Suleiman The Magnificent 1520 1566 (24 page)

^lorga, n, 447; Luigi Bassano, I costum et i modi particolari de la vita de Turchi (Rome, 1545), foL 20.

45 lorga, II, 447-448; Navagero in Alberi, 3rd ser., I, 96.

formal audiences in which his chief officials apprised him of the decisions that had been reached inevitably" consumed much time. The pomp and ceremony which marked every action of his private life were greatly increased on these occasions, and the marvellously rich ornamentation of the Hall of Audience was the wonder of all observers. 46 Particularly interesting was the manner in which foreign ambassadors were received. A sharp distinction was drawn between the envoys of a friendly country—such as Venice during the greater part of the reign and France after 1536— and emissaries from a hostile power, who had been despatched to the Porte for a specific purpose. The former were treated like free men; but the latter, in order to obtain the pass which was necessary to enable them to reach Constantinople, were forced to accept the status of prisoners, take up their abode where they were commanded to do, and often never saw the Sultan at all; in such cases their business was usually transacted with the Grand Vizir. Even the representatives of friendly states were obliged to wait for at least three days before being admitted to Suleiman's presence. When at last the great moment came, they were obliged to make the deepest of bows; after which the Sultan would rise, as he often did when receiving the humblest of his own subjects, and hold out his hand for the envoy to kiss. The latter was then turned over to a vizir, who dined him, and, if he was a Frenchman, wined him, on a service of silver and gold, before they proceeded to business. If negotiations were prolonged or purposely delayed, as was not seldom the case, the emissary in his leisure hours was given a guide and a guard of honor to show him the sights of the city, and he was always expected to reward those who accompanied him with a liberal bakshish. If his business was happily concluded, the envoy was sometimes invited to sit beside the Sultan himself at dinner on

4e lorga, II, 448; Gevay, voL I, pt. 4, p. 41.

the day before his departure, and he invariably was given one or more richly decorated kaftans, often worth as much as 2000 or 3000 ducats, as a farewell present. The exchange of costly gifts was an outstanding feature of the Turkish diplomatic life of the time. 41

Every Friday Suleiman went to worship in the mosque; and the ceremonial, on these occasions, was in some respects the most impressive of all Mounted heralds preceded him, calling out "Stand back; the Sultan comes!" Then followed upwards of four thousand armed Janissaries and Spahis, and after them two chief equerries; then fifteen or twenty richly caparisoned steeds, the chief Aghas of Suleiman's household and their suites, and finally the Sultan himself on horseback. Everywhere there was complete silence, save for the tramp of horses and men; the masses paid their homage without moving, but the Sultan nodded right and left, to Jews and Christians as well as to his own people. He entered, and prayed for almost two hours in his shining kiosk; then he returned, with the same ceremonial, to the Seraglio. 48

When a letter, written in white ink on black paper, formally apprised him of the death of one of his children, the mourning ritual was always the same, even though the Prince had been murdered at his father's command. The Sultan cast his turban on the ground, divested himself of all his jewels, commanded all the decorations to be taken from the walls, and the gorgeous rugs on the floor to be turned upside down, and forbade all music in the city for the space of three days. Sheep were sacrificed, and alms were distributed to the poor. On the day of the burial, the Sultan followed the coffin to the grave, and a special preparation was placed in the eyes of the horses which drew his chariot, in order to cause them to "weep." In

47 Iorga, II, 450-451; Menavino, pp. 173-175; Bassano, fol. 55 verso. , 451; Bassano, fol. 13.

The Sultan

sorrow, as in adoration and triumph, the onlooking multitudes preserved the same unbroken majestic silence. 49

A few words remain to be added about Suleiman as a patron of architects and scholars. He shares with his greatgrandfather Mohammed II the honor of being the greatest builder in the long line of Turkish sultans. Constantinople owes him the famous Aqueduct of the Forty Arches, and in the capital and the adjacent towns he decreed the construction of no less than seven mosques. Most of the latter were built in honor of the members of his family, but the most beautiful of them all, which in some respects surpasses Santa Sophia and was finished in 1556, bears his own name. The main lines of the Turkish mosque are modelled on those of the basilicas of Byzantine days, with their fiat cupolas and porticos. The outstanding Ottoman innovation is, of course, the tall pointed minarets, two and sometimes four of them to every mosque, from the balconies of which the muezzins called the people to prayer: it is their delicate outlines that give the visitor to Constantinople his first impression of a city of clustered spires. But the interior of the Turkish mosque is also very different from that of its Byzantine prototype; one feels at once that it was built for worshippers of another faith. Majestic simplicity is everywhere the keynote; white and the more sober colors are predominant; the windows are so arranged that the light is evenly distributed. One is inevitably reminded of the vast wastes of the sunlit deserts of Arabia. Nothing is permitted to distract the attention of the believer from the object of his adoration.— In the development of all these new architectural principles and ideas, the builders whom Suleiman consulted and directed bore a prominent part. 50 It must be remembered, furthermore, that the mosque itself occupied but a comparatively small

