Understanding Islam and the Muslims

With Non-Muslims

God does not forbid you, with regard to those who are not you fight for your faith, nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly (showing affection) and justly with them: for God loves those who are just. God only forbids you, with this regard to those who fight you for (your) faith, and drive you out of your homes, and support others in driving you out, from turning it them (for friendship and protection). It is those who turn to them (in these Circumstances) who do wrong.

The Prophet himself was a model of equity toward those who did not share his faith. Through all the years of his mission, he had continued to receive deposits from important non-Muslim traders who went on deal ing with him and trusted him wholly. On the eve of his departure for Medina, Muhammad asked Ali to give back one by one to Their respective owners of the deposits he still held; he scrupulously applied the principles of honesty and justice That Islam had taught him, whomever he dealt with, be they Muslims or non-Muslims.

Prayer

While he was walking in the surroundings of Mecca, the Prophet receved a visit from the Angel Gabriel, who taught him how to perform ablution and prayer ritual practice 12 This teaching came very early on, immediate yassociating the act of purification through water with the injunction that perform prayer based on reciting the Quran and on a precise, cyclical series of (cancer). The Prophet Followed the Angel Gabriels gestures instructions one by one, then went home and taught his wife, Khadijah how to pray. During Those early years, the ritual prayer was performed only twice a day, in the morning and in the evening The surāḥ "Al-Muzzammil, quoted above, also Refers to the nigh prayer, Which Became an obligation for all Muslims at the beginning of the Meccan penod and Remained so until the duty is perform five daily prayers was finally established. The spiritual training and the ritual were enshrouded with you, they stand a prayer by night, but all night-half notes rising by night is a time when impression is more keen and spe Certain True, there is y by day Prolonged occupation with ordinary duties you. But keep in remembrance the name of your Educator (Rabb) and devote yourself to Him (commune with Him) wholeheartedly.

The world's greatest empires - A history of power - National Geographic december 2013- The modern empires part III

Bridging Asia and Africa

The greatest empires - A history of power - National Geographic december 2013- The middle Ages

Constantinople's Empire

 

 

World's Second Islamic Empire- Abbasid Empire

The world's greatest empires - A history of power - National Geographic december 2013 - The ancient world part I

The Messenger - The meaning of the life of Muhammad/ Tariq Ramadan - A Lineage, a Palace

Off all messengers, the most important figure in the Last Prophet's lineage is undoubtedly Abraham. There are many reasons for this, but from the outset, the Quran points to this particular link with Abraham through the insistent and continuous expression of pure monotheism, of human consciousness's adherence to the divine project, of the heart's access to His recognition and to His peace through self-giving. This is the meaning of the word Islam, which is too often translated quickly by the mere idea of submission but which also contains the twofold meaning of "peace" and "wholehearted self-giving." Thus a Muslim is a human being two, throughout history-and even before the last Revelation-has wished to attain God's peace through the wholehearted gift of him-or herself to the Being. In this sense, Abraham was the deep and exemplary od the Muslim:

 

The Messenger - The meaning of the life of Muhammad/ Tariq Ramadan - Encounter with the Sacred

Islamic monotheism has always stood in continuity with the sacred history of prophethood. From the beginning, the One God sent humankind prophets and messengers entrusted with the message, the reminder of His presence, His commands, His love, and His hope. From Adam, the first prophet, to Muhammad, the last Messenger, Muslim tradition recognizes and identifies with the whole cycle of prophethood, ranging from the most famous messengers (Abraham, Noah, Moses, Jesus, etc.) to the lesser known, as well as others who remain unknown to us. The One has forever been accompanying us, His creation, from our beginnings to our end. This is the very meaning of tawhid (the Oneness of God) and of the Quranic formula that refers to humankind's destiny as well as to that of each individual: "To God we belong and to Him we return."  

