Slavery?

Should slavery in the Middle East during the time of the Ottomon Empire really be called slavery?

The conception of slavery that Americans have encompasses the harsh and brutual conditions that countless men, women, and children obtained from Africa suffered during the time of the discovery of the Americas until the time of the Civil War. They faced disease, merciless hours of working, abuse, disgusting and dehumanizing treatment, and so much more. Slaves in America were seen as property.

Slaves in the Ottomon Empire knew a whole different life than those unfortunate enough to suffer through the American concept of being enslaved. When taken from places such as the Ivory Coast of Africa, slaves found in the Ottomon Empire better lives than they had seen before in their homes. Slaves were able to have a place in society, whether it be owning property or even holding some type of power. As shown in The Imperial Harem, the children of a sultan were almost always going to be children of slave mothers! In America, it wasn't practically impossible for a slave child to be anything important in the society unless they were able to escape to the North. In the Ottomon Empire, was there even a reason to try and run away?

True, slaves were taken away from their homes and forced to fight for the Ottomons, but the Ottomons had a strategic way of engaging in the act of takin slaves. Ottomon laws drew up a "human tax" in which at least one boy of some households was to be given to the Ottomons to be raised in the Empire. The boys were strategically placed and trained far from their homelands to destroy any prior attachment they had to the place of their births. The boys were so inspired by the sultan to be completely loyal that once they were trained, slaves were a vital part of the fighting that eventually gave way to the sucesses of the Empire.

So, even though these people were forced to live under the conditions that set forth by the Ottomons, was it really that bad of a life? Should it really be called slavery?

During the colloquiam discussion on The Imperial Harem, the question was posed that, had we not known what slavery was in American history, would we even call what these people were put through actual slavery? My answer is no. For people living in some of the harshest places in Africa even as slaves in their homeland, this could have been the biggest breaks of their lives. Africans had a common idea to enslave their fellow Africans, and getting away to the Ottomon Empire could have been the answer to their prayers.

While all forced living situations do have a downside, I personally think that the slaves of the Ottomon Empire pretty much had it made.

The Ottomon Empire

The success of the Ottomon Empire is of a particularly interesting sort. The Ottomons used various means to take over the territories that they felt would be of the most significance to their growing empire. Interestingly enough, one of the main concepts that the Ottomons carried out was the adaptation of new ideas used to their advantage in the ongoing fighting and warfare. For example, the Ottomons introduced gunpowder into their strategies. Hardly anyone in the Middle East or Europe had known what the concept of using gunpowder entailed, or the damage that it could do on the people affected by it.

This idea made the Ottomon Empire be able to destroy opponants, such as the famed downfall of Constantinople in the Byzantine Empire from April 4, 1453 to May 29, 1453. In addition to gunpowder, the Ottomons also showed what I believe to be extremely intelligent ideas with regards to the building of a castle to blockade ships, a ramp to get over a water barrier, and a turret to allow access over the wall protecting the city.

In these various ways, the Ottmons show modern day intelligence over 500 years ago. To think that people in the 1400s were able to use their minds and resources in such relevent ways such a long time ago is extremely impressive and perhaps the most important reasons the Ottomon Empire was so sucessful for such a long while.

Islamic Culture/ Documentary --> Islam: Empire of Faith

I hadn't known as much about Islamic Culture as I learned from the background learned in class. I found it particularly interesting how the Ottomon Empire had so many situations and conflicts fall into place to allow for their great success. Various migrations from their ancestors, the perfect timing of the reign on the Mongol Soldiers and their eventual downfall from with contribution from the Black Death, and the Crusades causing the Byzantine Empire to never be the same gave way for the eventual success of the Ottomons. It was interesting to see how all of these events were related in making the eventual success of the Muslim people a possibility.

An interesting fact that I found out in this week's studies came with our studies of Mohammad. I hadn't known that Mohammad was given the honor of helping to reconstruct the Kabba when it was destroyed. This shows the reverence the Muslims had for Mohammad even before his initial legacy took off.