The Sultan and his Subjects, etc

Front matter

— v^Vivll^Vv 1 1 sB— 1 1 1 I s—B— i I _ _ MA . B [ H^sH 1 1 EsH THE SULTAN AND HIS SUBJECTS rOHKISH AMBASSADOR. (PROMACONTEMPORA . :.LOHD SALIS. - tDI.DERVISHE THE SULTAN AND HIS SUBJECTS BY RICHARD DAVEY IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I. Wliti) JFronttsptcrr LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, Ld. F. M. EVANS AND CO., LIMITED, PRINTERS, CRYSTAL PALACE, S.K. TO LYMAN HASKELL ELLINGWOOD, ESQ., OF NEW YORK, fiook is IN MEMORY OF A LIFE-LONG FRIENDSHIP. London, 1897. AUTHOR'S NOTE. The following chapters embody the results of an earnest attempt to set forth the chief characteristics of those heterogeneous nationalities which have, in process of time and by virtue of conquest, fallen under the dominion of the Sultans. The work deals with the Turkish people generally, but chiefly with the Turks of Constantinople. The Author has studied his subject with a serious desire to bring before the intelligent reading public of this country such facts, and such anecdotes (elucidating and explaining facts), as may enable an impartial reader to form a fair conclusion as to the present condition, and the probable destiny, of that great Oriental Empire, on whose action and fate so much of the peace and welfare of Western Europe depends.

To attain such a purpose, a knowledge of the life and manners of the Turks, and of the Eastern AUTHOR'S NOTE. Christians, and of their religious and political views, is indispensable. And the writer of this book offers as an excuse for these two bulky volumes, that his researches on the spot, as well as in every attainable work of authority on a subject so wide, so deep, and so important, could not, with justice, be com pressed into a smaller space. On the other hand, each chapter of this book could easily be developed into a thick volume by itself, and yet not exhaust its subject. The orthography of Eastern words is a difficult and delicate subject. It has been treated, in these pages, in a way that, it is hoped, will make easy reading for the unlearned, and not offend the Oriental scholar.

In most cases the phonetic equivalent of Arabic and Turkish words has been given, to the best of the Author's ability. But for certain well-known terms, such as the name of the Prophet, the old-fashioned orthography of Mahomet, instead of the more recent Mohammed, has been retained, as being the most familiar, and therefore the most convenient, to the ordinary reader. It may, per haps, be added, that the spelling of Oriental words is an unsettled and contentious matter, and it will frequently be noticed that the same name is written differently by German, French, Spanish, Italian, and English authorities, each trustworthy enough as to AUTHOR'S NOTE. IX his information, but each rendering the word as it strikes his own ear. In conclusion, cordial thanks are offered to those who, by their advice and experience, have contributed to the composition of this book, especially to the friends in Constantinople and in England who have kindly assisted the Author in the collection of facts, and through whose good offices he has been able to see and hear much that must, otherwise, have escaped his observation.

Chapter I. The Sultan's Court And Hareem

The succession to the Ottoman Khaliphate differs from that of any other sovereignty, Eastern or Western. Mahomet, minute as he was in framing his code of moral and hygienic law, makes no mention, in the Koran, of any defined plan for securing the succession to his pontifical office. This singular oversight on the part of the Prophet has been the cause of at least two-thirds of the troubles which have befallen the Turkish Empire, especially during the last five cen turies, and it is, indeed, the mother of all the evils which go to make up that complex bundle of mis fortune, error, and crime, we habitually describe as the Eastern Question. Probably the reason for this omission on the part of a Lawgiver otherwise so exact in detail, as definitely to determine the very number of times the Faithful must wash their faces, hands, and feet each day, is due to the circumstance that, in spite of his having fifteen wives, he left no male heir to carry on his dynasty.

The confusion which ensued vol. i. B SUBfECTS. 2 on Mahomet's death, and which was entirely owing to his leaving no direct heir, ended in the election of Abu-Bakr-as-Siddig,* his father-in-law, to the vacant throne. He was in due time followed by Omar, who bore no relationship to either of his predecessors, and owed his election solely to his exceptional qualifications. By the time he died, Islamism had become so great a power, that the necessity of definitely de termining the succession to the Khaliphate began to agitate the Moslim world. Ali, the husband of Mahomet's only daughter, Fatimah, a turbulent and ambitious man, now came forward to assert his claims, and those of his sons, the grandchildren of the founder of the Faith, who, he averred, ought to inherit the honours of their grandsire.

