Day 16

History Part I
With Hippie Shaman Farmer away, Levent (aka Turkish Lee) has wasted no time in educating me on the highlights of Turkish history and culture. Most of the lessons begin with an incredulous look of disbelief directed at my poor understanding of great Turkish heroes like Alexander the Great or great Turkish inventions like coıns. The discussion gets particularly fun when I argue that the Chinese were the ones who first invented ________ (fill in the blank).

I will not go ınto the details of Turkish history, but ıf you are curious, it is definitely worth looking into. You may find that the first half of high school world history should have been called Ancient Turkey. Turkish history encompasses the likes of the Roman Empire, the Crusaders, Byzantine Empire, and Ottoman Empire. Sprinkle ın a hodgepodge of famous ancients, like Mary the mother of Jesus, St. John the Baptıst (Turkey was their retirement home), Suleıman the Magnificent, and Brad Pıtt's character ın Troy, and you have an epic drama to rival the 10 Commandments.

At the heıght of its empire, the boundaries reached as far as China and included Slavıc, European, African, and Arabic worlds. Constantinople, now Istanbul, was once the richest city in the world, and a truly cosmopolitan place. Under the Ottomans, Turkey was well known for its multi-culturalism, with many Greeks, Persians, Jews, Armenians, and Muslims. The Ottoman policy was to allow people to go on with their lives in peace, provıded they paid their taxes. Someone should suggest that policy to Arizona.

So much for ancient Turkey. I'll save Ataturk for another day.