Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 329 New Calendar!

Not only that, in the design of religious rituals, Gellis is also thinking about how to get away from simple atonement and forgiveness.

Instead, it seeks to get believers to take on greater responsibilities on their own initiative.

Paladin's oath is actually a good example of this.
Unlike ordinary people's confessions, every time Paladin confesses, he is to confirm his shortcomings, review his oath, and promise to make specific compensation in the real world.

Although most believers cannot reach this step.

But Gillis still hopes to push it forward.

The most essential part of Gellis' theology was compiled by Gellis at a religious conference held in the holy city of Jerusalem, together with Amedee, Archos, Anthony, Iraklius and others, as well as representatives of churches from various places.

Now, Gellis is not trying to make major changes to his theological system.

He simply wanted to condense it so that more potential believers could understand his teachings.

So, Gellis picked up his pen and began to write.

……

Although Christianity and Islam, in theory, believe in the same God, they are indeed two different religions.

This difference is reflected in all aspects.

One of the biggest differences lies in the festival culture of both sides.

The cultural heritage of Christianity comes directly from Judaism, and Judaism comes from the ancient Israelites.

Although the ancient Israelites had a strong pastoral custom, they were very dependent on farming from the beginning.

Therefore, many of the ancient Israelites' festivals were based around agricultural seasons.

For example, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering.

When the Christian era arrived, the Christian festivals of the year were also formulated according to the solar calendar.

Among them, Christmas has a close relationship with the winter solstice, Easter and the vernal equinox.

But Islam, in this respect, shows a very typical nomadic spirit.

Every aspect of the Islamic calendar shows one thing: they do not care about the specific changes of the sun, but only consider the changes in the moon's waxing and waning cycle.

For an Islamic farmer, if they want to sow and harvest at the same solar terms every year, they will find that each time they sow, they will have to wait about 11 days less to be consistent with the previous year.

This is due to the fact that the Islamic calendar consists of only 354 or 355 days.

For herders, compared with farming which requires precise daily planning, they are more concerned about the weather changes that may be encountered during the upcoming migration period.

Therefore, the extremely stable solar calendar is actually not very meaningful.

At the same time, in order to remember the common dates when we are apart, the moon in the sky becomes a calendar that never falls.

Under such circumstances, whether it was the Yuktu tribe or other nomadic tribes, the process of transitioning to an agricultural life was actually quite troublesome, and they could only rely on experience and natural phenomena to roughly determine the sowing date.

As the saying goes, make up for what you lack.

For a Turkic people who were committed to a stable agricultural cycle, it was certainly inappropriate to continue to use a single Islamic calendar.

Since Gelis wanted to emphasize that movement created man himself and to give labor a theological meaning, agricultural labor was the top priority for the Turkic people in Anatolia.

……

In October, some were happy while others were sad in eastern Anatolia. Because of the war, many farmlands near the city of Erzurum were destroyed one after another.

The vast majority of Turkic tribes felt somewhat sympathetic.

At this time, after completing the autumn harvest and relaxing for a few days, the Yuktu tribe held a grand festival to celebrate the end of the war and Osman's successful appointment as the vizier of the Bey State. This was quite eye-catching.

In fact, other tribes were a little jealous and even gossiped.

After all, everyone has bad luck this year, so why are you the only one living so comfortably?

However, in the face of these gossips, the Yuktu tribe suddenly spread the news to other surrounding tribes, saying that this year's celebration was not only aimed at the Yuktu tribe, but at all the Turkic tribes under the Bey's flag.

As long as everyone is willing to come, they can eat and drink as much as they want.

As soon as these words were spoken, the public opinion in those tribes changed immediately.

For a time, everyone praised Osman, saying that he was born with great strength, was good at both literature and martial arts, and was very handsome, and was destined to be a vizier and a great hero.

Of course, although this is what they said, there are not actually many people who can come to participate in the celebration of the Yuktu tribe.

After all, many tribes are far away, and the celebration will be over before they arrive.

Even those who were close had herds to look after, so each tribe sent some men who could eat to fill their stomachs and then find a way to bring some food back, which was pretty much it.

At most, we can bring some young people here, let them see the world and arrange some blind date opportunities.

But even so, when hundreds of Turks gathered in the settlement of the Yuktu tribe, the place became extremely lively.

Singing and dancing, barbecue, flatbread, merchants who heard the news came...

This is a rare market, a chance to find joy in a bleak year.

It was also during this opportunity that the tribal leaders who had previously held a meeting in the city of Erzurum gathered together again.

According to previous agreements, the actual highest authority in the Bey State was actually the Turkic Parliament.

But how is this Turkic Parliament constructed, how does it exercise power, and how does it control the Bey State.

In fact, no one was quite clear about it, and it was only because of Garys that they rushed out to find a way to survive.

According to the original plan, after the autumn harvest, the construction of the Turkic Parliament will be officially put on the agenda, and they will begin to prepare to extend their power to the surrounding areas.

Of course, in the minds of many Turkic tribal leaders, this so-called Turkic Parliament is actually another form of nomadic alliance.

Nomadic alliance is a form of political and military organization originating from nomadic society, usually referring to an alliance formed between multiple nomadic tribes or clans to jointly deal with issues such as war, resource allocation, trade or internal conflicts.

The alliance was usually led by the most powerful tribal leader or Khan (Great Khan), who needed to coordinate relations among the tribes and distribute spoils and pastures to maintain the stability of the alliance.

Although Osman of the Yuktu tribe was nominally the leader, everyone knew that the real leader was actually Gairis.

If it weren't for Osman, who took the initiative to invite them all to eat and drink during these difficult days, giving everyone a chance to eat at a wealthy man's table, he would not have been able to maintain his position as the second person under Garys.

