The Ottoman Empire

[exatreide]

I just thought you might want to talk about the one the only, the largest and the most powerfull of the Islam empires...its dead now but.... I got Lord of the horizions from the library and thought you might want to hear something. tell me if this sounds anything like Bin laden

"In 1356 A traveling bishop was shipwrecked on the sourthern shores of the sea of Marara. He was taken to Orhan(son of osman) summer camp, and royally entertained; but the Turks told him they were the divine instruments of whose good fortune probed the truth of islam. God was theire aid, they expained as islam went travelling from east to west. A hunderd years later a Venetian visitor was informed by the sultan himself that 'times had changed so that he would go from the east to the west , as the westerners had gone to the east. The empire of the world must be one faith and one kingdom."

Eh? eh?

here is another one i thought you might find interesting.

"So hypnotic was the turks advance so rascally, duplicitous and divided were theire enemies, so beguilingly gentle was the way they tickled theire vassals to the halter so otherworldly did theire success apear that two centuries later luther himslef made the same deduction, and wonderd if they should be aposed at all"

[Caid Ivik]

And our egoistical catholic countries fully gave the only christian bastion of Middle east to the hands of terror lord. Soon, their mistake became fatal.

1526...

[Edric O]

As a great fan of the Byzantine Empire, this is my message to Ex:

You may have defeated us, foul Ottomans, but you did not conquer our spirit! The legacy of Byzantium lives on! We went down fighting. You were slowly eroded from within and miserabely collapsed under the weight of your own decadence!

[Acriku]

That just says Byzantine can't fight well enough in the end, and it takes a disease within to bring upon the fall of the Ottomans.

[Edric O]

Err... I suppose you could put it that way. :)

The Byzantine Empire lasted for 1000 years. The Ottoman Empire lasted for only 500.

[TMA_1]

Byzantine Empire.... they really are a dispised empire by me personally. Same with all the other fake-christian empires of their time and even before with constantine and later with the growth of the catholic church to real power.

[Edric O]

Fake? Ha! What do YOU know about the Byzantines? Tell me, I'd like to hear it.

Divide et impera... Satan's plan of setting Christian against Christian, brother against brother... is going well. Thanks to people like you.

[Anathema]

Ottomans? Bah. By the beginning of the twentieth century they were a farce, hardly worth considering.

[Edric O]

Exactly. :)

[TMA_1]

the Byzantine Empire was just a half wit brother of the great roman empire, started as the eastern portion of the roman empire, they grew but never attained the greatness that rome had. They were a false rome.

[Edric O]

The glory of Rome? The same glory of Rome that caused the persecution and agonizing death of countless Christians? No thank you!

Byzantium had its own brand of glory. They built glorious monuments and brought knowledge to a backwards Europe. In the obscure chaos of the dark ages, the Byzantines were a beacon of hope.

[Acriku]

The same glory of Rome that caused the persecution and agonizing death of countless Christians?

No the same glory of Rome that caused the invention of paved roads, aqueducts, and cement :)

[Edric O]

Yeah, that too. :)

[The_Sadukar]

As a great fan of the Byzantine Empire, this is my message to Ex:

You may have defeated us, foul Ottomans, but you did not conquer our spirit! The legacy of Byzantium lives on! We went down fighting. You were slowly eroded from within and miserabely collapsed under the weight of your own decadence!

Just like the Byzantine, but anyway go Constantinobel!!!

[exatreide]

Bah, The ottomans were smart though. They didn't atack Constaninople they cut off the city from the rest of the world. Isolating it.

Seige of Constinople Act I

In 1396 he laid seige to constinople with 10,000 vassal troops. News reached him there of the arrival of a foreign army on his Danubian Frontier, and he swiftly raised the seige(Some historians are certin that the city would have fallen lest the seige of not been lifted) marched north-west to combat what probed to be the last european crusade.

In which the Ottomans slaughterd the crusaders in the battle of Nicopolis

Crusade.

An Army of mainly French crusaders had set out in imitation of theire knightly forebears two centuries earlier, to drive islam from europe. In Buhda they joined up with the Teutonic Knights and the Hungarioan Army. A month later they were all at Nicoplious on the Danube, boasting "they could hold the sky up with theire lances.". The Ottoman garrision commander refused to yield; perhaps he had learned of the massacre of the garrison which surenderd in Widdin days earlier. The crusaders settled down to a seige.

The knights drunk deep by the time scouts reported the apearence of a massive turkish army in the vicinity. The hungarians knew theire enemy. and devised a caustious advance led by the hungarian infantry. The french however never trusted the Hungarians. They felt they wished to rob them of theire honour. Before anyone could change theire minds. The french knights of 6,000 were charging uphill. And laying into a swarm of barbours borsemen who wilted and parted at theire thunderus advance.

A very old turkish trick. The Knights far outsripted the Hungarian infantry, the knights crested the rise and found themselvs face to face with 60,000 men. Theire charge took them crashing and stumbling into the centre. The Turkish wings rolled them up. 'The horse of Bayezit and his hosts and chariots'; the light horsemen closed in from behind. and grim jannisarriesof the royal gaurd pluked them off theire horses one by one.

A lucky few got away. King Ladislas and the Grand Master of the Knights of St John. fled to a Venetian gally on the Danube, which rowed for the Black Sea; others struggled across the carpathian montains whare they were robbed and beaten. In Paris that winter a few bedraggled, half-wild men who entered the capital in ones and twos, were to told to shut theire mouths or hang. It was Solemnly declared that the massacure at Nicopolis should not be mentioned in the king's council, for the rumours were terrifying.

