EMPRESS OF THE EAST by LESLIE PEIRCE : MAGYAR- AMERICAN BOOK REVIEW

 

Leslie Peirce's EMPRESS OF THE EAST has to be the most interesting book I've read in a long time.  On the new book shelf at my local library, I had no idea the book would be about Ruthenia, Hungary under the Ottoman Turks, the Austrian Empire and slavery, until I started reading!  This one was a page-turner for me. It should be of interest to anyone who wants to know more about the history of Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Ruthenia, and Europe.

At about the age of 13, Roxelana was captured in Ukraine - Ruthenia along with thousands of others who were marched a long distance to live out their lives under Ottoman Rule. These slaver-raids took hundreds of thousands of people into Turk territory. As with the images we have of African slaves, they were barefoot, in chains, and lucky to survive the journey.

While not every slave was used in the harem, those slave women who were selected to live in it were there for a purpose and that was not exactly sexual pleasure.  Rather the Turks had a social system that was dependent on slaves not just for labor but for the reproduction of Princes. Once selected she would be bred and this would continue until she had a son. At that point the woman would become a Prince's mother and devote her life to his education.  Some of the women competed to be chosen, to survive, and then competed for their sons to be given important tasks.

Having left marriage for Princes behind, the idea was for every Prince to have as many sons as possible.  Being pragmatic, there was so much death due to illnesses and plagues that this might have been a reproduction strategy.  It was also, however, a means of keeping the ever-expanding empire in control because a Prince who reached the age of adulthood, which was about fifteen years old, could be assigned to rule a particular province of the newly expanded empire. The Turks were expanding their empire violently, but slavery had many ethnicities collaborative in the abduction, sale, transfer, and so on of slaves including Jews, Armenians, and Italians. Slave men were sometimes made to soldier.  Each slave was converted to Islam and enculturated to be a Turk. 

For those who see DNA as a way to determine ethnicity, the book convinced me that there is a great deal of Hungarian and Slavic DNA within those with a certain, shall we say noble, Turkish heritage.  

The book doesn't go into the military aspects but we know that about two thirds of the Hungarian people were massacred and the country was destroyed due to this expansionism.  It is strong in showing just how exceptional this slave girl was, as she rose in the haram not only to be a favorite, but that she actually married her Prince, the very man who was responsible for much of the massacre of the Hungarian people centuries ago.  

Suleyman The Great was often away for months or years at a time with his campaigns into Hungary but he wrote Roxelana, called Hurrem, love poetry and she showed her faithfulness in writing him many impassioned letters.  He married her and he certainly went against tradition by doing so. They became a nuclear family with several children. Suleyman's own mother had also been a slave girl and so he was possibly half Polish! 

I was reminded that ETHNICITY IS ACQUIRED and not just about your DNA. 

Roxelana became a famous person as she used her power as a philanthropist and was behind the building of mosques, schools, hospitals, and as an administrator over the haram, marriages for many of the women who lived there.  She was reported on to all the noble houses of Europe as everyone wanted to know who who was and in power all the time.  She lived with all the riches available to a person on her rank.

Another aspect of this book is that it is about the Moslem Religion and the changing attitudes about women.  Prior to her rise, women had apparently been allowed power and had been allowed to be seen. Then, perhaps as a means of protection both men and women of high, royal rank began to seclude themselves.  Though insiders dealt with Roxelana, and her influence and good works were well known beyond the Ottoman Empire, when she traveled in a train of carriages, the wealth was on show but no one got to see her face. Women of high rank became more and more restricted in their lives and their exposure to the world outside their own homes, something that has, in my opinion, gone into the extreme repression of females in many Moslem societies today.

Those of us alive today with Hungarian genetic heritage are survivors of survivors  and some of us may also carry the DNA of rapists who killed entire families, entire villages of people.

All very thought provoking.

C 2022 Magyar-American BlogSpot

Mentioned in this book  1540 John Zapolya, King of Hungary and Governor of Transylvania.

1542 Queen Isabella, the eldest child of Sigismund I the Old, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. Her mother was Bona Sforza of Milan, Italy. Ferdinand, the archduke of Austria in control of Western Hungary who occupied Buda but was expelled by Suleyman.

