THE TURKISH PEOPLE THEIR SOCIAL LIFE, RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND INSTITUTIONS AND DOMESTIC LIFE BY LUCY M. J. GARNETT WITH TWENTY-ONE ILLUSTRATIONS METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON First Published in igog TO THE MEMORY OF THE FATHER OF THE TURKISH CONSTITUTION MIDHAT PASHA STATESMAN, PATRIOT AND MARTYR THIS VOLUME IS REVERENTLY DEDICATED 252352 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PAGE THE ORIGIN OF THE OSMANLI TURKS xi PART I SOCIAL LIFE CHAPTER I THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL CHAPTER II OFFICIAL AND MILITARY TURKS 24 CHAPTER III DENIZENS OF THE PALACES 4 CHAPTER IV PROVINCIAL AND COUNTRY FOLK 63 CHAPTER V HOLIDAY LIFE 78 PART II RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND INSTITUTIONS CHAPTER VI MOSQUES AND THEIR GUARDIANS .103 vii viii THE TURKISH PEOPLE CHAPTER VII PACK BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS 114 CHAPTER VIII FASTS, FEASTS, AND PILGRIMAGE 143 CHAPTER IX INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS l6o CHAPTER X MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT 184 PART III DOMESTIC LIFE CHAPTER XI THE HAREM SYSTEM 211 CHAPTER XII FAMILY CEREMONIES (l) BIRTH AND CIRCUMCISION CERE- MONIES 227 CHAPTER XIII FAMILY CEREMONIES (2) MARRIAGE CEREMONIES . . .237 CHAPTER XIV FAMILY CEREMONIES (3) FUNERAL CEREMONIES . . . 249 CHAPTER XV TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE 258 CONCLUSION THE FUTURE OF THE OSMANLI TURKS 286 GLOSSARY 293 INDEX 295 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS SULTAN MOHAMMED v Frontispiece FACING PAGE A KONAK ON THE BOSPHORUS. NOW THE "SUMMER PALACE" OF THE FRENCH EMBASSY 2 AT THE BATHS OF YENI KAPLIDJAH (BROUSSA) . . .12 ITINERANT VENDORS, COURTYARD OF VALIDE MOSQUE, STAMBOUL 14 ARTILLERY OF THE FIRST BRIGADE 3 2 PALACE OF DOLMA-BAKTCHE 42 THE SULTAN'S VICTORIA 44 H.I.H. PRINCE SELIM EFFENDI, ELDEST SON OF THE SULTAN 62 A CHANDLER'S SHOP AT AIDIN (ASIA MINOR) .... 63 TURKISH PEASANTS 75 THE "GREAT MOSQUE" AT BROUSSA 103 INTERIOR OF THE SULEYMANISH MOSQUE . . . . 106 A STREET FOUNTAIN (SEBIL) IN STAMBOUL . . . . IOQ A PRELIMINARY TO PRAYER . . . . . . , . Il6 LAMBS FOR THE SACRIFICE 147 STUDENTS AT THE TURKISH AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL, SALONICA 176 DERVISHES OF THE MEVLEVI ORDER 2OO WHERE THE SWEETS ARE MADE AND SOLD .... 230 A TURKISH STREET IN AIDIN, ASIA MINOR . . . .258 A TURKISH LADY IN YASHMAK AND FERADJEH . . . 272 SULTAN ABDUL HAMID II. . 2Q2 ix INTRODUCTION THE ORIGIN OF THE OSMANLI TURKS THE national Turkish traditions preserved by the Persian historians Rashid-ed-Din and Jowaini from Uigurian books, now lost, point to the region watered by the Selenga and its affluents, the Orkhon and the Tugela, as the primitive seat of the Turkish people. But already as early as the sixth century A.D. the Turks had their traditional hero in Khan Disabul, the " Master of the Seven Races, and Lord of the Seven Climates of the World," who exchanged embassies with Justinian, and whose friendship the Roman Emperor desired in order that in the words of his Ambassador to the Golden Mountain "a strict alliance, without envy or deceit, might for ever be maintained between the two most powerful nations of the earth." 1 Somewhere about the second decade of the thirteenth century, the little Turkish tribe destined in due course to found the Ottoman Empire was driven by invading Mongols from its original home, and, passing through Persia, entered Armenia under the leadership of Suleyman Shah, its hereditary chief. His son and successor, Erto- ghrul, while wandering with his warriors over those wide Asian lands, came one day upon two armies engaged in desperate conflict. Riding at once to the assistance of what appeared to be the weaker party, their assailants a horde of Mongols who had invaded the territories of Ala-ed-Din, Sultan of Konieh, the ancient Iconium 1 Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire^ vol. v. pp. 178-181. xi xii THE TURKISH PEOPLE were put to flight. In reward for this signal service, the Seljukian Prince conferred upon Ertoghrul, as a military fief, a considerable tract of land, comprising within its limits the towns of Sugut and Eski Shehir. His son Othman or Osman, surnamed " The Bonebreaker," having while still young won from the Greeks for his Suzerain several important towns, was rewarded for this service with the title of " Bey," along with the symbols pertaining to that military rank the drum and horse-tailed standard. In 1300 the Seljukian Kingdom fell to pieces, ten separate principalities taking its place, all of which were eventually merged in that of Osman, originally the least important among them ; and from this time may be dated the rise of the Ottoman Empire. The use of the name " Turks " has never been limited in a clear and definite way by European writers. By Byzantine authors it was generally used in a collective sense to indicate certain races of Central and South- western Asia ; while at the present day Europeans restrict this term to the Osmanlis, who themselves scorn- fully repudiate it ; their nation, as they hold, having ceased to be Turkish either in blood or in culture. As Mr. Stuart- Glennie has remarked in his essay on "The Ethnography of Turkey," 1 " No Liberal assumption except that perhaps as to the universal ' subjection of women ' is in such utter contradiction to historical facts as the assumption that the Osmanlis are Turks in the sense in which that term, as likewise that of Turanian, is ordinarily used namely, to designate not only a non-Aryan, but a Coloured Race." For it is very doubtful whether even the small original following of the Central Asian chief, Suleyman Shah, were save perhaps in their lowest ranks what is now commonly understood by the terms Turk, Tartar, and Turanian ; and it is, on the other hand, extremely probable that this small original tribe of westward wandering Osmanlis belonged to that non-Semitic and non-Aryan, " Archaian " white race which recent ethnological research has shown to have been that of the founders of the 1 Introductory Chapter to The Women and Folklore of Turkey^ vol. i., 1890. INTRODUCTION xiii Chaldean and Egyptian civilisations, and to be still, as it has from the earliest times been, widely distributed over Central Asia. And with reference to such a descent the Crescent symbol of the Osmanlis is very significant, connected, as it seems to be, with the Moon-god of the Chaldeans, masculine also in Turkish, and of whose wide- spread worship topographical traces may be found from Arabia to Asia Minor. It is also noteworthy that, rich as Ottoman literature is in tales, there is found in it no tradition, or trace even, connecting the Osmanlis with the Tartar race. But whether originally a purely white race or not, the Osmanli Turks, since their appearance on the historic arena in the thirteenth century, have developed into the great nation they now constitute by admixture during more than six centuries with the best white blood both of Asia and of Europe. This admixture has been effected in various ways, not the least important having been the establishment in the reign of Orchan of the Janissary Corps (1365). This corps was originally, and until 1672 exclusively, composed of Christian boys, a certain number of whom were every year forcibly recruited from among the subject populations ; and during the years of their training as soldiers not only were they carefully instructed in the tenets of Islam, but also to a certain extent, and in their more popular aspect, in the doctrines of the Bektashi Order of Dervishes in which all were enrolled as lay members, this Corps having at its formation received the blessing of its founder, Hadji Bektash, of Khorassan, poet and philosopher, fanatic and fighting monk. After a certain number of years of service in the armies of the Sultans, the Janissaries left the ranks to settle on the lands granted as a reward for their long and faithful services, married the daughters of their Moslem neigh- bours, and brought up their children as Osmanlis. The spoils of the cities and provinces, overrun by Turkish armies or raided by Mediterranean Corsairs, included both youths and maidens, the latter being destined to people the harems of their captors, those among the former for- tunate enough to escape labour at the oar in the war-galleys xiv THE TURKISH PEOPLE of their masters being purchased by Moslem households for the service of the selamlik. Many of those who had thus entered Moslem society through the gate of slavery subsequently rose to high positions in the State ; and the condition of bondage not being in Moslem countries either permanent or hereditary, their origin was speedily lost sight of, and their descendants helped to swell the ranks of the Osmanli nation. In the copious ballad literature of the Modern Greeks are to be found numerous episodes reminiscent of all these methods of recruitment. These old popular songs, which have been orally transmitted during centuries from one generation to another, contain in many cases the actual individual expression of the grief of those thus ruthlessly torn from home and friends and faith, and of the sorrow of their bereaved relatives. One unhappy woman of Epirus cries " O cruel Sultan, cursed be thou, yea, be thou thrice accursed, For all the evil thou hast wrought, the ill thou still art working ! Thou send'st and biddest forth the priests, the notables, the elders, The Tax of Children to collect, to make them Janissaries. Fond mothers weep their sons beloved, and sisters brothers cherished. And I'm with burning grief consumed, and all my life must sorrow Last year my little son they took, this year they take my brother ! " x In another ballad a Greek captive, released on the defeat of the Turks by Don John of Austria at the naval battle of Lepanto (1574), thus briefly relates to his deliverers the story of his captivity " A four days' bridegroom only I, when Turks a captive took me, And ten long years I've passed since then on Barbary's soil in durance, Ten walnut trees I planted there, within my prison dreary, Of all of them I ate the fruit, but never found I freedom." 2 Not always, however, as reluctant recruits do the sons of the rayahs appear to have joined the ranks of the " New Troop." In a song from North Eubcea a woman boasts that she has among other kindred of note a "Janissary brother-in-law, who lures away the youngsters." And it 1 Greek Folkpoesy, vol. i. p. 281. 2 Ibid., p. 283. INTRODUCTION xv is, I believe, a matter of historical fact that, tempted by the privileges enjoyed by members of this corps, parents of Christian boys not infrequently intrigued to get their sons included among the numbers levied. And though many Christian maidens as, for instance, Despo of Liakata 1 - no doubt went often unwillingly enough to be the brides of their Moslem over-lords, there were exceptions then, as in modern times ; and an underlying expression of satisfaction at their future prospects is occasionally allowed to appear, as in a Cretan ballad which describes the abduction by a Turkish ship's crew of a Priest's daughter, who, after begging her father to keep for himself the money he had raised as her ransom, thus naively adds " And I on costly carpets tread, on golden chair I seat me, And wipe the tears that dim mine eyes with gold-embroidered kerchief." 2 It must not, however, be supposed that the recruitment from the neighbouring Aryan and Caucasian populations has been entirely, or even mainly, the result of the capture and enslavement of their men and women, and the forcible annual enlistment during three centuries of so many hundred thousands of the sons of the subject Christians as Janissaries. For such was the condition of security established by the Emir Orkhan in his dominions that many Asiatic subjects of the Byzantine Caesars fled to him for the protection their own rulers could not, or would not, afford them, and abjuring their Christian Faith, were speedily merged into the Osmanli nation. And the numbers of the Osmanlis were also during its early history frequently and importantly augmented by the voluntary submission and conversion to Islam of inde- pendent Asian Princes and Chieftains who, fired with 1 The daughter of a wealthy sheep-farmer belonging to the Aspro- potamos district of Epirus, who with her four brothers figures frequently in folksong. While washing by the riverside she had been seen and carried off by Ali Pasha, the tyrant of Joannina, to his palace on the lake of that name, where she is said to have died of grief within fifteen days. So great, however, was the Pasha's regard for his unwilling bride, that at her death he conferred many honours and benefits on her family. 2 Greek Folkpoesy^ vol. i. p. 261. xvi THE TURKISH PEOPLE admiration of the Turkish Emirs as Orkhan and his sons were then styled freely enlisted themselves and their followers under the banner of the Crescent. Nor only in Asia and during the earlier period of Turkish Conquests. For in the Balkan Peninsula there was at one time, owing to preparation by the widespread Protestantism of the Paulicians, such a disposition to embrace Islam that had it not been for the intervention of the Great White Tzar of the North to whom the Christians of South-Eastern Europe looked for the preservation of their menaced national freedom almost all the Peninsula might have been converted to the larger Protestantism of Islam. And thus in the Balkans, as in the Islands of the -/Egean, the Moslem section of the population, generally referred to as " Turks," are of the purest Aryan, or, at least, white blood of the country. THE TURKISH PEOPLE PART I SOCIAL LIFE CHAPTER I THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL ONE of the predominating instincts of the Osmanli Turks has ever been a passion for the pic- turesque in nature, a love of splendid sites, sparkling seas, leafy shades, cool fountains, and wide horizons ; and this instinct has led them, wherever they have settled, to choose for their abodes the most charming situations, commanding views unrivalled in grandeur and beauty. At Broussa, until 1453 the Turkish Capital, the quarter of the ruling race spreads over the lower slopes of the Bithynian Olympus ; at Smyrna it lies beneath the ruined walls and towers of the ancient citadel on Mount Pagus, the scene of the martyrdom of St. Polycarp and of countless sieges and sanguinary struggles with invading hosts. At Salonica, equally, the streets of the Turkish quarter extend from the new street opened out OF THE CAPITAL by Midhat Pasha more than thirty years ago, and named after him, to the northern walls and the castle of the " Seven Towers " at the summit of the hill on the slopes of which the city is built ; while at Constantinople not only are the seven hills of Stamboul almost entirely occupied by the homes of the Osmanlis, but they have also appropriated many a fair spot on the shores both of the Bosphorus and of the Sea of Marmora. The streets of a Turkish quarter are often, owing to their elevated situation, steep, and also for the most part winding and narrow. The pavement, if any there be, is of cobble-stones sloping towards a gutter in the centre of the roadway, which is usually ankle-deep in dust in dry, and a rushing torrent in rainy weather. In other respects, however, the streets are, generally speaking, cleaner than those of the Christian and Jewish mahallas, partly owing to the natural drainage consequent on their elevated situation, partly to the greater space available in their courtyards and gardens for the bestowal of refuse, and also to the presence in their streets of the pariah dogs who act as scavengers, and, though considered unclean animals and not admitted to the houses of Moslems, are protected and treated with kindness by them. Kindness to animals, I may here remark, is a leading trait in Turkish character ; and one may often see in the streets, under a house wall, rude little temporary shelters constructed of boards and carpeted with straw for the accommodation of a canine mother and her brood of woolly pups, who speedily become the pets and proteges of the whole mahalla. fi h W o H THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL 3 Life in the Capital and in the large seaport cities of the Levant presents certain aspects not discoverable in the towns of the interior, where the population, though always composed of two or more nationalities, is of a less cos- mopolitan character, and where social conditions generally are less affected by European influence. But even in these great cities the difference, so far at least as the vast mass of Turkish inhabitants are concerned, is superficial and external rather than essential. For all the various nationalities, Moslem, Christian, and Jewish, of which these cosmopolitan populations are made up, live in separate quarters of the cities, and their members, after transacting business with each other during the day honestly or otherwise according to their several codes of commercial morality retire at sunset into worlds totally different and divided from each other by impassable barriers of language, religion, and tradition, national aspiration, and social custom ; the life and thought of a mere fraction of each section of the native races being at all influenced by those of the foreigners with whom they come into daily contact. At Smyrna and Salonica the Osmanlis form but a comparatively small section of the population ; in the Capital, however, they are exceedingly numerous, peopling almost the whole of Stamboul as well as many of the suburbs on both sides of the Bosphorus. And notwithstanding the heterogeneous character of its inhabitants generally, one can never here lose sight of the fact that the Turks are the ruling race, and that Con- stantinople is the capital of the Moslem world. According 4 THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL to an Albanian adage, "to find a representative Turk one must go to Stamboul, and to find a true Albanian to Elbassan." The term " Koniar Turk" a Turk from Konieh, the ancient Iconium is, however, most frequently used by Greeks and others to indicate a thoroughbred Osmanli. Pride of race is, it must be admitted, excessive in the Turks, and the habit of domination has been developed by their position as a ruling people surrounded by subject nationalities. Though as mentioned in the introduction to a great extent of the same blood, they as a nation display a somewhat overweening sense of their superiority to the subject races, having few interests or aspirations in common with them, seldom acquiring their languages, or attempting to understand their manners and customs, which they may be said to regard generally with a somewhat contemptuous toleration. The social organisation of the Osmanlis themselves is, on the other hand, distinctly opposed to the principles of aristocracy and hereditary rank. A Sultan's daughters marry subjects, the connections even of the Imperial family do not form a noble or privileged class, and such Imperial descent is, in a few generations, practically lost sight of. The division of estates between all children of one father, female as well as male, and the Oriental propensity of the Government to confiscate any considerable accumulation of riches, have also constituted effectual barriers to the transmission to descendants of family position and affluence. In Asia Minor, however, there may still be found a certain number of families constituting a kind of THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL 5 landed gentry whose ancestors for the most part con- verted Moslems of non-Turkish origin were at the Con- quest allowed to retain their lands, holding them as military fiefs. And previous to the introduction in 1867 of the present centralising administration the country districts in certain 'provinces were ruled either by such Turkish feudatories, or, as in Albania and Kurdistan, by tribal chieftains, whose loyalty to the Porte was most easily secured by allowing them entire freedom in dealing with their own vassals. With the exception of these provincial families, in which the title of Bey is hereditary, the Ottomans have never had an aristocracy properly so called, all the Moslem subjects of the Sultan, whether born freemen or emancipated slaves, being virtually on a level beneath him. There is accordingly nothing in the social system of Turkey to prevent the poorest Osmanli from attaining the highest dignity, that of Grand Vizier. On the other hand, a deposed Minister may descend to an inferior employment without losing caste, forfeiting any of his civil rights, or becoming less eligible for office when Fortune's wheel may again have revolved in his favour, and to the Oriental mind there is consequently nothing extraordinary in Joseph's having risen from the position of a slave to that of Grand Vizier of the King of Egypt, nor is the marriage of a handsome and adven- turous " widow's son," or other hero of fairy tale, with a king's daughter; and the Oriental possessor of wit and audacity may indeed say with Pistol, " The world's mine oyster ! " 6 THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL A still further proof of the absence from their institu- tions of class divisions is offered by the absence of Turkish family names. The names of men are, as a rule, Biblical or historical, and in order to differentiate one Ali or Mehmet from another, a nickname is frequently bestowed denoting some personal peculiarity, physical or moral, such as "Bajuksis (Short-legged) Ali Pasha," "Buyuk (Big) Mehmet Agha," Kuchuk (Little) Selim Effendi," " Chapgun (Scamp) Ali Bey." The only Turkish title which carries with it any definite rank and precedence is that of Pasha, being conferred personally by the Sultan on the man whom he so "delighteth to honour." Bey and Effendi are merely conventional designations, as indefinite as our "Esquire" has come to be, the former being generally applied to high Government officials, colonels, and distinguished persons, including foreigners, and also to their sons. Effendi has the same signification as the French Monsieur, and is applied indiscriminately to Princes of the Royal house, to Mollahs and Sheikhs, to women, and even to native Christians. It is also used in conjunction with the other titles, a gentleman being addressed as Bey Effendi, or Pasha Effendi, and a lady as Hannm Effendi. Agha is applied to petty officers and respectable elderly Turks, and Tchelebi (" gentleman ") to persons of the better class generally, whether Christian or Moslem. But notwithstanding this absence of hereditary rank and class distinction perhaps because of it every Osmanli is both by nature and tradition an aristocrat, and the same dignity of bearing and courtesy of manner may THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL 7 be met with in the hovel of the peasant as in the konak of the Pasha. A noteworthy characteristic of Turkish town life is its extreme sobriety and consequent orderliness. Notwith- standing the mixture of races and the scarcity of police- men, street brawls or disturbances of any kind are of rare occurrence, and native Christians or foreign sailors are usually found to be responsible for them ; foot passengers make way for each other in the narrow and crowded streets and bazars with extreme good nature and mutual compliments ; the heavily laden hamal and the driver of cart or carriage utters continually his warning cry of " Varda ! " and there is little of the coarseness and vulgar brutality common in Western cities. In social relations, generally, a rigid system of etiquette is observed by the Osmanlis, and respect is instinctively paid by those of a lower to those of a higher rank. A Turk when visiting another knows the precise distance from the door at which his friend should meet him, the special words which his rutbe social or official standing entitles him to be greeted with, and the exact distance from his host on the divan at which he should take his seat. A host may relax the rules of etiquette towards his guests should they be of lower official rank than himself; but a guest has not this privilege, and any breach of the rules of etiquette on either part, if apparently intentional, is considered an affront. The conditions of public safety vary, however, greatly according to locality. In Asiatic Smyrna, for instance, and also to a certain extent in Constantinople, 8 THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL foreign ladies could, even forty years ago, traverse the streets with safety, or travel in the Bosphorus steamers ; while in European Salonica, even under normal conditions, no lady, foreign or native, might venture abroad, sive perhaps in one or two streets of the Frank quarter, without the escort of a gentleman or manservant, for fear of molestation at the hands of the Albanians and other lawless denizens of the Macedonian " hinterland ; " the long-horned draught buffaloes and files of Jew-driven pack animals with their unwieldy burdens, here con- stituting also another source of danger to pedestrians. By night public safety is, in many localities, still entrusted to the bektchi a counterpart of our own obsolete watch- man who, lantern in hand, goes his round between sunset and sunrise, giving to evildoers chivalrous warning of his approach by striking his iron-shod staff at intervals on the pavement. Many of the streets are but inadequately lighted at night, if lighted at all, and it is consequently customary for every one when out of doors after sunset to carry a lighted lantern, and any individual encountering a police patrol, or passing a guard-house without this token of his honesty of purpose, will hardly avoid getting into difficulties. Alike in the Capital and the provincial cities or townships, the bazars form the chief centre of commercial life. The term "bazar," however, though derived from a Turkish word signifying "to bargain," is applied by the Turks only to such market-places as the Baluk-Basar, or fish-market ; the term tcharshi being generally applied to THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL 9 streets the shops in which are devoted exclusively to the manufacture or sale of one kind of goods ; while the same term, or that of bezesten, is applied to the vast walled and roofed-in enclosures which constitute the great emporiums in the East. The most familiar examples of these are the Bezesten, or Grand Bazar of Stamboul, and the Misr Tcharshi, or Cairene Bazar. This Grand Bazar forms, as it were, a city within a city, containing arcaded streets, tortuous and mysterious lanes and alleys, squares and fountains, all enclosed within high protecting walls, and covered by a vaulted roof studded with hundreds of cupolas, through which penetrates a subdued light more favourable, it must be admitted, to the vendor than to the purchaser. Here, as elsewhere, each commodity has its special habitat. In one quarter are found embroideries in gold and silver, brocades and damasks, with gauzes of silk, cotton, and linen from the looms of Broussa ; in another are displayed specimens of all the rugs and carpets woven in nomad tent, in village home, and in town factory between Smyrna and Samarcand ; while, in a third, footgear of every description, from a waterman's boot to a Sultana's slipper, may be purchased ; in a fourth the jewellers and dealers in pearls and precious stones conceal, rather than display, in diminutive shops their valuable stock-in-trade; while a fifth will be found devoted to small arms calculated to appeal to the fancy of every Turkish subject between the Highlands of Kurdistan and the mountains of Albania. The khans, or caravanserais, which throughout the 10 THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL East supply to native travellers the place of inns or hostelries, have little in common with such in the European acceptation of the term, as they furnish neither food nor attendance to those making use of them. The Capital contains a considerable number of khans ; one or more may be found in every large town ; while others are met with at various points on the great highways of the interior. Not a few owe their origin to the muni- ficence of the pious, this provision for the accommodation of the weary wayfarer being included in the list of "good works" required of Moslems. Among such may be mentioned the "Lady's Khan" on the road between loannina and Mezzovo, built, together with the beautiful fountain near it, by the widow of a famous Suleyman Pasha, and the "Khan of the Valide" in Stamboul, adjoining the mosque of that name, founded by the able Regent Tarkhan Sultana, mother of Mohammed IV. The archi- tecture of this latter vast caravanserai, which is considered a sort of model for such edifices, is quite monastic in character. A great arched gateway gives access to a quadrangle containing a tree-shaded fountain and sur- rounded by stables and storehouses for merchandise, above which extend three superimposed cloistered galleries on which open all the cell-like apartments. These lodgings contain no furniture, as all Oriental travellers carry with them their own bedding, rugs, and utensils, and the charge made for accommodation is corre- spondingly small. The further wants of the guests are easily supplied at the coffee-stall and cook-shop on the THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL 11 premises, or in the numerous establishments of the kind with which the neighbourhood abounds. In this and the other large caravanserais at Stamboul, as also at Smyrna and Salonica, may be found collected a motley throng of strangers, pilgrims, and traders, together with the donkeys and mules, horses and camels, on which they and their varied merchandise have been transported from the far borders of the Ottoman Empire, European, Asiatic, and African. And, from time immemorial, these hostelries have constituted important centres, not of trade only, but also for the exchange of news and ideas, and occur frequently in Oriental folk-tales. \S Coffee and tobacco are, in the Western mind, indis- solubly associated with the traditional Turk ; and these luxuries, despite the fulminations hurled against them in past centuries by ascetic moralists, have become for the inhabitants of Turkey generally not only the indis- pensable adjuncts of civility and hospitality, but almost the necessaries of existence. Coffee and cigarettes indeed appear to constitute an integral part of every business transaction and every social or official interview ; and so many cups of the fragrant beverage must perforce be partaken of in the course of a day that their consumption must inevitably have injurious consequences but for the special method of preparation which seems to render it at the same time stimulant and innocuous. So con- tinuous is the demand for freshly made "creaming" coffee, that kahfents are found 'on every hand in crowded streets, by suburban roadsides, on boat-piers and in 12 THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL market-places, wherever, in a word, men resort for business or relaxation. Many are mere wooden shanties shaded by an awning or vine-covered trellis, in front of, or under which the contemplative Orientals sit con- tentedly on rush-bottomed stools, a cup in one hand and the mouthpiece of narghile or stem of tchibouk in the other, for hours together. These coffee-houses, together with the public baths, in default of clubs or " institutes," have from time immemorial formed throughout the East the chief centres of union and conversation for the middle and lower classes, the men's baths being open in the evening as well as during the day. In both of these resorts those who can read impart to their unlettered neighbours the news of the day no longer, happily, as in former years, suppressed or distorted by Press censor- ship discuss political and social questions, and make acquaintance with their fellow-citizens. Turks of the lower class resort to the kahfene in the early morning for a cheering cup and soothing narghile before betaking themselves to their daily avocations, and repair to them again at intervals during the day as opportunity may offer. Most unpretentious and by no means very inviting in appearance are these kakfenes, and few can boast of any arrangements for the comfort of those who frequent them, the best being furnished only with mats, rugs, and cushions, placed on a raised platform surrounding the interior. The Turks are naturally gregarious and socially inclined, and the harem system on which their homes are organised not offering facilities especially THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL 13 among the lower middle and labouring classes for social intercourse, a club of some kind has always formed a necessary element of urban life. And one of the most striking features of Constantinople under the new regime has been the establishment of numerous bond fide clubs to meet the requirements of every class and profession. Personal cleanliness among Moslems certainly comes "next to godliness," being enjoined by the Sheriat, or Sacred Law; and to the regular and careful ablutions requisite for the maintenance of the condition of legal purity in which certain religious acts may alone be per- formed as also no doubt to their habitual temperance, are probably due the comparative freedom of the Turks from many of the ailments which afflict their Christian and Jewish neighbours. Several hammams t as Turkish baths are termed, are to be found in every large town, and in the Capital they are very numerous. A few the mineral baths at Broussa, for instance, and some of the older ones at Stamboul present fine examples of this species of architecture, and are much resorted to by all classes. The charges made to all are extremely moderate, and for the use of the poor there are numerous minor baths attached to mosques and other pious foundations at which they may perform their ablutions gratuitously. Nowhere perhaps in the world is itinerant commerce carried on to such an extent as in the streets of the Turkish Capital, where almost every edible and potable is hawked or exposed for sale in the public thoroughfares, 14 THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL the courtyards of the very mosques not being sacred from the intrusion of detachments of the "thousands of people who gain a living by selling all sorts of things " to use the words of a Turkish chronicler of the seventeenth century drinks, sweets, sherbets, cakes, pistachio nuts, and what not where stalls with their protecting white umbrellas encumber, uninterfered with, the precincts of many a noble djami. And to this facility for carrying on petty commerce may no doubt be attributed, in some degree, the notable absence of the acute and squalid poverty of Western cities ; for any man with a shilling of capital seems able to turn a sufficiency of honest pennies daily to provide himself and his family with the necessaries of life. The stock-in-trade, for instance, of a kahvedji consists but of half a dozen rush-bottomed stools and brass ibriks y in which coffee is both boiled and served, together with a few cups and glasses ; and quite a number of coffee vendors may apparently, without any unfriendly rivalry, eke out a living on some favourite lounging place in a frequented spot, under spreading plane or sheltering wall. And of this, a little incident that occurred during my last visit to Constantinople, afforded a practical illustration. After visiting the stately mosque of Sultan Bayazid in Stamboul, my friends and I seated ourselves on some stools standing outside its courtyard gate, and called for coffee to a Turk a few yards away, whose cotton handkerchief tucked apronwise into his girdle denoted his calling. He, however, courteously informed us that his domain did not extend to the steps of the THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL 15 mosque. A second kahvedji, who then came up, likewise smilingly explained that only the stools on the opposite side of the doorway belonged to him ; and after dis- patching a boy in hot haste to summon his absent fellow- tradesman, he begged us not to change our places, as his neighbour would instantly return and supply our wants affording a notable example of the prevailing courtesy of manners above referred to. A conspicuous figure among this itinerant population is the saka. Pure water being highly prized by the abstemious Osmanlis, its distribution to the thirsty is accounted one of the most meritorious among the " good works " prescribed by the religion of Islam, and the saka is employed by charitable persons to carry water into much frequented thoroughfares for the benefit of the public, to whom he offers the welcome draught with the words, " We give thee to drink of the Kevser's spring " Kevser signifying the "Water of Life." The water is usually carried by the saka on his back in a great leathern jack, which in hot weather is often covered with green leaves and branches; and some have an arrange- ment of pipes and taps by which the water can be drawn off with ease into the cups fitted into a metal receptacle strapped round the waist. Another class of sakas who supply water to householders in the Capital from springs in the suburbs famous for their purity, carry their jacks slung on either side of a pack-horse. All sakas, Christian as well as Moslem, enjoy a high degree of consideration, their persons being regarded as in a 16 THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL manner sacred, any offence offered to a member of this fraternity being deemed an insult to the whole quarter in which he pursues his avocation. The sakas form one of the Esnaf s^ or Guilds, in which members of the various trades, crafts, and callings are severally enrolled, irre- spective of race and religion, for their mutual protection and support. These Guilds, though now diminished in number owing to the disappearance of many once flourish- ing industries, still constitute an important feature of urban industrial life, especially at Constantinople, where representatives of all the various crafts and callings practised in the Empire are to be found. Each Esnaf has here one or more Lonjas Lodges, or Clubs in every quarter of the city and suburbs, presided over by several officers called respectively, according to their rank, Sheikhs, Naibs, Oustas, and Kiayas, or Priors, Sub- Priors, Superintendents, and Inspectors, who are annually elected by the members from among its own master- craftsmen, these officers being formally recognised by the Government, which holds them responsible for the good behaviour of their fellow-guildsmen. Some Esnaf s possess considerable revenues, and a few enjoy peculiar t privileges granted by royal charter in bygone centuries in return for services rendered at some important crisis. Among these are the shoemakers, who, it is said, have special officers empowered to judge and punish all offenders belonging to their fraternity without the inter- position of the legal authorities, this extraordinary privi- lege having been conferred upon them in the sixteenth THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL 17 century by Suleyman "the Magnificent." Some Esnafs are composed entirely of Moslems, certain callings being exclusively in the hands of the ruling race, others entirely of Christians. Many, however, include adherents of both creeds ; and, as members of the same Esnaf, Christians and Moslems, allied by an esprit de corps, and also, of course, by trade interests, pull together much better and evince mutually a greater liberality of feeling than is displayed generally in the social relations of Moslems and Christians. Though it is a matter of historical fact that certain of these Guilds had already been long established among the Greek, Venetian, Genoese, and other Christian nationalities inhabiting Constantinople and the other great cities of the Levant at the time of the Turkish Conquest, their Moslem members assign to them an Oriental, and probably much more ancient origin than can be historically verified. The merchants, for instance, maintain that their Esnaf was incorporated in the lifetime of the Prophet, who himself followed the calling of a trader, and thus became the patron of merchants. For, as with the Guilds of Western Europe, every trade has its own patron saint, the majority of them being the prophets and holy men who figure alike in the Old Testament and the Koran, each of whom, according to Moslem tradition, invented or excelled in the craft or calling placed under his protection. Thus Adam, besides being the patron of the tailors' Guild, is also that of the bakers* ; and among other patron saints of Esnafs, Abraham, as the traditional 18 THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL builder of the holy Kaaba at Mekka, is the protector of masons ; Cain, of the sextons, and also of all those who shed blood in their callings ; Enoch, of the scribes ; Noah, of the shipbuilders ; David, of armourers and smiths generally ; Joseph, of the watch- and clock-makers ; and the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus who are included by the Moslems in the roll of holy men watch, somewhat paradoxically, together with Jonah, over the sailors, especially those who navigate the Black Sea. The more eminent among the " Companions of the Prophet " also afford their protection to numerous Guilds ; Selman, one of the two to whom the Prophet promised a greeting in Paradise, being the patron of the barbers, as it was his privilege to shave the Servant of Allah. Every Esnaf has its own special traditional laws and usages which are no less strictly observed and enforced than is its kanoun, or written constitution ; and the social customs and mode of life of the members of these various Guilds afford in many instances curious and interesting illustrations of manners among the labouring classes. In a city so watergirt as Constantinople, there is naturally a considerable section of the population whose avocations are those of boatmen or fishermen. The fish-market of the Turkish Capital is, perhaps, second to none in the world in the abundance and variety of the finny tribe taken with net or line by the fishers- of the Black Sea, the Sea of Marmora, the Golden Horn, and the Bosphorus. In the more sheltered reaches of these waters may often be seen rude little constructions of wood perched on high THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL 19 platforms, from which the fishers watch and manipulate their lines ; and the crimson glow of their pitch-pine fires lighted at night on the high prows of the fishing-boats, and the drumming of the fishers' bare feet on the hollow fore and aft decks, produce during the small hours a weird, if not disquieting, effect on the stranger housed for the first time in these regions. Steamboats have long plied up and down the Bosphorus, and zigzag between the European and Asiatic suburbs of the Capital. So great, however, is the demand for means of communication between the European and Asian suburbs that they have not appreciably diminished the 'number of kaiks and other oared craft in which one may be conveyed in more leisurely fashion from shore to shore, and the Guild of boatmen consequently remains not less important than of yore. The ranks of this Esnaf are largely recruited from among the Turkish, Greek, and Armenian youths, who come in great numbers from Asia Minor to seek their fortune in the Capital. Half a dozen or more of these bekiars, or " bachelors," as they are termed, live in common in some humble lodging, paying a fixed sum per day or per week to an old man who acts as their steward and cook, and also as mentor and arbiter in the disputes that may be expected to arise occasionally in such a mixed household. Their relations with the master kaikdji, to whom they serve a long apprenticeship, are also of a quite filial character. Many waterside mansions have their own private boats and boatmen ; and quite a number of the latter are attached to the service of the royal 20 THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL palaces. These are all Moslems, and constitute a splendidly muscular set of fellows, with shaven polls, who are apparently impervious to weather, their attire consist- ing only of short, full, white Turkish breeches, red girdle, and shirt of Broussa gauze, which, worn open in front, leaves their broad, brawny chests completely exposed. A crew of about a dozen propel the State kaiks lightly built, flat-bottomed, double-prowed craft, some twenty feet long and three to four feet wide at a splendid pace from one shore of the Bosphorus to the other, a mode of traversing this wonderful waterway which may also be enjoyed by Europeans who have obtained the firman, or permission, requisite for visiting the Imperial palaces. Many other callings, the exercise of which requires muscle rather than skill that, for instance, of the hamal, or porter are organised on similar lines to those just named ; and a young kaikdji or hamal, on emerging from the grade of apprentice, is recommended by the master under whom he has served his time to the Prior of his particular Lodge of the Guild to which he belongs, his admittance being attended with certain traditional ceremonies, and the payment of the customary fees. Another striking characteristic of Turkish urban life is the strict specialisation of each particular branch of industry or commerce, and the absence of the middle-man in the generality of transactions connected with supplying the necessaries of existence. Save in the " Frank " or European quarters of Smyrna and the Capital, there are as yet no " Stores," or general shops, in which goods of THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL 21 various kinds are collected ; and the native Osmanli requiring a pair of shoes goes to the working shoemaker for them, and the housewife in want of a new saucepan, kettle, or coffee-pot, sends her husband or servant to the street of the bakirdjiler, or coppersmiths where, amid the deafening tap-tap of a hundred hammers on the resound- ing metal, he makes his selection, and, the requisite amount of chaffering accomplished and the " last price " paid, carries off the purchase. For in Turkey, it may be mentioned, it is not customary for tradesmen to send goods home, nor save perhaps in the case of certain comestibles even to wrap their wares in paper. The Oriental accordingly, if unaccompanied by a servant, deposits his small purchases in a handkerchief, bundle- wrap, or basket, according to its nature, and for the transport of weighty articles a hamal will be available, whose sturdy legs are capable of supporting anything that can be fastened on their leathern saddles, from a cask of oil or wine to a wardrobe. In a country so destitute of good country roads and level streets as Turkey, locomotion is naturally performed to a great extent on horse-, mule-, and donkey-back. At various points in Constantinople, Smyrna, and other towns one may see a number of these animals, and especially the last-named, furnished with saddlery more or less Orientally ornate in character, waiting for hire. This method of locomotion is also not infrequently resorted to by Turkish women who, seated astride on the high carpet- or pack- saddles, with their white-stockinged, yellow-shod feet 22 THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL thrust into roomy shovel stirrups, look like animated bundles of bedding. In addition to being splendid horse- men, the Turks also possess great skill as drivers ; and up, or down, the worst paved and steepest of the thoroughfares of the Capital and its suburbs the native Jehu will not hesitate to drive his brakeless brougham or heavy landau and pair ; nor will he ever allow his fares to alight and walk while the willing horses are struggling, mostly on their haunches, down what appears to those behind them a declivity the foot of which can hardly be reached without mishap. " Carriage exercise," indeed, in the cities of the Levant, constitutes only too frequently the most active exercise imaginable. The Moslem era used by the Turks dates from the Flight (Hejrd) of Mohammed from Mekka to Medina on the night of the I5th-i6th July, 622 A.D. The national calendar is lunar, the year being divided into twelve months consisting alternately of twenty-nine and thirty days, and comprising therefore only 354 days ; and no complementary days being added to adjust this calendar in accordance with astronomical events, it naturally follows that both national anniversaries and religious festivals make, in the course of every thirty-three years, the round of the seasons. The peasantry, however, in their reckoning of time, adhere for ordinary puposes to the ancient and more convenient Oriental practice of dividing the year into two seasons, Summer and Winter, the former being inaugurated by the great Nature-festival of Khidr-Elie, equivalent to our St. George's Day, and the THE TURKS OF THE CAPITAL 23 latter by that of Kassim, held late in the Autumn. The hours of the day are still, in ancient Oriental fashion, reckoned by the Turks from sunset to sunset, which is estimated with more or less exactitude. Many of the watches now used in Turkey are made with two dials, one for Turkish and the other for European time, the former, to be correct, requiring daily regulation ; and one may occasionally hear the seemingly odd question asked, " At what time is noon to-day ? " In Turkey, however, few people require to catch trains or steamboats ; time-tables are also as often ignored as consulted ; and punctuality is not a virtue cultivated by the Oriental. On the majority of Turkish railways there is but one train a day up and down the line, and intending passengers will arrive at the station when they may happen to be ready, and, seated on their baggage, patiently wait for the next train. Inshallah (Allah permitting), he will ultimately arrive at his destination. CHAPTER II OFFICIAL AND MILITARY TURKS THE upper classes of Osmanli society at the present day may be said to consist almost entirely of the families of Government officials and military men, as there seems to be no career open to a Turkish youth of good family but the Army or the Civil Service, and almost every member of the jeunesse doree of Stamboul who has not selected the Army as his profession, looks forward to a post in one of the numerous Government offices. For the Turks, generally speaking, have not hitherto shown them- selves active or intelligent as business men, and venture little into speculative commercial or financial transactions, which they appear to regard somewhat in the light of games of chance which are forbidden by their religion. To the restrictions placed especially of late years upon the free action of all Moslem subjects of the Sultan may also be attributed their abandonment to foreigners of both the import and export trade of their country, no Osmanlis being at liberty to form or join a company or to move freely from one part of the Empire to another for business purposes ; and a military or official career has con- sequently as apparently desired by the powers that be 24 OFFICIAL AND MILITARY TURKS 25 remained the only alternative of the present generation. The national movements among the subject races of Turkey during the past century having, on the other hand, inspired the Porte with a growing distrust of members of these nationalities as State officials, their employment in such capacities has yearly diminished, and more posts in the higher Government departments have of late been filled by Moslems of Turkish, Albanian, and Circassian descent than perhaps ever since the Conquest. The country has nominally a Civil Service entered by examination from the Government colleges, open to all Turkish subjects, and offering regular promotion. But, like many other Turkish institutions of recent date, it has remained merely nominal, and appointments have continued to be made by the time- honoured process termed hatir, or " favour," important posts being obtainable only through influence in Yildiz Kiosk. And though a Board was constituted some years ago with the title of "Commission for the Selection of Functionaries," it was never allowed to do more than " recommend " candidates for vacant posts, and its recom- mendations generally received but scant attention. Posts in the Government service have continued to be treated, as of yore, as objects of commercial speculation, the favourites at Yildiz Kiosk whose own tenure of offices was always more or less precarious finding it to their interest not only to sell them to the highest bidder, but also to sell them as frequently as possible. The late sudden transition from a despotic to a constitutional form of government must of necessity 26 OFFICIAL AND MILITARY TURKS bring about in the near future many important changes in the organisation of the various State departments. The Sublime Porte and the Seraskierate, or War Office, have already ceased to be, as they for many years past have been, merely the nominal seats of Government, and ministers now themselves control their respective depart- ments instead of being the mere mouthpieces of an arbitrary Padishah. But the Oriental modes of pro- cedure which have been the growth of centuries and are the outcome of the Oriental attitude of mind cannot be changed by the declaration of a Constitution, and in the conduct of public affairs what has been will, in all probability, long continue to be. The Sublime Porte in Stamboul constitutes the central seat of Government for the Empire, and here is also located the Seraskierate, or War Office. The great vestibule of the former, which corresponds to the " Salle des Pas Perdus" of the French Senate House and the Lobby of the House of Commons, presents a strange contrast to both, being usually crowded with a motley throng representative of all the races and classes of the Empire, among whom circulate begging Dervishes, Kahfedjis, itinerant vendors of various wares, and perhaps a deli, or madman, real or feigned, whose sallies serve to pass the long hours of waiting. Matted corridors, along which the humbler natives glide with bare or merely stockinged feet, carrying their dusty or muddy shoes, lead to the various bureaus. In the office of the head of a department there is a perpetual coming OFFICIAL AND MILITARY TURKS 27 and going. The portttre a rug lined with leather which screens the doorway is raised a dozen times an hour, and visitors or petitioners enter unannounced, salaam to the great man from the doorway, salaam again on approaching him, and a third time before taking a seat, if invited to do so. Oriental etiquette necessitates between equals the interchange of polite phrases before the subject-matter of the visit is entered upon, thus prolonging every interview ; and it is hardly to be wondered at that under such a system an army of functionaries is found necessary to transact the busi- ness of every department. In each of the subordinate bureaus may be seen a dozen or so of clerks seated, in all kinds of attitudes, on sofas and armchairs covered with rich stuffs worn to shabbiness by the constant friction of boots and shoes. In front of each is a little stand holding the Turkish inkpot, sand-sifter, reed-pens, ashtrays, and, at frequent intervals, the in- evitable coffee cup. The kyatib, when he happens to be occupied, holds his paper in his left hand supported on his upraised knee while inscribing on it, with his pen held vertically, the graceful Arabic characters used by the Turks, writing from right to left. But although the Sublime Porte and its dependencies possess such large clerical staffs, admittance to a depart- ment of the public service by no means implies that a young hopeful enters at once upon regular duties with a fixed salary and expectation of certain future promotion. Things have not hitherto been managed in such prosaic 28 OFFICIAL AND MILITARY TURKS fashion in Turkey. The bureau to which a budding Civil servant is attached constitutes for him, at the outset at least, merely a resort in the nature of a club in the society of whose members he may be said to graduate socially while waiting for a salaried appointment. Here he learns to despise the costume of his forefathers and to become anxious about the fit of a frock coat of the latest Paris cut, to assume the airs of a man about town* and possibly adds to the cognomen of Ali, Achmet, or Mehmet, which has hitherto served to identify him, another appellation for future official use. The heads of the various departments of State have of course special functions, which they perform with the assistance of such among their subordinates as they may think proper to employ. There seems, however, hardly enough work to go round, and a considerable number of the aspirants to bureaucratic employment pass their time during office hours in receiving visitors, gossiping, smoking, and coffee drinking. At the War Office the plethora of officials is even more remarkable ; at the Admiralty somewhat less so which, considering the condition hitherto of the Turkish Navy, is hardly surprising ; the only department of State distinguished by any degree of order and imposing gravity being the semi-ecclesiastical one presided over by the Sheikh-ul-Islam, the Ulema who compose its official staff still retaining, with their ample turbans and patri- archal robes, the dignified appearance and manners usually associated with this Oriental costume. While young men of family who have not made the > OFFICIAL AND MILITARY TURKS 29 Army their vocation thus aspire to high Civil posts, those of more humble birth seek employment in the household of some official of high rank, taking places formerly rilled by male slaves, such as coffee-maker, pipe-bearer, or body servant ; and from the eagerness displayed for this kind of occupation has sprung one of Turkey's greatest misfortunes, every holder of an important office being hedged around by barriers composed of successive grades of parasitic underlings through whom a suppliant could pass only with one key bakshish. Orientals, it may here be remarked, do not look upon the offering and acceptance of bakshish as bribery. For under the disorganised and corrupt administration which has so long prevailed officials could only live by having recourse to this system, to live on their salaries being next to impossible, as, in the first place, they are generally inadequate, and, in the second, they are always in arrear. Even the most honestly disposed official has consequently been compelled, in order to support himself and family, to supplement his meagre and irregularly paid salary by this ancient and approved method. It may here be remarked parentheti- cally that the absence of punctuality in paying salaries, or wages, is characteristic not of the Turks only, but of Orientals generally. Domestic servants, for instance, are engaged at a yearly wage and are fed and clothed by their employers. Their wages are not, however, paid to them at any stated period, but are as a rule allowed to accumulate in the master's hands and are only drawn on leaving. As savings banks are not yet common in Turkey, 30 OFFICIAL AND MILITARY TURKS this practice, when the employer is honest, has no doubt its advantages. In the case of military officers and Govern- ment employees, however, who have themselves and their families to support, this irregularity in the payment of salaries often entails great hardships, and I have personally known heads of households holding the rank of Pasha, and consequently entitled to high pay, at a loss how to meet their butcher's and baker's bills. The methods of the Turkish Paymaster-General's Office are also peculiar. Both salaries and other claims on the State are paid by means of havales or orders on some provincial treasury. After much petitioning, an official may receive such an order for the sum due to him, or perhaps only a part of it. This order does not, however, bear the name of any special treasury, so the recipient takes it to a saraf, or professional discounter, from whom he may perhaps receive a third or half its value. For not only this functionary, but also the provincial governor on whose treasury it is made payable, and the financial authorities of the province through whose hands the havale must pass before final payment in full by the Treasury, will all make their own profit out of the re- maining half, or third, of the sum of which the unfortunate officer is thus mulcted. Stories are rife in the country, and especially in the Capital, of enormous bribes being received and vast sums appropriated by dishonest officials ; but somehow few seem to be much the richer for these transactions. Exaggeration is a foible peculiarly Oriental, and even a bakshish running into four figures OFFICIAL AND MILITARY TURKS 31 does not amount to much when perhaps two-thirds of it have to be distributed among subordinates and others who are parties to the transaction. Since the destruction in 1826 of the Janissaries by Sultan Mahmoud II., "The Reformer" a measure forced upon him by the dangerously hostile attitude of this formidable but reactionary corps the organisation of the Turkish Army has undergone radical changes, the re- formed system on which the Army of the present day is based having been initiated sixteen years later. The Empire was then, as now, divided into seven military districts, three in Europe and four in Asia, each of which furnishes an Army Corps for the defence of the Father- land, recruitment being effected by conscription. Under