ABRAHAM - PODÓŻ DO ŹRÓDEŁ cz. II

"WYJDŹ (...) A STANIESZ SIĘ BŁOGOSŁAWIEŃSTWEM" 

        Terach, wziąwszy z sobą swego syna Abrahama, Lota - syna Harana, czyli swego wnuka, i Saraj, swą synowa (...) wyruszył z nimi z Ur chaldejskiego, aby się udać do kraju Kanaan. - Księga Rodzaju 11,31

(...)Statki rzeczne, wozy ciągnięte przez woły i karawany osłów łączyły Ur oraz Mezopotamię z dzisiejszym Iranem, Turcją i Afganistanem, a także Syrią, Izraelem i Egiptem. Za miastem rosły palmy daktylowe, a kanały nawadniające, biegnące od Eufratu i Tygrysu, który wówczas płynął bliżej miasta, pozwalały na uprawę jęczmienia, soczewicy, cebuli i czosnku.
     Aż kusiło, by wyobrazić sobie Abrahama dorastającego w Ur - chudego nastolatka średniego wzrostu, odzianego w skórzane i wełniane ubrania, który chodził do szkoły, bawił się ze swymi braćmi Nahaorem i Haranem.
- Niewielka cześć ludności umiała czytać i pisać - zauważył Michałowski,- Jeśli Abraham był piśmienny, musiał pobierać nauki w domu kapłana lub urzędnika. Uczyłby się języków, arytmetyki i księgowości, ale nade wszystko pogrążyłby się w literaturze sumeryjskiej. Tak wyglądało środowisko intelektualne, w którym mógł dorastać.
        Widzę, jak Abraham zmienia się w twardego, krzepkiego młodzieńca o wyraźnych skłonnościach przywódczych. Być może trzcił Sina, boga księżyca - główne bóstwo Ur.
- Mezopotamczycy oddawali cześć całemu panteonowi  bóstw, lecz Sin był jednym z najważniejszych - precyzuje Michałowski. Każdy miał też swego dodatkowego, osobistego boga.
     Czyżby rozważania na temat księżycowego bóstwa nasunęły Abrahamowi myśl, że światem rządzi jeden Bóg? ...
 

ABRAHAM - PODRÓŻ DO ŹRÓDEŁ/National Geographic 12/2001 cz. I

Wyobraź sobie świat przesiąknięty nienawiścią, ludzi pełnych samotności, bez nadziei na wybawienie. Jeden człowiek - Biblia nazywa go Abrahamem - słyszy od Boga rozkaz: Zostaw życie, które znasz, a ja któregoś dnia pobłogosławię poprzez ciebie cały świat. Mężczyzna nie wie, jak do tego dojdzie i dlaczego, ale wyrusza w podróż. Z czasem Bóg nada mu nowe imię: Abraham. Z czasem ów człowiek zostanie patriarcha trzech monoteistycznych religii - judaizmu, chrześcijaństwa i islamu. Jego losy na zawsze zmienia historię.
               Wiemy, że przeszło polowa ludzkości - ponad trzy miliardy ludzi - czci go jako ojca, patriarcha i duchowego przodka swoich religii. Dwa miliardy z nich to chrześcijanie, 1,2 miliarda - muzułmanie, a około 15 milionów - żydzi. Nie wiemy jednak na pewno, czy Abraham w ogóle istniał. Czy naprawdę rozmawiał z Bogiem i zawarł z nim przymierza, które stały się fundamentami tych religii? Zarys życia Abrahama pojawia się po raz pierwszy, ale i w sposób najpełniejszy, w starotestamentowej Księdze Rodzaju, jego imię znajdujemy także w Talmudzie i Nowym Testamencie, jest wielokrotnie wspominany w Koronie - świętej księdze islamu.
             Chrześcijaństwo uznało Abrahama za patriarchę nieomal w chwili swoich narodzin. Apostoł Paweł pisał w nowotestamentowym Liście do Rzymian o wierze naszego ojca Abrahama. A w Magnificat, w Ewangelii według św. Łukasza, Maria mówi, że Pan ujął się za sługa swoim, Izraelem, polny na miłosierdzie swoje - jak przyobiecał naszym ojcom - ma rzecz Abrahama i jego potomstwa na wieki. Prorok Mahomet, który nauczał zasad islamu w VII wieku, oddawał podobna cześć Abrahamowi, uznawanemu przez Koran za jednego z islamskich proroków: My wierzymy w Boga i w to, co nam zostało zesłane, i w to, co zostało zesłany Abrahamowi, Ismailowi i Izaakowi, Jakubowi i pokoleniom. Koran wynosi historię Abrahama do rangi praktyki religijnej. Muzułmanie maja wyznawać religię Abrahama, hanifa (wiernego). Koran stwierdza, że Bóg wziął sobie Abrahama Chalila, swego przyjaciela.
              Jednak gdy zadawałem uczonym pytanie:" Czy kiedykolwiek istniał człowiek zwany Abrahamem?",  odpowiedzi bywały pełne szacunku, np.:" Nie możemy tego wykluczyć", ale moi rozmówcy byli przekonani, że próby znalezienia osobnika z krwi i kości są daremne.
         - Nie da się odnaleźć Abrahama - stwierdził Israel Finkelstein, archeolog z uniwersytetu w Tel Awiwie. Bez dowodów na istnienie patriarchy poszukiwanie historycznego Abrahama jest jeszcze trudniejsze niż próby odnalezienia historycznego Jezusa.
            Mówi się nam, że ważne jest ocenienie znaczenia i spuścizny idei, które uosabia Abraham. Najczęściej uważa się go za twórcę monoteizmu, choć Księga Rodzaju nigdzie mu tego nie przypisuje. Natomiast znajdujemy tam opowieści o jego gościnności, zgodnym usposobieniu oraz, co najważniejsze, jego wierze i posłuszeństwie wobec Boga.

