The Turkish character--The rise of Turkish power--Earliest days of
Turkish history--Conquest of Persia and Egypt--Turkish soldiers of
the Caliphate--Samanids' conquests in India--The rise of the
Seljuks--Arslan and his victories--Europe in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries--The Crusades--Jenghiz Khan and his people--The
first appearance of the Osmanli--Erthogrul--The rule of
Othman--Othman and Dundar--The capture of Broussa--Death of
Othman--The reign of Orkhan--The army of Ala-ed-din--Orkhan's
capture of Nicæa.
Although I cannot write with approval of Turkish rule and its effect on
the European provinces conquered by the now blunted sword of Othman, yet
I feel a certain sympathy for the Turk, as individual, in this day of
his trial. Sympathy is due to a variety of influences, and I feel that
in the present instance my lingering liking for the Turk is based on
several grounds. First of all, perhaps, comes the fondness you cannot
but feel for a wayward child and its picturesque moods, more especially
as I myself was quite the "wandering sheep," as the hymn says, when
young, and am not disinclined towards an excursion off the narrow way
even now. Hence a fellow feeling with the nomad Turk, who, though
generally placid, is capable of being roused to fury by unseen, unknown
influences; in that state, like the wayward child, he is an unmitigated
nuisance. In his everyday mood the Turk is gentle and extremely
courteous, the courtesy of a strong man, scion of a race of conquerors.
This dignified politeness is to be met in certain parts of Spain, where
conquering Moors made their impress on native Iberians and valiant
Goths. Again, the nomad virtue, hospitality, is strong among the sons of
Othman. I have also met fine intellects among the Turks, for instance,
in one of the Princes of the Blood, a man of a refined mind, deeply read
in Nietzsche, and of no mean skill with the brush. But he was only a
painter; his studies from life were excellent, and some have gained
admission to the Paris Salon, but creative artist he certainly was not,
and the subject pictures evolved out of his inner consciousness treated
of matters considered peculiarly French in tone, subconsciously erotic,
and generally unhappy in treatment. But then the Turk has little, if
any, constructive power, and even the finer intellects among them are
apt to waste their treasures on abstract speculations, leading to no
practical result; their course may be likened to that of a slender
stream of water poured forth on some endless desert waste.
Another bond of sympathy is the history of the Turkish race, which
should appeal strongly to every Briton, for in a manner there is much
similarity between the rise of Turkish power and that of the British
Empire. Wild men from the northern seas, Angles and Saxons, Danes,
Vikings, Berserks, seethed into the British Isles, and, mixing with the
Romanized native population, rose to greatness through much tribulation.
The narrow confines of Britain forced this amalgam to conquests
overseas, and thus arose the British Empire. Is there not some analogy
between our rule in India and that of the Osmanli in Europe? We, in
India, form a separate ruling caste, placed in power by the sword; we do
not mix with the many native tribes and nations under the British Raj,
many whose duty takes them to India cannot give an accurate account of
these various tribes and nations; they know not their languages, their
customs are strange to them, and when their work is done they return to
enjoy the fruits of their labour with but an imperfect knowledge of the
land that gave them what they hold and of the people who lived their
mysterious life outside the compound and the courthouse. So it is with
the Turk in Europe. His people overflowed from Asia on successive waves
of conquest, and made subject many nations with which they have nothing,
absolutely nothing, in common, and with whom, unlike the Briton, the
Turk does not desire any closer acquaintanceship.
To me, as Briton, the present situation, the happenings of the last few
weeks, "give furiously to think." Here is a powerful Empire, carved out
of Europe by the sword, and held by conquerors who despised their alien
subjects, and failed to understand their feelings or realize their
ambitions, closed their eyes in smug contentment to the portents of the
time. Then came the avalanche, and young nations, hitherto disregarded
as serious opponents, rose in their strength, tore themselves free, rent
province after province from the weak hands of an unprepared overlord,
and are now threatening the capital of the Turkish Empire. From the
courtyard of the Sublime Porte, where Turkey's devious policy has been
fashioned for so long, from the square in front of the War Office, which
suddenly awakened, hurried untrained troops under untrained leaders,
without a definite plan, to death by shot and shell, by starvation and
disease; you could hear the sound of guns carried on the westerly wind
from the lines of Chatalja, the last defences of the capital, where the
remnants of the Sultan's army are standing at bay against the organized
forces of young Western nations.
