There is the large and lofty gate called Babu Hummayoun, which
literally signifies, “the high door,” and from thence the diplomatic
phrase adopted by the Franks, who call the Turkish government “the
Sublime Porte,” because all political business is supposed to be
here transacted. It was erected by Mahomet II. On each side are deep
niches in the thickness of the wall, and here the heads of inferior
delinquents are exposed. Within is a large area of an irregular shape,
containing the Taraphanay, or mint, built on the site of the Greek
church dedicated to St. Irené. In the centre is a low marble pillar,
destined for the exposure of the heads of pashas, and offenders of
rank in the Turkish empire. Here they are displayed upon a large
dish for the inspection of the curious; while a Bostangee stands by
with a rod, with which he points to each head, and enumerates the
offences of the sufferers. On the wall beside is usually a paper
called a _yafta_, containing the titles of the criminal and other
particulars, all strongly reminding us of the permanency of Oriental
usages. In the first court, though it is thronged with the officers
of the palace, a strict silence prevails, and the breach of it is
attended with corporal chastisement. Passing through this, you enter
the second gate. Here sits the chief executioner with his assistants,
and on the walls are suspended various implements of punishment.
Foreign ambassadors, proceeding to an audience, were formerly delayed
in this spot for a considerable time, as if to exhibit the superiority
of the Osmanli, and proud contempt for the infidels, who were meet
associates for the public executioner of the empire. Beyond this is
a more spacious and secluded court, planted and laid out in walks.
On one side is an extensive range of kitchens, each appropriated to
the respective officers in the seraglio. On the other is the divan,
where the grand council is held, the troops paid, law-suits decided,
and where foreign ambassadors used formerly to be washed, fed, and
clothed, before they were admitted to the presence of the Sultan. It
is a small edifice containing two compartments, surmounted with domes.
Inside are sofas round the walls, which are called _divans_, and hence
the name of the building. Behind, projecting from the wall above, is a
small lattice-work gallery, capable of containing one person, entirely
concealed from view. This has been compared to the Ear of Dionysius,
where the tyrant sits unseen, and hears the opinions of those below.
He sometimes applies his eye to a small aperture, through which it is
seen gleaming like that of a basilisk, fascinating and paralyzing the
speaker on whom it lights.
Beyond this, and opposite the entrance, is the gate represented in our
illustration. It is decorated with the most gorgeous display of Turkish
sculpture, covered with large semicircular projections, supported on
a colonnade of pillars. The embossments are of gold on blue and green
grounds, and the whole is in a style perfectly Oriental. To add to
this effect, the gate is usually thronged with eunuchs, both black and
white. The sallow aspect, beardless chin, and disproportioned bodies
of these creatures, dressed in satin robes of bright green, have an
unnatural appearance that is quite revolting. The time chosen, is a
procession of the grand vizir to visit the Sultan, attended by guards
in the costume of the seraglio. The practice of salutation, by drawing
the hand or garment in the dust, and placing it afterwards on the
forehead, is observed as the vizir is passing. Here it is that the
foreign ambassadors and their suites were seized by the collar, and
dragged, as it were, down the passage leading to the reception-room of
the Sultan. This apartment is dark and mean, dimly lighted by a single
window; and the throne is a dingy platform, very much resembling a
four-post bed.
Beyond this, all is veiled in impenetrable mystery; and no Frank
can enter, except at the hazard of his life. Some travellers have
described the imminent peril they encountered in attempting to explore
these forbidden haunts. From the secrecy observed, many suppose the
word seraglio to be derived from “serrare,” to lock up, but _serai_
signifies simply a palace, or hotel, and is indiscriminately applied
to any large building. Here begins the harem, or women’s apartments,
in which are kept five hundred females, devoted exclusively to the
Sultan’s pleasure. On his accession, he is presented with a number of
virgin slaves, from whom he selects six, called afterwards “Kadina,”
from whom alone are born heirs to his crown; she that first provides
one, obtaining the superiority over the rest, is called “Hassekir
Sultana.” The Sultan uses no such ceremony as throwing his handkerchief
at the female whom he selects; she is simply conducted to him by the
kislar aga, or chief eunuch, when he has made his choice.
