Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 312: Debate on Scriptures
Although Arsalan never directly expressed his disgust for farming, people's delicate emotions are always revealed inadvertently.

You can judge a person by his behavior, expression, and tone of voice.

It is indeed very interesting that a person who did not really like farming persisted to the end longer than those of his fellows who called themselves farmers.

In response to Garys' question, Arsalan first looked at the settlement not far away, and then at the sparse farmland.

Then, speak your mind.

“Is it really good to be a farmer?”

Garys understood a little, it wasn't disgust that made him feel this way, it was confusion.

Before he understood those principles, Arsalan lacked goals for the future. Whether it was herding or farming, it puzzled him.

It was this kind of confusion that prompted him to voluntarily follow Garys when he met him and heard his story.

In his eyes, whether Gellis was a prophet or not, he was always a wise man.

The fact that he had such confusion was enough to prove that Arsalan was not a fool.

In fact, it is precisely because we know more that we understand our own ignorance and will not rashly replace objective reality with all kinds of imaginary things.

Is farming necessarily progress?
This is true for the human population, because without farming, the human population ceiling would be destined to be stuck at a certain stage.

If they adopt a hunting and gathering lifestyle, you will not find even one person per square kilometer, but if they migrate as nomads, you can find about two people.

Only in the agricultural age could ten people be found per square kilometer of land, and thus humans emerged as a powerful race on Earth.

But is this really the case for individuals?
The body of Homo sapiens is not designed for farming. For humans, running in the wilderness and climbing trees are the preparations given by their genes.

It took apes hundreds of thousands of years to straighten their spines, but in just a few thousand years, they had to bend over and over to weed, clear rocks, and carry water for irrigation.

As a result, people's spines, knees... every part of the body is being forcibly worn out.

Whether it's arthritis or lumbar disc herniation, they suddenly appeared together with the agricultural era, and hemorrhoids and hernias could also be added.

Not only that, settled life means that humans no longer have to endure the hardships of life and seem to be living a life of plenty.

But in just one generation, human reproduction will break previous assumptions.

In settled life, human reproduction opportunities increased, and the provision of grains meant that breast milk no longer limited the nutritional intake of infants.

Even though the lack of breast milk has reduced the body's immunity, and the dense population has led to a high incidence of infectious diseases, the infant mortality rate remains high.

However, the total population is still experiencing an "explosion".

More population means more farmland is needed, and more farmland means a more concentrated population.

The rate of population growth is bound to exceed the rate of farmland growth. In the long run, the quality of human life in the agricultural era has, without exception, shown a steady decline.

Before the rise of capital agriculture, all agricultural technological reforms led to two things: population explosion and a decline in quality of life.

People are like this. When they get more food through hard work, it does not make them richer, but they will have to face more and more children...

But is this something that can be changed or reversed?
When a tribe chooses farming and its population begins to grow rapidly, other tribes have no choice but to join or migrate.

In the local competition between nomadism and farming, there have always been more wins than losses. After all, horses brought extra advantages, but living space was constantly being squeezed.

Nomadic life is itself a part of animal husbandry in the agricultural revolution.

Even so, if we extend the timeline, we will find that any nomads who came to the farming areas became farmers.

Farming areas are always extending to grasslands, deserts, and land that was previously considered uncultivable. Only land desertification can be curbed...

Eventually, the old life was doomed to end.

This is the trend of history, a trend engraved in human genes.

What wins is a lifestyle and an ethnic group, but what loses are the specific individuals among them.

Arsalan naturally didn't think so much about it. For him, it was actually very simple.

In the Rum Sultanate, the Turkic tribes, as an important military force, generally enjoyed various privileges and a large number of tax exemptions.

After all, without the support of the tribes, the Sultan of Rum would have been unable to fight against the Greeks in this land.

In fact, there is no evidence that the demographic composition of Anatolia changed dramatically after the Battle of Manzikert in 1095.

It was not until later when Türkiye conducted genetic sequencing that it became increasingly proven that a large number of so-called Turks had ancestors of Greek descent.

But once the tribe owned farmland, they needed to pay land taxes. On this issue, the Turks were in agreement with the Greeks and Armenians.

The expansion of farmland will inevitably limit the ability of all tribal people to participate in the military.

By then, as Arslan had said earlier, "It will no longer be that they will be able to rob others, but that they will be robbed."

In Arsalan's view, the word taxation is no different from plundering.

It's just that one is uncontrollable, and the other is relatively controllable and long-term.

Whether Greeks, Armenians, or Turks, as long as they were residents of the Rum Sultanate, every penny of taxes they paid would not bring them a better life.

It will only give the ruling class stronger ability to suppress.

"As a lion, I am not rejecting the farming life, but I am afraid of that future."

Farming means losing one's military power, paying taxes, losing freedom and becoming a slave to the land, and it means a tragic future that ordinary people cannot foresee.

"How about changing this country?"

If we say that the feudal lords' taxes were basically just to meet the lords' needs for war and luxury goods, then it would naturally be meaningless.

But if a new country is established and taxes can be used for public construction, then that would be a change.

Take Anatolia for example, there are both grasslands and mountains here, although most areas have natural water sources such as rivers and springs.

However, the long-term destruction caused by wars has resulted in a lack of mature irrigation systems in various regions.

The overall agricultural level is declining.

And when the Mongol invasion of the West came and then the Ottoman Empire came, things would only become more difficult day by day.

