Their horses or their waggons

So was it with their ancestors, the Tartars; now dosing on their horses or their waggons, now galloping over the plains from morning to night.

However, these successive phases of Turkish character, as reported by travellers, have seemed to readers as inconsistencies in their reports; Thornton accepts the inconsistency. “ The national character of the Turks”, he says, “ is a composition of contradictory qualities. We find them brave and pusillanimous ; gentle and ferocious; resolute and inconstant; active and indolent; fastidiously abstemious and indiscriminately indulgent. The great are alternately haughty and humble, arrogant and cringing, liberal and sordid”. What is this but to say in one word that we find them barbarians ?

According to these distinct moods or phases of character, they will leave very various impressions of themselves on the minds of successive beholders. A traveller finds them in their ordinary state in repose and serenity; he is surprised and startled from their being so different from what he imagined; he admires and extols them, and inveighs against the prejudice which has slandered them to the European world. He finds them mild and patient, tender to the brute creation, as becomes the children of a Tartar shepherd, kind and hospitable, self-possessed and dignified, the lowest classes sociable with each other, and the children gamesome. It is true; they are as noble as the lion of the desert, and as gentle and as playful as the fireside cat. Our traveller observes all this; and seems to forget that Vid. Sir Charles Fellows’ Asia Minor.

From the highest to the humblest of the feline tribe, from the cat to the lion, the most wanton and tyrannical cruelty alternates with qualities more engaging or more elevated. Other barbarous tribes also have their innocent aspects;from the Scythians in the classical poets and historians down to the Lewchoo islanders in the pages of Basil Hall.

Natural excellences of the Turks

But whatever be the natural excellences of the Turks, progressive they are not. This Sir Charles Fellows seems to allow: “ My intimacy with the character of the Turks”, he says, “ which has led me to think so highly of their moral excellence, has not given me the same favourable impression of the development of their’moSl powers Their refinement is of manners and affections; there is little cultivation or activity of mind among them”. This admission implies a great deal, and brings us to a fresh consideration.

Bajazet spared twentyfive of his noblest prisoners

Bajazet spared twenty-five of his noblest prisoners, whom their wealth and station made it politic to except; then, summoning the rest before his throne, he offered them the famous choice of the Koran or the sword. As they came up one by one, they one by one professed their faith in Christ, and were beheaded in the Sultan’s presence. His royal and noble captives be carried about with him in his march through Europe and Asia, as he himself was soon to grace the retinue of Timour.

Two of the most illustrious of them died in prison in Asia. As to the .rest, he exacted a heavy ransom from them; and, before he sent them away, he gave them a grand entertainment, which displayed both the barbarism and the magnificence of the Asiatic. He displayed before them his hunting and hawking equipage, amounting to seven thousand huntsmen and as many falconers; and, when one of his chamberlains was accused before him of drinking a poor woman’s goat’s milk, he literally fulfilled the “ castigat auditque” of the poet, by having the unhappy man ripped open, in order to find the evidence of the charge.

Such was the disastrous issue of the battle of Nico- polis; nor is it wonderful that it should damp the zeal of the Christians and weaken the influence of the Pope, for a long time to come; any how, it had this effect till the critical moment of the Turkish misfortunes was over, and the race of Othman was recovering itself after the captivity and death of its Sultan. “Whereas the Turks might have been expelled from Greece on the loss of their Sultan”, says Rainaldus, “ Christians, torn to pieces by their quarrels and by schism, lost a fit and sufficient op-portunity. Whence it followed, that the wound inflicted upon the beast was not unto death, but he revived more ferocious for the devouring of the faithful”.

Bravery of Hunniades

However, Christendom made a second attempt still, hut when it was too late. The grandson of Baja- zet was then on the throne, one of the ablest of the Sultans; and, though the allied Christian army had considerable success against him at first, in vain was the bravery of Hunniades, and the preaching of St. John Capistran: the Turk managed to negociate with them, to put them in the wrong, to charge them with perjury, then to beat them in the fatal battle of Varna, in which the King of Hungary and Poland and the Pope’s Legate were killed, with 10,000 men. In vain after this was any attempt to make head against the enemy; in vain did Pope after Pope raise his warning voice and point to the judgment which hung over Christendom; Constantinople fell.