this system all Moslem men are, nominally at least, liable to be called upon to serve their country in the field, non- Moslem subjects of the Sultan paying a tax in lieu of military service. Wealthy Moslems may, however, by paying a fine of 50 and providing a substitute, evade this patriotic duty, and young men whose labour con- stitutes the sole support of their parents may also claim complete exemption. Very curiously there are certain localities of the Empire the Capital, Scutari in Albania, and the Yemen residence in which confers freedom from the conscription. Members also of the learned professions, theological, legal, and medical, together with students pre- paring to enter them, are everywhere excluded from the number available for military service ; and many young men who have no vocation for the study of the Sfteriat, 32 OFFICIAL AND MILITARY TURKS or Sacred Law, endeavour to pass at least the preliminary examination in Arabic and other subjects which entitles them to this privilege, even if they subsequently adopt another career. Half a century ago, notwithstanding these numerous exemptions, the burden of this blood- tax fell lightly enough on the population generally, seeing that the Moslem subjects in the Empire could be com- puted at a figure approaching 20 millions. With the shrinkage of the Empire, however, since 1876, the recruits are now drawn chiefly from among the seven million or so of Moslems inhabiting European Turkey, Asia Minor, and Syria, and military service is yearly becoming a heavier burden to the agricultural population who are now chiefly called upon to fill the ranks. The vast number of men thus enabled to claim exemption con- stitutes a serious blot on an otherwise admirable system, and calls loudly for reform. Since the establishment of the Constitution, non-Moslems are, in some localities, being called upon to bear their part in the defence of the Empire of which they are subjects. Whether this scheme will prove to work satisfactorily, remains of course to be seen. Possibly, however, the recruits drawn from the Christian and Jewish races will be organised into separate corps, officered by their own co-religionists. In Asia Minor this obligatory military service con- stitutes a more grievous burden than elsewhere. For as the Moslem population in Europe (exclusive of the exempted cities) numbers less than a million and a half of souls, a considerable proportion of the recruits annually OFFICIAL AND MILITARY TURKS 33 required for the three nominally European Army Corps have to be sought beyond the confines of their own strategic circles ; and accordingly, out of the forty-eight recruiting districts into which the Empire is now divided, no fewer than forty are situated in Asia, these districts being called upon to supply 53 regiments of cavalry, 315 regiments of infantry of various classes, and 276 batteries of artillery, horse, field, heavy, and mountain. For the purposes of conscription a register of births in each recruiting district is kept at the battalion head- quarters, annual returns of births being made by the municipal officials of provincial towns and the headmen of villages. As each youth arrives at the age for service, his number is drawn according to rule, and if he cannot claim exemption under any of the foregoing pretexts, he is either sent to the military depot for training, or, should there be at the moment no vacancies for service with the colours, he is at once passed, without training, into the second-class reserve. Cavalry, Artillery, and Engineers are recruited indiscriminately from all the various districts, each centre furnishing a certain proportion to each arm. On completing his nine years of service in the Nizam y as the regular Army is termed, a soldier returns to his home as a Redif, or first-class Reservist, being attached to the battalion of his district, and still liable to be called out for active service in such cases of emergency as have recently arisen in Macedonia and on the Persian frontier. Of these regimental districts of Redifs there are no fewer than 384, each under the command of a major with a p 84 OFFICIAL AND MILITARY TURKS small permanent staff ; and as arms, accoutrements, and equipment are stored at the battalion headquarters, and the Redif brigades are always complete as to their cadres, a body of highly trained and seasoned men can, on an order for mobilisation being received from the War Office, be despatched without delay from each district. As to the Mustafiz, or Reservists of the second class, ten divisions of this body are attached to each of the five Army Corps, having their headquarters at Constanti- nople, Adrianople, Salonica, Erzinghian, and Damascus. They, however, are only liable to be called upon for active service in the event of grave national danger, and as they possess no military qualifications beyond regimental organisation, their lack of training renders them unavail- able as a fighting contingent. But as hewers of wood and drawers of water, and in similar subordinate capacities, they no doubt form a valuable asset to the regular army during a campaign. The officers of the Reserve consist largely of men who have risen from the ranks through the intermediate grades. They are said to make excellent company commanders, owing to their possessing in a marked degree the affection and confidence of their subordinates, but lack of education renders the majority unfit for superior commands. Examinations for promo- tion have recently been introduced into the Turkish Army, but the numbers who can profit by such facilities for advancement are limited. Books on military subjects are not easily obtainable in the remoter provincial towns, and officers whose regiments are quartered far from the OFFICIAL AND MILITARY TURKS 35 Capital, however ambitious of promotion, have few oppor- tunities of keeping abreast of the times in military matters. At such great centres as Constantinople, Smyrna, and Salonica, however, the Military clubs, which number among their patrons and benefactors the Sultan and other members of the Imperial family, offer all these facilities; for neither the Military nor the hitherto less numerous Naval clubs are in any sense political, their primary object being, in common with the generality of such institutions in Turkey, study, self-improvement, and social intercourse. The rations to which officers are entitled are valued at 1 Turkish (about iSs.) per unit, this being the sum which a lieutenant can draw in lieu. Senior officers receive in an increasing rate up to the maximum of twenty-four rations, the allowance of a Field Marshal. Officers receive the same pay in all arms, and are entitled in addition to receive rations and forage for their horses as well as a liberal outfit in the matter of kit and uniform, graduated according to rank, each officer accord- ing to his grade having the right to a certain number of soldier servants for whom he also draws rations and forage. The rate of officers' pay is low, according to our notions. But, on the other hand, they receive their uniforms from the Government as well as their rations; they are not, as a rule, addicted to expensive habits, being accustomed to a simple life ; and even for those who are married and have to provide houses for their families, living in Turkey is cheap, especially in the 36 OFFICIAL AND MILITARY TURKS provinces. Few complaints are therefore heard on the score of pay. The real hardship has consisted in the fact that regimental, as well as civil, pay has for many years past been always in arrear. Nor have the higher fared in this respect better than the lower grades of officers and civilians. The rations supplied to the men are of good quality and ample in quantity, a Turkish soldier being said to fare far better in barracks than ever in his village home, for he is entitled to an oka 1 of bread and half an oka of meat, with certain quantities of rice, vegetables, and cooking butter per diem. The barracks in which the regimental officers and men are housed are, on the whole, sufficiently spacious and airy, and not- withstanding the frequent defects in the sanitary arrange- ments the troops are, generally speaking, strong and healthy. Barrack life is no doubt in many respects trying for the sons of the soil who form the majority of the recruits. But taken as a whole, the physique of the Turkish Army is indeed magnificent, and in march- ing and staying powers the rank-and-file are admitted by competent authorities to be second to those of no other country. Accustomed to frugal fare and a total abstainer from strong drink, the Turkish soldier, when on active service, like his remote nomadic forbears of Central Asia, is ever ready at the bugle call to strike or pitch his tent, saddle or unsaddle his charger, and hang his camp kettle wherever he may happen to bivouac. Content with the simplest fare, he takes his frugal meal 1 An oka is equivalent to about 2 Ibs. 12 ozs. OFFICIAL AND MILITARY TURKS 37 seated on the ground, bears with infinite patience the toils of march and the pains of privations, and obeys with unquestioning alacrity the orders of his superiors. Though often in rags and shoeless as I have myself seen them on their arrival at the coast towns for tranship- ment after a long campaign on the frontiers of the Empire with months of pay in arrear, their behaviour is blameless, and their discipline perfect. And with the sound of the sunrise and sunset gun from citadel or warship there ever rises enthusiastically from a thousand throats the loyal cry, Padishahim chok yashar ! " Long live our Padishah ! " The requirements of the soldiery being so easily satisfied, and those of their officers being proportionately modest, the commissariat of the Turkish Army during a campaign is simple to arrange, and to this fact is chiefly due its extreme mobility in the field. The Transport service has certainly often proved lament- ably defective ; but efforts are now being made to bring it up to modern requirements. Owing to the absence of good roads, it is, however, impossible for commissariat waggons to be used, and pack animals are consequently the usual mode of conveyance for all the necessaries of an army. In the opinion of English and other European military men who have had opportunities for observing the difference, an immense improvement has taken place in the Turkish Army since the Russo-Turkish war of thirty years ago, some indeed going so far as to assert that the chief factor making for peace in South Eastern 38 OFFICIAL AND MILITARY TURKS Europe has been rather the Turkish Army than that somewhat fictitious entity known as the "European Concert." At the time of the Crimean War, Turkey could only with difficulty send 100,000 trained soldiers to the front. Now she has at her disposal nearly ten times that number, and at the present moment has some 200,000 engaged in active operations in Macedonia and on the Eastern frontiers of the Empire. The Trans- port service has also been completely reorganised since 1897. It now possesses thirty-four well-found vessels, and the harbours at Haidar Pasha the Asiatic port of the Capital at Salonica, and at Beyrout have been greatly improved. Owing to the state of unrest which has for so many years past prevailed in Macedonia, and to the disturbed state of Yemen and the Persian frontier, a large proportion of troops of all arms have seen active service, and a considerable proportion of the Reserves were at the front in the Turco-Greek war. With regard to the medical requirements of the Army, each Army Corps headquarters has its own hospital, as have also most of the divisional centres, the majority having hospital accommodation for from 300 to 500 patients. The Military hospitals in the Capital, and also at Adrianople, are large and well equipped, the former containing no fewer than 4000 beds and the latter 1200; and the Hamidieh Hospital above Pera so named after its founder and patron the Sultan, who maintains it at his own personal expense is considered one of the most complete and up-to-date institutions of OFFICIAL AND MILITARY TURKS 39 its kind in Europe. Each Infantry regiment has also on its rolls twelve medical officers, three for each battalion, under a surgeon-major, who is attached to the regimental staff; while Cavalry regiments have four medical officers, batteries of Artillery one, and Engineer battalions three, veterinary officers being also attached to all mounted corps. A considerable proportion of military medical officers are either foreigners or non- Moslem Turkish subjects, who are equally eligible with Osmanlis for the highest posts. CHAPTER III DENIZENS OF THE PALACES ESKI SERAI the Old Palacethe ancestral home of the Ottoman Sultans during four hundred years, so charmingly situated on the triangular point of land washed by the waters of the Golden Horn, the Bosphorus, and the Sea of Marmora, was unfortunately in great part destroyed by fire about fifty years ago. It had, however, previously been more or less abandoned as a place of residence since the time of Mahmoud II., who, together with his successors, preferred the modern palaces they had caused to be erected on the immediate shores of the Bosphorus to this somewhat gloomy abode with, its high enclosing walls, its dungeons, and its gilded bowers, tainted with the fratricidal crimes of their ancestors. At the time of its destruction Eski Serai was occupied by the numerous harem of the defunct Sultan Abdul Medjid, some members of which, according to common report, finding existence here insupportable after their accustomed freedom under that mild and indulgent Padishah, on two occasions (1863 and 1865) purposely set fire to it, in order to obtain a more congenial place of residence. The ancient throne-room, together with other interesting 40 DENIZENS OF THE PALACES 41 State apartments, was, however, fortunately saved, and the walls of the Imperial demesne still enclose in addition a number of the elegant detached buildings termed " kiosks," many of which still serve their original purposes. Among these is the Sultan's treasure-house, in which are kept a variety of valuable and interesting objects, including bowls of uncut gems, ancient Imperial costumes and jewelled arms, and perhaps most interesting of all the golden throne and footstool set with pearls and rubies, taken by Sultan Selim I. from the Persians in 1514. There is also the " Kiosk of Bagdad," so called from the model in that city from which it was copied, which is esteemed the finest existing specimen of Turkish decorative art, the artistic blending of colour being strikingly successful. Both the inner and the outer walls are covered with beautifully patterned blue and white tiles, the doors and shutters are of walnut-wood inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl, and the carpets, draperies, and divan stuffs are most elaborate and costly. The friezes in this kind of wall decoration, which is found in other buildings forming part of the Serai as also in some of the mosques of Stamboul, consist of " Soft Persian sentences in lilac letters, From poets, or the moralists, their betters," the Arabic characters composing them being peculiarly adapted to arrangement in conventional patterns most artistic in their general effect. In the course of the past century " the European with the Asian shore" have been "sprinkled with palaces" by 42 DENIZENS OF THE PALACES the later wearers of the sword of Osman, and especially by the extravagant, luxury-loving Sultans Abdul Medjid and his son Abdul Aziz. And besides palaces proper there are Yahlis and Kiosks, elegant villas, ancient and modern, occupying elevated and picturesque spots over- looking the winding and swiftly rushing Bosphorus, and embowered amid flowers and foliage. The three splendid waterside palaces of Dolma Baktche", Tcheragan, and Begler-Bey have not, however, been favourite abodes of the reigning Sultan, who has for many years past resided exclusively at the less pretentious Yildiz Kiosk the " Kiosk of the Star " situated on the summit of the hill behind Dolma Baktche". Around this once modest villa have, however, now grown up a vast assemblage of buildings, the whole being surrounded on every side by extensive wooded grounds forming a sort of park enclosed within high walls. These are flanked at intervals by ugly yellow barracks, in which are quartered the troops of the Imperial bodyguard, Arabian, Albanian, and Kurdish, who watch over each other while watching over the safety of the mighty Padishah. Beyond these walls again the hills and valleys are occupied by an outer circle of block-houses and sentry-boxes, extending down to the shore of the Bosphorus, where stretches the long frontage of the palace in which the deposed ex-Sultan, poor mad Murad EfFendi, lived for thirty years the solitary existence of a strictly guarded captive. Like the abodes of private individuals, and in common with the other Imperial palaces, Yildiz Kiosk is divided DENIZENS OF THE PALACES 43 into haremlik and selamlik, the buildings which crown the hill constituting the latter, in which the Court functionaries and their attendants have their quarters ; while the edifice containing the Sultan's private apart- ments forms the mabeyn, as the connecting neutral ground between these two divisions of a residence is termed. The ladies of the harem are accommodated in a mansion connected with the mabeyn by a long corridor, and agreeably situated in the Imperial demesne, being surrounded by delightful flower gardens, artificial lakes, and woods intersected with winding paths leading to various pleasure kiosks. In the Imperial park are also situated the Sultan's private theatre and various detached pavilions and villas. One of the latter, styled the palace Merassim, has been specially erected and furnished for the reception of foreign visitors of high rank, in order that the Commander of the Faithful might be able to fulfil all the duties of hospitality and courtesy to his occasional Royal guests without going beyond the walls of his private domain. Ancient custom and established precedent, however, require the Padishah on certain occasions to do violence to his desire for seclusion and to show himself to his loyal subjects, one of these occasions being the weekly function termed the Selamlik, from selam, "salutation." For many centuries past it has been customary for Turkish Sultans to proceed in state to one of the principal mosques of the Capital for the performance of the midday prayers on Friday, the Moslem Day of 44 DENIZENS OF THE PALACES Rest, and no consideration of any kind has been allowed to prevent the present sovereign fulfilling this religious obligation, his failure to show himself on this day being , calculated to create rumours of his illness or death, and "' subsequent political complications. And however indis- posed the Padishah may be, at the important hour he is invariably reported by his courtiers to be in the best of health, and nerves himself for his weekly public appearance. But even in this particular, Sultan Abdul Hamid has deviated from the habits of his ancestors, and, instead of making a weekly progress on horseback through the streets of his Capital, amid the acclamations of loyal subjects, has performed the Friday namaz in the private Hamidieh Mosque, built by himself in the palace precincts. This ceremony of the Selamlik presents a most animated and striking spectacle which is regularly witnessed by ambassadors and other foreigners of dis- tinction from the windows of a pavilion erected at the gate leading into the palace grounds. On the other side is a railed-in enclosure, surrounding the mosque, which is new and white, and of a pseudo-Oriental and somewhat rococo style of architecture. During the forenoon on Fridays the roads surrounding the mosque are gradually lined with troops belonging to the first and second Army divisions. First come the battalions of the Albanian or Arab Zouaves with their quaintly twisted red turbans, and take up their positions near the palace gates ; the Marines arrive next, and are followed by battalions of Anatolian Infantry, who form in lines several deep on either side of DENIZENS OF THE PALACES 45 the roadway, while Cavalry regiments take up their positions behind them, flanked again by gendarmes in couples. The Turkish populace, composed largely of women and children, occupies every available inch of the roadway on the lower side of the mosque, eager for a glimpse of their Padishah as he passes down the sloping drive between the palace gates and those of the mosque ; but it is now impossible to approach and present petitions personally, as in previous reigns had always been the privilege of subjects during a Sultan's weekly Friday progress to and from the mosque. Strains of military music fill the air ; officers in smart well-fitting uniforms ride to and fro on beautiful Arabs ; well - appointed carriages pass conveying high civil functionaries to the mosque or members of the various foreign Embassies and Legations to the pavilion. Presently broughams arrive from the palace bearing uniform-clad princes and white-veiled princesses ; and lastly, driven very slowly in a smart landau, appears the Padishah himself. A bugle sounds, and simultaneously from a thousand throats the cry of Padishahim chok yashar ! " Long live our Padishah ! " thrice repeated, greets the Commander of the Faithful. Salaaming continually in acknowledg- ment of the cheers and salutes, Abdul Hamid passes down the road and through the gates to the curved and carpeted stairway leading to his private entrance and divan khan/, or reception room, a passing glimpse only being meanwhile caught of him a figure of medium height in simple fez and undress uniform, a pale and 46 DENIZENS OF THE PALACES somewhat sad, yet keen and dignified face, with longish hooked nose and well-trimmed grey beard and moustache. On alighting, the Sultan is received and surrounded by a little crowd of obsequiously bowing dignitaries, civil and military, and having mounted the short flight of steps, he, before entering, courteously turns to acknow- ledge with the military salute the homage of his troops and subjects, who again cry in response, " Long live our Padishah ! " Half an hour or so elapses, during which the waiting multitude or at least that section of it sufficiently well placed has leisure to contemplate the wide view of the Bosphorus and Stamboul extending below to the south ; to admire the half-dozen superb saddle-horses which have been led behind the Imperial carriage ; and to watch the regimental sakas, or water-carriers, distribute the contents of their leathern jacks among the soldiery. Presently the battalions are called to attention, form again into line, and march past the northern side of the mosque before the Sultan, who is stationed at a window of the divan khane. A stir follows at the door, the Padishah emerges, and now, seated in a victoria drawn by a pair of spirited greys, the reins of which he himself holds, again passes, closely sur- rounded by staff officers on horseback and running foot- men in the Imperial red and gold livery, and disappears through the gates of Yildiz Kiosk. Besides the Friday Selamlik there are also five other annual occasions on which the Sultan is required to show himself in public. These are the ceremonies connected DENIZENS OF THE PALACES 47 respectively with the opening of the Greater and the Lesser Bairam ; the veneration in mid-Ramazan of that sacred relic, the Prophet's Mantle, which is kept in the Old Serai together with his standard, his staff, and sword and bow ; the Mevlud, or Birthday of the Prophet ; and the departure of the Caravan of Pilgrims to Mekka, all of which are elsewhere described. The Commander of the Faithful is no Roi faineant. Like the humblest of his subjects, he rises with the sun all the year round, often commencing his morning's work at five o'clock after partaking with his first cigarette of a cup of coffee prepared in his study by the chief coffee- maker. For the Sultan is a great smoker and coffee- drinker, and is never, it is said, without a cigarette made in his presence by his tchiboukdji between his fingers ; and when he takes walking or riding exercise about the palace grounds he is followed everywhere by his kahvtdji- bashi, or chief coffee-maker, who carries the paraphernalia requisite for preparing at a moment's notice a cup of his favourite beverage. Abdul Hamid, like most of his ancestors, has also his little superstitions ; and as it was once prophesied to him by a Gypsy that he would reign as long as he continued to drink the water from the springs of Kiathane* in the valley of the "Sweet Waters of Europe," his daily supplies are regularly brought thence in sealed jars, and no other water passes his lips. The Sultan is most abstemious in his habits. At about six o'clock he partakes of a light breakfast of eggs and milk ; at ten o'clock he indulges in a rather more substantial 48 DENIZENS OF THE PALACES dejeuner^ and, like the rest of his subjects, dines at sunset. The Imperial dinner, usually eaten in solitary state and served with great ceremonial, consists of a number of courses all of a very simple character, and in obedience to the advice of his physician, as also of St. Paul, he occasionally takes, "for his stomach's sake," a little brandy, champagne, or punch ; but, of course, as a rigid Moslem, no "wine." During the lifetime of the Valid Sultan, as had been customary in previous reigns, the dishes for the Imperial table were invariably prepared in the kitchen of the Empress Mother's establishment and sent in sealed napkins to the mabeyn. The mother of his Majesty Abdul Hamid having, however, long since been summoned away by the "Cupbearer of the Sphere" to " the goodly plains in the Garden of Eden," prepared " for all resigned and believing women," the Padishah guards against the possibility of poison by having for the service of his own table a private kitchen fortified against access from without by barred windows and a massive door. When the Sultan intimates to his attendants that he wishes to dine, a table is placed before him laid for one, and the bread, water, and dishes, all severally enveloped in napkins sealed by the Kilerdji, or chief steward, are carried in solemn procession from the kitchen by a number of lackeys, any persons whom the Sultan's dinner may encounter on its passage to the Presence habitually doing homage to it by bowing low with their hands clasped on their stomachs. The seals are broken in the Sultan's presence, and the dishes placed in succession on the DENIZENS OF THE PALACES 49 table by the Kilerdji, who may possibly should his Imperial master be suddenly seized with an apprehension of poison be commanded to partake of the viands him- self; and to the same motive is also attributed his habit of feeding several cats from his table. After partaking of one or two of the dishes placed before him, the Sultan, as a mark of royal favour, names those of his courtiers and ministers to whom he wishes the rest to be conveyed. And in the midst of the great military display awaiting the Sultan's appearance at the gates of Yildiz Kiosk on Fridays, it is rather curious to see palace attendants sallying forth bearing dishes enveloped in white napkins tied at the four corners, destined for the Court dignitaries their Imperial master thus delights to honour. The intervals between these simple Royal repasts are occupied chiefly with the transaction of State business. Every Sultan of Turkey has been, theoretically at least, an autocratic ruler, but the degree of power exerted by each of the descendants of Osman has varied according to the vigour of his character and the social and political conditions of his time. The present reign has, however, witnessed the most remarkable union of all the conditions requisite for real autocracy a prince who " scorns delights, and spends laborious days " an extension of the telegraph system throughout the Empire, and, until the proclamation of the Constitution last year, an absence of all elements capable of thwarting or resisting the sovereign will. Many as have no doubt been the tyrannical acts of Abdul Hamid, the degree of progress attained by Turkey as an 50 DENIZENS OF THE PALACES Empire during the past thirty years is mainly due to the unflagging industry of her ruler, who may be literally said to work night and day. The supreme head of the military forces of the country, all who have been brought into personal contact with him pay tribute to his knowledge of military affairs, the minutest detail of which does not escape his keen interest. And critical as the state of Turkey undoubtedly now is, it is certainly far less so than when, in 1876, he was suddenly and unexpectedly called upon to ascend the throne. War with a great Power was then impending, the Treasury was well-nigh empty, and the State saddled with a debt of over two hundred millions, a national debt now reduced by the Sultan's exertions to less than eighty millions, notwithstanding the payment to Russia of nearly ten millions of war indemnity. Strenuous worker though he habitually is, the Sultan has, however, his occasional hours of relaxation, his favourite diversions being drawing, painting, wood-carving, and chemical experiments. An expert marksman, he keeps his hand in by regular target practice and firing at glass balls and other moving objects. Report says that fear of assassination incited the Padishah to attain this proficiency in the use of firearms, and that he always carries a pistol on his person. In his partiality for dramatic and operatic representations Abdul Hamid resembles his father Abdul Medjid ; and to the little theatre in the palace grounds are permanently attached a company of light comedians and an operatic troupe, whose rehearsals the Padishah often supervises in person. The foreign troupes which DENIZENS OF THE PALACES 51 periodically make the tour of the Levant are also often "commanded" to give performances here to which high officials or Royal guests are sometimes invited. The Sultan, however, as well as the ladies of his family and their attendants seated in the Royal boxes, are concealed from view by gilded lattices and vouchsafe no audible sign of approval or the reverse, though courteous messages, usually accompanied by presents or decorations, may be sent to the leading artistes after the performance. The floor of the auditorium is occupied only by foreign visitors and palace functionaries, an arrangement which must have a somewhat chilling effect on actors accustomed to a crowded house. The Sultan has also, like all Orientals, a weakness for mechanical toys and shows of all sorts, and cinematographs, phonographs, pianolas, musical boxes, and other products of Western civilisation, as well as the native Oriental shows described in a subsequent chapter, are in great favour at the Kiosk. A genuine Turk also in his kindness of and interest in animals, the Sultan has tenanted his park with numbers of wild creatures which he delights to feed with his own hands. And in addition to the multitude of birds of many species which enliven the hills and vales, large numbers of pigeons and parrots including a collection presented to the Sultan by the Mikado build and breed in the Imperial demesne ; while well-appointed kennels to which a veterinary hospital is also attached a great innovation are tenanted by favourite dogs of various breeds. The Royal stables con- tain nearly a hundred and fifty horses, including some 52 DENIZENS OF THE PALACES valuable thoroughbred saddle-horses reserved for his Majesty's own use, his favourite being a white Arab, "Azyl" by name. Half a dozen of these beautiful creatures are on Fridays led behind their master's carnage by grooms dressed in the handsome Imperial livery. Attached to the stables is a riding school for the use of the young princes, whose equestrian exercises are occasionally supervised by their Imperial father from a glazed gallery overlooking the ring. As has been remarked in a previous chapter, Oriental sentiment is opposed to the formation of an aristocratic class occupying an intermediate position between the Sovereign and the people ; even the connexions of the Imperial family forming no such noble or privileged class. With the exception of the Sultan's sons, the male members of the Imperial family, including the Heir apparent who, according to the Turkish law of succession, is the senior among his relatives have hitherto led dull useless lives of compulsory seclusion in separate palaces ; and but a limited number of persons belonging to collateral branches of the dynasty which has reigned for five centuries at Constantinople appear to exist in the country. Under the new regime, however, these princes of the Imperial house are able to enter the Services and play their part in social life. One may, for instance, now read in the Constantinople papers that Lieutenant Prince Burhaneddin Effendi has presented a piano and the sum of 300 to the naval club of which he is the honorary president, or that DENIZENS OF THE PALACES 53 S. A. I. Youssouf Izzedin Effendi has graciously accorded his patronage to the concert to be given under the auspices of the Armenian Benevolent Society. It is also no longer an act of the majesty as formerly, to enumerate the sons and daughters of the Sultan, whose olive branches are sufficiently numerous, and Turkish almanacks may now venture to publish such information to the world without being promptly suppressed. The daughters of Sultans, who also bear the title of " Sultan " there being in Turkish no feminine form of complimentary titles assume, in virtue of their Royal birth, precedence of their husbands, and have in many cases treated with scorn the conventional restraints imposed by Oriental custom on their sex. The sons of these princesses have, however, hitherto in common with other scions of the family of the Padishah, been ineligible for the higher civil and military offices, the whole system of the Imperial harem appearing to have been, like the Turkish social system, framed with the view of preventing the formation of a hereditary aristocratic class in the nation. The household of Sultan Abdul Hamid, large as it may appear, is organised on a quite modest scale compared with that of his brother and predecessor Abdul Aziz, at whose deposition in 1876, no fewer than three thousand persons were dismissed from the palace of Dolma Baktche" ; and it was computed that less than one-third of these were women, the rest being function- aries, menials, and hangers-on of every degree. The Imperial harem, however, still contains many hundreds of 54 DENIZENS OF THE PALACES women, who form a society apart from the rest of the population, live their own life, and have their own code of traditions, manners, customs, and etiquette. They may also be said to have their own peculiar dialect, for the speech of the Serailis as the denizens of this strange abode are termed differs in pronunciation and expression from that of the outer world ; and their extraction can always be at once detected by this peculiarity. But large as is the number of women thus brought together under one roof, so complete is the organisation of the whole, and so absolute the discipline, that there is no confusion or disorder, each member of the household having her assigned position and functions. The Serai possesses a sort of constitution of its own, having its own customary laws unwritten, it is true, but none the less rigidly enforced its high dignitaries, and its intermediary and lower ranks. The titular head of this feminine Court is the Validt Sultan, the mother of the reigning Sultan, next to whom ranks the mother of the eldest son the Kliastki Sultan, and after her the second, third, and fourth Kadin EfTendis, should there be so many. To each of these ladies is assigned a daira, or establish- ment, which comprises an allowance in money, a suite of apartments, and a train of female slaves and eunuchs. The chief female officials of the Queen Mother's Court are twelve in number, each of these Ladies of the Household, or kalfas, as they are called, having under her an assistant and six or more pupils, who are all designated according to their several departments. The DENIZENS OF THE PALACES 55 datras of the other ladies are formed on the same model, but the number of attendants composing them varies according to the rank of the Kadin Effendi. On the accession of a new Sultan, the various ladies of the deceased, or deposed, Sultan's harem are, together with their personal attendants, removed to one of the smaller palaces in order to make room for the household of the young Padishah, whose mother is immediately elevated to the rank of Valide Sultan, and at once invested with almost Imperial dignity. The new Sultan now requires all the persons composing his household, from his wives down to the lowest menials, to take an oath of obedience to his Mother, who is henceforth only addressed or referred to as "The Crown of Veiled Heads," a title with which every petition to her must begin. No one may venture to appear before her unless an audience has previously been asked for and granted, or sit uninvited in her presence, and all stand before her in the Oriental posture of respect arms crossed on the breast and heads bent, and accompany every reply with a lowly reverence and the words " Our Lady." Nor may any one of the inmates of the Serai, whatever her rank, leave her own apartments without her permission, or address any request to the Sultan, save through her. Such supreme authority naturally entails much responsi- bility and duties sufficiently arduous. Of these a Valide is, however, in great part relieved by her Hasnadar Ousta, or "First Lady of the Treasury," and also by the chief eunuch, known as the Kizler Bey or Kizler Agha " Bey," 56 DENIZENS OF THE PALACES or "Agha of the Women," through whom all intercourse with the outer world is carried on. This functionary, under the old rfgime, ranked next to the Grand Vizier, and, in the Serai the Hasnadar ranks next to the Empress Mother herself. She is generally, on being appointed to this important post, a woman of middle age, who has been brought up in the daira of the Valide, and whose seniority, coupled with her devotion to the interests of her mistress, has entitled her to this important post. Her office gives her absolute authority in every matter with which the Valide does not choose to concern herself personally ; and should the latter die before her Imperial son, the Hasnadar Ousta succeeds during the whole of his lifetime to her position and prerogatives, and ever since the death of the late Valide* Sultan, the harem of Yildiz Kiosk has thus been ruled over by her " First Lady of the Treasury." Slaves for the service of the palace are, as a rule, purchased as children in order that they may be suitably trained for the positions they will be required to occupy. Abyssinians and Negresses, as also white girls who give no promise of future beauty, are placed under the care of kalfas, or " matrons," who bring them up as cooks, housemaids, bath-women, laundry maids, etc. The finer specimens of humanity, who may be called upon to fill high positions, are taught elegance of deportment, dancing, singing and music, by the various Ladies of the House- hold, and initiated into all the graceful formalities of Oriental etiquette and deportment. A certain number DENIZENS OF THE PALACES 57 who may be destined for such posts as those of Secretary, or " Lady Chaplain " whose duties comprise reading the Koran aloud and imparting religious instruction are also taught to read fluently and write with elegance. There is thus always on hand a supply of these aldiks, or pupil- slaves, ready to fill any vacancies that may occur in the various establishments which constitute the Imperial harem. Separated for ever from her own kindred, the slave child becomes the adopted daughter of the kalfa who has purchased her for the service of her department, and who is at the same time her mistress and instructor. Each kalfa takes a pride in the appearance and the efficiency of her pupils, watches over their interests with the utmost vigilance, and, should marriage with an out- sider be the Kismet of any one of them as not infre- quently happens does all in her power to secure for her adopted child as good a match as possible. Slaves both, the kalfa and the alaik look to each other for mutual support, and the affection that arises between them is a touching proof of the need of the human heart for sympathy and love ; and even when removed by marriage to another sphere, a girl of slave origin maintains the same intimate relations with her adopted mother, who will on her side make use of her position in the Serai to forward the interests of her former pupil. The kalfas are generally those slaves who, having neither attracted the notice of the Sultan, nor been given in marriage to a subject, have attained their position by right of seniority. Some may still look forward to 58 DENIZENS OF THE PALACES matrimony, but the majority, contented with the life which has become habitual to them, and devoted to their respec- tive mistresses, look for their only promotion within the walls of the Serai. It is these old serailis who are the faithful guardians of all the palace traditions and usages, which they cherish with jealous conservatism and, in their turn, transmit to their successors in office. The denizens of the Serai, however, even when not given in marriage to outsiders, are by no means, as is generally supposed, imprisoned for life within the palace precincts. Many of their amusements, indeed, lie outside its walls, for Sultanas and their ladies-in-waiting, like the generality of uncultured women in all countries, find their chief distractions in their toilettes, in visits, and drives and excursions. Pilgrimages to the shrines of Moslem Saints, and attendance at the services in Dervish Tekkehs, vary their mundane pursuits, and are made the opportunity of atoning for some of their sins by pious gifts and alms- deeds. Each lady has usually her favourite Sheikh and her favourite shrine, to whom and to which she periodi- cally makes offerings, either in money or in the shape of rich shawls and draperies for the tombs of the departed Saints. In their excursions beyond the palace precincts, the Ladies of the Imperial harem are, however, invariably attended by negro eunuchs resplendent in frock coats, light trousers, kid gloves, and diamond jewellery. For these gentry, though valued chiefly for their size and ugliness, are preposterously vain, and their owners gladly gratify the amiable weaknesses of such generally attached DENIZENS OF THE PALACES 59 and trustworthy servants. Mounted on prancing Arabs, they ride on either side of the smart closed broughams, through the windows of which a passing glimpse may be caught of a filmy white yashmak^ athwart which dark eyes peer curiously at the denizens of the strange outside world whom they may encounter on the way to one of the fashionable resorts of Turkish holiday-makers. The above described elaborate organisation of the Imperial household was by no means of Turkish origin, but was evidently copied in great measure, together with other social institutions, from that of the Court of Byzantium to which the Turkish Sultans served them- selves heirs, the practice of making Sultanas of slave women having apparently been introduced about that period. For the earlier rulers of Turkey, who contented themselves with the unassuming title of Emir, or " Prince," were in the habit of contracting legal marriages with free women. Orkhan, for instance, wedded the daughter of John VI. of Byzantium ; Bayazid I., before his accession, espoused the daughter of the Asian Prince Jacob of Kermian, who brought him for dowry Kutayia and other important territories situated in the former Seljukian Kingdom ; while six years later his father Murad I., and two of his brothers wedded on the same day three Byzantine princesses, their espousals being celebrated with great pomp and splendour on the plain of Yeni-Shehir in Asia Minor, in the presence of the Army there encamped. And later Ottoman legists, while seeking to guard against female influence at the 60 DENIZENS OF THE PALACES Imperial Court by limiting the wives of Sultans to slave women, would appear to have overlooked the fact that a Sultan is after all but a man, and consequently liable to be influenced by any woman, whatever her origin, clever enough to gain ascendancy over him. It is related that one of the "four rules of conduct" given by the famous Vizier Mohammed Kiupruli, when on his death- bed, to the young Sultan Mohammed IV. was " never to listen to the counsels of women." Yet the great Kiupruli himself owed his long maintenance in office to the able Valide Sultan Tarkhan, and his son and successor in the Vizierate owed the freedom of action which he enjoyed under the same prince to the patronage of Mohammed's favourite wife. The rdle played by the women of the Serai in Turkish history has, indeed, been by no means unimportant. To give a few instances only the Sultana Safiye", a lady of Venetian extraction, exercised for some twenty years of the lifetime of her incapable consort, Sultan Murad III., a predominant sway in the govern- ment, and ruled generally in the Court and Councils of her son Mohammed III. The mother of Mustapha I. exercised supreme authority in his name. And when his successor Murad IV. mounted the throne at the age of twelve, the Valide" Mahpeiker, a slave of Greek extraction, became regent. She appears to have been a woman of remarkable talent and energy, and both were taxed to the uttermost to combat the dangers and disasters that clouded the dawn of her son's sovereignty. A Venetian Ambassador who met this princess when she was about DENIZENS OF THE PALACES 61 forty-five years of age, described her as "virtuous, wise, prudent, and liberal, loving pious works." The present Sultan is, however, by no means, as so many of his predecessors have been, and as he is by some foreign writers reported to be, under the influence of the women of his harem, those most hostile to his rule admitting the irreproachability of his private life. He has now but one wife living, is somewhat advanced in years, and has moreover for many years past been too com- pletely engrossed with affairs of State to concern himself with the affairs of the haremlik, the conduct of which is left in the hands of the functionaries above mentioned. The harems of the Imperial Serais have, however, always constituted a perfect hot-bed of intrigue, which indeed forms the main occupation of the generality of their inhabitants. The law of primogeniture not being recognised in the succession to the throne, each prince born in the Serai has the chance of becoming Sultan in his turn ; and every mother of a son being in consequence an aspirant for supreme power in the harem, she, together with all the members of her daira, makes the event of his succession the supreme object of her life, working day and night for its accomplishment. As the Sultan is styled the " Lion of Lions," each prince is called by his mother and her attendants "My Lion," and is worshipped by the whole of her miniature Court. There are consequently in the Imperial palaces as many coteries as there are Kadin Effendis and dctiras, each of which forms a centre having ramifications extending beyond the walls of the 62 DENIZENS OF THE PALACES Serai. For the brothers and other male relatives of a reigning Sultan or rather the respective mothers of these princes being always in quest of partisans, the Valide Sultan or her representative is on her side vigilantly occupied in safeguarding the interests of her Imperial son. The possible successors to Sultan Abdul Hamid are somewhat numerous, as they include besides his own six sons the eldest of whom he himself desires should be the next to gird the sword of Osman his half-brother Reshid Effendi, the legitimate heir, whose claim is sup- ported by the reactionary party, and ether scions of the Imperial House. Each of these possible future claimants to the throne has his following as well among the inmates of the palace both male and female as in the Army and thoughout the Empire generally. The Padishah is sixty- seven years of age, and in the natural course of events the Osmanli nation will ere long be called upon to make choice of a new ruler. A strong man is wanted at this crisis of Turkish history ; and, if report says true, such a successor may be found among the princes of the Royal house other than those above mentioned, whose candidature would be strongly supported by leading members of the progressive party. H.I.H. PRINCE SELIM EFFENDI, ELDEST SON OF THE SULTAN CHAPTER IV PROVINCIAL AND COUNTRY FOLK ALTHOUGH Smyrna, Salonica, and also to a certain extent Adrianople, since its connexion by rail with Central Europe, present many features in common with the Capital, the manners and customs and even the languages of the non-Turkish element of the towns of the interior, where Turkish influences chiefly predominate, are considerably affected by those of the ruling race. Many provincial towns of European Turkey present, indeed, features far more characteristically Oriental than are to be found on the Eastern shores of the JEgean Sea. The same system of administration obtains, of course, in the remoter provinces as in the cities, the higher judicial Courts being supplemented by the local Medjliss, or Town Council, comprised of the representatives of the various com- munities, Christian, Jewish, and Moslem, which usually make up the population of a township, and the Konak, or Government House, forms the centre of municipal life. A provincial konak is, generally speaking, a many- windowed, barrack-like edifice, coloured red or yellow without, whitewashed within, and approached by a spacious 63 64 PROVINCIAL AND COUNTRY FOLK courtyard on either side of the great roofed gateway of which sit, on rush-bottomed stools, a couple of stalwart ZaptiehSj as the Turkish armed police are termed. The internal arrangements are those of most Oriental houses a wide central hall, or corridor, on which all the rooms open, the upper floor, or floors, being precisely similar in plan. Over the doorways are inscribed the names of the various departments " Secretary," " Treasurer," "Keeper of Archives," etc. ; and among the motley throng loitering in the courtyard and entrance hall during office hours may always be found a heterogeneous collection of litigants, witnesses, and petitioners, servants, soldiers, and loafers, varying in race according to province, and clad in garments denoting every degree of Eastern civilisation, from sheepskin cap and jacket to fez and frock coat. The new Constitution, young as it is yet, has already worked important changes in the adminis- tration of justice ; but things move slowly in the East, and time-honoured abuses are not abolished in a day. The majority of the frequenters of a provincial konak may still be divided into two classes those who seek to gain some unfair advantage over their fellows, and those who would avert, or seek redress for, some act of injustice or spoliation. Here will be a group of Turkish peasants, ragged probably, but dignified, discussing the justice of a sentence just announced, adverse to their village and in favour of the beylikdji^ or tax-farmer, whose demands they have appealed against. And outside the door of another office may stand a party of flock-masters PROVINCIAL AND COUNTRY FOLK 65 having a triangular dispute with the forest inspectors and the inhabitants of a village, both parties claiming rights over some neighbouring pasturages which the shepherds have been in the habit of renting from the former. Formerly, almost every village in Turkey had its own common and forest in which the peasant pro- prietors had the right to cut wood, burn charcoal, and rent the pasturage annually to the nomad herdsmen and shepherds a great resource for the peasantry, though most destructive to the forests. All this was, however, changed when what is known as the Vilayet system was organised, and the forests and the pasturages were placed under Government supervision. But though the laws regulating the new arrangement were excellent on paper, the acts of injustice and the abuses connected with their administration have proved most prejudicial to the rural population. Upstairs in a large scantily furnished room the Governor holds his court, seated if an "old-fashioned" Turk cross-legged in an angle of the divan which furnishes three sides of the apartment. Accommodated on either side of him their rank being easily ascertained by their proximity to the great man and the degree of ease in the posture they assume are a number of indi- viduals, some in turbans and flowing robes, others in semi-European garb, members of the Medjliss, or Municipal Council, magnates, officials, and others. The Jewish doctor, for instance, sits at a distance on the extreme edge of the divan, with his hands on his stomach, speaks 66 PROVINCIAL AND COUNTRY FOLK only when spoken to, and with a deferential salaam ; the Greek dragoman occupies an uncomfortable corner of his rush-seated chair near the door, from which he rises and salaams obsequiously every time the Vali Pasha addresses him ; and these subordinates are served by the bare-footed attendants with coffee only, though cigarettes or tchibouks will also be handed to the Kadi, or Judge, and to the other magnates seated on the great man's right and left. In the small towns and villages of Turkey, the immediate supreme authority is, however, vested in the Kodjabashi Headman, or Mayor who settles petty disputes and is held responsible for the good behaviour of his township. It is also his business, as, save in large towns inns are non-existent, to provide lodging for travellers, and to arrange for the accommo- dation of troops and zaptiehs armed police passing through on their way from one town to another. The office of Kodjabashi naturally entails considerable responsi- bility upon its holder, and under the social and political conditions which have so long obtained in Turkey is frequently one of no little difficulty. It has, however, no doubt its compensations, and places its possessor in a position superior to that of his fellows. An ill-paved and often mud-pooled market-place usually occupies the centre of Turkish villages and small towns, and here the peasants collect from the neighbour- ing country with their sheep and cattle, and their carts and beasts of burden laden with produce of all kinds for sale or barter. Bulgarian weavers come, too, with PROVINCIAL AND COUNTRY FOLK 67 rolls of cloth, and Gypsies with pots and pans, sieves, coarse baskets, and other articles for domestic use. Surrounding the square are the bakals, or chandlers' shop, the butchers' stall, and, of course, the shanty which does duty as a cafl, at which the market-folk refresh themselves in frugal fashion and hear the news of the country side, perhaps also some faint echo of political events from the nearest city. Close by, in a Turkish village, stands the little white-washed mosque with its cypress-shadowed cemetery. At one end of the green is the threshing-floor, generally of beaten earth, but some- times paved with flags, used by all the villagers in turn, and on feast days by the youth for their wrestling matches; and at the other end is the village well, to which the maidens come towards sunset carrying on their shoulders the large red earthen water-jars, unchanged in shape since the days of Homer. A considerable proportion of the agricultural land of Asia Minor is held and cultivated by peasant proprietors ; and in other parts of Turkey are also to be found a con- siderable number of so-called " Head villages," or " Free villages," the lands adjoining which are owned and tilled by small farmers. In Macedonia and Thrace, however, landed property is less equally divided, great areas being united in large estates called tchiftliks, owned either by native Beys, or by absentee landlords who reside in the towns and cities, leaving the management of their estates to an agent called the Soubashi. The large estates belonging to absentee landlords are cultivated to a great 68 PROVINCIAL AND COUNTRY FOLK extent on what is called in France the Mttayer system that is, the landlord provides the seed corn in the first instance, while the peasant, who also finds his own yoke of oxen or buffaloes, performs all the labour. When the harvest has been reaped, the seed for the next season set aside, and the tithe deducted, the remainder of the produce is shared with the proprietor. If equitably carried out, this arrangement proves, as in other countries, by no means an unfavourable one for the yeradji, as the peasants working under this system are called. In Turkey, however, " might " is but too often " right," and the tiller of the soil frequently gets a quite inadequate return for his labour. One serious grievance of the farmer is that when the grain has been cut he may not remove it from the field until the tithe collector has been pleased to come and inspect the crop, no matter what weather may threaten, or what depredations be committed by the immense flocks of birds that are robbing the peasant of his profit. The computation of shares is also too often very unfairly made. A certain number of sheaves, forty perhaps, of the finest and heaviest, are threshed separately, and the seed for the next year, the tithes, and the land- lord's share are deducted according to this standard, which often leaves the yeradji an unfairly small portion of the produce. The soubashi is also entitled to receive six measures each of barley and wheat for every head of cattle possessed by the peasant; and among other burdens which press hardly upon him are the Govern- ment taxes, the conscription, the frequent quartering in PROVINCIAL AND COUNTRY FOLK 69 his cottage especially if near a high-road of zaptiehs and soldiers, and the obligation of performing statute labour whenever called upon, often with disastrous results to farm labour and damage to carts and implements. The small agriculturist in Turkey is, indeed, perhaps the most highly taxed individual in the world. His taxes may also be demanded at any time during the year, and perhaps more than once. The Imperial taxes are also for the most part farmed, and the expenses of their collection, to say nothing of the tax-farmer's profit, is added to the burden of the peasant. As to their assess- ment, the system pursued is a masterpiece of simplicity. The question is not how much such and such a village ought to pay, according to the number of adult males it may contain, but how much it can pay, rich villages being called upon to make up the deficit of those in less pros- perous circumstances. This point settled by the powers that be, the village council responsible for the payment of the lump sum meet to apportion to each householder of the community his share of the common burden. Seated cross-legged on a mat or on rush-bottomed stools under a leafy plane tree, or in the shadow of the mosque, the village fathers and their scribes, in coarse baggy breeches of brown homespun, brightly coloured shirts and ample waist-shawls, discuss the financial position of their neighbours and allot to each what they consider his rightful portion of the tax. The council is, however, collectively responsible for the taxes due from each house- holder, and bound to make up all deficits. 70 PROVINCIAL AND COUNTRY FOLK Native farming is still for the most part conducted according to most primitive methods and with the aid of implements the most archaic. The ground is broken to-day, as it was two thousand years ago, by the clumsy one-handled wooden Pelasgian plough drawn by a yoke or team of buffaloes, and in some places the grain is merely scattered over the stubble and ploughed in, threshing and winnowing being performed in equally primitive fashion. Agriculture is consequently, notwith- standing the great fertility of soil and the favourable climatic conditions, which allow of the cultivation of the products of both the old and the new world, and a coast-line of noo miles in extent, in a most back- ward state. The explanation of this is hardly to be found in any peculiarity of the Ottoman character which, though warlike and pastoral, is also essentially agri- cultural, but rather in a variety of causes, the chief of which consists in the forms of land tenure, other con- tributing causes being the lack of scientific knowledge, of capital, and, owing to the conscription, of labour. Deficiency in means of communication is also another cause, for there are no great waterways as in Russia ; railways as yet are only in their infancy, and leave untouched great tracts of land over which "the ship of the desert " still swings his slow way to the ports of the ./Egean, laden with great bales of produce from the interior, raw cotton and wool, vallonia, jute, hemp, hides, and cereals. Large tracts of land in Asia Minor remain uncultivated, or have fallen out of cultivation, the quantity PROVINCIAL AND COUNTRY FOLK 71 of corn grown being, it is computed, but a tenth of what the country might yield, if properly worked. Nor is any regular system of rotation of crops observed by the peasants, though on large estates the ordinary rule for rich lands is two crops of wheat to one of oats, then fallow one or more years, after which wheat, followed by sesame, is again sown. In Macedonia, where arable land abounds, it is allowed to lie fallow more frequently. The only dressing the fields owned by natives receive is the treading of the sheep in spring and autumn ; but the soil is naturally so fertile, and the crops ripen so early, especially in the southern provinces, that a bad harvest is of rare occurrence. Occasionally, however, occurs a long drought, when the crops in the great open plains perish for want of moisture, and the cattle die by hundreds unless driven off in time and sold much under their value to those living in more fortunate localities. At such times it is customary for both Moslems and Christians to invoke the aid of the celestial powers by special ceremonies, as in former days the pagan rain-god was propitiated in the same localities in times of drought. With the Turks all the children attending the mektebs, or parish schools, march in procession, headed by their hodjas, through the streets of the towns to the open plain, where, after spreading their carpets, they offer up prayers interspersed with many prostrations. After continuing this religious exercise for nearly an hour, the children fall into rank again, wailing, as they trail slowly back to the town, a monotonous and weirdly melancholy chant. 