           Bez względu na to, co mogą powiedzieć o Abrahamie uczeni, Księga Rodzaju stanowi porywającą opowieść. Toteż w roku 2000 podążyłem za nim przez karty tej księgi, pamiętając o innych pismach biblijnych i współczesnej wiedzy. Jak mówi Księga Rodzaju, Abraham urodził się w Ur chaldejskim, udał się do Charanu, a stamtąd do Kanaanu i na zachód, do Egiptu. Powrócił do Hebronu w Kazanie, gdzie zmarł i został pochowany w jaskini, obok swojej żony Sary.
         Kiedy wspomniane wędrówki mogły się odbyć? Nauka islamska nie dociekań pochodzenia Abrahama, a w pozostałych dwóch religiach brak w tej sprawie zgodności. Posługując się zapisanymi w Biblii rodowodami, niektórzy uczeni umieszczają Abrahama mniej więcej w roku 2100 p.n.e. Pewni historycy, którzy połączyli historię biblijna z archeologia, wskazują na okres miedzy 2000 a 1500 rokiem p.n.e. Inni utrzymują, że okres życia Abrahama poprzedzał izraelska monarchię, której początek przypada około roku 1000 p.n.e. Jesteśmy świadkami renesansu pamięci o Abrahamie. Papież Jan Paweł II, gorący orędownik Abrahama, miał nadzieję, że na początku roku milenijnego zdoła odbyć pielgrzymkę ku traci patriarchy, wszak zarówno chrześcijanie, jak żydzi i muzułmanie uważają się za duchowe potomstwo Abrahama. W 1994 roku Ojciec Święty powiedział mi, że podróż do Ur jest jego marzeniem. - Żadna wizyta w krajach biblijnych nie jest możliwa, jeśli nie rozpocznie się jej w Ur, gdzie wszystko miało swój początek - rzekł. Lecz pod koniec 1999 roku Saddam Husajn odwołał zaproszenie. Ojciec Święty oświadczył, że wobec tego urządzić w Watykanie "duchowe obchody niektórych kluczowych wydarzeń z dziejów Abrahama". 23 lutego 2000 roku w Rzymie odbyła się wielka uroczystość poświęcona Abrahamowi. Gdy papież zapalił gałązki na ołtarzu upamiętniającym niedoszłą do skutku ofiarę z syna Abrahama, sześć tysięcy zgromadzonych, wśród nich ja, przeżywało na nowo tę historię.
           Dlaczego Abraham ożywa akurat dziś? Odpowiedzią jest renesans religii - judaistycznej, chrześcijańskiej i muzułmańskiej, lecz najbardziej wymownego wyjaśnienia udzielił mi rabin Menachem Froman.
- Dla mnie Abraham jest filozofią, jest kulturą - rzekł. - Abraham mógł być postacią historyczna i mógł nią nie być. Abraham jest przesłaniem kochającej dobroci. Abraham jest pojęciem, jest wszystkim. Nie trzeba mi żadnych namacalnych dowodów.