It is a stirring history, full of ups and downs, that of the Turkish
people. As we have seen, they emerged from a seething mass of nomadic
humanity which infested Central Asia, and threatened those Empires
which had settled and acquired civilization, such as China, whence, by
the way, come some of the earliest records of the Turks. These nomads
had no other use for civilization than to acquire unearned riches;
whatever seemed to them undesirable was destroyed, and to this day the
Turk has not advanced much further; he frequently changes his abode, and
the change is easily effected, as he has few belongings--some rugs, a
text or two from the Koran, his cooking utensils. Even in his home he
seems to have only dropped in for a week or so, and the curtains instead
of doors to separate one apartment from another still further recall his
old nomadic habits. So his ancestors roamed about in hordes over the
plains of Asia. Where they met with little resistance they abode awhile,
moving on when the locality had nothing more to offer, retiring
elsewhere when met with determined opposition. As the tribes increased
in numbers they went separate ways, some to extinction, others to form
ephemeral empires such as that of the Ghaznevids in Eastern Afghanistan,
in the latter days of the tenth century.
The influence of the Turks on Western Europe did not make itself felt
until after the Crusades, because they had much ado to make and keep
their position in Asia Minor. A short time after the Prophet's death,
his general, Khaled, "The Sword of God," subdued the Persian Army, and
gained it for his master, Caliph Abu Bekr, in whose reign Syria was
conquered from the Eastern Emperor Heraclius, and Ecbatana and Damascus
became Moslem towns like Mecca and Medina. Then followed a noble line of
Caliphs, under whose sway Islam extended its frontiers and rolled in
threatening waves towards the West. Omar's general, Amron, added Egypt
to the Empire of the Caliphs, who made Damascus their capital. Legend
and history tell of those days of the Caliphs, when Arab art,
literature, and science flourished under such sovereigns as
Haroun-al-Raschid, the contemporary of Charlemagne, Al Mamun, in whose
days Western Christianity gave birth to the Order of Benedictines when
Gregory IV was Pope in the beginning and middle of the ninth century.
We have seen how the Turks came into contact with the Arabs, and were
subdued by them and converted to Islam in the eighth century, and how by
degrees they recovered their strength and were able to assist the
Caliphate in the troubles that crowded in upon it, how fifty thousand
Turkish mercenaries were taken into the service of the Caliph, and
occupied much the same position as that held by the Prætorian Guard of
Rome, the Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire, and the Mamelukes in Egypt.
Turkish influence thus increased steadily, and was first marked more
definitely by a dynasty called the Samanids, who seem to have considered
themselves vassals of the Abbasid Caliphs. In the interests of the
Caliphate the roaming Samanids pushed forward into India, conquering
Delhi, Multan, and Lahore towards the end of the tenth century. Their
victorious course was not checked till they reached the Ganges, and
Mahmud, their chief, styled himself Sultan. It appears that he still
acknowledged allegiance to the Caliphs, but his successors assumed
greater independence as the power of the Caliphate waned. In the
meantime another Turkish dynasty rose to notice--the Seljuks, who
appeared under their leaders Thogrul and Chakir.
This bearer of a name famous in history and romance, Thogrul, son of
Suleiman, accidentally drowned in the Euphrates, was, it seems,
wandering about like a true nomad, accompanied by his tribesmen. He was
on his way to Iconium, Konia, probably with the idea of interfering in
any fight that might be in progress, when he found the troops of Kaim
the Caliph flying before the hosts of Masud, the son of Mahmud of
Ghazin. Thogrul espoused the losing cause, and his timely assistance
turned defeat into victory, for which the Caliph was so grateful that
his new ally was rewarded with the Principality of Sultan Oeni, or the
Sultan's Front, and appointed, as it were, Warden of the Marches. This
happened towards the middle of the eleventh century, when the Christian
world was very busy with religious differences. The Greek Church decided
to break with Rome after the Council of Sutri in 1042, and was too much
occupied with vexed questions of dogma to pay attention to the rise of a
young race of nomads in a former province of the Roman Empire.
