weddings and at the birth of children. Some of these may be here quoted
as revealing the Arab woman's idea of physical grace and of womanly
virtue, and of those qualities which are desirable in the wife and the
mother. Here is a song to the bride:
"Go thou, where thy destiny leads thee, O fair bride!
Tread delicately on the carpets.
Should thy spouse speak to thee, what wilt thou answer?
Tell him thou art his, thou lovest him and he is thy delight"
Again, they sing:
"Oh yes, she is welcome!
Let us hail the arrival of her whose eyes shine with beauty;
Whose form is graceful; tall as a young palm tree,
Who can shut the window without a stool!"
The rejoicing in maternity, and especially in the birth of sons, is
notable among the Arabs. The women sing:
"Behold the wife hath brought forth;
She has risen from the bed whereon she reposed, whereon she slept!
She hath brought into the world a child, the fairest of boys;
He will learn to play with the sword."
"No sorrow or harm shall come to thee if thou hast sons.
God will give them to thee. He will make thee glad,
Esteemed and honored throughout the country;
Thou who art in the race as a gazelle."
Between the verses of the songs, the women who are not singing will
repeat the refrain:
"La, la, la, la," etc.,
to emphasize their sympathy with the sentiments just sung.
Because of a deep reverence for the mystery of life, the Arabs give to
the woman a separate tent or hut during the period of childbirth, and
there she must remain for a period. There is a strong superstition
concerning the results that might come from seeing or touching her or
her belongings during the time of this separation.
In the naming of children, family names are not given, but individual
names, to which is often added the name of the father, and sometimes
that of the mother. The latter is probably the older, and many
ethnologists believe it to have once been the universal custom among the
Arabs; pointing to a day when polyandry prevailed, when it was customary
for women to have several husbands, if they were not indeed the common
property of the tribe.
The influence of the nomadic life of the ancient Arabians still has its
power over the modern Arab if he be true or a dweller in tents. These
desert roamers despise those Arabs who are engaged in the arts of
husbandry. Dr. A. H. Keane, quoting from Junker, gives the following
evidence of this prejudice: "In the eyes of his fellow tribesmen, the
humblest nomad would be degraded by marriage with the daughter of the
wealthiest bourgeois." But, as he adds: "Necessity knows no law, hunger
pinches, and so these proud and stubborn were fain ... to renounce the
free and lawless life of the solitude and at least partly turn to
agriculture for several months in the year."
The Arabs are proverbially a hospitable people. Let a stranger once eat
with an Arab family and he is a friend; certainly so long as the food is
thought to remain a part of his body. But since the patriarchal idea
survives, man is absolutely lord of his own house. Hence, in the house,
the inequality of the sexes is most noticeable. The Moslem wife never
sits down to a meal with her husband if any male guest be present; and
should the husband be very strict and formal in his habits, she is not
permitted to eat with her lord, even when there is no guest. It is her
pleasure to serve. When the master of the house has finished his repast,
he allows what remains to go to the rest of the family. By this the
husband does not mean to be selfish at all; but customs which have
prevailed for time out of mind give to woman an inferior place as a
matter of course. But the guest is never turned away empty. Even in the
poorest houses, the Moslems will offer the visitor a cup of black
coffee, and it may be cigarettes.
Polygamy was common in ancient Arabia. In earlier days every man might
marry as many wives as he could take care of, and the length of the
wifehood was solely in the husband's hand. The family possessions were
his property, and should he die, his widow was looked upon as a part of
the estate. Unions between mothers and step-sons were not infrequent.
Mohammed numbered this, however, among the "shameful marriages."
Sir William Muir, in his _Annals of the Early Caliphate_, says:
"Polygamy and secret concubinage are still the privilege, or the curse
of Islam, the worm at its root, the secret of its fall. By these the
unity of the household is fatally broken, and the purity and virtue
weakened of the family tie; the vigor of the dominant classes is sapped;
the body politic becomes weak and languid excepting for intrigue; and
the throne itself liable to fall a prey to doubtful or contested
successors." "Hardly less injurious," says he, "is the power of divorce,
which can be exercised without the assignment of any reason whatever, at
the mere word and will of the husband. It not only hangs over each
individual household like the sword of Damocles, but affects the tone of
society at large; for even if not put in force, it cannot fail as a
potential influence, existing everywhere, to weaken the marriage bond,
and detract from the dignity and self-respect of the sex at large."
