Turkish Castles

Christian Castle

In season 5 Ertuğrul's tribe is encamped near Söğüt. One set of villains are operating out of a nearby castle (shown above). I haven't quite figured out just what castle it is.

Overhead view of Kizil Kule

In a dream sequence (somewhere around episode 65 maybe), he pays a visit to Kizil Kule, a fortified tower that is near Alanya Castle.

Kizil Kule with Alanya Castle on the hill in the background

Kizil Kule was designed by a guy from Aleppo.

There seems to be a large number of castle ruins in Turkey. Castles.NL has information on some of them.

Usury

Ertugrul expels the money lenders (Season 5, Episode 2, Mark 8:15) Netflix

Season 5 of Ertuğrul is up on Netflix. In episode 2 Ertuğrul brings the smack down on the money lenders operating in the town square. Okay, so the show is painting Ertuğrul as a devote Muslim. That's fine. But it got me to wondering about this whole usury thing.

A common theme running through many of these historical dramas we have been watching is the triumph of logical thought over people just throwing their weight around because they want to and no one is stopping them. This leads me to thinking that logical thinking is not all that prevalent. Planning ahead requires a certain amount of logical thinking, so the problem with usury is that the money lenders were able to plan ahead, but they were lending money to people who didn't, either because they couldn't, or had never been introduced to the concept. So they borrow money without considering the future impact the terms will have on them and they end up being impoverished.

So the problem wasn't that the money lenders were charging interest, the problem was they were lending money to people who were mentally unprepared to consider the consequences of their actions. Hard to imagine that people don't understand how loans operate, given that our modern world seems to be entirely financed by loans. But new people are coming into the world every day, and understanding how loans and interest work requires a certain amount of study. Once you have mastered it, it seems ridiculously simple, but getting to that point requires a certain amount of work. And even people who ought to know better sometimes get themselves into hot water by borrowing money to finance a purchase they can't really afford.

Stabbing

Attack and capture of Belle Isle in 1761 by British forces*

I am reading The Knife Man by Wendy Moore, a book about John Hunter and the birth of modern surgery. After getting his fill of dissecting dead bodies in London, John decides he needs to start earning a living, so he joins the army as a surgeon just in time to embark on an expedition to capture Belle Isle.

While there he gets involved in all the usual army surgeon stuff of the 18th Century, i.e. hacking, slicing and stitching, to put it mildly. But being the kind of guy he is, he also makes some observations, one of which is that wounded soldiers are as often likely to heal without any treatment as they are if subjected to treatment by a surgeon. A case in point is a soldier "shot through and through the breast, recovered perfectly" (page 94).

Konya, Turkey, 1240 or thereabouts

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, deep into Season 4 of Ertugrul, one of the girls takes it upon herself to journey to Konya to stab one of the guys. We won't say who because spoilers. 

Concealed Stabber

Her weapon looks like a big ice pick, possibly because you aren't allowed to carry blades into the presence of Mr. Important (and an ice pick is easier to conceal?). She manages to stab him three times in the abdomen, twice from the back and once from the front. Tragically, in spite of these wounds, he manages to overpower and kill her. Unfortunately, he doesn't die.

Yes, it's a TV show where dozens of people are laid to waste in every episode, and primary characters recover from what appear to be fatal injuries, but still, I thought it showed a little thought by the people making the show. Stabbing someone with a knife blade would more likely have been fatal. Recovering from being stabbed by an ice pick is at least plausible.

I guess as long as you don't cut any major blood vessels, or impact the heart, any kind of injury isn't going to kill you. Of course, being as the body is riddled with major blood vessels, getting stabbed without hitting one of them is pure chance.

*Transcription of the text under the image:
R. Short del,                                                                                                                                                             J Smith sculp,

An exact Representation of the Attack made by the Britifh Fleet, under the Command of 

Adm.¹ Kepple the 8th, of April,1761 at Port Andre, on the Island of Belle Isle.

London,Printed for Rob.^t Sayer Print t;Mapseller,No.53 in Fleet Street.

