Durant W. The Reformation. A History of European Civilization from Wyclif to Calvin: 1300-1564
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this enclosure, three miles in circuit, admission was by a single
gate, highly ornamented and called by the French the Sublime
Porte - a term which, by a whimsy of speech, came to mean the
Ottoman government itself. Second only to the sultan in this
centralized organization was the grand vizier. The word came from
the Arabic wazir, bearer of burdens. He bore many, for he was head
of the Diwan, the bureaucracy, the judiciary, the army, and the
diplomatic corps. He supervised foreign relations, made the major
appointments, and played the most ceremonious roles in the most
ceremonious of European governments. The heaviest obligation was to
please the sultan in all these matters, for the vizier was usually
an ex-Christian, technically a slave, and could be executed without
trial at a word from his master. Suleiman proved his own good judgment
by choosing viziers who contributed a great deal to his success.
Ibrahim Pasha (i.e., Abraham the Governor) was a Greek who had been
captured by Moslem corsairs and brought to Suleiman as a promising
slave. The Sultan found him so diversely competent that he entrusted
him with more and more power, paid him 60,000 ducats ($1,500,000?) a
year, gave him a sister in marriage, regularly ate with him, and
enjoyed his conversation, musical accomplishments, and knowledge of
languages, literature, and the world. In the flowery fashion of the
East Suleiman announced that "all that Ibrahim Pasha says is to be
regarded as proceeding from my own pearl-raining mouth." `063133
This was one of the great friendships of history, almost in the
tradition of classic Greece.
One wisdom Ibrahim lacked- to conceal with external modesty his
internal pride. He had many reasons to be proud: it was he who
raised the Turkish government to its highest efficiency, he whose
diplomacy divided the West by arranging the alliance with France, he
who, while Suleiman marched into Hungary, pacified Asia Minor,
Syria, and Egypt by reforming abuses and dealing justly and affably
with all. But he had also reason to be circumspect; he was still a
slave, and the higher he raised his head the thinner grew the thread
that held the royal sword above it. He angered the army by
forbidding it to sack Tabriz and Baghdad, and trying to prevent its
sack of Buda. In that pillage he rescued part of Matthias Corvinus's
library, and three bronze statues of Hermes, Apollo, and Artemis;
these he set up before his palace in Constantinople, and even his
liberal master was disturbed by this flouting of the Semitic
commandment against graven images. Gossip charged him with despising
the Koran. Sometimes he gave entertainments surpassing those of
Suleiman in cost and magnificence. Members of the Diwan accused him of
talking as if he led the Sultan like a tamed lion on a leash.
Roxelana, favorite of the harem, resented Ibrahim's influence, and day
by day, with feminine persistence, filled the imperial ear with
suspicions and complaints. The Sultan was finally convinced. On
March 31, 1536, Ibrahim was found strangled in bed, presumably as
the result of a royal command. It was a deed whose barbarism matched
the burning of Servetus or Berquin.
Far more barbarous was the law of imperial fratricide. Mohammed II
had phrased it frankly in his Book of Laws: "The majority of the
legists have declared that those of my illustrious children who
shall ascend the throne shall have the right to execute their
brothers, in order to ensure the peace of the world; they are to act
accordingly"; `063134 that is, the Conqueror calmly condemned to death
all but the eldest born of his royal progeny. It was another discredit
to the Ottoman system that the property of a person condemned to death
reverted to the sultan, who was therefore under perpetual
provocation to improve his finances by closing his mind to an
appeal; we should add that Suleiman resisted this temptation. As
against such vices of autocracy we may acknowledge in the Ottoman
government an indirect democracy: the road to every dignity but the
sultanate was open to all Moslems, even to all converted Christians.
However, the success of the early sultans might have argued for the
aristocratic heredity of ability, for nowhere else in contemporary
government was so high an average of ability so long maintained as
on the Turkish throne.
2. Morals
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The diversity of Ottoman from Christian ways flagrantly
illustrated the geographical and temporal variation of moral codes.
