Arnold Toynbee's twelve volume
Study of History (1934-1961) uses a concept of "Universal State" to describe how a civilization is taken over by a powerful elite minority, which then assembles its vassal states into a common system of trade, governance and national myth. Though Toynbee's ideas have generated much debate and disagreement, I find some of his underlying notions to be useful in explaining the trends seen in many thousands of years of history across the globe.
Alexander's conquests led to the Hellenistic sweep of civilization from Italy to India. Rome later overtook much of that territory, and extended it into Spain, France, England and Germany.
The Ottoman's are considered in Toynbee's reckoning to be a "failed" civilization, by which he meant that prior to its reaching the status of universal state, the Ottoman empire was defeated (World War 1 and its aftermath), and collapsed back into just the territory of what is now Turkey. But during its height, the Ottoman empire's common system of trade, governance and national myth allowed the spread of Greek musical traditions, for example, to all of its territories and vassal states.
So, I'm not saying that the music of Greece came from the Ottomans, but rather the opposite--that the music of Greece became widely dispersed by the Ottomans, to the point where it is embedded in the current musical traditions of nearly all the that former empire.
Bob
and coffee drinking
.
