125 year old Palestinian talks about his memories

[gurey25]

Isnt it sad that the great ottoman empire would be reduced to just three agnostic brothers??? That is so sad. In my reading of English history, the Ottoman empire would come up here and there, and I would always be irritated by that. Anyway, did u know--the Ottoman empire is responsible for America to be discovered? When they invaded the west Europe in the 15th century, they finally got through the fortress castles by using powerful powder gun to blow up the walls. They then blocked all the route of trade Europe used to get their 'spices' especially the black pepper that used to be so valuable. Therefore, the European elite then in 1493 sent Columbus to America in search of spices and that's where he discovered the black pepper. So basically America was discovered just because of in search of Man's appetite for spices! (u wonder why we have fat people, food is such a big deal that it causes such a treacherous journey to the unknown just to induce more appetite for the stomach?) Amazing isn't it?

close but not really what happened, the middle east was always the centre of trade and the middleman throughout most of history.
what happened was that the mongol catastrophe depopulated and devastated the centers of trade, and this gave venice control over medditernian trade.
The ottomans especially Sultan Sulieman brought them down a peg, and made venice his bitch..
for over 200 years venice was running all over europe and middle east monopolizing trade and introducing a perfidious infestation the likes have never been seen in the middle east since the battle of yarmouk and the rule of islam.
i mean interest based banking the foundation of our current economy.



With the venetian monopoly broken , prices rose and europe had to get their spices somewhere.
there where no major trade routes in the balkans where the ottomans expanded, but they where in the medditerean, in the agean, in cyprus, crete, rhodes
and the dodecanese.. venice territory captured by suleiman.

what influenced the discovery of america was developments in portugal, because of their unique situation they needed a different design of ships,
they combines andalusian shipping technology with european cogs, add andalusian navigation techniques and you finally had the technology to do long distance sea travel.
A certain italian called colombo gets funding for his mad project and uses portugese shipping designs and voila..
you have america..

[Arabman]

And while he was growing "...berries, peaches, grapes" the Europeans were developing machine guns, discovering new elements and sending their "diplomatic" gunboats all over the world.

The Europeans (and their cousins in North America) used those machine guns massacring each other and non-Europeans in WWI/WWII, resulting in the worst number of casualties in the history of humanity.

[gurey25]

And while he was growing "...berries, peaches, grapes" the Europeans were developing machine guns, discovering new elements and sending their "diplomatic" gunboats all over the world.

The Europeans (and their cousins in North America) used those machine guns massacring each other and non-Europeans in WWI/WWII, resulting in the worst number of casualties in the history of humanity.

Which is a good thing because that loss of an entire generation of young men saved us from even longer and more widespread colonialism.

[Basra-]

gurey

I didn't see this post.


Wow. Fascinating history tidbit u have there. Can u please tell me the dates (200 years) the ottoman ruled venice, I need to do my research.


Personally, gurey, and I beg your pardon for this, but personally I find these arab/muslims ottoman empire a bit disgusting. I don't know why I always get mad whenever I read my sweet nice Porsche English drama and their names appear. it is quite disgusting. Even, in 1809 Lord Byron, the famous 19th century English poet went to Ottoman court and was offered boys for his pleasure. uuuff

[STARKAST]

An anti-Semite is a person who refuses to bow down to Jewish lies.

[STARKAST]

An anti-Semite is a person who refuses to bow down to Jewish lies.

[Basra-]

Masha'allah Allahuma zid wa barek

WTF>>>?????

[gurey25]

Wow. Fascinating history tidbit u have there. Can u please tell me the dates (200 years) the ottoman ruled venice, I need to do my research.

the ottomans dismantled venice's empire but did not rule venice, they raided a few Italians towns and regions and carried off allot of loot, including slaves.

venice ruled a large mercantile empire from the late 1200's to the 1500's.

I wouldnt be surprised that you believe that stuff, they werent angles or upstanding muslims, infact they had allot of hetrodox ideas and practices like the bektashi sufi tariqa
that was popular with the jannisarry, believing that alcohol was not xaram.
The truth is that the Western image of the ottomans is clouded by orientalism and the projecting of their own deep sexual fantasies onto the ottomans.

[Lillaahiya]

An anti-Semite is a person who refuses to bow down to Jewish lies.

Ironic how anti-Semitism has been monopolized by Jews and is often used to describe the animosity displayed by their fellow Semites (Arabs).

[Gabre]

My Austrian brother should of finished the job.

An anti-Semite is a person who refuses to bow down to Jewish lies.

Stay classy Somalinet.

[gurey25]

Basra if you think the ottomans were scandalous you should look into the twilight of the golden age of Islam, just before the mongol catastrophe.
Certain regions reached pre-industrial takeoff stage similiar to were europe was in the 1700's by 1100 AD.
Some regions reached standards of living that was only matched recently by europe in the 19th century, surprising parts of afghanistan, balkq was one of them,
and eastern iran, and parts of syria and ofcourse andalusia.

if you look into the literature of the period and the poetry a picture of decadence emerges, and shocking cultural practices from regions today you would never expect.
aparently in cities like merve of omar khayams fame and cities in balkq afghanistan, and adalusia there were bars/taverns in every street corner.
It was rare for a woman to wear the headscarf , forget about the veil, and seductive silk dresses that showed off the figure were in fashion.
In some parts of eastern iran and afghanistan it was ok for women to go on dates, and the bars were full of women too and allot of them were regular girls having a good time
and not necessarily whores.

who would thought!!!
The mongol catastrophe changed all that like the wrath of god, probably seeing all those heaps and mountains of rotting corpses , destroyed cities that were beatifull,
mass starvation, disease and mass rapes .
all that turned people deeply conservative like disasters usually do, and people toughened up transforming to the effeminate hippie like peacefull populations,
into cold blooded wolves that live for war.

[Lillaahiya]

My Austrian brother should of finished the job.

An anti-Semite is a person who refuses to bow down to Jewish lies.

Stay classy Somalinet.

Didn't even see his first comment

[SultanOrder]

An anti-Semite is a person who refuses to bow down to Jewish lies.

Ironic how anti-Semitism has been monopolized by Jews and is often used to describe the animosity displayed by their fellow Semites (Arabs).

It's because it's a concept developed in Europe for over group of people, fortunately Arabs weren't hated and persecuted at that time. If they were smart they should borrow that term so that it includes them and they can benefit from all the negative connotations and regulations against it. Then we can widen the umbrella and include all Muslims.

God I'm a genius

[SultanOrder]

Gurey25, when the young turks took over,how much of the stability and day to day lives of ordinary peoples change? I think that is what the old man is referring to.

[CushiticReflections]

That doesn't look like a man who's over 100 years old.