Polygamy reigned quietly where Byzantine Christianity had so
recently exacted formal monogamy; women hid themselves in seraglios,
or behind veils, where once they had mounted the throne of the
Caesars; and Suleiman attended dutifully to the needs of his harem
with none of the qualms of conscience that might have disturbed or
enhanced the sexual escapades of Francis I, Charles V, Henry VIII,
or Alexander VI. Turkish civilization, like that of ancient Greece,
kept women in the background, and allowed considerable freedom to
sexual deviations. Ottoman homosexuality flourished where "Greek
friendship" had once won battles and inspired philosophers.
The Turks were allowed by the Koran four wives and some
concubines, but only a minority could afford the extravagance. The
warring Ottomans, often far removed from their wonted women, took as
wives or concubines, currente thalamo, the widows or daughters of
the Christians they had conquered. No racial prejudice intervened:
Greek, Serbian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Hungarian, German, Italian,
Russian, Mongol, Persian, Arab women were welcomed with open arms, and
became the mothers of children who were all alike accepted as
legitimate and Ottoman. Adultery was hardly necessary under the
circumstances, and when it occurred it was severely punished: the
woman was obliged to buy an ass and ride it through the city; the
man was flogged with a hundred strokes, and was required to kiss and
reward the executioner who dealt them. A husband could secure a
divorce by a mere declaration of intent, but a wife could free herself
only by complex and deterrent litigation.
Suleiman remained a bachelor till his fortieth year. Since the
wife of Bajazet I had been captured and allegedly abused by Timur
and his Tatars, the Ottoman sultans, to forestall another such
indignity, had made it a rule not to marry, and to admit none but
slaves to their bed. `063135 Suleiman's seraglio contained some 300
concubines, all bought in the market or captured in war, and nearly
all of Christian origin. When they expected a visit from the Sultan
they attired themselves in their finest robes, and stood in line to
greet him; he saluted courteously as many as time allowed, and
placed his handkerchief on the shoulder of one who especially
pleased him. That evening, on retiring, he asked that the recipient
should return his handkerchief. The next morning she would be
presented with a dress of cloth of gold, and her allowance would be
increased. The sultan might remain in the harem two or three nights,
spreading his bounty; then he returned to his own palace, to live
day and night with men. Women rarely appeared in his palace, and
took no part in state dinners or ceremonies. Nevertheless it was
considered a great honor to be assigned to the seraglio. Any inmate of
it who reached the age of twenty-five without earning a handkerchief
was freed, and usually found a husband of high estate. In Suleiman's
case the institution did not lead to physical degeneration, for in
most matters he was a man of signal moderation.
Social life among the Ottomans was unisexual, and lacked the gay
stimulus of women's charms and laughing chatter. Yet manners were as
refined as in Christendom, probably more refined than in any lands
except China, India, Italy, and France. Domestic slaves were numerous,
but they were humanely treated, many laws protected them, and
manumission was easy. `063136 Though public sanitation was poor,
personal cleanliness was common. The institution of public baths,
which the Persians seem to have taken from Hellenistic Syria, was
transmitted to the Turks. In Constantinople and other large cities
of the Ottoman Empire the public baths were built of marble and
attractively decorated. Some Christian saints had prided themselves on
avoiding water; the Moslem was required to make his ablutions before
entering the mosque or saying his prayers; in Islam cleanliness was
really next to godliness. Table manners were no better than in
Christendom; meals were eaten with the fingers off wooden plates;
there were no forks. Wine was never drunk in the house; there was much
drinking of it in taverns, but there was less drunkenness than in
Western lands. `063137 Coffee came into use among the Moslems in the
fourteenth century; we hear of it first in Abyssinia; thence it
appears to have passed into Arabia. The Moslems, we are told, used
it originally to keep themselves awake during religious
services. `063138 We find no mention of it by a European writer till
1592. `063139
Physically the Turk was tough and strong, and famed for endurance.
