hamzaburak

[hamzaburak]

Blog post 5

I really enjoyed this weeks lectures, especially the combat lecture. What stuck out to me the most was the Battle of Kosovo. In summary, the battle of Kosovo was a battle fought at Kosovo Polje between the armies of the Serbian prince Lazar and the Turkish forces of the Ottoman sultan Murad the first that left both leaders killed and ended in a Turkish victory, the collapse of Serbia, and the complete encirclement of the crumbling Byzantine Empire by Turkish armies. Some records say that Prince Lazar was captured and executed; others say that he was deserted by the jealous Brankovi. Sultan Murad is thought to have been kileld by a Serbian knight, Milos Obilic, in the immediate aftermath of the battle. Although both sides suffered huge losses, the Ottomans possessed the resources to raise another army and Serbia became part of the Ottoman Empire.

The reason why this interested me was because I really don’t have a huge knowledge about the Turkish history and learning this story in class was fascinating to me. 

[hamzaburak]

Blog post 4

In this post, I will be discussing a Turkish hero myth. The myth is about a young boy who survived a rain in his village. A she-wolf comes across the wounded boy and tends to him. He then impregnates the wolf, who gives birth to ten half-human, half-wolf boys. Ashina, one of them, becomes their leader and creates the Ashina tribe, which ruled the Göktürks and other Turkic nomadic empires. The wolf, pregnant with the boy's offspring, escaped her enemies by crossing the Western sea to a cave near to the Qocho mountains. The first Turks subsequently migrated to the Altai regions, where they are known as experts in ironmaking. In the myth, the wolf symbolizes honor and is also considered the mother of most Turkic peoples. It is also the emblem of Turkey, same with how the bald eagle is the emblem of America that symbolizes freedom.

[hamzaburak]

Blog post #3

In the past two weeks, I really enjoyed the monster lecture. After the lecture, it made me think if there were any monsters in the Turkish culture, so I decided to do some research. I found out that there are monsters in the Turkish culture. Turkish monsters and creatures are varied and dark, often interacting with humans and causing tragedy and loss. One monster that really interested me was "Erbuke", the king of snakes. Erbuke is a wise and kindly man with the lower body of a serpent. His name is a combination of the words for human and dragon. And according to the legend. Erbuke ruled what was once a kingdom of intelligent and peaceful snakes.

[hamzaburak]

Blog post #2

In the past two weeks, we discussed a lot about the myth of creations and other worlds and through these myths, we were able to learn new things about different kinds of cultures. It was really interesting to learn about myths that other cultures created in order for explain how the world was created. The flood myth was interesting to me. I already knew the story of Noah but reading different versions of the same story was fascinating. Like creating myth that already existed but didn't have knowledge about it and still be able to explain the main lesson of the story is intriguing. How were they able to create a myth about a flood in their own version. Which flood story was created first. All of the story had the same main idea but different versions and in different cultures.

[hamzaburak]

Introduction Blog post

Hi! My name is Hamza Burak and I am a freshman at the University of Washington Bothell. I am currently interested in electrical engineering for now. My hobbies including playing basketball, watching anime, and learning about cars. I was born in Turkey but I spend most of my life in Liberia. My family and I lived in Liberia for 11 years, then my parents decided to move to America. Its been 4 years since we came to the United States from Liberia. I can both fluently speak Turkish and English and I’m really interested in learning Japanese. 

As for the first lecture, I was unable to attend the meeting, therefore I don’t have anything to say. Instead, I’ll ask a question about the class and that is, are we going to be posting blogs every week as an assignment or is it just like an extra credit.