Lauren Booth – Birth of Ottoman Empire I Visit Bursa
AI: Summary ©
The conversation discusses the conquest of the Ottoman Empire and the loss of the first six Ottoman Ottoman married wife. The city and culture importance of the Ottomans and the Herds' use of various tools and houses, including a river and bridge, is also discussed. A woman wants to sell her house to the collar where she found a sermon. The mosque is the largest and most famous mosque in Islam, and people are encouraged to visit the birthplace to see the culture.
AI: Summary ©
The feeling is really immense.
You could be healed and cleansed.
I'm going to introduce you today to treasures
in this incredible city that was the heart,
the beating heart and the beginning of the
Ottoman state.
It was an easy enough drive from Istanbul
where we live, just two hours.
It was raining, which is a real blessing
because it's been super hot.
Our first stop would be Zindin Cappi or
the dungeon gate.
Wow, who's this guy?
For more than two centuries, a dark and
sinister secret was buried beneath the walls of
this castle.
I thought we were going up, it appears
we're going down.
Archaeologists who were excavating the 2,300-year
-old remains found torture chambers and even a
well covered in what appeared to be blood.
But I'm here to explore how power changed
hands.
Spring 1326, Osman Gazi lay terminally ill.
His son Orhan was once again besieging the
Byzantines and then news came to the dying
leader of the Kayi tribe.
The Ottomans had succeeded in taking Prusa.
According to local historians, he died soon after.
The governor sent 40,000 gold pieces and
expensive clothing to Orhan Gazi as a gift
of submission and after Orhan conferred with his
father Osman, he took the offer and this
became the heart of the Ottoman Empire.
But there was no murder and no killing
and the governor, his family and their entourage
were given safe passage when they went to
Istanbul.
So that's the birth of the state right
here, subhanallah, the exchange of power.
But I wonder what it was like for
the people and what is left for us
today.
Actually, almost everything.
It's beautifully preserved and this castle is just
an example of how well the Turks are
doing in restoring and maintaining their history.
But you know what?
I really want to see the markets and
I want to go get some food.
Okay, two hours from Istanbul, not bad.
But before we start anything we have to
take part in the Turkish tradition of a
really nice breakfast with a great view.
A visit to the Panorama 1326 museum is
a must.
This depicts the conquest day in 360 degree
circular cycle.
So let's be honest, our point of entry
for most of us is the Ertugrul series.
So what I'm going to do is try
and spot as many areas Ottoman style life
as I can.
Let's have a look.
That's Orhan, okay.
And there's his courtiers and there's the people,
some of them Christians coming to give him
bay out, right?
Can you see the marids under the tree?
Yeah, the soupies under the tree having their
simple picnic and their gathering.
Women are our own community.
We look after each other.
So here we have symbolized the women doing
their daily work, but together, not alone, not
this hyper individualism.
So often we're as Muslim women, we're written
out of the script, especially by Western sources.
And this just isn't the case.
If you look at early Ottoman life, we
were the backbone of society and they sold
their goods.
Sorry, go ahead.
Women are still the backbone of society.
Don't ever forget it.
In the exhibition hall, the conquest of Bursa
and important traces and spiritual personalities left by
the first six Ottoman sultans who were all
buried in Bursa are examined.
It is the largest fully panoramic museum in
the world.
The first Akca or Ottoman coin was minted
in silver during the reign of Orhan Gazi.
The coins were inscribed with the name Orhan
on one side and the word Tauhid on
the other, denoting the oneness of God.
You can mint a coin the old-fashioned
way at the museum.
Be warned, the hammer they use is seriously
heavy.
So this is a Gandhi bridge and this
is one of only four markets that are
on a bridge in the world.
One of the others being in Venice and
another one in Florence.
I forget where the fourth one is.
It was built in 1444 and it's more
evidence of the real importance of Bursa as
an economic area of the age.
In 1640, Evliya Celebi came here and he
said there were over 200 small shops on
this bridge.
It really reminds me of Mostar and that's
not surprising because the link is the Ottomans.
This is Ulu Cami and it's been the
heart of Bursa for almost 700 years.
It is considered the fifth most important mosque
in Islam.
I bet you didn't know that.
Hang on a second, let's name them.
Okay, so we've got Mecca, we've got Medina,
we've got Al-Aqsa, Mashallah, we've got Damascus
and then you've got right here, Ulu Cami.
Now, I was trying to find out why
that is and here's the reason that's given.
Because it was built, commissioned by Bayezid I,
the sultan at the time, to commemorate one
of the biggest victories that Islam had had
against the Byzantines in Nicopolis.
SubhanAllah, it really is something very, very special.
There are 192 calligraphy plates and pieces of
art across the walls all by different calligraphers.
Bursa is called the city of saints.
It was an esteemed mystic of the period
who read the first sermon at the opening
of Ulu Cami.
According to reports, SubhanAllah baked loaves in the
bread oven he had built.
He distributed bread in the city streets with
the cry of loaves, believers, loaves.
As with all great buildings, a lot of
legends grow up around them and this one,
this beautiful mosque, is no different.
This beautiful fountain, you don't often see them
right in the heart of mosques.
It's so rare.
Legend has it that an old lady refused
to sell her house to the sultan to
build this mosque until one night she had
a very intense and inspired dream and the
next day she insisted on selling her little
house to the sultan.
The architects who built Ulu Cami built this
fountain in memory of her sacrifice and today
people still make their prayers here.
So these guards here, they're
not paid actors to be here watching over
the tomb for the amusement of the tourists.
These are actually local gendarmerie and they are
here to honour this tomb and to protect
this great man.
Osman Gazi is the first Osman Khan.
The Ottoman name comes from him, subhanAllah.
He died either just before or just after
the siege of Bursa and he asked his
son Orhan Bey to be buried in this
what was once a Christian church because the
lead of the roof shone in the sunlight
and still does and it could have been
seen by their troops over the time that
they were besieging Bursa, subhanAllah, and this is
where Allah allows him to spend the rest
of the time until Judgment Day, subhanAllah.
In today's polarised world it seems that it's
impossible to be both fair and just and
strong and powerful or a person of faith
yet a swordsman but that's exactly who Osman
Gazi was.
An excellent swordsman, excellent horseman, fair and just.
He used to feed all the people of
his extensive household with great food every day
around midday.
He was known for giving, taking clothes off
his back and giving them to the poor.
I'm going inside now to pay my respects
and what we do is we pray al
-fatihah for the deceased.
Osman, translated Uthman, translated Ottoman.
SubhanAllah, what a legacy.
So I've just come out of the tomb
of Orhan Gazi and his wife Nilufar, many
of their children, grandchildren and the feeling is
really immense because it was Orhan who started
to build the Quliyyah system based on the
Prophet's version of a mosque which was that
it was a home to people, which was
that everybody was fed, which was that you
could be healed and cleansed and I just
wonder and ask Allah to bring us great
leaders who care about the people rather than
themselves and that we're deserving of great Islamic
leaders inshallah and that's something to pray for
as well as praying for Orhan Gazi, Rahimullah
and his family.
SubhanAllah, may Allah give us great leaders again.
I hope you get to visit this birthplace
of the last caliphate of Islam.
Three days in this region is a must
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Asalaamu Alaikum.