THE MESSENGER

Islamic:  Empire of Faith PBS Special:  Part 1
The Messenger

The call of prayer is bound together by the spirit of Islam, five times a day throughout the world,

“God is most great.  I testify there is no other God but God.  I testify Muhammad is the Messenger of God.  Come and pray.  Come and flourish.  God is most great.  There is no God but God.”

Islamic civilization has been one of humanities greatest achievement.  A worldwide power founded simply on faith, a spiritual revolution that will shake the nations of three continents.  Further west the history of Islam has been moved by fear and misunderstanding.  Islam is moving with western civilization.

A single man will change the world forever.  His name was Muhammad.

The Messenger

To a Muslim the life of Muhammad is revered.  Muhammad was born around 570 AD in the Peninsula of Saudi Arabia.  A land of savagery who were at constant war.  While an infant his parents gave him a taste of life in the dessert.  He was from Mecca.  He was sent to live with the Betters because they were religious and respected.  By the time he was six years old both parents died and he was sent to live with his uncle.  He was orphan and grew to be passionate with those left out of society.  He had many parents.  He was a child of everybody.  Pre Islamic civilization was poor.   They recited poetry well.  They sang of the glory of the tribe.  Poets linked the tribes to their ancestors.  Poetries bound them together in their victories and defeats.  Warfare was a reality of this time and Muhammad’s uncle taught him how to take care of himself.  In the wilderness rivalry over a single well would cause a feud for many generations.  Without the tribes protection no one could endure.  Most of the land was dry.  Water was precious.  Water makes the difference between life and death.

They had their gods, water, wind, fire, etc.  They worshipped spirits from nature such as trees, springs, etc.  The Kabba kept these spirits.  It was said that Abraham built the Kabba before and that a sacred black stone had fallen from the sky.

The Kabba represented a place of peace and when they left that area they would return to conflict.  In the middle around the Kabba, all people had to put down their arms and it became a place of trading.  The spiritual part of the Kabba was hard to separate.  The Kabba made Mecca a place for trade.  The greatest treasure found was the mixture of culture.  The local religion was mixed with Christians and Jews, and Arabs [Mecca, Jerusalem, Isfahan]. 

Muhammad’s world was the center of trade.  Muhammad became a merchant.  At 25 his talents caught the eye of Khadijah and she proposed marriage to him.  She was a mentor to him.  He learned a lot from her.  He was intelligent and loved by all.  He had a way with people and in resolving their disputes.  Once when the Kabba fell in disrepair the chiefs were arguing who would repair it but before they started to fight Muhammad had a solution.  The four leaders shared the weight and honor.  They invited him to help.  He was known as the “trusted one.”  He was interested in religious questions too.  He went into the rocks to meditate.

In a cave above Mecca, Muhammad had an experience that would define his life.  An angel (Gabriel) appeared before him in the form of a man telling him to recite.  For Muhammad this was disturbing.  This was the beginning of the prophetic career of Muhammad.  He had powerful words and above all, “there is only one God”.  The central tenet of Islam is the unity of Islam.  It’s only thinking about one thing.  One God meant one people.  There was to be no more tribal division.  He had a strong social justice message.  In Mecca you had the haves and have nots and Muhammad didn’t want that anymore.  Islam was a new order, a new way of life.  Everyone was equal.  It was a universal appeal and that’s why it spread rapidly.  He had a verbal expression.  Muhammad was not a poet because they spoke through desire.  Muhammad spoke of God.

Muhammad’s followers started to grow.  They called themselves Muslims.  They surrendered until God.  They set out to spread his message which was through the Quran.  It had to be written down so it wouldn’t be corrupted and it had to be maintained in writing.  Power and tenderness came together in the Quranic language.  The imagery of paradise was there but for God there wasn’t.  The mystery remains.

You couldn’t talk about God because you couldn’t give an image and that’s why they didn’t like sculptures.  In the Quran they shifted the pronouns around.

Islamic pictures were not favored.  They didn’t need any pictures and they didn’t need pictures of Muhammad.  If there were pictures they were not to be worshipped.  Muhammad was a historical figure.  You were to learn about your history from the pictures.