Nevertheless, these wanderers had given their first proof of prowess,
and endorsement followed when the Caliph, with solemn ceremony, handed
over the temporal power to Thogrul, at Bagdad, in 1055.
Thogrul did not live long after this honour was conferred upon him, but
his son Arslan followed in his footsteps, and served his spiritual
master, the Caliph, with all his might. To good purpose, for he fought
and subdued the Fammiti Caliphs of Egypt, schismatics who had broken
from the only Caliph's spiritual sway over a century before; he further
annexed Georgia and Armenia, and defeated the Emperor of the East,
Romanus IV, towards the end of the eleventh century.
The Western world was very young when these things happened; Henry IV, a
Frank, ruled over Germany, William of Normandy had not long conquered
England, while Malcolm III was King of Scotland; Spain was still divided
into small kingdoms and Moorish provinces under the Almoravids, and the
Magyars, distant relations of the Turks, were settling down in Hungary
under Bela I.
Western Christianity was becoming dimly conscious of a growing power in
the East, which Byzantium had felt distinctly since practically all the
Asiatic provinces had been lost to the Turk, and so Western chivalry
buckled on its armour, stitched a Cross on to its coat, and moved
Eastward in swarms, composed of enterprising knights, mostly
unacquainted with discipline, and their more or less reluctant
followers; the Crusades had begun, and were chiefly directed towards the
Holy Land and against the Arabs who had conquered there under the waning
ægis of the Caliphs.
Contemporary accounts, legends, and songs of troubadours tell of the
Saracens and their deeds, but little mention is made of the Turks,
destined to be Christianity's most formidable foe, who, under the
Seljuks, were growing to great importance, and under Melik Shah, the son
of Arslan, ruled from Transoxania to Egypt and eastward as far as Khiva.
Melik Shah's kingdom fell to pieces after his death, and the power of
the Turks was obscured for a time, while the former provinces of the
Caliphs broke off into separate states.
Crusaders came from the West and added glamour to the pages of history
without effecting any lasting results; great names shine out for a
moment from the haze, names like Frederick Barbarossa, Saladin, Richard
Coeur-de-Lion, but nothing definite need be mentioned about the Turks
till the crusading spirit had subsided and the nations of Europe began
to settle down into much the same political entities as we find to-day.
Another race of kinsmen to the Turks came like a whirlwind out of Asia,
under a famous leader, Jenghiz Khan, or rather a mixture of several
Mongol races. Their passage did not affect Asia Minor immediately, for
they swept from China over Southern Russia towards Moravia, penetrating
as far as the Adriatic; they went as swiftly as they came, but stopped
short of their old hunting-grounds, and squatted by the banks of the
Volga, where, known as the Golden Horde, they stayed some one and a half
centuries. Sections of this horde made inroads into neighbouring
countries, and one of these invaded Persia and Syria, massacred the
inhabitants of Bagdad, killed the Caliph, the last of the dynasty
founded by Abul Abbas in 750 A.D. The Seljuks, who held the temporal
power in the Caliphate, were likewise badly defeated, and might have
gone under completely had not another force appeared most opportunely,
one of those wandering Turkish tribes which had a habit of turning up
where fighting was going on. Their leader was another Erthogrul, and he
traced his descent back to Suleiman. Legend has been busy where history
is silent, and assigns to this Erthogrul the same rôle, a _Deus ex
machina_, as to the former bearer of that name. Authorities differ on
the subject, and I fancy that the whole story is still somewhat obscure.
