The Human Race Part 21

Now, as then, the Turks, like Easterns in general, restrict themselves to a frugal and princ.i.p.ally vegetable diet. They drink no wine. Bodily exercises, such as riding on horseback and the use of arms, develop their strength. Their hospitality is dignified and ceremonious. They are small talkers, are much given to devotion, at least to its outward and visible signs; and they dwell in quiet unpretending houses surrounded by gardens. The Turk is a stranger to the feverish life of our European capitals. Lazily reclining on his cushions, he smokes his Syrian tobacco, sips his Arabian coffee, and seeks from a few grains of opium an introduction into the land of dreams.

Such is Turkish life among the higher cla.s.ses. The common people and the labourers have none of these refinements of existence. Yet the lower cla.s.ses are less unhappy in Turkey, and in the East in general, than are those of European nations. Eastern hospitality is not an empty word. A wealthy Mussulman never sends empty away the wretched who seek his a.s.sistance. Besides, it takes so little to support these temperate healthy people, and the earth so plentifully supplies vegetable produce in the East, that poor people can always find food and a roof to cover them. The Caravanserai are public inns where travellers and workmen are lodged for nothing; and the hospitality shown to the unfortunate wayfarer by the country land-owners is really patriarchal.

Polygamy is less in vogue in Turkey and in the East than is supposed. A Turkish woman being a very expensive luxury, that is to say, being in the habit of doing nothing and of spending a great deal, it is only very rich Mussulmans that can allow themselves the pleasure of supporting more than one wife. Sometimes, indeed, the bride's parents insert a clause in the marriage contract, by which the husband gives up his right as a Mahometan to possess four wives.

Besides their legitimate wives, the wealthy and the great keep a collection of Georgian and Circa.s.sian slaves in the lonely sets of rooms, closed by Eastern jealousy to all prying eyes, which are called _harems_ and not _seraglios_. It is only within these isolated apartments that Turkish women, whether wives or concubines, allow their faces and arms to be seen. Out of doors they are always wrapped up in a triple set of veils, which conceal their features from the keenest eye.

Mahomet permitted women to abstain from taking part in public prayer in the mosques. It is therefore only in the interior of the harem that any gathering of Mussulman women can take place. It is there, too, that they give one another parties and entertainments.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 108.--A HAREM.]

An erroneous impression of the Turkish woman's position is prevalent in Europe. Many European women would be glad to exchange their lot in life and their liberty for the supposed slavery of the Turkish women. Of course we are only alluding here to their material position, and not speaking from a moral point of view.

The Turkish lady is born to total and complete idleness. A young girl who, at fourteen years of age, can not only sew fairly, but can actually read, is considered a very well educated person. If she can also write, and is acquainted with the first one or two rules of arithmetic, she is quite learned. The woman of the middle cla.s.ses never condescends to trade, she is always idle. Even the poor woman rarely works, and then only when it suits her.

The Turkish woman then, to whatever cla.s.s she may happen to belong, is a votary of the far niente. To drive away ennui, the wealthier make or receive visits or frequent parties. In the harems of the rich, each lady receives her friends in her own room. There they talk, sing, or tell one another stories. They listen to music, they go to pantomimes, to dances, and walk in the gardens. They pa.s.s the long hours agreeably by taking baths together, by swinging in hammocks, by smoking the narguilhe, and by giving elegant little dinner parties.

An evening party in a harem (la Kalva) is rather a rare occurrence, for night festivities are not among Mussulman habits. No man is present at these parties. As the guests arrive, the lady of the house begs them to be seated, and places them side by side on a divan with their legs crossed under them, or leaning on one knee. Coffee and a tchibouk with an amber mouthpiece are handed round. Small portions of fruit jelly are served on a silver embossed dish. Each guest, after a little ceremonious hesitation, helps herself with the only spoon in the dish, and which everybody uses. Each then puts her lips to a large tumbler of water which follows the jelly.

General and animated conversation then begins. The maids of the lady of the house seat themselves so that every one can see them, and begin to sing, accompanying themselves on the harp, on the mandolin, on little kettledrums, or on tambourines. Afterwards other young girls go through a kind of pantomimic dance. When the music and the dances are over, they play games of cards, and the party winds up with a supper (fig. 109).

