Oriental Women Part 13

Mothers of the harem are often compelled to live in mortal fear for their infant sons, lest they be foully dealt with. For if a child have any prospect of some day being the Turkish ruler, his life is never regarded as altogether safe. The baby prince is brought up in the harem, with his mother and nurse; but since brothers and even uncles come before sons, the question of succession to the sultanate has often caused great disorder and bloodshed.

On the death of Mohammed, the great Arab leader, there was no mention of a law of succession. This was partly due, doubtless, to the fact that he left no son who might a.s.sume leaders.h.i.+p of the hosts of Islam. At length, the Seljuk Turks attained to power, after which the empire fell into minor sovereignties, which were brought together at last into the Ottoman Empire. And while of late the stability of the reigning dynasty has been the most noteworthy of the East, yet the fact that there was not early established the ordinary custom of transmitting the sovereignty from father to son has been the cause of much intrigue, crime, and uncertainty in the dominion of the Turk. Cases have not been unknown in Turkish history where several hundred women of the seraglio were drowned in the Bosphorus because of plottings to depose the sultan.

They were tied in the traditional sack and dropped into the sea. It was Ibrahim I., known as the Madman, one of the very worst of Turkish rulers, who first conceived the idea of thus disposing of the old women of the seraglio. Surprised and seized in the night, the unfortunate victims of the sultan's madness were tied in sacks and then sunk to the bottom of the sea. Only one of the large company of the unfortunates escaped, by the loosing of the sack, and was picked up by a pa.s.sing s.h.i.+p and conveyed to Paris to tell the story of the cruel death of her companions. Among the many notable instances of the tragic end to which the plottings of the harem have come may be mentioned that of Tarkhann, mother of Mohammed IV. So desirous was she that her son should reign, that she slew all the other possible male heirs to the throne. She met her nemesis, however, by strangulation. It is upon her life and that of her rival that Racine has constructed his _Bajazet_.

Connected with the sultan's harem there are estimated to be about fifteen hundred persons. The harem consists of a number of little courts, or _dairas_; and the central figure of each of these courts is a lady of the female hierarchy.

In the royal household there are three cla.s.ses of women. The kadins, of whom we have spoken, who may be termed the legitimate wives of the sultan, though they are never formally married. Next are the _ikbals_, or "favorite women." From this cla.s.s the kadins are usually chosen. Then come the _gediklis_, "those pleasant to look upon." The ikbals may come from the number of these. The women of the third cla.s.s are usually of slave origin, purchased or stolen perhaps from Georgian or Circa.s.sian parents. Those who are stolen are usually taken so early from their homes, and so clandestinely, that their origin is seldom known to them.

If, however, the lady comes of high station her ident.i.ty usually becomes known, and she not unfrequently succeeds in elevating her family to a position of power and emolument, either by direct influence or by intrigue. In addition to these three cla.s.ses of women there are _ustas_, or "mistresses," who are maids in the service of the sultan's mother; _s.h.a.girds_, or "novices," who are children in training for the higher positions in the harem; and _jariyas_, or "damsels," who do the more menial work of the establishments.

Captured slave girls have sometimes had a most interesting career. They are brought in an almost continuous stream, but privately. In the earliest days of their presence in the harem they are called _alaikes_, and are placed under the care of elderly women, or _kalfas_, who bring them up to suit the tastes of an Oriental court. They are instructed in manners, in music, in drawing, and in embroidery. When later they reach the proper age, they become attendants upon the kadins and the princesses of the imperial household. There is no bar to their reaching at length the highest station that it is possible for a woman to attain, the favorite wife of the sultan.

The female department of the Turkish household is called the Hareemlick, the male apartments being named the Islamlick. The women's apartments are, of course, secluded. A male physician may see only the hand and tongue of the sick lady. A black curtain is stretched to separate her from his inspection. A eunuch conducts the physician to a point where the sick woman may thrust out her hand through a hole in the curtain so that the doctor may diagnose her disease.

