THE DIARY OF A TURK
[Illustration: PRINCES IN LANCERS' UNIFORM.]
THE DIARY OF A
TURK
BY
HALIL HALID, M.A., M.R.A.S.
CONTAINING EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
1903
TO THE MEMORY OF
E. F. W. GIBB
ORIENTAL SCHOLAR, AND THE AUTHOR OF "A HISTORY OF OTTOMAN POETRY"
PREFACE
ALTHOUGH no Western Power has ever played a greater part in the
problems of the Ottoman Empire than Great Britain, yet in no other
country in Western Europe is Turkey more grossly misunderstood. I have
been many times asked by my English acquaintances to write a book on
Turkey from a Turkish point of view, and two ways of writing were
suggested to me: the one was to compile a detailed work, the other
to write a small and light book. To take the former advice was not
possible to me, as I found myself incapable of producing a great and
technical work. Besides, I thought that after all a small and lightly
written volume would have a larger circle of readers, and by its help I
could to some extent correct some of the mistaken ideas prevailing in
England about Turkey. Therefore I began to write this little volume in
the form of a book of travel, and I now bring it out under the title of
_The Diary of a Turk_. By this means I have been able to talk a little
on many matters connected with Turkey. Let the critic find other points
in this book on which to express his opinion, but do not let him charge
me with ignorance of the fact that the somewhat unexciting experiences
of an unknown man may be only of slight interest to the public.
In the chapter on women's affairs I have quoted a few paragraphs from
two articles which I contributed some time ago to two London weeklies,
the _Queen_ and the _Lady_, I render my thanks to the Editors of these
papers for kindly permitting me to reproduce them here.
H. H.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAG.
I. MY HOME IN ASIA MINOR 1
II. AT SCHOOL AND IN THE HAREM 23
III. THE HAREM AND WOMEN IN THE EAST 46
IV. I GO TO CONSTANTINOPLE AND PURSUE MY
STUDIES 75
V. A NEW PROFESSION AND THE QUESTION OF
CONSCRIPTION 97
VI. TURKEY'S INTERNAL DANGERS 118
VII. A NEW COSTUME AND A NEW CAREER 134
VIII. THE SUBLIME PORTE AND YILDIZ KIOSK 150
IX. THE CEREMONY OF THE SELAMLIK 164
X. THE SULTAN'S POLICY 175
XI. THE STRUGGLE WITH YOUNG-TURKEY 186
XII. ENGLAND AND THE CALIPHATE 200
XIII. A LAST VISIT TO ASIA MINOR 211
XIV. A SPY IN A BATH 225
XV. FLIGHT TO ENGLAND 238
XVI. A RETURN AND A SECOND FLIGHT 253
ILLUSTRATIONS
PRINCES IN LANCERS' UNIFORM Frontispiece
A PICKNICKING RESORT To face page 54
A VILLAGE WEDDING PROCESSION " " 70
A TURKISH CEMETERY " " 84
OFFICERS OF LANCERS " " 114
HAMIDIEH MOSQUE " " 172
AN OLD SERAGLIO " " 184
A WRESTLING MATCH IN OLDEN DAYS " " 220
THE DIARY OF A TURK
CHAPTER I.
MY HOME IN ASIA MINOR.
My Asiatic origin--My great-grandfather's religious
order--His miracles--My grandfather and Sultan Mahmud
II.--An ordeal by wine--My father's charitable
extravagance--His death--Primitive surgery in Asia
Minor--The original home of vaccination--My mother's
European ancestors--Writing a forbidden accomplishment
for women.
I was born in the ancient town of Angora, Asia Minor, famous not alone
for its silky-haired cats and goats, but also for its historical and
archæological importance, and with it my memories of early days, and
therefore the pages of my desultory journal, naturally begin. Men
of learning who have engaged in researches into the archæology and
biblical history of Asia Minor have come to the conclusion that this
town was once in the remote past the principal centre of a wandering
branch of the Celtic peoples who ultimately settled in Asia Minor.
