The Bastard of Istanbul

In the novel “The Bastard of Istanbul,” there were several themes that Elif Shafak expresses when telling the stories of Asya and Armanoush’s families. When writing this novel, Elif depicts three important themes that pertain to their families; these themes are the importance of one’s heritage and women’s portrayal in society. In this novel Elif Shafak portrays both a Turkish and Armenian family, showing both similarities and differences in their heritage and women’s portrayal. Overall, due to their upbringing, Armanoush and Asya delve into their past uncovering the Armenian Genocide.

During this time frame, the Armenian inhabitance of Turkey were persecuted and massacred because of their race. She uncovers that the Ottoman government was arresting and imprisoning Armenian’s, including intellects and leaders, within the community. Overall, any Armenian during this time frame was arrested, persecuted, and were eventually killed. The Ottoman government planned on exterminating as much of the Armenian race as possible.

Not long after the round up of Armenian intellects, there was a law passed allowing the Ottoman military to deport Armenian civilians. This law was known as the Tehcir Law and was passed by the Grand Vizier as well as his cabinet. Overall, this deportation act was passed in order to aid in the extermination of the Armenian race. This is seen when the Ottoman soldiers would export the Armenian civilians to death camps in order to perform acts of violence leading to death. Not long after this law was passed, the Law of Confiscations was passed. This law was passed on September thirteenth, nineteen-fifteen, enabling the Ottoman government to strip any Armenian civilian of their property.

Zayni Barakat and the Muhtasib

While learning about the muhtasib in class, I was interested to learn more about the role he played in Mamluk Dynasty. Overall, a basic definition of a muhtasib is someone who is an overseer of both bazaars and trade routes in Islamic countries. His obligations were, not only to provide public safety, but to guarantee that public business was conducted in harmony with the law of sharia. An example of this can be seen Cairo during the reign of Sultan Barqūq. During this time, the muhtasib of Cairo had to make sure that there was a proper regulation of weights, money, prices, public morals, and the cleanliness of public places, as well as the supervision of schools, instruction, teachers, and students, and attention to public baths, general public safety, and the circulation of traffic.

An example of this can be seen in the novel Zayni Barakat by Gamal al-Ghitani. In this novel Ghitani portrays what obligations the muhtasib had to fulfill. In this novel the muhtasib’s was expected to inspect the market place. Overall, this individual has to monitor the prices in the market place as well as ethical affairs. The muhtasib can also be seen as the enforcer in Egypt during this time frame. After reading this novel, it was evident that without the muhtasib, there would have been even more corruption that existed in Cairo during the Mamluk reign.

Rise and Fall of the Mamluk Dynasty

As time progressed, the Mamluk Dynasty began to take control of important religious cities. Some of the cities that this dynasty gained control of were Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem.Overall, this caused a surplus amount of trade and economical commerce for the Mamluk Dynasty. During this time frame, the Mamluks were unable to develop a systematic procedure that marked who should rule after the present sultan died. Overall, this was one of the pitfalls of the Mamluk Dynasty. The reason why they were indecisive was because they had broken the original law stating that power can not be transferred to their offspring. This law was frequently broken during the Bahri period.

During this time of anarchy, power became the main factor that decided who should become new sultan. Unfortunately this caused turmoil and destruction between Mamluk groups in Egypt. As time progressed the Mamluk Dynasty developed a set principle which marked who precedes the sultan after death. The main principle that developed was that the sultan always came from the same group, first Bahri, then Burji.

As time lapsed, the Mamluk Dynasty eventually reached its golden age lasting from 1250 until 1350. This was a period known for its comfortable living standards, which caused peace and prosperity due to improved relations both internally and externally. Unfortunately, the next hundred-seventy years marked the overall decline of the Mamluk dynasty. During this time frame, the Mamluk Dynasty experienced setbacks, economic failures, military defeats, and loss of territory. Because of these pitfalls, the Mamluk Dynasty inevitably merged with the Ottoman Empire in 1517. The Mamluks were still the leading class in the Egypt after the fall and during the 17th century they won back actual power in the country. They would continue to keep power in Egypt for approximately two-hundred years.

The Beginning's of the Mamluk Dynasty

The Mamluk Dynasty can be characterized as the “slave dynasty of Egypt” during its time frame. During its reign, the Mamluk Dynasty was a self-governing state from 1250 until 1517. This dynasty came to power by the formation of an aristocracy of white slaves, which was known as the Mamluks. By law the Mamluk slaves had restricted rights to transfer positions and wealth to their offspring’s in order to prevent them from developing hereditary dynasties.

As time progressed the Mamluks rose to power and become the strongest and best organized organization in Egypt under the ruling of Ayyubid Sultan. Overall, Ayyubid during his reign helped capture large quantities of slaves from foreign lands in order to protect his own position. After his death the Mamluks decided to have his wife and rightful heir to the throne murdered. After the murder of Ayyubid’s wife, the Mamluks began to transfer power within their own ranks.

Overall, these events helped re-establish the caliphate in Cairo causing the Mamluk Dynasty to prosper.

Fall of the Safavid Empire

Not only did recurrent enemies, such as the Ottomans and Uzbeks, cause the Safavid Empire to fall, new enemies during the 17th century began to rise. During this time frame Russian began to pose a threat to the Middle Eastern regions. Eastern empires, such as the Mughal dynasty, began to expand into Afghanistan; this inevitably caused the take over of Qandahar. Not only were foreign powers picking apart the Safavid Empire, trade began to shift. Overall, trade routes between the East and West had shifted away from Iran, causing a substantial loss of business and trade. This caused the Shah Abbas to switch his military system, due to lack of funds, to a ghulam-based military.
Even though the first two Shahs’ were great rulers during their reign, the Shahs preceding them were ineffectual. By the end of Shah Abba’s era in 1666, the Safavid Empire was plagued and marked by failure. Because of lavish lifestyles, of the Shahs, and “the finer things in life,” so they thought, they were blinded by the falling revenues and military threats imposed by the Europeans. As you can see the once great Safavid Empire fell victim to poor ruling, military failures, and economic turmoil, like the Ottoman Empire.

The Falling of the Ottoman Empire

While learning about the Ottoman Empire, I learned that this unique empire had district qualities, such as their military and trade, that helped them flourish. Even though the Ottoman Empire symbolizes one of the greatest empires in the Middle East, it inevitably fell due to economic problems, lack of trade, and military. During this time frame the Ottoman economy started exhibit failure, overall leading to its decline. During this time, the western civilizations began to move toward industrialization. Even though this seemed like a good idea for the west, the Ottomans failed to adapt from agricultural to industrialization. Because of this, the Ottoman Empire began to lose trade opportunities.
Do to their economic problems; the once great Ottoman military began to suffer as well. By trying to keep the empire intact due to internal and external affairs, it became a costly process, because of casualties and economical expenses. Due to the lack of technology, weaponry became obsolete. The Ottomans needed to develop better weaponry in order to defeat the Europeans. Because of this, the Ottomans began to equip their infantry with better firearms, even though this was a great expense. In order to fuel the military with men and the proper weaponry the Ottoman Empire moved toward taxation. Heavy taxation became a huge burden on the Ottoman society, this inevitably caused numerous revolts. An example of a revolt during this time frame was Anatolia. Overall, this revolt caused abandonment of farm lands, and depopulation of villages.