As Muhammad’s community grew so did the opposition.  People were skeptical.  If you’re a prophet they said “where is your miracle” and they were given the answer “this is a miracle, the Quran”.  That wasn’t miracle enough.  Their doubts increased.  The idea of life after death they hated.  Muhammad also spoke of eternal damnation.  The unjust would go into the fire.  They started to hate him.  The social order and economic system was threatened.  As his followers increased the business area was affected and people left town.  The tribal leaders decided Muhammad and his message must be removed.  They didn’t want him taken over.  They wanted his uncle to remove his protection around Muhammad which would clear the way for murder without retribution.  The leaders didn’t want to give up multiple gods.  Muhammad’s followers was forced away from the market place and starved and if they didn’t have clan protection they starved or killed.  In 619 A.D. Khadijah and his uncle died his first great love and protector.  Now his enemies had the opportunity to kill him but in Yathrib, north of Mecca a refuge open to Muhammad.  These people needed Muhammad’s skills.  He settled the people’s dispute if they would protect him and his followers.  They began a new community not by blood but by faith.

In the course of a single caravan journey, Islam makes its beginning.  This journey is known as the Hirja 622 in the Christian Calendar marks the Muslim year 1 (A.H).

Muhammad’s goal in Yathrib was to bring unity and peace.  This town became known as the city of the prophet (Medina).  He wanted a community of believers to bring harmony.  He didn’t challenge their other faith (at this time).  He treated Judaism and Christianity as “People of the Book”.  They believed God revealed himself through Moses.

The call of prayer the first Islamic Pillar was the call to unity. Praying together was a good thing.  The result is powerful.  It unified the body, mind, soul all together.  They bowed and touched their head to the ground.  Muhammad was giving a revelation for the people to face the Kabba in Mecca.  It is the Shrine of Abraham, the one true believer in God.  As they were praying to Mecca their enemies were getting together to attack them.  Muhammad’s people began to gather arms.  They were being overrun.  The Meccans were heavily armed.  They came armed with a powerful weapon, their belief in their faith.  Muhammad’s troops fought knowing that God was guiding them.  For three years they held out with staggering odds.  As word spread other tribes saw God’s hand.  One by one they helped Muhammad and the tide turned.  Finally the city fell to Muhammad 630 AD Mecca won with 10,000 strong.  Usually men were killed, women and children became slaves.  Muhammad embraced the Meccans instead of killing them.  He was kind.  Not all of Mecca was safe.  They surround the Kabba and marched seven times around it.  He raised the staff and the idols were destroyed.  By breaking the idols he broke the tribal system.  Some of the leaders were saying the God’s of their fathers are being destroyed.  This was like Moses breaking the tablets or Jesus casting out the money sellers.  The destruction of the idols were a new beginning, the breaking of the past and the creation of a new force.

Mecca was just the beginning.  Slowly different areas were united to the banner of Islamic union.  A world community, faith was born in an extraordinary aliment of history personal and historical.

The Muslims turn to the North, Lebanon and Syria then west to Egypt.  It’s growth was explosive.  Within 50 years people whose father’s were camel herdsmen now were governing the empire.  The empire was larger than Roman.  How such small an army can conquer so much.  It spread because people were fed up with previous regimes.  Convert or die wasn’t true.  They allowed the conquered people to maintain their life.  They wanted a religion free from clergy.  The times created the movements and men.  The Roman Empire collapsed, the Byzantine Empire wasn’t strong enough , there was a need of new vision, a new way of looking toward life and Muhammad’s movement filled that void.  The lessons of the Quran were playing out on a global prayer.  They keep their prayers at St. John the Baptist and let the Christians keep their prayers right next to them.  Side by side the two faiths shared the same building in peace.  As the Muslim community grew they bought the church from the Christians and built a Mosque on the site.  They decorated it with golden Mosaics of paradise from the Byzantine Empire.  The great Mosque of Damascus would become a model of new mosque to come all across the empire.  They transformed their lands.  They devise a water systems separating fresh water from bad water.  All over you found they brought water from the mountains.  They filled the aqueducts with water.  Agriculture flourished.  They saved their most monumental feat for the Holy City of Jerusalem.

