Wrap Up of the Class

Before this class, the only prior knowledge I had of the material we learned was from my World History class last semester, which I also took with Metcalf. However in World History, the material was only slightly touched on since there were so many other countries to learn about. In high school, I never learned about the Middle East. I feel fortunate that I took this class this semester because I have learned so much in such a small amount of time. I have learned that the United States is not what I have believed it to be since I was old enough to form an opinion on my country. I have learned about events in history that seem so important that I had never even heard of before this class. For example, I had never learned about the Armenian massacre until I read Forgotten Fire. After finishing the memoir, it seemed impossible that such a huge event was never touched upon in high school or any other previous classes. In the history of the Modern Middle East, I learned more about the state that our world is in today. The class touched on two of the most important events going on in our world today: the Arab-Isaeli conflict and the war on terrorism. Personally I have always been for the most part uninterested in politics, which made me ignorant of events taking place in our world today. I always wanted to change this about myself but could never conjure up the enthusiasm to become more interested in politics. This class has finally made me interested in world affairs and politics. I think that every American should learn the material that we learned about in this class.

Conclusion of My Guantanamo Diary

This class is my third class that I have taken with Professor Metcalf. Needless to say, there has been a whole lot of reading within these three classes, but I must say that I have learned the most information in My Guantanamo Diary. This is a book that I feel all Americans should be required to read. It is an eye opening book into the corruption of the American government that most people do not even know about. The book made me understand why so many people in this world hate our country.

The book is also so important because it is a highly detailed account of something that is going on right now at this very second. Right now there are innocent people being held in Guantanamo that will probably never see a fair trial for the rest of their lives. The book made me understand what it means to be a human being. For example, I learned that it is not possible to stay sane without any contact from your family when you were originally so close to them. Based on the accounts in this book, innocent people are going insane from not seeing their families for years and staring at concrete walls for twenty two hours a day. This book puts the United States to shame, and I feel completely embarassed for our country. It is such a shame that such a powerful country feels the need to detain innocent prisoners without giving them the right to a fair trial. This book helped me realize that the United States and its justice system are not even close to what I have grown up believing them to be. My Guantanamo Diary truly made me realize that the more you learn, the more you realize how little you really do know about the world.

Guantanamo Diaries

For out last source analysis, we have been reading My Guantanamo Diaries. This has been one of my favorite books that we have been reading. Out of all of the books that we have read, this book has opened my eyes the most. Based on what we hear on the TV, radio, or in the newspapers, I have always believed that the detainees in Guantanamo are the most evil criminals out there. I was always happy to hear that people were being held there because I thought that they were a threat to America's safety and needed to be locked up. However, My Guantanamo Diaries has made me believe otherwise.

The account that touched me the most was the first account that the author has with a man named Ali Shah Mousovi. He broke a common stereotype that Americans have of people in the Middle East: that all men have more than one wife and a lot of children. However, Mousovi only has one wife and two children. Hearing about how he was tortured made me believe even more that he is completely innocent. His account made me truly believe that the United States is making a horrible mistake keeping so many people in Guantanamo without the right to a fair trial. I understand that our country is at war right now with the Middle East and that we need to take extra precautionary measures to keep the country safe, but this book has proved that we have pushed it too far. Innocent people are being taken from their families, tortured, and isolated from other people. This book has opened my eyes to not trusting everything that you hear in the media. I feel that every person living in the United States needs to read this book to gain a better understanding of Guantanamo or "Gitmo."

Arab-Israeli Conflict

Lately in class, we have been discussing the conflict over in the Middle East regarding Arabs and Jews. This conflict began in the 1840s, and it arose because Jews were trying to push Arabs off of land that they had settled on first. It was hard for Jews to do this because one of the Arab advantages was demography. For example, the Jewish population in Palestine did not exceed 5% in 1850. A key factor into this conflict is Zionism, which is Jewish nationalism. It is because of Zionism that the Jewish population in Palestine finally began to increase. It went from 5%-10%.This topic is particularly interesting to me because I have never learned very much about the conflict prior to this class.

I always learned about the Holocaust when millions of Jews were killed because of their religion; I always learned that many people sympathize with Jews after the Holocaust. However, once we began learning about the Arab-Israeli conflict, I began to realize that Jews have also killed millions of people that were Arab. It is interesting to see how some people sympathize with Jews and how people can also be against Jews because of their actions in this conflict.

Connections to Other Classes

I am taking a class called "Modern Ireland:1601-Present." I have recently began making connections between our class with Professor Metcalf and this class about Ireland. In nineteenth century Ireland and the years before it, the Irish were persecuted by the British because the Irish were Catholic and the British were Protestant. For years, Catholics in Ireland fought for their religious freedom and the right to hold positions in Parliament. To me, this is similar to the Ottoman Empire's struggles with the janissaries.

The British enforced laws in Ireland in the seventeenth century that shed them of basic rights, such as the right to bear arms and the right to hold positions in government. The British wanted the Irish to convert their religion and become Protestant. Similarly, the Ottoman Empire also wanted the janissaries to become more European. For example, they repeatedly changed their uniforms to look more like the French, and they adopted weapons that were as modern as the Europeans' weapons were.