The immediate followers of Mahomet, however, were not of this opinion. They preferred merit to descent. It is needless to enter into the details of the murders of Omar and Othman, Ali's sons, or of the subsequent defeat, and violent death, of Ali himself, who, according to the early chronicler's picturesque expression, "fell a victim of the sword." On his death Mua wiyah was proclaimed supreme ruler over all the countries which had been won by Mohammedan valour. He was the last of the elected Khaliphs, and it must be confessed that the elective system had not hitherto proved pre-eminently conducive to peace and prosperity, seeing it had led to no less than three * Father of Ayishah, whom Mahomet married when she was only nine years of age. Some think the name means, father oj the maiden. Siddig also signifies veracious. assassinations, and to continuous civil war.

Although Miia'wiyah was in no way connected with the Pro phet's family, he resolved, if possible, to establish an hereditary dynasty, and he partially succeeded, for some member or other of his blood contrived to hold the reins of power for close upon a century. Unfor tunately for them, they had to govern a people whose every act, in political and private life, is regulated by the Koran, which, as I have already pointed out, makes no mention whatever of the matter of the Pro phet's succession. On the death of Miia'wiyah II., Marwan, an usurper, only remotely connected with the reigning family, succeeded. After his decease the crown passed irregularly, from brother to nephew (never from father to son), and the last of the Ommiades, as that dynasty was called, was only third cousin to his immediate predecessor.

He perished in a general massacre of the Khaliphah family, in which the women of the Hareem were included. The next dynasty, the Abassides, was founded by El-Saffa, lineally descended from an uncle of the Prophet ; a somewhat vague connexion, which, how ever, enabled him to obtain a following, and seat himself firmly on the throne. His grandson was the famous Harun-al-Rashid, the glories of whose reign it were superfluous to recall. On his deathbed, un happily, this great prince divided his colossal Empire between his three sons, who straightway fell to quar relling, each desiring to secure the entire inheritance. Their dissensions led to the conquest of the Empire by the Turkish Seljuks, under whom the supreme power B SUBJECTS. 4 passed, from uncle to nephew, and nephew to cousin, in a perfect tempest of murder, massacre, and civil war, ending in the utter exhaustion of their power.

It is under this dynasty — which lasted, roughly speaking, for about a hundred years, from the end of the tenth century — that we first find symptoms of the custom, now grown into a legal obligation, of choosing the eldest male survivor of the Sultan's blood, as his successor. And with it came those merciless and systematic domestic tragedies, which had their main spring in the imperative desire to remove all who might stand in the way of the reigning sovereign's own offspring. The chief glory of the Seljuks was Meelek-Shah (1072-1092), who extended the Empire from the Caspian to the Mediterranean Sea, even to the shores of the Bosphorus, and bestowed royal encouragement on Art and Letters. At his death, family and internecine dissension broke out afresh, and, in less than twenty years, his vast possessions were split into a dozen minor sovereignties, with their capitals (to name a few) at Aleppo, Iconium, Nicea, Aiden, Angora, Brusa, and Damascus.

Each of these petty Sultans claimed the full honours of the Khaliphate, and learned indeed must be the historian, who shall conclusively prove which aspirant was descended, even in the remotest degree, from the most distant of the Prophet's family connexions. Out of the ruins of the Seljuk domination rose the Othmanli or Turkish Empire. Othman, its founder, was the son of Erthogrul, a splendid specimen of the nomad chief. Erthogrul never dreamt of arrogating to himself the proud descent so willingly accepted by his son's successors, but served loyally under Suleyman-Shah, chief of the Oguses Turks, who, with his horde of fifty thousand men, swept the Armenian plateau, right up to the sources of the River Euphrates, and made his faithful lieutenant Governor of the district of Bosoeni, in Asia Minor.