72 PROVINCIAL AND COUNTRY FOLK Silk culture, as a village industry, is carried on to a considerable extent both in European and Asiatic Turkey. When operations are on a large scale the silk- worm nurseries are often, for greater convenience, located in the mulberry plantations, which not infrequently extend over several acres. This profitable industry of rearing and feeding the silkworms begins as soon as the trees are in full leaf, and lasts for about two months. The work connected with it, tedious and laborious as it is, is generally undertaken by the women. Tobacco also is extensively grown in Macedonia, Thrace, and elsewhere, and its cultivation and manufacture afford employment to both peasants and townsfolk, especially in the neigh- bourhood of Drama and Cavalla, where Moslems and Christians of both sexes may be seen squatting side by side in the factories of the tobacco merchants, native and foreign, where the leaves of the fragrant weed are dried, sorted, and otherwise manipulated before being packed in bales for exportation. For poverty is a more potent factor than even racial and religious prejudice, and the harvesting of any important product tobacco, grapes, olives, etc. brings together a heterogeneous crowd of labourers having nothing in common but dire necessity. The residences of the large landed proprietors vary considerably in style of construction, some being simple and unpretentious, though spacious, edifices in the style of the old konaks in Stamboul, while others are in the form of solidly built, quadrangular towers several stories high, having windows only in the upper floors, and these PROVINCIAL AND COUNTRY FOLK 73 defended by massive iron bars and strong shutters domestic fortresses which have frequently been called upon to withstand the attacks of brigands and other assailants. A high wall of masonry roofed with tiles encloses the garden, orchard, and farmyard, the first of which, even on a tchiftlik of the better class, usually presents an ill-kept, if luxuriant, aspect, while the last abounds with reeking dunghills and mud-pools amid which fowls, ducks, geese, and dogs disport themselves. These country konaks are, as a rule, but scantily furnished, especially when the proprietor is non-resident. For in that case the bedding, carpets, and household necessaries generally are brought from town when he and his family visit the estate in summer; and it is astonishing to see with how little luggage a Turkish family travels and makes itself comfortable on such occasions. Each person will bring merely one or two bokchas, or bundle-wraps the primitive portmanteaux containing his or her wearing apparel ; while the articles fcr general use will comprise a few lamps and candlesticks, a couple of brass jugs and basins, which in the morning and at meal-times make the round of the household, some copper cooking vessels, a coffee service, and a modest service of glass and crockery. In some districts the ladies and their female attendants make use for travelling of a contrivance similar to the cacolet of the Basque pro- vinces. A kind of pannier-seat is attached to either side of the saddle of a mule or horse, and the fair occupants are screened from the rays of the sun and the gaze of 74 PROVINCIAL AND COUNTRY FOLK the vulgar by semicircular tilts or awnings which sway balloon-like with the motion of the steed as he staggers along under the weight of his double burden. Travelling is indeed, in Turkey, no very pleasant matter, the roads are generally in a deplorable state, knee-deep in dust in summer, and in winter full of treacherous mud-filled holes ; and in mountainous districts the torrent beds often con- stitute the only highway. Bridges over the great rivers are few and far between, and frequently out of repair ; and fording, though easy enough in the dry season, offers considerable dangers when the streams are swollen after rain. The way in which an absentee proprietor spends his time when on an occasional visit to his estate naturally depends upon his pecuniary means and personal tastes. A sportsman will occasionally have a hunting or coursing party, or go out with his sons, guests, and servants for a day's expedition in quest of more distant game deer and boar on the hills, or snipe and quail in the marshlands. His duties as landlord are confined to regulating accounts with his agent, hearing and deciding cases between that functionary and the tenants, giving instructions for future farming operations, and last, but not least, to realising the profits. As to improving the soil, introducing modern and labour-saving machinery, building model cottages and otherwise ameliorating the moral and material condition of his tenants these are things which have not so far been considered necessary by a Turkish landed proprietor. In the mean time, the Bey's womenkind contrive to amuse PROVINCIAL AND COUNTRY FOLK 75 themselves in their own fashion during their annual villeggiatura. Turkish women are passionately fond of the open air, and when in the country spend a great part of every day in roaming about freely in the most negligt of costumes, picnicking, singing and amusing themselves according to their wont. Included in the " house party " are generally a number of relatives or hangers-on, who lend willing aid in preparing the stores of winter provisions to be carried back to town by the family. These comprise tomato sauce and pickles of various kinds; a v kind of molasses made from grape juice, used in the confection of the commoner kinds of preserves for household con- sumption ; macaroni pastes for soups and other dishes ; fruit syrups for making sherbets ; and the great variety of elegant and carefully prepared sweets which are served to harem visitors on great occasions. For the kiler, as a Turkish storeroom for provisions is called, is a very important department of every Oriental household. Here, besides the above-mentioned confections, oil and honey are stored in great jars of red earthenware, which recall those in which the " Forty Thieves " were hidden, together with sacks of rice, flour, nuts, and dried fruit of all kinds for winter consumption. Whatever may be the opinion of European travellers and residents in Turkey as to the character of its towns- people, all who have ever come into personal contact with the Turkish peasantry have been unanimous in praise of their simple honesty and sobriety, their passive content- ment and dignified resignation to the will of Allah and 76 PROVINCIAL AND COUNTRY FOLK their Padishah, and their passionate attachment to the land which has been bought by the blood of their fore- fathers. Physically, a Turkish peasant is well built, healthy, and, owing no doubt to his habitual abstemiousness, possesses remarkable powers of endurance. With him days and seasons succeed each other in a dull round of laborious and frugal monotony ; for, unlike his Christian neighbours, he has no weekly dance, no frequently re- curring village feast, and but little music to vary the uniformity of his life. His cup of coffee, taken before the labours of the day begin and at their close, and his poor tchibouk at intervals, constitute for him all the luxuries of life. His cottage, often a mere mud hovel, though clean, is comfortless enough, cold in winter and hot in summer, and contains little in the way of furniture beyond a scanty supply of bedding and a few rugs, stools, and cooking utensils. Turkish villages, indeed, throughout the Empire wear a much more impoverished and much less animated aspect than do those of their Christian neighbours. For a Turkish peasant's wife and daughters take, as a rule, a less active part in field and farm work than do the Christian peasant women, and are never seen, like them, spinning, knitting, and sewing at their cottage doors. As mentioned in a previous chapter, the abolition of the feudal system, and also of the Janissary corps, at the beginning of last century, and the placing of the army on a European footing, created a demand for soldiers from the peasant class unknown in previous centuries ; while, owing to the method pursued in levying conscripts, PROVINCIAL AND COUNTRY FOLK 77 the agricultural communities labour under the permanent disadvantage of being deprived of the co-operation of a considerable proportion of their younger and more ener- getic members. And when, in time of war, the majority of the able-bodied are, as reservists, also called to the colours, the situation becomes one of real hardship. The old men, the raw boys, and the women unused to labour and consequently incapable of coping with it struggle on for a time as best they can, often finding themselves at length compelled to abandon their holdings and take refuge in some neighbouring town or larger village. Thus deserted, their little homesteads too often built merely of mud and wattle, thatched with reeds fall into ruin, and their untilled fields either pass into the hands of Christian or Jewish mortgagees, or are added to the vast waste-lands of the Empire. The larger villages will also, there is grave reason to fear, in time share the fate of the hamlets unless the new administration speedily introduces such radical changes as will permanently ameliorate the condition of the peasantry, who constitute morally and physically the backbone of the Turkish nation. CHAPTER V HOLIDAY LIFE THERE is perhaps hardly a town in Turkey which does not possess in its immediate neighbourhood one or more picturesque spots to which its in- habitants resort on Friday, the Moslem Day of Rest, and on other festive days, and round about the Capital may be found many such. Among the most frequented in the vicinity of Constantinople are, on the European side, the "Sweet Waters of Europe," the Forest of Belgrade near Buyukddre", and the Vale of Lindens ; and on the opposite shore, the " Sweet Waters of Asia," the " Sultan's Valley," and Merdevenkeui. The "Sweet Waters of Europe " is the foreign designation of the charming valley to the west of the Capital, watered by the river Barbyses, which here meanders among green meadows and shady trees before losing itself in the waters of the Golden Horn. Rustic wooden bridges span the stream at intervals ; in the neighbourhood elegant villas are dotted about ; while among the meadows may be found a number of verandah - shaded kahfints, whose customers, seated in the pleasant shade by the cool flowing water, watch the performances of the various jugglers, mountebanks, showmen, and strolling 78 HOLIDAY LIFE 79 players, who never fail to present themselves. Among them will probably be Kara Guez a kind of Chinese shadow-play and also plays by Marionettes both of which, it must be admitted, usually leave much to be desired in the matter of decency. Egyptian musicians with rebeck and flute fill the air with their strange melodies, often harsh and discordant, occasionally tuneful, but always melancholy. Gypsies wander from one group of holiday makers to another with bears or monkeys, whose performances they accompany with excruciating sounds from drum, tambourine, bag-pipe, and reed-pipe, while their women execute unwearyingly their wild nautch-like pantomimic dances. Dancing, it may here be remarked, though a favourite recreation of all the Christian nation- alities, as also of the Albanians, Kurds, and other races professing the creed of Islam, is not indulged in personally by the sedate Osmanlis, who consider such exercises beneath their dignity, and prefer to see slave girls and Gypsy women clance for their amusement. Swinging boats and rotary horses, barrel organs, and cinemato- graphs have also been introduced into Turkey, and may be found as far east as Mosul. The hours passed at the kahfints in these popular holiday resorts are also frequently beguiled with various sedentary games such as draughts, dominoes, and backgammon. Cards are seldom resorted to, games of hazard being forbidden to Moslems. Nor can gambling be said to be at all a popular vice in the country, the stakes played for among the Christian populace seldom rising above the price of a glass of raki 80 HOLIDAY LIFE or cube of rahat lokoum. When lack of piastres, or groosh, as the natives term this modest coin, or lack of sufficient leisure makes any of these resorts inaccessible, the Turk betakes himself contentedly to the nearest cemetery where, seated on a fallen turbaned tombstone under the shade of the tall cypresses, he may enjoy with his fellows the amenities of conversation flavoured with " the inevitable, the eternal, the universal cigarette." In addition to the holidays observed by the nation generally, every Trade Guild observes a special annual festival in honour of its patron saint, the expenses of which are defrayed either by subscription among the guildsmen themselves, or from the corporation funds. This festival usually takes the form of a picnic at one of the above-mentioned resorts, and to the substantial and even sumptuous repast provided on such occasions are usually invited friends of members of the Guild, irrespective of creed ; and any stranger who may happen to pass the spot chosen for the festivities is also hospitably enter- tained by the revellers. The amusements indulged in after the conclusion of the midday repast include besides the usual variety of juggling and acrobatic performances, wrestling matches between the guildsmen, and, for the Christians and Albanians, their national dances, during the execution of which their Turkish fellow-craftsmen, seated on rush-bottomed stools in front of a rustic coffee- house, one hand occupied with the beads of their rosary, and the other with a short-stemmed tchibouk, cigarette, or bubbling narghileh, according to their calling, enjoy HOLIDAY LIFE 81 their kaif in more passive fashion. Disputes are of rare occurrence at these al fresco gatherings, and the greatest harmony prevails. " Strict, stern, stony decorum " is, indeed, according to a recent traveller in Turkey, "the keynote to all Turkish fetes'' And certainly a total absence of anything approaching to vulgarity or rowdyism is noticeable in Oriental merry-makings generally, whatever the class of those who participate in them. Here and there among these holiday crowds may be seen the picturesque figure of a Turkish musician and story-teller in the immemorial costume of his profession, which, together with its repertory of song and stories, is handed down from generation to generation of the same family. These will include mythical stories extolling the magical exploits of King David and King Solomon ; religious and semi-religious legends connected with the Prophet and the saints of Islam ; charming animal tales, and fables with a moral application ; besides satirical stories relating to the impostures of pseudo-saintly dervishes, the rapacity of Mollahs, and the corruption of Kadis, together with comic and humorous anecdotes innumerable. Many of these tales also, like those of the " Thousand and One Nights," deal with Peris and Djins the race of beings created before Adam, and to which his second wife, Lilith, is held to have belonged with wicked magicians, enchanted princesses, and valiant and ready- witted heroes. No allusion is, however, to be found in them to the original home of the Turkish race in Central Asia. Such a total absence of any legends connected G 82 HOLIDAY LIFE with the former habitat of the Turks is, however, only what one might expect to find on consideration of the history of the Osmanli nation. For as pointed out in the Introduction the original small band which invaded Asia Minor in the thirteenth century has for the last six hundred years been increased, first, by the adherence and conversion of whole populations, and, secondly, by intermarriage in every succeeding generation with the best blood both of South-Eastern Europe and Asia Minor. The women belonging to all the surrounding peoples Kurdish, Georgian, Circassian, Byzantine-Greek, Armenian, Slav, and even Venetian and Genoese naturally brought with them into the harems of the Osmanlis their own folk-lore which, gradually falling under the influence of Moslem ideas, has attained its present distinctive character. A proportion of tales of the humorous class have for their hero Nasr-ed-Din Hodja, a semi-mythical Turkish parson, who became a sort of Court-jester to the terrible Timour the Tartar during his invasion and occupation of Asia Minor. Many of these stories are, however, pre- sumably of much greater antiquity than the end of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth century, the date assigned to this famous Oriental wit. In character they are most varied ; some are proverbial or didactic ; the weaknesses and shortcomings of the female sex form the subject of others ; while in yet another class the honesty and integrity of the Hodja himself are more than questionable. Domestic and social manners and customs are admirably depicted in many ; and underlying the HOLIDAY LIFE 83 majority is a vein of the fine irony peculiar to Orientals, though very frequently the point lies entirely in a subtle play upon words impossible to reproduce in another language. Much of this popular literature has still only an oral existence, though during the last century a con- siderable portion has been collected in book form ; and it is said that the volumes in which are related the exploits of the famous Hodja have, next to the Koran, more readers than any other class of literature. Almost every witty or comic anecdote is, indeed, fathered upon this parson-buffoon, who has become a sort of type personifying the humorous side of the national character. The two following, which I have often heard related, but which have not hitherto, I believe, appeared in English, may serve as specimens. THE HODJA'S WAGER One day, as the Hodja was sitting with his gossips, he was twitted with being a man fond of ease and comfort and lacking powers of endurance. Resenting the insinua- tion, Nasr-ed-Din wagered a supper that he would remain for a whole night on the terrace of his house without fire or light. The wager was accepted, and the Hodja per- formed his vigil, and claimed the forfeit, "Oh, but," objected his friends, "thou wert not altogether without fire or light, for there was a fire on the mountain all the time." The Hodja submitted, and after a few days invited 84 HOLIDAY LIFE his friends to supper at his house. Towards sunset the company assembled at the mosque parsonage, and after performing the Namaz with their host, seated themselves on the divan till the meal should be ready. Half an hour passed, an hour, but still the sofra^ or dinner-tray, was not brought in. Hunger finally got the better of good manners, and one of the guests ventured to suggest that the usual supper-hour was past. " Have patience, my souls, I beg, the pilaf will very shortly be ready," was the reply of the smiling host, who, according to his wont, had meanwhile been entertaining his guests with anecdotes and sallies of wit. But after another hour of polite endurance, one hardier, or hungrier, than the rest, exclaimed " Hodja, I am beginning to think that you are playing us a trick, and that there is no pilaf at all cooking for us ! " "By Allah! thou misjudgest me! Come into the kitchen then, my soul, and see for thyself if the pilaf is not cooking," exclaimed the host. Leading the way, he pointed triumphantly to the copper pilaf-cauldron which was suspended from a rafter, while on the floor below it stood the brazier of charcoal embers. " But, Hodja ! Art mad ? How can the pilaf cook at that distance from the fire ? " " Quite as easily as I could warm myself the other night by the fire on the mountain opposite," dryly quoth Nasr-ed-Din Hodja. HOLIDAY LIFE 85 THE HODJA AND THE OLD-CLOTHES MAN One day Nasr-ed-Din Hodja, finding that his every- day pelisse had grown the worse for wear, sold it to a Jew, but forgot to take out of the lining a gold piece which he had sewn there for safety. During the night, however, he remembered the oversight, and next morning went to demand back his coat from the dealer. "A bargain is a bargain," replied the eskedji; "what I have bought I have bought." So the Hodja bided his time. After a while he had another pelisse to dispose of, but before taking it to the Jew, he carefully stitched a five-para piece a coin worth about a farthing into the lining. While examining the garment, the purchaser felt the coin, and thinking it was another gold piece, he paid a fair price for the pelisse. On the following morning the Hodja was strolling past his shop when the Jew called to him " Hodja Effendi, I paid thee too much for that pelisse; take it back and pay me the money I gave thee." " A bargain is a bargain," replied the Hodja ; " what I have sold I have sold." But the Jew was angry and insisted, and finally demanded that the question should be settled before the Kadi. 86 HOLIDAY LIFE "By all means," replied Nasr-ed-Din. "But as you see, I am without a pelisse, and it were unseemly to go before the judge save in my best." " I will lend thee a handsome one, so thou come with me at once to the Kadi" So the pair went off together to the Court, and the Jew laid his case before the Kadi. When he had done so, the Hodja gave the judge his version of the matter, and then exclaimed "See you, my Lord, the wickedness and dishonesty of this man. By Allah ! it has no bounds. He will next tell your worship that the pelisse on my back belongs to him!" " So it does, by Allah ! " exclaimed the other. Upon which the Kadi bade the attendants turn him out for an impudent cheat and impostor ; and Nasr-ed-Din Hodja went home chuckling to tell his wife the story of the eskedji's discomfiture. The numerous and various stories about King or, as he is more generally termed, " Saint " Solomon, to be found in Oriental folk-literature, are considered by scholars to be reminiscences, not of the vaunted Son of David, but rather of the Chaldean " King of the Gods," the wise Ea, one of whose names, Sallimanu, was adopted by the Hebrew prince, whose proper name was Jedidiah. 1 In the story of "Why the Swallow's Tail is Forked," we 1 Compare Sayce, Religion of the Ancient Babylonians, pp. 57, 58 ; and 2 Sam. xii. 24, 25. HOLIDAY LIFE 87 find illustrated one set of the wonderful powers attributed to this monarch. A long, a very long time ago, Solomon, the Son of David, reigned over all things. This powerful King understood the languages of all mortals, the voices of the forest beasts and the cries of the smaller animals, the hiss of the serpents, the warblings of birds, the hum of insects, the speech of the lofty trees and the whisper of the woodland flowerets, the roar of the mighty ocean, and the murmur of river stream and summer breeze. To each creature Solomon had assigned his fitting food. To some he had given the flesh of weaker animals ; to others the herbs of the field, or the fruits of the trees. But to the Serpent the Son of David had said " Thou shalt be nourished with the blood of Man." And the Serpent, therefore, hiding in the bushes and long grasses, lay in wait for Man and seized upon him in order to drain his blood. But Mankind protested so loudly against this evil that the sound at length reached the ears of the great King, and he asked of Man, "Why dost thou complain ? " " O King, the Serpent lives on our blood ; our race will soon disappear ! " " Go in peace, I will bear in mind thy prayer." The great Solomon reflected long. At last he sum- moned all living creatures to assemble in the middle of a great plain. The Lion, the Tiger and the Elephant, the Wolf, the Horse and the Camel, the Eagle, the Vulture 88 HOLIDAY LIFE and the Ostrich, and thousands and thousands of the birds and animals came together at the bidding of the King. Solomon sat on his throne, and thus addressed them " I have called you together that I may hear your complaints. Speak ! " Man first approached the throne, made his obeisance, and said "O King, I ask that the Serpent may be assigned as his food the blood of some other animal." " And why?" " Because I am the first of created Beings." At this the assembly began to protest, with roars, growls and howls, yelps, barks, and screams. " Be silent," commanded Solomon. " Let the Mosquito, the smallest of animals, find out whose blood is the most delicate in all creation. Whosesoever it may be, even to that of Man, I mean to give it to the Serpent. A year from to-day ye will meet me in this place to hear the decision of the Mosquito." The animals dispersed, and during the year the little insect visited them all in turn and tasted their blood. As he was on his way back to the assembly of King Solomon, he overtook the Swallow, whom he saluted. " Peace be also upon thee," replied the Swallow. " Thou art welcome, friend Mosquito. Whither fliest so swiftly ? " " I go to the Great Assembly." "In truth. Well, whose blood hast thou found most delicate?" HOLIDAY LIFE 89 "That of Man." "That of ?" The Mosquito, who thought the Swallow had not heard, opened his mouth to repeat the words ; but this was but a ruse on the part of the Swallow, who fell upon him and tore out his tongue. Furious, the Mosquito pursued his way, always closely followed by the Swallow, and finally arrived in the presence of King Solomon. "Well," said the Son of David, "hast thou indeed tasted the blood of every animal ? " The insect made a sign in the affirmative. " Which then is the most delicate ? " Great was the embarrassment of the Mosquito, who, now that he was tongueless, could no longer speak. " Ksss ! Kssssss I Kssssssss ! " repeated the insect in a frenzy. Solomon was greatly puzzled, until the Swallow presented himself before the throne. " O King ! " he said, " O King, the Mosquito has been stricken dumb. But on the road hither, he confided to me the result of his year's experiences." " Speak, then ! " " O King, the Frog is the animal whose blood is the most exquisite that is what the Mosquito would say." "Ksss! Kssssss! Kssssssss !" gurgled again the insect, beside himself with impotent rage. " It is well," observed Solomon. " From this day forth the Serpent will feed on the blood of the Frog. Man may now live in peace." And he dismissed the assembly. 90 HOLIDAY LIFE But the Serpent was by no means satisfied with this judgment ; and as the Swallow dived past him still chuckling over the successful part she had played on behalf of Man, who shelters her nest under the eaves of his dwelling the reptile darted upon her. But the bird, aware in time of his intention, gave him a smart blow with her wings, and the Serpent succeeded only in seizing her by the middle of the tail. And since that time the Swallow's tail has been forked, and the Serpent has lived on the blood of the Frog. The moral of the following story of "Saint Solomon and the Sparrow " will, no doubt, be appreciated by others than Orientals. There was once in the blessed service of Saint Solomon on whom be peace ! a little cock-sparrow, whose lively tricks and gambols were even pleasing to this Sultan. One day Saint Solomon saw not the Sparrow by him, and he commanded the Simurgk (a mythical bird frequently referred to by Oriental Poets) to go fetch the Sparrow wherever he might be. Now for many days previously the Sparrow had not visited his mate, and she had upbraided him, saying, " For this long time thou hast left me, and hast been with Solomon. Dost thou then love him more than me, or dost thou fear him ? Tell me !" "By Allah!" replied the Sparrow, "I would not exchange thee for the world ! I am come but once on HOLIDAY LIFE 91 earth and shall not come again. I go to Solomon for diversion I have no fear of him." While he was thus talking with many such vauntings and boastings, the Simurgh arrived in haste, and hearing him, said harshly, " Up, up ! Let us be off, for Saint Solomon is asking for thee." Then the Sparrow, being with his mate, plucked up courage and replied, " Off with thee, I will not go ! " Said the Simurgh, "But I will indeed take thee with me." " Off with thee ! " cried again the Sparrow, " or I will seize and rend thee in twain ! " Quoth the Simurgh, " I will not go without thee." Yet the Sparrow heeded him not ; and the Simurgh waited awhile, but in vain. So he said again, " O my life, give me an answer ! " " I tell thee to begone," replied the Sparrow. " If thou speak to me again my heart will bid me do somewhat to thee ! But no ! I would not slay thee. Yet begone, or I shall do thee some hurt, and then will I go to Solomon's Palace, and smite it with my foot, and overturn it from its foundations, and pull it down on his head. So away, fool, return the road thou earnest. Thou chatterest here and sayest not, * This is the Sparrow's harem ; he is ill,' " and he gave the Simurgh a kick. The noble bird felt it not ; but he flew thence and reported to Saint Solomon the audacious words of the Sparrow. " Where was the Sparrow when he spoke thus ? " asked Solomon. 92 HOLIDAY LIFE " With his mate," replied the Simurgh. " Then," quoth Saint Solomon on whom be peace ! "there was no harm in his thus boasting and bragging in his own house and before his wife. Though every stone of this my palace was raised by the toil of those many Djins, yet wonder not at his saying, when beside his wife, that he could shatter it with one foot -for a man should be a hero to his own household? So this was pleasing to Saint Solomon on whom be peace! and when the Sparrow again returned, he made him one of his boon companions. 1 The fatalistic notion of Kismet alluded to in the following chapter finds its illustration in such stories as that of THE WOODCUTTER AND FORTUNE In the Island of Mitylene there once lived a wood- cutter with his wife and two children. All the stock-in- trade the poor man possessed was his axe, billhook, and pair of mules. Every morning at break of day, this woodman arose and went into the woods to fell trees. Having laden his mules with faggots and logs, he set off to sell them in the neighbouring town. Thus he had lived for a score of years; Fortune had for him no favours ; and to-morrow found him no richer than yester- day. Weary at last of such a life, and seeing no hope 1 Adapted from The Tales of the Forty Viziers. HOLIDAY LIFE 93 of any betterment of his lot, the woodcutter at last lost heart altogether. "What," said he to himself, "is the use of all this toiling and moiling ? If I were to lie in bed from morning till night, perhaps Fortune might take pity on me, and come to me whilst I slept it shall be so ; I will go no more to the forest." So on the following day the good man remained in bed. His wife, finding that he did not get up as usual, left her work and came to wake him. "Come, husband," she cried, "it is time to rise the cock crowed long ago." " What sayest thou ? for what is it time ? " " It is time for thee to go forth to cut wood." "Yea, truly to earn what will keep us but for the day, such is our wretched lot ! " " But what canst thou do, my poor husband ? We must needs submit to our fate, and Fortune has never yet come our way." "Well, wife, I for one am weary of the caprices of Fortune. Should she wish to find me, she will seek me here in my poor hut. But I go not to the wood to-day." "Come, come, my poor husband, are you mad? Do you think Fortune will come to you if you do not run after her? Come now, get up, take your axe and bill- hook to the forest, or we shall all die of hunger you know we have food only for the day." " I care not. I will neither get up nor go to the forest, and nothing shall move me. Leave me in peace, wife." 94 HOLIDAY LIFE In vain the poor woman wept and entreated ; her good- man would lie abed and wait for Fortune to come to him. * By-and-by a man came from a neighbouring village, knocked at the door, and greeted him. " Peace be with you, Yussuf. Luckily for me you are not yet gone forth. I have a load to remove, and I want you to bring your mules and help me with the job." "I am sorry to refuse you, neighbour, but to-day I have sworn to lie in bed, and for no one will I break my oath." " Then let me take the mules and I will pay you hire for them ; " and to this the woodman agreed. Now the villager had found in his field a buried treasure which he wished to remove at once to his house. He took the mules to the place, loaded them, and was leading them homewards when he saw coming along the road a party of zdptiehs (armed police). Well knowing that treasure-trove is the property of the Sultan, and that to appropriate it is punishable with death, the peasant ran off, abandoning the mules, who, left to their own devices, forthwith made their way back to their stable with their loads. The good wife, seeing the beasts enter the courtyard staggering under the weight of the sacks, ran to inform her husband. " Eftendi, Effendi, get up, get up at once, the mules have come back alone laden with sacks so heavy that they are ready to drop." w O wife, have I not told thee that I rise not to-day ? Cease, I prithee, from troubling me." HOLIDAY LIFE 95 So the goodwife, left to herself, went back to the yard, and set about cutting the cords which bound the sacks to the pack-saddles. Down they fell with a bang and burst open, when a stream of coins gold sequins, silver beshliks and medjidiehs, and copper piastres rang merrily over the stones. For the sacks were brimming with them, and to right and left the courtyard was strewn with a carpet more precious by far than the carpets of Smyrna or the Indies. " Inshallah, a treasure!" she cried, and ran again to her husband's bedside. " Effendi, Effendi, you were right not to go to the forest to-day, but to wait at home for Fortune. But get up now, for she has come ! Our mules have returned laden with treasure. All the gold of the world is in our courtyard. We are richer than the richest ! " At this the woodman jumped up from his couch and hurried to the courtyard, where he stood for a moment dazzled by the glitter of the sequins and gold pieces. "You see, my dear wife," he finally exclaimed, "how right I was to stay in bed and wait for Fortune ! So capricious is she that if you run after her you will never catch her; but give up the chase, and she will come to you ! " Tales of a religious character also find ready listeners. Many of these are connected with the miraculous appear- ances and disappearances of that saintly and mysterious being known as Khidhr or Khidhr-Elias, about whom more 96 HOLIDAY LIFE will be said in the next chapter. One of these stories relates that a pious Turk, who earnestly desired to see Khidhr, and had with that object frequented for thirty-nine days the mosque of Ayia Sofia, a favourite resort of the Saint, met on the morning of the fortieth day in the courtyard a stranger, who said to him "The mosque is not yet open, why comest thou to disturb the sleep of its keepers ? " " I come to seek Khidhr," was the reply. " Dost thou know him ? " " I know him not." " Then follow me, and I will show him to thee." Khidhr for it was indeed he whom the True Believer had met went on before him, and the pious man observed that his feet left an imprint even on stones. " Dost thou know what Khidhr can do ? " asked the Stranger. " No," replied the pious man. " Khidhr can thrust his finger into stone even as I do." His finger entered the stone as he spoke, and the stone " perspired " 1 abundantly. " When thou seest a man who does wonders such as these, say to thyself, 'This is Khidhr ! ' and hold him fast." " I will not fail," he replied, and his companion disappeared. 1 Stones into which Khidhr- Elias has thrust his finger are believed to cure those afflicted with profuse perspiration. The patient inserts his finger in the cavity, strokes with it his forehead and eyes, and, it is asserted, " goes away cured." HOLIDAY LIFE 97 The pious man entered the mosque and related his adventure to the guardians. "Twas Khidhr himself!" they cried. "If thou see him again, fail not to hold him fast, and let him go only when he has fulfilled thy desire." The man performed his devotions in the mosque for another forty days, and on the morning of the fortieth he met a stranger who accosted him as the other had done. " I would see Khidhr," he again replied. " What seekest thou from him ? " asked the Stranger. Then the pious man concluded that this was indeed Khidhr, and he seized and held him fast. " I am not Khidhr," said the Stranger. " Yea, thou art he ! " " I am not. Suffer me to go on my way, and I will show thee Khidhr." " Yea, thou art indeed Khidhr," insisted the pious man. " Fulfil my desire, or I will proclaim aloud who thou art, and others will then likewise seize and hold thee." " I tell thee again I am not he whom thou seekest. Thou wilt see Khidhr on Friday in the mosque at the hour of the noontide Namaz. HE who shall place himself on thy right hand at the moment the public prayers begin will be Khidhr hold him fast." So saying, the Stranger disappeared. Friday came, and the True Believer repaired to the mosque of Ayia Sofia for the morning prayer. Just as the service was beginning, a man, dressed as an Usher of the Sublime Porte, placed himself on his right. 98 HOLIDAY LIFE As they came out of the mosque the pious man seized the Usher, saying " Thou art Khidhr ! I will not let thee go ! " The Usher stoutly denied that he was other than his dress betokened him, and did his best to get away from the pious man. A long struggle ensued. The two men wrestled, fell, and rose again, until they came to the cemetery outside the Adrianople Gate of the city. The window of a turbe 1 stood open, and the Usher climbed through it, closely followed by the pious man who still held on to his clothing, and, after various turns, they came into a splendid subterranean hall. Round it were ranged forty sheepskin mats, thirty-eight of which were occupied by venerable-looking men. The Usher was the chief of the Forty, one of whom had just died, and the pious man was allowed to take his place. " Thou mayst seat thee on any mat thou wilt save that which is reserved to me," said the Usher, who was the Sheikh of the Forty, as he and his companions prepared to go out on the morrow. The pious man obeyed, and remained in the under- ground dwelling for eight days, during which he was left alone from morning until sunset. But on the eighth day the True Believer, moved by curiosity, seated himself on the sheepskin of the Chief. Suddenly he saw as in one glance the whole world with everything in and upon it, even to the innermost thoughts of men, and was filled 1 See Chapter X. Many famous Dervishes are buried in this cemetery. HOLIDAY LIFE 99 with wonder and delight. 1 As the hour for the return of the Thirty-nine approached he took another seat, where they found him. " What hast thou done ? " they demanded in voices of thunder. " I have done nought." " Yea, thou didst sit in the forbidden seat ! " " Nay, I did not." But scarcely had he said the words than the hall became dark, and he found himself again in the cemetery outside the Adrianople Gate. Of the various manly sports in which the Osmanlis of former centuries, from Sultans downwards, may be said to have excelled among which were tennis and quoits, leaping, wrestling, and throwing the djereed the two last only appear to be practised at the present day. Wrestling has indeed remained a popular pastime with all nationali- ties and creeds, Turks and Kurds, Greeks and Armenians, Bulgarians and Gypsies freely entering the lists often the village threshing floor against each other, and continuing for hours the contest which is watched by a large crowd of spectators, undemonstrative for the most part, but none the less deeply interested and critical. The game of djereed is more exciting, and, I believe, now peculiar to Asia Minor, the land par excellence of legendary champions and deeds of " derring-do " celebrated in ballad and story ; at all events I have never seen or heard of it in European 1 This is a very common occurrence in Eastern folk-tale. 100 HOLIDAY LIFE Turkey. It is played on horseback, and affords oppor- tunities for the display of all those equestrian tricks on which Osmanli horsemen pride themselves. The number of players, perhaps twenty on each side, armed with djereeds long, heavy, spear-like sticks, or rather poles take up positions about fifty yards from each other on some open space, preferably at the foot of a rising ground, from which the game can be watched without danger to the spec- tators. The game is opened by one of the horsemen, who dashes forward and hurls his djereed at an opponent, who in his turn endeavours to intercept him before he can return to his place. It is then the turn of the other side. Sometimes a player mounted on an exceptionally swift horse will, instead of returning to his place in the lists after making his throw, create a diversion by riding off to a distance, when several of the other side pursue him and endeavour to overtake him. A player who has got rid of all his djereeds is at liberty to appropriate any found lying on the ground, which he contrives to do without dismount- ing, dexterously bending down and snatching up a weapon as his steed gallops past it. The rules of the game are strictly observed, and no unfairness or unnecessary rough- ness is permitted. The poles, which should not be aimed at the head of an opponent, may be dodged by any of the expedients at the command of expert horsemen, some appearing to leave their saddles when ducking to avoid a flying djereed. As inevitable in a game of this description, there are frequent mishaps and collisions, and horses and men may occasionally be seen struggling together on the HOLIDAY LIFE 101 ground in dangerous confusion. In Asia Minor young men forming part of the procession when a bride is being con- veyed to her new home, carry djereeds and vie with each other in feats of horsemanship and agility as they alternately hurl forward and catch the weapon. Not only, however, has the old Turkish love of racing and hunting been revived in a remarkable manner during the last few months, but a perfect craze for athletics as practised in England has also manifested itself in the Capital, where various clubs have already sprung into existence devoted to the furtherance of sport and athletic games. This movement is in great part a result of the reaction against the to Englishmen almost unimagin- able restrictions placed by the late Government on both individual and social liberty, and especially as regarded public assemblies even pictorial representations of crowds having for years past been prohibited by the Press Censor ! Not a week now passes without a football match in which Turks, Greeks, and Armenians jostle each other in good-fellowship, and almost every evening the Turkish Eustace Miles Captain Selim Serri Bey lectures to the enthusiastic youth of the Capital at one or other of the athletic clubs which have been established by him in Pera and Stamboul. Foreign cricket clubs have long existed in the country, and it is confidently anticipated that this game will, in its due season, become as popular as the winter game has lately been. It is also more than probable that Turkish horses and jockeys will ere long be seen on French and English racecourses. Splendid 102 HOLIDAY LIFE horsemen the Osmanlis have ever been, and cavalry officers now vie with each other in long rides and forced marches, covering, for instance, even such long distances as lie between Adrianople and the Capital no slight feat con- sidering the state of country roads in Turkey during the winter season. The hunting club lately founded in Con- stantinople, to which foreigners are also eligible as members, owes its origin to the initiative and enthusiastic support of a Turkish military man, General Izzet Fuad Pasha, renowned for his knowledge of horses and every- thing pertaining to them. PART II RELIGIOUS BELIEFS AND INSTITUTIONS CHAPTER VI MOSQUES AND THEIR GUARDIANS THE most ancient and at the same time some of the most beautiful of the Moslem places of worship were originally Christian Churches which were converted to their present use at the Conquest. One of these, a rotondo at Salonica, is indeed of earlier date, having been a pagan temple dedicated to the Kabeirian deities once worshipped in these regions before its dedication, early in the Christian era, to St. George. The crosses of these Byzantine churches were everywhere replaced by the Crescent, the symbol of the conquering Osmanlis; and their frescoes and mosaics representing saints, angels, and other members of the Christian spiritual hierarchy, were concealed from view by a thick coat of whitewash. Few other modifications were, however, found necessary to meet the requirements of the simple form of Mohammedan worship beyond the substitution of the mihrab as the shallow semicircular recess indicating the direction of 103 104 MOSQUES AND THEIR GUARDIANS Mekka is termed for . the Sanctuary of the Eastern Church guarded by the "Golden Gates." The direction of Mekka being south-easterly, this orientation produces a somewhat discordant effect on Europeans, as the prayer mats and carpets are all arranged askew, and the worshippers on them stand in lines oblique to the axis of the building. The principal external additions to the Byzantine form of architecture are the minarets, which may be one, two, four, or even six in number, as at the great Mosque of Sultan Achmed L, who is said to have worked with his own hands at its erection. Previously to this date, the holy Kaaba at Mekka had been the only mosque with six minarets, and to silence the outcry made by the guardians of this Moslem Holy of Holies, Sultan Achmed offered to build a seventh minaret for the Kaaba. The Byzantine churches were indeed practically adopted as the architectural model for the numerous mosques subsequently erected by the Conquerors in all parts of the Empire, as. many as 230, large and small, now existing in the Capital alone. The great Cathedral Church originally founded by Constantine in the fourth century and rebuilt and dedicated by Justinian in the sixth century to the " Holy Wisdom," is now, under its Turkish designation of Ayia Sofia Djamisi y the chief Mosque of Stamboul ; and subsequently erected mosques are designed on a similar general plan. In front is a noble forecourt planted with trees ; at the rear of the edifice is a spacious garden ; and the whole is surrounded by a great walled-in space MOSQUES AND THEIR GUARDIANS 105 inclosing the various institutions connected with the mosque the Mekteb, or primary school, the Medresseh, or theo- logical college, the Imaret, or kitchen for the poor, the Library, Bath, and Hospital, and the Khan, or Guest-house, in which strangers and travellers are accommodated. A description of the beautiful mosque known as the Suley- manieh may here serve to illustrate the arrangements of mosques generally. This " Imperial " djami was built in the sixteenth century with materials taken from the Church of St. Euphemia at Chalcedon. The stately rectangular forecourt by which the Suleymanieh is approached is surrounded by cloisters roofed with a number of cupolas resting on pillars of porphyry, granite, and marble, under which, on three of its sides, are benches also of marble, for the occupation of the meditative Osmanli public, while in the centre a dome supported on slender pillars protects the ablutionary fountain around which the pigeons and other birds perpetually coo, twitter, and preen themselves. At each corner a tall, slender minaret, surrounded by balconies, lifts its pointed leaden roof to the sky, those at the outer corners being not only of different design but shorter than the others, an arrangement which produces a good effect. The Mosque itself is nearly square. Its internal con- struction rests on four great piers ; the screen of windows on each side under the great lateral arches of the dome being supported on four monolithic shafts of great beauty ; and the interior decorations generally are marked by a wealth of artistic detail. Walls and pillars are veneered with rare coloured marbles, and the stained glass windows, 106 MOSQUES AND THEIR GUARDIANS two of which are spoils of the Persian wars, and the rest the work of a native artist-craftsman, glow with rich and varied colour. The mihrdb is of pure white sculp- tured marble bordered with exquisite blue-and-white tiles. The marble mimber, or pulpit, with its straight, steep staircase, is decorated with delicately sculptured tracery, as is also the screen of the maksura, the tribune appro- priated to the use of the Sultan. Great pillar-shaped candelabra stand on either side of the mihrdb ; others of different form, and hung with countless tiny oil lamps, are suspended from the ceiling, while here and there are affixed to the walls great circular discs emblazoned in Arabic characters with the names of Mohammed, Ali the First Khalif, and his immediate successors. There are no seats, but the floors are covered with clean matting. Entering from the bustle and glare of the crowded streets into the cool dim quiet of these beautiful buildings at the hour of noontide prayer, the contrast is most striking and impressive; and it is at such moments that some- thing of the deep mystery of Oriental life may perhaps occasionally, if transiently, be understood by the foreigner. In the cool gloom or what appears gloom after the sun- pervaded air withoutMoslems of all races, ages, and conditions, from the jetty Nubian to the fair blue-eyed Anatolian Turk, are ranged in rows facing the mihrab, and alternately stand erect, kneel, and prostrate them- selves while accomplishing the simple form of worship described in the following chapter. The spacious gardens at the rear of the mosques, INTERIOR OF THE SULEYMANIEH MOSQUE MOSQUES AND THEIR GUARDIANS 107 peaceful, picturesque, cypress-shaded spots, usually con- tain the tomb of the founder and his family, and are sometimes fairly rilled with tombstones of all descriptions, which fall away from the perpendicular at every angle amid a riot of roses and flowering shrubs. In that attached to the Suleymanieh rise the two noble turbehs, or mausoleums, erected by this Sultan, under the larger of which he himself lies with two of his successors and various members of his family, while the second covers the remains of his beloved Khurrem " the Joyous One " who, having entered the Serai as a Russian slave, was elevated to the exceptional rank of legal wife of the mighty Suleyman. In this garden lies also Ali Pasha, the famous reforming Grand Vizier of Sultan Abdul Aziz, together with other men of note and power in their brief day. Turbehs like these of Suleyman and his Consort are richly decorated, and in them may be found choice speci- mens of the beautifully inscribed tiles elsewhere mentioned. Over the actual graves stand wooden catafalques termed simply stmduk " boxes," varying in size with the worldly rank and importance of the deceased, and draped with palls of velvet or with costly Eastern shawls, all of which were conveyed to Medina and laid upon the Prophet's tomb there before being applied to their present purpose. These turbehs rank in religious estimation as mosques, fatihas chapters from the Koran used as prayers for the dead being daily read in them by the Sheikh in charge, a folding book-rest of beautiful workmanship for holding the illuminated copy of the 108 MOSQUES AND THEIR GUARDIANS Sacred Book being part of the appointments of the edifice. The endowments of the larger mosques were formerly very considerable ; but owing to various causes the revenues of many have of late years been considerably diminished. The Suleymanieh is, however, said still to possess property the revenues from which amount to nearly 3000 a year, devoted chiefly to the support of the various educational and charitable dependencies above enumerated. The revenues of the mosques generally, out of which are also of course paid the salaries of their guardians, consists in the rents derived from the class of landed property termed vakouf that is, " dedicated to Allah " which include all real property the proceeds of which are applied to the support of such religious and charitable institutions, as also to the maintenance of aqueducts and street fountains. No official report is available of the extent of these vakouf lands, but it is estimated at as much as two-thirds of the whole area of the country. For at the Conquest numerous grants of large tracts of land were made as endowments not only of mosques and their dependencies, but also of the monastic establishments of the Dervishes who accom- panied the victorious armies into the battlefield. To these original endowments private munificence has also constantly and richly added ; for the piety, as well as the vanity, of Moslems has ever incited to the erection and endowment of religious and beneficent institutions, both as a religious duty well pleasing to Allah, and also as the surest method of obtaining the praise of their MOSQUES AND THEIR GUARDIANS 109 contemporaries and of posterity. Such acts of munificence were formerly very frequent on the part of private indi- viduals, though in more recent times they have been practised chiefly by members of the Imperial family and by grandees of the Empire. Church lands have also been very largely increased from a third source. As such estates, together with the tenants living on them, enjoy special privileges, a Moslem freeholder or, for that matter, a Christian worried by tax-gatherers or creditors, would sell his land to the "Dean and Chapter" of a mosque for a merely nominal sum, while at the same time retaining the right of hereditary lease and becoming tenant at a fixed rent, a transaction by which both he and the mosque were the gainers, and only the Government and its corrupt officials the losers. For the trustees of the mosque receive a large interest for their trifling investment of capital, and are also entitled to the reversion, in default of direct heirs ; while the tenant on land which has thus become vakouf pays no taxes, and is secure from extortion by Government officials , as also from persecution on the part of private creditors. This system is, however, now menaced with reform. The distribution of water being, as elsewhere men- tioned, accounted by Mohammedans one of the most important among the " good works " which form such an integral part of their religion, drinking fountains are everywhere found attached to mosques. A sebil, as such fountains are termed, is usually situated in the forecourt of the mosque, and consists of a cistern surrounded on the inner side by a wall of sculptured marble, and on the 110 MOSQUES AND THEIR GUARDIANS street side by a screen or grating of gilded bronze, often of beautiful design, resting on a low wall of masonry, and having at its base small semicircular openings through which the brass drinking cups filled by the attendants are passed to the thirsty public standing without. The roof is in the form of a low dome, and the wide extending eaves, boarded beneath, give to these little edifices, which are also usually shaded by waving trees, a most pleasing and picturesque appearance. Water is indeed, to the Oriental, the symbol of life, and the words of the Koran, " By water all things live," may be found inscribed on the majority of the principal fountains of Stamboul. The important body of Moslem legists termed col- lectively Ulema, of which the Sheikh-ul-Islam is the head, comprises in its ranks the guardians of the mosques and those charged with the conduct of public worship in them, as well as the higher administrations of the Sheriat, or Sacred Law, on which, notwithstanding the establishment early in the last century of a system of Common Law, the judicial system of Turkey is still based. It must, however, be borne in mind that the Ulema do not constitute a sacerdotal caste, or even an ecclesiastical body in the Christian acceptation of those terms. There is, indeed, no country in Europe in which the clerical element exercises so little and the legal so great authority; and yet spiritual and temporal functions are strangely and inextricably interwoven in the conduct of internal affairs in Turkey. The Sheikh-ul-Islam, though the highest ecclesiastical dignitary, without whose sanction no Imperial MOSQUES AND THEIR GUARDIANS 111 decree can . be issued, is at the same time but an official whose appointment and dismissal are equally in the hands of the Sultan, his importance being due rather to his legal standing as judge of the highest Court of Appeal than to his religious office. For though on occasions of ceremony he appears at the head of the Ulema, he in no sense possesses the religious authority of a Christian archbishop, and various holders of this high office have been regarded with popular contempt as mere subservient tools of a tyrannical Padishah. The Mollahs, or Doctors of Law, preach sermons in the mosques on special occasions, and the Imams in their religious capacity lead the prayers in the mosques and conduct funerals ; but it is as legal functionaries that they attest marriage and other contracts and accompany police officers when making domiciliary visits for unless preceded by the Imam of the parish no police officer may cross the threshold of a Moslem dwelling. The Khatibs and Hodjas also assist in leading the prayers at the midday Friday service, the chief religious event of the week ; the Miiezzim chants five times daily from the lofty balcony of the minaret the Ezan y or call to prayer ; and the Kaims perform the lower offices in the sacred edifice. All the members of this numerous Ulema class, from the highest to the lowest, have passed some years as Softas, or undergraduates, in the Theological Colleges. As a body these Softas exercise considerable public influence, and have almost invariably taken a prominent part in revolutions and other political events. Generally 112 MOSQUES AND THEIR GUARDIANS speaking, they have hitherto been regarded as the most fanatical section of the population, hostile to every innova- tion or attempt at reform ; and the authorities have on occasion not scrupled to make use of their agency for the purpose of awakening that spirit of savage bigotry which, save when so stirred, slumbers peacefully enough in the heart of the Turkish peasant and artisan. In modern times an energetic Sultan has, on the other hand, more than once found it expedient to disperse some of these communities and close their colleges, and the present Sultan, in the late pursuance of his policy of suppression, on more than one occasion adopted measures calculated to prevent any collective action against his government on the part of this redoubtable corporation. In carrying out the revolution of last summer, the "Young Turks" appear, however, to have obtained the ready and energetic support and co-operation of a large section of this sup- posed reactionary element, which, although it had upheld Midhad Pasha in proposing his short-lived Constitution of 1876, subsequently petitioned the Grand Vizier against the clauses extending citizenship to the Christian elements of the population. As just observed, the actual ministers of public worship, such as the Imams, who pronounce the public prayers, the HodjaSyMuezzims, and others, constitute but a subordinate section of the Ulema. The Imams, who form the nearest approach to a beneficed clergy, pass an examination, and are appointed to their office by the Sheikh-ul-Islam. Imperial mosques such as Ayia Sofia, the Suleymanieh, MOSQUES AND THEIR GUARDIANS 113 the Achmedieh, etc., have several Imams, to the chief of whom are subordinate all the others, as also the guardians of the mosques of inferior rank. An Imam is required to marry, and may bequeath his office to his son who, if unlettered, appoints a deputy to perform his duties. This lower class of the Ulema, who, like the Softas, are distinguished by a white turban bound round the fez, and by wearing the old Turkish dress, are drawn from the lower middle class of Turkish society, and exercise little or no influence, intellectual or other, in their parishes. An Imam or Hodja lives rent free in a house attached to the mosque, and receives a small annual stipend, which he is able to supplement by the fees received for teaching in the Mekteb, or elementary school, and for issuing licences, officiating at circumcisions, weddings and funerals, and for washing the dead. The Imam of a village mosque occupies a position somewhat superior to that of the Christian or secular priests who provide for the religious needs of the Greek, Armenian, and Bulgarian peasantry, he having