumatized for life.

It unmans men, as if every day a bully beat them up, and they could do nothing about the daily humiliation but suck it up. Just look at what it does to men. It would be kinder to cut their balls off, which is pretty much what progressives are planning to do to us.

The typical male polyamorist looks as if a fat blue haired feminist has been beating him up every day – indeed, he would probably love it if a fat blue haired feminist beat him up every day.

Whores are a marginal improvement on beating off to anime, and hookups a marginal improvement on whores. When men are reduced to such desperate straights, it totally crashes their testosterone and they buy an anime cuddle pillow and weep bitter tears upon it.

We are maladapted to watching the decline from the pool.

Roosh took the wrong redpill from realizing that banging sloots becomes unfufilling after a while. He wants a 50s family life as men generally do, but needs to realize its impossible without a restoration of some degree of de jure patriarchal authority.

A convincing claim to be backed by the supreme alpha, and a plausible willingness to carry out his will on adultery, adultery as defined in the Old Testament, serves as a substitute for de jure backing of patriarchal authority.

The Old Testament prescribes the death penalty for a man who sleeps with someone else’s wife or betrothed, and the death penalty for the woman if she consented. And who gets to carry out that penalty?

Well, that is not defined. In the time of judges, Israel was somewhat anarchic, so presumably the husband and his family and friends. In the book of Proverbs, King Solomon assumes that system, though he implies some regulatory restraints, so that continued to be the system under King Solomon.

That is the best system, because the state or the official priesthood monopolizing the killing of adulterers emasculates the husband, and thus makes adultery more likely.

…

Listen to Heartiste, but, as Roosh discovered, there are better lives than watching the decline. Heartiste speaks the truth, and an important truth, and everything he says is true and important, and unlike most of Satan’s servants should be listened to with attention, but when he truthfully tells you that that watching the decline from poolside is the easiest way, and the better way is hard and dangerous, and likely to end in terrible failure, he is telling a truth that serves his master.

…

You cannot make a housewife out of a ho in our current environment, because she will see you as weak compared to numerous pimps she has been with. However late eighteenth, early nineteenth century Australia had swift and total success in making ho’s into wives. When the elite shotgun married them off, they reacted as if abducted from the weaker tribe into the stronger tribe, and completely internalized the values of the stronger tribe – which required and expected respectable female behavior. Female virtue is more easily obtained if you are more manly than anyone she has been with previously and a bit scary than by searching for it. Of course, in today’s environment, you don’t have backing from your tribe, you have hostility from your tribe. This makes things far more difficult than in late eighteenth century Australia, but not impossibly so. You have backing from God.

…

The mating dance has not been accurately depicted in media since the sixties. (Though it is still accurately depicted in Communist Chinese media, but the Chinese are too alien, too different.)

If you don’t perform the mating dance correctly, will get nowhere fast. The dance is complimentary but asymmetric.

…

This is why, when you are trying to get a chicks attention, it never helps to something nice for her, even to rescue her from danger. Rescuing the damsel in distress is a trope for male viewers. In books and movies targeted at women, the male love interest never rescues the damsel, he endangers her. Negs work, asking her to do something for you works, commanding her works. Stuff that a man would find ridiculous or insulting, and would either make him angry or make him laugh at your pretensions, works.

Negs work astonishingly well, even if so lacking in wit that they are actually insults and would make a man bristle up.

I have actually rescued a chick from danger in real life, with entirely predictable results. Protecting people registers with men as strength, but not with women as strength. Endangering people, innocent people, including the woman herself, registers as strength. I know this from my personal life experience. If you doubt me, check out the love interests in books written by women for women. All women are like that.

…

You don’t plant trees on land you don’t own, and if you don’t have some land and plant some trees for your grandkids, it hurts.

Roissy truthfully tells us how to operate in defect/defect equilibrium with women. But the point is to achieve cooperate/cooperate equilibrium.

…

Female behavior that appears wicked, foolish, and self destructive to a man is entirely intelligible when we realize that the proud independent rapidly aging overweight barista with one hundred thousand dollars in college and credit card debt is unlikely to have children, and is likely to die alone and be eaten by her numerous cats, but if abducted by Islamic State and sold on the auction block naked and in chains would probably have seven children and twenty five grandchildren, and would die surrounded by loving family.

If a man is defeated, conquered and subdued, perhaps because his tribe and country is conquered and subdued, he is unlikely to reproduce. If a woman is defeated, conquered and subdued, she has escaped from defect/defect equilibrium, escaped from prisoner’s dilemma, and also been transferred from weak men and a weak tribe to strong men and a strong tribe, and is therefore likely to be highly successful in reproducing. As a result, women have no country, no tribe, and no ingroup. When they are daughters, they have their father’s tribe, when wives, their husband’s tribe. A woman without a father or a husband is a stateless person, and if a state piously declares her to be a citizen, the state is deluding itself, or deluding its actual citizens in order to commit treason against them.

Thus female behavior that is seemingly wicked, self destructive, and crazy, makes sense when looked at through the lens of Evolutionary Game Theory.

…

But there is no escape from shit tests. Mohammed had a large harem, absolute power, and it clear he had a hard time. This is a chronic problem with large harems, and empires frequently die of it, as is the Turkish empire did and the Chinese empires often did. Genghis Khan had no women problems, and neither did his sons, but his grandsons were lesser men than he. Women will find a way to shit test you.

#james a donald

[zamancollective]

Nationalist Mythologies and the False Friendship of Nostalgia

By Mirushe Zylali

Additional Writing by Sophie Levy

What is a mythology?

Through mythology, one locates oneself within history and creates a sense of continuity between the past, present, and future.

The impulse to place oneself in a historical continuum is understandable, especially within postcolonial contexts. For Europeans, myths provide a basis of identity for the nation-state. For Euro-colonized peoples, a desire to return to a pre-colonial body politic often becomes integral to liberation movements, and later, becomes a method of garnering mass popular support for a burgeoning post-imperialist nation-state. Postcolonial mythologies are often manifestations of an emotionally-tinged hunger for a life that does not ache of colonialism.

Mythology has a vital role in legitimizing the construction of modern ethnonationalist states and their respective languages, cultures, and propaganda systems.  When “British India” was cleaved in two, Pakistan adopted an alphabetic script based on Arabic, while India adopted a script based on Sanskrit, though similarities abound between spoken dialects in the subcontinent’s northern regions. To this day, India’s far-right Hindu nationalists are working to incorporate more words derived from Vedic Sanskrit into modern Hindi, while nationalist Pakistanis do the same with Islamic terminology derived from Arabic.

In his construction of the Albanian nation-state, Enver Hoxha outlawed religion and claimed that modern Albanians descended from ancient Illyrian tribes. Modern Turks assert that they are heirs to the Ottoman Empire established by Byzantine tribes over 700 years ago. During WWII, German Nazis even claimed to be descended from Aryans, somehow also insisting upon their origins in the lost city of Atlantis, and repurposed the swastika, a Hindu symbol, to this aim. Later in the twentieth century, Iranian nationalist groups would adopt a link to this “superior” Aryan race in order to incite violence against ethnic minorities within Iran, such as Jews and Kurds. Saddam Hussein insisted upon modern Iraqis’ link to the people and culture of ancient Babylonia in building his autocratic government - just as the Pahlavi Shahs of Iran belabored their connection to Darius’ pre-Islamic empire.

Evidently, it has been a nation-building tactic of autocratic regimes across Europe and Asia to emphasize links between a current population and an ancient culture or mythology. Here, I take time to deconstruct why this method is somewhat futile.

Iraqis, for instance, cannot claim direct historical continuity with Babylonia because its religion-and the way of life it spurred- has not been maintained since the fall of Babylon in 539. Since then, cultural diffusion, conquest, and the shifting borders of empires have made Iraq a thoroughly Arab nation-state, notwithstanding the presence of non-Arab ethnic minorities.

Victors often write what history survives. What records exist of the processes of the Persian and Arab conquerors who altered the culture of ancient Mesopotamia? One could infer that those attempting to keep up the ‘old ways’ would have been brutalized or disenfranchised by their new conquerors. Neither the ethnic composition nor the historical legacy of ancient life in present-day Iraq is continuous with those who live there today, and the recovery of such a culture would be nearly impossible. But why would anyone want to undertake such a task in the first place?

the Eagle of Saladin - often used as a symbol of Ba’athist ideology.

Let us follow the logic of this desire for belonging. A branch of my mother’s family hails from Al-Andalus. What would an ‘un-exiling’ of ourselves look like? With very few Spanish Jews left in Spain, and others having fled to places such as Turkey, Greece, the Americas, the Balkans, and Morocco, which of them can lay a true claim to the “authentic” ancestry that would provide a basis for such a social movement? Do I learn from the Jews of Tangier, Fez, and southern Spain, who would have fallen within the borders of the Umayyad Empire? No. Their cultures, changed by hundreds of years of innovation, diffusion, and empire, may barely resemble our ancestors’ shared Andalusian moment. I can enjoy camaraderie with them for what we share, but to claim a singular flashpoint of origin for all of us, thus suggesting that we share a contemporary ‘sameness’ and deny such unique facets of our respective cultures would do a deep disservice to all of us.

Often intentionally, mythos functions to create ‘out’ groups and ‘Others’, consolidating power for the in-group as they build a new state. The Other can even be transformed into an inhuman creature. The Kurd, at times racialized as white for the purposes of the Iraqi, Syrian, or Turkish imagination, becomes a foreign interloper, even as Muslim Kurds may discriminate against Ezidis, Kurdish Jews, and Kurdish Christians for similar reasons. Within the imagination of the previously-colonized subject, the Jew can stand in as a figure of corrupting European influence, or the Jew can stand in as the backward Other not yet converted to the dominant religion or way of life of whichever empire. The same goes for Christians in southwestern Asia who maintain knowledge of spoken and written Coptic or Syriac. Often, by the logic of Muslim Arab in-groups, Arab Jews aren’t not Arabs. Rather, they just aren’t the right type of Arab. It is difficult to build a pluralistic nationalist movement; just look at the Ba’athist party.