His seat of government was Sultan Beni, " Brow of Sultan," a name which it retains to this day, as being the cradle of the actual Turkish dynasty. As is so usual, in the case of the sounders of illustrious houses, various quaint and semi-miraculous legends are woven round the youth and early man hood of Othman. Not the least charming is a tale of his courtship ofthe fair Mal'Khatun, daughter of the learned Sheikh Edebali, and of their subsequent marriage. Their son, Orkhan, put the coping-stone upon his father Othman's life-work, by annihilating all the minor Sultanates, and, having finally consolidated his Empire, he chose Brusa, on the Bithynian Olympus, for his capital. From Orkhan down to Mohammed II., " the Con queror," hardly one of the Sultans died a natural death. Having converted Constantinople into Stambul, the sacred capital of Islam — second only to Mecca in the eyes of the Faithful — the victorious Mohammed turned his thoughts to the all-important subject of the Imperial succession.

He had narrowly escaped assassination, on the death of his father, Murad II., and was deeply versed in all the mysterious intrigues of Oriental Courts. He tarnished the glory of his HLS SUBfECTS. 6 reign, to European eyes, by the publication of a barbarous edict, which made it lawful for a new Sultan to murder all his male relations, in order to secure the throne to his own offspring. Selim II., in 1566, issued yet another firman, prohibiting members of the Imperial family from participating, even in the remotest degree, in public business, and condemning them to rigorous seclusion during the life of the reigning sovereign. The folly of such a regulation, whereby the heir to the crown is kept in utter ignorance of all those subjects wherein a prince, likely to be called to govern a great country, should be deeply learned, needs no comment.

Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid II., for instance (who reigns in the year of Grace, 1896), has four living brothers, and not one only, as is usually stated, who are all of them virtually prisoners of State. These Princes are the deposed and insane Sultan Murad V., His Majesty's senior by some four years ; Rechad Effendi, the heir-apparent ; and two other much younger brothers — War-ed-din Effendi and Suleyman Effendi. Selim, the Sultan's own eldest son, stands no chance of succeeding to the throne, until all his uncles, and the three sons of his eldest uncle, Murad V., are dead. Should Rechad succeed, the crown does not pass, on his death, to his own children, but to his next brother. If War-ed-din Effendi dies, Suleyman will succeed, and if he has shuffled off this mortal coil, the sceptre then falls to the eldest son of Murad V., and so on, from brother to brother, in that branch of the family, until there are no more of them left ; then, and then only, will Selim and his brothers have a chance.

In former times, matters used to be considerably simplified, on the accession of each Sultan, by a general massacre of all the males who stood in the way of his direct issue. When you visit the Turbhes, or tombs, of the Imperial family, which surround the seven Imperial Mosques, you may observe that the turbans affixed to certain of the coffins — some of them those of mere infants — are slightly inclined to the left. This means, it seems, that the body beneath is that of a Prince who has died a violent death. The following description of Rechad Effendi (the actual heir-apparent) was given me by M. N. : " He is about fifty-two years of age, tall and well-proportioned, but inclined to stoop. His features are regular; his nose, like that of Abd-ul-Hamid, rather Semitic in shape ; his eyes are blue, his hair and beard light red.* His manners are very gracious and easy, and he is exceedingly generous and kind.

He is probably not as intelligent as his brother Abd-ul-Hamid, but he is nothing like so nervous, although obliged to live the sequestered life enforced by the absurd regulations and traditions of the Ottoman Court, and he is fairly well informed as to what is taking place in Europe, -and in the Empire. Though far from fanatical, he is sincerely religious. He has two wives, both highly educated ladies, who speak French, German, and * In accordance with Court etiquette the Sultan must dye his hair and beard a vivid black, and should never be seen with gray hairs. Time itself must stand still, or seem to do so, to oblige the Padishah. English. They are well-born, being the daughters of distinguished Pashas, and have been educated by foreign governesses. They dress, within doors, like Frenchwomen.

His Highness has several children, of whom three are boys. Rechad plays the piano exceedingly well, and is a great admirer of classical music. Like Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz, he is a good draughtsman. I have seen some of these drawings, and they really have considerable merit, much above the average of amateur performances." I may mention that Ahmed Pasha (Shekir, or Sugar Pasha, as he is called, on account of his very agreeable manners) showed me, when I was in Constantinople, a very curious collection of sketches, mostly caricatures, of quite exceptional cleverness, by Abd-ul-Aziz. The brothers of Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid are ad dressed as " Effendi," or gentlemen ; but, as a kind of concession to the "Almanac de Gotha," and to modern ideas, they are invariably, by European diplomatists, and in the Levantine papers, styled " Imperial Highnesses."