Coming soon - "Historischer Schul-Atlas zur alten, mittler und neuen Geschichte"

W wolnym tłumaczeniu atlas historycznych map z 1901roku ! Przygotowany przez Alfred Baldamus, Ernst Schwabe i Friedrich Neubauer. Świetne mapy Imperium Osmiańskiego i całego bliskiego wschodu. 

The Messenger - The meaning of the life of Muhammad/ Tariq Ramadan - Introduction part I

There is no Turkey without ISLAM. There is no Islam without Turkey. That's why I choose this next subject. Great book of Tariq Ramadan that speaks about Muhammad the last prophet but also about whole Muslim community. Enjoy

 

 

          The Prophet Muhammad occupies a particular place in the life and conscience of Muslim today, just as he did in the past. According to them,  he received and transmitted the last revealed book, the Quran, which repeatedly insists on the eminent and singular position of the Messenger of God, all at once a prophet, a bearer of news, a model, and a guide. He was but a man, yet he acts to transform the world in the light of Revelation and inspirations he received from God, his Educator ( ar-Rabb). That this man was chosen and inspired by God but also fully accepted his own humanity is what makes Muhammad an example and a guide for the Muslim faithful.  

          Muslims do not consider the Messenger o Islam a mediator between God and people. Each individual is invited to address God directly, and although the Messenger did sometimes pray to God on behalf of his community, he often insisted on each believer's responsibility in his or her dialogue and relationship with the One. Muhammad simply reminders the faithful of God's presence: he initiates them into His knowledge and discloses the initiatory path of spirituality through which he teaches his Companions and community that they must transcend the respect and love they have for him in the worship and love they must offer to and ask of the One, who begets not and is not begotten. 

 

 

TURKEY. A SHORT HISTORY - Norman Stone - part II Origins

    The earliest writhing in Turkish (with a runic alphabet) dates from the eight century, around Lake Baikal, and refers to dokuz oğuz 'nine tribes', ut quite soon he Uyghar version of the language, written vertically in the Chinese manner, prevailed, and it was used in the diplomatic correspondence of the great Mongol conqueror, Genghis Khan.

     Otherwise these early Turks do not leave a literary trace and you have to study them using outside sources - Chinese, Persian, Arab, Byzantine. They moved west and south-west, towards the great civilizations on the periphery of Central Asia. They came in waves, two of them of tidal proportions, as we shall see. Genghis Khan, in the early thirteen century, led a federation of related Mongol and Turkish (or Tatar) tribes. He had a successor a century later, a wrecked of world proportions, Tamerlane, of Turkish origin (Timor is a variant of the world meaning 'iron' and leno means 'lame'). They and their descendants took over China, much of Russia, and India; 'Mugal', a version of 'Mongol', reflects this: in Turkish, Tan Mahal means 'crown quarter'; and the language of Pakistan, Urdu, is a variant of the world ordu, meaning 'army'. There is a famous French book on these matters, René Grousset's L'empire des steppes (1939), and there are Turkish connections all over the are, including Afghanistan, where you can often be understood if you use the language; but the important link, as far as the Anatolian Turks is concerned, is with Persia. This was, of course, the greatest historic civilization of the whole Middle East and there are controversies as to the Turks relationship with it - controversies that involve not just cultural borrowings, but Islam itself.
       As early as the eight century, Turkish mercenaries kid made their appearance in Persia, in the then capitol of which, Baghdad, the Caliphate reigned over all Islam. Some had gone to Syria or Egypt. However, the decisive moment come in the later tenth century, when one of the Oğuz (western Turks) tribes arrived on the Persian outskirts. Its chief was one Selçuk, meaning 'little flood' in Arabic and maybe something else in Turkish. The Turks brought a religious iconography that came from the world of Siberia: shamanism, with its own druids, the emblems being a peregrine and a hawk - tuğrul and çağrı - which are still used as first names. In 1055 they entered Baghdad and penetrated the state: at a great age, their leader, Tuğrul Bey, married the daughter of the Caliph in a ceremony under Turkish rites: as a French historian, Jean-Paul Roux, says, it was the equivalent of marrying an African chief to a Habsburg to the sound of tom-toms.
       Then these Turks took over Persia altogether...  (...)
       The most interesting  synthesis is Russian. Napoleon famously said, scratch the Russian and you discover Tatar. Russia in the thirteen century succumbed, fort two centuries, to the Mongols, or Tatars (originally, as with 'Turk' itself, just the name of a dominant tribe). A third of the old aristocracy had Tatar names: Yusupov (from 'Yusuf') or Muravyev (from 'Murat'), and Ivan the Terrible himself was descended from Genghis Khan. The Tatars knew how to build up state - reflected by the Russian words for 'handcuffs' and 'treasury'. The Russian princes eventually copied the Tatars, Moscow most successfully, and in 1552, Ivan the Terrible conquered the Tatar capitol, Kazan, on the Volga. Nineteenth-century warhorses then presented Russian history as a sort of crusade in which indignant peasants freed themselves from 'the Tatar joke'. But the phrase was first used only in 1571, when the Orthodox Church was trying to resist Ivan the Terrible, who used Tatars to build up a state that did not tolerate Orthodox pretentions. Before then, the relationship was a great deal more complicated, including intermarriage.          