Busbeq was astonished to note how some Turks received a hundred
blows on the soles of their feet or on their ankles, "so that
sometimes several sticks of dogwood are broken on them, without
drawing any cry of pain." `063140 Even the ordinary Turk carried
himself with dignity, helped by robes that concealed the absurdities
of the well-fed form. Commoners donned a simple fez, which dressy
persons enveloped in a turban. Both sexes had a passion for flowers;
Turkish gardens were famous for their color; thence, apparently,
came into Western Europe the lilac, tulip, mimosa, cherry laurel,
and ranunculus. There was an esthetic side to the Turks which their
wars hardly revealed. We are surprised to be told by Christian
travelers that except in war they were "not by nature cruel," but
"docile, tractable, gentle... lovable," and "generally
kind." `063141 Francis Bacon complained that they seemed kinder to
animals than to men. `063142 Cruelty emerged when security of the
faith was threatened; then the wildest passion was let loose.
The Turkish code was especially hard in war. No foe was entitled
to quarter; women and children were spared, but able-bodied enemies,
even if unarmed and unresisting, might be slaughtered without
sin. `063143 And yet many cities captured by Turks fared better than
Turkish cities captured by Christians. When Ibrahim Pasha took
Tabriz and Baghdad (1534), he forbade his soldiers to pillage them
or harm the inhabitants; when Suleiman again took Tabriz (1548) he too
preserved it from plunder or massacre; but when Charles V took Tunis
(1535), he could pay his army only by letting it loot. Turkish law,
however, rivaled the Christian in barbarous penalties. Thieves had a
hand cut off to shorten their grasp. `063144
Official morals were as in Christendom. The Turks were proud of
their fidelity to their word, and they usually kept the terms of
capitulation offered to surrendering foes. But Turkish casuists,
like such Christian counterparts as St. John Capistrano, held that
no promise could bind the faithful against the interest or duties of
their religion, and that the sultan might abrogate his own treaties,
as well as those of his predecessors. `063145 Christian travelers
reported "honesty, a sense of justice... benevolence, integrity, and
charity" in the average Turk, `063146 but practically all Turkish
office-holders were open to bribery; a Christian historian adds that
most Turkish officials were ex-Christians, `063147 but we should
further add that they had been brought up as Moslems. In the provinces
the Turkish pasha, like the Roman proconsul, hastened to amass a
fortune before the whim of the ruler replaced him; he exacted from his
subjects the full price that he had paid for his appointment. The sale
of offices was as common in Constantinople or Cairo as in Paris or
Rome.
3. Letters and Arts
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The weakest link in Ottoman civilization was its poor equipment
for the acquisition and transmission of knowledge. Popular education
was generally neglected; a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
Instruction was mostly confined to students intending to study
pedagogy, law, or administration; in these fields the curriculum was
lengthy and severe. Mohammed II and Suleiman took time to reorganize
and improve the madrasas, and the viziers rivaled the sultans in gifts
to these mosque colleges. Teachers in these institutions enjoyed a
higher social and financial status than their counterparts in Latin
Christendom. Their lectures were formally on the Koran, but they
managed to include literature, mathematics, and philosophy; and
their graduates, though richer in theology than in science, kept fully
abreast of the West in engineering and government.
Only a small minority of the population could read, but nearly all
of these wrote poetry, not excepting Suleiman. Like the Japanese,
the Turks held public competitions in which poets read their
offerings; Suleiman took a courtly pleasure in presiding over such
Parnassian games. The Turks honored a hundred poets in this age, but
our immersion in our own grandeur and idiom has left us unaware of
even their greatest lyric poet, Mahmud Abdu'l-Baqi. His career spanned
four reigns, for though he was forty when Suleiman died, he had
another thirty-four years of life in him. He gave up his early trade
as a saddler to live by his verse, and would surely have suffered want
had not Suleiman befriended him with sinecures. Adding praise to
profit, the Sultan wrote a poem on the excellence of Baqi's poetry.
Baqi paid him back in a powerful dirge mourning Suleiman's death. Even
in the translation, which loses dignity by seeking to preserve the
multiple rhymes of the original, something of the poem's passion and
splendor emerges:
-
Prince of Fortune's cavalier! he to whose charger bold,
Whene'er he caracoled or pranced, cramped was earth's
tourney-square!
