Kurulus Osman Season 3 Wrap
Ottoman Rising
The third season is a rollercoaster of events based on an historical fact—Osman’s conquering of Inegol. The dialogue/script is all surmised filler of how he got there. Needless, to say, there is a lot of fiction here.
I am not sure why, but in this season in particular there is a lot of rushing. This sense reminds me of the story that David Milch and the writers got so tired of the schedule on the set of Deadwood, they packed it in after 3 seasons. Bozdag is far more energetic, and willing to work for his pay—after several years of 2+ hour shows. He puts Milch’s stamina to shame. Still, one wonders if Bozdag and crew are running out of gas. Season 3, about ¾ of the way through, seemed jumps ahead a decade without warning, and the script….lacked in its nuances.
On to the season.
When a Byzantine Priest comes looking for a relic that Osman took from him after saving his life from fellow Christians who planned to kill him, the priest claims his alleged protector, “Rogatus is my friend, he is a true follower of Jesus Christ!” Rogatus is yet another effeminate Christian believer in the series who loves tailoring and sartorial pursuits more than manly ones. The priest had come of his own accord back to the Kayi tent in search of the missing holy relic that Osman took from him. Certain characters hold the key to certain parts of political fortune. In this instance, in the case of Osman and at this particular time, it was the priest. Osman replies to the priest’s indignation that Osman is essentially holding him hostage:
Osman: we have never used our weapons near you Preist. If I were you I would pray for this imprisonment to continue. Because your life is not safe anywhere.
This world is not the real one priest. It changes constantly.
It was true: the political elites around the priest could care less if he died/was murdered. They wanted the relic, not the priest who protected the relic. In today’s corporate programming, one would think that there are no conspiracies, even though, in fact, conspiracies are afoot every day. This is a fact of human life. The question is not if some are true, but how to prove them. Steve Bannon has the best take on all this—no conspiracies, but no coincidences. It is true, though, that some conspiracies turn out to be true. Others, not so much. Lately, when the corporate media in this country says this or that is a conspiracy theory being false, it really means the conspiracy is true and, sure enough, 6 months later we find out it was true. What is the difference between concpiracy theory and fact? 6 months. I have never seen a better demonstration that conspiracies exist than our media lying they are not, and then ignoring the “news” when we find out it really was true all along. Middle Ages figures were far wiser about politics because conspiracies were abound; they were not fools like our elites are in the west.
As is the case in all these Bozdag series’ there are many stories in a season that take a long while to unravel. The preeminent difficulty is having a mind that is as wise as the serpents. Anticipating what your enemy will do is important, and a matter of life or death. Frequently, there is a trap laid, and then a trap in a trap, but often there are three layers to these traps all hatched in order to kill the enemy. One must be aware of the trap, and then the trap inside the trap, while making one’s own trap, and a trap inside that trap, along with auxiliary devices as backup traps. Whew!
Back to the beginning of the season: once the Byzantine Christian betrays Osman because he cannot see he is a pawn and believes in the surface assurances of his so-called friends, he is killed (executed) by Osman himself. The priest attempted to blow up Sogut and the innocent merchants and citizens living there. He was blinded by his own ideological mind. Because he could not see that which was plainly true before him, and because he engaged in a great evil, he was executed. Hence, off with his head! Merciful men have no mercy for the unjust. It is one theme of Bozdag in his Ertugrul/Osman series: Mercy to the unjust is violence to the innocent. This series plays on this heavily—make no mistake we are merciful, but if you cross us it will not be the moderate reaction of a horse-head in your bed, it will be your head off your body.
Rogatus then becomes a greater enemy of Osman as a result of the Priest’s execution. He joins the side of Nikola against Osman, but, after many failed plots/attempts to kill Osman (or his family), Rogatus is won over to Osman because Osmanis a man of his word. Osman always told him the truth of what he thought and what he would do. This impresses Rogatus at some point. He recognizes the value of truth in statecraft. But he also understands that Osman lies in ways that never implicate his allies, unless they consent to a plan that might include them in a dangerous mission. If no one trusts each other on some level, there can be no peace between interests.
This reality makes Rogatus choose to switch sides. Osman gives Rogatus something that had been lacking despite their two quite different faiths: Manliness. Instead of being a pawn to powers and interests near him, he takes charge of his own destiny. In the end, Rogatus dies fighting alongside Osman. His final words as he expires in the battlefield, with fidelity to his own Faith, were, “Osman, you gave me something worth fighting for.” He dies happy, knowing he changed from an aimless, purposeless, fop to realizing that his former interests were not the way of real men.