However, Erthogrul had a son Osman, or Othman, from whom are descended
the Osmanli of to-day; Othman's long and prosperous reign laid the
foundations of the Turkish Empire. His campaigns were crowned with
victory, the territory of neighbouring Turkish states were incorporated
in his dominions, and the Empire of the East was forced to contribute to
the aggrandizement of his realm.
It appears that Othman did not declare himself independent until after
the death of the last Seljuk Sultan; in the meantime, during an interval
of peace--from 1291-1298--he devoted his energies to the internal
government of his dominions, and became famous for the toleration which
he exercised towards his Christian subjects. It will be remembered that
Georgia and Armenia, both Christian countries, had been absorbed by the
Caliphate, but at least under the first of the House of Othman these
Christians were free from persecution.
After several years of peace, during which he consolidated the resources
of his country, Othman went to war. In order to give his followers
greater zest, and to inflame the fighting spirit of Islam, Othman
declared himself the chosen defender of the Faith, and proclaimed that
he had a direct mission from heaven. This roused in his warrior subjects
a fanaticism as fierce and effective as that which had inspired
Mohammed's fiery followers on their career of conquest. His private life
was not without an occasional exhibition of those barbarous instincts
which have never left the Turk during all the centuries of his contact
with the West and its ideas and methods. Thus one day Othman discovered
that his venerable uncle, Dundar, was in agreement with several other
officers attempting to dissuade him from an attempt on the Greek
fortress of Koepri Hissar. Dundar had been one of those four hundred and
forty-four horsemen of legend who rode under the banner of Erthogrul.
Othman, annoyed at Dundar's interference, drew his bow and shot his
uncle dead. So murder of a kinsman marked the first days of the Othman
dynasty.
The attempt on Koepri Hissar proved successful, and Othman went on from
victory to victory. In the beginning of the fourteenth century he fought
his way to the Black Sea, leaving Broussa and several other towns to be
taken at leisure. But failing health was against him, and he had to
leave the conquest of Broussa to Orkhan, his son, who had returned from
an expedition against a Mongolian army which the Greek Emperor, unable
to stem the tide of Turkish conquest, had bribed to attack the southern
frontier of the Ottoman Empire. Othman was dying when the news of the
capture of Broussa was brought to him. Bestowing blessings on his son,
he said: "My son, I am dying, and I die without regret, because I leave
such a good successor as thou. Be just, love goodness, and show mercy.
Give the same protection to all thy subjects, and extend the Faith of
the Prophet." Orkhan, it seems, followed his father's advice and carried
out his instructions; subsequent Osmanli have failed to do so, and are
now paying the penalty.
A splendid mausoleum built by Orkhan holds the remains of Othman, the
founder of the Ottoman dynasty, at Broussa, which became the capital of
Turkey until the conquest of Constantinople. The standard and scimitar
of Othman are preserved as objects of veneration in the Mosque of Eyub
on the Golden Horn. Here each succeeding Sultan is girt with the sword
of Othman, the coronation rite, amidst the prayers of his people: "May
he be as good as Othman."
[Illustration: THE MOSQUE OF EYUB
Here each succeeding Sultan is girded with the sword of Othman, a rite
equivalent to a Christian monarch's coronation.]
Orkhan succeeded his father and continued the work of conquest,
gathering in the outlying fragments of the broken Seljuk Empire. He was
ably assisted by his brother, Ala-ed-din, whom he had urged to share his
throne. Ala-ed-din declined, asking only the revenues of a single
village for his maintenance. Then Orkhan said: "Since, brother, you will
not accept the flocks and herds I offer you, be the shepherd of my
people--be my Vizier." So this high office was instituted. Ala-ed-din
devoted himself to the internal politics of the nation, and using the
military foundation already existent, fostered by a fighting creed, he
built up the military organization which acted so well during centuries
when fighting was the only business to which the Osmanli had to bend
their minds. The Turks who had followed Othman to victory were the same
men who had fed their flocks on the banks of the Euphrates. They formed
loose squadrons of irregular cavalry, and after the war returned to
their peaceful avocations. Ala-eddin, while still holding that the
mass of the nation should be the source whence Ottoman troops should be
drawn in time of war, saw the need of a standing army which should make
war their sole business and profession, so he raised, first of all, a
body of infantry called Jaza, or Piade. These were followed by a corps
famous in history--the Janissaries. This corps was entirely composed of
Christian children taken in battle or in sieges, and compelled to
embrace the Moslem faith. A thousand recruits were added yearly to their
numbers, and they were called Jeni Iskeri, or new troops, from which
name derives the European corruption, Janissaries. These troops were
trained in all martial exercises from their earliest youth, and were
subject to the strictest discipline. They were not allowed to form any
territorial connection with the land that had adopted them, their
prospects of advancement depended entirely on their skill in the
profession of arms, and the highest posts in that profession only were
open to them. Their isolated position, and the complete community of
interests which united them, prevented the degeneracy and enervation
which so speedily settled upon every Eastern Empire when once the fire
of conquest had died down.