He to the luster of whose sword the Magyar bowed his head!
He, the dread gleaming of whose brand the Frank can well declare!
Like tender rose-leaf, gently laid he in the dust his face,
And Earth, the Treasurer, placed him like a jewel in the case.
In truth he was the radiance of rank high and glory great,
A Shah, Iskander-diademed, of Dara's armed state;
Before the dust beneath his feet the Sphere bent low its head;
Earth's shrine of adoration was his royal pavilion's gate.
The smallest of his gifts the meanest beggar made a prince;
Exceeding bounteous, exceeding kind a potentate!...
Weary and worn by this sad, changeful Sphere, deem not thou him;
Near God to be did he his rank and glory abdicate.
What wonder if our eyes no more life and the world behold!
His beauty fair, as sun and moon, did earth irradiate...
Now let the cloud blood drop on drop weep, and its form bend low!
And let the Judas-tree anew in blossoms gore-hued blow!
With this sad anguish let the stars' eyes rain down bitter tears,
And let the smoke from hearts on fire the heavens all darkened
show...
The bird, his soul, hath, huma-like, aloft flown to the skies,
And naught remaineth save a few bones on the earth below...
Eternal may the glory of the heaven-high Khosru dwell!
Blessings be on the monarch's soul and spirit- and farewell! `063148
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The Turks were too busy conquering powerful states to have much time
for those delicate arts that had heretofore distinguished Islam.
Some fine Turkish miniatures were produced, with characteristic
simplicity of design and breadth of style. Representative painting was
left to the scandalous Christians, who in this age continued to
adorn with frescoes the walls of their churches and monasteries; so
Manuel Panselinos, perhaps borrowing some stimulus from Italian
Renaissance murals, frescoed the church of Protaton on Mount Athos
(1535-36) with paintings freer, bolder, more graceful, than those of
Byzantine times. The sultans imported artists from West and East-
Gentile Bellini from Venice, Shah Kali and Wali Jan, miniaturists,
from heretical Persia. In painted tiles, however, the Ottomans
needed no alien aid; they used them to dazzling effect. Iznik made a
name with the excellence of its faience. Scutari, Brusa, and Hereke,
all in Asia Minor, specialized in textiles; their brocades and
velvets, adorned with floral themes in crimson and gold, impressed and
influenced Venetian and Flemish designers. Turkish carpets lacked
the poetic brilliance of the Persian, but their stately patterns and
warm colors evoked admiration in Europe. Colbert induced Louis XIV
to order French weavers to copy some Turkish palace rugs, but to no
avail; the Islamic mastery remained beyond the reach of Occidental
skill.
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Turkish art reached its peak in the mosques of
Constantinople. *06061 Not even Mashhad in its crowded architectural
splendor, nor Isfahan in the days of Shah Abbas, perhaps only
Persepolis under Xerxes, equaled, in Persian or Moslem history, the
grandeur of Suleiman's capital. Here the spoils of Ottoman victories
were shared with Allah in monuments expressing at once piety and
pride, and the determination of the sultans to awe their people with
art as well as arms. Suleiman rivaled his grandfather, Mohammed the
Conqueror, in building; seven mosques rose to his order; and one of
these (1556), taking his name, surpassed St. Sophia in beauty, even
while imitating its assemblage of minor cupolas around a central dome;
here, however, the minarets, raising their treble prayer to
audacious heights, served as sparkling counterpoint to the massive
base. The interior is a confusing wealth of decoration: golden
inscriptions on marble or faience, columns of porphyry, arches of
white or black marble, windows of stained glass set in traceried
stone, pulpit carved as if it were a lifetime's dedication; this is
perhaps too sumptuous for reverence, too brilliant for prayer. An
Albanian, Sinan, designed this mosque and seventy more, and lived,
we are told, to the age of one hundred and ten.
