Sunday, September 20, 2009

EID MUBARAK


TO GOD THE MERCIFUL AND THE COMPASSIONATE.

For the benefit of those who might encounter some difficulty in deciphering my calligraphy I am rewriting the incomparable words of SULEYMAN THE MAGNIFICENT/SULEYMAN KANUNI. He always signed his letters, dispatches, and communiques in the following way:

I AM SULEYMAN
RULER OF THE WORLD

SLAVE OF GOD

GUARDIAN OF MECCA,MEDINA AND JERUSALEM

PROTECTOR OF ALL

MUSLIMS

CHRISTIANS

JUDEANS

1 comment:

  1. Suleyman the Magnificent, The King of Kings, the man whose ideas of Justice, matched, if not surpassed, those of the legendary Arthur of the Round Table, turned his small, war-like nation into a people accepting of other norms, religions and cultures. His empire was the envy of his contemporaries, such Kings as Henry the eighth of England and Franciss the First of France recognized Suleyman to be a leader before whose judgment and understanding they were willing to bow. Franciss in particular, had become Suleyman’s ally in the never-ending struggle against the Habsburg dynasty. During Franciss’ captivity after a sad defeat at the battle of Pavia, Queen Louise, Franciss’ mother, was carrying on the nigociations with Suleyman for the randsome of her imprisoned son, the French Ceaser, as the French flatteringly referred to this last Great Representative of the Valois dynasty.

    Suleyman has been strangely forgotten by the republic of Turkey, the fragment of the old Ottoman Empire. Sadly, they are more willing to recall the day the Football team has won another match than the day of Istanbul’s conquest in 1453. There’s still a lingering hope that the subjects of Suleyman will one day remember their former greatness.

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Isabel Van Fechtmann

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