From the gardens of the harem, gates open on the sea of Marmora, with
kiosks of various Turkish character. One is the “yali kiosk,” where a
suspected vizir, or other high officer of the seraglio, is ordered to
retire to await his destiny. A venerable man, with a long beard, is
sometimes observed, by passing boats, sitting in this kiosk, smoking
his chibouque. He is a dismissed favourite, quietly waiting his doom;
and when the door opens behind him, does not know whether the chaoush
who appears, is the bearer of a Princess to strangle him, or a
pelisse to invest him with new honours. Near it is a window, from
whence the bodies of the strangled are thrown into the sea at night;
and the number of the victims as they drop into the water, is announced
by a correspondent discharge of the cannon below. The seraglio is
inhabited by six thousand persons, including the corps of bostanjee, or
gardeners, who are distinguished by a very peculiar costume.
[Illustration: T. Allom. J. C. Bentley.
BRUSA AND MOUNT OLYMPUS.
ASIA MINOR.]
This city, sometimes called Boursa, retains, with little corruption,
its primitive name, and commemorates the king of Bithynia more
celebrated for his illustrious guest than for any achievement of
his own. When Hannibal fled from the persecutions of his inveterate
enemies, the Romans, he retired into Bithynia, and was received with
apparent kindness by Prusias, its king. In return for this hospitality,
the accomplished Carthaginian introduced into the more barbarous
regions of his host, the arts and sciences of Tyre and Phœnicia, and,
in the year 220 before Christ, evinced his taste and judgment by
building a city for him on the most beautiful spot that Asia Minor
or any other country could afford, the side of Mount Olympus. The
effeminate Oriental, however, had not the fortitude to continue the
protection he had afforded. Terrified by the threats of the implacable
Romans, he was preparing to surrender his persecuted guest to his
enemies; but he anticipated his intention by poison, which historians
say he carried in his ring for that emergency. He was closely besieged
in a house in Brusa, where he swallowed the draught, and he was buried
in Libyssa on the Propontis, where a monumental tumulus at this day
marks the spot; and the first object a traveller to Brusa sees on
landing, is the last resting-place of its illustrious founder. When he
enters the city, he is shown a fortress, as the military work of that
great master in the art of war, which has stood for 2058 years.
When the crusaders sacked Constantinople, and established their usurped
authority in the capital of the Greek empire, they seized on all its
dependent cities in Asia Minor, and Brusa formed part of the dynasty
of Lascaris. It finally fell into the hands of the Turks when they
expanded themselves over the region of Bythinia in 1327, and Othman
made it the capital of the young Turkish empire. It continued to enjoy
this distinction till the increasing power and ambition of the Osmanli
led them into Europe, and they seized on Constantinople itself. Their
seat of empire was then transferred to the great capital of the Greeks,
and Brusa remained a provincial town.