TURKEY. A SHORT HISTORY - Norman Stone - part I Origins

         The early Turks came from the Altai region in Central Asia, on the western border of present-day Mongolia, and may even have had some distant links across the straits to Alaska (the Eskimo word for 'bear' is the Turkish ayı). The first written reference to them is a Chinese tyu-kyu of the second century BC, a name that appears here and there, subsequently, in Chinese sources of the sixth century. It denoted nomadic warrior tribes, practised at riding superior civilizations: the word 'Turk' was the name of the dominant tribe, and means 'strong man'. These nomads, related to the Mongols and perhaps also to the Huns, spread out over the vast tableland of Central Asia, and caused much trouble for the Chinese, sometimes establishing steppe empires that lasted for a generation or two before being absorbed by the more settled natives. Much of Chinese history is about these battles on the long, open frontier; the necessity for the Great Wall being a case in point. The steppe empire that really stood out was that of the Uyghurs, of around 800 AD, who took literacy and much else from the Chinese. There were dynasties with obvious Turkish antecedents, including that of the fabled Kublai Khan (Kubilay is a common enough first name in Turkey), whip in 1272 established Hanbalık, 'city of the ruler', the modern-day Beijing.
 

     Some of these Turkish connotations may be more then romantic speculation. Does 'Kirghiz' mean Turkish 'the forty-two' (tribes), or something else, such as 'nomad'? In the twelfth and thirteen centuries, Marco Polo referred to Chinese Turkestan as 'Great Turkey', and the place names are obvious: the river Yenisei in Russia takes its name from yeni çay or 'new river': and the earlier name of Stalingrad, Tsaritsyn, has nothing to do with 'Tsar' but comes from sarı su, 'yellow water'. The linguistic descendants of old Turkish have, of course, grown in some case far apart, although Anatolian Turks say they find Kirghiz quite easy, despite the thousands of miles in between. The grammar is regular, but different from English, in that preposition, tenses and the like are added to the main word, with the vowel changing according to the main word's dominant vowel. This maybe best illustrated by the word 'pastrami', one of none-too-many words that we owe to these old Turks. It is an Italian version of the original pastırma, nowadays sold as very thin slices of dried beef, preserved in a cake of spices, of which cumin (çemen) is chief. Pas is the stem of a verb meaning 'press'. Tır (the dotless  ı pronounced something like a French 'eu' and marking a vowel change that is used an 'a') indicated causation, and ma (also a vowel change: it could have been me) turns it all into verbal noun or gerund. This foodstuff, kept under the saddle, maintained nomadic horse archers for hundreds of miles across the Central Asia steppe. 

