Voice of Islam has already written about the important political significance of Turkish historical series on Ottoman themes and their impact on the Islamic world (https://golosislama.com/news.php?id=32554). It is not surprising that this has been recognized by those who perceive Turkey as their geopolitical adversary. It is also not surprising that they have decided to counter it by discrediting the Ottoman historical heritage with the same methods used to promote it.
Thus, in just 10 days, a series called «Kingdom of Fire» (Mamlakaat Al-Nar) will be broadcast on the Saudi television channel MBC. Its goal is nothing less than to «expose the tyranny of the Ottomans and their bloody history» (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md9owk6BxkY). The actions of Sultan Selim the Grim, especially his destruction of the «Arab» Mamluk Sultanate in the early 16th century, are chosen as an illustration. The series is directed by British filmmaker Peter Webber, known for directing a number of well-known western thrillers, including «Hannibal Rising».
Of course, one could once again lament that Muslim countries are spending resources fighting among themselves instead of promoting a common Islamic agenda in a world full of forces that would like to destroy them all indiscriminately. Such disappointment would be justified, but let us take a more global view of the problem.
The Ottoman Empire was not simply one of the Muslim states with its own strengths and weaknesses (which it certainly had). It was the longest-lived Muslim state to date, and the reasons for this longevity deserve careful consideration in light of the short-lived nature of many other Muslim states. It was also a state that established itself and existed on three continents, spanning dozens of countries and peoples. And it was a state that, after the fall of Muslim Al-Andalus, reintroduced Islam to Europe, this time with much greater success in spreading it, which created such fear of it among local Islamophobes.
Now, let us ask, what do the Saudis have against it? The Mamluk Sultanate? With all due respect to its merits at a certain stage, in the context of world and pan-Islamic history, it is simply not comparable. In other words, the idea of such an opposition in a winning key for the creators of the series can only be nationalist: «Our Arab state was destroyed by bloodthirsty Turks.» But such a message would look funny to anyone who knows history and knows that the Mamluks were a group of assimilated foreign origin — Turkish, Caucasian, etc.
In general, it is time to recognize that despite the central role of the Arab factor as the root of the last monotheistic community (umma) and the role of its language in guaranteeing the preservation of divine revelation and knowledge of the Sharia, it lost its political significance after the fall of the Umayyad Caliphate. In fact, even the rise of the Abbasids was essentially due to the fact that the Arabs could not cope with political leadership, even though the Arabic language became the lingua franca of the Pax Islamica, the universal language of the Islamic world. Groups of foreign origin, such as the Mamluks in the Abbasid Caliphate, or the Muwallads and Saqaliba in the Umayyad Caliphate of Al-Andalus, and later independent states and dynasties such as the Ghaznavids, Gurids, Ottomans, Safavids, etc., began to play leading roles in political processes.
After the collapse of the Ottoman Caliphate and the beginning of a new wave of Islamic revivalism emanating from Arab countries (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc.), the idea began to spread that the decline of the Islamic world was due precisely to the loss of Arab leadership. But what do we see as a result of the implementation of projects based on such ideas, including the so-called Arab Spring? It is the Arab countries that have found themselves in the worst situation, either completely destroyed and dependent on external actors, or maintaining relative well-being thanks to their total loyalty to non-Muslim states and interests in the region. Against this background, the non-Arab countries, especially Turkey, Pakistan and Malaysia, have the greatest opportunities and the greatest desire to help the Islamic world as a whole (https://golosislama.com/news.php?id=36933).
In this context, another delicate point should be mentioned. Especially for the Muslim peoples of northern Eurasia, the Ottoman Caliphate was not without its problems. The Tartars and Bashkirs have grievances against it, in particular for giving priority to conquests in Europe instead of helping them to resist the onslaught of the Muscovite state or to free themselves from it while it was still possible. The peoples of the Caucasus also have grievances, particularly that the already weakened Ottoman Caliphate effectively prevented the mountain peoples from waging jihad against the advancing Russian Empire by sending its own representatives to compete with the Imam al-Shamil, inviting the mountain peoples to resettle with them, and treating them less than favorably.
On the other hand, despite all the difficulties in their relations with the Ottomans, it was in the Ottoman Empire that the representatives of the Muslim peoples of the former Russian Empire who were expelled or driven from their homelands had the best opportunities to assert themselves and develop their communities to the benefit of both their new homelands and the larger Islamic cause. And in terms of ethnicity, whether in language or genetics, Turkey is closer to the majority of Muslim peoples of the former USSR than to the Arab world. In terms of civilization, it is also the heir of the kind of Islamic civilization that is close to the newly converted Muslims — Slavs and Europeans — precisely because it integrated their representatives into its space for centuries and helped some of them to establish themselves as Muslim peoples (Bosnians, Albanians, Pomaks, Gorani, etc.). Therefore, if we were to take purely selfish positions, our sympathies would not be on the side of Arab nationalists.
But in general, of course, conscious Muslims understand that they have to think in broader categories. And despite all the criticism of Turkey’s practical policies, which are also limited by nationalism, the majority of Muslims from different nations and countries, inspired by series like «Diriliş: Ertuğrul» or «Muhteşem Yüzyıl», get the impression that these series carry a certain message for them — a call for the collective struggle and victories of all Muslims.
In this context, it will be interesting to see what message the anti-Ottoman films of Turkey’s Arab rivals will convey.