Faithfulness in women is held in high esteem, restraint of the harem being intended to insure it. In former days it was not a thing unknown for unfaithful women to be drowned; but the custom has fallen into disuse. Ladies of the harem, however, have a fair amount of liberty. On certain occasions they go out driving and visiting; they frequent the bazaars and the public promenades, always in vehicles, never afoot. They enjoy entertainments among themselves. Theatricals are frequently witnessed by them in the garden of the palace. Operas are also often rendered for their enjoyment. When Turkish ladies visit one another in the harem,--which they may do without permission or restraint from their husbands,--it is customary to place their shoes outside the harem door that their husbands may know guests are being entertained.

The harem of one ruler is generally regarded as the property of his successor. The women thus inherited, however, are not always sure of favor. Sultan Mohammed II. killed, by drowning, all the women of his brother's harem. Indeed, women of the harems generally cannot be said to have ample protection; for no officer may enter any harem to inspect the conduct there, or for any purpose whatever, unless the law of the house admits him. The women, whether they be wives or slaves, are practically at the mercy of their masters. Some women of the sultan's harem have risen to positions of much influence and genuine power, though they have generally been of foreign birth. The mother of the noted reforming sultan, Mahmud II., who began to reign in 1808 when a mere child, was a French woman. His stout resistance of the allied powers won for him a certain admiration for doggedness, even if success did not crown his efforts to keep Greece in subjection. It was into this struggle that Lord Byron threw himself on behalf of Greece. Mahmud, it may be to some extent through the influence of his French mother, introduced French tactics into his army, but to no avail, and at length Grecian freedom was a.s.sured.

The wife of Mahmud, Besma, taken as a little girl from the life of a peasant, rose to a position of supreme dignity and great influence. Her beauty easily won the pa.s.sion of Mahmud. She never lost sight of her humble origin and was much beloved by the ma.s.ses of the people, even those of the most lowly cla.s.ses. She was the mother of Abd-ul-Aziz, and it was she who unsuspectingly gave to the sultan, her son, the scissors with which he killed himself. At any rate, the unfortunate monarch was found dead in his apartments. The mother pined away in seclusion, and was seen only in her deeds of charity. It was Besma who built the mosque Yeni Kalideh at Ak Serai, and it is here she rests in the midst of a beautiful garden of flowers, of which, during her lifetime, she was so fond. On her death, about fifteen years ago, she was accorded a funeral of great magnificence, and she was generally mourned throughout the empire. It is said that when Besma was building the mosque, her money fell short of her purpose, so that she could build but one minaret instead of two, as custom ent.i.tled. Her son, however, came forward, offering the necessary funds, which she declined with the remark: "No, one minaret is sufficient to call the people to prayers; another would only glorify me; the poor need a fountain." So she built a fountain for the people, and it is one of the most beautiful in Constantinople.

One of the most celebrated--even if she be not one of the best--women of Turkey history was Khurrem, the "Joyous," whom Europeans generally knew as Roxelana. She was wife of the greatest figure in Turkish annals, Suleyman the Magnificent, who reigned about the middle of the sixteenth century. Roxelana, though her origin has not been clearly traced, was probably of Russian descent. From the first this strong-minded woman exerted great influence over Suleyman. In the first place, she forced him to marry her publicly and with much ceremony, a proceeding which was then without precedent. Usually to have it announced that a woman had become mother of a male heir to the throne was regarded as sufficient announcement of marriage with the sultan. But this woman, who had now risen from the position of a slave woman to that of the highest dignity possible for a woman in the empire, determined that her marriage with the great monarch should be full of publicity and pomp. There was feasting and, apparently, great rejoicing, though the people were surprised and hardly understood what it all might mean. Roxelana was, however, equal to the emergency, and with the sagacity and determination which were native to her sent many slaves among the people as they feasted, distributing presents of money and pieces of silk to the ma.s.ses. From this time, she not only held absolute sway over the sultan, but evinced great skill in buying the friends.h.i.+p of the people by gifts and acts of charity. Diplomacy was characteristic of her, and from cruelty she would not shrink if it were necessary to carry out her purposes, for she induced Suleyman, generally so just and prudent, to destroy the oldest and most promising of his sons, since the young man, Mustafa by name, stood in the way of her own son Selim as heir to the throne. She succeeded in her designs, but placed on the throne one of the weakest and most worthless of Turkish rulers, "Selim, the Sot."