Mohammed's complete misunderstanding of the true relation of the sexes
has had much to do with the degraded position of woman in Moslem lands,
and the complete failure of Islamic social life. It is woman that makes
or unmakes society. She is the keystone of the arch, not the mudsill.
Mohammed's state of mind regarding woman is universal among his
followers, whether in Algeria, Tunis, or Morocco, in the land of the
Lotus, in the Ottoman Empire, or in the lesser Mohammedan dominions. The
customs springing from this state are, of course, modified among the
different peoples, as, for instance, among the Moors through the
admixture of Spanish and Moorish blood, which resulted in a somewhat
better appreciation of woman. Yet she is not a companion, but only a
gilded toy, a decorative object, to be fitfully enjoyed or waywardly put
aside. Among the higher class she is still kept in strict seclusion, and
her time is passed in luxurious idleness, save for the hours she employs
at her embroidery or tapestry. The garden, with its heavily perfumed
blossoms, pleases her; the ceaseless plash of the fountain falls
musically on her ear; all her physical needs are ministered to. But
everything conduces to the dreaminess of her nature, to slothful habits;
her activities are fettered by the law of Mohammed. After all, her
garden is but an exquisite prison.
By placing women upon so far lower a plane of social and religious life
than man, Mohammedanism has not only degraded the female sex, but has
disrupted, if not destroyed, those healthy family relations which lie at
the very foundation of all social progress and national greatness.
X
THE TURKISH WOMEN
Out of the ruins of the Seljuk domination arose the Turkish Empire,
founded by Ottoman, or Osman I., a nomad chieftain of great prowess,
after whom the Ottoman Empire derived its name. Among the very first
events narrated concerning the life of this important Turk was one of
romance, for Ottoman was not only a bold warrior, but a brave lover, and
withal, like the young Hebrew Joseph, a dreamer. In the little village
of Itburuni there lived a learned doctor of the law, a man of
aristocratic blood, one Edebali, with whom it is said Ottoman loved to
converse, not only because of the gentleman's fine personal qualities,
but because Edebali had a daughter, whom many named Kamariya, or
"Brightness of the Moon," because of her beauty; but most called her Mal
Khatum, or "Lady Treasure," on account of her pleasing personality. But
the learned sheik did not take kindly to Ottoman's advances, for he had
not yet "won his spurs," and his authority was not recognized by
neighboring princes. Fortunately, a timely dream--that potent argument
which is so effectual among the people of the East--came to Ottoman's
aid in the pursuit of his suit. The dream is thus recorded: "One night
Ottoman, as he slumbered, thought he saw himself and his host stretched
upon the ground, and from Edebali's breast there seemed to rise a moon
which waxing to the full, approached the prostrate form of Ottoman and
finally sank to rest on his bosom. Thereat from out his loins there
sprang forth a tree, which grew taller and taller, raised its head and
spread out its branches till the boughs overshadowed the earth and the
seas. Under the canopy of leaves towered forth mighty mountains,
Caucasus, Atlas, Taurus, and Haemus, which held up the leafy vault like
four great tent poles, and from their sides flowed royal rivers, Nile,
Danube, Tigris, and Euphrates. Ships sailed upon the waters, harvests
waved upon the fields, the rose, and the cypress, flowers and fruits
delighted the eye, on the boughs birds sang their glad music. Cities
raised domes and minarets toward the green canopy; temples and obelisks,
towers and fortresses lifted their high heads, and on their pinnacles
shone the golden crescent. And behold as he looked, a great wind arose
and dashed the crescent against the crown of Constantine, that imperial
city which stood at the meeting of the two seas and two continents, like
a diamond between sapphires and emeralds, the centre jewel of the ring
of the Empire. Ottoman was about to put the dazzling ring upon his
finger when he awoke." The story of the wondrous dream was told to the
father of the fair Mal Khatum. He was at once convinced that the Fates
had marked Ottoman for future greatness and for wide dominion. The
moon-faced damsel fell a prize to the inevitable conqueror, son of
Ertoghrul. Another early incident in Ottoman's career may be of interest
in this volume upon the women of Turkey. Ottoman understood that a
number of his rivals at arms were to be present at a certain wedding to
be celebrated at Bilejik, in the year 1299; and that the event was to be
made the occasion of his being entrapped and slain. Learning of the
conspiracy against him, he secured for forty women of the Ottoman clan
admission to the festivities. When all present were engrossed in the
ceremonies of the hour, these forty sturdy warriors cast aside their
female attire and not only captured the entire garrison, but also the
fair maiden whose nuptials were being celebrated. She was a young Greek
lady named Nenuphar, or "the Lotus Blossom," who afterward became the
mother of Murad I. Ottoman now descended like an avalanche upon his
rivals and their territory, extending his dominion even to Mount
Olympus.
