Summary Of Evliya's 'Ottoman'

1. Ghaza is a word used to describe war during the Ottoman Empire that signified total Ottoman control and a strict obedience to Ottoman rule. The passage where Evliya visits Vienna is most related to this ideal of Ottoman domination. One of the very first things he sees when he arrives in Vienna are what he describes as “captives”. They are bound with shackles and are in the midst of grinding spices. Evliya describes them working as if “someone was holding a sword to their necks, in order to make them work faster” (The Book of Travels, p.89). Evliya feels a certain guilt about their treatment and even begins to offer them money but is otherwise instructed to wait until later or the servants’ masters will simply take the money from them. Later
Rulers have their people spending their days working in various shops to complete simple tasks and then in the evenings they have those same people locked away and hidden with no sort of freedom. It seems that for the Ottoman empire, total domination is an intense form of servitude, and all duties are completed for the good of the kingdom. A sense of self seems to be forgotten.
2. A picaro can be described as a person who lives off of the means of others by thieving, spending their nights hidden away in their homes, or someone who essentially “works” for a master but spends their time stealing from him to feed/clothe other people. A picaro sounds like someone who would spend a lot of time in the streets and in jail in our current times, but in reality it is a person who, for whatever circumstances, is down on their luck and needs a place to call home and food of their table. These “picaros” do not have these things or anyone to give them to them so they have to do whatever is necessary to survive. In this case it is stealing for dinner, and stealing for clothes to wear. Lazarillo’s first master was called his “Uncle”. He was a blind man, and treated Lazarillo very badly. There were often times were Lazarillo would try to take advantage