Emin Pasha
Emin Pasha (Mehmed Emin Pasha) (Mehmet Emin Pasha) (Eduard Schnitzer) (March 28, 1840, Oppelin, Silesia - October 23, 1892, Kanema, Congo Free State). German explorer and administrator in Africa. Originally named Eduard Schnitzer, he was born in Oppelin, Silesia (now Opole, Poland). He was an administrator in Sudan and made important contributions to the study of the geography, natural history, and ethnography of northeastern Africa. He studied medicine at the University of Berlin. From 1865 to 1875, he served the Turkish government as quarantine medical officer in Montenegro and Albania. In the latter year, he journeyed to Cairo, where he was appointed medical officer in the Egyptian army under the British general Charles George Gordon and became known as Emin Effendi. Gordon named him governor of the equatorial province of Sudan, with the title of bey in 1878 and, in that capacity, Emin Pasha conducted explorations of eastern Sudan and central Africa that contributed greatly to geographical and scientific knowledge. In 1883, a revolt broke out in Sudan under the leadership of the Mahdi. The Egyptian government abandoned the province in the following year and Emin Pasha eventually found himself isolated by rebel forces. In April 1888, he was rescued at Wadelai by an expedition led by the American explorer Henry Morton Stanley, who tried in vain to persuade him to return to Egypt. In a second Mahdist revolt later that year, Emin Pasha was deposed and imprisoned. After his release, he returned to Egypt, where he resigned his office. In 1890, he was commissioned by the German East Africa Company to lead an expedition into those regions of central Africa claimed by Germany. He was killed by Arabs on October 23, 1892, at Kanema, in the Congo (now Zaire).
Mehmet Emin Pasha was born Isaak Eduard Schnitzer but was baptized (c. 1847) Eduard Carl Oscar Theodor Schnitzer. He was a physician, naturalist and governor of the Egyptian province of Equatoria on the upper Nile. ("Pasha" was a title conferred on him in 1886 and thereafter he was invariably referred to as "Emin Pasha".) He contributed vastly to the knowledge of African geography, natural history, ethnology, and languages.
In 1865, Schnitzer became a medical officer in the Turkish army and used his leisure to begin learning the Turkish, Arabic, and Persian languages. While serving the Ottoman governor of northern Albania (1870–74), he adopted a Turkish mode of living and a Turkish name. In 1876, he joined the British governor-general of the Sudan, General Charles Gordon, as medical officer at Khartoum. In this post he was known as Emin Effendi and was called upon to tend to administrative duties and to carry out diplomatic missions to Uganda and elsewhere. In 1878, Gordon appointed him governor of Equatoria (in the southern Sudan), with the title of bey.
Conducting his excellent and enlightened administration from Lado, Emin traveled throughout the province, made extensive and valuable surveys, and also brought an end to slavery in the region. In the course of the Mahdist uprising, though the Egyptian government abandoned the Sudan (1884), the isolated Emin, now elevated to the rank of pasha, felt secure and was initially reluctant to be rescued by the famed explorer Henry Morton Stanley in 1888. Possibly because of the arrival of Stanley with his forces, Emin had to contend with disaffection among his own troops. On April 10, 1889, he and Stanley, with some 1,500 others, left the region and crossed over to the eastern African coast, arriving at Bagamoyo (in present-day Tanzania) on December 4, 1889.
The German government then asked him to undertake an expedition to equatorial Africa to secure territories south of and along Lake Victoria to Lake Albert. Soon after the expedition started, however, an Anglo-German agreement was signed (July 1, 1890) excluding Lake Albert from German influence. After experiencing difficulties with German authorities in Tanganyika, he crossed into the Congo Free State (May 1891) and on his journey to the western African coast was murdered by Arab slave raiders, among whom he had many enemies.
Though Emin Pasha published no books, he wrote many valuable papers on Africa for German journals and forwarded rich and varied collections of animals and plants to Europe.
Eduard Schnitzer aka Emin PashaHe was born in Opole, Silesia into a middle-class Germano-Jewish family, which moved to Neisse when he was two years of age. After the death of his father in 1845 his mother married a Gentile; she and her offspring were baptized Lutherans. He studied at the universities at Breslau, Königsberg, and Berlin, qualifying as a doctor in 1864. However, he was disqualified from practice, and left Germany for Constantinople, with the intention of entering Ottoman service.
Travelling via Vienna and Trieste, he stopped at Antivari in Montenegro, found himself welcomed by the local community and was soon in medical practice. He put his linguistic talent to good use as well, adding Turkish, Albanian, and Greek to his repertoire of European languages. He became the quarantine officer of the port, leaving only in 1870 to join the staff of Ismail Hakki Pasha, governor of northern Albania, in whose service he travelled throughout the Ottoman Empire, although the details are little-known.
When Hakki Pasha died in 1873, Emin went back to Neisse with the pasha's widow and children, where he passed them off as his own family. However, he left suddenly in September 1875, reappearing in Cairo and then departing for Khartoum, where he arrived in December. At this point, he took the name "Mehemet Emin" (Arabic Muhammad al-Amin), started a medical practice, and began collecting plants, animals, and birds, many of which he sent to museums in Europe. Although some regarded him as a Muslim, it is not clear if he ever actually converted.
Charles George Gordon, then governor of Equatoria, heard of Emin's presence and invited him to be the chief medical officer of the province; Emin assented and arrived there in May 1876. Gordon immediately sent Emin on diplomatic missions to Buganda and Bunyoro to the south, where Emin's modest style and fluency in Luganda were quite popular.
After 1876, Emin made Lado his base for collecting expeditions throughout the region. In 1878, the Khedive of Egypt appointed Emin as Gordon's successor to govern the province, giving him the title of Bey. Despite the grand title, there was little for Emin to do; his military force consisted of a few thousand soldiers who controlled no more than a mile's radius around each of their outposts, and the government in Khartoum was indifferent to his proposals for development.
The revolt of Muhammad Ahmad that began in 1881 had cut Equatoria off from the outside world by 1883, and the following year Karam Allah marched south to capture Equatoria and Emin. In 1885 Emin and most of his forces withdrew further south, to Wadelai near Lake Albert. Cut off from communications to the north, he was still able to exchange mail with Zanzibar through Buganda. Determined to remain in Equatoria, his communiques, carried by his friend Wilhelm Junker, aroused considerable sentiment in Europe in 1886, particularly acute after the death of Gordon the previous year.