Blood & Guts

Diriliş "Ertuğrul" - Atabey'in İdamdan Kurtarılış Sahnesi (8.Bölüm)
(Resurrection "Ertugrul" - Atabey's Restoration Stage (Section 8))
In every episode of Ertuğrul there is at least one big sword fight where a handful of brave Turkish warriors slaughter a couple of dozen bad guys. Both sides are using broadswords, so hacking and slashing are the order of the day. Occasionally someone will get stabbed, but it's pretty rare.

What gets shown on the screen is kind of interesting. Whenever a sword makes contact we see a splash of blood fly, but every time a wound appears on the screen, the area is blurred out. So flying blood is okay, but actual bloody injuries are not. About once a season some scumbag gets executed by decapitation, but once the head has been severed it gets the blurring treatment even when it gets impaled on a spike and paraded around.

Frequently someone ends up being held with a knife or sword to their throat. Given the close contact and how we never see any marks on the victim's throat, never mind that we have dozens of three foot long blades of steel flying through the air, we can surmise that the edges on these props are properly dull. There is also a good deal of sword blades crashing into each other when one combatant blocks another's blow.

In season 4 the evil Templars have started wearing chain mail which you might think would provide some protection against a blow from a sword, especially a blow from the edge. However, because our Turkish heroes are faithful Muslims, chain mail provides no protection. The Templars suffer the same kind of injuries as they did in the previous three seasons when they weren't wearing chain mail. The Turk's blades must be magical.

These guys also have bows and arrows. They get used occasionally, but rarely effectively. I suspect the reason is that people enjoy watching other people in action, and there isn't much action with bows and arrows. They create a more intellectual effect. Swinging broadswords are more visceral.

Troy - Beach Battle #Clip - Achilles [1080p HD Blu-Ray]
Four men armed with broadswords killing two dozen similarly armed men with suffering any injuries seems a bit far fetched. However, people arrive at the fight with varying levels of skill and training. It might be a bit like a squad of professional basketball players taking on an entire high school team.


La Ballade de Buster Scruggs 2018. (Extrait - Attaque des Indiens) VF
[Indians 1st Attack Scene "Dog Hole" | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) Netflix]
Then there is training and tactics. I'd never heard anything about Indian tactics in the American wild west until I saw this scene from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. So if you get a bunch of teenage boys, give 'em swords, fill them with religious fervor and send them out to kill a bunch of heathens, who just happen to be experienced professional killers, you might very well end up with a bunch of dead kids and the heathens will be untouched.

P.S. The video at the top is from season 1 and I totally recognized the younger of the two guys watching the fight from upstairs window. He's the Emir Al Aziz of Aleppo.

P.P.S. Yes, I realize I am indiscriminate in my use of the word 'heathen'. None of these guys have acknowledged me as the one true lord of the universe, so they are all heathens in my book.

Update March 2020 replaced the disappeared Buster Scruggs video clip with one that's been dubbed in French. Without understandable dialog, you are only getting about half the story. Sorry about that.

Off with his Head!

Ertuğrul Postoğlu as Bahadir Bey

We're deep into Season 4 of Ertuğrul and last night Bahadir Bey finally got his comeuppance. He swaggers in from nowhere and wants to be declared leader of the tribe and when that is denied, he starts scheming to take out Ertuğrul. Well, all's fair in love, war and politics, but he crosses the line when he conspires with the enemy. Never mind that there is a war going on, this guy would sell his own mother for some personal aggrandizement. Where is his mother anyway? Did he sell her for a gold plated trinket?

Anyway, after weeks of torturing us with his lying, double dealing and generally being a low down dirty dog, he gets found out and Ertuğrul chops off his head. My wife and I both let out a cheer! It's like the Trail Blazers won a playoff game!

None of this would be worth mentioning except for this story about a modern day head chopper-offer getting his head chopped off kind of brought it into focus. (Via Knuckledraggin My Life Away)

Funny how people feel about violence. If it's our people getting whacked, then our blood boils and revenge is the order of the day. If our soldiers manage to whack a bad guy, then it's cause for celebration.

Quote of the Day

Zazdin Han

We've started watching Season 4 of Resurrection: Ertugrul. In Episode 7 we have the evil (boo, hiss) Emir Sadettin Kopek reading from a book:

"The sultan's crown depends upon the vizier's pen.
If the ink runs dry, his rule will come to an end." - Seljuks' grand emir Nizamulmulk

The real-life Kopek may have been just as sleazy as the villain in this Netflix maxi-series, but he also managed to get some things built, like this caravanserai shown above.

