As I've been producing more and more content, it's been necessary for me to research parts of history that I might not have been so well-versed in. And at times, this research might take me off into tangents towards topics that capture my attention and imagination, but are far away from my targeted subject matter. And in thinking about these various journeys I have taken over the years of repetitious readings and discovery, I have realized one major observation. I'm completely oblivious to the history of Arabs from the beginnings of the 16th century till the end of the 18th century. I mean, don't get me wrong, some political and scholarly leaders of this era, I do know. Bahar al-Amer, Fakhreddin, the Second, Rahmab Najab al-Jalahmah, and Muhammad bin Soud al-Migran, as well as Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab. But who did I know beyond this? Did that mean a school information amount to what we refer to as a history? Was that it? Did no other Arab leave their imprints on these three centuries for me? Whether you're Arab, Muslim, or neither, ask yourself the same question. Can you off the top of your head, name many who are outside of Arab leadership or religious scholarship from this era? So if I slightly change this question to become, can you off the top of your head, name a Western someone from the 16th to the 18th century? How many would you be able to name? I'd bet that you'd be able to name a much larger number of famous personalities from either Europe or the United States. This was a rhetorical question, by the way, so let's not digress. I mentioned the gap in history as being from the beginning of the 16th century and to the end of the 18th century, suggesting that this era was at the front end, bordered by the fall of the golden age of Islam, and concluded with the age of al-Nahva in the Arab world in the mid-19th century. But to actually identify accurately the gap of historical accounts we're discussing, we need to clarify a little bit what makes up this history. It breaks down into the events, societies, politics, personalities, the arts, the architecture, literature, discovery, and innovation, and any other advancements that have taken place during a specific period of a gone by time. And that is where this analysis starts to reveal how little we have of these elements available to us when we look back upon this time in Arab history. I intentionally list Arab and not Muslim as a distinction, because after the collapse of the golden age of Islam, there were other Muslim civilizations and empires that carried on with their own individual progress and with a fuller and more memorable record of history, such as the Safavids in Persia, the Mughals and the Indian subcontinent, and of course the Ottoman Empire. And that's where many actually believe that this era of Arab history resides, aggregated into the Ottoman history books as part of its own. Wiping out any significant happenings that involved or recognized as individually Arab, thereby negating any memory Arabs associate to them. This one would conclude as an obvious byproduct of the Ottoman Empire expansions into what were previously Muslim lands for North Africa, the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula, resulted in Ottoman sovereignty that was gradually imposed, routinized, legitimized, and as a consequence assimilated by the majority of Arabs. And as time progressed, the Ottoms evolved to become more suppressive of the Arab identity and thereafter introduced Ottoman feudalism across the Arab nations and then followed by a pan-Arab strategy of Turkification. One, though, can't ignore the impact the Ottomans had on the Arab world. But beyond such an impact, did the Arab world really enter into a period of overwhelming stagnation, when nothing significant took place? This question is exactly the problem. This question follows the thought process that Arabs and Ottomans were different and not an interdependent and integrated peoples. Yes, in their origins and ethnically speaking, Ottomans were Turks, for sure. But the Ottoman Empire was also shaped greatly by Arabs as was the Arab world by Ottomans. And when we look back at some of the works being produced during those three centuries, beat historical records, treatises, poetry and other literature or discoveries during the Ottoman Age, these were produced by Arabs. And in their own language, yet were still adopted as part of the grander Ottoman civilization. And some great examples of these Arab personalities who produced extremely valuable historic, cultural or advancements during the rule of the Ottomans from the 16th century to the 19th century are... The polymath Ibn-Aruf was born in Damascus and was an author of almost 100 books on astronomy, engineering, mathematics, mechanics and optics. Due to his excellence in the sciences, the Ottoman Sultan Murad III invited Ibn-Aruf to build a conservatory in Istanbul in 1547. His notebooks also include his vision for the creation of a steam turbine. Al-Aimali was a Levantine who was an architect, philosopher, astronomer