Ottoman Empire

Sultan Suleyman Kanuni I was Selim's successor whom put the Ottoman Empire at an apogee of power or a golden age.

"...the Ottoman Empire reached an apogee of power and success, a classical age, or golden age..."
- The ottoman empire was run in such an un-traditional, unethical, imperialistic manner that it surprised me on it's success. They adpated a spartan like society sending their kids to a millitary school focusing on combat and the religion of Islam. They being forced into slavery forced them to be tough.


"...the Ottoman Empire belonged to the state by right of conquest by the victorious ruling dynasty. The sultan governed the state as a trust from God."
- If the Ottoman Empire belonged to the state, and the sultan governed the state, this givers all of the power to one man. Today this is simply unheard of. The amount of reign and power the sultan had was ten times that of President Obama. 


"As the ruling class of the empire, the sultan's extended household of state servants paid no taxes, serving society and living off its revenues. These state servants were the sultan's slaves, his kuls." 
- Although these slaves were bound and forced to work under the sultan, they did get compensation. This is type of governing remindes me of a spoils system. 


"The ottoman realm was ruled by the sultan as a trust from God that all land belonged to the state, and that the state functioned as an extension of the sultan's household had direct relevance for the operation of the Ottoman economy. Economic activity increased the power and wreath of the state, which acted to distribute it's benefits to all." 
- It is said over and over again that the sultan runs the state, and in a sense is the state. The economic activity increases the power of the state, the sultan. This type of governing favors the sultan as well as his people, prosperity was spread despite the excessive amount of power and prosperity the sultan had.


It interests me how the women played a significant part in the delicate and cruical buisness of preserving the dynasty. On the contrary, it was common in the classical Ottoman system that Sultan's servants were slaves and taken from Christian villages in the Balkans. The children being sold to slavery were forced into this to prove their loyality to the state, mostly the sultan. 


Elite military slavery and an impersitical run-governmeant provided the Otttoman Empire with a Golden Age and extreme prosperity..


The thing that fathams me most about the Ottoman Empire was that, "The highest governing body in the empire was the imperial council, a cabinet-like group of men appointed directly by the Sultan. It directed the political, judicidal, financial, and administrative functions of government..." Even the few men that did hold power in the empire was picked by the sultan. This also remindes me of the spoils system because he's appointing jobs to men he likes or are on his status of riches and power, thus just increasing people already in power.

Dr. Frank's Essay

"In the changing Christian perceptions—from viewing Muslims as barbarians or idolaters to considering them as heretics who departed to a greater or lesser extent from the Christian faith—we can chart a progression."

"Christian meant above all a call to repentance; during those times Christians looked at Islam mostly, in Tolan’s words, as ―a powerful military threat but a negligible spiritual menace,‖ and thought it would go away.1"

it's interests me how the ideas of muslim religion has changed over the years. The common misconceptions has drastically changed however their is still a negative connotation. This negative connotation started very early. Muslims have been considered as barbarians and have been facing racial and religious prejduice. It interests me that muslims based their religion of christian faith. Their faith and religion is so intimidating that it even sparks a fear to be a military threat. The hostility fathoms me.

Decameron Day Two

We have spoken in class about giving into desires no matter the sins and the negative results that could come about. When Masetto played, "mute" or deaf, he was, in a sense held captive by numerous nuns to have sex with them. This is very sinful because they are nuns and promised their virginity to God, but they are also sharing the same man. Also, they were in a sense taking advantage of him despite is actual knowing of what was going on. The nuns and the abyss shared Masetto for enough time to reproduce and have little monks and nuns. They made themselves feel better by saying they didn't sin because they helped Masetto gain is speaking and hearing back by having sex with him. However this is false, he could hear the entire time. They're reasons for validating their sins is sinful within itself because it's a lie.