The greatest glories

It often happens in the history of states and races, in which there is found first a rise and then a decline, that the greatest glories take place just then when the reverse is beginning or begun. Thus, for instance, in the history of the Ottoman Turks, to which I have not yet come, Soliman the Magnificent is at once the last and greatest of a series of great Sultans. So was it as regards this house of Seljuk. Malek Shah, the son of Alp Arslan, the third sovereign, in whom its glories ended, is represented to us in history in colours so bright and perfect, that it is difficult to believe we are not reading the account of some mythical personage. He came to the throne at the early age of seventeen ; he was well-shaped, handsome, polished both in manners and in mind; wise and courageous, pious and sincere. He engaged himself even more in the consolidation of his empire, than in its extension. He reformed abuses; he reduced the taxes; he repaired the high roads, bridges, and canals; he built an imperial mosque at Bagdad; he founded and nobly endowed a college. He patronised learning and poetry, and he reformed the calendar. He provided marts for commerce; he upheld the pure administration of justice, and protected the helpless and the innocent. He established wells and cisterns in great numbers along the road of pilgrimage to Mecca; he fed the pilgrims, and distri-buted immense sums among the poei.

He was in every respect a great prince; be extended his conquests across Sogdiana cAe very borders of China. He subdued by his lieutenants Syria and the Holy Land, and took Jerusalem. He is said to have travelled round his vast do minions twelve times. So great was he, that he actually gave away kingdoms, and had for feudatories great princes. He gave to his cousin his territories in Asia Minor, and planted him over against Constantinople, as an earnest of future conquests; and he may be said to have finally allotted to the Turcomans the fair regions of Western Asia, over which they roam to this day.

All human greatness has its term; the more brilliant was this great Sultan’s rise, the more sudden was his extinction; and the earlier he came to his power, the earlier did he lose it. He had reigned twenty years, and was but thirty-seven years old, when he was lifted up with pride and came to his end broad beans. He disgraced and abandoned to an assassin his faithful vizir, at the age of ninety-three, who for thirty years had been the servant and benefactor of the house of Seljuk.

After obtaining from the Caliph the peculiar and almost incommunicable title of “ the commander of the faithful”, unsatisfied still, he wished to fix his own throne in Bagdad, and to deprive his impotent superior of his few remaining t honours. He demanded the hand of the daughter of the Greek Emperor, a Christian, in marriage. A few days, and he was no more; he had gone out hunting, and returned indisposed; a vein was opened, and the blood would not flow. A burning fever took him off, only eighteen days after the murder of his vizir, and less than ten before the day when the Caliph was to have been removed from Bagdad.

Poor Sultan

Such is human greatness at the best, even were it ever so innocent; but as to this poor Sultan, there is another aspect even of his glorious deeds. If I have seemed here or elsewhere in these Lectures to speak of him or his with interest or admiration, only take me as giving the external view of the Turkish history, and that as introductory to the settlement of its true significance. Historians and poets may celebrate the exploits of Malek; but what were they in the sight of Him who has said that whoso shall strike against His corner-stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, shall be ground to powder? Looking at this Sultan’s deeds as mere exhibitions of human power, they were brilliant and marvellous; but there was another judgment of them formed in the West, and other feelings than admiration roused by them in the faith and the chivalry of Christendom.

Usbeks as an expensive food

And so of horseflesh; I believe it is still put out for sale in the Chinese markets; Lieutenant Wood, in his travels to the source of the Oxus, speaks of it among the Usbeks as an expensive food. Pinkerton tells us that it is made into dried hams; but this seems to be a refinement, for we hear a great deal from various authors of its being eaten more than half raw. After all, horseflesh was the most delicate of the Tartar viands in the times we are now considering. We are told that, in spite of their gold and silver and jewels, they were content to eat dogs, foxes, and wolves; and, as I have observed before, the flesh of animals which died of disease.

But again we have lost sight of the ambassador of Spain. After this banquet, he was taken about by Timour to other palaces, each more magnificent than the one preceding it. He speaks of the magnificent halls, painted with various colours, of the hangings of silk, of gold and silver embroidery, of tables of solid gold, and of the rubies and other precious stones. The most magnificent of these entertainments was on a plain; 20,000 pavilions being pitched around Timour’s, which displayed the most gorgeous variety of colours. Two entertainments were given by the ladies of the court, in which the state queens of Timour, nine in number, sat in a row, and here pages handed round wine, not koumiss, in golden cups, which they were not slow in emptying.

The good Friar, who went from St. Louis to the princes of the house of Zingis, several centuries earlier, gives us a similar account. When he was presented to the Khan, he went with a Bible and Psalter in his hand; on entering the royal apartment, he found a curtain of felt spread across the room; it was lifted up, and discovered the great man at table with his wives about him, and prepared for drinking koumiss. The court knew something of Christianity from the Nestorians, who were about it, and the Friar was asked to say a blessing on the meal; so he entered singing the Salve Regina. On another occasion he was present at the baptism of a wife of the Khan by a Nestorian priest.