The Islamic first great work of art is the Dome of the rock.  This holy site goes back to the place of Abraham were he nearly sacrificed his son.  It was built near to where Jesus was said to have been buried.

The Dome of the Rock is perfect.  It is holy to Abraham and Isaac.  Islam has come to stay.  In just 100 years Muhammad’s vision has transformed the spiritual and political map of the world and his followers have established an empire larger than Rome, but Muhammad never lived to see it.  He died.  Medina fell into despair.  He wanted to be buried simply.  He didn’t want people to worship his grave, that would interfere with their worship of God.  God had only spoken to them through Muhammad but now that the prophet left them maybe God as well.  His death set up a crisis and question of who would take over were in the people’s mind.  There were different opinions.  According to the Shi’ites, Ali was the successor (family).  The Sunnis believed they were to choose one of their peers/the elders, Abu Bakar, he said “if you worship Muhammad know that he is dead if you worship God know that he lives forever.”  The strength of power, “knowing one God” Muhammad’s message would bring power.

THE AWAKENING

ISLAMIC EMPIRE OF FAITH PBS Special – PART 2
  THE AWAKENING

During the 7^th and 8^th century a powerful new faith has changed the world, the faith of Islam.  Its followers launched a conquest not only by the sword but by the power of ideas.  Two hundred years after the death of Muhammad his message and the new empire has transformed three continents.

Now comes a new empire, a political new configuration driven by a religious newly defined civilization.  This new civilization was expanding beyond its dreams within a period of a very short time, literally the largest civilization empire ever known.

The Arabic world for conquest [futuh] literally means openings.   Islam sown it seeds to the faith of four winds and a world of opportunity opened before it.  But the vast spiritual empire, spiritual core remains at its birth place, the Holy City of Mecca.  From every corner of the Muslim world the faithful embark on the traditional journey to Mecca the sacred pilgrimage known as the Hajj.  The pilgrimage is a central devotional ritual in Islamic life.  It shows unity and equality among all people.  The Hajj set humanity in motion.  For the first time since the reign of Alexandra the Great, culture and caravans freely flowed boarders closed for 1,000 years now opened.  If there was ideas on inventions the next year it would follow in their area and people met once a year then things would radiated back home.  Where pilgrims went traders followed.  Muhammad brought his message with him.

Trade was important because of its geographical position.  It was between the west and the east.  It was a natural land bridge connecting China to Europe.  In only two centuries Islam had extended its reach from Spain to the edge of India.  It took nearly a year to travel from one end of the Arab Empire to another.  At its heart was the city of wealth called Baghdad.

The palaces of ancient Baghdad have been lost over the centuries but the architectural achievement, the pride of Islam is a new age.  What made this the greatest city were the scholars.  They made it the jewel of the entire world. Baghdad was the center of learning.  Innovations came from Baghdad or the people came to Baghdad because the best people came there.

They came in search of answers to pragmatic questions.  They had engineering and logistical problems and solving them would take the smartest minds.  This new civilization had a need for science and the best minds.  The finest went to Baghdad’s House of Wisdom.  They came from all over the empire.  The great work of the ancients had to be transformed into a whole new body of knowledge.

Competition of jobs had developed.  There was no contradiction among them.  The Hindus gave mathematic concepts.  The Renaissance has their beginnings in Baghdad.  Arabic emerges as the language of learning.  The Muslims now challenge it.  You now have the spirit of questioning when there was an error.

The Muslims have the innovation of medicine.  Muslims say disease was transmitted through airborne particles this is where the study of germs came about.  Sick people needed to be quarantine until they were better, thus we have the hospitals.  Even mental illness was treated.  Their study of anatomy was so sophisticated. 

Muslim scientists were intrigued by the study of light, lens and the eye.  Muslim doctors were removing cataracts first.  Their knowledge had to be copied and shared.  Paper was invented in the year 1750 and it spreads all over.  It became a widespread industry.  Now books are invented.  All the knowledge is now written down.  The Monks of the west put their information on parchments.  The Muslims used paper.  The Muslim population had people to thank of global as a single unit of humanity.