generally received a fair education, according to Turkish ideas, in the Medresseh of a provincial town, and his mosque generally possessing an adequate endowment bequeathed by some pious departed Moslem. Generally, however, a village Imam or Hodja has to combine in his own person all the above enumerated offices, religious and legal, which in a town mosque are performed by half a dozen functionaries belonging to different grades. CHAPTER VII BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS " T N what consists Islamism ? " Mohammed was asked by the Angel Gabriel, in the guise of a Bedouin. "In professing," replied the Prophet, "that there is but one God and that I am His Prophet ; in observing strictly the hours of prayer ; in giving alms ; in fasting during the month of Ramazan ; and in making the pilgrimage to Mekka." " It is so, in truth," responded Gabriel, making himself known. These main tenets of Mohammedanism are figuratively termed the " Five Pillars of Practice," and comprise all that is of supreme importance in the religion of Islam. The Moslem confession of faith is thus expressed, "I believe in Allah and His Angels and His Prophets, in the predestination of good and evil by Allah, and in the resurrection after death. I bear witness that there is no God but Allah, and I testify that Mohammed is His servant and His Prophet." The term Moslem signifies "resigned" resigned to the mysterious decrees of an irresponsible Ruler who, though He has revealed a certain moral Law for the 114 BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS 115 guidance of His creatures, is Himself above all law and morality. This view of the Almighty as "the only potentate, Lord of Lords, and King of Kings," recurs all through the Koran, and is curiously illustrated by the formula of devotion, termed the namaz, instituted by Mohammedy In Islam there is, properly speaking, no ritual, no sacrifice of horned beasts as in Judaism, nor of the Mass, as in Christianism ; there is also a marked absence of sacerdotalism, for the Ulema form no spiritual hierarchy, and the Imam, who is also a legal functionary, lays claim to no priestly rank, but merely for convenience sake leads the collective devotions of the congregation in ,the mosque. The mosque itself is indeed merely a con- venience, for so long as the worshipper's face is turned towards Mekka the namaz may be equally well recited elsewhere in the privacy of the harem, in the public thoroughfares, or in the Council chamber. This obligatory form of devotion, which is performed five times daily, consists merely of two or more repetitions of a ceremony called the rikat, or " prostration," which is little more than the recitation in various prescribed attitudes of certain formulae, such as " God is most Great ! " " We give praise unto Allah ! " A few minutes before the hour of each of these prayers a servant of the mosque, called the M^^,ezzim y generally chosen for his vocal abilities, ascends the spiral staircase of the minaret and, emerging on its lofty circular balcony, chants in Arabic the ezan> or call to prayer " Allahn Akbar / " (repeated four times). " God is most Great ! Come to prayer ! Prayer is better 116 BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS than sleep ! (for the sunrise ezan only). There is no God save Allah ! He giveth life and dieth not ! My sins are great, greater is Allah's mercy ! I extol His perfections ! Allahu Akbar God is most Great ! " This act of worship is invariably preceded by ablution, as prayer must be made in a state of "legal purity," and for this facilities are offered by the fountains with which the courtyard of every mosque is supplied. This ablution is called the abtest, and consists in washing the hands and forearms, the face and feet in running water. When water is not procurable, the abtest may be made with sand, gravel, or dust. Prayer-carpets are used when possible in order to guard against any impurity on the spot where prayer is offered. The observance of the Moslem Day of Rest Friday is unattended by any special Sabbatarian rites beyond the public midday service in the mosques. The provision markets are in full swing, and itinerant vendors of refreshments are everywhere seeking custom. Here a kahvedji has installed his charcoal brazier under the shadow of a sculptured and gilded fountain, and is busy preparing and distributing to his customers cups of fragrant coffee. Close by a simitjdi has halted, and removes from his head to the tripod stand carried in his hand the circular tray piled with ring-shaped fancy bread fresh from the oven ; and over the way, seated on rush- bottomed stools, a row of burly Turks of the labouring class are passively smoking their wooden tchibouks or narghilts, while awaiting their turn at the hands of the open-air barber. As the hour of noon approaches, the BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS 117 MuezzMs cry floats melodiously down to the True Believers who are already making their way to the mosque. Crossing the harem, as the enclosing spacious courtyard is termed, they perform the customary ablution at the bird-haunted fountain in its midst, and discarding their shoes in the marble-paved and pillared vestibule, pass into the sanctuary. Here, side by side, irrespective of rank, in rows facing the kibleh the niche in the south-eastern wall indicating the direction of Mekka sit the variously garbed worshippers, some still wearing the ample turban and flowing robe of their forefathers ; others in tightly buttoned uniform or official frock coat and scanty fez ; sons of toil in coarse baggy breeches and short jacket ; and dervishes of every grade and order, from the decorous Mevlevi in his sugar-loaf hat and mantle of fine cloth, to the shaggy-haired and ragged Kalenderi or Bektashi with staff and begging-bowl. No female form is visible, as any women who may be present are concealed behind the carved and gilded screen of the gallery, which is approached by a separate entrance. The Moslem's public worship is peculiar in the absence of all elaborate ceremonial or sacramental rite in which priest and people take different parts. The Imam stands alone facing the kibleh with his back to the congregation, who, led by him, perform simultaneously the prescribed gestures with the precision of soldiers at drill. ' First he places his thumbs behind his ears with the fingers ex- tended while he ejaculates, "God is most Great," then with his hands folded on his stomach and with downcast 118 BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS eyes he recites a collect and the fatiha, the Moslem equivalent of the Lord's Prayer": "Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Universe, the Merciful, the Compassionate Lord of the Day of Judgment ; Thee only do we worship ; to Thee do we cry for help ; guide us in the right way in the way of those whom Thou hast laden with Thy blessings, and not in the way of those who have en- countered Thy wrath, or have gone astray." Other passages from the Koran may follow, after which the Imam inclines himself, placing his hands on his knees, with the words "God is most Great! I praise Allah!" three times repeated. Rising, he exclaims, " God hears those who praise Him ! O Lord, Thou art praised ! " and then falling on his knees, " God is most Great ; " he next prostrates himself with his forehead touching the ground, repeating thrice, "I extol Thee, O God." This formula of recitation and posture constitutes what is termed a rikat, the ordinary midday prayers consisting of ten, and on Friday of twelve rikats. At the conclusion of the namaz, the worshippers stand erect, with outstretched arms and extended palms, as if to receive the promised blessing from on high. Most impressive is the simple faith, reverence, and absorbed devotion with which this service of worship is performed by the mixed congregation, composed chiefly of the working classes, in Turkey the most devout section of the population. There is no sermon on week-days, but after the Friday namaz the Mollah ascends the pulpit, and delivers a discourse. Save, however, when the Mollah has BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS 119 some special message to deliver, this is hardly a sermon in our sense of the word, being largely addressed to the Deity, and including prayers for the protection and triumph of Islam, followed by mention of the early Khalifs and companions of the Prophet, each name being greeted by the congregation with the words, "May he find acceptance with Allah ! " To say of a man that he performs his namaz five times daily is the highest praise that can be awarded, and Moslems who are themselves careless in this matter, respect the punctiliousness of the devout who, in the fulfilment of their religious duties, disdain concealment, reck not of ridicule or comment, and believe too utterly themselves to care if others disbelieve. The fatalistic notion of kismet inculcated by the doctrine of predestination above mentioned importantly influences Turkish thought and action or inaction as it assumes that all events affecting mankind are absolutely pre-ordained by Allah, who has written them down in "the preserved Tablets," delivered to the Angels on the " Night of Destiny." * Many people beside Turks are fatalists, but they consult a doctor when they are ill, and take other ordinary precautions against disaster. In the opinion of old-fashioned Moslems, however, all such precautions are vain; if it is their kismet that calamity shall overtake them, overtake them it will, and what, then, is the good of troubling oneself with efforts to avert it ? That fortune helps those who help themselves is a doctrine incomprehensible to Orientals. Whatever energy a man 1 See p. 146. 120 BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS may display, kismet will override his endeavours, or crown his supineness with equally unmerited and unex- pected prosperity ; and many are the folk-tales, some not without humour, illustrating and confirming popular belief in this great factor in human affairs, one of which will be found in the preceding chapter. The effects of such a mental attitude are naturally far-reaching. For not only are lives constantly sacrificed and wealth and happiness missed by this fatal principle of passivity, but the whole character of the nation is enfeebled. Neglect of all sanitary precautions not to say hostility towards them is one important result of kismet. Owing to its geographical position, Turkey is especially liable to epidemics, which, among so passive a population, naturally create terrible havoc. Quarantine regulations are certainly now officially observed at Constantinople and the other large seaports. But in the towns of the interior the Moslem population manifest the greatest dislike to such sanitary regulations, which they regard as profane inter- ference with the will of Allah, and do their best to avoid carrying out. The religious laws by which men are ruled in Moslem countries aimed at the establishment of a certain degree of equality among a people by lessening the sufferings of the poor. Thus while Christians merely pray for " Peace on earth and good-will among men," Mohammed, being eminently a practical reformer, made it incumbent on his followers not merely to give of their superfluity to the poor, but to share with them a considerable proportion of BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS their worldly goods. Salaam aleikttm, " Peace be to thee," is the Moslem's greeting to his fellow, and in no more practical way than by such self-denying alleviation of the miseries of the less fortunate can men be made brothers, and be literally "at peace" with each other. That the merely secular laws by which the West has been governed have fallen lamentably short of such happy results is abundantly proved by the growth in all European countries of Socialism and Nihilism. Almsgiving, which includes also hospitality, being thus one of the "Pillars of Practice " of the religion of Islam, though more especially exercised during religious festivals and on the occasion of family ceremonies, is practised by Moslems whenever opportunity occurs. An Arabic proverb says, "Whoso visits a living person and eats nothing at his house, might as well visit the tomb of a dead man." And the following may serve as a specimen of the many charming parables and stories in which this virtue of hospitality is inculcated : In the days of the Prophet there lived at Mekka a man who had a wife and two children, and this poor family for a whole week had had nothing to eat, when one day they received some victuals not enough, how- ever, to satisfy a single hungry person ; and at the same time a stranger arrived and demanded hospitality. Then the goodman said to his wife, " Praised be Allah who gives us His blessing by sending this guest! What is there to put before him ? " BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS " There is barely enough for one," replied the woman. " Then have the goodness to put the children to bed, for our guest must eat what food we have. As soon as it is dark do thou light the lamp and bring in the supper at the same time. Then must thou upset the lamp and say, 'The lamp went out in falling; I will relight it,* and I will say, * No, let us sit down ; we can sup without a light. 1 Then in the darkness we can put our hands into the dish, and our guest will think that we are eating, and will not perceive that he alone eats." And so they did. The stranger passed the night, and when morning dawned he rose and departed. The good- man, after performing his ablution, betook himself to the noble mosque, where he beheld the Prophet on whom be peace! seated with his back against the pulpit; and as the pious man approached him Mohammed exclaimed, " Happy art thou, for Gabriel has promised to thee and thy wife blessings innumerable." As formerly in the Christian monasteries of the West, so now in the Dervish Tekkelis of the East, the traveller is sure of finding food and shelter ; Imarets, or almshouses, founded by private charity, are of ancient institution in the Empire ; and general almsgiving is so largely practised that, notwithstanding the absence of anything in the shape of poor-law relief, there exists save in times of scarcity, as unfortunately at present no such squalid destitution as disgraces the large cities of Europe and the United States. Blind Bartimaeus and Lazarus still sit by the BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS 123 wayside begging, and the True Believer fulfils the precepts of his religion by supplying the wants of these afflicted ones, and of the fatherless and the widow. . It is important to note that Mohammed, in announcing his mission as the Prophet of God, connected himself with the past as the last of the Prophets. The Moslem hierarchy of inspired Seers begins with Adam, and includes the patriarchs Noah and Abraham, as well as the greater Jewish Prophets and Jesus, each successive one being esteemed greater than his predecessor. But in addition to this historical hierarchy of Prophets, there exists, in Moslem belief, another of an entirely mythical character a succession of saintly men unto whom the Will of Allah is revealed, and through whose instrumentality the destinies of mankind are governed. Supreme among these Saints of the Moslem Calendar is Khidhr, the mythical personage already referred to, who from time immemorial, and in various forms, has filled a prominent place in the religions of the world. This Protean Saint, or Demi-God, appears also to be identical with the Prophet Elijah, or Elias, as well as with the Christian hero St. George, who, in his turn, has been identified with Horus. Khidhr is held to have had his original abode in the terrestrial Paradise which contained a Tree of Life and a Fountain of Life, and, having eaten of the fruit of the one, and drunk of the water of the other, he became immortal. 1 As the 1 This " Water," " Fountain," " Stream," or " River of Life," believed to exist in a Land of Darkness in the extreme East, is an Oriental myth alluded to in Rev. xxii. I, and often made use of by BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS wisest of created beings, he was consulted by Moses, who, accompanied by Joshua, journeyed to a place where two rivers meet, or, according to other writers, to an " Isle of the Isles of the Sea," where they found the sage from whom Moses received the " Secret of Secrets." Khidhr is also credited in Moslem belief with having led the Israelites out of Egypt and guided them through the Red Sea and the Desert, taking the place of the " pillars of cloud and of fire " in the Biblical account of this incident, Moslems also hold that Khidhr-Elias, as he is often termed, though really one single individual, has a dual personality. He is regarded as the special protector of travellers, being invoked under the former name by those journeying on the sea, and under the latter by those journeying on land. Both parts of this dual personage are believed to be perpetually wandering over the world, Khidhr on the sea, and Elias on the land, and to meet once a year at Moona, near Mekka, on the day of " the Station of the Pilgrims." He is thus connected with St. Nicholas, who performs the same good offices for the Greeks, and is the special patron of sailors. 1 St. Nicholas is also further confounded with"H\*oe, with Ali, the nephew of the Prophet, and with Phineas, the immortal hero of Talmudic legend, who is held to have performed twelve Turkish and Persian poets. It frequently occurs also in the folk-tales of the Christian as well as the Moslem races of South-Eastern Europe. 1 A Greek couplet says of this Saint " He to our aid comes on the sea, And on the land works wondrously." BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS 125 miracles, and, according to this authority, is destined, like Elias, to play an important part at the end of the world. This belief would appear to be illustrated in the question addressed to Jesus by His disciples, " Why say the Scribes that Elias must first come?" and in His answer that " Elias is come already, and they knew him not ; " 1 as also in the popular Eastern belief in the periodic incarnation of this mythical personage. Numerous instances are recorded in Moslem literature and legend of the sudden appearances and disappearances of Khidhr-Elias. By many he is held to be always visibly present somewhere on the earth, and, like his prototype the Tishbite, is often " carried by the Spirit of the Lord " from place to place. Could he be recognised, a knowledge of the secret of immortality might be demanded of him ; but it is only a saintly man who can distinguish Khidhr from another. A Moslem desirous of an interview with this mysterious being must, according to popular belief, perform his namaz during forty consecutive days under the central dome of St. Sophia at Constantinople, and on the fortieth day he is certain to be rewarded with a sight of Khidhr. Evliya Effendi, the seventeenth-century Turkish traveller and author, asserts in his Travels that " Thousands of pious men have here enjoyed the happiness of conversing with that great Prophet." A specimen of the strange and fantastic legends current in Stamboul of the adventures of those who have undertaken this quest, has already been given in the preceding chapter. 1 St. Matt. xvii. 10, 12. 126 BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS Various European writers, from Montesquieu down- wards, have assumed and asserted though on what authority it would be difficult to ascertain that the religion of Islam denies to woman the possession of a soul and, consequently, admission to Paradise. 1 Although such an assertion could not honestly be made by any one acquainted either with Islamic religious books or religious thought, this assumed Moslem debasement of women has been eagerly seized upon by the " Subjection of Women " theorists ; and it may not, therefore, be superfluous to point out briefly how utterly at variance with facts is such an assumption. In the first place, the Koran is most explicit on this point, and numerous texts, of which the following may serve as examples, promise the joys of Paradise to all " true Moslems " irrespective of sex. "God has promised to believers, men and women, gardens beneath which rivers flow, to dwell therein for ever, and goodly places in the Garden of Eden." 2 "The Gardens of Eden, into which they shall enter 1 Many instances might be adduced of this prevailing vulgar misconception. I will, however, only give here the latest that has come to my notice. In her recent article on " Woman's Place in the World" (North American Review}^ the Duchess of Marlborough informs her readers that "the Mohammedan religion degraded women even lower [Pthan primitive man], con- signing her, as far as psychic qualities are concerned, to the level of the beasts, forbidding her for ever the hope of future salvation." 2 Koran, chap. ix. v. 73. BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS 127 with the righteous amongst their fathers and their wives and their seed." l "Verily men resigned and women resigned, and believing men and believing women, and devout men and devout women, and truthful men and truthful women and patient men and patient women, and humble men and humble women, and almsgiving men and almsgiving women, and fasting men and fasting women, . . . and men who remember God much and women who remember Him God has prepared for them forgiveness and a mighty reward." 2 " Enter into paradise, ye and your wives, happy." 3 The Hadith, or " Traditional Sayings " of Mohammed, also record that the Prophet of Islam imparted to his followers his divinely acquired knowledge that certain of their deceased friends had been rewarded for their faith by admission to Paradise. Among them, he said, was his departed wife and first convert, Khadija, whom he had been "commanded to gladden with the good tidings of a chamber of hollow pearl in which is no clamour and no fatigue " * surely a delightful vision of the " rest that remaineth for the people of God." And in the following little elegy on a Sultana who died in the bloom of youth, the poet Fazil admirably depicts the Oriental belief in both physical and spiritual consciousness after death : 1 Koran, chap. xiii. v. 23. 2 Ibid., chap, xxxiii. v. 35. 3 Ibid., chap. xiii. v. 70. Other similar passages may also be found in chaps, ix. v. 66 ; xxx. v. 56 ; xviii. v. 5 ; vii. v. 12, etc. 4 Redhouse, The Mesnevi^ p. 1 1, quoting from Wustenfeld's Ibmt- Hishan, vol. i. p. 156. 128 BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS " Ah ! thou'st laid her low, yet flushed with life, Cupbearer of the Sphere ! l Scarce the cup of joy was tasted when the bowl of Fate brimmed o'er. Cradle her, O Earth ! full gently ; smile on her, O Trusted One ! 2 For a wide world's King this Fair Pearl as his heart's own darling wore." 3 If further evidences were necessary to prove that the slavish subjection of women which is generally assumed to be inseparable from Mohammedanism, was neither preached nor practised by the Prophet, it may be found also in the honour and regard paid by him to his wives, and especially to Khadija and A'isha. The latter had been married to him at the age of nine, and was the favourite wife of Mohammed, who had taken the greatest pains with her education. She was esteemed the most polished and learned of Arab women, and after enjoying for eleven years the confidence and affection of her illus- trious] husband, was, on his death, honoured by the True Believers with the title of " Prophetess " and " Mother of the Faithful." A'isha lived in virtuous and honourable widowhood for forty-eight years, during which, having been the most intimate confidante of the Prophet, she was consulted in all difficulties that arose after his death in points of religion and law. A large proportion of the "Traditional Sayings" were indeed, according to the Moslem doctors, compiled from her replies, which were based on the opinion she had heard him express. After 1 The poetical name given by Moslems to Death. 2 The Angel Gabriel. 3 Gibb, Ottoman Poems^ Appendix. BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS 129 uttering the names of A'isha and other saintly women, Moslems invariably add, " May they find acceptance with Allah ! " Although regular attendance at public worship on the Day of Rest is not required of Moslem, any more than it is of Christian or Jewish women in the East, all the usual ordinances of their religion performance of the five daily namaz with their accompanying ablutions, fast- ing, pilgrimage, and "good works" generally are as obli- gatory for Moslem women as they are for Moslem men. Children of both sexes are taught their prayers at the age of seven ; and the honourable title of Hafiz is conferred on any Moslem who may have committed to memory the whole of the Koran, a by no means unusual feat, it would seem, if we are to credit the seventeenth-century traveller and author Evliya Efifendi, who records that the city of Angora at the time of his visit to it contained no fewer than two thousand boys and girls who were Hafiz}- The Osmanlis have many graceful folk-beliefs con- nected with animals, most of which possess also some religious significance. According to one of these, the stork goes every autumn on a pilgrimage to the holy Kaaba at Mekka, and hence it is called Bdba Hadji "Father Pilgrim." This bird, they say, builds his nest only on the mosques and other edifices of the True Believers, avoiding the Christian churches and quarters. When the Father Pilgrim returns in spring to his nest on their house-top or cypress tree, the women and children look anxiously to see what he carries in his beak if a bit 1 Narrative of Travels, Book II. p. 231. 130 BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS of glass, it is a good sign, the year will be free from plague and famine, and every one will be happy and prosperous ; if a bit of rag, it will be a year of sickness ; if an ear of corn, the harvest will be abundant. If the stork arrives with his beak pointed skywards, it signifies that he is dis- satisfied with men, and will not deign to look at them ; if, on the contrary, his beak is pointed earthwards, and towards the dwellings of men, they say that he murmurs, " Salaam aleikoum ! " " Peace be with you ! " And the pious Moslems exclaim in reply, " Aleikoumi es Salaam ! Khosh gueldiniz, Hadji Baba" " On thee be peace, welcome Father Pilgrim ! " Another popular belief connected with animals is that in the promised admission to Paradise of the follow- ing twelve animals which are found mentioned in Moslem Holy Writ or Traditional lore as connected with the histories of Prophets and other famous personages. Among these are the whale which swallowed Jonah ; the asses on which the Prophet and the Queen of Sheba respectively rode ; Solomon's ant and Belki's cuckoo ; Ishmail's ram and Abraham's calf ; Moses' ox and the dog of the " Seven Sleepers of Ephesus." Superstition plays an important part in the lives of the Turkish people, every ailment or misfortune being ascribed to the baneful effects of an " Evil Eye " or to the influence of witchcraft, and even the educated classes have difficulty in completely throwing off the beliefs inculcated with their nurses' milk. As an illustration of this it may be recalled that among the members of the " Camarilla " dis- missed from the Palace at the recent revolution was the BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS 131 Sultan's Astrologer, a Dervish Sheikh, whose prognosti- cations, inspired no doubt by his confreres, were often effectual in influencing the actions of his Padishah. Not the least superstitious are naturally the women, for whom every trivial event of the day possesses a significance prophetic of good or foreboding evil. It would be a stupendous task to collect all the folk beliefs and supersti- tions of the Osmanlis, so intimately connected are they with every detail of domestic life and with every varying circumstance, and a European is, indeed, as a rule, made aware of their existence only by inadvertently transgress- ing them. There are no laws in Turkey which interfere with the time-honoured calling of the Witch, and in every part of the Empire she and her magical powers are held in high esteem, not only by the Turks, but also by their Christian and Jewish neighbours. To the Witch-wife repair love-sick maidens and jealous wives, childless women and mothers with ailing children, seekers of lost or stolen property, and for each of her clients the wise woman has a specific. Fortune-telling is also largely practised by the Witch, and is performed by means of cards, or a tray of dried beans, coins, beads, and other small objects which are manipulated according to some traditional formula. I once formed one of a party of Europeans at a Witch's fortune-telling at Salonica. Her cottage was approached through a tidily swept little court- yard, and the room in which the stances were held was comfortably enough furnished in native fashion with rugs and divan. The old woman squatted on her heels on the BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS floor, the implements of her trade before her on a sofra the low circular tray-stand used by the Turks in lieu of table. One by one we also, at her invitation, sat on the rug at her side until three or four of our number had been told their future, and had added a piece of silver to those on her tray. The " Spay-wife," however, was keen enough to perceive that she had no credulous Orientals to deal with, and presently she summarily dismissed us. When the courtyard gate was re-opened we found gathered out- side in the street a motley group of Jews, Greeks, and Moslems, awaiting their turn to consult the Witch, whose fame was evidently great in this Macedonian capital. A considerable branch of the Witch's trade consists in providing love-spells and potions, and occasionally, it may be added, spells of a less innocent character. Persons believing themselves to be suffering from the effects of magic for a hint is generally conveyed to the subject of a spell must naturally have recourse to the Witch to remove it. Her skill is also resorted to when ordinary measures apparently fail to exorcise that most dreaded of all mysterious powers the " Evil Eye." For, notwithstanding all precautions, persons are often found to be suffering from the effects of the enviously malignant gaze of some evilly disposed neighbour. As elsewhere mentioned, 1 fumi- gations are in some cases made for the purpose of dispelling this baneful influence. It would, however, be difficult to enumerate all the magical practices which are had recourse to with this object, as they are as numerous as are the 1 See p. 231. BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS 133 preservatives against the dreaded fena guez. Among the latter I may, however, mention the bunches of charms consisting of gold coins, horn-shaped bits of coral, and blue glass, turquoise ornaments, engraved bloodstones and cornelians, cloves of garlic sewn in silk, and other small objects which are tied to the caps or hung round the necks of children, and also ornament the headstalls of horses, mules, and donkeys ; and the horseshoes, boars' tusks, and hares' heads hung on the walls of houses and other buildings. Blue glass bracelets are also frequently worn for the same purpose ; and when they get broken, as, considering the material of which they are made, is certain sooner or later to happen, the accident is attributed to the fena guez having luckily fallen upon them instead of upon their wearers. Some individuals are quite notorious for their power of "casting the Evil Eye," any person or object of which they may speak with commendation being certain to come to grief in some way or other, and on this account they even enjoy a certain amount of consideration, as their neighbours are very fearful of in any way offending them. Red-haired persons are more particularly suspected of this proclivity, and blue or gray eyes, being somewhat rare in the East, are considered specially baneful. The latter defect in my personal appearance, indeed, caused me on more than one occasion to be accused of exercising this spell. The supernatural beings with whom the Osmanlis terrify themselves and their children have by no means the variety of those of their neighbours belonging to other 134 BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS nationalities, and fall, for the most part, under the de- nomination either of Djins or Peris. Under this term are, however, popularly classed Supernals generally, including the Tellestims which haunt ancient buildings and guard buried treasures, besides other uncanny beings whose propensities resemble those of the goblins and pixies of Western Europe. Some houses are believed to be haunted by Djins of the last-named description who are called Ev- Sahibi " Lords of the House." If these are good Djins, they bring all kinds of prosperity to their hosts ; and no matter how idle or extravagant the goodwife may be, everything goes well with the household. The Ev-Sahibi are popularly said to be clothed in bridal garments edged with tiny bells, the tinkling of which announces their passage through the house, and they sometimes allow themselves to be perceived by those whom they specially honour with their favour. The malevolent Ev-Sakibi, on the other hand, are most mischievous in disposition, and destroy the property of the family, besides annoying its members with intolerable nocturnal noises. In common with other magical beings, these Djins have the power of assuming any shape they please, from that of a shadowy being of colossal proportions, or a beautiful youth or maiden, down to that of a cat or dog, or even a pitcher or broom. Both the good Djins } or Peris, who serve Allah, and the evil Djins, the followers of Eblis, the Spirit of Darkness, are believed to have been created before man, Adam having, according to Oriental legend, married as his second wife a woman belonging to this race, whose BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS 135 name was JLilith. The evilly disposed Djins were cast out from heaven with Eblis, whose rebellion against the Most High consisted in his refusal to pay hornage to the newly created Adam, when so commanded \>y his Creator. Djins are popularly held to be of both r exes, and appear also to propagate their kind. One oi their propensities is to carry off by night the clothes of humans especially the gala dresses of women to wear at their nocturnal revels. And if such a garment appears to its owner to be rapidly losing its freshness, she concludes that the Djins have taken a fancy to it, and regrets not having had it " blessed " by some holy man before wearing it which precaution would have rendered it safe from the depreda- tions of these uncanny folk. The magical practices of the Osmanlis, though derived in great part from legendary lore, are also borrowed to a considerable extent from so-called "Occult Science." Not only all classes of Turks save perhaps the most " advanced " section but also the lower classes among their neighbours of other races, Christian and Jewish as well as Moslem, credit the professional wizards and witches, and especially the dervishes, who are the chief exponents of this "science," with the possession of an extraordinary degree of magical power. As sickness as well as every other calamity is usually attributed to the influence of a magical spell, when any one falls ill the women of the family for it need hardly be said that the firmest believers in this mode of spiritual cure are of the female sex send for some saintly Sheikh in order lis BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS that I?e may remove the spell, or avert its maleficent influence*. This holy man, whose breath, sanctified by the constant repetition of the name of the Deity, has acquired a supernatural healing power, proceeds to make a series of breathings on the head and the afflicted parts of the sufferer, accompanied by the imposition of his hands. These concluded, he produces a tiny scroll of paper inscribed with some words from the Koran, and orders it either to be swallowed by the patient or soaked in water and the liquid to be drunk, or perhaps to be worn on the person for a given number of days. The efficacy of these little scrolls can only be relied upon according to the Sheikhs who prescribe them if administered with their own hands. But whatever the success, or lack of success, of these strange remedies, nothing shakes the faith in them of the meek-minded. If they fail, it is from a want of faith on the part of the recipient. The holy man in any case receives a fee for his services either in coin or kind ; and if a speedy recovery follow his visit this will be proportionately liberal. The words used as exor- cisms and counterspells are, for the most part, taken from the two chapters of the Koran relating to witchcraft and malevolence l " Say, I fly for refuge unto the Lord of the Daybreak, that he may deliver me from the mischief of these things 1 Chaps, cxiii. and cxiv. Compare Cymbeline^ act ii. scene 2 " To your protection I commend me, Gods ! From fairies, and the tempters of the night Guard me, beseech ye ! " BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS 137 which he hath created, and from the mischief of the night when it cometh on, and from the mischief of women blowing on knots, and from the mischief of the envious," etc. Moslem commentators relate that the reason for the revelation of the above chapter of the Koran and the one following it was that a Jew named Lobeid had, with the assistance of his daughters, bewitched Mohammed himself by tying with evil intent eleven knots in a cord which they hid in a well. The Prophet falling ill in consequence, this chapter and the following were revealed, the Angel Gabriel acquainting him with the use he was to make of them, and telling him where the cord was hidden. The cord being found and brought to Mohammed by AH his nephew, he repeated these chapters over it ; at every verse a knot was loosed, and on finishing the recitation, he found himself set free from the charm. Knots are also tied with good intent, as I have myself witnessed. It was by the tomb of St. Demetrius in the fine basilica of that name at Salonica, converted into a mosque at the conquest by the Turks of that city. St. Demetrius belongs to the class of saints termed by the Greeks myroblutai, whose relics exude a sweet savour ; 1 and the 1 An odoriferous unguent (nfyov) is supposed to exude from the bones of certain saints who from this circumstance are called pvpopxtrai. Of these St. Nicholas is one ; another is one of the companions of St. Clara, buried in the little convent of St. Damiano near Assisi ; a third is St. Catherine. Referring to the relics of the last named in Mount Sinai, Sir John Mandeville wrote : " The Prelate of the Monkes schewethe the Relykes to the Pilgrymes ; and with an instrument of 138 BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS Dervish guardian of his tomb, taking from under the slab a piece of cord, proceeded to tie knots in it for the benefit of a young matron of our party, a knot for each relative of the first degree of herself and her husband. This he directed her to wear, girdlewise, round her waist whenever assailed by any of the ills to which female flesh is especi- ally heir, when the results would be in a word magical ! Calculations intended as charms or talismans are made, among other methods, by cabalistic calculations based on the numerical value of the letters comprising the name of the person interested. In a divination for the purpose of fortune-telling, these numerical values are multiplied and divided, and their cubes and squares added and subtracted according to some conventional formula, to obtain a result, odd or even, odd being considered lucky, and even the reverse. Some of the charms purchased from these diviners are believed to possess, like the magical objects of folk-tales, the power of compelling visits from bene- ficent Djins, who cure the suffering in body, ease the troubled in mind, and grant the wishes of the invokers. The sacred and mysterious character attributed by Orientals to the letters of the alphabet has given rise to the notion that Allah has appointed to each its special attendant Djin, who may be invoked singly or in company with his fellows. In order to secure the presence Sylver he frotethe the Bones : and thanne ther gothe out a lytylle Oyle, as thoughe it were in a manner swatynge, that is nouther like to Oyle ne to Bawme ; but it is fulle swete of smelle " (quoted by Mr. Athelstan Riley in Mount Athos, p. 127 n.). BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS 139 invisible, of course of these " Slaves of the Letter," the calculations must be drawn up at special phases of the moon and positions of the stars, on certain days and at stated hours. Texts from the Koran, or invocations of the Prophet or the Khalif Ali, engraved on stones brought from the Holy Cities of Islam or from the vicinity of the tombs of the sainted dead, are also worn on the person as charms. In former centuries it was customary to inscribe over the gates of conquered cities, and on such public edifices as fountains and mosques, "talismans" in verse, composed by the eminent dervishes always to be found with the armies of the conquering Sultans ; and some of these may still be seen on ancient edifices at Constanti- nople and at various towns of Asia Minor. When the assistance of the " Slaves of the Letter " is invoked for the purpose of inspiring an indifferent person with the tender passion, the Djins summoned devise in council a series of influences which will compel the person in question to obey their behests. The only means of resisting their influence lies in procuring a counter-charm composed of letters that will ensure the attendance of another set of Djins who will either overcome the first, or compel them to agree to a compromise, and thus release the victim from the power of the spell. In Asiatic Turkey, during the long winter nights between the 27th November and the 5th January (Old Style), when elemental spirits are generally supposed to be especially alert, uncanny beings called Fishoti are believed to haunt the abodes of men ; and throughout this period 140 BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS infants and children of tender age must be specially guarded against the malevolence of these nocturnal visitants. If a window should after sunset happen to be left the least bit open, or a door ajar, the Fishoti will enter and call the inmates by their names. Woe to him who should be so imprudent as to answer, for the Djin would then tear out his tongue and carry it off, shrieking mean- while with demoniacal laughter. After the 5th January, however, the Fishoti ceases from troubling, being, it is supposed, frightened away to his desert haunts by the bonfires lighted by the Christians on that date in honour of St. John. As the word Fishoti has no meaning in any of the languages of the present inhabitants of these regions, it is supposed to be, together with the superstition attached to it, a survival from some other race formerly inhabiting Eastern Asia Minor. Perhaps, however, the most gruesome among Oriental superstitions is belief in the existence of Vampires. This notion, which is common to all the races of South-Eastern Europe, has been traced by scholars to an Asiatic origin, as, in the great Chaldean Epic of the third millennium B.C., Istar in Hades gives utterance to the threat, " I will cause the dead to rise and devour the living." For the Vampire is no nebulous "ghost," but the actual resusci- tated body of a man the Vurkolak is generally, if not invariably, of the masculine sex supposed to be possessed- v of the power of emerging from his grave in the dead of / night, when he roams abroad, revelling in blood. The causes of vampirism are various, and among them are the BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS 141 following: The fact either of having perpetrated, or of having been the victim of, the crime of murder ; having grievously wronged some person who has died resenting the wrong ; or having been made the subject of a curse, lay or ecclesiastical. Vampirism is also held to be hereditary in certain families, the unfortunate members of which are naturally regarded with aversion, and shunned by their neighbours. Their services may, however, be requisitioned when there is a vampire to be " laid," as they have the reputation of possessing special powers in that direction. It is popularly believed that a vampire, like a ghost, must return to his grave before cockcrow, and if possible he will be tracked to it by such of his neighbours as are found bold enough for the exploit, accompanied, probably, both by Moslem Hodja and Christian Priest ; and the various exorcisms to which recourse is had will probably be effectual in putting an end to the nocturnal wanderings of the ghoul. Many vampire panics are no doubt attributable to rumours set on foot by persons who profit by such superstitions, and the following is, I think, a case in point. Some years ago the whole population of Adrianople was thrown into a state of commotion by the reported nightly appearance of a spectre in an elevated part of the town known as Kyik, inhabited both by Turks and Greeks. This spectre was represented as a Vurkolak by persons who affirmed that they had seen it lurking in the shadows a long, lank object with a cadaverous visage, clad in a winding-sheet. Priest and Hodja strove in vain during a fortnight to exorcise the wanderer by BELIEFS AND SUPERSTITIONS their prayers and incantations ; and finally a rumour was circulated that the only person possessed of the power of freeing the city from this haunting spectre was a Turkish djindji> or magician, famous for his influence over apparitions, who lived in a distant town, and who would consequently require a substantial fee for his services. Seven hundred piastres about 6 sterling were, how- ever, speedily raised by the panic-stricken townsfolk. The djindji came, and the Vurkolak was put to flight. 1 Should all exorcisms prove futile, as sometimes happens, the people of the neighbourhood proceed by daylight to the grave of the reputed vampire, and either drive a stake through the heart of the undissolving corpse, or disinter and consume it with fire. 2 1 See Lady Blunt's The People of Turkey. (Murray, 1878.) 2 Pashley's Travels in Crete contains (p. 226) a graphic account of this last method of disposing of a vampire. CHAPTER VIII FASTS, FEASTS, AND PILGRIMAGE THE annual fasts observed by Moslems are seven in number, the most important being the month- long fast of Ramazan. This period of abstinence is held to be of divine institution, and its observance is therefore compulsory for all True Believers over the age of fourteen-, travellers and the sick being alone exempt. Ramazan is celebrated in the ninth month of the Moham- medan year, during the whole of which food, drink, and tobacco are rigidly abstained from between sunrise and sunset. The year consisting, as previously mentioned, of twelve lunar months only, the fast makes in the course of time the round of the seasons. To the wealthy this annual period of penitence offers no great hardship, as they merely turn night into day, and official duties are reduced to a minimum in the departments of State. But to the labouring section of the population, who are the most punctilious in the performance of religious observances, Ramazan, especially when it falls in summer, constitutes a period of real penance and mortification of the flesh. For Moslems generally this fast constitutes a sort of revival time, during which Western innovations, 144 FASTS, FEASTS, AND PILGRIMAGE wherever adopted, are for the time being abandoned, and the simpler native customs reverted to. Services are held every evening in the mosques, hospitality is largely exercised, and the poor are loaded with benefits in response to the exhortation of the Muezzim, who concludes the usual call to prayer with the words, " Give food, all ye Faithful, unto the orphan and the indigent, the wayfarer and the bondsman, for His sake, saying, We feed you for Allah's sake, and we desire no word of thanks from you, nor any recompense." Much time is also devoted during this season to religious observances and devotional acts, many devout persons of both sexes habitually secluding themselves for a part of each day, either at home or in the mosques, and especially during the last ten days of the fast abstaining from all worldly conversation. An hour or so before dawn the " awakeners " a Hodja carrying a small hemispherical drum, accompanied by a boy with a lantern go through the streets of the quarter to warn those who sleep that it is time to partake of the sahor, the last meal eaten before sunrise. Stopping before every house occupied by Moslems, the Hodja chants the follow- ing phrases : " He prospereth who saith, ' There is no God save Allah ! Mohammed, the Guide, is the Prophet of Allah ! ' " preluded and followed by four rhythmical taps on the drum ; after which he passes on with the greeting, " The happiest of nights unto thee, O Ali ! " or whatever may be the name of the householder. The meal par- taken of, coffee-drinking and smoking fill up the brief interval until the boom of cannon announces sunrise, when FASTS, FEASTS, AND PILGRIMAGE 145 the mouth is rinsed with water and " sealed " until evening. Shortly before sunset the last namaz of the day is per- formed either in public or private, previously to which the women of the household will have made preparations for the if tar, as the evening meal eaten during Ramazan is termed. It is usual to serve first a variety of hors d'ceuvres, together with goblets of iced fruit sherbet, and each person begins operations with the word Bismillah "In the name of Allah " uttered as he helps himself to an olive, some special merit attaching to breaking the fast with that edible. After the mezzliks, as these trifles are collectively named, have been sparingly partaken of, the party sit down to the if tar, at which long, flat, unleavened cakes, plentifully besprinkled with sesame seed, are sub- stituted for bread, and the usual courses are supplemented by various dainties prepared only at this season. It is also customary to present plates of these Ramazan dainties to Christian neighbours with whom a Turkish family may be on visiting terms, as well as to poor Moslem households. Shortly afterwards the service of devotion known as the Terraweh is performed either in private or in the mosque. In the reign of Abdul Aziz it was customary for the Moslems of Stamboul of both sexes to repair in great numbers after this service to the wide esplanade in front of the Suleymanieh mosque, which, at that hour, would be crowded with elegant equipages containing Turkish hanums, or high dignitaries of State, and also with throngs of pedestrians of every rank a gathering 146 FASTS, FEASTS, AND PILGRIMAGE which partook somewhat of a carnival character, petty missiles being thrown and other liberties indulged in at the expense of the occupants of the carriages which would not at any other time have been ventured on. The stricter regime of the present reign, however, long ago put an end to all such nocturnal assemblies ; and it remains to be seen whether advantage will be taken of the unwonted liberty conferred by the Constitution to revive them. On the twenty-seventh day of Ramazan is celebrated the anniversary of the " Night of Power," or, as it is also termed, the "Excellent Night," in which the Koran is said to have been sent down by Allah from the " Upper " to the "Lower Heaven," whence it was revealed in portions to the Prophet by the Angel Gabriel. During certain hours of this night, which is also called the "Night of Destiny," it is popularly believed that the waters of the sea become sweet; that the whole animal and vegetable creations prostrate themselves in humble adoration before Allah ; and that the destinies of men for the coming year are revealed to the Recording Angels. The conclusion of Ramazan is celebrated by the three days' festival of Bairam, also called by names signifying respectively the " Breaking of the Fast " and the " Feast of Alms/' during which no work of any kind is done. On the first day of Bairam, every well-to-do person makes a present to his children, his slaves, and his subordinates, besides giving liberally to the poor. In the mornings the streets are thronged with people in holiday costume, who go from house to house paying complimentary visits to FASTS, FEASTS, AND PILGRIMAGE 147 friends and official superiors; and after attending the midday namaz in the mosques, the whole Moslem popu- lation abandons itself to decorous amusement. A still more important festival than the " Breaking of the Fast " is the Qurban Bairam, or " Feast of Sacrifice," which takes place during the season of the pilgrimage to Mekka described in the course of this chapter, its observance forming part of the rites of the pilgrims while at the Holy City. It is commemorative of Abraham's sacrifice, Ishmael being substituted for Isaac in the Mohammedan version of the story. For a week or more prior to this festival the market-place of every town and Turkish village throughout the Empire is occupied by flocks of sheep and lambs, and in the Capital the wide open space in front of the beautiful mosque of Bayazid presents at this season a particularly picturesque and interesting spectacle. For here are gathered countless flocks, chiefly of the broad-tailed Karamanian breed, prospective victims for the traditional sacrifice, tended by a variety of wild- looking nomads in shaggy sheepskin coats Vlachs from the Balkans, and Kurds, Yuruks, and Turcomans from the hills and plains of Asia Minor. Among them wander Moslem townsmen of all ranks, and each householder who can afford the outlay purchases a lamb for the sacrifice. Until its day of doom the poor victim is made a play- thing of by the children, who dye its fleece with henna or cochineal, and cover its budding horns with gold-leaf. When on the morn of the festival the pet is no longer to be found in courtyard or garden, the disconsolate babies 148 FASTS, FEASTS, AND PILGRIMAGE are told that it has " been sent to the hills to eat grass, or it would die, poor thing." The flesh is divided into three portions, one of which is given to the poor, the second to widowed or other relations, the remaining third being eaten by the household. The rejoicings connected with this festival last four days. New garments are donned in its honour by both sexes and all classes, and gifts and almsgiving are the order of the day. These mild festivals are also punctuated with the spasmodic firing of volleys of small arms by the youth of the quarter this being the Oriental equivalent of squibs and crackers the sound of which seldom fails to create a certain amount of un- easiness among their Christian neighbours, varying in degree according to the political atmosphere of the moment. For in the history of their own times many have had tragical experience of how " great events from little causes spring." Quantities of cheap toys are, during the three days of Bairam, exhibited for sale in the public thoroughfares, and every one calling on friends and neighbours to wish them a "Happy Bairam" will be laden with such offerings for the children, sure to be found with their male relations in the selamlik on these occasions. Traditional custom has made it imperative for the reigning Sultan to "open the Bairam" each year in person. At an early hour accordingly, the Padishah, attended by the highest dignitaries of State, Civil and Military, repairs to the mosque, the roadway being lined with troops who greet his appearance with loyal and FASTS, FEASTS, AND PILGRIMAGE 149 enthusiastic cries of " Long live our Padishah ! " echoed by the throng of spectators in their rear. A levee is subsequently held by the Sultan, at which a vast throng, consisting of Ministers and high officials, assemble to pay their homage to the " Shadow of Allah ; " and the various foreign ambassadors, and other members of the corps diplomatique, together with any other foreigners of distinction who may be visiting the Turkish Capital, attend to offer their congratulations on this auspicious occasion. During former reigns this State opening of the Bairam always took place at one of the so-called " Imperial " mosques in Stamboul such as Ayia Sof/a, the Suleymanieh, or the Achmedieh, when multitudes of the Faithful would assemble in the streets and squares to greet their Sovereign. And it is hoped that Sultan Abdul Hamid, freed from the baneful misrepresentations of the "Camarilla" who have so long surrounded him, and convinced of the loyalty of his subjects of all creeds, will for the future abandon the semi-private ceremony in the Hamidieh mosque attached to his palace, and resume the time-honoured customs in this respect of his illustrious predecessors. The Mevlud, or Birthday of the Prophet, and the " Feast of the Holy Mantle," are also important Moslem festivals. On the latter occasion it is customary for the Sultan to proceed in state to the " Old Serai " at the east- ward point of Stamboul, washed on one side by the waters of the Sea of Marmora and on the other by those of the Golden Horn. For in the private mosque enclosed with 150 FASTS, FEASTS, AND PILGRIMAGE other storied buildings within the encircling walls of this ancient home of the Dynasty of Osman, is enshrined this sacred relic, which, at the conclusion of the midday namaz, the Padishah, in his capacity of Khalif, or "Successor," unfolds with great solemnity from its forty silken wrappers. The Prophet's mantle, which is displayed to the select company of high officials who have the honour of accom- panying their Sovereign, is said to be merely a small fragment of cloth of a greenish colour. The mosques and public buildings are illuminated on the eve of all these festivals, the day being reckoned by Moslems, as by Orientals generally, from sunset to sunset. Very charm- ing is the effect of the myriads of tiny oil-lamps circling the tali minarets, outlining the domes and cupolas, and hanging in fairy-like festoons from point to point. Occasionally, too, the banks of the Bosphorus present an endless range of lambent flames, interspersed with fanals, or cressets, with here and there on prominent headlands a blazing bonfire ; these myriad points of light, reflected and multiplied in the broad rushing current, producing an effect at once mysterious and enchanting. As mentioned in a previous chapter, pilgrimage to the Holy Cities of Islam is one of the Five Pillars of Practice of the Mohammedan religion. It is indeed considered the supreme act in the life of a True Believer, its due per- formance entitling him to a variety of spiritual blessings in the life to come, and for the rest of his life on earth to the appellation of Hadji, and to accomplish it the pious shrink from no privation and fear no peril. Plundered by FASTS, FEASTS, AND PILGRIMAGE 151 brigand bands and slain by Arab tribesmen, tossed on stormy waters in unseaworthy craft, their bones have for thirteen centuries past whitened the desert tracks and their bodies fed the fishes. The distance lying between his home and the Holy Cities has never been regarded by the True Believer as an unsurmountable obstacle to his visiting them, and attaining his most fervent desire to behold the Holy Kaaba before he dies ; and should he chance to perish by the way, he dies resigned to the decree of Kismet, for he has at least the merit of being on the road to that sacred spot. Never has danger diminished pilgrims' zeal, and every year an increasing multitude "arriving," to use the Prophet's words, "on foot, and on every lean camel, by every distant road" has gathered to hear the sermon on Mount Arafat and take part in the time-honoured ceremony of casting stones at the devil in the Valley of Moona. Now, however, that the Pilgrims' Railway reaches Medina, the' Prophet's burial-place, the only perilous stage of the journey for pilgrims from the West will be that between this city and Mekka ; and the devout Turk will, ere long, when the intervening 285 miles of rail are completed, be able to take the train at Haidar Pasha on the Eastern shore of the Bosphorus, at Damascus, or at Haifa on the Syrian coast, and while still following more or less the Old Pilgrims' Road proceed direct to the birthplace of the Prophet. A complete pilgrimage includes, in addition to Mekka, visits to the Prophet's tomb at Medina, to the shrines of the Saints at Damascus and Jerusalem ; and also to the 152 FASTS, FEASTS, AND PILGRIMAGE tombs of Mohammed's grandsons, Hassan and Hussein, at Kerbeleh near Bagdad. Only dervishes and the most zealous, however, aim at becoming such complete pilgrims, the majority being satisfied with having accomplished this religious duty in the obligatory degree. The three lunar months of Ska wal, Dhulkaade> &&&Dhulhajja are dedicated to the pilgrimage which culminates in the rites appointed for the tenth day of the last-named month, after the per- formance of which a pilgrim is entitled to style himself Hadji. Previously to leaving home with this pious object, a Moslem is required to set his worldly affairs in order, pay any outstanding debts, and make suitable provision for the maintenance of his family during his absence. It has hitherto been customary for pilgrims from Con- stantinople and the neighbourhood to assemble fourteen days before the festival of the Qurban Bairam "The Feast of Sacrifice" in one of the large open spaces of Stamboul, where a procession is formed. This comprises a number of camels with gorgeously ornamented saddles bearing the coffers containing the Sultan's gifts to the holy shrines, together with the alms and presents of his well-to-do subjects for the religious trustees of their respective families in the cities of Mekka and Medina. Other camels carry a kind of palanquin covered with costly silken stuffs in which lady pilgrims will perform part of the journey. A company of picturesquely garbed Arabs who accompany the Caravan exhibit at every halt- ing-place, to the accompaniment of kettledrums, feats of swordsmanship to the crowds of spectators which surround FASTS, FEASTS, AND PILGRIMAGE 153 and follow the procession and its military escort through the streets and across the long bridge spanning the Golden Horn on its way to Yildiz Kiosk, where the pilgrims salute the Sultan before embarking. The best view of this quaint procession is obtained as it mounts the steep road leading to the palace, now lined with troops of the Imperial guard. The rising ground on either side has the appearance of a flower garden, covered as it is with the variously hued cloaks and white headgear of thousands of Turkish women of the lower orders. The Sultan, himself unseen, is believed to be at one of the windows of Yildiz Kiosk to receive the salutation of the departing pilgrims, who, after offering up in unison a prayer for the success of their undertaking, retrace their steps to the quay, whence they embark for the Asiatic shore. Before the construction of the existing railway the pilgrim caravan, after crossing the Bosphorus, made the long journey to Arabia by land ; at Damascus it was joined by thousands of pilgrims from Africa, Asia Minor, and Syria, and thence, under the command of a special official styled the " Steward of the Offerings," and escorted by troops, it began its long journey across the desert to the Holy Cities. The ihram, the " sacred habit " of the pilgrims, is donned just before setting foot on the holy soil surround- ing the shrines of Islam, its adoption being preceded by special ablutions and various prescribed formulas of prayers and prostration. It consists of two white wrappers of thin woollen stuff, each woven in one piece without seam or hem ; one envelops the shoulders, leaving the 154 FASTS, FEASTS, AND PILGRIMAGE arms bare ; the other is fastened round the waist and falls to the ankles. On the feet is worn a kind of sandal, a mere sole of leather secured by a thong passing between the first and second and the fourth and fifth toes. While wearing the ihram a pilgrim must refrain from shaving, neither must he trim his beard or nails. It is now incum- bent on him to follow with the greatest strictness the three leading principles of Moslem religious practice, namely, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. "Prayer/' said the Prophet, " carries us halfway to God ; fasting brings us to the door of His palace; almsgiving procures our admittance." The rosary so often seen in the hands of a Moslem is never absent from that of a pilgrim when wearing the ihram, and it behoves him to be especially punctilious in the performance of the five daily namaz with their preceding ablutions. Additional acts of devo- tion are also customary during the four days preceding the Hadj-day, these being generally performed during the hours of night, and accompanied by prostrations and other "prayerful exercises." "The odour of the mouth of him that fasteth is more acceptable to Allah than the odour of musk." Not only the mouth, however, but all the other members are required to practise absti- nence during these holy days the ear must refuse to listen to slander, the tongue refrain from the utterance of any words save those of a pure and holy character, the hands from touching that which is another's, the feet from straying into forbidden places, and the eyes from looking upon a woman. And the almsgiving incumbent upon a FASTS, FEASTS, AND PILGRIMAGE 155 pilgrim of means includes, besides the legal alms which range, according to circumstances, from two and a half to twenty per cent, of his possessions the giving largely to the poor and neeay of his camels, kine, and sheep, and of his provisions, coin, and marketable wares. For pilgrims who have made part of their journey by sea, it is at Jeddah that their worst perils begin to assail them. The natives plunder them to the best of their ability, from the boatmen who convey them from the steamer to the Bedouin camel- and donkey-drivers in whose company they traverse the intervening miles of desert. 