The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, led by Henry Morton Stanley, undertook to rescue Emin by going up the Congo River and then through the Ituri Forest, an extraordinarily difficult route that resulted in the loss of two-thirds of the expedition. Precise details of this trek are recorded in the published diaries of the expedition's non-African "officers" (e.g. Major Edmund Musgrave Barttelot, Captain William Grant Stairs, Mr. A.J. Mounteney Jephson, or Thomas Heazle Parke, surgeon of the expedition). Stanley met Emin in April 1888, and after a year spent in argument and indecision, during which Emin and Jephson were imprisoned at Dufile by troops who mutinied from August to November 1888, Emin was convinced to leave for the coast. They arrived in Bagamoyo in 1890. During celebrations Emin was injured when he stepped through a window he mistook for an opening to a balcony. Emin spent two months in a hospital recovering while Stanley left without being able to bring him back in triumph.
Emin then entered the service of the German East Africa Company and accompanied Dr. Stuhlmann on an expedition to the lakes in the interior, but was killed by two Arabs, likely slave traders, at Kinene.
Mehmed Emin Pasha see Emin Pasha
Eduard Schnitzer see Emin Pasha
Schnitzer, Eduard see Emin Pasha
Emin Effendi see Emin Pasha
Mehmet Emin Pasha see Emin Pasha
Emin Effendi see Emin Pasha
Emir
Emir. Arabic title referring to a governor or military commander, usually with a great deal of authority, but in an ultimately subordinate position. Emir is often used as the Arabic equivalent of “prince”. Another meaning of emir is for a handful of descendants of Muhammad. Emir is also used for tribal chiefs. Today, the most known emirs are the leaders of Arabic states along the Persian Gulf, in Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (where there are seven of them). In West Africa, the title is most often associated with the Fula rulers of the provinces (emirates) of northern Nigeria.
Emir ("commander" or "general", also "prince" ; also transliterated as amir, aamir or ameer) is a high title of nobility or office, used throughout the Arab World and historically in 19th-century Afghanistan and also in the medieval Muslim World. Emirs are usually considered high-ranking sheiks, but in monarchical states the term is also used for princes, with "Emirate" being analogous to principality in this sense. The word is also used as a name (rather than an honorific) in Bosnia and Turkey, as in Emir Niego and Emir Sevinc. While emir is the predominant spelling in English and many other languages (for example, United Arab Emirates), amir, closer to the original Arabic, is more common for its numerous compounds (e.g., admiral) and in individual names. Spelling thus differs depending on the sources consulted.
Amir, meaning "chieftain" or "commander", is derived from the Arabic root Amr, "command". Originally simply meaning commander or leader, usually in reference to a group of people, it came to be used as a title of governors or rulers, usually in smaller states, and in modern Arabic usually renders the English word "prince." The word entered English in 1593, from the French émir. It was one of the titles or names of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
amir see Emir.
aamir see Emir.
ameer see Emir.
commander see Emir.
general see Emir.
prince see Emir.
Emir Sultan
Emir Sultan (1368-1429). Patron saint of Bursa in Turkey. His mausoleum is a place of pilgrimage.
The Emir Sultan Mosque (Turkish: Emir Sultan Camii) is a mosque in Bursa, Turkey. First built in the 14th century, it was rebuilt in 1804 upon the orders of the Ottoman Sultan Selim III, and re-built again in 1868, along slightly varying plans each time. Emir Sultan, also known as Şemseddin Mehmed Ali el-Hüseyin el Buhari, was a dervish and scholar from Bukhara and also the advisor and son-in-law of the Ottoman Sultan Sultan, Bayezid I.
The present-day mosque, bearing his epithet Emir Sultan, and situated in the Bursa quarter of the same name (although written contiguously, as “Emirsultan”), was built after the collapse of the original 14th century monument in the 1766 earthquake. Although the materials and the location were maintained, the style was adjusted to reflect the baroque design that came into fashion in the Ottoman Empire during the 19th century. Following the 1855 Bursa earthquake, the mosque and the mausoleum (Turkish: türbe) of Emir Sultan was rebuilt again in 1868 (1285 A.H) by Sultan Abdülaziz.
Empedocles
Empedocles (in Arabic, Anbaduqlis) (c. 490-430 B.C.T.). Historical philosopher. He plays no role in Islamic philosophy, but his figure was appropriated by late Neoplatonic circles. Treatises in which Neoplatonic speculations were attributed to Empedocles were translated into Arabic.
Empedocles was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of Agrigentum, a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is best known for being the origin of the cosmogenic theory of the four Classical elements. He also proposed powers called Love and Strife which would act as forces to bring about the mixture and separation of the elements. These physical speculations were part of a history of the universe which also dealt with the origin and development of life. Influenced by the Pythagoreans, he supported the doctrine of reincarnation. Empedocles is generally considered the last Greek philosopher to record his ideas in verse. Some of his work still survives today, more so than in the case of any other Presocratic philosopher. Empedocles' death was mythologized by ancient writers, and has been the subject of a number of literary treatments.
Anbaduqlis see Empedocles
Endenese
Endenese. The Endenese live in central Flores, one of the larger islands of the Lesser Sunda in eastern Indonesia. Their political/administrative area, or regency, is called Kabupaten Ende, with the city of Ende its capital. They share the regency with half of another ethnic group, the Lionese, who speak a dialect of Endenese, a Malayo-Polynesian language. About twenty-six percent of the population are Muslims. The rest are Roman Catholic or traditionalist. Many Endenese live in other parts of Flores and throughout Indonesia. In such places as Manggarai (western Flores) and on the north coast of Sumba, entire villages are occupied totally by Muslim Endenese.
Islam came to Ende during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Unlike in other parts of Indonesia, it came to Ende not from the west but from the east, namely, the island of Solor. The influence of the Bugis is also discernible in their present culture. There seems to have occurred a good deal of migration from Sulawesi. Muslim Endenese has a script similar to that of Buginese, called Iota, probably from the Indonesian word for lontar palm, on whose leaves the script is scratched.
