The Age of the Beloveds: Love and the Beloved in Early-Modern Ottoman and European Culture and Society by Walter G. Andrews, Mehmet Kalpakli (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 210 can commit terrible wrongs. At the end of the battle, Prince Henry of Scotland demonstrates strength of mind, charity and grace: “We have done what we could. Surely, as best we can, we have conquered. Now we need strategy no less than courage. There is no greater constancy of mind than not to be broken in ill fortune” (10).The prince throws his breastplate to a poor man: “Take this, my man. It is a burden to me; may it serve you in your need” (10). These words conclude the twelfth-century Rievaulx manuscript. This ending, as well as the work in its entirety, with its focus on the people engaged in this battle and the meaning of the events rather than the events themselves, indicates Aelred’s main concern, not with the development or the outcome of the battle but with the character of those who fought it, and the way good men and women are caught in events beyond their control, and may stand in opposition to one another . Reading historical events using the four levels model of interpretation of the biblical text, Aelred looks at the moral and spiritual meaning: although Stephen was surrounded by divine protection because he was the legitimate heir to the throne, he should never forget that even the best of men can be led to do evil deeds due to public pressure or be deceived into doing wrong while believing that they are following the right path. By interpreting the past for the benefit of the present, Aelred offers the English kings models of virtue and faith, examples of Christian kingship, a true mirror for princes. Throughout his historical works, the didactical purpose is always present, as he recognizes the value of noble models for the formation of character. The Middle Ages believed in the transmission of wisdom, experience and knowledge that leads to a good life in this transitory world and to beatitude in the next through story-telling, and what better story is there to tell than history? Marsha Dutton, who has spent so much time in Aelred’s company, and understands him better than most, gives us a complete view of Aelred’s life as a pilgrim on this earth, with a Christocentric view of human affairs, as he sees history as God’s acting within human time and space, keeping always in mind the responsibility of teaching a moral lesson, a guide for his fellow pilgrims. The translation of Aelred’s works was done by the late Jane Patricia Freeland, and Dutton’s edition includes an introduction and annotations that make the volume very accessible to graduate and undergraduate students, and to all the readers interested in the period. CRISTINA DOBRESCU-MITROVICI, Minnesota State University, Moorhead Walter G. Andrews and Mehmet Kalpakli, The Age of the Beloveds: Love and the Beloved in Early-Modern Ottoman and European Culture and Society (Durham: Duke University Press 2005) xiv + 426 pp., ill. Andrews and Kalpakli begin their book cautiously, both because they fear offending readers who may not approve of the subject matter, and because they have chosen to take “a huge, perilous step” as opposed to a small and cautiously meticulous one—arguing broadly in order to challenge various academic fields. They contend that in the Ottoman empire, as well as in Italy and Britain, in the sixteenth century (which they dub “the age of beloveds”), a sexual preference for either women or boys was accepted as natural so long as it conformed to a number of moderating stipulations. In this age, they say, a host of young men became the focal points of both the desires of powerful office- REVIEWS 211 holders and a rich literature of love. Thus the body of Ottoman courtly poetry was not a sterile regurgitation of older forms (as was formerly believed), but a historical document reflecting political realities of the period. Furthermore, the similarity between the Ottomans and their counterparts in the western Mediterranean and beyond suggests a cultural continuity that goes against the artificial separation of East and West. To reach this conclusion, Andrews and Kalpakli reason that, in the sixteenth century, public space was primarily male space, and young...