Kurulus: Osman-- “Cowards die every day, but a brave man dies once.”
Season 1 Wrap
After the conclusion of the Dirilis Ertugrul, which I wrote about here (paid subscribers only), but which I initially began writing about here (free for everyone), I was not going to write anything else until Osman came to Netflix. The entire behemoth 5 seasons of Ertugrul remains on Netflix, and Osman has not dropped there yet, but then again, Season 2 is still underway. I nevertheless decided to track him down like Mongol warrior, and have been streaming season 1.
Each original episode of both series is essentially a full length feature movie—roughly 30+ episodes a piece at 2+ hours per episode. It’s an ambitious project, and as I noted on FB, Osman has become wildly popular (as was Ertugrul). This series has tapped into something in the world of Islam and it is not your normie Muslim politics that we have become accustomed to over the last few decades. There is a manly, but mindful, attempt to reclaim something noble in the Muslim Faith. It’s ambitious and it is receiving a lot of attention from the public, especially in Turkey, Pakistan, Germany, and India.
On the most general level, human beings of all faiths realize there is something missing and hollow in this globalist world we live. This series appeals, then, to everyone, or should.
The brilliance of the series is in its political message, which, is more than about the reassertion of Turkey. It is a reclaiming and reforming (a renaissance) of Islam in total. There will be a lot of conflict over this endeavor on the part of Erdogan who has planted his flag where the real heart of Islam resides. But that assessment is not the purpose of this post.
I have written elsewhere that Erdogan and Bozag (creator of series) are genius. You cannot find anywhere a more manly defense of the noble pursuits of a people, and a devastating critique of globalism, as you can in the series. It’s impressive. Season 1 picks up 10 years after Ertugrul and the Kayi camp is in great disarray. Brother of Ertugrul and even his own son, Gunduz, are not men fit for job. We suffer from the King’s idiot sons, so the saying goes.
In Episode 18, Osman goes to the secret council of the gray beards (these would be the pious, the religious non-warriors of the Muslim faith). Osman and the chosen head of such group (Efendi, or teacher, or man of authority) had this exchange:
Efendi: Selamun Aleykum. May Allah's blessings be on you, Osman. Let's sit. Geyhatu is mad in his palace after the Princess' abduction. The Byzantine Emperor went insane, as he was waiting for the Mongols. We ruined their game. Thank you.
Osman: Thank you my Efendi. Balgay [this is renegade Mongol General] came to me, he wanted to abduct the [Byzantine] Princess.
Efendi: He wants to get his reputation back. We have to protect our soul and reputation even if we lose everything.
Osman: How do we lose our reputation?
Efendi: Human kind always struggles to protect its reputation. But they lose their reputation for Allah by being ungrateful. We stand tall despite everything, as our Rabb's [Lord, sustainer] mercy is greater than His fury. But there is nothing more dangerous than a state losing its reputation, son.
Osman: How does a state lose its reputation?
Efendi: If the folk's morals get corrupted, The state starts losing its reputation.
Osman: How do we understand the corrupted morals?
Efendi: If scholars lost their honour......if there is injustice in measuring......if families are ruined and if children don't respect their parents......if there is no love between wives and husbands, if divorces are increasing......if there is no demand for information......if wisdom is forgotten......if believers don't live like they believe......it means the state is losing it's reputation.
Osman: What should the leader of the folk do then?
Efendi: Leaders are the mirrors of the folks. The folk see themsleves in their leader. Leaders must be the morals. Everyone must see the leader as their guide. They must live like him and they try to live like him. Our Prophet (ASV) of Mercy. ...turned stone-hearted people! into merciful people. He (ASV) took the water of mercy from the desert.
Aristotle wisely wrote that the political regime is only as good as the kind of people you have. Ertugrul/Osman resurrect the Ancients here. The family is the key to an healthy regime. In the modern world we have neglected the foundation of a just and healthy life—the destruction of the family is the destruction of the political. The modern world has lurched headlong into a vile corruption and destruction of humanity. Erdogan’s message is clear: be real men and women, and be faithful to each other. Love each other more, and less yourselves. Love, the glue of the foundation of a just society, begins not in the material world, but in the abiding understanding of Allah.