Of all the global area the Christians could experience the Muslim lifestyle is in southern Spain.  Here on the European area people will experience the Muslim life.  A thousand years ago the city of Caldiver(?) was a center of learning and culture that rivaled Baghdad. Today Caldiver has narrow lanes which harkens to the medieval past.  This was a city of light, a Muslim city.  It was one of the biggest exciting in Europe.  It had running waters, people lived in big houses.  The Roman Catholic Cathedral is here in the middle of town.

The Caldiver Cathedral of today is a mosque of the Islamic Empire.  It is the biggest mosque in Southern Europe.  The cathedrals of today copied this great mosque.  This was the Christian time to see the Islamic world and their architect.  Most of Europe was in poverty but Caldiver was beautiful.  When the Europeans came they saw the palace called Al Hundra.  It is the best remaining example of what a medieval palace looked like.  It represented luxury.  It revealed the pinnacle of Islamic culture and society.  It had different textures and surfaces and running water too. It’s like a symphony of different elements brought together to provide exquisite enjoyment.  Here the Muslim elite relished the good life.  They walked the grounds through the gardens.

Christian arms due north were struggling on through the dark ages.  At the dawn of the 11^th century a tragedy in Jerusalem would put Muslims and Christians on a collision course.  Jerusalem was ruled by an Egyptian caliph named Al Hakamin.   Al Hakamin was a madman.  He was insane.  Four over 200 years the Christians were protected by the Muslims.  In 1001, Al Hakamin broke with that tradition.  He ordered the holiest church in Christendom destroyed.  He burned down the church of the Holy Sophia in Jerusalem.  Nobody knows why he did it.  This sent shivers to the Christians. His actions gave way to what the Christians thought all along about Muslims, intolerance, slaves, barbarians.  Al Hakamin’s successor rebuilt the church of the Holy Sophia in 1048 with Byzantine help.  There was this belief now that things were not going well in the Holy Land. 

Pope Irvin the Second brought forth a campaign of bloodshed toward the Muslims.  He wanted to exterminate them.  “Jerusalem is the naval of the world, she cries out to be liberated, Christ Himself commands it.”  You now have military service and religion combining together.  This Pope in 1095 made his famous call for the Crusaders to rescued the endangered holy places in the east, especially Jerusalem.

In 1097 the Muslim saw the strike of fair on the Holy Land.  When the Crusaders struck the Arab land was weak at that time, broken into kingdoms and dynasties.  The Crusaders chose a good time to attack.  The rulers at the time had died.  The Muslims didn’t think anything was going to be done to them.  It was a real surprise.  The Muslims thought it was the Byzantine being a nuisance.  They didn’t know these people had a religious agenda from western Europe and their aim was Jerusalem.

History is haunted by horror but on June 15, 1099 when the Crusaders entered Jerusalem the massacre was terrible, they feared them and the people were fleeing.  The Crusaders saw the Holy City and loved it.  This made them want Jerusalem more.  It was beautiful.  They even slaughter some Christians.  At the church of the Holy Sophia dozens of people from different sects were massacred.  To the Crusaders they were nothing more than foreigners.

The Christian Chronicles recorded the disaster.  They dragged out the bodies and made them into heap piles.  No one has ever seen such slaughter.  The piles were like pyramids.  They shocked the Muslim world.  The Muslim poets told of the rape of their land and told of their impurity into the Muslims sacred space.  There is no room for pity. 

The First Crusade was over.  There were 100,000 men who started with this crusade and most returned to Europe having a glimpse of Muslim life. The job of occupying Jerusalem fell to the 20,000 who remained.  To secure their occupation they built castles.  Their castles were the finest in the world.  They are still standing today.  Kra Des Chevaliers (Crac des Chevaliers) is one of the greatest castle in Syria.  It was big, strong and couldn’t be taken. Inside the castle was constant fear though.  The people outside the castle weren’t friendly so they had to be watched.

The Crusaders made treaties and broke them.  They harassed the traders who passed by their castles.  As they raided the caravans the Crusaders learned of a luxurious lifestyle they never heard of in Europe.

They were blown away with what they found in the Middle East and they took a lot back with them such as inlaid medal work, textiles, silk, things like that they never seen before.

