Selim Iii And His Era

Author : Alexander Garbolas
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781724198167
Total Pages : 413 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (981 download)

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Download or read book Magnificent Era 1: Selim the Grim written by Alexander Garbolas and published by . This book was released on 2018-10-26 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This first of a five-book historical series is devoted to the deeds of Sultan Selim I, the so called Selim the Grim by the Westerners, or Selim the Just by his subjects. Selim had Alexander the Great as a role model. With the help of the Janissary Corps he forced his father Bayezid to abdicate because he was religious and peaceful. Immediately after the coronation of Selim I in 1511, his deposed father died suddenly on his way to Edirne possibly by poisoning. Thereafter, Selim's older brothers Ahmet and Korkut were strangled together with their six sons, as well as Selim's three of his four legal sons, keeping alive only one, Suleiman.With his diplomatic skills Selim managed to unite the Turcoman and Tatar tribes under his banner. Then, he achieved a decisive victory over the Shah Ismail of Persia in the battle of Chaldiran in 1514, crushing the superior enemy cavalry with his artillery. Subsequently, he attacked the second major military power in Middle East, the Mamelukes of Egypt, winning several battles, conquering within a year all the major cities Aleppo, Damascus, Jerusalem and Gaza. The next year 1517 he crossed the Sinai Desert in thirteen days, and crushed the Mamelukes at Giza in front of the gates of Cairo, putting an end to the Mameluke dynasties that dominated the Middle East since the Crusades. As a result of the Egyptian conquest, Selim became the master of Mecca and Medina and the Caliph and Protector of Islam. In this dramatic historic background, the events related to the beginning of a long friendship between an Ottoman Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent and a remarkable Greek slave, Pargali Ibrahim are narrated freely on the basis of the existing vague historic outline. Considering the powerful people involved in these important events and the various national interests, there has been an effort by historians to whitewash many personal details that could be embarrassing if they ever became known. Moral standards and ethics change considerably in time; so discretion is critical before passing judgment.The author feels that from the very beginning of the narration the reader should also be aware that in the Ottoman Empire founded on the ruins of the Eastern Roman Empire the Sultan had the right to impose any kind of penalty he saw fit on his non-Muslim subjects. Only on Muslims he was obliged to seek the permission of religious authorities according to the Islamic Law. Thus, non-Muslim subjects called "raya" were basically what we call slaves in the modern West. Slaves had to follow orders or be punished severely to become examples other slaves should not follow. Slaves were also not allowed to ride horses. It goes without saying that the change of faith from Christian or Jewish to Muslim became a wide spread phenomenon in the Ottoman Empire.On the other hand, Muslim law prohibited any harsh punishments of slaves without reason and Ottoman state reworded slaves of exceptional abilities. It is characteristic that the highest administration offices, comparable to Prime Ministers, or Governors were traditionally given to ex-slaves of higher education or rare talents after they converted to Islam as the Ottoman state continued the Roman tradition of appointing eunuchs in high positions, because the lack of offspring removed one of the main reasons for embezzlement of state funds.Muslims were not allowed to castrate slaves so only Christians or Jews performed this risky operation. There is historical evidence Selim Khan was very fond of a eunuch his Grand Vizier Hadim Sinan Pasha who died during the battle of Giza. Selim Khan, being such a overwhelming personality, had great influence on the life of his son Suleiman, so without covering part of Selim's life the reader may not make sense of many of his son's actions. However, his mother Hafsa Hatun had also significant effect on his character the same way King Philip and Olympias affected Alexander the Great's behavior adding violence to the mixture.