A history of the empire and people of Turkey and the war in the East

Front matter

Francois-Michel and

Margaret Riches Messud

HISTORY OF TURKEY

Chapter I

Origin of the Turks — The Saracens — Mahomet, the Prophet— Othman, the first Sultan — Advance into Europe — Defeat of the Hungarians — Capture of Constantinople — Formation of the Government — Defeat of the Persians — Soliman L, the Law-giver — Siege of Vienna — The zenith of Turkish power — Wonderful success — Conquest of Hungary — The terror of Europe — Conquest of Persia — Austria pays tribute — Pride, arrogance, and disaster — Feebler rulers — Waning power — Second Siege of Vienna — War with Russia — Turkish defeat — Destruction of the Turkish fleet — The Janissaries — The Greek revolution — Continued disasters- Russian victories — Revolt in Egypt — Turkish fanaticism — Outrages on Christians — The Crimean War — Battle of Alma — Sebastopol — Turkish weakness and poverty — Massacre of Christians — Commencement of the provincial rebellions — Abdul Hamid II

Chapter II

Turkey in Asia — Its antiquity — Syria — Palestine and Holy Land described — Its fertility — Wealth of the Jews — The Crusaders — A land of milk and honey — The various religions— Palestine under the Turks — Tyre — Ruins of Acre — Caesarea — Joppa

Chapter III

Jerusalem — Description of the city — The monks — Mount of Olives — The Sepulchres — The Mosque of Omar — A sacred enclosure — The magical stone — Superstitions and celebrations

Vlll.

CONTENTS.

Chapter IV

Gethsemane— The potter's field — Mahometan burials — Jewish homes — Synagogues — Armenian customs — Trade and commerce — Oriental habits — Mosque of David — Mount .Zion — Street scenes — The Saviour's grave — Adam's grave — Relics — The true cross — The Wandering Jew — Modern tourists— Traditions of the East — Beggars— The Golden Gate .•

Chapter V

Bethany — Bethlehem— Cave of the Nativity — The Dead Sea— Heavy waters — Hebron — The Philistines— Gaza — Eastern inns — Tiberias — Jewish tribute — Nazareth — Turkish extortion — The Jordan — Modern Beyrout — Tripoli — Antioch — Turkish misrule — Olympic games — Aleppo

Chapter VI

Damascus — The famous swords — The modern city — Mark Twain's humorous description — Remarkable ruins — Tripoli — The Cedars of Lebanon — Ancient descriptions — Climate and soil of Syria

Chapter VII

Countries on the Euphrates and Tigris — An interesting territory — The Assyrian and Babylonian empires — Armenia — Mount Ararat — The junction of three empires — Kars — Orpha — Mosul — Vast dimensions of Nineveh — Mounds and ruins — Wandering Arabs — Bagdad — Oriental magnificence — Babylon — Hanging gardens — Smyrna, the lovely — The fig trade — Bazaars — Ruins of Ephesus — Brusa — Magnificent mosques — The plain of Troy— Angora goats — Trebizond — The savage Koords— Turkish forts — Cyprus — Turkish houses and inns — Eastern baths — Habits and customs of the Moslems— Turkish traits — Their dress- — Physique and military customs — Military despots ^

Chapter VIII

Turkey in Europe— Sea of Marmora— The Balkan mountains— The Danube — Climate, soil and vegetation — The

CONTENTS.

Vine — Dardanelles and Bosphorus — Byron and the Hellespont— Constantinople — The harbor — Description of the city -The mosque of St. Sophia — Turkish caiques — The population— The cemeteries — The bazaars — Eating-houses — The Hippodrome — Mosque of Achmed — The Sultan — The navy-yard — The walls of the city— Naval discipline — The barracks — Arts and commerce — Pipes and tobacco— The fire brigade — Reservoirs — Schools — Scutari — Adrianople — The Greek monasteries — Thessaly — Mount Olympus — Roving Arnauts — The Montenegrins — Bosnia — Turkish despotism and extortion

Chapter IX

Servia — The Sclavonic people — Servian army — Wallachia and Moldavia described — Resources — Bukharest — The port of Galatz — The fortress of Ismail — The peasantry — Bulgaria — The scene of brutal atrocities — The people — Their primitive dwellings and mode of living — Sophia, the capital- Victorious Shumla — Widin — Silistria — The scene of Russian battles — The islands of Turkey— Candia— Patmos — Mount Ida — Egypt — Tunis— Tripoli

