Ottoman Quotes

“It is said that in those days one could hear seventy languages in the streets of Istanbul. The vast Ottoman Empire, shrunken and weakened though it now was, had made it normal and natural for Greeks to inhabit Egypt, Persians to settle in Arabia and Albanians to live with Slavs. Christians and Muslims of all sects, Alevis, Zoroastrians, Jews, worshippers of the Peacock Angel, subsisted side by side in the most improbable places and combinations. There were Muslim Greeks, Catholic Armenians, Arab Christians and Serbian Jews. Istanbul was the hub of this broken-felloed wheel, and there could be found epitomised the fantastical bedlam and babel, which although no one realised it at the time, was destined to be the model and precursor of all the world's great metropoles a hundred years hence, by which time Istanbul itself would, paradoxically, have lost its cosmopolitan brilliance entirely. It would be destined, perhaps, one day to find it again, if only the devilish false idols of nationalism, that specious patriotism of the morally stunted, might finally be toppled in the century to come.”
― Louis de Bernières, Birds Without Wings

“In the Ottoman times, there were itinerant storytellers called "meddah. " They would go to coffee houses, where they would tell a story in front of an audience, often improvising. With each new person in the story, the meddah would change his voice, impersonating that character. Everybody could go and listen, you know ordinary people, even the sultan, Muslims and non-Muslims. Stories cut across all boundaries. Like "The Tales of Nasreddin Hodja," which were very popular throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the Balkans and Asia. Today, stories continue to transcend borders”
― Elif Shafak

“Karamanlılar ve Osmanlılar... “ dedi Timur bir süre sonra. “Sahi nedir bu anlaşmazlığın başlangıcı?”
― Deniz Canan, Larende'nin Yükselişi

“Alamo has been a strong inspiration for nations striving for freedom all around the globe since 1836. Gvozdansko has not earned public reputation, but profoundly touched the heart of the bitter enemy Ferhat-paša alone in 1578. Croats have a duty and obligation to learn about Gvozdansko.”
― Vinko Vrbanic

“The government here is entirely in the hands of the army. The Grand Signor [Ottoman Sultan], with all his absolute power, is as much a slave as any of his subjects, and trembles at a janissary's frown.”
― Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

“The Turks have an army that goes back to the Ottoman Empire. Our army is very new.
But there's a world of difference already between the early 1990's and now (early 2000). The food and pay, it's all better.”
― An Azerbaijani colonel

“The prohibition of wine is a very wise maxism and meant for the common people, being the source of disorders amongst them, but that the prophet never designed to confine those that knew how to use it with moderation.”
― A Turkish effendi

“Devletlerin bir hayat müddeti vardır, hiçbir medeniyet sonsuza kadar devam
edip gitmez. Tarihe bakarsanız, bunu açık şekilde görürsünüz. Mesela,
eski Mısır medeniyeti binlerce sene devam etti ve ortadan kalktı. Onun yerini
eski Yunan, Roma devletleri aldı ama onlar da silindiler. Zaman geçti,
biz geldik, 600 sene devam ettik, ama miadımız dolmuştu ve biz de yıkıldık.
İngiltere ise, imparatorluk olarak, sadece 200 seneye yakın devam edebildi.
Bugünün en kuvvetli devleti Amerika ama, günün birinde o da nihayete
erecek. Reform çabalarının muvaffak olması halinde Osmanlı Devleti'nin yıkılmayacağını,
devam edeceğini söyleyenler çıkmıştır ama ben buna inanmıyorum.
Yıkılışımız en fazla 50 sene gecikirdi, o kadar.”
― Murat Bardakçı, Son Osmanlılar: Osmanlı Hanedanının Sürgün ve Miras Öyküsü

“Hemen dile getirilmemesi gereken şeyleri övünerek anlatıyorsun.”
― Deniz Canan, Larende'nin Düşüşü

“Hükümdarlar düştü babalardan payımıza. Şanssızız cici prenses. Onlar bize gelene kadar çok başka kişilere önem verir. Ülkeleri, vezirleri, başka kralların oğulları, bir kaşının yayı güzel diye soysuz cariyeleri... hepsini çocuklarından daha çok severler. Biz babalarımız ne derse yaparız. Savaşırız, ölürüz, satılırız ve bür gün tahta geçmek için kardeşlerimizi keseriz. Mesele biz değiliz. Mesele hiçbir zaman biz olmadık.”
― Deniz Canan, Larende’nin Varisleri Larende’nin Aynası Kısım -2

“İtaat etmeyi alışkanlık edinen hiçbir zaman hükmedemez. Ne bir orduya ne de kendine.”
― Deniz Canan, Larende’nin Varisleri Larende’nin Aynası Kısım -2