The arrival of Islam and the Portuguese may have occurred virtually at the same time. The struggle between Muslims and the Christian Portuguese took place on the small island of Pulau Ende. In 1570, the Portuguese mission built a fortress there called “Fortaleza do Ende Minor,” to prevent attacks by Javanese pirates. The Muslim inhabitants in 1605 drove the Portuguese from the island, and by 1772 the last Portuguese had been driven from the area.
After the Portuguese came the Dutch. In 1839, the first contact was made between the Dutch and the Raja of Ende. By this time, the people of Ende had become almost completely Muslim.
Before the arrival of the Portuguese in the sixteenth century, the island of Flores already had been used as a trading port by the Javanese (especially for the sandalwood derived from Timor). The Portuguese arrived at Melaka (Malacca) in 1511 and the first bishop in Melaka sent three missionaries to Solor, a small island off the east coast of Flores. Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Islam is said to have come to Ende. Thus, in the sixteenth century, the island of Flores was a battlefield between the Islamic forces and the Portuguese. Then in the seventeenth century, a third force came onto the scene; namely, the Dutch East India Company, which was established in 1602. In 1613, a Dutch fleet under the command of Apollonius Scot sailed through the islands in the eastern part of Indonesia. Before arriving at Kupang, Scot went to Solor and attacked the fortress there, taking it from the Portuguese. In the decades between 1610 and 1640, the Portuguese in Larantuka and the Dutch on Solor played a kind of seesaw game, which in the long run turned in favor of the Dutch. The fortress on Pulau Ende had been destroyed in the 1620s. After that incident the city of Endeh, where the raj adorn of Ende may already have formed itself, replaced Pulau Ende as a focal point in central Flores. Around this time the Portuguese influence over the area was waning. The Dutch East India Company selected Ende as a rajadom and concluded a formal contract in 1793. The company's involvement in eastern Indonesia ended in 1799 when its charter expired and was replaced by Dutch colonial rule. Prior to 1907, the Dutch principle of government had been minimal direct involvement. In 1907, military reinforcement came from Kupang, and the whole land of Flores was pacified by military force.
According to the founding myth of the rajadom of Ende, a man from overseas (Jawa), who married a daughter of the native lord of the land of Ende, was given power and rights over the the land by his father-in-law and became the founder of the Endenese dynasty. The first raja is usually named Jari Jawa (probably derived from an Indonesian expression of dari Jawa – “from Java”), but sometimes called Raden Husen, a typical Muslim name.
Enoch
Enoch. See Idris.
Idris see Enoch.
Idriz see Enoch.
Nabiyullah Idris see Enoch.
Entezam, Abbas Amir
Abbas Amir Entezam (Persian: عباس امیرانتظام, b. August 18, 1932, Tehran, Iran – d. July 12, 2018, Tehran, Iran) was an Iranian politician who served as deputy prime minister in the Interim Cabinet of Mehdi Bazargan in 1979. In 1981 he was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of spying for the United States, a charge critics suggest was a cover for retaliation against his early opposition to theocratic government in Iran. He was the longest-held political prisoner in the Islamic Republic of Iran. As of 2006 he had been in jail for seventeen years and in and out of jail for an additional ten years, altogether for 27 years.
Entezam was born into a middle-class family in Tehran in 1932. He studied electro-mechanical engineering at the University of Tehran and graduated in 1955.
In 1956, Entezam left Iran for study at Institute of France (Paris). He then went to the United States and completed his postgraduate education at the University of California in Berkeley.
After graduation, he remained in the United States and worked as an entrepreneur.
Around 1970, Entezam's mother was dying and he returned to Iran to be with her. Because of his earlier political activities, the Shah's Intelligence Service would not allow him to return to the United States. He stayed in Iran, marrying, becoming a father and developing a business in partnership with his friend and mentor, Mehdi Bazargan. Bazargan appointed him as the head of the political bureau of the Freedom Movement of Iran in December 1978, replacing Mohammad Tavasoli. In 1979, the Shah was overthrown by the Iranian Revolution. The revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini, recently returned to Iran, appointed Bazargan as prime minister of the provisional revolutionary government. Bazargan, in turn, asked Entezam to be the deputy prime minister and the official spokesperson for the new government.
While serving as deputy prime minister, in April 1979, Entezam actively advocated the retirement of army officers above the rank of brigadier general. In 1979, Entezam succeeded in having the majority of the cabinet sign a letter opposing the Assembly of Experts, which was drawing up the new theocratic constitution where democratic bodies were subordinate to clerical bodies. His theocratic opponents attacked him and, in response, in August 1979, Bazargan appointed Entezam to become Iran's ambassador to Denmark.
In December 1979, Bazargan asked Entezam, who had been serving as ambassador to Sweden, to come back quickly to Tehran. Upon returning to Tehran, Entezam was arrested because of allegations based on some documents retrieved from the United States embassy takeover, and imprisoned for a life term. He was released in 1998 but in less than 3 months, he was rearrested because of an interview with the Tous daily newspaper, one of the reformist newspapers of the time.
In smuggled letters, Entezam related that on three separate occasions, he had been blindfolded and taken to the execution chamber - once being kept "there two full days while the Imam contemplated his death warrant." He spent 555 days in solitary confinement, and in cells so "overcrowded that inmates took turns sleeping on the floor - each person rationed to three hours of sleep every 24 hours." During his imprisonment, Entezam experienced permanent ear damage, developed spinal deformities, and suffered from various skin disorders.
Entezam died of a heart attack in Tehran on July 12, 2018. He was buried the following day in Behesht e Zahra cemetery, with Ayatollah Montazeri's son leading the funeral prayer.
Enver Pasha
Enver Pasha (İsmail Enver Efendi) (Enver Paşa) (Enver Bey) (November 22, 1881 – August 4, 1922). Turkish soldier and nationalist leader, who directed the Turkish war effort during World War I. Enver was born in Istanbul. He graduated from Turkey’s military academy in 1902 and served in Macedonia, where he fought Greek and Bulgarian nationalist guerrillas. In 1906, he joined the Young Turks, a secret nationalist group officially known as the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). Two years later, he emerged as the principal hero of the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, which re-established the constitution granted in 1876.