It is to Arabia and to Persia that Turkey owes most of its civilization,
its religion, its literature, its laws, its manners, and its customs.
Beginning with a Tartar basis, Turkish life has been chiefly shaped
under the influence of a religion and a literature. As for the first,
the debt is chiefly to Arabia; for the second, Persia must have the
larger share of credit. Since these two forces, religion and literature,
are doubtless the most effective in shaping the ideals of womanhood, and
so in developing the female character among any people, we are compelled
to look to the ancient lands of Persia and Arabia for the springs of
Turkish life.
Remembering the kinship of Turkish literature to the Arabic and Persian,
it would not be difficult to surmise that woman would hold no
insignificant place in the literature of Turkey. While there are as many
as twenty-five different written languages used in the Empire, the
literary language is a product of the original Tartaric tongue and
strong Persian and Arabic elements. Very much of the romantic material
that goes to make up the Turkish literature is drawn from such early
stories as the great Persian epic _Shahnamah_.
The romance of _Laili and Majnun_ has made a deep impression in Turkish
literature. Fuzuli of Bagdad, one of the greatest of Turkish poets, has
reproduced the strong love of these characters of old Persian legend,
besides giving to the nation's literature many _ghazels_ in which
fondness for the virtue of woman is presented with characteristic
Eastern passion.
The Persian lady also figures in the work of Kemal Bey, who was regarded
in his lifetime as "a shining star in the Turkish literary world," and
one who did much to arouse the Turks to enthusiasm for their native
country. He was the author of a trivial novel _Tzesmi_, of high repute
in Turkish literary circles, in which a Turkish warrior of poetic talent
and a Persian princess figure.
There are numerous love ballads of Moorish origin that are highly prized
and have greatly influenced Turkish literature, such as _Fatima's Love,
Zaida's Love, Zaida's Inconstancy, Zaida's Lament, Guhala's Love_, and
the like; also much Moorish romance, as _The Zefri's Bride_. So we find
Turkish poems breathing of love and womanly charms. Among such
productions is that of Ghalib, whose _Husn-u-Ashk_, or _Beauty and
Love_, is regarded as one of the finest productions of Turkish genius.
It must be remembered, however, in reading Turkish poetry of love that
there is often, if not indeed generally, beneath what seems to be a
sensuous and even voluptuous song or romance an allegorical or mystical
significance. God is the Fair One whose presence the heart craves, and
whose veil the suitor would see cast aside that his perfect beauty may
be revealed to the worshipper. Man, therefore, is the lover; the tresses
are the mystery of the divine character; the ruby lip is the sought-for
Word of God; wine is the divine love; the zephyr is the breathing of His
spirit; and so on. And yet, that many Turkish, as is true of many Arab
and Persian, poems are upon a low moral level of human passion, and are
revolting to the ethical sense of the more sensitive natures, is not to
be disputed.
Fame in poetry has not been unknown to Turkish women. Notable among
these literary women of Turkey is Fatima Alie, daughter of the former
state historiographer Dzevdet Pacha, whose history of the Ottoman Empire
takes high rank. In Fatima Alie, Turkish womanhood finds one of its
staunchest champions.