More Ertuğrul

The History of Anatolia : Every Year

Anatolia has always been an interesting region in a historic point of view. Indeed, that is where the biggest empires ever were created and where they spread from.From the Achaemenids to Byzantium, from the seleucids to the Ottomans, see the history of this complex region from 1550 BC to today. - Khey Pard

The video covers 3500 years and runs about 12 minutes, which means we get about 5 years per second. Some empires last for minutes, like Rome, which translates into hundreds of years. Some only appear as a brief flash, like 'something-Turkey' around the end of WW1. Many only last for a few seconds, but even ten seconds translates into 50 years.

The Ottomans, which is why we are looking at this, don't appear on this map until the year 1300 (the 9:30 mark in the video). Ertuğrul was the father of Osman who founded the Ottoman Empire.

Ertuğrul is nominally a subject of Sultan Alâeddin, supreme leader of the Seljuk Empire, which lasted from 1037 to 1194. It doesn't appear on the map until until about 1050 and disappears around 1160.

If you are concerned about details, you really need to watch a bigger version of this video. This embedded version is just too small.

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.

The Trial of Ural Bey

Kürsat Alniaçik as Ural Bey

We've been watching Season 3 of Diriliş: Ertuğrul (English: "Resurrection: Ertugrul") on Netflix. We're up around episode 30 or so and Ural Bey, the scheming, low down, lying dog is finally going to get his comeuppance. Or is he? His father dies just about as he is about to lose his head and due to -something-, the execution is postponed. Of course it is. If Ural dies now we will lose our favorite villain (boo! hiss!).

The trial is pretty decent for the 13th century in a Muslim country. We have a judge, evidence is presented and people on both sides of the dispute are allowed to have their say. From what we see in the trial, there is not enough to convict anybody, at least according to current crime show standards, but Ural is convicted anyway, which is a relief because we, who have been privy to all his clandestine meetings and nefarious scheming, know he is as guilty as sin.

The whole show, trial and all, reminds me of nothing so much as the clown show going on in in the U.S. Congress, i.e. the persecution of Trump by the Democrats.

The difference is we know Ural is guilty, because our hero, Ertuğrul, is on the side of truth, beauty and justice. That's why I watch Netflix instead of the news: the stories are one sided, clear as a bell and the truth is obvious.

Ertuğrul

Voyage of frigate Ertuğrul to Japan, by Major general Osman Nuri Pasha (1839-1906).

We're watching Season 3 of Ertuğrul on Netflix and it's pretty great. The series has been around for while, so when I started thinking about doing a post, I checked my pile of files, and this shipwreck popped up.

Ertuğrul, launched in 1863, was a sailing frigate of the Ottoman Navy. While returning from a goodwill voyage to Japan in 1890, she encountered a typhoon off the coast of Wakayama Prefecture, subsequently drifted into a reef and sank. The shipwreck resulted in the loss of 533 sailors and officers, including Rear Admiral Ali Osman Pasha. Only 69 sailors and officers survived and returned home later aboard two Japanese corvettes. The event is still commemorated as a foundation stone of Japanese-Turkish friendship. - Wikipedia

Looks like the captain and the artist may have been related, but this makes it seem unlikely:

In this Ottoman Turkish style name, Osman is the given name, the title is Pasha, and there is no family name. - Wikipedia

Resurrection: Ertugrul

A promotional image for the Turkish television series “Dirilis: Ertugrul.” Credit TRT 1 TV

We seem to be suckers for historical dramas, as long as they have plenty of sword swinging action. We started watching this one last night.

Diriliş: Ertuğrul is a Turkish historical adventure television series . . . The show is based on the history of the Muslim Oghuz Turks and takes place in the 13th century and centers around the life of Ertuğrul, the father of Osman I, who was the founder of the Ottoman Empire. - Wikipedia

The first episode was a bit slow getting started, but it quickly picked up steam. We ended up watching three episodes last night. Then we check to see how deep this rabbit hole goes and we find that Netflix has 180 episodes! (Wikipedia disagrees.) Most of the series we've watched have been more like a dozen episodes. This is truly phenomenal.

In some foreign sounding gibberish, presumably Turkish, with subtitles.