Produced by Suzanne Shell, Mary Meehan and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
[Illustration: A KAFEDJI]
PEEPS AT MANY LANDS
TURKEY
BY JULIUS R. VAN MILLINGEN
WITH TWELVE FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
BY WARWICK GOBLE
LONDON
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
1911
[Illustration: THE BRIDGE FROM GALATA TO STAMBOUL.]
CONTENTS
I. GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY 5
II. ALBANIANS, POMAKS, TARTARS, AND BULGARIANS 11
III. CIRCASSIANS, LAZES, AND KURDS 22
IV. ARMENIANS 27
V. GREEKS AND VLACHS 36
VI. JEWS--SUPERSTITIONS 48
VII. GIPSIES--SUPERSTITIONS 54
VIII. SYRIANS, DRUSES, MARONITES, AND BEDOUINS 57
IX. TURKS 61
X. THE FAITH OF ISLAM 72
XI. GAMES 78
XII. DOGS 85
XIII. THE GALATA BRIDGE AND THE BAZAARS 90
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
THE BRIDGE FROM GALATA TO STAMBOUL _Frontispiece_
ROUMELI HISSAR (BOSPHORUS) 9
A SIMITDJI 16
A STAMBOUL BEGGAR 25
IN THE GRAND BAZAAR 32
A SHEKERDJI's SHOP 41
A CEMETERY BY THE BOSPHORUS 48
A FORTUNE-TELLER 57
A TURKISH LADY IN OUTDOOR DRESS 64
INTERIOR OF THE MOSQUE OF SULTAN AHMED I. 73
A HOWLING DERVISH 80
A KAFEDJI _On the cover_
Sketch-Map of Turkey _page iv_
[Illustration: SKETCH-MAP OF TURKEY.]
TURKEY
CHAPTER I
GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
The Empire of Turkey, through which I propose to conduct you, stretches
over portions of Europe and Asia--the slender thread of the Bosphorus
and the Dardanelles being the division between the two continents. A
rapid current rushes through these channels, but in some places they are
so narrow that you can shout across from Europe to Asia, and it is no
uncommon thing to hear the dogs barking from the other side.
Turkey in Europe spreads northwards from these points up to Bulgaria,
and consists of a long strip of country extending from the Black Sea to
the Adriatic.
Turkey in Asia is more extensive, and stretches from the Black Sea to
the Persian Gulf. Persia lies to its east, and the Red Sea and blue
Mediterranean to its west.
Turkey holds sway over some of earth's fairest lands, the homes of its
most ancient civilizations and lands familiar to us through Holy Writ
and profane history, and the sources of Jewish, Christian, Moslem, and
other beliefs.
The rulers of Turkey are the Turks, originally a nomadic tribe from
Central Asia. Compelled to abandon their homes on account of the
desiccation or drying up of large tracts of their country, which were
converted into a desert, they swarmed into Armenia and Persia in quest
of new pasture-lands for their flocks and cattle. Like the in-coming
tide, they swept everything before them, and finally overwhelmed, not
only Asia Minor, but also Egypt and Northern Africa.
Converted at an early stage of their history to the Mahomedan faith,
they propagated it wherever they went, and, under the leadership of the
Sultans of the Seljuk dynasty, they established themselves in Konia, and
advanced their rule to the gates of the Byzantine Empire. But it was
reserved for a kindred tribe under Ertogrul to be the successors of the
Seljuks and establish the Ottoman dynasty which still holds sway over
Turkey.
The events leading up to it were as follows: Ertogrul, with a band of
400 followers, was wandering about Asia Minor, and accidentally came
across a conflicting Mongolian and Seljuk army in the neighbourhood of
Angora. He dashed into the fray in support of the latter, and changed
impending defeat into a brilliant victory. In reward for this timely
assistance the Seljuk Sultan awarded to Ertogrul the district of
Anatolia, which bounded the Greek or Byzantine Empire, the capital of
which Empire was then Constantinople.
During the summer the new-comers drove their flocks to the mountains,
and during the winter they withdrew them to the plains, but, growing
bolder and more powerful, Ertogrul waged war against the Greeks. Success
followed upon success, until at last, in 1326, under the leadership of
Othman, the son of Ertogrul, Nicea, noted for its Council which drew up
the Nicean Creed, fell to the sword of the Moslem. Brusa also was taken,
and there Othman enthroned himself as Sultan of the dynasty thenceforth
known as the Ottoman.
Before proceeding further it might be interesting to relate an incident
which pictures the primitive character and frugality of the founders of
this dynasty. When the mighty Othman died, the only possessions he left
behind were a salt-bowl, the symbol of hospitality, a spoon, his sword
and standards, his cloak and white turban, a pair of horses, a yoke of
oxen, and his flock of sheep. His sword is still preserved in
Constantinople, and each successive Sultan is invested with it on his
coronation. The descendants of his flock of sheep are still the heritage
of the reigning Sultan, and still browse on the ranges of Bithynian
Olympus, and supply butter and cheeses for the royal household.