Other bodies of the military organization founded by Ala-ed-din were the
Spahis (Sipahi, Sepoy), a "corps-d'élite" of specially chosen horsemen,
Silihdars, or vassal cavalry, name revived in Silihdar horse of Mysore,
a body of cavalry three squadrons strong, the men of which find their
own horses and equipment; those raised by Ala-ed-din were drawn from
vassal states, those of the Maharajah of Mysore from among the landed
proprietors, farmers, and smaller landowners of his principality.
Then the Oulou Fedji, or paid horsemen, Ghoureha, or foreign horse,
Azab's Light Infantry, and the Akindji, irregular light horse. The
Akindji gathered together in irregular companies, acted much as the
Hussars of the eighteenth century did when first raised; they foraged
for the regular troops, and swarmed round them to cover a retreat or
harassed a retiring enemy. They received no pay like the Janissaries,
nor lands like the Piade, and were entirely dependent on plunder. This,
doubtless, accounted for their unpopularity in countries through which
marched the hosts of Othman. Hussars were paid soldiers, but none the
less prone to plunder, in those days of the wars between Maria Theresa
and Frederick the Great. This tendency was discouraged by the Prussian
King, and I remember finding in some of the records an account of three
Hussars--one officer and two troopers--being hanged for looting at
Frankfurt a. O. Nowadays there are few people more respectable than a
Hussar, I know, because I have been one myself, and thus speak from
personal experience.
The story of a clever ruse is told of one of Orkhan's campaigns against
the Greeks. Othman had left Nicæa and Nicomedia untaken. Orkhan took the
latter town and invested Nicæa. Andronicus, the Greek Emperor, crossed
the Hellespont with a hastily raised levy to raise the siege of Nicæa,
but Orkhan met and defeated him with a portion of his army. Now the
garrison of Nicæa had been advised of the Emperor's intention, and daily
expected his arrival. So Orkhan disguised eight hundred of his men as
Greek soldiers, and directed them against the fortress. These
pseudo-Greeks, to give the ruse a yet greater semblance of reality, were
harassed by mock encounters with Turkish regular horse. The disguised
Turks appeared to have routed the enemy and headed for the City gate.
The garrison had been watching the proceedings, were thoroughly
deceived, and threw open the gate. An assault by the besieging army,
assisted by the force that had thus gained ingress, brought the city
into Orkhan's possession.
By 1336 all north-western Asia Minor was included in the Ottoman Empire,
and Orkhan devoted the next twenty years of peace to the work of
perfecting his military organization and consolidating the resources of
his newly acquired territories, supported by his brother, Ala-ed-din. So
the power that was to crush the life out of the failing Empire of the
East stood armed and waiting for a favourable moment on the eastern
shore of the Bosphorus. Turkish rule was predominant over all Asia
Minor, and a young nation, strong and armed, watched for the moment to
interfere with an old, effete Empire.
Beyond the lines of Chatalja, some fifty miles from this City, the
capital of Turkey, young nations, Bulgars and Serbs, are waiting,
watching, intent on hurling the Turk from Europe, as the Turk drove
forth the Greeks in their day.