Episode 326 - The Rise of the Ottomans, Part 2
Added 2025-05-15 22:44:34 +0000 UTCWe look at the details of how the Ottomans ran their state. Including the creation of loyalty to the ruling dynasty, succession policy, military recruitment and slave trading.
Period: 1280-1371
Comments
The Bulgarian History Podcast is a de facto Ottoman history narrative for a while, given Bulgaria’s position at the time . But, that’s from a Bulgarian lens, not an Ottoman one.
Jonathan Solis
2025-05-23 16:43:11 +0000 UTCChurch union?
Robin Pierson
2025-05-20 12:30:25 +0000 UTCGo on
Robin Pierson
2025-05-20 12:30:09 +0000 UTCDo I detect some moral relativism? A defensible position I suppose, but one open to having to bite some bitter bullets.
Mark Simms
2025-05-20 10:01:24 +0000 UTCI couldn’t help but contrast the Ottoman religious flexibility with the Byzantine inflexibility. It felt like there were many times when the inflexibility in practices made them so confrontational to potential allies.
Eric Juhos
2025-05-19 05:47:20 +0000 UTCSo what i gather is that the ottomans under no circumstance should have been allowed into europe. There was a chance for them to implode by being just in anatolia. Thanks Kantakouzenos! (I like that in every episode i find new reason to hate this man).
Paul Astalas
2025-05-16 17:24:31 +0000 UTCThe Mongols also did this, though I don't know if it's a steppe tradition either. They would have noblility executed in sacks so as to prevent their blood from touching the ground
Jcm
2025-05-16 12:33:38 +0000 UTCAlso, I think sultan Ahmed ended the brother-killing practice in the early seventeenth century (when the ottomans were transitioning from an ambitious rapidly-expanding beylik to a much more settled, bureaucratic state). The other princes were supposed to be strangled with a silk bowstring to avoid spilling imperial blood, which is very similar to how Alexios II was murdered by Andronikos I. I don’t know if this was a custom from the steppe lands which the Byzantines adopted or if it’s just a weird coincidence, but it’s quite interesting
Liutprand
2025-05-16 12:20:10 +0000 UTCEarly ottoman history is so fascinating, given how rapidly they expanded to controlling a massive empire in barely two centuries (faster than even the Roman Republic and much more long lasting than the mongols). I’d absolutely love a Byzantine story on Evrenos Bey, the apparently 120 year-old marcher lord of very unclear ethnic origins who was a major figure in the European expansion of the empire.
Liutprand
2025-05-16 11:35:58 +0000 UTCFarya Faraji has written a symphony titled "The Janissary" which can be found on YouTube. It tracks the life of an unnamed Balkan peasant boy that gets kidnapped by the Turks and his life as a Janissary. Towards the start it includes a folk song from Epirus that I hadn't heard before who's lyrics are pretty chilling and insightful to how people of the time might have felt like. It goes: "Be damned oh King, be thrice damned. For the evil you've done and the evil you still do. You send (orders) for the old to be shackled along with the highest of the priesthood. So that you can gather and kidnap the children and turn them into Janissaries. The parents are weeping for their children and the sisters for their brothers. I also weep and (on the inside) I'm burning, I also weep and as long as I live I'll weep. For last year they took my son, this year they took my brother.
Kωnstantinos T.
2025-05-16 07:16:14 +0000 UTCAmazing job with this summary! I mentioned this before in a comment in one of the fan chats, but even though detailed coverage of the Ottomans seems (rightly) beyond the podcast's scope, I would greatly appreciate at least a cursory look into Roman culture in Ottoman times among the Empire's remaining Greek-speaking inhabitants. In particular, I'm curious how they (to the extent that was possible) sought to maintain their traditions and make sense of what had been lost.
Christopher Burton
2025-05-16 01:54:07 +0000 UTCWith regards to your semi-request for someone to cover Ottoman history. A narrative podcast does exist, though it hasn’t reached there yet. The Turkish History Podcast says they will do so. Currently they’re on Myriokephalon so it’ll be a while. They’re quite good
Connor Martin
2025-05-16 00:57:59 +0000 UTC