“Osmanlı Karaman beylikleri arasındaki mücadeleyi anlatan, ayrıca şaman bir karakterin şamanlık gelişimiyle tüyleri diken diken eden ayrıntılar sunan tarihi roman serisinin ikinci kitabı da akıcı, tarihi bilgilerle dolu doluydu. Üstelik Edirne'den çıkan karakterlerin ilgi çekici mekanlara olan seyahatlari beni tarihi bir yolculuğa çıkardı. Çok keyif aldım.
Kumru ve Bengi diğer Osmanlı şehzadeleri ile Edirne'den çıkıp ikinci Osmanlı payitahtı Bursa'ya ve çevredeki başka şehirlere gittiler. Bursa'nın tasvirleri çok hoşuma gitti. Ayrıca diğer karakterlerin de kişisel gelişimine daha çok girildi. Kötü olduğunu sandığımız bazı kişilerin aslında daha karmaşık karakterlere sahip iyi-kötü arasında kişiler olduğunu görmüş oldum. Bu da kitap okurken keyif aldığım bir noktadır çünkü hiçbir insan sadece iyi sadece kötü değildir. Karakterler kişilikler psikolojik değişimler katman katman açılır, bu konuda da çok tatmin oldum.
Kitap herkesin bildiği ünlü Ankara Savaşı ile sona erdi ve savaş sahnelerinde her şey gözümde apaçık canlandı. Olaylar açılırken ve sırlar ortaya çıkarken savaş alanında kılıç kullanan şehzadelerin bazılarının babalarını savaş alanında bırakıp kaçması çok acıklıydı. Dönem tarihini biraz bilenler Ankara savaşında kimlerin kaçtığını iyi bilir :D
Sonuç olarak Larende'nin Varisleri çok keyif aldığım ve herkese tavsiye ettiğim bir kitaptı.”
― Deniz Canan, Larende’nin Varisleri Larende’nin Aynası Kısım -2

“Religion mattered at a deep level, which must help to explain why none of these people went over to Islam; but in most cases it did not direct their lives, nor did it prevent some of them from cultivating their connection with a powerful relative who was a Muslim convert. Whilst the fact that they were Catholics from one of Christendom’s frontier zones may have given them an enhanced sense of their Catholicism, the fact that they were Albanians, connected by language, blood and history to Ottoman subjects and Ottoman territory, gave them an ability to see things also from something more like an Ottoman perspective”
― Noel Malcolm, Agents of Empire: Knights, Corsairs, Jesuits and Spies in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean World

“We (Turkish soldiers) were met by just a few men on horseback in Caucasian dress, like fairy-tale soldiers with silver-plated sabres in their belts. Our small procession seemed to me to be the harbinger of a great liberation, the awakening of the vast land of Turan. It was a new Ergenekon.”
― Şevket Süreyya Aydemir

“Our duty would be to create, in the place of the outdated (Ottoman) Empire, a new national entity in harmony with its historic and linguistic unity and its desires.”
― Şevket Süreyya Aydemir

“The vulgar Turk is very different from what is spoken at court, 'tis as ridiculous to make use of the expressions commonly used in speaking to a great man or lady, as it would be to talk broad Yorkshire or Somershetshire in the drawing room.”
― Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

“Strictures and prohibitions availed nothing. The fatwas, the talk, made no impression on the people. One coffeehouse was opened after another, and men would gather together, with great eagerness and enthusiasm, to drink coffee... such things do not admit of a perpetual ban.”
― Kâtip Çelebi

“Perhaps your hatred of the Turk is due to your lack of understanding him”
― Rehan Khan, A Tudor Turk

“The Sultan is the most powerful man in the world. His supremacy is based on winning wars, yet all the people want is peace. Whether he is adept at this . . . well, that is quite another matter.”
― Rehan Khan, A Tudor Turk

“Fear is a garden, fertile as Eden before the Fall.”
― Katherine Nouri Hughes, The Mapmaker's Daughter

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“Divan Bed Frame - Bedroomking

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“Марамата со која се покривав одамна не ми го криеше лицето. Абдул не ги сакаше мачките, често ги бркаше од прагот на нашата мала куќарка во Кајакој, па еве ме денес, сама со Јаман, вдовица и бездетна. Имам живот којшто Абдул Азим не го замислуваше за мене, јас, пак, најмалку. Јас, пак, воопшто.”
― Јован Илиески, Татко ми Босфор

“Прости ми што не е како ти што си замислила. Мојата љубов не е твоја замисла.”
― Јован Илиески, Седум часот и педесет минути

“Босфор се вознемири.”
― Јован Илиески, Седум часот и педесет минути

“Сега, во неговите раце, ја држеше фотографијата што секојпат ја здогледуваше закачена на ѕидот во домот на Иштар во Нишанташи.
„Ми ја даваш на мене, Асли?“ – воздивна. – „Сериозна си?“
„Не ти ја давам. Ти ја враќам. Твоја е.”
― Јован Илиески, Седум часот и педесет минути