Rechad is said to be a capital farmer, taking a practical interest in his estate up the Bosphorus, to which he pays daily visits, his only relaxation in a life of stupendous mono tony. When he drives out, it is invariably in a brougham, escorted and surrounded by at least a dozen armed horsemen. All visitors, even his medical man, are searched on entering the Tcheragan Palace — where he resides in a kind of State captivity — for books and papers, which are taken from them, and only returned when they leave the building. Thus,. an intelligent and well-intentioned Prince is kept, so far as possible, in ignorance of those very things with which he ought to be best acquainted, in order to qualify himself to occupy the throne, should he be destined to ascend its slippery steps. Verily, the Eastern Question is a hydra, and this matter of the succession is by no means the least monstrously ugly of its many heads.

It has caused so much bloodshed, and bred such incredible Palace and Hareem intrigues, as to baffle the imagination, and exceed the invention, of the most ingenious of sensational novelists. Let us examine how this royal education, so-called, is carried out. The baby Prince's infant years are spent in the Hareem, with his mother and nurses. This, of course, is as it should be ; but those who are familiar with Hareem life declare that the mother lives in constant terror, lest her child should be done away with, in some mysterious manner, by one of her many rivals, especially if the babe has the remotest chance of ever succeeding to the throne. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that it grows up. When it reaches its tenth year, it is handed over to a Lala (male attendant), whose duty it is to watch over it, day and night.

Presently, to this functionary is added a Mollah, or priest, who teaches the rudiments of education, and, above all, those of religion and of the Koran. By the time the boy is twelve or thirteen, French and Italian professors from Pera are brought to the Palace, who teach him a smattering of several European languages. But no consecutive system of education is carried out, and the child is soon surrounded by parasites and flatterers, whose sole object is to obtain complete control over him, so that, in the event of his succeeding to the throne, they may be all-powerful through his means. All the books which are used for the education of a Turkish Prince are carefully examined by the Censor. I have seen some French educational books, which had belonged to Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz, in which the number of erasures proved how mangled was the text he was allowed to study.

In the history of Turkey, for instance, no mention of the Siege of Constantinople by the Crusaders is permitted to appear, nor, indeed, is reference to a defeat of the Turks, in any part of the world, to be found in Turkish school books. The name of Christ, and the word Christian, are also invariably erased, and in a brief history of France, the entire chapter dealing with the French Revolution has been bodily torn out. If the young Prince should not be the immediate heir, he is allowed a little more liberty. Thus, when Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz brought his two nephews, after wards Sultans Murad, and Abd-ul-Hamid, to Europe, Hamid was permitted to go about Paris and London with an attendant, whereas Murad was not allowed to leave the Palace for an instant. Abd-ul-Hamid, as a young man, was fairly well known in Perote society.

There were certain European houses which he frequented, a grace denied his brother Rechad, who never sets foot in any house but his own. However, things are better now than they were a century ago. Then, an hereditary Prince usually spent his minority in the Kafes, or cage, in the Seraglio, to which, even now you are not allowed to approach nearer than a certain number of yards, though probably the only prisoners it at present contains are rats and mice. The Kafes is a series of fair-sized one-storied buildings, with windows on the upper floor only. They are said to contain twelve large chambers each, which were formerly sumptuously furnished, in Oriental style. Each of these pavilions was allotted to a Prince of the Imperial family, who lived in it in solitary state. The walls, I believe, of such of these buildings as still remain, are covered with fine tiles, and they contain a quantity of once splendid inlaid furniture, now sorely decayed.

In these weird palaces within a palace, all the heirs to the throne, from Achmet I. (1603) until the end of the last century, were immured in rigorous seclusion. Not a breath from the outside world was permitted to reach them, and the horror of sudden and violent death hung over them cease lessly. All the attendants were deaf mutes, whose ear-drums had been perforated, and their tongues slit. Even the women of the Hareems were such as could never bear children. Here Prince after Prince passed a sort of vegetable existence — a living death. Othman III. never once set foot abroad, for over fifty years, and, when he issued from his gilded prison, he had almost forgotten how to talk. Achmet II. passed seven years, and Suleyman II. thirty-nine, in this dreary place. This latter Prince devoted his solitary con- HLS SUBfECTS. 12 finement to copying and illuminating the Koran.

