The Great Turkish War: How Europe fought back against the Ottomans

In the seventeenth century, the Ottoman Empire was making many enemies in Europe

The seventeenth century was rocked by several wars in Europe. But this century also saw a few major wars in the Middle East as well. For example, there were the forgotten Mughal-Safavid Wars. These wars were fought intermittently for many decades – before, during, and after the seventeenth century. There was also another major power in the Middle East, which was the Ottoman Empire. Unlike these other powers, it had ambitions in Continental Europe itself. The Ottoman Empire had been expanding further and further into the Balkans, and even into Central and Eastern Europe. But the Ottoman Turks were then making many enemies in Europe. Thus, the Ottomans were getting a little over-extended there. The Turks would soon be facing coalitions of several European powers – including the Russians, whom they had faced in two prior wars. The Ottoman Turks had also fought a few wars against Poland in the past, and would soon be facing the Poles again in this struggle. And some prior conflicts with the Habsburg monarchy would also be re-ignited in the coming struggle. Sadly for the Turks, there would be other enemies for them, as the Europeans decided to fight back against the Ottoman incursions. United by a common interest, their alliance would soon prove formidable to the Turks, in a conflict sometimes called the “Last Crusade.” Small wonder, then, that the Ottoman Turks would remember it simply as the “Disaster Years.” But the rest of the world would usually remember it … as the “Great Turkish War.” Like the prior Mughal-Safavid Wars, the “Great Turkish War” would prove one of the greatest conflicts of the seventeenth century. In this conflict, much of Christian Europe would band together, in a “holy resistance” to the Muslim invaders.

Battle of Vienna, 1683 – the opening battle of the Great Turkish War

Battle of Párkány, 1683 – part of the Polish-Ottoman War

Reflections on learning about early Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism

“Typically, Jewish history and Christian history are taught by different teachers; they are even considered different disciplines. As Oxford don Geza Vermes points out in his introduction, this book is unique; it is a parallel history of early Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism, an attempt to trace their stories side by side.”

– Hershel Shanks, in his Foreword to “Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism: A Parallel History of Their Origins and Early Development,” page xv

What is “Rabbinic Judaism,” and when (and where) does it come from?

Judaism was the first of the major Abrahamic religions, and the only one until the advent of Christianity in the first century. Since it is still around today, Judaism is by far the oldest of these religions. You might already know that it is today split into many different camps. But the vast majority of these camps could be classified (in one form or another) as “Rabbinic Judaism.” What is “Rabbinic Judaism,” you might be wondering? It is simply Judaism where a “rabbi” is important, because “rabbi” is the biggest root word of the word “Rabbinic.” “Rabbinic Judaism” was born shortly before the advent of Christianity, although it seems not to have been known by that name at that time.

An artist’s rendition of the Temple of Solomon, sometimes known as the “First Temple”

A review of “Islam” (audiobook)

“Allah—there is no god ˹worthy of worship˺ except Him. He has the Most Beautiful Names.”

– English translation of The Quran, Surah 20:8

Islam is the youngest of the world’s major religions. The others all began in antiquity, while Islam did not begin until the Early Middle Ages. But despite the head start of these other major religions, Islam has grown to be the second-largest religion in the world today. It is surpassed only by Christianity, and surpasses even those who consider themselves “non-religious” (such as atheists, agnostics, and self-described “secularists”). Thus, there is good reason to learn about what Muslims believe, from sources such as this audiobook. I do not know if the author himself was a Muslim, and note that he did not have a Muslim-culture name. (His name was Charles Adams.) Nonetheless, it is one of the best introductions to their faith that I have ever heard, and the author may well be a Muslim of a more Western background.

A review of “Modern Marvels: The Suez Canal” (History Channel)

Long before the Panama Canal was built, the Suez Canal was opened in 1869. This is the same year that America’s Transcontinental Railroad had been completed. But the Suez Canal was even more important for world history. It allowed ships to pass from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, without having to go around Africa. For a trip from Britain to India, a ship could thus save 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) by going on this route. This may make the Suez Canal the most important canal in the world – arguably even more important than the Panama Canal, which is saying something.

Opening of the Suez Canal, 1869

A review of “Egypt's Golden Empire” (PBS Empires)

The Egyptian language might have been the first language in human history to have been written down. (Although some scholars have argued that Sumerian was actually the first, and that Egyptian was only the second.) Regardless of whether it was first or second, though, the earliest known records of the Egyptian language actually go back to two or three thousand years before Jesus Christ. But unexpectedly, that is not where this documentary begins its history. This is actually a history of the “New Kingdom” in Egypt, which goes from about 1500 BC to 1000 BC – long after the earliest known records in Egypt. I would presume that PBS wanted to focus on a narrower period of Egyptian history (only five centuries or so), to allow for a simpler story. With less than three hours to tell the story here, you can see why PBS would want to do this. But one can only speculate as to why they decided to focus specifically on the “New Kingdom,” rather than on some other period of a similar duration. There are a number of other periods that would have made for equally interesting television, I think; and if someone decided to cover one of them, I would probably view their coverage with more than a little interest.

Reflections on learning about history of Ancient Egypt

"Written by a team of pioneering archaeologists and acknowledged experts working at the cutting edge of Egyptology ... "

- The back cover of "The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt" (2000), edited by Ian Shaw

The Rosetta Stone: The key to Egypt

In 1799, one of Napoleon's soldiers discovered a mysterious stone in the Nile Delta, during the French campaigns into Egypt that year - a stone that would prove the key to Egyptology and its modern practice. The mysterious object was the Rosetta Stone, and it bore an inscription in three different writing systems - Egyptian hieroglyphics, a later Egyptian script called "Demotic," and an ancient variety of Greek that was well-known already to Europeans. Although this soldier didn't know it then, this bilingual inscription would allow a young scholar named Jean-François Champollion to decipher the pronunciations when he reached adulthood, since he was only nine years old at the time that his fellow Frenchman discovered this.

The Rosetta Stone

What is Egyptology?

The Napoleonic campaigns in general - and the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone in particular - ignited a wave of true "Egyptomania" back in Europe, which grew into the modern discipline of Egyptology. Many great discoveries have been made in this area by archaeological digs at various sites, and some of these have uncovered information that was not known to anyone for centuries. Perhaps because of this, the discipline of Egyptology is sometimes considered a subfield of archaeology - a field broad enough to include sites from Greece to Rome to China to Central America. This classification points out that the excavations done in Egypt are just some of the many across the world that attract the attention of archaeologists; and there is truth in this claim. Nonetheless, the study of Egyptology encompasses more than just "digging in the dirt," and embraces written records as well; with languages whose grammar must be seriously studied and understood before a proper and complete history of the Egyptian past can be written. Thus, the Europeans classify Egyptology as a philological discipline (or in other words, a "linguistic" discipline). This controversy over its classification continues today.