Roxelana's beauty is described as that which "attests that mixture of the Asiatic and Tartar blood, wherever the dark eyes, the silken lashes, the creamy paleness of the tint, the languor of the att.i.tude habitual to the Persian beauties, contrast with the rounded outline of the face, with the shortness of the nose, the thickness of the lips, and the warm coloring of the skin, traits peculiar to the daughters of the Caucasus."

At fifteen, she is said to have been the marvel and even the mystery of the harem. Her memory knew only the rearing of the seraglio; but her remarkable alertness and force of mind as well as beauty of person made her from the first one of a thousand. Taught in the arts of music and dancing, versed in foreign languages, and the study of history and poetry, Roxelana added to her exuberance of youth a power of mind which marked her for preeminence.

Rebia, wife of Mohammed IV., is another example of womanly power over the head and heart of the supreme ruler of Turkey. Rebia was a Greek girl from the island of Crete. Lamartine says of her: "The delicacy of her lineaments, the brilliancy of her complexion, the ocean azure of her eyes, the golden auburn of her hair, the caressing tone of her voice, and the witchery of her wit made her to be dreaded still as the prison companion of a fallen monarch, of whom she might amuse the languor and reestablish the intrigue from the depth of his captivity." Even in Mohammed's dethronement, Rebia clung to the fortunes of her lord, over whom, during his power, she had always exerted decisive influence.

Italian women have also risen to a place of prominence in the royal harem. This was notably true in the case of the beautiful Safia, a Venetian captive girl, who had been brought into the seraglio of Sultan Murad III., who succeeded Selim his father in the year 1574. Murad was not strong, and was easily deceived by sycophants and ruled by women.

Among the latter was Safia, sometimes known as Baffo, belonging to the family of Baffo of Venice. Baffo proceeded to rule her royal lord in the interests of her native land. Venice, after Suleyman's death, had become restless of Turkish rule, and proceeded successfully to throw it off.

Baffo never forgot her origin, and ruled with a high hand, not only as Kha.s.seki-Sultan, but also as Valideh. She set her son Mohammed III. on the throne as successor to her husband, even though the consummation could be reached only by the slaying of nineteen of the one hundred and two sons of Murad. Foreign women will probably never again play so large a role in Turkish affairs. The present sultan is said, however, to be fond of the social attractions of European women. He is probably the first Turkish sultan who has invited a European lady to dine with him.

The Turkish sultans have long lived in much magnificence. The old seraglio, or imperial residence (from the word _seray_, a palace), was beautifully situated "among the groves of plane and cypress that clothe the apex of the triangle upon which the ancient city of Constantinople is built." Now, however, the sultans have left these precincts around which cl.u.s.tered so many memories of the horrible tragedies enacted there, memories which even the magnificence of the place could not destroy, and established their present residence, equal in natural beauty to the old, but removed from the dirt and the memories, which had at length gathered about the old seraglio.

The women's quarters are situated in the innermost portion of the seraglio. Here are from three to twelve hundred women; at times there are even more. These women are all foreigners. Indeed, all the guards and attendants of the palace are of foreign blood. The sultan and his children are the only Turks dwelling in the inner departments of the royal palaces; and both he and they are born of foreign mothers. The women's departments are carefully guarded. There were specially appointed officers in the old seraglio as guards of the queens and their children. These were the Baltajis, or "halberdiers," who were four hundred in number. They, however, really attended the royal women only when the sultan took with him some members of his harem to bear him company on a journey or a campaign.