He only reigned thirty months ; and his gentleness caused him to be looked upon as a saint. He was absolutely dazed by the fuller life beyond his prison walls, and often asked to be taken back to it. Selim III., the first of the reforming Sultans, spent fifteen years in the Kafes. He, too, had been silent so long, that for many months he hardly knew how to frame his words. It seems that the Kafes were originally erected on humanitarian principles. Achmet I. desired to spare the life of his brother Mustapha, so he invented the cage, and shut him up in it, feeling certain that therein he could neither conspire, nor provoke rebellion. And does not the Koran say that both these acts " are worthy of execution" ? A terrible verse, which has caused the death of many a Mohammedan Prince. From Mohammed II., 145 1 , to Mahmud II., "the Reformer," 1808, no less than four Sultans were deliberately murdered, and five, three of whom after wards mysteriously disappeared, were forced to abdicate.

This same Mahmud II., the grandfather of his present Majesty, used to relate how his mother, the Sultana Valideh, hid him in an empty stove, to save him from the murderers of his uncle, Selim III., and his brother, Mustapha IV. ; and how, from his place of concealment, he heard the conspirators proclaim him Sultan. We will now turn to the constitution and etiquette of the Turkish Court, and more especially to that of the Hareem, the true Court of a polygamous monarch. To begin with the external, as apart from the domestic Court : it has often been asserted that the Sultan shares his spiritual power with the Sheikh ul-Islam, but as a matter of actual fact, they are, in a measure, independent of each other, as will be ex plained in the chapter on the Sultan and his Priests. The Sheikh-ul-Islam is the Vicar-General, charged with those details of the spiritual life of the Empire which would be too intricate for the Sultan's unaided examination.

The third greatest personage in the Empire is the Grand Vizir, whose functions somewhat resemble those of our own Prime Minister, though in certain ways, of course, much more limited. He is the supreme chief of the Administration of the Empire. All the other Ministers work under him, he presides at the Privy Council, and appoints almost all the minor officials in the State. He submits the names of would-be Governors of Provinces, Ambassadors, and such important person ages, to His Majesty, but the smaller fry are nominated entirely on his own responsibility, for good or evil. The first Grand Vizir was created by a member of the Abassides dynasty, a.d. 750. In olden times, this office was far from being a pleasant one. Countless Vizirs have made acquaintance with those terrible instruments of death, the bowstring and the cup of poisoned coffee.

The last century alone saw some thing like a hundred perish by these means, or in that terrible " well of blood," the remains of which, in the courtyard of the Castle of the Seven Towers, still thrill the traveller with a sense of shuddering horror. Most of these Grand Vizirs, many of whom have won lasting fame by their striking administrative talents, rose from the lowest ranks, even out of slavery. The Grand Vizir is invariably addressed as " Your Highness." Not many generations back, his regulation costume was of white satin, lined with ermine, and on his head he wore an egg-shaped turban, blazing with jewels. This was the garb of the Grand Vizir of the day, when Canning had his first interview with Sultan Mahmud in 1810. Nowadays, His Highness always appears in a modern military uniform, cut in the German fashion, and the pomp and circumstance of his entourage has dwindled to the stained and ill-fitting frock-coat, and the un blacked sidespring boots, of the modern Turkish functionary.

The Kizlar-Aghasi, or chief of the Black Eunuchs, ranks, officially, next to the Grand Vizir. The regiment of eunuchs under his command has greatly diminished during the present reign, but their number is still formidable, for they are indispensable to the Hareem system. A few exceedingly old white eunuchs are lodged at Yildiz, but they are rapidly dying out. The body-guard of page-boys, which used to be quartered in two vast courtyards in the Old Seraglio, has now almost entirely lost its peculiarly Asiatic character. The lads do much the same work as in other Courts — run messages, and attend upon their elders. In exchange for these light duties, they receive their board and lodging, and a fair military education. Notwithstanding his well-intentioned household reforms, Abd-ul-Hamid's Court still swarms with parasites, in the guise of secretaries, chamberlains, ushers, Palace agents, and so forth.

