- 27 Jun 2017 20:29
#14818819
Interesting historical anecdote from the Ottoman Empire regarding their slave or caste soldiers, the Janissaries. A Muslim is not allowed to enslave another Muslim but he is allowed to enslave a non-Muslim. This is one reason the Ottoman Empire kept non-Muslim minority groups around; when they needed slaves, they could just go to the subjugated populations (which in this setting, were mostly Christian) and take slaves from them.
One of the ironic things about the Janissaries and the Ottoman's system of quasi-slavery, is that as the centuries passed the Janissaries (who were the world's most disciplined and feared fighting force for centuries) amassed more and more power unto themselves, until eventually the Muslim empire was effectively being run by its quasi-Christian, quasi-Muslim, quasi-slave military forces. It reached a point where Christian parents would beg their Muslim oppressors to "enslave" their children because a life as a Janissary often meant a life of privilege.
After the Ottoman Empire fell and became the Turkish Republic, things were supposed to get better for everyone, both Muslim and Christian. What actually happened was that the Christians of the Ottoman Empire, who were mostly Armenians, had been robbed of a vital purpose and so they went from being a reviled but necessary minority to being just a reviled minority. Most of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were exterminated in the Armenian genocide by the supposedly new and improved democracy, which had promised to fix all of the problems attributed to the previous Empire.
If this sounds like a case of foreign stupidity, consider how similar it is to the treatment of the Jews in western Europe. For centuries, the Catholic church would not allow Christians to be bankers because bankers are bad people, but Jews were not Christian and the countries needed bankers, so the Jews were able to play the vital role of being bankers. As time passed, many of the Jews amassed a lot of wealth and a lot of power, allegedly running many government institutions and depending on who you believe, entire countries. One of the great concessions of the Catholic church was to allow Christians to become bankers, this was supposed to be better for both Christians and Jews. We might argue that ending the unique nature of the Jewish banker transformed European Jews from being a reviled but necessary minority into being just a minority, ultimately leading to things like the genocide of Jews within Germany (and the casual abuse of Jews throughout most of the western/Christian world outside of Germany).
The message I would like this story to convey is that sometimes you can stop people, or someone, from doing one stupid thing but there is no guarantee that they will start behaving in a "smart" way because you did this. They might just start doing different and new stupid things and if you're unlucky, the new stupid thing might be worse than the previous one.
One of the ironic things about the Janissaries and the Ottoman's system of quasi-slavery, is that as the centuries passed the Janissaries (who were the world's most disciplined and feared fighting force for centuries) amassed more and more power unto themselves, until eventually the Muslim empire was effectively being run by its quasi-Christian, quasi-Muslim, quasi-slave military forces. It reached a point where Christian parents would beg their Muslim oppressors to "enslave" their children because a life as a Janissary often meant a life of privilege.
After the Ottoman Empire fell and became the Turkish Republic, things were supposed to get better for everyone, both Muslim and Christian. What actually happened was that the Christians of the Ottoman Empire, who were mostly Armenians, had been robbed of a vital purpose and so they went from being a reviled but necessary minority to being just a reviled minority. Most of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were exterminated in the Armenian genocide by the supposedly new and improved democracy, which had promised to fix all of the problems attributed to the previous Empire.
If this sounds like a case of foreign stupidity, consider how similar it is to the treatment of the Jews in western Europe. For centuries, the Catholic church would not allow Christians to be bankers because bankers are bad people, but Jews were not Christian and the countries needed bankers, so the Jews were able to play the vital role of being bankers. As time passed, many of the Jews amassed a lot of wealth and a lot of power, allegedly running many government institutions and depending on who you believe, entire countries. One of the great concessions of the Catholic church was to allow Christians to become bankers, this was supposed to be better for both Christians and Jews. We might argue that ending the unique nature of the Jewish banker transformed European Jews from being a reviled but necessary minority into being just a minority, ultimately leading to things like the genocide of Jews within Germany (and the casual abuse of Jews throughout most of the western/Christian world outside of Germany).
The message I would like this story to convey is that sometimes you can stop people, or someone, from doing one stupid thing but there is no guarantee that they will start behaving in a "smart" way because you did this. They might just start doing different and new stupid things and if you're unlucky, the new stupid thing might be worse than the previous one.
Orb Team Re-Assemble!