A Drop of History 122

Fags, booze and weed
Prohibitions and the breaking thereof in Islam

The consumption of any alcoholic beverage is taboo in the Islamic religion. However, like in all regimes and all religions, ways are found to bypass such prohibitions. The populace does it crudely, the rulers with more refinement. Prince Cem, the son of Mehmed II the Conqueror, had developed a theory all his own, according to which, if spices are added to wine, then that is no longer the kind of wine forbidden by the Qur’an, but something else altogether. Therefore, it can be drunk without violating religious law. Who would say no to the sultan’s son?

Following the same reasoning, in several rich Ottoman households boiled wine was served because it was believed (or at least wished so) that boiling reduced the level of alcohol and made it acceptable. Like the Catholic monks of Emmanuel Roides’ works, who renamed meat as fish on Good Friday and ate it without sinning.

In general, the proper middle class of the Ottoman Empire kept the prohibition, while the upper and lower classes did not. Turkish traveller and historian Evliya Çelebi (mid-17th century) mentions that he was present at a feast held in a Christian monastery, where all Christians drank copious amounts of Chian wine. The Muslims of the area, though, did not drink at all and had armed themselves as a precaution, because many revolts started after such feasts, when drunken Christians were not aware of what they were doing.

Alcohol was also copiously consumed by mercenaries, janissaries, and sailors, who usually indulged in piracy as well. All those were indifferent to the Qur’an’s imperatives, and that is why they were reviled by proper Ottoman society. In a document written by a Turkish pasha, commenting on his son’s decision to join a pirate crew, the father characteristically says that “such was the logical end of a young man who loved drink”. There were also religious movements that rejected the particular prohibition. The famous Mevlevi dervishes maintained a vineyard and winepress at their equally famous monastery in Istanbul, a fact confirmed by an official catalogue drafted in 1826.

Another great problem cropped up when tobacco from newly-discovered America reached the Ottoman Empire through Europe. The prophet Muhammad knew nothing of tobacco when he wrote the Qur’an, so the use of that new product divided both theologians and sultans. As is common in such cases, society was split into conservatives and liberals. Sultan Murad IV adopted an extreme conservative stance and forbade smoking on pain of death. As long as Murad lived, tobacco was under merciless persecution, but even such prohibition had no effect. The habit of smoking spread; users just smoked in secret. Demand always boosts supply as well, so tobacco started to be cultivated in isolated areas of Greece and Asia Minor.

A document of the Ottoman administration mentions a remote village in the Beyşehir district, whose inhabitants cultivated tobacco and had to be punished. Historian Katip Çelebi described the brutality of Murad’s persecution of smokers and tobacco farmers, and reported that such persecution abated only after the sultan’s death, leading eventually to the lifting of the prohibition and the hookah becoming an integral part of daily life in the Ottoman Empire.

Contrary to tobacco, the use of opium was not forbidden, although it was approached with scepticism. In 1854, before Özdemiroğlu Osman Pasha was appointed Grand Vizier (that is, prime minister), there were rumours of him being addicted to opium, but that did not stop him getting the position. Opium was not smoked, but mixed into a sort of cream and eaten. The preparation and selling of that cream was taxed, so that the state could fill its coffers into the bargain. The damned state, in all times and places, always finds ways to profit from its citizens’ good and bad habits…

Opium was cultivated mainly in the Afyonkarahisar province, where the Greek forces stopped during the Asia Minor campaign. Evliya mentions that not only the men but also the women of the area were addicted to opium, and those even more so. He characteristically says that the men preferred to while away hours in the coffee house instead of putting up with their doped women at home.

Just like today…

© Dimitris Kambourakis 2003, All Rights Reserved
Translation from the Greek © M.A.K. 2008, All Rights Reserved

A Drop of History 104

The fall of Famagusta
A tale of heroism and dishonesty

The Venetians conquered Cyprus in 1487, turning it into their largest trade station in the Eastern Mediterranean, and kept it until 1570, when the Turks decided to conquer it themselves. Sultan Selim II, before embarking on his campaign against the island, dispatched to the Venetian government the following letter, a fine specimen of Turkish nobility and diplomacy: “I, Sultan Selim, Great Emperor of the Turks, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, King of Jerusalem, Master of the earthly paradise, Shadow of God on earth, demand of you, Republic of Venice, the Kingdom of Cyprus. Give it over peacefully, or I will take it violently. Do not excite my anger, do not challenge my mighty sword. Do not depend on your stores of gold. I will reduce you to ashes.” The letter was so provocative that the Venetians came close to lynching the messenger, who was narrowly saved by the Doge himself.

In July 1570, the Turks disembarked at Larnaca, a great number of well-provisioned soldiers. Their chief was Kara Mustafa Pasha, while the Venetians were under the command of Marcantonio Bragadin. The entire Greek population instantly sided with the Christian Venetians. Nicosia, the administrative centre of the island, fell within a few days and the Turkish army drew up in front of the walls of Famagusta, which was excellently fortified and amply provisioned.

The siege kicked off when a Turkish soldier erected a pole holding up the severed head of Commander Niccolò Dandolo before the main gate of the city. The Turks called out, “Giaours [infidels], surrender”, and attacked yelling “Victory or death”. The siege, which started in early June 1570, lasted until 5 August 1571, and was one of the most glorious war efforts of the Venetians and the Greek Cypriots. 114 cannon pounded the walls day and night; hundreds of saps were dug beneath the walls, filled with explosives and blown up; thousands of Turkish troops mounted constant attacks; the walls were finally reduced to little more than rubble, but the city refused to fall. On the 5th of August, eighty thousand Turks were dead, but the besieged did not have a grain of gunpowder left. They did not even have any water, since they had used it to douse the fires that the Turks started and fed with pine resin and sulphur, in an effort to suffocate them with smoke. After running out of water, they doused the flames with their casks of famous Cypriot wine.

On that 5th of August, Kara Mustafa sent in an envoy with conditions of surrender. He guaranteed all the fighters and the people of the city safe conduct to the ships that would take them to Crete. He even sent a personal letter to Bragadin, naming him the bravest opponent he had ever had and asking to meet him before leaving. Bragadin supervised the boarding of the women and children into forty galleys and then, together with his two aides, rode to Mustafa’s tent on the white horses he had sent himself. Mustafa, on seeing him, forgot all his binding vows by Allah and asked the Venetian, “Why did you not surrender immediately?” before giving the signal for the massacre to start. The two aides were instantly beheaded, and three hundred more Cypriots were slaughtered just outside the tent. The troops fell like vultures onto the non-fighting population and gave themselves up to slaughter, rape and pillage. The forty galleys with the women and children did leave immediately, but instead of Crete, they headed to Istanbul, where the passengers were sold at the slave markets.

Commander Bragadin was kept alive for twenty days. Hideously disfigured by torture, he was finally tied to the Turkish flagpole in the main square of Famagusta and flayed alive. Even after his death, his entire body was flayed methodically, then the strips of skin were sewn back together, stuffed with straw, the head fitted into place, and the gruesome remains were sent as a gift to Sultan Selim. The pieces of the dismembered corpse were stuck on poles and paraded through every town and village in Cyprus, to terrorise the population. Commander Kara Mustafa Pasha, the conqueror of Cyprus, was welcomed with exceptional honours in Istanbul, not only for his commanding abilities but also, it seems, for his integrity…

© Dimitris Kambourakis 2003, All Rights Reserved
Translation from the Greek © M.A.K. 2008, All Rights Reserved

A Drop of History 98

The year of the three sultans
Drunken, degenerate and crazy sultans lead Turkey to collapse

In Turkish history, 1876 is referred to as the year of the three sultans. Indeed, that year was ominous for the erstwhile affluent, magnificent and powerful Ottoman Empire, which, towards the end of the 19th century, was no more than a wretched shadow of its old glorious self. Corrupt and indifferent sultans headed a dissolute state, an economy deeply in debt, an army without any semblance of discipline. The end of the empire was nigh, and that showed clearly in 1876.

The beginning of the year found Abdülaziz on the throne. He was a gigantic bear of a man who never cared to rule his country. All day long he participated in wrestling matches he arranged himself (hence his nickname “the wrestler”) and watched cockfights. While the state’s finances were dire, he built a new palace on the Bosphorus coast, with loans he got from abroad. Once a year he had to appoint a new Grand Vizier (prime minister), which led state power to literal collapse.

He left the state to its own devices for several months while he toured Europe, inviting all heads of state he met to visit Istanbul. That was a first, considering Turkish mores. Proof of that is the incredible episode involving the empress of France and Abdülaziz’s mother. Empress Eugenie accepted the sultan’s formal invitation and visited Istanbul. Abdülaziz presented his august guest to his mother, Valide Sultan Pertevniyal. But the old woman was so incensed by the presence of a foreigner in her harem that, instead of a greeting, she gave the French empress a resounding slap and then tried to strangle her. She would have succeeded if she had not been stopped, but the serious diplomatic incident between France and Turkey could not be avoided.

By 1876, Abdülaziz was raving mad and the state was brought to its figurative knees. As a result, there were revolutions in about half the Turkish provinces. Crete, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, Moldavia, Wallachia, Bulgaria, all rose to arms. The massacres that ensued turned Europe against the sultan. On 30 May 1876, Abdülaziz was deposed and imprisoned in Topkapi Saray. Four days later he was found dead, stabbed nineteen times. The palace doctors examined him and declared formally that Abdülaziz had committed suicide, stabbing himself nineteen times. Pure comedy.

His successor was Murad V, already known for being mentally unstable and alcoholic. He was thirty-five and perpetually drunk on champagne. During the formal ceremony of a sultan’s enthronement, the “girding of Osman’s sword”, Murad passed out drunk. The ceremony, where all the imperial officials and foreign ambassadors were present, was repeated two days later, but Murad still could not stand. He was so drunk that the ceremony was postponed indefinitely. In fact, it never took place, which amazed the people. Murad became sultan on 30 May and was deposed on 31 August, due to insanity and incompetence. He was sultan for exactly three months. He was imprisoned in one of his palaces with his two dozen wives and concubines, his children, and several crates of champagne. He remained there for twenty-eight years, until he died of diabetes, on 29 August 1904.

The third sultan to come to power in 1876 was Abdülhamid II, aged thirty-four and in better form than his predecessors. As soon as he was enthroned, the pressure started on him to grant a constitution, like in the rest of Europe. Heavy-hearted, he appointed a committee, which drafted a constitution which maintained the sultan’s power, but at least was a progressive step. Under certain conditions, the empire could have started on its way to political and economic modernisation, but the old minds did not allow that. The new constitution included a parliament of representatives, which was duly assembled. However, during one of its first sessions, in Abdülhamid’s presence, a representative stood and started criticising the sultan’s actions. The sultan, surprised and unaccustomed to hearing anything but flattery, asked for the speaker’s name and trade. When told that he was a baker, Abdülhamid, enraged, stood, ordered the arrest of the disrespectful baker who had dared talk back to the sultan, and dissolved the parliament. Simple, clear solutions.

That was the end of the first political reformation in Turkey. Forty years later, the Young Turks, under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, would bring the sultans’ power to its final end.

© Dimitris Kambourakis 2003, All Rights Reserved
Translation from the Greek © M.A.K. 2008, All Rights Reserved