Adnan Rashid – From Ottoman Turkey to Georgian Kenwood House

			Salam Alaikum everyone, I have just come back from Turkey. It was an amazing history tour of Ottoman
Monuments and Sites. And I was completely blown away by some of the things I discovered. I mean,
Turkey can always surprise you, the Ottoman history is absolutely amazing. You can always learn new
things, and it refresh my memory Alhamdulillah today, I have decided to come to a very special place
in London, very close to my heart, I always like to chill as they say, in this place. If I want to
read a book, if I want to do thinking if I if poetry is pouring out, then this is the place that
would like you to come and visit to. Okay, this is where I come to relax. This is a very beautiful
		

			place in the middle of London like right at the heart of London. And it has a place called the
Kenwood House. It is a historic house from the 18th century initially built in the 17th century, but
later on, developed to this level of this magnitude in the 18th century by a man called Lord Chief
Justice. William man's really Mansfield. This house has another very special feature to it. And not
many people know about it. This house is where Elizabeth Dido Belle Okay, for Dido Elizabeth Belle
lived. Who was she? This was a mixed race black woman who was born in the West Indies in 1761. And
her father was an English naval officer called John Lindsay. And when he had fathered her with a
		

			Jamaican slave, she was born into slavery in the West Indies, and later on her father found her in
poverty. So he decided to take her to Britain. He brought her hair he left her hair with one of his
uncle's, who was Lord, Chief Justice Lord William Mansfield, a very famous man in the 18th century.
In fact, one of his judgments was used later on by the abolitionists who abolished slavery to argue
their case. So this place is a very beautiful place. Dido Elizabeth Belle was a beautiful woman. She
was painted by an English painter, I forgot his name. But in this painting, you can see she's
standing behind one of her cousins,
		

			Lady
		

			Elizabeth. She was her second cousin, and related to her from her father's side. So both of them
they lived in this house and Dido Elizabeth belt lived here for nearly 30 years. And she was a rich
woman, of course, because her father was rich. He was from diverse democracy. So was the man who was
taken care of her Lord William Mansfield. They collected a lot of paintings in this house, this
house has a beautiful collection of paintings, and it has a beautiful landscape. This was specially
designed by a very famous architect in Britain, in the 18th century 1700s. And you can see the
landscape is absolutely amazing. It's absolutely beautiful. And the house is magnificent, right? So
		

			I invite everyone, I encourage everyone to come and visit this place is absolutely historic. And
even there was a movie made about Dido Elizabeth Bell. It was called Bell, okay. And the movie is
pretty much mostly fictional, fictional, not fictional, fictional, and very little is known about
her history. But this was a very interesting character, born into slavery.
		

			mixed race, half white, half black. He was brought here she lived in this very house for 30 years.
She died in 1804 of natural causes. Born in 1761, as I mentioned earlier, so check her out Dido
Elizabeth belt, check her out, Google her and you will find more information. Okay. I thought I will
share this thought with you as I am visiting this house. Thank you so much. Thank you