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Title: The Passing of the Turkish Empire in Europe
Author: Baker, B. Granville (Bernard Granville)
Language: English
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THE PASSING OF THE TURKISH EMPIRE IN EUROPE
[Illustration: SERAGLIO POINT
The entrance to the Golden Horn with foreign warships: a white-painted
Dutch man-of-war, the Gelderland; the French cruiser, Léon Gambetta;
H.M.S. Weymouth; and an Austrian battleship. In the distance the Tower
of Galata.]
THE PASSING
OF THE
TURKISH EMPIRE
IN EUROPE
BY
CAPTAIN B. GRANVILLE BAKER
LATE OF H.M. 21ST HUSSARS AND THE 9TH ROYAL PRUSSIAN HUSSARS
AUTHOR OF "THE WALLS OF CONSTANTINOPLE," "THE
DANUBE WITH PEN AND PENCIL," "A WINTER
HOLIDAY IN PORTUGAL," &c.
WITH 33 ILLUSTRATIONS & A MAP
LONDON
SEELEY, SERVICE & CO. LIMITED
38 GREAT RUSSELL STREET
1913
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=The Passing of the Turkish Empire in Europe.= By Captain B. GRANVILLE
BAKER, Formerly Captain in the 21st Hussars. Author of "The Walls of
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=A Turkish Woman's European Impressions= Giving the Experiences of a
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CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION 9
CHAPTER I 17
CHAPTER II 29
CHAPTER III 46
CHAPTER IV 60
CHAPTER V 78
CHAPTER VI 94
CHAPTER VII 110
CHAPTER VIII 124
CHAPTER IX 141
CHAPTER X 155
CHAPTER XI 168
CHAPTER XII 186
CHAPTER XIII 203
CHAPTER XIV 215
CHAPTER XV 233
CHAPTER XVI 259
CHAPTER XVII 277
CHAPTER XVIII 294
CHAPTER XIX 318
INDEX 329
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Seraglio Point _Frontispiece_
PAGE
Map 16
Anatoli Kavak 43
Refugees 47
By the Seraglio Walls 61
Roumeli Hissar 64
A Deserted Street 69
The Mosque of St. Sophia 75
The Aqueduct of Valens 81
On the way to the Phanar 87
His Holiness Joachim III 90
The Mosque of Suleiman 99
A Disused Monastery 107
The Walls of Theodosius 117
The Sea-walls of Constantinople 120
The Burnt Column 125
A Byzantine Palace 130
The Lines of Chatalja 138
The Mosque of Mohammed 150
The Mosque of Eyub 164
The Gate of Adrianople 187
The Mosque of Suleiman and the Tower of the War Office 200
The Dardanelles 208
Semendria 208
Constantinople 222
At the Phanar 253
Funeral of an Armenian Archbishop 256
The Coast of Greece 260
Anatoli Hissar 274
Tenedos 290
Golubaç 299
Dedo 'Mitri 303
Radoïl 309
The Fountain at Radoïl 325
INTRODUCTION
Towards the end of a dismal summer, when everybody who is anybody in the
United Kingdom was departing for their annual holidays, dark clouds
began to gather on the political horizon overshadowing that European
storm-centre, the Balkan Peninsula. Angry clouds had gathered over the
seething races of those lands so frequently that no one heeded when the
cry "Wolf!" went up again. "Balkan troubles again," said those who
thought they knew, and they turned with renewed interest to places for
the holidays. But the clouds gathered apace, and ere Europe was fully
alive to the situation, protests, ultimata, and the usual amenities had
been exchanged; the world found itself confronted by a war between the
Ottoman Empire and its former subjects, now clearly defined
nationalities, united to one purpose, and that the end of Turkish rule
in Europe.
While the Great Powers slowly set in motion the cumbrous machinery of
diplomacy the storm-clouds discharged their lightnings, setting ablaze
all the country from the Danube to the Ægean Sea, from the Adriatic to
the Black Sea. Over the borders of Turkey in Europe came hosts of armed
men, ably led, well trained, and purposeful. They came down the Valley
of the Maritza, the Struma, down from the Black Mountains, and out of
Greece in the south, nations in arms, and determined to end oppression
in Turkey's European possessions. With desperate valour they beat down
fierce resistance until but a small shred was left of the Empire carved
by the sword of Othman out of South-Eastern Europe.
History was in the making while diplomacy still talked about the _status
quo_, and to my mind present events, if not an actual repetition of
former historic happenings, bear at least some resemblance to them.
Again an enemy's angry gaze is directed towards Constantinople, again,
as the early days of the ninth century into modern times, the Ruler in
the seat of Constantine prepares to meet invasion. And beneath the
surface of the troubled waters is there is the feeling of a heavy
ground-swell. The Goths came down the Valley of the Maritza and met the
Roman legions at Adrianople; the latter were defeated, Emperor Valens
left among the slain. Yet those Goths were only the fringe of that great
movement which broke the power of Rome. In those remote days of the
"Völkerwanderung" Central Europe seethed with strong young nations bent
on expansion forced by their growing numbers. Slav pressed on Teuton,
and both races overflowed the boundaries set them by the Cæsars.
Are matters very different now? Perhaps the only difference is that the
desire to expand, subconscious in early days of Christianity, is now
informed of consciousness, is born of clearly defined necessities, and
directed towards definite aims. The main line of advance since the first
Aryans crossed the Balkans, swarmed over the Peloponese, peopled the
islands of the Ægean Sea, and found their way to India has always been
to southward, towards warm water; their movements to the north and west
might be considered as purporting to guard their flanks, had they been
conscious of strategic necessities.
The main line of advance of those thronged peoples between the Ural and
the Vosges Mountains is from the Baltic to the Balkans, and Teuton and
Slav are pressing slowly, surely southward, as rivals, for they are
keenly conscious of their own and each other's aims. Even now this
movement is scarcely realized by the States of Western Europe, notably
Great Britain, though its tendency has been clearly defined for many
years, and on the Teuton side, a half-Slav people, Prussia gave it
impetus. The movement has been so slow as to pass unobserved for many
years, but it has been deliberate, because racial impulses have been
curbed by the arts of diplomacy, by the science of strategy, and by a
keen realization of economic necessities. Each of these three factors
has its victories to record, acts which to most people seemed but loose
links in the chain of history rather than the firm steps towards the
goal, distant but clearly seen by those who led the movement. The
science of strategy brought Schleswig-Holstein into the German Union,
welded the German States together, and extended their line of outposts
to the Vosges Mountains. Diplomacy, following victory in the field, made
of the German States an Empire, reconciled Austria, and forced Italy
into the Triple Alliance. Diplomacy again brought Heligoland as an
outpost in the sea to Germany, and political economy is endeavouring to
bring Holland into the German Zollverein. Thus we find the right flank
of the Teuton movement from the Baltic to the Balkans fully secured.
Neither has the left flank been neglected; wedged in between the Balkan
Kingdoms and Russia is Roumania. A Hohenzollern sits on the throne of
that country, and all who know Roumania will realize that Austria is
paramount there. In both Servia and Bulgaria _la Haute Finance_ is in
Austrian hands, and German commercial enterprise has extended feelers
into Asia Minor.
On the Slav side of this great movement Russia looms, apparently slow to
move; but the Slav temperament may be roused to dangerous frenzy, and
signs are not wanting that the troubles of their southern kinsmen may
cause a popular upheaval, forcing the Government into action. Meanwhile
Russia is deliberately organizing her vast resources.
Does it not seem as if the struggle between the Balkan Kingdoms and the
Porte were but the prelude, but a vanguard action, to clear the Turk out
of Europe, and so make room for the titanic conflict impending between
the Slav and Teuton peoples? When they meet, what then? Consider the
enormous highly organized strength available among the possible
combatants--Germany's millions, Austria's vast resources! Are those who
live on the flanks of the impending movement prepared to hold their own?
Outside the ring surrounding Slavs and Teutons, Denmark, Holland,
Belgium, France, Italy are the confines of a vast Empire.
When last the Teuton nations moved so many centuries ago a world-wide
Empire fell in ruins, an Empire glutted with wealth yet teeming with a
pauper population in its capital, luxurious, unnerved, disdaining any
service to their country, unconscious of any obligations in return for
the privileges of citizenship. So Rome fell before the Teuton.
Again the Teuton is stirring. Germany is daily perfecting an already
formidable navy, for flank defence first, then for further enterprise;
Austria has recently greatly added to the budget for naval and military
purposes, and the road to Saloniki is no longer closed by Turkey; Italy
with her considerable naval power is allied to Germany and Austria.
What is Great Britain, the vast Empire encircling the moving forces from
west to east, doing towards her own safety? When the nations of Europe
were well aware of the trouble which has now reached its climax in the
Balkan Peninsula, and were beginning to take at least diplomatic
action, Great Britain was having holidays and could not be disturbed. So
our naval force in the Mediterranean has been weakened to guard against
the German's left flank protection and the coast of Egypt is left
insufficiently protected.
While the Balkan Kingdoms were mobilizing the armies which have since
swept triumphant over Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly, armies composed of
the whole manhood of each nation, not of hired soldiers, Great Britain
was collecting troops for Cambridgeshire manoeuvres, with much
self-laudation, and the assistance of the Territorial force, got
together a number about equal to Montenegro's first levy for the war
with Turkey; and Montenegro is about half the size of Wales and sparsely
populated. Servia, a country hitherto denied a voice in the great
Committee of European States, at once mobilized troops exceeding in
number the expeditionary force with which Great Britain proposes to take
part in an armed conflict of the Great Powers, and moreover that small
kingdom proved itself capable of even greater effort and produced as
many fighting men as Moltke required to vanquish France.
The Allies acted sharply and decisively. Seven weeks after the
declaration of war the Sultan's troops were forced to retire behind the
lines of Chatalja, the outer defences of Constantinople. Constantinople
was the seat of Cæsar from the middle of the fourth century until
Mohammed the Conqueror made it the capital of his Empire in 1453. From
here Ottoman armies marched to victory; Bulgars, Greeks, Serbs were
conquered, enslaved, their national identity swamped by the rising tide
of Moslems as it flowed on over the plains of Hungary even up to the
bastions of Vienna, that bulwark of the Western world.
From Stamboul, where I write, successive Sultans directed the policy of
Turkey as their power waned. Here plans were devised, intrigues
inaugurated to check the forces that threatened Ottoman supremacy. Here
the Sultan in his palace heard of fresh troubles in his Empire, of
defeats on the field of battle and in the council chamber. Here between
the deep calm of the Orient and the restless striving of the West
successive wearers of the sword of Othman must have marked the signs of
the times and wondered how disaster might be averted.
But disaster came, a swift retribution for years of indolence. As I
write this the sound of firing is borne on the westerly wind into the
City of Constantine, Tsarigrad, Stamboul.
I was mightily drawn to revisit this ancient city now in these days of
darkness, so I hurried out overland, crossing Germany, Poland, Roumania,
till I landed on the banks of the Golden Horn. When I had passed I noted
a feeling of deep anxiety, to account for which the present troubles of
Turkey are insufficient; there seemed to me an undercurrent of unrest
such as perchance preceded the "Völkerwanderung" of some fifteen
centuries ago. I came here to record as best I can the doings of these
days in Constantinople, the capital of a vanishing Empire, and while I
went about the city, revisiting places I have seen bathed in summer
sunshine, now gloomy under a lowering sky, as I noted the many signs of
"Sturm und Drang," I was filled with grave forebodings; here where a
mighty Empire is tottering to its fall under pressure of the vanguard of
a "Völkerwanderung" I pondered whether another world-wide Empire were as
secure as that of the Ottoman was till recently supposed to be.
B. G. B.
CONSTANTINOPLE
[Illustration: Map of Turkey]
The Passing of the Turkish Empire in Europe
CHAPTER I
The high road to the East--Roumania and the Carpathian
Mountains--Thracians and Dacians, and how the latter had dealings
with Emperor Trajan--The Roumanians, their origin, story, and
present condition--The "Tsigani"--Tales of Hunyadi Janos, Knjes
Lazar, Michael the Brave, and others--The story of Ghika the
cats'-meat man--Roumania and the Balkan conflict--A morning in the
Carpathian forests--Bucharest--The Roumanian Army.
It was with strangely mingled feelings that I left London one Saturday
evening, left the capital of one great Empire supposed to rest on firm
foundations, considered strong in the council of nations, to visit the
heart of yet another Empire once considered mighty and of weighty
influence in Europe, now tottering to its fall with alarming rapidity,
under the staggering blows of four small peoples, young and purposeful,
unspoilt by wealth and power.
The lights of Dover gleamed steadily in a black sky, the dark waters
gave back broken reflections from a brilliantly lit liner making her
stately way down Channel, as the throbbing turbines carried our little
ship towards the East. A grey morning rose over the Dutch landscape,
shrouded trees reflected heavily in the sullen waters of dykes and
canals. A grey sky hung heavily over the teeming life of industrial
Westphalia, and broke into heavy drops of rain over the wide plains of
Hanover, and poured in torrents into the well-lit streets of Berlin, the
"Ville Lumière" of Europe since Paris relinquished the splendour of an
Imperial Court.
From Berlin my road turned to south-east, past prosperous cities such as
Frankfort-on-the-Oder, Breslau, towards that corner of Europe where
three Empires meet on what was once part of the picturesque Kingdom of
Poland, long since forced into the realm of things forgotten by those
three Powers that meet here. It is a gloomy country, black and ungainly
in its tense industrial existence.
As it were, subconsciously, I felt like one hurrying to the death-bed of
a friend; strange, for I have no reason to consider the Turk my friend.
Indeed, though I like the individual Turks I have met, I cannot summon
up a really friendly feeling for a Power which has deliberately
mis-governed its varied subjects, has times out of number countenanced,
even encouraged, acts the remembrance of which makes the heart sick. Yet
in spite of reasoning, that feeling of hurrying to the death-bed of a
friend never left me, but it had in it something of the antagonism
which, as psychologists declare, is an ingredient of the love of a man
for a woman. No doubt pity was mingled with this feeling, pity for a
mighty race of conquerors now humbled to the dust, however much those
ruling them be to blame; again there was anxiety as to the fate of the
beautiful city, the City of Constantine, my destination; fear, a
nameless fear, filled me, the son of a great Empire, as I thought over
the fate of another Empire found unprepared to uphold a position it
insisted upon, and therefore rudely awakened and thrust aside by young,
strong nations whose sons know not how to shirk responsibility, neither
do the men and women of those peoples shun any sacrifice to gain what
they whole-heartedly desire.
This strange feeling that obsessed me became stronger as I left
well-ordered Germany behind, and felt the subtle influence of the East
on entering Austrian territory. In the first place the traveller's
comfort is affected, for German orderliness makes way to Austrian
_laisser-aller_, resulting in a want of cleanliness in the railway
carriages. Apologists say that this state is due to the many Polish Jews
who freely use their cheap season tickets; this might account for the
dirty condition of third-class carriages when packed with worthies in
greasy gaberdines, with ringlets dangling down from either temple; it is
no pleasure to pass through a third-class carriage on your way to the
dining-car. However well this excuse may serve, I found no attempted
cleanliness in any other class while travelling through Austrian
territory, and it seemed that the Roumanian railway authorities do not
set much store by the God-like virtue either, at least as far as the
accommodation of travellers is concerned.
Throughout my travels I have found that romance and picturesqueness are
seldom separated from dirt, and, fortunately, the former may often
outbalance the latter. The world of romance became gently insistent as
the railroad left the teeming coalfields of Prussian Poland behind and
passed on to places famous in the history of the Kingdom of
Poland--Cracow, still a centre of the refined and gracious
intellectuality which characterizes Polish nobility. Then, again, there
is Przemysl (hopeless the effort to pronounce it), yet it is the name of
a mighty dynasty which reigned over Bohemia from here for at least a
century in those days when the Christian world was moving eastward as
crusaders, under Frederick Barbarossa, and for a short time ousted the
Greek Emperors from the seat of Constantine in favour of the Latin
Emperors, Baldwin and his successors. Here, again, Empires have gone
under and their lands have been divided among younger races. We hurry on
ever to south-east, and shortly enter a land which was formerly a
portion of the Empire now on its death-bed--Moldavia, a province of
Roumania.
Roumania is a very interesting country, and I must own to a kind of
spell which its past history and its present prosperity cast upon me.
The former is stirring indeed. Memories of histories I had read came
crowding in upon me as I travelled through Moldavia, the country
separated from Russia by the Pruth, watered by the Sereth and its
tributaries, Moldava, Bistritza, and others that come down from the
Carpathian Mountains into the fertile plain. The Carpathians,
snow-tipped, densely wooded on their lower slopes, accompanied me in the
blue distance, until about the latitude of Galatz they turned away to
westward, curving round in their southern range until they meet the
Danube at Orsova, and force it to narrow down to a third of its stately
width in order to pass through the Iron Gates. I thought of all those
hordes of wandering barbarians whose course was deflected by the
Carpathians, showing again how nature's barriers form the destinies of
men. Streams of savages poured into this valley from the plains of
Western Russia. Who were the first inhabitants is matter of conjecture:
Scythians probably occupied the eastern districts, Thracians and Dacians
were found by Trajan in the western part. Trajan conquered the Dacians
in his campaign of 101-106 A.D., and founded a colony called Dacia
Trajana. The column to this Emperor's honour, in Rome, sets forth the
story of his conquest. The Dacians were by no means easy people to deal
with, and Rome--Imperial Rome--had much trouble with Decebal, their
King, who was finally vanquished, and committed suicide in order to
escape from the disgrace of following the conqueror's triumphal chariot
through the Roman Forum.
Among the Roman remains scattered about the western parts of Roumania
are the bridge-heads at Turn Severin and the ruined tower of Severus in
the public gardens of that thriving township. It is supposed by the
Roumanians themselves that they are descended from the Roman colonists
of Dacia Trajana, and they point to their language in evidence. Theirs
is indeed a Latin tongue, but language is often a false guide in the
difficult and intricate paths of ethnology. It seems to me open to doubt
that Rome of the second century could have afforded a sufficiently large
supply of emigrants to people a large colony; and that the whole
Roumanian nation should be descended from the Roman legionaries seems
unlikely, for in the first instance it does not follow that the
legionaries were all Romans, or even Latins, and again, if they had
been, there would have been only a small proportion of them who would be
permitted to bring wives and families with them. Moreover, the Roman
tenure of the land was short, only about a century and a half, as in 270
the Goths streamed in from the north-east, obliging Emperor Aurelian to
withdraw his troops into the province of Moesia, subsequently called
Dacia Aureliana. The Goths were not inclined to settle anywhere in those
days; they simply plundered and murdered as they went along, and
probably left no definite impression on the races they were pleased to
visit. We shall meet them again nearer Constantinople.
Huns and Gepidi probably left stronger traces in the population of the
former Roman province of Dacia Trajana when they swarmed through it in
the middle of the fifth century, and I am inclined to think that in the
middle of the next century the invading Avari made a deeper impression.
Slavs and Bulgars forced their way here, and of the former many traces
have been found, leading to the supposition that they enter largely into
the composition of the Roumanian people. The Hungarians may have
contributed something towards building up the present people of
Roumania, when they marched through in 830, and subsequent Slav races,
such as the Petschenegs in 900 and the Kumani, Tartars, in 1050,
probably added their quota. At any rate German influence had vanished,
and Slavs and Finns (Bulgars), with detachments of other wandering races
united, blended into one, and it is thus that the Roumanian nation of
to-day may be said to have originated. Dacia of Roman days extended well
into Hungary of the present day, Transylvania, and the Banat, with the
present divisions of Roumania, being a number of duchies still called
Dacia in those days, though Imperial Rome had long abandoned the part of
"Weltmacht." In the tenth and eleventh centuries, no doubt owing to the
intervening Carpathians, Transylvania and the Banat became subject to
Hungary, while the duchies of Wallachia and Moldavia crystallized into
political entities, and were found to be sufficiently powerful to keep
out the Kumani and check the Tartars in the fourteenth century.
Towards the end of the fourteenth century yet another race came into
Dacia from out of the East, driven from their homes in India by
Tamerlane. They are known by various names, and are spread all over
Europe. We call them gipsies, the Germans "Zigeuner," from "Tsigani,"
the name by which they are known in Eastern Europe. They call themselves
Romanies, probably because they made Roumania their home, and here they
are to be found in great numbers. Their language is Roumanian, though
they have acquired many others in the course of their wanderings.
Wherever they go they bring music with them, grand epics, love-songs,
quaint little popular ditties, which they sing to the accompaniment of
string instruments. It is these Tsigani who have been instrumental in
keeping alive the traditions of a great past among the peoples of the
Balkan countries. Together with religion, their songs have helped to
preserve the national identity of Roumanians and Serbs, have fostered
racial ambitions, and inspired heroes to fight for freedom. They sing in
soul-stirring epics of Stephan Dushan, of great Voivods who led men to
battle, of Hunyadi Janos and his paladins, of ill-fated Knjes Lazar,
whose army of crusaders went under in a sea of blood before the sword of
Othman on the Amselfeld at Kossovo, since recaptured by the Serbs. Their
songs tell of great men rulers of the independent principalities of
Wallachia and Moldavia; of Michael the Brave, who lived when Henri IV
was King of France. Michael showed the Osmanli that it is vain to
attempt the suppression of a strong race and its religion. No doubt the
attempt seemed successful for a while; Cantomir of Moldavia and
Brancovan of Wallachia, allied to Peter the Great of Russia, suffered
defeat at the hands of the Turks on the banks of the Pruth, and had to
submit to the rule of Greek hospodars, placed in power by the Porte, for
a period of fifty-eight years.
The duchies, like greater Powers in Eastern Europe, were unable for long
to withstand the influence of the latest race to come from out of the
East, and became subject to the Osmanli. During troubled centuries of
Turkish suzerainty the Roumanian people preserved their faith, their
national characteristics, and this enabled them to rise as a young,
strong race when the hour of deliverance came. They had absorbed from
their conquerors a number of able men, whose descendants have since
identified themselves with the ambitions of Roumania, whose names are
writ large on the tablets of fame among those who helped to make
Roumania free. Of one of these the following story is told. There lived
in Stamboul a gentle, business-like Armenian, by trade a cats'-meat man.
Among his customers he noticed an elderly, dejected individual who was
very particular in his choice of the daily morsel of meat, choosing
liver as a rule. Now it struck the Armenian that possibly this daily
purchase might be meant for human consumption, instead of for the
delectation of a pet cat; careful inquiries led to the following
discovery. His customer was an old servant, the only one who had
remained true to his master, and that master, once Grand Vizier, had
fallen from his high estate on very evil times. The Armenian cats'-meat
man thereupon thought fit to be charitable, provided his customer with
better wares, and suggested that payment might be deferred until a
brighter day. By one of those turns of the wheel not unusual in Oriental
countries, the former Grand Vizier rose from poverty and rags to power
again, and decided to reward the Armenian. Considering that one
candidate for the vacant post of Vali of Moldavia was likely to be as
bad as another, he decided to thus endow the cats'-meat man, who
possibly developed unsuspected talent in his new line of business. At
any rate, he is the putative ancestor of one of Roumania's greatest
princely houses, the Ghika family. There are descendants of yet more
ancient families still to be found in Roumania, amongst them some
Cantacuzene, of Byzantine fame.
Roumania followed Greece and Servia in wresting its freedom from the
Turk, and the Convention of Paris in 1856 assured the autonomous rights
of the principalities, their union into one State, and constitutional
government. A native magnate, Colonel Alexander Cusa, ruled as Prince
Alexander John I for ten years, and although his election to that
position was not in exact accordance with the Treaty of Paris, was
nevertheless sanctioned by the Powers. This Prince resigned in 1866, and
as a Count of Flanders, younger brother of the King of the Belgians,
declined the invitation to succeed him, Prince Charles of Hohenzollern
Sigmaringen accepted it as Carol I. In 1877 Roumania declared herself
completely independent of Turkey, much against Russia's wishes, and
ceased to pay tribute to the Porte. This precipitated the war against
Turkey, and three divisions of Roumanian troops, some 35,000 men, with
108 guns, led by their Prince, joined the Russian forces. Prince Charles
himself fired the first shot at Vidin, and his gallant troops followed
him on to victory. They particularly distinguished themselves by
spirited bayonet attacks at Plevna, and it was to the Roumanian troops
that Osman Pasha surrendered. Roumania was not called to the conference
at S. Stefano, and had to trust to Russia's good offices in order to get
her independence fully recognized. For this kindness Russia annexed
fruitful Bessarabia, leaving to Roumania the swamps of the Dobrutsha. On
the 22nd (10th) of May, 1881, the Hohenzollern Prince was crowned King
of Roumania, having been duly proclaimed by both Chambers of the
country's Parliament. He rules still, and wisely, over a prosperous
country of 50,702 square miles, with a population of six to seven
millions.
The majority of the people of Roumania belong to the Orthodox Greek
Church, have so far lived in peace with their neighbours, and are happy
and prosperous. But they have not remained unaffected by the desperate
events which brought such an upheaval to the other Balkan States. There
is among the younger generation considerable discontent at the supposed
subservience of Roumania's foreign policy to the dictates of her mighty
friend, Austria. It is argued that if Austria had not vetoed Roumania's
mobilization on the outbreak of the Balkan War, that war might have been
stopped. As matters stand at present, many Roumanians think that they
have missed an opportunity of getting some useful trifle of territory
for themselves, or that they have been deprived of opportunity, and are
consequently very sore about it. So here, too, threatening clouds
obscure the political horizon.
It would be a ghastly sequel to the indecision of the Great Powers if
this plucky little kingdom were called upon to face an invader, if
grim-visaged war were to cast its shadow over the fair fields and
fertile plains of Roumania. The rich soil produces abundance of wheat,
maize, and other cereals, and would produce more but for the summer
droughts. I have seen the rich yellow maize being garnered, and have
watched the golden wealth of corn shipped into boats and barges on the
Danube, to be taken down to Braila, Galatz, and thence onward to feed
other countries less bountifully supplied. Then there are vast forests,
another source of wealth. It is only a few weeks ago that I was tramping
over crisp snow in the shade of close-standing forest trees. A friend
had asked me to go out with him after wild boar. It was a glorious day;
cool greys and purples in the forest, with here and there a patch of
rich brown soil, and through the trees the sun, in a clear blue sky,
drew radiance from the snow, and showed up on a background of dark green
firs the golden glory of larches, the red and russet leaves of wild
cherry, and other trees, on which the foliage still lingered ere the
winter storms set in. Winter is very severe in this country, and wolves
come down from the mountains to the villages in the plains in search of
their prey. There is other game in plenty; bear may be found in the
depths of the Carpathian forests, and the wild cat, in thick black and
grey striped coat, steals through the undergrowth like his larger
kinsmen of the jungle.
Bucharest, the capital of Roumania, is a town for which I have a sincere
liking. It is not a large place, only some 300,000, but it is a
well-planned town, gay, just a little wicked, and above all, the
inhabitants insist on the best of music, and get it at such places as
the Continental Hotel, where you can dine well to the strains of an
excellent gipsy orchestra.
Roumania occupies a position of some danger in the complex polity of
South-East Europe. To eastward, across the Pruth, looms the massive
strength of Russia, never yet put to a severe test, so that its power is
still an unknown quantity. To southward across the Danube live the
Bulgarians, a strong, ambitious people, and, as far as I can ascertain,
not on the friendliest terms with Roumania. But behind Roumania is the
Empire of Kaiser Franz Josef, and Austrian influence is strong,
especially in the industrial life of Roumania. It would be piteous to
carry war into this happy country, with its flourishing agriculture, its
prosperous oil-fields, at Bustenari, Campiña, etc. But Roumania has
taken due precautions; a navy of some seventy-five small but
well-appointed vessels guards Roumanian interests on the Black Sea
coast; they may be seen occasionally on the lower reaches of the Danube,
by the huge bridge that carries the railway over to Constanza, the
Brighton of the Black Sea littoral, or perhaps Trouville is a more apt
comparison. Here also ends the wall which Trajan built from the Danube
across the narrowest part of the Dobrutsha.
Then, again, the Roumanian Army is well able to hold its own. The war
establishment of the regular army, well trained and well equipped,
numbers 175,000 troops, more by three-quarters than Great Britain's
expeditionary force. To this should be added a territorial force of
excellent quality of about equal numbers, altogether a formidable
obstacle to any one who wishes to interfere with Roumania's position in
the world. For this adequate defence Roumania pays somewhat less than
two and a half millions.
As I wrote this the political horizon of Roumania was dark with heavy
storm-clouds, for her eastern neighbour is like to be drawn into the
strife which is altering the state of Southern Europe, the onslaught of
the southern Slav nations on their old oppressors at Constantinople. The
southern frontier of Roumania at least was safe, for the Bulgarians were
hammering now at the gates of Constantinople, pouring out their blood
like water by the lines of Chatalja.
CHAPTER II
My fellow-passengers in the boat train to Constanza--The Bosphorus
and places of interest by its shores: Kavak and the Genoese castle,
forts ancient and modern--Some mention of forgotten deities, and
also of races long since dead, who passed by here--The Russians and
their first visit to the Bosphorus--The Genoese and their doings in
these waters--The Giant's Mountain and Joshua's grave--My adventure
at Kavak, suspected of spying, and a similar experience at
Badajoz--The castles, Anatoli and Roumeli Hissar--Mohammed the
Conqueror and the siege of Constantinople--Approaching the Golden
Horn, foreign warships--Byzas the seafarer--Some legends and tales
about ancient Byzantium, mentioning important people like
Alcibiades and Philip of Macedonia--Stamboul and the origin of its
name; some of its story--Its present troubles.
The Roumanian mail-steamer "Dacia," a fast, well-appointed ship, carried
me out into the Black Sea on a clear, dark night, her nose pointing
towards the Bosphorus. My fellow-passengers by the train conveying me to
Constanza had tried to fill me with alarm as to the state of
Constantinople, they spoke of rumoured massacres, and advised me to don
a fez, alluded with head-shakings to cholera, and generally warned me
against my enterprise. Nevertheless, the next morning found me within
sight of the entrance to the Bosphorus; a pearly grey morning, and the
sun drew a flickering path of light from our port bow, broadening into a
scintillating expanse of silver on the horizon. Groups of Turks stood in
the bows straining their eyes for a sight of land.
It was an intensely peaceful morning which made it difficult to imagine
that behind the blue heights rising out of the water fierce war raged
with all its attendant horrors; for there to south-west, beyond the
coast fort of Kilia, and some fifty miles beyond it, were the lines of
Chatalja, where the Bulgarians were trying to wrest the Empire of the
East from the palsied hand of the sons of Othman. The coast of Asia
Minor emerges from the pearly sea and marks the entrance to the Turkish
Empire from the north. History and legend crowd in upon this narrow
waterway, with its little wooden houses by the shore, sombre cypresses
guarding them, and the graves upon the slopes, where modern forts and
ancient strongholds stand side by side. Here to our left on the Asiatic
side lies Anatoli Kavak, the Poplar of Asia, for several poplars stand
out above the buildings devoted to the sanitary service of the port.
There is a fort at the point trying its best to look modern, and above
it, rising to the heights, are the remains of an older civilization,
those of the Genoese castle. On the opposite bank is Roumeli Kavak, the
Poplar of Europe, also fortified in the divers manners of many ages.
Legend and history have been busy in this part of the Bosphorus. This
narrow passage was formerly known as the Straits of Hieron, and that
name derives from the fact that a temple to the twelve gods stood here.
Here Jason offered sacrifices on his return from Colchis. There were
also temples to Poseidon and Zeus, Serapis and Cybele, but they have
vanished with the gods to whom they were dedicated.
The Heruli took refuge here after an unsuccessful sea fight off Scutari,
then known as Chrysopolis, and about the same time the Goths crossed
over from Roumeli Kavak into Asia, and ravaged Bithynia up to the walls
of Nicodemia, but Odenatus, commanding the military forces of the East,
checked their progress and drove them away to Heraklea on the Black Sea.
In the middle of the ninth century Russians appeared for the first
time, passing down the Bosphorus to the City of Constantine, but
attempted no further than Hieron. They came again in the middle of the
tenth century under a cloud of sail ten thousand vessels in all, and
burned Stenia and Hieron, but Theophanes, the soldier of Emperor Romanus
II, met and defeated them at Hieron. In later years the Genoese became
powerful and held a strong position at Galata; they took Hieron and
Serapeori, and the ruined castle on the heights above Anatoli Kavak
stands as a monument to that enterprising republic. Another seafaring
republic, Venice, which rivalled Greece on this highway between the
Black Sea and the Mediterranean, troubled the waters between Anatoli and
Roumeli Kavak with frequent naval engagements. Meanwhile the country was
supposed to belong to the Empire of the East, and a church was built and
dedicated to St. Michael the Archangel, who was considered peculiarly
suited to represent and defend Greek interests at Hieron. However, those
who had assigned to him this duty neglected their own, and so in time
had to make way for the Turk. He in his turn was now threatened from the
north, for but fifty miles away the Bulgarians were hammering at the
lines of Chatalja.
A little further to the south on the Asiatic side rises the highest
point on the banks of the Bosphorus, the Giant's Mountain. The Turks
call it Yousha daghi, the Mountain of Joshua, and no one shares with
them the interest in this spot, for here they have thought fit to bury
Joshua. His grave is here, so who dare doubt; it stands over five
hundred feet above the level, is guarded by true believers, and offers
to others an opportunity of becoming immune to "need, sickness, or any
other adversity." All the visitor need do to attain to this happy state
is to hang a bit of rag on one of the bushes that grow out of the grave,
and rags are plentiful in Turkey. It is also advisable to walk round
the grave several times and wish for something you happen to want. The
grave is twenty feet long and five feet broad, and carefully enclosed
within a framework of stone.
While taking a sketch of this landscape some years ago, I had my first
of two experiences as a suspected spy.
In some countries of Europe even the most innocuous traveller is liable
to be suspected of espionage as soon as he produces a camera--a bit of
paper and a pencil will even suffice to arouse suspicion. Strange to
say, it is among the so-called Great Powers that the mania has got the
firmest hold of the official world and even of the public.
Of course, the lesser Powers have not quite escaped contagion, and it is
from some of these that I have gained my experience as a suspected spy,
for, needless to say, such an habitual traveller as I am is not likely
to escape from the effects of the prevailing _malaise_. Fortunately my
experiences have been rather amusing than otherwise, and have caused no
international crisis, no trembling in the balance of the Peace of
Europe, not even a newspaper paragraph.
But think of what might have happened when I took a pencil sketch of the
bulwarks of Belgrade! True, those venerable fortifications date from the
days of Vauban, and are as much use for defence as are the walls of
Semendria, the old Roman castle further down the Danube, and moreover
the Danube Powers have long ago agreed not to fortify any place along
the river-bank. Yet the fortifications of Belgrade are jealously
guarded; but as it was four in the morning when I took my sketch from on
board the Danube steamer there was no one about to say me nay, and hence
no international complications.
A few days later my peripatetic habits took me to Constantinople, and
there one day I seated myself on the banks of the Bosphorus, Asiatic
side, and began a sketch of the lovely view before me. There happened to
be a more or less modern fort immediately behind me; this, of course,
did not concern me. I was deeply engaged in rendering the blue sky
reflected in the sea, a stern old Genoese castle in the background,
which had served its purpose of defence many centuries ago, when two
amiable Turkish artillery officers came down to the beach and sat one on
either side of me. They greeted me kindly and inquired whether I could
speak German or French. I replied that I could oblige in either,
whereupon they conversed with me in both, mixed, and to my mind not a
judicious mixture. We talked of many things, when one of them said, "It
is forbidden to sketch here!" and the other endorsed the statement. They
quite agreed with me, however, that it would be a pity to stop painting
now, as I had so nearly finished, and so our conversation went into
other channels. There was yet another Turkish officer, who stood some
way behind us, shouting in an angry tone and in his own tongue, which,
as I understand it not at all, did not trouble me. An occasional
pacifying answer from my two neighbours failed of its effect. When I had
quite finished my friends helped me to pack up and escorted me past the
fort, followed by the sound of the angry voice. My escort explained that
the owner of the voice wanted to arrest me and was with difficulty
dissuaded; this friendly demonstration moved me to offer hospitality, my
escort having casually mentioned that good beer was to be found at a
neighbouring café. The escort furtively looked back towards the fort,
then sadly shook hands with me and said, "No, he (the angry one, a good
Moslem) is looking--come again another day."
My most recent experience showed me that the mania has spread to Spain,
though happily in a mild form. I suffered from it, so I know; and this
is what happened.
At the time I was collecting material for a book on Portugal, and to
this end the Portuguese Government had kindly given me a free pass over
their railway system. This pass, I found, would take me to Badajoz and
back, a most excellent reason for visiting the place. The time-table
prepared me for a twelve hours' journey by slow train, but in its being
intensely matter-of-fact could not foreshadow the "local colour" which
illumined my pilgrimage. The start at 7 p.m. was quite peaceful; I
secured a corner seat, and the other corners only were occupied, so we
jogged along in no very great discomfort. But only a few stations out of
Lisbon the peace was broken. A sound of many voices, high-pitched, grew
louder as we drew up at a wayside station, it rolled into our
compartment in "dense volume" as the door was flung open, and with it
came a shower of parcels of all sizes, impartially distributed among us.
The fulcrum of this shower (if a shower runs to one) was a stout lady,
impelled through space into our midst by some potent agency without.
Grasping a bottle of wine in one hand, a bottle of water in the other,
talking loudly all the while, she alighted (not at all like a bird) on
my foot, dropped on to my knee, and slid thence into a seat by my side.
Followed quickly by her maid, also talking; she settled abruptly on the
cap of a cavalry officer opposite to me. But yet more strident tones
dominated this Babel, proceeding from a stouter lady, volant, who once
settled, fitted a number of talkative males into the interstices between
huge hat-boxes and other personal effects. The compartment was thus
completely crowded, and conversation raged--raged till morning, was
raging on the platform at Badajoz, when I left for the town. Had I been
a stranger to the country and its people the intense excitement of my
fellow-travellers might have led me to imagine all manner of horrid
happenings to unhappy Portugal, grim revolution mixed with devastating
earthquakes, foreign invasion on one frontier and a tidal wave on the
seaward side--as a matter of fact, the ladies were travelling for their
health.
All-unsuspecting I passed in at the gates of Badajoz, past the
guard-house, and made my way towards the south-east of the city, where I
hoped to get a good view. I did, and having indulged in an appropriate
thrill over the storming of that citadel, proceeded with my legitimate
business, sketching. Then I wandered round by the river, and began the
outline of a mass of crumbling ruins, tumbling down towards the bank.
Those walls must have been quite useful for defensive purposes many
centuries ago, they are now extremely picturesque, and therefore still
useful to the peripatetic artist. Suddenly a well-modulated voice broke
in upon my labours. Standing by my side, cap in hand, was a sergeant of
the Guarda Civil, who wished to know whether My Excellency, Grace, or
Worship (I do not know what the Spanish _usted_ means) had any
authorization to take sketches. I admitted that I had none, at the same
time appealing to the gentleman as an expert whether my sketches could
possibly be considered of any strategical or tactical value. The
sergeant modestly declined to judge in such a weighty matter, and
requested that I should do him the favour of accompanying him. This I
untruthfully expressed myself delighted to do, and so he led me to the
guard-house. There was no barred and bolted prison cell for me, in fact
I did not penetrate into the interior of the guard-house at all,
possibly because a very stout corporal filled up all the doorway. This
warrior took a very serious view of the case and said he must fetch an
officer; so he majestically passed out of my ken, for I never saw him
again. In the meantime I was getting distinctly bored; the sergeant,
though most courteous, was no conversationalist, and my knowledge of
Spanish is strictly limited. After an hour's delay two gentlemen in
mufti passed our way, evidently people of importance, for my sergeant
was at once cap in hand, and to them he entered upon a recital about my
serious case. One of them understood French, so I showed him my
sketch-book and asked him to try and discover anything of military value
or importance in it. He failed, but nevertheless suggested that the
sergeant and I should call upon the Military Governor. I hinted that we
might have thought of that before, but my sergeant seemed to consider it
(thinking) no part of his business.
We waited another hour at the Military Governor's palatial official
residence, watching Spanish soldiers moving in and out in their quick,
jaunty manner; smart, well-dressed men they are too. Then His Excellency
the Governor came down the steps, and my sergeant, cap in hand, began
his story all over again. I burst into it in French and again showed up
my sketch-book, His Excellency quite agreeing with me that my sketches
were singularly harmless from any point of view. Perhaps I was assuming
more responsibility than becomes a wandering painter when I promised
that I would never bring out an English army to upset the walls of
Badajoz again, though of course I could safely promise never to take
part in any such disturbance should it happen again. The Governor was
thoroughly satisfied with my earnest assurances, and with a generous
wave of his arm invited me to draw and paint all Badajoz. "Would His
Excellency give me that gracious permission in writing? Without it I
might be calling again in half an hour's time and with a fresh escort!"
"Certainly!" So I became possessed of a document which gave a strange
rendering of my name--it described me as one Leandro Vaca, which latter
being interpreted means cow. After this formality we were all extremely
polite to each other, we bowed a great deal and said to each other
things which we could not have meant to be taken seriously. Twice did I
meet the Governor and his staff in the streets that afternoon, and each
time we did the bowing all over again.
Two hours of precious daylight had been wasted, so I made up for lost
time and sketched everywhere, especially near sentries, as I
particularly wished to watch the magic effect of the Leandro Vaca
document. But alas! not one of those sentries could be roused to the
least interest in my proceedings; so I took my way back to the station,
destroying the document, as the Governor had requested me to do so. Here
ends my "espionage story," which, not to be behindhand, I have had to
put into print myself, no reporter having thought it worth while at the
time.
A very different place altogether is Therapia, some three miles further
south on the European side; the name means "Place of Healing," and must
have been given to it before the ambassadors of the Great Powers set up
their summer residence by its shore. As I passed by Therapia several
Turkish men-of-war, a small cruiser, a gunboat, and several destroyers
were lying peacefully in the small harbour, completely indifferent to
the trials of Turkey's land forces, who, only a matter of fifty miles
away, were endeavouring to ward off the Bulgarians' blow at the heart of
the Ottoman Empire.
The Bosphorus broadens out somewhat at Beikos on the Asiatic side, and
it is on this curving bay that according to legend Pollux visited
Amycus, King of the Bebryces, to the latter's undoing.
The banks draw closer together, clustering wooden houses dipping their
stone foundations in the water grow more numerous as the Bosphorus winds
southward. Two castles rise from among trees and wooden houses, one
majestically, the other in rather humbler fashion, the former on the
European, the latter on the Asiatic shore. History lingers round these
broken towers, but the battered grey walls looked sadder than when I saw
them last, under the grey sky they seemed to mourn the departed glory of
the race that built them. The castle on the Asiatic side, Anatoli
Hissar, encloses rows of quaint little wooden huts, tendrils of vine
stretch across the narrow cobbled alleys from the overhanging roofs, and
at the foot of the castle flow the Sweet Waters of Asia. It is a
pleasant place in spring, this "valley of the heavenly water," and one
of the loveliest spots on the banks of the Bosphorus. To many Asiatic
poets it has been what the valley of the Mondego was to Camoens and
other sweet singers of Lusitania. Mohammed I built this castle, and
Mohammed II sat here in 1451 watching the growth of Roumeli Hissar, the
Castle of Europe, on the frontier shore. In three months this castle
rose from the rocky slope at this the narrowest part of the Bosphorus;
thousands of labourers were forced into the service of construction, and
the ground plan was the initial letter of Mohammed's name.
When it was finished Firaz Agha was appointed commander of the garrison
of four hundred men, and levied toll on all passing ships, while the
Emperor of the East sent despairing offers of peace from his purple
palace in Constantinople. But Mohammed II declined to negotiate, and
continued his preparations for the taking of the Castle of Cæsar. Here
the forces of Othman gathered strength for their great enterprise, hence
they set forth on desperate venture. Constantinople fell before them,
the Eastern Empire vanished like a dream, and the Crescent gleamed over
the subject races of the Balkan Peninsula and carried terror into the
hearts of Christian countries away to the walls of Vienna.
To-day those former subject races, strong and united, have overrun all
but the last few miles of the Turkish Empire in Europe; there to
westward, at a distance of fifty miles or so, the Bulgarians were
hammering at the lines of Chatalja.
When Mohammed the Conqueror first began to besiege Constantinople he
endeavoured to force an entrance by the Golden Horn; from Roumeli Hissar
to Seraglio Point his fleet extended, but in vain, for a heavy chain
barred the entrance, and beyond it the larger vessels of the Genoese and
Venetians rode at anchor. So Mohammed conceived a bold plan in keeping
with his character and ability.
From Beshiktash--called by the Greeks Diplokion, the Double Columns,
Mohammed caused a road of smooth planks to be constructed; this road led
over the heights and down to the western end of the Golden Horn. It must
have been a difficult task, for Galata, the Genoese fortress, had to be
avoided. Galata stands in a position somewhat similar to Constantinople,
on a promontory formed by the Hellespont and the Golden Horn, which
bends slightly to the north after passing west of the place where the
land wall of Theodosius joined the sea-wall, towards the Sweet Waters of
Europe. When the road was completed, the planks thoroughly greased, a
host of men hauled eighty galleys over it during the night. According to
the Byzantine chronicler, Ducas, every galley had a pilot at her prow,
another on her poop, with his hand on the tiller; so, with drums beating
time to the sailors' songs the whole fleet passed along as though it
were carried by a stream of water, sailing, as it were, over the land.
The next morning these ships were riding at anchor in the upper,
shallower part of the harbour, beyond reach of the larger Genoese and
Venetian vessels.
Thus the fleet of Mohammed the Conqueror in 1453, while the Turkish
fleet of to-day was lying idle, though hundreds of thousands of sons of
Ottoman were struggling to retain a fragment of Turkey's European
possessions.
There were few signs to show that Turkey was engaged in a struggle for
life as I passed down the Bosphorus; here and there were camps,
red-brown canvas tents, and over some buildings by the shore the red
crescent on a white ground spoke of much-needed comfort for the sick and
wounded. It was not till Stamboul and Scutari hove in sight that I saw
anything unusual, but what I saw was remarkably so--the massive hulls of
foreign warships. Nearer to Scutari lay a large French cruiser, black
against the uncertain light of a rainy day. Scutari and Kadi Kevi, the
ancient Chalcedon, as Byzas, the founder of Byzantium, called it,
because the inhabitants of that place must have been blind, or they
would have chosen the tongue of land opposite, on the glorious harbour,
on which to build their city. Scutari, where Florence Nightingale's
hospital still stands. English ladies are following in that noble
woman's steps here, in Constantinople, in this day of affliction for the
Turkish Empire--and are doing so with the bravery and devotion of women
of our race.
Indeed a sign of evil days when foreign warships are anchored in the
Golden Horn, but the interests of many nations are affected, and the
future, not only for the Balkan countries, but also for all Europe, is
big with possibilities.
Grey clouds hung over the Golden Horn as I approached it, the domes of
mosques and their attendant minarets stood out darkly against a sullen
sky, and the ancient cypress grove that breaks the outlines of the
buildings on Seraglio Point seemed like those who mourn over some great
catastrophe. Here, on this tongue of land--Seraglio Point--began the
history of this troubled city, this Castle of Cæsar, throne of the
Osmanli, which has seen more glory and more gloom, known more high
delights and abject terrors than perhaps even eternal Rome. While heavy
drops of rain fall from a leaden sky on to the steel decks of those grim
foreign men-of-war, or splash on the slow-swinging waters of the Golden
Horn, it is difficult to conjure up the scenes of former glories
witnessed here by the sun on his daily passage from the east.
The Oracle in Poseidon's sacred grove had whispered to Byzas the
seafarer: "Go forth to the Country of the Blind and build you a city
opposite their own--you shall prosper." Silently the ship that carried
Byzas and his fortunes stood out to sea as Aurora touched the high peaks
of the Peloponese with rosy finger-tips, and called forth colours,
carmine and gold, from the unruffled surface of the pearly Ægean Sea.
Bearing ever to the north, Byzas and his fellows asked of those they
met, "Is this the City of the Blind," and receiving no answer, held on
their way. He may have been tempted to land on one or other of the
Prince's islands, floating on the bosom of the blue Sea of Marmora, but
the spirit within urged him further into the unknown.
Perhaps it was twilight when he saw a large city looming on the eastern
shore of the narrowing waterway, the city he called Chalcedon, for
opposite to it he found that entrance to the spacious harbour which is
known the world over as the "Golden Horn." Here Byzas, fulfilling the
Oracle's prediction, laid the foundations of ancient Byzantium, and the
City grew and prospered. Behind the walls a busy populace increased the
wealth and importance of the place, and others came here from afar in
search of riches. So ancient Byzantium became the mart for those who
traded from the west along the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, through
the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus away to Trebizond, on the Black Sea,
where the old Greek tongue yet lingers in its purest form; the Crimea
opening out cold, inhospitable Russia, even distant Persia exchanged its
wares for the products of the city which Byzas had founded.
Byzant also assumed great strategical importance, as many of those who
came in search of wealth came armed and minded to acquire what they
wanted by the sword. Chroseos, King of the Persians, emerges from the
mists of history, and appears for a brief space of time before the
walls, with hordes of warriors, trained to ride, to shoot, to speak the
truth; Spartans and Athenians tried the strength of this bulwark of
Europe, and Alcibiades besieged it. In 370 B.C. the Athenians, urged on
by Demosthenes, helped to defend the city against Philip of Macedonia,
and forced him to abandon his intent. It is said that during this siege
the Macedonians, under cover of a dark night, were on the point of
carrying the town by assault, when a light appeared in the heavens to
reveal their danger to the inhabitants. Rome gained possession of the
city before the Christian era, and Constantine the Great, the man of
genius, made this his capital in A.D. 330, giving to the city its
present name, or rather one of its names, for the Turks call it
Stamboul, or Istamboul, probably derived from the Greek [Greek: eis tên
polin], and to the Slavs it is known as Tsarigrad, the Castle of Cæsar.
Here in the heart of the Eastern Empire history, strong, full-blooded,
speaks to us from ancient monuments and battered walls. Churches arose
to mark the religious life of a strongly imaginative people, ruins of
palaces still tell of a line of rulers, emperors, sultans who lived
their day, worked for good or evil, and passed into the mist of things
but half-remembered. Alien races found their way hither in search of
booty, and dashed out their souls against the City's strong defences.
Severus, Maximus, and Constantinus tried its strength; another Persian
king, Chroseos II, battled before these walls in 616, and ten years
later the Avari came with the Persians on like enterprise. Towards the
end of the seventh century a fierce foe, the Arabs, came up from the
south, and tried in vain to force an entrance into the Castle of
Constantine. They came again, and besieged the city for two years, from
716-18, but were refused a second time.
[Illustration: ANATOLI KAVAK
Where modern forts and ancient strongholds stand side by side.]
About a century and a half later Russians came down from the Black Sea,
the prows of their long boats, under a cloud of sail, ploughing up the
wintry waters of the Bosphorus. They also failed, but repeated the
attempt twice in the tenth century, and yet once more towards the middle
of the eleventh, only to return northward, baffled and broken.
The city fell for the first time before a host of Western Christians
during the Latin Crusades under the leadership of Dandolo, Doge of
Venice, in 1203-4. These Christians pillaged the Imperial City, and set
up a line of Counts of Flanders as Emperors of the East. After some
fifty years the Latins were driven forth, leaving Constantinople in a
state of indescribable misery and desolation; Greek Emperors returned,
but failed to restore the power of the Eastern Empire, which was sorely
tried by the insistent sons of Othman. The last Greek Emperors reigned
but two short centuries after the retreat of the Latins; then came
Mohammed the Conqueror, and Constantinople passed into the hands of the
Turk. It was during the Feast of Pentecost, on May 29th of 1453, that
Constantinople fell before the sword of Othman. At this present season
the Turks were keeping the Feast of Bairam, their Pentecost. Again, the
superstitious point out another coincidence; both 1453 and 1912 make up
the unlucky number thirteen.
Before Constantinople fell in 1453 the Eastern Empire had been shorn of
all its possessions by the invading Turk, and from Adrianople, his
European capital, he had organized the siege of the City. To-day all
that the Turk may call his own of the European territory acquired by the
sword is the point of land between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmora,
on the north and south respectively, the Bosphorus on the east, and to
westward the lines of Chatalja. Young nations long oppressed have risen
against the power of the Porte; Greece, the first country to free
itself, has marched to Saloniki, adding victory on victory;
Montenegrins, the first to enter on this war, have come down from their
mountains, and have taken possession of Turkish territory on the
Adriatic Sea; Servia poured her warlike sons over the passes into
Macedonia, and wrenched former possessions of Old Servia from the
fiercely resisting Turks; finally Bulgaria, that strong, ambitious
nation, holds Adrianople in a grip of steel, has hurled its young
strength against the stubborn Turkish defences, and is now on guard at
the lines of Chatalja, demanding admission by the voice of death-dealing
ordnance.
During the Turkish Feast of Pentecost the enemy was at the gates, and
the fate of Constantinople, the fate of the Turkish Empire in Europe,
trembled in the balance.
It is rather a leap from the days of Mohammed the Conqueror to an
evening at the Club de Pera, but Constantinople is a city of strong
contrasts. The streets leading from the water-side to the club showed no
signs of unusual military activity, there was no appearance of
excitement or despondency in the bearing of the inhabitants, and the
club, but for a larger gathering of members and the sight of a White
Crescent armlet, was much as I am accustomed to find it. Indeed, men
came to me, as the latest arrival, for news from the front and the
outside world, for they have to wait for the papers from home, generally
four or five days old. It seems strange, but is none the less true, that
we here on the spot heard hardly anything of events that are disquieting
the rest of Europe; we heard but distantly of Servia's stubbornness in
face of Austria's insistence concerning the Adriatic littoral, we caught
but a fleeting rumour of Russia's supposed designs and Roumania's
possible peril. All we knew was that brave men were dying by thousands
out by the lines of Chatalja, some fifty miles distant; the booming of
guns carried by the sobbing wind from out of the west brought us tidings
of warlike happenings.
CHAPTER III
The everyday aspect of Constantinople--Refugees in the
streets--Sick and wounded soldiers in the streets--The Red Crescent
over the Museum in the Seraglio--More about Byzas--Theodosius II
and Constantius the præfect--The geological situation of
Constantinople--The treasures of the Museum and the School of
Art--The Prince's Islands--Irene, Empress of the East, and
Charlemagne--The Atrium of Justinian--About Amurath I and the
Christian Princess--Mohammed the Conqueror and the Greek
Patriarch--Some tales of the Seraglio, of Bajazet and Zizimes, of
Selim I, of Suleiman the Great and Roxalana--The Seraglio as
hospital.
The sun was shining brightly as on the morning after my arrival I made
my way down from Pera through Galata, towards Stamboul. Everything
appeared much as usual; the bridge of Galata was as crowded as ever with
all sorts and conditions of men--hamals carrying huge loads, soldiers,
kavasses, dervishes, water-carriers, and vendors of cake and other less
useful articles. Horses seemed as plentiful as ever, driven by
loud-voiced coachmen, drawing obese, elderly Turks. The fish-market was
as busy as ever, and the open space behind the Mosque of Valideh showed
its customary groups of men of leisure.
[Illustration: Refugees
Nearly all the narrow streets were blocked by rows of waggons, drawn by
oxen, conveying fugitives from Thrace and Macedonia.]
It was on the way to the station, in the narrow streets of that
neighbourhood, that I saw sights unusual to the City. Nearly all these
narrow streets were blocked by rows of waggons, drawn by oxen, conveying
fugitives from Thrace and Macedonia, chiefly the former province. Men,
but few young ones amongst them, women and children, swarmed about these
carts, which contained all their portable property. From the dark
recesses of these carts, covered either with striped carpet or tilt of
basket-work, you might see a solemn-faced baby, brown of visage,
black-eyed, crawling over the indescribable medley of sacks and bags
stuffed with the family properties, while familiar utensils, strangely
out of place, were disposed about the outside supports of the roof.
Groups of children played about in the appalling filth of the narrow
streets and seemed quite happy and contented. Women unveiled, and young
girls went about performing household duties, and the men for the most
part sat on their haunches against the wall, wrapt in contemplation.
On the whole there seemed little misery among these particular people,
who had left their homes, fleeing before a victorious enemy. They waited
patiently, some of them for days, to be transported across to Asia
Minor, where, on the "native heath" of their race, they propose to start
life afresh. Being Turks, they are no doubt used to Turkish rule, and
prefer it to any other.
Sadder scenes I saw when walking up from the station past the lower gate
of the Sublime Porte, towards the old Seraglio. Here were hundreds of
soldiers, some sick, some slightly wounded, making their way to the
hospitals established in the buildings of the Seraglio enclosure. Most
of these men looked only weary, others thoroughly unconcerned, but on
some faces I noted traces of such despair as I have seldom seen before.
Weary and footsore, they trod the uneven pavement up to the gate of the
Seraglio, only to be turned back and ordered elsewhere. These men were
only the slightly wounded, in fact, no others, it appears, have come
into the town. Where are those who were dangerously wounded? It is said
that they are rotting, uncared-for, on the plains of Macedonia, on the
hill-sides and plains of Thrace.
The Red Crescent now flies over the Museum, Armoury, and other buildings
within the Seraglio enclosure, where so much of Constantinople's
stirring history took place. A wall with many square towers shuts off
the Seraglio from the rest of Stamboul, and here, within this limited
space, was laid the seed of Byzantine greatness. Formerly, stout walls
enclosed this point to seaward as well as landward, and Bondelmontius,
who travelled here, counted 188 strong towers. There are yet a few
traces left of those stout walls, their foundations in the Sea of
Marmora or the waters of the Golden Horn. No doubt Byzas built a wall,
as becomes the founder of a city, but it was so long ago, and so many
great men have built here since, that any expectations of finding traces
of the original walls are hardly reasonable. They say that some huge
blocks of stone date from the days of Pausanias, but even later work is
old compared to most similar historical remains found in Western Europe.
