I believe that the revolts of the Janissaries could have been avoided. I also believe that the Sultan believed a little too much in his soldiers and that if he had been more careful, the Janissary problem would not have happened. The Sultan should have had a plan B in case something happened. The Tanzimat changed the Ottoman Empire completely. Some call it the decline of the Ottoman Empire , but I call it modernization.
Monday, March 8, 2010
The Janissary Tree
Reading the Janissary tree was quite an adventure. I enjoyed the book very much and I had fun reading it. The book was very entertaining and funny. Jason Goodwin did a great job on this book. There were many things that I liked and some things that I did not like. I liked the style in which the story was written, but I did not like the fact that Mr. Goodwin used too many Turkish terms because someone who is not in a history class would not be able to understand it. I believe the book great source to know about what happened to the Janissaries and what was happening in Istanbul. It is also an easy way to remember important facts about the Ottoman Empire.
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I agree with you that reading the book is an easy way to remember facts about the Ottoman Empire. However, I did not really like the book as much as you seemed to have enjoyed it. I thought it jumped around too much, and the plot got confusing at times. Although the Ottoman Empire was indeed modernizing, I feel that it is moderization that led to the decline of the empire. Before Tanzimat, when the sultan had full control over his empire, the empire was strong and had one of the strongest militaries in the world. However, once the Janissaries gained more power, the quality of them deteriorated and the power of the empire decreased.
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