To curb this trend, Anatolia must have a highly centralized government capable of handling various conflicts.

Garys came here to sow such seeds. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, so let's start by letting Arsalan and his tribe adapt to what a truly settled life is.

Yusuf's caravan brought many goods, some of which had been sold, but more were piled up in Gellis's shop.

In addition to some iron tools such as iron pots, needles and thread, and hoes, seeds are also commodities for sale.

Over the past decade, due to the relatively long peace, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, under the various guidance of Gairis, has made rapid progress in all aspects.

Among them, the cultivation of crops is the focus.

After deliberate collection and planning by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Kingdom has established a relatively simple seed bank and started long-term targeted cultivation.

Among those seeds, in addition to grain seeds, there are also a large number of vegetables and fruits.

Garys opened up a small vegetable plot with Arsalan and planted various beans, root vegetables and leafy vegetables.

Chickpeas, beans, carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach…

And of course garlic.

Many of the seeds were ones that Arsalan had never heard of or seen before.

The reason why Gellis planted so many varieties was naturally not because he expected all the seeds to bear fruit. He wanted to select relatively advantageous varieties from them and then promote them to Arsalan and his tribe.

After they rested for a while, they started their afternoon farm work. To cultivate a vegetable garden in this wilderness is a long-term job.

……

Garys' life in the Yuktu tribe was very dull. He cultivated vegetable fields, ran a shop, did some business from time to time, and occasionally went to drink with some old people.

Before he knew it, he had completely integrated into the community. Many people no longer viewed him as an outsider, as if he had been here from the beginning.

In an accident, after Gairis recited a passage from the Koran, the elders of the tribe were quite surprised.

Although the Yuktu tribe was Muslim and converted to Islam, the per capita cultural level of the Turks could not be compared with that of the Arabs.

In other words, although the tribes here believe in Islam, apart from the Islamic creed and testimony spoken in dialect accents, they actually know almost nothing about the Koran.

Of course, as a Turkic tribe that cannot live without alcohol, their understanding of Islamic precepts is also questionable.

In their eyes, Christianity can be considered polytheism. After all, which monotheism worships the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit at the same time?

During this casual chat, I couldn't help but let my thoughts wander.

Outside the tent made of various leathers and cloths, Garys and the elders of the tribe sat cross-legged on the grass, sipping cup after cup of sweet water from each other.

Among them are the tribe’s own brewed milk wine and the grain juice brought by Garys. Generally speaking, the alcohol content is not high and is suitable for chatting in the dim light.

Elham, the elder who stayed in the village, could not help but ask: "I heard that God not only gave us revelations through Prophet Muhammad, but also other prophets? So is what they believe in the true religion?"

In response, Gailis naturally nodded, and he continued speaking according to what Elder Ilham said.

“There are three religions in this world.”

"Three kinds?"

"There is a true religion, a distorted religion, and a superstitious religion."

"What is this true religion? Islam?"

When this question was raised, Gellis spread his hands and did not answer the following paragraph.

“The so-called true religion is the religion that Allah, through the prophets, has passed on to people without any changes or damage and has been passed down to this day.”

"What is that twisted religion?"

“Although God often reveals to the prophets and allows them to convey various knowledge to the world, in the process of inheritance, people always change the original meaning for their own reasons. This is a distorted religion.”

"As for so-called superstitious religions, they are religions created by man himself, which poison human life and have nothing to do with the knowledge of God."

After hearing the differences between the three, Elder Ilham asked again: "Then is the true religion referring to Islam?"

This old man, who was almost fifty years old and a little drunk, kept asking the same question again and again.

Garys, who is in his thirties, is not a young boy at all. Facing the other party's repeated inquiries, he finally gave his answer.

"The prophets orally narrated the contents of the scriptures, so who wrote them down?"

"In the beginning, when the Prophet recited the scriptures, many believers used to record and recite them individually, and they each got part of the true meaning."

"It was not until the third orthodox caliph, Osman, that he began to unify the compilation and burned all the scriptures that recorded the words of the prophets other than his own. From then on, not a single word of the scriptures could be changed."

"Do you think the third orthodox caliph, Osman, is definitely right? You have to know that the caliph died in a 'rebellion'."

Many of the things that Gailis told were stories that the people of this simple tribe had never heard of.

People always like gossip, especially gossip about people who are out of reach.

When Gairis mentioned the secrets of the orthodox caliphate era, Elder Ilham couldn't help but become interested.

For example, before Ghairis talked to him today, he had no idea that the second Caliph Umar was actually one of the Prophet's early enemies.

It is also not known whether the third caliph Osman died in a rebellion.

When Gairis mentioned Caliph Osman, he caused political dissatisfaction among other forces due to his excessive use of members of his own family.

After his successor Ali, the prophet's son-in-law, suffered a miserable end, he could not help but sneer at many historical records.

But he also felt that what Gailis said might be true.

After all, those caliphs are, to put it bluntly, human beings. As human beings, they will have love, hate, and emotions, and they will have contradictions and conflicts of interest.

Even poor people will fight over family property, and the fight for inheritance among the real big shots will be even more intense.

If we put ourselves in their shoes, think from their perspective, and put ourselves in their place, facing all kinds of temptations, can we really continue the prophet's wishes?
You know, it wasn't just the third caliph who died in assassination.

To be precise, apart from the first caliph, there were three other orthodox caliphs, namely: Umar, Uthman and Ali.

They all died of violence!

(End of this chapter)