Although, of course, it was conquered and held during later generations
by the Eastern invaders, it is even nowadays noticeable that there
is a difference, both of character and physique, between most of
the inhabitants of our province and those of other provinces, more
especially of Southern and Eastern Asia Minor. By remarking on this I
do not wish to seem to be trying to trace my origin to a European race,
though I am aware that many people in this country are unsympathetic,
and even, perhaps, prejudiced, where Orientals are concerned. My
paternal ancestors came across from Central Asia, and first settled in
Khorassan, in Persia. But as they were devout followers of the orthodox
creed of the Arabian Prophet they were subjected to the intolerant
oppression of the Persian Moslems, between whom and the orthodox
believers the history of Western Asia records many a sanguinary
feud, the result of their doctrinal antagonism. My ancestors were
compelled eventually to emigrate to Asia Minor over a hundred and
fifty years ago, and there they found a more hospitable reception. My
great-grandfather was the sheikh or head of a religious order called
_Halvati_, or, to give the name an English equivalent, "those who
worship in seclusion." The name arises from one of the strict rules
of the order, that its rites must not be displayed to the outside
public, doubtless a measure for the prevention of hypocrisy. Historical
research has traced the foundation of the order to Ali, the son-in-law
of Mohammed. Shortly after settling in Asia Minor the disciples of
the great sheikh increased to a number approaching eighty thousand,
and pilgrims came to his monastic dwelling from all the neighbouring
provinces. It was not only in Anatolia and Syria that his name was
honoured; he is mentioned with reverence in the books written in Egypt
at that time. It must not be imagined that he was a kind of _Mahdi_,
a name which is familiar in England on account of its having been
assumed by the late pretender in the Soudan. In the days gone by many
such Mahdis, or "redeemers," appeared in Western Asia and the Northern
half of Africa, disguising under this apostolic name their ambition of
attaining temporal power and worldly glory.
In spite of his having so great a number of disciples, my
great-grandfather lived, together with his immediate devotees, in
complete retirement. The Ottoman Sovereign of the time heard of him
and sent a messenger informing him that he wished to grant certain
pious endowments to his monastic institution in the little town of
Tcherkesh, which is situated half-way between Angora and the Black
Sea coast. My great-grandfather declined to receive such unnecessary
worldly assistance, and, according to one of the traditions concerning
his miraculous doings which used to be related in our family circle,
he struck his staff against the wall in the presence of the envoy of
the sovereign, and thereupon a stream of precious metal began to flow
down. He said to the envoy (who became a devoted disciple later on)
that he needed not such worldly things. There is another anecdote of
him which was told in my younger days. There was in our house a large
deerskin upon which my father used to prostrate himself during his
prayers. I often heard it said that this was the skin of the deer upon
which my great-grandfather, the holy hermit, was accustomed to ride
every Friday, the Sabbath day of our people, from his home in Asia
Minor to Mecca, in Arabia, to attend the Friday service in the sacred
sepulchre of the Prophet (on whose shrine be blessing!). Of course, I
quite believed these legends in my childhood. I can make no comment on
them now. "The responsibility of vouching for the fact lies with the
narrator," is an Arab saying often quoted by our Oriental historians
in relating extraordinary events. I must follow their example. It has,
however, always been a great grief to me that along with the deerskin
we did not inherit that useful staff.
My grandfather, whose views in his early days on the religious orders
did not coincide with those of his father, did not become a disciple
of the great hermit-sheikh, so the latter had to point out to him that
the rules of the order forbade his remaining any longer in the monastic
institution. He left the place accordingly, and joined a small caravan
which was starting off to the town of Angora, where he eventually
settled. It was a distance of four days' journey on camel-back. This
town was the centre of learning at that time, and there is there a
well-known shrine of a saint, whose name is Haji Beiram. Many thousands
of pilgrims visit his mausoleum every year. My grandfather did not know
anyone in the town, and had no means of supporting himself. He went to
the shrine, and after making a prayer at the graveside of the saint,
he became absorbed in contemplation and eventually slumbered. In his
dream he saw the saint, who asked him his name, and also whether he
could read. The answer to the second question was unsatisfactory, and
thereupon the saint gave him a lesson. On waking up my grandfather
went out and saw several students entering the adjacent _madrasseh_
or theological school. He followed them, and in the _madrasseh_ he
entered into conversation with one of the newly-made lecturers. In
these old-fashioned centres of learning the reputation of a lecturer
depends in great measure on the number of students who attend his
lectures. The lecturer took my grandfather, who was then little more
than a boy, into his class, and settled him in a room along with his
few other pupils. He studied in this _madrasseh_ very many years, and
ultimately became himself a professor of theology, philosophy, and the
temporal law of the Moslems. He made his fame largely by delivering
addresses in different mosques on the commentaries of the Koran, which
attracted large audiences. Many learned men, engaged in kindred studies
throughout Asiatic Turkey, used to apply to him for the solution of
difficult points. The representative of the sovereign in this town used
to pay him visits of respect, but he himself never in his life crossed
the threshold of a government office.
