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The Ottoman Turks
“With the demise of the Seljuq Sultanate of
Rum (c 1300), Turkish Anatolia was divided into a patchwork of independent
states, the so-called Ghazi emirates. By
1300 a weakened Byzantine Empire had lost most of the Anatolian provinces to
ten Ghazi principalities. One of the
Ghazi emirates was led by Osman I (from which the name Ottoman is derived), son
of Ertugrul, around Eskisehir in western Anatolia. Osman I extended the frontiers of Ottoman
settlement toward the edge of the Byzantine Empire. He moved the Ottoman capital to Bursa, and
shaped the early political development of the nation. Given the nickname “Kara”
(which means “black” in modern Turkish, but alternatively means “big/great” or
“strong” in old Turkish) for his courage…Mehmed II made the city
[Constantinople] the new capital of the Ottoman Empire, and he assumed the
title of Kayser-I Rum (Caesar Romanus = Roman Emperor). The Russian Tsars also claimed to be the
successors to the eastern imperial title. To consolidate his claim, Mehmed II wanted to gain control over the
Western capital, Rome, and Ottoman forces occupied parts of the Italian
peninsula. They started with the
invasion of Otranto and Apulia on July 28, 1480. After Mehmed II’s death on May 3, 1481, the
campaign in Italy was cancelled and Ottoman forces retreated. The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in
1453 by Mehmed II cemented the status of Empire as the preeminent power in
southeastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean…During this period in
the 15th and 16th centuries, the Ottoman Empire entered a
long period of conquest and expansion, extending its borders deep into Europe
and North Africa. Conquests on land were
driven by the discipline and innovation of the Ottoman military; and on the
sea, the Ottoman navy aided this expansion significantly. The navy also contested and protected key
seagoing trade routes, in competition with the Italian city states in the Black
Sea, Aegean and Mediterranean seas and the Portuguese in the Red Sea and Indian
Ocean. The state also flourished
economically thanks to its control of the major overland trade routes between
Europe and Asia. This lock-hold on trade
between western Europe and Asia is often cited as a primary motivational reason
for Isabella I of Castile to fund Christopher Columbus’s westward journey to
find a sailing route to Asia…Another
group of historians led by the Turkish historian M. Fuat Koprulu championed the
“gazi thesis” that saw the Ottoman state as a continuation of the nomadic
Turkic tribes on a much larger scale, and argued that the most important influences
on the Ottoman state came from Persia…” That
is a very interesting observation, since we have seen the Edomites, parts of
their race, had migrated early on into Persia, then northeastward as far as
Mongolia and Turkestan, and then back to the Caspian Sea, and finally back into
Asia Minor as the Seljuqs, and now as the Ottomans were conquering and moving
back into all of the eastern Mediterranean sea region and as we’ll see, parts
of Western Europe. “…The Empire
prospered under the rule of a line of committed and effective Sultans, Sultan
Selim I (1512-1520) dramatically expanded the Empire’s eastern and southern
frontiers by defeating the Shah Ismail of Safavid Persia, in the Battle of
Chaldiran. Selim I established Ottoman
rule in Egypt and created a naval presence on the Red Sea. Selim’s successor, Suleiman the Magnificent
(1520-1566), further expanded upon Selim’s conquests. After capturing Belgrade
in 1521, Suleiman conquered the southern and central parts of the Kingdom of
Hungary. (The western, northern and
northeastern parts remained independent.)…He then laid siege to Vienna in 1529,
but failed to take the city after the onset of winter forced his retreat. In 1532, he made another attack on Vienna with
an army thought to be over 250,000 strong, but was repulsed in the Siege of
Guns, 97 kilometers (60 mi) south of the city at the fortress of Guns…Anyway,
Suleiman withdrew at the arrival of the August rains and did not continue
towards Vienna as previously planned, but homeward…Under Salim and Suleiman,
the Empire became a dominant naval force, controlling much of the Mediterranean
Sea. The exploits of the Ottoman admiral