Chapter X

The Mahometan religion — Its origin and leading doctrines— The Koran — Mahomet — Prayers — Fasting — Splendor of illuminated mosques — The feasts — Pilgrimages — Ablutions — Temperance — Gaming — Howling dervishes — The Greek Church — The Patriarch — Greek feasts and fasts — Turkish graves and burials — Fanaticism

Chapter XI

Present condition of the Turks — Population of the empire — The Government — The Sultan— Despotic powers — The Cabinet or Divan — Pashas — The Sublime Porte — Turkish dress — Demeanor — Characteristics of the people— Literature — Social customs — Superstitions— Proverbs — Marriage laws —Turkish women — Home habits — Eating — Sleeping — The Harem

X.

CONTENTS.

Chapter XII

Origin of the Turco-Russian War — Rebellion in the Provinces — Onerous Taxes — Insurrection in Herzigovina — Rising in Bulgaria — Abdul Hamid II. — The Bulgarian atrocities— Fiendish outrages — Declaration of war by Servia — The conflict — Discomfiture of Servia — An armistice — The conference of the Powers — Reforms demanded — The ultimatum— Rejection of the terms by Turkey — Failure of the conference — Russia's circular — The London protocol — Declaration of war by Russia — Turkey's reply — Opinions of the Powers 452

Chapter XIII

Relative condition and resources of the two Powers — Their armies and navies — Alexander II. — Withdrawal of the Embassy — Russian march to the Danube — Sinking of a Turkish iron-clad — Siege of Kars — Crossing of the Danube- Capture of Tirnovaby the Russians — Capture of Nicopolis — Russian troops cross the Balkans — Repulse of the Russian forces at Plevna 47 1

THE WAR IN ASIA.

The Russians under Grand Duke Michael cross the frontier— First blood — Capture of Soukhoum Kaleh by the Turkish fleet and army — Capture of Ardahan by the Russians — Falling back of the Russians in Asia — Privations of the Turkish population — Battle of Shipka Pass — Fighting on the Lorn — Storming and capture of Loftcha by the Russians- Capture of Nicsics by the Montenegrins— Siege of Plevna — A fierce struggle — Defeat of Mukhtar Pasha before Kars — Second siege of Kars — Its capture by storm — Siege of Erzeroum — Panic at Constantinople — Turkey humbled and disheartened by defeat 486 to 502

Introduction

We have given in the accompanying work a brief history of the Ottoman Empire, from the earliest incursion of a horde of marauding Tartars into Asia Minor down to the present time ; avoiding dry details, yet sufficiently ample to afford the general reader a knowledge of the origin and growth of a power at one time second to none in the Eastern Hemisphere ; of the influence which it has exercised upon the politics of Europe ; of its retrogression from a position of haughty prominence to one of comparative insignificance ; and of the causes which have led to its decline.

Having furnished the reader with a summary of the history of the Turks as a nation, we then proceed to describe more diffusely, as being the more entertaining portion of our theme, the fertile and extensive country embraced within the boundaries of the Turkish Empire, which is undoubtedly, both historically and geographically, one of the most important and interesting portions of the earth's surface. Beautifully situated as it is upon the shores of the Mediterranean, upon the highway to the East, the coveted prize of many of the nations of Europe, embracing within its area portions of three continents, and including under its sway the whole of that country known as the " Holy Land," and endeared to all Christians as the location of the wanderings, the battles, the hopes, the fears and trials recorded in Holy Writ, and more especially as the scene of the labors and suf-

INTRODUCTION.

ferings of our Savior ; with all these attractions, there is no wonder that this locality has drawn to itself an amount of attention which few of the nations of the earth are able to command.

The Turks are a peculiar people ; and the description tion which we have given of their habits and customs, from data obtained by personal contact and intercourse with all classes of the population, from the Sultan in the seraglio down to the Bulgarian peasant in his hut and the roving Koord in the mountain fastnesses, cannot but prove interesting and instructive both to the student of history and the general reader.