Atlas of the early Christian world - Nelson 1959

            You probably wondering why I am writhing about "early Christian world" in here? The answer is so simple. All the knowledge about early Turkey is there. Surprise!😃 Most of the earliest churches where in Phrygia and between Lyconia, Pisidia and Pamphylia on south of Asia Minor. If you are talking about early Christianity you have to talk about Turkey. But the map will show you everything....

Probably the most important map that shows large number of the Christian on west of the Turkey and a smaller number on the rest country.

Peasants of Anatolia by Alfred Marchionini

"Buyurunuz , Doktor Bey. Please come in, doctor", Ahmet greeted me at the entrance to his house in a small Anatolian village near Ankara. This western part of Turkey is equivalent to Asia Minor.

      Like most of his Anatolian peasant neighbours, Ahmet was of middle height, strong, muscular, and deeply burned by the sun. My companions entered the house with me, since it is the custom of Anatolian hospitality for a peasant's welcome to his physician to include all who arrive at the door with him.

       In the villages of Anatolia the people have a high regard for doctors, and particular for the professors of the clinics, of the Ankara University. They make virtual pilgrimages to Ankara to consult physicians of the State's Model Hospital, often traveling for days by horse-drawn cart, by donkey, or on foot. There they are given advice and every care without cost. 

     Women Now Permitted to Greet Guests
      In deference to Anatolian custom, we took off our shoes before going into the living room, at the door of which the women of the household greeted us. This courtesy would not hold greeted us. This courtesy would not have been possible before the time of Kemal ATATÜRK. Mohammedan custom then did not permit such freedom to women.
      Meticulously clean, the trampled earthen floor was covered with kilim rugs. The wall, with two small windows, was taken up by a low pillow-strewn divan. In one corner were piled thin wool mattresses, carefully folded, together with coverlets and pillows filled with wool of the good local sheep. Melons, grapes, and peppers hung by strings from the ceiling, and on the window sills were squashed.
       Ahmet directed us to place on the divan, seating the men first. He and his family then sat around us on the floor, same with crossed legs. After everyone had taken his place, the Turkish word for "How are you?" went around the each guest. All of us asked the same question on reply, and new neighbours kept coming in to bid us "A joyful welcome!" To each greeting we replied in Turkish, "We have found joy". 

Turkey struggles for balance - National Geographic May 1994

The article is written by Thomas B. Allen, photographs by Reza

              Along the coastal highway Turkey's Black Sea towns are awakening to a sunny fall day. The roadside blurs by: moustachioed men and kerchiefed woman, car wrecks and donkeys, chickens and cows, mosques and concrete mixers, laundry drying on line, tobacco drying on a fence, bus shelters full if kids going to school and adults going to work. Then the traffic knots up, and we sit in the fumes and honkings of cars, trucks, minivans, tractors, buses, and motorcycles. Now Ümit Niron, my interpreter of Turkisch words and sights and smells, can turn his eyes from the road and tell me what I see.  The schoolkids wear uniforms, blue smocks for the little girls and boys; shirts and ties, blue blazers, and slacks for the older boys. Most of the older girls wear white blouses and plaid skirts. Others are buttoned into long, dark blue coats, and they hide their brows under pale blue kerchiefs. "Religious school", Ümit says. "That is what the girls must wear". Stuck in the traffic with us is a grimy, battered bus, its windows smeared with yellow paint. The Turkish buses I have seen all sparkled, inside and out. This one, Ümit explains, is not Turkish. It is a Russian bus, the rolling home of traders from former Soviet republic. Men and women are climbing into tractor hauled wagons. They are harvesters, heading to the mountains for tea, to the orchids for hazelnuts, to the fields for corn and sugar beets. "We must go to a wedding," Ümit says. "The end of harvest is the time for weddings." Journeying through the rich weave of history and geography that is Turkey, I did go to weddings, and to mosques, and to Russian bazaars. In villages, cities, and factories and on farms and waterfronts, I found a nation on the move, led by Tansu  Çiller, the first woman to become prime minister of the Muslim nation. She intends to build on the economic boom of the eighties, and, looking toward the future, she promises her people: "We will not walk, we will run." As ever, turkey is a bridge between Europe and Asia, between West and East. Today the bridge strains against waves of change. Jobless villagers pour into cities already packed with people and problems. New nations emerge where the mighty Soviet Union once loomed. Militant Muslims, within and beyond Turkey's borders, challenge Turkey's long-held determination to be a secular nation. And in the bloodstained  southeast corner of the country the government hopes to win a guerrilla war against Kurdish separatist, using the energy and opportunities created by hydroelectric dams and irrigation canals. Here the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party has been fighting since 1984to form a Kurdish state. "When I meet someone, I wonder in the back of my mind, is he a Kurd?" a government official in Ankara told me. "This is a sad by product of the struggle." Another is criticism of Turkey's human rights record in the southeast. A 1993 U.S. congressional report accused Turkey of acting under a "broad and ambiguous definition of terrorism" that authorized torture, permitted "use of excessive force against noncombatants," and restricted "freedom of expression and association." Officials try to play down the troubles, preferring to talk about Turkey's role in the post-Cold War world. Home of ancient Greeks and Romans, heart of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, Turkey is claiming the right to lead a new economic domain stretching into Central Asia. ... 

