Tunch Khan
King
I have decided to add a fourth Turkish leader to my Turkish MOD after Mehmed II, the Conqueror; Suleiman I, the Magnificent and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. I will add the leader which gets most of the votes on this poll.
While creating the following list of rulers, I have tried to include the most influential Turkish names in the history; the ones that represent certain significane for the Turks; and also a female candidate to add some color (and not for political correctness b/s).
I wanted to avoid names that were sure to start useless discussion about their Turkishness, such as Attila the Hun, or Babur of Moghuls, although Attila spoke a distant Turkic dialect and Babur spoke fluent Turkish as his mother tongue. I also avoided Mameluk and Safavid Sultans due to their rivalry with the bigger brother: the Ottomans, although no one can contest their being Turkish. However I added Tamerlane for his extreme popularity in the Turkish world.
There are also other names that I didn't include, like Barbaros Khayreddin Pasha and Sokullu Mehmed Pasha, who are both landmarks in Turkish history, but were not direct rulers themselves. Barbaros did indeed rule most of North Africa by himself before he offered his lands as a present to Suleiman I, but his subjects were not Turkish. I did however include Nizam-ul Mulk due to his accomplishments and his role in the shaping of the Seljuk Empire through great statesmanship.
Oghuz Khan is the mythical Turkish hero and founder of the Oghuz nation from which major Turkish empires have emerged. There is no historical written evidence about his life, however given the nature of the nomadic lifestyle the Turks had, all of the history and culture was passed to the future generations through oral tradition, which makes the Book of Dede Korkut a priceless source and a fair reason to accept Oghuz Khan as a former Turkish ruler.
Hurrem Sultan, (Anastasiya Lisovska, aka. Roxalena) is the only female candidate here. She was a Ukranian slave presented to Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha, Suleiman's lover. Ibrahim offered her to his master and she soon managed to win Suleiman's heart and in an astonishing break with tradition, eventually became his wife and Empress of the Ottomans. Having become the strongest person of the world in her lifetime, she arranged Ibrahim's execution along with Suleiman's elder son Mustafa, thus placing her own son Selim in the line of succession. Hurrem also acted as Suleiman's advisor on matters of state, and she was also active in foreign affairs and international politics. Aside from her political concerns, Hurrem was the first woman to engage in several major works of public building, from Mecca to Jerusalem, and the first to endow a mosque in Istanbul.
Both Abdulhamid Khan the second and Enver Pasha are controvertial figures in late Turkish history, but their combined impacts on Ottoman Empire along with the fate of other empires can not be denied. Enver's attempt to revive a Turanic Empire, which cost him his life is enough reason for him to appear on the list. Abdulhamid II, or the Red Sultan as he was called, is the dark side of a list of rulers and he represents tyranny, opression and fundamentalism.
The remaining rulers on the list are important figures who have proven themselves both on the battlefield as skilled tacticians and also renowned for their statemanship.
While creating the following list of rulers, I have tried to include the most influential Turkish names in the history; the ones that represent certain significane for the Turks; and also a female candidate to add some color (and not for political correctness b/s).
I wanted to avoid names that were sure to start useless discussion about their Turkishness, such as Attila the Hun, or Babur of Moghuls, although Attila spoke a distant Turkic dialect and Babur spoke fluent Turkish as his mother tongue. I also avoided Mameluk and Safavid Sultans due to their rivalry with the bigger brother: the Ottomans, although no one can contest their being Turkish. However I added Tamerlane for his extreme popularity in the Turkish world.
There are also other names that I didn't include, like Barbaros Khayreddin Pasha and Sokullu Mehmed Pasha, who are both landmarks in Turkish history, but were not direct rulers themselves. Barbaros did indeed rule most of North Africa by himself before he offered his lands as a present to Suleiman I, but his subjects were not Turkish. I did however include Nizam-ul Mulk due to his accomplishments and his role in the shaping of the Seljuk Empire through great statesmanship.
Oghuz Khan is the mythical Turkish hero and founder of the Oghuz nation from which major Turkish empires have emerged. There is no historical written evidence about his life, however given the nature of the nomadic lifestyle the Turks had, all of the history and culture was passed to the future generations through oral tradition, which makes the Book of Dede Korkut a priceless source and a fair reason to accept Oghuz Khan as a former Turkish ruler.
Hurrem Sultan, (Anastasiya Lisovska, aka. Roxalena) is the only female candidate here. She was a Ukranian slave presented to Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha, Suleiman's lover. Ibrahim offered her to his master and she soon managed to win Suleiman's heart and in an astonishing break with tradition, eventually became his wife and Empress of the Ottomans. Having become the strongest person of the world in her lifetime, she arranged Ibrahim's execution along with Suleiman's elder son Mustafa, thus placing her own son Selim in the line of succession. Hurrem also acted as Suleiman's advisor on matters of state, and she was also active in foreign affairs and international politics. Aside from her political concerns, Hurrem was the first woman to engage in several major works of public building, from Mecca to Jerusalem, and the first to endow a mosque in Istanbul.
Both Abdulhamid Khan the second and Enver Pasha are controvertial figures in late Turkish history, but their combined impacts on Ottoman Empire along with the fate of other empires can not be denied. Enver's attempt to revive a Turanic Empire, which cost him his life is enough reason for him to appear on the list. Abdulhamid II, or the Red Sultan as he was called, is the dark side of a list of rulers and he represents tyranny, opression and fundamentalism.
The remaining rulers on the list are important figures who have proven themselves both on the battlefield as skilled tacticians and also renowned for their statemanship.
