History and Art - Cultural Exchanges between Florence and the Ottoman Empire - Bridge upon Time

Regards steemians,

The other days i was reading a very great book, which i do reccomend it to you all :-)

It's written by the great Mathias Enard and it's entitled "Tell them of Battles, Kings and Elephants" ... amazing book and writing. The main protagonist it's, of course, Michelangelo ... I'm not getting specifically inside this book now ... i'm leaving it to you to read it :-)

I've got back to this photo that my cousine was taking it in Firenze:

Il Vecchio Ponte di Firenze

I've seen always this bridge as "the Bridge upon Time" between Worlds ... not only because in this city was given the birth of the Renaissance, but because thru trading era as well were build connections and exchanges of cultures between Firenze and expecially the Ottoman Empire ...

This, so called "exchange/trading" of traditional objects of an empire/region, customs and people across physical borders, amidst an atmosphere of cultural and religious differences holds a relevance that transcends
time, echoing throughout the pages of the human history and persisting even in the twenty-first
century.

This is what i can tell about Firenze ... I could sense in my short passing thru that " Il Vecchio Ponte di Firenze" the wonderful old time of trades/exchanges of gold, silver, spices ... even if i know that this place was mainly for jewellry exchange.

Firenze played a very important role at some moment in the trading process with the Ottoman Empire.

The crosscultural relationship between Florence and the Ottoman Empire was emphasizing its
multi-faceted nature.

The events of the Congress of Mantua provide insight of a
situation where Firenze had to manage its relations with Mehmet II in the face of
papal pressure and its own mercantile ambitions.

Both the pope and the people of Firenze had referred to a possible conflict of interest in the very next period, which were presumably connected with the two Florentine galleys that had sailed for the Levant in the middle of August 1459.

This level of concern on the part of the people of Firenze to protect their galleys was mainly due to a
state-initiated effort ever since the purchase of Porto Pisano and Leghorn in 1421 to establish Firenze and its newly built galley system as a major player in the Levantine maritime trade.

In fact, this possession of a galley system proved to be a vital instrument of trade, enabling Firenze e to oust Venice as the predominant trading colony in Constantinople in 1453.

As i've felt, Firenze was playing a major role at some moment in Time on the trading era.

I do reccomend you all to visit Firenze, read the book of Mathia Enard to understand much more the customs, relations that have been established in that period in Time bewteen the Great Ottoman Empire and the amazing Firenze ...

While you'll enjoy the photos:

Feel free and enjoy a glimpse of a composition in a maqam Saba way with some improvised moments. It's been created on turkish Kiz ney and it's on a style of Saba saz semaisi.

The turkish ney is an Ottoman end-blown reed flute and is one of the most typical instruments of classical turkish music.

The turkish ney also plays a primary role in the music of the Mevlevi Sufi rites.

Saba saz semaisi it's an instrumental form in the old ottoman classical music. It was typically the closing movement of a fasıl, so called a suite. The saz semaisi typically used the usul, the so called rhythmic structure, called as aksak semai.

Enjoy listening the wonderful World of the turkish ney. With Blessings from a humble apprentice from whitin the vast world of turkish ney.

https://dsound.audio/#!/@luciannagy/20180723t140648368z-my-saba-saz-semaisi-composition-on-turkish-ney-by-lucian-nagy

Tesekurler/Toda Raba/ Grazie a tutti :-)

Regards