Barbarossa Hayreddin Pasha, who commanded the Ottoman Navy during Suleiman’s
reign, led to a number of military victories over Christian navies. Among these were the conquest of Tunis and
Algeria from Spain; the evacuation of Muslims and Jews from Spain to the safety
of Ottoman lands (particularly Salonica, Cyprus, and Constantinople) during the
Spanish Inquisition; and the capture of Nice from the Holy Roman Empire in
1543…As the 16th century progressed, Ottoman naval superiority was
challenged by the growing sea powers of western Europe, particularly Portugal,
in the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean and the Spice lands. With the Ottomans blockading sea-lanes to the
East and South, the European powers were driven to find another way to the
ancient silk and spice routes, now under Ottoman control. On land, the Empire was preoccupied by military
campaigns in Austria and Persia, two widely separated theatres of war. The strain of these conflicts on the Empire’s
resources, and the logistics of maintaining lines of supply and communication
across such vast distances, ultimately rendered its sea efforts unsustainable
and unsuccessful. The overriding
military need for defense on the western and eastern frontiers of the Empire
eventually made effective long-term engagement on a global scale impossible…In
southern Europe, a coalition of Catholic powers, led by Phillip II of Spain,
formed an alliance to challenge Ottoman naval strength in the Mediterranean
Sea. Their victory over the Ottoman
fleet at the Battle of Lepanto (1571) was a startling blow to the image of
Ottoman invincibility…[but] within six months of the defeat a new Ottoman fleet
of some 250 sail including eight modern galleasses had been built, with the
harbours of Constantinople turning out a new ship every day at the height of
construction. In discussions with a
Venetian minister, the Turkish Grand Vizier commented: “In capturing Cyprus from you, we have cut
off one of your arms; in defeating our fleet you have merely shaved off our
beard.” The Ottoman recovery persuaded Venice to sign a peace treaty in 1573,
and the Ottomans were able to expand and consolidate their position in North
Africa. However, what could not be
replaced were the experienced naval officers and sailors. The battle of Lepanto was far more crucial as
sapping experienced manpower than loss of ships…On September 15, 1656 the
octogenarian Koprulu Mehmed Pasha accepted the seals of office having received
guarantees from the Valide Turhan Hatice of unprecedented authority and freedom
from interference. Å fierce
conservative disciplinarian, he successfully reasserted the central authority
and the empire’s military impetus. This
continued under his son and successor Kopulu Fazil Ahmend (Grand Vizier
1661-1676). The Koprulu Vizierate saw
renewed military success with authority restored in Transylvania, the conquest
of Crete completed in 1669 and expansion into Polish southern Ukraine, with the
strongholds of Khotyn and Kamianets-Podilskyi and the territory of Podolia
ceding to Ottoman control in 1676. This
period of renewed assertiveness came to a crashing end when Grand Vizier Kara
Mustafa Pasha in May 1683 led a huge army to attempt a second Ottoman siege of
Vienna. The final assault being fatally
delayed, the Ottoman forces were swept away by allied Habsburg, German and
Polish forces spearheaded by the Polish king Jan Sobieski at the Battle of
Vienna. The alliance of the Holy League
pressed home the advantage of the defeat at Vienna and 15 years of see-sawing
warfare, culminated in the epochal Treaty of Karlowitz (January 26, 1699),
which ended the Great Turkish War and for the first time saw the Ottoman Empire
surrender control of significant European territories (many permanently),
including Ottoman Hungary. The Empire
had reached the end of its ability to effectively conduct an assertive,
expansionist policy against its European rivals and it was to be forced from
this point to adopt an essentially defensive strategy within this theatre. Only two Sultans in this period personally
exercised strong political and military control of the Empire: the vigorous
Murad IV (1612-1640) recaptured Yerevan (1635) and Baghdad (1639) from the
Safavids and reasserted central authority, albeit during a brief reign.