As soon as that battle resulting in a victory for Osman is done, there’s no room for breath. Necessity rules these early years of political life. A new threat is waiting in the wings to destroy the pursuit of the Red Apple.
Season 3 also sports the betrayal of Gunduz (Osman’s younger brother) who, no shock, wants to gain power by submitting to the Mongols, and the Byzantine powers in exchange for “peace.” Gunduz wants his tribe to be rich. He believes in material comfort more than he does in living free. It puts him into positions whereby he compromises his faith, and his character. Osman believes all this is slavery in one form or another. You cannot submit to wealth, power, greed. It makes you slavish and beholden to those who grant you wealth and power.
The other main protagonist of Osman is the Grand Vizier Alemshah. The role the character plays was real in terms of the office. The Vizier is a person who rules in the name of the Sultan over many territories or states. It carried immense power, not to mention the seal of the State. Alemshah is fictional. Yet, the character is useful because, though it represents the departure from the historical record, it is needed to show Osman’s rise in the State and why and how it came about.
The Seljuk empire is a hollowed out shell, mostly subservient to the Mongols. Alemshah has an idea to overthrow the Sultan and create a state in his image. He has ambition that outstrips his talents. This naturally runs counter to Osman’s goal of creating a state for the Turks, who never bow to any foreign power.
Alemshah is cruel; he delights in torturing his fellow men, even those in his own Faith for the sake of achieving power. He ends up being hated because there is no end to his infamy (remember Machiavelli’s caution of doing just that). He aligns with the Mongols to defeat the tribes of his own country. Now, he believes once he eliminates all Muslim Turks, he will be able to create his own state and defeat the Mongols.
The problem with all this, is that Osman believes he is a cowardly man who will never be able to achieve his own dream, and even if he does, it will bring ruin to the Turks. Worse still, the Vizier is intent on eliminating Osman because he is too great a threat (and a moral threat) to his ambitions.
This means there will be a confrontation. There are actually many, but Osman eventually beheads the Vizier in front of the Sultan, who, does nothing but appear angry. There is nothing that makes a statement you are weak, when the head of State is left powerless as someone more powerful disobeys an order. Seljuk’s are done. Osman is on the rise, and he wastes no time establishing his authority.
All of this is not set in some secular defense of Osman’s might and military victory. It is all because of God, or in this case, being faithful to Allah. From Season 3, Bolum 88 (yes, 88 episodes of 2hrs+ length counting from season 1 Bolum 1!), there is this exchange which is pivotal and typical for a Bozdag series:
Dervish Akca: How can we sacrifice our selves on the way of our Allah, my Sheikh?
Sheikh Edebali: By staying behind our enemies, my Akca.
Osman: Will we ever be able ot get rid of the enemies of these lands, my Sheikh?
Sheikh Edebali: A valiant must have lots of enemies. So he’ll be strong. The biggest enemy of a Muslim person is the Devil (Sheytaan). What do we know about our enemy? But he knows us very well. If we are scholars, he makes us boast about our knowledge. If we are beautiful, our beauty suffers to show itself. If we are rich, he makes us stingy. If we are Beys [rulers of a tribe], he makes us cruel. If we are students, he makes us lazy. How much do we know about him? How can we stay away from his games? How can we defeat him? To make the devil kneel and make him die of grief, we have to be honest Muslims first. Now you’re asking, ‘how are we going to be honest Muslims?’ Rasulullah says whoever cheerfully accepts Allah as his Lord, Islam as his religion, and Muhammad as his Apostle, is necessarily entitled to enter Paradise. If we are finding pleasure in faith, then we will have made the Sheytaan kneel. The one who finds pleasure in faith, places Islam above everything. Islam comes first, for him even before positions. It comes before wives, and the beloved ones. Not any goof things in the world, not any bad things in the world, can keep him away from praying. He can’t wander around avoid giving zakat [form of almsgiving]. He cannot be proud of himself and boast about it because he has the throne. If there are scholars who are honest Mulsims, knowledge turns into love on that land. if there are honest Qadis [a Muslim judge who follows the religious laws], justice comes to that land. If there are honest traders, blessings come to that land. We are all the same. What did our ancestors say? One rotten apple spoils the (whole) barrel. And Ku’ran orders us, Allah does not place two hearts in any person’s chest. Al-Ahzab. As a chest cannot carry two hearts, a Muslim cannot carry two loves with him. He shouldn’t say, ‘I’m Muslim’ and then commit adultery. He should protect the goods of the state and the entrustments, he should perform prayers [five times a day]. He must give zakat. I hear about it. There are ones who do not perform five time salaat [daily tirutal prayer] in a day. There are ones who open their shops before performing the morning prayer. My heart is in flames. What kind of Muslim am I? People do not listen to my words. I am surffering. Friends! My Rab says, ‘and whose words are better than someone who calls ‘others’ to Allah, does good’ and says ‘I am truly one of those who submit.’ I am a Muslim.