49 Iorga, II, 451-452; Bassano, fols. 33-34 recto. 50 Lavisse and Rambaud, IV, 766-767.

part of the enclosed space which bore its name, "the rest being taken up by a labyrinth of courtyards and buildings, consisting of auditoriums, where the Koran was read; treasuries, where private individuals" could "deposit their valuables for safe-keeping; academies, medical colleges, children's schools, quarters for students, and soup-kitchens for the poor; insane asylums, hospitals, khans for travellers, and baths—a little philanthropic settlement, nestling at the base of the lofty temple as at that of a mountain, and shaded by mighty trees." 51 Suleiman's interest in education is attested by the fact that the number of children's schools rose in his reign to fourteen; when the pupils had completed their course, which consisted of reading, writing, and the fundamental principles of Islam, they \vere led in joyful procession through the streets, as on the days of circumcisions. 52 If they had the talent and so desired, they could go on to one of the eight "colleges," which were built in the enclosures of the eight principal mosques, and were known as the "eight paradises of knowledge." In them were taught ten subjects—grammar, syntax, logic, metaphysics, philology, metaphors, rhetoric, geometry, astronomy, and astrology; it was an Oriental elaboration of the trvvium and quadrivium of the Occident. Most of the graduates became imams, or else teachers in the children's schools; the more distinguished returned to their colleges as professors, or took high places in the ulema. 53

One of the most brilliant periods in the history of Turkish poetry reached its culmination in the reign of Suleiman. The poets were largely inspired by Persian

51 Edmondo de Amicis, Constantinople , tr. Maria H. Lansdale (Philadelphia, 1896), II, 219-220.

52 lorga, II, 434; Bassano, foL 37.

53 Lavisse and Rambaud, IV, 764; Barnette Miller, The Palace School of Muhammad the Conqueror (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1941), may also be consulted with profit.

models, but the Sultan did his utmost to develop an "Ottoman style/' and took pleasure In presiding at the competitions in which the prize was awarded to the most successful. The greatest poet of the time seems to have been Abd-ul-Bald-known as "the Immortal, 5 ' and "the Sultan and Khan of lyric verse"; Suleiman wrote him an ode in which he called him "the first of Ottoman poets." Very notable was the freedom of speech accorded to these rhymesters. Yaya-beg, a Christian captive converted to Islam, dared openly to lament the execution of Mustapha, and even ventured to say that "Rnstem has given us the misery of seeing Suleiman still on the throne; how long will this Satan^be permitted to live?" ^-The reign abounded in great jurists, theologians, and encylopedists. One of the latter started a treatise which was to deal with three hundred and seventy different "sciences," and has left us biographies of all the most famous Ottoman authorities on the law, The writing of history began in the latter part of the reign of Mohammed II, and made rapid strides in the reign of his great-grandson. The work of Kemal Pasha Zadeh, who recounted the events of the Mohacs campaign, and afterwards became Sheik-uHslam, is typical of the period. A dozen of his contemporaries celebrated the triumphs of Suleiman in verse and in prose. 55

The life of the mass of the Turks in the reign of the great Sultan presents the same kind of contrast to the wealth and luxury of those in high places which is to be found in most parts of Western Europe in the period. Their houses were of wood, scarcely better than huts, for it was a "part

54 E. J. W, Gibb, A History of Ottoman Poetry, III, 1-164, an d Lavisse and Rarnbaud, IV, 764-765. Of von Hammer-Purgstall's four-volume Gescbichte der osmanischen Dichtbunst (Pesth, 1836-38), most of the second volume is devoted to the poets of Suleiman's reign, with hundreds of extracts translated into German verse. Four pages are given to Stileiman himself, who wrote under the nom-de-plimte of Muhibbi, "the Devoted Friend."