ORLANDO TERRORISM - PEACEABLE MUSLIMS - GUN CONTROL

Once again terrorism has claimed the lives of many innocent people and a crazy man is behind it.  So for the last few days I've been listening to the media, radio mostly, and reading around the subject in the news, especially the opinion pieces.  I happened to be at a laundry with a television when President Barack Obama made his speech, cautioning us to not judge people of the Muslim religion with prejudice.  A lot of people washing their clothes that morning were Hispanic. Immigration and gun control are very much part of the debate as we think of which person we will vote for President of the United States.

Will it be DONALD TRUMP, who, in my opinion, talks first, and apologizes later.  Or HILARY CLINTON, who, in my opinion, we can expect political business as usual.  BERNIE SANDERS, the candidate that speaks to my heart, will not likely be elected but I admire him for knowing that and continuing to promote his message, his values.  He actually seems to be the only candidate that wants to admit we have a terrible problem here in the U.S. with poverty.  (Currently I'm doing a short jaunt of volunteer work for a summer reading program that has almost no funding, in which paid employees are working miracles with great ideas and few resources.)

OK, PRE JUDGING is making ASSumptions that could be so very wrong... But I'm guilty of AFTAjudice, a word I made up, in which after so much bad experience with a type of person, I feel entitled to be PRE Judging.

There is a peaceable Muslim family in my neighborhood and everyone notices that they stay inside these last several month, no longer out in the yard where we could get to know them and their children.  We know they left Pakistan because of the conditions there and believe they are trying to become American citizens, but their co-coreligionists are making it more difficult for them.  If DONALD TRUMP becomes president and actually manages to end immigration by people of that religion, I would be surprised. But I would not be surprised if every last one of them is going to be investigated by immigration and naturalization, if not the FBI.  While I have no reason to believe that anyone is going to try to harm this family, were I them, I would no longer dress in their traditional clothing because there are more crazy people with military weapons out there who are not so fair minded.  


Gun Control was once only about a hand gun or rifle, not these bullet spitting weapons of war.

Even if Moslem leaders speak out against the Orlando tragedy which has about 50 people dead at the scene and many fighting for their lives in the hospital, with a number of them too injured to resume normal lives even though they will survive, I say "This is NOT ENOUGH."

Today I walked my dog and met up with a neighbor who is completely redoing an old house in their family by hand so he can sell it.  


As we talked about this tragedy we became morbidly funny.  We talked about how everyone wants to die peaceable in old age and in their sleep in the middle of a wonderful dream but lately there are too many terrible and weird ways to die.

There is an epidemic of SHARK ATTACKS and ALLIGATORS HAULING OFF HOMELESS PEOPLE AND CHILDREN.  Then there are the SINK HOLES opening up all around.   One moment a man is sitting up reading in his bed, maybe even on his cell phone, the next he and his entire house are down in the ground and he is never to be found.  Then there was this 23 year old tourist at YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK who wanted to get up close and personal with a boiling pit of acid, fell in, and we can only hope he was dead before he could feel it.

THE SHARKS, ALLIGATORS, and SINK HOLES can be tied in to the change in climate and water shortages. THE YELLOWSTONE death, stupidity.  Yet, we can all say that these people had a wrestle with nature, and died in strange ways.  

But the people who made it to the gay, bisexual, transgender club in Orlando were out to DANCE.  Some of them were not gay, bisexual, or transgender.  Here in Southern California most of the DANCE CLUBS are identified the same way, but lots of straight people go to them to DANCE because there is nowhere else to DANCE.


Many of our parents grew up meeting people at DANCE PAVILLIONS or DISCOS.  It was popular for straight people to spend Friday and Saturday nights out dancing and having a good time with live bands playing.


So now the reporters are out to determine if really this crazy man who killed and injured so many was "really gay," and that it was all about his personal issues with sexuality.  Please!


I try to make the world a better place, if just a little.


Today, I walked into several banks, grocers, dollar stores, and a bakery asking for sponsorship, patronage, donations, even one small item, so that a couple hundred children from poor families who are determined to read their way through the summer can have a small reward for their efforts and can learn that there IS a REWARD for their effort.


So far we have been granted a large sheet cake from a CUBAN AMERICAN BAKERY.
A comic book and graphic novel store owned by an eccentric ALL AMERICAN will help us.
A local pharmacy owned by a MEXICAN-AMERICAN is thinking about it. 

Well, this Magyar-American is done for the day.