I searched for a whinge thread where people can lament others' lack of historical knowledge, but came up with nothing.

Just had to get this off my chest.

I was flipping through one of those little collections of Sufi poetry, and I noticed each chapter had a bit of Arabic calligraphy. I can't read Arabic, but I instantly recognized one of the symbols. It was Mahumd II's tughra. I found a book on Ottoman history to double check, and lo and behold, it was.

At that point I put the former book down. It was pretty apparent they just shoved random pretty things in there.

I mean, that kind of ignorance is sorta astounding. The poetry in that chapter was from Hafiz. Hafiz was Persian and was dead before Mahmud II was born. I couldn't be stuffed to look up the other chapter calligraphy but I assume they were also just thrown in. You'd think someone would double check these things.

/sigh