Counterfeiting Heritage (4) Issue 19

The beginning of falsification of Arab heritage

On the day Salim I stole the Citadel of Aleppo

Theft is not permissible in Islam, but it is considered a legitimate matter in the Sharia of the Ottoman Empire, evidenced by the fact that these bad habits were inherited by the men of their army and their officials in all the places that they colonized in terms of land, thought and culture. The history pages are riddled with humiliating slaps in connection with Istanbul’s claim that it is an Islamic country that respects integrity and human values.

The Turkish used to steal Arab heritage and its unique exploits. For the Arabs, this is due to two reasons: The first is the fulfillment of the desire hidden in the minds of the Ottomans, those who are accustomed to mistreating the Arabs, as well as humiliating and insulting them and violating their intellectual rights. The second: that the Turkish state does not rely on a solid foundation of history and culture that qualifies it to produce timeless and unique outputs of its own that achieve the goal of its pride if it so desires. In addition to adopting the “Mamluk” system with the subjects of the states and societies subordinate to them. The people, money, culture, and land are a solution to the whims of the Istanbul regime as if it were theirs. This Turkish obsession appears by excluding everything that belongs to the Arabs in order to falsify it by forcibly adding it to the Turkish culture, or robbing it of its original cultural home and stripping the Arabs of it.

They robbed everything that belonged to the Arabs and forcibly added it to the Turkish culture.

The Ottomans were accustomed to mistreating Arabs and squandering their rights.

One of the evident stories of history is the story of the Egyptian Mawlid tent, in which the celebration of the Prophet’s birthday was held and the Ottoman Salim I (1520 AD) admired it. Considering that the Ottomans are Sufis, the Prophet’s birthday is a Sufi custom compatible with the Ottomans. All the revelers were astonished by the Egyptian tent, with its magnificent drawings, attractive inscriptions and bright colors. Ibn Iyas described it in his book “Badi` Al-Huzur” as one of the wonders of the world, as no such thing was ever made. Its cost was 30,000 dinars, which was an incredible amount at the time. Salim I underestimated the Egyptian Arab creativity by selling the tent to Moroccans for only four hundred dinars. This was in order to reduce its heritage and aesthetic value, so the Moroccans cut them into pieces and people bought these pieces, using them as curtains for their homes and as a cover for their tables. Salim’s behavior was nothing but malice and an understatement of Arab-Islamic culture. Evidence of history in the Ottomans’ attempt to degrade and reduce the creative Arab culture data are numerous, similar to what Ibrahim Pasha did in Egypt by robbing great money, antiques and rare pieces from which he gifted pieces of gold encrusted with great jewels to Sultan Murad.

The stories of Salim I stealing Arab heritage after his conquest of the Arabs are very sad, especially as he realizes the importance of Arab funds and Arab heritage, and its importance in supporting the Turks’ cultural deficiencies, especially since they do not have a firm identity. Among the things that clarify this when Aleppo fell into the hands of Salim I and seized the possessions of its famous castle; seeking to obliterate its cultural and civilizational identity, and to remove the elements of its history that links it to its ancient Arab and Islamic past. He ordered his soldiers to dismantle the marble of the Bisariya Hall and Dehaisheh, the Hall of the Sea, the Grand Palace and other sites in the castle, and he also ordered his soldiers to dismantle the porphyry columns that were in the Grand Iwan, to establish a school in his name in Istanbul, such as the School of Sultan Al-Ghuri. He could have established the school without demolishing and sabotaging the Al-Ghuri School and violating the intellectual rights and architectural values of that historical school that has brought forth generations with a goal of academic excellence and distinction.

The Egyptian Mawlid Tent cost 30,000 dinars and was sold for 400 dinars in favor of the Ottomans.

You can imagine the scene of the Ottomans, who carried out this destruction of the components of the school in Aleppo, brutally attacking the classrooms, taking the porphyry and colored marble from them, as they destroyed several halls of the Muslim endowments and the homes of the princes of that school. This scene reminds you of the Mongol attack on Baghdad, and the painful facts against the scientific and intellectual heritage, as well as crimes against human thought, which are described by the sources of history. This is probably because the Ottomans share a common malevolent gene with the Mongols, given that they have a genuine ethnic relationship. Just as the Mongols burned the libraries of the Abbasid capital and threw their books into the Tigris and Euphrates River until its water became blue, the Ottomans are no difference from them when they stole the precious books and the rare manuscripts from Al-Mahmudiyah school and Al-Mu’ydiyah school, and from all schools in Syria. This included in particular Aleppo, which prior to that date, produced hundreds of legal and linguistic books; It was led by students and disciples of knowledge from various parts of the Islamic world, and then they transferred them to Turkey after they controlled them. This is a failed attempt to transfer science centers and incubators to the Turkish sector to reinforce the Ottoman political centralization which has a weak historical reference, and to empty the Arab world of its scientific status. This looting incident was not the last, but was followed by various incidents, although they differed in their locations and dates. The clear evidence of this is the museums that Turkey established with the thefts of its soldiers during the battles of its colonization of different countries of the heritage, especially the Arab one, which represents a historical competitive advantage for the Arabs over other peoples, including the Turks who came from Central Asia who only bear the idea of blood and death. History has allowed them to create a sprawling and torn country, and they found the truth about themselves after entering these countries that most of the world’s people have a heritage and value, and they only possess a culture of arms.