Pleasure out of doors has other attractions. The Turkish ladies of the middle cla.s.s frequent the bazaars and pay one another visits.

There are three kinds of these visits: visits that have been announced beforehand, unexpected visits, and _chance_ visits. The last are the most curious. Several ladies collect together and go about in the different quarters of the town, paying visits to people whom they have never seen (fig. 110).

[Ill.u.s.tration: 109.--A HAREM SUPPER.]

Walking parties in Constantinople are regular picnics. On Sundays and Fridays people leave town provided with all sorts of refreshments. The sultans have constructed on some of the public walks overhanging terraces, which overlook pieces of water and form level plots of ground.

Tumblers and conjurors, musicians and dancers give performances on these terraces. Picturesque knots of women clad in their white _yaschmacs_, which cover the whole face and only reveal the nose, are to be seen there. Long flowing overdresses of a thousand different hues envelope the rest of their figure.

The Turk may be lazy, but he is not at all unsociable, and many of his characteristics indicate a great deal of gentleness. Like the Indians and the ancient Egyptians, the Turks, and Easterns in general, have a great repugnance to the killing of animals. Dogs and cats abound and swarm in the streets of the large towns, but no measures are ever taken to prevent the multiplication and the running wild of these animals. In Constantinople flocks of pigeons fly hither and thither and levy, on the barges laden with wheat, a species of black mail that no one disputes with them. The banks of the ca.n.a.ls are thickly peopled with aquatic animals, and their nests are safe even from the hands of children, in our country such cruel enemies to their broods. This forbearance is extended even to trees. If it is true that in China the law requires every land owner who fells a tree to plant one in its stead in another spot, it is equally true in Turkey that custom forbids an avaricious land owner from depriving either town or country of useful and wholesome shade. The wealthy townsmen make it a point of honour to embellish the public promenades with fountains and with resting places, both of which, on account of the frequency of ablutions and of prayers required by the Mahometan religion, are indispensable. Those who can only perceive in the Turkish nation coa.r.s.eness, ignorance, and ferocity, have been deceived by the pride natural to a Mussulman, which is made the more offensive by his silent and sometimes abrupt manners; but the basis of the Mussulman character contains nothing to offend. The Turks are only what it is possible for them to be with their lamentable inst.i.tutions and their faulty laws.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 110.--TURKISH LADIES VISITING.]

Their law we know is simply despotism, which is carried out from the sultan down to the lowest official, unchecked by any guarantee of equity or of justice to individuals. The sultan (_padishah_, meaning great lord) appoints and dismisses at pleasure every dignitary and every official: he is the master of their fortunes and of their life. But anarchy is rife in the kingdom, and the sultan's authority is not always obeyed. Pachas have attacked and annihilated the troops sent to drive them from their governorships; others have been known to dispatch to Constantinople the head of the general sent to crush and degrade them.

The pachas are the governors of the provinces. Their rank is reckoned by the number of their standards or tails. They unite under one head the military and civil power, and by a still greater abuse, they are deputed to collect the taxes. They would be absolute sultans in their own provinces if the law did not leave the judicial authority in the hands of the _cadis_ and the _nabs_.

A pacha with three tails has, like the sultan, the power of life and death over all the agents he employs, and even over all who threaten public safety. He keeps up a military force, and marches at their head when called on by the sultan. A pacha has under his orders several _beys_, or lieutenant-governors.

The interior organization of Turkey may be described as a military despotism. The Turkish nation continues to administer its conquest as if it were a country taken by a.s.sault; it leads the life of an army encamped in the midst of a conquered state. Everybody and everything is the property of the sultan. Christians, Jews, and Armenians are merely the slaves of the victorious Ottoman. The sultan graciously allows them to live, but even this concession they are obliged to purchase by paying a tribute, the receipt for which bears these words: "In purchase of the head."

The same principle is carried out in regard to land. The Turks have no proprietary rights; they merely enjoy the usufruct of their possessions.

When they die without leaving a male child, the sultan inherits their property. Sons can only claim a tenth part of their paternal inheritance, and the fiscal officials are ordered to put an arbitrary value on this tenth part. The officers of the State do not even enjoy this incomplete right; at their death everything reverts to the sultan.

Under such laws, it is not to be wondered at if n.o.body cares to undertake expensive and lasting works. Instead of building, people collect jewels and wealth easy to carry off or to conceal.