Demanding no perseverance

In maritime countries indeed he must have recourse to other expedients; he fishes in the stream, or among the rocks of the beach. In the woods he betakes himself to roots and wild honey; or he has a resource in the chase, an occupation, ever ready at hand, exciting, and demanding no perseverance. But when the savage finds himself inclosed in the continent and the wilderness, he draws the domestic animals about him, and constitutes himself the head of a sort of brute polity. He becomes a king and father of the beasts, and by the economical arrangements which this pretension involves, advances a first step, though a low one, in civilization, which the hunter or the fisher does not attain.

And here, beyond other animals, the horse is the instrument of that civilization. It enables him to govern and to guide his sheep and cattle; it carries him to the chase, when he is tempted to it; it transports him and his from place to place; while his very locomotion and shifting locationand independence of soil define tlie idea and secure the existence both of a household and of personal property. Nor is this all which this animal does for him; it is food both in its life and in its death; when dead, it nourishes him with its flesh, and while alive, it supplies its milk for an intoxicating liquor which, under the name of koumiss, has from time immemorial served the Tartar instead of wine or spirits.

The horse then is his friend under all circumstances, and inseparable from him; he maybe even said to live on horseback, he eats and sleeps without dismounting, till the fable has been current that he has a centaur’s nature, half man and half beast. Thus it was that the ancient Saxons had a horse for their ensign in war; thus it is that the Ottoman ordinances are, I believe, to this day dated from “ the imperial stirrup”, and the display of horsetails at the gate of the palace is the Ottoman signal of war. Thus too, as the Catholic ritual measures intervals by the Miserere, and St. Ignatius in his Exercises by the Pater Noster, so the Turcomans and the Usbeks speak familiarly of the time of a gallop.

The habit of a Durwesh

TALE XX

I saw, sitting in a company, a certain person who wore the habit of a Durwesh, but without possessing the disposition of one; and being inclined to be querulous, he had opened the book of complaint, and began censuring the rich. The discourse was turning on this point, that Durweshes have not the means, and the rich not the inclination to be charitable. Those possessed of liberal minds have no command of money, and the wealthy worldlings have no munificence.

To me, who owe my support to the bounty of the great, this language was not at all grateful. I said, “0 my friend, the rich are the revenue of the poor, a store-house for the recluse, the pilgrim’s hope, and the asylum of travellers. They are the bearers of burthens for the relief of others.* Themselves eat along with their dependants and inferiors, and the remainder of their bounty is applied to the relief of widows, aged people, relations, and neighbours.

The rich are charged with pious dedications, the performance of vows, tlie rites of hospitality, alms, offerings, the manumission of slaves, gifts, and sacrifices. By what means can you attain to their power, who can perform only your genuflexions, and even those with a hundred difficulties? The rich perform both moral and religious duties in the most perfect manner, because they possess wealth, out of which they bestow alms: their garments are clean, and their reputation spotless, with minds void of care. For the power of obedience is found in good meals, the truth of worship in a clean garment.

For what strength can there be with an empty stomach? What bounty from an empty hand? How can the fettered feet walk? And from the hungry belly, what munificence can be expected? He sleeps uneasily at night, who knows not how to provide for the morrow. The ants store up in summer, that in winter they may enjoy rest. Leisure and poverty are not found together, and satisfaction dwelletli not with distress. One is standing up to evening prayers, whilst the other is sitting down wishing for his supper. How can these two be compared together?

Travelled the whole night with the caravan

TALE XXVI

I recollect that once I had travelled the whole night with the caravan, and in the morning had gone to sleep by the side of a desert; a distracted man, who had accompanied us in the journey, set up a cry, took the road of the desert, and did not enjoy a moment’s repose. When it was day, I asked him what was the matter? He replied, “I heard the nightingales on the trees, the partridges in the mountains, the frogs in the water, and the brutes in the desert, uttering their plaintive notes and doleful lamentation. I reflected that it did not become a human being, through neglect of my duty, to be asleep, whilst other creatures were celebrating the praises of God.”

Last night, towards morning, the lamentations of a bird deprived me of reason, patience, power, and sensation. When my voice reached the ears of a sincere friend he said, “I could not have believed that the notes of a bird would in such a manner have deprived you of your senses participants independently optimize.” I replied, “It is not consistent with the laws of human nature, that whilst a bird is reciting the praises of God, 1 should be silent.”

TALE XXVII

Once I travelled to Ilejaz along with some young men of virtuous disposition, who had been my intimate friends and constant companions. Frequently, in their mirth, they recited spiritual verses. There happened to be in the party an Abid, who thought unfavourably of the morals of Durweshes, being ignorant of their sufferings. At length we arrived at the grove of palm-trees of Beni Hullal, when a boy of dark complexion came out of one of the Arab families, and sang in such a strain as arrested the b’rds in their flight through the air. 1 beheld the Abid’s camel dancing; and, after flinging his rider, he took the road of the desert, I said, “0 Shaikh, those strains delighted the brutes, but made no impression on you; knowest thou what the nightingale of the morning said to me?