Osman: I am a Muslim!
Sheikh Edebali: Then, may Allah grant us with teaching others about the honor, greatness, and goodness of being a Muslim.
Amin.
The religious revival is the aim of the Turkish government. Unlike in the United States where movies are secretly funded by, say, the CIA (or Democrat Party, but I repeat myself), Turkey has not hidden just who is funding all this and why. Naturally, of course, the class of academics in Turkey are aghast at all this, because, you know, they know much more about life as a result of their narrow expert schooling.
But Turkey is trying to engage in education. Reason and Revelation are equal in their command of the human mind. Osman makes much out of this, and Bozdag has him say we need scholars AND Mosques. In the modern globalist academic, he of secular peer review slavishness, religion is dead. Better to join a globalist cult instead?! This is what Erdogan is up against, as we all are.
Much of the Pro-Muslim narrative is obviously one sided. The Muslim faith is the ONLY faith. There are also some liberties taken. For example, Nikola is an ardent Roman and believes he is fighting against the Turks in Anatolia on behalf of the Roman Empire. Yet he was under the authority of the Eastern King and Patriarch? It is difficult to believe this would ever be since Byzantium and Rome had long split by this time, and entrusting such a pagan/Roman as a field general is too unbelievable. As I have noted, however, when it comes to the West or the Christian East, the Orthodox get a lighter critical hand. It does not take genius to understand why.
The biggest loss early in the season was Goktug, who, was captured by the Mongols, and executed brutally for not only abandoning his former comrades, but converting to the Muslim Faith—as I noted in a past review. It is another example of Bodzag killing off many of the most beloved characters.
This included Maria, the Orthodox Christian who married Turgut, the Muslin Bey. She was poisoned by someone close to her entourage because it would be useful in turning Muslims against each other—in this case Turgut against Osman. It had the opposite effect. Praise Allah! As is always the case, in the death of Maria, poison is the weapon of choice for Cowards and Women. But Turgut and Maria were in love and the audience ate it up, so her loss was a sad occasion. For our purposes here, it is appropriate to note that there was no effort to evangelize her out of her Faith. This is standard practice in all these shows—the believer must come to Allah on their own volition. Maria remained in life and death, Orthodox.
The conclusion of the season we are left in a bit of a lurch. The general prediction (see my prior post on the series) was that it would end with the fall of Inegol. It does. As Inegol falls, we are treated to a full fledged Muslim religious ceremony. This goes back to Ertugrul, where such conquests were treated the same.
The historical record here is not complete—some say it was a peaceful conquering, others suggest not. We really do not know. We do know Osman is the one who establishes the Ottoman empire (and if you listen to the Turks say Ottoman, is sounds like “Osman”). The fall of Inegol comes after the death of many minor (but impactful) bit characters. They are all integral in Osman’s success; one does not seize victory alone. They get paid homage in the first attack. Also, Gunduz son is instrumental in helping Osman take the castle. I will not go into these details, but note them because they are mildly important facts of the script. In the end, Nikola is beheaded. It is a glorious act that surely brought cheers. His head was sent to the Byzantine emperor.
Left hanging in the balance at the end is one traitor—Barkun—a Muslim who asserts he should be the ruler over Anatolia. Osman does not know it, yet, but suspects he is not trustworthy. Look for his death early in season 4.
One next to last thing, Kosses, a Byzantine and Maria’s brother, will convert, as he did in real life. I had a video for this, but TRT has blocked it from this platform. This means he will be with the cast for a while as he was for Osman in real life. Then again, Turgut was also beside Osman (he died at 125!) and we never see him any more.
Finally! We see Selcan Hatun die—she has been with this series since episode 1 of Ertugrul. She was wicked in season 1, and then, Allah crushed her, and she recommitted to her faith til the end. She was a character force for those to keep the Muslim Faith, and to abide by the path of Allah. She was always the Mother of the tribe who shamed men to honor themselves, their God, and be of good character. She became a beloved character in the series after being hated with passion. Her passing in this series was the most important, so it was saved to the end.
Message: there is redemption, but only Faithfully so, without straying again from the path, in God.
