VARIOUS ASPECTS OF TURKISH CULTURE- Part 2
In 330 AD, Constantine the Great established the eastern capital of the Roman Empire in Byzantium, renaming it Constantinople. By the time of Emperor Justinian, Rome had fallen and Constantinople remained the sole capital of the vast empire. For centuries, the Byzantine and Arabic Empires struggled for the domination of Anatolia, but both were swept aside by the coming of the Turks from Central Asia.
The westward movement of Turkic peoples headed by the Seljuks led to permanent Turkish settlement in Anatolia. Meanwhile, people of different ethnicities remained there. The Seljuks left their descendants a rich cultural legacy: Omer Khayyam, the mystic poet renowned throughout the world for his Rubaiyat, was a subject of the Seljuks of Persia; and Mevlana, the spiritual leader of the humanist philosophy of tolerance of Sufism, and founder of the Mevlevi order of the Whirling Dervishes, lived in Konya, the capital of the Anatolian Seljuk Empire, and the order he founded flourished there.
Then came the Ottoman Empire which made an impact on the course of world history. This empire came to life in the late 13th century as a small Turkish principality near Bursa on the northwestern frontier of the Anatolian Seljuk Empire and gradually found its place in history as one of the great empires of Renaissance Europe. The Ottoman Empire reached its zenith in the 17th century. By that time it covered Asia Minor, the Crimea, the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Balkans. The Ottoman Empire followed in the footsteps of its ancestors and set up a system based on tolerance for the many differences among its subjects. This cultural and religious tolerance and goodwill is best manifested in the reception of Jews fleeing the Inquisition in the 15th century. It was due to this exceptional system assuring stability and tolerance, and freedom of conscience that the Empire was able to hold together people of different religions, languages and races, and also succeeded in protecting and preserving different cultures and languages. Today, that tradition of tolerance and harmony lives on in modern Turkey, being enriched as time passes.
The westward movement of Turkic peoples headed by the Seljuks led to permanent Turkish settlement in Anatolia. Meanwhile, people of different ethnicities remained there. The Seljuks left their descendants a rich cultural legacy: Omer Khayyam, the mystic poet renowned throughout the world for his Rubaiyat, was a subject of the Seljuks of Persia; and Mevlana, the spiritual leader of the humanist philosophy of tolerance of Sufism, and founder of the Mevlevi order of the Whirling Dervishes, lived in Konya, the capital of the Anatolian Seljuk Empire, and the order he founded flourished there.
Then came the Ottoman Empire which made an impact on the course of world history. This empire came to life in the late 13th century as a small Turkish principality near Bursa on the northwestern frontier of the Anatolian Seljuk Empire and gradually found its place in history as one of the great empires of Renaissance Europe. The Ottoman Empire reached its zenith in the 17th century. By that time it covered Asia Minor, the Crimea, the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Balkans. The Ottoman Empire followed in the footsteps of its ancestors and set up a system based on tolerance for the many differences among its subjects. This cultural and religious tolerance and goodwill is best manifested in the reception of Jews fleeing the Inquisition in the 15th century. It was due to this exceptional system assuring stability and tolerance, and freedom of conscience that the Empire was able to hold together people of different religions, languages and races, and also succeeded in protecting and preserving different cultures and languages. Today, that tradition of tolerance and harmony lives on in modern Turkey, being enriched as time passes.
posted by Sude at 8:50 PM
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