Does the success of a country depend on one man? The answer seems to be yes with the added caveat of good followers who are dedicated to a noble cause. But more, what kind of man? Osman is impetuous and not as polished as Ertugrul was at his age. Osman has much to learn. But it is his reliance on Allah, and his desire to begin learning how to think more than just fight—qualities Osman’s father had—that propel him into the limelight, and this invites trouble.
Machiavelli speaks of strong men and their enemies. Osman points out that it is not the merely the strong, but the strong, intelligent, and faithful (the just) who invite trouble from those who play in the Devil’s Den. The strong and wise political men cause jealousy and greed among the lesser talents who want power but do not have the skills or talent to hold that position by their own merit.
People who feel threatened by the smart, strong, and powerful seek to tear them down because they want the position that the (born) leader (statesman) is not really seeking—why not seeking? He has more audacious and grander goals. In this case, the grand goal is to create a state of the Turks, literally. Evil people worry about their particular selves and are narrowly focussed on being a big fish in a small pond; statesmen dream bigger, superseding them all.
Others (mostly fellow Turks) throw up their hands and collaborate with the apparent power of the moment. These are the weak, the evil within a tribe, and/or the unfaithful. Some are well intentioned but are just easily duped (these have no political sense). This was the case when Dundar literally turned over the tribe to the Mongols and sold out the Kayi tribe because the Mongols had overrun Anatolia. He even flew the Mongol flag over their tents. Traitor! He bent the knee Osman refused to bend, and then blamed Osman for being the troublemaker. The audacity of stupidity! Oh Dundar thought he had a plan to beat them all, but his sheer political incapabilities could not see he’d be dead by his own masters before he could enact his weak scheme. And herein the message: only do the cowardly accept the sliver of bread from tyrants’s table all the while becoming servile. On the other side were the Byzantines (more on them later). Moral lesson for the State? Fight or be made a slave.
Osman has qualities of a real man and the potential of a competent statesman—he has confidence, courage, faith, smarts to outthink the enemy, and the political understanding to not fall for the tricks and lies of the enemy. This last part is THE most difficult. Osman would never fall for the trap of say, others to allow the enemy to paint them in a corner. Better to trap their trap. This takes intelligence, and political wisdom to effect. Of course, none of his smarts would be worth a cent if there was not a resorting to the sword. Machiavelli certainly teaches that, but not only that. So, personal allies who were also warriors, but smart and could follow orders was necessary. Those dedicated to the Muslim Faith are key supportive players.
What is shocking in this series is how much the Turks look like craven fools who deceive. But this is on purpose to highlight Osman, who, is the one man able to persuade the fickle and less faithful Turks that his way is the only way to peace and the happy life. A common saying in the series is “Cowards die every day, but a brave man dies once.”
This is more than some Mansfieldian definition of manliness—confidence in the face of risk. That’s too shallow. Advantage Osman.
The people of Turkey today are being admonished here. Are they worthy of the cause? Are they faithful enough to redeem Islam? Erdogan is certainly asking his fellow citizens to ask themselves that question.
But let’s take a couple of instances how this series is par excellance the only thing you should be watching—the lessons, tales, and the outright assault Erdogan and Bozag are claiming on radical Islam is nothing short of remarkable. In the process, the series draws the potential faithful into a real abiding faith, which, befits our human nature albeit in an Islamic way.
Osman:
My Seyh.Edebali
You came to our store and made it a bazaar.
Then you became a shield infront of your death.
Now I'm asking you again, Osman Bey...
Your wish...
...or a breath?Osman:
I asked myself, would Seyh Edebali talk to me if...
I shed bloody tears...
...and cut my chest.Edebali
Did we talk to you?Osman
You didn't.
I asked myself, would Sheikh Edebali accept me if....