Zeyneb Effendi was a royal poetess in the days of Mohammed the
Conqueror. She recounted in glowing lines her hero's achievements. So
also Mirhi Hanum was a poetess of talent. She was born of a wealthy
father, a grand vizir. She was so unfortunate as to have had as a lover
one who did not reciprocate her passion. She, therefore, sung her young
life out in avowed virginity, wearing an amber necklace, symbolizing her
eternal choice of celibacy. Among other poetesses of note may be
mentioned Sidi, who died in the year 1707, the authoress of _Pleasures
of Sight_ and _The Divan_. Mirhi, who has been styled "the Ottoman
Sappho," was a poetess of Amasiya, full of the passion of love. She sang
boldly concerning the object of her devotion, but her virtue was never
questioned, nor her talent deprecated.
But the women of Turkey have been affected less by the literary
influence of Persia than by the religious inheritance from the Arabs.
Before Mohammed polygamy flourished among the various Arabian tribes.
The prophet brought some order out of the chaos, and the harem became a
more or less well-defined system, with its definite laws and
regulations. Therein woman was somewhat advanced from the state in which
she earlier found herself. And yet, Mohammed manifestly wavered in his
treatment of women and in the ideals which underlay it. A certain
equality between man and woman is at one time taught in the Koran, as
when it said: "The women ought to behave to their husbands in like
manner as their husbands should behave towards them, according to what
is just." And again the prophet said: "Ye men have right over your wives
and your wives have right over you." This truly is reciprocity. And yet
he asserted that "woman is a field--a sort of property which her husband
may use or abuse as he thinks fit;" and again, that "a woman's happiness
in Paradise is beneath the sole of her husband's feet." Commercially,
the girl was of more value than the boy, because she could be sold and
made a wife, and perhaps she might be converted to the Mohammedan faith.
It is, in truth, the Turkish slave woman's physical beauty, as she was
captured and came into the possession of Arab sheiks, which first
brought the Turkish woman into notice. But these superbly attractive,
dark-eyed slaves at length captured their captors, and the Turk became
master of the Arab and the most virile exponent of the Arabian faith and
civilization.
Concerning his ideals as to woman, the Turk imbibed much from the Arab,
who valued woman mainly for her points of physical excellence--these
were tabulated in a standard of eight "fours" as follows: "A woman
should have four things black; namely, hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, and
the dark part of the eyes. Four things white; namely, the skin, the
white of the eyes, the teeth, and the legs. Four red; namely, the
tongue, the lips, the middle of the cheek, and the gums. Four round;
namely, the head, the neck, the forearm, and the ankle. Four long: the
back, the fingers, the arms, and the legs. Four wide: the forehead, the
eyes, the bosom, and the hips. Four thick: the lower part of the back,
the thighs, the calves, and the knees. Four small: the ears, the breast,
the hands, and the feet."
Since Mohammed allowed four wives to all Mussulmans, the sultan as a
faithful follower of the prophet may have four official wives; and after
these he may take as many non-official wives as his fancy may desire.
The four favored ones are known as the _kadins_. First stands the Bach
Kadin, who is the "first lady of the land." Next her is the Skindij
Kadin, or "second lady." Then come the "middle lady" or Artanie Kadin,
and last of all the Kutchuk Kadin, or the "little lady." When a kadin
becomes the mother of a male child she is then entitled to be called
Khasseki-Sultan, or "royal princess." When a daughter is born to one of
them she is known as Khasseki-Kadin, or "royal lady."
The mother of the reigning sultan always holds high place at court, yet
not because she is mother of the ruler, but because it is thought that
each of the four legitimate wives of the sultan must in every detail of
court life enjoy perfect equality with the others, from the services of
"the mistress of the robes down to the lowest scullion." Thus, the
mother, called the Valideh-Sultan, holds the rank that usually belongs
to the wife of a monogamous ruler. Should the sultan's mother be
deceased, his foster-mother holds this position of influence. The
present sultan's foster-mother has conducted herself with much
conservatism in her exalted position and, it is said, with strict
attention to the dignity and economy of the harem. The Valideh is
sometimes poetically known as Tatch-ul-Mestourat, that is, "the crown of
the veiled heads." This means that the Valideh is regarded as queen of
all the Mohammedan women, who are uniformly veiled, according to the
teaching of the prophet. The Valideh is in her dignity most august. No
woman, not even the Khasseki-Sultan, may dare come before her unless
sent for. All women when they appear in her presence must be clothed in
full court dress, and, whatever the weather may be, without mantles.
When she goes out she is entitled to a military escort similar to that
of the sultan. An ancient custom still prevails which demands that the
Valideh, once a year, on the night of Kurban Bairam, present a slave
girl of twelve years of age to the sultan. The slave damsel at once
becomes a member of the harem, and it is possible for her to rise to the
highest position a woman may attain at the Turkish court. It is now
customary, however, for the young girl to be sent as a pupil in the
institution at Scutari, which has been established by the sultan for the
higher education of Mohammedan women. She is now more frequently
married, with a dowry, to some officer of the court or member of the
sultan's household.
The sultan is granted privileges not generally accorded others as to
marriage. He may marry a Christian or a Jewess, if he should see fit so
to do. As a rule, the women who thus marry are expected to become Moslem
in faith, though there have been notable exceptions. Theodora, wife of
Orkhan, was a Greek Christian woman, and with marked persistence held on
to her ancestral religion. But Orkhan was unlike Mohammed II. in
character; for the story is told of the latter's strong passion for the
beautiful Irene, who, however, refused to abjure her faith. The priests
of Islam reviled their ruler for loving one who would not accept the
religion of the prophet. This was too much for Mohammed. One day the
priests were assembled in one of the halls of the palace. Here, too, was
Irene, covered with a veil of dazzling whiteness. With great solemnity
the sultan lifted Irene's veil with one hand and revealed the young
woman's great beauty to all who were present. "You see," said the
Sultan, "she is more beautiful than any other woman you have ever
beheld; fairer than the houris of your dreams! I love her as I do my
life; but my life is nothing beside my love for Islam." With this, he
seized the long, golden tresses of the unfortunate woman, entwined them
in his fingers, and with one stroke of his sharp scimiter severed her
head from her body.
A lady of imperial blood has the right to add "Sultan" to her own name.
This is her privilege, even though she should marry a subject, which is
sometimes the case. Her superior descent, however, is always recognized;
for her husband may not sit down before her, unless she should so
permit.
Turkish rulers have taken a different view of the value of foreign
marriages from that which has usually prevailed in the East. Political
ties have been made and strengthened by royal marriages. In Turkey,
however, a custom, amounting to law, prevents the sultan from marrying a
free woman, one taken from the high families of his own people, or
princesses of foreign courts, that no tie of politics or affinity of
blood should alter the superior impartiality of the supreme master.
Thus, while he is above all his subjects so far as rank is concerned, he
is inferior, on his mother's side at least, in the matter of birth,
Hence, the meanest subject of the Empire of the Ottomans may here feel
himself on an equality with the sultan, since he is "the son of a slave
woman."
It is not customary for a ceremony to be performed when the sultan
marries. Only three Turkish sultans are said to have undergone a
ceremony on the occasion of taking to themselves wives. When the Greek
Princess Theodora was wedded to Orkhan; when Roxelana became the wife of
Sultan Suleyman; and when Besma, an adopted daughter of a princess of
Egypt, was married to Abd-ul-Medjid, the marriage ceremony was
performed.
As a mark of certain inferiority, the bride is expected to enter the
nuptial bed from the back, lifting the covering with much ceremony. It
is never good form for a gentleman to inquire concerning the health of
another's wife.
Mothers of the harem are often compelled to live in mortal fear for
their infant sons, lest they be foully dealt with. For if a child have
any prospect of some day being the Turkish ruler, his life is never
regarded as altogether safe. The baby prince is brought up in the harem,
with his mother and nurse; but since brothers and even uncles come
before sons, the question of succession to the sultanate has often
caused great disorder and bloodshed.