While this Empire and locality demands from its position and surroundings more than the ordinary share of study and attention, there is probably no other portion of the earth's surface, actually peopled by a civilized or semi-civilized population, and constituting a recognized member of the family of nations, about which so little is known by the masses of the English speaking peoples, as this land of the Ottomans. Only within a very recent time has travel through the interior been a possibility ; and even now it is attended with a considerable amount of personal danger. The lack of railroads, and even of passable carriage roads, renders locomotion slow and tedious ; while the unsettled condition of the country, the suspicious character of the people, and the nomadic and predatory bands of Koords and outlaws, suffice to keep the luckless traveler in a constant state of doubt and watchfulness ; and are anything but incentives to careful study and observation either of the country and its products, or of the population by which he is surrounded. A thousand travelers might be summarily disposed of in this unfortunate land without anyone being the wiser of it or any inquiries being instituted.

INTRODUCTION.

xiii.

Under such circumstances only the coolest judgment and steadiest nerves will carry the explorer safely through. There is no occasion for wonder therefore, however much there may be for regret, that this country is buried in so> much darkness. It is fervently to be prayed that, as the result of her last struggle with Russia and the demand of other European powers, an improvement in her institutions maybe effected, and that this benighted land may behold the dawn of light. It is our earnest hope that this volume may shed some light on a hitherto dark subject, and that the reader may find instruction and entertainment in studying, in the safety of his own fireside in a Christian land, the ways and customs of this strange and fanatical people.

The rapid progress and still more rapid decline of the Ottoman power, are amongst the most interesting phenomena in the history of Europe. Under Solyman I.r surnamed the Magnificent, the most accomplished of all the Ottoman princes, when the Turkish Empire was in the height of its glory and power, it ranked among the foremost nations of the earth, and perhaps had its turn as the most powerful empire in the world. Only a few years later it commenced to decline, and so rapidly did this waning process take place that it seemed like a star plucked from its place in heaven and cast headlong into the abyss below.

The Turks have undoubtedly degenerated both in their civil and military institutions ; but their present weakness is to be ascribed more to a lack of ability or endeavor to keep pace with the advancing progress of the world than to a positive decline. Haughty and illiterate, they have experienced all the fatal consequences of ignorance without suspecting its cause.

Other causes have had their influence in effecting xiv.

INTRODUCTION.

the downfall of Turkish supremacy. The deposition of the rulers ; the rapacious greed, the extortion and cruelty of the tax gatherers ; the growing effeminacw of the sultans, who, from the warlike vigor and devotion of the ancient leaders, have sunk into a slothful luxury ; the licentiousness and impatience of discipline of the soldiery ; the jealousies and wranglings of different orders of officials ; all these have had a potent influence for evil in Turkish affairs. The very growth of the empire, the vast extension of the domain, multiplying as it did the enemies, not the upholders, of the state, was also an element of destruction. Lastly, but not leastly, the Mahometan religion, upon whose principles and dogmas the Turkish Government is founded, and which constitute its unalterable law, contains within itself no principle of improvement, and seems incapable of being accommodated to any practical system of reform. It prevents, by its inflexible precepts, any attempt at reorganization or improvement in discipline.

The reformer encounters at the very outset a multitude of deep-rooted religious prejudices, and is greeted by the great body of the people with an almost inexplicable hatred, as one who is endeavoring with impious hands to subvert principles established by the Koran and hallowed by ancient usage. Nothing short of a complete revolution, which shall suffice to remove the whole constitution, and perhaps also the very religion of the empire, will ever raise this unfortunate land to the level of other European powers, and regenerate it to a new and more enlightened and prosperous existence. If the Turks prove eventually to be incapable of rising to this height and grandeur of intelligence and civilization, then nothing remains to look to or hope for but foreign intervention, and the utter crushing out by mili-

INTRODUCTION.

XV.

tary force, at once and forever, of the Turkish name and the Turkish power from amongst the nations of Europe.

It now seems as if the final hour of her trial has arrived. In recent events the world has not only seen the Ottoman Empire suffer severely from internal convulsions, but beheld her once again involved in a gigantic struggle with a great and mighty opponent. Again it has witnessed vast armies on either side marshalled for the fray, and contending with each other in deadly strife. The events of the Crimean War have been in a measure re-enacted, and all Europe is watching for results with strained eyes and trembling uncertainty. An accident, a single mismove, may involve the entire Continent in a promiscuous and desolating war. The importance of the issue, the magnitude of the interests involved, the strategical and historical renown which attaches to the country which has become the theatre of war, the vastness of the contending forces, all these combine to render the question one of surpassing interest ; and we cannot doubt that a work giving authentic information on the subject, and a truthful description of the countries and people involved, will be heartily welcomed and gratefully received by the reading and thinking public.