55 Lavisse and Rambaud, IV, 765.

of the Turkish creed to avoid display in the matter of buildings ... if their habitations protect them from robbers, give them warmth and shade, and keep off rain, they want nothing more." M They contained little furniture, and no decorations whatsoever, save rugs, on which the poorer classes slept. Linen was a luxury which few could afford, as was also porcelain. Meals were eaten "with three fingers" (the saying was that the Moors used five and the Devil only two) off wooden plates; there were no forks. Black bread, rice, fruits, and occasional bits of mutton were the staple diet. Fish and tortoises, of which there was an abundance on the Asiatic shores of the Bosphorus, were for the most part avoided as unclean, 57 and wine was never drunk in the house; water sweetened and flavored in various ways was the only beverage there. 58 Public bars, however, were everywhere to be found, and we are told by a contemporary that despite the precepts of the Koran and the edicts of the Sultan the "Turks go in and drink there the whole day long: not a day passes in which drunken Turks are not to be found in the streets." 59 Busbecq adds that

to drink wine is considered a great sin among the Turks, especially in the case of persons advanced in life; when younger people indulge in it the offense is considered more venial. Inasmuch, however, as they think that they will have to pay the same penalty after death whether they drink much or little, if they taste one drop of wine they must needs indulge in a regular debauch; their notion being that, inasmuch as they have already incurred the penalty appointed for such sin in another world, it will be an advantage to them to have their sin out, and get dead drunk, since it will cost them as much in either case. These are their ideas about drinking,

80 Busbecq, I, 90.

57 Busbecq, I, 134.

^lorga, U, 428; Menavino, pp. 109-110.

59 Bassano, foL 37.

and they have some other notions which are still more ridiculous. I saw an old gentleman at Constantinople who, before taking up his cup, shouted as loud as he could. I asked my friends the reason, and they told me he was shouting to warn his soul to stow itself away in some odd corner of his body, or to leave it altogether, lest it should be defiled by the wine he was about to drink, and have hereafter to answer for the offence which the worthy man meant to indulge in. 60 Si peccas, pecca fortiterf

There were many public baths for men and for women, and in Constantinople and the other large cities of the empire they were built of marble and appropriately decorated. For the price of four aspers, any Turk, male or female, could spend an hour there, conversing, and eating and drinking. 61 One of the notable features of the Ottoman Empire of Suleiman's time was the large number of caxavanseries, built by the Sultan or the magnates, not only in Constantinople but at regular intervals along the principal land routes, as free resting-places for merchants and travellers; they did much to promote trade. Card-playing and other Western games were unknown. The young amused themselves with athletic pastimes such as archery 62 and the jerid, a game in which the participants hurled light javelins at one another from the backs of galloping horses. 63 Their elders took pleasure in watching the mad antics and dances of whirling dervishes, and listening to the insolent quips in which they criticized and ridiculed the leading personalities of the day, not excepting the Sultan himself. 64 Long walks in the adjacent countryside

60 Busbecq, I, 88-89.

61 Iorga, II, 428. Busbecq, I, 231, points out how these baths gave opportunity for the practice of some of the vices with which the Turkish name is associated in the Occident,

62 Busbecq, I, 252-255.

63 Iorga, II, 429, calls it a new form of the discus-throwing of classical times, but the connection is not obvious, a, II, 430.

were often taken; on such occasions, rugs were carried and spread out in the pleasantest places, where their owners reclined upon them, and listened to the music of old-fashioned flutes made of reeds.— 65 One of the pleasantest traits of the Ottoman of that time was the universal love of flowers. It was almost a religion for him; even military privilege was obliged to give way to it, for soldiers on the march were strictly forbidden to tread on roses. 66

Every large city in the Empire was divided into quarters, w r hose inhabitants combined to pay watchmen to patrol the streets at night. The principal duties of these functionaries were to see to it that all the houses in their respective sections were duly shut up at close of day, and above all to make sure that all fires were extinguished at nightfall, so as to prevent the possibility of such terrible conflagrations as that which had devastated Philippopolis in 1516. 67 Dogs, which were regarded as unclean, and were never privately owned, were permitted to roam the streets so that they might pick up the offal and refuse therein. 68 Deeds of violence were very rare. The spilling of blood was reckoned as an insult to the Sultan, who was the guardian of the public peace, and whom all men were bound to aid in the discharge of this function; there were also armed squads of picked Janissaries who patrolled the streets at night. It seems probable in fact that the Constantinople of Suleiman's time was freer from murders than any other capital in Europe. 6 *