In his preface to the volume of 1859 Hugo appeals to the history of the
Turks by Cantemir as a justification for his picture of Sultan Mourad.
This was Demetrius Cantemir (1673-1723), who had a remarkable history,
and wrote a valuable book. Though not a Turk, he attached himself to
the Turks, and fought under the banner of the Crescent during his early
life. In 1710 he was made Waiwode, or Governor, of Moldavia, Then,
deserting the setting for the rising sun, he allied himself with
Czar Peter the Great, then at war with Turkey. But the campaign was
unsuccessful, and Cantemir, flying from Moldavia, took refuge in the
Ukraine. For the rest of his life he divided his time between study and
instructing the Moldavians who had accompanied him. He is said to have
spoken Persian, Turkish, Arabic, modern Greek, Russian, Moldavian,
and Italian. The work to which Hugo refers was a history of the
aggrandizement and decadence of the Ottoman Empire. Written in Latin,
and translated subsequently into English, French, and German, it was
long the standard work on the subject.
It does not seem probable that Hugo had any particular Sultan in mind
when he delineated Sultan Mourad. Indeed the geography of the poem
suggests that he is depicting an idealized Oriental tyrant.
The nearest approximation to the monster to be found in the pages
of Cantemir is Ammath IV (r. 1623-40), of whose cruelty and
bloodthirstiness the historian gives a vivid account. His principal
exploit was the taking of Bagdad from the Persians, on which occasion he
slaughtered 1,000 of the citizens in cold blood.
For Hugo's conception of the power and influence of the Turkish Empire
when at its zenith, see _Le Rhin: Conclusion_, II, III.
_Liban_ is Lebanon.
_rampantes_. The word is used with the heraldic sense.
I. 19. The so-called Temple of Theseus (its real dedication is doubtful)
stands on a low hill just outside Athens. It is in a state of almost
perfect preservation. The nails which crowded its woodwork were
doubtless those on which the heads of slaughtered Greeks were fastened.
Of course in the Greek temple there was no woodwork, except possibly in
the roof.
_cangiar_, a short Turkish sword, with an almost straight blade, having
a single edge.
_Naxos_ is an island in the South Aegean Sea; _Ancyra_, a town in Asia
Minor.
_épiques_. A curious use of the word. It appears to mean `worthy of
epic poetry,' i.e. the spectres were those of great heroic men. In _Les
Chants du Crépuscule_ Hugo has 'des grenadiers épiques' (_Napoléon II_).
Elea, Megara, are towns in Greece, Famagusta is in Cyprus.
Agrigentum was a well-known Greek colony in Sicily; Fiume, at the head
of the Adriatic Sea, is now an Austrian port.
_Modon_, a maritime town in the Peloponnesus.
_Alep_, Aleppo. _Brousse_, a town in Anatolia.
_Damas_, Damascus.
_Tarvis_ (English Treviso) is a town in the province of Venice.
_boyard_. The boyards were the feudal nobles of Roumania and other
Balkan countries.
_Rhamséion_, a sepulchral monument built by Ramses III, king of Egypt,
in the fourteenth century B.C.
_Généralife_, the palace of the Moorish kings at Granada in Spain. It is
scarcely necessary to say that no Turkish Sultan ever held any part of
Spain.
_échouait_. The word is here used transitively (a rare use) in the sense
of 'drove against.'
_soudan_, a word of Arabic origin, was a mediaeval name for certain
Mahometan princes in Egypt and Asia Minor. The word seems here loosely
to designate the Turkish sultans.
_turbé_, a kind of small round chapel, usually attached to a mosque, in
which the tombs of Sultans and other great persons are placed.