The sultan, like a man embarra.s.sed with such an abuse of power, shifts the cares of government on to the shoulders of the grand vizier.

The grand vizier is the lieutenant of the sultan. He is the commander-in-chief of the army, he manages the finances, and fills up all civil and military appointments.

But if the power of the grand vizier is limitless, his responsibility and the dangers he incurs are equally great. He must answer for all the State's misfortunes and for all public calamities. The sword is always suspended over his head. Surrounded by snares, exposed to all the tricks of hatred and envy, he pays with the price of his life the misfortune of having displeased either the populace or the highest officials. The grand vizier has to govern the country, with the a.s.sistance of a state council (_divan_) composed of the princ.i.p.al ministers. The _reiss effendi_ is the high chancellor of the empire, and the head of the corporation of the _kodja_, or men of letters. This corporation, which has managed to acquire a great political influence, contains at the present time some of the best informed men of the nation. The duty of watching over the preservation of the fundamental laws of the empire is entrusted to the _ulema_, or corporation of theological and legal doctors.

These laws are very short: they consist only of the Koran, and of the commentaries on the Koran drawn up by ancient pundits. The members of this corporation bear the t.i.tle of _ulemas_, or _effendis_. They unite judicial to religious authority; they are at the same time the interpreters of religion, and the judges in all civil and criminal matters.

The _mufti_ is the supreme head of the ulema. He is the head of the church. He represents the sultan's vicar, as caliph or successor to Mahomet. The sultan can promulgate no law, make no declaration of war, inst.i.tute no tax, without having obtained a _fetfa_, or approval from the mufti.

The mufti presents every year to the sultan the candidates for the leading judicial magistracies; these candidates are chosen from the members of the ulema. The post of mufti would be an excellent counterpoise to the authority of the sultan, if the latter had it not in his power to dismiss the mufti, to send him into exile, and even to condemn him to death.

The foregoing political and judicial organization seems at first sight very reasonable, and would appear to yield some guarantee to the subjects of the Porte. Dishonesty unfortunately prevents the regular progress of these administrative inst.i.tutions. The venality of officials, their greed and their immorality, are such, that not the smallest post, not the slightest service, can be obtained without making them a present. Places, the judges' decisions, and the witnesses'

evidence are all bought. False witnesses abound in no country in the shameless way they do in the Turkish empire, where the consequences of their perjury are the more frightful, since the cadi's decision is without appeal. Justice is meted out in Turkey as it was meted out three hundred years ago among the nomadic tribes of the Osmanlis. After a few contradictory pieces of evidence, after a few oaths made on both sides, without any preliminary inquiry, and without any advocates, the cadi or simply the nab, gives a decision, based upon some pa.s.sage of the Koran.

The penal code of this ignorant and hasty tribunal merely consists in fining the wealthy, in inflicting the bastinado on the common people, and in hanging criminals right out of hand.

Yet Turkey possesses a kind of system of popular representation. The inhabitants of Constantinople elect _ayams_, real delegates of the people, whose business it is to watch over the safety and the property of individuals, the tranquillity of the town, to oppose the unjust demands of the pachas, the excesses of the military, and the unfair collection of taxes. These duties are gratuitously performed by the most trustworthy men among the inhabitants. The ayams undertake all appeals to the pacha, when there exist any just grounds of complaint, and if he does not satisfy them, they carry their appeal to the sultan.

Every trade and handicraft in Turkey possesses a kind of guild or corporation which undertakes to defend the rights of the a.s.sociation and of its individual members. The humblest artisan is protected in all legal matters by this corporation. It is unnecessary to say that the corporation enforces its rights before the judges by pecuniary means.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 111.--A TURKISH BARBER.]

It is a great mistake to imagine that the Mussulman religion predominates in Turkey. In Turkey in Europe, not more than a quarter of the population profess the creed of Mahomet. The remainder are Christians, subdivided into the leading sects of that faith. The Greeks, the Servians, the Walachians, and the inhabitants of Montenegro belong to the eastern Greek Church. The Armenians are numerous, and are the more powerful on account of their known character for austerity and honesty. Other religious communities, such as the Jakobites, called _Kopts_ in Egypt, the Nestorians, and the Maronites, have some influence, from the unity which reigns among their different sects; the Druzes, for instance, defy the Mahometans to their very face. There are more Jews in Turkey in Europe, than in any other country.