During the reign of Sultan Mahmud II., who ruled from 1808 till 1839,
there took place an imperial wedding at Constantinople to which persons
of distinction in all classes of society throughout the country were
invited. The chief physician of the Sultan (whose grandson is at
present attached as councillor to the Ottoman Embassy in London), who
had been a pupil of my grandfather's, noticed that his name was not
on the list, and strongly recommended his sovereign to invite him. A
courier set out for Asia Minor at once, and brought my grandfather to
the capital. A great banquet was given in the palace in honour of the
event to all the religious dignitaries and principal _Ulema_, that
is to say, the learned hierarchy of the realm. Mahmud II. devised a
curious plan for testing the fortitude and strength of character of
these pious people. During the banquet servants brought in bottles
filled with a red-coloured liquid. Several guards with drawn swords
in their hands followed the attendants, and stood in the entrance.
The bewildered guests naturally did not know what to make of it, and
awaited events in anxious silence. Then, to their consternation, it
was solemnly announced that the liquid in the bottles was wine. Wine!
an abominable intoxicant, of which it is strictly forbidden to the
faithful to touch even a single drop! The pernicious fluid, which has
received from the Prophet himself the name of the "mother of evils"!
(I must explain, by the way, that Mahmud wished to remodel his empire.
After getting rid of those formidable opponents, the Janissaries, he
adopted not only some of the European methods of administration, but
also some of the Western customs and modes of life, and among other
things he ordered his officials and army to wear costumes and uniforms
made after the European style. This policy had already occasioned
disquietude and suspicion in the pious heads under turbans in Asia.)
When the wine was brought before that religiously sober assembly, an
announcement was made that "as the Sultan ruled on European soil he
wished to bring his country more into harmony with the Franks (all the
people of Western Europe are so called), and any unwillingness on the
part of his subjects would possibly hasten the decay of his empire.
It was, moreover, the desire of the sovereign that narrow-minded
superstition and the dislike of new things, even though they were
borrowed from the Franks, should disappear." The announcement was
concluded by the warning that those guests who should refuse to
drink wine would be regarded as rebellious against the will of their
sovereign. Face to face with this somewhat startling alternative,
the guests became pale of countenance and mute of tongue, for, be it
remembered, he who gave this order was a real autocrat, who had even
exterminated the awe-inspiring Janissaries. However, my grandfather
sprang up from his seat and said, "could not our sovereign find any
other virtues among the Franks worth imitating?" He pointed out,
moreover, that the law against drinking wine, the ordinance of the
faith, was given to them by an authority superior even to that of his
Majesty. He then started to go out, and while he was forcing his way
through the servants and guards, Sultan Mahmud, who was watching this
comedy literally from behind the scenes, suddenly stepped in smiling,
and, in order to dispel the fear of the white-bearded, green-turbaned
gentlemen, he said he simply meant to test the fortitude and character
of the people who were to guide his subjects in the paths of religion
and rectitude.
The Sultan later granted an audience to my grandfather, and asked him
to give lessons in the Arabic language to the imperial princes (among
whom was Abdul Mejid, who was Sultan during the Crimean campaign),
and urged him to settle in Constantinople, promising that he would
eventually make him Sheikh-ul-Islam, that is, the head of the religious
magistrates and learned hierarchy. But my grandfather prayed the
sovereign to pardon him for not accepting this honour, saying that
it was his earnest desire to pass his remaining days of life in
retirement and study. He only requested one boon--that he might be
granted the vacant headship of the madrasseh or college in which he had
studied for so many years, and with this, the enjoyment of the lands
devised to it by the Crown.
When my grandfather had returned to his own town, Sultan Mahmud, who
understood and appreciated his quiet contentment, wrote out with
his own hand a saying of the Prophet, had it illuminated, and sent
it to him as a present Roughly translated it runs as follows:--"The
Lord loveth the man of learning who is pious, contented, modest and
retiring." Subsequently, too, he granted my grandfather's request,
and, as an additional clause to the endowment, he made a provision
that these lands should be inherited as real estate by his posterity,
provided that they should, after attaining the age of twenty years,
qualify themselves by an examination before the proper authorities
on those subjects in which he was himself so well versed. The royal
firmans, with the imperial signature on them, beautifully written on
the finest vellum, are still in the possession of our family. These
lands came down to me and to my brothers, but, in spite of all
provisions to the contrary, they were confiscated during the reign
of the present Sultan, a reign which has been so conspicuous for the
suppression of the civil rights and the oppression of the person of the
individual.
