A completely different "forgotten world history"... "Surprising reasons" why we should re-learn "the history of the Ottoman Empire" now
//Summary - Level-B2//
The Ottoman Empire lasted 600 years, offering a different societal model from the Western world. Unlike modern ideals of equality, it acknowledged diversity through a hierarchical system. While modern societies prioritise human equality, they often overlook cultural and religious differences. The Ottoman Empire, spanning over 30 modern nations, naturally integrated multiple ethnicities and religions. Its governance system evolved from various global traditions to manage diversity effectively. Though not an ideal society, its approach to coexistence highlights the complexity of balancing equality and diversity—offering insights relevant to today's world, where the concept of equality sometimes overshadows fundamental differences.
1)
The Ottoman Empire reigned at the "centre of world history" for about 600 years. How did this tremendous multi-ethnic and multi-religious empire rise and fall?
2)
An "empire" different from Western Europe:
If there is a universal lesson to be learned from the Ottoman Empire, it is that we can learn something about the state of human society and its potential that is different from the modern world.
3)
Modern society was built mainly by several countries in Western and Central Europe, and it can be said that this is an era in which the world order and social structure that has gradually come to have a global influence over the past 300 years or so is the standard.
On the other hand, the Ottoman Empire and its region, the Ottoman world, as this book refers, were adjacent to the Western-derived society that would later become the global standard but maintained a different way of being from it for over 500 years and enjoyed prosperity.
4)
The fundamental difference between this society and modern times is how it thinks about human beings.
Western-style society, which has come to this day through the construction of nation-states, has, after many twists and turns, arrived at the absolute and fundamental requirement stated in Article 1 of the UN Charter that "all human beings are born equal in dignity and rights".
It is a fantastic idea. It has finally been achieved after the colonial era, which had its origins in inequality, and after two world wars, which claimed a staggering number of victims.
5)
However, this way of thinking or ideal, which is taken for granted in modern times, has a weakness.
Its weakness is that trying to achieve equality between people makes it difficult to see the various differences, such as language, religion, and the cultures that arise from them—in other words, the diversity and heterogeneity that undoubtedly exist in human society.
6) What "equality" conceals:
Ottoman society was not indifferent to human equality. For example, the ruling class believed in the teachings of Islam, which held that all human beings were identical in the sense that they were God's creations and should be respected equally.
However, the idea that "all human beings are the same and equal" could not be born in this empire.
7)
In modern terms, the Ottoman Empire encompassed more than 30 countries and regions. It was founded with the Balkans and Anatolia, where Islam and Christianity were truly mixed, as its core regions.
Therefore, this country was a society in which its subjects were of different faiths, such as Islam, Greek Orthodox Christians, Armenian Apostolic Christians, and Jews, and it was natural for them to speak other languages.
8)
Naturally, the empire's ruling class was also diverse. Although the majority of them were Muslims, there were a considerable number of converts among them.
The Ottoman Empire, which was born in such a multi-ethnic region, knew from experience that human society is a conglomeration of human groups with different languages and beliefs. It took this as a basic premise and built a very realistic ruling system by reality.
9)
However, this system did not suddenly appear in the Ottoman Empire.
It was probably formed by the syncretisation of national systems worldwide (the ancient Orient, Islamic culture, Mediterranean culture, and the Turkish-Mongolian culture of Central Eurasia), which had been refined since ancient times to govern "multi-ethnic groups."
Thus, it can be seen as a kind of final form of state and organisation devised by man in an epoch that did not assume the "nation-state" of Western Europe.
10)
However, I am not suggesting that the Ottoman world was an ideal society where multiple ethnic groups coexisted. Instead, as this book will argue, Ottoman society accepted this "diversity" of people and established a hierarchy within it.
For example, there were many institutional inequalities among non-believers, and in real life, harmony and discrimination among non-believers were two sides of the same coin.
11)
In terms of coexistence based on the heterogeneity of human groups and the inequalities between them, this society is far from ideal regarding modern values.
On the other hand, the worldview that permeated the Ottoman world, according to which human beings are never homogeneous.
It is natural for others to be different from oneself, which often makes us reflect on how to deal with human diversity, which, in modern times, we sometimes tend to gloss over with the grand ideal of "equality".
12)
Knowing that a heterogeneous society, which emerged from a social system that, until 100 years ago, took human diversity for granted, certainly existed in this world seems to give us a clue that helps us break through the binary oppositional thinking surrounding equality and diversity.
A completely different "forgotten world history"... "Surprising reasons" why we should re-learn "the history of the Ottoman Empire" now
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