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<strong>The</strong> immortal virgins appear again in regard to Alp, who is contrasted with hisTurkish men in that he is apparently not attracted by the promise <strong>of</strong> them:Not his the loud fanatic boastTo plant the crescent o’er the cross,Or risk a life with little loss,Secure in paradise to beBy Houris loved immortally[.] (SC 12.252-6).Once more, the religion is being used to inspire warfare. This time, the word ‘raisingmankind to kill’ is ‘love’. This is a shrewd comment on the functioning <strong>of</strong> such <strong>of</strong>fers<strong>of</strong> paradise; like the Norse idea <strong>of</strong> Valhalla, or the blessings given to the ChristianCrusaders, they make death in battle a positive idea instead <strong>of</strong> a negative one, and thusencourage fearlessness. However, neither <strong>of</strong> these, nor any other culture’s version, ispresented, leaving Islam alone in this respect.Much <strong>of</strong> this representation <strong>of</strong> Islam may have been influenced by Byron’s encounterswith Bektashi believers. 301 Yaşar Nuri Öztürk, writing about the founder <strong>of</strong> the“heterodox Bektāshī dervish order” which Yapp identifies as predominant in theOttoman Empire and particularly amongst the Janissaries, 302 notes <strong>of</strong> the founder <strong>of</strong>the school thatIn the Maqalat [Sayings], Haji Bektash has this to say about ghaza (holy war):If you kill the unbeliever you are a ghazi [one engaged in holy war], and if hekills you, you will be a shahid [martyr for Islam]…and the rank <strong>of</strong> martyr issuperior in five respects to that <strong>of</strong> the prophets. 303301 Q.v. Beatty, ‘Byron and Islam: the Triple Eros’, Journal <strong>of</strong> European Studies, 4 (1974), 325-63.302 See also J L Lee, Bektashiyya Sufism <strong>of</strong> Turkey and the Balkans (Birmingham: Centre for the Study<strong>of</strong> Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, 1994), p.26, especially on the rejection <strong>of</strong> the world as anillusion, an idea quite compatible with Idealism.303 Öztürk, p.63. Thornton mentions Haji Bektash’s “high repute” in contemporary Ottoman Turkey,particularly amongst the Janissaries (2.7.124-5).199

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