Culture shock

First of all, props to Byron for being able to write such a long rhyming poem. This poem was a bit confusing, but I think I enjoyed it? It seems as if the fragmentation of the poem allows three different stories to be told-three different narrators even. I did a little research on the poem and found that "Giaour" actually translates (in Turkish) to infidel or non-believer. This being said, I think the poem brings up the topics of love, sex, politics, death, etc. in both the Christian and Muslim faiths and illustrates the clash of two different civilizations. The Giaour's realization when he says,"Yet did he but what I had done/Had she been false to more than one./Faithless to him, he gave the blow;/But true to me, I laid him low:/Howe'er deserved her doom might be,/Her treachery was truth to me," was interesting to me. Its as if the Giaour realizes that if he were in the Hassan's position, he would have killed Leila too. Although the Giaour and Hassan are representing two different cultures, their way of thinking proves to be similar in some instances.