5th August 2003, 6:15 PM
ASM, you say a lot of stupid things, and usually I just ignore them, but tonight I'm bored, and to add to that I hate when people distort history.
We do not always view the Arabs as primitive, only when they try to blow our shit up for idiotic reasons.
The west was not threatened by anyone during the crusades. I don't know if you read up a bit, but we did most of the threatening during the crusades. They were launched not because the Christian world was being threatened, but rather because of a very large surplus of landless knights searching for something to kill (and land to own, alternatively). These landless nobles were creating quite a bit of instability throughout Europe, thus the Church concocted some bogus reason and sent them to slaughter Arabs. The Emperor of the East Alexius Comnenus had indeed sent a letter asking for help from his western brethren from the incursions of the Seljukid Turks, but this and the fact that these Turks had also began blocking the way for Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem were just used as reasons to unload the Latin world's extra manpower.
I do not know what you call modern, but in terms of impressiveness, neither Baghdad nor any city of the West ever surpassed the great cities of China.
The statement that Baghdad was the capital of the Ottoman Turks is absolutely preposterous, and hints to me that you need to read up on the history of the Ottomans (even a short summary will do), whose power-base never left western Turkey, and whose capital was for the greatest part of their reign, Istanbul. Previously it had been Bursa in Anatolia, then Edirne in Thracia or Rumelia. Sultan Mehmet captured Constantinople from the last Eastern Emperor, Constantine XI the Last, in 1453, and established his capital there, where it stayed until 1918. Istanbul is in fact the English way to pronounce the Turkish "Stamboul" which is a deformation of (Con)stantinopol(is).
The Ottoman clan of Turks was founded during the late 14th century. The crusades came in the 11th, 12th and 13th, and the Mongols during the 13th. The Ottomans never fought either of those opponents; they did fight against what is considered the very last crusade, the crusade of Varna, in which they handed their ass to a mish-mash army of Rumanians, Poles, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Yugoslavs of all kinds and types, Ruthenes as well as a handful of Italian knights. This crusade was very geopolitical in nature and had little religious fervor to it, but rather had a profound mercenary and adventurer influence to it, resembling perhaps more the spirit of the conquistadores of the Renaissance than the deeply religious crusaders of old. Regardless, they got thrashed, and this victory was one of those which would propel the Ottomans to a powerful position in eastern Europe.
I think you place the Ottomans in a much too early time frame, and I again encourage you to read up on them. The Turks were a Renaissance power, not a medieval one. And while they did get dealt blows by Napoleon and the British, you must also look at the weakness of their internal government as well as their very important territorial losses in Europe vs. Austria-Hungary and Russia.
Last, I need to remind you that the Ottomans were Turks. They conquered many different nations and incorporated them quite well, but remains that their Sultans and aristocracy were Turks. Bin Laden is not a Turk. He is not fighting to restore the Ottoman empire. If anything, he is fighting for a concept many Westerners do not seem to grasp, that of the Ummah- the nation of Islam.
Quote:The islamic empire was once very advanced as it was the one that invented modern Postal service and the first working international banking,They said you could deposit money in a bank in Morroco and then extract it later in Cairo,While europe still didnt get into making the printing press just yet .We always view the arabs as primitive but infact that was not true for a long time untill britain became very powerful the muslimes were on top and thats why the west was threaten by it during the cruisades, Baghdad surprisingly at one time was the most modern city in the world and it was the capital of the late Ottoman empire.
We do not always view the Arabs as primitive, only when they try to blow our shit up for idiotic reasons.
The west was not threatened by anyone during the crusades. I don't know if you read up a bit, but we did most of the threatening during the crusades. They were launched not because the Christian world was being threatened, but rather because of a very large surplus of landless knights searching for something to kill (and land to own, alternatively). These landless nobles were creating quite a bit of instability throughout Europe, thus the Church concocted some bogus reason and sent them to slaughter Arabs. The Emperor of the East Alexius Comnenus had indeed sent a letter asking for help from his western brethren from the incursions of the Seljukid Turks, but this and the fact that these Turks had also began blocking the way for Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem were just used as reasons to unload the Latin world's extra manpower.
I do not know what you call modern, but in terms of impressiveness, neither Baghdad nor any city of the West ever surpassed the great cities of China.
The statement that Baghdad was the capital of the Ottoman Turks is absolutely preposterous, and hints to me that you need to read up on the history of the Ottomans (even a short summary will do), whose power-base never left western Turkey, and whose capital was for the greatest part of their reign, Istanbul. Previously it had been Bursa in Anatolia, then Edirne in Thracia or Rumelia. Sultan Mehmet captured Constantinople from the last Eastern Emperor, Constantine XI the Last, in 1453, and established his capital there, where it stayed until 1918. Istanbul is in fact the English way to pronounce the Turkish "Stamboul" which is a deformation of (Con)stantinopol(is).
Quote:The Ottomans went the same way rome did ,internal strife and over exspansion but of course external threat was more serious for them as the Mongols were a problem and even destroyed ancient Baghdad , the Europeans came during the cruisades and then later from France and Brittain Via Nepoleon and Queen victoria campiagns to conquere the world.
The Ottoman clan of Turks was founded during the late 14th century. The crusades came in the 11th, 12th and 13th, and the Mongols during the 13th. The Ottomans never fought either of those opponents; they did fight against what is considered the very last crusade, the crusade of Varna, in which they handed their ass to a mish-mash army of Rumanians, Poles, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Yugoslavs of all kinds and types, Ruthenes as well as a handful of Italian knights. This crusade was very geopolitical in nature and had little religious fervor to it, but rather had a profound mercenary and adventurer influence to it, resembling perhaps more the spirit of the conquistadores of the Renaissance than the deeply religious crusaders of old. Regardless, they got thrashed, and this victory was one of those which would propel the Ottomans to a powerful position in eastern Europe.
I think you place the Ottomans in a much too early time frame, and I again encourage you to read up on them. The Turks were a Renaissance power, not a medieval one. And while they did get dealt blows by Napoleon and the British, you must also look at the weakness of their internal government as well as their very important territorial losses in Europe vs. Austria-Hungary and Russia.
Last, I need to remind you that the Ottomans were Turks. They conquered many different nations and incorporated them quite well, but remains that their Sultans and aristocracy were Turks. Bin Laden is not a Turk. He is not fighting to restore the Ottoman empire. If anything, he is fighting for a concept many Westerners do not seem to grasp, that of the Ummah- the nation of Islam.
You wanna ride, baby?
This is a special car.
Two accelerators... no brakes! Yeeeah!
-- Zodiac Mindwarp / Backseat Education
This is a special car.
Two accelerators... no brakes! Yeeeah!
-- Zodiac Mindwarp / Backseat Education