The Crusaders were a decisive force toward the Muslims and world events.  While the Crusaders were in their castles, Islam was spreading throughout the world.  Muhammad’s message rang out as clear and strong as never before.  Mosques were now on every horizon.  They welcomed traders, housed schools and hospitals.  A vibrate culture was arising on a singular faith.

Faith had launched an empire, culture was now enlightened but what united them was trade.  For the Muslims trade like science brought innovation.  Business was expedited by a revolutionary concept, the sack, and checks could be written in Spain and cashed in India.  Writing a check assume that someone was going to honor it, cash it at the other end.  There was some kind of Central Bank honoring the sack.  This was based on trust and faith.

Muslims became some of the greatest merchants of the Middle Ages.  There were great craftsmen who were Persians and the Muslims blacksmiths learned how to fold steel to give it strength and flexibility.  The sword had no equal in the world but the economic backbone of Islam was expanding through wealth and textiles.  The demands for the product of Muslim loons were enormous.  Textiles dealt with growing the plants and making dyes which were expensive.  The making and transporting of textile was the main economy.  The fabrics produced in the Islamic world were the best.  They were made of linen, cotton, silk and cloth of gold and their patterns wee complicated.  Wealthy Europeans and churches bought theses fabrics. When the Christians need a cloth worthy of rapping the bones of their  saints they went to the Muslims but sometimes the fabrics were trimmed with the text from the Holy Quran so the words of the prophet were seen in Christendom’s’ burials.  Some Italian paintings whose portraits were taken with fabric from Muslims loons have the word “There is no God but Allah in Arabic.”

After almost 100 years of broken treaties and fighting the Muslims reached their turning point.  It came in the person of Isman, most celebrated figure, his name was Saladin.

The west would remember him and come to revere him as Saladin.  Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb (Arabic: صلاح الدين يوسف بن أيوب‎, Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb, Kurdish: سه‌لاحه‌دین ئه‌یوبی, Selah'edînê Eyubî) (ca. 1138 – March 4, 1193), better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized^{[2][page needed]} Kurdish^[2][3][4] Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant. At the height of his power, his sultanate included Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Kurdistan, Hejaz, and Yemen.

Saladin was successful.  He was a great inspirer of his military followers.  In 1187 he led amount of 12,000 warriors and lured the Crusaders on a plain between two hills called the Horn of Hardin.  On the evening of July 3 after a long march, the Crusaders camped on a barren hillside.  There was nothing but a waterless terrain.  As dawn approached Saladin set fire to the tall grass and the fire was carried up to the Crusaders and they found themselves surrounded and panic set in.  They were consumed by the fire of flames, thirst, and arrows.  The armies of the Crusaders were decimated.  The victory was a turning point for Saladin.  He knew he could soon take Jerusalem that year.  Three months later, Saladin entered Jerusalem.  For the first time in over a century the call to prayer was heard in Jerusalem and yet Saladin did not retaliate against the Christians.  In the church of the Holy Sophia Mass was as usual and Saladin let the Christians who wanted to leave take their clothes and leave and those who wanted to stay can worshipped as usual.

When Europe heard this Saladin was known as the most famous Muslim of all time.  Saladin‘s victories did not put an end to western aspiration in the near east.  Other Crusades followed.  The Crusaders were driven from their castels and returned to Europe.  The returning Crusaders were amazed by the material culture of the Muslims, the quality of the merchandise, the quality of the goods was better than at home.  They like highly spiced foods.  They liked using soap.  After the Crusades they were more aware of what was going on in the Middle East [the Crusaders]. They were opened to what’s out there.  Let’s explore it.  Let’s learn language and this is when people started to learn Arabic.  The barrier of language dissolved ideas born and the great Muslim cities began to filter in Europe, ideas that would forever change western thought.

The scope of Islamic civilization has unified the globe of the world.  This golden age of Islam was not to last.  After shrugging off the Crusaders and bringing the precious gift of knowledge to Europe the great cities of the Islamic Empire will be brought to ruins by a force more terrible than what the Europeans could muster, their libraries destroyed, their wealth blunder, empty cities stood mute after the devastation came upon them not from the west but the east, it’s know as the Mongol Catastrophe.

