| QUOTE ("Halil Inalcik") |
EMPIRE AND POPULATION FORMATION OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE The Ottoman state came into existence around 1300 as a small frontier principality which devoted itself to the gaza, Holy War, on the frontiers of the Seljukid Sultanate in Asia Minor and of the Byzantine Empire. Its initial gazi frontier character influenced the state's historical existence for six centuries ... Organization of the conquests, the frontier versus the center During this period of expansion, the administrative set-up largely conformed to the military organization, clearly aiming for a centralized system. ... The frontier forces, led by uc-begis (uc = frontier) were the most active part of the Ottoman army. These uc-begis played a major part in the internal and external affairs of the empire during the period 1360-1453. These forces were organized under hereditary family leaders, with one uc-begi on the right wing in the direction of the Lower Danube and Wallachia, one on the left wing in the direction of Macedonia, and one in the center in the direction of Sofia and Belgrade. As the conquests proceeded, the frontier lines in these uc-begis' districts advanced further, from the Balkan range to the Danube, from Thrace to Macedonia and then to Albania and Bosnia, and from Philippopolis to Sofia and Ni§. ... Yet it was the frontier begs who played a crucial role in pushing the Ottoman borders forward during this same period. Under the pressure, many of the Balkan princes and lords readily accepted Ottoman ovcrlordship to spare themselves from the continual raiding of the frontiersmen. Once the lands had become tribute-paying territories, their non-Muslim inhabitants assumed the status of ahl al-zimma, i.e., protected subjects of the Muslim state in accordance with Islamic Law. The transformation from tributary status to total annexation and assimilation into the Ottoman system, that is, being registered as a sancak, varied in time with the particular circumstances of each territory. In general, however, the period of transition consisted of first tightening the bonds of vassalage by eliminating local dynasties and refractory elements, and then replacing all remnants of the pre-Ottoman administrative apparatus with the timar system, the basic building block of Ottoman provincial administration. Inalcik, Halil. An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire. (Cambridge University Press, 1997) pp. 11, 13-14. |
| QUOTE ("Huntington and Robert Spencer") |
... "Samuel Huntington observes in "The Clash of Civilizations, "Wherever one looks along the perimeter of Islam, Muslims have problems living peacefully with their neighbors... Muslims make up one-fifth of the world's population but in the 1990s they have been far more involved in intergroup violence than people of any other civilization." Huntington goes on to show that more than half of the "ethnopolitical" conflicts of the world involved Muslims and there were "three times as many intercivilizational conflicts involving Muslims as there were conflicts between all non-Muslim civilizations. The conflicts within Islam also were more numerous than those in any other civilization.. Conflicts involving Muslims also tended to be heavy in casualties... Three different compilations of data... yield the same conclusion: in the early 1990s Muslims were engaged in more intergroup violence than were non-Muslims, and two-thirds to three-quarters of intercivilization wars were between Muslims and non-Muslims. Islam's borders are bloody, and so are its innards."" [46] Source Spencer, Robert. Onward Muslim Soldiers: How Jihad Still Threatens America and the West, (Regency Publishing: Washington, D.C; 2003) 183. [46] Samuel P. Hunington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order, (New York: Touchstone, 1997), 256-8. |
| QUOTE (Ανδρέα Αθανασίου) |
Ανάμεσα στη "χώρα των πιστών" και στο "χώρο των απίστων" το κοράνι τοποθετεί "το χώρο του πολέμου": το dar el harb. Η Κύπρος, το Αιγαίο και η Δ. Θράκη αντιμετωπίζονται, σήμερα, από την Τουρκία ως περιοχές διεκδικήσεων και μέτωπο σχεδιαζόμενου πολέμου. Συγκροτούν ένα εύφλεκτο dar el harb Αθανασίου, Ανδρέα. Dar el harb Κύπρος - Αιγαίο - Θράκη (ΕΠΙΦΑΝΙΟΥ; 1995) σελ. 1. |