All these brotherhoods, excepting the Druzes and the Maronites, were formerly deprived of the free right of worship, were liable to marks of ignominy, and were handed over, defenceless, to injustice. But in the beginning of our century, an edict of the sultan declared all his subjects, regardless of their religion, equal in the eyes of the law.

Mahometanism, which prevails in Turkey, and in the greater portion of the East, dates from the 610th year of our era. Its princ.i.p.al doctrines are purification, prayer, and fasting. The fasting takes place in the month of _Ramazan_, a month which is the Mussulman's Lent, and during which all food must be abstained from in the daytime. It is followed by the festival of _Beyram_, during which the faithful are allowed to make up for their preceding abstinence. A _legal charity_ is inst.i.tuted by their creed. It consists in giving every year to the poor a fortieth part of their movable property. Another religious injunction is the pilgrimage to Mecca, which every Mussulman is obliged to undertake at least once in his lifetime.

Their devotions take place five times a day. Friday is the day of rest for the Mahometans, as Sunday is that of the Christians, and Sat.u.r.day that of the Jews.

Mahometanism has inherited from the ancient Arabs the practice of circ.u.mcision. Mussulmans are forbidden to drink intoxicating drinks, but are allowed to marry four wives, and to make concubines of their female slaves. Their religion deprives them of all liberty of will, as it tells them that everything that can happen, either for evil or for good, is settled beforehand. It is this fatalism that paralyzes all individual enterprise, and prevents the march of progress.

Mahometanism has not been more exempt than other creeds from schisms, which have brought to pa.s.s religious wars always so terrible in their consequences.

Its precepts, which have their advantages from a religious point of view, have many disastrous consequences when we regard mankind's physical const.i.tution. The interdict on the use of wine, for instance, has given rise to the secret consumption of alcoholic drinks, and to the public use of opium.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 112.--TURKISH PORTER.]

The Turks, although their literary civilization is still in its infancy, possess a system of public education. The mosques of Constantinople, of Broussa, and of Adrianople, have colleges attached to them. Young men are sent from all parts of the Mussulman empire to these colleges, where they receive some amount of education. When they have finished their course of study, in which the commentaries on the Koran play the princ.i.p.al part, and when several examinations have tested their proficiency, the pupils receive the t.i.tle of _mudir_ or professor. All civil and judicial posts are monopolized by this educated cla.s.s.

But in Turkey, what knowledge there is, remains absorbed among a small quant.i.ty of individuals; no channel exists for the free intercommunication of ideas.

Their _kodjas_, or writers, have indeed given their fellow countrymen a large number of works, much esteemed by them--works on the Arabic and Persian languages, on philosophy, on morality, on Mussulman history, and on the geography of their country. But these writings, whatever their value, never reach the ma.s.s of the nation. There are but few printing presses in Turkey; the copyist's art, such as it existed in Europe in the middle ages, still flourishes there. The state of literature in Turkey shows us what modern civilization would have become in Europe, without the a.s.sistance of the printer.

With this general want of literary and scientific knowledge, we naturally expect to find Turkey far behindhand in art, in manufactures, and in agriculture. The latter, in fact, is in a sad state throughout the whole extent of the Ottoman empire. Manufactures exist in a few towns; in Constantinople, in Salonica, in Adrianople, and in Rustchuk.

Their princ.i.p.al manufactures are carpets, morocco leather, a little silk, thread and swords. Their commerce consists in the export of their raw produce; such as wool, silk, cotton, leather, tobacco, and metals, particularly copper; wine, oil, and dried fruit are also largely exported. The Turks are good cloth manufacturers, gunsmiths, and tanners. Their works in steel and copper, and their dyes, are equal to the best articles of European manufacture.

The Greeks, who are very numerous in Turkey, follow all kinds of trades and callings. They make the best sailors of the Ottoman empire, while the Armenians are its keenest traders. The latter travel all over the interior of Asia and India; they have branch establishments and correspondents everywhere. Most of them, while pursuing some mechanical art, are at the same time the bankers, the purveyors, and the men of business of the pachas, and other great officials. Jews show in a less favourable light in Turkey than in Europe; any business suits them, if they can make something out of it.

Figs. 111 and 112 represent two common Turkish types--a barber and a street porter.