I was patient for illnesses like Eyyub...
...I prayed at the mountain of Tur...
...I shed bloody tears like Yahya.Edebali
Did we?Osman
You didn't.
I asked myself if Seyh Edebali would accept me if I...
...were a fish in the ocean like Yunus...
...I was in the well day and night like Yusuf...
...I cried with blood like Yakub for Yusuf.Edebali
Did we?Osman:
You didn't.
I am ashamed and embarassed, Sheikh Edebali.
I say that...
...my wish is your... breath...
...and one prayer of yours.Edebali
There are Anatolian Dervishes...
...people who burn in love and come to us.
There are Baciyans... who see serving us as a duty...
...but your only wish...
...your only aim...
...must be gaza (war) for Allah's way, son.
Our breath will be with you as you fight for gaza, son.Osman:
EyvAllah Seyh Edebali.Edebali
Your wish is to prevent the cruelty that is done on Oguz Turk's who are on Allah's way.
With this wish, may you be one of Gaziyans.
Beys can't ignore the world for love and Hakk.
You must lead Gaziyans.
My father told about you as "Oguz's light"
We won't let this light go off even if we have to die evelAllah.
Holy Allah tested Hz. Adem with a tree...
...and He is testing Adem's children...
...with patience and thanking, Osman Bey.
Because, everyting that happens to one on hikmah's world...
...has a secret reason.Osman:
With patience and thanking..
...we get done...
...under your holy shadow.
EyvAllah.
As I will address below, this reminds one of Farabi. What Edebali wants Osman to be is the one who practices virtue because he is virtuous, not because he has to, or because he is compelled to. He wants Osman to accept all trials that come with the virtuous life.1
The State must have men who are humble; who admit mistake. In this case Osman, who is quite humanely in love hook line and sinker to Edebali’s daughter, must forget his love to have his love. He must be right in heart for God before he can be matched to her, and the same goes for her. This part, the eventual marriage of Osman to Edebali’s daughter is, in fact, an historical fact. But, Osman’s lesson is the lesson of manhood—to hell with your sat-cloth and ashes, are you thinking and behaving like a man created by God? Focus less on injustices and self-attention, and more on the sacrifice that this life requires of us to reach a sort of divine understanding (a salvation of our souls). Ediballi’s teaching is for Osman to go through the mistake, so that he, as the leader of a state does not corrupt the entire state (that is everyone and people around him). For, unlike a citizen, when a ruler is corrupt in morals, everything falls.2
The series continues the stitching together—the cementing—between religion and state. The two cannot coexist without the other. The ones who separate them fall into disrepute. Anti-American Founding? Most def for the most part. Is there a small point to be made at which religion and morality are needed for any people to live and live well as Washington would say? Mos. def x 2. But, Turkey wants there to be no separation. This is partly because Turkey wants to make all other muslim challengers submit. It’s a grand ambition.
But this series is not merely about melding the Faith and Politics, there’s more afoot here, as this brief passage in episode 5 reveals from a Byzantine monk, who is not all that faithful and an open believer in astrology over το βιβλιον. The scene opens with him reading something from Al-Farabi:
Yannis: Farabi...
If scholars like you and warriors like Osman...
...belonged to my religion, God's kingdom would rule the world.
Politics, religion, and the sword have to go together for a nation to be, well, a functioning healthy nation! Yannis is a vile character, but his invocation of Farabi does not seem to be a disparagement. It is a promotion of the uprightness of Islamic political philosophy that even the corrupt west ought to see.
Yannis is in open rebellion with the emperor—located in the Hagia Sophia. He’s a renegade. He’s lawless. He is actually an unfaithful believer who is no Christian. He is an odd person to recognize the wisdom of the Muslim Philosophers, of which Farabi is perhaps the greatest. He eventually meets his death at the hands of the emperor—fact? I cannot find it nor any mention of him in the historical works.