All this petty host is waited on by some three or four hundred slaves, and menial servants, known as " baltadjis." The cooking of the Imperial establishment is on a quite incredible scale. The male and female popula tion of Yildiz, inclusive of the troops in the Palace barracks, cannot, certainly, amount to less than between six and eight thousand persons, all fed at the Sultan's expense. One of the most amusing features of a visit to such portions of the Palace as strangers are allowed to see, is the procession of meals, going from the kitchens to the various apartments. Each meal is enclosed in an enormous wheel-shaped box, divided into compartments, and covered with a piece of black calico, tied over the top, the whole carried on the head of a slave. Under the black covering is another, of silk or velvet, more or less richly embroidered according to the rank of the person who is to consume the viands.

There are over four hundred cooks and scullions employed within the Palace, under the direction of a goodly array of Turkish, French, and Italian chefs. The Hareem, or women's department ofthe Sultan's household, consists of a number of little courts, or " dairas," each surrounding some one or other of the leading ladies of this amazing female hierarchy, numbering not less than fifteen hundred persons. Only three Turkish Sultans have ever gone through the ceremony of marriage. Orkhan II. espoused the Greek Princess Theodora ; Sultan Suleyman went through a marriage ceremony with Roxalana ; and Abd-ul-Medjid legally married the lovely Besma Effendi, the adopted daughter of a Princess of the royal house of Egypt. The women of the Imperial Hareem are divided into three great classes : the Kadines, who are more or less legitimate wives, though never officially espoused ; the Ikbals, or favourites, from amongst whom the Kadines are usually selected ; and the Gediklisor Guieuzdes, literally, "the young ladies who are pleasant in the eyes " of their master, who may, in their turn, attain to the dignity of Ikbals.

All these women, who should be of slave origin, constitute a veritable female hierarchy, beginning with Shagirdsor novices, and ending with the Kadines. The majority are either purchased, or stolen, from Circassian or Georgian peasants, at a very tender age, and in so mysterious a manner as to prevent all chance of their relatives ever tracing their whereabouts. In nine cases out of ten, however, if the lady does rise to importance, her identity is revealed, somehow or other, to her own kinsfolk, and it becomes the chief object of her life to obtain rich places for them, by fair means or foul. The Sultan of Turkey, therefore, is almost invariably the son of a slave woman. But, the moment that slave becomes the mother of a Prince, or even of a Princess, of the blood royal, she is set free, and given Imperial rank, and is known as Khassekl-Sultan, or Royal Princess.

As an instance in point, many old residents in Constantinople still remember how Sultan Mahmud II. was smitten with a sudden passion for the buxom Hammamjinah (or bath-woman) Besma, who, on becoming the mother of Abd-ul-Aziz, instantly became Khassekl-Sultan, and eventually rose to the supreme dignity of " Valideh-Sultan." Besma Sultan, notwithstanding her very humble origin, won a distinguished position at the Ottoman Court. She never forgot that she sprang from the people, and as, although fanatical, she was kindly and unselfish, she was adored by the lower classes. She survived the fall of her son, and died some ten years ago, universally honoured. The present Sultan gave her a State funeral of an unprecedentedly magnificent character. It was this unfortunate Princess who, un wittingly, provided Abd-ul-Aziz with the scissors with which he committed suicide.

After that tragic event she lived a very retired life, wholly devoted to chari table works. She built the magnificent Yeni Valideh Djami* at the Ak Serai, and there she sleeps in a garden, surrounded by the flowers to which, in her lifetime, she had been so devoted. There is a pretty anecdote told of the good Valideh, when she was building her mosque. She was entitled, by etiquette, to have two minarets, but funds fell short and only one was built. Upon her son offering her the money to erect a second minaret she said, " No, one minaret is enough to call people to prayer, and another would only glorify me ; the poor need a fountain." So the fountain, one of the most beautiful in Constantinople, was duly built. * Djami means mosque. vol. 1. c As all good Mussulmans should have four official wives, so the Sultan has four Kadines.* Each bears her own distinctive title, and takes precedence ac cordingly.