It has, however, numerous local attractions, which will always render
it a delicious residence to any people; and some of so peculiar a
character, as to endear it particularly to a Turk. It is situated on
the side of a magnificent mountain, embosomed in lofty forests behind,
and having before it, on a gentle declivity, the richest tract in
nature. Issuing above the forest scenery, are conspicuous the abrupt
and rugged ridges of the mighty mountain, covered with eternal snows,
glittering in the sun, and forming a strong contrast with the dark and
dense foliage below them. The rays of summer acting for nine sultry
months on the frozen surface, send down perennial torrents of pure and
limpid water, tumbling over the sides of the mountain in a thousand
streams. As they rush along, some of them are conducted through the
city, and every street is permeated by a meandering rill of the coolest
water, under a heated atmosphere, when the thermometer stands at
96°. From the streets it is led through mosques, bazaars, shops, and
private houses, so that almost every edifice in the city has a marble
reservoir in the centre, where the living waters leap and gurgle, and
beside this the daily repast is spread. After thus imparting freshness
and coolness to the city, the currents ripple into the plains below,
where they form streams and rivulets, giving to the favoured spot
a surprising verdure and fertility, when all beyond is parched and
arid. Nor is this the only recommendation that endears this place to
the followers of the Prophet. Besides these copious means of cold
ablution, there are others which they still more highly prize. In the
midst of those frigid solutions of snow, the soil contains hot water,
which issues forth in strong currents, at a boiling temperature. These
are collected into marble reservoirs of great extent, surmounted with
lofty domes, and forming the most noble baths in the world. With such
local and permanent attractions for a people whose most indispensable
and unremitting duty is washing the body, it is not surprising that
this should escape the fate of other deserted capitals. It has been
remarked “that Nature seems to have created Brusa for the Turks.” It
is, therefore, at this day a more beautiful city than when their sultan
abandoned an Asiatic for an European capital. It is still resorted
to as the most delightful residence in the Turkish dominions; and
many of the sultans, as if to compensate for their abandonment when
living, directed that their bodies should repose here in death. It
is distinguished by many imperial tombs; and among the rest, that of
Orchan, who first penetrated into Europe, but returned here to die.
Brusa stands upon an area of eight miles in circumference, and contains
a population of 75,000 people, of whom 11,000 are Jews, and Christians
of the Greek and Armenian Church. The most striking objects the town
presents are, the mosques and spires, which seem to bear a larger
proportion to the size of the place than in any other Mohammedan city:
some travellers estimate them at 300. In fact, the whole surface seems
swelling into domes, and bristling with tall and taper minarets. The
tree whose foliage gives a distinctive character to the vicinity of the
town is the mulberry, which is every where planted for the nourishment
of silk-worms, the management of which forms the employment of the
whole population. The web manufactured from their spinning is highly
prized; and Brusa silk is not only famous all over the East, but it is
one of those articles which the Asiatic traveller sends home to his
friends among his Oriental curiosities.
But the circumstance which gives Brusa its greatest interest, is
the mighty mountain on whose side it is built. Olympus, which
literally means “all-shining,” was a name by which many mountains
were distinguished amongst the ancients, from their conspicuous
appearance; but it seems to be applied to this vast and glittering
object with peculiar propriety. It stands on a base of seventy miles in
circumference, rising by itself from the plain in single and solitary
grandeur. Situated in the immediate vicinity of Troy, it is by some
supposed the place assigned by Homer,
“Where Jove convened the senate of the skies;”
and poetic fiction adds its interest to the beauty and magnificence
of nature.[5] Ascending from the city, the traveller penetrates an
immense forest, with trees of surprising magnitude. This is intersected
by ravines of immeasurable depth, and his way leads along the edges
of precipices of awful grandeur. He at length emerges on an extensive
plain of the richest verdure, intersected with considerable rivers,
rushing from the snowy ridges, which now rise before him like a vast
wall. These rivers are distinguished for nourishing fish, which are
nowhere else to be found in Asia Minor: congenial to the cool streams
of this region, they perish and cease to exist when carried down by the
currents into the heated climate below. When the venturous traveller
climbs through the barrier of snow which lies before him, he issues at
length upon a clear and open summit, which the region of snow girdles
as with a broad belt. From the point of this cone, 10,500 feet above
the level of the plain, he commands a magnificent prospect of Asia
and Europe; the Euxine and the Egean, with the strait and seas that
unite them, winding like rivers just below him; and feels that “the
wide-seeing Jupiter” could not have selected a more judicious point
to overlook the affairs of the nether world. A singular object marks
this summit,−-a circle of twelve large stones, resembling what we call
druidical remains; but, from the Oriental region in which they are
found, they recall the memory to the usages of a still more remote
antiquity, when Moses “builded an altar under the hill, and twelve
pillars,” and Joshua set up “twelve stones” in the midst of Jordan, and
ordered twelve more to be carried on men’s shoulders, to be “set up in
their lodging-place.”[6]
The snow of this mountain constitutes a considerable part of the
treasures of the Turkish empire, as it does of its comforts and its
luxuries. It is the exclusive property of the sultan, who farms it out
to tenants, who vend it as more valuable than any produce of the soil.