Irish Catholics and the janissaries wanted to maintain their identity and not become assimilated to other European ways. Catholics in Ireland wanted to maintain their Catholic identity and be able to hold positions in Parliament without becoming Protestant. Similarly, the janissaries in the Ottoman Empire wanted to maintain their Turkish appearance and not take on a European appearance.

Forgotten Fire

For our latest paper, we had to read a book called Forgotten Fire. This book has been my favorite book that we have read so far. From the moment I started reading it, I could not put it down. I think it was a good book as an introduction to the Armenian massacre because I had never heard about this massacre before in any other class I have taken even before college. I was even more shocked when I read that it was based on a true story. The things that humans are capable of doing to each other are unreal. This book was also a good portrayal of defensive developmentalism, which is what the bulk of my paper was about. The Ottomans wanted to strengthen their empire in order to keep the Europeans out. Since there were many laws in Turkey banning Armenians from basic rights such as the right to bear arms, Russians were becoming sympathetic with the Armenians in Turkey. Because of this, the Ottomans were afraid that the Russians would conspire with the Armenians and intervene in the empire. The Turks thought that the best solution to their fears was to wipe out the entire Armenian population.

Although I consider what happened to the Armenians to be a genocide, we learned in a DVD that we watched today that the Turks only consider it a Civil War and that the number of murdered Armenians is exaggerated. I cannot understand how they can say that those numbers are exaggerated when there are tons of pictures and videos that show countless bodies stacked on top of each other. This book makes it seem completely unfathomable that people would deny that such a massacre was as bad as it was. I think that this book was an excellent source in understanding the Armenian massacre.

My Opinion of the Janissary Tree

I have finally finished The Janissary Tree. Although I was liking this book when I first started reading it, I did not really enjoy it once I finished it. I felt that the book jumped around too much and had way too much detail. I feel that the author could have omitted many parts of the book such as the scenes where he goes into detail about what Yashim is cooking. The book jumped around so much that I began losing track of the plot and which characters played what role.

Although I did not like The Janissary Tree as a novel, I do believe it is a reliable source in learning about the Tanzimat. Jason Goodwin's scenes with the Janissaries rebelling match up perfectly to what we learned in class and what is in the textbook. For example, we had learned in class that the Janissaries turned their cauldrons upside down when they were rallying together to rebel. In the novel, Yashim connects the cauldrons with the dead bodies in them to the fact that Janissaries would turn their cauldrons upside down and bang on them when they wanted to rebel with violence. Although I did not enjoy the actual storyline of the book, I do feel that the author made excellent connections to historical fact and really made me understand this important time of the restructuring of the Ottoman Empire.

Another part that I enjoyed about the novel was when the author discussed Napoleon's invasion into Egypt. When we learned about this in class, I was fascinated because I had never known that the French at one time were in Egypt. Naturally, I was drawn into the book when the author spoke about it because it was a fact that was foreign to me. I did not enjoy The Janissary Tree as a novel, but I do feel that it is a good source in learning about the Janissaries in the Ottoman Empire and their eventual end.

The Janissary Tree

The book that we have been reading for the next colloquium is called The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin. So far, I am really enjoying this book. I love how the novel is a perfect combination of a what we are learning about in class and a good read. I have always loved mystery novels and mystery films, so this book is interesting to me. The way that the story is narrated reminds me of the format of a movie. Each chapter ends with a punch, and the next chapter usually begins with a completely different scene from the previous chapter. I think that Yashim is a great detective because of the way that he is investigating the crimes. He is researching cauldrons and drawing smart conclusions from what he gathers. I would never be able to be a detective because I don't think I would be able to make conclusions as quickly as he does. I have not finished the novel yet, so I am very interested in seeing how these murders and other crimes will tie together and be solved.

The Janissary Tree is a good reflection of what we are learning about in class and what we read in The Red Apple. In The Red Apple, we learned mostly about how young boys were chosen to become janissaries and how they fought in battle. In The Janissary Tree, we are learning more about how janissaries rebelled against their sultan to get their ways. The two books together are a great source of information about janissaries because they both teach different sides of what it was like to be a janissary.

Suleyman and Shah Abbas

For the snow day assignment, we had to compare Suleyman the Magnificient of the Ottoman Empire and Shah Abbas of the Sufavid Empire based on what we learned in the Youtube clips. In class on Thursday, we took an even closer look at Suleyman and Shah Abbas and were able to compare and contrast them even more. I thought it was interesting that two empires who were battling each other for centuries could have two rulers that were so similar. One of the biggest similarities that we learned about in class is that they were both warrior kings. When both rulers died, their respected empires became a little more eroded because they were great at keeping their empires together.

