BBC Documentary on the Ottomans

[D+C]

I assume this will appear on iplayer soon so thought I would highlight it. This documentary was on this evening and was excellent. Bishop Kallistos Ware is one of the commentators and the tale of Hagia Sophia is told very well. Highly recommended. The Ottomans: Europe's Muslim Emperors

 

[ArmyMatt]

thanks man!

 

[rakovsky]

It looks like you have to be in the UK to see it or watch at a set time.

 

[D+C]

Sorry about that, I assumed it was free around the world. We all know what happens when you assume...

 

[Dewi Sant]

I enjoyed it, though it was a bit fast paced! Osman I to Mehmed II Fatih in 20 mins.

I did feel that it was biased toward depicting the Ottomans as barbaric warmongering expansionists...but if that is what they were there is no problem.

I hope the next episode looks more at the trading infrastructure, connections with the Elizabethan 'Turkey Company', Genc Osman's ambition for Vienna, and the humiliation at the hands of Wallachia (Vlad Tepes).

I love Ottoman history, it is surprisingly colourful, though generally soaked in blood...like the rest of medieval Europe.

 

[Dewi Sant]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqFNIdxHYYY

From a purely political perspective, the Ottomans were an amazing Imperial power, and one which escapes too many peoples' attentions.
Their martial style and music was the oldest in the world, dating back to the Persian organisation of marching bands.
The Ottomans brought coffee to Europe (legalised by Pope Clement VIII in c.1600), they influenced the dynamics of European politics , particularly in how protestant nations would gain their support in contradiction to the rule of Rome (England being the prime example).
It was because of the Ottoman occupation of Greece that Orthodoxy came to England in the 18th cent. with the establishment of the Greek College at Oxford.