V. SULEIMAN HIMSELF
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It was the West that named Suleiman "the Magnificent"; his own
people called him Kanuni, the Lawgiver, because of his share in
codifying Ottoman law. He was magnificent not in appearance but in the
size and equipment of his armies, in the scope of his campaigns, in
the adornment of his city, in the building of mosques, palaces, and
the famous "Forty Arches" aqueduct; magnificent in the splendor of his
surroundings and retinue; magnificent, of course, in the power and
reach of his rule. His empire marched from Baghdad to within ninety
miles of Vienna, to within 120 miles of Venice, the Adriatic's quondam
queen. Except in Persia and Italy all the cities celebrated in
Biblical and classical lore were his: Carthage, Memphis, Tyre,
Nineveh, Babylon, Palmyra, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Smyrna, Damascus,
Ephesus, Nicaea, Athens, and two Thebes. Never had the Crescent held
so many lands and seas in the hollow of its curve.
Was the excellence of his rule commensurate with its extent?
Probably not, but we should have to say this of any spacious realm
except Achaemenid Persia and Rome under the Antonines. The area
governed was too vast to be well administered from one center before
the coming of modern communications, transport, and roads. Laxity
and corruption ran through the government; yet Luther said: "It is
reported that there is no better temporal rule than among the
Turks." `063149 In religious toleration Suleiman was bolder and more
generous than his Christian compeers: these thought religious
conformity necessary to national strength; Suleiman allowed Christians
and Jews to practice their religion freely. "The Turks," wrote
Cardinal Pole, "do not compel others to adopt their belief. He who
does not attack their religion may profess among them what religion he
will; he is safe." `063150 In November 1561, while Scotland,
England, and Lutheran Germany were making Catholicism a crime, and
Italy and Spain were making Protestantism a crime, Suleiman ordered
the release of a Christian prisoner, "not wishing to bring any man
from his religion by force." `063151 He made a safe home in his empire
for Jews fleeing from the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal.
His defects appeared more clearly in his family relations than in
his government. All are agreed that despite wars- which he excused
as defense by offense- he was a man of refined and kindly sentiment,
generous, humane, and just. `063152 His people not only admired him,
they loved him. When, on Friday, he went to the mosque, they
observed complete silence while he passed; he bowed to them all-
Christians and Jews and Mohammedans- and then prayed for two hours
in the temple. We do not hear, in his case, of that addiction to the
harem which was to undermine the health and power of some later
sultans. But we do find him so susceptible to the passions of love
as to forget prudence, justice, and even parental affection.
In the earlier years of his reign his favorite mistress was a
Circassian slave known as "The Rose of Spring," marked by that dark
and chisled beauty which for centuries has characterized the women
of the regions around the eastern end of the Black Sea. She bore him a
son, Mustafa, who grew into a handsome, able, and popular youth.
Suleiman entrusted him with important offices and missions, and
trained him to merit as well as inherit the throne. But in the
course of love Khurrem- "The Laughing One"- a Russian captive whom the
West called Roxelana, won the Sultan away from the Circassian; and her
beauty, gaiety, and wiles kept him enchanted till tragedy was
consummated. Overriding the rule of his recent predecessors,
Suleiman made Khurrem his wife (1534), and he rejoiced in the sons and
daughters that she gave him. But as he aged, and the prospect of
Mustafa's accession loomed, Khurrem dreaded the fate of her sons,
who might legitimately be killed by the new sultan. She succeeded in
marrying her daughter to Rustem Pasha, who in 1544 became Grand
Vizier; and through this wife Rustem was brought to share Khurrem's
fear of Mustafa's coming power.
Meanwhile Mustafa had been sent to govern Diyarbekir, and had
distinguished himself by his valor, tact, and generosity. Khurrem used
his virtues to destroy him; she insinuated to Suleiman that Mustafa
was courting popularity with a view to seizing the throne. Rustem
charged that the youth was secretly wooing the Janissaries to his
cause. The harassed Sultan, now fifty-nine, doubted, doubted,
wondered, believed. He went in person to Eregli, summoned Mustafa to
his tent, and had him killed as soon as he appeared (1553). Khurrem
and Rustem then found it simple to induce the Sultan to have Mustafa's
son slain, lest the youth should seek revenge. Khurhem's son Selim was
made prince and heir, and she died content (1558). But Selim's brother