"The less hope of sucsess, he enjoyed, the more his love increased"
Nastagio fell deeply in love by Ravenna, whom was wicked and cruel to him. She hated everything about him and everything he liked. However he was blinded by love and felt very passionate for her. His family tried to assure him that she was cruel to him and should not stay with her. He was to blinded, and didn't listen. He saw his old aquantance one day in the woods with a women suffering and screaming from his cruel actions. The aquantance had told him that this women treated him horribly and that the divine force, God, sentenced him to brutelly stab the women in the breast, rip open her back and feed her flesh to the dogs. She would then rise up like nothing happend and would run away for the knight to follow her and kill her again. They are forced to this for the amount of time that she was cruel to him. Nastagio sets up a dinner party in the woods were he had seen her brutelly get killed. Relatives of the women and the knight were there to witness it. They were filled with terror and fear. Especailly Ravenna. Ravenna and Nastagio eventually lived happily ever after because their love was re-estabilished. They married.

Decrameron

The first story is of a deciving man who lies under a confessional when he falls ill. These confessions are to be his last, and they are lies. He presents himself to be innocent but really he lives a life of sins.  He preaches a sermon and is forever symbolized as a saint and a holy man. His travel and religion allowed him to die as a holy man despite his sins.G The second story is about a man named Giannotto who tries to convince his jewish friend Abraham to convert to christianity. When Giannotto is told by Abraham that he wants to see the pope himself and travel. He does just that while Giannotto is scared because of the corruption of the church. However, Abraham belives in God and is convinced that God's words are spoken in the church. In the fourth story religion and love intertwine. A young monk is caught seducing a girl by an abbot. He is prosecuted. The rest of the stories take on the theme of prosecution. 

Travel Literature

For a woman like Kempe to be in Jerusalem and Rome, is very spiritual and surreal. Since she was in these places of high significance that held the last hours of jesus christ, she was ovewhelmlingly suppressed and saddened. She cries so loud as if she had seen the torture the Lord was put through. She cried in sympathy for Holy Mary as well, and cried as if she was Mary herself looking at her son being nailed to the cross and battered with all sorts of horrible treaters weapons. This travel gave Kempe a chance to rejuvenate her soul and for her to be forgiven of her sins. She gets that and more by the Lord and Mary. The travel was not just to reach destinations but to obtain the fulfillment of being in the presence of what she felt were spiritual beings such as the Lord. Her tears were rewarded by the an assurance of the Lord that she would make it through the trip despite her abandonment of her crew. There are many valuable spiritual and cultural experiences that she wouldn't have gotten without these travels. She came to Jerusalem and Rome to show her devotion and love for the Lord, and to be forgiven. She got much more than that, and the Lord protected her through the trip to Rome. Mandeville's travels were spoke about through myths and stories commonly heard of. The appeal of the world is to see if his stories of the disturbing things he had seen were real or not. The spiritural connections one gets from visiting holy lands are the main of point of interest for traveling to them. When he speaks aboout non christian cultures he speaks more about the materials and spices that are there. However he relates the Koran to christianity and says that the Koran is God's messenger. 

Book Of Good Love (Day Two)

The mountain girls are perceived and described by the archpriest as an ugly, vile, deformed creature.The girls represent a sense of hell, sins, and the devil. The archpriest even says "That mountain girl had the devil in her, may Saint Julian take her. She and the other mountain girls make a living off capturing people that try to cross to their lands and threatening them with ultimate starvation and being frozen to death. The first mountain girl said she would strip him down if he did not bribe her with jewelry and other expensive goods. These women are very masculine and over sexualized. The mountain girls are desperate for premarital sex because they have no lover of their own. These mountain girls are very threatening and scary to the archbishop, as he is being confronted by the second mountain girl, he asks for Gods help, "God keep me from harm!" He spends little to no time with her and takes, "the cowards way out." The third mountain girl is desperate to marry. He tricks her by saying he would gladly marry her. As if that wasn't enough, she tells him she wants jewelry if he wants her hand in marriage. The girls are all deceiving and sell their souls for money and expensive items. The last mountain girl is a monster. He describes her as the word apparition he has ever seen. The archpriest takes a journey into devil bound souls. He sees the non existent ethics in morals in the mountain girls. It teaches him that in order for your soul to last for eternity, you have to comply with "good" morals and ethics.