The crusades had butcherd ther own Turkish prisoners enough on the morning of the battle.

Bayezit, grimly surveying his casulties on the field. orderd a massacre of his own, sparing only 24 of the richest knights and a handfull of boys for his own army. Marchal Bouault was gived the grisly privilege of chooseing two more men to be spared from his ranks. the commoners were dispatched without review. Blood flowe untill vespers, and when the sultan agreed to hear pleas of enough from his own men. 10,000 crusaders had already been decapitated.

The survivors of that day were marched over the Balkan states to the castle at Gallipoli which became theire prision; and one day they were all brought out and lines up along the shore to watch a Venetian gally row by, carring the king of Hungary into the Mediteranean and safty. The Turks shouted at him to come and rescue his men.'but they did not do him any harm, and so he went away.'

In other words. Dont frell with the Ottomans before 1650 ;)

[Caid Ivik]

Yes, couple of barbarians were serious danger everytime. Everything they brought was destruction. At least they caused Bratislava was a capital of Hungary for 200 years. Anyway, hail to Vienna defenders!

[nampigai]

actually not to bash anyone, but due to the Ottoman we now have a ticking time bomb on the Balkans.

[Caid Ivik]

And it has already exploded. How much soldiers from whole Europe must stay there to prevent a secondary munition from blast...

[Edric O]

The Ottomans were pests and nothing more. They brought no contribution to mankind. They were worthless barbarians. Good riddance.

Ex, stop boasting with Ottoman military power. Ghenghis Khan had great military power as well, but he was still a pitiful mindless barbarian. Same goes for the Ottomans.

[The_Sadukar]

The Ottomans were pests and nothing more. They brought no contribution to mankind. They were worthless barbarians. Good riddance.

Ex, stop boasting with Ottoman military power. Ghenghis Khan had great military power as well, but he was still a pitiful mindless barbarian. Same goes for the Ottomans.

And you say that Caid look down on everything, and btw definde babarian.

[exatreide]

Pah, Stop defending your pesky little byzantines so much. They got there arse kicked :P.

In the early days up untill around 1560 the ottmans were tolerent of religious groups.

In the years before the Ottoman conquest, Balkan society had been quietly feudalising itslef;Dusan of Serbia had let his lords exact two days labour a weekfrom theire peasents. Under the Ottomans, peasents-the reaya- were only expected to work three days a year for the local spahi; beyond that small impost and the tithe they paid as Christians amounting to ten percent of theire income, they were undisturbed in either theire relgion or there cultivation. Those who worked the land were to beprotected,like sheep.Peasents came trickling back, if they had ever really left, to discover that all the weight of the balkan feudalism-the requsitions,corvees,serfdom,Deroit De seigenur- the whole bitter panopoly of theire castles and helpless villages clusterd theire foot, had been swept away. Turkish overlordship came even to the orthadox as a kind of liberation.

Not to mention the fact that they first used firearms in 1312 the earliest known mention of firearms in europe.

Heck A massive cannon helped them nock down the walls of constinople.

(The builder first asked the byzantines, but since they were as poor as church mice by then. He went to the Ottomans. Whare Mehed II offerd him 4 times as much pay as he requested.)

In front of the sultan's tents stood a new fangled machine whos apperance changed the nature of this assault on the battle scarred old city. In the summer of 1452 a Translvanina cannon founder had offerd his servies to the Emperor,who could nether afford the salary he thought, nor provide him with the material he needed. Urban went to Mehmet who offerd him four times as much and evevery assistence, too; and in three months he cast the cannon which sank the Venetian ship from the walls of Rumelia Hisar. The monster he unveied in January at Edrine was twice as big: 28 feet long, the bronze of the barrel 8 inchs thick, firing balls which weihed 12 cwt, which had to be dragged, atended by seven hunderd men, on a speical carriage drawn by 32 oxen. When first tested the citizens of edrine were told to expect a loud bang, and not to panic: The ball travelled a mile and sank 6 feet into the ground. Two hunderd men immediately went to level the road to Constinople. The bridges were strengtheed. The numbers of oxen were doubled. On 7 february 1453, it was settled in place, this stone thrower 'of the newest kind,a strange sort, unbelievable when told of, but and experience demonstrated able to acomplish anything',

[Caid Ivik]

Tolerant? If they had escaped their raids. There was no tolerance, no order. They have taken all to slavery, others remained as vassals (but they had to convert on islam) or partisans. One place remained free - Monte Negro. But it costed much for them. On Balkan was some kind of "reign" then, but what they did down there in Hungary...

[Edric O]

Every civilization in human history gets its arse kicked eventually, ExAtreides. Nothing lasts forever. It just so happens that my Byzantines lasted for 1000 years, while your Ottomans lasted for only 500.

I ask you again: What good did the Ottomans do? Lowering taxes hardly counts as a contribution to mankind... ::) So other than lowering taxes and inventing new killing machines, what else did they do? NOTHING! They were totally useless warmongers.

[TMA_1]

lol duh edric! the ottomans and other muslim clans and nations were the ones that kept the classical histories and studied in all the arts and sciences. westerners were looked upon as inferior to the muslims. In many ways they were. Mathematics and liturature excelled. I must say though the thing that bothers me is they targetted and killed christians and other religions. They also killed my favorite christian sect called the Nestorians. But reallythey werent as brutish as you proclaim them to be silly edric.hehe :)

[Edric O]

You're getting things confused, TMA. The ones you are talking about were the Arabs in the time of their great empire. They were ruled by Califs, the direct successors of Mahommed.

The Ottomans came only much later. By the time they rose to power, Europe was in the Renaissance.