Enver went to Berlin as military attache in 1909 but rushed back to crush the Istanbul counter-revolution in April. He fought with distinction against Italy in Libya (1911-12), returning to Istanbul during the disastrous Balkan Wars (1912-13) to participate in a second CUP coup (January 1913). He recaptured Edirne from Bulgaria in July 1913 and became war minister in 1914, with the task of reforming a demoralized army.
As a member of the Ittihad we Teraqqi Jem‘ iyyeti, Enver was the most consistent advocate of a close alliance with the Central Powers. He helped negotiate Turkey’s alliance with Germany in August 1914, and during World War I he pursued a policy that served German strategy. His romantic dreams of an empire that would include all the Turkish or all the Islamic peoples, however, ended in failure. After the Allied victory in 1918, he fled to Germany and then to Central Asia, where he tried to organize Muslim resistance to the Soviets. In 1918, he fled to Berlin, and in 1921 he went to Bukhara where he was engaged in efforts to mobilize various Ozbeg factions into common resistance against Soviet rule. He was killed in battle against Soviet forces in Tajikistan (Tadzhikistan) on August 4, 1922. He lost his life in action near Dushanbe in Tajikistan.
Ismail Enver Efendi see Enver Pasha
Enver Pasa see Enver Pasha
Enver Bey see Enver Pasha
Erdogan
Erdogan (Recep Tayyip Erdogan) (b. February 26, 1954 in Rize, Turkey). Turkish politician and leader of the Justice and Development Party, the Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi or AK, for short.
Erdogan was born in Rize, in northern Turkey, into a lower middle class family. In 1967, his family moved to Istanbul.
In 1994, Erdogan became the mayor of Istanbul. He demonstrated his political abilities while he was mayor. Unlike the majority of other Turkish politicians, Erdogan proved not to be corrupt. Among his achievements as mayor was the making of the crowded city of Istanbul into a greener and cleaner city.
Despite his honesty, in 1998, Erdogan was convicted by a court for inciting religious hatred. He was sentenced to ten (10) months imprisonment, but served only four. Nevertheless, following his conviction in 1998, Erdogan was subsequently barred from entering parliament and from serving any position in a government.
In 2002, Erdogan’s Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi won a majority representation in the Turkish Parliament, even though it only garnered thirty-six percent (36%) of the votes.
Erdogan went through a change from being an outspoken Islamist into becoming a moderate conservative politician. Whereas, he earlier worked closely with Necmettin Erbakan, whose Islamist party was outlawed in the late 1990s, in later years, he claimed to be both in favor of continued Turkish membership in NATO, and also in favor of entering the European Union. Many looked upon Erdogan’s change in politics with suspicion, and awaited a possible change of emphasis following the 2002 elections. One Islamist issue was however central in his campaign: the abolition of the prohibition against women wearing the head scarf in public buildings.
Erdogan further expressed that he would like to bring in changes to the laws governing political parties, to the election laws, to make Turkey more democratic and pluralist. He had also expressed the need for Turkey to look for foreign investment actively, an issue -- if involving non-Muslim investments – frowned upon by many Islamists.
Erdogan is generally considered to be among Turkey’s most charismatic politicians, proven by the landslide victory of Adalat ve Kalkinma Partisi in the general elections of late 2002.
Although Erdogan received a degree in management from the Marmara University in Istanbul, he was often accused of being sparsely educated, speaking only his native language and knowing little about the mechanics of the economy.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a Turkish politician, a former mayor of Istanbul and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey since March 14, 2003. He is also the chairman of the Justice and Development Party (AK Parti), which holds a majority of the seats in the Turkish Parliament.
Born to a Georgian family that moved from Batumi to Rize, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan grew up, in the Kasımpaşa district of Istanbul, a less than affluent neighborhood, famous for its macho honor code. Kasımpaşa men are known to be quick to anger, painfully proud and blunt in word, and he has always been proud of being one.
Erdoğan spent his early childhood in Rize, where his father was a member of the Turkish Coast Guard. The family returned to Istanbul when Erdoğan was 13 years old. As a teenager, he sold lemonade and sesame buns on the streets of Istanbul's rougher districts to earn extra money. Brought up in a observant Muslim family, he graduated from a religious high school (İmam Hatip school) and then studied management at Aksaray School of Economics and Commercial Sciences (now it is known as Marmara University's Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences). In his youth, Erdoğan played semi-professional football in a local club. The stadium of the local football club of the district he grew up in, Kasımpaşa S.K., a team which is currently playing in the Turkish Süper Lig, is named after him.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan married Emine Erdoğan (née Gülbaran) (b. 1955 in Siirt), whom he met during a conference, on July 4, 1978. The couple has two sons (Ahmet Burak, Necmeddin Bilâl) and two daughters (Esra, Sümeyye).
In high school Erdoğan became known as a fiery orator in the cause of political Islam. He later played on a professional football (soccer) team and attended Marmara University. During this time, he met Necmettin Erbakan, a veteran Islamist politician, and Erdoğan became active in parties led by Erbakan, despite a ban in Turkey on religiously based political parties. In 1994 Erdoğan was elected mayor of Istanbul on the ticket of the Welfare Party. The election of the first-ever Islamist to the mayoralty shook the secularist establishment, but Erdoğan proved to be a competent and canny manager. He yielded to protests against the building of a mosque in the city’s central square but banned the sale of alcoholic beverages in city-owned cafés. In 1998 he was convicted for inciting religious hatred after reciting a poem that compared mosques to barracks, minarets to bayonets, and the faithful to an army. Sentenced to 10 months in prison, Erdoğan resigned as mayor.After serving four months of his sentence, Erdoğan was released from prison in 1999, and he reentered politics. When Erbakan’s Virtue Party was banned in 2001, Erdoğan broke with Erbakan and helped form the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi; AKP). His party won the parliamentary elections in 2002, but Erdoğan was legally barred from serving in parliament or as prime minister because of his 1998 conviction. A constitutional amendment in December 2002, however, effectively removed Erdoğan’s disqualification. On March 9, 2003, he won a by-election and days later was asked by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer to form a new government. Erdoğan took office on May 14, 2003.