and mathematician. He was one of the earliest astronomers to suggest the possibility of the Earth's movement prior to the spread of the Copernican theory. His most famous contributions are the architectural and urban designs for Isfahans Imam Square, Imam Mosque and Hisarnajef. Arrodani was a Moroccan polymath who excelled at astronomy, grammar, logic and mathematics. His invention, the polysphoric astrolabe, a spherical device into which another sphere, with a different axis, was placed. The second sphere was divided into two parts in which the zodiacal signs, with their sections and regions, were drawn. Al-Baghdadi was a philologist, grammarian, magistrate, bibliophar and a leading literary encyclopediaist. His library's literary collection was considered the most important of the Ottoman era and included many works of translation, mostly of the pre-Islamic writers and poets. He was also known for being the best scholar and preserver of the literary canon of the Arabs. Born in Damascus, Annabuzzi was a poet and author on works about sufism, ethnography and agriculture. With over 200 literary works, his most famous were his writings on the poetry of Ibn Arabi, the Andalusian scholar and mystic. Annabuzzi also had very strong modernistic views on religious tolerance towards other faiths. The Karabla-Born Al-Hahiri was a jurist, teacher, poet and author and was considered one of the literary leaders of the 18th century. Nassala was distinguished in his poetry, writing about all different things including eulogies, condolences, friendships, razal, satire and authoritative criticism. Al-Borini, and not to be confused with al-Biruni, was a poet, jurist and historian. One of his main bodies of work was Tarajim al-Ayyan, which is a collection of 205 biographies of notable contemporary scholars, rulers and artisans of the Arab world. Original copies of Al-Borini's poetry are still found in museums in Istanbul, London and Gotha, Germany. Al-Makari was an Algerian scholar and historian, known most for his historical encyclopedia, Nefhat-Lib. The scholarly work would document the history, events and life of the Al-Andalus, the Muslim civilization in Iberian Spain. This work would up until the 20th century serve as the reference for all research into that Muslim era. Al-Jabariti was a Somali Egyptian scholar and historian. Much of his work involves eyewitness accounts of the French invasion of Egypt by Napoleon Barrappart, but the marvelous compositions of biographies and events is by far Al-Jabariti's most famous work, as well as his longest. This work covers the history of Egypt from 1688 to 1821. This is but a small sampling of the impactful personas that were an integral part of the history of the Ottoman Empire. To list the many more candidates for this short list, would take hours and hours. They were all Arabs. They spoke, wrote and recorded in their mother tongues. Maybe history doesn't individually regard them so highly, because their achievements were in the name of a much larger and dominating Turkish First Ottoman Empire. Another possible reason for their reduced recognition could be the fact that history purposefully forgot about them and all their achievements. With the Arab world caught up in their own version of the Age of Enlightenment, they might have wanted to distance themselves from the events, works or achievements realized under Ottoman patronage. The premise that Arabs and their records in history were lost for over 300 years is a falsity. It is part of a narrative that attempts to divide and distance Arabs from the role and relevance within the Ottoman Empire. To break free from an imperialist structure that was controlling and overwhelming the Arab nation over that time. Well, this way of thinking might have been one mindset. But another version was told by the colonialization hungry orientalists when the supposed illiterate and backward Arabs entered the early modern Age of the 19th century and towards the Anahe. But in reality, before the Age of Enlightenment in the mid 19th century, Arab history was always and genuinely a part of an Islamic empire, which happened to be Ottoman. Like it or not, without this conclusion, the history of Arabs from the 16th century to the 19th century would be a black hole of nothingness. Virtually non-existent, therefore confirming the orientalist message that Arabs regressed in their ways after their golden age and only the West could save them from such a state of stagnation. I don't believe it. Therefore, wouldn't it be better for Arabs to have lived and be remembered as Ottoman than to have not? I will leave the answer to that question for you. Thank you. Thank you for watching. It would be absolutely amazing if you joined the Kandidi Chronicles. Helping us grow through subscribing will definitely lead to major improvements on both the qualitative and quantitative front. We'd appreciate it greatly if you click the like button as well as the notification icon so you don't miss any of our upcoming releases. I'm very grateful for your time and your patience. Bye-bye.