Ottoman Empire

the first thing that i found of interest in the reading was the sheer size of the ottoman empire. I never learned about it in high school, so it is really surprising to me that such a large empire was left out of the curriculum. I can't help but wonder if there is some institutionalized islamophobia influencing our school systems. I had never even heard of the ottoman empire until my senior year, and even then it was only a passing reference. I think that an erasure like this just goes to show you how unreliable an education can be. It was extremely shocking to me considering the amount of influence the Ottomans had on the rest of the world even today. The advancements that were made in the fields of math and finance seem to large to me to be left out of the classroom, but they were. and that is very sad to me.

Dante's Muhammed

All in all, i found Dr. Frank's essay interesting. The idea that Dante placed Muhammed in the eighth circle of hell due to a misunderstanding was very odd to me. Would someone really do that to the prophet of a major religion without doing a little bit of fact checking? or could it be that the false information Dante had was taken as fact at the time? I look forward to the discussion today in class, i expect it will be very interesting.

The Decameron 2

The first story in the reading for today started by challenging the notion that "when a young woman places a white veil over her head...she no longer feels feminine desires..." I think this is very interesting because this is the first thing i can remember reading in this course that discusses the sexuality of nuns. The story of the nuns plays into the theme of sexuality and religion that we've been discussing. The notion that holiness does not equal chastity is new to me, and it is an interesting way to look at things. These stories effectively show that even though one might be a member of the clergy, it doesn't mean that they aren't a human with normal human sexual desires.

The Decameron 1

The major theme throughout the first story of The Decameron is religion. I think this theme speaks volumes about the Mediterranean and the various cultures within it. Since the region was the birthplace of the Abrahamic religions, i think that it contains some of the worlds most religious people. In the story, a man named Ser Cepparello gives a false confession on his deathbed. Even though the man lived a very sinful life, the priest who heard his final "confession", which made him out to be a very pious man, declared him a saint. This story is really funny to me because it just goes to show how our view of someone can change after they die. It reminds me of all of the stories we are told about the founding fathers in elementary school that sound more like myth than fact (i.e. george washington and the cherry tree, honest Abe).

The Book of Good Love Day 2

1. I found the whole "mountain girl" section to be very confusing. It seemed like the same story told four times in a row until i read it a second time. The archpriest asks each of the girls for shelter, and they each in turn tell him that he must give them a gift. He ends up having sex with them each time. I think that each of the mountain girls represents the positive things that can come from sex, because in return for the gifts the archbishop gives them, they give him food, shelter, and point him in the right direction.

2. I sort of interpret the battle between Lent and Carnal as the time when the speaker gave up sex for lent. I think that behind the confusing metaphors, there is this story. I believe that Lent represents the month of Lent, Carnal represents desire, and all of the food talked about represents the object of desire. This story says that eventually, all humans will give in to desire. If you look at that from the standpoint of humans-as-reflection-of-the-divine, you could say that nobody, even god, can resist temptation.

The Book of Good Love 1

1. The first prologue in The book of good love is a lengthy plee to god to be saved. The author lists the times that God has saved someone and begs the lord to save him as well. While the author keeps saying he is in prison, i can't help but wonder if the jail he is talking about is Love. The second prologue merely describes what happened leading up to the writing of the book.

2. The first fable in the book was quite humorous to me. It is a warning to the reader to not misinterpret the work, and thus the word of Love. The author goes even further after the story to assert to the reader that everything in this book means exactly what it says; that if you think something is wrong, it is right; and that if you are wise you will interpret it the right way, but if you're a fool you will only take away foolishness. I think this is a good point to make when writing a text about love that is supposedly from the mouth of love itself.

Troubadour / Trobairitz Poetry

I found the Troubadour selection to be quite beautiful. The lush imagery really stood out to me, especially in poem 20 by Jaufré Rudel. The poem is about a long-distance relationship of sorts. The poem is odd to me because it never talks about whether or not the poets "love far away" feels the same way about him, but still he longs to travel to be with her. I couldn't help but wonder what was keeping him from going to be with her? Why can't he make the pilgrimage?  could it be that she has refused him? This poem of unrequited love has a hopeful tone to it that contrasts with the  Trobairitz piece that i'm going to be talking about.

The first thing i noticed about the Trobairitz is that their poetry tended to be darker and sadder. While the Troubadour pieces sometimes dealt with sad topics, they always had a hint of optimism. In most of the  Trobairitz poems, there isn't really hope. This is most apparent with the Countess of Dia's second poem in which she laments an unrequited love. It is a very bitter poem, she even says "so bitter do i feel toward him, / whom i love more than anything." I think that the reason the  Trobairitz poems tend to be more bitter is because of the gender-dynamics of Islam. Men were probably the ones who choose their spouse, so if a man is refused by a potential mate, he can always try again, but a woman probably could not choose her husband, so if the object of her affection refused her, it would probably hold a lot more finality.