As prime minister, Erdoğan toured the United States and Europe in order to dispel any fears that he held anti-Western biases and to advance Turkey’s bid to join the European Union. Although the previous government had refused to allow U.S. troops to be stationed in Turkey during the Iraq War, in October 2003 Erdoğan secured approval for the dispatch of Turkish troops to help keep the peace in Iraq; Iraqi opposition to the plan, however, prevented such a deployment. In 2004 he sought to resolve the issue of Cyprus, which had been partitioned into Greek and Turkish sectors since a 1974 civil war. Erdoğan supported a United Nations plan for the reunification of the island; in April 2004, Turkish Cypriots approved the referendum, but their Greek counterparts rejected it. Tensions between Turkey’s secularist parties and Erdoğan’s AKP were highlighted in 2007, when attempts to elect an AKP candidate with Islamist roots to the country’s presidency were blocked in parliament by an opposition boycott. Erdoğan called for early parliamentary elections, and his party won a decisive victory at the polls in July.
In early 2008 parliament passed an amendment that lifted a ban on the wearing of head scarves—a sign of religion long contested in Turkey—on university campuses. Opponents of the AKP renewed their charges that the party posed a threat to Turkish secular order, and Erdoğan’s position appeared to come under increasing threat. In March the constitutional court voted to hear a case that called for the dismantling of the AKP and banning Erdoğan and dozens of other party members from political life for five years. Erdoğan successfully maintained his position, however, when in July 2008 the court ruled narrowly against the party’s closure and sharply reduced its state funding instead. In September 2010 a package of constitutional amendments championed by Erdoğan was approved by a national referendum. The package included measures to make the military more accountable to civilian courts and to increase the legislature’s power to appoint judges.
While campaigning for parliamentary elections in early 2011, Erdoğan pledged to replace Turkey’s constitution with a new one that would strengthen democratic freedoms. In June 2011 Erdoğan secured a third term as prime minister when the AKP won by a wide margin in parliamentary elections. However, the AKP fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to unilaterally write a new constitution.
May and June 2013 saw protests against the perceived authoritarianism of Erdogan and his policies, starting from a small sit-in in Istanbul in defense of a city park. After the police's intense reaction with tear gas, the protests grew each day that came after. After weeks of deadly clashes in the streets of Istanbul, his government first apologized to the protestors and called for a plebiscite, but then brutally cracked down on the peaceful protesters.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan see Erdogan
Ersoy
Ersoy (Mehmed Akif Ersoy) (Mehmet Akif Ersoy) (b. 1873, Istanbul - d. December 27, 1936, Istanbul). Turkish Islamist poet. Born in Istanbul of devout parents, Akif received a secular education, graduating first in his class in 1893 from the Civil School of Veterinary Sciences. He was a gifted linguist in Arabic, Persian and French, but it was through unrivalled mastery in his native Turkish that Akif was to convey his poetic vision of the ideal Muslim society, based on his study of Islamic doctrine and the Qur’an. Possessed of conviction and wholehearted commitment, he encapsulated the brooding restlessness of his time – the bitter disappointment and gloomy introspection of the Muslim world, and especially of the Muslim Turks of the Ottoman Empire. His competent though undistinguished veterinary career (to 1913) was subordinated to his poetic calling, but it nevertheless brought him into close contact with the peoples of the Rumelian, Anatolian, and Arabian provinces, providing valuable insight for his social poetry.
Although publishing from 1893, Akif was long unable, during a period of strict censorship, to put into print his maturing, poetic, social commentary – instead disseminating it privately. The restoration in 1908 of the 1876 Constitution, however, ushering in the Young Turk era, initiated his literary career proper in verse and prose. Already Akif was interpreting the crisis of the Ottoman state’s struggle for survival, under variform attack from Christendom, on the religious plane as an issue encompassing the entire Muslim world. His writing consequently aimed at an order for Muslim society within the ideal of Islamic unity. His perspective of the disorder in Ottoman society led him to blame not Islam but rather those aspects of the Muslim world created by Muslims and therefore open to correction by them. Thus, he attributed the failure of education to society’s losing sight of the intellectual in Islam. While viewed as conservative, Akif was conservative mainly in the sense that he set his revolutionary Islamic thinking within the framework of traditional poetic expression. His magnum opus, the seven volume Safahat (Phases, 1911-1933), transmuted the lives of real people into a stylized social novel in verse form, composed throughout in polished classical prosody and style and displaying a talent for the use of vignette to inveigh against societal ills.
Akif’s pessimism increased during World War I in response to the collaboration by some Ottoman Muslim Arabs with the Christian Powers. His Turkish patriotism shocked into being by the loss of empire, he worked as an educator and preacher in the National Struggle (1919-1922) toward the foundation of a new Turkish state; but he was distressed by the emergence of a nationalist, secular republic serving its Muslim citizens, rather than his desired Muslim Turkey leading the community of Islam. Disappointed, he settled in Egypt in 1925, where he taught Turkish and wrote little. He was, however, persuaded, despite misgivings, to translate the Qur’an into Turkish under commission from the Turkish government. This work he eventually completed but retracted, fearing, in his isolation from events, that it might be misused in the state policy of turkification of the language of worship.
Akif was not, nor did he wish to be, aloof from the thinking of his day. He challenged the current ideologies of Turkism and so-called Westernism. Yet his strong sense of Turkishness, as in his emphasis on Turkish idiom and vocabulary in composition, manifests itself clearly despite the uncompromising Islamist message of his writing. Few religious and patriotic poets of this century have surpassed Akif in spiritual depth and nationalist passion, expressed, for example, in the Istiklal Marsi (Independence March), his award-winning poem that was adopted as the Turkish national anthem in 1921.
What endures is the sincerity of the Islamic belief of this Turkish patriot, a man now seen as symbolizing the conjunction of Turkish nationalism and Muslim internationalism. As such, Akif satisfies the yearning of both learned and unlearned in Turkey in their increasingly defensive reaction against the perceived hostility of the non-Muslim world.
Mehmed Akif Ersoy see Ersoy
Mehmet Akir Ersoy see Ersoy
Ertogrul
Ertogrul (Ertuğrul) (Ottoman Turkish: (b. 1191/1198, Ahlat – d. 1281, Söğüt). Father of Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Empire. He was the leader of the Kayı clan of the Oghuz Turks. When arriving in Anatolia with his 400 horsemen to aid the Seljuks of Rum against the Byzantines, Ertoğrul set off the chain of events that would ultimately lead to the founding of the Ottoman Empire. Like his son, Osman, and his future descendants, Ertoğrul is often referred to as a Ghazi, a heroic champion fighter for the cause of Islam.
