In my first and second blog post, I talked about how race did not really play a role in the Ottoman army. I, furthermore, talked about how the strength was the determinant in terms of how you were going to be viewed in the Ottoman army and the society. In this post, I would like to compare two different paintings of Gérome and address the common question that everybody has. Did he painted the african male because he was a slave under the Ottoman regime or he painted him because the african male was a part of a reckless and brutal army unit that was infamous for their raids after the Ottoman army entered different cities in Eastern Europe, and Middle East. I would like to start my analysis by comparing the clothes of these two soldiers. The first thing that I realize is how the african males clothes are shiner and well kept. On the other hand, middle eastern males clothes are not as well kept and it is obvious that it is not as new. The color seems to be fading away. So from comparison of their clothes we can conclude that Ottoman army did not discriminate their soldiers in regards to their skin tone, but the provided everybody with same opportunity, and whoever was successful ended up having more financial freedom. It is important to note that these soldiers were not paid by the Ottoman army. Instead, they were allowed to pillage the treasures of places that ottoman army invaded. Inherently, whoever was stronger and smarter would end up making more money from the military campaigns. Thus, we can say that african male could possibly have a higher rank or status in the Ottoman military. Next, I would like to analyze Gerome's intensions in terms of depicting these separate  individuals. We can see that african male is depicted as stronger while the middle eastern male is depicted more vulnerable. Furthermore, full face of the middle eastern male is shown in the painting while side of the african male is shown in order to put more mystique into the painting. Lastly, we can see that african male has a bigger and more magnificent gun than the middle eastern male does. This could be a symbol that the african male is higher up in the ranks. it needs to be remembered that Ottoman empire was very spread out and in order to maintain their military strength, ottomans needed to use every man they could possibly get to achieve that they treated everybody equally which led males from africa and arabia to join the ranks of the Ottoman military. Hence, african males were not being discriminated against. To the contrary, they were allowed to demonstrate their strengths and achieve success within their own capacity.