The Author.

FORTIFICATIONS OF RUSTSCHUK AND GIURGEVA.

By courtesy of " The Telegram."

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE.

Chapter I. Origin Of The Turks

The vanity of nations, like that of families, inclines them to lay claim to a high antiquity. From this weakness of the human mind the Turkish people and their historians cannot claim to be entirely free. They endeavor to trace their nationality back to chiefs and conquerors reputed to have existed a thousand years before the birth of Christ, and to warlike tribes who occupied the central country of Asia and battled with and stemmed the western march of the hordes of China. Of this period of their existence, however, if existence they then had as a distinct people, there exists no authentic record. It is long anterior to the time when reliable history commences of that portion of the globe. There is, to be sure, no reasonable doubt that, at that stage of the world's existence, the plateaus of Central Asia were occupied by savage, and warlike tribes, nomadic in habits, quarrelsome in disposition, and predatory in their manner of life. But that these tribes were settled and populous enough, or sufficiently homogeneous to constitute a nation from which to trace a genealogy is exceedihgly improbable. The more reasonable supposition is that, at that early date, the region referred to was but very scantily peopled, the tribes at constant enmity with each other and migrating from place to place at the mercy of the varying fortunes of war; and that anything approaching to settlement or civilization was the result of a later experience and commenced at a much later date in the world's chronology.

The earliest authentic history of the Turks does not date back further than the seventh century of the Christian

I

THE SARACENS.

era. At about this period, having become somewhat numerous, they began to direct their course westward, and gradually spread over the plains of Turkestan and the territory between the Black and Caspian Seas, and came into contact with the then powerful Arabs or Saracens with whom they soon entered into alliance and friendly relations. Being found superior in all the soldierly qualities to the Arabs, the armies of the Saracen caliphs came gradually to be composed almost entirely of them. At this date also they were largely employed by the emperor Heraclius to recruit his armies, and it was by their instrumentality that he undertook and successfully carried out the conquest of Persia, then at the very height of its power, and whose hitherto victorious arms had extended the Persian boundaries to their widest extent (A.D. 628). By this disaster the defeated nation lost all its conquests and its power, and became a prey to the wrangling of petty chiefs and to the repeated conquests of the Turk and the Arab, a condition from which it has never recovered.

While the superior military qualities of the Turks enabled them gradually to wrest the political power from the Arabs, the latter were able, by their greater devotion to religion, to exercise a no less potent influence (though of a different nature) over the Turks. The Saracens at this date had thoroughly and devotedly espoused the Mahometan religion, which had been divulged by their prophet and leader, Mahomet or Mohammed. This celebrated chieftain was born at Mecca, in Arabia, in the year A.D. 569. He belonged to an Arabian tribe called Koraish, and his family possessed the hereditary right to the custody of the Caaba, or one of the places of worship, under their previous idolatrous system, at Mecca. They had, however, fallen into reduced circumstances; and Mahomet was trained for a life of traffic , and merchandise. Marrying a rich widow, whose confidence and affections he had won by the faithful discharge of his duties as her factor, he greatly improved his condition. His education, however, was scanty, which proved a considerable impediment to his ambition. But

MAHOMET, THE PROPHET.

he had great natural capacities of mind, great genius, wonderful eloquence, unquestioned bravery, and an indomitable will. He was personally present at nine battles and sieges, and in twelve years undertook with his army upwards of fifty successful enterprises. His claims as a prophet and ruler were at first rejected at Mecca, and he himself was forced to fly to Medina for safety ; and it is from this flight, called the Hegira, that all Mahometans date their annals. He afterwards captured Mecca and the greater part of the strongholds of Arabia, and in the prime of his life was able to boast that all Arabia had submitted to his government and espoused his religion. He raised the power of his nation to a high pitch, and was universally recognized by his countrymen as a prophet and a prince. He died in the sixty-third year of his age, retaining his mental and bodily vigor to the last (A.D. 632). Full of the fire and zeal of a new religion, the Arabians, under the successors of Mahomet, undertook campaigns against all the neighboring nations, in which they were largely assisted by the Turks. They conquered Persia and Greece. Antioch, Damascus, and Syria succumbed to their prowess. They penetrated into Palestine and captured Jerusalem. They routed the Medesand Africans, and also annexed Egypt, Cyprus, Rhodes, Candia, Sicily, Malta, and other islands. Such was the prowess of the Arabian zealots and their Turkish allies. We pause here to give some account of the religion of Mahomet, as embodied in the Koran.