Stagnation
and Reform (1683-1827)
King Charles XII of Sweden fled to the
Ottoman Empire following his defeat against the Russians at the Battle of
Poltava in 1709. A guest at the Topkapi
Palace for nearly five years, he persuaded the Ottoman Sultan Ahmed III to
declare war on Russia, which resulted in the Russo-Turkish War of 1710-1711
that ended with an Ottoman victory…During this period much territory in the
Balkans was ceded to Austria. Certain
areas of the Empire, such as Egypt and Algeria, became independent in all but
name, and later came under the influence of Britain and France. In the 18th century, centralized
authority gave way to varying degrees of provincial autonomy enjoyed by local
governors and leaders. A series of wars
were fought between Russia and Ottoman empires from the 18th to the
19th century. By the mid-19th century, the Ottoman Empire was called the “sick man” by Europeans…The Serbian
revolution (1804-1815) marked the beginning of an era of national awakening in
the Balkans during the Eastern Question. Suzerainty of Serbia as a hereditary monarchy under its own dynasty was
acknowledged de jure in 1830. In 1821,
the Greeks declared war on the Sultan. A
rebellion that originated in Moldavia as a diversion was followed by the main
revolution in the Peloponnese, which along with the northern part of the Gulf
of Corinth, became the first parts of the Ottoman Empire to achieve independence
(in 1829). The suzerain states---the
Principality of Serbia, Wallachia, Moldavia and Montenegro---moved towards de
jure independence during the 1860s and 1870s…In 1882 British forces occupied
Egypt on the pretext of bringing order and Sudan remained as Ottoman provinces
de jure until 1914, when the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers of World
War I. Great Britain officially annexed
these two provinces and Cyprus in response. Other Ottoman provinces in North Africa were lost between 1830 and 1912,
starting with Algeria (occupied by France in 1830), Tunisia (occupied by France
in 1881) and Libya (occupied by Italy in 1912)…”
Decline
and modernization (1828-1908)
“During this period, the Empire faced
challenges in defending itself against foreign invasion and occupation. The Empire ceased to enter conflicts on its
own and began to forge alliances with European countries such as France, the
Netherlands, Britain and Russia. [like
Rome in their final years, they formed alliances with their old enemies.] As an example, in the 1853 Crimean War, the
Ottomans united with Britain, France and the Kingdom of Sardinia against
Russia.”
Crimean
War
“The Crimean War caused an exodus of the
Crimean Tartars. From the total Tartar
population of 300,000 in the Tauride Province, about 200,000 Crimean Tartars
moved to the Ottoman Empire in continuing waves of emigration…Since the 19th century, the exodus to present-day Turkey by the large portion of Muslim
peoples from the Balkans, Caucasus, Crimea and Crete, had great influence in
molding the country’s fundamental features…By the time the Turkish [Ottoman]
empire came to an end in 1922, half of the urban population of Turkey was
descended from Muslim refugees from Russia. Crimean Tartar refugees in the late 19th century played an
especially notable role in seeking to modernize Turkish education.” [Quotes
taken from “Ottoman Empire” at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire] Do you remember who the Tartars were,
descendants of Tur, also a Turkic people in the Steppes of Siberia. Now they have been driven back into what is
today Turkey, just another clan of Tur.