In 1227, Ertogrul inherited the command of the Kayı tribe of the Oghuz Turks as a result of his assistance to the Seljuks against the Byzantines. Ertoğrul received lands of Karaca Dağ, a mountainous area near Angora (now Ankara), from Ala ad-Din Kay Qubadh I, the Seljuk Sultan of Rum. One account indicates that the Seljuk leader's rationale for granting Ertoğrul land was for Ertoğrul to repel any hostile incursion from the Byzantines or other adversary. Later, he received the village of Söğüt which he conquered in 1231 together with the surrounding lands. That village became the Ottoman capital in 1299 under Osman I, Ertoğrul's son. Ertoğrul had two other sons, Savdji and Gündüz.
Ertugrul see Ertogrul
Es‘ad Efendi
Es‘ad Efendi (Mehmed Es‘ad Efendi) (1789-1848). Ottoman official historiographer and scholar. His library is one of the most important private collections in Turkey.
Mehmed Es‘ad Efendi see Es‘ad Efendi
Esrefoglu
Esrefoglu (d. 1469). Turkish poet.
Estevanico
Estevanico (Mustafa Zemmouri) (Black Stephen) (Esteban) (Esteban the Moor) (Estevan) (Estebanico) (Stephen the Black) Stephen the Moor) (Little Stephen) (c.1500-1539) Moroccan native who was a servant to Panfilo de Narvaez’s ill-fated Florida expedition in 1528. He later accompanied A. Nunez-Cabeza de Vaca in a transcontinental trip from the Texas coast, near Galveston and the mouth of the San Antonio River, to northeastern Sonora, an eight-year expedition which ended in 1536 in Mexico City. Despite his service, Estevanico did not obtain his freedom. While acting as a guide for Friar Marcos de Niza in 1538, it is believed that Estevanico was killed by Zuni Indians in a small village on the upper Rio Grande.
Estevanico was of Berber North African origin, possibly from Azemmour, Morocco. He was the first known person born in North Africa to have arrived in the present-day continental United States. An enslaved servant, he was one of four survivors of the Spanish Narváez expedition and traveled with explorer Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca across the Southwest.
Estevanico was sold into slavery to the Portuguese in the town of Azemmour, a Portuguese enclave on Morocco's Atlantic coast, in 1513, at an early age. Contemporary accounts referred to him as an "Arabized black"; "Moor", sometimes used for Berber natives; and black African. He was raised as a Muslim, but was converted to Roman Catholicism upon enslavement. In 1520 he was sold to Andrés Dorantes de Carranza, a Spanish nobleman with whom he developed close ties.
Estevanico traveled with Dorantes to Hispaniola and Cuba and with Pánfilo de Narváez's ill-fated expedition of 1527 to colonize Florida and the Gulf Coast. Estevanico became the first person born in Africa known to have set foot in the present continental United States. He and Dorantes were two of the expedition's four survivors, after the party attempted to sail to Mexico on makeshift rafts. The group was shipwrecked on Galveston Island and most of the men either drowned, starved, or were killed by natives over the following years. By 1533 only Estevanico, Dorantes, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, and Alonso del Castillo Maldonado survived. Estevanico's ability as a faith healer was said to have helped them with the Indians. The four spent years enslaved by the Ananarivo of the Louisiana Gulf Islands. In 1534 they escaped into the American interior, contacting other Native American tribes along the way. The party traversed the continent as far as present-day southeastern Arizona, and through the Sonoran Desert to the region of Sinaloa in New Spain (present-day Mexico), where they were reunited with countrymen.
In 1539, Estevanico was one of four men who accompanied Marcos de Niza as a guide in search of the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola, preceding Coronado. When the others were struck ill, Estevanico continued alone, opening up what is now New Mexico and Arizona. He was killed at the Zuni village of Hawikuh (in present-day New Mexico).
Mustafa Zemmouri see Estevanico
Black Stephen see Estevanico
Esteban the Moor see Estevanico
Stephen the Black see Estevanico
Stephen the Moor see Estevanico
Little Stephen see Estevanico
Eunuchs
Eunuchs. Castrated human males. In Southwest Asia, the eunuch was castrated for practical reasons, and served in positions where only castrated men were allowed. The eunuchs were either guards or servants in harems or chamberlains to kings. These were the original positions for the eunuchs, but many succeeded in climbing in social status, and could reach positions like bodyguards, confidential advisers, ministers, even generals and admirals. Many of the advisers under the Ottoman Empire were eunuchs.
The reasons to castrate men entering such positions, are rather obvious: For the eunuchs working in the harems, there was a need for men who could not make the women pregnant. Another reason was that castration made a eunuch's personality was more favorable for important positions. Additionally, the fact that eunuchs never could have any children made them less threatening for rulers and other important people. After all, the eunuchs had no sons who could challenge their own sons’ future positions.
There were three levels of castration: (1) Removal of both testicles and penis, leaving the man with only a hole for urination; (2) removal of only testicles before the boy reach puberty, leaving the future man totally non-sexual; and (3) removal of testicles after puberty, leaving the man capable of achieving erection but not being able to ejaculate.
In ancient Egypt, a court officer was called a eunuch whether or not he had been castrated. However, most were castrated, hence the use of the term.
In 1909, harems were outlawed in the Ottoman Empire. The outlawing of harems brought to an end a little known chapter in African history. In the Seraglio -- the grand harem of the Ottoman Sultans -- the guardians of the women were always African eunuchs, and for five hundred years these black sentinels were privy to the most intimate details of one of the most powerful kingdoms on earth.
The first traces of eunuchry appear in Mesopotamia where the Tigris and Euphrates together and empty into the Persian Gulf. During the ninth century B.C.T., Semiramis, the Queen of Assyria, castrated male slaves. So also did other queens. It is even believed that the infamous Queen of Sheba castrated her male slaves.