For me, I like learning about Shah Abbas more than Suleyman the Magnificient because I think his rule over the empire is more interesting. One fact that I found the most interesting about Shah Abbas is that he started his own army called the Qullar. The Qullar was a slave army made of Christians from Georgia and Armenia, and he payed them out of his own pocket. In order to be able to pay them, he created imperial lands in the interior of the country, which brought more area under direct rule. The Qullar is an idea similar to the janissaries of the Ottoman Empire. The janissaries were made up of young people who were originally Christians (like the Qullar), but they were converted to Islam. Shah Abbas was smart in paying the Qullar with his own money because by doing so, the Qullar had to remain completely loyal to him in order to get payed. I think that if the ruler of the Ottoman Empire thought to do this, then the Sultan and the janissaries would have gotten along more peacefully. Although the Sufavid Empire and the Ottoman Empire were different from each other, they both had rulers that had a lasting effect on the well-being of the empire.

Snow Day Assignment

This Thursday, class was cancelled due to a significant amount of snow we received. Just like everyone else, I was happy that class was cancelled, but I knew that we still had an assignment to do. This is one of the only assignments that I had to do for a class that was cancelled that I actually enjoyed. I thought that the clips we watched were interesting and were an excellent portrayal of the Middle East and a good reflection of what we have been learning in class. I thought that the videos made the Middle East look like a beautiful area even in the midst of the constant conflicts occurring over there. The architecture of the palaces that we got to see from the Safavid Empire and the Ottoman Empire were beautiful. It was fascinating to see how much thought went into the architecture of those buildings. For example, the walls were constructed so that when music would play, the sounds would bounce off the walls and make it sound even more beautiful than it would be in a room that was constructed differently. I liked to pay attention to how the Shah Abbas ruled and how Suleiman the Magnificent ruled to see what the differences and similarities between the two were. Although the two leaders were from different parts of the Middle East and had different beliefs, both leaders still had a huge impact on their empires. Both benefitted the empire greatly. Suleiman freed prisoners who were unjustly in prison, and he significantly improved the life of the slaves. Shah Abbas transformed the economic, religious, and social landscape of the country. This snow day assignment was great because it taught me more about the Middle East that I did not know and was therefore beneficial.

Janissaries

In the past two classes, we have been learning about janissaries. Janissaries made up the army of the Ottoman Empire, and they were mostly Christian. The members of the janissaries were chosen through the process of the devshirme, or "boy tax." The devshirme occurred every seven years, and it was when the Ottoman Empire would come to a village priest and ask him for the names of all the boys in town between the ages of seven and seventeen. These boys could not be taken if they were the only son, or if their mother was a widow. These young boys would be traine for another seven years before they joined a troop. Janissaries could retire at the age of forty five and only then could they get married. When a janissary died, the wealth that he accumulated would go back to the Sultan. Every boy who became a janissary was converted to Islam, but if you were born a Muslim, you could not become a janissary.

There are many connections between what we are covering in class and what I have read so far in The Red Apple, by Jonathan Levitan. The book is about a young boy who is taken from his mother to become a janissary. The interesting thing about the book though is that even though the boy, Ibrahim, is the only son of a widowed woman, the Ottomans still take him to become a janissary even though that is not allowed. The novel gives a very detailed description about the life of a janissary and the hardships they face. There were two scenes that I found difficult to read in the pages that I have read so far. They were the scene when Ibrahim had to say goodbye to his mother and when he was circumcised. Although these scenes were difficult to get through, it made the novel seem more realistic, and it really put into perspective what these young janissaries had to endure.

As we continue learning in this class, I expect to make more connections between my class notes and The Red Apple.

Movie: Peace, Propaganda, and the Promised Land

This class is an important class to take not only as a history major, but as a person living in the United States in 2010. The conflict between Israel and Palestine has been going on for a number of years and is still a huge problem in the Middle East today. The conflict is constantly being written about in newspapers and spoken about during the news on T.V. However, after watching the film Peace, Propaganda, and the Promised Land, I learned that a huge amount of this information is poorly represented in media not only in the United States but in other parts of the world was well. A strange coincidence is that after finishing this movie on Thursday, I went to my communications class where my professor told us about how untrue most of the things we see and hear in the news are. This film was a good place to begin this class because it helped me realize how important the conflict in the Middle East is.

The film reflected how biased American reporters are in relaying news to the public. We mainly hear about Israel's side of the story; the media rarely mentions anything regarding Palestine's side of the story. This fact alone made it had to watch the film knowing that Americans are only being fed information that the media wants to give us. While watching the film, I realized how ignorant I am about what is occuring in the Middle East as we speak. What made the film even harder to watch was seeing the amount of violence going on to people my age, older, and younger.

One of the points of the documentary that particularly stood out in my mind was when I learned that in an attempt to bring about peace, a group of Israeli AND Palestinian women marched together, and it didn't even make the media. This probably didn't make the media because the United States wants to consistently make it seem as though there are no attemots being done to bring about peace in the Middle East. It was moments like this in the documentary that I realized that you can't believe everything you read or see in the media. Once you hear something in the media regarding topics related to the Mid East especially, you should check a form of media in another country to see if the facts match up.

My First Post

Hi everybody! My name is Carly Dantschisch, and I am a sophomore at Manhattanville. I am a history major with a concentration in social studies, and I am minoring in Irish Studies. I would love to become a high school history teacher and coach the high school's gymnastics team. I am in the middle of applying to study abroad in Ireland for Spring 2011, and I could not be more excitied. This is my blog for the class entitled History of the Modern Middle East and North Africa.