The state of the world at that time was highly favorable to the introduction of a new religion : it had been the will of Heaven to permit the purity and simplicity of the doctrines of Christ to be contaminated and perverted by the artful wiles of priest-craft, which caused the grossest impositions to be practiced upon the ignorant laity ; pomp, splendor, an unintelligible worship, were substituted for the devotion of the heart, whilst the prayers offered up to imaginary and fictitious saints had effaced all just notions of the attributes of the Deity. Mahomet had made two journeys into Syria, where

THE MAHOMETAN CREED.

he had informed himself of the principles of Judaismr and the jargon which bore the name of Christianity : it is probable, indeed, that his mind was naturally prone to religious enthusiasm, and that he was a devotee before he became an impostor. His first design seems to have extended no farther than to bring the wild, intractable, and ardent Arabs to acknowledge one God and one king ; and it is probable that for a considerable time his ambition extended no farther than to become the spiritual and temporal sovereign of Arabia. He began his eventful project by accusing both Jews and Christians of corrupting the revelations which had been made to them from heaven, and maintained that both Moses and Jesus Christ had prophetically foretold the coming of a prophet from God, which was accomplished in himself, the last and greatest of the prophets ; thus initiated he proceeded to deliver detached sentences, as he pretended to receive them from the Almighty, by the hand of the angel Gabriel. These pretensions to a divine mission drew on him a requisition from the inhabitants of Mecca that he would convince them by working a miracle ; but he replied, " God refuses those signs and wonders that would depreciate the merit of faith, and aggravate the guilt of infidelity." The unity of God was the grand and leading article in the creed he taught, to which was closely joined his own divine mission ; Allah il allah, Muhamed resoul Allah, is their preface to every act of devotion, and the sentence continually in their mouths: which is, "there is but one God, and Mahomet is his prophet."

The Arabian tribes, who occupied the country from Mecca to the Euphrates, were at that time known by the name of Saracens ; their religion was chiefly gross idolatry, Sabianism having spread almost over the whole nation, though there were likewise great numbers of Christians, Jews and Magians interspersed in those parts. The essence of their worship principally consisted in adoring the planets and fixed stars : angels and images they honored as inferior deities, whose intercessions with the almighty in their favor they implored :

THE MAHOMETAN CREED.

they believed in one God ; in the future punishment of the wicked for a long series of years, though not for •ever; and constantly prayed three times a day; namely, at sunrise, at its declination, and at sunset ; they fasted three times a year, during thirty days, nine days and seven days ; they offered many sacrifices, but ate no part of them, the whole being burnt ; they likewise turned their faces, when praying, to a particular part of the horizon ; they performed pilgrimages to the city of Harran in Mesopotamia, and had a great respect for the temple of Mecca and the pyramids of Egypt, imagining the latter to be the sepulchres of Seth, also of Enos and Sabi, his two sons, whom they considered as the founders of their religion. Besides the book of Psalms, they had other books, which they esteemed equally sacred, particularly one, in the Chaldee tongue, which they called " the book of Seth." They have been called " Christians of St. John the Baptist," whose disciples also they pretend to be, using a kind of baptism, which is the greatest mark they bear of Christianity : circumcision was practised by the Arabs, although Sale is silent on that practice, when describing the religion of the Sabians ; they likewise abstained from swine's flesh. So that in this sect we may trace the essential articles of the creed of Mussulmans.