Anatolian nomad's

Anatolian tale's needs some hero's...

Agfacolor by Alfred Marchionini, Nomads or Villagers, Anatolian Women Wear Their Fortunes Where They Show. Both women are comparatively well-to-do. A double row of gold coins hangs below the mantel-sharped headcloth of the villager on the right. Simple gold bracelets encircle her wrists. A necklace of worn coins sets off the richly embroidered jacket of the mother at left. Her turbanlike headdress marks her as a Kurdish nomad from easternmost Turkey. It signifies her preparedness to move at a moment's notice.

    Livestock raising rivals agriculture as Turkey's most important industry. Fleece from sheep and goats ranks high among the Nation's exports.

The National Geographic Magazine - August, 1951

          ASI sat chatting with a Turkish journalist in his office in Ankara, a messenger entered with a sheaf of heavily headlined newspapers. My friend skimmed one across to me. The black letters, in the nation's modern alphabet of Latin characters, announced that Turkey had offer to send troops to join the armed forces of the United Nations in Korea. The Turkish Brigade, 5,190 strong, and third largest United Nations contingent in Korea, arrived in the battle zone six weeks before the Chinese Communist armies launched their offensive in November, 1950. By the end of that month the Turks had shown their mettle in decisive fashion. They were called on to plug a gap between retreating South Korea forces and the exposed flank of the American eight Army. The situation was critical. Short of food and ammunition, the Turks stopped the red flood with bayonets, sticks, and bare fists for two days, and protect the American flank. Their mission accomplished, they were ordered to withdraw. Officers and men marched the 50 miles back to Pyongyang, carrying their wounded on their backs. Every tenth man had been a casualty. The late Lt. Gen. Walton H. Walker, commander of the American Eight Army, pinned medals on Brig. Gen. Tahsin Yazıcı and 15 of his gallant men. General Mac Arthur, visiting the Korean front in February, said, "In Tokyo they are calling the Turks the Bee-Bee Brigade-bravest of the brave." Every day for centuries barefoot figures have formed a tiny group before the prayer niche in Istanbul's old Mosque of Suleiman the Magnificent. But after the Turks won fame in Korea, the huge rugs were crowded with Turks praying for their soldiers, far from home. More then 32,000 enlisted men in Turkish Army volunteered for service in Korea to replace the casualties. Six hundred, chosen by lot, were sent to join the Brigade.

 

Anatolian Tales

         Opowieści anatolijskie to nic innego jak projekt zainspirowany książką Yaşhara Kemala „Anatolian Tales” z 1968 roku. Jego książka była opisywana jako „...beautiful and savage collection of short stories portrays Anatolia's wretched of the earth. Yaşar Kemal draws on Anatolia's oral traditions, its myths, legends and his own personal experience... ”. Właśnie taki chciałbym żeby ten blog był. Jest to oczywiście moja praca odtwórcza skupiona na źródłach, nie na przewodnikach turystycznych. Chciałbym odkryć to co już zniknęło na czym osiadł kurz... Blog będzie 3-jezyczny....polsko-angielsko-turecki... IN SHA ALLAH (arabski)....