Alex > Recent Status Updates

"After the conquest, Fatih Mehmed oversaw the installation of a new patriarch of the Orthodox Church and granted the eastern Christians special protection for their structures and ceremonies. Christian services in the Ottoman Empire included the name of the ruler and prayer for him."

"Ottoman ideology had at least six elements, each of which had primacy at different times for different audiences: frontier ghazi, warrior Irano-Islamic, Turko-Mongol, Roman, millenarian, and sedentary Irano-Islamic."

"I am a slave of God and I am the master in this world. . . . God’s virtue and Muhammed’s miracles are my companions. I am Sülaymân and my name is being read in the prayers in the holy cities of Islam. I launched fleets in the Mediterranean on the part of the Franks in Maghreb as well as in the Indian Ocean. I am the Shah of Baghdad and Iraq, the Caesar of the Roman land and the Sultan of Egypt."
Sulayman

"Russia had allied with the Hapsburgs against the Ottomans in 1686 but had not made an effective contribution until Peter the Great became the effective ruler of Russia in 1695. The Russians conquered the Ottoman fortress of Azov on the Black Sea the next year. The Ottomans had lost their former monopoly of control over the Black Sea."

"The revolt ended when Köprülü Mehmed Pasha offered the rebel leaders a truce, invited them to a banquet, and had them slaughtered. Some 12,000 rebels and sympathizers were executed before the grand vizier returned to the capital in 1659."

Brilliant explanation of phantom pain.

Richard Lionheart sounds like a really cool guy to hang out with. Absolutely not a man of moderation.

This is a treasure trove for martial artists.

"The last story was good, except for its ending, which didn't feel satisfying."

The book now (forgot its name) is very technical, probably only of value to kendo-enthusiasts.

"“Becoming your enemy” is to put yourself in his place. Think of a burglar who is holed up in a house he is attempting to rob. We are prone to overestimating the enemy’s strengths. By putting yourself in his position, however, you realize that he must feel that the whole world is against him. With no way out, he is like a pheasant in a cage. The assailant zooming in to kill him is a falcon. Consider this carefully."

"Whence, then, spring my errors? They arise from this cause alone, that I do not restrain the will, which is of much wider range than the understanding, within the same limits, but extend it even to things I do not understand, and as the will is of itself indifferent to such, it readily falls into error and sin by choosing the false in room of the true, and evil instead of good."

"[...]for if I always clearly knew what was true and good, I should never have any difficulty in determining what judgment I ought to come to, and what choice I ought to make, and I should thus be entirely free without ever being indifferent."
Okay, not even Descartes follows the strawman-concept of free will that people attack all the time.

"It is the faculty of will only, or freedom of choice, which I experience to be so great that I am unable to conceive the idea of another that shall be more ample and extended; so that it is chiefly my will which leads me to discern that I bear a certain image and similitude of Deity."

"Seek victory today over the self of yesterday."

"With musket balls, nobody could be sure who a kill should be attributed to, and was a reason why guns were usually eschewed as the dominion of lower-ranked warriors."
Hence why Musashi sees it as a disadvantage that musketballs can't be seen, but an advantage of bows that the arrow can be seen.

"If it is too difficult to dispatch your enemy with a one-handed blow, you can resort to using both at that point. It is not such a difficult matter to comprehend."
I'll remember this next time I get into a swordfight. Seriously, this makes a lot of sense.

Good rundown on the Edo period. Musashi was always on the right side of history, it seems.

Also, self-immolation became a trend in the Edo period. Ridiculous.

I like this next story. Good mystery elements.

I don't agree with everything she says. As always, however, she has great words of consolation to offer.

"The Ottomans finally regained control of Wallachia and Moldavia by forming an alliance with Poland and drove the Hapsburgs out of Transylvania in 1605."
Poland, of all countries?

"Murad III (r. 1574-1595) was Selim’s only son old enough to serve as a provincial governor, so there was no possibility of a succession dispute. He reluctantly had all five of his brothers executed on the day of his accession. Murad devoted most of his energy to the harem, fathering some forty children."

Selim I came after his grandfather and killed his brothers and their sons after he usurped power, the scumbag.