The tradition of eunuchs traveled east, through Persia to China. Warring tribes, such as the Persians, often castrated their prisoners and offered them, along with the most beautiful virgins from amongst the conquered, to their kings.
In 538 B.C.T., Cyrus, the King of Persia, captured Babylon. Upon this victory, Cyrus proclaimed that since eunuchs were incapable of procreating and having their own families, they might be the most loyal servants.
With the advent of Christianity, the notion of chastity and the perception of women as obstacles to achieving it encouraged castration. Tertullian, the second century theologian, declared the Kingdom of Heaven open to eunuchs, encouraging many potential followers of Christ to undergo castration.
During the Renaissance, the Catholic Church began castrating boys to preserve their soprano voices for the papal choir of the Sistine Chapel. This practice continued until 1878.
In the eighteenth century, some of the most famous opera singers were castrati. Such individuals as Grimaldi, Farinelli, and Nicolini all achieved fame for the quality of their unnatural but angelic voices.
In Mecca and Medina, several hundred eunuchs were employed by the holy mosques of Islam. At these mosques, the attendants had to come into contact with women who visited the mosques. Such contact was not permissible between men and women in Islamic society, especially in a holy place. Accordingly, the attendants had to be eunuchs -- they had to be something less than men.
In Asia Minor (in Turkey), during the fifth century B.C.T., the priests of the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus and the Temple of Sybelle were eunuchs. Later on, the sacred function changed into a form of luxury in Greece and in Rome.
The custom of utilizing eunuchs lingered among the Byzantines and passed on to the Ottoman Turks. During the fourteenth century, when the Ottomans first began secluding their women, the Byzantines supplied them with eunuchs. However, soon thereafter, the Ottoman Turks established their own trade in eunuchs.
In China, castration was a well-established practice during the 1300 and 1400s. The great Muslim Chinese explorer, Zheng He, was a eunuch. However, while the eunuchs in China were all Chinese, in the Ottoman Empire, the eunuchs were anything but Turks. After all, castration was technically forbidden in Islam.
At first, the Turks acquired white eunuchs from such conquered Christian areas as Circassia, Georgia, and Armenia. However, these eunuchs often proved too fragile. Their mortality rate was extremely high. Not so with the black eunuchs who apparently manifested more strength and better endurance.
According to the tenets of Islam, slaves captured in war became the property of their captor and, like all property, could be transferred. Muslim slave traders pursued certain African chiefs who willingly sold their people. Such transactions established a lucrative trade.
The majority of the slaves came from the lands of Egypt, Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and Sudan. The upper reaches of the Nile, Kordofan, Darfur, Dongola, and Lake Chad were particularly noted as being sources for slaves. The slaves were typically shipped upriver to Alexandria or Cairo, packed spoon fashion in boats. Another method of transportation was from Abyssinia to the Red Sea ports and eventually to the greatest slave emporiums in Southwest Asia -- Mecca, Medina, Beirut, Smyrna, and Constantinople (Istanbul).
Among the slaves, some young African boys would be selected for castration. The castration would occur during the transportation of the slaves. The act of castration itself would typically be performed by Egyptian Christians or Jews since Islam prohibited the practice.
Castration was a risky operation with a high mortality rate. The mortality rate was exacerbated by the hot, arid climate which made recovery difficult. Desert sand was considered to be the most effective balm to heal the wounds so the newly castrated were buried up to their necks in desert sand until their wounds healed. The boys who survived the pain, hemorrhage, and subsequent burial became special -- they became luxury items, bringing enormous profit to the slave traders. Because they had such great value, black eunuchs generally attracted only the wealthiest of purchasers. This fact contributed to their eventual positions of power and prestige.
There were three general categories of eunuchs:
castrati - those with both the penis and testicles removed
spadones - those with only the testicles removed
thlibiae - those whose testicles had been crushed permanently damaging the seminal glands
In the Seraglio -- the grand harem of the Ottoman Sultans -- the white eunuchs served in the Selamlik -- the place where the Sultan met other men. However, it was the black eunuchs who were entrusted with the harem, the most private part of the kingdom.
Because they were often privy to the most intimate secrets of the harem and also had access to the outer world, the eunuchs became some of the most powerful men in the Ottoman Empire. The chief black eunuch -- the kislar agasi -- exercised great political power in the court, serving as the most important link between the sultan and his mother. Officially, his position was the third highest ranking officer in the empire, after the sultan and the grand vizier (prime minister).
The chief black eunuch was the commander of the corps of baltaci, a pasha, and carried other important titles. He could approach the sultan at any time and functioned as the private messenger between the sultan and the grand vizier. The chief black eunuch had access to the valide sultana (the sultan's mother) and served as the liaison between the sultan and his mother. Any woman within the harem wanting to approach the sultan had to be screened by the chief black eunuch. He was an extremely wealthy man, greatly feared, and, consequently, the most bribed official in the whole Ottoman Empire.
If any emergency occurred, the kizlar agasi was the only person allowed to enter the harem. His duties were to protect the women, provide the necessary girl slaves for the harem, oversee the promotion of the women and the eunuchs, act as a witness for the sultan's marriage and birth ceremonies, arrange all the royal ceremonial events, such as circumcision parties, weddings and feasts, and carry out the sentence for harem women accused of crimes. It was the chief black eunuch who took the girls to the executioner -- who had them put in sacks to be drowned.
In the second half of the sixteenth century, the power of the eunuchs grew. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the eunuchs, like the valide sultanas, took advantage of the numerous child sultans, and mentally incompetent ones, to gain political power. During the Reign of Women (1558-1687), the chief black eunuch was the valide sultana's most intimate and valued accomplice.
From the early nineteenth century until the fall of the empire, the power of the chief black eunuch declined. By the early twentieth century, his job was simply to supervise the dress of the women, making sure that it was appropriate; to accompany the women on their outings; to make certain that everything was conducted according to the rules of the Seraglio; to prohibit merchants, workers, and fortune-tellers from entering the harem; to grant or deny permission to women visitors; and to be on call in case something critical happened after midnight.
With the prohibition against harems in 1909, the demise of the eunuchs soon followed. They, along with their charges, were soon relegated to a minor footnote in history.
castrati see Eunuchs.
spadones see Eunuchs.
thlibiae see Eunuchs.