1 Caravans consisting of from five hundred to two thousand camels start daily from this port for Mekka during the pilgrimage season until a week before the Great Day of the Hadj, travelling by night for the most part. On arriving at their destination the pilgrims anxiously await the commencement of the Hadj, the date of which is decided by the moon being seen on rising at a certain spot for, the Moslem year being, as previously observed, lunar, all religious events vary with every suc- ceeding year. The welcome tidings announced, the pilgrims spend the morrow in visiting the mosque and the Kaaba, offering prayers at this and the various other holy places during nearly the whole of the day ; 1 The Constantinople journal Stamboul reports (February 16, 1909) that a pilgrim steamer having lately grounded in the Suez Canal, its passengers, who numbered nearly a thousand, were, in consequence of the exactions of the Hedjaz population, found to be in such a destitute condition that the charitable governor of Suez caused money and provisions to be distributed among them. 156 FASTS, FEASTS, AND PILGRIMAGE partaking of the water of the Zemzem and kissing the Black Stone of the Kaaba also constituting part of this ceremonial, which is performed fasting. The Kaaba is a square temple constructed of unhewn stones into one wall of which is built the famous Black Stone, a meteorite, said to have originally been white, and to have descended from heaven. According to Moslem tradition, this temple is the most ancient House of God, having been built by Adam and restored by Abraham, as the Zemzem is probably the most ancient spring of which any record exists. Its discovery in the desert led to the foundation of the City of Mekka, and for centuries past it has been one of the most venerated objects in the Mohammedan world, the virtues attributed to its waters being doubtless due to the mineral salts with which they are strongly impregnated. At sunset the fast is broken, the ensuing night being passed chiefly in prayer and devotional exercises. On the following day a vast procession sets out for Mount Arafat, on a certain spot on the lower slopes of which eminence a sheep or goat is sacrificed by each Hadji who can afford it, the wealthy giving to others of their abun- dance for this pious purpose. The plain at the foot of Mount Arafat presents on this day the appearance of a vast camp, being covered with thousands of tents belong- ing to pilgrims of the better class gathered here from all quarters of the world for the fulfilment of one of the most sacred rites of their common Faith. Their sacrificial offering made, the pilgrims resume their way to Moona, FASTS, FEASTS, AND PILGRIMAGE 157 where the festival of the Qurban Bairam is celebrated. In the valley of Moona is a rough stone structure called the " House of the Devil," at which it is obli- gatory on all pilgrims to cast stones in order to deter the Father of Evil from approaching this assembly of the Faithful. This festival marks the formal termination of the pilgrimage, the newly made Hadjis being now at liberty to set out on their return journey, though the more devout will not rest satisfied without having also visited the City of Medina and performed their devotions at the tomb of the great founder of the Faith they profess. This religious duty of pilgrimage, it may here be re- marked, is as binding on women as on men. An adult woman must, however, be at least nominally married before setting out, and be accompanied either by her husband or some near male relative who has a right to see her unveiled, while young girls can only go when accompanied by both parents. When their male com- panions don the " sacred habit," the women are even more hermetically shrouded in their cloaks and veils than ordinarily, it being lawful for the palms of their hands alone to be visible to the other sex. Should any person desirous of accomplishing this religious duty be prevented by bodily infirmity, or other cause, from accomplishing it in his own person, as may not unfrequently happen, it may be performed by deputy. In order that the full merit of the act may accrue to himself, such a person must, however, defray all the expenses incidental to the pilgrimage, and at the same 158 FASTS, FEASTS, AND PILGRIMAGE time satisfy the religious authorities who sanction the transaction that the funds have been honestly and honour- ably acquired this being a sine qud non for permission to set out on pilgrimage. Aged or dying persons who have not performed the pilgrimage also repeatedly leave testa- mentary instructions to the same effect. This practice was curiously illustrated in the case of Khamko, the re- doubtable mother of the still more redoubtable AH Pasha of loannina, who, in a codicil to her will, directed that such a deputy should be sent on her part to lay offerings on the tomb of the Prophet and pray for the repose of her soul. It was, however, found on inquiry that the lands directed to be sold for this purpose had been taken by force or fraud from their original owner, a Christian ; and the pilgrimage was consequently disallowed by the religious authorities. In addition to this obligatory pilgrimage, Moslems, and especially Moslem women, make frequent visitations to the shrines of famous saints, who are for the most part the deceased sheikhs of dervish orders. Ziarets, as these lesser pilgrimages are termed, are generally undertaken in fulfilment of a vow, or for relief from sickness or other distress, in obedience to the traditional sayings of the Prophet, " If thou art perplexed in thine affairs, go seek assistance from the inhabitants of the tombs," and "If thine heart be oppressed with sorrow, go seek consolation at the graves of holy men." They are usually made on the Mevlud y or annual feast day of the saint should not the circumstances demand immediate recourse to his good FASTS, FEASTS, AND PILGRIMAGE 159 offices when it is customary for suppliants or visitors to bring with them, in addition to gifts in coin or kind, a lamb or fowl for sacrifice, the flesh of which constitutes the perquisite of the guardian of the turbeh, generally a dervish. Benefits which are believed to have resulted from the intercession of the saint are gratefully acknow- ledged by wealthy recipients with gifts of rich shawls as coverings for the sunduk, or catafalque, which stands over the resting-place of the holy dead. CHAPTER IX INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS FOREIGNERS coming for the first time into contact with Osmanlis belonging to the higher classes of society, are often surprised to find how high a degree of education and culture has beeWfttained by both men and women. In official circles at least the generality of men speak French, and many read, if they do not speak, English ; while in every large town there will probably be found more Turks well acquainted with a foreign language than would be met with in a corresponding class in any Western country. It must not, however, be supposed that a proportionately high level of instruction exists among the Moslem subjects of the Sultan generally. For, as will be evident from even a cursory survey of present methods, the establishment of a less antiquated system of primary national education constitutes one of the most pressing needs of the Turkish people. At the present day in educational, as in other departments in Turkey, two distinct systems exist side by side, the Ancient, instituted at the Conquest and common to all Moslem countries, and the Modern, initiated in the earlier half of the last century, and greatly developed during the last forty years. The educational establishments 160 INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS 161 belonging to the first class comprise the Mahallah Mektebs, or parish schools, and the Medressehs^ or Mosque Colleges, both supported by the funds of the mosques of which they are for the most part dependencies. Though now left so far behind, there is perhaps no country in Europe in which primary education was provided for at so early a date as in Turkey, and so many induce- ments held out to poor parents to allow their children to participate in its benefits. The Mektebs afford primary instruction to children of both sexes over eight years of age, for which a nominal annual fee is some- times paid, tlfl^Jh at some of the better endowed parish schools each pupil is entitled to receive two suits of clothing a year, while at others the benefactions of pious donors provide in addition free meals and pocket- money. The Hod/as, or masters of these parish schools, are at the same time functionaries of the mosques to which they are attached, and the instruction given by them is chiefly of a religious character, though elementary lessons in reading and writing have of late years been added to the curriculum. Squatting in rows on the matted floor, the children learn partly from their books, but chiefly by rote, reciting the lesson in unison, while the Hodja, who sits cross-legged at a low desk, expounds to them the doctrines of the Koran which, being invariably used in Arabic, naturally present considerable difficulties to the infant mind. Inattentive pupils receive severe corporal punishment, and are further disgraced by having also the felakka, a kind of hobble, attached to one of their ankles. M 162 INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS In former centuries the Moslem population of Turkey was divided into two distinct classes, the Ulema, or learned, and the unlettered, the former comprising only the graduates of the Medresseks, from whose ranks came those who were at the same time the exponents of religious dogma and the administrators of the law of the land, there being at that time no secular system of jurisprudence, as at present. The changes in the legal administration effected during the past century have, however, deprived the Mosque Colleges of their former importance, and their graduates now consist chiefly of those who aspire to become per- manent members of the Ulema, functionaries of the mosques, professors in their turn in the Medressehs, or legal practitioners in what may be termed the Ecclesiastical Courts of which the Sheikh-ul-Islam is the head. These Medressehs resemble in some respects the Universities of Continental Europe as they existed in mediaeval days, and, as already observed, owe their origin to the munificence of Sultans and grandees of former centuries, whose endow- ments of the mosques supported also their educational and charitable foundations attached to them, the lectures being very frequently given in the mosque itself. The revenues of the majority of these religious foundations have, however, of late years, owing to changes in their administration, greatly diminished ; and the students who in olden days invariably received, in addition to free quarters, certain daily rations from the college kitchen and oil for their lamps, now enjoy such free commons only on special days, and even the fabric of many of these INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS 163 ancient edifices can hardly be saved from ruin. The residential quarters occupied by the students are usually built in the form of a quadrangle surrounding a courtyard, and the arrangements are quite mediaeval in character, several youths often occupying one apartment in which they study, sleep, and do their own frugal cooking. The latest freshman is also required to " fag " for the tutor who supervises the studies of the class to which he belongs. Very poor are many of these youthful students of the Sacred Law ; but living is fortunately still cheap in Turkey, and from 12s. to 15^. per month suffices for their sub- sistence. In the Capital alone there are said to be no fewer than a hundred of these Medressehs, and one or more may be found in every provincial town. At the present day, however, the main subjects of study in the Medressehs may be classed under the two heads of " Theology " and " Language," the former including, besides knowledge of the Koran and Moslem Law, the Hadis, or Traditions, with the Commentaries thereon, and the latter comprising grammar, rhetoric, poetry, and calligraphy. The number of Softas accommodated in the Medressehs of the Capital at the present day is estimated at about six thousand, the majority of whom are quite impecu- nious ; and in such great religious centres as Konieh, the ancient Iconium, they are also very numerous. The diminished revenues of the religious foundations no longer affording maintenance to students at the Medressehs as heretofore, many undergraduates during the month of Ramazan make tours among the provincial towns and 164 INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS villages, where they preach or do special duty in the mosques, returning equipped with funds derived from fees and alms sufficient to enable them to continue their frugal college life. The instruction afforded in the Mosque Schools and Colleges at the present day, being of so restricted and conservative character, is, it must be admitted, hardly calcu- lated to advance the cause of general enlightenment in the Ottoman Empire. But limited though their curriculum now is, and antiquated as their methods undoubtedly are, these Medressehs constituted in former days important centres of learning, as they then afforded not only theo- logical teaching but also instruction in all the branches of knowledge then available. And seeing that the numerous poets, historians, and philosophers, of whose literary eminence Turkey can rightly boast, were, during many centuries, graduates of the Medressehs, it must be admitted that they have in the past done good service and more than justified their existence. Few Europeans are, indeed, aware of the literary wealth to which the Turkish people can lay claim, or have any idea of the high degree of culture that has prevailed during the centuries of the Ottoman dominion. Many of the ablest rulers of Turkey, for instance, were wont to find in poetic composition distraction and solace amid the great enterprises that signalised their respective reigns, and displayed a degree of taste and ability that would have made the literary reputation of private individuals. Out of the thirty- four Sultans of the House of Osman, no fewer than INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS 165 twenty-one have been men of letters, and eleven of these are adjudged by posterity to have been poets of distinction a record surely unparalleled in the annals. of any European Dynasty. Following their example, not only princes of the blood such as, for instance, the gifted and unfortunate Djem Shah 1 but also Viziers, Muftis, and more or less the whole lettered class of the nation added to their functions, civil, military, and political, the cult of the poetic muse. It is, I believe, generally admitted that climate and scenery exert an important influence on character and intellect, as well as on sentiment and belief. And the serene spirit of Islam, combined with the clear blue skies, the soft sun-pervaded atmosphere, the flowery and fruitful plains, and the grand grouping of mountain, stream, and sea in the fair regions occupied by the Turkish people, may be said to have given to their national poetry a character at once mystically religious and languorously romantic. With the establishment in the fifteenth century of the native language as a legitimate medium of literary expression instead of, as previously, the acquired Persian verse-writing became general, and never since has the 1 Djem Shah was a younger brother of Sultan Bayazid II., with whom he claimed to share the sovereignty of Turkey. Defeated in battle, he took refuge with the Knights of Rhodes, who transferred him to one after another of their Commanderies in Europe. On March I3th, 1489, Prince Djem was imprisoned in the Vatican by Pope Alexander VI., and six years later, on being compulsorily handed over to Charles VI II. of France, he died at Naples, it was believed of poison, which had been previously administered to him by this Borgian Pope. 166 INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS land of the Sultans lacked poets to sing the prowess of Moslem arms, the beauties and mysteries of Nature, and the charms of harem huris. The names of quite an extraordinary number of writers both of verse and prose are consequently to be found in Ottoman biographical dictionaries ; but no work exists, I believe, in any language giving a complete history of the literature of this nation. Persian had been the Court language of the Seljukian Sultans who, before coming into Asia Minor, had over- run Persia, the less civilised race adopting the language and culture of the more civilised people they subjugated, and Persian became also the literary language of the Osmanli Turks on their becoming heirs to the Seljukian kingdom. One of the chief peculiarities of Ottoman, as of Persian poems is, it may here be remarked, that they almost invariably contain concealed beneath their literal meaning an esoteric and spiritual signification. A certain number of famous poems may, indeed, be read for the most part for what they appear on the surface to be religious or moral works. But to those who possess the key to their hidden meaning, many constitute spiritual allegories representing the yearning of the soul of man for union with the Deity, or its love of and quest for the highest type of spiritual beauty and virtue. The Ghazels, or Odes, present the same characteristic as the longer poems. Though on the surface either mere bacchanalian verses or voluptuous love-songs, the initiated can recognise in their symbolic imagery the fervent outpourings of hearts ecstasied, or, i INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS 167 as they express it, " intoxicated " with spiritual love. For every word in these effusions has its accepted mystical signification. The " Fair One " for whom sighs the Lover, Man, is the Deity, the "Beloved" whom he entreats to throw off the veil that conceals her perfect beauty from his sight. The " Ruby Lip " signifies the unspoken, but heard and understood communications of the Divinity ; ''Nestling in the Fair One's tresses," comprehension of His hidden attributes ; the " Embrace " is the revelation to man of the Divine Mysteries ; " Separation," or " Absence " from the " Loved One/' is the non-attain- ment of Oneness with the Deity ; " Wine " is the Divine Love ; the " Cupbearer " is the spiritual in- structor, the " giver of the goblet of celestial aspiration " ; the " Zephyr " is the breathing of the Spirit ; the " Taper " the heavenly light kindling the torch in the heart of the Lover, Man. And so on through every detail. This pecu- liarity of Ottoman poetry is no doubt largely due to the fact that of the long line of poets who have during the past six centuries contributed to the treasure-house of Ottoman literature not a few of the most famous names have been those of Dervishes. So great, indeed, during several centuries was the influence exercised on literary taste by the Dervish Schools that every poet endeavoured to give a mystical turn to his or her effusions. From the first half of the fourteenth century onwards Persian began to be abandoned for literary purposes in favour of native Turkish. Both the prose and verse productions in that language, previous to the end of the 168 INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS following century, are, however, adjudged by critics to be for the most part somewhat rude and uncouth, though one of the earliest Turkish writers who flourished in the reign of Orchan was of such eminence that he is to this day styled "The Father of Ottoman Literature." Oriental writers have always affected anonymity, and this author wrote under the takhullus, or pen-name of A'ashik " the Loving " to which name, according to the custom of those times, was added the title of " Pasha," to denote his high rank among scholars. This honorific title, together with such others as Sheikh, Emir, Hunkiar, Shah, and Sultan, are often found affixed to the names of Turkish poets and men of letters. Among A'ashik's numerous productions is an " Ode to Culture," from which the following lines, literally translated, have been taken : " Empty form is nothing more than body without soul Structure in the world is of the great world-soul's design. Culture vivifies the world ; else would there be but soulless form, Knowledge is the breath of soul, and soul of all the souls. Wanting knowledge, soul is dead, and like unto the dead. Knowledge giveth to the Sultans empire over human souls. Knowledge wanting, life is wanting, this my word is truth indeed." A'ashik Pasha was, however, chiefly eminent as a mystic, having been a member of the Mevlevi, or " Whirl- ing" Order of Dervishes, which has produced so many poets of distinction, its founder Jelalu'd Din, who wrote in Persian his famous Mesnevi, being deemed by Orientals a very "prince among poets." A'ashik's principal work is a long mystical poem known as the A'ashik Pasha Divani. It consists of rhymed couplets, the following INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS 169 translated lines from which may give some idea of the character and sentiment of the Turkish poetry of that period : " All the Universe, one mighty sign, is shown ; God hath myriads of creative acts unknown : None hath seen them, of the races djin and men, None hath news brought from that realm far off from ken. Never shall thy mind in reason reach that strand, Nor can tongue the King's name utter of that land. Since 'tis His each nothingness with life to invest Toil nor pain attendeth ever His behest. Eighteen thousand worlds from end to end Do not with Him one Atom's worth transcend. l Another work of this literary period is the Mukkam- mediyya of Mohammed Yazedji Oglou (Mohammed the Son of the Scribe), who flourished in the first half of the fifteenth century. In this work, which consists of 9109 couplets, is comprised the whole doctrine of Islam as well as the history of the Prophet. The description of the creation of the celestial Paradise concludes with these lines ' All these glories, all these honours, all these blessings of delight, All these wondrous mercies surely for his sake He did prepare 2 Through His love unto Mohammed, He the universe hath framed ; Happy, for his sake, the naked and the hungry enter there. O Thou perfectness of Potence ! O Thou God of Awful Might ! O Thou Majesty of Glory ! O Thou King of Perfect Right ! " 1 Translated by Mr. Gibb in his Ottoman Poems. I have ventured to make some verbal alterations in the eighth line, which Mr. Gibb has rendered " Trouble is there ne'er at His behest." 2 The love of the Deity for Mohammed forms a frequent theme of Moslem writers. 170 INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS Mohammed II., the Conqueror of Constantinople, appears to have been, like so many others of his House, a great patron of men of letters. The poet Sati was given by him a post at the Court as Laureate with the obligation of composing annually three khasidas poems on special subjects one in honour of the Great Bairam, or Feast of Sacrifice, another for the Lesser Bairam, or Feast of Alms, and a third for the Spring Festival at which the Oriental New Year is also inaugurated. Notwithstanding the acknowledged ability of a few of these earlier writers in Turkish, the true classical period of Ottoman literature is held to have commenced only with the accession to the throne in 1520 of Suleyman "The Magnificent," and to have terminated two centuries later. Under the rule of this able Sultan "sword and pen," it was customary to say, " were never dry," for no less keenly did he fight the foe abroad than foster the arts at home. A golden age for Turkish scholarship and poetry was indeed inaugurated in this reign. Among poets Baki composed his charming lyrics, Fazli earned undying fame with his famous mystical allegory, "The Rose and the Nightingale," and Khalil surpassed all rivals in elegiac verse; while the prose writers of the period, historians, theologians, legists, and romancists, were as numerous as they were distinguished. To about the middle of this classical period belongs the eminent prose writer Hadji Khalifa, one of the most famous men of letters Turkey has ever produced, who left behind him at his death in 1658 a great variety of works on history, biography, chronology, INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS 171 geography, and other subjects. This important literary period may be said to have closed with Nedim, who flourished at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and is held by critics to stand alone among Ottoman poets, his verse being characterised by a joyousness and sprightli- ness which clearly distinguish it from the work of any previous singer. His ghazels are not only written with extreme elegance and finish, but contain an extraordinary variety of graceful and original ideas, and the words he made use of invariably appear to have been most happily chosen with a view to harmony and cadence. His khasidas are also esteemed almost equal to his sonnets, being less artificial and less dependent on fantastic conceits than is usually found in this class of poetic composition. The Post-classical Period, which may be said to have endured until about the middle of last century, produced a variety of poets of distinction, the productions of each of whom possessed a style as original and peculiar to himself as in the case of the most eminent among their predecessors. Among these may be instanced Ghalib, whose Magnum Opus, " Beauty and Love," an allegorically mystical romance, is full of tender sentiment and shows a high degree of imaginative power. And among prose authors of this time may be mentioned such names as Rashid, the Imperial historiographer; Asim the philo- logist, who translated into Turkish two great lexicons, one from Arabic and the other from Persian ; and of writers in a lighter vein, Kani the humorist. 172 INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS The reign of Mohammed II., "The Reformer," con- stitutes the great transitional period of Ottoman literature, as it does also of Ottoman history. For during this reign, in which the West entered on the latest stage of its struggle with the East, we find the first indications of the successive changes which have during the past ninety years completely revolutionised Turkey. In the works of writers belonging to the first half of the nineteenth century the old Persian manner still predominates, and only an occasional attempt at composition in the new style is discernible. Pre-eminent among the poets of this time were Fazil Bey, Izzet Mollah, Pertev Pasha, and Wasif, the last named having broken new ground in a not entirely unsuccessful attempt to throw off ancient con- ventions by writing verse in the vernacular of the Capital. The more intimate relations cultivated with Europe from which naturally resulted acquisition of the French language and study of its literature, combined with the steady progress of the reforming tendency initiated under Mohammed II., resulted in the latter half of the century in the birth of a new literary school, whose aim was the substitution of truth and simplicity for the ancient inflated and grandiloquent style of diction. The first clear note of change is to be found in the political writings of Reshid and of Akif Pashas ; but the man to whom more than to any other this literary revolution owed its success was Shinasi Effendi, who applied the modern method of com- position to poetry as well as to prose. This important innovation though not, however, established without INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS 173 violent opposition from literary conservatives is at the present day alone used by writers of repute, anything now written according to the ancient Persian standards of composition being merely as a sort of scholarly tour de force. The whole tone, sentiment, and form of Ottoman literature has consequently changed ; poetical forms hitherto unknown have been adopted from European prosodies, and a form of literature altogether new to the East the drama has arisen. Thousands of new words have during this period been adopted, or adapted, from other languages to express the wants of modern civilisa- tion ; and the language has been thereby so much enriched, simplified, and modernised, that many of the numerous novels, scientific books, and periodicals which are now published in Turkish may be said to be quite on a par with similar contemporary productions in Western Europe. Nor are the names of women absent from this long and brilliant list of Turkish writers. During the centuries when European culture was a sealed book to them, the fair denizens of the harem not infrequently found its calm undisturbed life conducive to poetic composition ; and from the fifteenth century onwards a daughter of the Osmanlis has from time to time delighted her con- temporaries with her pen, and given evidence of a degree of talent entitling her to rank with the literary celebrities of her day. And how generously recognised and acknow- ledged by their countrymen were the poetic attainments of these ladies may be gathered from the following 174 INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS extracts from Turkish biographers. Kimali Zade, writing in the sixteenth century, thus extols in figuratively Oriental language the gifted Zeyneb, the earliest Turkish poetess of whom any record exists. " The learning and poetic talent of this Bride are not covered and concealed by the curtain of secrecy and the veil of bashfulness ; but the rosiness of her beauty, and the down and mole of her comeliness are beheld and admired by the world, and are the object of the gaze of every man and woman." The same writer applies to her an Arabic couplet which may be thus rendered " Her woman's sex dims not the sun's effulgent ray ; Though masculine the Moon, he lighteth not the day." l And Latifi, the poet biographer and critic, speaks of her as "an exceptional woman." "May Allah," he con- tinues, "veil her shortcomings. She was a noble daughter, a chaste and virtuous maiden, endowed with many agreeable mental qualities. Learned men marvelled at her understanding. Her father, when he saw sparkle the rare jewels of her talent, supplied her with masters in the arts and sciences, and placed in her hands the Persian and Arabic poets." In his Teskera, Latifi appends to a ghazel by this lady the following appreciative reply : " Hurt, again our feast as shining Paradise array ! With thy sweet lip the beaker fill brim high with Kevser's spray 2 O Sufi, if thy cell be dark and gloomy be thy heart, Come then, and with the winecup's lamp light it with radiance gay ; 1 In the Arabic as in the German language the Moon is masculine and the Sun feminine. 2 See p. 15. INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS 175 Heap up like aloes-wood the flames of love within thy breast ; From thine own breath to all earth's senses odours sweet convey. O Zephyr ! shouldst thou pass the home of her we love so well, Full many blessings bear to her from us who her obey." l Equally appreciative are the notices found in literary biographies of other Osmanli poetesses of the classic period who concealed their identity under the pen-names of Mihri ("Follower of Love"), Sidqi ("Sincerity"), and Fitnet (" Restlessness ") respectively, as also of Hibetulla Sultana, sister of Mohammed II., and Leyla Hanum, who belonged to the first half of the last century, such facts surely contributing to prove the willingness in every age of men even when " Unspeakable Turks " not only to recognise and appreciate the possession of talent by women, but also to concede to them every facility for higher education whenever a sincere desire for it has been manifested. Thus far as to indigenous Turkish education and culture. Let us now give a glance at what has of later years been borrowed from European methods and organ- ised on modern lines. In addition to the parish mektebs above mentioned, there are now to be found in all the cities and larger towns of Turkey, State-supported primary schools called Rushdiyeh, to which boys are admitted gratuitously and taught, besides reading and writing, such usual elementary subjects as arithmetic, Turkish history, and geography. In the Idadiyek, or secondary schools, 1 Gibb, Ottoman Poems. 176 INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS which are also State-supported, but as yet very inadequate in number, older boys receive more specialised instruction while qualifying for admission to one of the modern Superior Schools and Colleges modelled on the system of the educational institutions of France and Germany, in which all the subjects necessitated by modern require- ments are taught. Among the latter are Military Schools and Colleges, a Naval College, Medical Colleges civil and military, besides various institutions specially devoted to the training of civil servants, lawyers, civil engineers, etc., and a Lyceum organised in imitation of such estab- lishments as they exist in France. In the last, founded in 1869 by the joint efforts of Ali and Fuad Pashas, the great reforming statesmen, it was proposed to afford a liberal education to all subjects of the Sultan throughout the Empire, irrespective of race and creed. Notwith- standing the difficulties which naturally arose in connexion with organising a system of instruction which should take account of the prejudices of members of three different religious systems, the Lycte was opened with some 350 students belonging to seven different sects, and in two years' time the attendance was doubled. Instruction was imparted in French by French professors, and every facility was afforded for the acquisition of both classical and modern languages. Though the proposed provincial branches were never established, the original institution has continued to prosper, some of the most eminent contemporary Osmalis having received part of their education in its class-rooms. INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS 177 In no department of education is the progress made of late years more apparent than in the Military Colleges, their present state of efficiency being due in great measure to the personal interest and supervision of the Sultan. Elementary military education is afforded in the thirty-six State-provided schools known as Mekteb-i- Rushdiyeh to boys between the ages of ten and fourteen, who, on passing into the Idadiyeh, or Secondary schools, have already attained a fair degree of proficiency in the French language, and in certain military subjects. The system of education pursued in the seven Idddiyeh military schools is especially adapted for youths intending to make the army their profession ; and after three years or so of further study, if they can satisfy the examiners, the pupils may enter one of the six superior Military Colleges, those possessing any special aptitude for mathematics entering the Artillery Academy on the banks of the Golden Horn. In these higher colleges the course of study pursued is purely professional and lasts for three or four years, the graduates being then gazetted lieutenants iu the army corps to which their college is attached. Ten per cent, of the cadets of each year are, however, retained for a further three years' course of study, at the end of which those who have successfully passed the examiners are gazetted to the Staff of the Army as captains. The drawback to this system is that the Staff officers are entirely ignorant of regimental work, and consequently unable to cope with the many difficulties which confront the regimental officer as well in peace as during a campaign. N 178 INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS Considerable progress has also been made in the department of Medical Science during the present reign. As mentioned in a previous chapter, there is a Naval and Military Medical College in the Capital devoted solely to the training of medical officers for the united services, and the Civil Medical College at Stamboul affords instruction to 1 200 students preparing for a medical career, open to all Ottoman subjects without distinction of race or creed. Its teaching staff include a number of fully qualified German professors. The training obtainable here being much appreciated, the College is usually filled to over- crowding with eager students. The course of study lasts six years, at the end of which period the most promising graduates are sent to France or Germany for further instruction, or to attend post-graduate courses in special departments of medical science. Save, however, in these two branches of medical and military science, intellectual progress had, under the late Palace System, become completely paralysed. Prominent literary men were forced into exile, numerous printing and publishing offices closed, and newspapers and periodi- cals suppressed, the few that continued to be issued being strictly prohibited from publishing any news of a political or national character, or indeed any information whatever of national interest. The people generally were in con- sequence entirely without precise information of what was taking place either at home or abroad, and the wildest rumours were often current in the cafes and bazars of the Capital. This dearth of news was, however, evidently INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS 179 equalled by the desire for it. For, on the morrow of the Proclamation of the Constitution, not only was every suppressed newspaper resuscitated,ibut a number of new journals appeared in the Capital and elsewhere. So great indeed was the immediate demand that the supply fell far short of it, and the fortunate possessor of a copy of the Serbesti or the Sabak might have been seen on these eventful days surrounded by an excited group eager to share in the unwonted privilege of a free Press. Another notable and highly satisfactory result of the new regime has been a wide demand for books of an educational and scientific character, a corresponding feature being an immensely increased demand on the part of the Turkish youth for admittance into the various educational establish- ments, many of which are already overcrowded. Every College has also now its Club established for the purposes of study, debate, and mutual help, one of the best being a sort of " Old Boys' " Club founded by former pupils of the Mulkieh Superior School, which has a membership of 1600, and possesses commodious premises near the Sublime Porte. In the department of female education a great advance may be looked for in the near future. An Imperial Lyceum for girls is now in process of establishment under the immediate patronage of his Majesty the Sultan, who has not only placed a palace at Candilli at the disposal of the Committee of Administration, composed of ministers, deputies, and eminent educationalists, but has also generously offered to defray all the expenses 180 INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS of its furnishing and equipment. The Consulting Com- mittee will be composed of Turkish ladies, and his Majesty has expressed the wish that his daughter, the Princess Nai'le Sultana, should be nominated as its President. Harem restraints have hitherto naturally prevented girls over twelve continuing to attend school, as on attaining that age custom forbids them to go abroad save under the wing of their mother or a female attendant of mature years. In this particular, however, as also in others affecting the welfare and intellectual progress of women, and with it that of the nation generally, many modifica- tions and ameliorations will doubtless by degrees be found possible, and brought into operation. A considerable number of Turkish girls of the better class have during the last half-century been educated at home by foreign governesses, and have become proficient in European lan- guages, accomplishments, and general culture ; day-schools for girls of the middle classes exist in all the cities and larger towns, and are well attended ; and where statistics are available, it appears that as many girls as boys receive instruction in the elementary parish mektebs. Printing, I may mention in conclusion, was not intro- duced into Turkey until the year 1728, the first printed book published having been a Turkish translation of an Arabic dictionary. To this day, however, the Turks pre- fer a beautiful manuscript to a printed book. They have, indeed, always cultivated and esteemed calligraphy more than Europeans, and even more than any other Orientals except, perhaps, the Persians. Copying books, as a trade, INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS 181 has not even yet completely died out, as with us ; fer books of a religious character have only of recent years been allowed to be printed ; and the Koran is still always used in manuscript. Letter writing has, however, remained an art not understood of the vulgar. Even among those who can read few are able to write, and for their con- venience the professional scribe still sits at the street corners, ready to set down in literary Turkish the simple messages of his customers to friends at a distance, who in their turn will probably have recourse to the erudition of the village Imam for the deciphering of the missive. The trade of the seal-engraver, who, like the scribe, is invariably a Moslem, also continues as flourishing as when the art of writing was less common, Orientals generally considering a seal preferable to a written signature, their argument being that any one may imitate a man's handwriting, but no one but himself can be in possession of his seal. The Turks, however, in common with Orientals generally, are not afflicted with the cacoethes scribendi, neither social, intellectual, nor commercial activity being so great as to call for a frequent exchange of written communica- tions ; and it is still customary, not only among the Turks, but also among the better classes of Christians, to send both business and social messages by word of mouth. Native Turkish music, it must be admitted, is still very primitive in character. The airs are generally either wild an d plaintive, or sentimental and melancholy, presenting little variety and in common with the folk-music of Southern 182 INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS Europe generally they are invariably pitched in a minor key. The popular idea of singing in the country among all races I once heard not inaptly characterised by a Roumanian as "pirouetting around a single note." The repetition of the Turkish words " Aman Aman /" which may be translated as "Oh dear!" or "Have pity!" appear sufficient to express the sentimental feelings of the lower classes of the population ; and the muleteer on the road, the fisherman in his boat, or the town 'prentice taking his kaif at a coffee-house by the seashore, will, for hours together, make nasal excursions up and down the scale from the keynote on which he enunciates his Aman, Aman ! The wild native marches, as played by military bands, are, however, not unpleasing; but both military bands and barrel-organs now produce for the most part airs from French and Italian light opera, and "La fille de Madame Angot" in particular appeared at one time to have a greater vogue in Turkey than even in her native land. This year has, however, seen the inauguration at Stamboul of a National Conservatoire of Music which, sup- ported as it is fortunate enough to be by the patronage of Prince Ziaeddin EfTendi, has, it may be hoped, a pros- perous future before it. The musical instruments in ordinary use among the populace are the rebeck, or lute, the kanoun, a kind of zither, the reed flute, and the small hemispherical drum. But the favourite instrument of the Oriental rustic gene- rally is the bagpipe not the complicated instrument, be it understood, of the Scottish Highlanders, but a much more INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS 183 primitive one made from the skin of a sheep fitted with a mouthpiece and a single reed pipe by means of which the notes are produced. The inflated skin is held against the chest of the player, who moves his fingers over the holes, producing sounds discordant enough to Western ears, but pleasing in the extreme to the unsophisticated Turk, as also to the Arab, Bulgarian, or Armenian, especially when accompanied, as is generally the case, by the equally primitive doubana, or native drum. T CHAPTER X MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT i HE Mystics of Islam are to be found in the con- ventual establishments of the Dervish Orders who constitute the monks and saints of the Moslem world. Monasticism is, however, not only contrary to the spirit of Islam, but was explicitly forbidden by its founder. But so attractive to the Oriental mind has always been a life passed in retirement from the world for the purpose of contemplative devotion, that this natural tendency proved stronger than the injunctions of the Prophet ; and very early in the history of this religion societies were formed and by no less eminent persons than Mohammed's nephew Ali and his friend and father-in-law Abu Bekr for the purposes of mystic meditation and beneficence. Mysticism, being in prin- ciple rather a mode of practising religion than a religion in itself, adapts itself to all dogmas ; and the earlier members of these fraternities invariably took a vow of fidelity to the doctrines of the Prophet and continued to perform their duties as citizens. It was not long, however, before many of the followers of these first Khalifs abandoned the rules of the original fraternities. 184 MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT 165 And the great religious movement of the ninth century, which shook Islam to its foundations and resulted in the formation of a multitude of new sects within that creed, gave birth also to the system of religious philo- sophy known as Sufiism, which enters so largely into the mystical doctrines professed by the Dervishes gene- rally. In the thirteenth century twelve Orders were recognised, but the number of these mystics rapidly increased during the next two centuries in all the Asiatic countries which had come under the influence of Islam. The founders, at least, of these early Dervish Societies were evidently men of great learning and wide culture, as well as of saintly life. Under Orchan, the first Turkish Emir the title of Sultan was not assumed until much later they spread themselves over Asia Minor ; and after the conquest of Broussa, this prince, who attributed his extraordinary successes to the presence in his armies of these holy men, founded and endowed for them con- vents and colleges throughout his dominions, at the head of which he placed the most distinguished of their Sheikhs or Priors, conferring upon them the honourable title of Pasha, joined to such names as A'ashik ("The Loving") or Miichliz (" The Sincere "). The slopes of the Bithynian Olympus, which had long been the resort of Christian hermits and cenobites, were now also taken possession of by these Moslem recluses who there established them- selves among the flocks of the Turcoman nomads ; and the coolness and quiet of the retreats which had favoured the holy idleness of Christian monks now charmed the 186 MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT reveries of Moslem poets and the meditations of Sufi philosophers. The honoured tombs of the more famous among them may still be seen at the foot of the mountain on which their peaceful days were passed, or in the vicinity of the schools in which they studied and taught. And in the nineteenth century, as in the days of Orchan, their influence has been made use of by Sultans and generals to excite the zeal and courage of their troops in battle. Whenever a military campaign has been organised, a number of Sheikhs and others from nearly all the Orders have hastened to join the army. Commanding officers gladly engage their services and treat them with every respect and consideration, as their presence in the camp where they spend whole days and nights fasting in their tents while offering supplications and making vows for the success of the arms of the True Believers maintains a most desirable religious enthusiasm among the troops. On the eve of an action, the Dervishes roam excitedly through the camp, rehearsing the benefits promised by the Prophet to all who fight for the Faith of Islam, or who die in arms, and seek by their own religious enthusiasm to rouse the zeal and animate the courage of the soldiery. During a battle their voices may be heard above the din of war, shouting, " O Victors!" (Ya Ghazi) "O Martyrs!" (Ya Shahid) "Ya Allah!" or Ya Hoo!" ("O Him"). If they fancy the Holy Standard, the Mantle of the Prophet, to be in danger, they crowd round the sacred relic to strengthen the lines of the officers stationed as its guard, and not MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT 187 only sustain their efforts, but themselves perform prodigies of valour. A Dervish of high renown in his day, Ak Shemsi 'd-Din by name, is said to have foretold to Mohammed "The Conqueror" the day and hour of the fall of Constantinople. Together with seventy-seven other "distinguished and holy men beloved of Allah," he accompanied the Sultan to that memorable siege. The deeds of valour achieved by these enthusiasts, and the miracles performed in answer to their prayers are recorded and, it need hardly be added, exaggerated by Moslem chroniclers; and the tombs of many are to this day places of pilgrimage for the True Believers. Nor were the Dervish Orders held in less honour by succeeding Sultans. After the capture of the Byzantine Capital and the consolidation of the Empire, their poets and writers remained in high favour at Court, and there we^e" few Padishahs who were not enrolled as members of one or more of the Orders. The long reign of Bayazid II. (1481-1512) also bears traces of the influence of mystic philosophy on the Court. The most renowned Dervish of that time, the Sheikh Jasi, had, when about to start on a pilgrimage to Mekka, foretold to Bayazid, then governor of Amasia, that on his return from the Holy City he would find that prince on the throne : and it fell out even as he had predicted. This eminent man received the titles of " Sheikh of Sultans " and " Sultan of Sheikhs," and his cell was the meeting-place of all the dignitaries of the Empire. The Turkish writers Seadeddin and Ali narrate the biographies of thirty 188 MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT eminent Sheikhs who flourished in the reign of this Sultan, called by many Ottoman historians " Bayazid the Sufi." The influence of the Dervish society by which this Sultan surrounded himself may also be seen in his poetry, which breathes a spirit of mysticism markedly absent from the writings of his talented but unhappy brother, Prince Djem, and his son, Selim I. Although the Dervish Orders of Turkey have always outwardly professed adherence to the orthodox Sunni sect, many points in their doctrines would seem to lend colour to the accusation of being heterodox Shias^ so frequently brought against them by their secular opponents the Ulema. The Skias, as is well known, trace the Khali- fate, or succession to the authority of the Prophet, through Ali, his nephew and son-in-law, while the Sunnis maintain its descent through the Ommiade Khalifs to the successive representatives of the Ottoman Dynasty. But notwith- standing the persistent hostility of the Orthodox, it does not appear that, previous to the sixteenth century, the Orders were ever subjected to active persecution. For so long as the substance of the doctrines held by the higher grades of these mystics was kept secret, the denunciations by the legists of their ascetic practices, their vows, the dancing and other peculiar exercises performed in their Tekkehs, their pretensions to miraculous gifts, and claims to direct communion with the Deity, had but little effect. But as the influence and prestige of the Dervishes in- creased, many of the Orders relaxed by degrees the prudence and severity of their original rules, and allowed MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT 189 much of their doctrine to become publicly known. Their enemies were now enabled to make definite and serious charges against them. They were accused of attempting to make innovations in the dogmas of Islam ; of following practices forbidden by the Koran; of denying the very existence of a personal God ; of teaching disrespect for all established institutions ; and of setting at nought all laws, both human and Divine. Their religious exercises were denounced as profane acts ; and it was asserted that all kinds of abominable practices were indulged in by them in the seclusion of their monasteries. The general tendency of the Dervish institutions appeared to the Ulema to threaten also the introduction into Islam of something analogous to the "Holy Priesthood" and "Apostolic Succession" of the Romish Church ideas utterly at variance with the spirit of the Koran. An alleged discovery that gave a still greater shock to the Orthodox mind was that the Dervishes concluded some of their prayers by anathematising the Ommiade Khalifs, and glorifying the Khalif Ali ; and, consequently, that, though nominally Sunnis, they virtually belonged to the heterodox sect of the Shias. There seems, however, little reason to doubt that whenever overt hostility has been manifested against the Dervish Orders by the Sultan and his ministers, it has invariably been prompted by political, rather than religious motives. For notwithstanding the odium cast upon these Mystics by the Legists, no active measures, as above remarked, appear to have been taken against them by the 190 MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT Government until the beginning of the sixteenth century, when political events caused them to be looked upon as a possible source of danger to the State. A new dynasty had been founded in Persia at this period on the basis of religion. The Sufi Philosophy had always been popular in that country ; and Persia was at the same time the stronghold of the Shia heresy and of the Dervish frater- nities. A Dervish Sheikh, named Eidar, who traced his descent from the Khalif Ali, having gained a great reputa- tion for sanctity, and a numerous following of disciples and adherents, assumed the title of Sufi par excellence^ and declared himself to have been commissioned by Allah to work a religious reformation. Sheikh Eidar perished in the attempt ; but his young son Ismail was protected by his faithful disciples, who took refuge with him in Ghilan, and carefully trained him in his father's principles. In 1501, at the head of a numerous body of partisans, Ismail revived the claims of Sheikh Eidar, and gradually over- coming all opposition, he at length became the Founder of the Sufi Dynasty, and the ruler of an extensive Empire. His doctrines gained also many adherents in the Asiatic provinces of the Ottoman Empire, where Selim I. took early and vigorous measures to suppress this new heretical sect. For, as Church and State are, in Islam, identical, a blow aimed at the one menaces equally the other ; and the great schism of the Sunnis and Shias is not a mere diversity of opinion purely religious and theoretic, but also a practical political dispute concerning the suc- cession to the Khalifate, the headship of the Moslem MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT 191 Church. Sultan Selim, whose inquisitorial talents are celebrated by Ottoman historians, organised a system of secret police, by means of which he caused to be made out a list of all his subjects belonging to this sect. Their number amounted to 70,000, 40,000 of whom were massacred, the rest being imprisoned or exiled. In Damascus a few hours sufficed for the extermination of the whole community of schismatic Mohammedans. The Persian monarch shortly afterwards declared war against the destroyer of his co-religionists, and a sanguinary campaign ensued. The Ottoman Dervishes in European Turkey, whose Shia tendencies were more than suspected, were, very naturally, also looked upon with disfavour during the course of these events, the Ulema making the best of this favourable opportunity by exciting the minds as well of the populace as of the authorities against their rivals. A new Order, created about the beginning of the sixteenth century by a certain Sheikh Hamza, and called after him the Hamzavi, appears to have been from its very foundation held in bad repute, and Sheikh Hamza was arrested and subsequently executed under zfetva of the Grand Mufti, the ostensible charge against him being that he omitted to repeat at his devotions the full number of the I sma-i- Sheriff or " praises of the Prophet." He was naturally regarded by the rest of the Dervishes as a martyr, and his reputation for piety and extraordinary powers still survives in the Capital. Another Sheikh of the same Order was put to death shortly afterwards on an 192 MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT accusation of heterodoxy, together with forty of his disciples, who, it is said, voluntarily gave themselves up to the authorities. And so great was the effervescence of the Orthodox under several succeeding reigns, and particularly in that of Mohammed IV., that the Ulema and other rigid Mohammedans even ventured to propose the exter- mination of all the Orders, the confiscation of their revenues, and the destruction of their monasteries. An attempt was, indeed, made by the Grand Vizier of that Sultan, Achmet Kiupruli, to suppress the Mevlevi, Khal- vetti, Djelvetti) and Shemshi Orders. Like all former and subsequent attempts, however, it succeeded but partially, as the Government was overawed by the Janis- series, whose intimate connexion with the Bektashi Order made them the allies of the Dervishes generally ; and the Porte feared to do anything that might arouse the resent- ment of this formidable military force. The action of the Sultan, too, seems to have been but half-hearted. For it is recorded that even Selim I. whom Mouradja D'Ohsson describes as "poet, parricide, and fratricide, mystic, tyrant and conqueror" 1 made pilgrimages to the tombs of deceased, and to the cells of living Sheikhs of repute ; and that he raised at Damascus a mosque over the grave of the eminent saint, Muhajjin-el-Arabi. Suleyman I. also built at Konieh, in honour of Jelalu-'d-Din, the founder of the Mevlevi Order, a mosque, a tekkeh, and public alms- kitchen. At Sidi Ghazi he erected a great establishment with a tekkeh and college for the Bektashis ; and he also 1 Histoire de V Empire Ottomane^ Part I. p. 377. MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT 193 repaired the tekkeh covering the tomb of Abdul Kadr Ghilani, the sainted founder of the Kadiri Order, thus drawing upon himself the benedictions of three influential fraternities. After this stormy period the Orders appear to have enjoyed a long interval of freedom from persecution. For the Turkish author, Evliya Effendi, writing towards the end of the seventeenth century, makes no mention of the existence of any ill-feeling towards the Dervishes, with whom he was closely connected during his long and adventurous life. The massacre of the Janissaries by Sultan Mahmoud, "The Reformer," in the beginning of last century, was, however, followed by the persecution of the Bektashi Dervishes, who were accused of having been concerned in the revolts that followed the suppres- sion of this military branch of the Order, and consequently of high treason against the State ; and the Grand Mufti and the chief Legists agreed with the Sultan that a severe sentence should be passed upon this Brotherhood. Its three principal Sheikhs were consequently publicly exe- cuted ; the Order was declared abolished ; many of its tekkehs were destroyed ; and its members generally were banished from the capital, those who remained being compelled to abandon their distinctive dress. 