Theodosius II and his præfect Constantius have left records of their
activity here, and that was in the beginning of the fifth century; then
Emperor Theophilus repaired them in the ninth century.
Constantinople, like several other great cities, stands upon seven
hills; this is the fashion among really great cities, and the first of
these hills is that on which stand the Seraglio buildings. A broad road
leads up to these buildings, which contain many interesting things.
There is the Museum, containing many treasures, among them two of
wondrous beauty--two sarcophagi--one of which claims to have held the
remains of Alexander the Great, the other is said to have been the last
resting-place of one of Alexander's generals, and is known as "Les
Pleureuses," from the beautifully sculptured female figures in mourning
draperies which adorn it. One set of buildings is devoted to modern art,
a school for that purpose having been founded here, under the auspices
of Humdi Bey, who is responsible for much of artistic effort and
archæological research which characterized the Young Turk ambition to
compete with the West in Western graces and accomplishments. I visited
the School of Art two years ago, in order to see how far those ambitions
were likely to be realized, especially in painting, my own particular
pursuit. There were numbers of sketches and studies of undoubted
accuracy, evidence of appreciation and of careful observation, but to me
these works appeared no more than transcriptions of Nature; the Divine
Fire which creates was not. This leads me regretfully to suppose that
the Turk is not likely to progress along the line of creative art,
albeit their High Priest, the Sheikh-ul-Islam, has decreed that there is
no infringement of the laws of the Prophet in the endeavour of his
followers to express higher thoughts by means artistic.
It has been my good fortune to visit many of our earth's most beautiful
places; Imperial Rome has cast its spell upon me, Naples I saw and
happily did not die of joy at seeing it, I have entered Bombay Harbour
when the sun was rising behind the Poona Ghats, and have seen the Shwe
Dagon at Rangoon, gleaming over its dark green bowers by the rays of the
setting sun. Then, again, I have looked over the broad expanse of the
Tagus at Lisbon, when a fierce storm from the vast Atlantic flayed the
troubled waters, and vivid lightnings showed distant Palmella against an
angry sky; I have walked in the groves by the banks of Mondego, the
Lovers' River, at Coimbra, where whispering reeds tell the story of Inez
de Castro, and have sat by the banks of the Lima, which flows through
the "Happy Valley," whither the ancient gods fled before the Cross. Yet
have I seldom found a spot so fitted to attune the mind to an
appreciation of things beautiful as Constantinople and its Seraglio
enclosure. To the south-west, in the blue Sea of Marmora, the Prince's
Islands, or the Daimonnisoi, seem to float on the untroubled waters.
There are nine of these islands, and chief among them is Prinkipo, and
to each one attaches some interest, some memory of former times. There
is Halki, or Khalki, a group of three hills, and each had its convent
dedicated respectively to the Virgin, to St. George, and to Holy
Trinity. There is also a historic monument which more nearly concerns
Englishmen, the tomb of Edward Barton, sometime Ambassador of Queen
Elizabeth to the Sultan of the day.
But Prinkipo, as chiefest of the Prince's Islands, stands out above them
in romantic interest. Irene, the great Empress of the East, great among
renowned contemporaries of the ninth century, Charlemagne,
Haroun-al-Raschid, had built and endowed a convent on this island.
Charlemagne spent much of his time fighting infidels; his warpath led
him over the Pyrenees to assist the Gothic kingdoms against the Moor; on
one such occasion, when retreating into France, Roland the Paladin fell.
Again, Wittekind, Duke of the Saxons, was subject to the Frankish
Emperor's attention, and caused him a vast amount of trouble before he
became a Christian and settled down. Then Charlemagne took the field
against the Avari, who infested the banks of the Danube from above
Vienna down towards the Black Sea, and who probably proved troublesome
neighbours to the Eastern Empire. No doubt Irene was much impressed with
Charlemagne's prowess, and being a lone, lorn widow had the happy idea
of uniting the Empires of the East and the West by matrimony.
Charlemagne sent an ambassador to arrange the matter, but one
Nicephorus, Chancellor of the Empire, spoilt the plan by banishing Irene
to Prinkipo. The Empress was not allowed to rest here, but was conveyed
to Lemnos, where she died a year later. Her remains were buried in the
convent she had founded at Prinkipo. Nicephorus, as first Emperor of
that name, reigned for nine years, and suffered the indignity of paying
tribute to the Arabs. He fell in the war against the Bulgarians, who
now, as I write, are threatening Constantinople at the lines of
Chatalja.
Where now are tumbling ruins through which the railroad makes its way,
down by the Sea of Marmora where it washes Seraglio Point, there was in
ancient days a broad esplanade called the Atrium of Justinian the Great,
for it was his creation. It was a fair place too, built of white marble,
and here the citizens of Constantinople would meet to breathe the soft
air and discuss the happenings of the times, probably as full of rumours
as they are to-day. Here they walked, and talked of all things under the
sun--religion, politics, and the latest news from the "front." Before
them lay the Sea of Marmora joining on to the Bosphorus, and
swift-sailing vessels would hurry in with news from some distant
province of the Empire. To-day the warships of the European Powers watch
over the interests of their nationals in the death-struggle of an
ancient Empire, many of them infants, some unthought of when
Constantinople was guarding Europe from Asiatic agression, thus enabling
those nations whose warships lie here to develop. Yet among the cypress
groves of Seraglio Point, with the waves of the glittering Sea of
Marmora lazily lapping against the tottering sea-walls, it was
impossible not to let the mind wander among the misty labyrinths of
ancient history, though Bulgarian guns were making history some fifty
miles away. Historic pageants pass before the mind's eye: an emperor
moving amid pomp and splendour to meet his bride-elect at the sea-gate
of Eugenius, down by the Golden Horn. Here Cæsar with elaborate
ceremony would invest the lady with the Imperial buskins, and other
insignia of her exalted rank. They pass like a dream, and dark clouds
settle down on Constantinople, obscuring the brightness of the sun of
Cæsar; rumours of defeat whisper among the marble columns of the Atrium,
oversounding the officially heralded tidings of victory. So it is
to-day, so it was when the old enemy of the Greeks, the Turk, demanded
alliance between the house of Othman and the Eastern Empire through the
marriage of an Imperial Princess with Amurath I. And that did not
appease the enemy, for he came again, and finally made the Imperial City
his own, and hence governed Christian peoples. Mohammed the Conqueror
centred the life of his nation in the City of Constantine, and chose
this promontory for his own residence. He separated a space of eight
furlongs by a wall across the promontory, and in this triangle he built
his seraglio. Strange scenes were witnessed here; one of the strangest
happened shortly after the conquest of the City. The remnant of Greeks
gathered together again and returned to the City in crowds, on being
assured of their lives, their liberties, and the free exercise of their
religion. To solemnize this pact the Sultan held an investiture on old
Byzantine lines, with all accustomed pomp and ceremony, and thus
re-instated the Patriarch of Greek Orthodoxy. With his own hands the
Conqueror placed in the hands of Gennodius the crozier or pastoral
staff, the symbol of his priestly office. His Holiness was then
conducted to the gate of the Seraglio, presented with a richly
caparisoned horse, and led by viziers and pashas to the palace appointed
as his residence.
This happened within the Seraglio walls! The successor to the throne of
many Cæsars, the Conqueror whose hands were red with the blood of
massacred Christians, the victorious leader of that fanatic race whose
life is more influenced by their creed than perhaps that of any other
people, raised the Patriarch, the chosen head of a conquered Christian
community, to high office in the state. Thus the Greek Orthodox variant
of the Christian Faith lived on in the City of Constantine the Convert,
though the Cross had fallen from the church he had built, St. Sophia,
and minarets arose around it from which the muezzin calls pious Moslems
to prayer.
Mohammed died suddenly in the midst of his soldiers, leaving two sons to
contest his vacant throne. The younger, Zizimes, suggested a partition
of the Empire, by which he would rule over Anatolia, the Hellespont
separating his dominion from that of his brother Bajazet in Europe. But
Bajazet would none of it. "The Empire is a bride whose favours cannot be
shared," said Bajazet, and Zizimes thought it safer to seek refuge at
the Courts of other rulers, mostly Christians, who, however, appeared
little disposed to advocate his claims. For the sum of three hundred
thousand ducats paid by Bajazet, a servant of Pope Alexander Borgia
administered poison to Zizimes; thus was a problem solved in truly
Oriental manner.
Murder was one of the leading factors in the Imperial policy pursued by
the sons of Othman, and has always been resorted to as the best solution
of a difficult problem, from earliest days until quite recently. Selim
I, son of Bajazet, who abdicated in consequence of his son's constant
intrigues against him, had to face a problem, and settled it in the
usual manner. Schism has arisen among the followers of the Prophet, and
the Shiites repudiated the claim to the Caliphate of Mohammed's
immediate successors, Abu-Dekr, Omar, and Othman. For reasons as much
political as religious, Selim proclaimed himself champion of Orthodoxy,
and celebrated the event by the St. Bartholomew's night of Ottoman
history. There were in all some seventy thousand of his subjects who
held to the Shiite doctrine in Europe and Asia, forty thousand of these
were massacred and the remainder sentenced to perpetual imprisonment.
Thus Selim I became Caliph of Islam.
The old Seraglio walls and the solemn cypresses seem to tell yet another
romantic story attaching to this place. It dates from the days when
history was full of the names of great men. Charles V, that sombre
Habsburger, ruled an Empire on which the sun never set (according to the
opinion of those days), Francis I was the chivalrous King of France, his
rival Henry VIII of England, and the influence of Pope Leo X was mighty
in the Councils of nations. In those brave days Suleiman I was Sultan,
and reigned in great splendour from the seat of Constantine. Suleiman
loved a woman, a lovely Russian girl, Khourrem (the "Joyous One"),
better known by the name the Christians gave her, Roxalana. Khourrem was
a slave, but she obtained her freedom from her imperial lover and
induced him to marry her. Thereupon her mind was set on furthering the
fortunes of her own children, and Mustapha, the son of Suleiman's former
favourite Sultana, a Circassian, stood in the way of her ambition.
Mustapha was Governor of Carmania, and Roxalana managed skilfully to
insinuate that he was plotting to usurp the throne. Mustapha was
recalled, and ordered to enter the Sultan's presence alone; Suleiman,
looking on from an inner chamber, saw seven mute executioners carry out
his command to strangle his son with a bowstring.
Roxalana was buried in all due state near the place where rests her
sovereign lord, under the shadow of the mosque he built to his own
memory. You will notice a difference in the two mausoleums. To enter
that of Suleiman you must take the shoes from off your feet, for this is
holy ground; a warrior, almost a saint, lies here. No such reverence is
expected by the grave of Roxalana, the "Joyous One"; she was a woman,
and therefore had no soul; that makes all the difference.
But Roxalana's son, Selim II, broke the laws of the Prophet, and died
drunk.
The Red Crescent floats over the buildings within the Seraglio enclosure
to-day. Thousands of sick and wounded stagger in at the gates, and pass
by the Armoury, once the Church of St. Irene, in search of the comforts
which Christian nations have in all haste collected to meet the awful
consequences of this disastrous war. They gathered in thousands outside
the old buildings, leaning up against the walls and the railings of St.
Irene, behind which, half-hidden by shrubs, are tombs of long-forgotten
Byzantine magnates. There is some doubt in my mind as to who built St.
Irene: some attribute it to Leo the Isaurian, who reigned from 718-740;
others, and I prefer their version, maintain that Constantine the Great
built it at the same time that St. Sophia arose, during the Council of
Nicæa, in 325, thus giving his subjects two excellent virtues to
emulate--Faith and Wisdom--without committing himself to any narrowing
dogma. As this version is the more picturesque, historians will probably
declare it wrong, and insist on the authorship of Leo the Isaurian.
In the meantime the buildings of the Seraglio enclosure are full of
suffering mortality. Thousands have come in from the stricken field, and
all the hospitals are crowded. I have visited some of these sick men and
wounded, men whom I have seen wandering dejectedly in little groups, or
larger bodies, through the ill-paved streets, some falling by the way,
and avoided by all, for cholera, the scourge of Asia, was raging in the
ranks of the Turkish Army. They are patient, quiet men, these suffering
Turkish soldiers, some still wondering why they were torn from their
Anatolian homes and sent to fight with unaccustomed arms men whom they
did not know of, for a cause they did not understand, and under
conditions such as invite disaster. Untrained they went to war, unfed
they fought as long as men could hold out, longer probably than would
any European troops, starving, sick, in rags, forsaken by their
officers, they staggered back into the City, where those responsible for
their sufferings still live in lies. Poor souls, with their tired looks,
their patient eyes--it was Bairam, their Feast of Pentecost, and many of
them were grieving that they could not pass on to their homes and bring
little presents to those they hold dear, away there in the scattered
villages of Anatolia.
And these that had come in were only the slightly wounded, only those
who were still able to move. What of those who have been stricken down
by cholera on the road? What of those mangled and maimed by shrapnel and
splinters of shell, mortally wounded by bullet and bayonet?
With no adequate preparations for the sick and wounded here at the base
of operations, is it likely that the field hospitals were adequately
supplied? Foreigners, Christians, are doing the work now which should
have been done before by the Army authorities. It seems as if they,
childlike, were only too pleased to shift that burden of responsibility
on to other shoulders while they yet prated of victory.
Victory? With Thrace conquered by Bulgaria, Macedonia occupied by Serbs,
the Montenegrins before Scutari, and Greeks holding Saloniki and
Monastir!
Victory? With the remnant of the Ottoman Army hard-pressed behind the
lines of Chatalja, and thousands dying by the road!
As in those May days of 1453, at the Feast of Pentecost, Constantinople
awoke from sloth and inefficiency to find an enemy hammering at the
gates, so that day, at Bairam, the Turkish Feast of Pentecost, the enemy
was hammering at the outer gate, the lines of Chatalja, and this would
not have happened but for sloth and inefficiency. In the meantime the
hospitals were crowded, here in Constantinople thousands were dying on
the road, or lying dead on the fields of Thrace and Macedonia, and the
enemy's guns were pounding on the last defences of a "Passing Empire."
CHAPTER IV
The Mosque of St. Sophia and its beauties, and some legends that
attach to it--The present state of its courts--The Sea of Marmora
and an historical pageant: Genoese, Venetians, Khairreddin
Barbarossa and his victories--The story of stout Sir Thomas
Bentinck--The Palace of Justinian and its story: Theophane and her
husbands--The Mosque of Achmet--At-meïdan, the former Hippodrome,
and its story--Justin, Justinian and Theodora, and the Blues and
Greens--Justinian II and his doings--Some reflections on modern
history.
[Illustration: By the Seraglio Walls
Showing the gate by which the Sultans used to enter St. Sophia, and the
dome of St. Irene.]
Just without the walls of the Seraglio stands a building which above all
others is connected with Constantinople in the popular mind, the former
Church, now Mosque, of St. Sophia. This is one of those particular
monuments of history which every one of any pretension to culture wishes
to see. A mighty, imposing building, measuring 255 feet from north to
south by 250 from east to west. This was the cathedral church of old
Byzantium built in the twentieth year of the reign of Constantine the
Great, A.D. 325, and dedicated to Divine Wisdom. Constantine's son
Constantius enlarged the building, which was destroyed by fire in the
reign of Arcadius, 395-408, in whose time the Goths came down over the
hills by Adrianople and devastated the land as far as the Peloponese. It
is said that the faction of St. John Chrysostom set fire to this
building during one of those religious disturbances which, more than
elsewhere in the world, unsettled the minds of men and caused them to
overlook the greater truths. Theodosius II, he who built the stout walls
that guarded the City of Constantine on the landward side for many
centuries, re-erected the cathedral in 415, but little more than a
century later, in the reign of Justinian, it fell a victim to the flames
again. Twice did this happen in the reign of Justinian, the second time
during a revolt of different factions in the Hippodrome, but St. Sophia
was rebuilt again in greater splendour and on a larger scale in A.D.
538.
This Church of St. Sophia became the scene of many solemn state
functions and religious ceremonies, the fumes of incense curled round
its many pillars of porphyry from Phrygia--white marble striped
rose-red, as with the blood of Atys slain at Synada; of green marble
from Laconia, and blue from Lybia. Celtic marble quarries sent their
tribute, black with white veins, and from the Bosphorus came white
black-veined marble. Among the most beautiful of all these pillars were
those eight which Aurelius had taken from the Temple of the Sun at
Baalbec. Then there were monuments of gold, cunningly wrought, enriched
with the most precious stones, and about all these glories floated hymns
of praise or supplication to the God about Whose Triune Person the
citizens wrangled and fought in the Hippodrome and in the narrow
streets.
Legend has it that this work of man's hand was made yet more glorious by
angelic influences. An angel appeared to order the work of the ten
thousand men engaged in the reconstruction under Justinian; he appeared
again, robed in brilliant white, to a boy guarding the masons' tools by
night and ordered an immediate continuance of the pious work, and yet a
third time to lead the mules of the Treasury into the vaults to be laden
with eighty hundredweight of gold wherewith to decorate the sacred fane.
One more angel appeared, this time to the Emperor himself, clad in
Imperial purple, wearing red shoes, to ordain that the light should fall
through three windows upon the High Altar, this in memory of Holy
Trinity. On Christmas Day of 548 Emperor Justinian and Eutychius the
Patriarch moved to the newly reconstructed sanctuary with all the pomp
and ceremony of the Church. No sooner were the doors opened than the
Emperor ran in with outstretched arms crying, "God be praised, Who hath
esteemed me worthy to complete such a work. Solomon, I have surpassed
thee!"
Not quite ten centuries later, in May of 1453 at Pentecost, the
Patriarch was celebrating High Mass within the walls of St. Sophia, the
fumes of incense floated heavenward with the supplications of the
people, while the Turk was battering down the stout defences of the city
and the Emperor and his followers were falling under the sword of Othman
about the ruined ramparts. The Mass was interrupted and has never since
been resumed, for from that day to this the Crescent has gleamed on the
dome, the High Altar has faced towards Mecca, and from the attendant
minarets the imam has called the followers of the Prophet to prayer. To
the ancient Christian legends of angels the Turks have added traditions
of their own. Near the Mihrab is a window facing north; here Sheik ak
Shemseddin, the companion of Mohammed the Conqueror, first expounded the
Koran.
[Illustration: ROUMELI HISSAR
The first fortress built by the Turks on European soil. Built by
Mohammed the Conqueror, the ground plan being that monarch's cypher.]
In this Feast of Bairam, the Turkish Pentecost, the courts of St. Sophia
were crowded with Turkish soldiery, some wounded, others stricken with
cholera, and in and out of the upper gate of the Seraglio, through which
the Sultan was wont to issue for worship in the Mosque of Sophia,
convoys of sick were wending their weary way, soldiers and stores were
passing, for the enemy was before the gates--not the old enceinte of the
City, but the lines of Chatalja stretching from the Sea of Marmora to
the Black Sea--and he was demanding admission in order to complete
the High Mass interrupted on that day in May four and a half
centuries ago.
After sketching a corner of the enclosure of St. Sophia and a bit of the
Seraglio wall, over which the graceful cupola of St. Irene appears, a
policeman stopped me for the first time in my experience of this city,
but he was satisfied with a sight of my passport, which probably
conveyed no definite idea to his mind. I went down towards the Sea of
Marmora to renew my acquaintance with several historic places and to
muse over the strange vicissitudes of this City of Constantine. It was a
fine, clear day, unusually warm for November, and the Sea of Marmora
shone in myriads of sparkling facets under the midday sun. Strange
stories of ancient days came crowding in upon me. I seemed to see the
face of the waters veiled by a cloud of swift-sailing vessels. This
strange pageant came up out of the south, Genoese, experienced
travellers and redoubtable warriors, then Venetians, the only seafarers
who ever tried the strength of old Byzantium's sea-walls. In double line
they came bearing down upon the walls under Dandolo, the venerable Doge.
Sailors leapt from the swifter craft and scaled the walls, while from
the heavier ships with turrets and high of poop, and from platforms for
the engines of war then in use, drawbridges were lowered to the summit
of the walls. Already the standard of St. Mark waved from twenty-five
towers and fire drove the Greeks from the adjacent defences. But Dandolo
decided to forgo the advantage he had gained and to hasten to assist the
exhausted band of Latins who were suffering under the superior numbers
of the Greeks before the land-walls. The aspect of affairs was so
serious that Alexius, the Emperor, fled with a treasure of some ten
thousand pounds to an obscure Thracian harbour, basely deserting his
wife and people. Next came Khairreddin, called Barbarossa, High Admiral
of Suleiman I. Khairreddin was one of four brothers whose trade was
piracy, then a most gentlemanly profession. He and his brother Urudsh
first sailed under the flag of the Tunisian Sultan, but paid tribute to
Suleiman. They conquered Tunis, Algiers, and all the Barbary coast, and
held these provinces in fief. How many of those overseas possessions now
owe allegiance to the Porte? Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman
Empire, "Deutscher Nation," sent Genoa's greatest admiral, Doria, with a
mighty fleet against Khairreddin, but they were dispersed by the
eighty-four fast ships of Barbarossa, who scoured the Mediterranean Sea,
ravaged the coasts of Italy, Minorca, even distant Spain, beating the
combined naval forces of Emperor, Pope, and Venetian Republic, off
Prevesa. Khairreddin Barbarossa lies buried on the banks of the
Bosphorus. Not long after Barbarossa's day a new sea-power began to make
its influence felt; it stretched out feelers towards Constantinople, and
when Amurath II was Sultan the Red Cross of St. George was seen for the
first time from the sea-walls of Constantinople. English ships came
sailing up from the south bearing messages to the Porte from Elizabeth,
Queen of England.
When Ibrahim ruled over Turkey from 1640-1648 all manner of excesses
went unpunished owing to the maladministration of a bad Sultan. Some
English ships lying in harbour were plundered. In those days it was the
custom for any one who had received an injury from minister or official
to place fire on his head and hurry to the palace. Redress for the
injury to British ships having been refused by the Porte, Sir Thomas
Bentinck brought the ships up from Galata, anchored them below the
palace windows, and lighted fires on every yard-arm. This manoeuvre
sent the Grand Vizier hurrying to the Ambassador with offers of
settlement in full.
There was one place I revisited down by the Sea of Marmora which tells
of evil deeds done one dark night in the days of old Byzant. It is the
Palace of Justinian, by some called after Hormisdas or Hormouz, a
Persian prince who sought refuge here with Constantine the Great.
A woman of low origin, Theophane, had married Romanus II, the Emperor, a
man whose short reign added no lustre to the pages of the Empire's
history, for he spent his time in idleness. Theophane tired of her
spouse and killed him by poison, and was minded to reign in the name of
her two sons Basil and Constantine, one five, the other three years old.
But the weight of responsibility was too great for her to bear, and she
looked about for a strong man to support her. She found one in
Nicephorus Phocas, then accounted the bravest soldier in the land; he
was therefore popular with the people. But soon after Theophane had
disposed of her first husband, and her second, Nicephorus, had ascended
the throne, the fickle population turned from him and gave evidence of
their discontent by stoning him. Nicephorus was forced to seek refuge in
this Palace of Justinian, which he had strengthened considerably for his
own defence against the people of the City. But Fate overtook him,
coming from the Sea of Marmora. One winter's night in 963, when the
gates of the palace were locked and bolted, the windows barred, and as
additional precaution the Emperor had moved from the room he generally
occupied into a smaller chamber, a boat was made fast at the foot of the
palace steps. Headed by John Zimisces, Theophane's lover, a band of
assassins entered the palace, they were joined by others hiding in the
Empress's chamber; with much cruelty and insult they put Nicephorus
Phocas to death.
To-day as the visitor to Constantinople looks out to the Sea of Marmora
over the seaward walls he may see the smoke of foreign warships curling
upward--by the Asiatic coast a French warship, the sunlight glinting on
her many round turrets, some way towards south-west the long hull of a
British cruiser against the sky, and further towards the west yet
another foreign vessel, Austrian, moving slowly, watching events by the
lake at the southern ends of the lines of Chatalja; for history is in
the making here, the enemy is before the gates, Turks and Bulgarians,
with them Serbs, are fighting for a settlement of long outstanding
accounts.
[Illustration: A Deserted Street
Weary soldiers, sick and slightly wounded, trudged past up to the mosque
erected by Suleiman to commemorate his many victories.]
Leaving the ruined Palace of Justinian I made my way up towards the hill
on which stands the Mosque of Achmed, which rises so proudly with its
six minarets above the little houses that cluster on the slope. I passed
through more ruins on my way, not remains of ancient Byzant, but the
results of one of the numerous fires to which Stamboul is well
accustomed, and which it is so ill fitted to control. It was a peaceful
spot, and quite deserted but for a very small boy who entertained me
with an imitation of a railway engine engaged in shunting, a manoeuvre
of which whistling was the chief feature. We were not alone for long ere
another body of weary soldiers, sick and slightly wounded, trudged past
us up to the mosque erected by Suleiman to commemorate his many
victories. He it was who carried the Crescent triumphant through Hungary
to the gates of Vienna, leaving behind him Serbs and Bulgars in slavery.
Those very nations have been trying the power of the Porte beyond the
walls and are longing to enter; it is they who have reduced those
Turkish soldiers to their present state of misery. The possessions on
the southern littoral of the Mediterranean Sea, which Khairreddin
Barbarossa added to Suleiman's dominions, have been wrenched from the
feeble grasp of his successor, and the courtyard of the great Sultan's
mosque is crowded with refugees from Thrace and Macedonia, provinces won
by the sword, lost by the sword, and the soldiers sent to defend them
are now resting, sick and wounded, in the shadow of the Suleimanyeh.
Through the gratings of the enclosing wall of the Suleimanyeh refugees
and soldiers look out at the passersby on to a large space, the theatre
of many scenes in the history of ancient Byzant. Little they know,
little they care, for such matters, for their troubles are very present.
The refugees have had to leave their homesteads in Thrace and Macedonia,
taking with them their most treasured belongings, leaving the fruits of
harvest to the invaders. It is said that fear of their own soldiery
rather than of the enemy compelled them to flee. Fathers, husbands, and
sons of these refugees are among the sick and wounded. One case I know
of where a wounded soldier just discharged from hospital set out to find
his family, which he heard had migrated to Asia Minor. Whither they have
gone he knows not at all, but he has set out on his search, and in his
pocket only a dollar, but his heart full of trust in Allah.
Suleiman built his mosque and its enclosure on part of the former
Hippodrome, and its erection covered a space of five years, from
1550-1555. St. Sophia was taken as model, and relics of the Greek Empire
went to its construction. It looks down on an open space, all that
remains of the ancient Hippodrome, At-meïdan, as it is now called.
Several ancient monuments stand here dating from the time of the Greek
Emperors--the obelisk of Egyptian granite, a four-cornered shaft some
fifty feet high, brought from Heliopolis and set up by the Emperor
Theodosius; the remains more curious still of the column of the Three
Serpents, of bronze and about fifteen feet in height. The serpents seem
to grow out of the ground, but the illusion is rather spoilt by the fact
that they have lost their heads; one of them at least is said to have
been struck off by Mohammed the Conqueror. This column has had an
eventful history; it is said to have been taken by the Greeks from the
Persians at the battle of Platæa, 479 B.C., and kept at Delphi,
dedicated to the Oracle, until the time of Pausanias. Constantine the
Great then had it removed to his City, and set it up where it now
stands.
Among the memories that haunt At-meïdan, the Hippodrome of old Byzant,
are strongest those of the days of Justinian and Theodora his wife.
Justinian, nephew of Justin, a simple Dacian who rose step by step to
the Imperial Purple, he and his contemporary Theodoric, King of Italy,
were illiterate, a strange thing in those days when learning was no
uncommon thing among all classes. Justin sent to Dacia for his nephew to
train him for high Imperial office, and trained him well during the nine
years of his reign. So on the death of Justin, Justinian inherited the
throne, and with his many advantages should have proved successful. He
was comely of face and of great bodily strength, full of the best
intentions and restless in pursuit of knowledge; the wars he undertook
he brought to a happy issue, and the laws he framed should have won the
gratitude of his people. Yet they loved not Justinian, and by some this
is ascribed to Theodora his wife: Theodora, the actress, the dancer,
Justinian's Empress!
Two factions, Blue and Green, influenced the fortunes of Constantinople
in those days. The Green faction employed one Acacius as keeper of the
wild beasts for their games; he was Theodora's father. On his death the
mother brought Theodora and her sisters to the theatre, where they
appeared in the garb of supplicants. The Green faction received them
with contempt, by the Blue faction they were kindly entreated, so
Theodora favoured that colour ever after. The details of Theodora's life
as actress, dancer, need not concern us; a son was born to her during
this period of her existence. Many years later the father of the child,
when dying, told him: "Your mother is an Empress." The son of Theodora
hastened to Constantinople, hurried to the palace to present himself,
and was never seen again. For a while Theodora lived in seclusion in
Alexandria, then she had a vision which told her that she was destined
to wear the Imperial Purple; she returned to Constantinople, won
Justinian's love, and verified the vision's prophecy.
Another Justinian, second of that name, played his short part in the
history of Byzant, in scenes enacted in the Hippodrome. In all things
different from his great predecessor, for he was feeble of intellect and
unable to control his passions, neither was he faithful to his wife,
another Theodora, whose love saved his life when her brother, the Khan
of the Chazars, bribed by Byzantine gold, sought to take it. This
Justinian ruled with great cruelty, through the hands of his favourite
ministers, and succeeded by their aid in braving the growing hatred of
his subjects. A sudden impulse, rather than any sense of the justice he
habitually outraged, led him to liberate one Leontius, a general of
great renown, who had suffered unjust imprisonment for several years.
Leontius, raised to honour and appointed Governor of Greece, headed a
conspiracy which resulted in the populace breaking open the prisons and
releasing many innocent sufferers from the Emperor's injustice. Then in
their thousands an excited populace swarmed to the Church of St. Sophia,
where the Patriarch, taking as text for his sermon, "This is the day of
the Lord," still further inflamed the passions of the mob. They crowded
into the Hippodrome, dragged Justinian before the insurgent judges, who
clamoured for his immediate death. But Leontius, already clothed in the
Purple, was merciful to the son of his former master and friend; so
Justinian, the scion of so many Emperors, was deposed and, slightly
mutilated about the face, banished to the Crimea.
Here Justinian waited for revenge while Constantinople's fickle
population revolted from Leontius and placed Apsimar, as Emperor
Tiberius, on the throne. But he failed to satisfy the mob, and so when
Justinian appeared before the City walls and besieged his own capital
with a Bulgarian army the citizens opened the gates and re-instated him.
So the Hippodrome witnessed Justinian's return to power. He sat on his
throne watching the chariot race, one foot on the neck of each captive
usurper Leontius and Apsimar in chains, while the fickle people shouted
in the words of the Psalmist: "Thou shalt trample on the asp and
basilisk, and on the lion and the dragon shalt thou set thy foot." On
the conclusion of the games Leontius and Apsimar were led away to
execution.
[Illustration: The Mosque of St. Sophia
Refugees from Thrace, seeking shelter in the courtyard of the Mosque of
Achmet. In the background the Mosque of St. Sophia.]
These are some of the strange scenes which the Hippodrome has witnessed
ere the Turk crowned his conquests by the taking of Constantinople. Here
overlooking one end of At-meïdan, where the Janissaries used to exercise
their horses, is the building which contains many relics of that famous
corps; the Janissaries are no more, for, like the Prætorian guard, they
became a danger to their sovereign. Here on At-meïdan the Ottoman
Exhibition was held in 1863. How many changes have taken place in Europe
since those days when Abdul Aziz was Sultan! The uncalled-for Crimean
War was scarcely at an end and Turkey's European possessions showed a
tendency towards disruption, but things went very well for all that, and
no one among the general public noticed the rise of a great Power in
the north. The year following saw Prussia master of Schleswig-Holstein,
two years from then Austria had been beaten and the southern German
States forced into union by the same Power. Then by the time another
four or five years had passed, the French Empire fell, and the German
Empire became an accomplished fact. Roumania, Servia, Bulgaria have
become kingdoms independent of the Sublime Porte; Bosnia and Herzegovina
are no longer Turkish provinces, neither does Tripolitana form part of
the Ottoman Empire any longer. Over Macedonia and Thrace the Slav
enemies of Turkey, formerly that country's vassals, fly their victorious
colours. Montenegro has occupied part of the Adriatic coast, the
Hellenes have seized Saloniki, and foreign warships have landed their
contingents in Constantinople. Beyond the walls of the City which
Mohammed conquered Bulgarians and Slavs are clamouring for admittance;
within the walls the beaten Osmanli troops fill the hospitals, crowd the
enclosures of mosques erected by conquering Sultans, and die daily by
hundreds from neglected wounds, from sickness, above all from that dread
Asiatic scourge, cholera.
CHAPTER V
The modern crusade, and that of Johann Capistran--Christians in the
ranks of the Ottoman Army--The religious life of
Constantinople--Theodosius I and his creed--St. John Chrysostom and
the Empress Eudoxia--The piety of Theodosius II--The Armenian
Church--The Greek Patriarchate and the Phanar--The Teutons and
Rome--Papal interference in Constantinople--The advance of the
Balkan nations: Bulgars, Serbs, Montenegrins, and Greeks.
At the outbreak of hostilities in the Balkan Peninsula we had it from
the lips of a king that this is a crusade, a holy war, a war against the
Pagan intruder into Europe, which must end in his subjection and
eviction from our Christian continent.
Such sentiments from a monarch who, brought up in one Christian dogma,
has chosen another variant of our Faith for his children, can have no
other effect than to raise the present war to a much higher level than
the wars of former days, which were waged unblushingly to gain some
national advantage, to acquire territory, or even merely to flatter
national vanity. No, this is a very different war, and informed of the
same spirit, so we are told, which moved the Crusaders in their
thousands down the Danube to the Holy Land. Those pious warriors passed
through Constantinople, honoured the place with a lengthy stay, and, I
regret to say, were not sufficiently appreciated by the Eastern Emperors
and their people. The same spirit, called forth by Johann Capistran, led
noble Hungarians, the chivalry of Servia, and hosts of Bulgarians to
meet the Crescent on the Amselfeld at Kossovo, and Eastern Europe went
under in a sea of blood. Now this latest crusade is drawing to a close,
and the rejuvenated nations of the Balkans have in their turn humbled
the Crescent and brought the Cross back to before the walls of
Constantinople. What matter that there are numbers of Christians in the
ranks of the Ottoman Army? The war is a crusade--we have it on the best
authority.
Those Christians in the ranks of the Ottoman Army have also suffered for
their faith, for invidious Moslems have been inclined to attribute the
disaster which overtook the Sultan's Army to the fact that he had been
induced to make soldiers of them, whereas, as every true follower of the
Prophet knows, Islam is the only creed for a warrior. Again and again
those Christian soldiers of the Sultan have been accused of cowardice,
of deserting to the enemy in great numbers; no ingenious calumny has
been spared to prove that they gave the reason for the debacle, and that
but for their presence the Crescent would be gleaming over Sofia again,
and again facing Austria-Hungary across Danube and Save. As a matter of
fact, reliable informants have told me, the Christian soldiers of the
Sultan did uncommonly well, and were even from time to time deserted by
their Moslem comrades. If religious matters had to do with the defeats
sustained by the Turkish Army, it is more probably the case that pious
Moslems felt the authority of the Sultan, the head of their faith,
undermined by recent changes, by the admission of non-believers into
offices of state, and this led to a despondency which from time to time
broke out in panic. One night, it was told me, a Turkish soldier awoke
from a nightmare and fled, crying, "The Bulgars are on us!" though there
were none in the immediate neighbourhood. The men of his section took
alarm and followed him; the company followed--the battalion--brigade,
till the whole division was running away in nameless terror before a
purely imaginary enemy.
Religion has ever played a leading part in the history of
Constantinople, may even be said to have been responsible for its
existence, for Byzas, in carrying out the Oracle's dark instructions,
merely followed his religious instincts. Of Constantine the Great it is
not necessary to say much; the beautiful story of his conversion to
Christianity is one of the earliest of such apocryphal addenda to the
story of the Church of Christ as taught us in our infancy.
[Illustration: The Aqueduct of Valens
Valens the Emperor was killed in battle by the Goths at Adrianople. His
aqueduct stands out strangely among wooden houses, connecting the seven
hills on which stands Stamboul.]
Constantine was the first Augustus to be baptized, and he was followed
by Valens, who, as far as is known, worshipped the fast-fading deities
of ancient Rome. We shall meet Valens again at Adrianople--there are few
traces left of him here in Constantinople, only the aqueduct he built.
It stands out strangely among wooden houses, connecting the seven hills
on which stands Stamboul. Valens was followed by another great Emperor,
Theodosius I. Theodosius, though born of Christian parents, did not
embrace Christianity until towards the end of the first year of his
reign, when a severe illness carried conviction to the Imperial mind.
Before he took the field against the Goths, Acholius, Bishop of
Thessalonica, baptized him, and so Theodosius became a Christian--a
stout, full-blooded one at that. Once convinced of the beauty of the
faith, and sure of the unfailing aid the Church afforded, Theodosius
acted as a soldier and a convert would. He had found the sure haven of
his soul, and all his people must also be led into the right way. There
was no room for "saucy doubts and fears" in the breast of Emperor
Theodosius. On ascending from the font he issued an edict to his people
which is worth giving word for word: "It is our pleasure that all the
nations which are governed by our clemency and moderation should
steadfastly adhere to the religion which was taught by St. Peter to the
Romans, which faithful tradition has preserved, and which is now
professed by the Pontiff of Damascus, and by Peter, Bishop of
Alexandria, a man of apostolic holiness. According to the discipline of
the Apostles and the doctrine of the Gospel, let us believe the sole
Deity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, under an equal Majesty
and a pious Trinity. We authorize the followers of this doctrine to
assume the title of Catholic Christians, and as we judge that all others
are extravagant madmen, we brand them with the infamous name of
heretics, and declare that their conventicles shall no longer usurp the
respectable appellation of churches. Besides the condemnation of Divine
Justice, they must expect to suffer the severe penalties which our
authority, guided by heavenly wisdom, shall think proper to inflict upon
them." So we find little encouragement in Constantinople of those days
of any kind of nonconformity, or any doxy save that of the Emperor
himself.
Nevertheless, in matters of religion, Constantinople may be said to have
done more than any other centre of national life. For forty years, from
340-380, this was the centre of Arianism, and was also open to all
manner of strange doctrines, coming from every province of the Empire,
and this worried Theodosius very much. The polemics that raged round the
name and nature of Holy Trinity exasperated the soldier Theodosius, so
he determined to settle the matter once and for all. He convened a synod
of one hundred and fifty bishops to complete the theological system
established in the Council of Nicæa. The council managed, wisely, to
arrive at a conclusion satisfactory to the Emperor, so at least his mind
was set at rest on a vexed question.
Peace was not, for with a people like the Greeks and others who lived in
Constantinople, fond of all manner of disputations, any idea of
uniformity was hopeless; nevertheless there were endless councils,
conferences, synods, which probably only served to aggravate the many
controversies. Out of the chaos of ideas and ideals one form or another
would rise and stand out above his fellows; of these, perhaps, no one is
better known than John, called by the people "Golden Mouth," Chrysostom.
He came from Antioch with a great reputation as a preacher, and that
under somewhat unusual circumstances. Eutropius, Prime Minister of
Arcadius, the young Emperor, had heard and admired the sermons of John
Chrysostom when on a journey in the East. Fearful lest the flock at
Antioch might be unwilling to resign their favourite preacher, the
minister sent a private order to the Governor of Syria, and the divine
was transported with great speed and secrecy to Constantinople.
The new Archbishop made his influence felt at once, and his teachings
gave rise to several factions, some in his favour, others against him,
all delighted at new food for controversy. Chrysostom was hot-tempered,
which led him to express disapproval of wrong-doing in unmeasured terms,
unsociable, in consequence of which he lost touch with his surroundings.
So it came about that he was surprised by an ecclesiastical conspiracy.
Theophilus, Archbishop of Alexandria, had arrived by invitation of the
Empress Eudoxia, and had brought with him a number of independent
bishops sufficient to secure him a majority in the synod. Theophilus had
taken the further precaution of bringing with him a strong escort of
Egyptian sailors to keep the refractory populace in order. The synod
brought various charges against Chrysostom, who declined to attend the
meeting, and was therefore condemned in default for contumacious
disobedience and sentenced to be deposed by this august body. Chrysostom
was hurriedly conveyed into exile at the entrance of the Black Sea, but
was recalled before many days had passed, for his faithful flock had
risen, slain without mercy the crowd of monks and Egyptian mariners in
the streets of the City, roared and rioted round the palace gates in
waves of sedition, that Chrysostom had to be recalled to restore order.
He returned in triumph; but he was no courtier, and his zeal outran
discretion, so the Empress had him banished again, this time to Mount
Taurus, and then further away to the desert of Pityas, but he died on
his way thither in his sixtieth year. Thirty years later, in 438,
Theodosius II went over to Chalcedon to meet the remains of John
Chrysostom, which were being brought from the first obscure burial-place
to Constantinople. Falling prostrate on the coffin, the Emperor implored
forgiveness for his guilty parents, Arcadius and Eudoxia.
Of the many sects thrown up by religious controversy few have survived
to this day, but of these one is remarkable in many ways--the Armenian
Church. The Armenians are an Indo-European people, living in Great and
Little Armenia, an elevated plateau, from which the principal mountains,
rivers, and valleys of Western Asia diverge, a plateau some 7000 feet
above the sea in places, and rising to its greatest height of 17,260
feet in Mount Ararat, now in Russian territory.
No doubt it is a great satisfaction to the Armenians to have that holy
mountain in their native land, though I do not think that undue pride
over this interesting feature has kept them apart from others of the
Christian faith. They took to it very readily during the reign of
Constantius, and during the years when the Eastern Empire was still
mighty in Asia maintained their connection with the See at
Constantinople. But their country was peculiarly liable to be swamped by
alien races, and constant disorders during the many centuries when the
Eastern Empire was falling to pieces alienated them from the original
fold. Again, their clergy were generally ignorant of the Greek tongue,
so they ceased attending synods, and thus widened the rift, so that, as
they did not attend the Council of Chalcedon, they came to be considered
as schismatics, and have long had a Patriarch in Constantinople, who
watches over the interests of his flock. His is a very difficult
position, for ever since there has been an Armenian problem no other
means of solving it has ever suggested itself to the Porte than that of
wholesale massacre--there is an Armenian problem, therefore kill the
Armenians; simple, thoroughly Oriental, and not to the taste of Europe,
whose protests, however, have never been as loud over Armenian outrages
as when some national trade interest is affected. Nevertheless Armenians
have stayed on as useful citizens and subjects of Sultans who showed to
them less consideration than to any others of the numerous races which
live under the Porte's peculiar jurisdiction; they are advancing in
wealth, education, and political importance, and are likely to play an
important part in the future of Asia Minor. It is said that the
Armenians might have made common cause with the Greeks, and thus
assisted towards the deliverance from Turkish yoke which seems to have
been brought at last by the arms of the twentieth-century crusaders, who
swarmed over the passes of the Balkans and down the Valley of the
Maritza only a month or so ago. The Armenians, instead of accomplishing
unity by means of their synod, seem to have frittered away their
strength in small committees, probably discussing side issues with great
earnestness and leaving great questions unsolved, as is frequently
the case in the deliberations of such bodies.
[Illustration: On the way to the Phanar
A picturesque street thronged with the usual crowd of leisurely
wayfarers.]
Ever since the earliest days of Christianity Constantinople has been the
seat of a Father of the Church. His importance increased as the Empire
flourished, and he soon was styled Patriarch, a title which has never
been relinquished, an office which has never been in abeyance but for
those few days between the triumphal entry of Mohammed the Conqueror and
the Patriarch's reinstatement by that monarch.
The buildings which serve as head-quarters for the Patriarch of Greek
Orthodoxy in Constantinople stand overlooking the upper reaches of the
Golden Horn at the Phanar, and have no great beauty to distinguish them
from their surroundings. The cathedral church is small, and the only
thing which impressed me in it is the cathedra itself. Not long ago I
had the honour of being presented to His Holiness the late Patriarch. A
friend and I made our way to the Phanar, through picturesque streets,
thronged with the usual crowd of leisurely wayfarers; vines festooned
from one side to the other, and in places affording shade from the
searching rays of the sun, but at the same time condensing the mingled,
varied odours inseparable from life in the East, and which, no doubt,
contribute to its indefinable charm. The Phanar is a quarter formerly
occupied by those Greeks whose duties brought them in closer contact
with the Imperial Court of Byzant; they lived in stone houses that
clustered round the Phanar, the lighthouse, at the foot of the heights,
where stood palaces of princes, churches, and barracks of the Imperial
Guards, and whence the walls defending the City from attack by land draw
their rugged lines down to the Golden Horn. We were shown into a long
room, hung round with indifferent portraits of former Patriarchs, and
introduced by one of the most prominent lay members of the Holy Synod, a
gentleman to whom, I fancy, the Greeks of Turkey in Europe owe a debt of
gratitude. His Holiness received us most graciously, conversed amiably
on many questions, and all went very well till he had a look at the
sketch I had taken of him. "As it has not succeeded I will give you a
photograph of myself," said His Holiness, and I am the proud possessor
of a signed photograph of this the latest successor of a long line of
ecclesiastical potentates. Nevertheless, I consider my sketch a good
likeness, and my opinion is not based on conceit alone, but is endorsed
by others qualified to judge.
[Illustration: HIS HOLINESS JOACHIM III
Patriarch of the Orthodox Church at Constantinople.]
It is sad to reflect that Christianity, even from the earliest days, has
strayed so far from the leading precept of its Founder. The Church in
all ages, among all nations, proclaimed Him "Prince of Peace," then
incited her followers to take up arms in defence of dogma, ritual, never
dreamt of by the Christ. The different peoples which were enabled to
divide into groups in accord with racial ambition were used as tools by
prelates of the East and West to add to their own importance, to enhance
their own prestige. The West drew to it strong Germanic races who, sword
in hand, helped to gather the broken remnants of the Latin races into
the fold of the Western See; these subtler Latin races, never quite
freed from the worship of their forebears, never entirely abandoning the
worship of the gods of old, of Isis and Osiris, gained for a space
ascendancy over the simpler, purer Teutons, and made the power of the
Roman Pontiff possible. Revolts there were many, when the strong,
persistent Germanic intellect developed, and tried to free itself from
spiritual thraldom. Until the days of Luther, such stirrings were
countered by a short shrift and a blazing pyre for the offender.
Luther's theses, nailed to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral, marked the
straining of the cords that bound northern races to the Southern See,
and led nations to give rein to their ambitions, striving to attain them
throughout a war of thirty years. Even then the fight was indecisive,
and the "Kultur Kampf," against which Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor,
battled with but qualified success, occupies the mind and tends to check
the spiritual development of modern Germany.
The people of the Eastern Empire centred in Constantinople in those
days, far beyond the intellectual limitations of the West, could not be
expected to submit to the spiritual authority of a Roman Pontiff,
especially as the Roman Empire of the West had gone under before its
barbarian foes, whereas the Roman Empire of the East yet held sway over
many distant provinces conquered by Roman arms. The Eastern and the
Western world were seldom in complete accord; the bonds that united them
in earliest days were frail, and could only be made to hold when in the
hands of a strong man like Constantine the Great. The Western Empire's
fall enhanced the greatness of the Eastern Empire, and thus was paved
the way to separation in matters of religion. The intellectual pride of
the Greeks would not submit to any dictation on the subject of Christian
doctrine from the West, and Roman ambition would not allow outlying
communities to formulate new doctrines nor to revise old ones. It needed
a small pretext to bring about schism, and that pretext was not long
wanting. About the middle of the ninth century Photius, a layman,
Captain of the Guards, was promoted by merit and favour to the office of
Patriarch of Constantinople. In ecclesiastical knowledge and purity of
morals he was equally well qualified for this high office. But Ignatius,
his predecessor, who had abdicated, still had many supporters, and
these appealed to Pope Nicholas I, one of the proudest, most ambitious
of the Roman Pontiffs, who welcomed an opportunity of judging and
condemning his rival of the East. But the Greeks resented the
interference, and after many intrigues Photius emerged triumphant, and
reconciliation between the two Churches was made more difficult than
ever. After about two centuries of unseemly wrangling and bitter
recriminations, Papal legates came to Constantinople in 1054 and laid a
bull of excommunication against the Patriarch upon the altar of St.
Sophia.
It will be readily understood that the Crusades, organized under the
auspices of the Church of Rome, were not looked upon with favour by the
Eastern Emperors and Patriarchs who, however much they bickered between
themselves, showed a united front to outsiders. It is therefore not
surprising that the Eastern Empire lent but half-hearted support to the
crusading Western nations, and that, when that Empire was in turn
threatened from the East, its appeals to Western Christianity fell on
deaf ears. This made the path of Osmanli conquerors all the smoother.
To-day we are faced with a new crusade, Eastern Christians, members of
the Orthodox Church, carrying the Cross against the Crescent. They have
met with hardly any but that somewhat overrated "moral" support from
Western Christians. Montenegrins came down from their Black Mountains,
all available fighting men of a population of some 250,000, and fiercely
fought for an ideal. Servia, out of a population of about 3,000,000,
sent an army as strong and as well-found as the much-vaunted
expeditionary force of Great Britain over the mountain-passes into
Macedonia. Meeting with stubborn resistance, suffering checks, they
pressed on, and now hold lands which once formed part of Servia when,
for a short time, it was a great Empire, and had its capital at Üsküb,
which King Peter's army entered in triumph some short time ago. Then the
Hellenes, under the Crown Prince Constantinos, name borne by several
Greek Emperors, came up from the south, and smarting under the memory of
former reverses, fought their way over the mountains into Macedonia, and
have occupied Saloniki. Here, again, is a small nation of barely
3,000,000 sending an army of near 100,000 into the field. Then from the
north, in irresistible force, came the hosts of Ferdinand, Tsar of all
the Bulgarians. His forces were reckoned at 300,000 when they crossed
over the border, and this number was taken from an industrious, thriving
population of little more than 4,000,000 souls. Numbers as yet untold
have fallen in battle, others have succumbed to disease and the
hardships of war, but what remains are loudly clamouring for admission
to Tsarigrad, the Castle of Cæsar, where all these sons of the Greek
Orthodoxy, though of different nations, hope to reunite in worship at
Santa Sophia.
And while these deeds have been doing, Eastern and Western Christianity
have been gazing unfriendly at each other. A great Power which adheres
to the Church of Rome is looking with disfavour upon the successes
gained by these young nations, and diplomacy, which has hitherto failed
woefully in its endeavours to maintain peace, is now put to it to
prevent another appeal to the arbitrament of arms, and this time of a
nature that will make the present war seem but an advanced-guard action.
In the meanwhile, with this danger threatening, the part played by
Turkey in Europe seems almost incidental only, albeit this great Power
is passing from Europe to its native Asia, shorn by a sudden, violent
storm of all its old possessions but that narrow corner, fenced off from
the onslaught by the lines of Chatalja.
CHAPTER VI
Religious institutions of old Byzant--The rise of monasticism--The
conversion of the Bulgarians by Cyril--The spread of Islam towards
Constantinople--The attacks of the Saracens and their conquests
elsewhere--The decline of the Arab Caliphate and the rise of the
House of Othman--The Mosque of Eyub and the sword of Othman--The
Turk and his habits--The Mosque of Mohammed--Little St.
Sophia--Achmet and the dogs of Constantinople, and the new regime's
dealings with the same problem.
As was only natural in a community so devoted to all manner of religious
observances, such as the Greeks of Byzantium, monasticism made great
headway and filled Constantinople with religious institutions of that
order. Probably the idea first came to Europe from Africa, via the city
of many churches, not long after the days of Anthony of Thebais, in the
fourth century. Anthony was an illiterate youth who, suddenly seized
with a desire to do penance for some wickedness (let us hope real rather
than fancied), distributed his patrimony, left his kith and kin, and
retired to a ruined tower among the tombs on the banks of the Nile.
Perhaps he found this spot too sociable, for he wandered away into the
desert east of the Nile, some three days' march, and commenced his
seclusion in a lonely spot which offered him shade and water. But
Anthony's repose was soon disturbed by numbers of others to whom had
spread the fame of his sanctity, and they joined him as disciples in the
wilderness, and no doubt in the beauty of holiness. Anthony lived long
enough, one hundred and five years it is said, to start a considerable
body of anchorites. The notion soon spread to Europe, and
Constantinople took it up with enthusiasm; monasteries and convents
sprang up in all directions, and soon became either popular resorts of
penitent princes, statesmen, or others who wished to obtain some
reputation for holiness to enable them to restart their old life with a
clean sheet, or else the enforced retreat of emperors and empresses,
patriarchs, and courtiers who had fallen from favour and were removed
with more or less ceremony from the scene of their former activities.
There was a monastery of St. George of Mangane near Seraglio Point,
where John Cantacuzene took up his abode after abdication. I have told
you of Empress Irene who went into the seclusion of a convent she had
built on Prince's Island.
Holy men went from their monastic institutions into the countries of the
Empire's heathen neighbours and made many converts. Cyril and Methodius
were called to Bulgaria and converted Boris, the King, who sent his son
Simeon to be educated at Constantinople. Many more Bulgarian youths
followed, and it became customary to go to Constantinople in search of
learning and the refinements of life. This practice continues to-day,
and Robert College, an American foundation, standing high on the
European bank of the Bosphorus above Roumeli Hissar, has trained many
young Bulgars to a useful life. Among these was M. Gueshof, the present
Prime Minister of Bulgaria, whose skill assists Tsar Ferdinand in
piloting the fortunes of his kingdom through the troubled political
waters of these days.
While the religious life of Constantinople was working out its destiny,
while members of various monastic orders forgot the first precepts of
their Master and plunged into all manner of political intrigue, a new
and powerful creed had arisen in Asia and was drawing thousands out of
darkness to the red glare of a militant faith. Islam was spreading ever
nearer the coasts of Europe in a solid, devoted body, while Christians
of the East were frittering away their strength in political
discussions, thus paving the way for the conquest of a large part of
Europe by the hosts of Othman inspired by a simple faith, and
Constantinople fell. In vain the crusade organized by Pope Urban, the
Eastern bulwark of Christianity was doomed. To-day the sons of Othman
are in like case as were the Christians of the Greek Empire before 1453.
They have assumed, but not assimilated, Western ideas, and in so doing
have departed from the faith wherein lay their strength, have undermined
the religious pre-eminence of their Lord the Sultan, and have brought a
misunderstood version of advanced Western philosophy to a people
inherently incapable of understanding anything but the fundamental facts
that Allah is great, that Mohammed is the Prophet of Allah, and that his
word is a law from which no man dare depart if he would enter into
happiness after death.
The first to bring the Crescent up to the walls of Constantinople were
swarms of fiery Saracens, who came up under clouds of lateen sails over
the blue waters of the Sea of Marmora and laid fierce siege to the City.
They came first in the seventh century and forty-six years after the
flight of the Prophet from Mecca. Urged by their warlike faith, the
Arabs had found conquest rapid and easy of achievement since they issued
from the desert; they carried their triumphant ensigns to the banks of
the Indus and the snow-capped peaks of the Pyrenees and thought
themselves invincible. By the middle of the seventh century they had
conquered Phoenicia, the countries watered by the Euphrates, Judæa,
Syria, and all Egypt, Cyprus, and Rhodes, and had overrun the Iberian
Peninsula from Africa. The richest prize they coveted was
Constantinople, but they tried its strength in vain, and had to retire
baffled. The Arabs transmitted their creed to a young race which had
come out of Tartary, and laid thereby the foundation of the Ottoman
Empire when Arab dominion was declining. The fortunes of the young race,
the Turks, were very varied, but they were at last able to assist Caliph
Motassem, who was no longer able to find among his own people those
martial qualities which had led to Arab conquests. Fifty thousand Turks
entered the military service of the Caliph, and they in time came to
assume power and a decisive voice in the Government, like the Prætorian
Guard before them, and the Janissaries of Constantinople and Mamelukes
of Egypt since.
The Arab Caliphate dwindled into decay, making way for a Turkish
dynasty, and so when Alexius Comnenus was Emperor of the East he was
forced to acknowledge Suleiman as master of Asia Minor.
Othman, Osman, son of Erthogrul, succeeded in 1288, and to him is due
the rise of the Ottoman Power. He roused the enthusiasm of his followers
by proclaiming that a Divine Mission inspired him to carry the Crescent
out to westward, and so he moved victorious over the last Asiatic
possessions of the Eastern Empire. Where he came he conquered, and by
the beginning of the fourteenth century nearly all Asia Minor was held
by the Osmanli, and the Christians of Constantinople were becoming aware
of the danger that threatened their religious and political existence.
The sword of Othman and his victorious banner passed to Orchan, his son,
and with them these words of advice: "Be just, love goodness, and show
mercy. Give the same protection to all thy subjects, and extend the
faith of thy fathers." This advice was followed by Orchan, and he too
carried the Crescent victorious nearer and nearer to the Eastern bulwark
of Christianity, Constantinople. Here at Eyub, in the mosque by the
Sweet Waters of Europe, the sword of Othman and his banner are kept in
reverent state and serve religious purpose, for every succeeding Sultan
is girt with this sword, an act corresponding to the crowning of a
Christian king, amid the prayers of his people: "May he be as good as
Othman."
[Illustration: The Mosque of Suleiman
Built by this Sultan to commemorate his many victories. Flights of white
pigeons hover round this shrine, and pious Moslems seldom pass by
without buying some food for them from hawkers who have pitched their
business here.]
To-day grey threatening clouds are passing over the Mosque of Eyub,
where these sacred relics of a warrior race are kept; the brightness
that sparkles on the Sweet Waters of Europe which flow into the Golden
Horn at this place has vanished under the dull pall of a saddened sky,
against which the dark cypresses stand like mourners among the graves of
the faithful who are buried round this sacred spot. The gilt crescent on
dome and minaret no longer sends answering flashes to the sun that has
shone for centuries over the shrine that holds these relics of a
fighting race of sovereigns. To many here in this City the sky is
overcast, the prospect dark and cloudy, for the Crescent has been waning
where it was once supreme, in the countries of Eastern Europe, and the
crusade called by the kings of former subject people has reached the
outer defences of Stamboul, but fifty miles from the Mosque of Eyub the
favourite disciple of the Prophet. The fate of the City is yet
undecided, for the arms of Othman have met with reverse after reverse,
and no one can say whether recent attempts at implanting Western
philosophy on an Eastern creed has left enough of Islam's virility to
defend the last foothold of the Turks on Europe. Here in Stamboul, where
stand so many mosques of conquerors, where the Christian churches of the
Eastern Empire have been converted into mosques, there is among some a
dread uncertainty as to the future. In the bazaars and the narrow
streets Turks and Greeks, Armenians and Kurds, Arabs, Georgians,
full-blooded negroes, go about their business with the utmost unconcern,
as if Europe were not face to face with epoch-making changes which
affect the Ottoman Empire in Europe, and especially this City, its
heart. Yet here in Constantinople, so full of memories of the great
Christian Empire which shielded Europe's development against the Pagan
armies of the East for so many centuries, there is a feeling,
subconscious but ever present, that the Turk is only in temporary
possession. In all his ways, in all his views, he differs from those
with whom he comes in contact in his Empire's European possessions. He
has few belongings and seldom desires more, and these can easily be
stowed and transported elsewhere, whereas the races he has conquered and
which have wrenched themselves free again are ambitious and greedy of
gain. They have been carefully collecting for this final blow; while the
Turk has been squandering his goods, they have constructed; whereas the
Turk, if he has not destroyed what he found, has at last let it fall in
ruins. Those other nations give of their best, put all their strength
into the pursuit of one ideal, a great and prosperous Fatherland; the
Turk knows only that "Allah is" and orders all things wherever the
believer may be, and the ideal of Fatherland is quite beyond his
comprehension. The very word, "vatan," had to be explained to the
Turkish people by the enthusiasts who broke the power of Abdul Hamid;
but all explanation was useless, the Turk has not found his "vatan" in
Europe, and those who broke the power of the Sultan were unable to
replace it by anything which the Turk could understand. Devoid of art or
science, incapable of political life, the Turk's energies have been
directed solely to works of destruction. Only in one direction has he
shown constructive capacity and a desire to leave a lasting record, and
that is in the mosques and turbehs, and almost all of these are
monuments to men before whom nations went under in seas of blood, who
trampled down all signs of prosperity, strangled growing civilization,
and levelled homesteads and palaces, churches and strongholds with the
ground, on their ruthless march to victory.
Towering over the wooden houses of Stamboul, overshadowing the broken
walls of Byzantine defence, which proved vain against the might of
Othman, these mosques make Constantinople what it is. Massive masonry,
with clinging turrets, crowned by a mighty dome surrounded by the
Crescent, and round about the building the bulbous roofs of the
medresseh,[1] tetinune,[2] darul ziafet,[3] and darul shifa,[4] emblems
of the sycophantic East living on the bounty of the great; thus rises
the Mosque of Mohammed the Conqueror, out of the eternal squalor, filth,
misery, and unconcern of an Oriental city. And other mosques are much
the same, and stand as the only evidence of the Turk's capacity for
construction, and the finest, most imposing of these buildings are due
to the most ruthless destroyers among the sons of Othman. Sultan
Mohammed the Conqueror built his mosque on the spot where once stood the
Church of the Holy Apostles; not a trace remains of that former sacred
fane, where in the "Heröon" the rulers of ancient Byzant were laid to
rest in coffins of porphyry, granite, serpentine, green, red, or white
marble, from Thessaly, Paros, and the Proconessus. Indeed, these tombs
were not destroyed by the Osmanli. Latin Christians, during their short
tenor of the Imperial City, from 1204-1260, desecrated the shrine and
plundered the tombs of the Emperors, but they left at least the building
standing, and all traces of that are buried under the massive pile of
the Mosque of Sultan Mohammed the Conqueror.
[1] "Medresseh," academy for students.
[2] "Tetinune," their dwelling-place.
[3] "Darul ziafet," where the poor are fed.
[4] "Darul shifa," hospital.
I have already mentioned the Mosque of Achmet. It is the most pronounced
feature of Stamboul, rising in wonderful symmetry above the clustering
houses that seem to tumble down to the sea-walls and are only arrested
in their fall by the Kütshük (little) Agia Sofia, formerly the Church of
St. Sergius and Bacchus. This little building stands stoutly by the sea,
resting on the walls that for many centuries kept the foes of
Christianity at bay, its flat cupola framed on one side by sturdy
minaret, on the other by a weather-beaten poplar. Neither of the saints
to whom the Greeks dedicated this church are familiar to me; of St.
Sergius I know nothing, and the name of St. Bacchus came as a surprise
to me when first I heard it, for Bacchus I had known for many years as
an obsolete Pagan deity who made no pretence at sanctity, and was only a
god because mortals chose to worship him. It is therefore strange to
find him associated with St. Sergius, whose name has a somewhat severe
sound to it, on this particular post, for, mind you, the men of the
Middle Ages allowed their saints very little leisure, but assigned to
each his duty. So, I take it, St. Sergius was entrusted with the defence
of this section of the sea-wall, and he requisitioned the other
gentleman to take over the social duties of the post and to make things
merry and bright. However, as I say, I know very little about saints, so
cannot give the real reason why these two gentlemen clubbed together to
have a church to themselves, and therefore give the above explanation
under reservation.
High above this little church towers the massive Mosque of Ahmedyeh,
Achmet, considered chief of all the mosques in Stamboul, its six
minarets pointing like warning fingers to the sky where Allah reigns
inscrutable. The founder, Achmet, was a pious soul, and at the same time
a good sportsman; he gave evidence of the former quality by building
this mosque, in the latter capacity he was great at falconry and in
hunting with those strong hounds whose degenerate descendants until
recently roamed the streets of Constantinople and acted as rather
unsatisfactory scavengers.
Achmet was rather worried about the dogs, which, in those days of the
early seventeenth century, were already rather a nuisance in the crowded
City, and thought it wise to consult the Mufti about the matter, for the
lives of dogs, unclean animals though they be, were deemed a matter of
some importance. The mufti consulted with others learned in the law of
the Prophet, and this enlightened committee came to the conclusion that
it was unlawful to kill the dogs, seeing each one had a soul. Christians
you may kill, they are the enemies of Allah, whereas dogs are not, or at
least do not worry about the matter either way. Women you may kill too,
they have no soul at all. It is all beautifully simple, and appeals to
the meanest intellect. Anyway, the dogs continued to be a nuisance, so,
as they might not be killed, they were banished first to Scutari, where
they seemed quite happy, and then to an island some sixteen miles out in
the Sea of Marmora, where they might die of starvation. However, if the
story be true, the dogs knew a trick worth two of that, and simply swam
back to their old haunts, and, incidentally, to their ladies, who had
not been exiled. I can quite imagine the all-night howlings of welcome
with which the ladies greeted the wanderers on their return, and the
flight of slippers, smaller articles of furniture, etc., accompanied by
clouds of curses, hurtling through the night, to check the exuberance of
this _frohes Wiedersehen_.
A couple of years ago the authorities, inspired by the enlightened
members of the new regime, decided to get rid of the dogs, and they were
banished again. This time they were rounded up in all parts of the city,
and even from the villages on either bank of the Bosphorus. I remember
well a friendly little white lady who lived in a corner on the steps
leading up from the sea towards the higher part of the Candilli; here on
a heap of melon skins, which served both as food and as bedding, she was
wont to bring up one litter of promising little pariah pups after
another, and she loved variety, for her children were a most variegated
assortment. They were as happy as those bright, sunny days were long,
and would tumble in bunches down the uneven steps, or struggle up
towards the high road which leads along the Asiatic bank and connects
Candilli by land with the great world. Here the pups, after strenuous
mountaineering, would get their outlook on life, with all its
excitements and possible dangers; here Turkish cavalry from Scutari
would come dashing past, galloping furiously when there were people to
watch this feat and stones to lame their clever little horses, subsiding
to a walk when beyond the sight of admirers and when the roads were soft
with dust some inches deep, or grass by the wayside. Other sights
presented themselves to the round, wondering eyes of these offspring of
the little white lady: of a morning lithe young Englishmen would tear
down those steps several at a time, to the great wonderment of the
lodgers in the corner on the bed of melon skins. These Englishmen would
be hurrying to the "Scala" to catch a boat--never punctual unless you
were late--a boat that took them to their work in Pera and Galata. On
their return they would ascend with startling rapidity those stony
precipices which to the puppies seemed to take a lifetime to negotiate;
and in the gardens between the high road and the sea you might hear the
gentle voices of fair, fragrant Englishwomen, and the puppies would wag
sympathetic tails. Yes, they were pleasant, very pleasant, those summer
days at Candilli. The solemn cypresses, in their attitude of constant
warning, stood unheeded, for the sun was shining on the waters, and made
them gleam in gold and blue and many colours, and the sun drew fragrance
from flowering shrubs, and ripened the swelling figs that nestled among
the broad leaves which, in their turn, mirrored the life-giver in their
bright, smooth surface. But one day the little white lady and her
family vanished, for men had been busy during the night, and had carried
them and all their friends into exile, had carried them away over the
waters where the moon drew a sparkling silvery path, to a barren island.
Here they were left to perish, for long ago the wise men, learned in the
laws of the Prophet, had decided that every dog, even the smallest pup,
has a soul, and that it is evil to kill them, but not to let them starve
to death. And these same wise men would not have allowed the possession
of a soul to those fair Englishwomen whose blue eyes smiled kindly on
the little white lady and her offspring's wondering interest in the
doings of the great world.
Many of the dogs had a presentiment of danger, and evaded capture by
fleeing to the "hinterland," whence came alarming rumours of packs of
wild dogs rendering insecure the country-side. Of these, one or the
other found his way back to his old sociable haunts, and Constantinople
and environments have not quite got rid of the dogs which, according to
the accounts of all travellers in this country, form one of its most
remarkable features.
There are other mosques, many of them, rising up from among squalor, or
groups of picturesque wooden houses, and these mosques seem to be the
only indication of any permanence of Turkish rule. The little wooden
houses vanish from time to time, whole districts in one fell swoop, by
fire, which has spread with alarming rapidity long before the watchman,
tapping the irregular pavement with the iron-shod staff, has given the
alarm. Then firemen, with much noise but little expedition, arrive on
the scene, and find little left to do but to gather up the fragments,
the property of the sufferers. But the mosques remain towering above
charred ruins, and the call to prayer sounds from the graceful minaret
over deserted homesteads.
[Illustration: A Disused Monastery
Near the Golf-links on the heights overlooking the upper reaches of the
Golden Horn. Here also refugees cluster around the dilapidated walls
waiting patiently for transport to Asia Minor.]
Thus the life of this strange people, the Turks, goes on from day to
day, leisurely business transacted with all dignity of inherent
idleness, endless gossip under the vines and awnings of small cafés,
talk which begins nowhere and arrives nowhere. Squalor, dirt,
picturesque decay, and over all the sense that a migratory race has
settled here for a while, is not disposed to move until turned out, and
has just put up a leader or two with sufficient enterprise to make
others build him a place of worship to glorify himself above his
fellows.
But strong young nations have closed in upon Constantinople and threaten
it from the West. They came strong in their faith, armed and equipped
and prepared to carry all before them, to make vast sacrifices, and
their strongest weapon is an ideal. They have not forgotten the history
of past centuries; the memory of nameless indignities, of crushing
shame, has fed the spirit that informs them, that bids them hurl their
young strength against the _vis inertiæ_ of the Turks and march over
heaps of slain, over a country peopled by their kinsmen, fellow
Christians, now devastated by the foe they have driven back. Now they
are hammering at the gates, at the defences of Constantinople, and all
the remaining strength of the dying Ottoman Empire in Europe is massed
on the narrow strip of ground between the Bosphorus and the lines of
Chatalja.
Uncertainty still reigns there as I write these lines; vain hopes are
raised by rumours, some so improbable that they suggest the incoherent
rambling of one but half-awakened out of a long drugged sleep. But
certain it is that efficiency, concentration, and high purpose have met
sloth and corruption, and have conquered. Though the lines of Chatalja
may prove equal to the task of defending this last strip of Turkish
territory, yet the fact remains that those young nations have brought
about an epoch-making catastrophe--the passing of Ottoman rule in
Europe.
CHAPTER VII
The defences of Constantinople--Adrianople and its history--The
walls of Constantinople and their story--The Marble Tower--Yedi
Koulé and the Golden Gate--Tales of Theodosius and Maximus, St.
Ursula and the eleven thousand maidens--Emperor Heraclius--The
story of Basil the Macedonian--King Crum's appearance before the
Golden Gate--Michael Palæologus and Mary the Conductress--The Walls
of Theodosius--Refugees encamped outside the walls--The triumph of
Christianity.
In these days of effective long-range fire the defences of a capital
city lie well away from and command the approaches to it. Whereas
formerly hostile forces surged up against stout towers and strong walls,
the enemy of to-day lets loud-voiced cannon speak from afar, hurling
destruction at what look like mounds, green hills, from a distance, but
when approached bristle with ordnance and small-arms. Far afield lie
fortresses, each encircled with smaller forts, and these are meant to
stay the tide of invasion. This was the mission of Adrianople and its
enceinte of forts, Adrianople, the City of Hadrian, famous in history,
for epoch-making events have taken place around it; the Goths here
vanquished Valens, and their impetuous onslaught broke the ranks of
Roman legions and filled the minds of those warriors with such dread of
the Teuton invader that years passed before they could be induced to
face the Goths again. It was Theodosius the Great who brought back their
courage to them. His skilful system of block-houses kept him informed of
the enemy's vagrant movements, and by so contriving that the Roman
legionaries met only numerically inferior bodies of barbarians, he
helped to revive the great traditions of Roman arms at least for a short
space of time.
Then again when Bulgarians came pouring down the Valley of the Maritza
towards Constantinople, the defenders of the Imperial City met them at
Adrianople; the armies of Byzant were beaten, the Emperor slain, and his
skull, encased in gold, served as a drinking-vessel to his vanquisher.
The hosts of Othman, having overrun the northern European provinces of
the Byzantine Empire, made for Adrianople, and the city became the
European capital of the Osmanli until Constantinople fell.
To-day the City of Hadrian, the "Sperr-fort" of Constantinople, is
surrounded by the enemies of the Porte, Bulgarians and Servians, and
thus one of the outlying defences of the capital no longer serves its
purpose, and the defence has been drawn in nearer to the lines of
Chatalja. Those lines now take the place as last defence of the walls
built on the landward side by Theodosius II, and improved and repaired
by his successors to the Imperial Purple. They stand to-day grey and
deserted, lichen-grown, clad in dark green folds of ivy, that
sympathetic friend of fallen fortresses, and listen to the sounds of
danger to the capital, while recalling days when they themselves held
out against all foes, though earthquakes shook their stout foundations,
and discord in the city seemed like to nullify their usefulness. A
strange and stirring history this of those landward walls of
Constantinople, and worthy of a moment's consideration in these days,
when the fate of yet another Empire, with its seat of government within
those walls, is trembling in the balance.
They stretch from the Sea of Marmora northward to the Golden Horn, do
those walls of Theodosius, their southern angle marked by a strong
tower, a marble tower, dipping its foundations deep into the pellucid
waters. I saw it first on a glorious summer day, the gleaming blocks of
marble of which it is built were reflected in the waters of the Sea of
Marmora, beyond blue sea, or above blue sky, and between the two,
floating like the Isles of the Blest on a magic sea, the Prince's
Islands, and behind them the blue hills of Asia Minor, their rugged
outlines softened by the heat-haze of a summer's day. Little white sails
gleamed on the flashing waters, sails filled by some idle zephyr which
carried small ships away, lazily, out into the southern seas. But, mind
you, this tower has not always lived in idleness, bathing its feet in
summer seas. Times were when the watchman up in this tower would see the
south alive with movement and the silver path on the sea overshadowed by
clouds of sail. Swiftly they came, those strange craft from out of the
south, bearing bronzed sons of Arabia to storm the City of Cæsar. Twice
they came, in 668 and again from 716-718, but their efforts were
unavailing, and the groves of cypress trees mark their last
resting-place.
The Marble Tower served its purpose well in those ancient days, over
which distance has cast its glamour. To-day the Marble Tower stands
silent, lifeless, by the side of a leaden sea; passing squalls hide the
view to southward and over the Islands towards the mountains of Asia
Minor, and a grey sky, heavy with rain, hangs like a pall over the City
and this corner of its ancient defences. The Marble Tower's part in
history is long since played out, and now it listens silently, helpless,
to the distant booming of cannon before which it would fall like those
castles of dreamland at cock-crow; ruined it stands mourning the ruin
which overtakes the kingdoms of this world.
A little further northward stands yet another memorable monument to
former greatness, Yedi Koulé and the "Golden Gate." Several ruined
towers raise their heads above the broken walls from among groups of
little wooden houses. They and the curtains which connect them once
formed a stronghold built by Mohammed II on the ruins of a former
castle. This was for a time the chief garrison of the Janissaries, and a
state prison wherein the Sultans were wont to incarcerate the
ambassadors of those foreign Powers with which they chanced to be at
war, a playful habit which has been discontinued since Turkey asserted
her claim to be considered a civilized nation. The Janissaries also kept
their own prisoners here, generally dethroned Sultans, whom they killed
here at their leisure and free from outside interference.
A strong fortress stood here, raised by a strong man, Theodosius, in the
young days of ancient Byzantium. It was built on to by successive
Emperors, and became one of the most important centres of the City on
memorable occasions, for this stronghold became known as the "Golden
Gate," the Porta Aurea, and its towering walls looked down upon great
historic happenings. Without on the plain dense hosts would form into
ordered procession and follow their Emperor in his triumphal entry
through the gates. Under a heavy sky, festooned with sombre ivy,
crumbling in its last stage of decay, the Golden Gate with difficulty
recalls the glories that have passed beneath it. The Golden Gate had
three archways, of which the central one was wider and loftier than the
others, like those to be seen in the Roman Forum. These were dedicated
to Severus and Constantine, and were closed by gilded gates taken from
Mompseueste and placed here by Nicephorus Phocas after his victories in
Cilicia. The gate is said to owe its origin to Theodosius the Great, who
built it to commemorate his victory over Maximus. Though I thoroughly
appreciate Theodosius and subscribe to all his claims to greatness, I
have ever been sorry for Maximus. After all, it seems, he did not really
wish to rebel against Gratian and assume the Imperial Purple. Rather was
he urged to it by popular opinion, the politicians of Britain having
decided that he should, and the youth of Britain flocked to his
standards, so Maximus was bound to move. It was a big move, too, and
successful at first, for his rapid progress alarmed Gratian, who fled
from Paris, his army of Gaul having gone over to Maximus. The campaign
was like the migration of a nation, 30,000 fighting men and 100,000
others, and of these numbers settled in Brittany, where their
descendants live to this day. To make things pleasanter, a great number
of ladies set out from Britain with the intention of joining the men
when the fighting was over. St. Ursula took charge of this column,
11,000 noble, 60,000 plebeian maidens, destined as brides for the
settlers, but they lost their way, and when at last they got to Cologne
they met the Huns and were all slaughtered. For this St. Ursula was
canonized, as is only right and proper, and a beautiful window in
Cologne Cathedral sets forth the whole story, giving portraits of the
ladies, so that in face of evidence as conclusive as that of our
half-penny illustrated dailies there is no more room for doubt. Maximus
came up against Theodosius in the end, and that was the end of him.
Nearly three centuries later Heraclius, the Emperor, entered the Golden
Gate in triumph after his victory over the Persians, and again a century
later Constantine Copronymus followed through these golden arches after
defeating the Bulgarians. They came in one long stream of conquerors in
those earlier centuries of the Byzantine Emperors, names now forgotten
or but dimly remembered; then awoke the "Daughter of the Arches," as
Echo was poetically called, as one hero after another was acclaimed by
a vainglorious mob: Theophilus, in the middle of the ninth century, he
routed the Arabs. Basil I, the Macedonian--a strange story his. It was
in the middle of the ninth century that a young, strong, and active, but
weary and travel-stained man came over the heights beyond the Golden
Gate. He entered by a side entrance close to, or part of, the Golden
Gate at sunset, and being a stranger in the City with no friends to go
to, he lay down to sleep on the steps of the Monastery of St. Diomed,
which stood near the Golden Gate. A kindly monk extended the hospitality
of the monastery to him, and the brothers helped him to find suitable
employment. His good fortune led him to a cousin, in whose train Basil
went to the Peloponese. Here he became acquainted with a wealthy widow,
Danielis, who adopted him as her son, and helped by her wealth and by
his own merits, Basil rose to high honour, and finally stepped from the
body of the Emperor, killed by himself, to the steps of the throne.
Years after his first entrance into Constantinople Basil I, founder of
the Macedonian dynasty, moved in under the arches of the Golden Gate in
triumph.
Another Basil, second of that name, rode in at the Golden Gate after his
victory over the Bulgarians. The slaughter he inflicted on them gained
him the appellation "Bulgaroktonos"; the memory of the cruelty he
practised on his Bulgarian captives lives still in the minds of their
descendants, those men whose big guns were battering at the outer
defences of Constantinople, those men who would that their sovereign
should enter the City as conqueror.
The Bulgarians found the road to Constantinople soon after their
appearance in Eastern Europe. Clouds of dust heralded the coming of
Crum, their King, with a large host amid flocks of sheep and goats. They
pitched their leather tents on the slopes outside the Golden Gate and
laid siege to that stronghold, but all their efforts were unavailing,
even the human sacrifices offered by their King to his strange gods
failed of effect, and a receding cloud of dust told the watchman on the
Golden Gate that his savage enemy had withdrawn.
Another figure in the glittering pageant that passed through the Golden
Gate in triumph was John Zimisces, the Armenian, of whose rise to power
over the corpse of his imperial master, aided by his mistress the
Empress, the walls of the Palace of Hormisdas were silent witnesses.
The last of all the Emperors to enter triumphantly by the Golden Gate
was Michael Palæologus, in August, 1261. The Latin Emperors had held
Constantinople for some time when Michael came with an army to claim his
rightful inheritance, and Baldwin, last of the Latins, fled at his
approach. The Golden Gate was thrown open, the Emperor dismounted, and
on foot meekly followed the miraculous image of Mary the Conductress
into the City as far as the Cathedral of St. Sophia. Michael
re-established the dynasty of the Palæologi on the throne of
Constantine, and they held it for two short centuries. The next
conqueror to enter the City of Constantine was Mohammed II, and he rode
over the heaped corpses of Janissaries and of Byzantine princes and
their mercenaries, in over the breech made by his engines of war, and
with him came the spirit of another age and race which yet holds
possession, while those distant guns thundered at the lines of Chatalja,
threatening to close yet another epoch in the long, tense history of
Constantinople, Stamboul, Tsarigrad, the Castle of Cæsar.
[Illustration: The Walls of Theodosius
Outside these walls refugees from Thrace and Macedonia settled on their
way back to Asia Minor. They camped among the graves of fallen warriors
of their faith, and cut down for firewood the centuries-old cypress
trees.]
The walls built by Theodosius begin after Yedi Koulé Kapousi, the Gate
of the Seven Towers, and extend northwards until they reach the high
ground overlooking the Valley of the Lycus, when they turn off slightly
to the north-east. Constantine the Great had built walls around his
City, but it outgrew them, and so to Theodosius II, who reigned from
408-450, fell the task of extending the limits of the Castle of Cæsar.
Historians of the time draw a pleasant picture of the scene when these
walls were erected. All citizens were called upon to assist, political
factions dropped their differences, and so there arose the defences of
the City. Misfortune visited them shortly after their completion, when
an earthquake overthrew a great portion of the work, including
fifty-seven towers. It came at an inopportune moment too, for Attila,
the "Scourge of God," as he was pleased to call himself, was at large,
had already inflicted three defeats on the armies of the Eastern Empire,
had ravaged Macedonia and Thrace with fire and sword, and was moving
down upon Constantinople. Even to-day, after the passing of eleven
centuries, these walls of Theodosius present an imposing front, in some
places almost untouched by the hand of time; how much more formidable
must they have appeared to those assailants whose bones are guarded by
the tapering cypress trees a stone's throw away from the fosse. There
were in all one hundred and ninety-two towers. Visitors to
Constantinople should view these walls of Theodosius from near Top
Kapousi. A long line of walls extends away to the south, first the inner
wall, standing on a broad terrace raised somewhat above the outer wall.
This terrace is about fifty feet broad, and here was the main defence of
the City--for in former days these walls were of enormous strength
compared to any engines of offence that could be brought against them--a
chain of towers linked together by stout walls known as curtains to the
expert. These towers, most of which are square, stand about one hundred
and seventy feet apart, and rose, when in their completed state, to a
height of sixty feet, standing out some twenty feet from the curtain.
Each tower contained, as a rule, two chambers, and was built of
carefully cut stone and vaulted with brick inside. The outer wall
contained a number of vaulted chambers which offered shelter to the
troops engaged in the defence, and there are loopholes through which
their fire was directed. This wall had numbers of little towers,
alternately round and square, and was about ten feet high, sufficient to
afford protection to bodies of troops moving from one place to another
along the terrace. There was also a deep moat which could be flooded; it
is now serving the peaceful purpose of market-garden.
[Illustration: THE SEA-WALLS OF CONSTANTINOPLE
Above them rises the dome of Little St. Sophia, behind which again looms
the mighty Mosque of Achmet.]
On a fine day the view over the walls away to the Sea of Marmora is
wonderfully beautiful--but this is winter, and grey clouds keep out the
sunshine needed to draw out the many beauties of the scene. The road, at
no time really entitled to be called so, is now a quagmire with rocks in
it, yet traffic of a kind is passing--lumbering carts drawn by
water-buffaloes pitch and roll in the sea of mud, and clinging to them
are refugees from Thrace and Macedonia who have fled from their homes
before the invader. They camp about in the neighbourhood outside the
walls of Theodosius, not knowing what to do nor whither to guide their
weary steps, these refugees from the storm that tore down the Valley of
the Maritza, when Tsar Ferdinand led his armies over the border, and
Serbs crossed the mountain-passes to meet their old enemy, ay, and to
triumph over him. Flotsam and jetsam, thrown up by the tide of war on
the strip of land still held by Turkey in Europe, these refugees would
be without hope of any better fate were it not for the efforts of
Christian men and women in Constantinople, to whom Christian men and
women have sent from distant countries large sums to help the awful
distress caused by this last crusade. Up to the present £28,000 has
come from Great Britain alone. I do not know how much other countries
have contributed. And this has been done for a people who have been ever
ready to obey their rulers in carrying out the Oriental methods of
solving racial problems by massacre, who are only prevented from
applying the same principle to their benefactors by the inexpediency of
doing so with the Golden Horn full of European warships. Islam justifies
the murder of unbelievers--the followers of that creed are not so much
to blame, least of all the ignorant peasant taken from his home to fight
for he knows not what, driven from his possessions by a foreign invader.
Christianity is again triumphant--where this Moslem country has proved
itself unequal to any emergency, incapable of elementary organization,
leaving its sick and the wounded of the battlefields to die and rot in
the courtyards of mosques, yes, even in the open streets, Christian men
and women have organized relief, and theirs is the only work which in
any way can claim to have helped the sufferers in those awful last weeks
of the "Passing of Ottoman Power in Europe." One lady is now in hospital
there in Constantinople--she was brought in sick from the strain of
overwork and the horrors she had witnessed in a little town near by.
Outside her door, on the pavements, in the road lay men, Turkey's famous
fighting men, starved, wounded, dying of neglect and disease. So for
over a fortnight that Christian woman toiled among them; the nights she
spent in making soup for them, the day was taken up in distributing it.
It was no nice clean hospital work, dead and dying were piled upon each
other in unmitigated misery, in incredible filth--those who have been
there and seen say that they have been down, deep down, into Hell. Yet
even there the light penetrated, brought by a Christian woman following
the precepts of her Master.
Since then the Christian medical organizations, under the Red Crescent,
forsooth, lest Islam should feel itself slighted in its character of a
creed of mercy and loving-kindness, have taken matters in hand, and
order and cleanliness are conquering over ignorance and bringing light
to Gehenna. There is yet a vast amount to be done, but it is being done,
not only by those professionally qualified to undertake such duties, but
by every lady in Galata and Pera, at least I think I may safely say so,
as I know not one among my many acquaintances here who is not in some
way engaged in the work of mercy. Not only ladies, but men, busy men,
are helping--officers from the warships in harbour, sent to prevent a
general massacre of Christians, business men, hard-worked officials, all
find time to spare in visiting the hospitals and helping wherever
opportunity offers. They do not expect gratitude, nor do they find much,
I fancy, for East is East and West is West, and to me the Oriental mind
is inscrutable still, though I have lived in the East and travelled in
it.
There are strange times these days in Constantinople, with the fate of
an Empire in the balance. At first sight the traveller might notice
little change or little difference from the sights and sounds of normal
times. People went about their business much as usual--the Stock
Exchange had much the same "allure" as ever, and the smells it harboured
have not changed, only intensified perhaps, under the pressure of the
lowering heavens. The narrow streets were thronged by the same crowds
composed of many races; "hamals" carried astounding weights and packages
of strange, outlandish shape, regardless of any other foot-passengers;
men of leisure sat under the soaked awnings of the little cafés in
Stamboul by the shore of the Golden Horn, or looked dull-eyed out of the
plate-glass windows of Tokatlians', according to their taste, their
nationality, their social standing; and a general air of indifference
seemed to mark the people of the town, the Turks in particular. But
there were military patrols in the street, and when you looked closer
into matters you found many evidences of change. The Red Cross and Red
Crescent flew over many buildings in Stamboul, Galata, and Pera,
Christian civilization was working for the good of Christianity's
bitterest opponents, and in the mosques of Islam, where in the dim
religious light you used to see a pious follower of the Prophet
performing his solemn devotions, or a "hodja" studying reverently the
Prophet's Book of the Law, where no sound was heard, you now heard the
groans of wounded soldiers; for these temples, raised by conquerors of a
warrior caste and creed, now harboured all the misery caused by a war
ill-planned, ill-managed, and inglorious.
CHAPTER VIII
Beyond the walls of Constantinople--The Valley of the Lycus--The
siege of Constantinople in 1453--The life of the City at that
time--The Genoese ships which fought their way through the
blockade--Mohammed the Conqueror's anger at his Admiral,
Baltaoghli--The last of the Byzantine Emperors--The scenes outside
the gates during the war--The Mosque of Mihrama--The Palace of the
Porphyrogenitus and the legend of the Kerko Porta--Manuel
Comnenus--The towers of Anemas and Isaac Angelus, and the Varangian
Guard--Egri Kapoo and the master-weaver--Simeon, Tsar of all the
Bulgarians, and Emperor Romanus Lecapenus--A walk in the country
and the return to the City--A visit to the lines of Chatalja.
[Illustration: The Burnt Column
One of the most peculiar relics of old Byzantium; standing alone, apart
from the everyday life of the city, a silent witness to many strange
events; a monument so old that its history is lost in oblivion.]
It was not in the City, in Stamboul itself, where signs of any unusual
state of affairs struck the casual stranger; it was outside the gates,
beyond the walls, that signs of stress and trouble crowded in upon the
observer--soldiers, stragglers, refugees, filled the gateways through
the walls of Theodosius. On the rising ground outside Top Kapoo dense
groves of cypress trees, guarding the graves of men who had fallen in
the repeated attempts to force an entry into Constantinople, threw their
long shadows over the road beyond the old defences, as they stood out
deep-toned against the golden sunset. Now these cypresses were rapidly
falling before the axe of the Macedonian refugees, who had formed their
camp of waggons outside Top Kapoo. They were camping on the spot where
Mohammed the Conqueror pitched his tent in 1453, looking down into the
Valley of the Lycus, where the assaults were made which brought down the
enfeebled Empire of Byzant. This was a pleasant place, according to all
accounts, when the world was young, and St. Chrysostom baptized his
three thousand white-robed catechumens in the waters of the Lycus. A few
years later Theodosius II rode down from the heights outside to view the
walls that he had built. He fell from his horse and died a few days
later, from the injury caused to his spine. No doubt the Valley of the
Lycus was a pleasant place in those far-off golden days of a golden
Empire, which, here in this valley, received the death-wound from the
forebears of the people who are now swarming in the groves of cypresses,
refugees, destitute, landless and homeless, instinctively turning
towards Asia, whence their race sprang. It came with giant strides, that
race of the sons of Othman; they first became acquainted with the
glories of Byzant through a mission sent from their chief to Emperor
Justinian in the sixth century; they were not Moslems then, for it was
not till the eighth century that the Arabs overran their country and
forcibly converted them. They served the Arab Caliphs for a while, and
in time rose above them and founded dynasties of their own folk. The
young nation passed through many tribulations, but by the time that
Othman, son of Erthogrul, came to the throne, the Greeks had already
felt the keenness of the sword that carved possessions out of the Empire
of the East, until nothing was left to Cæsar but his Imperial City. This
Valley of the Lycus seethed with fighting men in those early days of
1453. Both sides had been making preparations for a year or so. Mohammed
had collected his strong, well-disciplined army at Adrianople, his
European capital, and here, under his supervision, were made
preparations for the siege of Constantinople. He increased the number of
guns, and in this was helped by a Hungarian, Urban, who had left the
Greek service on account of some ill-usage by his factious masters. The
prize achievement of Urban's foundry at Adrianople was a monster cannon,
of which wonderful things were said: its bore was of twelve palms
breadth; it could contain a charge that drove a stone ball of six
hundred pounds weight a distance of a mile, to bury it in the ground to
the depth of a furlong. In spite of its wonderful performance, it is
doubtful whether the big gun cast by Urban did very much damage,
although, to make sure, it was placed only a couple of hundred yards
from the walls it was to bring down. At any rate, Mohammed made all
necessary arrangements for the siege, and finally turned on the priests
of Islam to rouse his warriors to the proper state of religious frenzy.
The preparations in the City were probably much less thoroughly
undertaken. Emperor Constantine was a good man, and efficient, but it
seems he was not strong enough to bring his people to the pitch of
self-sacrifice necessary to those who have to sustain a siege. The
citizens of Constantinople were as keen about religious controversy as
ever, and the times provided food for violent discussions, for the ruler
of the Empire realized the dangers that beset him and tried to make
diplomacy a substitute for efficient military preparations. There was
only one way by which help could come to Constantinople, and that was by
union of the Orthodox Greek Church with the Church of Rome. The citizens
of Constantinople were wildly agitated by the publication of the news of
this agreement, and many swore to admit the Moslem rather than the Roman
priest. But the latter came, nevertheless, Cardinal Isidore of Russia,
as Legate of Pope Nicholas V, and with him came help, a body of trained
soldiers, and the union of the Churches was solemnized at St. Sophia,
amidst disorder and riots in the streets. The Greeks, though always
ready to fight among themselves over some matter of dogma, had for many
years ceased to bear arms in defence of their country. They had by
degrees become too soft for the hard life of a soldier, dropped one by
one the heavier arms and accoutrements, which had to be carried about
after them; it was hopeless to try and make any further use of them for
military purposes. For this reason they were forbidden to take up the
profession of arms, or even to form trained bands or bodies of
volunteers; possibly another cause was the danger of an armed mob,
violent, decadent, always dissatisfied. Yet they should have been
content; their rulers relieved them from the responsibility of defending
their country, which, by the way, is considered an honour by the
citizens of those European nations which have universal military
service; they were fed by the State, which also provided amusement for
them--games, fights of wild beasts, drama, and music; in fact, they had
even less responsibility and were offered more entertainment than the
people of another great Empire of to-day. For defence the City of
Constantinople relied solely upon foreign mercenaries.
Mohammed's line of attack extended all along the walls, from the Sea of
Marmora to the Golden Horn, where it joined with the fleet he had
brought across country; the main assault was directed against the Gate
of St. Romanus, down in the valley. The siege continued from April till
May. The Greek army was venturesome at first, and made sorties to
destroy the earthworks, behind which the Turks were planning mines. But
the serious losses caused by such enterprise, as also the dwindling
store of gunpowder, put an end to these operations, and the courage of
the defenders began to sink. Hope rose again for a while when a
premature attack was beaten off, the assailants not yet having effected
a negotiable breach, or again when a squadron of four Genoese and one
Greek ship from Chios fought its way through the Turkish Fleet and came
to anchor in the Golden Horn under the sea-walls of the Seraglio. A
very gallant episode this, which happened in the middle of April. The
stately ships sailed up from the Dardanelles, and bore down upon the
numerous Turkish Fleet, while Greeks crowded on the walls, and the
Turks, among them their Sultan, rushed down to the shore to watch. From
their tall decks the Christian seamen hurled large stones and poured
Greek fire upon the low-lying Turkish barques around them, and so they
fought their way to the harbour's mouth; the chain was lowered to
receive them, and welcome reinforcement had come to Constantinople.
Mohammed felt the humiliation so keenly that his wrath against
Baltaoghli could only be appeased by that Admiral's death--the order
went that he was to be impaled on the spot. But the Janissaries
demurred, and entreated the Sultan to spare the Admiral's life, so the
angry sovereign punished the offender, stretched on the ground, held by
four slaves, by dealing him one hundred blows with his battle-mace; no
doubt a dignified proceeding, though most painful to the Admiral.
The succour brought by the five ships was all that ever came to the
distressed City; the siege was carried on relentlessly, and one by one
the strong walls and towers went down before Mohammed's artillery. On
May 24th he sent in to demand surrender, but was refused, so orders were
given for a general assault on the 29th. The hostile leaders spent the
eve of battle in characteristic manner. Mohammed assembled his chiefs
and issued final orders; he despatched crowds of dervishes to visit the
tents of his troops to inflame their fanaticism and promise them great
rewards--double pay, captives and spoil, gold and beauty, while to the
first man who should ascend the walls the Sultan promised the government
of the fairest province of his dominions.
[Illustration: A BYZANTINE PALACE
The ancient Palace of the Porphyrogenitus, where those "born in the
Purple" were shown to the populace and proclaimed "Cæsar urbi, Cæsar
orbis."]
Emperor Constantine likewise assembled his nobles, and the leaders of
his allies, chief of whom was Giustiniani; he adjured them to make yet
greater efforts in the defence, and to infuse new courage into the
siege-worn troops by their example. Rewards he had none to offer them.
Then each leader went his way to the post assigned to him, the Emperor
himself to a solemn Mass in St. Sophia, the last time in the history of
that sacred shrine the mysteries of the Christian faith were adored by
any Christian worshipper. Constantine then returned to the palace and
asked forgiveness of any of his servants whom he might have wronged;
then he passed from his palace to his station at the great breach.
In the Ottoman camp all was ready for the great attempt, and at sunrise
masses of assailants stood in their appointed places, waiting to hurl
themselves against the tottering defences of the Eastern Empire. To the
sound of drums and trumpets wave after wave of fierce fighting men
surged across the filled-in fosse, over the broken walls, to be repulsed
by the defenders. Time after time they were repulsed and followed by
fresh swarms, trampling down the barrier of corpses in their eagerness
for blood and booty. But the courage and numbers of the defenders were
ebbing fast; Giustiniani, who, side by side with the Emperor, was
conducting the defence of the great breach, fell severely wounded, and
was borne away to die in his galley in the harbour. This took the heart
out of the defence; the chief of the assailing Janissaries noticed it,
and urged his men to yet greater endeavour. The Turks now numbered fifty
to one as Hassan, the Giant of Ulubad, led thirty men as vanguard of the
last attack into the breach. Hassan fell, and most of those who came
with him, but the main body followed rapidly, and under the weight of
this tremendous onslaught the Christian garrison was over-powered. The
victorious Turks rushed in; others had forced the gate of the Phanar on
the Golden Horn, and Constantine's fair City was given over to the
sword.
Constantine XII (Palæologus) fell in the breach, defending the City of
his great namesake against the Moslem; his body was found under a heap
of slain, and with him fell the greater number of his Latin auxiliaries.
Refugees from Thrace and Macedonia are camping among the cypresses on
the site from which Mohammed the Conqueror watched the fall of
Constantinople's last defences, while out at Chatalja another foe was
dealing heavy blows at the last defences in Europe of that Empire
founded here that day in May, 1453.
The Lycus, a dirty, insignificant stream, now swelled by constant rain
and draining the quagmire which is called a road, outside the walls,
flows through an arch underneath one of the towers into Stamboul. Just
within, and leaning up against the walls, are huts built of wood,
disused oil-tins, and other makeshifts. These harbour a colony of
gipsies, who seemed as happy in the mud as they were when last I saw
them, basking in the sunshine. This colony finds the expert
horse-dealers (and stealers) of the neighbourhood. At present business
is slack, for the war has demanded all there was in the way of
horseflesh in the City, for in this respect, too, no adequate
preparations had been made; the tramway companies had to give up their
jades to carry the Sultan's cavalry to victory and Sofia, as was fondly
imagined by the hosts that streamed out through the gates of the City. I
have seen some of the few survivors of those horses, led back by men who
were in much the same condition as their mounts; it seemed as if their
sinews alone kept their bones from falling apart.
Groves of cypress trees used to cast long shadows over the many graves
that mark the landscape to westward of the track that leads northward
along the walls of Constantinople; to-day they are fast disappearing
under the axe of the refugees, and what was once a scene of solemn
beauty is now squalor and desecration, for right away to the Gate of
Adrianople, Edirné, as the Turks call it, there were clusters of carts
with their distressful burdens. Looking down on all this misery stands
the Mosque of Mihrama, on the highest point of the old defences of
Constantinople. A church dedicated to St. George, the patron saint of
warriors and horsemen, stood here, until St. George's mission of
protecting Christian soldiers ended in the debacle down in the
ruin-heaped valley below. To me, the crescent on the dome of Mihrama,
the unfinished minaret amidst its scaffolding seemed to wear an air of
detachment from the ghastly scenes below; around it dirt and disease,
and abject misery within the courtyard of the mosque; but its growing
minaret stands quite aloof, and points to the lowering sky, beyond which
Allah decides the fate of mortals. So his worshippers, the followers of
the Prophet, lie down in huddled heaps of wretchedness about his courts
below--Kismet!
The Walls of Theodosius turn away from the road after the Gate of
Adrianople, and end at an imposing ruin, once the home of Emperors--the
Palace of the Porphyrogenitus. It stands high, overlooking the City and
the open country; on its walls are the remains of two balconies, from
one of which the new-born Prince was shown the wide extent of rolling
plain and proclaimed "Cæsar Orbi," from the other, looking out upon the
city, "Cæsar Urbis." Owls and bats now haunt the scene of former
greatness, and the voice of Echo, the "Daughter of the Arches," no
longer gives back the sounds of revelry, the chorus of applause, or
murmurs of discontent, which made up the history of that ancient Empire
which fell before the sword of Othman in the Valley of the Lycus. Close
by is a little postern gate in the curtain connecting the last two
towers of the Walls of Theodosius; it was called the Kerko Porta, and
legend lingered round it. During the last day of the siege, in May of
1453, a rumour ran along the lines of the defence that the Turks had
gained admission by this gate. They did so, but were driven out again by
the last Emperor's bravery, which, however, only delayed the inevitable
result of Mohammed's fierce assault. Ever since then the Greeks believed
that when the City should be recaptured by Christians, they would enter
by this gate. The Turks heard of this tradition, and when the Slavs were
pouring down the Valley of the Maritza, and approaching Stamboul, they
pulled down the curtain so that the Russians might not enter by the
Kerko Porta, and replaced it by a smaller wall.
Beyond the ruined palace the moat ends abruptly, but the walls continue
higher and of greater strength. History clings round them; they recall
names of famous men who lived their day, Manuel Comnenus, who was to old
Byzant what Manoel O Fortunate was to mediæval Portugal. Anna Comnena,
daughter of the first Alexius, who wrote the history of her father's
reign, a record of insincerity. Anne and her mother Irene conspired to
poison John, her brother, who proved one of the worthiest of the latter
Emperors of the East.
The last dynasty of Byzant, the Palæologi, is responsible for the high
walls and towers that follow the walls of the Comneni towards the Golden
Horn. John VII (Palæologus) had them repaired in 1441, for the last time
probably, until Johannes Grant, a German engineer in the service of the
Greeks, under cover of darkness, directed his workers to secure the
portions of the wall that had suffered most heavily under the fire of
Turkish ordnance.
In the plain below is yet another sombre mass of ancient masonry,
peculiar in design, for it has the appearance of two towers joined
together. They differ in structure, one built of carefully cut stone,
with courses of brickwork, the other roughly put together, and from it
marble pillars project like cannon. These are the towers of Anemas and
Isaac Angelus, the former descendant of a Saracen Emir who was converted
to Christianity when young and in captivity, and distinguished himself
in several campaigns under John Zimisces; he was killed in a personal
encounter with Swiatoslav, the Russian King.
The other tower is said to have been the quarters of the imperial
bodyguard, the Varangians, whose conduct in the field shines out
brightly against the records of cowardice and the treachery which
inspired the policy of the later Greek Empire. The name Varangian is
probably derived from the Teuton "Fortganger," forthgoer, signifying men
who had left their country in search of adventure. The first of these
Varangians were probably Norsemen, who suddenly emerged from the
darkness of their northern shores to prey as pirates upon the settled
communities, and found their way through the Mediterranean Sea to
Byzant. The fame of this warriors' Eldorado reached other northern
nations, so from England came big-limbed Saxons, impatient of the Norman
Conqueror's discipline. Danes, too, were to be found amongst the ranks
of the Eastern Emperor's bodyguard, their weighty battle-axes and stout
hearts performing those deeds of valour which Anna Comnena was wont to
ascribe to that vainglorious hypocrite, her father, Emperor Alexius I.
Here, by these towers, the old defences of Constantinople end in heavy
masses of ruined masonry.
One Sunday morning the sound of heavy firing coming from the west, from
the present-day defences of Constantinople, the lines of Chatalja, drew
me out into the open country. I left the City by the Egri Kapoo, the
Crooked Gate, formerly the Gate of the Kaligari, the shoemakers, when
the Court of Byzant lived here by the Palaces of Cæsar. Little wooden
houses stand on the low ground beyond the gate, on the road down to a
plain by the Golden Horn. In one of those houses lives Ali, the
master-weaver. He was pursuing his vocation leisurely in his little
workshop below the level of the road. "The war!" said Master Ali, "the
war affects me not at all." So I went on towards the sound of the guns,
past the open space by the water where Simeon, Tsar of all the
Bulgarians, after defeating the Greeks in battle, met the Emperor
Romanus Lecapenus, and dictated harsh terms. Simeon knew the Greeks
well; he and many of his followers had been educated at Byzant, and the
culture he thus gained helped him to defeat his teachers. Bulgarians
still come to Constantinople for education, at Robert College; among
them was M. Gueshof, Tsar Ferdinand's Prime Minister--and the Bulgarians
were again outside Constantinople, hammering at its defences, the lines
of Chatalja.
I walked out far into the country that Sunday, over the rolling plains,
up hill and down dale, drawn by the sound of gun-fire, which has a
mighty attraction for me; it is a strong, invigorating sound. There were
few indications of war, though fighting was in progress not many miles
away; villagers sat on little stools outside the cafés, over the uneven
roads the carts of refugees rolled, creaking towards Constantinople.
Here and there I met a party of stragglers, weary soldiers, unarmed,
their faces set towards the east where, over the domes of the mosques,
the hills of Asia showed faintly, their outlines broken by tall
minarets. When evening fell upon the desolate landscape I retraced my
steps towards the City, where lights were twinkling and casting broken
reflections upon the waters of the Golden Horn. Through the narrow
streets of the Phanar, where silent figures flitted across my path, to
vanish into some little wooden house or other, with its latticed
windows, an air of unconcern prevailed, though men were dying out there,
some fifty miles away. Through the crowded purlieus of Galata, up the
steep, ill-paved streets to Pera, with its hotels, clubs, cafés, and
vicious imitations of Parisian entertainments.
On the following day I went out towards the lines of Chatalja again,
this time by sea. We were a party of five--a British consular official;
a British naval officer, instructor to the Sultan's war fleet; two
Turks, one a naval officer, the other a captain of artillery; and I, a
peripatetic author and artist. We sailed out from the Golden Horn as the
sun was struggling to break through heavy banks of cloud; huge warships
of different nations loomed large in the pale grey light of early
morning, and here and there a twinkling light drew flickering response
from the moving waters. As the daylight increased the ancient sea
defences of Constantinople took definite form, above them the mosques
and minarets of conquering Sultans. We sped past the Marble Tower,
looking chill under a heavy grey sky; above it rose the broken towers of
Yedi Koulé, past Makri Keui, and round the blunt promontory where San
Stefano stands in all its misery of disease, to where the land rises
west of Küjük Chekmedje. Here we anchored about half a mile from the
shore, hauled in a duck-punt which had soared behind us all the way,
and, rowed by an alleged sailor of the Sultan's navy, made for the
shore. There was some water rolling greasily in the duck-punt as we
started, it increased in volume, and by the time we drew near the beach
we had our feet well under water. The Turkish naval officer and the
gunner sat in the bows, the other passengers astern; and the naval
expert lent by our Admiralty directed the oarsman to pull us sideways on
the beach, as a quite noticeable sea was coming in on our starboard
quarter, and our demands (if any) in that line were already fully
satisfied. However, the Turkish A.B. (perhaps I flatter him, but
flattery is an important item in Oriental colouring) thought fit to
attempt a landing which would give us the full benefit of what sea there
was. The British expert, when our crank craft first felt the shingle,
ordered our Turkish friends to jump ashore. The sailor did so at once,
the soldier required time, for he was wrapped in a long grey overcoat,
carried a sword, and, moreover, wore boots ill-suited to such
enterprise. The duck-punt thereupon began to behave with unseemly
levity, and in rolling shipped a deal of water, so that we who sat
astern indulged in the unasked-for luxury of a hipbath, alfresco, and,
moreover, attired for quite another purpose. Alas! all my dear mother's
good precepts anent avoiding wet feet went by the board. However, we got
ashore, so did the duck-punt too, in time; I hear she lies there still,
her leaky bottom upwards, a silent witness to our undaunted bravery.
[Illustration: THE LINES OF CHATALJA
The south extremity of the lines by the Sea of Marmora. The road leads
down to the village of Küjük Chekmedje, with its bridge across which the
Bulgarians attempted an attack, but were checked by the fire of a
Turkish warship in the bay.]
We made inland over the rising uplands till we could look down upon the
Lake of Buyük Chekmedje, from the extreme left of the Turkish
defence--the lines of Chatalja. A road leads over the several outflows
of the lake by a bridge of many arches. Here the Bulgarians had
attempted an assault some days before, and had been baffled by those
that held the trenches searing the hill-side to the eastward, and by the
guns of a Turkish warship lying off the coast. At our feet lay the lake,
beyond it ridges of rising ground, melting away into a broken line to
northward. It was a most peaceful scene, for the warship was hidden by a
shoulder of land, and there were no Turkish troops in sight, nor any of
their enemies. We had met only a few people on our way; a Turkish
patrol, who seemed mildly concerned about us, and some shepherds with
their flocks, all equally indifferent to the great doings that are
filling the world's daily papers with exciting copy, a credit to the
inventive genius of the modern journalist. The shepherds stood out like
statues on the skyline, and of rather quaint shape, which I discovered
to be due to the strange fashion of their cloaks, the sleeves of which
stick out in an acute angle, and are not used for their original purpose
at all. We wandered still further inland, not in a compact body, for the
Turkish gunner-man was a very deliberate walker and, like most of his
race, not prone to undue haste. Nevertheless, we arrived in time at a
Turkish camp of some fifteen hundred men, a camp which could be traced
by scent as well as view. It stood below the skyline on some rising
ground, which sloped steeply towards the enemy's position, and gave
evidence of a complete absence of any kind of sanitation. The Caimakam
(Lieutenant-Colonel) commanding welcomed us politely, and after having
ascertained that nothing whatever had happened that day, and that no one
expected anything to happen, because rumours of a truce were afloat, we
thought of making our way home. This meant walking back to Küjük
Chekmedje, where we hoped to find some boat to take us out to our
launch. The walking party tailed off on the way, the British element
forging ahead, the Turkish lagging behind, to allow the former to cool
down in the north wind while waiting for the rear-guard, until at last
we found a boat and were rowed out to the launch. I heard a shot or two
from the land, coming in our direction perhaps; possibly the Turkish
patrols, finding no Bulgars to shoot at, thought fit to practise on us;
however, like so much of the shooting done in modern warfare, even the
best-conducted, it was perfectly harmless.
So again I returned to Constantinople, and passed through Sunday crowds
quite indifferent to the events in progress some fifty miles away, at
those lines of Chatalja, planned by Valentine Baker Pasha, and since his
time neglected till they became the only barrier between the Sublime
Porte and ruin. It is strange, though enlightening, to reflect that
while the Turkish Army was being driven back from the frontiers, while
ill-equipped bodies of Turkish troops, leaderless, were being driven
before a highly trained enemy, the lines of Chatalja, the last defence
of Constantinople, were left unarmed, unguarded, but for a couple of
elderly men whose duty it was to see that doors, shutters, and other
bits of woodwork were not removed by the genial neighbours for firewood.
But this is Turkey, an Empire that has traded on its position as apple
of discord for centuries, and has never been able to take thought for
the morrow--nomads, here to-day and gone to-morrow.
CHAPTER IX
Turkish literature--Turkish proverbs--The literature of other
Tartars--Legend of Turkish descent--The origin of the Turks--The
Turks and Giougen--The Turks with the Eastern Empire--Arab
subjection of the Turks--The Turks and Western civilization--The
Turkish Navy--The Sultan's Army--The lines of Chatalja--The
refugees--View from the Mosque of Mihrama--The Mosque of Mohammed
the Conqueror--The care of the sick and wounded.
The history of the Turks has formed the subject of much scientific
research, hampered considerably by a want of material, by a lack of
information on the subject, handed down from earlier days. The Turks
themselves have no liking for literature, have no bent in that
direction, and all they have ever produced in that line are a series of
stories relating the doings and sayings of Nasreddin Hodja, whose rôle
is much like that of Till Eulenspiegel in Germany. These stories of
Nasreddin Effendi are humorous in their way, but are to a great extent
too indecent for the fastidious Western mind. The humour, too, is of the
obvious order, from which the West is gradually, painfully emerging. I
will give only one sample of Nasreddin's wit. This worthy was awakened
one night by a noise in his garden. He went to the open window, looked
out, and saw something large and white moving about below. Nasreddin
took down his bow, his quiver full of arrows, and sent one in the
direction of the white object, then returned to bed and to sleep. The
next morning he went out into his garden to ascertain the cause of the
nocturnal disturbance, and discovered his shirt, hung out to dry,
transfixed by the arrow. "How fortunate it is that I was not inside
that shirt last night," quoth Nasreddin.
Proverbs give some idea of the working of a people's soul, but in this
respect too the Turk is not very prolific, certainly not original.
Herewith a few samples:
Ei abdal! Ei dervish! Aktché ilé biter beriche.
Freely translated: Oh, monk! Oh, dervish! money will take you anywhere!
The sentiment has nothing to recommend it, and is certainly better
expressed by La Fontaine:
Quelles affaires ne fait point
Ce malheureux métal, l'argent maître du monde.
Or again:
Abdel Sekkédé, hadji Mekkédé.
(The monk to the convent, the pilgrim to Mecca.)
Also to be found in other languages:
Chasseur dans les bois, voyageur sur la route,
Les hommes, commes les mots n'out de prix qu'à leur place.
(_Pariset._)
Or the simpler German:
Schuster bleib' bei deiner Leiste.
There are no epics in the Turkish language, yet their wanderings should
have called forth some such ebullition had they ever had some slight
tendency to rise out of their primordial inarticulateness. They have
little songs which the Anatolian peasants sing when the day's work is
done, which sound through the latticed windows of the women's secluded
chambers. But these songs are generally of love or homely matter, and do
not tend to inspire the listener with ambition to emulate the deeds of
his fathers for the honour and glory of his race and country. Other
races emerging from barbarism to this day sing of their national heroes.
What traveller along the lower reaches of the Danube has not listened to
those bands of wandering Tsigani?
Then again, the Highlands of Scotland ring still with the recital of
some great clan leader's doughty deeds. True, they are mostly tales of
strife and bloodshed, but they hold the germs of history and record it
in the manner most likely to lead others to higher aims. Of all this
the Turk knows nothing. No epic tells of those days when his wild
forebears left the congeries of nomad tribes which haunted the
hunting-grounds north of the Hwang-Ho, of Tibet, and the rolling plains
beyond the Hindu-Kush. Mongol and Manchu, Tartar and Magyar, forming
groups of nomad tribes, akin and possibly speaking the same primitive
language, which, when history became articulate, only differed in
vocabulary, hardly at all in structure, as it does so widely from Aryan
and Chinese. Of these races Manchu and Tartar have risen to greatness;
Manchu till recently reigned over China from Peking, while one Osmanli,
descendant of a wandering Tartar tribe, sits in the seat of former Roman
Emperors of the East. The Finns, belonging to the same race, have in the
course of centuries developed a literature of a high order, and are
among the most enlightened of the children of the Tsar of all the
Russias; Hungary's history lives in glowing epics and passionate song;
and both these scions of the same stock are valuable factors in the
æsthetic life of Europe. But the Manchus have fled from Peking after
centuries of dark incompetence, and the Sultan, whose palace stands on
the European banks of the Bosphorus, has during his short reign seen the
provinces won by the sword of Othman torn from him by younger nations,
whose soul has been nourished by stirring recital of their former
greatness, whose heroes live in song and epic, which by these puts heart
into the warrior and leads him on to victory.
Now those young nations are without the gates of Constantinople; they
have reduced the Turkish Empire in Europe to a narrow strip of land
between the Bosphorus and a line of defences, stretching from the Sea of
Marmora to the Black Sea, the lines of Chatalja.
The Turks themselves claim descent from Japheth, the son of Noah, as do
the Armenians, by the way, and there is no reason to dispute with them
about their traditional ancestor, who, by all accounts, was a most
respectable person, and will serve as well as any other for genealogical
mystification. Undoubtedly the Turks and their origin began to attract
attention comparatively early in the history of Europe, and an English
historian (Knolles) of the seventeenth century writes of them as
follows: "The glorious empire of the Turks, the present terrour of the
world, hath amongst other things nothing in it more wonderful or strange
than the poor beginning of itself, so small and obscure as that it is
not well knowne unto themselves, or agreed upon even among the best
writers of their histories; from whence this barbarous nation that now
so triumpheth over the best part of the world, first crept out and took
their beginning. Some (after the manner of most nations) derive them
from the Trojans, led thereunto by the affinity of the word Turci and
Teucri; supposing (but with what probability I know not) the word Turci,
or Turks, to have been made of the corruption of the word Teucri, the
common name of the Trojans."
Others have ingeniously endeavoured to identify the Turks with the lost
"Ten Tribes"; these mysterious people have frequently been called upon
to act as ancestors to modern nations. I remember well an English
matron, mother of a promising family, who tried to foist this ancestry
upon the people of Great Britain. However, she was advised to look at
her domestic treasures, and the sight of her snub-nosed offspring
seriously shook her strange belief.
Perhaps, though it seems no adequate reason, the constant infusion of
fresh blood, the mixing by marriage with the women of conquered or
conquerors, has prevented a national expression of sentiment based on
historic facts, and the Turks, even before they emerged from distant
Asia, had absorbed several other races not akin to them, or had been
absorbed by some temporarily more powerful nation. There is sufficient
reason to suppose that the Iranians, the original inhabitants of
Bokhara, were the foundation and predominant note in the tribes which
after a while became defined as Turks. The Chinese seem to have been the
first to become acquainted with the Turks, and that so long ago as 1300
B.C. Chinese records of 300 B.C. mention a warlike race called Hiung-nu.
Vigorous, active, restless, always on horseback, these savages hovered
round the frontiers of the Celestial Empire. They were, it seems,
divided into tribes, which when not acting in concert on some greater
raid, probably behaved much as Scottish clans did not so long ago, and
quarrelled and fought amongst each other. So it appears that a clan
called the Asena sought the protection of a stronger one, which Gibbon
called the Giougen, or Jwen-jwen. The Asena settled for a while in the
district where now stands Shan-tan, in which district a hill called
Dürkö (helmet), from its shape, is said to have originated the name
"Turk."
In course of time, about a century, the Asena began to feel their
strength and tried it on their hosts, the result a massacre of Giougen
and their disappearance from the pages of history. Again no epic tells
us the stirring story of those days, and what is known is due to the
researches of men like Chavannes and E. H. Parker. But the Turks from
this time came into the field of history and into the purview of the
West; they had gained in strength and importance with astounding
rapidity, and were making their presence felt on the nations to westward
of their former haunts. They still clung to their habits of nomadic
hunters, but, it seems, engaged in trade as well, carrying goods for
others in their caravans, connecting East and West with links of
doubtful trustiness.
It was through this trading that they first came into contact with the
Western world. Persia stood in the way of this young Turkey's commercial
development, and would insist on Turkish silks finding their outlet to
the Persian Gulf rather than by the roads of the old Roman Empire of the
East. Thus it came that Turkish envoys sought out Emperor Justin at
Constantinople. The Emperor was somewhat chary of dealing with these
strangers, but little more than half a century later Turkish warriors
were assisting Heraclius against the Persians. As the Turks increased in
number they felt the need of further expansion, so a section of them
made its way north towards Lake Baikal and menaced China, but were
subdued in 630. China then set about creating ill-feeling between the
two sections of the Turkish people, the northern and the western tribes,
and brought about a division which seems to have been final. In the
meantime another force had arisen in Asia Minor which was destined to
overrun that district, surge into Syria, conquer Egypt and the African
countries washed by the Mediterranean Sea, and send its tide up against
the barriers of the Pyrenees.
The Arabs had come from out of the desert and, fired by the teachings of
the Prophet Mohammed, had carried their green banner victorious over the
ruins of former Empires. The Caliphate, the Arab Empire, grew as rapidly
under the immediate successors of the Prophet as the Turkish State, if
it could be so called, had done a century before. Persia went under
before the furious onslaught of the Arabs in 639, and the conquerors
overflowing into Transoxania had subjected the peoples living there by
714. The Arabs spread westward as well, and only forty-six years after
the flight of Mohammed from Mecca to Medina, in the seventh century the
Sea of Marmora was alive with the lateen sails of the swarthy
marauders. They dashed out their souls against the strong defences of
Constantinople, the Walls of Theodosius, in successive attempts to
capture the City of fabulous wealth, but were forced to retire defeated.
However, the Turks, who nearly ten centuries later broke down those
stout defences, became subject to the Caliphate.
This applies to the Western Turks only; they vanished as a political
entity and gradually became converted to a creed well suited to bring
out the qualities of a high-spirited, martial race of nomads. It
sanctified their lust of blood and conquest, and gave fuller force to
this people's fighting spirit by imposing the strict discipline of
Islam, "obedience," but made no mention of that broad tolerance breathed
by the Founder of Christianity to which the West owes so much of its
civilization. It is doubtful though whether those early Turkish tribes,
if they had come under the influence of Christianity instead of Islam,
would have advanced any further on the path of culture than they have
arrived to-day. Though they have been in contact with the West since the
seventh century, though they conquered the Empire of the East and made
its Christian peoples their subjects, and from the City of Constantine
overflowed Eastern Europe up to the gates of Vienna, yet the Turk has
learnt nothing. This people, still nomad, has taken nothing from the
West but a misunderstood, misapplied idea of representative Government
which failed at its inception and has hastened the downfall of the
Ottoman Empire in Europe. It has absorbed nothing but a dim idea of a
military organization which when applied to a civilized, cultured nation
makes for military perfection, when attempted on nomads leads to such
debacles as the plains of Thessaly, the mountainous districts of
Macedonia, and the stricken fields of Thrace have recently witnessed.
British naval officers have for years been acting as instructors to the
Turkish Navy, which from a collection of obsolete iron tanks has to
outward appearance assumed the semblance of a war fleet; left to
themselves, what has that fleet done to help Turkey in her present
straits? The Greek Navy is afloat and preventing transhipment of Turkish
troops from Asia Minor--but the Sultan's fleet did not move out to help!
Only some mines were laid and allowed to float about the southern
entrance to the Dardanelles, endangering foreign commerce from which
Turkish officials indirectly draw their means of livelihood. The
"Hamidieh," her officers warned time and again to take precautions
against torpedo attack, was laid up in dock with a gaping rent in her
bows caused by a Bulgarian torpedo, and only the "Khairreddin
Barbarossa," named after Turkey's greatest sailor, lying at the southern
end of the lines of Chatalja, has taken any part in a war in which naval
power, properly applied, could have turned the fortunes of the day.[5]
[5] Since this was written the Turkish fleet has emerged from hiding
once or twice, and shown some signs of activity. Both Turks and Greeks
have laid claim to victories at sea.
The sea-coast of Bulgaria lay exposed; a strong naval force to escort
transport would have made practicable a landing of Turkish troops behind
the enemy's lines and threatened his communications, thus checking his
advance on Adrianople. But the Turkish Navy was content to throw a few
shells into a harmless convent, or monastery, at Varna. Possibly there
were no transports, probably there was no definite scheme, but certainly
there was no navy commensurate with the power assumed by the Osmanli in
the comity of European nations.
Money was spent on the Sultan's navy, and it failed. Money, much money,
was given for the Sultan's army. The highly trained officers, carefully
selected from Europe's most efficient military organization, were
acquired as instructors, and worked hard at what must have seemed the
labours of Sisyphus. The Sultan's army took the field, and all the work
of years seemed as if thrown away. Instead of military organization
there was chaos. Nominal army corps with staff and commanders figured on
paper. In reality commanders of army corps, divisions, brigades waited
for the troop trains at wayside stations, and as each tactical unit
detrained and fell in on the platforms, these commanders without
commands gathered together such units as they thus found and
extemporized commands. Transport failed completely, and at Rodosto men
landing from Asia Minor cried for bread, hundreds strayed starving in
search of food for five and six days on end, and then were driven back
by cavalry into the firing line--to fight!
Of all the costly engines of war ordered and paid for, field telegraphs,
field telephones, not one was in evidence. Thousands of Anatolian
peasants, greybeards and youths, swelled the ranks, untrained many of
them, some only used to muzzle-loading rifles. Some two hundred thousand
of these men, Turkish soldiers, clung on to the lines of Chatalja;
others, in thousands, stragglers from the battlefield, collected from
day to day in the purlieus of Stamboul and returned unwilling to the
front. Among these were even officers--an official announcement ordered
the imams, the priests, to render to the military police authorities
lists of all officers living in the streets of their respective
districts--officers here in the capital of an Empire, the existence of
which in Europe is threatened as gravely as was ever any Empire of the
world, and out in the West, but fifty miles away, is the front, the line
of Chatalja's defences, result of Valentine Baker Pasha's military
skill. Impregnable, they say, are those lines, and that they would be,
and will remain, if all available sons of Othman put their backs into
the work. Yet there were officers and men of the Sultan's army
frittering away their time and wasting opportunities of at last doing
something for the country they profess to love, here in the capital with
the enemy hammering at the outer defences. And would it be believed,
those lines of Chatalja, just before the debacle of Lüle Burgas, were
left in charge of two men, whose function was to see that no thief
removed doors, shutters, or any other portable trifles from the many
Government buildings on the lines!
It is no wonder that the example set by many officers of the Sultan's
army had discouraged the troops, who, seeing everything going against
them, starving, diseased, turned their weary eyes homeward to the East,
to Asia, the Turk's real home, and dragged their tired, wounded limbs
over the incredibly bad roads till the soaring minarets and their rivals
the cypresses, the domes of mosques built to commemorate the conquests
of former warrior Osmanli, gladdened their sight. Beyond those imposing
temples lay the sea, and across it, only a little way, Anatolia--Home.
[Illustration: THE MOSQUE OF MOHAMMED
Built to commemorate the Conqueror of Constantinople. He lies buried
under the shadow of this Mosque.]
Of the thousands of broken-spirited, ignorant peasant-soldiers who left
their country's colours, a term the inner meaning of which was
incomprehensible to the majority of them, many fell by the way.
Thousands clambered into railway trucks, on to the roofs, of any train
starting for the base, and of these many died and their comrades threw
them out by the way; corpses strewed the railway embankments. Many
reached St. Stefano, where preliminary peace was signed after another
Northern foe, Russia, had defeated the Osmanli in the field. Of these
one-third, it is said, died of cholera, exposure, starvation, their
festering bodies covering the pavements. Considerable numbers reached
Stamboul and took refuge in the mosques, perhaps hoping that Allah might
help them out of their affliction. St. Sophia was crowded with sick and
despondent humanity, the flotsam and jetsam of a war of East and
West: one side all unprepared, purposeless, corrupt; the other in
well-ordered array, conscious of power and of purpose, and using
intelligently all the dread weapons of modern warfare.
With the fugitive soldiery came columns of refugees, peasants of Thrace
and Macedonia, Pomaks--Bulgarian converts to Islam; they came across the
rolling plains with all their portable belongings, their trail marked by
an occasional grave, by a dead horse or bullock by the roadside. These,
too, sought shelter in the courtyards of the mosques; they streamed in
at the City gates, chiefly Edirné Kapoo, as the Turks renamed the
ancient Gate of Adrianople. I have seen them here herded without the
gate awaiting admission, crowded in the courtyard of the Mosque of
Mihrama, which occupies the site of a church once dedicated to St.
George in the days of old Byzant.
St. George, the patron saint of warriors, was entrusted with the defence
of Constantine's City here where the Walls of Theodosius reach this
highest point. A glorious view spreads at your feet from their height;
past groves of solemn cypress trees, which cast their long shadows over
the graves of faithful followers of the Prophet, thousands of whom in
distant ages assailed the strong defences of the City, your eye travels
along the hoary walls, over a ruined palace to where Galata arises
beyond the Golden Horn. Forests of masts, smoke rising from the funnels
of ocean-going steamers or busy ferry-boats speak of commercial activity
contrasting with the Oriental repose of Stamboul at your feet. Little
wooden houses, some of warm purply greys, others are painted with some
bright colour; fig trees and cypresses on the rising ground towards the
east, where many mosques, the only lasting monument a Turk builds, stand
out above the clustering houses, their blue-grey domes crowned with
gleaming crescent, light against the deep blue of the Anatolian
mountains, attendant minarets a dazzling white against the southern sky.
And then to southward another mosque or so with minaret and sentinel
cypress, and over them the sparkling waters of the Sea of Marmora, where
the Prince's Islands seem floating in the fairy haze of a southern
summer day. This was when I saw it a few short years ago; to-day the sky
is grey and cloudy, the smoke hangs heavy over the leaden waters of the
Golden Horn, mosques and minarets loom dark against the faint, watery
outlines of the distant hills, the fig trees have shed their leaves and
throw out writhing arms against winter's inclemency, and sullen
cypresses bend ungraciously before the north wind. Grey despondency is
the keynote of the picture, for from the south-west and the west, and
from the north-east, the foes have gathered in strength and hold
Constantinople in bonds, and beyond those dark heights to westward an
enemy, strong and purposeful, is demanding admission to Turkey's last
foothold in Europe.
The untidy street from Edirné Kapoo to the heart of Stamboul is
punctuated here and there by mosques--there is the Mosque of Mihrama,
already mentioned, where once stood a Christian church; there is the
Mosque of Mohammed II the Conqueror, built on the site of a church
dedicated to the Holy Apostles, for long the resting-place of those
far-off Byzantine Emperors, the last of whom perished when the City fell
before the sword of Othman. Around it stand the academies where are
trained those destined to expound the teaching of the Prophet. Under a
wintry sky, amidst the squalor of a people incapable of elementary
hygiene, the glory of the Conqueror's deeds is dimmed, and the
vanquished, despondent sons of his fierce warriors huddle in groups
about this monument to an epoch-making victory. The road leads for a
while along an aqueduct attributed to Valens, the Emperor who was
killed in battle at Adrianople by the Goths. Bulgarians are this day
holding the city of Emperor Hadrian in an iron vice. Along here are
other ruins, more recent, the result of a fire probably; no rebuilding
has been attempted, everywhere is dirt, squalor, and decay.
The street opens out on to a large square, one side of which is occupied
by the Seraskierat, the War Office. From here came the order to the
Sultan's officers that they should pack up their full-dress uniforms for
the triumphal entry of the Othman army into Sofia. To-day weary
stragglers from the battlefields of Thrace lean against the walls of the
Seraskierat, heavy-eyed, hungry, diseased, despondent. Surely there were
some whose business is between these walls cognisant of the real state
of affairs! It is said that of some eighteen German instructors sixteen
declared the Turkish Army to be quite unfit to take the field; yet those
holding office at the Seraskierat heeded not and sent hundreds of
thousands in smaller tactical units, under-officered, to take what place
they could in the fighting line; no scheme was ready, or if there was no
one adhered to it, no adequate provision for commands and staff, for
communications, for commissariat preceded the flood of miscellaneous
soldiery which flowed out to meet the enemy's advance and then ebbed
back, carrying with it all the human wreckage thrown up on to the
ill-kept pavements of the mosques of conquerors.
And while this mass of suffering Eastern humanity was but fitfully and
quite inadequately cared for by the Turkish authorities, Western
humanity was putting forth its finest efforts to alleviate this awful
distress by all the means of Western civilization, against which the
Turk is making his last stand. In the old Seraglio, at Galata and Pera
hospitals have been opened to receive the sick and wounded soldiers of
the Sultan, and they now readily make their way to where the Red
Crescent flies by the side of the ensigns of Great European Powers. I
know fair English women, all unused to the sights and sounds, the
aftermath and echo of glorious war, who are giving all their strength to
works of mercy, Germans and Austrians, French and Italians, all moved by
the spirit which informs Christianity. Do they expect gratitude in
return, I wonder! I hope not, for they are likely to be disappointed.
One gentle lady I know of, who has worked hard amongst all this misery,
asked some of her patients whether in case of a massacre of Christians
they would at least protect those who had nursed them back to life.
After some deliberation the answer came: "No, not that. But we would
kill you first, so that you may escape torture, and worse, from others."
Again, at a meeting where many ladies were busy preparing hospital
necessaries, the talk turned to the question of a massacre of
Christians. A Turkish lady, a lady of high degree, turned on her
fellow-workers and declared that should her people be driven to the last
extremity they would certainly wreak vengeance on the Christian
population, and she herself would be the first to incite them, to goad
them on to murder and rapine, until the streets should run with the
blood of Christians, and Christian habitations became a howling
wilderness, to show a horror-stricken world in what manner a race of
warriors goes out of history.
Personally I do not think any such catastrophe will happen; the Turkish
soldiers I saw daily straggling into hospital are too broken in spirit,
too sick in mind and body, to carry out such atrocities as those with
which they have from time to time sullied the pages of their history.
Nevertheless, those two accounts I have given above, of the truth of
which I am convinced, prove to me that when the Turk finally leaves
Europe he will take with him nothing which the West has tried to teach
him, least of all any conception of the divine quality of mercy.
CHAPTER X
The Turkish character--The rise of Turkish power--Earliest days of
Turkish history--Conquest of Persia and Egypt--Turkish soldiers of
the Caliphate--Samanids' conquests in India--The rise of the
Seljuks--Arslan and his victories--Europe in the eleventh and
twelfth centuries--The Crusades--Jenghiz Khan and his people--The
first appearance of the Osmanli--Erthogrul--The rule of
Othman--Othman and Dundar--The capture of Broussa--Death of
Othman--The reign of Orkhan--The army of Ala-ed-din--Orkhan's
capture of Nicæa.
Although I cannot write with approval of Turkish rule and its effect on
the European provinces conquered by the now blunted sword of Othman, yet
I feel a certain sympathy for the Turk, as individual, in this day of
his trial. Sympathy is due to a variety of influences, and I feel that
in the present instance my lingering liking for the Turk is based on
several grounds. First of all, perhaps, comes the fondness you cannot
but feel for a wayward child and its picturesque moods, more especially
as I myself was quite the "wandering sheep," as the hymn says, when
young, and am not disinclined towards an excursion off the narrow way
even now. Hence a fellow feeling with the nomad Turk, who, though
generally placid, is capable of being roused to fury by unseen, unknown
influences; in that state, like the wayward child, he is an unmitigated
nuisance. In his everyday mood the Turk is gentle and extremely
courteous, the courtesy of a strong man, scion of a race of conquerors.
This dignified politeness is to be met in certain parts of Spain, where
conquering Moors made their impress on native Iberians and valiant
Goths. Again, the nomad virtue, hospitality, is strong among the sons of
Othman. I have also met fine intellects among the Turks, for instance,
in one of the Princes of the Blood, a man of a refined mind, deeply read
in Nietzsche, and of no mean skill with the brush. But he was only a
painter; his studies from life were excellent, and some have gained
admission to the Paris Salon, but creative artist he certainly was not,
and the subject pictures evolved out of his inner consciousness treated
of matters considered peculiarly French in tone, subconsciously erotic,
and generally unhappy in treatment. But then the Turk has little, if
any, constructive power, and even the finer intellects among them are
apt to waste their treasures on abstract speculations, leading to no
practical result; their course may be likened to that of a slender
stream of water poured forth on some endless desert waste.
Another bond of sympathy is the history of the Turkish race, which
should appeal strongly to every Briton, for in a manner there is much
similarity between the rise of Turkish power and that of the British
Empire. Wild men from the northern seas, Angles and Saxons, Danes,
Vikings, Berserks, seethed into the British Isles, and, mixing with the
Romanized native population, rose to greatness through much tribulation.
The narrow confines of Britain forced this amalgam to conquests
overseas, and thus arose the British Empire. Is there not some analogy
between our rule in India and that of the Osmanli in Europe? We, in
India, form a separate ruling caste, placed in power by the sword; we do
not mix with the many native tribes and nations under the British Raj,
many whose duty takes them to India cannot give an accurate account of
these various tribes and nations; they know not their languages, their
customs are strange to them, and when their work is done they return to
enjoy the fruits of their labour with but an imperfect knowledge of the
land that gave them what they hold and of the people who lived their
mysterious life outside the compound and the courthouse. So it is with
the Turk in Europe. His people overflowed from Asia on successive waves
of conquest, and made subject many nations with which they have nothing,
absolutely nothing, in common, and with whom, unlike the Briton, the
Turk does not desire any closer acquaintanceship.
To me, as Briton, the present situation, the happenings of the last few
weeks, "give furiously to think." Here is a powerful Empire, carved out
of Europe by the sword, and held by conquerors who despised their alien
subjects, and failed to understand their feelings or realize their
ambitions, closed their eyes in smug contentment to the portents of the
time. Then came the avalanche, and young nations, hitherto disregarded
as serious opponents, rose in their strength, tore themselves free, rent
province after province from the weak hands of an unprepared overlord,
and are now threatening the capital of the Turkish Empire. From the
courtyard of the Sublime Porte, where Turkey's devious policy has been
fashioned for so long, from the square in front of the War Office, which
suddenly awakened, hurried untrained troops under untrained leaders,
without a definite plan, to death by shot and shell, by starvation and
disease; you could hear the sound of guns carried on the westerly wind
from the lines of Chatalja, the last defences of the capital, where the
remnants of the Sultan's army are standing at bay against the organized
forces of young Western nations.
It is a stirring history, full of ups and downs, that of the Turkish
people. As we have seen, they emerged from a seething mass of nomadic
humanity which infested Central Asia, and threatened those Empires
which had settled and acquired civilization, such as China, whence, by
the way, come some of the earliest records of the Turks. These nomads
had no other use for civilization than to acquire unearned riches;
whatever seemed to them undesirable was destroyed, and to this day the
Turk has not advanced much further; he frequently changes his abode, and
the change is easily effected, as he has few belongings--some rugs, a
text or two from the Koran, his cooking utensils. Even in his home he
seems to have only dropped in for a week or so, and the curtains instead
of doors to separate one apartment from another still further recall his
old nomadic habits. So his ancestors roamed about in hordes over the
plains of Asia. Where they met with little resistance they abode awhile,
moving on when the locality had nothing more to offer, retiring
elsewhere when met with determined opposition. As the tribes increased
in numbers they went separate ways, some to extinction, others to form
ephemeral empires such as that of the Ghaznevids in Eastern Afghanistan,
in the latter days of the tenth century.
The influence of the Turks on Western Europe did not make itself felt
until after the Crusades, because they had much ado to make and keep
their position in Asia Minor. A short time after the Prophet's death,
his general, Khaled, "The Sword of God," subdued the Persian Army, and
gained it for his master, Caliph Abu Bekr, in whose reign Syria was
conquered from the Eastern Emperor Heraclius, and Ecbatana and Damascus
became Moslem towns like Mecca and Medina. Then followed a noble line of
Caliphs, under whose sway Islam extended its frontiers and rolled in
threatening waves towards the West. Omar's general, Amron, added Egypt
to the Empire of the Caliphs, who made Damascus their capital. Legend
and history tell of those days of the Caliphs, when Arab art,
literature, and science flourished under such sovereigns as
Haroun-al-Raschid, the contemporary of Charlemagne, Al Mamun, in whose
days Western Christianity gave birth to the Order of Benedictines when
Gregory IV was Pope in the beginning and middle of the ninth century.
We have seen how the Turks came into contact with the Arabs, and were
subdued by them and converted to Islam in the eighth century, and how by
degrees they recovered their strength and were able to assist the
Caliphate in the troubles that crowded in upon it, how fifty thousand
Turkish mercenaries were taken into the service of the Caliph, and
occupied much the same position as that held by the Prætorian Guard of
Rome, the Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire, and the Mamelukes in Egypt.
Turkish influence thus increased steadily, and was first marked more
definitely by a dynasty called the Samanids, who seem to have considered
themselves vassals of the Abbasid Caliphs. In the interests of the
Caliphate the roaming Samanids pushed forward into India, conquering
Delhi, Multan, and Lahore towards the end of the tenth century. Their
victorious course was not checked till they reached the Ganges, and
Mahmud, their chief, styled himself Sultan. It appears that he still
acknowledged allegiance to the Caliphs, but his successors assumed
greater independence as the power of the Caliphate waned. In the
meantime another Turkish dynasty rose to notice--the Seljuks, who
appeared under their leaders Thogrul and Chakir.
This bearer of a name famous in history and romance, Thogrul, son of
Suleiman, accidentally drowned in the Euphrates, was, it seems,
wandering about like a true nomad, accompanied by his tribesmen. He was
on his way to Iconium, Konia, probably with the idea of interfering in
any fight that might be in progress, when he found the troops of Kaim
the Caliph flying before the hosts of Masud, the son of Mahmud of
Ghazin. Thogrul espoused the losing cause, and his timely assistance
turned defeat into victory, for which the Caliph was so grateful that
his new ally was rewarded with the Principality of Sultan Oeni, or the
Sultan's Front, and appointed, as it were, Warden of the Marches. This
happened towards the middle of the eleventh century, when the Christian
world was very busy with religious differences. The Greek Church decided
to break with Rome after the Council of Sutri in 1042, and was too much
occupied with vexed questions of dogma to pay attention to the rise of a
young race of nomads in a former province of the Roman Empire.
Nevertheless, these wanderers had given their first proof of prowess,
and endorsement followed when the Caliph, with solemn ceremony, handed
over the temporal power to Thogrul, at Bagdad, in 1055.
Thogrul did not live long after this honour was conferred upon him, but
his son Arslan followed in his footsteps, and served his spiritual
master, the Caliph, with all his might. To good purpose, for he fought
and subdued the Fammiti Caliphs of Egypt, schismatics who had broken
from the only Caliph's spiritual sway over a century before; he further
annexed Georgia and Armenia, and defeated the Emperor of the East,
Romanus IV, towards the end of the eleventh century.
The Western world was very young when these things happened; Henry IV, a
Frank, ruled over Germany, William of Normandy had not long conquered
England, while Malcolm III was King of Scotland; Spain was still divided
into small kingdoms and Moorish provinces under the Almoravids, and the
Magyars, distant relations of the Turks, were settling down in Hungary
under Bela I.
Western Christianity was becoming dimly conscious of a growing power in
the East, which Byzantium had felt distinctly since practically all the
Asiatic provinces had been lost to the Turk, and so Western chivalry
buckled on its armour, stitched a Cross on to its coat, and moved
Eastward in swarms, composed of enterprising knights, mostly
unacquainted with discipline, and their more or less reluctant
followers; the Crusades had begun, and were chiefly directed towards the
Holy Land and against the Arabs who had conquered there under the waning
ægis of the Caliphs.
Contemporary accounts, legends, and songs of troubadours tell of the
Saracens and their deeds, but little mention is made of the Turks,
destined to be Christianity's most formidable foe, who, under the
Seljuks, were growing to great importance, and under Melik Shah, the son
of Arslan, ruled from Transoxania to Egypt and eastward as far as Khiva.
Melik Shah's kingdom fell to pieces after his death, and the power of
the Turks was obscured for a time, while the former provinces of the
Caliphs broke off into separate states.
Crusaders came from the West and added glamour to the pages of history
without effecting any lasting results; great names shine out for a
moment from the haze, names like Frederick Barbarossa, Saladin, Richard
Coeur-de-Lion, but nothing definite need be mentioned about the Turks
till the crusading spirit had subsided and the nations of Europe began
to settle down into much the same political entities as we find to-day.
Another race of kinsmen to the Turks came like a whirlwind out of Asia,
under a famous leader, Jenghiz Khan, or rather a mixture of several
Mongol races. Their passage did not affect Asia Minor immediately, for
they swept from China over Southern Russia towards Moravia, penetrating
as far as the Adriatic; they went as swiftly as they came, but stopped
short of their old hunting-grounds, and squatted by the banks of the
Volga, where, known as the Golden Horde, they stayed some one and a half
centuries. Sections of this horde made inroads into neighbouring
countries, and one of these invaded Persia and Syria, massacred the
inhabitants of Bagdad, killed the Caliph, the last of the dynasty
founded by Abul Abbas in 750 A.D. The Seljuks, who held the temporal
power in the Caliphate, were likewise badly defeated, and might have
gone under completely had not another force appeared most opportunely,
one of those wandering Turkish tribes which had a habit of turning up
where fighting was going on. Their leader was another Erthogrul, and he
traced his descent back to Suleiman. Legend has been busy where history
is silent, and assigns to this Erthogrul the same rôle, a _Deus ex
machina_, as to the former bearer of that name. Authorities differ on
the subject, and I fancy that the whole story is still somewhat obscure.
However, Erthogrul had a son Osman, or Othman, from whom are descended
the Osmanli of to-day; Othman's long and prosperous reign laid the
foundations of the Turkish Empire. His campaigns were crowned with
victory, the territory of neighbouring Turkish states were incorporated
in his dominions, and the Empire of the East was forced to contribute to
the aggrandizement of his realm.
It appears that Othman did not declare himself independent until after
the death of the last Seljuk Sultan; in the meantime, during an interval
of peace--from 1291-1298--he devoted his energies to the internal
government of his dominions, and became famous for the toleration which
he exercised towards his Christian subjects. It will be remembered that
Georgia and Armenia, both Christian countries, had been absorbed by the
Caliphate, but at least under the first of the House of Othman these
Christians were free from persecution.
After several years of peace, during which he consolidated the resources
of his country, Othman went to war. In order to give his followers
greater zest, and to inflame the fighting spirit of Islam, Othman
declared himself the chosen defender of the Faith, and proclaimed that
he had a direct mission from heaven. This roused in his warrior subjects
a fanaticism as fierce and effective as that which had inspired
Mohammed's fiery followers on their career of conquest. His private life
was not without an occasional exhibition of those barbarous instincts
which have never left the Turk during all the centuries of his contact
with the West and its ideas and methods. Thus one day Othman discovered
that his venerable uncle, Dundar, was in agreement with several other
officers attempting to dissuade him from an attempt on the Greek
fortress of Koepri Hissar. Dundar had been one of those four hundred and
forty-four horsemen of legend who rode under the banner of Erthogrul.
Othman, annoyed at Dundar's interference, drew his bow and shot his
uncle dead. So murder of a kinsman marked the first days of the Othman
dynasty.
The attempt on Koepri Hissar proved successful, and Othman went on from
victory to victory. In the beginning of the fourteenth century he fought
his way to the Black Sea, leaving Broussa and several other towns to be
taken at leisure. But failing health was against him, and he had to
leave the conquest of Broussa to Orkhan, his son, who had returned from
an expedition against a Mongolian army which the Greek Emperor, unable
to stem the tide of Turkish conquest, had bribed to attack the southern
frontier of the Ottoman Empire. Othman was dying when the news of the
capture of Broussa was brought to him. Bestowing blessings on his son,
he said: "My son, I am dying, and I die without regret, because I leave
such a good successor as thou. Be just, love goodness, and show mercy.
Give the same protection to all thy subjects, and extend the Faith of
the Prophet." Orkhan, it seems, followed his father's advice and carried
out his instructions; subsequent Osmanli have failed to do so, and are
now paying the penalty.
A splendid mausoleum built by Orkhan holds the remains of Othman, the
founder of the Ottoman dynasty, at Broussa, which became the capital of
Turkey until the conquest of Constantinople. The standard and scimitar
of Othman are preserved as objects of veneration in the Mosque of Eyub
on the Golden Horn. Here each succeeding Sultan is girt with the sword
of Othman, the coronation rite, amidst the prayers of his people: "May
he be as good as Othman."
[Illustration: THE MOSQUE OF EYUB
Here each succeeding Sultan is girded with the sword of Othman, a rite
equivalent to a Christian monarch's coronation.]
Orkhan succeeded his father and continued the work of conquest,
gathering in the outlying fragments of the broken Seljuk Empire. He was
ably assisted by his brother, Ala-ed-din, whom he had urged to share his
throne. Ala-ed-din declined, asking only the revenues of a single
village for his maintenance. Then Orkhan said: "Since, brother, you will
not accept the flocks and herds I offer you, be the shepherd of my
people--be my Vizier." So this high office was instituted. Ala-ed-din
devoted himself to the internal politics of the nation, and using the
military foundation already existent, fostered by a fighting creed, he
built up the military organization which acted so well during centuries
when fighting was the only business to which the Osmanli had to bend
their minds. The Turks who had followed Othman to victory were the same
men who had fed their flocks on the banks of the Euphrates. They formed
loose squadrons of irregular cavalry, and after the war returned to
their peaceful avocations. Ala-eddin, while still holding that the
mass of the nation should be the source whence Ottoman troops should be
drawn in time of war, saw the need of a standing army which should make
war their sole business and profession, so he raised, first of all, a
body of infantry called Jaza, or Piade. These were followed by a corps
famous in history--the Janissaries. This corps was entirely composed of
Christian children taken in battle or in sieges, and compelled to
embrace the Moslem faith. A thousand recruits were added yearly to their
numbers, and they were called Jeni Iskeri, or new troops, from which
name derives the European corruption, Janissaries. These troops were
trained in all martial exercises from their earliest youth, and were
subject to the strictest discipline. They were not allowed to form any
territorial connection with the land that had adopted them, their
prospects of advancement depended entirely on their skill in the
profession of arms, and the highest posts in that profession only were
open to them. Their isolated position, and the complete community of
interests which united them, prevented the degeneracy and enervation
which so speedily settled upon every Eastern Empire when once the fire
of conquest had died down.
Other bodies of the military organization founded by Ala-ed-din were the
Spahis (Sipahi, Sepoy), a "corps-d'élite" of specially chosen horsemen,
Silihdars, or vassal cavalry, name revived in Silihdar horse of Mysore,
a body of cavalry three squadrons strong, the men of which find their
own horses and equipment; those raised by Ala-ed-din were drawn from
vassal states, those of the Maharajah of Mysore from among the landed
proprietors, farmers, and smaller landowners of his principality.
Then the Oulou Fedji, or paid horsemen, Ghoureha, or foreign horse,
Azab's Light Infantry, and the Akindji, irregular light horse. The
Akindji gathered together in irregular companies, acted much as the
Hussars of the eighteenth century did when first raised; they foraged
for the regular troops, and swarmed round them to cover a retreat or
harassed a retiring enemy. They received no pay like the Janissaries,
nor lands like the Piade, and were entirely dependent on plunder. This,
doubtless, accounted for their unpopularity in countries through which
marched the hosts of Othman. Hussars were paid soldiers, but none the
less prone to plunder, in those days of the wars between Maria Theresa
and Frederick the Great. This tendency was discouraged by the Prussian
King, and I remember finding in some of the records an account of three
Hussars--one officer and two troopers--being hanged for looting at
Frankfurt a. O. Nowadays there are few people more respectable than a
Hussar, I know, because I have been one myself, and thus speak from
personal experience.
The story of a clever ruse is told of one of Orkhan's campaigns against
the Greeks. Othman had left Nicæa and Nicomedia untaken. Orkhan took the
latter town and invested Nicæa. Andronicus, the Greek Emperor, crossed
the Hellespont with a hastily raised levy to raise the siege of Nicæa,
but Orkhan met and defeated him with a portion of his army. Now the
garrison of Nicæa had been advised of the Emperor's intention, and daily
expected his arrival. So Orkhan disguised eight hundred of his men as
Greek soldiers, and directed them against the fortress. These
pseudo-Greeks, to give the ruse a yet greater semblance of reality, were
harassed by mock encounters with Turkish regular horse. The disguised
Turks appeared to have routed the enemy and headed for the City gate.
The garrison had been watching the proceedings, were thoroughly
deceived, and threw open the gate. An assault by the besieging army,
assisted by the force that had thus gained ingress, brought the city
into Orkhan's possession.
By 1336 all north-western Asia Minor was included in the Ottoman Empire,
and Orkhan devoted the next twenty years of peace to the work of
perfecting his military organization and consolidating the resources of
his newly acquired territories, supported by his brother, Ala-ed-din. So
the power that was to crush the life out of the failing Empire of the
East stood armed and waiting for a favourable moment on the eastern
shore of the Bosphorus. Turkish rule was predominant over all Asia
Minor, and a young nation, strong and armed, watched for the moment to
interfere with an old, effete Empire.
Beyond the lines of Chatalja, some fifty miles from this City, the
capital of Turkey, young nations, Bulgars and Serbs, are waiting,
watching, intent on hurling the Turk from Europe, as the Turk drove
forth the Greeks in their day.
CHAPTER XI
The Eastern Empire--The marriage of Orkhan and Theodora--Solyman
crosses the Hellespont--The death of Solyman--Amurath I conquers
Adrianople--A crusade against Amurath--Amurath conquers
Nish--Revolt of the Slavs--Western Europe at this period--Successes
of the Slavs--The battle of Kossova--Sultan Bajazet--Another
crusade against Turkey--Bajazet defeats the crusaders--The
ascendancy of Tamerlane--Bajazet is defeated by Tamerlane--Death of
Bajazet and Tamerlane--Civil war--Musa marches against
Servia--Mohammed I succeeds Musa--Amurath II--Pretender
Mustapha--Attack on Constantinople--Hunyadi Janos--Peace of
Szeggedin--The death of Ala-ed-din--Battle of Varna--Mohammed, son
of Amurath--Scanderbeg--Mohammed II--Conquest of Constantinople.
That Turkish rule has lasted as long as it has, has not died down like
the power of other Asiatic races who swept over Europe, held parts of it
for a while, and were then forced out again, is probably due to the fact
that earlier Ottoman Sultans took no step in advance before
consolidating their power behind them. They allowed time for each
conquered province, each subject race to blend into the general
nationality of their Empire by the assimilation of military and civil
institutions. Asia Minor became a solid Empire under Turkish rule, and
allowed the Sultan to look further afield for fresh conquests. He was
naturally drawn towards the West, where lay the heart of the Empire out
of which successive sons of Othman had carved their possessions. Again,
the troubled state of the Greek Empire, frequently rent by civil war,
offered the strong young Turk rulers an opportunity for interfering much
in the same way that Great Powers of to-day concern themselves with the
doings of less well-ordered states. The Eastern Empire was indeed in a
parlous state by the time Orkhan had brought his country from a chaos
of conquered provinces to a heterogeneous Empire, and invited
interference. The Emperor John V (Cantacuzene) realized the power of the
Turks, and sought to strengthen his position by an alliance with the
Sultan, so a marriage was arranged and celebrated with great pomp and
splendour between Orkhan, a widower of some sixty years, and the
Emperor's young daughter Theodora. This should have led to a good
understanding between the monarchs, but it did not, as the East was
pressing relentlessly on the enfeebled West, and temporary expedients
could not avert the coming catastrophe. All about Constantinople were
foreign settlements; Venetians and Genoese fought for mastery in the
narrow waters of the Bosphorus, and both united to wring concessions out
of the Eastern Empire. The rivalry of these two Republics gave Orkhan a
reason for interfering, and he decided to ally himself with the Genoese,
for he hated the Venetians, who had insulted him by declining to receive
his envoys to the Doges. But the Venetians were allied to Emperor John
Cantacuzene, in his struggles against another son-in-law, John
Palæologus.
Solyman, son of Orkhan, crossed the Hellespont by night with a handful
of followers and took Koiridocastron, or "Hog's Castle." No attempt was
made to regain this castle from the Turk, as the Emperor was fully
occupied with the armies of his rebel son-in-law, Palæologus, and with
the Genoese fleet. The Greek Emperor, finding himself in such sore
straits, without making any attempt to dislodge Solyman from the castle,
without even a remonstrance, implored Orkhan to send him assistance.
This Orkhan readily granted; he reinforced Solyman's small party with an
army of ten thousand men. This force defeated Palæologus and his
Slavonic army, but did not return to Asia; the Turk had landed in
Europe, and showed a determination to stay. Cantacuzene offered Solyman
ten thousand ducats to evacuate the "Hog's Castle," and the Sultan's son
agreed, but before the sum had been paid an earthquake visited Thrace
and threw down the walls of its strongholds. The Greeks saw in this a
sign of Heaven's ill-will, the Turks believed it to be a manifestation
of the will of Allah in their favour and a plain command to proceed with
the conquests in Europe. So while the Greeks were still trembling two of
Solyman's captains, Adjé Bey and Ghasi Fasil, occupied Gallipoli,
marched in over its defences shattered by the earthquake. Soon after
these events Solyman, when engaged in his favourite sport of falconry,
was thrown from his horse and killed. He was buried on the spot where he
had landed with his followers, and near him are buried his two captains,
to whose efforts the Turks owe their first firm foothold in Europe, when
Gallipoli, the key of the Dardanelles, the southern passage to
Constantinople, fell into their hands.
From the reign of Orkhan dates the first decisive influence of Turkey
over Eastern Europe. Orkhan and his brother, Ala-ed-din, forged the
weapons which were to bring the Eastern Empire to its fall and set up
another Empire in its place, an Empire which spread far afield over
Europe, and trod Western civilization under foot from the Black Sea to
the walls of Vienna. To-day that Empire's European possessions have
dwindled down to a small strip of land beyond the City's old walls and
the lines of Chatalja.
Another strong ruler followed Orkhan, Amurath I, his youngest son, in
1359. There were troubles in Asia to keep the new Sultan engaged, the
Prince of Carmania stirred up several Turkish Emirs to rise against the
House of Othman. This matter settled, Amurath bent his mind to further
conquests in Europe, and by 1361 he had captured the great city
Adrianople and made it his capital. Adrianople, the City of Hadrian,
scene of many historic events. Here Emperor Valens met the Goths as they
were streaming down the Valley of the Maritza, and tried to stem the
tide of barbarian invasion; but the Goths broke the trained legions of
Rome, who for years after could not be brought to face that foe again,
and Valens, the Emperor, was numbered among the slain. A few centuries
later Bulgarians and Greeks met here, and again an Emperor fell; whereas
the Goths contented themselves with slaying Valens in battle, the
conquering Bulgarians made a drinking-vessel of the skull of Nicephorus
I, vanquished at Adrianople.
To-day Bulgarians are investing a Turkish force in Adrianople, the first
European capital of the Sultans, where Amurath I lies buried. From here
Amurath prepared the way for the conquest of Constantinople; from here
he set out on those expeditions which brought one Christian nation after
another under the Turkish yoke. Here, too, the Turks first met their
present enemy, the Slav. Hitherto their opponents had been only the
enfeebled Greeks, and these had few, if any, friends in Europe. As
schismatics, the Pope was not concerned with their fate, but when
Amurath's campaigns extended westward, and threatened Catholic
countries, Pope Urban V became alarmed, and called upon Western Europe
for a new crusade. The King of Hungary, the Princes of Servia, Bosnia,
Wallachia, formed a league intended to drive the Osmanli out of Europe;
they collected their armed forces and marched towards the East, crossing
the Maritza about two days' march from Constantinople. There was no
force of equal strength available to Lalashahin, then in command of the
Ottoman forces in Europe, for the allied Princes disposed of some
twenty thousand men, and the Turkish army was scattered about in various
garrisons. The Christians, assured of victory, neglected all military
precautions, were caught unprepared during a night of revelry, "as wild
beasts in their lair. They were driven before us as flames before the
wind, till, plunging into the Maritza they perished in its waters," says
Seadeddin, the Oriental historian. This was the first encounter between
Turks and Slavs; there were many others, mostly with the same result,
and resulting in centuries of suffering for the vanquished. But the
times have changed; the Slav, no longer careless, undisciplined,
ill-prepared, has met the Turk again by the banks of the Maritza, and
before the West--prepared, purposeful, and strong--the East has failed
as it always has done, as it ever will do.
It was Amurath I who thus began to place the yoke on the Slav nations of
Eastern Europe; his troops captured Nissa (Nish), the strong city of the
Servians, and forced their Prince to sue for peace; it was granted on
the condition that he supplied a tribute of a thousand pounds of silver
and a thousand horse-soldiers every year. Sisvan, King of the
Bulgarians, had also taken part in the crusade of Western Christianity
against Amurath, and he was compelled to beg for mercy, which was shown
him at the price of his daughter's marriage to the conqueror.
But the Slavs, Servians, Bulgarians, and Bosniaks were not disposed to
give in calmly to the methods of colonization adopted by Turkey. Most of
Thrace was added to the European possessions, and all Roumelia, and
there seemed to be no limit to the Osmanli's greed of territory. The
natives of conquered districts were removed to other parts of Turkey,
and Turks and Arabs sent to colonize in their stead. All this urged the
princes of the neighbouring Slav races to another mighty effort against
the Asiatic invader. Servia, remembering her past greatness, was chief
of the movement, which was joined by an Albanian people, the Skipetars,
Wallachians and Magyars from Hungary, Poles from the northern Slav
kingdom, all combined with the southern Slavs in this enterprise. But
the old crusading enthusiasm was dead, and Western Europe, which had
sent heroes such as Godfrey of Bouillon, Richard Coeur de Lion,
Frederick Barbarossa, looked on with apathy at the encroachments of the
Turk and the spread of Islam. Richard II, weak and worthless, was King
of England, the imbecile Charles VI reigned over France, and the
Germanic Empire was torn by civil wars, raging between robber knights
and the free towns of the Hansa, under the dissolute Emperor Wenzel. The
chivalry of Spain was still fully occupied with its own crusade against
the Moors, and finally there were divisions in the Papacy itself between
Clement VII and Urban VI. So no help could come to the Slav Crusaders
from the West. Still the league against Amurath was powerful, and he
realized that its subjection would tax all his energy and resources. He
made all necessary arrangements for the good government of Asia during
his absence in the field, then crossed the Hellespont to meet the enemy.
In the meantime the Bulgarians and Serbs had become over-confident,
owing to a successful battle in Bosnia; an Ottoman army moving through
that country was attacked by the Allies with great vigour, and fifteen
out of twenty thousand Turks killed. Inactivity on the part of the
Christians marked the next few months, while Amurath was pouring troops
into Bulgaria, and completing the conquest of that important member of
the league. Ali Pasha, Amurath's general, marched with an army of thirty
thousand men against Sisvan, over the passes of the Nadir Derbend, and
forced Shumla to surrender; Tirnova and Pravadi fell, and the Bulgarian
King fled to Nicopolis. Here Ali Pasha besieged him, and Sisvan begged
for peace. The terms of peace eventually agreed to by the conquering
Turk put an end to Bulgaria's existence as a political entity; it became
a province of the Ottoman Empire.
Lazar, King of the Servians, the head of the Powers leagued against
Amurath, was alarmed at the rapid strides made by the Osmanli forces,
and prepared for a resolute struggle. Amurath accepted the formal
challenge sent him by the Servian King, and marched westward towards the
frontiers of Servia and Bosnia; on the plain of Kossova he met the
Allies. After a night spent in a council of war in both camps, the
antagonists met on the plain of Kossova, the "Amselfeld," as the Germans
call it. To northward of the small stream Shinitza, which traverses the
plain, the chivalry of Servia, Bosnia, and Albania, their auxiliaries
from Poland, Hungary, and Wallachia, were drawn up in battle array on
27th August, 1389.
But the crusaders were unable to stand before the fierce onslaught of
the Osmanli, despite their reckless bravery. Slav chivalry went under in
a sea of blood, though Milosh Kabilovitch had inflicted a fatal wound on
the conqueror. The battle of the "Amselfeld" settled the fate of the
southern Slavs for many centuries.
Amurath II had died from the wound inflicted by Milosh Kabilovitch, and
his son Bajazet reigned in his stead. He pursued the war against Servia
energetically, and made that country a vassal state of the Ottomans.
King Stephen Lazarevitch, successor to King Lazar, gave the Sultan his
sister to wife, and agreed to pay as tribute a certain portion of the
produce of the silver mines in his dominions. Thus Bajazet broke down
Servia's resistance, and then turned against the other states which had
taken part in the latest crusade. Myrtché, Prince of Wallachia,
submitted, and his country became a vassal state of Turkey; Sigismund,
King of Hungary, invaded Bulgaria, but after some slight successes, was
defeated by a superior Turkish army in 1372, and forced to retreat.
While returning to his country from this campaign King Sigismund saw
fair Elizabeth Morsiney, and loved her. Their son, the great Hunyadi
Janos, avenged King Sigismund in his victorious campaigns against the
Turks.
Once again Western chivalry attempted to check the rising tide of Islam.
Sigismund, King of Hungary, felt the danger of that power pressing on
his frontiers, and succeeded in moving the sympathies of other members
of the Catholic Church. So when Pope Boniface IX, in 1394, proclaimed a
crusade against the Osmanli, many of the martial youth of France and
Burgundy, set free by the end of the one hundred years' war with
England, joined in this new crusade. Count de la Manche, three cousins
of the King of France, James of Bourbon, Henri and Philippe de Bar,
acted as commanders under Count de Nevers; besides these were other
Frankish nobles, Philippe of Artois, Comte d'Eu, and Constable of
France, Lord de Courcy, Guy de la Tremouille, Jean de Vienne, Admiral of
France, St. Pol. Montmorel, and Reginald de Roze, marched from France,
and on their way through Germany were joined by Frederic, Count of
Hohenzollern, Grand Commander of the Teutonic Order, and Grand Master
Philibert de Naillac, who came from Rhodes with a strong body of Knights
of St. John of Jerusalem. There came also Bavarian knights, under the
Elector Palatine, and the Count of Mumpelsgarde; Styria sent its
contingent under Count de Cilly. In all, some ten to twelve thousand of
the flower of Western chivalry came down the Danube, full of high pride,
and boasting that "if the sky should fall, they would uphold it on the
point of their spears." Myrtché, Prince of Wallachia, though vassal and
tributary to the Sultan, had been induced to tempt the fortunes of war
once more, and joined the hosts of the Crusaders.
Bajazet was away in Asia, but his general, Yoglan Bey, defended
Nicopolis stoutly against the Crusaders, who closely invested it, and so
gained time for his master. Swiftly and silently came Bajazet, with his
well-trained, well-disciplined army, and the Christian knights at table
on the 24th September, 1396, were suddenly informed that a large Turkish
army was bearing down upon them. The Franks flew to arms and charged
recklessly into battle; their impetuosity and want of discipline proved
their undoing, and by evening Bajazet had vanquished this last crusade
against the rising fortunes of Islam. King Sigismund escaped; most of
the prisoners taken by the Turks were massacred, and those who were
spared lived weary months in captivity at Broussa until ransomed in
1397.
Thus was the West defeated in its attempt at rescuing Eastern
Christians, and Bajazet's victorious armies moved on to new conquests;
they overran and devastated Styria and southern Hungary, marched through
the pass of Thermopylæ, where there was no Leonidas and his devoted band
to bid them halt, and under their conquering Sultan, Locris, Phocis, and
Boeotia fell to the sword of Othman, till finally the whole Peloponese
was a Turkish province.
Constantinople, the only remaining portion of the Greek Emperor, had
escaped so far, but now its fate seemed about to be sealed when another
man, as great, perhaps, as Bajazet himself, came out of Asia--Tamerlane
and his Mongolian hordes.
Timour the Tartar, Timourlenk, Tamerlane, as he is variously called, was
born near Samarkand in the earlier part of the fourteenth century, and
spent the first half of his life in struggling for ascendancy over the
petty chiefs of rival tribes until, at the age of thirty-five, he had
fought his way to undisputed pre-eminence, and was proclaimed Khan of
Zagatai by the warriors of his race.
He made Samarkand his capital, and as he proposed to conquer the whole
habitable earth from there, this ambition was sure to bring him into
conflict with the Osmanli on the western confines of his territory.
Tamerlane had been insulted by the Sultan of Egypt, so he marched from
Sivas, which he had taken from the Turks in Bajazet's absence, towards
Syria, which experienced for two years the terror and cruelty of his
arms. An interchange of letters and embassies between Bajazet and
Tamerlane, on the subject of the latter's occasional incursions into
Turkish territory, served only to aggravate the tension between the two
monarchs, till hostilities became the only way out of an impossible
situation. Tamerlane's forces outnumbered the hundred and twenty
thousand men with which Bajazet marched against the Tartar at Sivas, but
Bajazet was impatient of the warnings of his best general, who had
observed a bad spirit in the army amongst the soldiers of Tartar race
whom Tamerlane had corrupted, and decided to bring matters to a definite
conclusion. He did, but to his own undoing, for Tamerlane
out-manoeuvred him at Angora, where the opposing forces met on July
20th, 1402. The Mongol army is said to have numbered eight hundred
thousand, and Bajazet could not have had more than one hundred thousand
to put into the field, for many had died by the way. Moreover,
Tamerlane's army was in high spirits, and well found in every way,
whereas Bajazet's troops were discontented, and large numbers of Tartars
deserted from him to swell the ranks of the Mongol army, and only the
Ottoman centre, where stood the Janissaries and the Servians, made any
effective resistance to the fierce charges of the Tartar cavalry. At
nightfall, when all was lost, Bajazet attempted to escape from the
field, but his horse stumbled and fell with him, and so delivered him
into the hands of his enemy. After an ineffectual attempt to escape,
Bajazet, who had hitherto been kindly treated, was placed in fetters
every night, and he died of a broken heart only eight months after the
battle of Angora. Prince Musa was allowed to take the body of his
father, Bajazet, to Broussa for burial, by Tamerlane who did not survive
his fallen rival long. Tamerlane died two years later, at Otrar, while
on the march to China, at the age of seventy-one, thirty-six years of
which he had reigned and conquered, and shed more blood, caused more
misery, than any other human before or since.
Bajazet's misguided efforts against Tamerlane brought the Ottoman
Empire, which had been gaining strength so steadily, to the verge of
ruin, and calamity after calamity fell upon the House of Othman after
the disaster of Angora. Civil war broke out as each son of Bajazet
strove for the throne; Solyman fought against his brother Musa, and
though at first successful, spoilt the results by debauchery and the
cruelty with which he treated his troops, so they deserted to Musa, and
Solyman was killed while endeavouring to escape to Constantinople. Musa
followed in his father's footsteps, and seems to have inherited his
energy and ferocity. He thought fit to consider that the Servian Prince,
vassal of the Ottoman Empire, had assisted Solyman against him, so he
carried war in Servia, war with all the barbarity a Turkish Sultan and
Turkish troops were capable of, and then turned towards Constantinople,
for the Emperor Manuel Palæologus had been the ally of Solyman. Musa
laid siege to the City, and Manuel called to Mohammed, the youngest and
ablest son of Bajazet, for assistance, and so we find Ottoman troops
defending the Castle of Cæsar against their own brothers.
The war between the two brothers raged with varying success till the
troops of Musa, whose conduct towards them was little better than that
of Solyman, ranged themselves against him at the decisive moment when
the two brothers confronted each other on the field of battle. Musa was
wounded in a fray with Hassan, the Aga of his Janissaries, and seeing
things going against him, fled, and was found dead in a swamp near the
field of battle. The only other son of Bajazet, Issa, had disappeared
during the war between Solyman and Mohammed in Asia, so the latter
succeeded to the throne of Turkey, and was girt with the sword of
Othman.
In Mohammed I, who reigned from 1413-1421, the House of Othman put forth
one of the best sovereigns of that race. He did not win such distinction
in the field as did some of his predecessors and successors; his
conquests were over the affections of men, for he was just and merciful.
His people called him Pehlevan, Champion, for he was brave, and of great
personal strength and activity; others called him Tshelebi, which
suggests that he had all those attributes that make a gentleman; true to
his friends, a terror to his enemies the rebellious Turcomans, his
country's historian calls him, "The Noah who preserved the Ark of the
Empire, when menaced by the deluge of Tartar invasion."
Those were troubled times, but they seem peaceful compared to the days
of Mohammed I's predecessors, and by the time death overtook Mohammed I
in the eighth year of his reign, rebellions had been suppressed, order
restored, and honourable peace settled for a while in Ottoman dominions.
But it was broken soon after Amurath II, son of Mohammed I, had been
girt with the sword of Othman at Broussa; a claimant to the throne,
alleged son of Bajazet, had long been held captive by the Emperor of
Byzant, who now thought fit to set up this pretender Mustapha against
young Amurath. But the new Sultan, though only eighteen years of age,
showed promise of the military and political abilities of the great sons
of Othman from whom he was descended, and when he and Mustapha met in
battle the latter was out-manoeuvred and forced to flee to Gallipoli,
where he sought refuge in the strong fortress. Aided by Genoese, Amurath
II broke down the defences of Gallipoli, captured Mustapha, and had him
put to death. Then Amurath II turned towards Constantinople to punish
the Emperor for his unprovoked hostility to him. Constantinople was
invested, and Amurath's troops surged in successive waves against the
Walls of Theodosius. The fight was fiercest near the Gate of St.
Romanus, where a number of dervishes, headed by a renowned saint, Seid
Bakhari, formed the vanguard of a forlorn hope in a desperate attack on
25th August, 1422. Among the inducements which urged these five hundred
dervishes to dash out their souls against the City walls was one
calculated to appeal to a Mohammedan saint, marking the ethical
difference between him and the Christian variant; the many nuns in the
convents of Constantinople were assigned to these pious souls as their
share of the spoil. No doubt it was hoped that the company of those
ladies would brighten up the monastic seclusion of the dervishes in
times of peace if ever they came as intervals in the popular
diversion--war. The garrison of Constantinople was making a stout
defence, and might conceivably have held out by itself, but supernatural
intervention was evidently called for, if only for the sake of the
ladies, and the bright apparition of a virgin, robed in violet of
dazzling lustre, further encouraged the besieged, while the besiegers,
hearing of this interference with their business, decided to raise the
siege, and try again some other day. Historians, who are always ready to
discount the value of supernatural apparitions which sparkle in the sky
just in the nick of time, maintain that Amurath II was drawn from the
siege of Constantinople by trouble in Asia. He had a brother, another
Mustapha, whom the Greek Emperor had bribed to raise rebellion in Asia
Minor. The extraordinary rapidity of Amurath's movements frustrated all
young Mustapha's plans; he fled, was caught by some of the Sultan's
officers, and hanged on the nearest tree, which act, no doubt, saved the
Sultan a good deal of trouble.
Amurath returned to Europe and resumed hostilities with the Greek
Emperor, not by besieging Constantinople again, but by annexing other
towns here and there. He took several towns on the Black Sea coast which
had held to Byzant till then, captured Thessalonica from the Venetians,
and made matters easier for the campaign he was obliged to undertake
against turbulent neighbours and insubordinate vassals on the Western
marches of the Ottoman Empire in Europe. Hungary, still smarting under
the defeat of their King at Nicopolis, was roused to action by the great
Hunyadi; Bosniaks and Albanians feared for their independence, and
Wallachia longed to be free; Servia, too, was troublesome, under a fiery
leader Vuk Brankoviç, and after much vacillation, these enemies of the
Osmanli contrived to drop their jealousies for a while, and to combine
against the Eastern invader. The fortunes of war went against Amurath,
and his renowned opponent, Hunyadi Janos, beat his armies at Belgrade
and Hermanstadt, and again at Vasag. The Allies pushed on triumphantly
through Servia and Bulgaria of to-day, up to the Balkan range, where
they wrested two mountain-passes, strongly defended, from the fiercely
resisting Turks. Strange to say, Hunyadi did not advance on Adrianople,
but returned to Pesth after a final victory at the foot of Mount
Kunobitza. During most of this time Amurath had been away in Asia; he
now hurried back to retrieve the fallen fortunes of his Empire in
Europe, but finding that impossible, decided to consolidate what was
left to him, and entered into peace negotiations with his adversaries,
which ended in the Treaty of Szeggedin, in 1444; hereby George
Brankoviç, son of Vuk, became independent ruler of Servia, and Wallachia
was lost to Hungary.
Misfortune dogged Amurath; his eldest son Ala-ed-din died, he who had
assisted in command of the Ottoman forces in Asia, his father's right
hand, and left the Sultan inconsolable, borne down by the weight of
accumulating affliction. There was a second son, Mohammed, still young,
and to him Amurath entrusted the throne and its heavy burdens, while he
retired into dignified seclusion at Magnesia. But Mohammed was too young
for the enormous responsibilities of his post, and Amurath had to
revisit the scenes of his former activity from time to time. The
successes of the Christians, and the retirement to Asia of Amurath,
roused the Greek Emperor to fresh intrigues against his Asiatic
adversary; he and the Pope induced the King of Hungary to break the oath
made at the Peace of Szeggedin, Cardinal Julian salved that monarch's
conscience, and so King Ladislaus started off on another crusade against
the Turk. Amurath hurried back from Asia, crossed the Hellespont with
the aid of the Genoese, and met his adversaries near Varna in November,
1444. The battle raged with varying success all day, until King
Ladislaus, whose horse fell with him, was captured and slain on the
spot. His head impaled on a spear threw his troops into a panic; many
of them perished by the sword, among them Cardinal Julian, Stephan
Bathory, and many other nobles. This victory of the sword of Othman at
Varna settled the fate of those vassal Slavs who had risen against the
Sultan; Servia was thoroughly reconquered, Bosnia's royal family was
exterminated, and their country added to the Ottoman dominions.
Once again Amurath retired to the pleasant seclusion he had sought at
Magnesia; some describe it as monastic in character, but that
description sounds unlikely; at least the monasticism of the Sultan and
that of Christian monks can have had little in common, the former
probably allowing pleasures which a Christian monk would be bound to
regard with pious horror. Alas, and I am sorry for Amurath, because he
had worked hard and deserved a good time, his son Mohammed proved unfit
to hold the victorious Turkish soldiery, so he was given a change at
Magnesia, while his father re-established order in the army. Amurath
reigned for another six years after these happenings--years which he
spent usefully, in gathering in odd outlying bits of territory into the
Ottoman fold. The Peleponese peninsula was made a vassal state, and
Hunyadi Janos severely beaten at Kossova.
The only trouble which Amurath was unable to settle was caused by the
Albanian, Scanderbeg, who defied the Sultan from his mountain
fastnesses, and reigned over his wild country and fierce subjects for
many years after Amurath, who had himself instructed Scanderbeg in the
art of war, had been laid to rest at Broussa.
His son Mohammed lost no time in ascending the throne, removing a slight
obstacle, or what might have become one, in the person of Amurath's
infant son by a Servian Princess. The babe was drowned in a bath at the
moment when his mother was offering her congratulations to the new
Sultan. Mohammed's subjects failed to see the humorous side of this act
of statecraft, and made trouble, so the Sultan put all the blame on the
officer who had carried out the order, and had him put to death for
treason. Mohammed had to confess to his own share in the deed when, many
years later, he included fratricide among the permissible expedients of
statesmanship.
Mohammed II lives in history as "The Conqueror," and he seems to have
had all the qualities as well as the good fortune which help mortals to
that high title; he had some other qualities which were, if not
necessary to success, at least picturesque, and in keeping with the
morals and ideals of the time he lived in, and of the peoples with whom
he had to deal. He was strong of purpose and far-sighted, ingenious and
of tireless energy, and these qualities brought him victory over his
enemies in the field and success in the guidance of his people's life
through the dark passages of diplomacy. These qualities shone out into
the foreground; in the background were cruelty, perfidy, and a
sensuality which revolted even the loose-living warriors of his day.
The West called to Mohammed II; there was yet one more city awaiting
conquest by a son of Othman ere the Eastern Empire should pass out of
history and the Turk should rule large European provinces from the seat
of Constantine. Another, Constantine XI, and last of that long line of
Byzantine Emperors, had come to the throne some three years before
Mohammed was girt with the sword of Othman. This Constantine was wise,
just, and merciful, and has gone down to history among the heroes of the
world. But all the noblest qualities united in the person of its Emperor
were unable to stem the tide rising up to the walls of Constantinople,
were inadequate when opposed to relentless force from without, and
supineness, sloth, cowardice, within the City walls. The fate of
Constantinople drew nearer, till in May, 1453, the hour had struck, and
Mohammed II rode as conqueror over heaps of slain, among whom was the
lost Emperor, through the breach in the wall made by his huge cannon and
the fiery assaults of the Janissaries, to the deserted palaces of
Imperial Byzant.
Thus fell Constantinople, the City of many sieges, into the hands of an
Asiatic nation which from here ruled wide tracts of Europe, raiding
right up to the gates of Vienna, the Kaiserstadt of the Holy Roman
Empire, "Deutscher Nation." For nearly five centuries an unbroken line
of sons of Othman have sat in the seat of Cæsar, have conquered from
here, and from here have watched the decay of their power in Europe. One
by one young races, reborn after years of slavery, rose and asserted
their rights, gained first autonomy, then independence, from a master
who seemed but a stranger and a sojourner in the lands of Roum. Now, as
I write, those young nations have closed in on every side, and Ottoman
possessions in Europe are hardly greater in extent than were those of
decadent Byzant when Mohammed II's artillery thundered outside the
walls, brought down those stout defences, and with them an old
civilization, in a mass of crumbling ruins.
CHAPTER XII
Islam--And Christianity--Turks and the law of the Prophet--Their
relations to the Sultan--Bajazet II and his army--Slavs go over to
Islam--The rebellion of Djem--Matthias Corvinus--The growth of
Western culture--Jews expelled from Spain--Kemal-Reis and Turkish
sea-power--Bajazet and his sons--The revolt of Selim--Selim kills
his brothers--Selim defeats Shah Ismail--Selim and his Grand
Vizier--Selim defeats the Mamelukes--The death of Selim--Solyman
the Great--Contemporary history--The conquest of Rhodes--The
invasion of Hungary--Buda-Pesth surrenders--The first siege of
Vienna--Sea victories of Barbarossa--Solyman and
Roxalana--Solyman's death.
Religion affects the private life of the Turk as also the life of the
body politic more than is the case among the followers of other creeds,
and Islam is singularly adapted to the sons of Othman, or rather has
made them what they are. Mohammed assumed both spiritual and temporal
power in the name of a god, who thrones high above the humble faithful,
who is so far concerned in each believer that he arranges every detail
of his life long before the poor mortal enters upon it. There is no
mercy, no departure from the course marked out, no hope of propitiating
a stern deity, aloof and vengeful, by prayer and intercession;
Islam--obedience, submission. Allah is not often moved by
loving-kindness, but anger may rouse him to punish by the hand of his
"shadow on earth," the Caliph-Sultan. He is particularly easily incensed
against non-believers, and through his Prophet has promised all
happiness after death to those to combat unbelief, and by war and
rapine, murder and outrage, proclaim the fact that "La ilaha illa
'Uah!"
[Illustration: The Gate of Adrianople
Through this gate, Edirné Kapoo, as the Turks call it, the Sultan's army
marched out to war; through it his soldiery, defeated, sick, wounded,
returned in small parties from the battlefields.]
It is not surprising to find that, whatever its theory, in practice
Islam discouraged any serious regard for human life, whether a man's own
or the life of his neighbour. It also strengthened the ruler's hands,
for he was the voice of Allah on earth, and therefore privileged to take
life without trial, inquiry, or any formality. Of this privilege Sultans
have availed themselves freely, though it was not _bien vue_ to kill
more than a thousand in a day. For political reasons Mohammedan subjects
were less exposed to violence, whereas Christians became more and more
subject to ill-treatment as Christianity gained strength and helped to
build up Empires strong enough to check the flowing tide of Islam.
Islam acted as an intellectual stimulus on its first adherents, the
poetic-minded Arabs, though possibly it did not assume its present
rigidity when they were a ruling power in Asia, Africa, and Southern
Europe. I think it likely that the Arabs did not allow the strict letter
of the law to cramp their intellectual development, but their converts,
the Turks, a race devoid of the power of imagination, proved incapable
of interpreting the "Book" in a liberal spirit even if it were possible,
for the Koran, with all its contradictions, contains hard-and-fast
dogma, definite rules to regulate conduct, and threatens those who
depart from its teachings by but a hand's-breadth with all the pains of
Eternal Damnation. Gautama, the Prince, retired into seclusion, and by
the beauty of a soul trained to deep meditation became Buddha; Christ
came to earth and suffered all indignities and pains at the hands of
men, rather than assert the power of His Godhead by offering political
opposition to those who spurned His teachings: "His kingdom is not of
this world." After the awful day on Calvary none of the temporal powers
of the day attached any further importance to His sayings, nor to the
small band of disciples who went out into the outer darkness of the
world carrying with them the first flickerings of a light which should
illumine the earth and draw from mortals the best that is in them.
Buddha lived alone in deep seclusion, renouncing all earthly vanities,
and his few disciples went abroad poor and homeless searching for the
souls of men. Mohammed drew men to him by promises of glory and honour
on this earth, ease and luxury in the Beyond. Christianity bids you
forgive your enemies; Mohammed led his followers to battle against the
unbelievers, conquered their cities, and called those places holy when
he had fixed the strongholds of his militant faith. Mohammed died in the
possession of great power, spiritual and temporal, enjoining his
descendants to maintain and increase it by the sword. The realm thus
founded was inherited by the Caliphs, but they in time became enfeebled
and hard pressed by their enemies, till first the temporal then
spiritual power went to a race of rulers incapable and disinclined to
widen the intellectual horizon of their subjects, the House of Othman.
So the sovereign's power was absolute, in his hands were life and death,
all property but that applied to pious purposes came from him and by him
could be retaken. The strict adherence to religious observances had its
beneficial effects, for the laws that regulate the conduct, that
prescribe for each hour of the day, allowed of no expansion and could
not openly be disregarded, therefore the life of the people, at least to
outward appearance, was clean and decorous. Mollahs and imams never
gained the ascendancy over the minds of men which Christian priests and
holy men of Buddhism have from time to time acquired; they played an
unimportant part, acting rather as precentors at the worship of Allah in
the mosques, though as preachers they could incite the fierce passions
of a people untrained to independent thought. From time to time the
Sultan would think fit to consult the mufti, the head priest, as to the
advisability of some political measure, and that official generally
found it convenient to agree, as his appointment was in the sovereign's
gift and could be recalled by him.
Under the law, administered by the Sultan, the Turks increased in
numbers, extended their possession, carved a large Empire out of the
ruins of former civilizations, and left unsought those Elysian fields
wherein the intellect of a nation gains those victories that make for
stability, the fields of progress, scientific, literary, artistic. Under
the law they built up their body politic, each member sincerely, blindly
devoted to the dynasty of Othman, however many corpses of its scions
might pave a Sultan's upward path to power. They swept over Asia Minor
carrying their few belongings with them, nomads ever, expressing even in
their poor attempt at imagery no other spirit than that of the houseless
wanderer: The edifice of state is but a tent, its supporting poles the
viziers, judges, treasurers, and secretaries of state. Its entrance, the
Sublime Porte, is likened to curtained opening, and curtains rather than
doors still screen the latticed chambers of many a present-day Turkish
harem. The provinces they conquered were distributed among the fighting
men as military fiefs and called Sanjaks, banners, remaining purely
military organizations until more stable conditions led to the raising
of a standing army; and civil officials always looked to their sovereign
for guidance in the smallest matters as they had looked to him for
leadership in the field.
Thus equipped the sons of Othman set out for conquest, and in one
respect at least the records of those early days show signs of great
capacity, though always the output of one active mind, not resulting
from the reasoned growth of a collective national intelligence.
Mohammed the Conqueror had established the Ottoman Empire in Europe by
means of a well-trained, Koran-disciplined army, his successor Bajazet
II increased and strengthened it. Great attention was paid to all
matters of artillery and military engineering, in which the Turks of
those days outshone all other nations, and which made the hastily levied
undisciplined armies of the West, the bands of hired condottieri, or
enthusiastic swarms of Christian knights, go under before the sword of
Othman. The conquered provinces provided recruits for the corps of
Janissaries. In those days, too, the Turkish armies were more mobile and
better found than even that which Charles VII of France raised in 1445,
the first standing army of the West; supplies were well organized and
transport effected by beasts of burden, not by carts which depend upon
good roads. So Bajazet inherited a great Empire, won by the sword of a
people in arms and governed by warriors devoted to his House, and over
whom the Sultan had complete control; they could not rise above their
fellows, for according to the law all Moslems are equal under the
Caliph, and no ruling caste rose to defy the power of the sovereign or
force him to grant concessions. Fresh blood was added to this
homogeneous body politic by the voluntary desertion of Christians from
the conquered provinces to Islam: Croats, Albanians, Bosniaks, Russians,
even Scotsmen, adventurers mostly, and among the fiercest followers of
the Prophet. Many of these rose to high office.
The reign of Bajazet II began with civil war, a not unusual occurrence,
for Prince Djem, his brother, laid claim to the throne. But Bajazet
vanquished his brother's army, and Djem consoled himself by a visit to
Mecca and Medina, which makes for holiness and raises a Moslem in the
estimation of his fellows. Building on this Djem made further attempts
to displace Bajazet, and went to the Knights of Rhodes to enlist their
sympathies. These nobles kept the Prince a prisoner and made him a
source of income from the Sultan by threatening to set him at large
again. Djem finally escaped from Rhodes and sought help elsewhere, in
Western Europe, but met with little encouragement, and was finally
treacherously murdered by a servant of the Pope, bribed by Bajazet.
In the meantime Bajazet felt the need for expansion--there were still
worlds to conquer and he was minded to acquire a few. His efforts on
land were not particularly successful, he had at least one strong man
against him, Matthias Corvinus, who had restored order in Hungary and
was thus enabled to check the encroachments of Islam. There were other
Powers of some importance in Europe at the time: the Medici, under whom
the glories of Italian art, inspired by ancient Byzant, were preparing
the way for enfranchised thought; and in Germany Meister Gutenberg had
set up his printing-press. All glory to that great man whose gentle
craft made the Reformation possible. "Buchstaben," beech staves, for the
selfish beech tree, which allows no growth under its spreading branches,
found the wood out of which were cut those first strong Gothic letters.
Laboriously pieced together those staves grew into sentences, and in
time the first Bible, printed and bound in solid calf-skin, was given to
the world. Luther perused it, studied it, absorbed it, and with it
filled his soul till his voice arose above the jealousies of Papal
Medicis and rang out over all the earth, is ringing still wherever the
free-born praise their Creator and glorify His works. Even here it
resounds, and strongly, since Christian men and women are aiding the
sick and wounded of an alien race, a hostile creed, and are bringing
them back from those dark depths where they were cast by their own kin,
by those whose lives are overshadowed by rigid Islam. Ferdinand the
Catholic had married Isabella of Castile, and thus brought the Kingdoms
of Spain under one sceptre. They expelled the Jews from Spain to the
"greater glory of God"; the descendants of those Jews now inhabit
Saloniki and still speak Spanish, though they write it in Hebrew
characters. John II of Portugal impoverished his country by the same
method at the same time, though he derived some temporary advantage by
taxing the exiled children of Israel heavily while they passed through
his country on their way to more congenial surroundings. Macchiavelli
was born in that era, and was composing his work on the ideal Prince
when Bajazet was compassing the death of his brother Djem. Columbus
arose to widen the world's horizon, and Vasco da Gama's ships felt their
way cautiously round the Cape of Storms to India. But greatest of all
these was Leonardo da Vinci, who rescued fragments of the art of old
Byzant and breathed into it the life that created all the glories of the
Renaissance. Those were brave days, my masters, when the world was young
and strong, when art and literature revived, free from the trammels of
warped classicism and showed mankind what beauty is and where and how it
may be found and duly reverenced.
But Bajazet had no ideas beyond conquest. His campaign on land being
unattended by the great success his predecessors had prepared him for,
he turned to seaward and did his best to cripple rising Western Europe.
A slave presented to his father was the instrument to hand, Kemal-Reis,
the former name meaning "Perfection," given him by the Sultan because of
his great beauty. In constant sea war against Venice and the other
states by the Mediterranean Sea, Kemal-Reis laid the foundations of
Turkish sea power.
Bajazet sought to extend his power to Egypt, but was baffled by the
Mamelukes, a body of militant nobility superior in training and "morale"
to anything the Othmans could muster. This and other matters cast clouds
over the last days of Sultan Bajazet. Dissensions arose among his sons,
Korkoud, Achmet, and Selim, Governor of Trebizond, who even threatened
his father with war and marched against him to Adrianople. Thereupon
Selim was appointed Governor of Semendria, an old Roman settlement in
modern Servia, now called Smederovo. But Korkoud and Achmet had revolted
in Asia Minor, and by weakening Ottoman rule there invited the Shias, a
heretic sect of Islam according to the Sunnis to which the Turks belong,
under the Persian Prince, Shah Ismail, to ravage the eastern marches of
the Empire. Selim was not content for long, and rose against his father
a second time, but was beaten at Adrianople, that fateful city, and was
carried from the field to safety by his swift horse Karaboulot, the
Black Cloud. He turned to the Khan of the Crimea for assistance, and
returning to the attack with a Tartar army forced his way into
Constantinople and made Bajazet abdicate in his favour. Turbulent
citizens, unruly Janissaries and Spahis gave weight to Selim's demands.
So Bajazet retired to Demotika for his remaining days. Violence brought
him to the throne, by violence his son displaced him, and Selim reigned
in his stead as Sultan, Caliph of the Faithful, the Shadow of God on
Earth.
Selim I's reign was short, from 1512-1520, but it showed him a man of
high ability in politics and war, and even well disposed towards the
gentler side of life, for he encouraged literature. He found himself
under the painful necessity of having his brother Korkoud strangled,
but redeemed this unbrotherliness by weeping over the corpse and by
ordering court mourning for three whole days. After that he proceeded to
the business of securing his hold on the Empire by marching against his
other brother Achmet. Achmet was defeated, taken, and slain, but
privileged to burial by the side of Korkoud. Then Selim, a pious Moslem,
turned to the matter of his people's spiritual welfare and discovered to
his horror that large numbers of them held the heretic tenets of the
Shias. This had to be stopped, so a general massacre of these misguided
ones, ferreted out by Selim's excellent secret police, was arranged. The
Osmanli celebrated their St. Bartholomew's Night by the slaughter of
some forty thousand men, women, and children; thirty thousand others
were spared, but spent the remainder of their days in perpetual
imprisonment.
This annoyed Shah Ismail of Persia, and he made ready for war; the Turks
were yet readier, and an army of some hundred and forty thousand men
marched through Kurdistan upon Tabriz, then capital of Persia. They met
with great hardships, which led to discontent among the Janissaries,
whom Selim sought to comfort with quotations from the Persian poets.
However, the two armies soon came to business, and met in battle in the
Valley of Calderan, where the army of Selim beat that of Shah Ismail,
some hundred and twenty thousand, of whom eighty thousand were horsemen,
though suffering serious losses. Selim had all the captives killed
excepting the women and children, among whom was the Shah's favourite
wife, who had come out to encourage her husband to the last. Selim
levied tribute on Tabriz and pursued his march to Karabagh, but the
severity of winter, causing discontent among his troops, obliged him to
retrace his steps. This campaign added Diarbekr and Kurdistan to the
Ottoman Empire. Trouble then arose in the south, the army of observation
in Syria reporting that Egypt was inclined to be dangerous. Selim held a
council of war to discuss the matter, and was so pleased with the advice
of one Mohammed, a Secretary of State, that he appointed him Grand
Vizier on the spot. Mohammed modestly declined, whereupon the Sultan
bastinadoed him into submission with his own heavy hand. Ambassadors
were sent to Kanson-Ghauri, Sultan of Egypt, but were treated with
insults and violence, so Selim marched south and fought a battle at
Aleppo, in which the Turks gained their first victory over the
Mamelukes, and Sultan Kanson-Ghauri died on his flight to Egypt. Selim
then added Aleppo, Damascus, and Jerusalem to his possessions, again
defeated the Mamelukes and occupied Cairo. Of the remaining Mamelukes
eight hundred submitted on Selim's promise of pardon, and were all
beheaded; incidentally the population of Cairo was massacred.
Peace ensured by these simple methods, Selim proceeded to the chief
mosque of Cairo, offered up praise and thanksgiving to Allah for giving
him the victory, and set about the annexation of Egypt, styling himself
"Protector of the Holy Cities of Arabia," the title of the Mameluke
Sultans. This greatly enhanced Selim's dignity among his people, for up
to now the Caliphate had been held by the descendants of the House of
Abbas in Egypt. Thus Selim acquired the sacred standard, sword, and
mantle of the Prophet.
On Selim's return to Constantinople he set about rebuilding his navy,
for the presence of the Knights of Rhodes on the seaway to Egypt
displeased him, but before he could accomplish the task of subduing them
death overtook him at the place near Adrianople where he had formerly
met his father in battle. Selim's constant companion, Hasandshan, was
just reading to the dying Sultan the verse from the Koran: "The word of
the Almighty is salvation," when Selim's fierce career came to its
close.
Upon this picturesque ruffian, this embodiment of all Turkish virtues
and defects, followed one who may rank among the greatest of all the
sons of Othman, a man of very different mind, stately Solyman, called
the Great.
This monarch's reign, from 1520-1566, fell into a great age for Europe,
for among his contemporaries were some of those whose names shed lustre
on the pages of history. Charles V, that gloomy monarch, ruled over half
the known world, his Empire extending over the continent discovered by
Columbus, where Cortez added Mexico to fill the imperial coffers, and
Pizarro's daring march across the Andes brought untold wealth to the
Holy Roman Empire, "Deutscher Nation," though Peru and its mild-mannered
people suffered worse horrors than attended even the triumphal progress
of the Turkish armies. Discord there was in Western Europe, too, for
Luther had nailed his theses to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral in
1517, and thirteen years later the Protestants had made public
confession of their faith at Augsburg, to be followed in 1540 by Paul
III's sanction of the Jesuits and their order, thus sowing the seeds of
that great war which laid Western Europe at the mercy of the encroaching
Turks, and made smooth their way to power. In England Henry VIII was
King, and bickering with his chivalrous neighbour, Francis I of France.
Solyman had early learnt the art of government as Viceroy of
Constantinople during his father's campaigns in Persia; then, during the
war in Egypt, he governed Adrianople, and succeeded at the age of
twenty-six.
Solyman inherited his father's forethought and military skill, and,
following the traditions of his House, led a fine army westward into
Christendom. By the end of 1521 he had captured Belgrade, and made it a
strong outpost of advancing Islam. Unlike his father, he was merciful;
after long, fierce fighting in the second year of his reign, he forced
the Knights of Rhodes to surrender, but promised their gallant
commander, de Lisle Adam, that no churches would be desecrated, no
children driven into slavery. These promises he kept, and the Knights
left the island with all the honours of war, conveying their wives and
families away unmolested, while the inhabitants became subjects of the
Sultan; moreover, Solyman exacted no tribute for five years.
After a few short years of peace, which Solyman used for reforms in the
administration, the disturbed state of Europe drew Turkey into her
troubles. The Janissaries had already been grumbling about the Sultan's
inaction, and had been sharply brought to order. Their heart's desire,
war and booty, was not long in coming to them, for Solyman decided to
invade Hungary, urged by King Francis of France, who knew that such an
event would annoy Charles V and distract that Emperor's attention from
the French King's designs on Italy. With one hundred thousand men and
three hundred cannon, Solyman set out at the head of his well-found army
to meet the forces which Louis, King of Hungary, had gathered together
to protect his country from invasion. The result was as might have been
expected. Despite great bravery and devotion, because of their faulty
organization and discipline, the Hungarian army was defeated at Mohacz
in August, 1526; King Louis fell, eight bishops, and a great number of
Magyar nobles, and with them some twenty-four thousand men. Buda-Pesth
submitted to the Turks, the road to Vienna lay open, and Solyman's
victorious army carried fire and sword into the Crown lands of the House
of Habsburg. Vienna trembled, but the Turks did not attempt a siege of
that city and were content to return the way they came, heavy laden with
plunder, carrying away one hundred thousand Christians--men, women, and
children--into slavery. After a short absence in Asia Minor, Solyman
felt called to Hungary again; civil war had broken out over the
succession to the throne, and Solyman thought fit to hear the appeal of
Zapolya, a native noble, claimant to the throne, for help against the
Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, brother of the Emperor.
[Illustration: THE MOSQUE OF SULEIMAN AND THE TOWER OF THE WAR OFFICE
Seen from the height where stands the wireless telegraphy station.]
A yet greater army gathered together at Constantinople, two hundred and
fifty thousand men with three hundred cannon, and, led by Solyman,
appeared before Buda-Pesth in September, 1529; the town again
surrendered, after a siege of six days, and Zapolya was solemnly
installed as king over the people which Arpad had led out of the East,
which Stephen the Saint had brought over to Christianity, and whose iron
crown now pressed upon the brow of a vassal to the Sultan. Zapolya
marched with his followers in the train of Solyman, his master, to
Vienna. Like the storms of autumn equinox, the Akindji tore over the
fair fields of Lower Austria and surged up against the defences of
Vienna, led by Michael Oglou, descendant of Michael of the Peaked Beard,
who had fought by the side of the first Othman. The main army followed
the swarms of Akindji, and drew a circle of camps around Vienna, which
was defended by low walls and contained a garrison of only sixteen
thousand men. The capital of the Holy Roman Empire was in danger, and
King Ferdinand, in his distress, appealed to his brother, the Emperor,
for assistance; but none came, for the German princes were
quarrelling about religious matters, while Vienna suffered. The city
held out under its brave defender, Count Salm, through days and nights
of storm and stress, till Solyman gave up the attempt and withdrew on
the day on which Count Salm died of his wounds. Before leaving the
outskirts of Vienna the Turks burnt what they could not remove,
slaughtered their Christian prisoners or threw them living into the
flames, and went away into the East, leaving desolation in their wake.
Solyman's pride was deeply wounded by the rebuff before Vienna, and even
the conquest of a large part of Armenia, of Mesopotamia, and Bagdad
failed to comfort him, so he readily took the excuse of interfering with
the West again when Zapolya died, and the question of Hungarian
succession rearose. Throughout the war the Turkish arms, though worsted
now and then, prevailed over the Western armies, and Austria was forced
to enter into a treaty with the Porte and to pay tribute, while nearly
all Hungary and Transylvania came under Turkish domination. To all
these successes came the victories won by Solyman's admiral,
Khairreddin-Barbarossa, in the Mediterranean Sea. He defeated the
Spaniards and drove the Arab pirates (himself a former pirate) of the
north of Africa back to their hiding-places, sought them out there and
made them subjects of the Sultan. He pillaged the coast of the Adriatic
and sacked Italian towns, and with inferior numbers defeated the naval
forces of the Pope, Venice, and the Emperor off Prevesa in 1538.
Solyman went out to meet Khairreddin's successor, Pialé, a Croat by
birth, when the latter made his triumphal entry into the Golden Horn,
but the Sultan's brow was clouded, for trouble had sought him out.
Within the Seraglio walls, in the halls of Solyman the Magnificent,
stalked Tragedy, called in by Jealousy. A fair Russian girl had captured
the Sultan's heart, Sultana Roxalana, or Khourrem (the Joyous One), as
the Turks called her, and her ambitions for Selim, her son, led her to
fill her husband's mind with suspicion. Mustapha, his elder son by a
Circassian, a handsome youth and highly gifted, Governor of Carmania,
was accused of plotting against his father. Mustapha was ordered to
enter the Sultan's presence alone, and Solyman, looking on from an inner
chamber, saw seven mute executioners carry out his command to strangle
his son with the bowstring. Thus the sword of Othman, the mantle of the
Prophet, came to the son of Roxalana, to Selim the Sot.
Solyman died while conducting the siege of Szigath, on the night before
the gallant defender of that place, Zriny, fell in a desperate last
sortie. The news of his death was kept from his army till it had
returned to the neighbourhood of Belgrade. Here, on the outskirts of a
dense forest, when the setting sun threw long shadows out towards the
east, the imams announced the Sultan's death, and great wailings of
lamentation re-echoed among the giant trees and set the leaves trembling
in sympathy with an Empire's grief. Solyman was buried near the mosque
he built, round which to-day refugees, sick and wounded soldiers from
the battlefields, are gathered together, patient sons of Islam awaiting
their fate.
CHAPTER XIII
The Empire inherited by Selim--Roxalana's influence--The capture of
Cyprus--Amurath III and his brothers--Queen Elizabeth's embassy to
the Porte--Corruption in the army--The death of Amurath
III--Mohammed III--Losses of the Empire--The battle of
Cerestes--The Peace of Sitvatorok--The state of Europe--The
Janissaries and Othman II--Amurath IV suppresses the military
revolt and re-establishes order--Capture of Bagdad--Mustapha the
Drunkard--Ibrahim succeeds Amurath--Kara Mustapha executed--Sultana
Validé--Mohammed Kiüprilü--Achmet Kiüprilü succeeds his
father--Turks defeated at St. Gothardt--The reconquest of
Candia--The war in Poland--The Turks before Vienna again--The Turks
defeated by Sobieski--The Janissaries--Solyman II--Prince Eugene of
Savoy--The state of Western Europe.
The Empire which Selim II inherited from his father extended from the
Atlas to the Caucasus, from the Carpathians to the Nile, and among his
subjects were counted Greeks and Armenians, Bulgars, Serbs, Bosniaks,
Montenegrins, Herzegovinians, Vlachs and Albanians, Romanies and the
wandering Tsigani, Arabs, Kurds and Chaldeans, Turkomans and Magyars in
the conquered provinces of Hungary, Germans in Transylvania, Copts of
Egypt, and Jews of Palestine, or exiled from the Iberian peninsula. The
corps of Janissaries had been raised to 20,000, the paid standing army
numbered 48,000, with 200,000 irregular auxiliaries, and the fleet
mustered 300 warships. The Ottoman Army was first in the world, and
Christian monarchs of the West acknowledged the supremacy of the Caliph
who sat in the seat of Constantine. The reign of Solyman marked the
highest rise of Ottoman power; the decline began with Selim, his and
Roxalana's son.
Whereas the reign of every Sultan preceding Selim had been impressed
with the ruler's personality, the only quality to which a Turk is
capable of responding, the rule of Selim showed no such strengthening
influence. His mother, Roxalana, was all-powerful, but her bloody
intrigues led to many dissensions in the harem, and these reacted on the
life of the nation. In order to pursue a course of conquest in Asia,
Selim called an armistice with Emperor Maximilian, and turned his
attention towards Astrachan. Here he came into conflict with the Tsars
of Muscovy, who, having freed themselves from Tartar domination, gave
wing to their ambition, and even in those early days pretended to the
throne of Constantine, for Ivan III had married Sophia, last Princess of
the Greek imperial family, and had taken the two-headed eagle of Byzant
as his cognizance. The Porte was powerless against Ivan the Terrible,
who annexed Astrachan, and induced the Don Cossacks to join him, under
their Hetman, Yermak, the man who added Siberia to the possessions of
the Tsar.
The Sultan did not take the field in person, did not even concern
himself with the government of his reign, so Sokoli, his Grand Vizier,
guided the ship of state, and led campaigns which were by no means
successful, for the Arabs prevented the execution of a plan to pierce a
canal joining Mediterranean and Red Sea at Suez. The Turks were more
fortunate at sea, where Sala Mustapha roved at large, reducing Cyprus
with unheard-of cruelties. A similar spirit informed Russian conquest at
this period. About this time Ivan the Cruel took Wittenstein, and had
the captive Finns hewn in pieces, their leader roasted alive on a spear.
The horrors of the capture of Cyprus roused all the Christian rulers by
the Mediterranean Sea to fury; a large fleet was collected by Don Juan
of Austria, son of Charles V, and Margarete Blumberg, the frail, fair
lady of Ratisbon. Marco Colonna brought a fleet found by the Pope;
Spain, Malta, and Savoy sent their galleons, the Venetians joined with
one hundred and eight galleys and six galliases, under Admiral Veniero,
a naval crusade, as it were. There were great names among these
crusaders, the Prince of Parma, Caraccioli, the Marquis of Santa Croce,
Andrea Doria, and Cervantes, author of _Don Quixote_. The hostile fleets
met off Lepanto and engaged in a furious battle, which resulted in a
complete victory for the Christian Allies; thirty thousand Turks were
slain, fifteen thousand of their Christian slaves rescued from the
galleys, and of the stately Ottoman fleet only forty vessels, under
Ouloudjé, made good their escape. But the victory of Lepanto was wasted,
was not followed up, for though the Western nations might win battles,
yet were they not equal to the Turks in the long run.
Selim II died drunk, and was succeeded by Amurath III, who reigned from
1574-1595. A weak, dissolute ruler, he inaugurated his rule with
customary fratricide; he had five brothers, whom he thought fit to
remove out of the way of temptation to usurp the throne. The weakness of
this Sultan affected the spirit of his armies, which fought with only
partial success in Persia, while Amurath led a life of pleasure. He was
swayed chiefly by his favourite Sultana, Safiyé, a Venetian lady of the
noble House of Baffo, who had been captured by the Corsairs when young
and presented to the Sultan. Yet, though the power of the Ottoman Empire
was declining, it was still considered the most formidable in Europe,
and Western monarchs did not hesitate to ask assistance of the Sultan.
Even from distant England came ambassadors on such missions, urging
Amurath to aid Queen Elizabeth against Spain; but help was not
forthcoming. The Porte gained further feeling with the West by entering
into commercial relations with other countries, and, moreover, treated
them in no illiberal spirit. But corruption had set in among the armed
forces of the Empire; commands and places were sold, and even the Sultan
took his share of the profits. Corruption led to all manner of abuses,
and these caused discontent; the Janissaries mutinied, and brought about
the fall of a Grand Vizier; garrisons whose pay was far in arrears
revolted at Pesth and Tabriz, the Druses of Lebanon began a series of
insurrections which continued into recent times, and trouble arose among
the peoples of Transylvania, Moldavia, and Wallachia.
In the midst of all these happenings weak Amurath sickened and died,
having done nothing for his country but to leave behind him twenty sons
and twenty-seven daughters of the hundred and three children he begat.
This gave his eldest son and successor, Mohammed III, a great deal to do
before he could gird on securely the sword of Othman; he killed all his
brothers, and seven female slaves in the condition called "Guter
Hoffnung" by the Germans were sewn into sacks and thrown into the
Bosphorus. Mohammed was also the last of the Imperial Princes to be
trusted with the governorship of a province; from his time on all scions
of the House of Othman were kept in rigorous seclusion, leaving it for
the grave or the throne as fate might decide. This Sultan also preferred
a life of ease to the hardships of campaigning, and amidst the pleasures
of the Seraglio, where his mother, Safiyé Sultana Validé, reigned
supreme, let the misfortunes that befell the Ottoman armies pass
unheeded. Archduke Maximilian and Count Palffy, assisted by revolted
Danube Princes, retook one strong place after another. Gran fell, and
Visegrad, Ibrail (Braila), Rustchuk, and other cities on the Danube,
till Grand Vizier Sead-ed-din insisted on the appearance of his imperial
master in the field.
The Sultan was with difficulty persuaded, but at last he displayed the
sacred standard of the Prophet before his troops, and rekindled their
martial ardour. His first battle was fought at Cerestes, and lasted
three days, which the Sultan considered too long, for when on the third
day the Christian forces seemed victorious, Mohammed, who was watching
the fray from the back of a camel, thought it time to retire, and
prepared to lead a rapid retreat. However, at the critical moment Cicala
Pasha brought up some fresh irregular cavalry, and their impetuous
charge broke the thinned ranks of the Christians. Probably for the first
time in the history of Ottoman arms a number of troops, some thirty
thousand Asiatics, broke and fled during this battle. They were pursued,
and those who were captured suffered severe punishment at the hands of
Cicala. Others escaped to Asia Minor, where they raised the banner of
revolt, which distressed the remaining years of Mohammed's reign. In the
meantime the war dragged on with varying success in Hungary, till both
sides grew tired, and agreed to the Peace of Sitvatorok, by which
Transylvania was practically lost to Turkey.
The prestige of Ottoman power had been steadily sinking under Mohammed
III, and its decline would have been more marked but for the dissensions
and disturbances all over Europe. The German States were taking up arms
against each other in the name of religion, Spain was declining rapidly
since Philip II died, and Russia was rent by revolts. So the ill-success
of Turkish arms during the reign of Achmet I, an imbecile, the revolts
in Asia Minor, and the constant military mutinies, passed unnoticed by
those sovereigns who might have been advantaged by the weakness of the
Porte. The only really important event in the reign of Achmet I was the
introduction of tobacco, the natural concomitant to coffee, with which
the Turks became acquainted under Solyman the Great.
On Mustapha's short reign of three months followed the unhappy time of
the second Othman, who lacked all the good qualities of his great
namesake. His chief pastime was archery, using prisoners of war, even
his own pages, as targets, but for actual warfare he cared nothing, and
entered into a very disadvantageous peace with Persia. His Janissaries
grumbled at their sovereign's inertia, so to please them, and probably
to bleed them a little, he engaged in war with Poland, which, proving
disastrous, made the Sultan very unpopular. His disgusted soldiery
therefore took him to Yedi Koulé, kept him there for some time a
prisoner, and finally strangled him.
[Illustration: THE DARDANELLES
Turkish warships, cleared for action, lying in wait for the Greek
fleet.]
[Illustration: SEMENDRIA
A Roman stronghold in Servia on the Danube, for long a Turkish
fortress.]
Palace and harem intrigues brought about such an impossible state of
affairs in the country that even the army, generally ready to profit by
confusion, became alarmed for the welfare of the Empire. The steps they
took proved disastrous to themselves in the end. They placed Amurath,
brother of Othman II, a child of eleven, on the throne, and then
proceeded to govern the country under their own leaders and in their own
interests. Western Europe was becoming more and more aware of the
decline of Ottoman power in Europe, and there were not wanting prophets
who foretold the speedy dissolution of the Turkish Empire, among these
Sir Thomas Roe, ambassador from James I, who bemoaned the misery,
anarchy, and general decay, as evident in 1622. A wise woman, his
mother, Sultana Mahpeiker, guided Amurath IV through the troubled days
of his childhood, and brought up a Sultan endowed with vigour of body
and mind to man's estate. The first acts of his reign, the swift and
secret killing of the rebel leaders, cowed the soldiery into submission.
Amurath punished with death right and left, and even the Chief Mufti's
head went to the executioner for the bad state of the roads over which
his sovereign chose to travel. Amurath led his armies to war as
former Sultans had been wont to do, and brought them back victorious,
for Persia had been badly beaten and Bagdad retaken. The story is told
of how at the siege of that city a Persian giant threw down the gauntlet
to the Turkish army, how Amurath took it up, and in single combat clove
the giant's skull to the chin with his sabre. The Persian garrison of
thirty thousand was slaughtered, three hundred only making their escape.
So Amurath returned to Constantinople, to enter the City in triumph at
the head of his troops, and no Sultan has done so since that time.
But Amurath broke the laws of the Prophet and drank wine. A story tells
how the Sultan took the first step on the forbidden road. He was walking
in the streets of his capital one night, when Mustapha, the drunkard,
rolled up against him, and expressed no particular regret at bumping
into his sovereign, in fact, was much too happy to dream of offering
apologies to any monarch. He was summoned to the Court next day, and
arrived there with his bottle: "Here is the liquid gold which outweighs
all the treasures of the universe, which makes a beggar more glorious
than a king, and turns the mendicant fakir into a horned Alexander." So
spake Mustapha, offering his flask to Amurath, who drained it on the
spot, and thus became a total non-abstainer.
Mustapha remained about the palace as Amurath's boon companion, and
their convivial evenings may have hastened the Sultan's end; he was only
thirty-eight when sickness overtook him so suddenly that he had hardly
time to order the execution of his brother Ibrahim, by way of settling
up the affairs of state, and receive a message that the sentence had
been carried out, before he died.
Nevertheless Ibrahim came to the throne, and reigned from 1640-1648, for
the Sultana's message to Amurath IV, bringing news of his brother's
execution, was strictly untrue, and by this conventional lie, as one
might describe it considering the etiquette of the time, a Sultan,
rapacious, mean, bloodthirsty, and a coward, rose to the dignity of the
Caliphate, became God's Shadow on Earth, and was girded with the sword
of Othman. The harem was subject to Ibrahim's most serious
consideration, and therefore insisted too much on its power; so when
Kara Mustapha, the Grand Vizier, forgot to order firewood on the
requisition of the dear little ladies who made the Sultan's life so
bright and happy, he was arraigned on a capital charge. No matter that
foreign politics engrossed the attention of the Grand Vizier, no matter
that provinces won by the sword of Othman were drifting into other
hands, no matter that the Treasury was empty--the ladies of the Seraglio
had complained, and the Grand Vizier must suffer; so the executioner
removed the only man who realized the needs of Turkey and strove to mend
matters. To turn a dishonest penny for himself and his household
expenses the Sultan sold high offices in the State, the Army, and the
Navy, but when disaster attended Ottoman arms in their war against
Venice, the Army became exasperated, deposed the Sultan, killed him, and
set his infant son, Mohammed IV, a child of seven, upon the seat of the
Cæsars and Sultans.
Fortunately the new Sultan's mother had the great gift of finding the
right man for the right place, the gift which enabled King William of
Prussia, first German Emperor, to discover Bismarck, Moltke, and other
great men who brought ruin to one Empire to give birth to another. The
Sultana Validé called Mohammed Kiüprilü, then Governor of Jerusalem and
Vizier of State, to be Grand Vizier, and thus started a dynasty of Grand
Viziers which devoted great talents and energy to the saving of Ottoman
power in the world. Mohammed, the new Grand Vizier, was grandson of an
Albanian who had migrated to Asia Minor and settled at Kiüpri. He was
probably a convert to Islam for purposes of advancement, a usual
occurrence in those days. Mohammed Kiüprilü entered the service of the
Grand Vizier Khosren as kitchen-boy, rose to be cook, then Steward of
the Household, was promoted Master of the Horse, then became Governor of
Damascus, Tripoli, and Jerusalem, when the Sultana discovered him to the
saving of Turkey.
Mohammed Kiüprilü set about his new duties with vigour and impartiality.
There was much clearing-up at home; the Greek Patriarch had written to
the Voivode of Wallachia prophesying that Christianity would soon
replace falling Islam in the Ottoman possessions in Europe. His Holiness
was hanged over his own gateway. The Grand Vizier spared no creed, no
race, and thirty-six thousand persons suffered death in various forms
during the first five years of the new order; Soulfikar, Chief
Executioner of Constantinople, accounted for at least four thousand,
strangled by his own hand and thrown into the Bosphorus. By these
measures order was restored, then the navy was rebuilt, the army
refitted, and Ottoman prestige rose again with the reconquest of several
lost provinces.
Another thoroughly efficient Kiüprilü, Achmet, followed his father in
the Grand Vizierate, and led an army of 120,000 men, 120 field-guns, 12
heavy siege-guns, 6000 camels, and 10,000 mules, to Hungary, while
Sultan Mohammed stayed behind at Adrianople indulging in his only
pastime, the chase. The Ottoman army overran all Hungary and
Transylvania, spreading devastation, until it finally halted on the
banks of the Raab. Here, near the Monastery of St. Gothardt, East and
West met in battle again. Many years had passed since their last
encounter; in the meantime the West had progressed slowly, surely.
German pikemen and musketeers offered solid, organized resistance, and
kept the fiery irregular Akindji at bay; the cuirassiers of the West,
heavy, steel-clad cavalry, riding in serried ranks, knee to knee,
ploughed through the masses of Turkish foot-folk, and then, unlike their
knightly predecessors, were by discipline enabled to rally and move to
further deeds of valour. Against this, the Turkish army of that day had
lost some of its old enthusiasm and had learnt nothing new. So at St.
Gothardt, as at Kirk Kilisse, we find the West, high-purposed, highly
trained and disciplined, opposed to the East, trading on a military
tradition, unprepared, corrupt, inefficient, ill-disciplined--and with
the same results. The battle of St. Gothardt-on-Raab was the first great
defeat inflicted on the East by the West; 10,000 Turks were slain, 15
guns, 40 standards captured. A discomfited army returned to
Constantinople after a twenty years' truce had been arranged with
Austria, and sought relief, and possibly found it, in expeditions
elsewhere; Candia was taken after a vain blockade and siege of twenty
years.
The Sultan was induced to accompany his army on the campaign against
Poland in 1672, and gained some victories: Kaminec and Lemberg were
taken, Podolia and Ukraine added to Turkey, and a tribute of two hundred
and twenty thousand ducats was imposed on the conquered territory. But
Sobieski and his Polish nobles combined against the Turks, routing them
with great slaughter at Lemberg in 1675, though leaving matters much as
they had been.
On the death of Achmet Kiüprilü matters went from bad to worse, the
Turks being defeated in the Ukraine by Russia; nevertheless a great
effort was made to carry war into Austria, and an army of two hundred
and seventy-five thousand men set out under Kara Mustapha, the new
Grand Vizier, to besiege Vienna once more. Count Stahremberg and his
garrison of eleven thousand men stoutly resisted the assaults delivered
by the Turkish troops, who devoted all their energies to the attack,
neglecting the defence of their own scattered encampments. This made
Sobieski's task the easier when his army swooped down from the heights
around Vienna. The Turks were totally routed, and driven in headlong
flight before the armies of the West. Kara Mustapha was executed at
Belgrade to expiate the general inefficiency of the army, which was
thereupon beaten again in a renewed attempt on Hungary, at Mohacz; this
battle freed the Magyars from the domination of the Sublime Porte.
Turkey's misfortunes emboldened Venice to make reprisals on outlying
posts of the Empire, and as Turkish naval power had declined in keeping
with the efficiency of the land army, disaster after disaster
exasperated the unruly soldiery, and they took to their favourite
expedient of dethroning the Sultan.
During the reign of Mohammed IV the status of the Janissaries was
altered; no more Christian children were added to the corps, only the
offspring of former Janissaries, and an ever-increasing number of Turks
and other Moslems, in quest of the many civil as well as military posts,
often given to this body.
Another Solyman, second of the name, followed Mohammed IV, and he was
followed by Achmet II (1691-1695). Both sovereigns enjoyed the services
of a Kiüprilü as Grand Vizier, for Kiüprilü Zadé Mustapha held that high
office during both reigns; but the Ottoman power had been much enfeebled
by disastrous wars and inner dissensions; moreover, it had to contend
against one of the world's greatest soldiers, "Prinz Eugen, der Edle
Ritter." He scattered the Ottoman armies like chaff before the wind at
Peterwardein and Belgrade, and again at Slankamen, in Achmet's reign, at
which place, where the Theiss and Danube meet in a broad expanse of
water, the Turkish river fleet won a partial success, which was
negatived by a sore defeat on land. Kiüprilü was killed, and the Turks
were driven from Hungary. Transylvania, too, was lost when Tekeli was
beaten by the Imperialists; but yet subtler, more insidious enemies
preyed upon the nation, famine and pestilence, and to all these troubles
Nature contributed a devastating earthquake. These things came upon
Sultan Achmet during the four years of his reign, and sent him
broken-hearted to the grave.
The Western nations had emerged out of their sea of troubles when Achmet
II died in 1695. The German Empire had entered on a lengthy period of
peace after distracting wars, and the gentler arts of peace revived. But
the wars had consolidated the military power of the Empire, the
impetuous chivalry of knights took the ordered form of discipline
without losing its martial spirit, and Western brains advanced rapidly
along the path of progress in all directions.
In the meantime, Turkey had learnt nothing new, and was falling behind.
The art of war was neglected, other arts there were none; and while in
England immortal Milton's pen added to the world's literary treasures,
while France was listening to Corneille's sonorous verses, and Algernon
Sidney was discoursing concerning government, the power of the Osmanli
was sinking into the ruin of corruption, the Empire built up by warlike
Sultans was passing out of the hands of those who could not add to the
conquests of war by the arts of peace, into the hands of those who were
inspired with the spirit of a new era.
CHAPTER XIV
Mustapha II defeated by Prince Eugène--The Peace of
Carlowitz--Death of Mustapha II--Charles XII of Sweden--More
Turkish provinces lost--Mahmoud I--Gazi Hassan--Selim III and the
Janissaries--Mahmoud II ascends the throne--Ibrahim punishes the
Janissaries--Changes in Europe--The battle of Navarino--Von Moltke
and the Turkish Army--The steady loss of provinces--Recent changes
in the Ottoman Empire--Independence of military governors--Revolt
of the Pasha of Scutari--Influence of the telegraph--The reign of
Abdul Hamid--The Turks and non-Islamic subjects--The Young Turk
party--Revolution and reaction--Deposition of Abdul Hamid--Western
opinion of the Young Turks--The result of reform--The invasion of
Turkey by the Allies--Turkey at the outbreak of the war.
The power of the Ottoman Empire had been brought very low by the time
Mustapha II, son of Mohammed IV, came to the throne in 1695. This Sultan
was a man of greater capacity than any of his predecessors, and saw that
only a return to the old ideals could bring the people back to the ways
that lead to success in the field and prestige in the council of
nations. He therefore issued a Hatti-Sherif, a manifesto of state,
declaring that he would restore ancient usages, and in person lead his
armies in the field. This he did with some initial success, marching
from Belgrade to Temesvar, retaking several strong places, and defeating
the Austrian general, Veterani, whose hiding-places were the caves which
the traveller may see in the precipitous rocks that close in the Danube
to northward on its way through the pass of Kazan to the Iron Gate. The
campaign against Austria in 1696 also brought to the Sultan the victory
over the Duke of Saxony and an imperial army at Temesvar. But in the
following year Mustapha had to meet Prince Eugène at Zenta, and being
completely out-manoeuvred, suffered defeat, aggravated by the conduct
of the mutinous Janissaries, who thought fit to massacre their officers
during the battle. By evening of September 11th, 1697, Prince Eugène saw
his enemy in full flight, and was able to send the following message to
his imperial master at Vienna: "The sun seemed to linger on the horizon
to gild with his last rays the victorious standards of Austria."
Sultan Mustapha fled from the field, where his Grand Vizier lay slain
among thousands of his army, and never led his troops again in person. A
treaty of peace for twenty-five years was signed at Carlowitz, on the
Danube, after a vast amount of unnecessary trouble. The ambassadors of
all the Powers, and there were many, represented at the conference, were
each so jealous of their sovereign's dignity that the order of
precedence could not be agreed upon. So a special chapel was built, and
provided with so many doors that all the ambassadors could enter at the
same moment. The chapel still stands on a hill-side near Carlowitz, a
witness to this scene of exquisite trifling.
Turkey was still strong at sea, and able to check Venetian aggressions,
but on land Ottoman power had sunk below the level of the great nations
of Western Europe, and so began that rôle of political rather than
military importance, which has characterized the status of the Sublime
Porte ever since.
Another Kiüprilü Grand Vizier, Hussein, assisted Mustapha with the
family aptitude for affairs, and certainly managed to improve Turkey's
financial position. But the enemies of the Porte were all too powerful,
not only Austria, but also Russia, for Peter the Great had been waging
war with energy, and had added Turkish territory by the Sea of Azof to
his Empire. Sick at heart, Mustapha II died in 1703, shortly after his
Grand Vizier, Hussein Kiüprilü.
It was perhaps owing to Russian designs that the Porte looked with a
friendly mien towards Great Britain, and we find Sir Robert Sutton
establishing pleasant relations between his sovereign and Achmet III,
brother of and successor to Mustapha III. In this monarch's reign a
romantic person roamed at large in Europe, fought battles, lost and won,
and generally conducted himself more after the manner of the condottieri
of other times than of a reigning sovereign of eighteenth-century
Europe: Charles XII of Sweden was abroad, and though doing very much,
effecting nothing. He drifted through Russia at variance with that
country's ruler, and being defeated by Peter the Great at Pultowa in
1709, sought refuge in the Sultan's dominions. Another name well known
to legend comes into history for a moment here--Hetman Mazeppa, who
joined forces with Charles XII and, being considered a traitor by the
Russians, met with the treatment his case required, according to their
standard.
The Swedish King's stay in Turkish territory did not improve the
relations between the Porte and Russia; war was declared by the former
in 1710, the method adopted being to incarcerate the Tsar's ambassador
in the stronghold of Yedi Koulé. It is true that Turkey gained some
successes, defeating Peter the Great by the banks of the Pruth, and
Ottoman arms won some small victories over in Austria; but the decline
of Turkey was not arrested. Prince Eugène marched on Belgrade, Servia
rose, and more and more possessions passed from the Ottoman Empire in
Europe, till by the Peace of Passarowitz, in Servia, all Hungary became
free of Turkey, who had also lost Belgrade, Semendria, several other
cities, and the province of Wallachia.
Achmet abdicated in favour of his nephew, Mahmoud I, whose reign, from
1730-1754, showed a yet greater decline of Turkish power and prestige.
Topal Osman, Mahmoud's general, scored some successes over the raiding
Persian armies, but was defeated and killed at Kerkoud, while Nadir,
Shah of Persia, was beating other Turkish armies. Desultory wars with
Austria led to no other result than that Turkey was passing out of the
ranks of great Powers, through its inability to adapt itself to the
spirit of the age, to adopt new methods in place of those which had
proved useless, even harmful, in the day of trouble.
Attempts were made from time to time at a new order of things. Amongst
the reformers was Gazi Hassan, the hero of the battle of Shio, in 1770.
A fierce sea-fight was raging, in which the Turks were being worsted,
when Hassan brought his ship alongside the Russian Admiral's and fought
yard-arm to yard-arm until both vessels caught fire and went up. Hassan
was the last to leave his ship, and then swam ashore, badly wounded. He
rose to high office in the State, and endeavoured to introduce modern
improvements, to equip the army with up-to-date weapons, and to restore
some sort of discipline; but the army would have none of it, and even
stout-hearted Hassan could not push his way through the inert mass of
Turkish officialdom which crowded in to stifle all efforts at reform.
Only the navy experienced any improvement, and that because Hassan
insisted on the high-pooped, heavy Turkish ships being replaced by
lighter, faster vessels, built on English lines. But fresh difficulties
arose over the manning of these ships, as the Turks declined to do
anything but act as gunners, so Greeks had to fill the ratings of the
sailors. Gazi Hassan worked hard at this reform, and was surely entitled
to the gratitude of his country; but such feelings existed not in those
days, neither will any reformer find it in Turkey of to-day. Gazi Hassan
was unsuccessful in war, during the latter years of his life, owing to
the opposition offered to all his reforms, but this was not taken into
consideration; it probably increased his unpopularity, till Selim III,
on his accession in 1789, had to execute the old hero to appease a
tumult among the populace of Constantinople.
Selim III did not gain anything by his complaisance to the unruly
soldiery, for by the beginning of his reign the Janissaries had become
quite unmanageable, at least to a weak man. Their numbers had increased
considerably, and stood at one hundred and fifty thousand, at least on
paper, but there was sufficient reason to suppose that many figured on
paper only, and that high-placed officials pocketed the pay of the
non-existent members of the corps. Another change which had crept into
the corps was that members were not necessarily available for, or liable
to, military service, so many being engaged in civil employment. They
were, however, ever ready to take up arms in revolt, and proved their
political power by deposing and murdering Sultan Achmet III. The
Janissaries had lost their _raison d'être_, and were no more than a
public nuisance at a time when all Europe was seething with discontent,
when old thrones were falling to the ground and new popular political
institutions were teaching monarchs how a people prefers to be governed.
Possibly the Janissaries were influenced by the spirit of revolt which
informed so many peoples at this period, but I think it more likely that
they acted out of selfishness only, and had no other desire than to hold
the power of the State in their own hands, to their own advantage,
allowing the Sultan to reign as long as he did not interfere with their
rule. They were far too bigoted and jealous of their privileges to have
taken to the idealistic notions which possessed so many patriots of the
French Revolution. They deposed Selim III, and his successor reigned
only a few months.
Then came Mahmoud II, and he was more like the Sultans of the days of
conquests than any of his immediate predecessors had been. The
Janissaries annoyed him, so he determined to get rid of them, and
happily had heard of the method used by Murat for soothing the turbulent
Madrileños. It was time for drastic measures, because the external
situation was becoming very dangerous; the Greeks were in revolt, Kara
George had risen in Servia, Christians were being massacred in the
Ottoman dominions, and the fact was beginning to attract the notice of
Europe, in spite of so many other preoccupations. So Mahmoud II saw to
his artillery, and instructed his Master of the Ordnance, Ibrahim,
commonly called Kara Gehennin, Black Hell, in the use he wished it put
to. The Janissaries were ordered out to military exercises one day, and
as this did not please them, they gave the usual signal of revolt, by
upsetting their camp-kettles.
Mahmoud was ready for them; he unfurled the Sacred Standard of the
Prophet, called on all true believers to rally round their Padishah and
Caliph, and left Ibrahim to do the rest with his artillery. Those
Janissaries who survived this treatment broke back to barracks, where
they barricaded themselves, some six thousand. Ibrahim came up with his
guns and knocked the buildings down about their ears; those who did not
perish here were slain by irate citizens wherever they were caught, and
so a great corps, whose earliest records were those of honourable
battle, perished in a day. A new army of forty thousand was then raised,
clothed, armed, and disciplined, according to European models.
The old order was changing, had changed, with startling quickness all
over Europe, and all the known world was affected by the events that
filled the times when Mahmoud II sat on the throne of Constantine. When
this Sultan succeeded, France had already passed through the fire of
Republican Government to the glory of a military Empire, had again
accepted the principle of hereditary nobility while French arms were
victorious over nearly all the continent of Europe. A new Republic had
arisen out of muddle and misrule in Great Britain's American colonies,
and as compensation, perhaps, that country was laying the foundations of
the Indian Empire, and paving the way to the possession of Egypt, on the
battlefields of the Iberian Peninsula.
Mahmoud lived long enough to witness all these many changes. Before he
died, in 1839, he saw the fleets of Great Britain, France, and Russia
threatening him with punishment unless the bloodshed caused by the
Hellenic effort after freedom ceased at once, saw his own fleet, despite
its bravery and that of his Egyptian allies, destroyed at Navarino, and
as consequence a Christian King appointed by the Powers to rule over his
former subjects in Greece.
Even Turkey endeavoured to show some appreciation of the "Zeit Geist" by
instituting reforms, and wisely began with the Army, calling in for the
first time German instructors. One of these, a tall young officer with
fair curly hair, some forty years later planned the campaign which laid
the second French Empire in the dust, Field-Marshal Count von Moltke. Of
the Turks, after the war with Russia, which followed shortly on
Navarino, Moltke said: "The splendid appearance, the beautiful arms, the
reckless bravery of the old Moslem horde had disappeared, yet this new
army had one quality which placed it above the numerous host that in
former times the Porte could summon to the field--it obeyed."
Does the spirit of obedience still form one of the many good qualities
of the Turkish soldier? It is hard to say, for this war has given
instances of the old bravery and devotion, steadiness under fire, which
means discipline, obedience; but against that you have evidence of the
contrary, of swarms of men straying away unarmed from their posts at the
front, and hiding in the purlieus of Stamboul, while from Asia Minor
come reports of whole divisions which had declined to take part in the
Balkan War.
In the meantime the dismemberment of the Turkish Empire continued. By
1811 Milosh Obrenoviç had forced the Porte to relinquish all claims on
Servia, and in 1832 a Bavarian Prince became King of an independent
Greece. Some thirty years later the Russo-Turkish War gave autonomy to
Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina were occupied by Austria, these events
being followed by the independence of Roumania and Servia as kingdoms
entirely free from any Turkish control. The last of Turkey's conquered
provinces became free when Tsar Ferdinand proclaimed himself ruler of
all the Bulgarians. This last event synchronized with an expression of
popular feeling engineered by a political association generally known as
Young Turks.
It is a common saying that nothing changes in the East; it is also
inaccurate, like most generalizations. Changes came, even to Turkey,
through her contact with the West. Change comes very slowly to such a
people as are the Turks, and when it does come it leaves behind more
bewilderment among the bulk of the nation than is usually the case in
Western races. Again, to the outside world the changes which have passed
over the Ottoman Empire in recent years have seemed to come suddenly,
because the effects had the appearance of precipitancy. Revolt,
revolutionary changes, are nothing new in the Ottoman Empire, but till
lately have passed more or less unnoticed, probably because their
effects were not particularly striking.
[Illustration: CONSTANTINOPLE
Seen from above Scutari; beyond it the Sea of Marmora and the distant
coast where the lines of Chatalja end to southward.]
Such changes as have taken place occurred almost entirely in the
European provinces of the Ottoman Empire, and may be said to have begun
during the last century. The European provinces of Turkey always
contained factors making for the disruption of the Empire: subject
races, alien in everything to their masters, centrifugal forces for a
time controlled by military governors whose methods did not as a rule
tend to bring about conciliation. The bonds that bound the provinces to
the Central Government were none of the strongest before the days when
an official's every step was dictated to him by telegraph from the
Porte, and local governors acted with great independence. Military
pashas even made war on and concluded peace with each other, after the
manner of mediæval dynasts. Some went even further, as did the Pasha of
Janina. He started life as a brigand, and made himself pasha by the
simple expedient of forging his commission. This trifling misdemeanour
was overlooked by the Porte, as he was a strong man, and might be useful
to the interests of the Empire, and, moreover, if it came to the worst,
could always be disowned. As it happened, Ali Pasha was too strong, or
the Central Government too weak, and so he went to lengths to which no
other pasha had gone before him.
Ali Pasha's lifetime fell into those days when Europe was big with
revolution against ancient dynasties, and was tiring of time-honoured
institutions. No doubt personal vanity, that strong incentive of
revolutionaries, reformers, and others in search of notoriety, swayed
Ali Pasha. He conducted a foreign policy quite independent of that
pursued by the Porte, entered into negotiations with Napoleon or Pitt,
as he deemed expedient, and generally acted with complete independence.
Incidentally, Ali Pasha helped towards the dismemberment of his
sovereign's Empire by favouring the Greeks in their strivings after
freedom; it was probably not his original intention. Ali Pasha very
fittingly fell a victim to a conspiracy of those whom he had injured in
one way or another.
Another pasha to raise the banner of revolt was Passvan Oglou of Vidin,
who, when the Porte sought to depose him, prepared to march on
Constantinople, and the Central Government was obliged to make peace
with him.
Then, again, the Pasha of Scutari revolted, but the Porte contrived to
settle him and the chief of his conspiracy by a breach of Turkish
hospitality, by a massacre at a banquet.
The separation of Egypt from the complex of military governorships which
constituted the Ottoman Empire, was another indication that the old
order was not in keeping with the spirit of the age. The destruction of
the Turkish fleet at Navarino, and the massacre of the Janissaries, by
which the flower of the Turkish Army was lost, were further signs of the
times, and prepared for changes even in Turkish administration, and
finally, by the emancipation of Greece, that administration was deprived
of some of its best brains, for since that event not even the meanest
Greek would accept office under the Porte.
The telegraph wrought further changes; it brought the Central
Government, restored to order by Reshid Pasha, into closer touch with
the provinces, made greater control of officials possible, and finally
robbed these of all initiative. Moreover, higher officials were no
longer chosen from among the local magnates, but drawn from a lower
class, less likely to act independently; by this a new bureaucracy was
called into being and its ineptitude caused further trouble.
In the reign of Abdul Hamid all the vilayets of European Turkey were
absolutely controlled from Yildiz Kiosk, and as that ruler was far above
concerning himself with such trifling matters as racial distinctions
among his subjects, unless they proved of value in sowing discord
between the various nationalities under his sway, Greeks, Bulgarians,
Serbs, and others met with little consideration at the hands of the
Sultan's deputies. _Force majeure_ applied by the Great Powers was the
only argument to which Sultan Abdul Hamid answered, and the
Russo-Turkish war brought about changes which we have already
considered.
The great body of the Turkish nation lived quite contentedly under Abdul
Hamid. He was Sultan, Caliph, God's Shadow upon Earth, and ordered
mundane matters from heights almost as remote as the high heavens. He
was the head of a theocratic power, based on militarism, and his Turkish
subjects were content that he should remain so. To them a ruler who
declined to differentiate between dynamo and dynamite was well suited.
Every village provided for its own security by appointing watchmen, and
education was the concern of the churches. The Gendarmerie was not
concerned with preventing crime or tracing criminals unless the State,
not private property, were endangered.
That a State so raised, so maintained, should act as an organization for
protecting and furthering the interests of its subjects, of whatever
race or creed, is not to be expected, neither did the great body of the
Turkish nation ever wish it to assume such functions. For the Turks were
the dominant race, the conquerors, and to them any idea of their
non-Islamic, non-Turk fellow-subjects as equals was inconceivable; their
religion made such a state of affairs impossible. Thus for the ordinary
Turk, as for the more enlightened ones, those in power had every
interest in supporting the old order of things, for most of them must
have known that once the non-Turk elements were placed on a level with
the sons of Othman, the latter's _locus standi_ would have gone, seeing
his ineptitude for any modern thought, his incapacity for progress. The
_raison d'être_ of the State was to perpetuate Osmanli ascendancy, and
to this end Abdul Hamid worked, and he worked well for his own people.
This ascendancy was jealously guarded; no Christian was ever allowed
executive command over Moslems, and to this is due in great measure the
failure of all attempted reforms in the naval and military services of
the Ottoman Empire.
Added to this is a certain distrust which the Turk has of all
Christians, believing that a man who does not follow the law of the
Koran cannot be absolutely loyal to the Sultan. In many instances the
Turk's suspicions were justified, but it was not religious sentiment
alone which separated Moslem and non-Moslem in the Ottoman Empire, for
those Jews who are the Sultan's subjects are well content to remain so.
Unlike other non-Moslem subjects of the Sultan, those Jews, mostly
refugees from Spain's and Portugal's most Catholic Majesties, have no
outside Powers to espouse their cause, nor have they any grievance, for,
being isolated, the Porte has no reason to fear them. It is most
unlikely that the Jews of Saloniki, for instance, would welcome the
Slavs as masters, nor have the Greeks, since their occupation of that
town, ingratiated themselves with the children of Israel.
Like the Jews, the Turks form a religious community rather than a State
in its modern conception, and these two resemble each other inasmuch as
neither understands the word "Fatherland" as applying to a country
exclusively occupied by their co-nationals. The word "Vatan," meaning
Motherland, conveys no definite meaning to the Turks; it had to be
interpreted to them by the self-appointed leaders of thought who formed
the Young Turk Party. To those who have lived in India the word "Vatan"
will be familiar in the sense that it defines a man's place of origin
rather than a sentimental idea, such as the words "Home," "Patria,"
"Heimat," or "Vaterland."
To this inarticulate mass of Moslems living contentedly under the
Sultan's sway, a body of Young Turks brought the Western conception of a
State. The "Spirit of the East," so strong among the Turks, was
disquieted by a movement which seemed to work outside the limits of the
"Law," as written by the Prophet. The work done by the new political
power in Turkey appealed strongly to the great mass of the people in
Western Europe, to those who had no experience of the East and its
mysterious ways. The reformers, after years of strenuous effort, years
spent in exile, broke in upon Abdul Hamid's plans for maintaining
Turkish ascendancy when Niazi Bey raised the standard of revolt in 1908,
and threatened to march on Constantinople with the Second and Third Army
Corps. Abdul Hamid yielded to pressure, and ordered the election of a
Chamber of Deputies, at the same time encouraging a counter-revolution
in his capital. This movement was led by Kiamil Pasha, the Grand Vizier
then (as he is again at present), against the Committee of Union and
Progress. The reformers proved too strong, and Kiamil Pasha was forced
to resign; he was succeeded by Hilmi Pasha, formerly Commissioner of
Macedonia. The acts of the Committee of Union and Progress began to bear
fruit at once, and of a nature unexpected by those enthusiasts who had
only the idea of a great Liberal Empire under a constitutional Sultan
before their eyes, otherwise blind to side issues. But these side issues
grew and crystallized into a segregation of the non-Islamic sections of
the population, who felt more than ever justified in insisting on their
own respective nationality. An early disagreement arose between the
Committee of Union and Progress and the Liberal Union, a body called
into being to represent the Christian electorate. The murder of Hussein
Fehmi, an Albanian editor of the Union's official organ, provoked his
compatriots among the troops in Constantinople to action against the
Committee of Union and Progress; mutinous soldiers seized the Parliament
House and telegraph offices, while delegates from the Liberal Union
suggested entering into negotiations with the other party. In the
meantime Abdul Hamid had pardoned the mutineers, and this gave the
Committee sufficient excuse for considering the revolt as reactionary;
the Committee were well aware that their new regime could not succeed
while the Sultan seemed to favour reaction. An army under Mahmoud
Shevket marched on Constantinople, invested the capital, occupied it
after some fighting, and ordered the National Assembly to depose Abdul
Hamid, electing his younger brother to succeed as Mohammed V.
In itself, the deposition of a Sultan by a revolted section of the Army
was nothing new in the annals of Ottoman history; it had occurred
frequently, but was generally understood to have been an expression of
the "Will of Allah." "The Will of the People" was made responsible for
the effects of the last revolution, and none were more bewildered than
the bulk of the Turkish people themselves when this reasoning was
explained to them. The Effendi class, the gentry, as it were, many of
them men of intelligence, were as a whole by no means enamoured of the
Committee of Union and Progress and its ways, knowing well how little
the Turkish people were prepared for violent reforms. The people
themselves seem to have quite failed to enter into the spirit of the new
era; they missed the religious note; no mention was made of Allah, in
fact, the professed agnosticism of some less cautious reformers led them
to suggest that Allah had nothing to do with the business.
Then again, Christians, even Armenians, were to be looked upon as
equals, treated as such, whereas every one knew that they had to submit,
as becomes the vanquished, thus duly acknowledging the Turk as their
superiors. Then a new word, besides the unintelligible "Vatan," was
being used to describe the governing power, "Constitution,"
"Meshrutiet," which many took to be a new, strange name for the
succeeding Sultan. The election of delegates did not meet with thorough
approval; some considered that it raised individuals above the mass of
Moslems, who are all equal in the sight of the Prophet, others could not
understand why an assembly was necessary to voice the Sultan's "Irade"
(in its original meaning, intention), and, again, there were those who
thought of Parliament as a plaything of the Sultan's, and justified for
that reason only.
In the meantime enthusiastic Western nations, especially those who
consider representative government the panacea for all social ills,
because their own genius had evolved the system, loudly acclaimed the
Young Turks as saviours of their country, as apostles of freedom, as
heroes, and most members of the reform party gladly accepted this
interpretation of their somewhat confused mentality. If you are called a
hero you are very likely to believe it, even if it robs you of your
proper sense of proportion. This happened to the Young Turks
collectively. The promised reforms had never been demanded by the bulk
of the Turkish people, who therefore had no standpoint from which to
gauge the results of reforms; they supposed that everything was to be
free, amongst others, railway travelling, and I have heard of Turks
invading a first-class compartment, and not only declining to pay their
fare, but objecting to Christians riding in the same coach.
The Committee of Union and Progress showed the inherited genius of
destruction, but failed when it came to construction. Western people
said, "Give them time," but time brought no betterment. The old order
had been ruthlessly destroyed, the fear of authority had been dispelled,
and nothing was created to fill the vacant places in the mind of the
people. Public administration suffered, neglected because the reformers
had no thought but for the maintenance of their own dignity, and this
was entrusted to an esoteric militarism, to a political body whose
members were not publicly known, and who were therefore removed from
public responsibility. The worst effects of this clandestine body
politic were felt in the army, and those whose business it was to
maintain the efficiency of the Sultan's forces were too much concerned
with political machinations to attend to their primary duties. The
disorder which resulted in all departments of public life led to an
increase in the ever-present inertia of the Turk when not engaged in
warfare, and acted as a further hindrance to reform.
In the Army the spirit of change brought from the West worked the
greatest havoc. The Anatolian peasant, a simple-minded, strong, enduring
child, when called for service with the colours, found no more of the
old officers, who were content to lead without domineering, in a
single-hearted effort for the Faith. In their stead he found men who
assumed airs of superiority, who lived apart, and were not interested in
the simple working of the soldier's mind. These officers took as their
models the men who train the German Army on German lines, suitable only
to the German people, and appear to have disregarded the national
peculiarities of their own kin. Some were even lax in matters of
religious observance, and how could a war prove victorious when all due
glory was not given to the God of battles? Again, there were Christians
fighting, in the ranks only, side by side with Moslems--how could this
be? Is not war a religious commandment, a sacred matter in which
infidels can have no part? The Koran says: "Who dies for God's sake
receives the highest reward"; but how can a Christian be so blest, as he
does not follow the law of the Prophet? Thus bewildered the Anatolian
peasant marched to war, inspired by Islam, obedience, resignation,
against the armed manhood of nations who breathed freedom.
The Porte, or the inexpert executive of the Ottoman Empire, had failed
to realize that the Balkan States had been strengthened by the
weakening of Islam's simple ideals, that hopes of liberty had risen high
among the Christian subjects of the Sultan in Europe, and that a
formidable alliance was in being, conceived with the sole idea of ending
Turkish rule over European Christians.
With a thoroughness of which the Oriental mind is incapable, the great
coup had been prepared by the Balkan States. A hard-and-fast Alliance
which for the time overrode all political and religious differences
confronted the Porte, and roused it suddenly to face a desperate
emergency. The Kochana massacres brought matters to a head, while Turkey
was still engaged in apathetic war with Italy. Bulgaria insisted in
peremptory tones on reform in Macedonia, Servia raised its voice over
the detention of munitions of war in transit from Saloniki, via Üsküb,
to Nish; Montenegro found a _casus belli_, and was first to pour its
armed sons down from the mountains into Turkey. They captured Detchich
on October 9th, the day after the formal declaration of war; they seized
Tuzi and Berane, and proceeded to invest Scutari. While thus engaged the
Porte was forced to declare war on Bulgaria and Servia on October 17th,
and on the same day Greece took a like step towards Turkey. An army
under the Crown Prince at once invaded the southern provinces of the
Empire.
The floods were out, and Western armies, highly trained, purposeful,
each individual fighter inspired by love of liberty, full of zeal for
the cause he had at heart, overflowed into Thrace, Thessaly, and
Macedonia. The Ottoman Army had but recently been engaged in
manoeuvres, and these had shown many glaring defects of organization.
When the Allied Armies marched, the Turks were more unready than ever;
they had even sent their reservists home. Then began a scene of frantic
disorder. Units were hurried to the front where the commanders of
brigades, divisions, army corps, impatiently awaited them. The
carefully arranged commands and sub-commands were entirely disregarded,
and each brigadier or divisional commander seized on troops as they
arrived, indiscriminately, and added them to his command. Thus the war,
begun in confusion, invited defeat. And defeat came swiftly,
mercilessly, while the unorganized masses of Ottoman troops, however
bravely individuals might comport themselves, were swept away before the
rising tide. Everybody failed, except perhaps the long-suffering Turkish
soldier; ammunition reserves were not, food supplies gave out at once,
and by the end of October all Thessaly, all Macedonia, the greater part
of Thrace, were no longer Turkish possessions, and the Sultan's armies,
broken, starved, diseased, were driven behind the lines of Chatalja, the
outer defences of the capital. On these lines the remnant of Ottoman
military power guarded the last trace of Turkish dominion in Europe;
shivering on the wind-swept heights, ill-equipped, underfed, regardless
of elementary hygiene, they awaited Kismet, these ill-used,
long-suffering sons of Islam, while in the Empire's capital the mosques
filled with sick and wounded, mingling with refugees from the former
European vilayets. There were others yet in the City, or why should the
War Office have issued an order to the imams, the priests, to render
account of officers and men of the army who are hiding in the narrow
streets of their respective parishes? The police were also instructed to
demand of officers they saw in the streets some document to show that
they were authorized to be in the town instead of at the front.
Seven short weeks and the Empire carved out of Europe by the sword of
Othman has shrivelled up before the fierce blast of war like grass
before a prairie fire. And in their need and sickness the soldiers of
Islam turned to Allah, the god of battles, and sought refuge in the
mosques built to commemorate the triumphs of departed Caliphs.
CHAPTER XV
The Greeks, ancient and modern--Origin of the modern
Greeks--Mohammed the Conqueror and the Greeks--The Greeks under
Selim I--The rise of the Phanariot Greeks--The work of the Orthodox
Church--The Greek literary revival--The trade of the Greeks--The
revival of Hellenism--The first Pan-Hellenic rising--The revolt of
the Islands--Ali Pasha's assistance--Massacres--The battle of
Navarino--The last war between Greece and Turkey--Joachim III--The
story of the Patriarchate--The funeral of His Holiness Joachim
III--The Greeks in the last war--A legend of Balukli.
When Mohammed II completed the conquest of the Eastern Empire by the
capture of Constantinople he made himself master of a large population,
both in the City and the former Empire of old Byzantium, which had for
some time been considered Greek, and which was subsequently called
Greek. This classification was religious from the Turkish point of view,
from that of the Greeks themselves it became racial as time went on. To
the conquering Moslem all those were Greeks who belonged to the Orthodox
Church; the Greeks, however, insisted on their descent from the historic
people who had made their country famous before the days of the Romans
even, the Hellenes, whose literature they adopted, whose art they basely
imitated, and with whose high attributes they consider themselves
endowed.
This people, the classic Greeks, the Hellenes, had inhabited the
Peloponese Peninsula from those dark ages before recorded history, and
even in prehistoric times had occupied the islands between Greece and
Asia Minor. No doubt the Hellenes moved down from the plains of Central
Europe, the cradle of the Aryan race, in successive waves, being urged
forward by seething masses of young nations behind them. We have some
indications as to what manner of men they were in the early works of art
of the sixth century B.C., which tend to show that these ancient
immigrants were large, blue-eyed, fair-haired men. Anthropologists
maintain after studying the skulls of ancient Greeks that these were
dolichocephalic, long-headed, which tends further to the conclusion that
the first invaders of this peninsula were akin to the races of Northern
Europe. The first immigrants were probably the Arcadians, who spread
from the coasts to the islands and populated Crete, Rhodes, and Cyprus.
They were followed by the Doric tribe, kinsmen who came from Thrace, who
probably brought the first immigrants to submission and gradually
absorbed them, and such of the aboriginals, the Ionians, who did not
migrate to Asia Minor. Within the range of history another people came
down from the north to influence the Peloponese, the Macedonians. Their
origin is uncertain, but what traces are left of their old language, a
name here and there, suggests that they were akin to the Illyrians, had
adopted Greek culture, and were ruled by princes who wished to be
considered pure Greeks. It would seem, therefore, that the ancient
Hellenes were a mixture of various northern Aryan races and aboriginal
inhabitants, Illyrians, Ionians, whose origin forms a yet unsolved
historical problem. The Peloponese was, as it were, a pier, standing out
into the Mediterranean Sea, and from which northern ideas extended and
spread southward to Africa, eastward over the Archipelago to Asia. The
subtle attraction of an outlet must have acted on the subconsciousness
of other northern races, in that the Hellenes, far from feeling secure
in their peninsula, were constantly exposed to the visits of strange
barbaric visitors whenever "Wanderlust" moved the tribes of Central
Europe. Of course, Romans left their impress, and so did wandering
Goths, but strongest of all was the influence of the Slavs, and they so
seriously affected the Peloponese that at one time it was known as
Slavinia.
To all this came an Albanian invasion in the thirteenth century, so that
the Greeks of to-day cannot lay claim to anything more than spiritual
descent from the ancient Hellenes. The type has changed completely from
that of the traditional Greek: he was tall, fair-haired, and
long-headed; the Greek of to-day is of medium height, they have not ten
per cent of fair-haired people amongst them, and they are
brachycephalic, like the Slavs. Other Slav influences may be traced in
the language, in the names of places and rivers. The Hellenes of to-day
may be spiritual children of Hellas, physically they are certainly the
result of a mixing of races--Illyrian, Ionian, Hellenes, Latins, Goths,
Slavs of various tribes, Vlachs, Albanians, and a dash contributed by
the pious Crusaders of Western Europe. These Greeks are widely
distributed over the Balkan Peninsula, throughout the Turkish Empire,
and over the Archipelago, and are considered a nation on the basis of an
assertion made by M. Kapodistrias, the first President of the new
Hellenic State. When asked, Who are the Greeks? he answered: "The Greek
nation consists of the people who, since the conquest of Constantinople,
have never ceased to profess adherence to the Orthodox Church, to speak
the language of their fathers, and who have remained under the
jurisdiction, both spiritual and temporal, of their Church, wherever
they might live in the Turkish Empire." This is, of course, a very
inaccurate description, but at least serves to illustrate Greek
pretensions.
The Greeks reckon the total of their nationals in the Balkan Peninsula
at roughly eight millions, but I doubt whether they number more than
five millions, for the Helenophils who have been making propaganda for
years among the Slavs in Macedonia are much inclined to count in those
converts, many of whose sons, by the way, have been won back by the
Slavs and now call themselves Serbs or Bulgars, according to the
nationality of their teachers. About two millions of these five make up
the population of the Kingdom of Greece, the remainder are scattered
about in the other Balkan States. The majority are to be found in Turkey
and along the coasts from Saloniki to Varna, between two and three
hundred thousand live in Constantinople and by the shores of the
Bosphorus, in fact, they are to be found in all the important towns, not
only of Turkey in Europe and Asia Minor, but also in Bulgaria and
Russia. No doubt the preference for town life dates from the days of
barbarian invasions. The Greeks are chiefly engaged in trade and
business, though many are fishermen employed in the coasting trade.
Mohammed II, on his triumphal entry into Constantinople, found a smaller
population than might have been expected from a large and important
city. Many of the Greeks had fled, not a few had been massacred, and it
took some skill and statecraft to induce the fugitives to return. This
Mohammed succeeded in doing by reinstating the Greek Patriarch with
great and solemn ceremony, and by promising perfect religious freedom to
the Greek community. The Greeks had always devoted more attention to the
affairs of their Church than to outside matters of state (which fact
helped to ruin the Eastern Empire), and the Sultan encouraged this
spirit. He increased the importance of the Greek community in the
capital by numerous concessions, such as ranking the Patriarch among the
Viziers of State, giving him temporal control over his flock in matters
of marriage, divorce, inheritance, management of schools, in which he
was assisted by officials of the Church with such high-sounding names as
Logothete, Grand Treasurer, Chatophylax. Mohammed could afford to
strengthen the Greek element in Constantinople as it was always under
his eyes; in the country he endeavoured to break what remained by
importing fifteen thousand Greeks from the land to the capital as
settlers. The Turks were not much interested in trade, a pursuit that
does not appeal to warriors, so business was left to the Greeks, and
both parties were sufficiently satisfied to get on very well together at
first.
There was some discontent in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
and Selim I had an idea that a massacre might do good; however, he was
dissuaded by the Mufti. About this time it was decided to take no more
Greek children for the ranks of the Janissaries; the method formerly
used kept the provincial Greeks in order by means of their own progeny
converted to Islam and unrelenting foes to Christianity, and no more
Greeks joined the Army of Turkey because none others than Moslems were
allowed to serve in it. Christians might, however, become Armatoles, a
kind of mounted gendarmes which the communities raised and kept at their
own expense, as the Turk has never seen the necessity of securing any
one's life or fortune, and used what police force there was to nose out
conspiracies and such matters of interest. Brigandage, if committed by
Moslems upon Christians, was not looked upon as a serious crime, and
went unpunished until Western nations began to interfere in Turkish
affairs. The Greeks in the country therefore kept their own
gendarmerie, who, after the example of the Turkish zaptiehs, looked with
no unfriendly eye on the reprisals committed by the Klephts, outlaws and
brigands of their own race.
On the whole the Greeks had quite a bearable time under Turkish rule,
especially in the capital, where their importance increased
considerably. In the course of time a colony of patricians grew up
around the Phanar, much in the same neighbourhood inhabited by those
connected with the Byzantine Court before the conquest. These patricians
were not descended from nobles of the former Empire, but came from
families of merchants who had settled in Constantinople around the
residency of the Patriarch.
When the military power of the Osmanli declined and they were obliged to
use treaties where formerly threats had served their purpose, the
Sublime Porte felt a need for trained intellects to carry on intricate
negotiations, especially as the Turks were much too indolent to learn a
foreign language. So Jews and renegades were called in as interpreters,
and in course of time Greeks discovered a suitable field for their
abilities in the welter of Turkish foreign affairs. The Turks were
equally sensible to the uses of intellectual, though generally servile,
Phanariots, and employed them in ever-increasing numbers and extended
their responsibilities. A Greek, Panayoti, was made dragoman to the
Porte by Achmet Kiüprilü; another Greek, Mavrocordato, signed the Treaty
of Carlowitz as Turkish plenipotentiary; and so by degrees Greeks came
into the public service of the Ottoman Empire. Phanariots rose to yet
higher honours when at the beginning of the eighteenth century Turkey
had reason to distrust the nationalist parties in Wallachia and
Moldavia. Hospodars were sent from Constantinople to those provinces,
and many of these were of Greek Phanariot families, introducing into
Roumania names well known there to-day: Mavrocordato, Soutza, Ypsilanti,
Ghika.
The Orthodox Church was very active, especially in Macedonia, and it is
thanks to her that the members of the Slav race in that province have
not lost every trace of their nationality, every vestige of their faith
during those long centuries when Servia groaned under the iron heel of
Sultans passing through triumphant, and Bulgaria had ceased to be. That
Christianity was kept alive in Servia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, and that any
culture remained in those countries after their conquest by the Turks,
is due to the insistence with which the Patriarchate at Constantinople
pursued its work of maintaining schools, distributing literature, etc.,
in those districts. True, their tendency and probably their aim was to
Hellenize Serbs and Bulgarians. Moreover, they would have succeeded had
not those nationalities, which the Orthodox Church had kept alive, felt
their own strength and in their turn insisted on a line of their own.
Certainly for many generations, and until within the memory of man,
Bulgars and Serbs in Macedonia have described themselves as Greeks.
This propaganda continued unchecked so long as the Phanariots did not
lay themselves open to the suspicion of Hellenism. Turkish rule was
strict, often unjust, but the Turk had not come to realize that the
subject races could make their way out of the mire into which Islam's
conquests had thrust them.
The literary spirit of the Greeks had been all but killed by the Moslem
conquest of their capital, and when it revived at last spent its
energies in theological controversy for several centuries. But by
degrees colleges were started, theatres opened, and the world beyond the
confines of the Turkish Empire was called in to witness the Greek
revival by assiduous Pan-Hellenic agencies, clubs, and societies in
Vienna, Bucharest, Corfu. This revival was strongest, at least in its
literary efforts, in the middle of the eighteenth century, towards the
end of that, and at the beginning of the nineteenth century. As no
revival can hold its head up without a poet or two, the Pan-Hellenes
raised two, Rhigas and Coreas, poets and patriots who found it
convenient to sing their inspired song some distance from home, for
exile is always the most suitable setting for genius of that order, and
is, moreover, so much safer. Unhappily this did not apply to Rhigas, who
had settled somewhere in Austria; the Government of that country handed
him over to the Turkish authorities, who executed him at Belgrade. His
death inspired other poets to further efforts of the patriotic order, so
all was not yet lost.
The commercial genius of the Greeks ever stood them in good stead; they
defied the competition of others, and left even Jews and Armenians far
behind. This quality led to their being preferred for the consular
service of the Ottoman Empire. They managed to make considerable profits
out of the treaty between Russia and Turkey in 1774, and soon the
carrying trade of the Levant was in their hands. This attracted numbers
of the seafaring Greeks into the mercantile marine, and left the Turkish
Navy in recruiting difficulties, for it had depended on the Greeks for
seamen. The prosperity of the Greek merchants carried them further
afield, and they started large business houses in Odessa, Trieste,
Venice, and London, and it was largely owing to these merchants that the
patriotic songs of Rhigas were revived, and by them the nationalist
ambitions of the Pan-Hellenes. The French Revolution fanned the spirit
of revolt into living flame, and by 1815 a strong political union called
the Hetaireia was called into being, with the object of freeing Greece
from Turkish rule by organized revolt. Four Greek merchants of Moscow
started this union, and it was decorated with the usual accessories of
conspiracy, symbols, ceremonies, a mysterious language, in fact, the
whole outfit suitable to the occasion. Moreover, it flourished, and
numbered two hundred thousand members by 1820. The Turks had taken the
alarm meanwhile, and were preparing in characteristic fashion to meet
all contingencies. Special officials, mostly Albanians, were appointed
to keep a strict control over the mountain-passes from Macedonia and
Epirus into Thessaly and Acarnania, and these officials managed their
oppressive measures so well that by the middle of the eighteenth century
they had removed all the little jealousies among the different Greek
communities and led them all to coalesce; even the Klephts and
Armatoles, official opponents as they were, became reconciled and united
with the others against the Turks.
Another cause of unrest in Greece was the constant changing of the
ruling power in Morea. Mohammed II took this province, all but a number
of towns which Venice retained till 1540 and then handed over to the
Turks. But the Venetians wanted them back, and re-annexed them about a
century later, during the reign of a weak Sultan, and held them until
they were again accorded to the Turks by the Peace of Passarowitz, in
1718.
As may be supposed, Russia and Greece entered into some kind of private
understanding, and Peter the Great was by no means disinclined to assist
in any revolt which would tend to weaken Ottoman power and make it
easier for him to acquire those outlying bits of the Sultan's Empire
upon which he had set his heart. But no advantage came to Greece through
Peter the Great's policy, nor through the influence of Russia during the
first rising of the Hellenes, in 1770. Greece built firmly on Russian
support, for Orloff, the favourite, had drawn Catherine's attention to
the state of affairs in that country, described to him by one
Papadopoulo. However, something went wrong; the Greeks accused the
Russians of treachery, the Russians the Greeks of cowardice, and in the
end Greece got nothing and Russia the Crimea, which was probably the
sole object of the manoeuvre as far as the Northern Empire was
concerned. The Turks, by way of admonition, let loose Albanian troops,
with permission to plunder and ravage; fifty thousand Greeks were
massacred and the country given over to desolation. The Albanians went
out of hand so completely that they were beyond the control of the Porte
for nine years after this unsuccessful Greek rising, and were not
reduced to a semblance of submission until defeated by a Turkish army at
Tripolitza. Nevertheless, when next Russia declared war on Turkey the
latter at once let loose the Albanians over Greece again. In the
meantime Klephts and Armatoles, united as wild men of the mountains, had
become a formidable asset for purposes of revolt.
A number of islands were the first to throw off the Turkish yoke: Corfu,
Paso, Zante, Ithaka, Kephalonia, and two others. These islands had
belonged to Venice from the fifteenth century till the end of the
eighteenth, when they were ceded to France, and after several changes
became the United Republic of the Seven Ionian Islands, under Great
Britain's protection, until incorporated, without their consent, in the
Kingdom of Greece, in 1863.
Assistance came to Greece in her struggle for freedom from a very
unlikely quarter, from Ali Pasha of Janina, who, to further his ambition
of becoming an independent ruler, used the Greeks for his purposes by
inducing them to unite with him against the Sultan. Ali Pasha died
before his plans could mature, but, what he probably did not intend,
Greece remained united, and were urged on by patriotism to go to further
lengths.
The first serious revolt of the Hellenes against the Turks was
engineered by Alexander Ypsilanti, son of a Hospodar, in Moldavia and
Wallachia, but met with little sympathy from the Roumanians; and as
Russia disowned Ypsilanti, the movement was crushed by the Turks in a
few months. The attempted rising provoked the Moslems to a general
massacre of Christians; the sons of Islam were summoned to a jehad, and
racial and religious passions were roused to frenzy. Massacres occurred
on both sides, savage executions took place; for instance, the Patriarch
was hanged at his own gate, and many bishops and nobles were executed
the same day, simply because they were suspected of complicity in a
fresh revolt in Morea.
While the Morean rebels were being exterminated, the Porte found time
for organized massacres in Macedonia and Thrace; but still revolution
held its own, even gained some successes, assisted largely by foreign
gold. Revolt had been in full swing for three years, without any
evidence of calming down, so the Sultan ordered Mehemet Ali of Egypt to
despatch an army of invasion to Morea. This was done; the army of
Ibrahim Pasha, son of Mehemet Ali, had fairly easy work with the
insurgents, stamping out the revolt in the usual, time-honoured manner,
by exterminating the Greek population. Athens fell, Missilonghi was
besieged, and Europe, sickening at the sights and sounds of devastation
in Morea, determined to interfere. The combined squadrons of Great
Britain, France, and Russia met at Navarino, to make what has since
become quite a popular method of dealing with Turkey, a naval
demonstration. Ibrahim misunderstood the situation, and fired on a
British boat, instead of advising the Sultan to make a number of
promises he never would keep, and thus rid himself of those who
interfered with his methods of government. This, of course, was too
much; a battle ensued, after which there was no more Turkish fleet.
Greece thereupon became independent.
As was only natural, there were no more high offices in the Ottoman
Empire filled by Phanariots after Greece became an independent kingdom,
and many of those patricians emigrated. This and other matters had a
serious effect on Greek commerce, especially the carrying trade in the
Levant, which has since passed into other hands. But the Hellenic
culture has not fallen off, and the Greeks are probably among the best
educated and most intelligent of the Sultan's subjects.
There were a number of Greeks admitted into the Army under the regime of
the Young Turks, and many of these took part in this Balkan war. I have
heard that all work requiring skill and intelligence was left to them,
that they formed the best engineers, pioneers, and were trusted as
gunners rather than the simple souls who were hurried to the front from
their Anatolian farms.
The Greeks are full of music too; you may hear their quaint, pathetic
songs of an evening by the shores of the Bosphorus. To my mind they have
a strange but attractive cadence. Some say that they are taken from the
Italians, others that the Italians came here for them. I do not believe
either version, but consider that these songs, like those of any other
nation, are the natural expression of the soul of the people.
My readers may judge for themselves, as I include some Greek songs in
this work. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a setting of the
most interesting song I have ever heard in these parts, a song with a
wistful beauty of its own, entirely spoilt by a travesty of it made by
the Turks, who took it as their National Anthem or Hymn of Liberty--I
forget which. All I know is that here, again, they had destroyed without
rebuilding.
[Illustration: musical notation, THALASSA.]
[Illustration: musical notation, THALASSA.]
2.
Den éhortasses akoma
thalassa tosson kéro,
apo ta kormia pou troi
t'almyro sou to nero
Thalassa t'almyro sou to néro,
(_bis._)
3.
Ossa vassana ki' an éhi
pali o naftis den bori
mia stighmi dihos ésséna
tin zoï tou na hari
Thalassa tin zoï tou na hari,
(_bis._)
[Illustration: musical notation, I YIFTOPOULA.]
[Illustration: musical notation, I YIFTOPOULA.]
2.
Me to hamoyélio
ti ghlikia matia sou
yiro sou skorpizis ti hara,
Mon' yia mena, fos mou,
i aghni kardhia sou
mon' yia mena kor' ine psihra!
REFRAIN.
Ela, yiftopoula, na yiatrepsis
m' ena mono sou ghliko fili, etc., etc.
3.
Dies me pos yia sena
ap' aghapi liono
dies yia sena pos kardhioktipo
Pes mou na elpizo,
pes mia lexi mono,
Yiftopoula, ki' ola ta xehno.
REFRAIN.
Ela, yiftopoula, na yiatrepsis
m' ena mono sou ghliko fili, etc., etc.
[Illustration: musical notation, TO TRELLOKORITSO.]
[Illustration: musical notation, TO TRELLOKORITSO.]
2.
Ti aôelôisia me ôianei hotan thymêthô
san mouleges ôôs m' agaôas
male naziarimo
kai ta trella sou logia
m' emaman phôs mou gia na chathô
yiati den êxeura o dystychês
ôôs êsoune zouliarimo.
2.
Ti apelpissia mé piani otan thimitho
san mouleyes pos m' agapas
kalé naz[i)]ariko
kè ta trela sou loy[i)]a
m' ékaman fos mou y[i)]a na hatho
y[i)]ati den ixevra o distihis
pos issoune zoul[i)]ariko.
Some fourteen years ago an ill-advised, excited section of the Hellenes
forced their King to declare war on the Porte, and brought no great
credit on themselves nor honour to their country's arms, for Greece was
far from ready for such a struggle, and those in office knew it, but
were powerless to stop the trouble. However, the war was well managed in
this respect, that the leaders of the Army contrived to withdraw from it
without any serious disaster; no guns were lost, and out of the 50,000
Greeks pitted against 150,000 Turks, only 400 were killed and 1800
wounded, which is quite good management considering the difficulties of
the manoeuvring in such very unusual circumstances.
During those days when the Greeks of Constantinople were rejoicing over
the defeat of their old enemy, over the victory of the Allies, a great
sorrow cast its shadow upon the Phanar and the members of the Orthodox
Church. Death took His Holiness Joachim III, OEcumenical Patriarch of
Greek Orthodoxy in Constantinople, suddenly from amidst his devoted
flock. He died at four o'clock in the afternoon of November 26th, and
with him passed away one of the greatest of many great men who have held
the high office of Patriarch here in the City of Constantine.
When Constantine the Great became a Christian, and made Constantinople
his capital and residence, he was guided in his doings by the Patriarch
of the time, and as that dignitary's seat, and to the "greater glory of
God," the Cathedral Church of St. Sophia arose on the narrowing tongue
of land between the Sea of Marmora and the Golden Horn.
Among the great predecessors of His Holiness Joachim III was St. John
Chrysostom, "the Golden Mouth," whose fearless zeal brought him into
conflict with Empress Eudoxia, wife of Arcadius. Though St. John
Chrysostom died in exile, his body was brought back to the scene of his
former activity and met with all the solemn pomp of funeral rites, which
Theodosius II attended as chief mourner, and in expiation of his guilty
parents' sin in banishing the saint.
Other strong men followed, and piloted the Church over the deep,
troubled waters of Byzantine politics, defending their flock against an
Emperor's whim, or shielding it from the subtle influences of heresy.
When Constantinople fell before the sword of Othman, in 1453, the Cross
vanished from the dome of St. Sophia, for Mohammed the Conqueror made
that church his mosque; but he was too great not to respect the faith of
others. The Greek remnant of the population had gathered together when
sufficiently assured of safety to life and liberty, and of the free use
of their religion. Then, only a fortnight or so after the conquest of
the City, and long before the sights and signs of the desolation there
wrought had been removed, a singular scene was witnessed by those who
crowded the narrow streets. The Sultan held an investiture on old
Byzantine lines. With all the pomp and traditional splendour of the
ceremony, he invested Gennodius with the office of Patriarch. With his
own hands the Conqueror delivered into the hands of Gennodius the
crozier, or pastoral staff, the symbol of his high office. His Holiness
was then conducted to the gate of the Seraglio, presented with a richly
caparisoned horse, and led by viziers and pashas to the palace allotted
to him as residence.
[Illustration: At the Phanar
Mourning Greeks at the Gate of the Patriarchate.]
During all the centuries of Turkish rule the office of Patriarch of
Constantinople was no easy one, and difficulties became even greater
as the younger nations grew up around Turkey in Europe, clamouring for
freedom, insisting on their racial rights; those younger nations which
during the last few weeks have overrun the vilayets, and are now
hammering at the outer defences of Constantinople.
So His Holiness Joachim III's term of office was one of everlasting
difficulties, his path beset by endless, varied troubles. But happily he
was fully endowed to cope with all the troubles that crowded in upon
him. A man of striking personality, strong character, and just in all
his doings, he was respected by the Power in whose midst he held his
"Imperium in Imperio" among the hearts of men; he was beloved by the
masses of the people who follow the teachings of Greek Orthodoxy. The
late Patriarch's liberal training, his wide outlook on life, and his
deep insight into the vexed political questions of his time have helped
him through the rapids of racial, nationalist ambitions here in the City
of Constantine the Great.
Joachim III has held the high office of Patriarch on several occasions
with now and then a hiatus. He was Patriarch under Abdul Hamid's reign
of Absolutism, and served his flock so well that when the constitution
was granted and he was recalled as shepherd of the Orthodox Greek
Church, he was acclaimed with intense enthusiasm. Then came the
troublous times of strife caused by successive Young Turk cabinets. But
Joachim III was master of the situation, and proved it by his skilful
handling of the Greek National Assembly at the Phanar, which prevented
very serious consequences.
Towards the end of his long, eventful life, some eighty years or more,
Joachim III had the satisfaction of seeing the turbulent waters of
strife which had raged round his See during all his years of office
subside, calm down, and so he died in peace.
No doubt he longed to see the Cross replace the Crescent on St. Sophia,
yearned to complete the Mass interrupted by the conquering Osmanli at
that Feast of Pentecost in May, 1453. But he has passed away with the
knowledge that those young Christian nations have felt and proved their
strength. They are without the gates even now, as Joachim III is being
carried to his rest. Nevertheless the enemy of his faith, the Turk,
preserved order and acted as escort to His Holiness Joachim III on his
last journey.
[Illustration: FUNERAL OF AN ARMENIAN ARCHBISHOP
The face of the corpse is uncovered, some say in order to convince the
populace that the dignitary is really dead, not imprisoned; others
contend that this custom dates from a Turkish police ordinance, during
the Greek risings, when arms were often smuggled into the towns in
coffins.]
On Sunday, December 1st, a great multitude assembled about the Phanar
and crowded the streets leading to it, for the Patriarch was buried that
day. The crowd was mostly composed of Greeks, members of the Church of
which Joachim III was the spiritual head, and Turkish soldiers and
police kept the turbulent crowd in its place without violence, with
great courtesy in fact, despite the abuse hurled at them. Guards of
honour from the Russian warships lined the aisles of the Cathedral
Church, another from the Roumanian warship, the entrance to the Phanar.
Preceded by Turkish cavalry His Holiness was borne on his throne to the
waterside and there placed on a steamer which carried him down the
Golden Horn, round Seraglio Point, and out to Psamatia; there the
remains were landed again, and escorted by Turkish soldiery and Armenian
priests, the solemn procession moved through the thronged streets
towards Yedi Koulé, where stand the ruins of the Golden Gate, through
which conquering Byzantine Emperors were wont to make their triumphant
entry. Under the shadow of the strong towers whence Yedi Koulé derives
its name, the procession moved out beyond the walls which Theodosius II
built to safeguard this most eastern stronghold of Western civilization
against the Asiatic enemies who surged up against these strong
defences in successive waves, till at last they fell before the sword of
Othman.
But a short way beyond the old walls of Constantinople stands the
Monastery of Balukli, the last resting-place of a long line of
Patriarchs. Joachim III had requested that he should be buried on Mount
Athos, whither he went for peace in monastic seclusion from time to
time, a place he loved. But the Greek ecclesiastical authorities decided
to please the populace by disregarding the Patriarch's wish, and so he
will not rest at Balukli, the Lourdes of the Orthodox Church. Pilgrims
from afar come to worship here and seek healing in the wonder-working
waters of the well at Balukli.
And hither His Holiness Joachim III has been escorted by the enemies of
his creed and of his people; while Turkish soldiers showed this last
honour to the head of a Church whose members have long been subjects of
the Porte, Greek armies have marched victorious over the plains of
Thessaly and are occupying Turkish towns and provinces. Yet it was the
courteous sons of Othman who solemnly, reverently escorted Joachim III
to the grave.
But before he died His Holiness Joachim III had watched the victorious
march of the Hellenes towards Constantinople; those few thronged weeks
of warfare brightened the last days of the great Patriarch, though his
kind heart must have bled for the many sacrifices Bellona demanded of
the Allies, and of the enemies of his faith. Very different from the
last campaign of 1898 was this victorious progress of the Hellenes.
Short and sharp it was; war was declared on Turkey on October 17th, on
the following day the Greek fleet had put to sea and the army of the
Hellenes, led by the Crown Prince, had invaded Turkey and occupied
Elassona. Three days later the Greek fleet seized Lemnos, an island in
the Ægean Sea. Fighting their way fiercely against formidable
resistance, the Hellenes on land gained ground towards Janina, captured
Veria and Thasos, and after a check at Florina, marched towards
Saloniki. The Greek left column captured Prevesa as the Servians took
Gostivar on November 3rd, the right column entered Saloniki five days
later. From here the Greeks proceeded with the conquest of other islands
in the Ægean, till all but a few are in their possession, and the Greek
fleet blocks the southern exit of the Dardanelles. All this had happened
before His Holiness Joachim III was called away; pity that peace had not
been restored before Osmanli troops escorted him from the Phanar, down
the Golden Horn, to his last resting-place of Balukli.
There is a quaint legend attached to the Monastery of Balukli. It is
said that while the troops of Mohammed the Conqueror were making their
last assault on the walls of Constantinople, the monks of Balukli were
engaged in frying fish. The City fell and the monks fled before the fish
were quite fried, so these jumped out of the frying-pan back into the
water. The legend goes on to aver that when Christian troops retake
Constantinople those fish will leave their native element and return to
the frying-pan.
Life must hold endless possibilities for those who can believe such
legends as this one.
CHAPTER XVI
Peoples of the Balkans--The migration of nations--The
Illyrians--The Thracians and Scythians--Hippocrates and
Galenus--The habits of the Scythians--The origin of the
Hellenes--The arrival of the Macedonians--Philip of Macedonia and
Alexander the Great--The power of Rome--The Goths and
Theodosius--The advent of Slavs and Mongolians--The Hungarians,
Petshenegs, and Vlachs--Balkan people in the fourteenth
century--The Armenians: their early history--Tiridales, King of the
Armenians--Turkish conquest of Persia--Armenia and the Greek
Orthodox Church--The Kurds and Armenians--The Georgians--Attempt to
arouse Armenia--Nihilism in Armenia--Massacre of Armenians--Abdul
Hamid and the Armenian question--Disastrous Armenian rising--Future
of the Armenians--The Albanians and their language--Other names for
the Albanians--Albanian characteristics--Albania demands
autonomy--The future of Albania--The Vlachs: their language and
habits--King Milutin's effort to settle them.
In no other quarter of the globe are you likely to meet such a medley of
human races as in the Balkan Peninsula, the south-east corner of Asia
perhaps excepted. Certainly nowhere else in Europe has there been such
constant shifting of a population, such risings and wanings of divers
factors in history, such a coming and going of migrant mortals.
Before the gods of ancient Hellas entered on their genial despotism,
before man had become conscious of his own importance, and therefore
recorded his doings and sayings, great forces were labouring in the vast
swamps and forests of Central Europe and put forth one after another
races of human beings who, emerging from darkness, sought the light and
wandered towards the midday sun.
This subconscious movement led swarm on swarm of migrants across the
great rivers of Europe, over the mountain-passes, into the genial
southern plains, and accounted for the settlement of one race after
another in the peninsulas of Europe that stand out into the warm waters
of the Mediterranean Sea.
More than any other, the Balkan Peninsula was sought by these wanderers.
The aboriginal race in this part of Europe were the Illyrians, 'tis
said; but little is known of them and they have left few traces--a word
or two of their speech in the mixed language of the present-day
Albanians. More definite records remain of later races, before whom the
Illyrians were forced to make way. These also came from the north and
belonged to the dolichocephalic Aryans, who peopled Italy and the Balkan
Peninsula, worked out their destiny, and were subject to the same
treatment they had meted out to those whom they had found in possession
and displaced. Of the peoples who stand recorded in ancient history the
Thracians and Scythians were the most prominent. The former are said to
have occupied the districts south of the lower Danube, the latter lived
on that river's northern bank. Herodotus suggests that the Thracians
were a people of some importance, occupying a large tract of country,
and describes them as a tall, strong race, blue-eyed and fair-haired, in
appearance like the ancient Teutons. They were sufficiently interesting
to cause historians of old to give details of their doings, to mention
several of their more important tribes, such as the Triballi, Dardani,
Agathyrsen, and those who were found in Asia, Phrygians, Lydians,
Moesians, and above all the Trojans. The Dacians were another tribe, and
became more prominent as they entered into authenticated history under
their King Decebalus, who defeated the Emperor Domitian and forced
Imperial Rome to pay tribute to him.
[Illustration: THE COAST OF GREECE
Cloud shadows chasing each other over the rocky promontories of Hellas,
whose sons have marched north towards Constantinople.]
The Scythians are less known, and some confusion about them existed
among ancient historians. Herodotus mentions two peoples of that name;
they came into collision with each other in Southern Russia, near the
Ural Mountains, the passes of which were the gates of Europe for the
invading Mongols and other non-Aryan races. Galenus describes his
Scythians as Mongols, Hippocrates gives them all the attributes of
Teutons, and recent researches tend to show that Galenus mistook the
Scythians he may have seen or heard of, and that Hippocrates was nearer
the truth about them. The data given by antiquarians so far suggest that
the Scythians were a long-headed race, and had many customs peculiar to
the ancient Teutons; they venerated the god of war in the form of a
sword, they sought auguries in the interlacing boughs of trees, their
legends bore some resemblance to the saga of the Norse-folk, and they
indulged in the playful habit of using the skulls of vanquished enemies
as drinking-vessels.
It would seem that the Scythians came from the country now known as
Silesia and were probably displaced by the Teutons. Those who made this
people their special study as did worthy Pomponius Mela, maintain that
the Parthians were of the same race, had the same habits, spoke the same
speech, and moreover had much the same fashions in dress. The Scythians
were clothed _à l'Allemande_ of the period, simply and chastely in shirt
and trousers, the latter considered an enormity by earlier Roman
historians, who possibly found that the trouser crease of their day was
as little in accord with artistic tradition as that of the present day.
One fact emerges from all the profound utterances of authorities on the
subject, namely, that the Scythians were not of Mongolian extraction,
and should under no circumstances be identified with the Huns.
I have already mentioned the Illyrians, and have got no further in the
matter of their descent than have any of the recognized authorities on
that important subject. What information does exist about this people is
chiefly negative; for instance, that they did not belong to the
Indo-German race, but to an older family which after a century or two of
genteel poverty went under before the pushing young Aryans.
There appears to be a great deal of doubt as to the date when the Greeks
or Hellenes arrived upon the scene in the Balkan Peninsula. Some say
that they were the first arrivals, born there, in fact; others that they
came wandering down from the north in relays, that the overflowing fount
of humans in Northern Europe poured wave after wave of _ces gens là_
over Southern Europe. Be that as it may, it seems nevertheless probable
that the Hellenes were akin to the Thracians and had many attributes in
common with them. There are the crude paintings still extant, showing
Hellenes of the sixth century B.C., and these of men fair-haired and
blue-eyed; again, leaving the artistic for the scientific
standpoint--the ancients of Hellas were dolichocephalic.
I have followed the fortunes of the Hellenes in another chapter, and
must now confine myself to generalities about the Balkan people of all
ages.
The people of Hellas were very happy according to all accounts; their
clothing was inconspicuous, their wants few, and they enjoyed a
peculiarly pleasant _entente_ with the gods and goddesses whom they
evoked out of their own imagination, as well as from different phenomena
which Nature produces to foster our taste for the supernatural. They
must have been a thoroughly lovable, imaginative, unpractical collection
of philosophers, richly endowed with all the necessaries of life, such
as wives, children, servants, etc.; in fact, everything to make life
worth living and philosophizing easy. How the times have changed since
then! They changed suddenly, it appears, for ancient Hellas, for their
cousins, as they considered themselves, the Macedonians, felt the need
for expansion, "Tatendrang" if they had only known it, and therefore
broke in upon the daydreams of the dwellers in Arcadia.
Philip of Macedonia led his army against the Hellenes, the allied
Thebans and Athenians, defeated them at Cheironeia in 338 B.C., and
forced them to acknowledge his dominion over them. His son, Alexander
the Great, vanquished the Thracians, defeated the Thebans, who had
revolted against his rule, and prepared for his victorious march through
Asia Minor.
The Hellenes made many an effort to throw off the Macedonian yoke, but
failed, and exchanged it for that of Rome, after the last Macedonian
King had been defeated by the Romans at Pydna in 168 B.C. Macedonia was
divided up into four provinces, and was incorporated with the Roman
Empire in 146 B.C. Greece became the province of Achaia. The northern
Balkan countries retained their independence until near the end of the
first century B.C., when, by degrees, Rome conquered all the people
south of the Danube, the Moesii, Raetii, and Vindelicei, their lands
forming the Roman provinces of Raetia and Noricum.
It is usual to include Roumania among the Balkan States, though that
kingdom does not consider itself one of them. Trajan crossed the Danube
and entered what is now Roumania, adding it to the Roman Empire as Dacia
Trajana in A.D. 106.
Some hundred and fifty years later another people came wandering down
from the north, penetrating as far as the Danube, to the great
discomfiture of Dacia, the Goths, and they forced Emperor Aurelian to
remove his army and colonies to southward and westward, founding a new
colony, Dacia Aureliana. The Goths in their turn, hard pressed by the
wild hordes of nomad Mongolians, the Huns, abandoned the province of
Dacia Trajana, where they had been settled for a century, and crossed
the Danube, invaded Thrace, defeated the Emperor Valens at Adrianople,
and made themselves peculiarly obnoxious to the peaceful people of the
Eastern Empire, while the Huns continued their raid westward. The Goths
in the meanwhile plundered right and left in Thrace unchecked, because
they had filled the hearts of the Roman legionaries with fear, so that
none would meet them in battle again. That wise Emperor, Theodosius I,
knew how to manage them, even made them useful as allies, and contrived
to make the Balkan countries too uncomfortable for them. So the Goths
went elsewhere, and as Gepidi occupied parts of Transylvania, vacated by
the Huns on the death of Attila, their King.
About this time the first Slavs made their appearance. It seems that
they had settled for a while in Wallachia, whither they had wandered
from Southern Russia. Their language proclaimed them akin to the
Indo-German race, but there is reason to suppose that they had a strong
admixture of the Mongolian in them; they proved to be brachy-instead of
dolichocephalic. As the Huns had shown to the Eastern races the gateway
into Europe, other Mongolians streamed in after them, so we find the
Avari settling in Transylvania, and the Bulgars following them. Of these
latter more anon.
About four centuries after the first appearance of the Bulgarians, some
distant relatives of theirs forced their way into Europe, the
Hungarians. It appears that they confined themselves to the left bank of
the Danube, moving westward till they finally settled in Hungary; other
Ugric races followed them, the Petshenegs, and the Cumanians, but these
too kept to the northern bank of the great river. Their descendants may
still be found in parts of Hungary. An entirely different people made
its appearance shortly before the arrival of the Petshenegs, the Vlachs,
a race of nomads of whom no one knows whence they came; they wander
about the Balkan peninsula still, for during all these centuries no one
has managed to induce them all to settle down permanently.
From the tenth century till the fourteenth the Balkan peoples, varied as
they were, and are still, settled down to a more or less ordered
existence, developing into nations, waging war against others, and
behaving in much the same manner as they do to-day. I have treated them
separately elsewhere. A great change came with the fourteenth century,
when yet another race came out of Asia, a people related to the Magyars
and the Bulgars, but already mixed with various other elements,
occupying a different intellectual plane, and moved by aspirations at
variance with the ambitions of the people they visited, the Turks.
I have told how the Turks overran Eastern Europe in another part of this
book, how they brought down the Empire of Byzant, crushed the smaller
nations, and kept them in submission until they grew, like the seed, out
of obscurity into light, insisted on their separate nationalities, and
finally went to war with their oppressors, moving like the spirit of
revenge, striking swiftly and surely till their guns thundered
insistently on the outer defences of Constantinople, at the lines of
Chatalja.
Another people which plays an important part in that complex body, the
Ottoman Empire, is the Armenian race. Their history is somewhat obscure,
as they have never shown any talent for self-government, and,
consequently, hold few records which throw any light on their past.
They are most respectably connected, claiming descent from Japheth. Mt.
Ararat, where the ark eventually landed, is in the northern part of the
territory which they consider their country, and Armenians are still to
be found among the valleys at the foot of that historic eminence. The
Armenian name for their great ancestor is Haik; they call themselves
after him, and their land Haiasdan.
In ancient days they lived within fluctuating frontiers, under several
dynasties, probably a primitive race of shepherds, until Alexander the
Great passed through their country in 328 B.C. and brought them into
contact with the great world. After Alexander's fleeting visit they
broke up into several small states, and were hardly conscious of
political life; they certainly formed no political entity. Thus they
were easily absorbed into the Roman Empire, under Lucullus and Pompey,
what time those great men passed through Armenia on their campaigns
against the Tigranes. They were only nominally under Roman domination,
actually they were a prey to any despot who arose out of the prevailing
anarchy to call himself King and establish some semblance of order. One
of those monarchs marked the temporary union of those sons of Japheth by
a massacre of Romans.
The gradual rise of Persian power affected Haiasdan, which was absorbed
by Persian Shahs of the Sassanid dynasty, one of whom defeated the
Emperor Valerian. But Diocletian broke Persian rule in Armenia, and set
up Tiridales as King over its people. This King looked with disfavour
upon Christianity, which had recently come to the people of Armenia, and
imprisoned its apostle, St. Gregory the Illuminator, in a dry well for
the space of fourteen years, during which protracted period the light
dawned upon Tiridales, and he too became converted.
The Persians became sufficiently powerful to take Armenia away from the
Eastern Empire in the reign of Theodosius II, and appointed native
governors over their new province, Persarmenia. When Islam spread over
Asia Minor, Armenia was torn in pieces during the wars between that
force and the Emperor of Byzant, then became united under the dynasty of
one Ruben, and by alliances with the encroaching Mongols, with the
Crusaders, and Imperial Byzant, contrived to maintain some semblance of
independence. But fate overtook this unhappy people when Ghevout was
King over them, and had to abandon the struggle against the might of
Islam, ending his days as exile in Paris towards the end of the
fourteenth century. Ever since then clouds of troubles have hung heavily
over the Armenians, bursting in furious storms of Moslem fanaticism,
drenching the land with the blood of Christians, for those children of
Japheth never could unite for purposes of self-preservation, and have
therefore been made to suffer whenever the Ottoman arms or policy met
with ill-success in other parts of the Turkish Empire.
Like the sons of Shem these descendants of Japheth are most tenacious of
their faith, their speech, written in Cyrillic script, and their ancient
customs, but they have shown little taste for _les belles lettres_, and
have added little to the world's store of literature. Again, like the
Jews, they have a great gift for commerce and affairs of state; several
Armenians rose to high estate in the Byzantine Empire, witness Leo V,
one of the great Emperors of the East.
The Armenians were never in complete sympathy with the Greek Orthodox
Church, and separated from it early in the history of the Greek Empire;
their country was so far removed from the influence of Constantinople,
and linguistic difficulties widened the breach caused by the failure of
the delegates from the Armenian communities in attending the Councils
of the Eastern Church. In many matters of ritual and observance the
divergence became more marked, and as the Armenians laid more stress on
retaining these than on combined action against their Moslem rulers and
the enemies of the Christian faith, subsequent efforts at reconciliation
have proved abortive.
The Armenians, through their lack of political solidarity, have always
been exposed to aggression from the fierce tribes beyond their elastic
frontiers, and of these the Kurds were the most formidable. The Kurds
are a race of Iranian extraction, speaking a Persian dialect, and,
whether settled on the lands of other races, or wandering at large in
them as nomads, have ever proved troublesome as neighbours. The
Armenians thought to protect themselves by entering into an
understanding with these people, and by putting themselves under the
protection of the Kurds, chiefly in the eastern provinces of the
district inhabited by the sons of Japheth. The Kurds had their own
notions of protection, which they expressed by frequent robbery and
pillage, varied by an occasional massacre. The Turkish authorities, who
had but a feeble hold over the Kurds, seldom interfered in the interests
of Christian subjects; moreover, these latter were seldom at one, as
instanced by the constant friction between the Armenians and the
Georgians whose ancient Church was influenced by Rome in the time of the
Crusaders, and has in recent years been almost entirely absorbed into
the fold of the Roman Catholic Church.
When Peter the Great ruled over Russia, and again during the reign of
Catherine II, attempts were made, chiefly through external agencies, to
arouse nationalist aspirations among the Armenians. A college was opened
in Paris, and endeavoured to consolidate Armenian interests and to make
the voice of this people heard and considered in Constantinople. But
the Turks were not alarmed at this, as they well knew the Armenian
incapacity for concerted action, and had no reason to think an
understanding between them and the Phanar a likely event. So enthusiasm
subsided, and the Armenians, in spite of the peculiar protection
afforded them by the Kurds, and the arbitrary methods of Turkish
tax-gatherers, lived at peace with the Porte and prospered greatly.
Though the last Russo-Turkish war raised no particular enthusiasm among
the Armenians, the Turks thought fit to take precautions against them,
and resorted to massacres, so that the treaty-makers of S. Stefano
insisted on the insertion of a clause safeguarding Armenian interests
against the reprisals of Kurds and Circassians. A number of Armenians
had settled in Russia, others belonged to those who lived in that part
of their former country long since annexed by Russia, and these people
took kindly to nihilism, forming secret societies to foster their
ambitions and make propaganda. Secret societies, whatever their object,
have always been a terror to the Porte, so Turkish feeling towards the
Armenians underwent a change.
The Turks, themselves afraid of massacre at the hands of the Armenians,
met any such possibility by massacring Armenians, and thus commenced
that series of atrocities which induced the Great Powers of Europe to
intervene. This made the situation worse: Musa Bey, the notorious bandit
chief, was indeed summoned to Constantinople to answer for his share in
the lurid transactions, was tried before a Turkish Court, which found
him guiltless of all blame, and eventually acquitted, even commended him
for his behaviour. Thereupon Armenian Churches were desecrated as
suspected of being secret armouries, and a small massacre, only some
fifteen killed, attended this exhibition of Turkish policy. The Armenian
Patriarch, Ashikian, lodged a protest with the Porte in 1890, and three
years later the college of Marsovan was burnt amidst scenes of horror.
Four years later a massacre on a large scale was arranged and executed;
nine hundred Armenians of the mountainous Sasun district were murdered,
because the tax-gatherers had so far been unable to penetrate into that
almost inaccessible region. The Armenians pointed out that if they were
protected from the Kurds a tax-collector's visit might be worth the
while, as matters stood the Kurds had left nothing taxable.
By this time the Armenian problem had become acute, and Abdul Hamid
could think of no other method of solving it than by exterminating the
people who had provoked it by their mere existence. So massacres became
a recognized feature of the Armenian question, even those who lived in
Constantinople were not spared, the capital and other towns, Erzeroum,
Diabekr, Bitlis, all contributing, until the number of victims to this
system of statecraft amounted to about twenty-five thousand. To these
must be added many who escaped the sword to perish from cold, hunger,
and exposure in the following winter.
At last the Armenians became exasperated, and decided on retaliation. In
the spring of the following year, 1896, Armenians attacked and
exterminated several small Turkish garrisons. They were incited to fresh
endeavours by the false hopes raised by several European Powers, and
arranged a _coup de main_ for the 26th of August. A secret society,
calling itself Dashnaktsutian, made a raid on the Ottoman Bank of
Constantinople at midday. The conspiracy must have been well known by
the Sultan's secret police, for it failed completely, and all those who
took part in this desperate venture were killed. A counter demonstration
had been arranged by the Government, for that very afternoon Lazes and
Kurds were let loose in the Armenian quarters of Pera and Galata,
Haskeui and Kum Kapu; their victims numbered some six thousand killed.
The Armenian plot was meant to impress the Western Powers, and they were
duly impressed--but nothing else happened.
There seems no likelihood of the Armenians ever realizing their
nationalist ambitions; they are scattered so widely over the Ottoman
Empire, and for that reason alone cannot forgather for concerted action,
as the Bulgarians and others who live in closer community have succeeded
in doing. History has shown that even when they did cluster together in
their more or less definite geographical limits, they lacked solidarity,
so the only hope for them is in individual effort, by which many have
risen to importance. With the gradual weakening of Ottoman rule, of late
precipitate, the chances are that the Armenians, with their great
capacity for business, their talent for affairs, and their tenacity,
will play a leading part in Eastern Europe and Asia Minor, now that they
have risen above their Kurd oppressors and have out-distanced their
Moslem masters.
Another distinct nationality plays a prominent part in the political
life of the Turkish Empire--the Albanians. The learned have spent much
time in discovering their origin, have written many books about them,
and have come to no very definite results after all. Some say they are
descendants of the Illyrians, the original inhabitants of the Western
Peloponese, and try to prove their theory by philology. A most
unreliable guide to the discovery of a nation's antecedents, as proved
by the Bulgarians who, though not originally a Slav race, yet speak a
Slav language. In the case of the Albanians, philology is even more
misleading, and arrives at less definite results, for very few traces
are left of that forgotten tongue, Illyrian, in the language spoken by
the Albanians, a mixture of Slav, Roumanian, Turkish, and modern Greek,
according to G. Meyer, who speaks with authority.
Another hypothesis is that the Albanians are derived from the ancient
Thracians, who were dispossessed of their country by successive waves of
immigrants, and took to the mountains. This theory must also be taken
with reserve, as so many different races--Greeks and Latins, Slavs and
Goths--have passed this way and left their impress. The Albanians
themselves will tell you that they are Skipetari, eaglets, the sons of
the eagle, and as they evidently wish to be considered offspring of that
bird of prey, and lay claim to some of its alleged virtues, it is best
to humour them, though the Turks may call them Arnouts, and the Slavs
describe them as Arbanasi. Popular opinion confines this people to the
mountains of Albania, where they lead a life of untrammelled feudalism;
the latter suggestion is more or less correct, the former not so. There
are probably about three hundred thousand Albanians in the Balkan
countries, and of these about one hundred thousand inhabit the
Peloponese peninsula. They are to be found in greatest numbers among the
mountains of the district named after them, but many live in Greece, in
fact, the population of the eastern and central parts of that kingdom is
largely Albanian.
The Albanians certainly possess one virtue ascribed to the eagle--they
are brave, and have shown their prowess on many occasions, notably
during the wars of Greek independence. Those who know them describe them
as pleasant company, courteous and hospitable, but easily roused to
anger, obstinate and sensitive. This opinion is probably held by the
Turks, who have never succeeded in enforcing their peculiar methods of
government on these free sons of the mountains.
Though the Albanians are often divided among themselves, they invariably
combine against an enemy from outside, be he pasha or tax-collector, and
have thus been able to defy all attempts to bring their country under
some semblance of modern government, even of the Turkish variety.
When left to themselves they find plenty of occupation in blood feuds,
inter-clan fighting, or an occasional raid across the loosely defined
border.
The causes which have led Slavs of the same race to separate and occupy
hostile camps do not affect Albanian unity on questions concerning their
nationality. They are divided into two distinct sections, the Geks and
the Tosks, and are again divided by three divergent creeds, Islam, to
which the majority of Albanians belong, Greek Orthodoxy, which claims
about two-tenths of them, and another tenth adhering to the Church of
Rome. Yet they combine, and have done so quite recently, thanks to the
troubles attending the passing of Ottoman rule from provinces that
adjoin their country. The Albanians have combined to some purpose, have
declared themselves autonomous, were ready with a provincial government,
and now invite their neighbours to leave them to manage their own
affairs in their own way. This, by the by, they have always contrived to
do in face of all efforts to bring them into line with modern ideas.
Little is known of Albania's past history, though individual Albanians
have helped to make history for other nations; the descendant of an
Albanian soldier of the Ottoman Empire rules over Egypt. But history has
been in the making for the last month or so, and possibly, nay,
probably, Albania is about to enter the comity of nations, even as
Servia, Bulgaria, and other former provinces of the Osmanli have done.
There is no reason to suppose that Albania will fail where others have
succeeded. No doubt their habits are not such as to render government,
according to modern notions, an easy matter, but the same was possibly
said of the Highland clansmen some centuries ago, yet these make
excellent law-abiding citizens. Then the Albanians are a highly
intelligent race, and would use their gifts to other purpose than clan
feuds when once they see an opportunity of taking part in the world's
work on a different footing from that to which Turkish rule restricted
them. After all, Servia's chances seemed poor, no outlet to the sea,
cramped by neighbours none too friendly, yet that country has risen out
of chaos, out of slavery and obscurity, to hasten the fall of the
Ottoman Empire, and to open out fresh fields for its own economic
expansion.
Even the ingrained feudalism of the Albanians will vanish under the
modernizing influence of roads and railways, and their picturesqueness
fade under the glamour of successful commercial enterprise. No doubt
those days are yet some distance off when peace and prosperity will
reign over the Balkan Peninsula, but even the Albanians, individually
very capable of perceiving where advantage lies, will be brought into
the ordered state of affairs so dear to those kind neighbours, the Great
Powers.
However, as the change is not likely to be rapid, Europe will have to
make up its mind to a good deal more turmoil before Albania ceases to
cause trouble in the Balkans.
[Illustration: ANATOLI HISSAR
The Castle of Asia, built by Sultan Mohammed I. Here Mohammed II, the
Conqueror, sat and watched the growth of Roumeli Hissar, the Castle of
Europe, in 1451.]
Yet another people are to be found in the Turkish provinces of Europe,
wandering about with their herds among the divers nations who have
settled there, but not of them. These are the Vlachs, but they have many
other designations, for the Greeks are pleased to call them Kambisi
(from _kampos_), Karaguli or Karaguni (black coats), Vlachopimeni, or
Arvanitovlachi; in Albania they are called Cobani, in Macedonia
Cobani, and by the Bulgars Vlasi, a name under which they stand recorded
on mediæval Servian monuments. The papers generally speak of them as
Koutzo-Vlachs. "Koutzo" means halting, lame, though the description
seems inaccurate, for they are confirmed nomads, and cover a deal of
ground during the year. They are chiefly shepherds, and they wander
about Macedonia, Thessaly, and Thrace in search of pasture for their
black-coated sheep, from which derives the nickname Crnovunçi, given
them by the Serbs. Others, again, act as carriers in those districts
unopened as yet by railways, leading strings of ponies over the defiles
that separated Servia and Bulgaria from the Turkish provinces until
recent days. They seem to be of Roumanian origin, and speak a language
akin to that of Roumania, which claims to protect them, and of their
history little is known. They have always been wanderers, and never
showed any inclination towards a settled existence. It has been tried on
them by King Milutin of Servia in the beginning of the fourteenth
century, and records of that time make mention of several Vlack villages
by the southern banks of the Danube.
When the Turks conquered Servia these nomads vanished from their
settlements, and no one knows whither they went. It is probable that
they resumed their migratory habits in Macedonia and Thessaly, not
visiting Servia again until comparatively recent times, when the
Russo-Serb war broke out in 1876. Up to this date they are said to have
sojourned in Bulgaria, whither, it is stated, they wandered from Epirus
and Thessaly, to escape from Ali Pasha's heavy hand. A few, a very few,
settled in Macedonia, about Monastir, Krushevo, and at the foot of
Olympus. The Vlachs appear to be a pleasant, harmless people, and
absolutely indifferent to the troubles which have so long agitated the
peoples of the Balkans.
Now that the Balkan provinces of Turkey, where the Vlachs have wandered
for centuries, are passing into other hands, the status of this people
is becoming a matter of interest. As the Balkan nations, Serbs, Bulgars,
and Greeks are insisting so fiercely on their respective nationalities,
Roumania has thought fit to espouse the cause of the Vlachs. No doubt
this intention is born of a sincere desire for the welfare of those whom
the Roumanians consider kinsmen, but the idea is of political value in
that it gives a reason for the modern tendency of claiming compensation,
an innovation so forcibly introduced by the arrival of the S.M.S.
"Panther" off Agadir.
It will be interesting to note to what extent the wandering Vlachs will
benefit by the protection of Roumania, and what they themselves think of
it. Was it to safeguard their interests that Roumania sent its one and
only sea-going warship to swell the international fleet in the Golden
Horn while the Turkish Empire in Europe was falling to pieces?
I have heard the absence of a Chinese man-of-war commented on during my
recent stay in Constantinople.
CHAPTER XVII
The arrival of the Slavs and their descent--The appearance of the
Serbs--Servia, before the arrival of the Serbs--The primitive
Serbs--Serbs and Bulgarians in early days--Stephen Dobroslav and
his son Michael--The Serb dynasty of Nemanya--Stephen Dushan and
Urosh--Knjes Lazar marches against the Turks--The battle of
Kossovo--The death of Knjes Lazar--Vuk Brankoviç and George, his
son--Servia subjected by Mohammed II--Servia a Turkish
province--Semendria--Golubaç and the Via Trajana--The Peace of
Passarowitz--Serbs help Turkey--Kara George--The Treaty of
Bucharest--Milosh Obrenoviç--The stern rule of Milosh
Obrenoviç--Michael Obrenoviç makes way to Alexander
Karageorgeviç--Milosh Obrenoviç recalled--Michael III murdered at
Belgrade--King Milan--King Milan resigns--Peter I,
Karageorgeviç--Servia's war preparations--The Servian Army--The
causes of the war--The Montenegrins--Montenegro declares war--The
opening of hostilities--The progress of the Serbs--Capture of
Monastir and Ochrida--The Serbs march from Ochrida to
Alessio--Occupation of Macedonia--Turkish optimism--Alleged Servian
atrocities--The credit of the Servian Army.
In those dark ages preceding the fall of the Western Roman Empire,
Central Europe was seething with migrant nations dimly desirous of
settling in some more favoured regions than the vast plains and dense
forests whence they came. Among the divers races thus impelled were the
Slavs. They came from what is now Southern Russia, from the banks of the
Dnyepr, and penetrated far into the German Empire of the present day;
traces of them have been found in Hanover, colonies of Slavs still live
in that marshy part of Prussia called the "Lausitz," and the people of
East Prussia itself have a strong admixture of that non-Teuton race.
The Slavs are said to be descended from the ancient Scythians, by some
mistakenly held to have been Mongolians, but it is unlikely that they
kept their racial purity before they set out on their wanderings, and
were probably much mixed with Tartars and other Asiatics who had swarmed
over their pastures and hunting-grounds.
The Hungarians, breaking into Europe along the left bank of the Danube,
then settling in Hungary, drove a wedge in between the Slavs, separating
them into two masses, which by environment and by mixing with other
races gradually developed into distinctive nationalities. Systematic
colonization by the Teutons pressed the northern Slavs back towards the
east, the influx of the Bulgarians into Eastern Europe intercepted
communication between the Slavs to north-eastward, and so helped to
create that branch of the Slav race called the Serbs. They came in
groups of families, so-called Zadrugs, out of the east, each group under
its chief or Zupan, and settled in the country south of the Danube and
westward of the Bulgarians some time in the beginning of the seventh
century, and from that time called themselves Serbs.
To the Romans this country was known as Moesia Superior; they built here
strong castles to shelter flourishing cities, Semendria, for instance,
with its serried ranks of square towers. But the Romans had to make way
to successive waves of savage Huns, fierce Osthro-Goths, and Langobardi,
who left a wilderness behind them where they had passed. Emperor
Justinian reclaimed this land and added it to his Empire in the sixth
century, but the good he did was undone by the Avari, who broke in from
the east and left desolation in their wake. The Serbs followed the Avari
and spread beyond the Save into Bosnia and Montenegro.
The family groups united into clans, and each of these rendered service
to an elected head sometimes called the Great Zupan or Kralj (King), or
again Tsar (Emperor). The maintenance of discipline was no easy matter,
and frequent dissensions among the turbulent tribesmen rendered the
Serbs an easy prey to their stronger neighbours. Such was the state of
affairs when Christianity was introduced in the eighth century and made
the Serbs subject to the Eastern Empire.
From time to time the neighbouring Bulgarians would snatch Servia from
Byzant, but when Bulgaria's power was broken by the Emperor of the East,
Servia again became subject to that Empire towards the end of the tenth
century.
Nearly a century later Servia produced a strong man, Stephen Dobroslav,
called Boistlav by the Greeks; he forced the other Zupans into
submission, assumed full power, and regained the independence of his
country. His son Michael succeeded and was confirmed in the royal title
of Kralj by Pope Gregory, whose aim was to lessen the power of Byzant.
But herein he failed, for inner dissensions again broke out among the
Serbs, the country was forced into the Eastern Empire again and suffered
horribly until in 1165 another Stephen, Zupan of East Servia, reunited
the scattered tribes.
This Stephen founded the Nemanya dynasty and welded the broken tribes
into a strong Empire. It was called that of Rassia, after its capital
Rasha, now in the Sandjak Novibazar. The House of Nemanya flourished,
the Empire of Rassia overflowed its frontiers, and under Stephen Dushan,
1331-1355, included Macedonia, Albania, Thessaly, Epirus, and Bulgaria.
Stephen took the title of Tsar. But with his son Stephen Urosh, a
weakling, the House of Nemanya died out.
During the reign of this last Tsar dissensions had broken out again.
Vukashin the Voivod rose in rebellion, rendering his country an easy
prey to a new foe, more formidable than any the Serbs had yet
encountered, the Turk.
Leaving the Emperor of the East trembling in his purple throne-room,
Amurath I was moving over Eastern Europe with a vast, well-disciplined
army, conquering where he went. On the Amselfeld at Kossovo the Serbs
first met in battle this enemy whom they have frequently met since, whom
they met again so recently, perhaps for the last time in the history of
Europe.
In vain had the Greek Emperor appealed to Catholic Europe for assistance
as the horns of the Crescent closed in upon Byzant. But the Serbs
responded to the call. Reunited once more under Knjes Lazar, the
chivalry of Servia, then of high repute, joined with Albanians,
Bosnians, Bulgarians, to stem the full-flowing tide of Moslems. The
armies met at Kossovo and battle raged with varying fortunes till
evening, but the ranks of the Christian forces were thinning rapidly.
Vukashin had fallen, Knjes Lazar was captured, and Amurath's son
Bajazet, called by his men Yilderim (Lightning) struck swift and sure.
Milosh Kabilovitch, a Servian knight, dashed out from among the
hard-pressed chivalry and galloped forth as if deserting from the
Servian ranks. He sought the presence of Amurath, alleging that he had
important intelligence concerning the plans of the Allies. Kneeling
before Amurath he suddenly leapt up and buried his dagger in the
Sultan's heart. His astounding strength and agility enabled him to reach
the place where he had left his horse, but here he fell under the sabres
of the Janissaries. Amurath survived but to the close of the battle; his
last act was to order the death of Lazar, the Servian King, who,
standing in chains, regaled the dying eyes of his conqueror.
Bajazet succeeded to the throne of Othman on the field of battle and
divided Servia, forced to pay tribute to the Sultan and render military
service, between Stephen, son of Lazar, and Vuk Brankoviç. The latter's
son George, assisted by Hungarians, made a last effort to restore
Servia's independence, and succeeded; the Peace of Szeggedin in 1444
gave Servia a few more years of freedom. But after fifteen years
Mohammed the Conqueror marched through Servia and put an end to its
existence as an independent kingdom for many centuries. The Osmanli
forced the Serbs into subjection by all the cruelties their ingenuity in
that direction suggested. Nearly all the best families were extirpated,
though a few managed to escape to Hungary and others took refuge among
the Black Mountains, whence their descendants came down the other day,
only a few weeks ago, to meet their old enemy the Turk.
The old nobility of Servia ceased to exist after Mohammed's conquest,
and those who were allowed to remain in time embraced Islam, without
doing which no one under Turkish rule in those days need expect justice
or chance of promotion; of the common people two hundred thousand were
sold into slavery by the Osmanli soldiery, and Servia became a Turkish
province, a sandjak, a purely military _terrain d'occupation_.
There are still some ancient monuments left standing which tell of the
days when Servian chivalry hastened to the rescue of Constantinople and
the Cross. Semendria, called Smederovo by the Serbs, once the residence
of George Brankoviç, who fought for freedom by the side of Hunyadi
Janos. This old Roman castle, strengthened by the Servian champion,
Semendria, throws the reflections of its ruined battlements on to the
waters of swift-flowing Danube.
Some way further down the river yet another castle rises sheer above the
banks where the mountains close in on either side to form the Pass of
Kazan. The Danube narrows down to one-third its width on entering here,
it swirls round the base of a steep promontory from which the broken
towers of Golubaç seem to grow as out of the living rock. Crumbling
walls and towers, turrets tottering on the brink of a precipice above
the swirling waters, such is Golubaç, the castle built by Vuk Brancoviç
to guard the entrance to the Pass of Kazan. An important place, too, in
its time, for it controlled the road hewn by Trajan's orders out of the
rock through this pass to the Iron Gates connecting Dacia Trajana with
Moesia Superior.
For centuries these monuments to Servia's former greatness stood
awaiting the rise of Servia rejuvenated, Golubaç tumbling into ruins,
the road it guarded falling into neglect, Semendria a stronghold of the
Osmanli. But during these centuries the Serbs lost neither faith nor
language nor hope of freedom. Songs and epics kept fresh the memories of
former days, while the Serbs went about their daily business, tilling
the soil, watching their herds of swine, living in close family union
despite the storms that tore over their land as the hosts of Othman
pressed westward and towards the north into Hungary, up to Vienna, or
returned flushed with victory or savage because of some defeat.
Help came at last, though slowly, and from the side of Hungary as it had
done three centuries before.
The power of Turkey was already on the wane, and the Treaty of Carlowitz
had begun to curtail Othman conquests west and north of Belgrade. Later
came the Peace of Passarowitz in 1718, which promised well for Servia,
but in reality sowed the seeds of discord between that country and the
House of Habsburg. A large part of Bosnia, formerly in the Kingdom of
Greater Servia, was annexed to Austria. Austrian officials in the newly
acquired territory failed to establish good relations between themselves
and the Serbs, so the latter sided with the Turks when Emperor Charles
VI began his unhappy campaign against the Sultan in 1738. This service
was repaid by the cruelty and excesses of the Janissaries, driving the
Serbs to assist the Austrians when Emperor Joseph II and Catherine II of
Russia went to war with Sultan Mustapha III. Again no advantage accrued
to Servia, and it was not till 1804 and by her own exertions that
freedom came nearer to this downtrodden country.
In that year, stung into action by increased oppression at the hands of
the Turks, the Serbs rose in revolt led by George Petroviç, commonly
called Czrini or Czerny George (Kara George by the Turks); Belgrade was
stormed on December 12th, and after some successful fights the country
was swept clean of the Janissaries. The revolt continued, and as Austria
had refused assistance in 1804 Servia called on Russia for help,
promising to recognize that Empire's suzerainty in return. The help
offered by Russia was not very liberal and the Serbs gained many
successes by their own unaided efforts in the years 1809 and 1810.
In spite of all their successful endeavours, the Serbs were unkindly
treated by the Powers at the Treaty of Bucharest in 1812; they were
granted a general amnesty and self-government of internal affairs, but
continued to pay tribute to the Sultan and were made to surrender all
captured fortresses. As a special favour the Porte allowed all those who
were discontented with the results to emigrate. Turkish troops entered
Servia again and wore down the forces of Kara George till he gave up the
struggle and crossed over into Austria.
The struggle was taken up by Milosh Obrenoviç, who defeated Ali Pasha
and was eventually proclaimed hereditary Prince when Kara George had
been murdered on returning to his country. The Porte acknowledged Milosh
Obrenoviç and granted Servia independent jurisdiction, free inner
administration by the Treaty of Akkerman, which ended the Russo-Turkish
war, and further confirmed the treaty at the Peace of Adrianople in
1829.
By bribery and corruption Milosh managed to obtain letters from the
Porte in 1830 restoring six former districts to Servia. Then Milosh,
feeling secure with a well-trained bodyguard, chose to rule as despot,
inflicting arbitrary punishment with many cruelties on those who
displeased him. Already well used to revolts the Servians rose against
their chosen ruler under Avram Petronijeviç and Thoma Vuciç, and obliged
Milosh to grant a constitution. Milosh resigned in favour of his son
Milan. Milan lived only a short time and was succeeded by his brother
Michael Obrenoviç, who made himself unpopular by levying a tax on acorns
when prepared as food for pigs. Pigs are still fortune-makers for the
Serbs as they were in those days, so the people revolted again. Michael
fled to Austria and a son of Kara George, Alexander Karageorgeviç, was
elected in his stead.
Even Alexander, a peaceful sovereign, did not please the people for
long; he had a leaning towards Austria, and for this reason was called
upon to abdicate. Instead of going quietly he appealed to the Porte,
whereupon the Servian Parliament, the Skuptshina, recalled Milosh
Obrenoviç, now seventy-eight years of age, and placed him on the
unsteady throne of Servia for a second time.
Followed the son of Milosh, Michael III Obrenoviç; he reorganized the
militia forces of Servia and forced the Turks to abandon the remaining
fortresses they held in the land, Belgrade, Sabaç, and Semendria, and by
1867 the last Osmanli had left the country. Yet there was
dissatisfaction among the Serbs, for Michael III was murdered the
following year in Topshida Park at Belgrade, his new capital.
Milan Obrenoviç was then called to the throne and took sovereign rights
and title in 1878, after Plevna fell and the Serbs had retrieved defeats
suffered during that war against Turkey by taking Nish, Pirot, and
Leskovoç from the already badly beaten Osmanli. Milan Obrenoviç became
King in 1882 and sought to add to his dignity by invading Bulgaria what
time that principality was occupied with a revolt in East Roumelia. The
Serbs were very badly beaten at Slivniça and Pirot, by a man who knew
his business thoroughly, Alexander von Battenberg, Prince of Bulgaria.
This ill-success, possibly other motives, led to the resignation of King
Milan, who was succeeded by Alexander I, his son. Of that monarch's
personality, his life, and ghastly death, I decline to say anything; the
papers in June, 1903, were full of it--too full of it.
It was left to another Karageorgeviç, Peter I, the present King, to
march once more against the old oppressor of the Serbs, and to take
lands, once part of Greater Servia, from the hands of those who had so
long misruled them.
While the rest of Europe was comforting itself with the disproved
statement that trouble in the Balkans is always deferred till the snow
melts under the rays of a spring sun, the Balkan Kingdoms had entered
into an alliance against their old enemy the Turk. Notwithstanding the
fact that many of those whose business it is to know such things were
well aware of the preparations made by the Allies, European diplomacy
lulled itself to sleep by reiterated formulæ, mumbling something about
_status quo_. In the meantime Bulgaria, chief of the Allies, had for
years been training its hardy sons to a winter campaign, and had,
moreover, a most excellent secret intelligence department with its
feelers all over Thrace and those parts of the peninsula likely to be
immediately affected by a war. Servia had been carefully preparing for
the _grand coup_ by reorganizing its military forces. Few people
elsewhere in Europe took them seriously, remembering the ease with which
Bulgaria defeated her ally some years ago, and also the ineffective
clamour raised when Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Nevertheless it was made possible to extend the army of Servia from a
peace footing of some 35,000 men to a field army of 160,000. This was
accomplished out of a population of 3,000,000 inhabiting 18,800 square
miles, and the total annual cost of that army is only £1,200,000.
Compare this with Great Britain's idea of insisting on her voice being
heard among the armed nations of Europe on the Continent with an
expeditionary force of 100,000 men out of a population of over
45,000,000! But then the Serbs have not yet had time to wax fat and
indifferent to their country's needs. Every Serb is obliged to serve his
country and does so willingly. Thus the cadres of the Servian standing
army swelled as townsmen and sturdy countrymen flocked to join the
colours, singing as they marched out armed and eager, "Rado ide Srbin u
voinike"--"Gaily the Serbs go to war."
While Britons were enjoying the autumn holidays great things were
preparing among the Balkan States, and they passed unnoticed. The
tension always existent between the Allied Kingdoms and their former
conqueror and master became acute in consequence of several incidents.
Turkey, dimly realizing that the state of affairs was becoming more and
more difficult, thought fit to seize some war material _en route_ to
Servia, via Saloniki and Üsküb. Again, Turkey declined to punish those
who had joined in the Kochana massacres; Macedonia was roused to fury
and its voice found echo in Sofia. Turkey also insisted on carrying out
the manoeuvres round Adrianople, planned by Field-Marshal von der
Goltz, to show in mimic warfare what shortly after happened in stern
reality. Servia protested strongly, so did Bulgaria. Servia mobilized
with astounding rapidity, Bulgaria was ready, as every one would suppose
who knows that country, its strong ruler, and efficient people. Still
Western Europe said, "It is all talk, let us enjoy our holiday," till
suddenly the world was made aware of the Balkan Alliance and heard of
Turkey's declaration of war against Bulgaria and Servia.
In the meantime another of the Allies, the smallest, probably fiercest
of them, had begun the dance, the Montenegrins. For centuries these
people have been longing to avenge former wrongs done them by the Turks.
It was the Turks who drove the remnant of Slav nobility into the
inaccessible Black Mountains when the hosts of Islam swarmed over the
Danube lands, Servia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, murdering and plundering,
destroying an ancient civilization.
Secure among their mountains the Montenegrins remained untouched by
those influences which have kept their neighbours the Albanians under
the dominion of the Sultan. They held firmly to their religion, the
Greek Orthodoxy, this kept them united against their enemy the Turk, and
they developed along their own lines. Their princely family the Balshas
kept Turks and Venetians at bay, and when that dynasty died out their
quite natural quarrels were kept down by a line of priestly princes,
Vladikas; the Prince-Bishop being celibate was less likely to be dragged
into family feuds. By degrees the sovereignty became hereditary, passing
from uncle to nephew, until Danilo II relinquished the ecclesiastical
side of his dignity. He was assassinated in 1860 and succeeded by Prince
Nicholas, now King of Montenegro.
Montenegro soon found sufficient pretext for declaring war, and did so
in all solemnity on October 8th. Immediately after this act the sons of
the mountains were pouring down from the heights over the Turkish
border. By a series of sharp, well-contrived attacks they gained
numerous advantages over their enemies, had joined hands with the
Servian Army by October 25th in the Sandjak of Novi Bazar, had captured
S. Giovanni di Medua by November 18th, then assisting General
Yankovitch's Servian division in an attack on the fortress of Alessio,
which was captured after fierce fighting.
In the meantime Montenegro's southern army was investing Scutari,
assisted by the northern force moving down from Tuzi. Since the Young
Turks came into power in 1908 the natural advantages for defence proper
to Scutari have been greatly enhanced, for Hilmi Pasha made this the
head-quarters of his action against the Albanians. The garrison of
Scutari, computed at some ten thousand men, was well armed and well
provided for, and has held out against superior odds. It proposes to
hold out till the end, whenever that may be, in spite of all the
desperate attacks by night and day to which Montenegrin impetuosity
subjects it. Scutari is still holding out, and so far the Montenegrins
have poured out their blood before its strong defences in vain. The
commander of the fortress absolutely declined to recognize the
armistice.
On October 17th the Porte issued a formal notification to the Powers
that "a state of war exists to-day between the Turkish Empire and the
Kingdoms of Bulgaria and Servia." A revolt of Serbs in the districts of
Üsküb, Kumanovo, and others had already broken out during the first days
of October, and fighting on the frontier was reported some days before
the declaration of war at Vranja and near Ristovaç on the Morava. Servia
declared war on Turkey on the same day as the Turkish notification was
issued, Bulgaria and Greece did likewise; so four kings at the head of
their armies crossed the borders of their realms to concentrate in an
attack on their old enemy.
King Peter of Servia made Vranja his first head-quarters, and from here
followed the progress of his armies. They marched down from the
mountains in three columns, beating down fierce resistance, gaining
victory on victory at enormous cost. By October 21st the Serbs had won a
victory at Podujevo, and captured Nova Varosh in the Sandjak. At the
same time the Second Army Corps, under General Stephanovich, was forcing
its way to Egri Palanka, capturing the important position of Carsko Selo
and Sultan Tepe, marching towards Üsküb, where the three armies were to
meet eventually.
Servian arms were victorious elsewhere. Led by the Crown Prince in
person, the Serbs attacked Kumanovo; the fighting lasted with varying
fortunes for two days, the Turks offering desperate resistance and
making furious counter-attacks. After hard fighting in the Teresh Pass,
Prishtina fell to the Serbs, and shortly after the western column
captured Mitrovitza, Vuchitra, and Gilan. The Serbs then marched on
Üsküb and took it, King Peter entered the town, once a royal residence
of the Kraljs of Greater Servia, in solemn triumph, amidst the
rejoicings of the populace. There was desperate fighting near Kossovo,
on the Amselfeld, where Amurath broke the chivalry of ancient Servia in
the fourteenth century, and with his dying eyes watched the death
agonies of Knjes Lazar, King of the Serbs. Here on the Amselfeld, the
scene of Milosh Kabilovitch's daring deed, Young Servia vindicated its
honour, and proved the metal of a nation united in arms to some great
purpose, inspired by a high ideal.
Then the Servian armies marched on towards Monastir, but were able at
the same time to detach troops to reinforce their allies the Greeks, and
the Bulgarians before Adrianople. Monastir was closely invested, and
fell on November 19th. The Crown Prince held his solemn entry into the
town, captured in face of many great obstacles. Besides Turkish
regulars, the inhabitants of the town offered desperate resistance, the
latter attacking with great ferocity. It was largely bayonet fighting,
the Servian infantry carrying one position after another at _pas de
charge_, sometimes wading through water breast-high. Finally the Turks
attempted a desperate sortie, which ended in a complete rout, during
which many who escaped from the sabres of the pursuing Servian cavalry
managed to make for Ochrida. This latter city, formerly a royal
residence of the Serbo-Bulgarian Tsars, was captured by the Serbs on
November 24th.
[Illustration: TENEDOS
An island close to the Asiatic side of the entrance to the Dardanelles.
It served as a base for Greek torpedo-boat destroyers. Here one of these
held up the ship I was sailing in.]
Then the Serbs set out on yet another desperate venture, in pursuit of
an ideal, a window on the Adriatic. Let us hope that a full account of
this march of a Servian column over the mountains, from the Lake of
Ochrida to Alessio, may be recorded in detail by some of those who took
part in it, for the venture is reminiscent of Pizarro's march across the
Andes. Communications with head-quarters could only be maintained by
means of couriers, and naturally became less frequent as the gallant
column disappeared among the mountain passes. The way led along the edge
of yawning chasms, the track so narrow that pack animals, hardy mountain
ponies, could be loaded on one side only; then again, down some winding
ravine, toiling ten miles to advance one; again, amid rocks and
boulders, over a pass swept by an icy wind, or through a valley two or
three feet deep in snow. Guns and ammunition had to be dragged along,
for though the heights were generally deserted, yet now and again
hostile Albanians would have to be dispersed before an advance was
possible. Rations were very short, yet in spite of hunger, fatigue, and
the enemy's attention, the force won through with trifling losses until
the waters of the Adriatic gleamed at their feet. And so the Serbs
arrived on the sea-coast at Alessio, where they were met by their
allies, the Montenegrins, who had taken S. Giovanni di Medua. At yet
another point on the Adriatic, at Durazzo, the Serbs emerged from the
mountains, to emphasize their claims to an outlet on the sea, while
Austrian cruisers looked on jealously.
Thus by the end of November all Macedonia had been lost to the Ottoman
Empire. Yet the people of Constantinople seemed, for the most part at
least, indifferent to outside matters, and continued the even tenor of
their way. Only in cafés, and places where men of leisure congregate,
would you hear the war discussed, or chiefly the rumours afloat about
it, and from these many pot-valiant Turks deduced that, far from all
being lost, the Osmanli armies were about to begin the war in earnest.
The beaten remnant of Ottoman power in Europe, huddling behind the lines
of Chatalja, was to emerge from hiding, march over the Bulgarians up the
Valley of the Maritza, relieve famine-stricken Adrianople, and enter
Sofia in triumph. Yet another Ottoman army was to march south through
Thessaly, retake Saloniki, cross into Epirus, and dictate the Sultan's
terms to Greece in Athens. This has been told me seriously by several
Turks, those who are interested in the war. What is more, they are
firmly persuaded that this can and will happen. With such a people, the
majority completely apathetic, a minority wildly optimistic, it is
difficult to see how anything like a common-sense view of matters is
likely to obtain, and without such common sense Turkey's place in the
comity of European nations will probably be filled by people with a
better-adjusted sense of proportion.
Of course, reports of Servian excesses, atrocities, are spread about,
chiefly disseminated by Continental papers. That soldiers flushed by
victory are liable to break away from strict discipline is a lamentable
fact. I know of few armies of which the same cannot be said with more or
less justice. The Continental Press spread reports of this kind about
the British army in South Africa, and lowered the status of journalism
by these vicious falsehoods. It must also be borne in mind that many
Continental papers are to a certain extent used by the Governments of
their respective countries for the purpose of creating a tendency. This
was distinctly the case during the South African war, when a strong
organization poisoned the minds of European nations against Great
Britain by means of the Press, in order to justify interference with our
affairs. They were ably seconded by a section of the Press in this
country. The movement failed of its result owing to the strength of
Great Britain and the solidarity of the nation. It seems to be probable
that much the same tendency inspired the recent recitals of Servian
atrocities. On the whole the Press has not distinguished itself
particularly during the Balkan war, and certainly the restrictions
placed on war correspondents added to the difficulties of news-getting.
Yet this is no reason for substituting fiction for facts, for there are
many who still believe what they see in the papers, and among them were
a number who suffered considerable anxiety when reading of the state of
Constantinople during the last stage of the war. Some accounts were not
even remotely connected with the truth.
Whatever the truth about Servian atrocities may be it is certain that
the Servian Army did its work uncommonly well. Thorough preparedness
and good leadership enabled it not only to sweep the Turks out of
Macedonia, but also to assist the other Allies, for instance, in
detaching eighty thousand men to help the Bulgarians in the siege of
Adrianople.
How many of those who read their daily paper realize the work done by
the Servian Army? In a country where roads are few, and in wet weather
only serve to indicate the general direction and not to carry heavy
traffic, the Servian troops, especially the infantry, daily covered a
surprising amount of ground; what is more, the transport managed to keep
up with the marching columns. And it was not all simple marching; there
was severe fighting to be done, and heavy ammunition trains had to keep
up with the operations in progress.
Great credit is due to those who reorganized the Servian Army and fitted
it for the task it took in hand. Their names have not been lauded by the
Press, their portraits do not constantly figure in the illustrated
papers, but they have served their country well, and helped to bring
about lasting changes in the state of Europe, changes which will yet
cause great anxiety to the people of those very superior Great Powers
who sit in judgment on matters which many of them cannot understand.
CHAPTER XVIII
Bulgarian origin and history--Defeat of Nicephorus I--Luitprand,
the historian--Revolt of Peter and Asan--Sisvan and Amurath--My
friend "Dedo 'Mitri"--The road to Radoïl--Vasil and his
horse--Bulgarian war preparations--His Beatitude Joseph--Advance of
Bulgarian armies--The victories of the Allies--Mr. Asquith's
assurance.
The leading spirit of the Balkan Alliance is Bulgaria, its policy
directed by an able ruler, Tsar Ferdinand, its strategy devised by a
capable Staff, at whose head, as the sovereign's right hand, stands
General Sava Savof. To the Western nations who were indulging in autumn
holidays while the Balkan cauldron was seething to overflowing the war
came as a surprise, was inaugurated with astounding efficiency, and went
its victorious course with bewildering rapidity. That was the impression
made by recent events in the Balkans upon the lethargic Western mind. To
those who happened to have looked behind the scenes there was no
suddenness in the outbreak of hostilities, no surprise at the efficient
organization which led to well-deserved successes in the field.
It has been my privilege to visit Bulgaria several times, and on each
occasion I have returned with a yet higher opinion of the Bulgarian
people, their Tsar, and his advisers.
The first to mention this people was the Armenian historian Moses, of
Koren, towards the end of the fifth century. In his time the Bulgars
occupied the lower reaches of the Volga, and called their capital Bulâr,
Bulghâr; here was the mart where they transacted business with their
neighbours. From the banks of the Volga the Bulgars, a Finno-Ugric race,
and akin to the Turks, moved along the northern shore of the Black Sea
towards the Danube, and had reached Macedonia by the beginning of the
seventh century.
When the country which is now Bulgaria formed part of Dacia Trajana, in
the days of Emperor Aurelian, Goths swarmed in and drove the Dacians
into Moesia, now Servia. They wandered south, much to the discomfiture
of ancient Byzantium. On their westward way the Goths, under Theodoric,
had trampled down the Finno-Ugric people, the Bulgarians, which had come
to the plains of the Lower Danube from the north-east. For a century and
a half all traces of this people disappeared from the historian's ken,
and they were not heard of again until the ninth century. Debarred by a
stronger race from returning northward to rejoin their kinsmen who had
migrated to Finland, their progress westward checked by more powerful
nations, they turned towards the south, and thus began a conflict which
has never ceased, though it may have lain dormant, for over ten
centuries, a conflict which has since broken out afresh and led the
Bulgars to the gates of Constantinople. These people, the Bulgars, found
vent for their military ardour in opposing the inroads of the Eastern
Emperors, and may lay claim to an honour till then appropriated only by
the Goths--that of having slain a Roman Emperor in battle.
It came about in this fashion. Nicephorus I, Emperor of the East
(802-811) had advanced with boldness and success into the west of
Bulgaria and destroyed the Royal Court by fire. But while he lingered on
in search of spoil, refusing all offers of a treaty, his enemies
collected their forces and barred the lines of retreat. For two days the
Emperor waited in despair and inactivity, on the third the Bulgarians
surprised the camp and slew the Emperor and great officers of the
Empire. Valens had escaped insults from the Goths when defeated and
slain at Adrianople, but the skull of Nicephorus, encased with gold, was
made to serve as drinking-vessel.
Towards the end of the ninth century King Boris of Bulgaria brought two
holy men, Cyril and Methodius, originators of the Cyrillic alphabet
adopted by all Slav nations, and Christianity, then introduced, aroused
a desire for learning among the Bulgarians.
The power of Bulgaria increased, and under Tsar Simeon, son of Boris,
extended over Bulgaria of to-day, Wallachia, part of Hungary and
Transylvania, parts of Albania and Epirus, of Macedonia and Thessaly.
Simeon assumed the title of Tsar and Autocrat of all Bulgarians. This
title was retained by all Bulgarian sovereigns until the conquest of
their country by the Turks.
Early in October an extraordinary session of the Sobranje celebrated the
anniversary of Bulgaria's independence and the assumption of the ancient
title by Tsar Ferdinand.
Simeon, son of Boris, was intended for a religious life, but he
abandoned it to take up arms; he inherited the crown of Bulgaria, and
reigned from the end of the ninth to well into the tenth century. His
education was completed at Constantinople, where many other youthful
nobles of his country gathered for the same purpose, and to this day the
custom prevails, for among the students at Robert College, which stands
high on the banks of the Bosphorus, are many of Tsar Ferdinand's young
subjects. Among its former pupils was M. Gueshof, now Prime Minister of
Bulgaria.
Despite his Byzantine education Simeon did not love the Greeks, and
Luitprand, the historian, writes: "Simeon fortis bellator, Bulgariæ
proecrat; Christianus sed vicinis Græcis valde inimicus." This
hostility to the Greeks found frequent expression, and Simeon with his
host appeared before the walls of Constantinople. On classic ground, at
Achelous, the Greeks were vanquished by the Bulgarians, and Simeon
hastened to besiege the Emperor in his own strong City.
Down by the Golden Horn on the plain outside the Gate of Edirné, Tsar
Simeon met Romanus Lecapenus, the Emperor of the East, at the place
where King Crum of Bulgaria had been asked to confer with Leo V, the
Armenian (813-820), and had narrowly escaped the arrows of the archers
treacherously concealed in ambush. Vying with the Greeks in the
splendour of their display the Bulgars took jealous precautions against
a similar surprise, and deep mistrust informed the spirit in which their
sovereign dictated terms of peace. "Are you a Christian?" asked the
humbled Emperor. "It is your duty to abstain from the blood of your
fellow-Christians. Has the thirst for riches seduced you from the
blessings of peace? Sheathe your sword, open your hand, and I will give
you the utmost measure of your desire."
But peace was not for long. Simeon's successors by their jealousies
undermined the strength of the kingdom, and when next the Bulgarians met
the Greeks in battle they were easily defeated by Basil II, called
Bulgaroktonos. A terrible home-coming theirs; through snow and ice the
remnant of Bulgaria's manhood struggled on in little bands of a hundred
at a time, each company following the voice of a single leader, as they
groped their way through darkness--they were blinded. They had escaped
from the clemency of a Christian Emperor, by whose orders only one man
in each hundred retained the sight of one eye.
Then for over a century Bulgaria remained subject to Byzantium, until
two Bulgarian chiefs--Peter and Asan--rose in revolt against Isaac
Angelus (1185-1195), and spread the fire of rebellion from the Danube to
the hills of Macedonia and Thrace. So Isaac and his brother, Alexius III
(1195-1203), were forced to recognize Bulgaria's independence.
Such hopeless rulers as Alexius IV and V and Nicolas Canabas made easy
the conquest of Byzant by the Latins in 1204. Calo John, King of
Bulgaria, sent friendly greetings to Baldwin I, the new Emperor of the
East, but these provoked an unexpected answer. Baldwin demanded that the
rebel should deserve his pardon by touching with his forehead the
footstool of the imperial throne. So trouble broke out again. Again war
was waged, with all its attendant savagery, and Calo John reinforced his
army by a body of fourteen thousand horsemen from the Scythian deserts.
A fierce battle at Adrianople resulted in the total defeat of the
Emperor, who was taken prisoner. His fate was for some years uncertain,
and even the demands of the Pope for the restitution of the Emperor
failed to elicit any other answer from King John save that Baldwin had
died in prison. For years the conflict raged, till Henry, the second
Latin Emperor of the East, routed the Bulgarians. Calo John was slain in
his tent by night, and the deed was piously ascribed to the lance of St.
Demetrius.
[Illustration: Golubaç
The stronghold of Old Servia guarding the Pass of Kasan.]
In the fourteenth century another foe threatened Bulgaria and all
Eastern Europe. Amurath with his Janissaries was closing in upon
Constantinople. He beat the Greek Emperor at Adrianople in 1361, and
made this town his base of operations against Bulgaria, which country he
harried until Sisvan, the Tsar, obtained peace at the price of offering
his daughter in marriage to Amurath. But peace did not ensue, and Sisvan
had to flee before Ali, and surrendered at Nicopolis.
Nicopolis, where King Sigismund of Hungary was vanquished by Sultan
Bajazet, by whose victory the Balkan States became subject to the Porte.
Here there was fierce fighting in 1810, and again in 1877, for the road
to the Pass of Plevna starts from here. Here at Nicopolis are the ruins,
underground, of one of the earliest Christian churches, but its history
is quite unknown.
Recent times have witnessed the rise of Bulgaria from the status of an
Ottoman province to that of an independent kingdom, strong, prosperous,
and determined. And on its southern frontier, and from the banks of the
Struma to the Black Sea shore, the armed forces of Bulgaria strained at
the leash, their eager gaze towards Constantinople, Tsarigrad, the
Castle of Cæsar.
Among those whose eager eyes turned ever towards the south is one (I
hope he still lives) for whom I have the friendliest feelings. His name
is Dedo 'Mitri, and I venture to describe a visit I paid to that worthy.
Like Bill Sloggins of song, Dedo 'Mitri is "a party as you don't meet
every day." The continuation of the verse applies equally:
"He's always hale and hearty,
And he's cheerful in his way."
In itself this condition is a matter for no great wonderment, but you
must know that Dedo 'Mitri has reached the age at which it cannot be
said of many that they are always hale and hearty. Many do not travel as
far along life's journey as Dedo 'Mitri has done; he was well on in the
eighties when I met him a year or two ago. This, of course, accounts for
his being called "Dedo 'Mitri," which, being interpreted, meaneth
"Grandfather Dimitri." The fact of Dimitri being abbreviated to 'Mitri
speaks of his popularity. Several circumstances go towards the making of
Dedo 'Mitri's popularity. His age, of course, has something to do with
it, his cheerfulness still more, and his position adds to his
popularity--he keeps the largest of the two inns in the village, keeps
the only inn that really counts for anything. Probably the most
important ingredient of the recipe for Dedo 'Mitri's popularity is his
past--he is an ex-comitadji.
To have been a comitadji is indeed a matter of great distinction in
those countries south of the Balkans. There it is that Dedo 'Mitri lives
and has his being, there, among the Rhodope Mountains, along which runs
the frontier between Bulgaria and Turkey. Dedo 'Mitri is a Bulgarian, a
splendid specimen of a fine race.
For his country's sake Dedo 'Mitri endured untold hardships, and
committed deeds desperate and daring, deeds that perhaps send their
phantoms crowding round his couch o' nights. Perhaps! though to all
appearances Dedo 'Mitri's looks do not suggest nights spent with the
spectre Remorse. He, like other fighters for a country's liberties, may
rather glory in what he has done, though of this again no word escapes
him. There are others in the village ready to tell you of his exploits.
[Illustration: Dedo 'Mitri]
Songs and legends of the great, of King Crum, Tsar Simeon, and the
Asens, kept alive the intense feeling of Bulgarian nationality during
centuries of Turkish domination. Under the heavy oppression of Ottoman
rule the Church founded by Cyril and Methodius lived on, deeply rooted
in the hearts of the people. So, when Bulgaria awoke in the beginning
of the nineteenth century there were found men like Dedo 'Mitri to take
up arms, to sacrifice all for their country's liberty. He was a baby
when Russia declared war against Turkey in 1827, but still remembers the
depth of feeling that stirred his folk and urged him to take his share
in the work as soon as his arm was strong enough for it. He was in the
full vigour of manhood when his own efforts, and those of other
patriots, had brought about the establishment of a Bulgarian Exarchate
at Constantinople. He rejoiced when the Congress of Berlin ratified the
treaty of San Stefano, making Bulgaria autonomous, and his militant
activity came to an end when Eastern Roumelia was united to his country.
Now Dedo 'Mitri lives at peace with all the world in his quiet little
village among the Rhodope Mountains.
To get to Radoïl, where Dedo 'Mitri lives, two roads are open to you.