The Mongols were Turks Mongolian Nomads from the steps of Central Asia.  In the 13^th century they rampaged much of Euro-Asia between the Ukraine and China.  It was long before they enter Islamic Persia.  They were considered savages.  Terror was the Mongols principal tactic.  The Muslims killed a Mongol and they in turn retaliated by killing off whole towns and built towers of skulls and bodies as examples and the other towns respected them from fear after that. 

City after city fell.  They finally reached the center of Islamic power.  On February 10, 1258 the Mongols took Baghdad.  According to the Arab Chronicles the Mongols put Baghdad to the torch, killed 10,000 inhabitants.  Mosques and libraries were all set ablaze.  Within less than 50 years the Mongols seized the heart of the Islamic Empire from the Arabs.  Islamic civilization seem to be on the brink of destruction but then something remarkable happened.  They opened the world and became Muslims in the end.  They converted to Islam and became great patriots of Islam.  The conversion and its lasting effect became extraordinary.  Within a decade they no longer built towers of human heads but mosques glorifying Allah. 

The land conquered the conquerors.  The Mongols became Muslims or Islamic leaders.  The Mongols transformed Islam now Islamic powers can be held by anyone not just the Arabs who created it.  The Mongols threw open the door for the great gun powder empire to follow, the Empire of the Ottoman Turks.  Islam was now set on a new course of expansion to both the east and the west marching to the beat of Turkish drums.

THE OTTOMANS

ISLAMIC EMPIRE OF FAITH – PART 3

THE OTTOMANS-PBS SPECIAL

The Ottoman Turks were a nomadic people.  Sultans enlisted them as mercenaries. 

Osman/Bey or chief was a Warlord.  He had a dream of a magical tree of his linage.  The followers of Osman were Ottomans knows as Ghazis.  Their destiny was to bring Islam to the world.  The Ottoman Empire was fearless. 

The early Ottomans expansion was to the west not east or south because they were their Muslim brothers and they were not to fight each other.  They had to move west where the Christians were. 

Ottomans moved northwest where the Byzantine Empire was reaching the end of its age.  The Crusaders wreaked havoc to Jerusalem.  The Ottomans overran the Byzantine Empire and in 1326 took Bursa.  Bursa enabled the Ottoman to establish a seat in government.  The movement of a whole civilization from nomadic to settled.  The Ottomans was a standard civilization. Civilization meant organization.  They left the Byzantine clerks in place.  Taxation and record keeping was importation.  The Ottomans were known for creating structure for the people so they could live by the way they chose/were used to.

The Ottomans still had rival kingdoms old Muslim families were still rebelling.  They wanted children who were not connected with the rival families (deshivres).  The boys were slaves of the sultan.  They were Christian children and not treated like slaves.  They were brought up in the Muslim faith.  They had great futures.  They had one allegiance and it was to the sultan.  They moved into the highest position of power in the empire.  If brainy they went to the high level in the court systems.  Those strong went to the janitorial system.  They were the elite army of the sultan.  They trained as military machines.  Their love was for the sultan.  They were the most feared in the Western world.

In the middle of the 15^th century the Ottomans spread from Anatolia to the Balkans.  They spread from Asia and further west into Constantinople.  The Ottomans wanted Constantinople.  Every ruler wanted Constantinople. 

Mehmed the conquer  wanted Constantinople.  He had his half brother murdered.  All brothers were eliminated.  Mehmed took over.  Mehmed had to conquer Constantinople.  It was a perfect gem/fruit to be picked.  Constantinople had three sides by water, encircled by triple walls.  Mehmed had an answer for the wall.  In 1452 he siege Constantinople by huge canons striped with forged metal.  New canons of solid bronze were also introduced during Mehmed’s time.  Mehmed did not rely on canons alone.  The Bosphorus Strait he wanted to cut off by the Black Sea.  He built a fortress to close the strait in the shadow of the city wall.  It took four month to do this.  When completed he tighten his noose about the Bosphorus Strait.  In 1453  Mehmed host  the ship to shore.  The 7,000 Christians held out for nearly a month.  The Byzantine Christians asked for help but the kings of Europe had political and military problems of their own.  Constantinople had to fend for itself.     