1 This determined action on the part of the Government spread consternation among the Dervish Orders through- out the Empire. Their members feared for the moment that they, like the Bektashis, were all doomed to destruction 1 Ubicini, Lettres sur la Turquie, vol. i. p. 107. O 194 MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT or dispersion ; and, to quote a contemporary chronicler, "They remained motionless, expecting their last day, devoured by anguish, and with their backs resting against the wall of stupefaction." But here Sultan Mahmoud paused in his work of destruction. " Though " as recorded by the historian of the massacre of the Janissaries "he had not feared to open with the sword a road for public happiness by cutting down the thorny bushes that obstructed his progress and tore his Imperial mantle," he hesitated to decree the entire de- struction of institutions which had enjoyed the respect and devotion of his predecessors and of Moslems generally for upwards of a thousand years. This "hesitation," is, however, not so surprising when we learn the fact, of which Ubicini appears to have been ignorant, that Sultan Mahmoud was himself an affiliated member of the Mevlevi fraternity of Pera, and frequently visited it ; and that he also honoured with his presence the meetings of a Nakshi- bendi fraternity established in the suburb of Foundoukli. The Dervishes, however, on finding that the blow dealt at the Bektashis was not followed by the suppres- sion or even persecution of the other Orders, soon re- covered from their consternation ; and the more fanatical among them set on foot a secret agitation with the object of inciting the populace against a Sultan who had dared to raise his hand against the "chosen of Allah." In 1837 Mahmoud narrowly escaped falling a victim to the frenzied zeal of one of these ascetics. As he was crossing the Bridge of Galata, surrounded by his escort, a long-haired MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT 195 cenobite, commonly known in the Capital as " The Hairy Sheikh" (Sheikh Satchlti), darted from among the by- standers, and seizing the bridle of the Sultan's horse, exclaimed, " Giaour Padishah (Infidel Sultan) ! Art thou not yet satiated with abominations? Thou shalt answer to Allah for thy impieties. Thou destroy est the institutions of thy Brethren ; thou ruinest Islam ; and drawest down the wrath of Allah on thyself and on the Nation ! " The Sultan, fearing that popular feeling might be roused against himself by the ascetic's denunciations, commanded his guards to remove the madman from his path. " Madman ! " echoed the infuriated Dervish. "Sayest thou that I am mad? The spirit of Allah, which inspires me, and which I must obey, has com- manded me to declare His truth, and promised me the reward of the Faithful ! " The fanatic was, however, seized and put to death without delay. His body was given up to his brethren, who buried it with the honours due to a martyr ; and on the following day a report was circulated that the watchers had seen a Nur 9 or super- natural light, hovering over the grave of the Sheikh a convincing proof of the favour with which Allah had regarded his action. It needed, however, a bold reformer to put a noisy fanatic to death, and the majority of Sultans and statesmen have contented themselves with exiling to some remote part of the Empire a Dervish whose influence on the populace they had cause to fear. Whenever, on the other hand, public hostility has been excited against the Dervish Orders it has had its 196 MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT foundation in the horror with which the orthodox Sunni Mohammedans regard the Shut heresy, and this hostility seems never to have been very general, nor of long con- tinuance. Those whose religious principles and devotion to the purity of the creed of Islam has incited them to combat the growing power of the Dervishes have invari- ably been, in their turn, combated by other principles drawn from the same source. For the majority of the Turkish nation has always regarded the Dervishes, their Sheikhs, and, above all, the Founders of the Orders, as the beloved Sons of Heaven, and in intimate relations with spiritual powers. These opinions have for basis the tradition that the different Orders originated, as above mentioned, in the two congregations of Abu Bekr and Ali, and that the grace which these had received from the Prophet, both as his relatives and Vicars, has been miraculously transmitted through the series of Sheikhs who, from age to age, have governed the monastic societies. It is also popularly believed that the legion of saints constituting the Mohammedan spiritual hier- archy, alluded to in a previous chapter as perpetually existing among mankind, is to be found among the members of the Dervish fraternities. Consequently, to condemn, persecute, and destroy them, as was the unani- mous cry of the Legists, would have been to call down upon the whole nation the wrath of all the holy saints who have ever lived. Even the less enthusiastic did not dare openly to declare themselves hostile to the Dervishes. Moslems MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT 197 generally respect what is beyond their comprehension ; and they hold this mixture of religious practices and profane exercises to be a mystery which True Believers should treat with silent unquestioning reverence. The superstitious ideas which these ascetics have the talent of perpetuating in their nation have always served as their shield. So persistent, too, is this influence of, and venera- tion for, the spiritual character of the more eminent among the Sheikhs, that even those Osmanlis whose education and intercourse with Europeans might be supposed to have freed them from national superstitions are often found to be still under the influence of the ideas inculcated in early youth. From the earliest times to the present, the most general and, at the same time, most harmless weapon used against the Dervishes has been that of ridicule. Turkish and Persian literature teems with satires in proverb and story on their peculiarities of dress and practice. Even the mystic Sadi does not spare them in his epigrams, though his satires are chiefly directed against those who are Dervishes in outward appearance only, and not in heart. For instance, he writes " Of what avail is frock, or rosary, Or clouted garment ? Keep thyself but free From evil deeds, it will not need for thee To wear the cap of felt, a Dervish be In heart, and wear the cap of Tartary." A humorous story is current in the Capital of a Dervish who, when on his pilgrimage to the holy cities, had the misfortune to lose by death his ass, a gift from his Sheikh, 198 MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT the guardian of a shrine. He buried the animal by the roadside, and giving out that a deceased companion was the occupant of the recently made grave, soon obtained from the charitable passers-by sufficient funds to erect a turbeh over it, of which he constituted himself the guardian. Years passed. The tnrbeh became a famous place of pilgrimage ; miracles were performed at it, and the fame of the rival shrine reached the ears of the old Sheikh, who had heard no news of his disciple since his departure, and lamented him as dead. One day, accordingly, he locked up his turbeh in order to pay a visit to his brother Sheikh. He was hospitably received, and recognised the rival turbedji as his former disciple. When evening came, and the last of the pilgrims visiting the shrine had departed, the old Sheikh asked with much curiosity who was the saint buried below, as he knew of none formerly residing in that part of the country. After some hesitation, Sheikh Ali confessed that his dead ass was the only occupant of the tomb. As his Superior did not seem much disturbed by the announcement, the younger Dervish ventured to inquire who the saint might have been who was buried under his master's turbeh; and learnt at length that it was no other than the parent of his own sainted donkey. The most wildly fanatical of these ascetics are found among the wandering Dervishes, who, by their prophecies and adjurations, often excite the Moslem population against their Christian neighbours. Shortly before the outbreak of the troubles in Bulgaria in 1876, one of these zealots completely terrorised the Christian inhabitants of MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT 199 Adrianople. He knocked at one door after another in the Christian quarter, forced his way in when they were opened, and declared to the startled inmates that Allah had revealed to him His desire that the infidels of the town should be destroyed within three days after Easter. He finally reached the house of the Bishop, to whom he repeated his menacing prophecy. The reverend gentle- man, apprehensive of the possible consequences to his flock of these "revelations," went at once to inform the Governor-General of the incident. The Dervish was sent for, asked if he had said what was reported of him, and what he meant by it. The wily ascetic merely shrugged his shoulders innocently, and replied that, as he was in his hal t or state of ecstasy, when he made the declaration, he was not responsible for anything he might have uttered. The Governor-General deemed it prudent to send him out of the town under escort, with orders for his conveyance to Broussa. The Dervish, however, managed to elude the vigilance of his guards perhaps with their connivance and continued his fanatical mission in other parts of the province. The monastic establishments of the Dervish Orders, called by the various names of tekkehs, khanakahs, and zanriyehS) but more commonly by the first, and the tiirbehS) or shrines of their Saints, are at the present day as numerous in European as in Asiatic Turkey. In Con- stantinople and its environs, many of the Orders possess several establishments ; and every town contains the monastery and shrine of one or more of their communities. 200 MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT The tekkehs occupy, for the most part, picturesque and commanding situations, sometimes in the middle of towns or cities, but more frequently in their suburbs. The build- ings are grouped round the sem'a khaneh the hall in which the brethren meet for their collective devotions and religious exercises a square building of whitewashed masonry, with a tiled and domed roof. The interior arrange- ments vary according to the Order, but are always marked by extreme simplicity. In the halls of the Mevlevi and Rufdtthe so-called "Whirling" and "Howling" Dervishes a circular space in the centre is railed off from the rest of the floor, which is covered with matting for the accommodation of the spectators ; and when there is no gallery for the women, part of this space is partitioned off for their use. The only attempts at mural decoration are tablets inscribed with texts from the Koran, verses from the poets, the sacred names of Allah, of the Prophet, the Khalif Ali, etc. As in the regular mosques, the direction of Mekka is indicated by a niche in the wall, surmounted by the name of the Pir, or founder of the Order, by the Moslem profession of faith previously men- tioned, or the word Bismillah "In the name of God." In a corner is usually a catafalque covering the tomb of a departed Sheikh, covered with costly carpets and rich draperies, the pious offerings of those who have there sought and found healing benefit or other boon. The courtyard surrounding the sanctuary gives access to the cells of the brethren and the apartments of their Sheikh, the convent kitchen and offices. The cells vary in number MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT 201 according to the Order, and form a quadrangle of low buildings, with a roof sloping to the front, and covering a broad verandah, into which all the doors and windows open. Beyond are flower and fruit gardens, shaded by cypress, mulberry, and plane trees, the haunts of storks and pigeons ; and, enclosed by the arched gateway and tile-topped walls, are cisterns and fountains of sparkling water furnished with iron ladles for the use of the thirsty. Sometimes, as within the precincts of the convent outside the Vardar gate of Salonica, there are also cool, shady cloisters, and raised terraces and kiosks, commanding magnificent views of mountain, plain, and sea. And here, when the evening shadows are lengthening, the mystics, in their picturesque and symbolic attire, may be seen pacing tranquilly to and fro ; or, seated on the broad wooden benches, meditatively passing through their fingers the brown beads of their long tesbehs, or rosaries, on their faces that expression of perfect repose which indifference to the world and its doings alone can give. Though all the Dervish Orders, in accordance with their principle of poverty, are considered mendicant, few are so in reality, for most monasteries possess vakottf, or landed property bequeathed to them by pious persons. The revenues from these endowments are applied chiefly to the support of the monastic Dervishes, though the wants of a needy lay brother may occasionally be relieved from them. The monasteries vary greatly in point of wealth, and the more prosperous are expected to assist others less largely endowed. The Mevlevi Order is the most popular 202 MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT one might even say the most fashionable of all, and has, ever since its foundation, included among its members men of high rank. The late Sultan Abdul Aziz was, for instance, a lay brother, and occasionally, it is said, took part in the religious exercises at one of the Mevlevi convents in Constantinople. This Order is, consequently, very prosperous, and its monasteries and shrines surpass those of all other Orders. The Monastery of its General, at Konieh (Iconium), in Asia Minor, possesses consider- able lands bequeathed as vakouf by the old Seljukian Sultans, these bequests being ratified by subsequent princes. Murad IV., too, when marching against Persia in 1634, bestowed many favours and distinctions upon the "Sheikh of Sheikhs," as their Grand Master is termed, and endowed his community as a perpetual vakouf, with the proceeds of the kharateh the poll-tax imposed on the non-Moslem inhabitants of the city in lieu of military service. Notwithstanding, however, these substantial endow- ments, the Dervishes have never, like the Monastic Orders of Christendom, departed from the original principles of their Founders. Their manner of living is still as frugal as was that of the original Twelve Orders, and the architecture of their convents is marked by extreme simplicity, both of form and material, any ornamental articles they may contain being the gifts of the pious. The brethren resident in the well-endowed tekkehs are supplied with food and lodging only, their frugal repasts being usually served to them in their cells and MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT 203 eaten in solitude, though on certain occasions the brethren dine together in the common-room. Each Dervish is accordingly required to provide himself with clothing and other necessaries, and to follow some trade or profession. Those who are calligraphists occupy them- selves in making copies of the Koran which is always used by Moslems in manuscript form, and of other books of a religious character. Should any of these recluses be entirely without private resources, an allowance from his Sheikh, or a pension from some wealthy individual, will supply his modest needs. Many Moslems also reserve their alms exclusively for the Dervishes, and make it their duty to seek out those of high reputation for sanctity, visit them frequently, and supply their wants. Others, again, in the hope of drawing upon themselves, their families, and their fortunes, the blessing of heaven, lodge and board in their houses such among these holy men as may lack the necessaries of life. Should a con- vent possess surplus revenue, it is, after relieving the wants of other less well-endowed communities, given directly to the poor in the shape of alms, or employed in the foundation of almshouses, schools, or public baths, such charitable institutions often constituting the depen- dencies of tekkeks as of mosques. In accordance with their principle of poverty, the Dervish Orders are all, nominally at least, mendicant, and dependent for their daily sustenance on " what Allah may send them." Yet the solicitation of alms is equally forbidden by their rule. For though some members of the Bektashi Order certainly 204 MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT frequent the public thoroughfares, and the doors of the charitable, soliciting alms with the words, "Something for : the love of Allah," the better sort deprecate mendi- cancy, and support themselves by handicraft trades, and also by fashioning, in imitation of their learned founder, Hadji Bektash, small articles of wood and horn. They also carve in greenstone, jade, and other substances, the fastenings used by Dervishes generally for the belts and collars of their garments, besides a variety of symbolic objects used or worn on the person by members of their own Order. The holy mendicants wild-eyed, shaggy-haired, and ragged, so frequently met with in the streets of Eastern cities are for the most part Kalenderi the " Kalenders " of the Arabian Nights and other wandering fakirs belonging to none of the established Orders. The rule of this Brotherhood for, not being descended from either of the two original congregations, they are not, strictly speaking, an Order requires its members to subsist entirely upon alms, to wander perpetually, and for the most part barefoot, and to practise the severest asceticism. For thus alone, according to Sheikh Yussuf, its Founder, is to be attained " that state of ecstasy, of light, and of perfect sanctity, which is the portion of every true Kalender, and which alone can render him worthy of that high designation." This same title of Kalender> it may be remarked, is also given to Dervishes of all Orders who are distinguished among their brethren for superior spirituality. It is this class of " enlightened " MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT 205 beings which has produced so many dangerous fanatics in every age of Mohammedanism. From it have come the assassins of Sultans, Viziers, and grandees of the Empire, and all the " inspired " impostors who, under the title of Mahdi, have misled thousands, and desolated whole coun- tries by their supposed prophecies and divine revelations. A celibate Sheikh resides permanently in the convent, but one who is married visits it only periodically, his authority during his absence being vested in a deputy called the Naib. Twelve being the sacred number of the Bektashi Order, Twelve Initiates constitute a Bektashi Congregation of Elders, under whose guidance the novices pass through the preliminary stages. Certain rules were, in the early history of Moslem mysticism, drawn up for the admission of new members into a Brotherhood ; and though subsequently elaborated by some of the Orders, these original rules still form the basis of the ceremony of initiation generally. A neophyte of the Mevlevi, as also of the Bektashi Order, is required to perform a novi- tiate of 1001 consecutive days, during which, whatever his worldly rank, he performs the menial offices of the tekkeh, and holds himself the subordinate of every other member of the community. During this period he also attends the services in the sem'a khaneh, and receives instruction from one of the Elders. The formalities observed in the reception of new members by the Bektashi Order are perhaps the most peculiar and elaborate. On the expira- tion of the probationary period, a candidate is recom- mended to the Sheikh by two initiates of the Community, 206 MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT who are called his " Interpreters ; " and on the evening appointed for the ceremony of initiation for the services of the Bektashi Order are always held by night the neophyte takes with him to the convent a sheep and a small sum of money. The sheep is sacrificed on the threshold of the tekkeh, part of its wool is twisted into a rope, the rest being preserved to be made later on into a girdle for his use. If the candidate desires to take the vow of celibacy, he is stripped naked ; but if he proposes, as in the generality of cases, to take merely the ordinary, or secular vow, his breast only is bared. With the rope round his neck, he is led by his "interpreters," one of whom carries a curiously shaped symbol termed the tebber, into the hall of the tekkeh. The Sheikh and the twelve Elders are already seated around the hall on their sheep- skin mats, and before each of them stands a lighted candle. In the posture of abject humility called by the special term of buyun kesmek his arms folded across his breast, his hands on his shoulders, his great toes crossed, and his body inclined towards the Sheikh he takes his place on a dodecagonal stone called the maidan tash> while one of the " interpreters " announces to the Sheikh that he has brought to him a slave, and begs that he may be accepted. Various collects and litanies are recited by the Sheikh and the postulant in turn, at the conclusion of which the following exhortation is addressed to the latter : " Eat nothing forbidden ; speak no falsehood ; quarrel with none ; be kind to your inferiors ; overlook the faults of others, and conceal them. If you cannot do this with MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT 207 your hand, do it with your skirts, your tongue, and your heart." The novice then kisses the hand of the Sheikh, who continues "If thou now accept me as thy father, I accept thee as my son. Be hereafter the pledge of Allah breathed in thy right ear." He then repeats after his Sheikh the words, " Mohammed is my leader, and Ali is my guide." The Sheikh asks, " Dost thou accept me as thy guide (meaning as the representative of Ali) ? " to which he responds, " I accept thee as my guide ; " and the Sheikh adds, "Then I accept thee as my son." The postulant now approaches the Sheikh, before whom he first bows low and then prostrates himself, touching the floor with his forehead. Kneeling opposite to him so closely that their knees touch, the Sheikh takes the postulant's right hand in his, and the thumbs of both are raised to repre- sent the Arabic letter A /if. The latter places his ear to the mouth of the Sheikh, who imparts to him in a whisper the Ikranameh, or secret vows of the Order. The disciple does not, however, even after this formal reception into it, become at once a full member of the Order. This grade is only reached after, it may be, years of further probation, and its attainment depends upon the proofs he is able to give of his progress in spirituality. His final admission to full brotherhood is usually deter- mined by a revelation from the Pir> or from Ali, received simultaneously by himself and his Sheikh. While passing through these intermediate stages, the aspirant is under 208 MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT the guidance of the Sheikh, or of an initiate who has himself reached the highest degree. During the first stage, which is termed Sheriat, or " The Law," the disciple observes all the usual rites of Moslem worship, obeys all the commands and precepts of the Koran like any other True Believer, and is treated by the Brethren of the Com- munity as an uninitiated outsider. He is taught at the same time to concentrate his thoughts so completely on his " guide," as to become eventually absorbed in him as a spiritual link with the supreme object of all devotion. This "guide" must be the neophyte's shield against all worldly thoughts and desires ; his spirit must aid him in all his efforts, accompany him wherever he may be, and be ever present to his mental vision. Such a frame of mind is termed "annihilation into the Murshid" and the guide discovers, by means of his own visions, the degree of spirituality to which his disciple has attained, and to what extent his soul has become absorbed into his own. The Murld now enters upon what, in Dervish phrase- ology? is called "The Path." During this period, which forms in reality the transition from outward to hidden things, the disciple is familiarised with the philosophical and poetical writings of the great Sufi doctors, which form the chief subject of the lectures and studies of the Order. He is taught to substitute spiritual for ritual worship, and led by degrees to abandon the dogmas and formulas of Islam as necessary only for the unenlightened masses. This method is, however, pursued with great MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT 209 tact and caution ; for a disciple is not released from the usual observances of religion until he has given proofs of sincere piety, virtue, and exceptional spirituality. This period is consequently one of extreme asceticism ; and a Dervish at this stage of his training passes most of his time in solitary contemplation, endeavouring to detach his mind from all visible objects in order to attain the desired union with the Deity, his guide meanwhile im- parting to him his own mystical philosophy as he finds him capable of receiving it. If the disciple's religious feelings appear to be shocked by any maxim to which he has given utterance, a Jesuitical expedient known as the ketman supplies him with a double sense which enables him at once to convince his disciple of the ground- lessness of his objections. If, on the contrary, a "guide" finds his disciple's theological digestion robust, his advance on " The Path " will be correspondingly rapid. He is now supposed to come under the spiritual influence of the Pir> or Founder of the Order, in whom he in turn becomes spiritually absorbed to such a degree as to be virtually one with him, acquiring his attributes and power of performing supernatural acts. Not every Dervish, however, attains even this degree of spirituality ; and the highest, in which the mystic believes himself to have become absorbed in the Deity, is reached only by the favoured few. It is during the forty days' fast performed in the solitude of his cell at this period of his training that the disciple has the visions which, interpreted by his guide, announce the distance he has travelled on " The Path." The Pilgrimage 210 MYSTICISM AND FREETHOUGHT is forthwith undertaken, in which it is incumbent on him to visit not only the Holy Cities of Islam, but also, at Bagdad and Damascus, the Shrines of the most renowned Dervish Saints. The attainment of a high degree of sanctity being thus the aim of every true Dervish, he seeks, in order to attain this, to lead a life of sinless retirement from the world, and spends his days and nights in prayer and meditation. Fully impressed with the possibility of ultimately attain- ing intimate divine communion, the ardent aspirant looks upon every mundane interest as unworthy of considera- tion ; his mind becomes more and more completely- absorbed in mystic contemplation; and as the result of his constant invocation of the name of the Deity, he hears, even when in the midst of a noisy crowd, no other sound but Allah! Allah! unless, indeed, it be some divine command addressed to him in return. The more desti- tute a Dervish is of worldly goods, the fewer are his ties to earth ; the more emaciated his body with privation and fasting, the greater his advance in spirituality ; the ills of existence affect him not, and death has for him no terrors. His solitude is cheered by the presence of angelic visitors, who impart to him wondrous things hidden from the ken of ordinary mortals ; or they are the bearers of direct messages from the Deity, who thus makes known to His servants His holy will concerning men. And when com- manded to do so, the Dervish fearlessly denounces, in the Name of Allah, the great ones of the earth who, by their misdeeds, have incurred the divine displeasure. PART III DOMESTIC LIFE CHAPTER XI THE HAREM SYSTEM THE Social, rather than Religious, Law which lies at the root of the Harem system enjoins that no free woman or girl over twelve years of age must appear unveiled before a man outside the prohibited degrees of relationship. As among the Osmanlis first cousins may marry, the circle of male relatives possessing the privilege of access to a harem is thus strictly limited to fathers and grandfathers, brothers and uncles of its female inmates. Inseparable, therefore, from the harem system is the institution of domestic slavery, for to slave women, who are the absolute property of their owners, the above restrictions do not apply. The demand for slaves for the service of Turkish households is practically perennial, seeing that, instead of forming a permanent class or caste in the country, the vast majority of those who have entered it as bondmen and women obtain, in a few years, their freedom. Slavery, however, as now 211 THE HAREM SYSTEM practised in Turkey, is in direct contravention of the law of Islam, which only recognises as legitimate property non-Moslems who have fallen as spoils of war into the power of the True Believers. For the vast majority of the slaves brought to Turkey at the present day are drawn from the Circassian race, who profess the creed of Islam, and their purchase and sale are, consequently, illegal acts which the Sheikh-ul-Islam himself would have some difficulty in justifying. Purchasers, however, get over this difficulty by asking no questions as to the pro- venance of the girls and children offered for sale by the dealers, and absolve their conscience with the convenient formula, "Theirs be the sin." The slave-market in Constantinople has, in deference to European opinion, long ago been closed ; but the demand for slave women being undiminished, the only consequence of the enact- ment against slavery has been enormously to increase the horrors of the traffic in its initial stage. For the Circassian women and girls who, purchased from their kindred, are not generally unwilling emigrants instead of travelling to their destination as formerly with but little discomfort, are now usually conveyed across the stormy Black Sea in the depth of winter when the Rus- sian cruisers are withdrawn, and many of the wretched little vessels in which they are embarked are never heard of again. The result of Europe's humanitarian endeavours to " suppress the slave-trade " is consequently not only to increase to a horrible degree the sufferings of those it is desired to benefit, but also to subject a still THE HAREM SYSTEM 213 greater number to such sufferings, as, in order to allow for losses by the way, the number originally recruited is largely in excess of the demands of the market Once safely landed, the slaves are dispersed to the houses of the various dealers to whom they have been consigned ; and when recovered from the effects of the journey, they are disposed of either to the Imperial Palace or to private persons. As the Sultan's household is said to contain even in its present reduced state, over a thousand persons, all of slave origin, a certain pro- portion of these immigrants are destined to keep up the number of these Palace inmates. Negresses and others who excel rather in strength of muscle than in beauty of form and feature are purchased for the menial labour of a household, those more highly gifted by nature being reserved for higher duties. Since the abolition of the slave-market, private trade in slaves has become much more general and widespread than formerly, this traffic being often carried on by ladies of high rank, some of whom are themselves emancipated slaves. On being informed of the arrival in the capital of a fresh batch of girls, these ladies either drive to the slave- dealer's establishment, or have the human chattels brought to their konaks for inspection. Children of from six to ten years of age are most sought after by these amateurs, who pay considerable sums for them in the expectation of realising a large profit when the girls are grown up. The selection made, and the bargaining concluded, the girl is taken to her new home and placed under the care of a 214 THE HAREM SYSTEM kalfa, or head servant, who carefully trains her for the position she will probably be called upon to occupy. Should she be endowed with personal charms, this may be that of odalisk, or even wife, of some grandee, or she may be presented to the Sultan by her mistress, or sold for that purpose to some other person anxious to acquire Palace influence. Many of these amateur slave-dealers are the wives of Ministers and other State or Palace functionaries, who vie with each other in having the most beautiful and expensively dressed girls in their harems. For a lady with slaves to dispose of naturally dresses them well and otherwise makes the most of their personal charms in order to attract customers. When the mistress and her daughters go out walking, driving, or shopping, calling, picnicking, or to the public baths, a number of slaves invariably share the treat. And it is no doubt greatly owing to this custom of including some of the slaves of the household in every pleasure party, or out- door excursion, that misconceptions have arisen in the minds of foreigners as to the general practice of polygamy. A carriage or carriages filled with smartly dressed Turkish hanums or what appear to the inexperienced eye as such are by the tourist put down as the wives or odalisks of one Pasha, while, as a matter of fact, they are his wife's private property, over whom, consequently, he has no rights whatever. I remember, indeed, in the early days of my residence in Turkey, being myself considerably puzzled as to the status of the half-dozen or so richly dressed young women who arrived with a Pasha's lady to THE HAREM SYSTEM 215 pay an afternoon call or rather a three hours' visitation and who, on arriving, divested themselves, according to custom, of their outdoor cloaks and veils. Domestic slavery, accordingly, as practised in Moslem Turkey, it need hardly be said, differs widely from the same institution as it existed until recently in Christian America. In Islam, slaves are protected by many humane laws ; they are, on the whole, treated quite paternally ; and not being looked down upon as a class apart, are speedily absorbed into the free and native population. Food of an inferior quality is not deemed by Moslems " good enough for servants ; " but, according to the com- mand of the Prophet, a slave fares as well as her owners. Whatever her faults and shortcomings, she may not be sent adrift into the wide world, her owner being respon- sible for her maintenance. At the end of seven years' servitude she can claim her liberty, and generally obtains with it a trousseau and a husband. Occasionally, of course, a slave may fall into bad hands, and be resold before the expiry of the seven years, in order that her owner may not lose the purchase-money ; or may become the property of persons of violent temper and cruel character, who take advantage of her helpless position and ill treat her. Female slaves have, however, on the whole, little to complain of. The good fortune of those gifted with per- sonal attractions is assured from the outset, as many Turks prefer, for various reasons, to marry women who have been brought up as slaves. For marriage with a 216 THE HAREM SYSTEM free woman as will be seen in a subsequent chapter is an expensive matter for a young bridegroom and his parents, owing to the lavish outlay in presents and enter- tainments obligatory on such occasions. Consequently, if a father cannot afford to marry his son to a maiden of his own social standing, he purchases for him a slave girl who has been brought up in some great lady's harem, and no expense is incurred beyond the purchase-money. A slave, having no position of her own, is likely to be submissive and obedient to, and anxious to please her lord and master ; she has no troublesome pretensions or caprices, and no interfering relatives to take her part against him should any disagreement arise. A free woman, on the other hand, is by no means always disposed to have, according to her own expression, " neither mouth nor tongue," but is fully aware of her rights, and capable of asserting them ; and the moral support afforded by her family gives her an assurance which her husband often finds extremely inconvenient. Should a slave bear a child to her master, she cannot be resold, but has the right to bring up under its father's roof her offspring, which is con- sidered legitimate, and may inherit the family property in equal shares with the children of a free wife, should there be any. The distinctive provisions of the Moslem Social and Marriage Laws, indeed, ensure that there shall be no relations whatever between men and women whether free women or slave women in which the latter, from the very fact of such relations, shall not have enforceable legal rights for herself and her children. In all probability her THE HAREM SYSTEM 217 owner will, in course of time, set her free and marry his child's mother, in which case she assumes the social status, and is invested with all the rights and privileges of a free-born Osmanli matron. Nor are these rights and privileges inconsiderable, but compare favourably with those enjoyed by women gene- rally in Christian Europe. As a daughter, an Osmanli woman is entitled, on the decease of her father, to inherit his property in common with her brothers in a proportion determined by law according to the number of his chil- dren. As a wife, she retains the uncontrolled possession both of the wealth which may have been hers before marriage and of that which may subsequently accrue to her. She can inherit property without the intervention of trustees, and dispose of it as she pleases during her lifetime or by Will. No doctrine of "coverture" exists for her ; she can sue or be sued independently of her husband ; sue or be sued by him ; and plead her own cause personally in the Courts of Justice. But, whether a Turkish wife be or be not an heiress, her husband is equally bound to support her and her slaves according to her rank and his means, and also, to quote from the Hedaya} " to provide a separate apartment for his wife's habitation, to be solely and exclusively appropriated by her, because this is essentially necessary to her, and is therefore her due, the same as her maintenance." As to the much-discussed question of the custody of children, this was settled for Moslems at the outset by 1 The Hedaya, or " Guide," is a Commentary on Moslem Law. 218 THE HAREM SYSTEM Mohammed, who decreed that a son must remain with his mother so long as her care is necessary to his well- being, and a daughter until she arrives at puberty. And in the case of a child born after the separation of its parents, should the mother nurse it, the father is required to pay her for so doing, and also, if wealthy, " to expend proportionately for the maintenance of the mother and nurse out of his plenty." On the death of a mother the right of custody reverts to her female relatives, the child's maternal grandmother having a prior right, and after her, failing a sister of suitable age, its aunts. A husband might appear, at first sight, to possess great privileges in the matter of divorce, for he has merely to say to his wife in a moment of anger, " Cover thy face, thy nekyah is in thine hand ! " and the separation is legally effected. Women are, however, on the other hand, safe- guarded against a too arbitrary exercise of this prerogative by certain wise regulations which to a great extent modify, in practice, such facilities. In the first place, there is the religious restriction " The curse of Allah," said the Pro- phet, "rests on him who, without just cause, repudiates his wife ; " in the second, the social restriction for parents would hesitate to give their daughters to a man who had thus acted ; and thirdly, a serious obstacle to a hasty divorce is offered by the nekyah the settlement upon the wife of a considerable sum of money, varying naturally according to social position, payable to her in the event of such dismissal from her husband's roof. So essential, indeed, to a Moslem marriage is such a dower considered, THE HAREM SYSTEM 219 that even were mention of it omitted from a marriage contract, the law would presume it by virtue of the con- tract itself. Being a civil act, consisting of a proposal on one side and an acceptance on the other, and rendered legal by the presence of two witnesses, a Moslem marriage can also be dissolved by the contracting parties by three several methods of procedure. If a couple, for instance, are not on good terms, and all the attempts at reconcilia- tion made by their friends prove fruitless, a divorce by mutual consent is pronounced, and the woman returns to her father's house, taking with her, besides the nekyak, everything she brought with her, or has become possessed of since her marriage. If a man divorce his wife without her consent, she leaves his house equally well provided. And a hamtm can, on her side, obtain release from a dis- tasteful union, with payment of the nekyah, for various reasons, among which are the husband's desertion, cruelty, or neglect to maintain her in the degree of comfort to which she is by law and custom entitled. If, however, a wife, without such adequate reason, and contrary to the desire of her husband, quit his roof and demand a divorce, she very properly obtains it only by forfeiting the nekyah. Divorce being thus a simple process for a husband with money at his command for payment of the nekyah, a conjugal quarrel may easily end in a pronouncement of divorce, when the lady will immediately leave the abode of her irate spouse. Reflection, however, and the intervention of relatives and friends, may lead him to regret his hasty action, and a second marriage will follow 220 THE HAREM SYSTEM the reconciliation of the parties. But this privilege has also its limitations. For after a third divorce, the parties may not again contract marriage, unless the lady has in the mean time entered into a formal legal union with another man. And great is the consternation and gossip in the harems of the neighbourhood, when it is reported that quick-tempered Achmet Bey has pronounced "the threefold divorce," and his pretty but provoking wife has returned for the third time to the paternal roof. This difficulty may be, and usually is, got over by marriage with, and subsequent speedy divorce from, some elderly and impecunious individual, who receives a fee for his good offices in the matter. There is always, however, a certain amount of risk in such a procedure, as the husband pro tern, cannot be forced to liberate the lady should he be minded to retain her as his wife. Indeed, I once heard of a case in which, the hanum being a woman of independent means, the temporary make- believe husband chose to be a husband in permanence, and no power on earth could release the unhappy woman from her intolerable position. The fact, however, that the words, "May I divorce my wife if " constitute to Moslems the most solemn and binding of oaths, is sufficient evidence of how repugnant to them is the use, and still more the abuse, of their privileges in this respect. Notwithstanding the fact that the law of Islam allows a man to marry as many as four wives, and to be the owner of an unlimited number of slave women, THE HAREM SYSTEM an Osmanli household is by no means composed as is popularly supposed in the West of a large number of women, all of whom stand in wifely relations to their lord and master. Indeed, as a matter of fact, at the present day among Turks of the industrial classes one wife is the rule, and among those of the upper classes more than one wife is the exception.\ And thus it has, apparently, always more or less been among Moslems generally. For the Khalif Ali, the nephew and son-in- law of the Prophet, married a second wife only after the death of his beloved Fatima ; and if we search the biographies of the eminent philosophers, theologians, historians, and poets, who flourished in the palmy days of the Ottoman Empire, we shall find that very few of them took advantage of their privileges in this respect. For in addition to the numerous other considerations which render a plurality of wives undesirable, there is the very serious obstacle of expense. A second wife means an extra apartment, or suite of apartments, an extra slave, or train of slaves, according to her rank in life for each hamtm must have her own special attendants and an extra allowance of pin money, as a Turkish bride rarely brings a dowry to her husband. There is, besides, no great superabundance of women in the country, notwithstanding the continual influx of slaves, and every mother of a marriageable girl naturally prefers to see her daughter become a Bask Kadin, or chief wife, as she thus would take rank before successive wives. Lack of progeny by the first spouse is most frequently 222 THE HAREM SYSTEM the reason of a Turk's incurring this extra expense, and also the risk of having his domestic peace disturbed by taking a second. He may, of course, if so disposed, divorce the first ; but, as above remarked, divorce for such a reason alone would not only entail social odium, but he would in that case be obliged to pay to the discarded wife the sum stipulated in the marriage contract. >/ Two wives, indeed, seem to be the extreme limit nowadays; and only once during my long residence in different parts of the Ottoman Empire had I the oppor- tunity of visiting a harem containing even this number. It was during a brief visit made from Smyrna to the ancient and picturesque town of Magnesia Magnesia under Sipylus in Asia Minor, and the harem in question was that of the Sheikh, or Prior, of the "Dancing" Dervishes, whose office is, when possible, hereditary. The first wife, to whom he had been married a dozen years or so, was childless, and the Ikindji Kadin was a bride of a few weeks only. After having been courteously received in the selamlik of the tekkeh by Sheikh AH, we were conducted to the courtyard gate of the haremlik. This was opened to us by an old woman, who, while we entered, kept her face concealed with what seemed to us unnecessary care from the gaze of any chance male passers-by, and then conducted us up an outside stair- case to a broad covered balcony on which all the principal rooms opened. Over the doors hung the carpet porttires so common in Turkish houses ; and raising one of these, THE HAREM SYSTEM 223 she held it back while we entered the divan khant, or sitting-room. A pretty and pleasant young woman with blue eyes and brown hair hanging below her waist in two thick plaits, uncurled herself from the divan and salaamed low in acknowledgment of the greeting of the doyenne of our party; but, divining with ready tact that we other Europeans were unaccustomed to the per- formance of this graceful Oriental salute, she offered her hand to each in turn, and begged us to be seated. This lady was the Sheikh's second wife ; but in a few minutes the Bash Kadin entered a tall, dark, imperious looking dame, just beginning to lose the freshness of youth, with heavy black eyebrows artificially extended until they met over her aquiline nose. Both ladies were dressed in trailing intaries, or house-dresses of cashmere- patterned stuff worn under short cloth jackets lined with fur, the season being winter ; a kerchief of coloured muslin being so adjusted as to form a sort of little cap sur- mounting their simple coiffure. Half an hour is the minimum time in which a Turkish visit can be paid. But as soon as etiquette permitted which was not, of course, until sweets and coffee had been served and partaken of we rose to take our leave. Slaves, however, whether male or female, are by no means always compelled to wait seven years before receiving their freedom and its attendant advantages. For it being considered by Moslems a pious and meri- torious act to free a slave, Osmanli men and women frequently, either in their Wills or on their death-beds, THE HAREM SYSTEM bequeath their liberty to the slaves of the household. A male slave thus set free becomes, so far as civil rights are concerned, the equal of his former owner, and may aspire to the highest offices of State; while his wife, whatever her origin, can claim the status of a hanum. In former centuries, indeed, many an officer in high rank and Minister of State has been of slave origin. It is also a very common practice for childless couples and widows to enfranchise and adopt as their heirs slave children to whom they have taken a fancy. I was some years ago in the habit of meeting a lady, a Circassian by birth, who, brought to Constantinople as a mere infant, had herself been purchased and adopted by a lady of high rank ; and when left in middle age a childless widow, she in her turn enfranchised and adopted two little girls of her own race, whom she brought up and found husbands for. In former centuries the slaves, both male and female, brought into the Turkish slave-market were drawn from a great variety of races arid nationalities, European and Asiatic ; but at the present day the white slaves are brought chiefly from Circassia, the rest being Yezidis from Kurdi- stan, or Georgians though, since the occupation by Russia of that former happy hunting-ground of the slave-dealer, this traffic has only been carried on clandestinely. The traffic in white male slaves has of late years become compara- tively insignificant, free men, both Moslem and Christian, being now employed in the service of the selamlik in the capacities of cook, pipe-bearer, coffee-maker, and body- servant, as well as in the stables as coachmen and grooms. THE HAREM SYSTEM 225 A considerable number of negroes, as also of Abyssinians and other Africans of both sexes, are, however, still annually smuggled into the country. Circassian women who have passed through the slavery stage are said to evince a certain racial sympathy for each other, and also to be very charitable to those who have been less fortunate than themselves. The discovery that an acquaintance is also of slave origin forms imme- diately a bond of union between two women. This race feeling is not, however, perpetuated in their offspring, who are, of course, Osmanlis. It is only the negresses who always remain a class apart, and fall not infrequently into penury and want. As a rule, however, they are themselves chiefly to blame for their misfortunes. For, after they have been freed and married, it not infrequently happens that their ungoverned tempers cause them to quarrel with, and separate from, their husbands, when they are obliged to support themselves as best they can by hawking parched peas and such trifles about the streets. The quarter inhabited by the negro population is squalid and miserable in the extreme, being a mere collection of wretched tumble-down hovels. The thousands upon thousands of negroes and negresses who have, since the Turkish Conquest, been brought into the country, might lead us to expect to find a considerable admixture of black blood in the lower classes especially of the popu- lation. That is, however, not the case. Though negresses and Abyssinians marry both whites and men of their own race, the climate does not seem favourable to the Q THE HAREM SYSTEM propagation of the coloured races, and the few negro or mulatto children who come into the world seldom survive infancy. Low, however, in the social scale as are the negresses of Turkey, there exists among them an esprit de corps which has led to the formation in the Capital of a society for mutual aid and protection, not only against the tyranny of masters and mistresses, but in sickness and other accidents of life. This association constitutes also a centre of reunion for the observation of those superstitious heathen rites which its members have brought with them from their native land, and still cherish, notwithstanding their profession of the Faith of Islam. The society possesses a number of local lodges, each under the direction of a president, called the Kolbashi, who, while acting as the priestess of their strange cult, manages also the property of the community which has been amassed little by little from the contributions regularly made by its members. From this fund she is expected to purchase the freedom of negress slaves who are on bad terms with their owners, as also to receive in her house freed women who are sick or without employment. Men of negro race are also entitled to receive assistance from this association, but they take no part in the rites and ceremonies of which the lodges are periodically the scene. CHAPTER XII FAMILY CEREMONIES (1) BIRTH AND CIRCUMCISION CEREMONIES IT is a noteworthy fact that the more secluded the domestic life of a people, the greater the publicity given to such family events as births, marriages, and deaths. The Turks form no exception to this rule, the celebration of all these family happenings being made the occasion of much display and large accompanying hospitality. The anticipated arrival of a "little stranger" is an- nounced to the neighbourhood by the arrival of the Ebt Kadin the Turkish Wise Woman preceded by a hamal bearing on his porter's saddle the emblems of her calling. As soon as a baby is born its mother is placed on a state bedstead, used only on such special occasions, which is spread with elaborately embroidered and fringed sheets of native gauze and covered with quilts of satin encrusted with needlework in gold and silver thread. At the head are piled half a dozen long narrow silken pillows enclosed in " slips " matching the sheets. Round the lady's head is bound a crimson kerchief to which is attached a bunch of charms, a gauze veil of the same hue being thrown loosely 227 228 BIRTH AND CIRCUMCISION CEREMONIES over them the whole coiffure being designed to keep the Peris at a distance. For although these imaginary beings are not, like the Nereids of Modern Greek mythology, credited with the power of carrying off bodily new-born infants, their baleful influence is none the less to be care- fully guarded against, and the mother and babe should never be left alone for a minute until after the bath ceremony has taken place. If, as among the poor, this is sometimes unavoidable, a broom to which a head of garlic has been tied is placed by the bedside to keep away uncanny visitors. In the mean time the baby has been dressed. But no dainty layette, like that which awaits the arrival of a " little stranger" in the West, has been prepared for the little Osmanli, however wealthy his parents may be. His small body is at once tightly swathed in cotton bandages under a libarde, or gown of quilted cotton stuff; and various quilted wrappers bound one over another convert the poor mite into a shapeless bundle, its head being covered with a little cap of red silk from which hangs a tassel of seed pearls and a bunch of amulets coral horns, turquoises, or pieces of blue glass, etc. to ward off, besides the Peris, the " Evil Eye," as much dreaded in Turkey as * in Southern Italy. Its toilette completed, the baby is laid on a handsome quilt in the walnut-wood cradle, and over it is spread a large square of crimson gauze. When all these arrangements are complete, the happy father enters to congratulate his wife, and confer upon the baby the name by which it is henceforth to be distinguished. BIRTH AND CIRCUMCISION CEREMONIES 229 Carrying the infant outside the door of the natal chamber, its sire repeats a prayer, invoking the blessing of Allah on his offspring, and then pronounces three times in its ear the name chosen for it. Should he be unacquainted with the formula, the parish priest is called in to assist him in the performance of this duty. The Moslem equivalent for the rite of baptism is of course circumcision, but this may be, and often is, deferred for many years. Among the many restrictions to which the mother is subjected by custom and the EM as the Turkish Mrs. Gamp is termed is that of refraining from pure water either for drinking or ablutionary purposes. If thirsty, she may partake of " sherbet " made from sugar-candy and spices, or a tisane of lime-flowers or maiden-hair fern. Little rest is allowed her, for, as soon as the event is made known, her chamber is crowded with friends and neighbours who hasten to offer their felicitations, and sit for hours dis- cussing the sweets, coffee, and other refreshments which it is customary to offer on these occasions. On the third day a djemiet, or formal reception, is held by the mother, for which invitations have been issued on the preceding day, conveyed verbally by an old woman whose profession is that of musdadji, or "bringer of tidings," and accom- panied by bottles of the above-described "sherbet." " Open house " is also kept on this day, and all visitors, whether invited or not, are hospitably received, but with this difference the bidden guests sit down to luncheon, while the unbidden are regaled only with light refresh- ments. Hired musicians receive at the door of the 230 BIRTH AND CIRCUMCISION CEREMONIES haremlik and escort upstairs the more distinguished guests, who arrive in parties preceded by servants carrying baskets of sweets prettily decorated with flowers, enve- loped in gauze, and tied with ribbons. If the father holds an official post, it is customary for his fellow officials and subordinates to send with the baskets of sweets more or less valuable presents. Among the poorer classes, how- ever, gifts of coffee, sugar, cakes, etc., are, on these occasions, brought by the visitors in order to lessen for the family the expense of the customary hospitality. After divesting themselves of their out-of-door veils and cloaks in an anteroom, according to Turkish custom when paying calls, the visitors .are ushered with ceremonious formality into the state bed-chamber. " Maskallah in the name of Allah long-lived and happy may it be ! " exclaim the matrons in turn to the happy mother, who kisses their hands in acknowledgment of their good wishes. Little or no notice is, however, taken of the infant personally, as its near relatives are best pleased when its presence is altogether ignored, and so spared the risk of the " Evil Eye " being cast upon it. Should, how- ever, feminine curiosity and interest in babies prove too strong to allow of the " little stranger's " being entirely neglected, the Jianums, after feigning to spit on it to avert the " Evil Eye," conceal their private approval under such disparaging remarks as " Nasty ugly little thing," to show their good will. For, in the East, it is most unadvisable openly to express admiration for either persons or things, as any future accident or misfortune is certain to be ', BIRTH AND CIRCUMCISION CEREMONIES attributed to the malice or ill-will underlying the honeyed words of commendation. But amulets, spittings, and abusive epithets notwith- standing, it is considered expedient to make doubly sure that no ill effects of the dreaded " Evil Eye " have been left behind. So no sooner has the last guest departed than the Ebe Kadin, assisted by the women of the house- hold, proceeds to ascertain this by the following process. A handful of cloves are procured and thrown singly on the hot embers of the mangal, or charcoal brazier, one for each visitor. If the clove explodes with a report, it is held to be proof positive that the person named with it has cast the nazar on mother or child or, it may be, on both. As an immediate exorcism, snips of their hair are placed on the charcoal embers, and the supposed sufferers are fumigated with the smoke arising therefrom. This is followed by spittings, blowings, prayers, and divers mys- terious incantations which are persisted in until a fit of yawning announces that the spell has been removed. An old woman is, however, next despatched on some pretext or other to the dwelling of the person suspected, with the object of surreptitiously obtaining possession of some scrap of her clothing with which to make a further fumi- gation ; and this successfully accomplished, the minds of the mother and her friends are, for the time being at least, set at rest. Among the poorer classes, the bath ceremony usually takes place on the fourth day after the birth of a child, but with the wealthy it is often deferred until the eighth BIRTH AND CIRCUMCISION CEREMONIES day. On the occasion of the birth of a first-born, great formality is derigueur. If the ceremony takes place in the private hammam usually attached to the haremlik division of a mansion, a number of friends are invited to join in the ablutions, and partake of luncheon and other refresh- ments ; if at the public baths, the invited kanums, accom- panied by their attendants bearing the bath requisites in boktchctS) or bundle-wraps, assemble at the house, and, pre- ceded by the Wise Woman carrying the baby, walk in procession to the baths. After being formally divested of her garments in the saouklik^ or "cool room," the mother is enveloped in a silken bath-wrap, and, shod with a pair of high pattens of walnut-wood inlaid with silver, is led to the hot chamber, supported on one side by the Hammamdji Hamnn, or Head Bathwoman, and on the other side by a relative, and followed by the rest of the company. The baby is first taken in hand, and after it has been well rubbed and scrubbed, the Wise Woman turns her atten- tion to the mother. Before commencing operations, how- ever, she throws a bunch of keys into the marble basin, mutters a spell of a religious character, and then blows three times into the water. These preliminary precautions taken against the Peris who especially haunt the waters, the usual ablutionary routine is proceeded with by the company generally. At its conclusion the mother is placed in a reclining position on the raised marble slab in the centre of the apartment, and her body thickly plas- tered over with a sort of ointment composed of honey and various aromatic condiments, held to possess strengthening BIRTH AND CIRCUMCISION CEREMONIES 233 and recuperating properties. This is left on for about an hour, the tedium of the process being enlivened by the ladies of the company with songs and conversation, and every now and again they transfer with their forefingers some of the spicy compound to their mouths, it being con- sidered lucky to get a taste of it. When what remains of the unguent after the hamims have thus regaled them- selves has been washed off, the mother is wrapped in her havlu, or robe of Turkey towelling, the fringed borders of which are worked in gold thread, and conducted back to the spacious " cool room." The Hanums seat themselves cross-legged on the raised and cushioned platform sur- rounding this apartment ; but before taking her own place the hostess proceeds to kiss in turn the hands of all the elderly ladies present, the salute being acknowledged with the good wish, " May it be to your health." Refresh- ments are offered at intervals during these ceremonies, which occupy the greater part of the day. The circumcision of a boy is made the occasion of another important family ceremony called the Sunnet dughun, the festivities with which it is celebrated extend- ing over a whole week. Hospitable on all occasions, the Turks are pre-eminently so on this, when it is held to be a religious duty to show special attention and regard to the poor and needy. Consequently, people of the labour- ing class who cannot themselves afford the expense of a Stmnet dughun for their boys, defer the rite until they hear that the son of some grandee in their neighbourhood is about to be circumcised, when they send in the names 234 BIRTH AND CIRCUMCISION CEREMONIES of their boys with the request that they may be allowed to participate. The rich man, if a good Moslem, will grant such permission to as many of the sons of his poor neighbours as his means allow of, such acts of piety being held well pleasing unto Allah. When a circumcision ceremony takes place in the Imperial Palace, custom requires that the Padishah should place no limit on the number of participants. As the head of the house in which a Sunnet dughun is celebrated is in duty bound to furnish each candidate for initiation with a complete outfit, and defray all other attendant expenses, it is often an exceedingly expensive affair for a man of rank ; and even among the middle classes, who limit the festivities to one day, the obligatory minimum expenditure is seldom under 10. The formalities begin on a Monday, when the boys are sent to the Public Baths, their heads being then shaven for the first time, with the exception of a tuft of hair left on the crown, which is plaited with tinsel thread. . The grandee's son is richly dressed, his coat and fez being studded with pearls, the number of ornaments considered necessary for this important occasion being so great that they have in part to be borrowed from relatives and friends, even the humblest urchin being bedecked with gold and gems. Their ablutions performed and gala clothes donned, the boys leave the baths escorted by a number of old ladies to make a round of calls at the houses of their friends, whom they formally invite to the dughun festivities. In the afternoon, and also on the BIRTH AND CIRCUMCISION CEREMONIES 235 morrow, a series of entertainments is given in the selamlik of the mansion, Wednesday and Thursday being reserved for the subsequent festivities in the karemlik, which are enlivened by music and a variety of amusements. On Thursday morning the women of the household busy themselves in preparing couches for the boys, who mean- time, mounted on gaily caparisoned horses led by grooms, and accompanied by the Hodja, or family tutor, the barber, and a crowd of male relatives, make a progress through the streets of the quarter. On returning to the house of festivity, the children are received at the door of the selamlik by their respective fathers. As the horse of the young bey is brought to the mounting-block, and his father is about to help him to dismount, his hand is stayed by the Hodja with the words, " With what gift has my lord endowed his son ? " The father mentions the destined present, which may be landed property or some object of value, according to his means, and then lifts him down from his horse. For the other boys is also claimed and received a gift from their next-of-kin, or, failing these, from their entertainer, who is held to occupy for the occasion a father's place. The rite of circumcision is performed in the selamlik on the morning of Friday, and this accomplished, the boys are again consigned to the care of the women, who place them on the couches previously prepared, and make every effort to amuse and distract them. They are also visited during the day by their female relatives, who bring money and other gifts, not only to the children, but also to the 236 BIRTH AND CIRCUMCISION CEREMONIES barber and the musdadji who has announced to the mother of each boy the completion of the sacred rite. On the following morning the children are removed to their respective homes, but the entertainments are pro- longed for another couple of days, during which liberal hospitality is offered to the poor. CHAPTER XIII FAMILY CEREMONIES (2) MARRIAGE CEREMONIES IN common with all Moslems, the Turks hold the estate of marriage in great esteem. For it is re- lated in the Hadith, or "Traditions," that Mo- hammed said, "When the servant of Allah marries he perfects half of his religion." 