Mahomet was in the fortieth year of his age when he assumed the character of a prophet. He had been accustomed for several years, during the month of Ramadan, to withdraw from the world, and to secrete himself in a cave three miles distant from Mecca. " Conversation," says Mr. Gibbon, " enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius." During the first three years he made only fourteen proselytes, among which were his wife Khadijah ; his servant, or rather slave, Zeid Ali, who afterwards married the prophet's favorite daughter, Fatima, and was surnamed " the lion of God ;" Abubeker, a man distinguished for his merit and his wealth ; the rest consisted of respectable citizens of Mecca. The Koreishites, although the tribe to which he belonged, were the most violent

THE MAHOMETAN CREED.

opposers of the new religion. In the tenth year of his prophetic office, his wife died ; and the next year his enemies formed a design to cut him off. Being seasonably apprised, he fled by night to Medina, on the 16th of July, 622, from which event the Hegira commenced he was accompanied only by two or three followers, but he made a public entry into that city, and soon gained many proselytes, on which he assumed the regal and sacerdotal characters. As he increased in power, that moderation and humility, which had before distinguished his conduct, were gradually erased, and he became fierce and sanguinary ; he began to avow a design of propagating his religion by the sword, to destroy the monuments of idolatry, and, without regarding the sanctity of days or months, to pursue the unbelieving nations of the earth. The Koran inculcates, in the most absolute sense, the tenets of faith and predestination. The first companions of Mahomet advanced to battle with a fearless confidence, their leader having fully possessed their minds with the assurance that paradise awaited those who died fighting for the cause of their prophet, the gratifications of which were held out to be such as best suited the amorous complexions of the Arabians : blackeyed Houries, resplendent in beauty, blooming youth, and virgin purity ; every moment of pleasure was there to be prolonged to a thousand years, and the powers of the man were to be increased a hundredfold to render him capable of such felicity ; to those who survived,, rich spoils and the possession of their female captives were to crown their conquests.

Of the chapters of the Koran, which are one hundred and fourteen in number, ninety-four were received at Mecca and twenty at Medina. The order in which they stand does not point out the time when they were written, for the seventy-fourth chapter is supposed to have been the first revealed, and the sixty-eighth to have immediately followed it.

The most marked feature of this religion is its strict assertion of the Unity of God. A general resurrection of the dead is another article of belief reiterated in the

THE MAHOMETAN CREED.

Koran. The pilgrimage to Mecca, praying toward that place, and the ablutions which are enjoined on the most ordinary acts and occasions, together with the adoption of that religious sophism predestination, in its most extravagant extent, seem to comprehend the superstitious parts of this religion ; but it has other characteristics which betray its spurious origin, and prove its destructive tendency.

Besides the Koran, which is the written law to the Mahometans, alike as to the belief and practice of religion and the administration of public justice, there is the Sunnah, or oral law, which was selected, two hundred years after the death of Mahomet, from a vast number of precepts and injunctions which had been handed down from age to age, as bearing the stamp of his authority. In this work the rite of circumcision is enjoined, concerning which the Koran was silent ; nor was it necessary to be there commanded, as the Arabians, adhered to it before the establishment of Mahometanism.

Their children are not circumcised, like those of the jews, at eight days old, but at eleven or twelve, and sometimes at fourteen and fifteen years of age, when they are able to make a profession of their faith. When any renegade Christian is circumcised, two basins are usually carried after him, to gather the alms which the spectators freely give. Those who are uncircumcised, whether Turkish children or Christians, are not allowed to be present at their public prayers ; and if they are taken in their mosques they are liable to be impaled or burnt.

The fast of Ramedan and the feasts of the Great and the Little Bairam are strictly observed by the Turks as by other Mahometans ; but a full account of these will be given when describing the habits and customs of the people.

They regularly pray three times a day, and are obliged to wash before their prayers, as well as before they presume to touch the Koran. As they make great use of their fingers in eating, they are required to wash after every meal, and the more cleanly among them do it before meals. After every kind of defilement, in fact, ablution is enjoined.

WASHING HANDS.

By the Mahometan law a man may divorce his wife twice, and if he afterwards repents, he may lawfully take her again ; but Mahomet, to prevent his followers from divorcing their wives upon every slight occasion, or merely from an inconstant humor, ordained that if any man divorces his wife a third time, it is not lawful for him to take her again until she has been married and bedded by another, and divorced from that husband. The Koran allows no man to have more than four wives and concubines, but the prophet and his successors are laid under no restriction.