Book Review:

 

Book Title: Original Turkish and TurkoFarsi States and Traditions

Author: Basith Osmani

Independent Amazon Publishing

 

Reviewer: Rashid Osmani

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5.0 out of 5 stars; Review of Islam’s role in shaping of modern world. 

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This is not a book for cynical atheists. Nor is it a book for self-described smart people who have an answer for every question. It really is for people who are thoughtful, truth-seeking and who are curious about history and what it means for them. People who wish to see if there is a purpose of life in a streaming time, sequentially marked by history, the present, and hard-to-predict future. We also know that our minds are limited in terms of intellect and mysteries of the Universe are often hard to understand. Yet, there sure is a purpose to life, as outlined by guidance from the Creator of the Universe, Allah. Apart from the specific mentioned revelation about toil and trial, this remarkable guidance has not changed from Prophet Abraham to the final messenger. In simple terms, it is believing in one God, being good and truthful to each other and in seeking knowledge. Yet human frailty has misinterpreted it and people even today, in billions, have misconceptions about God and many even worship animals.

How did the world transform itself from roughly the stone ages of the 7th and 8th centuries to the modern developed and bustling world of the 21st century? This book traces history and traditions of a 1200-year period, starting around 800 AD, during which period Muslims had the most influence in developing the world and humanity, in general. It is organized in five sections with the first section laying out the background and highlighting the key factors that shaped the period. As mentioned in the book, the main foundations of State building and growth come from ‘being good people with right conduct and seeking knowledge with humility’. This is part of direct guidance from the Creator, and these were the requirements in Turkish and TurkoFarsi traditions. As part of this, Muslims exercised two mutually complimentary concepts of Ummath and Humanity. The first one as brotherhood among fellow Muslims and the second one is accepting all other religions as equal in human dignity. As an example, during the Spanish Inquisition in 1492 AD, the Ottoman empire (Osmanli Develet) gave refuge to Jews expelled from Spain, demonstrating tolerance of other faiths. At that time, Osmanli and Mamluk States were very strong, militarily and economically. Yet they did not intervene to avoid bloodshed of trapped Muslims and potential retaliatory attacks on Christians in Osmanli lands, where they were a majority. Instead they imposed a blockade on the Mediterranean, which in turn led to discovery of America. In addition to these two traits of Ummath and Humanity, Muslims excelled in learning new things and expanding knowledge and parsed this easily from any violation of religious duties. In 1633, when Italy was jailing Galileo for insisting that the earth was round, an Ottoman researcher, Lagari Hasan Celebi was experimenting with a 7-winged rocket in Istanbul and presented it to Murad-IV, the Sultan.

Many history books written by western intellectuals have a very biased opinion about Islam. This is explained very well in this book, along with the background hatred that propels it. It is true, however, that If you observe how many Muslims behave today, and what they do as described in these books, you will see a lot of consistency. But there is a big difference: Muslims have changed and were different when they were powerful as rulers as compared to how they behave now. As pointed out in this book, when they were leaders, they had a clear understanding of authentic Islam and were following the direct commands of Allah as given in the Quran. They were never corrupted by self-proclaimed scholars and saints.  An issue pointed out in this book is that good leaders emanate from good people and strong leaders cannot magically change people overnight.

There are many significant assertions in this book, with which you may not agree, but no critique of any philosophy or religion is ever tame. There has not been any current intellectual discussion among Muslims as to why they are behind. The only ones that get attention are from ‘learned Imams’ and such, who often blame people for not ascribing strictly to whatever the Imams think. A vast majority of present-day Muslims are not aware that they have one of the best guidance from the Creator Himself. It is an unutilized treasure and many of them will be upset, as the reasons mentioned in this book are not what is programmed in their minds. A study in Artificial Intelligence shows that the process in a mind to convert a thought into words is pretty complex. The forbidding criterion set up by religious-educated Imams is so high that such thoughts can’t persist in a Muslim’s mind, for the complex process to start working. And so thoughts pass away as thoughts and no one questions Imams. In a way, faith freezes thoughts. On top of that, the strength of faith is noted as a measure of making it to heaven and this scares them further. As people who have stopped thinking, they quickly get angry.

Overall, the book challenges people, both Muslims and Abrahamic people to think and question their current premises of how the current level of development in our world was reached. Reading this book requires concentration and great interest. The four sections following the introductory part deal with over 32 states described in the context of how they upheld Allah’s commands and overcame disasters. Most of the states didn’t have borders as defined today and had people moving freely between states. What you will find in this book is a consistent approach tying physically evidence and correcting deliberate, misleading information about how Muslims ruled. The dynamic of Ummath and humanity. The balance of managing conviction and consensus. You will indeed be surprised as to how well-thought out Muslim thinking was and see how depraved it has become now, on the average. Muslims were clever, at times very violent, yet were guided by strong, fair principals from the Creator Himself. As mentioned in this book, Turkish and TurkoFarsi people and societies were the most advanced people in every field and centuries ahead of their times as compared to Europe under the First Reich. Transmission of knowledge from these states along with trade finally helped Europe free itself after separating religion from state and this spurred them to the Industrial revolution.