And just as these tribal leaders were eating and drinking in a single tent, exchanging news with each other and arranging marriages for their children.

Suddenly, the curtain of the tent was opened and a young man rushed in. His face was somewhat similar to Osman.

He said loudly to the leaders: "The prophet has set up a platform over there in the square. I hope you can all go over and take a look!" Some tribal leaders recognized the man's identity and knew that he was Arsalan, but that didn't matter.

The important thing is that Garys had the stage set up, which obviously meant that he had something important to announce.

These people had seen Garys' miracle in the city, so they naturally did not dare to ignore it. After exchanging a few words of greeting, they all stood up and walked over there.

When they arrived, they saw that the place was already crowded with people.

Between the crowd, a stone podium was built with flags flying at the four corners.

The front of the platform faces southeast, and those with a keen sense of direction will realize that it is actually facing the Kaaba in Mecca.

A short time later, Gairis was seen wearing a white robe and a white headscarf.

He walked towards the podium from the right and went up slowly. During this time, everything was very natural and quiet, as if some magic suppressed the enthusiasm of everyone present.

Once on the podium, Gellis greeted the crowd.

First, the group in the middle, then the left, and finally the right.

However, this was just the beginning. Immediately afterwards, he shouted again:
"The world created by God! Whether it is living creatures or dead objects, whether it is human beings, or spirits and angels."

"Today! I will announce to all of creation the arrival of a brand new era!"

"I am the Prophet who has been in hiding for thousands of years. I have now returned to take over the duties of the Imam. I send you greetings and peace."

"I free you from Sharia and lead you to resurrection!"

"I declare that a new calendar will be used!"

"From now on, the Islamic calendar will be the moon, and the new calendar will be the sun!"

"You are free to choose! I won't force you to do anything..."

Before Garys finished speaking, there was already a commotion in the audience.

The commotion was not coming from the main members of the Yuktu tribe, nor from the strong men who followed their leaders here to eat and drink, but from a group on the far left who were clearly dressed like scholars of the religion.

"heresy!"

"lie!"

"Atheist!"

In the 1200s, Islam in eastern Anatolia was mainly influenced by the Seljuk Empire and surrounding Muslim regimes such as the Abbasid Caliphate, Khwarezm, and the Ayyubid Dynasty.

Although many Turkic nomadic tribes have converted to Islam.

But the quality of their conversion is quite significant.

Therefore, various Islamic sects are trying to win the conversion of these Turks in order to expand the influence of their own sects.

Many of these Sufi orders attempt to spread mysticism.

The more typical jurists were responsible for guiding the Turkic tribes from formal conversion to orthodox Islamic practice.

Their missionary methods are different from those of Sufi orders, and they are more inclined towards systematic education, legal norms and social organization.

Either they rely on official dispatches and are appointed by the Rum Sultanate as judges, muftis, or teachers to promote religious education with legal authority.

Or they could attach themselves to the noble leaders and become their religious advisers, thereby influencing the entire tribe.

Because the Bey Kingdom has long obeyed orders but not announcements, the latter is more common.

These scholars of religious doctrine came here together with the leaders of various tribes.

However, facing the shouting of these people, Gailis did not respond. He just glanced calmly in the direction where Osman and others were.

Feeling Gairis's gaze, Osman and other tribal leaders suddenly felt a chill and a little uneasy in their hearts.

With so many people present, they were not very clear about what others thought of Garys.

But to them, Gellis is an unquestionable authority.

Therefore, before those scholars of the doctrine could say anything more, when they turned around one by one, they found that their masters were looking at them with rather unfriendly eyes.

A little incident would naturally not interrupt Garys's preaching.

Gellis briefly introduced his new calendar.

At this point, it is necessary to mention that the Islamic calendar is not suitable for agricultural cultivation.

But is the contemporary Julian calendar suitable?
Julian calendar, abbreviated as Julian calendar.

It was a calendar calculated by Sosigenes, a Greek mathematician and astronomer from Alexandria, Egypt, adopted by Julius Caesar, dictator of the Roman Republic.

The calendar was implemented on January 45, 1 BC, replacing the old Roman calendar. There are 1 months in a year, alternating between long and short months, and a leap day every four years. In a normal year, there are 12 days, and in a leap year, a leap day is added at the end of February, so the average length of a year is 365 days.

The calendar set January 1 as the beginning of the year, the day the Roman consul took office.

The Julian calendar was created as a response to the chaotic calendar of the previous Roman Empire.

Before the Julian calendar, although the Romans knew that a solar year was roughly 365.25 days, they still insisted on using the waxing and waning of the moon to form 12 months, or 355 days.

In order to fill the gap of 10 days, the Roman high priest would declare a certain year as a leap year every few years, adding an extra month to make up for the missing days.

If it is managed properly, this is not impossible.

However, the terms of office of Roman consuls corresponded to the calendar year.

In other words, when the Roman high priest declared a certain year to be a leap year, it was equivalent to extending the reign of the Roman consul by more than twenty days.

The Roman high priest refused to declare a year a leap year, which was equivalent to shortening the reign of the Roman consul.

What does it matter if humans have a few more suns? Roman sacrifices can make the year shorter or longer!
The political struggle turned into a battle to define the calendar, which was too abstract. Julian finally chose to solve this problem permanently, which was to adopt the design of adding a leap day every four years.

This will avoid situations where there is an extra month inexplicably in a certain year, or a missing month inexplicably in a certain year.

But a real year is not 365.25 days, but 365.2422 days.

This tiny difference results in one day being lost every 128 years.

From the beginning of the Julian calendar to today, it has been almost ten days shorter.

There were obvious problems with the calculation of the equinoxes and solstices, so Gairis had to correct not only the Islamic calendar but also the Julian calendar.

(End of this chapter)