They are bound to supply the seraglio with a certain quantity, and the
rest is disposed of to the population of Constantinople. It is sent
down from the mountains cut into cuneiform wedges, and packed in felt,
and caravans of mules are continually descending with such loads.
It is brought to a promontory near Moudania, called from thence Booz
Bournou, or “the Cape of Ice,” whence it is embarked for the capital,
and in such abundance, that the poorest hummal cools his sherbet with
it during the hottest season of the year.
The illustration presents all the objects of interest peculiar to the
place. In the foreground is a caravan crossing an antique bridge,
thrown over one of the snow-dissolved currents which intersect the
plain. On one side buffaloes are dragging the ponderous arrhuba; on the
other, they are grazing on the low pastures, or cooling themselves in
the water. The horse, in Turkey, is never degraded to a servile use:
the drudgery of labour is thrown upon the buffalo. It is a singular
species of ox, of immense strength, but of a structure so coarse and
rude, that it seems “as if Nature’s journeymen had made it, and that
not well.” Its ponderous body, its clumsy limbs, its flatted horns,
and lustreless eyes, like dull glass, give it a singular appearance of
obstinacy and stupidity; but it drags the greatest burdens, through
places impassable to other animals, with irresistible force. On the
left is the city of Brusa, with its minarets, domes, and regal tombs;
and in the background are the rugged ridges of Olympus, with its snows,
forests, and precipices.
[Illustration: T. Allom. W. J. Cooke.
EMIR SULTAN, BRUSA.
ASIA MINOR.]
When the conqueror of Constantinople recrossed into Asia, and was
preparing to attack his enemies, the sultan of Caramania, the shah of
Persia, and the sultan of Egypt, who had conspired against him, he was
overtaken by death near Brusa, and was brought to be buried, not in
his new conquest in Europe, but in the ancient capital of his race. A
magnificent mosque was erected at Emir Sultan, and his body deposited
in a mausoleum beside it. This is represented in the background of the
illustration. The time is that of the Ezan, when the muezzin invites
the people to pray, represented by the human figures in the galleries
of the minarets. When the prophet fled to Medina, he did not neglect
the five periods of daily prayer: his followers wished that all the
faithful should offer up theirs to Allah at the same moment, and that
it should be publicly announced; but the manner of the announcement
was a subject of controversy. Flags, bells, trumpets, and fires, were
already used by various sects, but they were all exceptionable: the
first, as not comporting with the grave sanctity of devotion−-the
second, as a Christian practice, and to be abhorred−-the third, as a
Jewish profanation−-and the last, as a symbol of idolatrous worship.
In this indecision they separated; but during the night one of the
party had a vision of a celestial being, clothed in green, who ascended
to the top of the house, and called the people to prayer. This was
communicated to the Prophet, who adopted the human voice as his signal.
The houses leading to the mosque are perfect specimens of Turkish
edifices. They generally have a foundation of stone to the height of
eight or ten feet, and then a superstructure of wood, supported on
curved beams, which rest upon the masonry. The house is covered by
a far-projecting roof, which is surmounted by a kiosk, or cupola,
commanding a view of the distant country. The windows are strictly
closed with lattice-work of cane, in the centre of which the
incarcerated female endeavours to see what is passing in the street.
Whenever the clattering of hoofs and the yelping of dogs announce a
passing stranger, he will perceive, if he looks up, an eye gleaming on
him through the aperture, or the ruddy lips of a mouth hissing on the
dogs to attack him. A Turk seldom builds a house for himself entirely
of stone. The insecurity of property is such, that he never calculates
on any possession, even for his own life: and he thinks, besides, it
is irreligious to erect any thing like a permanent dwelling for his
own use on the earth. Hence it is, that while wooden frame-work houses
have long since been laid aside in Europe, a Turk, with Oriental
pertinacity, still clings to them; and hence it is that fires are so
frequent, and that they consume not merely houses and streets, but
whole towns, and are never extinguished till the inflammable materials
are exhausted.