The Baltajis, on such occasions, walked by the side of the carriages of the imperial ladies and guarded their camp at night. Ordinarily, the sultan's harem was under the care of the black eunuchs, or about two hundred Africans, who were specially entrusted with the imperial ladies.

Their chief was known as the Kislar Aghasi, or "master of the girls,"

and was regarded as one of the chief men of the empire.

The trade in captive boys and girls stolen from Europe, Asia, and Africa was once very large; the pick of them being brought by purchase into the sultan's palace, for one purpose or another. It was thought that his imperial majesty's life was safer in the hands of foreigners brought up almost from infancy in the palace, and knowing no other allegiance than that to the will of the sultan.

Times have changed, however, and it is not possible for the ruler of the Turks to regard the best of the children of white and black parentage as born to replenish his harem. Much of the old time mediaeval splendor has been swept away, not only through the reforms of Sultan Mahmud II., but by modern conditions which make the old seraglio an impossibility.

In the olden days the young princes were closely confined in a part of the seraglio known as the Chims.h.i.+rlick, or "boxwood shrubbery." It contained twelve pavilions each surrounded by high walls which enclosed a little garden. These were the residences of the sons of the sultan.

Each young prince was kept guarded in his pavilion enclosure, from which he dared not emerge without his royal father's special permission. Thus a prince's minority was spent in the _kafe_, or "cage." Each youth had as attendants ten or twelve fair girls, besides a number of pages. These and black eunuchs, who were his teachers, were his sole companions. As a rule, the tongues of male attendants and of women unable to bear children were slit. At the tenth year a young prince leaves his mother and the harem for the guardians.h.i.+p of a _lalo_, or "male attendant," who is his companion day and night; next a _mullah_, or "priest," takes the youth in hand and gives him his schooling, which consists chiefly in instruction in the teachings of the Koran.

[Ill.u.s.tration 5: _THE MUTES After the painting by P. L. Bouchard The women's quarters are situated in the innermost portion of the seraglio.

Here are from three to twelve hundred women; at times there are even more. These women are all foreigners. Indeed, all the guards and attendants of the palace are of foreign blood..... The women's departments are carefully guarded.

Women who bear no children and the subaltern eunuchs have their tongues slit. Whan an order of death is issued, these mutes, with the fatal cords, enter and noiselessly fulfil their commands._]

Among the female officials of the seraglio is the Hasnada Ousta, or "grand mistress of the robes." She is usually an elderly woman of respectability and of dignity. This lady acts as vice-Valideh, caring for matters in the establishment to which it may not be possible for the Valideh Sultan to give her own personal attention. She holds a place of much honor, and women holding this position have been known to become Valideh. There is also the Kyahya Kadin, or "lady comptroller," who is generally selected by the sultan from among the oldest and most trusted of the Gediklis.

The dress of the ladies of the royal harem was formerly altogether Oriental; so also were the furnis.h.i.+ngs of the women's apartments. These last still consist largely of low divans, costly embroidery, couches, and the like; but European customs have now made themselves felt, not only in the furnis.h.i.+ngs of the rooms, but more particularly in the matter of feminine attire. Costly robes from Paris and Vienna have invaded the precincts of the harem; and these, added to the wealth of jewelry of which Oriental ladies are so fond, make it possible for the women of the rich Turkish households to be quite cosmopolitan in their modes of dressing.

Many of the lower ranks wear upon their head a sort of hood of black silk, the Egyptian _chaf-chaf_. To this is attached a piece of black netting, which can be dropped over the face of the wearer when she so pleases. The women of Constantinople, however, are not so careful in the matter of the veil as are the ladies living in cities under less cosmopolitan influence.

European ideas and habits have greatly modified Turkish customs. The _yashmac_ is the face veil which the Turkish girl receives when she attains to the marriageable age. The word is derived from a verb which means, when fully interpreted, "May long life be granted you." The material is thin, fine lawn or similar stuff. The older and less attractive women, or ladies who do not wish to be recognized in a public concourse, as when shopping, wear a veil of thicker material.