European Zionists explored the idea of land-bound, Jewish nationalism as early as the 1800s. The Haskalah, or “Jewish Enlightenment” that began in the eighteenth century, had already kick-started the initiative to revitalize Hebrew as the lingua franca of the Jewish world. Zionists then harnessed Hebrew’s potential for Jewish unification in their development of a formalized national consciousness.

It is not a coincidence that Zionism’s genesis resembles that of other European nationalisms. Today, its proponents often overlook the fact that Zionists thinkers and leaders formed pragmatic alliances with European colonialists in an effort to solve the Jewish Question or gain a reputation as a “modernized” people. Though a historical and religious Jewish connection to Israel/Palestine cannot be denied, Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, was just as willing to establish a “Jewish Nation-State” in what is modern-day Ghana or Argentina. He was desperate to secure any place to use as a safe haven for Jews.  Even as he cast Jews as Oriental Others in the eyes of gentile Europeans, he was playing by the rules of Western colonialists as if he were one of them.

Zionism, then, is a complicated nationalism in that it has to reconcile an orientalized, ancient Jewish mythology with a “modernized” European character. This cognitive dissonance within the Zionist national consciousness has visibly influenced the vocabulary of mainstream modern Hebrew, as developed by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. On one hand, Hebrew’s newfound role in early Zionist settlements as a more broadly and colloquially-spoken language represents the revival of an ancient language, culture, and peoplehood. It centralized a scattered nation in the name of a mythologized history, repurposing the words of a holy language for use in secular contexts - paralleling the incorporation of Qur’anic vocabulary into Modern Standard Arabic.

Yet, if modern Hebrew is meant to be “authentic,” why is the word for tea ‘teh’ and not ‘shai’ as it is in other Semitic languages like Arabic and Aramaic? Why is the word for banana ‘banana’ and not ‘muuza’ as it would be in Arabic? In the same vein, why does the mode of Hebrew pronunciation taught in Israeli schools sideline the guttural sounds of quf, ayin, and het originally spoken by Jews in ancient Tiberias, opting instead for a more European flair?

Most of the loanwords that exist in Modern Hebrew come from Germanic languages. Of course, it is understandable that the introduction of vocabulary not previously existent in biblical or rabbinic Hebrew could be pulled from English, which was already a lingua franca during Hebrew’s revival in a nationalist context. However, such influence does call for further inquiry where existing, foundational verbiage with Semitic origins was discarded and replaced with European terminology.

These small details in the modern Hebraic lexicon reveal much about the sentiments and convictions of European Zionist nation-builders. Firstly, the disposal of selected nouns with Semitic roots arguably reflects a latent desire to separate this artificially monolithic conception of the “Jewish people” from southwestern Asian languages-  languages perceived to not be Jewish. The same goes for the systematic labeling of Mizrahi accents as “incorrect” in professional contexts in Israel. Yemeni immigrants, for instance, have faced and continue to face ridicule and discrimination because of their accents. Ironically, however, Yemenite Jews are generally thought to pronounce liturgical Hebrew most similarly to the ancient Tiberian inflection. Does this mean that all Jews who are not Yemenite have “inauthentic” pronunciations? Of course not. What it does mean is that Arabic, for example, is not an un-Jewish language. The accent that many Mizrahim are discriminated against for having is not a “corruption” of anything.

Secondly, modern Hebrew’s European loanwords and inflection indicate that Zionist leaders seeking to revitalize Hebrew as a “universal” language for Jews heavily prioritized the comfort of Ashkenazi Jews in their adjustment to life in the Holy Land. Of course, learning Hebrew was still very difficult for Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazim (read: women) who hadn’t been exposed to the study of rabbinic or biblical Hebrew in the heder, but leaders like Ben Yehuda clearly geared this ancient Semitic language to be as accessible to Europeans as possible in its revival. Had there been a genuine effort to make Hebrew a language for Jewish ‘olim hailing from across the globe, Judeo-Arabic and Judeo-Persian-speaking Mizrahim would have been consulted much more.

Lastly, Hebrew’s Germanic loanwords and smoothed-out modern pronunciation made it a more palatable language in the eyes of European colonialists, with whom Israel’s founding parties sought to form pragmatic alliances. The more similar Hebrew could be to European languages while still retaining its own mythologized, ancient character, the more British proponents of settler-colonialism could perhaps be willing to lend a hand to Jewish settlers. And so goes the balancing act between the orientalized nostalgia and modern European appeal of Hebrew.

"Vote for the Zionist list (No. 6), all who believe in the rebirth of our land through Hebrew labor." From the Zionist List in Russia, 1917

Zionists are quick to point out that since a majority of Israelis are Mizrahim, the growth of the Yishuv and Israel’s eventual establishment could not have been functionally settler-colonialist in character, to which I say: What is the Turkish, Iraqi, Persian, and Syrian treatment of Kurds? What is the North African Arab treatment of Imazighen? These, too, are essentially colonial projects which seek to supplant indigenous peoples by relying on idealized ancient mythologies and constructions of “authenticity”. A common source of discomfort for progressive critics of Zionism is the prevalence of conservative viewpoints held by Mizrahi Jews inside and outside of Israel, but the idea of colonized peoples colonizing other peoples should not be a revolutionary or difficult one to reconcile and accept.

Israel may not have taken on the character of a settler-colonial project had the Zionists of old integrated with Palestinian and Samaritan society. Palestinians’ apprehensive or negative reactions to early European Zionist settlers were understandable, considering Zionist collaboration with British Imperial forces. The reactionary right-wing politics of the majority of Mizrahim in Israel is, too, understandable considering their alternatives. The State of Israel has always propped itself up on the rejection and effective demonization of Arabness, so racism against Mizrahim based on accent, physical features, or culture resembling that of gentile Arabs comes as no surprise. Rather than facing social immobility and expendability as a source of cheap labor, conservative Israeli Mizrahim align themselves with Israel’s hybrid mythologized / Europeanized national consciousness, rejecting Arabness because doing so simply benefits their survival in a state established by European Zionists.

Mizrahim live in a time of nesting doll diasporas. In their 2019 song “Hana Mash Hu Al Yaman,” the Yemeni-Israeli sisters of the band A-WA lament a common traumatic thread connecting Mizrahi families in Israel:

“I came to you fleeing

You saw me as primitive.

I came to you as a last resort.”

What does decolonization look like, in a literal sense? Mizrahim living in Israel cannot go back to the countries which initially tried to stamp them out. Why would the current generation want to learn their grandparents’ forgotten Arabic, Darija, Turkish, or Farsi - or dig up their grandparents’ buried memories? To do so is like pressing one’s tongue against a tooth stripped of enamel. Many Israelis are also of mixed heritage. An Israeli friend’s family hosts Tunisian, Arab Iraqi, and Syrian-Turkish Jews. Which nation-state should she return to? For which mythology should she feel nostalgia? People have always migrated. Issues arise when territorial and cultural dominance- not pluralism- becomes the collective goal of populations.

Discarding nationalist mythologies altogether can help afford modern populations some clarity. Mizrahi liberation is inextricably linked with Palestinian liberation, Kurdish liberation, Yazidi liberation, and all other liberations of oppressed indigenous peoples and ethnoreligious minorities. Even within the construct of ‘Mizrahi’ as a label for MENA Jews, Arab Iraqi Jews may hold harmful attitudes towards Kurdish Jews hailing from within Iraqi borders. My close friend, who is a Kurdish Jew, recounts to me the almost Ba’athist undertones of a conversation she had with an Arab Iraqi Jew, whose nostalgia for Iraq was based on a desire for inclusion within Arab supremacist power structures. Nostalgia is a reactionary, false friend. Seeking acceptance within the monolithic ideologies of Pan-Arabism, Pan-Turkism, Pan-Iranism or Zionism is not a solution in the long term, nor is clinging to conservatism under nationalist governments.

Ceding space or resources to other colonized peoples does not mean that there will be insufficient space or resources for you. It is the overlap of these spaces that becomes a vital standpoint for reconciliation. Solidarity begins with truthfully baring the histories witnessed by multiple populations, and remaining able to acknowledge them simultaneously. The nation-state’s mythology does not allow for admission to the atrocities of the Farhud; the Algerian War of Independence; Deir Yassin; the Aleppo Riots. It is up to the people to shift their collective consciousness toward empathy and mutual recognition.

Mirushe Zylali is a junior at Mount Holyoke College double majoring in Studio Art and Religion. Through poetry, nonfiction work, and printmaking, they are interested in examining who remains within cultural memory, and how the Other is constructed in service of the nationalism of post-colonial states. 

#mirushe zylali #sophie levy #nonfiction & opinion

[superashu]

INDIA-At a Glance

India, country that occupies the greater part of South Asia. It is a constitutional republic consisting of 29 states, each with a substantial degree of control over its own affairs; 6 less fully empowered union territories; and the Delhi national capital territory, which includes New Delhi, India’s capital. With roughly one-sixth of the world’s total population, India is the second most-populous country, after China.

It is known from archaeological evidence that a highly sophisticated urbanized culture—the Indus civilization—dominated the northwestern part of the subcontinent from about 2600 to 2000 BCE. From that period on, India functioned as a virtually self-contained political and cultural arena, which gave rise to a distinctive tradition that was associated primarily with Hinduism, the roots of which can largely be traced to the Indus civilization. Other religions, notably Buddhism and Jainism, originated in India—though their presence there is now quite small—and throughout the centuries residents of the subcontinent developed a rich intellectual life in such fields as mathematics, astronomy, architecture, literature, music, and the fine arts.

Throughout its history, India was intermittently disturbed by incursions from beyond its northern mountain wall. Especially important was the coming of Islam, brought from the northwest by Arab, Turkish, Persian, and other raiders beginning early in the 8th century CE. Eventually, some of those raiders stayed; by the 13th century much of the subcontinent was under Muslim rule, and the number of Muslims steadily increased. Only after the arrival of the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama in 1498 and the subsequent establishment of European maritime supremacy in the region did India become exposed to major external influences arriving by sea, a process that culminated in the decline of the ruling Muslim elite and absorption of the subcontinent within the British Empire.

Direct administration by the British, which began in 1858, effected a political and economic unification of the subcontinent. When British rule came to an end in 1947, the subcontinent was partitioned along religious lines into two separate countries—India, with a majority of Hindus, and Pakistan, with a majority of Muslims; the eastern portion of Pakistan later split off to form Bangladesh. Many British institutions stayed in place (such as the parliamentary system of government); English continued to be a widely used lingua franca; and India remained within the Commonwealth. Hindi became the official language (and a number of other local languages achieved official status), while a vibrant English-language intelligentsia thrived.

India remains one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world. Apart from its many religions and sects, India is home to innumerable castes and tribes, as well as to more than a dozen major and hundreds of minor linguistic groups from several language families unrelated to one another. Religious minorities, including Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Jains, still account for a significant proportion of the population; collectively, their numbers exceed the populations of all countries except China. Earnest attempts have been made to instill a spirit of nationhood in so varied a population, but tensions between neighbouring groups have remained and at times have resulted in outbreaks of violence. Yet social legislation has done much to alleviate the disabilities previously suffered by formerly “untouchable” castes, tribal populations, women, and other traditionally disadvantaged segments of society. At independence, India was blessed with several leaders of world stature, most notably Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, who were able to galvanize the masses at home and bring prestige to India abroad. The country has played an increasing role in global affairs.

Contemporary India’s increasing physical prosperity and cultural dynamism—despite continued domestic challenges and economic inequality—are seen in its well-developed infrastructure and a highly diversified industrial base, in its pool of scientific and engineering personnel (one of the largest in the world), in the pace of its agricultural expansion, and in its rich and vibrant cultural exports of music, literature, and cinema. Though the country’s population remains largely rural, India has three of the most populous and cosmopolitan cities in the world—Mumbai (Bombay), Kolkata (Calcutta), and Delhi. Three other Indian cities—Bengaluru (Bangalore), Chennai (Madras), and Hyderabad—are among the world’s fastest-growing high-technology centers, and most of the world’s major information technology and software companies now have offices in India.

#india #times of india #general knowledge

[rezares]

Sorcerery History & Culture in The Maghreb in the BDRP Universe

In which eight months of McKala’s worldbuilding, research, and bullshitting culminate in this

 History

 Magicks in the Maghreb (Northwest Africa) have always been stigmatized, dating back to even before French and English colonialism in the region. However, the stigma attached to them intensified under colonialism. Colonial oppressors tapped into the existing mystery and distrust surrounding magicks to further suppress them. A magick community under fire from both colonizers and the colonized was ideal in the age of European colonialism of Africa, Asia, and The Americas. Similar models of targeted, brutal oppression of magicks of invaded lands have been noted in historical documents from the Sasanian, Carthaginian, and Roman Empires.

 Pre-colonial opinions of magicks ranged from distrusting tolerance to codified oppression. It should be noted that the first recorded targeted killing of magicks appeared in documents unearthed in Cape Bon (Watan el-kibli) from the Greco-Punic Wars, dated at around 300 B.C. It tells of the wives of Carthaginian soldiers killed in battle in Sicily killing a sorcerer couple who rivaled with their commanding officer, believing them to have cursed their husbands.

 Magicks were subject to system of oppression under the Roman Empire, however, this was only really enforced in the cities. Outlying towns and villages, and the nomadic tribes at the time, operated on their own rules as long as they stayed out of the Romans’ way. Some were more lax, some were more draconian. The Romans themselves were friendly to sorcery. However, oppressing the sorcerers in conquered territory was vital to squashing dissent.

 The next several hundred years, under the Vandals and the Byzantine Empire, magicks lived in a constant cycle of freedom, oppression, freedom, oppression. It varied from leader to leader.

 By 705, the Islamic Conquests had taken over all of modern-day Tunisia. This period provided a degree consistency for magicks. Some Caliphates were harsher than others, however, much of this period is regarded as the Golden Age of Magicks in Tunisia and much of the Maghreb. Caliphates of this period thought it was to their advantage to negotiate with magicks rather than oppressing and slaughtering them. Alliances with magicks proved wise in several documented battles. Tensions were recorded throughout this time period, but generally, magicks could live in peace in often segregated communities.

The early Islamic era came to an end when the Shia Islamic Fatimid Caliphate departed to their newly conquered territories in Egypt leaving the Zirid dynasty to govern in their stead. Normans from Sicily raided the east coast of Ifriqiya for the first time in 1123. After some years of attacks, in 1148 Normans under George of Antioch conquered all the coastal cities of Tunisia: Bona (Annaba), Sfax, Gabès, and Tunis. By the thirteenth-century, the Golden Age of magicks in Tunisia was solidly over, as they were oppressed from all groups in the area blaming them for tensions with each other, plagues, anything that could justify hatred of magicks.

 Under the Ottoman Empire, as the Eyalet of Tunis (1574–1705) and the Beylik of Tunis (1705–1881), Tunisia saw another period of mellowing in magick-mundus relations. However, this was hardly a repeat of the Golden Age. Restrictions on magicks were heavy, prison time and forced servitude were common, but it is interesting to note that the death sentence for magic use introduced in 1280 was lifted in 1610, after falling out of enforcement around the 1520s.

 Tensions were pervasive in the lives of magicks, especially sorcerers who did not have the escape that fairies and were-folk often did. In the last hundred years of the Ottoman Empire’s reign over the region, laws became increasingly more restrictive, anti-magick violence saw a steady spike, and when Tunisia became a French Protectorate in 1881, it escalated.

 As colonists usually did, the French tightened restrictions on magicks in their holdings in Africa. Though Tunisia gained independence in 1956, the effects of French colonialism linger - and for Tunisian magicks, it isn’t just the language they left behind.

 The oppression continued through the 20th century, through all of Ben Ali’s regime until his ousting during the Arab Spring, and has continued under a democratic Tunisia.

 The High Council

Across three countries - Tunisia, Libya, and Algeria, and some outstanding regions - a High Council of sorcerers has existed since before artificial colonial borders were drawn. The Council acts as a governing body, and clear rules for how a sorcerer is to conduct themselves to be granted herd protection are in place. One of these rules is that protecting the community must not come at the cost of rolling back peace progress. Education and peace-making efforts are their favored weapon against danger caused by ignorance-born hatred.

However, this is not always strongly enforced. The Council often neglects to denounce sorcerers unless it brings problems onto the community. Sorcerers that react with violence covertly to defend the community, are often not scolded.

 Sorcerer Culture & Practices

Sorcerer culture in the Maghreb is distinct from sorcerer culture in other parts of the world due to the flip-flopping of the sub-group’s safety. While periods of oppression or enjoying basic rights didn’t just switch overnight, the memory of difficult periods of their history remained alive in good times through oral storytelling, and what historical records were kept.

 There is generally less competition between sorcerers than in some other parts of the world, as there is a strong sense of community among Maghrebi sorcerers. During the era of European colonization of the region, Maghrebi sorcerers often viewed ethnic European sorcerers as more of the “out group” than, say, werewolves or fairies from the Maghreb. European sorcerers were seen as agents of the colonizers, and viewed as, ultimately, more loyal to them. Attitudes toward foreign sorcerers didn’t really begin to shift until the 1980s.

 Since it has typically been unwise to wear one’s magic on their sleeve, any evidence of being a sorcerer must be easily disguisable.

 Tunisian sorcerers of all genders favor daggers as wands. Daggers can be plain or ornate, hand crafted by the individual, or passed down the generations. They can be easily hidden in large pockets, under modern dresses and t-shirts, and within traditional clothing. Algerians and Libyans generally follow the same practice, with regional or personal alternatives. Moroccan sorceresses often wear bracelets that function as their wand.

 Grimoires written in Tunisia are rare and highly valuable. Tunisian sorcerers are often forced to memorize everything from what reagents look and feel like, to complicated multi-page spells, without ever having the luxury of reading or writing them down. It is dangerous to be found with writing pertaining to sorcery. While it is not legally punishable by death, sorcerers do fall victim to mob sentencing; legally, there can be prison time.

 Because it is impossible for any one person to memorize the whole world of magic inside their one brain, sorcerers are not educated by the standard Master-Apprentice system.

 Rather, the community educates apprentices together and everybody brings their unique skills to the table. Master sorcerers still call those under their tutelage apprentices, but they are almost never an apprentice’s sole Master. It would not be uncommon for a relatively young Master sorcerer, say, in their late thirties, to mention having had a dozen or more apprentices. If a Master helps teach a young sorcerer that is one of five siblings, then they probably also helped teach the other four.

 Perhaps the most unique aspect of Maghrebi sorcerer culture, is their use of sign language. Maghrebi Sorcerer Sign is a sign language unique to the sorcerer community, and is mutually unintelligible from Libyan Sign Language, Tunisian Sign Language Algerian Sign Language, and Moroccan Sign Language alike. It also predates the existence of any of these modern sign languages. Deaf and Hearing sorcerers use MSS on a daily basis.

There are sorcerers who only know how to cast certain spells nonverbally, solely using MSS for that spell. MSS is the collective term used to describe what is better described as a collective of localized signed conlangs. There is no official linguistic research done on MSS - naturally, as it is dangerous to reveal oneself as a sorcerer - but it is known that sorcerers from different regions, let alone countries, may have communication hurdles if they try to solely communicate using MSS.

 Sorcerers across the region, however, have a second method of secret communication. There is a secret spoken language as well. Similar to the use of Polari in the United Kingdom, it is an argot meant to prevent outsiders from understanding the conversation. The language - best known as Ahk’hdi - is also used in other neighboring parts of Africa - as far as Ethiopia.

 Ahk’hdi traces its origins back to the 11th century. It comes from a mixture of Mediterranean Lingua Franca, Amazigh languages (primarily Kabyle and Shilha), Arabic, Amharic, and  Ottoman Turkish. Ahk’hdi is full of Arabic, Amharic, Turkish, and broadly Romance words that are given a similar treatment to English words in back slang, and French words in verlan. Like MSS, Ahk'hdi does differ from region to region, however, Ethiopian sorcerers, Tunisian sorcerers, and Algerian sorcerers can easily communicate together in Ahk'di with only occasional slips into a more widely known lingua franca.

#&&..hc

[reallifesultanas]

Life of the nomad folks / A nomád népek élete

In my last post about Ertugrul I mentioned that he was the bey of an Oghuz tribe, the Kayı tribe. But who were these people? Where they were from? How they lived their life? What did they wear in a regular day? The women really knew how to fight?

Origin of the Oghuz Türks

The original homeland of the Oghuz was east of the Altai Mountains of Central Asia, which had been the domain of Turkic peoples since prehistory. They migrated a lot, so for example in the 8th century, they made a new home in the area between the Caspian and Aral seas. They had moved westward from the Altay mountains passing through the Siberian steppes and settled in this region, and also penetrated into southern Russia and in west, China. Mahmud of Kashgar, in the 11th century, described the Karachuk Mountains which are located just east of the Aral Sea as the original homeland of the Oghuz Türks. The Karachuk mountains are now known the Tian Shan Mountains.

The extension from the Karachuk Mountains towards the Caspian Sea was called the "Oghuz Steppe Lands" from where the Oghuz Türks established trading, religious and cultural contacts with the Abbasid Arab caliphate who ruled to the south. This is around the same time that they first converted to Islam and renounced their Tengriism belief system. The Arab historians mentioned that the Oghuz Türks were ruled by a number of kings and chieftains.It was in this area that they later founded the Seljuk Empire, and it was from this area that they spread west into western Asia and eastern Europe during Turkic migrations from the 9th until the 12th century. 

The Kayı tribe was among the 24 Oghuz turkish tribes, they were direct descendants of Oghuz-khan, who was the ancient progenitor of the Oghuz people, and the name of the tribe can be translated as “strong” or “powerful”.

There were a lot of nomad folks in Anatolia in the 13th century. The Kayı tribe appeare to have entered Anatolia either just before, with or immediately after the Mongol incursions of the 1240s and 1250s. Maybe they fled from the Mongols, and this is why they entered to Anatolia. Ottoman tradition says Ertugrul’s tribe arrived in the frontier zone between the weakened Seljuk polity and the weakening Byzantine Empire. 

Summary about their daily life

In particular, the nomads and other followers lived in a tribally organised group and they enjoyed pastures and cultivable lands between Eskishehir  and what is now Bilecik, at a place now called Sögut. Like any nomads, they lived from animal husbandry, so they basically pursued a nomadic lifestyle. Their tents/yurts were set up where they had found a suitable pasture for their animals. So this part is depicted in a completely fair way in the series as well. They traveled to the highlands in the summer and to the low lands during winter. But migration was a growing problem for these people as states began to form everywhere around them, so they could move only into a limited direction. So they felt compelled to settle down, but of course, this did not happen overnight. 

Their daily lives were filled with grazing and caring for their animals, which was usually done by young children in many cases. It was common, and still is, for children in nomadic tribes to take care the animals. Among the men there were warriors, as we saw in the series, and there were those who were doing other work in the camp, like blacksmith. But it was the job of the men to sell some animals, sell their products to make money. The women usually spent their days with caring the children, cleaning the yurts, making food for their family and for the animals also, moreover they sew the clothes for the family. Since they had a close contact with their animals and, making cheese and yogurt from the milk of their livestock was a main job for these women. Some sources suggests that making rugs was also a main part of the life of these tribes. And of course it was the women who made the ingretdients erect for the rugs and it were these women, who made the rugs. 

But there is some more about these women... There are more and more evidences that suggest that the Türk nomadic women also understood swordsmanship. It's logical, since they needed it. They lived under constant threat (of the other tribes and of course of the Mongols) and their husbands were often away from  home with the animals. They had to be able to defend themselves. Archaeologists have found the remains of two ancient women warriors, whose skeletal remains indicate that they were well practiced in archery and horseback riding. True that these remains were found in Mongolia, but most probably all of these nomad folks lived the same way back then. One of the anthropologists "discovered the remains of the two women warriors and in particular, she (the anthropologist) looked at bone marks from muscle attachments, as larger marks indicate that the muscles were heavily used; for instance, during archery. Markers of repetitive movement on the thumb were also indicative of archery. She also looked for trauma patterns in the spine that are common in people who ride horses"[1]. So all in all, in my opinion, this lifestyle may have been similar with the nomadic Türks. I'm not saying there was female warriors in the battles, but I mean they really had to know how to save themselves and their family, their tribe, when their husbands were away. So they surely know how to fight at least in a basic level. Then, over time, as these nomads settled down, women no longer had to fight, so it changed forever. 

What they wore?

In this early period when they barely enter to Anatolia the people most probably wore the same dresses as the ones in Central Asia. It is characteristic of the peoples of Central Asia that women dressed the same as men. The reason for this was the riding and wepon use, as I already mentioned. Even if they were muslims, the nomadic and semi-nomadic women weren’t veiled. The top-wear was a T-shaped kaftan like coat, which was buttoned in the middle and cut out on both sides and on the back at the waist, so they could easily rode a horse while wearing it. There was a difference in the female and male kaftans. The female ones were richly decorated, and not just the edges were decorated with furs or metal fittings as it was in the case of male kaftan, but there were some pearls sew on them, there were nice embroidery also on them. This kaftan-like coat also covered the knees and it was fastened with a belt at the waist. Again, there were some minor difference between the female and male belts. The female belts were richly decorated, with nice metal forms. The caftan was worn over a loose and tight-fitting pants. Both men and women wore low-legged boots and they thick stockings underneath. The boots were usually made of leather, but they also wore felt boots. Basically they used very colorful textiles but - again - the women chlothes were made by more vibrant and colorful textiles than the men chlothes. They used some herbs, plants and flowers to to produce different colors.

Basically the outerwear was the same whether it was worn by a noble person or by a simple one. The only difference was in the decoration. We cannot find luxurious materials in the poorer ones; they wore homemade clothes made of thicker linen, wool, or cloth.   

Of course these people also wore some jewels, which was mostly for the women. They wore earrings, bracelets and rings, necklace wasn't that usual. Women put into their braids various ornaments, like beads or silver/gold patterns. Their necklaces and bracelets were made of twisted wires and were connected at their ends by a loop and a hook. Presumably they also used beads, but this was not worn as a  pearl-necklace, but sewn one by one on their clothes. Some bracelets also have real gemstones in it, so do the rings. Their rings were simple, but the color and type of stones placed in them were different.

The horse tools were not jewels, but they were important part of these people's life. And there was a difference between the horse tools of men and women, because the ones belonged to women were more ornate. Saddles with hooves made of silver plates or decorated with bone carvings were also made for women. 

Among the Türk men of Asia, it was fashionable to cut the hair at the forehead, but at the back they grew it and it was braided and fastened with hoops. Hairdressing also had a rank-marking role; the nobles less often cut their hair and wore it adorned with beads. The women wore their hair in long braids but also decorated similar to men.

Used sources:  Colin Imber - The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650;  Bichurin - Collection of information on peoples in Central Asia in ancient times;  Faruk Sümer - Oğuzlar;  Bosworth - The Ghaznavids;  Hódmezei Őrzők page; Peirce -   The imperial harem; [1]: https://www.livescience.com/mongolia-warrior-women-mulan.html

*    *     *

Legutóbbi, Ertugrulról szóló posztomban említettem, hogy valószínűleg a Kayı törzs bégje volt, a Kayık pedig az Oghuz törzsbe tartoztak. Na de mégis kik voltak ezek az emberek? Honnan származtak? Hogyan élték mindennapi életüket? Milyen öltözéket viseltek? A nők valóban tudták, hogyan kell harcolni?

Az Oghuz népek eredete

Az Oghuz népek őshazája az Altaj-hegységben lehetett, Közép-Ázsiában, ahol már a történelem előtti időkben is ezek a népek éltek. Nagyon sokat vándoroltak, így például a 8. század során az Altaj-hegységen túl nyomultak, át a Szibériai sztyeppéken és letelepedtek a Kaszpi-tenger és Aral-tó közötti vidéken. Emellett a mai Oroszország területére és Nyugat-Kínába is behatoltak. A 11. században Kashgar-i Mahmud a Karachuk-hegységet nevezte a Oghuz türk��k földjének. Ez a hegység az Aral-tótól keletre van és napjainkban Tien Sanként ismert.

A Tien Santól a Kaszpi-tengerig tartó régió neve így "Oghuz sztyeppe földek" volt, hiszen ezen régióban éltek, kereskedtek az Oghuz türkök. Itt kerültek kapcsolatba a déli szomszédjukkal, az Abassid Arab kalifátussal, akiktől végül felvették az iszlám vallást, elhagyva korábbi hitüket. A déli szomszédok arab történészei úgy írják, hogy az Oghuz népeknél királyok és törzsfők uralkodnak a népek felett. Ezen a területen jött végül létre a Seljuk Birodalom is, és ugyanúgy az Oghuz sztyeppe földeken keresztül terjeszkedtek a türkök Nyugat-Ázsia és Kelet-Európa irányába a 9. és 12. század között.

A Kayı törzs egyike volt a 24 Oghuz törzsnek, és népüket egyenesen Oghuz kántól vezették le, aki minden Oghuzok ősatyja volt. A Kayı törzs nevének jelentése egyesek szerint "erős", mások szerint "hatalmas".

A 13. századra már Anatóliában is rengetek nomád, belső-ázsiai eredetű nép élt. A Kayık is feltehetőleg ekkor érkeztek Anatóliába, vagy közvetlen megelőzve az 1240-1250-es években zajló mongol támadásokat vagy közvetlenül utánuk érkezve. Lehetséges, hogy a mongolok elől menekülve jutottak Anatóliába ezek a népek. Az Oszmán legendák szerint Ertugrul és népe ekkor érkezett tehát a gyengülő Seljuk és Bizánci Birodalom határmenti övezetébe.

Összefoglalás mindennapi életükről

Összefoglalva ezek a nomádok és a velük érkező népcsoportok törzsi szerveződésben éltek és pásztorkodással foglalkoztak a Sögut környéki fantasztikus és élhető legelőkön. Ez a terület Bilecik (Eskisehir) közelében van. Mint bármely más nomádok, állattartásból éltek, így jurtáikat mindig éppen ott húzták fel, ahol megfelelő legelőt találtak állataik számára. Ezt a részt jól láthattuk a sorozatokban is. Nyaranta a magasföldekre húzódtak, télen pedig az alföldekre vándoroltak. Ez a migráció egyre növekvő problémát okozott számukra, hiszen körülöttük egyre több és egyre szilárdabb állam és város jött létre, jól körülhatárolt területtel, így csak korlátozott irányba tudtak vándorolni. Ilyen körülmények között kényszert éreztek a letelepedésre, ami azonban egy lassú folyamat eredményeként zajlott végül le.

Mindennapi életüknek legjelentősebb részét az állatokkal való foglalkozás tette ki, melyet nagyrészt a gyerekek végeztek. Ez nagyon gyakori volt, és mai napig az a nomád törzseknél, hogy a gyerekek vigyáznak az állatokra. A férfiak között voltak akik harcosként éltek - ahogy a sorozatban is láthattuk - mások a táborban dolgoztak például kovácsként. Azonban a férfiak feladata volt az is, hogy az állatokkal kereskedjenek, eladják a tábor termékeit, ezzel pénzt szerezve családjuknak. A nők napját a gyermeknevelés, a jurták tisztán és épen tartása, a főzés, az állatok ellátása tette ki, ám ezen felül már a család ruháit is ők készítették el. Mivel nagyon szoros kapcsolatban éltek állataikkal, a tejtermékek készítése, mint a sajt, joghurt, kifejezetten jelentős munkát adott ezeknek az asszonyoknak. Sőt! Emellett, néhány forrás arra is utal, hogy ezek a népek igen minősége szőnyegeket készítettek, ami természetesen megint csak a nők feladata volt, az alapanyag előállításától kezdve az elkészítésig.

Azonban van itt még más is... Egyre több bizonyíték mutat arra, hogy a türk nomád asszonyok értettek a fegyverforgatáshoz. Ez elég logikus, hiszen szükségük volt rá. Állandó fenyegetettségben éltek, hol a szomszédos törzsektől, hol pedig a mongoloktól kellett tartaniuk. Férjeik pedig gyakorta távol voltak az állatokkal, esetleg háborúztak, a törzset pedig az asszonyokra hagyták ilyenkor. Ezeknek a nőknek meg kellett tudni védeni magukat. Arheológusok néhány ősi harcos maradványainak vizsgálatával új felfedezést tettek. A sírokat a mai Mongólia területén tárták fel, és a női maradványokon olyan elváltozásokat találtak, amelyek egyértelműen utalnak a fegyverhasználatra és lovaglásra. Igaz, hogy ezek a maradványok korábbi időszakból származnak, és keletebbről kerültek elő, mint az Oghuz népek őshazája, ám alapvetően hasonló körülmények között élt minden Belső-ázsiai népcsoport. Az egyik kutató olyan elváltozást talált a csontok és izmok csatlakozási helyén, amely az izmok extrém használatáról tanúskodik, kiterjedve a hüvelykujjra is. Ez egyértelműen jelzi, hogy ezek a nők íjászkodtak és nem csak alkalmanként, hanem rendszeresen. Emellett a gerincen is találtak elváltozásokat, amelyek pedig a rendszeres lovagláshoz köthetőek. Össszességében tehát véleményem szerint mivel ezek a népek hasonló életmódot folytattak, hasonló környezetben, logikus, hogy a nőknek is érteni kellett a fegyverforgatáshoz. Természetesen nem azt mondom, hogy férfiak és nők vállt vállnak vetve harcoltak a csatákban, csupán azt, hogy a férfiak távollétében a nők feleltek a táborért, ehhez pedig legalább alapszinten érteniük kellett a fegyverforgatáshoz. Idővel természetesen ez a hagyomány kikopott, hiszen a letelepedett életmód már nem tette ezt szükségessé.

Mit viseltek ezek az emberek?

Ebben a korai periódusban, mikor a türkök még épphogy elérték Anatóliát, feltehetőleg hasonlóan ruhászkodtak, mint belső-ázsiai rokonaik. Erre az öltözködési stílusra különösen jellemző, hogy a férfi és női viseletek igen hasonlóak voltak. Ennek oka a hasonló életmódban volt keresendő, mint például a rendszeres lovaglás. Hiába voltak muszlimok, a nők nem éltek elfátyolozva. A legfelsőbb ruházat egy T-alakú kaftán szerű kabát volt, amely középen gombozott volt és fel volt vágva oldalt és hátul is, hogy könnyedén tudjanak benne lóra szállni. A férfi és női kaftánok közötti fő különbség a díszítettségben volt. A nők kaftánján nem csak a széleken jellemző prém vagy fémvered kapott helyet, amely a férfiakén is jellemző volt, hanem gyakran gyöngyökkel volt díszítve de hímzés is előfordult. Ez a kaft-n szerű kabát nagyjából a térdekig ért és a deréknál övvel volt összetartva. Az övcsatok a nők esetében valamivel finomabb, díszesebb munkák voltak. A kaftán alatt egy laza, bő nadrág volt, melyet a csizmába tűrve hordtak. A csizmák egyébként ugyanolyanok voltak a férfiak és nők esetében is, általában bőrből készültek de előfordult nemezből készített verzió is. A csizma alatt gyapjú zoknit hordtak. Alapvetően színes textileket használtak, azonban - megint csak - különbség volt a férfiak és nőké közt. A férfiaké egyszerűbb volt, míg a női ruhák esetében gyakoribbak voltak az élénk színek is. Ezek elkészítéséhez növényeket, virágokat használtak, hogy minél több féle színt tudjanak előállítani.

A felsőruházat alapvetően megegyezett akkor is, ha nemes ember hordta őket és akkor is, ha egy egyszerű közember. Az egyetlen különbség az anyagok minőségében és díszítettségében mutatkozott. A közemberek esetében nem voltak megfigyelhetőek luxus darabok, ők általában otthon készített vastagabb gyapjút és szövetet viseltek.

Természetesen ékszereket is viseltek, ami azonban inkább a nőkre volt jellemző. A leggyakoribb kiegészítők a fülbevalók, karperecek és gyűrűk voltak, a nyaklánc ritkábbnak számított. A nők emellett hajkorongokat is használtak, melye arany/ezüst vagy bronz korongok voltak a fonataikba fűzve. A karperecek és nyakláncok hasonló módon készültek mint napjainkban, csavart drótból álltak, mely a végén kapoccsal volt rögzíthető. Ezek mellett gyöngyöket is használtak, melyek azonban nem ékszerként voltak viselve, mint például egy gyöngy-nyakék, hanem egyesével voltak felvarrva a ruházatra. A karperecekben és gyűrűkben gyakorta jelentek meg drágakövek, melyek minősége a rangtól függött. A gyűrűk alapvetően egyszerűek voltak, azonban a kövek színe és formája széles körben változott.

Mint említettem a lovaglás szerves részét képezte életüknek, így a lószerszámok is nagyon jelentősek voltak. A nőké sokkal díszesebb volt, mint a férfiaké. Emellett előkerültek ezüst veretes nyergek, kantárok is, amelyekbe gyakran minták voltak vésve.

A türk férfiak között jellemző volt, hogy a hajat a homloknál rövidre vágták, hátul azonban hosszúra hagyták és fonatokban hordták. A fonatokat karikákkal és díszekkel rögzítették. A gazdagabbak még ritkábban vágták le hajukat és még részletesebben díszítették fonataikat. A nők, a férfiakhoz hasonlóan fonatban hordták hosszú hajukat, melyet gyakran, gazdagon díszítettek.

Felhasznált források: Colin Imber - The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650;  Bichurin - Collection of information on peoples in Central Asia in ancient times;  Faruk Sümer - Oğuzlar;  Bosworth - The Ghaznavids;  Hódmezei Őrzők page; Peirce -   The imperial harem; https://www.livescience.com/mongolia-warrior-women-mulan.html

#ertugrul #kayi #oghuz #nomadlife #nomad #central-asia #tribe #seljuk #kayi tribe #oghuz tribe #womenswear #chlothes

[thephilosopheroftheboudoir]

Grim History

Albania’s King Zog and the Politics of Irrelevance

    At the turn of the 20th century, Albania was an outpost of the Ottoman Empire. Its landscape was characterized by rugged mountains, deep river gorges, and mosquito infested bogs. Lawless and anarchic, the Albanians were tribal people divided between the Ghegs in the north and the Tosks in the south and further subdivided by the religions of Islam, Catholicism, and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. They had no centralized government and no police force; their societies were barely ruled by a handful of corrupt Turkish beys and the Code of Lek, a medieval system of laws, was sternly obeyed by the tribal society. Blood feuds, where three male members of a tribe were to be assassinated in retaliation for a murder, were the most prominent means of law enforcement.

    At the time of the Balkan Wars of the early 20th century, a young Muslim warlord named Ahmed Zogolli from the Mati valley led rebellions against the Ottoman Empire alongside the Serbs, Bulgarians, and Greeks. After the Turks were forced to flee the Balkans, Zogolli became a member of the fledgling parliament of the newly formed nation of Albania. Zogolli became a prominent member of the ruling class until a leftist rebellion fueled by the antagonism of the American educated Fan Noli resulted in an assassination attempt on his life.  The leftist rebel faction were supported by the Tosks who saw the new government as being a tool for Gheg domination of Albania. Needless to say, after being shot six times in the arm and chest, Zogolli survived, recovered, and went into exile in Vienna in 1924.

    While recovering in Vienna, Zogolli made plans with Serbian agents to return to his homeland and seize power with 600 of his fellow countrymen. After the leftist Tosk coup was overthrown, Zogolli won a sham election and became president of Albania for seven years. He changed his name to Zogu to make it sound more modern and less Turkish. He then wrote a constitution giving himself sweeping executive and legislative powers and the road to autocracy was opened wide for him. He cast himself as a modernizer with the intention of bringing Albania into the modern world. Politically Zogu was more of a dictator, running a police state with strict control over the media. His key piece of legislation was borrowing annual sums of money from Italy to build up the economy, educational system, and infrastructure. Another consequence of his presidency was handing the largely ethnic Albanian territory of Kosovo over to Yugoslavia to return the favor of assisting him in the overthrow of Fan Noli’s Tosk coup.

    Death threats were a routine part of Zogu’s presidency. He never went out in public without his mother because according to the rules of the blood feud, women were not to bear witness to a killing.

    Then in 1928, President Zogu crowned himself King Zog I of Albania, the first Muslim monarch in Europe. The citizens of Albania were largely indifferent to this event; their nation was one where a largely traditional and illiterate populace cared little about politics, nationalism, or modernity.

    As king, Zog lived a secluded life inside his heavily guarded palace in Tirana while sometimes making excursions to his coastal retreat in Durres. He was a soft-spoken, quiet, and gentle man, well over six feet tall, who chain smoked and dyed his hair red with henna. He had no close friends and spent most of his social life with his mother and six doting sisters. Zog’s cabinet members were more like henchmen and he made all political decisions by himself. His method of governing involved little more than paying tribal chieftains large sums of money to leave him alone. Most Albanians did not care for King Zog but it can be said that apathy and fatalism prevented any outright rebellions against him more than anything else. Many found it more profitable to solicit bribes from their monarch than to wage war against him, gambling for something that would probably be worse.

    As king, Zog I was involved in more than 600 blood feuds and supposedly survived 55 assassination attempts. The most well-known plot happened in Vienna while recovering from an illness. Zog was shot at by two men after leaving the opera. The bullets hit a  a bodyguard, mistaking him for the king. The bodyguard fell on top of Zog in his limousine, involuntarily becoming his human shield . The assassins were apprehended and Zog escaped. They turned out to be two disgruntled expatriates who were possibly supported by Kosovars who wanted their  annexed territory to be reunited with a Greater Albania.

    Then trouble with Italy began. Mussolini started to demand that Albania repay the money they borrowed but they simply did not have enough capital to do so. Mussolini cut off the loan disbursements, leaving Albania a country with half-constructed bridges and roads and an impoverished educational system. Mussolini’s plan of training Albanian warriors to be foot-soldiers for fascist Italy came to nothing since the Albanians were resistant to military regimentation. After Italy failed to conquer Libya and Ethiopia, Il Duce decided it was time to reinvigorate his country by conquering Albania, thereby bolstering his sagging reputation for military prowess while Hitler’s Germany marched across Europe. At 1:00 am on the night Zog’s wife Queen Geraldine gave birth to the crown prince, Italy invaded by sea and air. At first a small resistance force tried to fight them off with machine guns but soon gave up when they saw they were outnumbered. It is said they cared more about defending their fatherland against the mistrusted Italians than in defending their king. Zog quietly took the queen, heavily sedated after a caesarian-section, his newborn son, and several suitcases filled with gold stolen from the national treasury across the border into Greece.

    The royal family eventually settled as refugees first in France and then in London. King Zog spent World War II trying to convince the Allies that he could raise troops to fight off the Italian invaders. They shrugged him off as an eccentric and irrelevant monarch and their interest in fighting Italy to save Albania seemed too much like small fry for their larger strategies. Then the war ended. The terrifying years of Enver Hoxha’s communist regime began. After a couple botched attempts by the CIA and MI6 to overthrow Albania’s government and reinstate King Zog I as monarch, he continued to live on his dwindling funds while his health conditions grew worse and worse each year. Finally King Zog, the founder of the modern Albanian nation, died at the age of 65.

Tomes, Jason. King Zog of Albania: Europe’s Self-Made Muslim Monarch. New      York University Press, 2003.

#grim history #king zog #albania #european history #balkan history #eastern europe #albanian history

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 11.20

284 – Diocletian is chosen as Roman emperor. 762 – During the An Shi Rebellion, the Tang dynasty, with the help of Huihe tribe, recaptures Luoyang from the rebels. 1194 – Palermo is conquered by Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor. 1407 – John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, and Louis of Valois, Duke of Orléans agree to a truce, but Burgundy would kill Orléans three days later. 1441 – The Peace of Cremona ends the war between the Republic of Venice and the Duchy of Milan. 1695 – Zumbi, the last of the leaders of Quilombo dos Palmares in early Brazil, is executed by the forces of Portuguese bandeirante Domingos Jorge Velho. 1739 – Start of the Battle of Porto Bello between British and Spanish forces during the War of Jenkins' Ear. 1776 – American Revolutionary War: British forces land at the Palisades and then attack Fort Lee. The Continental Army starts to retreat across New Jersey. 1789 – New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights. 1805 – Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, premieres in Vienna. 1815 – The Second Treaty of Paris is signed, returning the French frontiers to their 1790 extent, imposing large indemnities, and prolonging the occupation by Allied troops for several more years. 1820 – An 80-ton sperm whale attacks and sinks the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America. (Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick is in part inspired by this story.) 1845 – Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata: Battle of Vuelta de Obligado. 1861 – American Civil War: A secession ordinance is filed by Kentucky's Confederate government. 1910 – Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero issues the Plan de San Luis Potosí, denouncing Mexican President Porfirio Díaz, calling for a revolution to overthrow the government of Mexico, effectively starting the Mexican Revolution. 1917 – World War I: Battle of Cambrai begins: British forces make early progress in an attack on German positions but are later pushed back. 1936 – José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Falange, is killed by a republican execution squad. 1940 – World War II: Hungary becomes a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis powers. 1943 – World War II: Battle of Tarawa (Operation Galvanic) begins: United States Marines land on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands and suffer heavy fire from Japanese shore guns and machine guns. 1945 – Nuremberg trials: Trials against 24 Nazi war criminals start at the Palace of Justice at Nuremberg. 1947 – The Princess Elizabeth marries Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, who becomes the Duke of Edinburgh, at Westminster Abbey in London. 1959 – The Declaration of the Rights of the Child is adopted by the United Nations. 1962 – Cuban Missile Crisis ends: In response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ends the quarantine of the Caribbean nation. 1968 – A total of 78 miners are killed in an explosion at the Consolidated Coal Company's No. 9 mine in Farmington, West Virginia in the Farmington Mine disaster. 1969 – Vietnam War: The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) publishes explicit photographs of dead villagers from the My Lai Massacre in Vietnam. 1969 – Occupation of Alcatraz: Native American activists seize control of Alcatraz Island until being ousted by the U.S. Government on June 11, 1971. 1974 – The United States Department of Justice files its final anti-trust suit against AT&T Corporation. This suit later leads to the breakup of AT&T and its Bell System. 1974 – The first fatal crash of a Boeing 747 occurs when Lufthansa Flight 540 crashes while attempting to takeoff from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 59 out of the 157 people on board. 1977 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel, when he meets Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and speaks before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement. 1979 – Grand Mosque seizure: About 200 Sunni Muslims revolt in Saudi Arabia at the site of the Kaaba in Mecca during the pilgrimage and take about 6000 hostages. The Saudi government receives help from Pakistani special forces to put down the uprising. 1980 – Lake Peigneur drains into an underlying salt deposit. A misplaced Texaco oil probe had been drilled into the Diamond Crystal Salt Mine, causing water to flow down into the mine, eroding the edges of the hole. 1985 – Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released. 1989 – Velvet Revolution: The number of protesters assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million. 1990 – Andrei Chikatilo, one of the Soviet Union's most prolific serial killers, is arrested; he eventually confesses to 56 killings. 1991 – An Azerbaijani MI-8 helicopter carrying 19 peacekeeping mission team with officials and journalists from Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan is shot down by Armenian military forces in Khojavend District of Azerbaijan. 1992 – In England, a fire breaks out in Windsor Castle, badly damaging the castle and causing over £50 million worth of damage. 1993 – Savings and loan crisis: The United States Senate Ethics Committee issues a stern censure of California senator Alan Cranston for his "dealings" with savings-and-loan executive Charles Keating. 1993 – Macedonia's deadliest aviation disaster occurs Avioimpex Flight 110, a Yakovlev Yak-42 crashes near Ohrid killing all 116 people on board. 1994 – The Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war. (Localized fighting resumes the next year.) 1996 – A fire breaks out in an office building in Hong Kong, killing 41 people and injuring 81. 1998 – A court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declares accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regard to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. 1998 – The first space station module component, Zarya, for the International Space Station is launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. 2003 – After the November 15 bombings, a second day of the 2003 Istanbul bombings occurs in Istanbul, Turkey, destroying the Turkish head office of HSBC Bank AS and the British consulate. 2015 – Following a hostage siege, at least 19 people are killed in Bamako, Mali.

#Events

[historybehindassassinscreed]

In Game:

The Ottoman Empire was a Turkish state that ruled over most of the territories of the former Byzantine Empire and beyond, with Constantinople as its capital.

In 1476, the Ottomans under the Grand Vizier Ishak Pasha participated in a military crackdown on a Hungarian uprising, entering a war with Wallachia and defeating the rebel prince, a Templar named Vlad Tepes.

During the later half of the 15th century, the Ottomans brokered a truce with the Assassins, via their leader Ishak Pasha, who was also a secret Assassin himself. This act led Vali cel Tradat to defect to the Templars, after he had served the Assassins for nearly a decade, as he considered the truce with the Ottomans and Assassins as a betrayal of his Wallachian heritage.

Sultan Bayezid II led the Ottomans into a war with the remnants of the Byzantine Empire, led by Manuel Palaiologos, a Templar, who was attempting to reclaim the empire and restore it to its Byzantine roots.

While Bayezid had originally chosen his son Ahmet as the next Sultan, he soon faced fierce opposition from the Ottoman Janissaries, who supported his other son, Selim, and aided him in his bid for ascension to the throne. Selim then begun a tough war against his father in order to force him to abdicate the title of Sultan. In 1512, Bayezid eventually handed over the throne to Selim instead of Ahmet, and Selim became the new Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.

As soon as he became the Sultan, Selim and his Janissary army marched their way towards Constantinople, where they found Selim's brother Ahmet facing off against the Assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze. As he approached his brother, Selim revealed to Ahmet that their father had ultimately chosen him as his successor, before he began to strangle Ahmet and eventually pushed him off a nearby cliff, killing him.

It was his reasoning that Ahmet, who was secretly a high-ranked member of the Templars, had betrayed the Ottomans when he formed an alliance with the Byzantines.

In 1520, a tragedy robbed Selim of the Sultanate, and Suleiman, aged 26, succeeded him. His reforms greatly improved the Empire's bureaucratic system, which would later be described as a "well-oiled engine," despite its significant size.

During his rule, Suleiman expanded his Empire to its furthest points, stretching it from Algeria to the Persian Gulf, and from Austria down to Egypt. Respecting the diversity of those under his authority, he was always careful to honor their cultures, traditions, and religions.

In Real Life:

The Ottoman Empire was created by Turkish tribes in Anatolia (Asia Minor) that grew to be one of the most powerful states in the world during the 15th and 16th centuries. The Ottoman period spanned more than 600 years and came to an end only in 1922, when it was replaced by the Turkish Republic and various successor states in southeastern Europe and the Middle East. At its height the empire encompassed most of southeastern Europe to the gates of Vienna, including present-day Hungary, the Balkan region, Greece, and parts of Ukraine; portions of the Middle East now occupied by Iraq, Syria, Israel, and Egypt; North Africa as far west as Algeria; and large parts of the Arabian Peninsula. The term Ottoman is a dynastic appellation derived from Osman I (Arabic: ʿUthmān), the nomadic Turkmen chief who founded both the dynasty and the empire about 1300.

The first period of Ottoman history was characterized by almost continuous territorial expansion, during which Ottoman dominion spread out from a small northwestern Anatolian principality to cover most of southeastern Europe and Anatolia. The political, economic, and social institutions of the classical Islamic empires were amalgamated with those inherited from Byzantium and the great Turkish empires of Central Asia and were reestablished in new forms that were to characterize the area into modern times.

In their initial stages of expansion, the Ottomans were leaders of the Turkish warriors for the faith of Islam, known by the honorific title ghāzī (Arabic: “raider”), who fought against the shrinking Christian Byzantine state. The ancestors of Osman I, the founder of the dynasty, were members of the Kayı tribe who had entered Anatolia along with a mass of Turkmen Oğuz nomads. Those nomads, migrating from Central Asia, established themselves as the Seljuq dynasty in Iran and Mesopotamia in the mid-11th century, overwhelmed Byzantium after the Battle of Manzikert (1071), and occupied eastern and central Anatolia during the 12th century. The ghazis fought against the Byzantines and then the Mongols, who invaded Anatolia following the establishment of the Il-Khanid (Ilhanid) empire in Iran and Mesopotamia in the last half of the 13th century. With the disintegration of Seljuq power and its replacement by Mongol suzerainty, enforced by direct military occupation of much of eastern Anatolia, independent Turkmen principalities—one of which was led by Osman—emerged in the remainder of Anatolia.

Ottoman dynasts were transformed from simple tribal leaders to border princes (uc beys) and ghazi leaders under Seljuq and then II-Khanid suzerainty in the 13th and early 14th centuries. With the capture of Bursa, Orhan had been able to declare himself independent of his suzerains and assume the title of bey, which was retained by his successors until Bayezid I was named sultan by the shadow ʿAbbāsid caliph of Cairo following his victory over the Christian Crusaders at the Battle of Nicopolis (1396). Those title changes reflected changes in the position of the Ottoman ruler within the state and in the organization of the state itself.

As the territory of the Ottoman principality expanded, however, and the Ottomans inherited the administrative apparatus left by the Byzantines, that simple tribal organization was replaced by a more complex form of government. By the time the Ottoman rulers became sultans, they already had far more extensive power and authority than had been the case a half century earlier. The simple tribal organization of the Ottoman bey could suffice only while the state was small enough for the individual tribal leaders to remain on their lands to collect their revenues and fight the nearby enemy at the same time. As the empire expanded and the frontiers and enemies became further removed from previously conquered territory, the financial and administrative functions at home had to be separated from the military. Taxes had to be collected to exploit the conquered territories and support the officers and soldiers while they were away. The treasury of the sultan had to be separated from that of the state so that each would have an independent income and organization.

Throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, therefore, the Ottoman state gradually reshaped its government and military institutions to meet the needs of administering and defending an expanding empire. That process naturally was influenced by those states that had preceded the Ottoman Empire, not only in the areas it came to rule but also in the lands of its ancestors. So it was that the developing Ottoman state was influenced by the traditions of the nomadic Turkic empires of Central Asia, particularly in military organization and tactics. It was also heavily influenced by the classical high Islamic civilization of the ʿAbbāsids, as passed through the hands of the Seljuqs, particularly in the development of orthodox Islam as the basis of its administrative, religious, legal, and educational institutions and in the organization of its financial systems. In the court hierarchy, the central financial structure, and the tax and administrative organizations developed in the European provinces, the Ottomans were influenced by the Byzantines and, to a lesser extent, by the Serbian and Bulgarian empires. Although conversion to Islām was not demanded of the conquered, many Christians and a few Jews voluntarily converted to secure full status in the new empire. Most, however, continued to practice their old religions without restriction.

A particularly important source of Christian influence during the 14th century came from the close marriage ties between the Ottoman and Christian courts. Orhan was married to the Byzantine princess Nilüfer, mother of Murad I. Murad married Byzantine and Bulgarian princesses, and Bayezid I married Despina, daughter of the Serbian prince Lazar. Each of those marriages brought Christian followers and advisers into the Ottoman court, and it was under their influence that Bayezid I abandoned the simple nomadic courts and practices of his predecessors and isolated himself behind elaborate court hierarchies and ceremonies borrowed primarily from the Byzantines, setting a pattern that was continued by his successors. The triumph of Sultan Mehmed I in 1413 was at least in part because of the support of the Turkish notables and Muslim religious orders of Anatolia, who strongly resented the Christian predominance in Bayezid’s court and attributed his abandonment of the ghazi tradition and attacks in Turkish Muslim Anatolia—as well as the defeat at the hands of Timur—to Christian influence. As a result, Turkish and Muslim influences dominated the Ottoman court during the 15th century, although the hierarchies, institutions, and ceremonies introduced in the previous century remained largely unchanged.

During the century that followed the reign of Mehmed II, the Ottoman Empire achieved the peak of its power and wealth. New conquests extended its domain well into central Europe and throughout the Arab portion of the old Islamic caliphate, and a new amalgam of political, religious, social, and economic organizations and traditions was institutionalized and developed into a living, working whole.

Whereas Bayezid had been put on the throne by the Janissaries despite his pacific nature and carried out military activities with reluctance, Selim I (ruled 1512–20) shared their desire to return to Mehmed II’s aggressive policy of conquest. But Selim did not wish to be dependent on or controlled by those who had brought him to power, so he killed not only all of his brothers but also all seven of their sons and four of his own five sons, leaving only the ablest, Süleyman, as the sole heir to the throne.

(Image source)

Throughout Sultan Suleiman’s rule, the empire expanded and included areas of Eastern Europe. At its height, the Ottoman Empire included the following regions: Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Egypt, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, some of Arabia, and a considerable amount of the North African coastal strip.

Starting in the 1600s, the Ottoman Empire began to lose its economic and military dominance to Europe.

Around this time, Europe had strengthened rapidly with the Renaissance and the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Other factors, such as poor leadership and having to compete with trade from the Americas and India, led to the weakening of the empire. In 1683, the Ottoman Turks were defeated at the Battle of Vienna. This loss added to their already waning status. Over the next hundred years, the empire began to lose key regions of land. After a revolt, Greece won their independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1830. In 1878, the Congress of Berlin declared the independence of Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria.

During the Balkan Wars, which took place in 1912 and 1913, the Ottoman Empire lost nearly all their territories in Europe.

At the start of World War I, the Ottoman Empire was already in decline. The Ottoman Turks entered the war in 1914 on the side of the Central Powers (including Germany and Austria-Hungary) and were defeated in 1918.

Under a treaty agreement, most Ottoman territories were divided between Britain, France, Greece and Russia.

The Ottoman empire officially ended in 1922 when the title of Ottoman Sultan was eliminated. Turkey was declared a republic in 1923.

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/place/Ottoman-Empire/The-peak-of-Ottoman-power-1481-1566

https://www.britannica.com/place/Ottoman-Empire/The-empire-from-1807-to-1920

http://www.history.com/topics/ottoman-empire

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Sensor Sweep: Andrew Offutt, The Broken Sword, Walt Simonson, Siege of Malta, Lovecraft Lunch Bags

Authors (The Silver Key): Andrew J. Offutt was a complex, deeply flawed man. A resident of rural Kentucky, Offutt was a husband and a father who supported his family with a successful insurance business, a job which he did not love and ultimately abandoned to make the bold leap into full-time writing. He was at one time a promising science fiction writer. He also subjected his children to emotional neglect, held baseless grudges against various personages, lacked a full emotional maturity and cohesive personality, and held a life-long obsession with pornography.

New Release (DMR Books): Next week will see the release of the 20th title from DMR Books. After publishing numerous excellent authors past and present, for the first time I’ll get to release a collection of my own writings! Necromancy in Nilztiria contains thirteen stories of adventure and wonder with a touch of gallows humor. A few of the tales have appeared before in other publications, but most will see print here for the first time (including “A Twisted Branch of Yggdrasil,” which was supposed to be included in the ill-fated Flashing Swords #6).

Fiction (Dark Herald): It was written in 1954, you can tell it was written in 1954 because it couldn’t be written today. This is a work of high tragedy that is strongly influenced by the Norse sagas.  If you like Game Thrones but would prefer that it be written by a non-sadist that can actually fit a story that should only take two hundred pages, into two hundred pages.  This is the book for you.

  RPG (Kairos): A speculative element is what sets the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror apart from literary fiction. There’s no element more speculative than magic, and it’s become a common term of art to speak of an SFF universe’s “magic system”. By reader request, here is my philosophy of magic in genre fiction–with advice on how to handle magic in your secondary world.

    Lovecraft (Tentaculii): So, kiddies, it’s back to school on Tuesday 1st September. Here are a few suggestions for last-minute rush-orders for school stuff, to arrive Monday. All available now on eBay… The H.P. Lovecraft shoulder bag for all your stuff, robust in black and blood red…

History (Compagnia san Michele blog): A common misconception is that the siege of Malta of 1565 was a one-on-one battle between an army of Hospitaller Knights against an all-Turkish invasion force. The opposing forces, in reality, were composed of troops hailing from a number of locations. In this write-up we will look at some foreign forces assisting the Order of St John in the defence of Malta. According to contemporary sources such as the diary of Francisco Balbi di Correggio, who served as a harquebusier during the siege, and from later historiography such as the work of Giacomo Bosio, the total defending force comprised of approximately the following:

Art & Philosophy (Chrislans Down): Over at Amatopia, Alexander Hellene discusses nihilism, primarily in art. It’s a good post, worth reading. There’s one segment of it that I want to discuss, though, because I think that it somewhat misses the bigger picture. There are two ways in which this misses the bigger picture.

Fiction (Amatopia): The Fall of Hyperion may as well be titled Hyperion: Part Two, as it picks up right where the first book in Dan Simmons’s Hyperion Cantos abruptly ends. Yet The Fall of Hyperion doesn’t merely pick up the story, it runs with it into wild, exciting directions before delivering a deeply satisfying conclusion that actually resolves mysteries while creating a few new ones to propel the narrative into the final two books of the series.

Pulp Science Fiction (Pulp.Net): Ray Cummings (1887-1957) is one of the “founding fathers” of pulp science fiction who unfortunately never got out of the “pulp getto.” During his career he wrote some 750 works, most for the pulps, and mostly science fiction. I was surprised to learn he had written quite a bit outside of sf. His most well-known work is Girl in the Golden Atom. This was his first original professional sale as the short story “Girl in the Golden Atom” in All-Story Weekly in 1919.

Science Fiction (Porpor Books): ‘Cestus Dei’ (283 pp) was published by Tor Books in June 1983. The cover art is by Kevin Eugene Johnson. This novel first was published, in greatly shortened form, as a hardback book titled ‘The Strayed Sheep of Charun’, issued by Doubleday / The Science Fiction Book Club in 1977. ‘Charon’ was John Maddox Roberts’s (b. 1947) first published novel. Roberts went on to be a prolific sci-fi and fantasy author during the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, writing novels for the Dragonlance and Conan franchises, as well as for his own ‘SPQR’, ‘Stormlands’, ‘Cingulum’, and ‘Island Worlds’ properties.

History (Western Fictioneers): Happy National Rum Day! This Sunday (August 16) is National Rum Day. I felt inspired to write an article about my personal favorite form of alcohol – along with some other libations your character would have been exposed to in the Old West. The first North American distillery began making rum in present-day Staten Island, New York (or New Amsterdam) in 1664. The earliest spirits distilled in the colonies were rum, gin, and brandies.

Comic Books (Diversions of the Groovy Kind): Walt Simonson’s birthday was this past Wednesday. If you ever wondered how much Ol’ Groove loves the handiwork of Walter Simonson, just check out any of the 66 (this will make 67) posts he’s featured in here on DotGK! There’s a reason the Marvel Bullpen nick-named him “Wondrous”! Here’s a huge pile of spectacular Simonson masterworks for you to ooh and ah over–then go check out all those other posts to give it all some context–and yourself added joy! Happy 74th, Mr. Simonson! Groove City loves you tons!

Edgar Rice Burroughs (DMR Books): The two defining works of ERB’s career, A Princess of Mars (1912) followed shortly after by Tarzan of the Apes, hit the pulp readership of All-Story Magazine like a bombshell. Nobody had ever read anything quite like those novels. Movies and hardcovers soon followed. For the mass market impact, the movies were more important. However, the hardcovers allowed young, aspiring writers who never had a chance to read the original pulp appearances–authors like Robert E. Howard, C.L. Moore and Fritz Leiber–to devour the early Burroughs classics.

  Alt History (According to Quinn): One of the causes for the decline and fall of the (Western) Roman Empire is the revival of the old enemy Persia under the vigorous Sassanid dynasty. This gave Rome a major military threat to the east at the same time the Germanic tribes were growing larger and more organized and the weaknesses of the Roman imperial system (namely how the armies could make emperors in the provinces) were becoming apparent.

Pulp & Comic Books (Mens Pulp Mags): Lately, I’ve been on a Mike Shayne kick. My reading and watching involving that famed Miami-based Private investigator has led to a series of posts on this blog, starting one about the first appearance of a Mike Shayne story in a men’s adventure magazine, “The Naked Frame” in BLUEBOOK, February 1953. I blame my Shayne trip on my new friend Bill “Mad Pulp Bastard” Cunnigham and my old friend, novelist, editor and retromedia maven Paul Bishop.

RPG (Monsters and Manuals): Dickheads bring sexual content into a gaming session. This is one of the fairly large number of things that traditional conservatives and woke types can merrily agree on: don’t bring up the issue of sex unless you are really sure it’s appropriate. And never bring up the issue of rape at all, because: why are you doing that other than to either be deliberately edgy, or be a creep?

Dickheads hog the limelight. If you feel like you are talking too much, you probably are. If you don’t, you still probably are.

Fiction (Chrislans Down): Over on Twitter, Benjamin Kit Sun Cheah wrote a very interesting thread on Wuxia (Chinese heroes) and the meaning of this genre. He kindly gave me permission to quote it in full here since that’s much easier to read than a Twitter thread if you’re not used to Twitter.

Fiction (Paperback Warrior): Using a combination of the names Ian Fleming (James Bond) and Alistair MacLean (Where Eagles Dare), author Marvin Albert (1924-1996) conceived the pseudonym of Ian MacAlister in the early 1970s. The prolific author of crime-fiction, tie-in novels, and westerns authored many books under his own name as well as the names of Al Conroy and Nick Quarry. Conveniently, at the height of the 1970s high-adventure market, Albert used the MacAlister pseudonym to write four genre novels.

Paranormal and Fiction (Tellers of Weird Tales): Six months ago, before the world fell apart, I wrote about the evolution of the flying saucer from nineteenth-century airship to twentieth-century flying disk. Now I write again. It seems to me that the conceit of the nineteenth century was both progressive and romantic. The conceit was that Science, this new and exciting force, could be and would be used to solve previously intractable human problems. Airships were a symbol of this kind of thinking, the belief being that airships, because of their great power, would render war impossible to wage.

Crime Fiction (Pulp Serenade): I initially reviewed Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg’s By Hook or By Crook, and 30 More of the Best Crime and Mystery Stories of the Year (2010, Tyrus Books) when it was new, and when we could count on new anthologies from its editors every year to highlight a fine array of stories from writers new and old, our favorite writers of today and tomorrow. How I miss those times. Cancer robbed readers of both of them, Greenberg first, in 2011, and Gorman in 2016.

Manga (Karavansara): Hiroaki Samura’s dark fantasy Blade of the Immortal was the last manga that I bought regularly before I decided it was too expensive a hobby, and I did not like the local fandom anyway. The fact that the Italian publisher of the series went belly up halfway through the comic’s run was also part of my decision to let it go, and with it let go of the whole hobby for a decade or two.

RPG (Skulls in the Stars): Operation Seventh Seal (1985), by Evan Robinson. Let’s look at an adventure from another TSR roleplaying game, Top Secret! Top Secret was introduced in 1980 as a contemporary espionage roleplaying game, designed by Merle M. Rasmussen and published by TSR. Looking back on playing Top Secret as a teen, I’m struck at how strange it is: it is effectively “spy D&D,” with a group of 4ish spies accomplishing missions. But can you imagine anything less practical than doing espionage as a *group*?

Sensor Sweep: Andrew Offutt, The Broken Sword, Walt Simonson, Siege of Malta, Lovecraft Lunch Bags published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/