[Illustration: T. Allom. W. Floyd.
THE VALLEY OF GUIUK-SUEY, SWEET WATERS OF ASIA.]
“Sweet Waters” is a translation of the French _eaux douces_, and does
not imply that they are distinguished by any remarkable purity or
sweetness of taste, but simply that they are not salty. Two rivulets
are so named by the Franks, one in Europe and the other in Asia; and
they both flow through flat alluvial soils, and are generally muddy and
dirty. Their banks, however, in summer are rich and verdant, enamelled
with flowers, and are places of resort, where gay and festive parties
of Turks, Franks, and Rayas meet for recreation. That in Asia is the
place represented in the illustration.
It is situated on the shores of the Bosphorus, near the Anadoli Hissar,
or Asiatic castle, in a verdant meadow, through which the river
meanders. Here the Sultan has a kiosk to which he retires in summer,
to practise archery or shooting with a rifle, and amuse himself with
various sports, some very coarse, where buffoonery of a very indelicate
kind forms the principal part of the entertainment. This kiosk is
represented in the background of the illustration. This retreat of
the sultan attracts great crowds of his subjects, particularly on the
evening of Friday, the Turkish sabbath. Those who resort from the
European shore come in caïques; those from the Asiatic in arrhubas.
This carriage, peculiar to Turkey, forms a conspicuous object in the
plate. The general shape is a flooring of planks laid upon high wheels,
without springs: on this are erected pillars supporting a canopy of
wood, from which descend fringed curtains of silk or rich stuff. The
body and canopy are sometimes highly carved and gilded: within,
sit on the floor as many women as it can contain, their heads just
appearing above the edge whenever the motion on the uneven road throws
the curtains aside. It is drawn by two or more buffaloes, or oxen,
whose tails are fastened to a long and lofty bow extending from the
neck-yokes, and projecting over their backs. This arch is profusely
decorated with gaudy tassels. The white locks of the animals between
the horns are stained with henna, and round the necks are suspended
amulets of bright blue beads, to guard them against the effects of an
evil eye. It is the most improved carriage of the Turkish empire, and
travels at the rate of two miles an hour. In these machines, covered up
from human gaze, the sultan and great men of the empire transport their
harems: they are conducted by black eunuchs, with drawn sabres, who
menace any one who approaches the line of march, with instant death.
When parties proceed to those pic-nics, even the members of a family
never mix together. The unsocial jealousy of a Turk so separates the
sexes, that the father, husband, and brother are never seen in the same
groups with their female relatives. The women assemble on one side
round the fountain, and the men on the other, under the trees. Between,
are the various persons who vend refreshments to both indiscriminately.
On the left is the _tchorbagee_ mixing sherbet. This word means,
literally, any kind of fluid food, and it is sometimes applied to soup.
A colonel of janissaries was called a tchorbagee, because he was the
dispenser of soup to his corps. The drink, however, which is generally
so called, is a decoction of dried fruit. Raisins, pears, peaches,
prunes, and others, are prepared and kept for the purpose, and a liquor
of various flavour is compounded from them, more or less acidulated or
sweetened, and always cooled with ice, a small lump of which floats
in every cup. On the other side is a vender of _yaourt_. This is a
refreshment of universal consumption and extreme antiquity. The Turks
affirm that Abraham was taught by an angel how to make it, and that
Hagar, with her son Ishmael, would have perished in the wilderness,
but for a pot of it she had the precaution to take with her. It is
more certainly described by Strabo as in use in his day in the Taurica
Chersonesus, and so is at least 1800 years old. It is a preparation of
sour milk, forming a thick consistent mess, cool and grateful to the
taste, and wholesome to the constitution. It is sold in small shallow
bowls of coarse earthenware, and is the constant food of all classes in
Turkey.[7]