What is a Historical Era?

The Ottoman era, for instance. The Ottoman Empire controlled the Levant from 1516 until 1917. 400 hundred years and a year. The 16 th , 17 th , 18 th , And 19 th centuries, plus a bit of the 20 th century, too. The Renaissance, the Baroque, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution – what had happened during the Baroque period in the Damascus region of the Ottoman Empire? Is this question historically valid?

What do we know about the Ottoman era? What do we “remember” of it? Wars? Peace agreements? Artistic trends? Why do most of us know more about Europe’s “Springtime of Nations” than the Tansimat Declaration in Istanbul?

Does a historical period know it is one? Do all historical periods have the same value? The Medieval era had been called that because that period wasn’t considered very interesting – ten centuries in which nothing extraordinary had happened, at least in the eyes of the Renaissance people, who had coined the term. Medieval people would probably have chosen a different name for their times.

The farther you go back in time, the more ancient is what is left of it. How do we distinguish between ancient and ancient? When is ancient interesting and valuable, and when is it insignificant or just old?