My 24 hours in Bursa turned out to be a really nice mix of work, sight-seeing, and local hospitality. My contact there grew up in the city so he was an ideal host to give me a tour of some major sites. These included the beautiful Green Mosque built in 1419 and the tombs of Osman Gazi, the founder of the Ottoman Empire, and his son Orhan Gazi. These date to 1324 and 1360, respectively.
Spending the day in the first capital of an empire that lasted 600 years reminded me how little I was taught about Ottoman history while growing up. I can vaguely remember learning that the Ottomans tried to seize Vienna and that they played a role in the Crimean War, but that’s about it, which seems like a lousy summary of six centuries. 
Am I alone on this? Should I blame it on having a high school history teacher of Cypriot origin? Any thoughts?
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Speaking from a Danish perspective, I’d say that your history teacher is off the hook. I can’t recall anything about the Middle East - not even related to colonialism or Israel and definitively not about the Ottomans - being a subject either in primary or secondary school. But then, that was in the 1970s and 1980s.
OT - or perhaps not? - the fine Danish poet Henrik Nordbrandt has lived for much of the time in Greece and Turkey since the 1970s and written a number of books, also non-fiction, which have obvious references to Turkish and Ottoman society and culture.
I definitely learned more than this, but that’s probably not surprising given that I grew up in Hungary and there is considerable connection between those histories.
Come to think of it, the Swedes might have an interest in the Osman Empire as well as Karl XII had to flee to Istanbul during his reign and stayed there for six years.
On the other hand, Karl is a problematic figure to deal with as he is celebrated by Swedish right-wing extremists and his brand of imperialism doesn’t really fit in with accepted view of Sweden’s role in the world. (In other words: I don’t know if and what Swedish school-children learn about the links between Sweden and the Osman Empire)
No, I’m with ya. I think I might have learned a bit about it in a West Civ class in college, but that, along with a lot of the stuff I learned in my humanities classes, has (unfortunately or fortunately, depending on perspective) been replaced with science info.
I went to a Jewish school in England and I remember being taught about the Ottomans in Palestine being nasty to the Jews there (who were on the side of the Brits) during World War I. That’s about it though.
Thanks for the interesting comments, everyone. Come to think of it, many Turks today complain about being severed from Ottoman history and learning only basic information (I suppose this has been changing in the last 10 years or so).
@Petra: At the Diyanet I am frequently told how well the Ottomans treated the Jews throughout their reign and in particular how they welcomed them to the Empire after Spain expelled them in 1492. I haven’t researched this area, but I’m not at all surprised when I hear about episodes showing this not to be the complete story.
I think they did for the most part (Hagay’s family are from Turkey). Certainly better than the Christians! From what I understood (and it may very likely be wrong), by that time, the OE was in a shambles and the Jewish community in Palestine was all for the Brits coming in which was also due, in no small part, to the British making all kinds of promises about establishing a Jewish state, exemplified by the Balfour declaration (which didnt stop them making all kinds of promises to the contrary to the Arabs as well). So the Ottomans didn’t take kindly to that and actually expelled the whole population of Tel Aviv during the war.
Got it. I should definitely brush up on that.
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