Ertuğrul

Diriliş “Ertuğrul” - INTRO
We started Season 3 (90 episodes) of Ertuğrul (on Netflix). Yes, we also watched Seasons 1 & 2 (with similar numbers of episodes). It's not the greatest show, I put it on about the same level as The Lone Ranger, but it's fun. We have a hero, Ertuğrul, and his band of sword wielding tribesmen riding around and wreaking vengeance on the local bad guys.

They are members of a tribe of nomadic Turks who are being pushed out of Persia by Genghis Khan and his horde. Now they are in Turkey and are running up against the Byzantine Empire. So, kind of between a rock and a hard place. And if that wasn't bad enough we also have the Templars and their accursed crusades plotting and scheming to take down Ertuğrul on their way to conquering the holy land.

It looks a lot like Muslim propoganda in much the same way that The Long Ranger was: tell the truth, stand up for what is right, loyalty is the most important virtue. Of course, everything that is and that happens is due to Allah.

The situation is much like the American wild west was in the 1800's. There are no fences, the land is wide open. There is a trading center not too far away from their present camp with a largish stone building surrounded by a bunch of booths, much like you would see in a modern flea market. This trading center cannot be too far away from their camp because they have set up their 'rug house' there and the women go there every morning and return to camp every night. They have wagons with solid wheels, so they could ride there, but it's still slow going, which means it probably is only two or three miles away. That is probably all the distance they need in order to have enough room for their sheep to graze.

The tribe has 400 tents. If we figure ten people per tent, then we have a population of about 4,000 people. Half of those will be children, half will be women, so we have a thousand adult men to herd the sheep, stand guard and fight the bad guys. If they need 10 sheep for every person, that's 40,000 sheep. 100 sheep need about 30 acres of grassland, which means they would need about 1,200 acres or about two square miles of land. A circular area two miles in diameter should be plenty.

Since there are no fences, and not much in the way of law enforcement, you are pretty much on your own to protect your camp and your herds from predation by wolves or bandits.

The men have their duties and the women have theirs. Besides their normal housekeeping chores, the women are also the primary bread winners. They weave rugs that are sold to merchants who transport them far afield. Of course, producing these rugs is a community project starting with raising the sheep, shearing, spinning and dying before in gets to the weaving part, which is where the 'rug house' comes into play.

Update April replaced missing video.