Eve
Eve (in Arabic, Hawwa’). According to the Book of Genesis and the Quran, the first woman created by God, and an important figure in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Her husband was Adam, from whose rib God used to created her to be Adam's companion. According to the Book of Genesis, Eve succumbed to the serpent's temptation via the suggestion that to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, would improve on the way God had made her, and that she would not die. Eve, believing the lie of the Serpent rather than the earlier instruction from God, shared the fruit with Adam. As a result, the first humans were expelled from the Garden of Eden and were cursed.
Eve is not mentioned by name in the Qur'an, she is nevertheless referred to as Adam's spouse, and Islamic tradition refers to her by an etymologically similar name Hawwāʾ.Thus, mention is found in verses 30-39 of Sura 2, verses 11-25 of Sura 7, verses 26-42 of Sura 15, verses 61-65 of Sura 17, verses 50-51 of Sura 18, verses 110-124 of Sura 20 and in verses 71-85 of Sura 38.
Islamic texts, which include the Qur'an and the books of Sunnah (Hadith), potentially dramatically alter the story of Adam and Eve. In particular, Qur'an absolves Eve from the responsibility of leading Adam to commit the original sin by completely omitting the details of the legend as written in the Book of Genesis. The Qur'an simply blames both of them for the transgression. However, a saying of Prophet Mohammed narrated by Abu Hurairah states: “Narrated Abu Hurairah: The Prophet said, ‘Were it not for Bani Israel, meat would not decay; and were it not for Eve, no woman would ever betray her husband.’" (Sahih Bukhari, Hadith 611, Volume 55). An identical but more explicit version is found in the second most respected book of the prophetic narrations, Sahih Muslim. “Abu Hurairah reported Allah's Messenger as saying: Had it not been for Eve, woman would have never acted unfaithfully towards her husband.” (Hadith 3471, Volume 8). Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi and others have suggested that these hadiths are weak because they violate universal laws (eg. meat decaying) and the Qur'an.
Traditionally, the final resting place of Eve is said to be the "Tomb of Eve" in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Hawwa’ see Eve
Evliya Celebi
Evliya Celebi (Evliya Chelebi) (March 25, 1611 - 1682/1684). Turkish traveler. His long journeys within the Ottoman Empire and in the neighboring lands are described in his ten-volume work called Seyahat-name (“Book of Travels”). He was an imaginative writer with a marked penchant for the wonderful and the adventurous, and his work also offers a wealth of information.
Evliya Celebi was born in Istanbul, the son of the Palace goldsmith. His skill as a Qur’an reciter having brought him to the notice of Murad IV (1623-1640), he completed his education in the Palace School, finishing as a cadet in the cavalry. He felt a continued urge to travel. A dream prompted him to compose (in 1640) a detailed description of Istanbul. Thereafter, thanks to his mother’s connections and probably his own charm, he attached himself to the entourages of successive dignitaries, to spend the rest of his life on military campaigns and civil errands which took him throughout the Ottoman Empire -- then at its greatest extent -- and beyond.
Celebi’s ten-volume Seyahat-name describes minutely the mounuments of the towns he visited, the customs, dress and language of the inhabitants, and the scenery and crops of each district, giving a unique picture of everyday life. A taste for tales of wonder and a tendency to exaggerate caused his work to be undervalued, but it was finally printed, in 1896. Nevertheless, in this work, Celebi does provide a virtual census of Istanbul and the surrounding area during Celebi’s time.
Evliya Chelebi see Evliya Celebi
Evren
Evren (Kenan Evren) (b. July 17, 1917). Leader of 1980 coup restoring order to Turkey. Ahmet Kenan Evren was the seventh president of Turkey; a post he assumed by leading the 1980 military coup.
Kenan Evren was born in Alaşehir, Manisa. After going to elementary school and middle school in Manisa, Balıkesir and Istanbul, he attended military high school in Maltepe, Ankara. In 1938, he graduated from army school and in 1949 from military academy as a staff officer. From 1958 to 1959, he served in the Turkish Brigade in Korea. In 1964 he was made general. Evren served at various posts as Army Chief. He was the commander of Operation Gladio's Turkish branch; the Counter-Guerrilla. The Counter-Guerrilla was an anti-communist "stay-behind" guerrilla force set up with the support of NATO. He became Chief of General Staff in March 1978.
The years leading to the coup were characterized as a fierce struggle between the rightists and leftists. Hoping to see a communist revolution, the left wingers rioted in the streets. On the other hand, the nationalist rightists fought back the left wingers and provoked religious arousal. Universities had taken sides and each became headquarters for either the leftists or rightists. The political leaders Suleyman Demirel and Bülent Ecevit were incapable of controlling the violence.
With the coup came the National Security Council as the ruling body. The council of 1980 was composed of the commanders Kenan Evren, the Chief of Staff and President of the State. The parliament was dissolved.
After the coup, in 1982, Kenan Evren was elected the President of Republic of Turkey on November 7 with the 90% approval of the new constitution that was submitted to a controversial referendum, replacing the older constitution which, according to him, had liberties "luxurious" for Turkey. He suspended many forms of civil liberties and human rights on the grounds that it was necessary to establish stability. He professed great admiration for the founder of Turkey, Kemal Atatürk. However, he shut down many institutions founded by Atatürk and is often accused of deforming the country's legal system against Atatürk's principles. During his military regime, many people were tortured and executed due to their political beliefs.
Evren took strong measures to ensure that the division between the political left and right would not turn into violence again. The new constitution limited the rights and de-politicized the youth.
After his retirement, he moved to the Turkish Mediterranean resort town of Armutalan, Marmaris and took up painting. On August 2, 2006, a reported plan for assassinating Evren was thwarted when two men were apprehended and arrested in Muğla. A previous attempt in 1996 had already been tracked down when two members of the assassination team spoke on a cellphone eavesdropped by the police, and the Islamic call to prayer (adhan) could be heard during their conversation. Since the timing of the adhan was 4–5 minutes after Istanbul, a point slightly more to the west by that time margin was sought and the team members were caught in Marmaris itself.
After Bülent Ecevit's death, he expressed remorse over the arrest of political leaders after the September 12 coup, but defended the coup itself and the 35 executions.
Kenan Evren see Evren