May 29, 1453 the Turkish army reached Constantinople’s Hagia Sophia (The Church of Holy Wisdom).  They have seen many churches before but not like Hagia Sophia which was embellished with gold, etc.  For Mehmed it was a great beauty.  The Shahada was sung there for the first time.  The greatest Christian church was now Muslim.  All mosques tried to match the Hagia Sophia but could not.  For Europeans it was a disaster.  Mehmed was now the Holy Roman Emperor.  They wanted the conquest of all of Europe now.

Born in the 10^th century, Suleiman was well educated.  He formed a relation with a Greek Christian convert Ibrahim Pasha who was Suleiman’s grand Vizer.  He was close in age and education to Suleiman.  When Suleyman took the throne he took Ibrahim with him.  He was only 26 years old and no one wanted to obey him.  He proved himself on the battle field.  Suleyman set his sights on Belgrade in Europe.  It was an important area strategically.  Then he conquered the Islands of Rhodes where Christians and pirates lived.  Suleiman didn’t rely on gun powder.  The Ottomans dug some tunnels to mind different foundations.  The result of the explosions resulted in the Turks fighting back but in 145 days later the Ottomans won.  Suleiman was to be taken seriously now.  His march of conquest has begun.  Europe feared Suleiman.  He was known as The Law Giver (Kanuni).  They needed to sort out the legal systems.  His law was the bases of the constitution.  He was the center of the world.  He commissioned spectacular buildings.  He was in a position of wealth and built buildings to remember his reign.  Great buildings give you a center of faith and great buildings reminded you of the glory of God.

Suleiman’s chief architect, Mimar Sinan was responsible for the Dome Mosque.  The Dome of the Rock, The Suleiman Mosque etc. They had spiritual value and faith.  The mosque was the center of social services, hospitals, schools and the library.  Suleiman gazed at this and said, “Oh Solomon, I have surpassed thee.”  Suleiman’s palace was the best.  It was the seat of government and his private dwelling. 

He was a patron of the arts.  Everything flourished.  This is the golden age of the Ottoman world.  Everything that came out of his palace was exquisite.  Suleiman was a goldsmith by trade.  Everyone tried to please the sultan because you were rewarded if you did well. 

The Ottomans exercise influence on the European imagination.  They had to respect the power of the Ottomans.  In public Suleiman made sure everyone was quiet while he made know his wishes know with the slighted gesture or nod.  No one said a word.  His sovereignty was being made known.

As Suleiman’s power grew his friend Ibrahim rose in the court structure.  Ibrahim Pasha became known as his devoted Grand Vizer and he married Suleiman’s sister.  They were not only good friends but related.  Ibrahim campaigned with his own army growing in influence and ambition until his power was second to Suleiman’s.  But for power and ambition the secret world to the sultan’s harem had no equal.  Contrary to western belief, it was not a playpen but laid at the center of domestic power.  The harem was the private quarters of the sultan.  The place where he was not displayed.  Home is what it meant to him.  He was allowed four wives and many concubines.  It was a system designed to produce heirs.  It wasn’t erotic.  He didn’t have much choice.

With his first wife he had a son named Mustafa while in his middle thirties he fell in love with a slave girl named Horin.  She was known by the name Roxelana.  She bared him a rival heir and she became Suleiman’s most trusted confident.  The sultan was to be protected from any un-do influence, from any rivals.  In a way this created a vacuum around his person into which the harem life can enter.  He was so protected that it backfired.  It exposed him to his females.

Suleiman was complex.  He was tender to his females and also to his males and family.  He groomed his first born son Mustafa for power.  The young prince was trained for this which led to military power.  Mustafa was the heir.  Suleiman’s power seemed limited.  “In Bagdad I am the Shar. In the Byzantine Empire (Roman), I am the Cezar.  In Egypt I am the Sultan”.