Edomites That Stayed in Palestine up to
the Fall of Jerusalem under Titus
“In the time of Nebuchadnezzar II the
Edomites helped plunder and slaughter the Jews. For this reason the Prophets denounced Edom violently. Although the Idumaeans controlled the lands
to the east and south of the Dead Sea, their peoples were held in contempt by
the Israelites [from Saul up to the time of the Fall of Jerusalem under
Nebuchadnezzar II, 1 Sam. 14:47; 1
Kings 11:14-22; 2 Chron. 20:1-23; 2 Kings 8:21, 2 Chron. 28:17] Hence the Book of Psalms says “Moab is my
washpot: over Edom I cast out my shoe.” According to the Torah, the congregation could not receive descendents
of a marriage between an Israelite and an Edomite until the fourth
generation…During the revolt of the Maccabees against the Seleucid kingdom
(early 2nd century BC), II Maccabees refers to a Seleucid general
named Gorgias as “Governor of Idumaea”; whether he was a Greek or a Hellenized
Edomite is unknown. Some scholars
maintain that the reference to Idumaea in that passage is an error altogether. Judas Maccabeus conquered their territory for
a time in around 163BC. They were again
subdued by John Hyrcanus (c. 125BC) [see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hyrcanus],
who forcibly converted them to Judaism and incorporated them into the Jewish
nation, despite the opposition of the Pharisees.
Antipater the Idumaean, the progenitor of
the Herodian Dynasty that ruled Judea after the Roman conquest, was of Edomite
origin. Under Herod the Great Idumaea
was ruled for him by a series of governors, among whom were his brother Joseph
ben Antipater and his brother-in-law Costobarus. Immediately before the siege of Jerusalem by
Titus, 20,000 Idumaeans, under the leadership of John, Simeon, Phinehas, and
Jacob, appeared before Jerusalem to fight on behalf of the Zealots who were
besieged in the Temple…After the Jewish Wars the Idumaean people are no longer
mentioned in history, though the geographical region of “Idumaea” is still
referred to at the time of Jerome.” [taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edom] So that is the branch of Edom that did not
migrate out of Palestine very early on, into Persia and beyond. The Romans probably ended this line of Edom
with the slaughter of the Jews, and what remained were scattered just as the
Jews were.
in conclusion
Notice one thing. The Ottoman Turks’ control of the Middle East
and Palestine was never lost from
1512 to 1917. Previously the Seljuq
Turks has held the Middle East and Palestine from 1071 to 1300. But Ottoman armies would have had to pass
through Palestine, even perhaps being garrisoned there on their journeys to the
Eastern frontier of their Empire, on their way to the “Eastern Front” battling
Persia, Egypt and Baghdad periodically. A Turkish military army-navy presence was always in the Middle East and
Palestine as a direct result. As you can
see, the Ottomans wielded very large armies and navies of Turkish soldiers and
sailors. Intermarriage and interbreeding
of Turkic peoples as a result of occupation forces living in the Middle East
and the area of Palestine occurred over a very long period of time, from the
Seljuq’s in the 10th century, through Ottoman occupation going from
the 1300s all the way through to 1917 when the British defeated Ottoman rule in
Palestine at the hands of General Allenby in the West Bank. My prognosis, based on historic fact of
military presence of Turkish military personnel, and Turkish landowners in
Palestine, that there is a good mixture of the Turkic race within all those who
call themselves Palestinians. All things
considered, there must be a strong ethnic presence of Edom, Esau within the
Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and the Israeli nation itself. And “Esau” wants his birthright back, and
he’s willing to take it back by force, when Biblically God, Yahweh gave it to
Jacob and his sons, who became the 12 tribes of Israel. Now let’s see what the United Nations is
about to do in September of 2011, which if they succeed could lead to major
strife and war between the Israelis and Palestinians. The next page is copied from the magazine
Israel Today. That explains who Edom
is, and that a good portion of Edom, Esau is probably mixed into those who call
themselves Palestinians. Right after the
Israel Today article, we will go right into the text of Obediah verses 1-21.