The victories of the Ottoman Turks were followed by the incorporation of
the Seljuks, and drew into their ranks crowds of recruits thirsting for
blood and plunder. The Asiatic shores of the Bosphorus were ravaged
with sword and fire, and shortly afterward (in 1453) Constantinople was
invested and stormed, and the last of the Byzantine Emperors slain.
Driving everything before them, the victorious Turks marched northwards
into Europe, devastating, burning, plundering, slaying, and making
captives of women and children, until at last they reached the walls of
Vienna, and at one moment it looked as if all Europe would fall to their
sway.
But this was the limit of their Northern conquests, and, like the tide
which recedes after it has reached its fulness, so this assault on
Vienna and its repulse marks the high tide and first ebb of Turkey's
greatness.
One by one they lost their possessions in Europe, such as Hungary,
Roumania, Greece, Servia, and Bulgaria, and now only a comparatively
small strip of country remains to them in Europe. In Asia also large
tracts of country have been wrenched from Turkey by Russia; and in
Africa, Egypt and Tunis are Turkish only in name.
[Illustration: ROUMELI HISSAR.]
The splendid conquests of the Turks were due to the hardihood of a race
brought up in frugality and nomadic pursuits. Their strength and courage
were amazing, and their religious zeal made them reckless of their
lives. Their early Sultans, too, were men of extraordinary energy and
sagacity, and were the first among the Turks to organize regular
soldiers. A famous corps was that of the Janissaries, who were
selected from the strongest and most beautiful Christian youth forced
away from their parents or captured in battle. Confined all their lives
in barracks, and daily drilled in the arts of war, they grew to be as
invincible as Cromwell's Ironsides.
But as discipline relaxed they became insubordinate, dethroning Sultans
and nominating others, until one day, in 1826, Sultan Mahmoud IV. had
them secretly surrounded in their barracks and annihilated. A venerable
planetree may yet be seen in the old Palace grounds where the survivors
were hanged. Its hollow trunk ultimately served as the shop of a
shoemaker.
The decline of the Ottoman Empire was due to the corruption of the Turks
that followed acquisition of wealth. They lost their hardihood, and
their Sultans became profligate and luxurious. They filled their harems
with wives and numberless slaves, and addicted themselves to pleasure
instead of duty. They became tyrants, and their jealousies and fears of
being supplanted made them so cruel that it became customary for a
Sultan ascending the throne to kill all his brothers or near male
relatives. This was usually done by strangling them with a bow-string,
or sewing them in bags and drowning them in the Bosphorus, as one would
an undesirable litter of puppies.
Recent Sultans, it is true, have not dared to commit such deeds openly
in the face of growing public opinion, but, with few exceptions, they
have been equally selfish and corrupt. Indeed, in the reign of the
recent ex-Sultan Abdul Hamid, rightly styled "the Great Assassin" by Mr.
Gladstone, corruption and villainy reached unheard-of enormity. He
planned and carried out wholesale massacres against his Armenian
subjects, and spirited away thousands of innocent Mussulmans and
Christians at the instigation of the army of spies whom he employed, and
who enriched themselves with the bribes he offered.
At last matters reached such a pitch that life in Turkey became
unbearable, and in sheer desperation he was dethroned in 1908 by his
army, led by patriotic officers who styled themselves Young Turks.
In his stead they appointed his brother, Murad V., to be Sultan, and
proclaimed a Constitution; that is, a form of Government like our own,
with a Parliament consisting of representatives of the people.
Turkey is now doing its best to reform itself, and we wish it all
success, but naturally, after so many years of misrule and corruption,
it will take time before the Turks can set their house in proper order.
For now more than twenty years Turkey has been connected with Western
Europe by rail, trains starting from Vienna and crossing the Danube at
Belgrade. Shortly after, the main line branches off and one portion
proceeds through Bulgaria to Constantinople, while the other terminates
at Salonica. The journey from London to Constantinople occupies three
and a half days, but may be accelerated.
There is no railway bridge over the Bosphorus, but a railway line, of
recent construction, runs from its Asiatic entrance into Asia Minor as
far as Konia, the Iconium of Scripture. This line is now being extended
to reach Bagdad in Mesopotamia, and will be prolonged thence to the
Persian Gulf, and doubtless, ultimately, to India, and will perhaps
enable us to visit our friends there within a week's journey from
London.
Another railway crosses the Lebanon mountains from Beyrout, and proceeds
to Damascus, and thence extends, keeping to the east of the Jordan, to
Mecca, in Arabia, the Holy City of the Moslems. This line is called the
Sacred or Pilgrim railway, because it conveys large numbers of pilgrims
to their shrine. It was built nearly entirely out of the contributions
of the faithful, both in money and in free labour.