One of Suleiman’s greatest rivals was to the east, the Empire of the Persian Safavid.  Safavid was a Muslim enemy for centuries.  They were Turkish in ethnic origin.  They spoke Turkish.  They formed the eastern boundaries of the Ottoman.  The Safavid were Shites, bitter rival to the Ottoman Sunnis.  According to Shites the leader had to be from the family of Muhammad.  According to the Sunni you could be someone in the community not necessarily related to Muhammad.  This challenge is the basis for the Sunni/Shite split.  It still separates the Muslim world today.  The Ottomans really never thought themselves as Sunnis until the Safavid came forth with the rival as Shites.  The Safavid arrived at a rival ideology towards the Ottomans which became an occasion for war in Anatolia which belonged to the Ottoman Empire.  They were patrons of the arts.  When you looked at Isfahan it is the most beautiful cite in the world.  It iwas the capital of Persia in the Safavid Dynasty.  It does give you a since of power like the Ottoman and its capital.  It’s a different sense of power, more eloquent, precious in its decoration.  Safavid’s architect  is on a finer scale.  It is not known on a stunning scale.

 The sultan’s palace of the Safavid was murderous and had charges was intrigued against Suleiman and his dynasty which hatched in his very household.  Suleiman’s eyes were on the west.  Europe awaited his conquer.  The Ottoman Empire conquered from Egypt to                 and he now had Hungary.  He wanted to bring the larger part of the world under his control.

Sueliman’s next step was Vienna.  He wanted to drive a dagger into the European Safavid Empire and open a way to the west.  The weather turned against him.  The heavy canons that swept the Ottoman to victory in the past were bogged down in the mud.  Suleiman had to move on without them.  He only had light artillery.  They shelled the city but the smallest attack was defended.  After a lengthy siege with winter approaching Sueliman withdrew his forces.  He wasn’t concerned because he knew he would return soon enough but he never did.

Suleiman’s failure to take Vienna was pivotal for Europe.  It was the first major defeat after a long time.  The Europeans have been losing and losing.  This was the dawn of a new day for Europe.  Suleiman had little to fear from Europe.  His rival enemies, the Safavid and family members brought the cruelest sorrows to the sultan and his empire as well.

Suleiman showed the empathy of the wise 16^th century rulers and tragic figure.  In the sultan household the intrigue never ceased.  The palace and Horin complained as most wives would that Suleiman was spending too many days campaigning and she was lonely and the children missed him.  Surprising there was a fire in the palace in the old quarters, Horin’s quarters and she had to be moved to the top of the palace temporarily and she never moved out.

Now Horin was at the center of power promoting her own son’s heir and herself in a deadly gossip and suspicion.  She was devoted to her husband and any threat to Suleiman she had to get rid of it.

The first threat came from Ibriham Pasha whose assumed title was given by sultans and Ibriham knew something was going to happen eventually and to promote the sultan’ and his dynasty Ibriham had to go.  On March 15, 1536, Suleiman and Ibriham Pasha dined together as was their custom and in the morning Ibriham’s body was found strangled.  Suleiman’s destination had only begun.  A few years later Horin’s claim to have a plot to overthrow Suleiman proved his first born son Mustafa was part of the plan.  This happens, sons trying to replace their fathers.  Without hesitation Suleiman ordered his son’s execution. He then sat by his body for days and didn’t allow anyone to touch him.  The best hope for the empire’s future was now dead.  When Horin died the following year and Suleiman was in despair. He found solace in his poetry.  Most of the poems came when he lost his wife talking about the loneliness of being in office and that he had no one left and he is dying to join her.

In all his loneliness he returned to the field of battle/to the place of conquest.  He led thirteen campaigns that lasted at Saget Fa which is in Hungary now.  He knew this was going to be his last campaign.  He personally led it knowing that he would not come back alive.  In 1561 he died in his grand wall pavilion surrounded by his generals.  He was 67 years old.  No other sultan would achieve his greatness again.  The next of world powers would move from the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean and the new world slowly leaving the Ottoman’s behind.

In Istanbul today the Safavid Dancers still turn today with the same prayerful prayers they did in Suleiman’s day.  It is a meditation in motion whose mystic powers go back to the time of the Prophet Muhammad.  “You have become the best community ever raised up before mankind  the Quran assures, all believers are joining the right and forbidden the wrong and having faith in God/Allah”.

Islamic and Western Civilization has the same roots.  The monotheist of Jews and Christians., the classical intellectual culture of the ancient Greek etc.  The two traditions are kindred spirits alike but very different.  Islam’s legacy is intertwined with the west and to the billions of Muslims who make it the second largest in the world it is a living legacy, an elementary part of human nature that is world to civilization.