Question:
Salaam alaykum. I will be studying Othello soon, could you provide any reliable links on Ottoman History, so that i may be well equipped in defense of the Empire. Sorry if this is a weird question..
Jazakallah Kheir!
Answer:
Wa `alaykum as-Salam wa rahmatullah.
First of all, in studying Shakespeare – and it is obviously worthwhile to do so – it is essential to consult the original work of Dr. Martin Lings (Abu Bakr Siraj Ad-Din – may the Mercy Of Allah be upon him). A recent edition of this book that has been published under various titles includes a forward by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. Concerning Othello, Lings reminds the reader that “if human perfection is the ideal of being a priest-king, and if the theme of Hamlet is…the Prince’s fulfillment in himself of the royal aspect of that ideal, the theme of Othello is concerned with its other aspect, that is, with the Moor’s addition of priestly wisdom to the royalty that his nature already possesses.”
Leaving aside the correspondence between Hamlet and the Islamic legend of Kay Khusrau, Shakespeare’s choice of a Moor to embody this natural royalty is certainly worthy of note. The title “priest-king” signifies the union of the sacerdotal and royal dimensions in a principle of authority that should be understood as belonging naturally to Islam but not to Christianity. The historical Jesus, peace be upon him, did not affirm his royal authority; he rode the donkey, and not the horse. It is only with his return that he will complete his providential role with royal power.
Of course, the greatness of Ottoman imperial authority during Shakespeare’s day could not be ignored, and the possibility of an Englishman “turning Turk” not unthinkable. Still, the Elizabethan political vision was also great, and it was no doubt the survival of this vision that on the one hand could extend the reach of the British Empire over so much of the surface of the Earth, but on the other could be used to fuel the hell-fire of World War I. In any case, just as political rivalry naturally set Britain apart from the Ottoman Empire, so did such rivalry thwart an objective evaluation of Ottoman civilization in English. Similarly, even though recent studies of Ottoman history strive for objectivity, certain biases of the modern mentality work against a proper understanding of the Ottomans.
In terms of Shakespeare’s theme of human perfection, it must be acknowledged that the Ottoman Imperial education was designed to attain precisely this goal. Some scholars have recognized the Palace School in Constantinople as a renovation of the Platonic Academy; if so, it should be recalled that for Plato, the ideal of education was to produce philosopher-kings for the good of all. In the Palace School or Enderun, students from diverse ethnic backgrounds were brought together to become Ottoman through education in the religious sciences, worldly sciences, history and law, vocational studies including music, and martial training. Through such an education in the spiritual and royal, it was possible to become a Hezarfen, or man with multiple talents, a title corresponding to l’uomo Universale or “universal man.” Perhaps the best way to approach Ottoman civilization is to study the great works of such universal men, who embodied the Empire until its ruination.
Returning to the significance of Othello, Lings rightly points out that the character of Iago who hates Othello, and who deceives the Moor into seeing the truth as falsehood and falsehood as truth, is perhaps Shakespeare’s best representative of “anti-traditional rationalistic humanism,” that is, the humanism of the Renaissance. It is therefore relevant to consider how the modern notion of a “Renaissance Man” mocks the spiritual and royal reality of the Ottoman “universal man.” Moreover, was it not more than anything else the deception of anti-traditional ideologies, and not the armies of World War I, that was instrumental in bringing down the Ottomans?
Nevertheless, the truth of the Ottoman ideal has not been destroyed, even if the Enderun is empty of students. For example, it is not only that the Jedi Knights of Star Wars are a reformulation of “priest-kings;” the method by which they are brought together and educated is patterned above all on the Ottoman system. Given all the correspondences uniting the Jedi to Ottoman spirituality, the recent comments by the actor Liam Neeson relating to his stay in Istanbul – the city formerly known as Islambul – are not irrelevant, especially with the timely re-release of Star Wars Episode I.
Mahmoud Shelton