1 Early marriages are, con- sequently, for this as well as for other reasons, the rule among the Osmanlis, the patriarchal customs alluded to in a previous chapter making it unnecessary for a youth to wait until he has a home of his own before taking a wife. Formerly, youths of eighteen were married to girls of from twelve to fifteen ; but nowadays such very youthful couples are seldom met with, though at a friend's house I once saw a bride of twelve who was the wife of a Turkish orderly in the service of the Pasha, my friend's husband. When, accordingly, it has been decided by the family council that the time has arrived for a youth to marry, his mother, if she has not already chosen a bride for him, 1 It is also related that the Prophet, being informed that a certain man was unmarried, asked him, " Art thou sound and healthy ? " "I am," replied the bachelor. " Then," said the Friend of Allah, " thou art one of the brothers of the devil " (Mishkat, bk. xiii. ch. i). 237 238 MARRIAGE CEREMONIES makes inquiries among her friends and of the old women brokers who act also as koulavouz or " go-betweens " in matters matrimonial as to families having pretty and marriageable daughters. This ascertained, she drives to each harem in turn, accompanied by one or more near relatives and the koulavouz. Introductions are unneces- sary, but the object of the visit is mentioned to the slave who, on their entering, comes forward to remove, according to custom, the outdoor veils and cloaks of the visitors. The lady of the house, informed of this, hastens to receive her guests with all honour, and should there be more than one daughter, the eldest proceeds to dress and adorn her- self for inspection for among the Turks, as with their Greek neighbours, daughters are married according to seniority. The two mothers meanwhile exchange conven- tional compliments until the portihe is raised and the maiden enters, and after saluting the strangers by kissing their hands, she offers to each in turn a cup of coffee from the tray which has been brought in at the same time by a slave. While this is being partaken of, she stands in modest attitude, and after receiving the empty cups salaams and vanishes. " MasJiallah ! What a beauty ! Your daughter, Hanum Effendi, is like a full moon ! " So the visitors, whatever their private opinion, are required by etiquette to exclaim, follow, and then the chief Giierudji, or ex P a ^ a ^ e on * ne good qualities of the woulcpbe bridegroom, mentions the amount of the nekyah, or settlements, he or his family are prepared to MARRIAGE CEREMONIES 239 offer, makes inquiries as to the girl's age and fortune, if any, and finally departs with the conventional remark that, should Kismet have decreed it, they will become better acquainted. It is considered no slight if nothing further comes of the visit of inspection, which is allowed to be, in legal phrase, " without prejudice." After some half-dozen harems have been thus visited, the lady returns home to describe the damsels to her husband and son ; and, the selection made, intermediaries are despatched to the family of the fortunate maiden to settle the preliminaries. ^^^ Meanwhile, though the youth may not, of course, see the maiden unveiled, she, on her side, is naturally anxious to see her future husband, and an opportunity for this is usually arranged by the respective mothers in the course of a drive abroad, when he will be found at some spot previously agreed upon. Boy and girl friendships, how- ever, not infrequently survive the intervening years of separation, and, developing into a warmer feeling, end in happy marriages. For in the young, romance is stronger than social and religious conventionalities, and love can surmount even the barriers of harem restraint. When the parties to the contract are mutually satisfied, the customary betrothal gifts a silver jewel-box, hand-mirror, and other toilet requisites are sent to the bride, who in her turn presents the bridegroom with a jewelled snuff-box, cash- mere shawl, etc. His mother then visits the bride, taking with her some yards of red silk and a basket of bonbons. The former is spread on the floor in front of the divan, and on it the bride stands when she approaches to kiss 240 MARRIAGE CEREMONIES the hand of her future mother-in-law, who presents her with the sweets and her blessing. Half a bonbon bitten in two by the girl's pearly teeth is conveyed back to the bridegroom, presumably as a first love-token. A few days later the aghirlik, a sum of money which is practically the bridegroom's contribution to the expenses of the wedding festivities, is sent to the maiden's father ; and eight days after this betrothal is followed by the legal marriage. According to the law of Islam, marriage is not a religious, but a civil contract, the validity of which con- sists in its being attested by at least two witnesses. The ceremony takes place in the house of the bride's father, in the selamlik of which the amount of the nekyah the before-mentioned sum to be paid to the bride in the event of divorce is finally discussed and formally agreed to. The contract drawn up and attested, the bridegroom stands up and thrice proclaims his desire to wed the daughter of Selim Effendi, or AH Bey, as the case may be. There- upon the Imdm, who is present in his legal capacity, proceeds with the maiden's father to the door of com- munication with the women's apartments, behind which the bride and her friends are assembled, and after declaring the amount of the nekyah offered, asks the maiden if she is willing to wed So-and-so. When the question has been thrice asked and thrice affirmatively answered, the Imam returns to the selamlik, the contract is formally signed and witnessed, and the parties are legally man and wife. But before the young couple may see or hold any communication with each other, this Legal Sanction must be supplemented MARRIAGE CEREMONIES by the Social Sanction, which is manifested by public par- ticipation in the various ceremonies and festivities which precede the transfer of a bride from her father's roof to her new home, such festivities being termed collectively the dughun. Some months may, however, pass before the dughun can take place, as elaborate preparations must be made for its due celebration, according to the social position and wealth of the contracting families. The wedding-dress, together with sundry accessories which it is customary for the bridegroom to furnish, are sent with great ceremony to the home of the bride a week before the date fixed for the commencement of the dughun. The rest of her trousseau is provided by her parents, as also is the " plenishing " of household linen and bedding. To these are added a supply of ^kitchen utensils, all of copper ; furniture for two rooms covered with costly material ; a handsome brass mangal, or brazier and stand ; various articles of walnut-wood inlaid with mother-of-pearl, ivory, or silver, such as dinner-trays and stands, dustpans, bath- pattens, etc. The wedding festivities extend over a week, and how- ever ill a father can afford the expenses inseparable from their due celebration, custom compels him to incur them. Such festivities are, in fact, the delight of the general run of Osmanli women, and it is a point of honour with a mother to celebrate her daughter's dughun with as great % tclat as possible. Like the Sunnet dughun above described, it begins on a Monday, when a number of relatives and friends assemble at the bride's home to escort the trousseau R MARRIAGE CEREMONIES and plenishing to the bridegroom's abode. The luggage is carried on the backs of porters under the supervision of the ancient go-between, who is responsible for its safe delivery, the former receiving at the hands of the bride- groom's mother, in addition to their fee, a chevrek, or em- broidered napkin. The ladies follow on foot or in carriages, according to the distance, and after partaking of coffee and sweets, proceed to decorate the apartments destined for the bride's special occupation. Some fasten strings along the walls, on which they display the various articles of the trousseau^ together with the cashmere shawls and Persian prayer-carpets, the embroidered sheets and pillow-slips, towels and bundle-wraps, all disposed with a view to artistic effect. In one corner of the room a canopy is constructed of gauzes, embroideries, and crape flowers, beneath which the jewels and other objects of value are arranged on a table under glass shades, while garlands of similar flowers are suspended along the four walls. This satisfactorily com- pleted, the party turn their attention to the second apart- ment, where they set out the furniture and bedding, the stools of inlaid wood, the hoshaf tray, with its service of crystal bowl and ivory spoons, the candelabra, and the household requisites before mentioned. On Tuesday the bride is taken with great ceremony to the public bath, the fees for the whole party being, on this occasion, paid by the bridegroom. When ready to leave the inner hot chamber, the maiden, wearing of course only her bath robe, is led by her mother three times round the central platform, on which the guests are seated, and MARRIAGE CEREMONIES 243 kisses the hand of each hanum in acknowledgment of the customary formula of congratulation and good wishes. The clothes she dons after this ablution, and wears until arrayed in her bridal finery, should not, according to traditional custom, belong to her, but be borrowed for the occasion. Early in the afternoon of Wednesday the bridegroom's lady relatives proceed in a body to the home of the bride, preceded by the go-between, who announces with great formality their arrival. The bride's mother and all her assembled friends hasten to the foot of the staircase, and forming a double row in the entrance hall, the first couple place each a hand under the arms of the bridegroom's mother, supporting her as she ascends the stairs, the rest following suit with the other guests. 1 The new arrivals, after having been divested of their outdoor garb, are conducted to a room set apart for their reception it being contrary to etiquette on this day for the two sets of guests to mingle around which they seat themselves on the divan and are served with unsweetened coffee and cigarettes. An hour later sweetened coffee is handed round ; and as soon as the cups have been removed the bride enters, still wearing her borrowed garments ; and supported on either side by a matron who has been only once married, she makes the tour of the room, kissing the hands of all present, beginning with her Kain Valid^ or mother-in-law, and not omitting the youngest girl 1 A survival of the ancient Oriental practice of carrying upstairs distinguished guests or persons of high rank. 244 MARRIAGE CEREMONIES present. A chair is then placed for her close to this lady, on which she remains seated for a few minutes during which this lady transfers some sugar-stick from her mouth to that of her daughter-in-law, a custom which, together with the half sugar-plum sent to the bridegroom at the betrothal, would seem to be a survival of the ancient and widespread marriage-rite of food-sharing. After having been entertained for some time by the performances of musicians and dancing girls, the bride- groom's mother and her party take their leave, receiving at the same time an invitation to return in the evening for the Khena ceremony. The bride then again comes forward and conducts the guests to the foot of the stair- case, where they throw over her a shower of small coins, which are forthwith scrambled for by the beggars, children, and hangers-on always to be found in great numbers at the door of a haremlik during the progress of a dughtm. When the company are again assembled in the evening, a taper is handed to each of the younger members of the party, who, led by the bride and escorted by the musicians and dancing girls, descend to the garden. Winding in a long and wavy line, now between the fragrant flower-beds, and now in the shadow of the trees and -shrubs, their rich dresses, bright jewels, fair faces, and floating hair fitfully lighted by the flickering tapers, their feet moving to the rhythm of the tinkling castanets and wild strains of the dusky-hued Gypsy girls, one might imagine them a troop of Peris engaged in their nocturnal revels. Returning to the house, the bride, divested of her gay attire, enters the MARRIAGE CEREMONIES 245 reception-room, holding her left arm across her brow, and seats herself on a stool in the centre of the apartment. The fingers of her right hand are then covered thickly with henna paste, on which the bridegroom's mother sticks a gold coin, the other guests following suit. This hand, covered with a silken bag, is now held across her face, while the left hand is similarly plastered and decorated by the bride's mother and friends. When the maiden's toes have also been similarly treated, the ceremony is terminated with a wild pantomimic dance by the Gypsy performers, at the conclusion of which these women fall into exaggerated postures before the principal ladies in order to receive their guerdon, which is looked for as much from the guests as from the hostess. The bride is then left to repose until the henna is considered to have stained her fingers to the requisite amber hue, when it is washed off. If left on too long the skin assumes a blackish hue, which would be considered a bad augury for her wedded life. The bride is usually conducted to her new home on the morning of Thursday, accompanied by an immense concourse, the women in carriages and the men on horse- back, and preceded by music. But before leaving the paternal roof a touching little ceremony takes place in private : the bride's father, in the presence only of her mother and sisters, girding his daughter with the "wedding girdle." While performing this traditional farewell ob- servance, the paterfamilias is, as a rule, deeply affected, and weeps in company with his wife and children. The 246 MARRIAGE CEREMONIES departing bride falls at his feet and kisses them and his hands. He raises and presses her to his breast, and after winding the girdle about her waist, gives her his paternal blessing. Arrived at her new home, the bride is received at the haremlik entrance by the bridegroom, who conducts her upstairs through the crowd of guests there assembled the ladies on this occasion dispensing with their veils on the pretext that the only man present is too pre- occupied to look at them ! to the seat of honour in the bridal chamber, and then rejoins his male guests in the selamlik. The bride's veil is now raised, and she and her trousseau remain for some hours on view, not only to the invited guests, but to all the women of the neighbour- hood who flock in to gaze on the poor girl, the festivities being continued in both divisions of the house until evening. After the customary evening prayers have been per- formed in the selamlik, the parish Imam, who forms one of the company on such occasions, invokes a benediction on the young couple ; and at its conclusion the bride- groom hurries towards the door leading to the haremlik, followed by his friends, who administer smart blows on his back and also throw at him with no gentle hand the shoes of which a supply will always be found in the entrance hall. 1 The door at last shut between the happy man and his pursuers, he is led upstairs to the bridal 1 This attack on the bridegroom would seem to be a survival of the custom of Bride-capture still simulated, if not actually practised, at the present day in Asia Minor by the Tartar, Circassian, and other tribesmen. MARRIAGE CEREMONIES 247 chamber by the old koulavouz, who, on this occasion, acts as mistress of the ceremonies to the young couple. The bride rises from her seat as he enters, steps forward and kisses his hand. Her bridal veil of crimson silk is spread on the floor, and on it the husband kneels as he offers a brief prayer, the wife standing meanwhile on its edge. Bride and bridegroom are then seated side by side on the divan, and the koulavouz shows them in a mirror the reflection of their united faces, expressing at the same time a pious wish for the continuance of their present harmonious union. After serving the couple with coffee, she withdraws to make preparations for their supper. The hour of this meal will, however, depend on the humour of the bride, whose shyness, or obstinacy, must be over- come to the extent at least of inducing her to speak to the bridegroom an indispensable preliminary to his assuming any authority over her. Oriental brides are recommended by experienced matrons not to respond too readily to the advances of their husbands, who are occasionally compelled to have recourse to stratagem in order to obtain their supper. Once a word has been vouchsafed, the husband makes a signal, and the meal is served. On the following morning, the couple enter, hand in hand, the principal reception-room of the house, where all the bridegroom's family await them, anxious to ascertain " whether their stars have met," which the women at least have no difficulty in discovering from the expression of their respective countenances. Both salute the heads of 248 MARRIAGE CEREMONIES the family by kissing their hands, and receive from them in return the customary presents. At noon a repast termed the "feast of sheep's trotters," from the dish specially offered to the bride and bridegroom on this occasion is served to numerous guests both in the haremlik and selamlik ; and the two subsequent days are also devoted to harem festivities, during which the bride, in her wedding array, sits in state to receive the con- gratulatory visits of all the matrons included in the visiting lists of both families. In the case, however, of a widow, or woman who has been divorced, these elaborate formalities are dispensed with ; and, as previously mentioned, no dughtm is con- sidered necessary at the wedding of a woman of slave origin. CHAPTER XIV FAMILY CEREMONIES (3) FUNERAL CEREMONIES THE divine calm of the Moslem spirit the spirit of profound and complete resignation to the Will of Allah is on no occasion more strongly mani- fested by the Osmanlis than in the presence of death. The pious Mohammedan may, indeed, be said to have ever present to his mind the termination of earthly existence and the life beyond ; he considers himself but camped in this world, as his nation has been said to be but camped in Europe ; and he regards the joys and allurements of earthly existence as but illusions and shadows in com- parison with the everlasting delights which await him in Paradise. Kismet, which determines the events of a person's life, and Edjel, his " appointed time," are decreed by Allah, who has inscribed them in invisible characters on the brow of every human being. 1 The ill-fated Sultan Abdul Aziz, in the brief interval between his deposition and death in 1876, is reported to have traced with his finger on a dust-covered table in his 1 Compare the Koran, Sura, Ivii. v. 19. 249 250 FUNERAL CEREMONIES prison-house some Turkish lines which may be thus translated " Man's destiny is Allah's will, And power is given by Him alone ; My fate is written on my brow, I humbly bend before His throne." This unquestioning submission to the decrees of Fate renders death terrible to Moslems only in the abstract, and when viewed from a distance, In polite society it is never alluded to save under some poetical name, such as the " Cupbearer of the Sphere," and prefaced by the words " Far be it from you " ; and the common people before uttering the word invariably spit an action which has much the same signification. Such a fatalistic view of life and death causes the Osmanli populace to regard the medical art with scant respect. If a person believes himself to have heard the call " Return? 1 he will die, doctors and " charmers " not- withstanding ; and if the " appointed time " has not yet arrived, he will recover so why trouble him with drugs ? When the " Cupbearer of the Sphere " is believed to be at hand, the relations of the moribund gather round the 1 An allusion to the verse of the Koran, which says, "O thou comforted soul ! Return unto thy Lord, well pleased, and well pleased with " (Sura^ Ixxxix. 28). In an elegy by the eighteenth-century poetess Leyla Hanum on the untimely death of her friend the foster-sister of Sultan Mahmoud II. the following lines occur, referring also to this verse : " Though her Kind Friend (i.e. Allah) never parted from her eyes, sweet gentle beam, Still did she to God her soul yield and the call Return obey." (Gibb, Ottoman Poems.} FUNERAL CEREMONIES 251 couch, weeping silently, or reciting prayers to keep away the evil spirits believed to be ever on the alert to harass and torment a departing soul. If the dying person be conscious, and able to speak, kelal t or free forgiveness of all injuries, is requested and granted on both sides. Pious bequests, too, are often made on death-beds and slaves set free, charity of this kind having been specially commended by the Prophet. The wailing of the women commences as soon as the last breath has been drawn. Those most affected by the sad event beat their breasts and tear their hair in a pas- sionate outburst of genuine grief. As soon, however, as this first expression of sorrow has exhausted itself, pre- parations are commenced for performing the last rites to the dead, and invitations are at once issued for the funeral, which takes place either on the same or on the following day. When the eyes of the dead have been closed and the chin has been bandaged, the body is placed, covered only with a sheet, on the ratiat latak, or " Couch of Ease," a kind of stretcher on which, in the case of a man, it is borne to the courtyard of the house to be washed by the Imdm and his subordinates ; but for a woman these last ablutions are performed in private by "washers" of her own sex. As a peculiarly sacred character is attached to this ablutionary rite, great reverence is invariably observed in carrying out every detail of the ceremony. The body is kept covered as much as possible, and handled with great gentleness and care, as any rough or disrespectful usage may, it is believed, draw upon the offending washer 252 FUNERAL CEREMONIES the "wrath of the dead." l For the traditions of Mohammed, as well as the works of Moslem doctors, teach that a dead body is conscious of pain, and great care is consequently taken to avoid undue pressure while washing a corpse. Seven balls of cotton wool enveloped in calico, over which warm water is poured, are successively used for this pur- pose ; and the dead Moslem has thus performed for him for the last time the obtest the ablution which ensures his being buried in a state of " legal purity." These forma- lities accomplished, seven hundred drachms of cotton are weighed out, small portions of which are placed under the armpits and between the fingers and toes, and with the remainder the body over which a sleeveless gown called the kaflet has been drawn is enveloped ; pepper and other spices being then' placed in its folds and rose-water sprinkled. When the shroud has been bound over all the corpse is reverently lifted, by means of slings passed under it, into the temporary coffin. These observances concluded, and the hour fixed for the funeral arrived, the door of the chamber of death is thrown open, and the guests enter, preceded by the Imam. The latter, addressing those present, says, " O congrega- tion, what do you consider this man's (or woman's) life to have been ? " " Good," is invariably the response. " Then give helal to him." The helal given, the coffin draped 1 A story related by the Turkish author, Evliya Effendi, in his Narrative of Travel^ curiously illustrates this popular belief. A sub- ordinate washer, having somewhat roughly manipulated the body of a holy Sheikh, received a vigorous kick from the insulted corpse, and shortly afterwards sickened and died. FUNERAL CEREMONIES 253 with rich shawls and stuffs, and bearing, for a man, his turban or fez on a projection at the head, and, for a woman, her chimber, or coif is raised on the shoulders of four or more men, and borne to the cemetery, followed by a long procession of male mourners, clad in their ordinary attire. It being considered a meritorious act to carry a dead body even for a short distance, forty paces only absolving the performer from a mortal sin, the bearers at a Moslem funeral are consequently relieved at short intervals by others desirous of obtaining the benefits con- ferred by the performance of this religious duty. No lugu- brious chants, no noisy demonstrations of woe, such as often attend the obsequies of Eastern Christians and Jews, mark the progress of the Moslem to his last resting-place. In reverent silence the procession takes its way to the mosque, where the first part of the burial service which is very beautiful and impressive is read. " Earth to earth " burial is customary with the Turks, whose graves are orientated, like the holy places of their mosques, in the direction of the Kaaba at Mekka. On arriving at the cemetery, the coffin is accordingly placed by the side of the grave, the lid removed, and the body, gently lifted out by six persons by means of the bands before mentioned, is laid in the grave. When the re- mainder of the prayers and passages from the Koran con- stituting the burial service have been recited, two or three boards are fixed in the earth above the corpse, the grave is filled in, and the mourners return home. The Imam, however, remains for a time beside the grave, in order, it 254 FUNERAL CEREMONIES is said, to prompt the deceased in his replies to the " Questioners " the two angels Mounkir and Nekir, who, according to Moslem belief, enter the grave with the dead to interrogate him concerning his faith. 1 If the dead has been a devout Moslem, his reply will be, " My God is Allah ; my Prophet, Mohammed ; my religion, Islam ; and my Kibla, the Ka'aba." If, however, he has been but an indifferent follower of the Prophet, he will not be able to remember the formula of his creed. In the former case the angels give the dead a foretaste of the delights of Paradise ; while in the latter they afflict him with divers torments. The aspect of the great cemeteries on the outskirts of the Capital and the larger cities is indeed calculated to inspire supernatural terrors. Groves of tall, gloomy cypresses of incalculable age overshadow the vast areas 1 According to a belief common to many Oriental races, the soul retains after death some mysterious connexion with the body, which cannot be buried without it. This belief may be illustrated by the following little Dervish story. As the corpse of Kera Kadin, the saintly wife of the illustrious founder of the Mevlevi Order of Der- vishes, was being carried to the grave followed by an immense concourse of the Brotherhood, the bearers suddenly found themselves unable for a time to proceed an occurrence which greatly exercised the minds of the " Brethren of Love." A holy man of the Order, however, received the explanation that same night in a dream. At the spot at which the procession had been brought to a standstill, a man and a woman had, on the preceding day, been stoned to death for adultery, and the lady's soul had left her body in order to inter- cede for them with the All Merciful. Their forgiveness obtained, her spirit had returned to earth and the bearers were enabled to proceed with her body. From the "Acts of the Adepts," in the Mesnevi (Redhouse's Translation). FUNERAL CEREMONIES 255 occupied by the bodies of the Faithful for no two bodies are buried in one grave casting deep shadows even at noonday ; and as far as the eye can reach in any direction is an interminable array of grey headstones, standing erect, slanting or lying prone. If gloomy in the brilliant Eastern noonday, it is in the twilight weirdly uncanny, and by night a place of fearsome horror, peopled with ghouls and vampires ; and a Moslem would rather face death by knife, pistol, or poison than put himself in the way of encounter- ing these gruesome denizens of the cities of the dead. The tombstones placed at the head of a grave are usually four or five feet in height, either cylindrical or flat, and tapering towards the base, which causes them after a time to lean in all directions, giving to a cemetery a somewhat fantastic appearance. Round the cylinder or on the flat surface is finely engraved a long inscription, often touched up with gold, consisting of an invocation to Allah or a passage from the Koran, followed by a summary account of the life of the deceased, prominence being given to the spiritual side. The more ancient headstones of men's graves are surmounted by carved representations of turbans ; but since the use of the simpler fez has become general, this has been substituted, painted crimson, and with a dark blue tassel. The headstones of women and girls are often finished at the top with some conventional design of which the sunflower forms a favourite example, and the inscriptions which follow the invocation to the " Abiding One " * are, with few exceptions, in verse. 1 One of the thousand and one " Beautiful Names " of the Deity. 256 FUNERAL CEREMONIES On the occasion of the death of a person in good circumstances, gifts are made to the poor from among his or her personal effects, and money is also distributed as alms to the needy of the neighbourhood. Three days afterwards, a large batch of loukmd a kind of dough-nut or beignet is made, plates of which are sent round to the houses of friends, the poor also receiving their share of these funeral cates, in return for which their prayers are requested for the soul of the departed. This ceremony is repeated on the seventh and fortieth days after the funeral, and on the latter occasion a dole of loaves is added. Prayer for the dead is, indeed, considered by Moslems a religious duty of the highest importance. On the tomb- stones in Turkish cemeteries may often be found engraved appeals to the passers-by to offer on behalf of the occupant of the grave a Fatiha, or recitation of the opening Chapter of the Koran a passage which may be deemed the Moslem equivalent for the Christian Paternoster a customary act with all True Believers on visiting the tombs of departed friends or the shrines of the saintly dead. No external signs of mourning are used, or periods of seclusion observed by Osmanlis after the death of a relative. Female friends pay visits of condolence to the harem ; and the ladies, after acknowledging the customary expressions of sympathy and good wishes for their future exemption from bereavement, speak calmly and resignedly of the departed. Excessive sorrow for children is con- sidered by Moslems to be not only sinful, but detrimental to the repose of their souls and their happiness in Paradise. FUNERAL CEREMONIES 257 It is, however, on the other hand, esteemed an act of filial duty to mourn constantly for lost parents, and to pray un- ceasingly for their forgiveness and acceptance with Allah. As mentioned elsewhere, prayers and almsgiving are con- sidered by Moslems most beneficial to the souls of the departed. It is also customary to read or recite daily passages from the Koran on their behalf. At the conclu- sion of the Khotba, the sermon or address delivered in every Cathedral Mosque on Fridays after the congrega- tional service, a collect is recited praying for the bestowal of the Divine mercy and grace on Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet and Ancestress of all his descendants ; on Khadija and A'isha and the remainder of his wives ; and on "all resigned and believing women, living or dead." It is also customary for Moslems to conclude their namaz, or daily devotions, with a prayer for the forgiveness of the sins of the suppliant and his or her " two parents." CHAPTER XV TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE AS observed in a previous chapter, almost every Turkish dwelling, even the poorest, has its en- closed courtyard, and often a garden with over- shadowing mulberry, acacia, cypress, and plane tree. Each house, too, is completely detached, so that a considerable space of ground may be occupied, even within city^walls, by a somewhat sparse population. The houses of rich and poor alike are chiefly wooden or half-timbered con- structions, and to this fact are mainly due the disastrous conflagrations that have from time to time devastated the cities of the ^Egean. Latticed blinds of unpainted wood invariably cover the lower half of the streetward windows of the haremlik, thus distinguishing Moslem abodes from those of their Christian neighbours. A middle-class Turkish dwelling is generally surrounded on three sides by garden and courtyard, the fourth abutting on the street over which the upper story projects a couple of feet or so. The plastered walls are coloured a deep ochre or terra- cotta, which contrasts warmly and pleasantly with the unpainted woodwork of the window-sashes and lattices. Within the high, tile-topped walls of the courtyard, vines 258 TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE 259 and creepers clothe the supports of the outside staircase and landing leading to the living-rooms above, and in the garden beyond bloom in a luxuriant confusion little troubled by the unmethodic mind of an Oriental gardener, the rose and jasmine, tuberose and carnation, orange and pomegranate, side by side with the leek, bringal, tomato, and egg-plant, melon, cabbage, and parsley. Two rooms on the ground floor, having a separate entrance from the street, constitute the selamlik. Turkish konaks t as the mansions of families of position are termed, vary, however, considerably according to the taste, wealth, and rank of their owners ; according to whether situated in, or near the Capital, or in the pro- vinces ; and also to the date of their construction. All are, however, roofed with red tiles, and stand either amid gardens, or on the banks of the rushing Bosphorus. Those of the latter which are at all of ancient date are, in common with the humbler abodes above described, built entirely of wood, with the exception of the marble pillars of the facade, which have probably been appropriated from the ruins of some ancient edifice. These old konaks, with their projecting upper stories and irregular outlines, their elegant kiosks and terraces, bright colouring and verdant setting, are most picturesque in appearance. The lattices of unpainted wood screening the windows of the haremliks are constructed with circular openings through which the hanumsy themselves unseen, may gaze from their cushioned divans on the ever-changing scene below kazks, steamers, and sailing craft of all nations, borne on the 260 TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE rapid current flowing between the Euxine and the Sea of Marmora. A towing-path only a few yards wide separates the houses from this wonderful waterway, and is here and there raised, bridgewise, to form a Watergate through which the kaiks reach a staircase in the basement of the house. Generally speaking, however, a Turkish konak is, whether situated in the Capital or the provinces, an irregu- larly built, rambling edifice of two stories, divided internally into two establishments the haremlik and the selamlik. The former and larger division contains the private apart- ments of the family, and in the latter are the rooms used by its male members for the transaction of business, for formal receptions, and general hospitality. An apartment termed the mabeyn an Arabic word signifying " a space between two objects " serves to connect the two divisions of the mansion, the keys of the communicating doors being naturally kept by the master ; but a kind of buttery-hatch in the form of a revolving cupboard, called the dulap, serves for all verbal communication between the two departments, and also for the transmission of provisions into, and of dishes from, the haremlik kitchen when a meal has to be served in the selamlik, and no second cook is kept for this department. The haremlik has its entrance from a separate courtyard, or garden, the front door opening into a large hall which gives access to rooms on each side, and occupies the whole depth of the building. One of these rooms is the kahveh odjak, or " coffee hearth," where an old woman may always be found presiding over a wide, low charcoal brazier, ready to prepare at a moment's notice the fragrant TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE 261 beverage so beloved of Orientals ; the others are used as storerooms and sleeping apartments for the inferior slaves. The kitchen, which is very spacious, is usually an out- building. One side of it is occupied by the great arched cooking stove, with its rows of little grates, on which the contents of the brightly burnished copper pans simmer over charcoal embers, fanned with a turkey's wing by the fat negress cook. A wide, uncarpeted, but well-scrubbed staircase leads from the entrance hall to the upper floor, the centre of which is generally occupied by a spacious ante-room, on which all the other rooms open. In some of the older houses the divan kkant, or state reception-room, contains at one end a recess, the floor of which is raised, dais-wise, a foot or more above the level of the rest of the apartment. A low divan furnishes its three sides, and in the most comfortable corner, which is the habitual seat of the house- mistress, is a pile of flat rectangular cushions, and here may also be found her circular silver hand-mirror and inlaid jewel-box. If the divan khane has not such a recess, one end and half the two adjoining sides are usually occupied by a continuous sofa, the fourth wall being furnished with a marble-topped " console " table surmounted by a mirror and candelabra, and flanked on either side by shelves in niches containing porcelain rose-water sprinklers, crystal sherbet goblets, and other objects both useful and orna- mental. A few common chairs stand stiffly against the wall in every space left vacant, one or two inlaid walnut- wood tray-stools being placed here and there near the 262 TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE divan to hold cigarette boxes, ash-trays, and other trifles. The walls are usually whitewashed, those of the principal rooms having, perhaps, a frieze painted in distemper, with designs of foliage and animals, representations of the human form being forbidden by the Koran. The ceilings, which are uniformly of wood, are often ornamented with ara- besque work in intricate and delicate patterns. ^/ Bedsteads are not used by the Turks, the bedding being stowed away by day in large cupboards, and the couches spread at night on the divans or on the carpeted floor of each room. Such bedroom furniture as washstands, dressing-tables, and wardrobes are dispensed with in old- fashioned dwellings. Turks prefer to wash in running water, and there is a small washing-room with a hole in the marble floor to carry off the waste. Should the hamim desire to wash her hands and face only, a slave brings to her the brass jug and basin, and pours the water from the former over her hands ; and for ablutions on a larger scale she will resort either to the public baths or to her private kammam, a Turkish bath on a small scale being an indis- pensable adjunct of a Moslem house of any importance. Bathing accommodation of some kind may, indeed, be found in the most modest dwelling, even if but a tiny cabinet furnished with a drain for carrying off the water after use. The ladies of the family "do their hair," or have it done for them by their slave-maids, as they sit cross-legged on the divan ; and as to their " frocks and frills," the old carved and inlaid walnut-wood chests and coffers in the treasure-room suffice to store their gauzes TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE 263 and brocades, silks and embroideries. Here, also, may often be found priceless treasures in metal, porcelain, glass, and gems, which, were they displayed in the reception-rooms, would greatly add to their cheerfulness. Such, however, save in dwellings into which European ideas and customs have penetrated, is not the practice of the Osmanlis. The warming apparatus most commonly used is the mangal, a wide, shallow brass or copper pan containing charcoal embedded in wood ashes. This is placed on a stand of wrought metal or polished wood, from two to three feet square, and a few inches high, which occupies the centre of the room. The old-fashioned tandur y also, though fallen into disuse in the European provinces, may still often be met with in Asia Minor, even in the houses of foreigners. It consists of a four-legged, square deal table, having a shelf covered with tin a few inches from the floor, in the centre of which is placed a pan of charcoal enclosed in a metal screen. Over all is thrown a large, thickly wadded quilt, which the ladies for this is an eminently feminine luxury seated on two sides of the tandur in an angle of the divan, draw over their knees. The use of American stoves is, however, increasing year by year, and the pic- turesqueness of many old konaks as also of humbler dwellings is often destroyed by unsightly black stove- pipes, which emerge from the windows or walls and climb up to the eaves. The partiality of the Osmanlis for light and fresh air leads them to construct their houses with a superfluity of windows, the space between , the lights and the upper story seldom exceeding a few inches ; and as 264 TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE they are often ill-constructed, and warped by sun and storm, the wind and wet enter in all directions. Within, their unpainted ugliness is only partially disguised by scrimpy curtains, most commonly of cheap and gaudy cretonne with the edges " pinked " ! Such a mansion as I have above described is a fair specimen of the average dwelling of a Turkish family of good position, as well in the Capital and suburbs as in the provinces, unless exceptionally wealthy, or infected with the d la Franka mania for imitating European manners and customs. There are, however, in Constantinople and its suburbs a considerable number of new houses, hand- somely and solidly built, and in outward appearance dis- tinguishable from the dwellings of foreigners only by the lattice-protected windows of their haremliks. The disposal of the rooms is naturally that best suited to Osmanli customs, and the furniture a compromise between Eastern and Western styles. Native costume and native furniture, no less than native architecture and art, however rich and varied in colour and material, never offend a cultured eye when used in accordance with time-honoured custom, as evidenced by our appreciation of Oriental embroideries, carpets, and textile fabrics generally. But the Oriental mind seems, as a rule, to become confused when it endea- vours to assimilate its own notions of luxury and magnifi- cence to those suggested by the civilisation of the West. The highest developments of art are brought into close contact with objects of the most tasteless construction, and magnificence is thrown into strong and unpleasing TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE 265 relief by juxtaposition with tawdriness ; and this chaotic state of mind not infrequently finds expression in combi- nations of material and colour calculated to harrow the soul of the least aesthetic Western. Crimson is trimmed with scarlet, and pink with violet ; shabby chintz hangs side by side with rich brocade and velvet ; and a cheap rug "made in Germany," and representing a dog or lion, is spread side by side with a silken carpet of almost priceless value. From the description above given of Osmanli homes it will, however, I trust, be sufficiently evident that a harem, or rather haremlik, far from meriting the epithets of "detestable prison" 1 and "place of degradation," often 1 For instance, in Forty Days in the East, the author (E. H. Mitchell) says, " A visit to a harem was said to be a desirable con- clusion to our sojourn in the East, but I, for one, declined to enter such a place of degradation. Were it possible by such a visit to help our poor sisters out of their slavery, I should only have been too thank- ful to make it ; but to go and see them penned up in their detestable prison," etc. The late M. Servan de Sugny, too, who, as an Oriental scholar, might have been expected to know better, would appear to have imagined that the Osmanlis are in the habit of loading their women with chains and keeping them in dungeons, when he wrote, " Le croirait-on ? Les femmes memes, dans ce pays ou le sexe est reduit au plus affreux, au plus ddgradant esclavage, des femmes ont ose saisir d'une main meurtrie de fers la lyre du poete," etc. La Muse Ottomane, Preface, p. xv. It is not, however, surprising that such popular misconceptions of harem life persist in the West when one finds even professedly serious publications illustrated by fancy repre- sentations which would have been practically out of date a century ago. See, for instance, the frontispiece to Harmsworth's History of the World, Part 24. The authors of the chapters illustrated are, perhaps, however, as little responsible for this, as I myself was for the frontispiece to my last published book, which represents a so- TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE applied to such abodes by superficial travellers, is, as a rule, the most cheerful and commodious division of a house. For the term harem (in Arabic haram) simply means " a sacred enclosure," the same term being applied to the sanctuaries of Islam. The haremlik is conse- quently the sanctum sanctorum, the place safe from all in- trusion, into which even the husband refrains from entering if one or more pairs of overshoes at the door of the divan khant announces that his wife has guests divested, according to custom, of their outdoor garments. And I will now attempt to give some account of the daily life led by the denizens of these, to many, mysterious abodes. As with Oriental nations generally, the mother occupies the most honourable position among a man's female relatives. Osmanli women are most indulgent mothers, especially to their sons, who naturally in early youth take advantage of their devotion. Arrived, however, at years of discretion, a young Turk, realising the Prophet's sym- bolical saying that "Paradise is under the feet of the mother," becomes in his turn her devoted slave. Debarred by custom from intercourse with all women not closely connected with him by ties of blood, a man's mother and grandmother, sisters and aunts, are consequently his only female friends ; and to this fact may, no doubt, be traced the strong affection which exists between mother and son, brother and sister. The harem has, indeed, been termed, called "Turkish Lady" in an attitude which no decent Osmanli woman would think of assuming in the presence of a photographer, and smoking a narghilek a practice quite at variance with feminine custom. TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE 267 and perhaps not without truth, " the sanctuary of family happiness." For the wife and daughters, having no out- side interests, use their utmost efforts to make home pleasant to their male relatives. The relations between the various members of an Osmanli household, and the deference from younger people towards their seniors required by family etiquette, may appear somewhat curious to Europeans. They are, however, the necessary outcome of the patriarchal system which has obtained among all the nationalities of Turkey, and has only of recent years been to a certain extent abandoned by the Christian element in the seaboard towns of the JEgean. According to the customary laws of this ancient social system, if a man's widowed mother reside permanently under his roof, which is not unusual, his wife's position in the house is but secondary, and she is required to defer to her mother- in-law in all things. Hand-kissing being the usual mode of respectful greeting, the wife kisses the hand of her Kain Valid^ as also that of her husband, on the occasion of any family event, or any anniversary, and also on special Moslem holidays, such as the opening of the Bairam festival. The wife may not seat herself at table before her husband's mother has taken her place, nor be the first to help herself to the dishes, nor may she smoke a cigarette in the presence of " the first lady " until invited by her to do so. It no doubt often happens that a good deal of friction exists between two women occupying these relative positions. But the prescribed etiquette is none the less observed, and the young hanum probably consoles herself 268 TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE with the reflection that at some future date their observ- ance will be to her own advantage. According to Islamic law, the care and maintenance of indigent parents, and especially of mothers and grand- mothers, is incumbent on Moslems ; and it would be difficult to find in Islamiyeh a parallel to cases of common occurrence in England, in which a progenitor of a family numbering perhaps from fifty to a hundred souls, is de- pendent for his or her subsistence on public charity. In all matters of etiquette indeed, whether family or social, pre- cedence depends on seniority. If, for example, a married Turk has a sister residing in his harem, the elder of the two would enjoy precedence of the other ; and similarly if he has three children, the eldest and the youngest being boys and the second a girl, the girl must defer to her elder brother, while the younger boy, spoilt and indulged though he may be, must give way to her in everything that affects their common interests. Nor do the youthful members of a family presume to sit cross-legged before their elders. In the selamlik too, similar etiquette is required of boys ; and in the presence of guests they speak only when specially addressed. As above remarked, the only persons of the male sex besides the master who are permitted to enter the haremlik are his sons, his wife's father, and her brothers. In the large cities, however, some members of the " advanced " class of society also admit their own brothers and, pos- sibly, even more distant relations ; while a few may intro- duce to their wives and daughters, in addition to the TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE 269 above, their more intimate male friends. But in house- holds belonging to the old regime, which constitute the bulk of the population, no male relation of the master is allowed access to the harem after attaining puberty if out- side the prohibited degrees of consanguinity, a restriction which inexorably and eternally separates first cousins of different sexes, however close their childish intimacy may have beenunless, of course, a marriage between them should subsequently be arranged. Daily life in the harem is consequently no doubt some- what monotonous ; but it is quite erroneous to suppose that an Osmanli woman of the better class has no duties or occu- pations beyond a certain amount of servile attendance on her Bluebeard of a husband, and that she passes her days reclining on a divan, " eating sweets and playing with her jewels." For, having so few interests outside her home, the hanum is very domesticated, and no accomplishments are so much appreciated in a marriageable maiden as proficiency in the domestic arts. Needlework especially is held in great estimation, and for many years before marriage a girl finds occupation for her leisure hours in embroidering the sheets, towels, quilts, napkins, and other articles which will later on figure in her trousseau and deck the bridal chamber. Like all Orientals, the Osmanli matron is an early riser, and after partaking of a cup of coffee and a cigarette, she is ready to wait upon her husband. She places his slippers by the side of his couch, and holds his pelisse ready, and as soon as he is comfort- ably seated on the divan, after making his morning toilet 270 TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE and performing the first of the namaz or five daily prayers previously mentioned, she pours out his coffee from the little ibrik in which it has been brought in by a slave, places the cup in the silver zarf, and hands it to him. The hanum also fills his tchibouk, should he prefer one to the more fashionable cigarette, hands him the amber mouth- piece, and then proceeds to light the fragrant finely shredded