We sued the Government to get our property back, and spent all our
money in different courts over lawsuits which lasted fifteen years,
but we could not have expected to succeed, for, as a Turkish poet
has written,--
When the judge is the defendant and the witnesses
are bought,
How can you look for justice from the interested court?
When my grandfather died at the age of eighty-two my own father
inherited the endowed estate; he was not so learned and able as his
father. His only brother, having entered into the Government service,
forfeited his share. My father suffered from an excess of charity,
and in helping others he expended the greater portion of the revenue
of his own estate as well as a part of my mother's private income.
His charitable extravagance became at length so inordinate that he
could not even dine without inviting every day many guests, no matter
whether their position was humble or the reverse. When he died, killed
by the murderous attack of a drunken Government official, he left us
practically nothing but the endowed lands, which he could not have
sold, and these lands, as I pointed out before, were taken over by the
Government of the present Sultan. We were relieved from want by the
fact that the bulk of my mother's property remained intact Fortunately
my father had not been able to squander it.
I was nine years old when the drunken official attacked him, and
so caused his death, which happened thus:--One evening a few women
visitors came to call on my mother. As it is our custom in the East
to keep our women strictly secluded, my father had to retire before
these veiled visitors entered. He asked me to come out with him to
spend the evening with some neighbouring friends, and there we saw the
intoxicated man. My father had a very great abhorrence of drunkenness
and drunkards, and he could not bear to be in the same room with the
man, who was violently drunk and shouting and singing. A quarrel arose
between them. The man attacked my father, and caught him by his long
white beard. My father pushed the assailant back, and in doing so
accidentally put his thumb into the drunkard's mouth, with the result
that he was badly bitten. Although Asia Minor was the cradle of some
of the ancient civilisations, it has not profited from the facilities
afforded to mankind by modern discoveries. There was no surgeon in our
town properly qualified by scientific training, and so my father's
thumb lacked proper treatment.
The only medical men were, as a rule, barbers, who added to their
proper profession that of letting blood for their customers when it was
considered necessary. Bleeding of course used to be in favour in Europe
generally, and it is still largely practised in the East. There are a
great many people in my native country who think that a periodical loss
of blood purifies the system, and have themselves bled accordingly. The
early part of the summer is a favourite time for the operation, before
the season for eating fresh fruit arrives. Blood is let either by a
lancet, or else by means of leeches which are applied to the arms and
legs. The men who were charged with my father's treatment were an old
barber and a professional blood-letter. They used all their choicest
ointments, making my father's thumb worse every day. They used to
criticise each other's skill in surgery. The professional blood-letter
told us that he was once an army surgeon, and it was his boast that
during the Crimean War he had cut off the arms and legs of dozens of
wounded soldiers. He doubtless facilitated the departure of these
unfortunates to the place whither he ultimately sent my father. In
spite of his experiences, however, he did not amputate my parent's arm,
which might have prevented the gangrene which proved fatal. My mother's
efforts to obtain the condemnation of the drunken official, as the
murderer of her husband, failed. He was only sentenced to a few months
of imprisonment, and to pay us an indemnity of about five hundred
pounds.
Perhaps I shall be pardoned for a slight digression here. I laid
some emphasis on the backward condition of the art of surgery in my
native town, but I do not mean thereby that Turkey has been altogether
behindhand in the art of medicine. In some particulars she has even led
the way. For instance, she may claim the discovery of inoculation as
a defence against smallpox, and it is worth while recalling the fact
that Lady Mary Wortley Montagu introduced the treatment into England
from Turkey many years before Jenner made his first experiment. As Lady
Mary saw it, inoculation was performed with lymph taken from human
beings, but according to the _Tarikhi Jevdet_ (vol. ii., p. 341, press
mark Turk. 9, British Museum Library), inoculation was also performed
in a manner suggestive of calf-lymph. A Turkoman of the pastoral
tribes in Asia Minor was paying a visit to Constantinople, and he saw
the children being inoculated with other children's lymph. He said
that in his own country the lymph was taken from the fingers of those
who milked the cows. The book, moreover, states that Lady Mary heard
of the Turkoman's statement, though she does not mention this in her
letter.[1]
The Circassians and some of the tribes of Caucasus are said to have
been acquainted with the uses of inoculation in olden days. They were
chiefly slave-dealers, and they had to take great care of their young
girl-captives, more especially as regarded any sort of disfigurement
which would destroy their good looks, and consequently their value.