The cloak used is the _feridje_. It is usually of black material, and its shape is intended to conceal the outlines of the figure. The _feridje_ is now much modified, however, by European tastes, and is not greatly different from the opera cloak worn by the ladies of Paris.

The once fas.h.i.+onable footgear, the yellow Turkish slipper, has given place generally to the slipper of patent leather worn by European ladies. Much of the beauty of color and picturesqueness of costume has therefore pa.s.sed away, as may be seen from the following description of the Turkish woman's appearance at the middle of the sixteenth century: When they (the women of Turkey) go abroad, the ladies wear the _yashmac_ made of gold stuff, heavily fringed, and confined to the head by a crown blazing with jewels. The figure is concealed by a cloak of richest brocade or velvet. Sometimes you may have the charm of seeing as many as one hundred _arabas_, or carts, very splendid and richly gilded, drawn by gaily decorated bullocks, each containing a number of these great ladies with their children and slaves.

"The procession is a most gorgeous sight. Each cart has as many as four mounted eunuchs to protect it from the curiosity of the public, who have their faces almost to the earth, or avert them entirely, as the caravan pa.s.ses." So, also, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu has left, in a letter to the d.u.c.h.ess of Marlborough, written in 1717, a very graphic account of the costume of the sultana.

Lady Mary describes the _dolma_, or "vest of long sleeves," the diamond-bedecked girdle, the long and costly chain about the neck, reaching even to the knees, the earrings of diamonds shaped like pears, the _talpoche_, the headdress covered with bodkins of emeralds and diamonds, the diamond bracelets, the five rings upon her fingers, the largest ring Lady Mary ever saw except that worn by Mr. Pitt. There was also a pelisse of rich brocade brought to the royal Turkish lady when she walked out into her garden. Fifty different kinds of meat were served at her dinner, but one at a time; her golden knives were set with diamonds in the hafts; gorgeously embroidered napkins were in abundance, etc. Much of this magnificence and display has now pa.s.sed away, but, as Stanley Lane-Poole says in his _The History of Turkey_: "While the house of the Ottoman monarch of to-day, if more in keeping with the spirit of the time, is very commonplace beside that of last century ...

nevertheless, the modern seraglio is hardly an anchorite's cell."

Cosmetics were once used in profusion. The painting of the eyebrows and the dyeing of the finger tips with henna were considered marks of beauty. The custom is dying out entirely in Constantinople, though in the remoter regions of the empire the habit is still in vogue. The attempts at beautifying the face are often referred to by the poets as marks of beauty, as when Fuzuli dilates upon the

"Eyes with antimony darkened, hands with henna crimson dyed.

Among these beauties vain and wanton, like to thee was ne'er a bride.

Bows of painted green thy eyebrows; thy glances shafts provide."

Mohammedan countries of any culture have long held the bath in great esteem. Turkish ladies of high rank once frequented the public baths with regularity, but the modern improvements in the private houses have made this custom far less general.

The women of the Turkish empire present an almost infinite variety.

Under the dominion of the sultan the nationalities are many and heterogeneous. So also it would be impossible to make any general statement of the treatment of women among the Turks. In many parts of Turkey there is but one wife in the household, and she is well treated and highly respected; affection prevails in the harems of not a few; while in others concubinage, neglect, harshness, ignorance, vice are present with their deadly effect.

Divorce may be readily obtained in Turkey; but parental influence often protects the woman who otherwise might fare unjustly. Mohammed also gave some protection to wives, since he considered a wife to have rights in her own fortune even while married, and held that if divorced, rest.i.tution of this fortune was to be made.