You may train from Sofia to Bellova, then drive along the high road
towards Tshamkuria in the mountains. The road is good, because the King
has a shooting-box at Tshamkuria, and he is very particular about the
roads he travels over. Radoïl is half-way to Tshamkuria, and every one
who passes that way stops to bait at Dedo 'Mitri's.
If you wish to see more of people and country than is possible from the
train, another way to Radoïl is preferable. Take a seat in the motor
which goes to Tshamkuria every other day. The chauffeur is a young
Englishman, who has a good deal to say if you ask him about the state of
the road. It is in parts a very bad road indeed. In fact, but for the
trees that line it with more or less regularity on either hand, you
might mistake the road for a dried-up watercourse. The first part of the
road is not so bad, quite good, in fact, but it suddenly becomes
incredibly bad, about eight or ten miles from the small town of
Samakov, and the streets of that town are quite Oriental in their
uselessness as such. You stop at Samakov to let the engine cool down a
bit, and find it quite an Oriental town. Here and there an old mosque, a
Turkish fountain, and mules, donkeys, heavy-going buffaloes drinking at
it. The costumes of the people you meet are Oriental, though the women
go unveiled. Samakov has a garrison; it is not far from the Turkish
frontier, and the uniforms of the fine-looking Bulgarian soldiers strike
a Western note. But on the whole the aspect of the town is Oriental, the
smells intensely so.
The road improves as it leaves Samakov, it becomes really quite a good
road, and carries you upwards into the mountains. There on a high
plateau embowered in a forest of pines lies Tshamkuria. It is a
hot-weather resort--everybody who is anybody in Sofia comes here for the
summer. But we are not concerned with such fashionable matter, we have
set out to visit Dedo 'Mitri at Radoïl, so start at once.
We have arranged for the hire of a conveyance the evening before with a
Jew. If the weather be fine we will drive away at seven in the morning,
keep the conveyance for the day, and pay the son of Israel seven francs.
The morning mist among the mountains made one or two unsuccessful
attempts to turn into rain; we thought the weather fine enough, the Jew
did not think so, and therefore thought fit to demand double the amount
arranged for. This was not to be borne, so we looked about for some
other means of conveyance, and in our search met one Vasil. Vasil, a
stout Bulgarian peasant wearing a dubious cotton shirt, his thick cloth
baggy breeches upheld by a cummerbund of faded crimson, his coat of the
same brown cloth, black braided, slung over his shoulders, promised to
convey us to Radoïl in great comfort as soon as he should have caught a
horse. It appeared there were several horses over which Vasil disposed,
but they happened to be out in the forest in search of breakfast. After
a delay of an hour or so Vasil returned with what he described as a
horse. The likeness was there, though very remote, and the
unhappy-looking scraggy pony was tied by assorted strings to a
two-wheeled trap--once upon a time something like a dogcart; a
head-stall and odd bits of harness were then artistically arranged about
this anatomical study, Vasil wiped the damp seat with a wet cloth,
handed me his whip, and intimated that all was ready for a start. All
was not ready, however, for the horse had gone to sleep, and my attempt
to crack the whip flung the lash into the bushes, whence it had to be
retrieved, then refastened. In the meantime the horse realized that
something unusual was toward; he woke up, shook off some bits of
harness, and went to sleep again while they were being readjusted. Then
Vasil woke him up again, gave him a gentle lead, and so we really
started. There was no difficulty about finding the road, or chance of
losing your way. The road leads broad and smooth in zigzags down into
the valley where Radoïl lies. On either hand dense forest, where wolves
prowl during the winter months and bears are no infrequent visitors.
Huge pines send straight shafts up into the morning sky, their dark
green striking a sombre note among the rich green of birch and oak. Here
and there honeysuckle trails over masses of rock in sweet profusion, and
the voice of a tinkling stream lightens our way with music. Now and
again at an angle of the road we were granted a glimpse of the distant
country below, wide expanses of fertile plains, and beyond them again
the purple lines of mountains far away. The sun had broken through the
mountain mist and called forth the songs of birds.
Those angles of the road were rather too much for the horse. The trap
boasted of no brake, the wheels revolved in a manner suggesting the
infirmity of extreme old age, yet they took charge and guided our
course, and with senile spite attempted to hurl us into the depths
below. But we were saved by the fact that our speed was not excessive.
Any attempt at steering the horse by the usual method led to a dead
stop, on which occasion the head-gear would fall off. All these matters
put much incident into our journey. After a couple of hours the "passage
perilous" down the mountain was behind us and we were on a fairly
straight and level road. An occasional gentle rise met us; this caused
the horse to stop for contemplation of the awful task before him; he
would shake his head at our wild proceedings and patiently wait until
the whip-lash had been recovered. Our progress, though not marked by any
undue haste, roused interest where we passed. Slow-stepping oxen
dragging a plough, a primitive implement, little more than an iron-shod
staff, would stop to watch us with big wondering eyes. At last--a turn
of the road brought us in full view of the village and we rattled down
the stone-paved street. Stone-paved--that is, large stones were placed
about at irregular intervals, the interstices being pools of muddy
water. Across a bridge, over a turbulent mountain stream, and we pulled
up in front of Dedo 'Mitri's hostelry.
[Illustration: Radoïl
Dedo 'Mitri's Hostelry.]
Dedo 'Mitri himself stands outside his front door. The house projects
above it, thus forming what might be a verandah were it not on a level
with the road. Dedo 'Mitri was in shirt-sleeves, as becomes a busy man.
The twinkle in his eyes might be that of a hospitable welcome, though
having heard of his antecedents it may be suspected of suggesting old
predatory instincts slow to die. We advised our host that we meant to
take the midday meal with him, and while he prepared it we had a look
at the village, took a sketch or two which meant to give a better idea
of the place than word-painting can do.
The accessories to the repast prepared by Dedo 'Mitri were simple in the
extreme, it was also necessary to wipe your fork carefully before using
it. However, the food was good, wholesome grey bread and a quaint mess
of eggs and cream-cheese. Then Dedo 'Mitri was called upon to supply
cheese by itself; this he did without demur, but a demand for clean
plates puzzled him, though he complied. On being asked for a clean knife
he had no cause to vanish again into his dark kitchen, but produced a
murderous-looking clasp-knife from out the pocket of his voluminous
breeches; we preferred our own knives. An excellent if somewhat rough
red wine accompanied the repast.
In the meantime the village had assembled. Stalwart men stood round us
watching intently, others sat drinking wine a little way off. The
village priest in passing, seeing something unusual in progress, stepped
in and found the time suitable for refreshment. A background of children
completed the circle. When it became evident that sketching was the next
event Dedo 'Mitri's authority was evidenced. I pointed out a small fair
child with dark-lashed eyes--Dimitra--she was called up to stand
perfectly still. This she did in solemn wonder. A well-built maiden
moved with graceful steps to the village fountain opposite the house. On
my noticing her Dedo 'Mitri's powerful voice rang out, "Helenka," and
she too remained motionless until released. There were urgent demands
from the spectators to be taken one after another, but time was short,
so only one smart buck, his short jacket slung jauntily across his
shoulders, figures in my sketch-book.
Then Vasil was called for. He appeared leading the horse, both
stumbling--the horse from the infirmity of old age, Vasil from an undue
indulgence in the red wine. He had also regaled himself freely on
garlic; the afternoon sun drew an indescribable aroma from him.
Farewell to Dedo 'Mitri and promises to return, farewells and much
handshaking to all the assembled village, a discriminate distribution of
small copper coins, a courtly salute from the priest, and we turned our
horse's head towards the mountains whence we came.
Slower than ever was our progress, as Vasil in his sleep was constantly
falling off the back seat, and the horse, once stopped, was loath to
move on again. The whip-lash was lost for ever, yet there was the broad
road up into the mountains all before us.
We left Vasil and his conveyance in the road and turned afoot into a
track which used to be the only means of communication in earlier days.
A very unsafe one too, for it offered splendid opportunities to those
who pursue guerilla warfare. Here and there were masses of boulders
whence marksmen could command the track and then vanish in the
impenetrable forests.
Dedo 'Mitri knows them well, that track, those piles of rock that offer
cover to the sniper, those giants of the forest, and the thick
undergrowth that covered his retreat. But Dedo 'Mitri no longer goes to
see his old acquaintances the rocks and forest trees. His country is
free, free as the wind that howls on wintry nights up the valley to join
chorus with the wolves. From mountain and valley, from town and village,
the Crescent had faded away to the south, and Bulgaria, a strong young
kingdom, forced its way out of Turkish oppression. They are old men now,
those who are left, who like Dedo 'Mitri spent the best years of their
life in the cause of freedom. But the story has never been forgotten,
the traditions of Bulgaria's former greatness live strong in a
regenerate Bulgaria. The sons of Bulgaria looked down from the Rhodope
Mountains, over the rolling plains, their gaze bent on Constantinople,
Tsarigrad, the Castle of Cæsar. They have knocked at the gates of that
City before.
With consummate skill Tsar Ferdinand kept his plans secret while the
Balkan League was forming to overthrow the last of Ottoman power in
Europe. For many years all Bulgaria had been preparing for this great
stroke, arming, organizing, making sacrifices as a nation must do when
in pursuit of a high ideal, so when the moment came it found a strong
people, trained to arms, determined to snatch success from before the
cannon's mouth and crown its standards with laurel victory. With a
possible war strength of over three hundred thousand men and four
hundred and fifty guns Bulgaria stood ready to take the field.
The massacres of Kochana gave impetus to the avalanche which was ready
to descend over the hills and vales of Thrace. Bulgaria had been making
steady propaganda in Macedonia and had drawn within the folds of its
nationality a great number of those nondescripts, Slavs, who form the
major portion of the inhabitants of that quondam Turkish province. This
propaganda was actively supported by the Bulgarian Church under its
enlightened high-priest, His Beatitude Joseph, Exarch of Bulgaria.
I first met the Exarch some years ago while on a visit to Bulgaria. His
Beatitude had left Constantinople, where the interests of his flock in
Macedonia require that he should reside, and was taking a holiday in a
remote village near Sofia, a village nestling among the mountain range
of Vitosa, by the banks of a mountain torrent along which a broad
military road leads to the Turkish frontier. We discussed the state of
Macedonia, and though I may not divulge all that was said to me, I
gained an even higher opinion of Bulgarian thoroughness and efficiency.
We also discussed the schism between the Greek and Bulgarian sections of
the Orthodox Church; this is a purely political matter, and was freely
used by the Porte to foster racial animosity in Macedonia. When the
Greeks gained their independence the Bulgarians of Macedonia were
encouraged to build schools and were allowed to endow several new
bishoprics; when the Greeks were temporarily disabled by the war of 1898
the Porte thought fit to persecute the Bulgarians of Macedonia, assisted
in this by Pomaks, Bulgarians converted to Islam some centuries ago. The
Turks overdid this policy, and their measures only served to crystalize
the different non-Turk racial and religious elements of Macedonia. Bands
of comitadjis were formed, they assisted nationalist propaganda by
primitive methods, and finally, the Porte being weakened by revolution
and the vacillations of a farcical Parliament terrorized by esoteric
militarism, strengthened the arms of those who sought freedom from
Turkish rule.
The occasion arose over the massacres of Kotchana, which sent a wave of
fierce indignation over Bulgaria. Reforms in Macedonia and the
punishment of those concerned in the outrages were demanded by Tsar
Ferdinand and refused by the Porte, which, feeling itself strong enough
and ignoring the strength and stability of the Balkan Alliance, declared
war on Bulgaria. Forthwith the armies of Bulgaria, already assembled in
battle array on the frontier, poured into Thrace and overran that
province, driving the Ottoman forces before it.
War was declared by Turkey against Bulgaria and Servia on October 17th,
on the same day Greece sent a similar declaration to the Porte. Then the
highly organized forces of the Allies marched. While the Greek navy put
to sea to capture islands in the Ægean and invaded Turkey from the
south, the Bulgarians entered Thrace in three columns under the Tsar and
General Savof, General Hanof capturing Kurt Kalé and Mustapha Pasha on
October 18th. On the following day Turkish cruisers made a futile
attempt on the Bulgarian coast, bombarding Varna and destroying an
inoffensive monastery. By this day all the four Allies had invaded
Turkish territory. The mountain passes were in the hands of the
Bulgarians by October 20th, and the army marching on Adrianople;
Adrianople, where the Bulgars had vanquished Emperor Nicephorus and his
troops by the banks of the Maritza in 811.
While in the west the Servian army was continuing its victorious march
on Üsküb, while the Montenegrin northern army under Prince Danilo moved
from Berane to the capture of Plava and Gusinje, and their southern army
commenced the siege of Scutari by attacking Tarabosh, the Bulgarian
armies drove the Turks from the Arda River west of Adrianople, and
General Dimitrief completed the easterly turning movement by attacking
the Ottoman forces at Kirk Kilisse. Here the battle raged to and fro
with varying success until the Turks, under Abdullah Pasha, were finally
routed on October 24th. At the same time Bulgarian troops occupied
Vasiliko on the Black Sea; the Servians, under General Yankovitch, had
already captured Prishtina on the 20th, and others commanded by General
Ziskovitch had entered Kralovo and Novi Bazar. On the day which
witnessed the defeat of Abdullah Pasha at the hands of General Dimitrief
at Kirk Kilisse, the Servians, led by their Crown Prince in person, won
the decisive battle of Kumanovo.
The tale of disaster continued; on October 25th the Turks evacuated
Küprölü in the west; in the eastern theatre of war the Bulgarians
opened the bombardment of Adrianople. On the following day King Peter
entered Üsküb, the former residence of Servian Kings, in solemn state,
and Küprölü, Drama, and Koziani were captured by the forces of the
Allies.
Further Ottoman losses occurred on October 27th, when Istip fell and the
Bulgarians captured Baba Eski, occupied Bunar Hissar, and took the
Kresna Pass in the Struma Valley. All this time the Greeks were gaining
ground towards Janina, and by October 30th had captured Veria and
Thasos, preparatory to marching on Saloniki. By October 31st fighting
was general all along the line in Thrace, the Allies were marching on
Saloniki, and the northern and southern armies of Montenegro had closed
in upon Scutari.
By the beginning of November the Western Powers had awakened from the
dreams of the soporific _status quo_ and began to realize that that
formula no longer applied to the Near East. On November 9th Mr. Asquith
solemnly announced that the Allies must have secured to them the fruits
of victory. I wonder what Power, or group of Powers, however prominent
the capital P, would dare to rob these gallant young nations of what
they have won by bravery and devotion such as no older nation has
exhibited in recent history. The Allies had continued along the path of
conquest; Serbs had occupied Prilep and begun their advance on the
Albanian coast, and Saloniki had surrendered before Mr. Asquith's
sententious statement. Fighting continued, and step by step the Allies
pressed their old enemy towards the sea, the Greeks occupying more
islands in the Ægean, the Bulgars pressing on towards Chatalja,
hammering insistently on those outer defences of Constantinople till the
Porte saw no help for it but to arrange an armistice.
So while the great men of the Great Powers were beginning to realize
what was happening next door, and were working the cumbrous machinery of
diplomacy too late for any practical purpose, the Allies, four young
nations, unspoilt by luxury and great possessions, inspired by a high
ideal, crossed their borders, drove the Ottoman forces before them from
many a sternly contested field, and forced them to offer terms within a
day's march of the Turkish capital.
There is great glory in this crusade of the Allies against the heavy
obstacle to progress which centres in Constantinople. Great glory for
Western civilization by which these young kingdoms were informed when
they set their house in order and united their forces to bold endeavour.
Great glory to the faith they profess, which makes union possible and
thus leads to victory. Greater glory still to those of all the other
European nations who, seeing the plight of Christianity's old enemy,
hastened to assist him. Here in Constantinople they are at work, these
bearers of Western culture, under Red Cross or Red Crescent, helping
where the Turkish authorities have proved helpless, saving thousands
from death by wound or disease while their own stand by and let the
mosques, built to commemorate the victories of Islam, overflow with
untended sufferers.
Yes, it is a great and glorious victory this last crusade begun by the
young kingdoms of the Balkans, informed with high purpose, trained by
Western thought and action, completed by those soldiers of the Cross who
risked their lives in fighting dread diseases, seeking no reward, moved
by that mainspring of their faith, Charity.
CHAPTER XIX
The signing of the armistice--The voyage home--The Dardanelles--The
Straits of Messina--Turkish opinion on the war--Ada Kalé--Review of
present situation.
After November 17th a period of inactivity set in outside, by the lines
of Chatalja, the heavy sound of guns ceased to accompany the daily round
of work or pleasure which makes the life of Constantinople, Pera, and
Galata. Refugees still moved with their creaking waggons and sought the
shelter of the mosques, or camped on open spaces. Some pitched their
wandering tents round a dilapidated monastery on the heights whereon
stands the wireless telegraphy station. The golf-links are on this open
space--here you may see intent Englishmen, who have snatched an hour or
so between work and their voluntary duties at the hospitals, stalking
after the elusive golf-ball, in their wake a listless caddie, preceding
them a ragged urchin with a flag to mark the next green.
In the meantime rumours floated about the City, tales of atrocities
committed by the Greek soldiery at Saloniki, accounts of the solemn
reconsecration of the Agia Sophia in that town by its Metropolitans and
the one of Athens. Reports came of the sufferings of those Jews who had
lived contentedly under Turkish rule at Saloniki since the days when
Ferdinand and Isabella expelled their forebears from Spain, still
retaining the Spanish language written in Hebrew characters. Then was
borne another rumour, which grew, assumed the air of certainty, and then
emerged as an accomplished fact--it concerned the negotiations for an
armistice to be concluded between the Porte and the Allies.
An historic event that meeting between representatives of the Sultan's
army and the enemy who had been clamouring for admittance without the
lines of Chatalja, so near the capital of the Sultan's Empire. They met
at four o'clock on December 4th, at a place between the outposts of the
armies. The delegates came by rail as far as a point where the line was
broken at Batchekeui. Where the broken line resumes its road to
Constantinople the train bearing Nazim Pasha and his suite awaited the
delegates. Nazim Pasha descended from his saloon car and went on foot to
meet the delegates, Bulgarians, to represent Servian and Montenegrin
interests as well as their own, Greeks to speak for themselves. They all
entered the saloon car, which the Greek representatives left again after
a little while. The sitting of the Bulgarians and Turks, conducted with
great secrecy, lasted till 8.15 p.m. Turkish officers were sitting round
a huge camp-fire which lit up the tents of their army's head-quarters at
Hademkeui, the smoke curling up into the sky of a cold, damp winter's
evening; these officers discussed the probable results of the
conference, and hoped for a continuance of the war. A shrill whistle
heralded the return of Nazim Pasha's train. He alighted, gave an order
to one of the officers attending him, and soon the news spread that an
armistice had been arranged. By the lines of Chatalja, the last defences
of Constantinople, the Ottoman army agreed to a cessation of hostilities
with the former subjects of so many victorious Sultans.
The armistice soon broadened out into a desire for peace proposals, and
London was chosen as the place where they should be discussed.
When the Ottoman delegates left Constantinople for England my work was
done, and I turned homewards. It was a cold, cloudy morning when my
ship swung slowly out from her moorings at Galata, and the smoke of the
city hung over it as a heavy canopy into which the cypresses pointed
warning fingers. Slowly we moved past the mighty warships of foreign
nations, round Seraglio Point out into the Sea of Marmora. A slight
breeze arose and disturbed the canopy of smoke, broke the heavy banks of
clouds, and admitted rays of hopeful sunlight through the rifts. Here
and there light broke upon the moving waters, called forth glittering
reflections from the portholes of some sombre man-of-war, or tipped the
muzzle of a gun with flashing silver. Under the uncertain sunshine
Seraglio Point stood out white against the dark cypresses, whose
outlines were blurred by the heavy mass of crowded Galata and Pera,
crowned by the tower. The sun shone out stronger as we ploughed through
the steel-blue waters, throwing up the gleaming brasswork on the dome of
St. Sophia like a bright star in a murky night. The yellow buildings of
the Palace of Justice stood out bravely from their commanding position,
and the distant towers of Yedi Koulé showed up against the heavy
background of shadowed, undulating country. As the sun rose higher in
the heavens the snow-clad mountains of Asia gloriously reflected its
victorious rays.
We arrived early in the morning at the Dardanelles, and there we had one
more experience of Turkish procrastination. Without any apparent reason,
the tug appointed to pilot us through the mine-fields failed to answer
to our signals, and kept us waiting several hours. Then she came
bustling up, went about, and bade us follow her. Ours was the first of a
string of ships; we were followed by a fretful-looking Roumanian
mail-steamer, and behind her came several patient tramps, thumping
leisurely along. Everywhere along the European side of the Dardanelles,
to which we kept quite close, were evidences of military preparations
against attack; machine-guns were artlessly concealed by dry brushwood
among the green undergrowth of the cliffs, old field-guns stood out
lonely behind insufficient earthworks, here and there were groups of
soldiers, sentries--one I noticed with his back to the sea--and patrols
of cavalry scurried along the road. The daylight brightened as we sailed
on past ruined castles and obsolescent earthworks into the blue Ægean
Sea, losing sight of the Turkish fleet--grey and heavy, and listlessly
at anchor by the old towers of the Dardanelles. No sooner had our ship
put her nose out into the open than we saw black clouds of smoke
hurrying along the skyline: Greek destroyers on the look-out for any
ships coming out of the Dardanelles.
There was one more evidence of war as we drew near to Tenedos, with its
mediæval fortress. Greek destroyers were lying under the ancient walls,
and one of them dashed out to hold us up in the approved style. First a
blank shot across our bows and then a boarding-party of Greek sailors,
who wandered about our ship in what seemed to me a very aimless manner.
Then we sailed on again southward, past many islands, till we turned
into the Mediterranean Sea. A strong breeze came off the land, where
cloud shadows were chasing each other over rocky promontories,
foam-tipped waves were playing at the foot of steep cliffs, and little
white-winged sailing vessels came dancing over the sea.
There was "Festa" at Reggio and Messina, for it was Sunday, and myriads
of lights cast fitful reflections on the waters of the straits as we
sailed through them. Then came a day of tumbling seas, roused by the
wind that sweeps across from the Gulf of Lions, and then sunshine on the
southern coast of France, lighting up the stern walls of Château d'If,
and shining on Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde, over the busy port of Marseilles.
Then a furious rush through fair Provence, to Paris, thence through
Normandy, and then again the sea, green under a grey sky, boisterous as
the free winds that whistled in the rigging, as the smart little turbine
packet thrust her saucy nose into the waves and tossed them over her
back, pitching, rolling, until fitful gleams of sunlight lit up the
chalk cliffs of England.
In the meantime the fate of a broken Empire was being decided in London.
Not at first with the dignity which such an event demands, so deeply
important in the world's history; rather was it characterized by the
methods of the Oriental bazaar, and its small, haggling spirit. While
Adrianople was starving, while the Sultan's troops shivered on the
bleak, wind-swept outposts that guard Constantinople at the lines of
Chatalja, unseemly procrastination marked the course of events at the
meetings of the delegates, who met for an hour or so now and again, then
returned to their luxurious quarters.
Meanwhile the tone and temper of the Turks, as expressed in
Constantinople, caused much anxiety to those who longed for peace. I had
seen some signs of this before leaving the East. The minds of some Turks
with whom I discussed the situation were still full of imagined
victories for the future; they declined to consider themselves defeated,
and expressed their confidence that victorious Ottoman armies would yet
hold triumphant entry into Sofia--and Athens. Their opinion may be set
aside as worthless. Those who know, and there are many, though they keep
their convictions secret, are aware that inefficiency has brought the
East down before the organized, purposeful West, and that the days of
Turkish rule in Europe are numbered, that the Ottoman Empire this side
of the Bosphorus is as much doomed as was that of ancient Byzant when
Amurath made Adrianople his capital.
The great majority of Turks appear to be of the same mind as Ali, the
master-weaver; they know little of what is happening, they seem to care
less. Those soldiers that I have seen returned from the front looked too
listless and miserable to form an opinion, and they probably know as
little of what went on during the war as the private soldier generally
does in these days of warfare over a large extent of country. I have
generally found the task of drawing out old soldiers on their war
experiences to result in recitals too romantic for use in anything but a
work of fiction, or else quite fruitless. There was one, a German
barber, who had been through the campaign of 1870-1871; when asked to
relate his experiences, all he could say, after deep reflection, was:
"Every day I shave de captain."
It may be taken for granted that the Ottoman Empire as a European Power
is a thing of the past, that all those provinces carved out of Europe by
the sword of Othman have been lost by the sword, and that of Turkey in
Europe nothing remains but the strips of land which the Allies are
pleased to leave to their old enemy. Constantinople will remain Turkish
for some time yet--ten years, perhaps fifteen--but methinks the Turk is
tired of his stay in Europe, that he will soon pack up his small
possessions and return to Asia Minor, whence he came.
One tiny patch of European territory may yet remain Turkish, perhaps by
an oversight similar to that which kept it so since the Berlin Treaty
overlooked it, Ada Kalé. This is a small island in the middle of the
Danube, opposite the broad, poplar-lined avenue which leads to the
Koronzi Kapella, where the crown of St. Stephan, the saintly King of
Hungary, was buried when Kossuth fled in 1848. Ada Kalé is a typical
Turkish settlement, with little wooden houses growing out of masses of
old fortifications, around a mosque with its slender minaret standing
out against the dark forests and rocks that rise up to form the Iron
Gate. The small population is typically Turkish, very partial to the
smuggling of tobacco, and not untouched by modern ideas. They share a
deputy in the Turkish Parliament with some other place, and have, at
least some of them, a well-developed thirst for Pilsener beer. I have
seen two Turks from the island making exceeding merry over large beakers
of that beverage in a garden restaurant at Orsova one fine summer's day.
When Turkey has finally jettisoned those encumbrances, the European
vilayets, and withdrawn to Asia Minor, the Ottoman Empire will probably
gain considerably in strength by consolidation, and by carrying out many
social and economical reforms which have been kept in abeyance during
the constant trouble caused by the war-clouds that hung over Eastern
Europe. A strong Turkish Empire in Asia Minor, real control over the
tribes in Syria, strict surveillance of the eastern and north-eastern
frontiers, will mean some prospect of peace in those very unsettled
regions. Great Britain, of all European Powers, should aid in this
enterprise, and that at once, for there are other Powers interested in
Asia Minor.
[Illustration: The Fountain at Radoïl
In the foreground Helenka, a Bulgarian maiden]
It is high time that the people of Great Britain should realize the
change which recent warlike happenings have brought about, and that they
should bend their great minds to a consideration of the future. Four
small Balkan kingdoms united to formidable strength have brought down
the military power of an Empire which, in spite of its many weaknesses,
was considered strong enough to be an important factor in the affairs of
Europe. This feat was accomplished in seven weeks, and by armies
composed of the whole manhood of each militant state, just as the
manhood of the barbarian races vanquished the paid soldiery of Rome and
shattered the World-empire of the first "Völkerwanderung." Then as now
fresh young nations put all their strength into the struggle, their
opponents did not, for Imperial Rome sent out hired armies to defend
their possessions while the Roman citizens lived a life of idleness and
pleasure at the expense of the State; and the Sublime Porte, excluding
the population of the capital from military service even as Byzant had
done, and for the same reason, namely, that it was not considered
expedient to have a populace trained to arms round the palace walls,
sent thousands of ignorant Anatolian peasants to a war the cause of
which they could not understand. Enthusiasm, efficiency, and the spirit
of self-sacrifice led the young nations on the road to victory;
moreover, they found an ally in the selfishness of their antagonists,
sycophants and pleasure-seekers, trusting to the paid legionaries of
Rome or the foreign-trained political intriguers of the Sultan's army.
Imperial Rome perished of corruption and had to make way for something
cleaner, wholesomer. The Turkish Empire in Europe has gone the same way,
and the same causes brought about its fall. Would it not be as well for
us Britons to look at home? It would indeed be advisable, for the end is
not yet.
That Turkey retains some small portions of her former European
possessions is of little moment, what really matters is that the forces
which have for so long been controlled by diplomacy have now been set in
motion, and to my mind the recent Balkan war is little more than an
advanced-guard action. The theatre of war had to be cleared of an
encumbrance, so the Allied States of the Balkans drove the Turks out in
order that no side issue should interfere with the solution of the great
problem.
The problem is much the same as that which presented itself during the
first migration of nations. The German races felt drawn to the south and
the east, the Slavs were impelled towards the west, and then, as now,
have blocked the way of the former's progress.
The movements of nations during the first "Völkerwanderung" had probably
no very definite aim; the barbarians beat down resistance when they
could, but when too strongly opposed they went elsewhere. The present
movement is caused by the same desire for expansion, but it is also
inspired by very definite aims and ambitions. The probable resistance to
be met with has been calculated to a nicety, plans have been made to
overcome obstacles, and all this is due to efficiency.
The Turk was in the way, he proved inefficient and went under. Now that
he is down it will be noticed how few friends he has.
It has been asserted that we Britons are in the way. Are we efficient?
If not, who are our friends and what their worth should heavy troubles
come upon us by our own fault?
THE END
INDEX
Abbasid Caliphs, 159
Abdul Hamid, 225
Abu-dekr, 55, 158
Abul Abbas, 162
Acacius, 72
Academies, 152
Achmet, Grand Vizier, 211
Achmet, son of Bajazet, 195
Achmet II, 213
Achmet III, 217
Acholius, Bp., 80
Ada Kalé, 324
Adjé Bey, 170
Adrianople, 44, 110, 171
Ahmedyeh Achmet, Mosque of, 68, 102, 103
Akindji, Irregular Light Horse, 165
Al Mamun, 159
Ala-ed-din, 164
Albanians, The, 242, 271
Alcibiades, 42
Aleppo, Battle at, 197
Alexander the Great, Sarcophagus of, 50
Alexander John I, 25
Alexander I of Servia, 285
Alexander von Battenberg, 285
Alexius, 65, 135
Ali Pasha of Janina, 173, 223, 243
Almoraivids of Spain, The, 160
Amron, Omar's General, 158
"Amselfeld," The, 174, 289
Amurath I, 54, 170
Amurath II, 66, 179
Amurath III, 105
Amurath IV, 208
Amycus, King of the Bebryces, 37
Anatoli Hissar, 38
Anatoli Kavak, 30
Anatolian peasants, 149
Andronicus, Emperor, 166
Anemas, Tower of, 135
Angelus, Tower of Isaac, 135
Angora, Defeat of Bajazet at, 177
Anthony of Thebais, 94
Apsimar, 74
Arab power, Rise of the, 146
Arabs, The, 96
Arcadius, 60
Armatoles, 237
Armenian Church, The, 85
Armenians, The, 85, 266
Armistice, An, 319
Armoury, The, 57
Army, Bad organization of the Turkish, 153
Army of Mohammed IV, 211
Army, Roumania's, 27
Army, Selim's, 203
Arslan, son of Thogrul, 160
Art in Constantinople, 51, 156
Arsena Clan, The, 145
Ashikian, Patriarch, 270
Athenians, The, 42
At-meïdan, 71
Atrium of Justinian, The, 53
Attila, 119
Augsburg, 198
Austria and Roumania, 26
Austrian railway carriages, 19
Avari, The, 22, 42, 52
Azab's Light Infantry, 165
Badajoz, Espionage at, 34
Baikal, The Turks at Lake, 146
Bairam, Feast of, 44
Bajazet, 55, 174
Baker Pasha, Valentine, 140
Baldwin, 20, 116, 298
Balkan Peninsula, Peoples of the, 260
Baltaoghli, Admiral, 130
Balukli, Legend of the Monastery of, 258
Barbarossa, 19, 66, 161
Banat, The, 22
Basil "Bulgaroktonos," 115
Bathory, Stephan, 183
Bears in Roumania, 26
Beikos, 37
Bela I of Hungary, 160
Belgrade, 32, 181, 213
Benedictines, Order of, 159
Bentinck, Sir Thomas, 66
Beshiktash, 39
Bessarabia, Russia and, 25
Block-houses, System of, 110
Blue and Green Factions, 72
Bondelmontius, 50
Boniface IX, Pope, 175
Boris, King, 95
Bosnia, 222
Bosphorus, The, 29;
temples, 30;
Anatoli Kavak, 30;
Roumeli Kavak, 30;
the Kruli, 30;
Scutari, 30;
Goths, 30;
Russians, 30;
Genoese, 31;
Venetians, 31;
Giant's Mtn., 31;
grave of Joshua, 31;
Therapia, 37;
Beikos, 37;
Castles, 38;
the Golden Horn, 39;
Stamboul, 40;
hospital at Scutari, 40
Brancovan of Wallachia, 23
Brancoviç, George, 182
Brigandage, 237
British and Turkish Empires, 156
Broussa, 163
Bucharest, 27;
Treaty of, 283
Buda-Pesth, Capture of, 199
Bulgaria, 22;
and Roumania, 27, 44;
conquest by, 111;
defeated by Basil, 115;
defeat the Greeks, 136, 173, 236, 294
Büyük Chekmedje, Lake, 138
Byzantium, Foundation of, 41
Byzas, Founder of Byzantium, 40, 41
Caliphate, The, 97, 146
Calderon, Valley of, 196
Calo, John, 298
Camoens, 38
Candia, Capture of, 212
Candilli, The, 104
Cannon, Urban's, 127
Cantacuzene, 24
Cantomir of Moldavia, 23
Capistran, Johann, 78
Caraccioli, 205
Carlowitz, Treaty of, 216
Carmania, Prince of, 170
Carpathians, 20
Castles on the Bosphorus, 38
Cerestes, Battle at, 207
Cervantes, 205
Characteristics, National, 109
Charlemagne, 52
Chakir, 159
Chalcedon, 40;
Council of, 86
Charles V, 56, 66, 198
Charles XII of Sweden, 217
Charles of Hohenzollern Sigmaringen, 25
Chatalja, 111, 136
Chavannes, 145
Chazars, Khan of the, 73
Cheironeia, Battle of, 263
Chinese and Turks, The, 145
Christians, Freedom of, 163
Chroseos, King of the Persians, 42
Chrysopolis, 30
Chrysostom, 60, 84
Cicala Pasha, 207
Clement VII, 173
Cracow, 19
Crimea, The, 42
Crum, King, 115
Crusades, The, 78, 161
Coeur-de-Lion, Richard, 161
Cologne Cathedral, 114
Comnena, Anna, 134
Comnenus, Manuel, 134
Colonies, Roman, 21
Columbus, 194
Constanza, 27
Constantine Copronymus, 114
Constantine, The Castle of, 42
Constantine XI, 184
Constantine the Great, 42, 80
Constantine, Prince, 93
Constantinople, a city of contrasts, 44;
its buildings, 51;
Seraglio, 51;
seven hills, 51;
beauties of, 51-2;
streets, 121;
capture of, 128, 178;
siege of, 180;
capture of, 185
Constantius, 50, 60
Convents, 95
Corvinus, Matthias, 193
Count of Flanders, The, 25
Courtesy of the Turk, 155
Cypresses, The, 124
Cyprus, Capture of, 204
Cyril, 95
Dacia Trajana, 20
Dacians, 20, 260
Damascus, 158
Dandolo, Doge, 43, 65
Danielis and Basil, 115
Danilo II, 288
Dashnaktsutian Secret Society, 270
Decebal, 21
Decebalus, King, 260
Dedo 'Mitri, 301
De Lisle, Adam, 199
Demosthenes, 42
Diarbekr, 197
Djem, Prince, Bajazet's brother, 192
Dobrutsha, Roumania and the, 25
Dogs, 103
Don Juan of Austria, 204
Doria, Andrea, 205
Doria, Admiral, 66
Druses of Lebanon, The, 206
Ducas, the Byzantine chronicler, 39
Dundas, Murder of, 163
Dürkö or Turk, 145
Ecbatana, 158
Edirné Kapou, 133, 152
Egri Kapou, The, 135
Elizabeth, Queen, 66, 205
Eudoxia, Empress, 84
Eugène, Prince, 216
Eutychius, 64
Eyub, Mosque of, 97
Famimit Caliphs, 160
Fauna of Roumania, 26
Ferdinand, Archduke, 200
Ferdinand the Catholic, 194
Ferdinand, King, 93, 120
Finns, 22;
treatment of, by Ivan the Cruel, 204
Firaz Agha, 38
Fires, 106
Flanders, Counts of, as Emperors, 43
Forests of Roumania, 26
Francis I, 56, 199
Galata, 31, 39, 46
Galatz, 20
Gallipoli, Capture of, 170, 180
Gazi Hassan, 218
Gennodius, 54, 252
Genoese, The, 31;
fleet of, in the Golden Horn, 39, 129, 169
Gepidi, The, 21, 264
Ghasi Fasil, 170
Ghaznevids of Afghanistan, 158
Ghevout, King, 267
Ghika, the cats'-meat man, 24
Ghoureha, or Foreign Horse, 165
Giant's Mtn., 31
Giougen, or Jwen-jwen, The, 145
Gipsies, The, 22, 132
Giustiniani, 131
Golden Gate, The, 113
Golden Horde, The, 162
Golden Horn, The, 39
Golubaç, 282
Goths, The, 21, 30, 110, 263
Grand Viziers, 210
Grant, Johannes, 134
Gratian, 114
Gratitude of the Turk, 154
Great Britain and Turkey, 121, 217
Greek Music, 244
Greek Orthodoxy, 54
Greek Patriarch, The, 236
Greeks, The, 43, 44;
defeated by the Bulgarians, 13, 235, 238, 244
Gregory IV, 159
Gueshof, M., 95
Gutenberg, Meister, 193
Hadrian, 110
Haiasdan, 266
Halki or Khalki Hills, 52
"Hamidieh," The, 148
Hamals, 122
Haroun-al-Raschid, 159
Hasandshan, 198
Hassam Fehoni, Murder of, 227
Hassan, the Giant of Ulubad, 131
Hellenes, The, 233
Henry IV of Germany, 160
Henry VIII, 56
Heraclius, 114, 146
Heraklea, 30
Hermanstadt, 181
"Heroön," The, 102
Heruli, The, 30
Herzegovina, 222
Hieron, Straits of, 30
Hilmi Pasha, 227
Hippodrome, The, 63
Hiung-nu, The, 145
Hormisdas, Palace of, 116
Hospitality of the Turk, 156
Hospitals, 153
Humdi Bey, 51
Hungarians, 22, 264
Hungary, Invasion of, 176, 199
Huns, The, 21, 264
Hunyadi Janos, 23, 175, 181
Hussars, The, 166
Hussein, Grand Vizier, 216
Ibrahim, 209
Ibrahim or Kara Gehennin, 220
Ibrahim Pasha, 243
Ignatius, 91
Illyrians, The ancient, 260
Intellect of the Turk, 156
Invasion of Turkey, The, 231
Iranians, The, 145
Irene, Empress, 52
Iron Gates, The, 20
Isabella of Castile, 194
Isidore, Cardinal, 128
Islam, Advance of, 96, 147, 186
Ismail, Shah, 195
Issa, son of Bajazet, 179
Ivan the Terrible, 204
Janissaries, The, 74, 113, 203, 213, 216, 219
Japheth, Descent from, 143
Jenghiz Khan, 161
Jesuits, The, 198
Jews and Turks, 226
Joachim III, His Holiness, 251
John II of Portugal, 194
John V, Emperor, 169
John VII, 134
Joseph, Exarch of Bulgaria, 313
Joshua, The Mtn. of, 31
Julian, Cardinal, 182
Justin, 72;
and the Turkish envoys, 146
Justinian and Theodora, 72
Kaim, Caliph, 160
Kanson-Ghauri, 197
Kapodistrias, M., First President of the Hellenes, 235
Kara George, 220
Kara Mustapha, Grand Vizier, 210, 212
Kemal-Reis, 194
Kerko Porta, The, 134
Kerkoud, Battle at, 218
Khairreddin Barbarossa, 66, 148, 201
Khaled, Arab general, 158
Khourrem, 56
Kiamil Pasha, 227
Kilia, Fort of, 30
Kirk Kilisse, Battle of, 315
Klephts, 238
Knjes Lazar, 23
Kochana Massacres, The, 231
Koepri Hissar, Attack on, 163
Koiridocastron, 169
Koran, The, 189
Korkoud, son of Bajazet, 195
Kossova, 23, 78;
Battle of, 174
Kumani, The, 22
Kumanovo, Battle of, 315
Kunobitza, Mt., Victory at, 182
Kurdistan, 197
Kurds, The, 268
Kütshük Agia Sofia, 103
Ladislaus, King, 182
Lalashahin, General, 171
Lazar, King, 174
Lazarevitch, King Stephen, 174
Lemnos, 53
Leo X, Pope, 56
Leo the Isaurian, 57
Leonardo da Vinci, 194
Leontius, General, 73
Lepanto, 205
London, Conference in, 322
Louis of Hungary, King, 199
Lüle Burgas, Debacle of, 150
Luther, 90, 193
Lycus, Valley of the, 116, 127
Macchiavelli, 194
Magyars, 160, 213
Mahmoud I, 217
Mahmoud II, 220
Mahmud, Sultan, 159
Mahmud of Ghazin, 160
Mahpeiker, Sultana, 208
Malcolm III, 160
Mamelukes, The, 195
Manuel Palæologus, 178
Marble Tower, The, 112, 137
Marco Colonna, 204
Maritza, Valley of the, 120, 172
Marmora, Sea of, 53;
Arabs on the, 146
Marsovan, The College of, 270
Massacre of Shiites, 56
Massacres of Armenians, 270
Massacres of Kotchana, 313
Masud, 160
Maximilian, Emperor, 204
Maximus, 113
Mazeppa, Hetman, 217
Medical organizations, 122
Medici, The, 193
Mediterranean, Solyman's successes in the, 201
Melik Shah, 161
Methodius, 95
Michael the Brave, 23
Michael Palæologus, 116
Mihrama, Mosque of, 133
Milan Obrenoviç, 285
Milosh Kabilovitch, 174
Milosh Obrenoviç, 222
Mohacz, Battle at, 199, 213
Mahommed the Conqueror, 43, 102
Mahommed the Conqueror, Sons of, 55
Mohammed I, 38
Mohammed II, 38, 113, 116, 184
Mohammed III, 206
Mohammed IV, 210
Mohammed V, 224
Mohammed, son of Amurath, 182
Mohammed, son of Bajazet, 179
Mohammed Kiüprilü, 210
Mohammed's plank road, 39
Moldavia, 20, 22
Mollahs and Imams, Influence of, 190
Mompseueste, Gates of, 113
Monasticism, 94
Monastir, Capture of, 290
Montenegrins, The, 44, 288
Morean Rebellion, 243
Morsiney, Elizabeth, 175
Moses of Koren, historian, 295
Moslems and Christians, 226
Mosques of Constantinople, 102
Mufti, The, 191
Murder a factor of Oriental policy, 55
Murder of unbelievers, The, 121
Musa, Prince, son of Bajazet, 178
Museum, The, 50
Mustapha II, 215
Mustapha the drunkard, 209
Mustapha the Pretender, 180
Mustapha, son of Suleiman, 56
Myrtché, Prince of Wallachia, 174
Mysore, The Maharajah of, 165
Nadir Derbena, Passes of, 173
Nadir, Shah, 218
Nasreddin Effendi, Stories of, 141
Navarino, 221, 243
Navy, Roumania's, 27;
Turkish, 37, 148, 218
Nemanya, The House of, 279
Niazi Bey, 227
Nicæa, 83;
Council of, 57;
capture of, 166
Nicephorus Phocas, 52, 67, 113
Nicholas I, Pope, 92
Nicholas of Montenegro, 287
Nicopolis, Siege of, 176
Nightingale, Florence, her hospital, 40
Nissa, Capture of, 172
Nomad Turks, 158
Odenatus, 30
Officers, Turkish, 149
Oglou, Michael, 200
Oil-fields in Roumania, 27
Omar, 55, 158
Orchan, son of Othman, 97, 163, 166
Orsova, 20
Orthodox Greek Church, The, 25, 238
Osman Pasha, 25
Othman, 55, 97, 162
Othman's Scimitar, 164
Othman II, 208
Oulou Jedji, The, 165
Ouloudjé, Admiral, 205
Palace of the Porphyrogenitus, 133
Palæologi, The, 116
Paris, Convention of, 24
Parker, E. H., 145
Parthians, The, 261
Passarowitz, Peace of, 217
Passvan Oglou of Vidin, 224
Patriarch, Armenian, 86
Patriarch, Greek, 54
Pausanias, 50
Pehlevan (Mohammed I), 179
Peloponese, The, 234
Pentecost, Feast of, 44
Persia and the Arabs, 146
Persians, The, 42
Peter, Bishop, 83
Peter the Great of Russia, 23, 217
Peterwardein, Battle at, 213
Petroviç, George, 283
Petschenegs, The, 22
Phanar, The, 89
Philip of Macedon, 42
Photius, 91
Pialé the Croat, 201
"Pleureuses, Les," 50
Plevna, 25
Poland, War with, 208
Polish Jews and Austrian railway carriages, 19
Pope Alexander Borgia, 55
Pravadi, Capture of, 174
Prince's Islands, The, 41
Prinkipo Island, 52
Printing press, The, 193
Proverbs, 142
Pruth, 23;
Battle on the, 217
Przemysl, 19
Pultowa, 217
Pydna, Battle of, 263
Raab, Battle on the, 211
Radoïl, 305
Railway carriages, Austrian, 19
Rassia, 279
Red Crescent, The, 50, 122
Refugees, Turkish, 71, 120
Rhodes, The Knights of, 193
Riches of Roumania, 26
Robert College, 95, 297
Rodosto, 149
Roe, Sir Thomas, 208
Roland the Paladin, 52
Roman Legionaries, The, 21
Roman Pontiff, Influence of the, 91
Romanies, 22
Romanus II, 31, 67
Romanus IV, Defeat of, 160
Roumania and Austria, 25;
richness of, 26;
fauna, 26;
Bucharest, 27;
its position of danger, 27;
oilfields, 27;
navy, 27;
Constanza army, 27
Roumanian railways, 19
Roumanians, Descent of the, 21
Roumeli Hissar, 38
Roumeli Kavak, 30
Roxalana, 56
Russian influence, 241
Russians, The, 30, 43
Safiyé, Sultana, 205
St. Bacchus, 103
St. Diomed, Monastery of, 115
St. George, Church of, 133
St. George of Mangane, 95
St. Gothardt, Monastery of, 211
St. Gregory the Illuminator, 266
St. Irene, Church of, 57
St. Michael the Archangel, Church of, 31
St. Romanus, Gate of, 129
St. Sergius, 103
St. Sophia, Mosque of, 55, 60, 131
San Stefano, 137, 150;
Conference at, 25
St. Ursula, 114
Saladin, 161
Sala Mustapha, 204
Salm, Count, 201
Samakov, 305
Samanid Dynasty, The, 159
Samarkand, 177
Sanjaks, 191
Saracens, The, 96
Sarcophagi, Beautiful, 50
Sava Savof, General, 294
Saxons in Turkey, 135
Scanderbeg the Albanian, 183
School of Art, The, 51
Scutari, 30, 288;
Hospital at, 40;
The Pasha of, 224
Scythians, 20, 261
Seadeddin, historian, 172
Segrud, 63
Selim, son of Bajazet, 195
Selim I, 55
Selim II, 57, 203
Selim III, 219
Seljuk Dynasty, The, 159
Semendria, 32, 282
Seraglio, The, 51
Seraglio Point, 39, 41
Seraskierat, The, 153
Serbs, The, 23, 236
Serpents, Bronze, 71
Servia, 44, 174, 183
Servian Army, The, 286, 289, 292
Seven Hills of Constantinople, The, 51
Seven Ionian Islands, The, 242
Severus, 113
Sheikh-ul-Islam, The, 51
Shias, The, 195
Shiites, The, 55
Shinitza, The, 174
Shio, Battle of, 218
Shumla, Surrender of, 173
Sigismund, King of Hungary, 175
Silihdar, Horse of Mysore, The, 165
Simeon, son of Boris, 95
Simeon, Tsar, 136, 297
Sisvan, King, 172
Sitvatorok, Peace of, 207
Slankamen, Battle at, 214
Slavs, 22, 235, 264, 277
Smederovo, 195
Sobieski, 213
Sokoli, Grand Vizier, 204
Soldiers, Wounded, 49
Solyman, 169, 198
Solyman, son of Bajazet, 178
Solyman II, 213
Songs, 142
Spahis, The, 165
Spartans, The, 42
Spy, A suspected, 32, 34
Stahremberg, Count, 213
Stamboul, 40
Stenia, 31
Stephan Dushan, 23
Stephen, Zupan of East Servia, 279
Styria, Invasion of, 176
Sublime Porte, The, 49, 157
Suleiman, 56
Sultan Oeni, 160
Sunnis, The, 195
Sutri, Council of, 160
Sutton, Sir Robert, 217
Sword of Othman, The, 98
Szeggedin, Treaty of, 182
Szigath, Siege of, 202
Tabriz, 196
Tamerlane, 22, 176
Tartars, 22
Telegraph, Effect of the, 224
Temesvar, Battle at, 216
Temples on the Bosphorus, 30
Theodora, 169
Theodoric, 72
Theodosius, Fortress of, 113
Theodosius, Wall of, 39, 111
Theodosius I, 80
Theodosius II, 50, 60, 85, 127
Theophane, 67
Theophanes, 31
Theophilus, 50, 84, 115
Therapia, 37
Thracians, 20, 260
Thogrul, 159
Tiridales, 266
Tirnova, Capture of, 173
Tobacco, Introduction of, 207
Topal Osman, General, 217
Top Kapousi, 119
Towers on the city walls, 113, 119
Trajan, 20
Trajan's Wall, 27
Transylvania, 22
Trebizond, 42
Tsarigrad, 93
Tsars of Muscovy, The, 204
Tshelebi (Mohammed I), 179
Tsigani, The, 22
Turkish soldiers, 58
Turks, The rise of the, 97
Turn Severin, 21
Ukraine, Turks defeated in the, 212
Urban, The Hungarian, 127
Urban, Pope, 96
Urban V, Pope, 171
Urban VI, Pope, 173
Üsküb, 93
Urudsh, 66
Valens, 80
Validé, Sultana, 210
Valideh, Mosque of, 46
Varangians, The, 135
Varna, 148;
Battle near, 182
Vasag, 181
Vasco da Gama, 194
"Vatan," 226
Venetians in the Bosphorus, 31
Venice, 31;
fleet of, in the Golden Horn, 32;
Doge Dandolo, 43, 169
Veniero, Admiral, 205
Veterani, Austrian General, 215
Vidin, 25
Vienna, Siege of, 212
Vilayets, The, 224
Vlachs, The, 265, 274
Vladikas, The, 287
Voivods, 23
Von der Gotz, Field-Marshal, 286
Von Moltke, Count, 221
Vuk Brancoviç, 181
Wallachia, 22
Walls, The city, 111
Walls of Theodosius, 116
Warships on the Bosphorus, Foreign, 40
Western women as nurses, 154
Wild cat in Roumania, The, 27
William of Normandy, 160
Wittekind, Duke of the Saxons, 52
Yedi Koulé, 112
Yermak the Cossack, 204
Yoglan Bey, 176
Young Turks, The, 227
Ypsilanti, Alexander, 343
Zapolya, 200
Zimisces, John, 67, 116
Zizimes, 55
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A Catalogue of Books on Art, History, and General Literature Published
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_Some of the Contents_
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CATALOGUE OF BOOKS
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ABBOTT, Rev. E. A., D.D.
=Hints on Home Teaching.= Crown 8vo, 3s.
=How to Parse.= An English Grammar. Fcap. 8vo, 3s. 6d.
=How to Tell the Parts of Speech.= An Introduction to English Grammar.
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=Latin Gate, The.= A First Latin Translation Book. Crown 8vo, 3s, 6d.
=Via Latina.= A First Latin Grammar. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d.
ABBOTT, Rev. E. A., and Sir J. R. SEELEY.
=English Lessons for English People.= Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d.
ADY, Mrs. _See_ CARTWRIGHT, JULIA.
À KEMPIS, THOMAS.
=Of the Imitation of Christ.= With Illuminated Frontispiece and Title
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ALLDRIDGE, T. J., I.S.O., F.R.G.S.
=A Transformed Colony.= Sierra Leone as it was and as it is. With
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ANDERSON, Prof. W.
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=The Art of Velazquez.= Illustrated. Super-royal 8vo, 3s. 6d. nett.
=The Life of Velazquez.= Illustrated. Super-royal 8vo, 3s. 6d. nett.
=Velazquez.= A Study of his Life and Art. With Eight Copper Plates and
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=Confessions of S. Augustine.= With Illuminated pages. In white or blue
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BARING-GOULD, Rev. S.
=Family Names and their Story.= Demy 8vo, 7s. 6d. nett.
=Cliff Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe.= With 54 Illustrations and
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BEDFORD, Rev. W. K. R.
=Malta and the Knights Hospitallers.= Super-royal 8vo, sewed, 2s. 6d.
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BICKERSTETH, Rev. E.
=Family Prayers for Six Weeks.= Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d.
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BINYON, LAURENCE.
=Thomas Girtin=: His Life and Works. An Essay. With Twenty-one
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=Dutch Etchers of the Seventeenth Century.= Illustrated. Super-royal 8vo,
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=London on Thames in Bygone Days.= With Four Plates printed in Colour and
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BRIDGES, Rev. C.
=An Exposition of Psalm CXIX.= Crown 8vo, 5s.
BUTCHER, E. L.
=Things Seen in Egypt.= With Fifty Illustrations. Small 4to, cloth, 2s.
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CARTWRIGHT, JULIA.
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CHITTY, J. R.
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CHORAL SERVICE-BOOK FOR PARISH CHURCHES, THE.
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CHURCH, Rev. A. J.
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=An Apostle of the North.= The Biography of the late Bishop BOMPAS, First
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RUPERTSLAND. With 42 Illustrations. Demy 8vo, 7s. 6d. nett.
COLVIN, Sir AUCKLAND, K.C.S.I., K.C.M.G.
=The Making of Modern Egypt.= Fourth Edition. With Portraits and a Map.
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CORBIN, T. W.
=Engineering of To-day.= With Seventy-three Illustrations and Diagrams.
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=Animals at Work and Play=: Their Activities and Emotions. With Twelve
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CUST, LIONEL.
=The Engravings of Albert Dürer.= Illustrated. Super-royal 8vo,
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DALE, J. M.
=The Clergyman's Legal Handbook and Churchwarden's Guide.= Seventh
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DAVENPORT, CYRIL.
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=English Society of the Eighteenth Century in Contemporary Art.= With Four
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DAWSON, Rev. E. C.
=The Life of Bishop Hannington.= Crown 8vo, paper boards, 2s. 6d.; or with
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DESTRÉE, O. G.
=The Renaissance of Sculpture in Belgium.= Illustrated. Super-royal 8vo,
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DOLMAGE, CECIL G., M.A., D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.A.S.
=Astronomy of To-Day.= A popular account in non-technical language. With
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Volume I. Fancy & Humour of Charles Lamb.
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=Great Britain in Modern Africa.= By EDGAR SANDERSON, M.A. With Portraits
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FERRAR, NICHOLAS.
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=The Afghan Wars of 1839-1842 and 1878-1880.= With Four Portraits on
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FRASER, Sir ANDREW, H.L.
=Among Indian Rajahs and Ryots.= With 34 Illustrations and a Map. Demy
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=Human Anatomy for Art Students.= Profusely Illustrated with Photographs
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=The Childhood of Man.= A Popular Account of the Lives and Thoughts of
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FRY, ROGER.
=Discourses Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy by Sir Joshua
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GARDNER, J. STARKIE.
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GARNETT, R., LL.D.
=Richmond on Thames.= Illustrated. Super-royal 8vo, sewed, 3s. 6d. nett.
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=Beside the Waters of Comfort.= Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d.
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=How Telegraphs and Telephones Work.= With many Illustrations. Crown 8vo,
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GODLEY, A. D.
=Socrates and Athenian Society in his Day.= Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d.
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GOLDEN RECITER. (_See_ JAMES, Prof. CAIRNS.)
GOMES, EDWIN H., M.A.
=Seventeen Years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo.= With 39 Illustrations and
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GRAHAME, GEORGE.
=Claude Lorrain.= Illustrated. Super-royal 8vo, 2s. 6d. nett; half-linen,
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GRIFFITH, M. E. HUME.
=Behind the Veil in Persia and Turkish Arabia.= An Account of an
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GRINDON, LEO.
=Lancashire.= Brief Historical and Descriptive Notes. With many
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GRUBB, W. BARBROOKE.
=An Unknown People in an Unknown Land.= With 40 Illustrations and a Map.
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HADOW, W. H.
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=The Etchings of Rembrandt, and Dutch Etchers of the Seventeenth Century.=
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=The War in the Crimea.= With Copper Plates and other Illustrations. Crown
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HARTLEY, C. GASQUOINE.
=Things Seen in Spain.= With Fifty Illustrations. Small 4to, cloth, 2s.;
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HENDERSON, Major PERCY E.
=A British Officer in the Balkans.= Through Dalmatia, Montenegro, Turkey
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HOW, W. W.
=Hannibal=, and the Great War between Rome and Carthage. 2s.
HUTCHINSON, Rev. H. N.
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* * * * *
Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
Sheik-ul-Islam=> Sheikh-ul-Islam {pg 51}
apellation=> appellation {pg 83}
inpaled=> impaled {pg 130}
posessions=> possessions {pg 172}
sucessful=> successful {pg 173}
Kansou-Ghawri=> Kanson-Ghauri {pg 197 x 2}
Safiye=> Safiyé {pg 205, 206}
Heraklia, 30=> Heraklea, 30 {pg 331}
Mahommed, son of Bajazet, 179=> Mohammed, son of Bajazet, 179 {pg 333}
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The Passing of the Turkish Empire in Europe" ***
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