Singularity

Vladimir Hamed-Troyansky's Empire of Refugees: North Caucasian Muslims and the Late Ottoman State was a spontaneous get in an unfamiliar topic, and on top of that more of an academic text with dry prose, which made it a bit of a challenging read to get through. When I say "dry" I also mean functional and clear, and it's still a well-written book that lays out its arguments and paints a very thorough picture of the late Ottoman refugee crises and population exchanges with Russia through the end of the Ottoman empire, and with particular focus on North Caucasians and Circassians in particular.

Very new topic to me so a bit of a hurdle in there as well, though I have read about the Ottoman empire before and, well, Armenian genocide and the bad choices through WWI, but this book really delves into a specific topic I didn't know anything about. It's really interesting to look at a time as nation-states were developing and borders hardening, and how that influences choices in which refugees to take and which to reject, and how said refugees were accepted and integrated (well, or badly, or extremely badly) and the political considerations that have so many consequences to today.

Like, of course in the aftermath of various wars, the Ottoman empire would want to get rid of as much of its non-Muslim population and fill that gap with Muslim refugees (or muhajir, as some would describe), with Russia wanting the opposite by getting rid of its unwanted Muslim populations in trade for Christians. It's population manipulation on a grand scale, dressed up in promises of an Islamic empire (dar-al salam) accepting its needy co-religionists into their bosom, but also cold in its usage of those refugees to strengthen borders, improve its tax collection, put pressure on rebellious bedouin, and increase productivity of the land. The implication of the belief coreligionists will be more loyal to the state than not, and is a crucial factor along with ethnicity in actualization of a nation-state -- all elements that play out to painful conclusions through WI and WII, but here are elaborated on in their specificity. The book also argues that some of the mechanisms and lessons these population exchanges were used in later population exchanges after WWI, up to the India-Pakistan Partition.

The book also zooms down, to the human cost of these population exchanges, of what people sacrificed (if they went willingly), of what people did to survive and sometimes thrive, of the desperate attempts to hold on to family and cultural heritage through these upheavals, of those who fled their homelands but returned. Surviving letters are used to flesh these stories out, and the book specifically uses three case studies of North Caucasian refugee areas, with the Balkans representing an area that failed in many ways, and the Levant as an area that succeeded greatly, in part because of the Hijaz railway that allowed economic prosperity up to the future nation-state existence of Jordan (whose current capital is a former refugee site). Interesting stuff, though a little overwhelming in its newness to me.

I've been following Taran's patreon rewatch of The Genius in which he's finally reached season 4. It's been a lot of fun and in some places really validating, for example I had cool feelings about season 3's games (despite really enjoying Dongmin and Hyunmin's everything), and sure enough even with Taran's ability to understand and break down games, he felt that some of the s3 games were too complicated to follow as an audience member, as opposed to being a player, and that the show was more entertaining through seasons 1 and 2, when they were still interested in putting on a show. I'm surprised he came to that conclusion, especially with how much he loves The Devil's Plan, of which I liked season 1, but eh about season 2.

Three episodes into season 4, and for some reason I'd convinced myself that Sangmin made it to the final four, but as it turns out he's gotten eliminated! Very surprising to me in the rewatch, and made worse by my sympathy pains for Taran who loves Sangmin more than I do, though I don't recall being that mad about this elimination when I watched season 4 the first time. Maybe because I was focused on Jinho then, though overall Jinho (and sadly, Hyunmin) don't make an impact on the season as much as I'd wanted. But Sangmin is so great to watch and it's true, the show will not be the same once he's gone. :(