Turkish women, except those of the richer families, generally nurse their own children. Many children die in infancy through the ignorance of mothers of the lower cla.s.ses. Some mothers still swaddle their little ones. In the event of illness, instead of a trained physician, many mothers send for a "wise woman" or a wizard. In the harems, it is suspected that many infants are actually killed. The Mohammedan population increases more slowly, notwithstanding the practice of polygamy, than the Christian population of the Turkish Empire.

It is the custom among families of the better cla.s.s to give the boys over from infancy to the care of a _dadi_, or slave girl, whose business it is to care for him during his youth, and it is not infrequent that evil springs from this intimacy. Both boys and girls are under the care of a _lalo_, or male slave, when the children are out of the precincts of the harem. The influence of the slaves and menials, with whom so many Turkish children are thrown, is, as a rule, far from elevating.

Submission is a lesson that is very early taught to Turkish children.

This insures an obedient, tractable spirit, and is the cause of all that is best in the Turkish character.

There are almost thirty million Turkish women, the ma.s.ses of whom move upon a very low level of culture. This cannot, however, be said of all, for many of the upper cla.s.ses and of the court are well educated, though the branches or subjects they are taught are not varied. Foreign governesses are often employed to teach the girls French, German, and English, which they can, in many cases, speak fluently. Language and literature furnish a large part of their education. A change is gradually coming over the Turkish people in this matter of the development of its women, and this, notwithstanding, the fear in many minds that a better educated woman will be a less manageable woman; a creature dissatisfied with her lot. A recent writer of acute observation of Turkish affairs has said of efforts on the part of American philanthropists to instil the spirit of the American public school into the minds of the Turks: "The general opinion seemed to be that the female s.e.x had no intellectual capacity. The first efforts of the Americans to make the women sharers in intellectual progress and refinement were met with opposition, and often with derisive laughter.

They created a new public sentiment in favor of the education of women.

This is shown by the interest taken in the schools established by Americans for the education of girls. Pashas, civil and military officers of high rank, the ecclesiastics and wealthy men of all the different nationalities attend the examinations, and express their hearty approval of the efforts made by the Americans for improving the conditions of the women of Turkey."

The tendency of these influences is to win for women a greater respect from fathers, husbands, brothers; greater freedom in choice of their life partners; to defer the marriageable age from twelve years to fifteen or twenty; to secure for mothers greater respect from their children; and to elevate womanhood in every relation of life.

Turkish women who are still living under the patriarchal system--and in no small part of the empire does this ancient system prevail--develop under a different environment from that prevailing in the other parts of the realm. Under a patriarchate the mother yields to the grandmother and the great-grandmother. The wife holds not only a subservient place in the family, which often contains as many as forty persons, but she is often, literally, a slave to the mother-in-law, and her children are trained by almost everybody else but herself. The patriarchal system is gradually yielding, however; and more and more, even in the conservative regions of the world, newly married people are forsaking father and mother and cleaving to one another, setting up their own homes and developing the parental character, and training their young in their own sweet way.

Under strict Moslem influence, motherhood has a place of honor; at least in theory. For Mohammedanism gives to the woman who bears children and trains them faithfully a rank in heaven with the martyrs.

Unfortunately, however, the light esteem in which women are held in Moslem lands makes against woman's power, even in her n.o.blest opportunity,--that of moulding the children into character that is n.o.blest and best. Much work has been done by foreign philanthropists in an effort to raise the standard of home training among the Turks.

Stanley Lane-Poole, in his _Studies in a Mosque_, a book not written from the viewpoint of the modern missionary, but that of a candid and diligent student of historic conditions, says: "It is quite certain that there is no hope for the Turks, so long as Turkish women remain what they are, and home training is the imitation of vice." This is surely a dark picture. But the time may yet come when the Turkish woman will a.s.sume a position more like that of her Western sisters and become an elevating influence in the land whose present territory includes much of the most renowned soil the sun ever shone upon, not only that which saw the birth of the religion of the Jew, the Christian, and the Mohammedan, but also much that is rich in cla.s.sic and mediaeval memories--the country of which Byron wrote: