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 pr?fect—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.
refugees nearly all the narrow streets were blocked by rows of waggons, drawn by oxen, conveying fugitives from thrace and macedonia.
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{49} 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.{50}
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 pr?fect 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{51} founded here, under the auspices of humdi bey, who is responsible for much of artistic effort and arch?ological 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{52} 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{53} 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{54} eugenius, down by the golden horn. here c?sar 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 c?sar; 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 c?sars, the conqueror whose hands were red with the blood of massacred christians, the{55} 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{56} 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{57} 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 nic?a, 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{58} 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{59} 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.”