1. Boulos Massad, The Ottoman Empire in Lebanon and Syria (Beirut: 1916).

2. Abdel Moneim Al-Hashimi, Encyclopedia of History of the Arabs in the Modern Era (Beirut: Al-Hilal House and Library, 2006).

3. Muhammad Kurd Ali, Khotat Al-Sham, 3rd Edition (Damascus: Al-Nouri Library, 1983).

They demolished and stole the historical contents

Salim and then Erdogan

The theft of Arab antiquities Story

The current Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan practices the policy of Ottoman history, and plays the role that was practiced by the Ottomans and their sultans who practiced plundering everything that falls in their way of the holdings of the Islamic religion and its legacy of knowledge and the acquisition of Islamic holdings that pass in the way of their mercenary army that any country can lease in the name of Islam falsely, or on the level of mercenary warfare groups in the world in general.

Taking possession of Islamic holdings in the name of Islam is a crime.

Salim I began theft with his conquest of the Arab world, when he stole the Arab heritage and its antiquities from everywhere, even the Two Holy Mosques, in addition to what he stole from the Levant and Egypt, where he did not only steal the heritage but also the workforce, as he was not satisfied with the possessions only.

Today, Erdogan is practicing the theft of Arab heritage and its antiquities through his army, which entered Syria under the pretext of fighting the Turkish revolutionaries, and then left behind him an unforgivable cultural and archaeological crime when his tanks bulldozed the most important archaeological hill in Gre Spi. According to the archaeological missions, it dates back to the third millennium BC, as if he killed thousands of ideas and people who continued to live or care about this historical hill that dates back to the Arabs and not to Turkish.

Thousands of ideas and people were killed by destroying their antiquities and possessions.

Two modern stories connect the Turkish present with its polluted past, and link the current Turkish President Erdogan’s hands, contaminated with Islamic blood, with the hands of his Ottoman predecessors. In youm7 newspaper issue published on August 19, 2018 AD, news stated: The “Elijah the Prophet – Elias” synagogue in the Damascus neighborhood of Jobar was robbed. It is the oldest synagogue for Jews in the world. A rare manuscript was stolen from inside by members of “Fyalaq Al-Rahman” group. When the thieves were arrested by the Turkish authorities, they confiscated the looted items and transferred them to Istanbul museums. In a similar incident, the events took place in the northwestern Turkish state of Beycik, where four Syrians and a Turkish person were arrested in possession of two old copies of the Torah dating back to before Christ. These two copies are engraved on deer skin, embroidered with gold, emeralds and rubies, and they were kept by the Turkish government, as if these stolen items belong to the Turkish heritage. They could have been handed over to UNESCO for repatriation to their country of origin, Syria. If Turkey had been sincere in hiring its army to serve the truth and support Muslims, it would not have done so, as its rusty trumpets claim, led by the President of Turkey and his semi-intellectuals, academics and journalists.

Everything that fell under their control in Syria was confiscated and transferred to Istanbul museums.

The Turks and the Ottomans have stolen heritage and its antiquities. They created museums to market for Turkish tourism with injustice and aggression, using Arab heritage and its collections. The words of the Yemeni poet Abdullah Al-Bardouni apply to them:

1. Muhammad Kurd Ali, Khotat Al-Sham, 3rd Edition (Damascus: Al-Nouri Library, 1983).

2. Ibn Iyas, Badi` Al-Huzur (Cairo: The Egyptian General Book Authority, 1984).

3. youm7 newspaper, (Sunday, August 19, 2018).

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The Ottomans and Egyptian Antiquities

One of the important and dramatic moments that attracted the attention of the nationalist trend in the history of Egypt was the entry of the Ottomans into Egypt in (1517 AD). Perhaps the most important writing on this matter is Hussein Fawzi’s book entitled “Sindbad Misry” or “An Egyptian Sindbad”. Fawzi imagined himself traveling through Egyptian history, reviewing the most important situations in it.

