by Victor Foia
Origin of the Ottoman Empire Peoples
The Turks belong to the group of Turkic peoples whose branches also include the Kipchak, Karluk, Siberian, Chuvash, and Sakha/Yakut. They began to migrate westward in the 7th century AD, from the Central Asian region of the Altai Mountains. Ultimately they settled in Anatolia, from where their empire grew to engulf in time much of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.
Naturally, not all inhabitants of the Ottoman Empires were ethnic Turks. There were also Arabs, Jews, Armenians, Georgians, Kurds, Persians, Afghanis, Greeks, Gypsies, Wallachians, Moldovans, Bulgarians, Albanians, Serbs, Slovenians, Hungarians, and Croats. To a small degree, representatives of virtually all other nations in Europe, Asia, and Africa were present in the empire. Some of these minorities were free people, while others were slaves. People in some of the conquered territories were already Muslims; and some Christians from conquered lands chose to convert to Islam, adopting the clothing style and the language of the Turkish conquerors. All of these non-Turkish Muslims were lumped together by the Europeans outside the empire under the designation of Turks. However, since many of them were not ethnic Turks, a more appropriate designation would have been that of Ottomans.
Languages of Ottoman Empire Peoples
The ordinary Turks of the 15th century spoke Turkic, a language belonging to the Altaic language family, together with the Mongolic, Tungustic, Japonic, and Korean languages. The languages of the Altaic family are spoken in a wide area, from Northeast Asia, through Central Asia, Anatolia, and Eastern Europe. Other languages spoken in the empire were: Greek, Latin, Arabic, Persian, Georgian, Armenian, Aramaic, Slavonic, Romanian, and Roma (the language of the Gypsies).
The educated classes, which included slaves in the military and the administration of the empire, spoke Ottoman Turkish, a variant of Turkish rich in words borrowed from Arabic and Persian. Ottoman Turkish was largely unintelligible to the less-educated classes and is practically unintelligible to the Turks of today.
Religious terminology related to Islam was either Arabic or of Arabic derivation. The Qur’an and other Islamic literature were available only in Arabic. Scientific literature was typically in Arabic, and often represented translation into Arabic of ancient Greek and Roman materials. General literature, including poetry, was primarily written in Persian.
In the 15th century manuscripts written in Ottoman Turkish began to appear. Among these were original writings pertaining to some of the Sufi mystic orders. However, most were translations from Arabic or Persian.
Religion in 15th Century Ottoman Empire
Islam (Sunni dominant, Shi’a minority). In the Ottoman Empire, Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism were tolerated religions, with no forcible conversion to Islam evident as a widespread phenomenon. However, boys recruited at an early age for the Janissary Corps from among the Christians (by either force or acquiescence) were forcibly converted to Islam.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Victor T. Foia was born in Transylvania where he studied theoretical physics at the Babes-Bolyai University. At the age of twenty-two Victor escaped from behind the Iron Curtain and defected to Italy. After a waiting period of months spent in UN refugee camps, he emigrated to the United States. There Victor graduated from the Universities of Illinois and Dallas. He then embarked upon a career as an international corporate executive, culminating in the position of CEO of an international corporation. Presently he is engaged full time in writing historical fiction.
Victor’s interest in Dracula dates from the age of six, when he first visited his compatriot’s birthplace, only a hundred miles from his own. Soon this interest became a lasting passion for research into Dracula’s life. Over a period of four decades Victor visited castles, fortresses, and monasteries throughout Eastern Europe and the Middle East. In doing this, he aimed to gaze beyond Dracula’s iconic image and try to ferret out the essence of the man behind the legend. Victor’s journey has taken him to virtually all the places where Dracula lived, loved, fought, and was imprisoned. In the end, by the empty tomb from where the prince disappeared without a trace 535 years ago, Victor felt his journey of discovery was complete, and now the story of the real Dracula could be told.
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