Book of Good Love

There is a huge emphasis on fables because of the way it is written, in verse. Fables include mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects, and nature. Supernatural and unrealistic qualities are given to certain characters. The mythical creatures are given human characteristics, which is the point of a fable. A fable's purpose is to illustrate a lesson or a moral of the story. At the end of each short story, a fable comes about. The lesson Juan Ruiz is trying to teach to men is to not involve themselves in "foolish" love but to embark on a "journey" such as he did to find a "good" love. The fable makes it easier for the author to get right to the point or the moral of the story. The moral of the story is to devote your love to God, and to resist from sexual sin. He says something very powerful about the existance of women, "If when God made man he had intended woman to be a bad thimg, he would never have given her to man as his companio, nor formerd her from him. If she were not made for good, she would not be so noble." He goes on to say that if man were not so fond of woman, love would not hold so many people captive.  

Songs of Holy Mary

Song #4
This is a story of great treachery, violence, and abuse. The son of a jew had a communion and was blessed the Holy Mary. His father asked him about his day and his son told him that he had just had his communion. Being that he is jewish, his father lost sanity and his right mind and threw his son in the furnace. However because he was baptized and had a great deal of appreciation for the Holy Mary and Christianity as a whole, Holy Mary looked after him and protected him from any pain just as God her son did for Hanananiah, Azriah, and Mishael. There was a direction connotation to Holy Mary holding her son in her arms on the alter. It was as if the little jewish boy was her son whom she held on to for dear life. The theme in this one is the opposite of song five. It is about faithfulness, acceptance for other religions, especially since Jesus himself was Jewish. It's also about believing and committing to your belief. Holy Mary obtains the role to save the Jewish boy whom showed faith and hope in Holy Mary. There is a religious commentary concerning Jews and Christians and the unsettling separation of the two. This story shows just how dangerous and violent religion is. It shows how it alters situations and personalities.
Song #5
The plot of this song is the way the empress over came many struggles and tribulations with the help of Holy Mary. The main theme in is the vindictive way of the people during this time period when they thought someone did something wrong or decitful. They acted upon only what they heard from each other and didn't act upon pure evidence. It was a series of bad events for the empress because her beloved emperor had to leave to Jerusalem show his loyalty to god. Under the alone supervision of the emperor's brother, he admitted to her that he loved her. He is betrayed his brother proving the theme of vindictively driven people and betrayal. The role of the Holy Mary is to help the empress in her time of need, in the ocean, during her beatings. Holy Mary saved the empress from hunger and gave her the strength and ability to cure. In terms of a political analyasis of this, there is no governmeant or judge to hear one's story. The people join together to dismiss and kill anyone they belive to have betrayed someone or stolen. The empress was continulosuly hurt by people who had love for her. Her emperor, a lover whom she didn't know killed a baby she was supposed to look after, and her brother in law.

Troubadour & Trobairitz

These two poems share a similar story of longing, heartbreaks, and unfulfilled desires. The emotions love brings out of these poets are very strong. Jaufre Rudel speaks about how his lover is "lands away" from him. He speaks about his longing to see her. He says I must love and not be loved. The depression and heart aches are evident. Sometimes being broken up with is easier than being apart from your lover because it forces you to move on, and you know it's the end. However the separation allows no reassurance and sense of commitment. The two poems in troubadour and trobairitz share a similar foundation of faithless, hopeless lovers. Rudel says, "But the path is blocked to my desire, a great curse on this godfather who doomed to be unloved." He also says how he wishes he were a prisoner for her. The extreme emotions love brings out are spoken about in both of these texts.
The Countess of DIA clearly brings forth a women's voice and thoughts. The poem starts off with her speaking about how she is longing for a lover. When she finds out she feels uncertain and worried. "I pray him to believe my words and not let anyone persuade him that i ever would betray him, except I found myself betrayed. Her lovers name is Floris, and she sings a song to him and tells him how she has been "tricked and cheated" by him. She finds comfort in the deiciving vindictive break-up. "There's one thing though that brings me recompense: I've never wronged you under any circumstance , and I love you more than Seguin loved Valensa. At least in love I have my victory. This is a very feminine trait and mentality because a man would not make that connection or recgognieze it. She tries to figure out why he has wronged her and decides it is his desire to sustain pride and superority. She says, "too much pride has undone many men."