Obadiah
The
Coming Judgment on Edom
Verses 1-8, “The vision of Obediah. Thus says the Lord GOD concerning Edom (We have
heard a report from the LORD, and a messenger has been sent among the nations, saying, ‘Arise, and let us rise up
against her for battle’): ‘Behold, I
will make you small among the nations; you shall be greatly despised. The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock
[Petra], whose habitation is high; you who say in your heart, Who will bring me down to the ground? Though you ascend as high as the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars,
from there I will bring you down,’ says the LORD. ‘If thieves come to
you, would they not have left some gleanings? Oh, how Esau shall be
searched out! How his hidden treasures
shall be sought after! All the men in
your confederacy shall force you to the border; the men at peace with
you shall deceive you and prevail
against you. Those who eat your bread shall lay a trap for you. No one is aware of it.’ [verse 7, This points to an end-time confederacy, but
their allies will end up turning on them.] ‘Will
I not in that day,’ says the LORD, ‘even destroy the wise men from Edom, and understanding from the mountains of Esau? Then your mighty men, O Teman, shall
be dismayed. To the end that
everyone from the mountains of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.’” Verse 9, ‘O Teman’, some take this as a hidden reference to
Ottoman, the Turkic Ottoman Empire which occupied the Promised Land in the
Middle East for 400 years. We’ve already
seen the historic link which connects the Palestinians to the Turkic race, and
all the historic connections linking the Turkic race to Edom and Esau. The LORD just
threw a little identifier-teaser into Obadiah’s prophecy in verse 9 here. In verse 7, this confederacy is more than
likely none other than what Daniel refers to as “the king of the south” in
Daniel chapter 11, verse 40. This could
very well be a confederacy of Arab states, which have linked themselves
together in some form of Caliphate. Right now as I write this, Muslim Brotherhood inspired and orchestrated
demonstrations have brought down the Egyptian government of Hosni Mubarak, the
government of Tunis, and Col. Qaddafi’s Libyan government. Basher Assad’s Syrian government has been
putting down peaceful demonstrations with brutal military force, 3,000 dead
civilian Syrians so far, and these demonstrations be carried out by peaceful
unarmed Syrians acting under the hidden coordination of the Muslim
Brotherhood. If Syria’s government
falls, and perhaps Algeria’s too, for a short time you will have democratic
nations within a swath of Arabic nations stretching across North Africa, past
Israel, and through Syria. But voting
will be heavily influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood, as is happening in Egypt,
and they will all vote in Islamic states under Sharia law, highly anti-Israeli,
and anti-Christian. These nations will
also form into a type of Caliphate of states which Daniel chapter 11 refers to
as the “king of the south.” Other major
oil producing Arabic nations could fall under Muslim Brotherhood demonstrations
too, such important nations as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain (hosting an important US
Naval Base), Yemen, and perhaps even Iraq. As a Caliphate of nations acting as one, they could turn off the oil
spigot to the Western world, and particularly Europe. If a Palestinian nation is birthed by the
United Nations, it will undoubtedly be allied with such a caliphate of Muslim
Brotherhood nations stretching from Tunis to the northern Syrian border,
placing the Israeli nation right in the middle of a Muslim Brotherhood
sandwich. Turkey itself would be an
interesting nation to watch, as they are Edomites as well. But Turkey has close ties to Europe and
Germany, so she might not be part of this “confederacy of nations”, but like
the Palestinians, allied to it.
Edom
Abuses Jacob’s Descendants During the End-Time
Verses 10-16, “For violence against your
brother Jacob, shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off forever. In the day that you stood on the other
side---in the day that strangers carried captive his forces, when foreigners
entered the gates and cast lots for Jerusalem---even you were as one of them. But you
should not have gazed [gloated over] on the day of your brother in the day of
his captivity; nor should you have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the
day of their destruction; nor should you have spoken proudly in the day of
distress. You should not have entered
the gate of my people in the day of their calamity. Indeed, you should not have gazed [gloated
over] on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor laid hands on their substance in the day of
their calamity. You should not have
stood in the crossroads to cut off those among them who escaped; nor should you
have delivered up those among them who remained in the day of distress. For the day of the LORD upon
all nations is near; as you have done, it
shall be done to you; your reprisal shall return upon your own head. For as you drank on my holy mountain, so shall all the nations drink, and
swallow, and they shall be as though they had never been.” Apparently,
end-time Edom cuts off the escape of Israelites, turning them over to their
enemies. Verse 15 identifies this as
the end-times, occurring during “the Day of the LORD.” The setting is
Jerusalem and wherever Israelites are trying to escape from, during the
“Day of the LORD.” At the end of World War III, surviving captives from the nations which
make up the ten-tribes of Israel, held for nearly three and a half years in
slave-labour camps within Europe, will be trying to make their way to the land
of Israel. As they cross over into
Turkey, this prophecy indicates that they will be turned back and handed back
over to the European superpower state which the Bible calls the Beast. God will judge Edom severely for this, as
indicated in this prophecy.