Of the early history of the sickness little is known, but it is a
well-established fact that the symptoms were first clearly diagnosed
by the ancient Arab physician, Rhazes, whose name is well known to
Orientalists and students of medical history. His book is entitled
_Kitab-ul-Jederee Vel-Hassabeh_, the translation of which is _Treatise
of Smallpox and Measles_. This work was translated into English from a
Latin version by T. Stark early in the eighteenth century.
* * * * *
The business-like European manner of investing money is not known
among our people. Those who do not know what to do with their spare
money, and who fear it may be stolen, or kindly taken charge of by
the officials of the paternal Sultan, hide their cash by burying it
in corners of their houses or fields. But we did not hide the five
hundred pounds belonging to my mother. Someone suggested to us that we
should buy mohair goats, of which the hair, cut every spring, would
yield us an annual income. This was a little after the Russo-Turkish
War, and in the consequent depression of trade even the silky-haired,
valuable Angora goat was to be cheaply bought We purchased three
hundred of these animals. But misfortunes never come alone. In a
year's time a disease broke out among the greater part of the animals
in our province, and almost all our goats died. My mother, in her
simple faith, attributed this to kismet, and consoled herself and us
accordingly.
My mother is a woman of tact and great natural intelligence, but
owing to the backward condition of women in the East, due to their
surroundings, her intelligence has not had the benefit of culture.
She is, of course, a fatalist, and she believes all she is told by
her religious teachers, who are not very learned themselves. She is
not ignorant; on the contrary, she was in her time the most well-read
woman of our town. Indeed, so far was she in advance of the other
ladies, that they used to visit her for the purpose of hearing her
read aloud from the books of sacred legends and hymns which are their
principal literature. She cannot write at all. This perhaps requires
some explanation. Formerly girls in Turkey were not allowed to learn
the mystery of caligraphy. We have had some excellent poetesses in
days gone by, but none of them could write--they dictated their
inspirations. The common explanation given of this traditional
prohibition--for it is a custom rather than a rule--was that if girls
once learned writing they might have indulged in talismanic pastimes,
and eventually have become witches. As a matter of fact, the real
reason was quite different There was a fear, perhaps not ill-founded,
that having once learned to write they might hasten to make use of
the accomplishment by composing love-letters to young men with whom
they could not otherwise communicate, for the strict seclusion of
females cuts off all intercourse between young people of opposite
sexes almost as soon as they have ceased to be infants. This absurd,
in fact harmful, prohibition has of late, and for some time past, been
losing its force. But it was still strictly observed in my mother's
younger days, and so she was not allowed to learn to write. In spite,
however, of her incomplete education, she kept us happy, and by her
inborn tact preserved the appearance of our social standing. All
members of my mother's family have a practical business-like instinct,
a quality which is so conspicuously lacking in those Turks who have no
strain of foreign blood. I am convinced that there is some European
blood in the veins of my mother's ancestors. She belongs to a family
of soldiers who for generations were charged by the Ottoman Sultans
with the defence of the provinces and the frontiers of Bosnia and
Herzegovina In those days the Turks used to make slaves of their
captives in war, just as their enemies used to carry Turks into
permanent captivity when invading their territory. The antecedents of
the people so enslaved can be traced even now in Hungary and Austria
by their Turkish names. But the captives of the Turks, as a rule, had
to adopt Turkish names, and so the presence of European blood can only
be determined in Turkey by the personal appearance and characteristics
of the descendants of the captives. My mother's soldier-ancestors
doubtless intermarried with European captives. I before disclaimed all
pretensions or desire to pass myself off as a descendant of a European
race when I was describing the Asiatic origin of my forefathers. I am
not, nevertheless, contradicting myself here; for when the pedigree of
a person is being considered with us, it is only his ancestry on the
father's side that counts.
My mother passes a most retired life in her town and summer houses. In
town there is a market-place situated a few minutes' distance from our
house, which she has never seen in her whole life. She went, however,
to Mecca on a pilgrimage some five years ago.