Nevertheless, the instruction here, though brief, is highly important for the series. Farabi, as Charles Butterworth notes for us, was the first to explore the challenge presented by revealed religion to political philosophy. He was interested in how classical political thought could assist “human well-being by means of an inspired prophet legislator.”
Farabi wants to bring the Ancients and revealed religion together. It is far beyond this post to delve into that interdasting and yet thorny issue, but, is this what the Osman series is trying to briefly bring together? In the Ertugrul series, Ertugrul made a point more than once that his lands would be a zone of protection for scholars and the Faithful. Scholars is used in the broad sense to mean the religious teachers and the philosophers.
Whatever is the intent of this brief invocation of the Muslim philosopher, the entire series turns on a point made by Farabi: a well-ordered political regime is something the soul needs in order ot reach a point of perfection. Politics and religion somehow go together—that is, revealed religion and politics somehow go together.3
Recall the above conversation Osman had with the Efendi: the prophetic legislator finds in Allah the capacity to know what good government looks like, and seeks to establish it for the good of the people, and not simply their material well-being. This is AlFarabi’s teaching in a distinct way, if not somewhat differently.
The health of the soul, helps inform the health of the mind, and in that we find the encouragement of right action. All of this is encouraged (fostered?) by the right actions of the legislator/statesman. This is Al-Farabi in a nutshell, and, this is Ertugrul/Osman!
One final thought about Farabi—he states that the one who keeps and preserves the moral uprightness of a people is the statesman. Does this mean that someone like Caesar also did this? Ertugrul/Osman is full of disparagement for the Romans. Yet, putting that aside, does politics (justice) flow from the top down? We will leave that point here to dangle. It seems from the Ertugrul/Osman series the answer is in the affirmative and in agreement with the early aphorisms of Farabi. But, the series never forgets resorting to arms is sometimes necessary [aside: the gaza of this series is far different from the gaza of the modern radicals. It is more rational]. More on all that perhaps in another poast.
Remember the conversation Osman had with the Efendi: our scholars (higher ed) is a complete moral cesspool. They undid the morals of the people in America. There is a great wisdom in this series noting how the West has lost its soul and its purpose. We have turned our back on justice generally understood for greed, position, and tyranny. Osman says frequently, “freedom forever. Death to tyrants!” The quislings of despotism reside deeply in our institutions. Therefore, Erdogan is speaking not just to Turks here. He is trying to resurrect the entire honor of the revealed religions even if he does not realize he is doing so. The new world is being popularly built here and now with Ertugrul/Osman. This esoteric view of the series will perhaps deserve another post. But, for now, let’s consider that while this series is most blatantly propagandistic to Erdogan and Turkey, it raises points that are applicable to all countries, everywhere, who have an history within one of the 3 revealed religions.
We live in a massive void—what Winiarski wrote considering Machiavelli as a “great reckoning,” which is upon us.4 The modern world—modern man—is bereft, grasping at something. Anything! We have a great hole in our soul. This evident reality is why we are in increasing numbers—especially our elites, the modern equivalent of what passes for legislator—is becoming enamored with cults. Thanks Boomers!
The religious teaching of the Ertugrul/Osman series is something every Faith of the 3 great revealed religions can understand: We must care less for ourselves, victimhood, and shed our greed, narcissism, and self-worth. We must become human again—men be men, women be feminine. A fine statement from the series by one courageous warrior Turk: “Men reveal themselves on the battlefield; women reveal themselves in the tent.” There’s much laden in that statement has nothing to do with what many reading this are probably thinking, especially from those who have not remembered or read the Bible on the differences between men and women—get your mind out of the gutter Boomer!
A pithy statement from Edeballi is “wounds encrust for the faithful, but those of the greedy bleed without ceasing.”
We are only as good as we live Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
Inshallah.
Farabi, Aphorism 14. Osman needs be more than self-restrained, he needs to embody the virtues and be glad for the fires that come to test him.
Farabi, Aphorism 15.
Butterworth makes this point quite nicely.
History of Political Philosophy, 1st Edition.