True Left

Ottoman clothing - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Interactions between Ottomans and Britons occurred throughout history, but in the 18th century, European visitors and residents in the Ottoman Empire markedly increased, and exploded in the 19th century.[1] As such, fashion is one method to gauge the increased interactions. Historically, Europeans clothing was more delineated between male and female dress. Hose and trousers were reserved for men, and skirts were for women.[2] Conversely, in the Ottoman Empire, the male and female dress was more similar. A common item worn by both was the şalvar, a voluminous undergarment in white fabric shaped like what is today called "harem pants".[3] To British women traveling in the Ottoman Empire, the şalvar quickly became a symbol of freedom because they observed that Ottoman women had more rights than British women did. Lady Mary Wortley Montague (1689–1762), whose husband was the British Ambassador to Constantinople, noted in her travels in her "Embassy Letters" that Ottoman women "possessed legal property rights and protections that far surpassed the rights of Western women".[4] These female travelers often gained an intimate view of Ottoman culture, since as women, they had easier access to the Muslim Elite harems than did men.[5] Şalvar successfully spread into Europe at the end of the 19th century as various female suffragists and feminists used şalvar as a symbol of emancipation. Other British women of distinction, such as Lady (Janey) Archibald Campbell (1845–1923), and Lady Ottoline (Violet Anne) Morrell (1873–1938) wore şalvar "in an attempt to symbolize their refusal of traditional British standards and sexual differences".[6] Şalvar also spread beyond Europe when Amelia Jenks Bloomer modified these "Turkish trousers" to create American "bloomers".[7]

Although Arabs first brought jihad to Europe, it was the Turks who did the most damage to Christendom. The struggle began after decades of Turkish settlement in Persia, the Middle East, and the Caucasus. Under the Seljuk beys [Turkish rulers], Turks established powerful states in eastern Asia Minor (today’s Turkey). This was a threat to the West, for Asia Minor was the ancient homeland of Greeks, Armenians, and Kurds, all of whom are Indo-Europeans. Western Asia Minor was ruled by the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, which was the direct descendant of the Roman Empire that spread Christianity throughout Europe, North Africa, and the eastern Mediterranean.

...

Less than a hundred years after the fall of Constantinople, Ottoman armies threatened Central Europe. They controlled the old Eastern Roman lands of Greece, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, while parts of Romania, Moldova, and Hungary were vassals of the sultan. British historian Roger Crowley notes that by the 16th century, for Christian Europe, the Ottoman Empire was the “cruelest enemy of Christ’s name” [4]. For the Catholic Church and all Catholic monarchs, the fight against the Ottomans was a fight for survival [5]. Islam demanded that the Ottomans fight against Christendom, and sultans legitimized their power through conquest.

As Crowley explains, the Ottoman decision to build a navy to control the Mediterranean led to much horror for Europeans. Ottoman pirates from North Africa began raiding Southern Europe by the early 16th century. The most famous of these pirates was Hayreddin Barbarossa, a corsair of mixed Albanian Muslim and Greek Orthodox background. (A tragedy of the Ottoman war on Europe was that many Ottoman soldiers, sailors, generals, and admirals were Europeans by blood or birth, and the majority of the sultans had European or Christian slaves for mothers.) Barbarossa turned Algiers into an open-air slave market for whites. During one raid in southern France, Barbarossa’s pirates captured 632 Christians and beheaded all priests and civic leaders [6].

In 1571, the Ottomans invaded Cyprus, which was then controlled by the Republic of Venice. After a prolonged siege, on August 17, 1571, the captured Venetian general Marc’Antonio Bragadin was asked if he would like to convert to Islam and thus be spared death. He refused. He was tied to an ancient column and skinned alive [7]. There were similar raids and massacres until the early 19th century. Over one million European men and women were taken as slaves by the Ottoman Turks and their Muslim allies in North Africa and Crimea. Slavery badly depopulated parts of Southern Europe for centuries.

The Battle That Saved Christendom - American Renaissance

Lepanto and the defeat of the Ottoman Turks.

American Renaissance · amren.com