Israel’s
Final Triumph
Verses 17-21, “‘But on Mount Zion there shall
be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; the house of Jacob shall possess
their possessions. The house of Jacob
shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph [the
house of Joseph specifically refers to the head tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh,
and the house of Jacob refers to all 12 tribes of Israel, not just Judah] a flame; but the house of Esau shall be stubble; they shall kindle them
and devour them. And no survivor shall remain of the house of Esau,’ for the LORD has spoken. The South shall possess the mountains of
Esau, and the Lowland shall possess Philistia [Gaza, and that region]. They shall possess the fields of Ephraim and
the fields of Samaria. Benjamin shall possess Gilead, and the captives
of this host of the children of Israel shall
possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath. The captives of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
shall possess the cities of the South. Then
saviors shall come to Mount Zion [that’s us, folks!] to judge the mountains of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the LORD’s.” Here in this set of
Scriptures we can see all the tribes of Israel being covered here. The word “saviors” can also be translated
“deliverers” and is a direct reference to the resurrected immortal saints coming
back with Jesus Christ as he descends on the Mount of Olives (cf. Zechariah
14:1-15). Evidently, no male Edomite
will survive on into the Millennial Kingdom of God, which ultimately will
encompass the whole world. But they will
all have their chance for salvation when they come up in the 2nd resurrection, along with all the rest of the “unsaved dead.” Refer to the commentary of the Book of
Ezekiel, Ezekiel 37:1-14. Sepharad
refers to the Jews who from the early medieval times lived in Spain and were
referring to themselves as Sephardic Jews. During the Inquisition in Spain many hid their Jewish identities and
switched over to Roman Catholicism to escape the Spanish Inquisition. Many are starting to uncover their Jewish
lineage, and have now also become known as Sephardic Jews. It is probably these Jews will come under
captivity during WWIII, as they dwell in Spain, a European nation which is
highly Roman Catholic, and most definitely will be part of the Beast
Empire. So God through Obadiah is prophecying
that these Sephardic Jews will be released and return and possess the land of
the Negev. Many Sephardic Jews have
discovered their lineage who live in the various nations in South America. All those who survive will be regathered by
Yeshua, brought back to the Promised Land, where they will take up residence in
the Negev, which by then will blossom like a rose and no longer be a
desert. A Messianic Jewish ministry
headquartered in Israel has been reaching out to these Sephardic Jews in South
America and Spain for some years now, and some of them have already accepted
Yeshua haMeshiach as their Messiah. Shortly after the resurrection to
immortality and the return of Yeshua haMeshiach to earth, they will be able to
go out and find their Sephardic brethren and orchestrate their return to the
Promised Land. How exciting, that God
has already been laying the foundation for their return to Israel! Psalm
37, a Psalm of David where David talked about the wicked, and how we are
not to fret about them, even though it seems like they are prospering now, he
says in verses 35-38, “I have seen the wicked in great power, and
spreading himself like a native green tree. Yet he passed away, and behold, he was no more; indeed I sought him, but
he could not be found. Mark the
blameless man, and observe the
upright; the future of the wicked shall be cut off.” That is the future of Edom, as compared to
Israel. But they will have their chance
for salvation in the 2nd Resurrection.
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