Latakia by placing on the bowl with a tiny pair of tongs an ember of glowing charcoal. She remains in attendance, seated on a cushion at his feet, while the slaves roll up the bedding and stow it away in the wall-cupboards. The children then troop in, uncombed and unwashed, in their quaint night-gear wide trousers and quilted jackets of coloured cotton to kiss the hand of their sire and be caressed by both parents. No nursery breakfast, however, awaits them ; and they presently begin to clamour for pence with which to purchase their morning meal. The ten and twenty para-pieces distributed, the children scamper down to the courtyard gate near which they are almost sure to find the simitdji, or vendor of ring-shaped cakes covered with sesame seeds ; or, if he is not in sight, they make their way to the nearest chandler's shop, where they have their choice of halvd a sweetstuff made from sesame seed and honey, cheese, or fruit, as a relish to their bread. After this irregular meal the boys and girls over eight years old are tidied up and sent, escorted by a male servant from the selamlik y to the parish mekteb y where the children of rich and poor meet on a common footing. The babies meanwhile roam freely about the haremlik attended TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE 271 by the dadi, a slave who performs, after a fashion, the duties of nursemaid. The effendi finally makes his outdoor toilet and departs to his day's avocations, leaving the womenkind to follow their own devices for the rest of the day. For the hanum is perfect mistress of her time, as of her property. She will probably first inspect with her negress cook the pro- visions for the day brought in by the ayvas often an Armenian and passed into the haremlik through the dulap the revolving cupboard before mentioned. For the domestic economy of the natives of Turkey generally is of a somewhat " hand-to-mouth " character, so far as fresh provisions are concerned ; and accounts are settled daily between the mistress and the ayvas, either at the dttlap, or the kitchen door, behind which the lady sits with a muslin kerchief thrown over her head, this transaction appearing usually to necessitate prolonged argument conducted, on one side at least, in language more forcible than polite. If any special culinary treat in th^ way of pickling, cake-making, or preserving is in the day's domestic pro- gramme, the hanum will remain in the kitchen to super- intend or assist in the operation ; on washing and ironing days, too, she and her daughters will take a more or less active part with the slaves in the day's work. In the Capital, however, such domestic occupations are being gradually abandoned by the younger and more fashionable hanums and their daughters, who, emulating the pursuits of the foreign ladies with whom they now come more into contact, prefer to occupy their time in 272 TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE learning foreign languages and acquiring foreign accom- plishments. Paying and receiving calls, attending dughtms, pro- menading, driving, shopping, and going to the public baths are the chief outdoor amusements of the general run of Osmanli women. Before setting out with any of these objects, a hanum must, however, first obtain her husband's permission. If the ejjendi is inclined to be jealous and strict, he may object to his family being much out of doors, and permission may sometimes be refused. But in the majority of households this is merely a polite formality, and leave for an expedition is granted as soon as requested. When a walk or drive is proposed, the children clamour to accompany their mother ; and scarcely is this question settled by dint of coaxing and distribution of pence, than another arises among the slaves as to whose turn it is to be of the party a question seldom settled without tears, entreaties, and even little quarrels and disturbances. At last the mistress herself selects her party, and the important business of the toilet commences. Oriental women are much addicted to the use of cosmetics, and faces are blanched and rouged, eyebrows and lashes touched up with surmth, and numerous other little coquetries resorted to, which, toned down by the semi-transparent yashmak, are calculated to "put beholders in a tender taking." Then follows a scramble for seats in the carriage, or carriages. The hanums, of course, take their places first, and the slaves, regardless of comfort, pack themselves together, and even sit on each others' knees if necessary; A TURKISH LADY IN YASHMAK AND FERADJEH V TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE 273 It is indeed curious to see how many can be thus accom- modated in one vehicle. Whatever the object of the outing may have been, the party will not remain out of doors after sunset, but will endeavour to be back in time to receive their menkind on their return from the day's occupations. An Osmanli, it may here be remarked, never, under any circumstances, goes abroad in company with his harem, though little girls, before adopting theyas/tma&, may constantly be seen in public with their fathers, and are allowed free access to the selamlik. But the veil once donned, a girl enters the ranks of womanhood, and is thenceforward subjected to all the restrictions of the harem. And the reason of this separation of the sexes out of doors is sufficiently obvious. For a father or brother could not frequent the public promenades in company with his female relations without bringing them directly under the notice of his friends and acquaintances, and thus infringing the fundamental principle of the harem. Going to the bath is made by Osmanli women the occasion of great festivity and ceremony. A complete outfit of garments for each lady is carried by a slave tied up in a square boktcha, or bundle-wrapper the primitive and universal portmanteau made without of silk, and often richly embroidered ; these garments being donned after the bath, together with their possessor's most hand- some jewels, for the admiration and perhaps envy of the other ladies they may meet at this favourite rendezvous. Other slaves carry, in addition to fruits and refreshments of all kinds, a variety of rugs, bath- wraps, brass basins, and 274 TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE the multitude of to the uninitiated mysterious articles considered necessary for the due performance of this im- portant ablutionary rite. And at the hammam the ladies, with their children and attendants, remain for the best part of the day, eating and drinking, singing, frolicking, and gossiping in the intervals of the oft-repeated soapings, rinsings and rubbings, the applications to the hair of crushed laurel berries, and to the nails of henna, and other toilet details impossible to describe. The Osmanlis indulge in but two meals a day the karvaltu, which is eaten about eleven o'clock, and the yemek, partaken of about sunset, and varying accordingly between five o'clock in winter and eight in summer. Men whose vocations take them away from home, rarely return for the early meal, but eat their kebabs and pilaf at one of the numerous cookshops to be found in all business centres ; so it is to the karvaltu that ladies generally invite their friends, there being also the additional reason that Moslem women rarely go abroad after nightfall. Some- times large luncheon parties are given, at which the most rigid etiquette is observed. The hostess leads the way to the dining-room where, in old-fashioned households, the covers are laid on sofras circular tables, or rather stands, raised only some eight inches from the floor, and accom- modating at the most half a dozen persons. If the guests are numerous, there will be several sofras, at which they are distributed according to their rank. At a genuinely Turkish table the covers consist merely of a spoon and portion of bread. Round the raised leather pad, which TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE 275 occupies the centre, are grouped small saucers containing hors d'oeuvre olives, cubes of water-melon or cucumber, radishes, anchovies, etc. As the ladies seat themselves cross-legged on the low cushions disposed around the sofra, slaves approach bearing water, soap, and towels. One holds the leyen, or basin, made with a little stand in the centre to hold the ball of soap, and a " well " into which the used water disappears through perforations ; another pours water on the hands from an elegantly shaped brass ibrik; while a third tenders the embroidered towel with which to dry them. Other towels with ends embroidered in coloured silks and gold thread the chevreh of which the East has of late years been almost emptied by the demand for them in the West are distributed as table napkins, and the repast commences. A tureen of soup, very thick, rich, and nourishing, is first placed on the sofra. With a wave of her hand, and a polite " Boyournu Effendi? the hostess invites the principal guest to dip in her spoon. If, how- ever, all her guests are of inferior rank to herself, she takes precedence, and the first spoonful. When the spoons have returned a few times to the tureen, it is removed and re- placed with a number of other dishes in succession. The hors cFoeuvres, with various sweets and fruits, fill up the intervals between the courses until the pilaf is placed on the sofra. This national dish is composed chiefly of rice and butter, and is, like the others, eaten with the fingers which may sound a difficult feat. But "practice makes perfect," and it is surprising to see with what neatness and dexterity the loose grains of rice can be picked up 276 TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE by two henna-stained fingers and a thumb, and conveyed to the mouth. The last dish, the hochaf, consists of stewed fruits cooled with ice, served in a crystal bowl, and eaten with long spoons of ivory. Water, and occasionally sherbet the latter, however, not an effervescing drink, but made from fresh fruits are the only beverages partaken of in the haremlik, and these are not placed on the table, but handed by the attendants as required. At the conclusion of the repast the ley en and ibrik are again carried round, and the party adjourn to the divan khant. After a short interval, during which the ladies place themselves on the divan still, however, observing the rules of precedence a kalfa, or head servant, enters, bearing on a tray draped with a richly embroidered crimson napkin, the coffee-pot, tiny porcelain cups, and zarfs, as the cupholders in gold or silver are called. She is followed by a troop of slave- girls, who advance in turn to the tray, pour out a cup of coffee, place it in the zarf, and present it to the guests, according to their rank, which it is their duty previously to ascertain, those of equal rank being served simultaneously. Tchibouk-smoking has gone out of fashion among Osmanli ladies, and with it, of course, the ancient ceremonial of pipe distributing and lighting. Cigarettes are now handed on a tray to each lady separately, and when she has adjusted one in her amber mouthpiece, another slave approaches with a glowing charcoal ember on a little brass dish from which to light it. When all the cigarettes are alight, the slaves retire to the lower end of the apartment where, ranged in a line, they stand with arms crossed on their TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE 277 bosoms and eyes modestly cast down until their services are again required to remove the coffee cups. In the interval they are, however, furtively taking mental notes of the dress, conversation, and manners of the guests, who should the hostess have brought up in her harem girls for sale on their side submit this galaxy of beauty to a critical inspection, and make their remarks on the girls individually with an outspokenness that would both astonish and amuse more reserved Europeans. Some of the hanwns have, perhaps, been commissioned by their brothers or sons to select wives or odalisks for them during visits to the harems of friends for such transactions naturally require the co-operation of the ladies of the family and may return home with a favourable description of some girl who has taken their fancy. An offer of purchase may in that case be made for the damsel to her owner, who names her price ; and this agreed to, the slave is transferred to her new home, probably as a kitaletli that is, one sold with the stipulation that she will in due course be set free and married. Should, however, the day's programme include none of the above-mentioned distractions, the monotony of harem life may, at any moment, be broken by various incidents as, for instance, the arrival of a female broker with jewels, articles of dress, or home-made cosmetics and perfumes for sale, and gossip unlimited. These itinerant vendors, who are chiefly old women, are quite an insti- tution in Moslem society, and, under the cloak of their calling, which gives them easy access to harems, they act 278 TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE as agents not only in affairs matrimonial, but also in clandestine intrigues of every description. In Turkish folk-literature, indeed, an " old woman " invariably appears as the deus ex inachina of a romance or tragedy. And should the family possess daughters of a marriageable age, the portress may at any moment announce the visit of a party of Guerudjis, or " Viewers," which, as described in a previous chapter, is calculated to cause lively and more or less lasting excitement in the breasts of the fair denizens of the haremlik. For every Turkish girl, whether handsome or "homely," has a right to look forward to marriage as her destiny ; and an " old maid " is hardly to be found among the Osmanlis, so rarely does it happen that a husband cannot be found for a girl of marriageable age. Good looks naturally add to their owner's value in the marriage market ; but even the most unprepossessing or deformed spinster, if she belong to a family of position, need not despair, as she will at the worst be bestowed on some impecunious but aspiring "youth, to the furtherance of whose ambitious schemes the patronage of her father is necessary ; and many a high official has owed his success in life to the influential connexions of an uncomely spouse. With regard to the dress of Osmanli women, the incongruities noticeable in the furniture of the majority of the better class houses prevail to an even greater extent in the dress of the generality of the ladies who inhabit them. Out of doors, of course, the yashmak and feradjt the veil and cloak are still worn as full dress, TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE 279 and also, on less formal occasions, the mahrema, a more complete disguise, which may perhaps be best described as a scanty double petticoat made of a variety of materials from checked or striped printed cotton to rich brocaded silk the upper one drawn hood-wise over the head, and fastened under the chin, the face being completely hidden by a kerchief of dark-coloured silk or muslin. But with regard to indoor dress it would be difficult to say what is, or is not, worn at the present day by Osmanli women of the upper and wealthier classes, the majority having during the past thirty years gradually discarded their graceful and picturesque national costumes in favour of what are but too often ludicrous and lamentable travesties of Parisian fashions. The ancient indoor dress of an Osmanli lady, which may still occasionally be seen in the remoter provinces, is extremely handsome a sleeved gown of white silk gauze, edged with silk point lace, and a skalvar, or full trousers, of red silk worn under a yelek, a sort of long coat tight-fitting above the waist, and buttoned from the bosom to below the girdle, but open on each side from the hip downwards, and trailing a few inches on the floor. For full dress, another yelek, wider and looser, is worn, also open at the sides and trailing, the sleeves of both garments being rather tight-fitting, but open for some six inches at the wrists, where they are often shaped en sabot. This outer robe is usually of some rich material worked round the borders, or all over, with elaborate trailing patterns in coloured silks, or in gold and silver thread, to which pearls are sometimes added. The head- 280 TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE dress is a little round flat cap, covered with pearls and precious stones or with embroidery and gold braid. The bridal dresses of women of the middle and lower classes are still made on this model, the materials depending on the wealth of the bridegroom. The everyday dress of women and children of the middle and lower classes generally is of brightly printed cottons, made up in winter into quilted jackets and other garments, which are worn over full trousers of the same material. Before going abroad a Turkish woman tucks up her skirts about her waist as high as possible, and secures them there with one of the large squares of printed muslin that serve her for so many purposes. Having thus made a shapeless bundle of herself, she throws over all her mahrema, puts on her yellow babouches and black overshoes, and sallies forth. Owing to the disposition of her primitive " dress suspender " and to her heavy footwear, the gait, when in their outdoor gear, of Osmanli women belonging to the middle and lower classes is, as a rule, the reverse of graceful, presenting as it does a peculiar combination of waddle and shuffle. In concluding this brief survey of the home life and social status of Osmanli women, I may remark that the seclusion of women which accompanies the harem system is by no means, as generally assumed, a proof of their supposed " degraded position," but is, on the contrary, in great part the outcome of the regard entertained for them by the men of their nation. Surrounded as they have TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE 281 always been by people of alien races and religions, in no other way than by restricting them when at home to the inviolable karemlik, and by hiding their charms from the public gaze when abroad under disguising veil and cloak, could they be shielded from the impertinent curiosity to say the least of the mixed horde, Christian, Moslem, and Jew, who throng the streets of their cities and towns. For the same reason similar customs were formerly, and in some parts of the Empire still are, observed by the women of the Christian population, Armenian and Greek. And, as a matter of fact, the outdoor disguise of a Turkish woman renders her perfectly safe from insult or moles- tation, whether on foot in the streets, in tram or train, or on the deck of the Bosphorus steamboats, and whatever the provocation she may give. The keen interest taken by Osmanli women in late events, and especially in the incidents attending the elections of members to, and the ceremony of the opening of the Turkish Parliament, has been the subject of much comment among those foreigners in Constantinople who are unaware of the extent to which the ideas of political liberty and intellectual progress have taken hold of women belonging to the upper classes. Crowds of cloaked and veiled figures gathered in the streets to witness the Sultan's procession to this important function, and it was remarked that many ladies installed at the windows of houses on the line of route had not only ventured to remove the obstructing latticed blinds, but in many cases to appear at their open casements in ordinary European attire. 282 TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE Few foreigners are, however, aware how important a part was played by Osmanli ladies in the preparations for the bloodless revolution of last July. Taking full advan- tage of the immunity from molestation or impertinent curiosity which is the privilege of women of their race, and also of the absolute anonymity conferred by their disguising veils and cloaks, the wives, mothers, and sisters of the leaders of the movement in different parts of the Empire were able to act freely as their emissaries and go-betweens, bearing from harem to harem, and from city to city, compromising papers which a man could have carried only at the risk of his life. And, very naturally, Osmanli women of the upper classes are now demand- ing removal by the new Party of Reform of some at least of the irksome social restrictions by which they are hampered, and many important changes may be anti- cipated as soon as the political and financial situation may permit the new Government to give its attention to social reforms. As Prince Saba-ed-Din is reported to have remarked when addressing an audience of Turkish ladies at Constantinople in September last, the religion of Islam was not responsible for their lack of social freedom, and that the establishment of a constitutional form of government would have an important effect for them also as women ; and he urged them in the mean time to be moderate in their demands, and wait for their fulfil- ment with calmness and patience. With regard to their legal status, Turkish women, as above pointed out, already possess all the legal, personal, and proprietary rights TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE 283 necessary to give them a social position equal, if not superior to that of European women generally. And the objection to their emancipation from harem restraints being consequently one of custom and prejudice, rather than of religious law the seclusion and veiling of women being immemorial social usages borrowed from other Oriental races, and not institutions peculiarly Moslem no religious law would therefore be contravened by a change in these merely social customs. This question of female emancipation is indeed one which will, in all probability, have to be faced by the Turkish Government in the near future, and some members of the "Young Turkey" Party are frankly in favour of according to the women of their nation all the social and in- dustrial freedom enjoyed by their Christian sisters. Serious difficulties of all kinds stand, however, in the way of this very desirable reform, and one of the most important of these is the fact that the abolition of the harem system must necessarily entail the abolition of that of domestic slavery, its inseparable adjunct. All kinds of restrictions, legal and customary, which now make for morality in the family relations of the Turks would, under the new condi- tions, be thrown aside, and the result in the opinion of those competent to judge would inevitably be, for a generation at least, great social laxity. For if, as is the case, only a very small minority of Turkish women are as yet fitted by education for such new conditions, the same is true of Turkish men. And in a city like Constantinople, the centre of a great military system, suddenly to set free 284 TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE from authority and make responsible for their own main- tenance thousands of ignorant women hitherto protected and maintained in private households, and for the most part unaccustomed to any but the most desultory house- hold duties, would be to create a social evil now happily non-existent. A change so far-reaching in its conse- quences could, indeed, only take place without great resulting evil to the nation at large if prepared for by such organisation for the wage-employment of the eman- cipated as one can hardly yet expect to see carried out in Turkey. Difficult of realisation as such a measure of reform is of itself, some of its advocates among the " Young Turkey" enthusiasts, with whom I have discussed the question, appeared to me to complicate it unnecessarily by proposing that Osmanli women should be at once placed, as to employment in factories, shops, etc., on a level with their self-supporting sisters in the West ; surely a case of " more haste, less speed ! " For the Armenian and Greek women of Turkey, many of whom are now at liberty to follow various industries and professions, enjoyed at the beginning of last century far less personal liberty than their Moslem sisters, and the gradual change in their position has been chiefly due to the spread of education and liberal ideas during the past century among the men of these Christian nationalities. Economic con- ditions also differ widely in East and West ; and were domestic slavery abolished, domestic service would afford quite sufficient employment for Turkish women of the TURKISH HOMES AND HOME LIFE 285 lower class ; while for those belonging to the educated classes, there would be little necessity for their becoming bread-winners, save, perhaps, as teachers. For, as early marriage is customary for Turks of both sexes, old bachelors being almost as rare as old maids, all native girls would naturally marry under the new rtgime as they have done under the old. In the original Turkish Consti- tution, as drafted by Midhat Pasha in 1876, the abolition of slavery was advocated, but to this and other clauses the Sultan refused his assent. Were, however, the slave-trade made illegal in Turkey, the abolition of the present system of domestic slavery would naturally and gradually follow. All adults now in a state of bondage would in due course receive their manumission, and all children might be freed within a certain number of years, during which their services would in some measure recoup their owners for the expense of their purchase and maintenance. The harem system thus greatly modified, if not abolished, women of slave origin would no doubt be for a time available as domestic servants, being gradually replaced by the daughters of the working classes, to whom such employment should prove an immense boon, limited as have hitherto been their wage-earning opportunities. And a probable and very desirable result of this economic change would also be the raising of the age of marriage for girls. CONCLUSION THE FUTURE OF THE OSMANLI TURKS IT is impossible, however, that such economic and social changes as I have just hinted at should take place without being both preceded and accompanied by political changes, and changes, indeed, issuing in hardly less than a complete reconstitution of the Ottoman Nation- ality. It seems desirable, therefore, to say something of the probable character of these political changes. But as I cannot pretend to any degree of authority on such a subject, I shall confine myself to indicating briefly certain large views and assured forecasts which, though published thirty years ago, are so remarkably verified in present conditions that one may have some confidence in their further and complete verification. In 1879, when Mr. Stuart-Glennie published his Europe and Asia, the Eastern Question was still regarded as it had long been in England, as also in Europe generally namely, as simply a Turco- Russian Question, dividing men into Philo-Turks and Philo-Russians. The general point of view, however, from which that book was written was " that the Eastern Question could not be adequately treated, save as the question of a readjustment of the relations of Europe and 286 THE FUTURE OF THE OSMANLI TURKS 287 Asia to each other, and of both to Africa a readjustment involving that of the States of Europe to each other and that of the States of Asia." l But since at least the Russo- Japanese War of 1904, few would probably deny that the Eastern Question is now evidently what it really, though not so evidently, was at the time of the Turco-Servian and Russo-Turkish Wars such a general question of the readjustment of the relations of Europe and Asia as should raise politicians quite above either merely Turkish or Russian partisanship. And hence, as remarked thirty years ago in Europe and Asia, the Future of the Osmanli Turks must be now more generally recognised as inex- tricably connected with all the great movements of the time, both Asiatic and European. To gain some definite foothold in taking so wide a view of the Eastern Question, Mr. Stuart-Glennie attempted to discover and demonstrate historically a Law of the Development of Nationalities. As to that great generalisa- tion it is not for me to say anything. But it led its author to a forecast of that renaissance of the Ottoman nationality which has been declared by review writers ignorant of, or ignoring his work to have been "wholly unforeseen," though acknowledged to have been the greatest of the poli- tical events of IQO8. 2 And even more assured appeared to be the rebirth of the European Nationalities as indepen- dent, though federated, States. This, however, necessarily involved the withdrawal of Turkish government from 1 Europe and Asia, Preface. 2 See, for instance, Fortnightly Review, September, 1908. 288 THE FUTURE OF THE OSMANLI TURKS Europe, though Constantinople might remain the Ottoman capital. Yet it will probably now be recognised by all duly acquainted with the strength of the Nationalist aspirations of the various Balkan peoples, that the first point clear in the Future of the Osmanli Turks is what already, after the last Russo-Turkish War, the more far- seeing of the Commanders in that war did not hesitate privately to admit would sooner or later be found necessary withdrawal from their European Provinces. And, to illustrate this, I may say that in an interview with the Commander-in-Chief in Macedonia, within the ancient walls of the seaward fortress of Salonica, Mr. Stuart- Glennie, having ventured to state his main conclusions in Europe and Asia with respect to the Future of the Osmanlis, was surprised and delighted by His Excellency's response : " I entirely agree with you ! " The Pasha with whom I also was acquainted, and whom I greatly esteemed then further said, " After that War, had I been Sultan, I would have endeavoured to arrange for our gradual withdrawal in the course of a certain number of years from all our European Provinces. The very desirable result for us would have been the setting by the ears of Austria and Russia, and, sooner or later, of probably all the European Powers. In the mean time, instead of wasting the flower of the Osmanlis of Anatolia in the vain attempt to retain provinces which cannot be permanently, or, indeed, much longer retained, without a lavish expenditure of blood and treasure, we should have consolidated ourselves in Asia Minor, and recovered, THE FUTURE OF THE OSMANLI TURKS 289 perhaps, our natural frontier of the Caucasus. Our Nationality thus consolidated, futile would have been the dreams of European Protectorates over our Syrian, Arabian, and African Provinces. And our Khalifs temporal sovereignty would have thus been immensely strengthened, instead of being, as seems but too probable, fatally ex- hausted." The time, however, was not yet. And the intimate connexion between the problems of the Near East and the events of the Further East, insisted on thirty years ago in Europe and Asia, cannot but be now recognised if one considers how immensely more favourable to a re- naissance of the Ottoman Nationality are the political conditions which have followed the Russo-Japanese War and that Russian Revolution which, though suppressed, has been by no means crushed. In a moment of wild enthusiasm members of the diverse nationalities of the Balkan Peninsula may have embraced each other as newly enfranchised " Ottomans." But that can only remind us of similar scenes in the great French Revolution, when the cry was Fraternite ou la Mort ! and any hope of even a partial union of the Balkan populations as Ottoman subjects can now be hardly even a diplomatic pretence. Conditions, however, are altogether different in Asia Minor. There, the only Christians having National Churches are Greeks and Armenians. But the Greeks are not only chiefly to be found in the cities, and particularly in Smyrna, but belong to what is already a free Nationality ; and they can, therefore, remain Hellenes if they do not care to be u 290 THE FUTURE OF THE OSMANLI TURKS naturalised as Ottomans. And though the Armenians are very numerous in the Eastern Highlands of Asia Minor, in no province or vilayet do they constitute the majority of the population. They are also, like the Osmanlis, an essentially Asiatic people, and have been not inaptly termed "but baptized Turks." Notwithstanding this, however, the characteristic financial and administrative capacities of the Armenians constitute a felicitous com- plement to the political and martial virtues predominating in the Osmanlis. The Armenians also have been estab- lished in most of their present seats from time immemo- rial, while the Turks are, in Asia Minor, comparatively but new-comers, dating back, in this their new home, to but the beginning of the thirteenth century. But each is as necessary to the independent existence and free development of the other as are the English of Southern, and the Scots of Northern Britain. And one is glad to see that this is now being more and more fully recognised. 1 These, then, are the first two points that may now, with more definite evidence than in 1879, be predicted as to the future of the Osmanli Turks withdrawal from the 1 For instance, in a " Lettre d'Erzeroum" published in the Constan- tinople journal Stamboul, February 18, 1909, and delivered as I write these lines, it is reported that, " Les Comites Arme'niens de'clarent formellement que si la Turquie leur accordait de sa propre volont6 1'autonomie ils ne pourraient pas 1'accepter ; car I'Arme'nie dtant entoure'e d'e'le'ments ennemis, vu sa position gdographique, elle ne pourrait nullement se protdger. Tous les Arme'niens ont compris parfaitement bien que leur salut est de s'accorder avec les turcs et de protdger ensemble la Turquie, le Vatan [fatherland] de tous." THE FUTURE OF THE OSMANLI TURKS 291 government of their European Provinces, a withdrawal which those who have any intimate knowledge of the Osmanlis cannot doubt will be at once dignified and honourable ; and the territorial consolidation and constitu- tional development of their Nationality in the immemorial homeland of such constituents of it as the Armenians, Kurds, and Circassians, the homeland also of the Osmanlis themselves for the last seven hundred years. But if thus consolidated, another feature will, as already hinted at, certainly mark the future of the Osmanlis a renovation of their rule over the great Empire that will still remain to them, an Empire extending from the Caucasus and the Caspian to the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. The renovation of this Empire Abdul Hamid II. has assured by his quiet pushing on, for so many years, of the construction of his splendidly statesmanlike rail- way from Constantinople to Mekka. Of this and its probable effects much might be said. But here I shall only point out that it, in a manner, forces the friendship of Great Britain. Russia's and Germany's ambitions will be effectively baulked by the consolidation and develop- ment of the Ottoman Nationality in Asia Minor, and by the more enlightened government of its Asiatic and African Empire. Not so, however, the just ambition of Great Britain the ambition to retain her Eastern Empire, and give even fuller freedom to its subjects, of whom a larger number are Moslems than those who acknowledge the temporal as well as the spiritual sovereignty of the Khalif. And the admiration and respect which Britons 292 THE FUTURE OF THE OSMANLI TURKS who have had any real knowledge of the Turks have ever been disposed to feel for them will, granting such a consoli- dation of their Nationality and renovation of their Empire, be supported by economic and political reasons sub- stantially contributing to an enduring alliance. That consolidation and that renovation can, however, be worked out only against antagonisms both from within and from without of the most serious character. Im- mensely can Great Britain aid in smoothing the way of the Constitutional Party amid both classes of obstacles. Thus that friendly alliance with the Turkish People which was only interrupted by the absolutism of Abdul Hamid would be renewed. And it must be admitted that the conduct of the " Young Turks " in the whole of the proceedings connected with and subsequent to the Revo- lution of July, 1908, certainly justifies all the aid that can possibly be afforded them in the great task they have undertaken. What will be the ultimate fate of Abdul Hamid, and what manner of man the new Sultan pro- claimed by the Parliamentary Party will show himself, it is impossible as yet to conjecture. But however great the political changes may be, it will certainly be long before any considerable changes take place in the Social, Religious, and Domestic Life of the Turkish People described in the foregoing pages. SULTAN ABDUL HAMID II GLOSSARY OF TURKISH WORDS USED IN THE TEXT Agha, a title. Ala'ik, a young slave. Bakshish^ a bribe. Bektchi, a watchman. Beshlik, a coin of 5 piastres, value about id. Bey, a title of rank. Bismillah, " In the Name of Allah." Boktcha, a bundle-wrap. Ddira, an establishment. Divan-khane, reception-room. Djami, a mosque. Djemiet, period of festivity. Djereed, a spear. Djin, a demon. Dughun, wedding or other festivities. Effendi, a title of courtesy. Emir, a prince. Eskedji, a dealer in cast-off clothing. Esnaf, a trade guild. Ezan, the call to prayer. Fatiha, the Moslem " Lord's Prayer." Fenaguez, the "Evil Eye." Feradjeh, Turkish lady's cloak. Fetva, a legal decree. Ghazel, a sonnet. Groosh, piastres, a coin worth about fladis, the Moslem traditions. Hadji, a pilgrim. Hafiz, one who knows the Koran by heart. Hamal, a porter. Hammam, a Turkish bath. Hanum, a Turkish lady. Haremlik, the women's apartments. Hodja, a tutor. Hoshaf, stewed fruit. Ihram, the sacred habit worn by pilgrims. Imam, a priest. Imaret, an almshouse. Inshallah, " God willing." Intarie t a house-dress. Kadi, a judge. Kahvedji, a coffee-maker. A'fli/J ease, enjoyment. Ka'ikdji, a boatman. Kalfa, a head servant. Khan, a hostelry, a royal title. Khasida, a verse-form. Khotba, the Friday sermon. or Kibleh, the direction of Mekka. , a storeroom. Kismet, fate, destiny. Konak, a mansion. &, basin and jug. 293 294 GLOSSARY OF TURKISH WORDS Mahalla, a street, a quarter. Mangal, a warming apparatus. Medjidieh, a dollar. Medjliss, a town council. Medresseh, a theological college. Mekteb, a parish school. Mezzlik, hors d'ceuvres. Mikrab, alcove in a mosque indi- cating the direction of Mekka. Mimber, pulpit in a mosque. Mollah, a dean. Mrisdadji, a " news-bringer." Namaz, daily prayers. Narghileh) a water-pipe. Para, the fortieth part of a piastre. Pasha, a title of rank. Peri, a supernal being. Plr, the founder of a Dervish Order. a kind of spirit. Redif, a Reservist. Rut be, social rank. Saka, a water-carrier. Saraf, a money-changer. 7, a fountain. Selamlik, a ceremony, the men's apartments. Serai, a palace. Seraili, slave belonging to a palace. Sheik, a prior. S^m or Sheriat, the Holy Law of Islam. Shia, a Mohammedan schismatic. .50/nz, a tray-stand. 50/ta, a theological student. Sttnni, an orthodox Moslem. Tandiir, a warming apparatus. Tcharshi, a bazar or market. Tchelebi, "gentleman." Tchibouk, a Turkish pipe. Tchiboukdji, a pipe-bearer. Tchiftlik, a country estate. Turbeh, a mausoleum. Ulema, Moslem Legists. Vakouf, Church property. Vurkulak, a vampire. Yahli, a villa. Yashmak, veil of a Turkish lady. Zaptieh, armed policeman. INDEX ABLUTIONS, religious, 116 Almsgiving, 120 Almshouses, 105, 122 Amusements, 78 Army, the, 33 B AIR AM Festivals, 148 Bakshish, 29 Baths, Turkish, 231, 242, 273 Bazars and markets, 8, 9 Birth ceremonies, 227 Boatmen, 19 CALLIGRAPHY, 180 Cemeteries, 254 Children, custody of, 218 Circassian slaves, 225, 277 Circumcision ceremonies, 233 Civil service, 26 Cleanliness, 13 Clubs, military and naval, 35 ,, educational, 179 Coffee-houses, 79 Conscription, 31 Conservatoire of Music, 183 DERVISH monasteries, 199 Orders, the, 184 Divination, 138 Divorce, 218 DJEM SHAH, 165 Djereed, game of, IOO Djins and Peris, 134 Domestic slavery, 211 Dress, 64, 278 EDUCATION, 160, 175 Etiquette, 7, 268 Evil Eye, the, 130 EVLIYA EFFENDI, 129 FARMING, 70 Feast of Sacrifice, the, 147 Fountains, 109 Funeral ceremonies, 249 Furniture, 264 GOVERNMENT officials, 24 Hafez, 129 Hamals, 20 Harem, 265, 283 Heirs to the throne, 62 Hodja, the, and Old-Clothes Man, 85 Holy Mantle, Feast of the, 149 Home life, 269 Hospitality, 121 Hospitals, 38 Houses, 258 IMPERIAL consorts, 59 family, the, 52 k palaces, 40 ,, recreations, 50 Industries, specialisation of, 20 Islam, creed of, 114 Itinerant commerce, 13 JANISSARIES, destruction of, 31 Kalenders, 204 Khans, 9 295 296 INDEX KHIDHR-ELIAS, 95, 123 Kismet, 119, 239, 249 LADY slave-dealers, 213 Locomotion, means of, 21 MAGICAL practices, 135 Manumission of slaves, 223 Marriage ceremonies, 237 settlements, 218 Meals, 274 Medjliss, the, 65 Moslem calendar, 22 clergy, no Mosque colleges, 162 Mosques, 103 Music, 181 Musical instruments, 182 NASR-ED-DlN HODJA, 82 Negro slaves, 225 PARISH schools, 160 Paymaster-General's office, 30 Peasant proprietors, 67 Peasantry, 75 Pilgrimage, 152 Poetry, 165 Poetesses, 173 Polygamy, 220 Prayers for the dead, 256 Pride of race, 4 Provincial life, 63 Public worship, 117 Ramazan, 143 SACRED habit, the, 153 St. Demetrius, 137 St. Nicholas, 124 " St. Solomon and the Sparrow," 90 Selamlik, ceremony of the, 43 Serailis, 54 Silk culture, 72 Slaves, female, 211, 277 Sobriety, 4, 36 Social organisation, 4 Soft as, in Solomon in folk-tale, 86 Story legends, 129 Story-telling, 81 SULTAN ABDUL HAMID II., 47 SULTAN MOHAMMED V., 292 TALISMANS, 139 Taxation, 68 Tchiftliks, 68 Titles and nicknames, 6 Tobacco, ii ,, culture, 72 Trade guilds, 16, 80 Turkish language, the, 167 ,, literature, 169 ,, quarter, the, 2 ,, villages, 66 villeggiatara, 70 ,, watchman, 8 Ulema, no, 162 Valide Sultanas, $4, 60 Vampirism, 140 Village headmen, 66 WAR Office, the, 28 Water-carriers, 15 Wedding ceremonies, 237 " Why the Swallow's Tail is forked," 87 Witches and fortune-tellers, 131 Wives of Mohammed, 128 Women, respect for, 280 ,, seclusion of, 211, 268, 282 ,, status of, 217 ,, Paradise promised to, 126 " Wood-cutter and Fortune," the, 92 YILDIZ Kiosk, 42 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES. A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS PUBLISHED BY METHUEN AND COMPANY: LONDON 36 ESSEX STREET w.c. c ONTENTS PAGE PACK General Literature. . . 2-20 Little Galleries, 27 Ancient Cities, 20 Little Guides, .... 27 Antiquary's Books, 20 Little Library, 27 Arden Shakespeare, 20 Little Quarto Shakespeare, 29 Beginner's Books, . 21 Miniature Library, 2Q Business Books, . 21 Oxford Biographies, 2 9 Byzantine Texts, . 21 School Examination Series, 2 9 Churchman's Bible, 22 School Histories, . 3 Churchman's Library, . 22 Textbooks of Science, . 3 Classical Translations, 22 Simplified French Texts, . . 30 Classics of Art, 23 ; Standard Library, . 30 Commercial Series, 23 Textbooks of Technology, . 3i Connoisseur's Library, 23 Handbooks of Theology, 3* Library of Devotion, 23 Westminster Commentaries, 32 Illustrated Pocket Library of Plain and Coloured Books , 24 Fiction, 32-37 Junior Examination Series, 25 The Shilling Novels, . 37 Junior School-Books, . 26 Books for Boys and Girls, 39 Leaders of Religion, 26 Novels of Alexandre Dumas, 39 Little Books on Art, 26 Methuen's Sixpenny Books, 39 FEE RUARY 1908 A CATALOGUE OF MESSRS. METHUEN'S PU BLIC ATIONS Colonial Editions are published of all Messrs. METHUEN'S Novels issued at a price above 2$. 6d. , and similar editions are published of some works of General Literature. These are marked in the Catalogue. Colonial editions are only for circulation in the British Colonies and India. I.P.L. represents Illustrated Pocket Library. PART I. GENERAL LITERATURE Abbott (J. H. M.). Author of 'Tommy Cornstalk.' AN OUTLANDER IN ENGLAND: BEING SOME IMPRESSIONS OF AN AUSTRALIAN ABROAD. Second Edition. Cr. &v0. 6s. A Colonial Edition is also published. Acatos (M. J.). See Junior School Books. Adams (Frank). JACKSPRATT. With 24 Coloured Pictures. Super Royal i6mo. zs. Adeney (W. F.), M.A. See Bennett and Adeney. /Eschylus. See Classical Translations. /Esop. See I.P.L. Ainsworth (W. Harrison). See I.P.L. Alderson (J. P.). MR. ASQUITH. With Portraits and Illustrations. Demy 8vo. 7S. 6d. net. Aldis (Janet). MADAME GEOFFRIN, HER SALON, AND HER TIMES. With many Portraits and Illustrations. Second Edition. Demy &vo. ioj. 6d. net. A Colonial Edition is also published. Alexander (William), D.D., Archbishop of Armagh. THOUGHTS AND COUNSELS OF MANY YEARS. Demy i6mo. 2$. 6d. Alken (Henry). THE NATIONAL SPORTS OF GREAT BRITAIN. With descriptions in English and French. With 51 Coloured Plates. Royal Folio. Five Guineas net. The Plates can be had separately in a Portfolio. .3, 3$. net. See also I.P.L. Allen (C. C.) See Textbooks of Technology. Allen (Jessie). See Little Books on Art. Allen (J. Romilly), F.S.A. See Antiquary's Books. Almack (E.). See Little Books on Art. Amherst (Lady). A SKETCH OF EGYPTIAN HISTORY FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRE- SENT DAY. With many Illustrations. Demy Zvo. TS. 6d. net. Anderson (F. M. J. THE STORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE FOR CHILDREN. With many Illustrations. Cr. Bvo. 2$. Anderson (J. Q.), B. A., Examiner to London University, NOUVELLE GRAMMAIRE FRANCHISE. Cr. Bvo. zs. EXERCICES DE GRAMMAIRE FRAN- CAISE. Cr. &vo. is. 6d. Andrewes (Bishop). PRECES PR I- VATAE. Edited, with Notes, by F. E. BRIGHTMAN, M. A., of Pusey House, Oxford. Cr. 8vo. 6s. Anglo-Australian. AFTER-GLOW ME- MORIES. Cr. 8vo. 6s. A Colonial Edition is also published. Anon. FELISSA; OR, THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF A KITTEN OF SENTIMENT. With 12 Coloured Plates. Post i6mo. vs. 6d. net. Aristotle. THE NICOMACHEAN ETHICS. Edited, with an Introduction and Notes, by JOHN BURNET, M.A., Pro- fessor of Greek at St. Andrews. Cheaper issue. Demy 8vo. los. 6d. net. Atkins (H. Q.). See Oxford Biographies. Atkinson (C. M.). JEREMY BENTHAM. Demy &vo. $s. net. Atkinson (T. D.). A SHORT HISTORY OF ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. With over 200 Illustrations. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 3*. 6d. net. A GLOSSARY OF TERMS USED IN ENGLISH ARCHITECTURE. Illus- trated. Second Ed. Fcaf. 8v0. 35. 6d. net. Auden (T.) f M.A., F.S.A. See Ancient Cities. Aurelius (Marcus) and Epictetus, WORDS OF THE ANCIENT WISE: Thoughts from. Edited by W. H. D. ROUSE, M.A., Litt.D. Fcap.lvo. 3^.6^. net. See also Standard Library. Austen (Jane). See Little Library and Standard Library. Bacon (Francis). See Little Library and Standard Library. Baden- Powell (R. S. S.), Major-General. THE DOWNFALL OF, PREMPEH. A Diary df Life ia Ashanti 1895. Illustrated. Third Edition. L*rge Cr. tea. 6* . A Colonial Edition is also published. GENERAL LITERATURE THE MATABELE CAMPAIGN, 1896. With nearly 100 Illustrations. Fourth Edition. Large Cr. &vo. 6s. A Colonial Edition is also published. Bailey (J. C.), M.A. See Cowper. Baker ( W. Q.), M.A. See Junior Examina- tion Series. Baker (Julian L.), F.I.C..F.C.S. See Books on Business. Balfour (Graham). THE LIFE OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. Fourth Edition. Revised. Cr. &v0. 6s. A Colonial Edition is also published. Ballard (A.). B.A., LL.B. See Antiquary's Books. Bally (S. E.). See Commercial Series. Banks (Elizabeth L.). THE AUTO- BIOGRAPHY OF A 'NEWSPAPER GIRL.' Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s. A Colonial Edition is also published. Barham (R. H.). See Little Library. Barine (The Hon. Maurice). WITH THE RUSSIANS IN MANCHURIA. Third Edition. DemyZvo. js.6d.net. A Colonial Edition is also published. A YEAR IN RUSSIA. Second Edition. Demy 8v0. js. 6d. Baring-Gould (S.). THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. With over 150 Illustrations in the Text, and a Photo- gravure Frontispiece. RoyalZvo. -ios.6d.net. THE TRAGEDY OF THE CAESARS. With numerous Illustrations from Busts, Gems, Cameos, etc. Sixth Edition. Royal 8v0. IDS. 6d. net. A BOOK OF FAIRY TALES. With numerous Illustrations by A. J. GASKIN. Third Edition. Cr. 8z/0. Buckram. 6s. OLD ENGLISH FAIRY TALES. With numerous Illustrations by F. D. BEDFORD. Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. Buckram. 6s. THE VICAR OF MORWENSTOW. Re- vised Edition. With a Portrait. Third Edition. Cr. 8vo. 3*. 6d. A BOOK OF DARTMOOR : A Descriptive and Historical Sketch. With Plans and numerous Illustrations. Second Edition. Cr. Ivo. 6s. A BOOK OF DEVON. Illustrated. Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s. A BOOK OF CORNWALL. Illustrated. Second Edition. Cr. Zvo. 6s. A BOOK OF NORTH WALES. Illus- trated. Cr. Bvo. 6s. A BOOK OF SOUTH WALES. Illustrated. Cr. Bvo. 6s. A BOOK OF BRITTANY. Illustrated. Cr. 9>vo. 6s. A BOOK OF THE RIVIERA. Illustrated. Cr. Bvo. 6s. A Colonial Edition is also published. A BOOK OF THE RHINE : From Cleve to Mainz. Illustrated. Second Edition. Crown 8v0. 6s. A Colonial Edition is also published. A BOOK OF THE PYRENEES. With 24 Illustrations. Crown 9v*. 6s. A Colonial Edition is also published. A BOOK OF GHOSTS. With 8 Illutta- tions by D. MURRAY SMITH. Second Edi~ tion. Cr. Zvo. 6s. OLD COUNTRY LIFE. With 67 Illustra- tions. Fifth Edition. Large Cr. 8v*. 6s. A GARLAND OF COUNTRY SONG: English Folk Songs with their Traditional Melodies. Collected and arranged by S. BARING-GOULD and H. F. SHEPPARD. Demy ito. 6s. SONGS OF THE WEST: Folk Songs of Devon and Cornwall. Collected from the Mouths of the People. By S. BARING-GOULD, M.A.,and H. FLEETWOOD SHEPPARD, M.A. New and Revised Edition, under the musical editorship of CECIL J. SHARP, Principal of the Hampstead Conservatoire. Large Im- perial 8z>0. 5$. net. A BOOK OF NURSERY SONGS AND RHYMES. Edited by S. BARING-GOULD, and Illustrated by the Birmigham Art School. A New Edition. Long Cr. Bv0. ys. 6d. net. STRANGE SURVIVALS AND SUPER- STITIONS. Third Edition. Cr. Zvo. 2S. 6d. net. YORKSHIRE ODDITIES AND STRANGE EVENTS. New and Revised Edition. Cr. 8v0. 2S. 6d. net. See also Little Guides. Barker (Aldred P.). See Textbooks of Technology. Barker ( .), M.A. (Late) Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF PLATO AND ARIS- TOTLE. Demy 8w. xos. 6d. net. Barnes (W. E.), D.D. See Churchman's Bible. Barnett (Mrs. P. A.). See Little Library. Baron (R. R. N.), M.A. FRENCH PROSE COMPOSITION. Second Edition. Cr. Zvo. *s. 6d. Key, 3*. net. See also Junior School Books. Barren (H. MA M.A., Wadham College. Oxford. TEXTS FOR SERMONS. With a Preface by Canon SCOTT HOLLAND. Cr. 8v0. 3$. 6d. Bartholomew (J. G . ), F. R. S. E. See C. G. Robertson. Bastable (C. P.), M.A. THE COM- P.), M.A. MERCE OF NATIONS. Fourth Ed. Cr. %vo. ,zs. 6d. Bastlan (H. Charlton), M.D., F.R.S. THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE. Illus- trated. Demy %vo. ?s. 6d. net. Batson (Mrs. Stephen). A CONCISE HANDBOOK OF GARDEN FLOWERS. Fcap. 8v0. 3*. 6d. Batten (Loring W.), Ph.D., S.T.D. THE HEBREW PROPHET. Cr.lvo. 2S.6d.net. Bayley (R. Child). THE COMPLETE PHOTOGRAPHER. With over 100 Illustrations. Second Ed. With Note on Direct Colour Process. Demy Svo. ios. 6d. net. Beard (W. S.). EASY EXERCISES IN ALGEBRA. Cr. 8v0. is. tot. See Junior Examination Serie* and Beginner's Books. MESSRS. METHUEN'S CATALOGUE Beckford (Peter). THOUGHTS ON HUNTING. Edited by J. OTHO PAGET, and Illustrated by G. H. JALLAND. Second Edition. Demy 8vo. 6s. Beckford (William). See Little Library. Beeching (H. C.), M.A., Canon of West- minster. See Library of Devotion. Begbie (Harold). MASTER WORKERS. Illustrated. Demy^vo. "js.6d.net. Behmen (Jacob). DIALOGUES ON THE SUPERSET SUAL LIFE. Edited by BERNARD HOLLAND. Fcap. 8vo. 35. 6d. Bell (Mrs. A.). THE SKIRTS OF THE GREAT CITY. Second Ed. Cr. 8vo. 6s. Belloc (Hilaire), M.P. PARIS. With Maps and Illustrations. Second Edition, Revised. Cr. Svc. 6s. HILLS AND THE SEA. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. Bellot(H.H.L.), M.A. THE INNER AND MIDDLE TEMPLE. With numerous Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 6s. net. Bennett (W. H.), M.A. A PRIMER OF THE BIBLE. Fourth Ed. Cr.8vo. 2s. 6d. Bennett (W. H.)and Adeney (W. F.). A BIBLICAL INTRODUCTION. Fourth Edition. Cr. 8vo. 7*. 6d. Benson (Archbishop) GOD'S BOARD: Communion Addresses. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 3.?. 6d. net. Benson (A. C.), M.A. See Oxford Bio- graphics. Benson (R. M.). THE WAY OF HOLI- NESS : a Devotional Commentary on the ngth Psalm. Cr. 8vo. $s. Bernard (E. R.), M.A., Canon of Salisbury. THE ENGLISH SUNDAY. Fcap. 8vo. is.6d. Bertouch (Baroness de). THE LIFE OF FATHER IGNATIUS. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. IOT. 6d. net. Beruete (A. de). See Classics of Art. Betham- Ed wards (M.). HOME LIFE IN FRANCE. Illustrated. Fourth and Cheaper Edition. Crown %vo. 6s. A Colonial Edition is also published. Bethune- Baker (J. F.), M.A. See Hand- books of Theology. Bidez (M.). See Byzantine Texts. B i22s(C. R. D. ), D. D. See Churchman's Bible. Bindley (T. Herbert), B.D. THE OECU- i MENICAL DOCUMENTS OF THE | FAITH. With Introductions and Notes. Second Edition. Cr. 8vo. 6s. net. Binns (H. B.). THE LIFE OF WALT WHITMAN. Illustrated. Demy 8vo. iofo 6d. net. A Colonial Edition is also published. Binyon (Lawrence). THE DEATH OF ADAM, AND OTHER POEMS. Cr. 8vtr. 3-y. 6d. net. See also W. Blake. Birnstingl (Ethel). See Little Books on Blah- '(Robert). See I.P.L. Blake (William). THE LETTERS OF WILLIAM BLAKE, TOGETHER WITH A LIFE KY FREDERICK TATHAM. Edited from the Original Manuscripts, with an Introduction and Notes, by ARCHIBALD G. B. RUSSELL. With 12 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. js. 6d. net. ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOOK OF JOB. With a General Introduction by LAWRENCE BINYON. Quarto, zis. net. See also I.P.L. and Little Library. Blaxland (B.), M.A. See Library of Devotion. Bloom (J. Harvey), M.A. SHAKE- SPEARE'SGARDEN. Illustrated. Fcap. 8v0. 35. 6d. ; leather, 45. 6d. net. See also Antiquary's Books Blouet (Henri). See Beginner's Books. Boardman (T. H.), M.A. See Textbooks of Science. Bodley (J. E. C.), Author of France.' THE CORONATION OF EDWARD VII. Demy 8v0. zis. net. By Command of the Body f George), D.D. THE SOUL'S PILGRIMAGE : Devotional Readings from his writings. Selected by J. H. BURN, B.D., F.R.S.E. Demyi6mo. zs. 6d. Bona (Cardinal). See Library of Devotion. Boon (F. C.). See Commercial Series. Borrow (George). See Little Library. Bos (J. Ritzema). AGRICULTURAL ZOOLOGY. Translated by J. R. AINS- WORTH DAVIS, M.A. With 155 Illustrations. Cr. 8v0. Third Edition. 3$. 6d. Sotting (C. G.), B.A. EASY GREEK EXERCISES. Cr. 8vo. zs. See also Junior Examination Series. Boulting (W.) TASSO AND HIS TIMES. With 24 Illustrations. Demy 8vo. los. 6d. net. Boulton(E. S.), M.A. GEOMETRY ON MODERN LINES. Cr. 8vo. zs. Boulton (William B.). THOMAS GAINSBOROUGH With 40 Illustra- tion s. Second Ed. Demy 8vo. ys. 6d. net. SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P.R.A. With 49 Illustrations. Demyftvo. <js.6d.net. Bowden(E. M.). THE IMITATION OF BUDDHA: Being Quotations from Buddhist Literature for each Day in the Year. Fifth Edition. Cr. i6tfto. zs.6d. Boyd-Carpenter (Margaret). THE CHILD IN ART. Illustrated. Second Edition. Large Crown 8vo. 6s. Boyle (W.). CHRISTMAS AT THE ZOO. With Verses by W. BOYLE and 24 Coloured Pictures by H. B. NEILSON. Suj>er Royal Brabant (P. G.), M.A. See Little Guides. Bradley (A. G.) ROUND ABOUT WILT- SHIRE. With 30 Illustrations of which 14 are in colour by T.C.GoTCH. Second Ed. Cr. 8vo. 6s. Bradley (J. W.). See Little Books on Art. Braid (James) and Others. GREAT GOLFERS IN THE MAKING. By Thirty-Four Famous Players. Edited, with an Introduction, by HENRY LEACH. With 34 Portraits. Second Ed. Demy&vo. -js.6d.nft. A Colonial Edition is also published. GENERAL LITERATURE Brailsford (H. N.). MACEDONIA: ITS RACES AND ITS FUTURE. Illustrated. Demy Zvo. i2S. 6d. net. Brodrick (Mary) and Morton (Anderson). A CONCISE HANDBOOK OF EGYP- TIAN ARCHEOLOGY. Illustrated. Cr. Zvo. 35. 6d. Brooks (E. E.), B.Sc. See Textbooks of Technology. Brooks (E. W.). See Byzantine Texts. Brown (P. H.), LL.D., Fraser Professor of Ancient (Scottish) History at the University of Edinburgh. SCOTLAND IN THE TIME OF QUEEN MARY. Demy Zvo. js. 6d. net. Brown (S. E.), M.A., Camb., B.A., B.Sc., London ; Senior Science Master at Upping- ham School. A PRACTICAL CHEMIS- TRY NOTE-BOOK FOR MATRICULA- ! TION AND ARMY CANDIDATES: j EASIER EXPERIMENTS ON THE COMMONER SUBSTANCES. Cr. ^to. is. 6d. net. Browne (Sir Thomas). See Standard Library. Brownell (C. L.). THE HEART OF JAPAN. Illustrated. Third Edition. Cr. Zvo. 6s. ; also Demy Zvo. 6d. Browning (Robert). See Little Library. Buckland (Francis T.). CURIOSITIES OF NATURAL HISTORY. Illustrated by H. B. NEILSON. Cr. Zvo. 3$. 6d. Buckton (A. M.) THE BURDEN OF ENGELA : a Ballad-Epic. Second Edition. Cr. Zvo. 3^. 6d. fiet. KINGS IN BABYLON. A Drama. Crown Zzw. is. net. EAGER HEART : A Mystery Play. Sixth Edition. Cr. Zvo. is. net. Budge (E. A. Wallis). THE GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS. With over _ 100 Coloured Plates and many Illustrations. Two Volumes. Royal Zvo. 3, 35. net. Buist(H. Massac). THE MOTOR YEAR BOOK AND AUTOMOBILISTS 1 ANNUAL FOR 1906. Demy Zvo. 7 s.6d. net. Bull (Paul), Army Chaplain. GOD AND OUR SOLDIERS. Second Edition. Cr. Zvo. 6s. Bulley (Miss). See Lady Dilke. Bunyan (John). THE PILGRIM'S PRO- GRESS. Edited, with an Introduction, by C. H. FIRTH, M.A. With 39 Illustra- tions by R. ANNING BELL. Cr. Zvo. 6s. See also Library of Devotion and Standard Library. Burch (Q. J.), M.A., F.R.S. A MANUAL OF ELECTRICAL SCIENCE. Illus- trated. Cr. Zvo. is. Burgess (Qelett). GOOPS AND HOW TO BE THEM. Illustrated. Small t,to. 6s. Burke (Edmund). See Standard Library. Burn (A. E.), D.D., Rector of Handsworth and Prebendary of Lichfield. See Handbooks of Theology. Burn (J. H.), B.D. THE CHURCH- MAN'S TREASURY OF SONG. Selected and Edited by. Fcap Zvo. y. 6d. net. See also Library of Devotion. Burnand (Sir F. C.). RECORDS AND REMINISCENCES. With a Portrait by H. v. HERKOMER. Cr. Zvo. Fourth and Cheaper Edition. 6s. A Colonial Edition is also published. Burns (Robert), THE POEMS OF. Edited by ANDREW LANG and W. A. CRAIGIE. With Portrait. Third Edition. Demy Zvo, gilt top. 6s. Burnside (W. F.), M.A. OLD TESTA- MENT HISTORY FOR USE IN SCHOOLS. Third Edition. Cr. Zvo. 3 s. 6d. Burton (Alfred). See I. P. L. Bussell (F. W.), D.D., Fellow and Vice Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford. CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY AND SO- CIAL PROGRESS: The Bampton Lectures for 1905. Demy Zvo IQJ. 6d. net. Butler (Joseph). See Standard Library. Caldecott (Alfred), D.D. See Handbooks of Theology. Calderwood (D. S.), Headmaster of the Nor- mal School, Edinburgh. TEST CARDS IN EUCLID AND ALGEBRA. In three packets of 40, with Answers, is. each. Or m three Books, price zd. t zd., and 3^. Cambridge (Ada) [Mrs. Cross]. THIRTY YEARS IN AUSTRALIA. Demy Zvo. 7S. 6d. Canning (George). See Little Library. Capey (E. F. H.). See Oxford Biographies. Careless (John). See I. P. L. Carlyle (Thomas). THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. Edited by C. R. L. FLETCHER, Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. Three Volumes. Cr. Zvo. iZs. THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF OLIVER CROMWELL. With an Introduction by C. H. FIRTH, M.A., and Notes and Appendices by Mrs. S. C. LOMAS. Three Volumes. Demy Zvo. iZs. net. Carlyle (R. M. and A. J.), M.A. See Leaders of Religion. Channer (C. C.) and Roberts (M. E.). LACEMAKING IN THE MIDLANDS, PAST AND PRESENT. With 16 full- page Illustrations. Cr. Zvo. zs. 6d. Chapman (S. J.). See Books on Business. Chatterton (Thomas). See Standard Library. Chesterfield (Lord), THE LETTERS OF, TO HIS SON. Edited, with an Introduc- tion by C. STRACHEY, and Notes by A. CALTHROP. Two Volumes. Cr. Zvo. 12$. Chesterton (G. K.). CHARLES DICKENS. With two Portraits in photogravure. Fifth Edition. Demy Zvo. "js. 6d. net. A Colonial Edition is also published. Childe (Charles P.), B.A., F.R.C.S. THE CONTROL OF A SCOURGE : OR, How CANCER is CURABLE. Demy Zvo. 7s. 6d. net. MESSRS. METHUEN'S CATALOGUE Christian (P. W.). THE CAROLINE ISLANDS. With many Illustrations and Maps. Demy Bv0. izs. 6d. net. Cicero. See Classical Translations. CIarke(F. A.), M.A. See Leaders of Religion. Clausen (George), A. R. A. , R. W. S. AIMS AND IDEALS IN ART : Eight Lectures delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy of Arts. With 32 Illustrations. Second Edition. Large Post Bz>0. 5$. net* SIX LECTURES ON PAINTING. First Series. With 19 Illustrations. Third Edition, Large Post 8vo. 3.$-. 6d. net. Cleather (A. L.). See Wagner. Clinch (Q.). See Little Guides. Clough (W. T.). See Junior School Books and Textbooks of Science. Clouston (T. S.), M.D., C.C.D., F.R.S.E., Lecturer on Mental Diseases in the Uni- versity of Edinburgh. THE HYGIENE OF MIND. With 10 Illustrations. Fourth Edition. DemyBvo. vs. 6d. net. Coast (W. G.), B.A. EXAMINATION PAPERS IN VERGIL. Cr. too. *s. Cobb (W. F.), M.A. THE BOOK OF PSALMS : with a Commentary. Demy Bvo. los. 6d. net. Coleridge (S. T.). POEMS OF. Selected and Arranged by ARTHUR SYMONS. With a photogravure Frontispiece. Fsap. Bv0. ss. (>d. net. Collingwood (W. G.), M.A. THE LIFE OF JOHN RUSKIN. With Portraits. Sixth Edition. Cr. Bvo. as. f>d. net. Collins (W. E.), M.A. See Churchman's Library. Colonna. HYPNEROTOMACHIA POLI- PHILI UBI HUMANA OMNIA NON NISI SOMNIUM ESSE DOCET ATQUE OBITER PLURIMA SCITU SANE QUAM DIGNA COMMEMO- RAT. An edition limited to 350 copies on handmade paper. Folio, ^3, 35. net. Combe (William). See I. P. L. Conrad (Joseph). 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