Interestingly, Fawzi begins the chapters of his book with what he called “Sad Friday,” which is the Friday on which the sermon was read in the name of Sultan Salim after his victory in the Battle of Raidania, and his entry into Cairo. This is how the Egyptian nationalist current views the Ottoman era as the “Ages of Darkness” and the disappearance of Egypt’s renaissance.

Hussein Fawzi focuses in his book on the Ottomans’ behavior with the Egyptian antiquities and artifacts where he makes an important reference to the incident of Sultan Salim I’s visit to the pyramids, and how he stood dazzled in front of them wondering about the secret of their construction. It is clear that Fawzi intended here to show Sultan Salim – the invader of Egypt – that he stood as a weak person in front of the icon of Egyptian civilization. Fawzi’s mention of Salim’s visit to the pyramids cannot be because Salim reveres the Egyptian antiquities. He mentions that Salim visited the historic Al-Matareya area to be blessed from the water of the Balsan well. Fawzi stresses that Salim is not interested in the ancient obelisk there, or in hearing the story of the rest that Joseph, the Virgin Mary and the child Christ received there. This is how the Egyptian nationalist current views Salim I as a “Gilf” invader who does not understand the value of the Egyptian civilization.

They stole the rare Egyptian antiquities, artifacts and all valuables.

To confirm this, Hussein Fawzi mentions the message that Salim I that he sent threatening the Mamluk Sultan Tuman, the Sultan of Egypt:

“God has revealed to me that I should own the lands in the East and West, just as Alexander owned them. You are from the Mamelukes who are bought and sold, and no state is suitable for you. I am the son of a king and the rule reached twenty of our forefathers”.

Fawzi mentions the words of the historian Ibn Iyas on the corruption of the Ottoman soldiers in Cairo: “From the era of Amr Ibn Al-Aas, who forcibly conquered Egypt in the 22nd year of the Hijra, none of the kings forcibly conquered it except Salim Shah. The people of Egypt never suffered such a distress, except for what was at the time of Nebuchadrezzar when he came from Babylon, entered the country with his army and destroyed it”.

Fawzi tells, based on many sources, many stories about the Ottomans’ plundering and confiscation of rare Egyptian antiquities and artifacts. Perhaps the first is the story of the tent prepared to celebrate the Prophet’s birthday. He says that Salim sold this tent to Moroccans for 400 dinars. The Moroccans cut up the tent and sold it to the people as curtains. Ibn Iyas describes this tent as “among the wonders of the world”.

Fawzi recounts the looting of the castle’s ancient marble. Salim ordered the dismantling of the rare marble from the castle halls, placing them in boxes, and carrying them onto boats for transport to Istanbul.

He didn’t stop there. Fawzi states that he stole marble from the homes of people and princes around Cairo, such as Bulaq, Berkat Al-Ratli, and others.

He also refers to the seizure of some valuable manuscripts from famous school libraries.

Ibn Iyas summarizes what happened as a result of looting rare precious antiques and artifacts, saying: “Salim Bin Othman’s boats carried iron windows, bars, doors and roofs. Salim carried loads of gold, silver, antiques, weapons and copper with him on a thousand camels – as was rumored. Then he took the horses, mules, camels and fine marble. He took the best from everything. Likewise, his ministers seized large amounts of money, and likewise his soldiers gained untold numbers, and one of them became greater than the fortune of a hundred princes, or a thousand!”.

This is how Ibn Iyas explains the looting and stealing that took place during the period of the Ottomans’ entry into Cairo. The Ottomans view the matter as the Middle Ages, and the view of the invader. From their point of view, they defeated the Mamluk sultans and conquered Egypt by force, so they shall have everything they want, the country and the people. In their view, this justifies the exploitation of Cairo for several days by the Ottoman military, until Salim ordered to stop it, when things got out of control.

The windows of palaces, mules, horses, and everything of value were not spared from the Turkish theft

The Egyptian nationalist trend looks at this in a different way. Fawzi believes that the entry of the Ottomans into Egypt is the Dark Ages, and that what happened in terms of looting and plundering of Egyptian antiquities and artifacts is an attack on the Egyptian civilization. That made Fawzi describe the entire Ottoman era as follows: “The situation will continue in this way throughout the following centuries, and it gets worse, a pasha comes, and a pasha goes, the residence of the pasha does not exceed one or two years. This means that he plundered whatever he could, in preparation for his departure. They were all robbing, looting, torturing and killing people”.

1. Ibn Iyas: badaie Alzuhur Fi waqaie Alduhur, Part 5.

2. Hussein Fawzi: Sindbad Misry or “An Egyptian Sindbad”