What kind of a man art thou, who are ignorant of love P ’ The camel is thrown into ecstacy by the Arabic verses, for which if thou hast no relish, thou art a cross-grained brute. When the camel is captivated wTith ecstatic phrenzy, that man who can be insensible is an ass. The wind blowing over the plains causes the tender branches of the ban-tree to bend before it, but affects not the hard stone. Every thing that you behold is exclaiming the praises of God, as is well known unto the understanding heart: not only the nightingale and the rose-bush are chanting praises to God, but every thorn is a tongue to extol him.”

Journey unexpectedly happened

TALE VII

A person who had not seen his friend for a long time said, “Where have you been whilst I was so anxious to hear of you? ” He answered, “It is better to desire than to loathe. You have come late, 0 intoxicated idol; I will not let you escape from me again quickly. It is, however, better to see a sweetheart after intervals of absence, than to be satiated with a continuance of her company. The mistress, when she comes accompanied by my rivals, can only do so to torment me, because such society must excite envy and contention. When thou comest to visit me accompanied by my rivals, although you appear peaceable yet your attention is hostile. If my mistress associates with my rival only for an instant, I shall soon die of jealousy.” Smiling he replied, “0 Sady, I am the candle of the assembly, what is it to me if the moth will consume itself? ”

TALE VIII

I remember that in former times I associated so continually with a friend, that we were like double almond. A journey unexpectedly happened. When I returned, he began to reproach me for having been so long absent without sending a messenger, I replied, “It seemed distressing to me that the eyes of a courier should be enlightened by your countenance, whilst I was deprived of that happiness, Tell my old friend not to impose a vow upon me, for I would not vow to relinquish him not from the dread of a sword, I cannot endure the thoughts of any one seeing you to satiety. Again I say, it is impossible for any one to be satiated with your company,”

King looked displeased at these words

The King looked displeased at these words, as they did not accord with his enlightened understanding, and lie observed that an evil root will not thrive in a goodly shade. “To educate the worthless, is like throwing a walnut upon a dome: it is better to eradicate them ‘altogether; for to extinguish the fire and suffer a spark to remain, or to kill the snake and preserve the young, is not acting like a wise man. Though the clouds should pour down the water of life, you would never gather fruit from the branch of the willow. Waste not your time on low people, for we can never obtain sugar from the reed.” When the Vizier heard these words, lie reluctantly approved of them, and praised the King for liis just observation, saying, “May the King live for ever!

Nothing can be more true than what my lord hath pronounced, that if he had continued with those wicked wretches, he would naturally have fallen into their evil courses, and would have become one of them; but your servant entertains hopes, that this boy, by associating with men of probity, will receive instruction, and imbibe virtuous sentiments; for being but a child, his principles cannot be tainted with the lawless and inimical disposition of that banditti; for in the Hadees it is recorded: ‘ Of a truth every one is born with a disposition to Islamism, and it is owing to his parents his becoming a Jew, a Christian, or a Majoosie.’

Lot’s wife associated with the wicked, and his posterity forfeited the gift of prophecy; but the dog of the companions of the cave, by long converse with the virtuous, became a rational creature.” The Vizier having thus concluded his speech, some of the courtiers joined in his petition, till at length the King spared the life of the youth, and said, “I grant your request, although I disapproved of it. Know you not what Zal said to Rustam? Consider not any enemy as weak and contemptible. I have frequently seen water issue from a small spring, which so increased in its course, that it carried away the camel with his load.” Summarily, the Vizier took the youth into his family, and educated him with kindness and attention. An able master was appointed his tutor, who taught him how to ask a question, and return an answer with elegance, together with all the accomplishments requisite for court, so that his manners met with general approbation.

Newspapers and magazines from all over Europe

The atrocities committed in Bulgaria became the most popular subject tackled by the European press. More than 200 prestigious newspapers and magazines from all over Europe in some 3, 000 articles and reports gave coverage of the bloody events in Bulgaria. Besides the above- mentioned investigators, most helpful for the cause of Bulgaria were Edwin Piers, the Constantinople correspondent of the Daily News, the French consuls in Sofia and Plovdiv Le Gay and DTstria, Emil de Girardin, editor in the La France newspaper, Ives de Woestin, correspondent of Le Figaro, the Italian consuls in Sofia and Plovdiv Vito Positano and Takela, to mention but a few.

A powerful movement in defence of the Bulgarian people who had proved with their own blood that they were worthy of living in freedom, was set afoot in a number of countries. This movement acquired the greatest dimensions in Russia. The ‘Otechestvennye Zapiski’ magazine wrote: ‘No one here would think, listen, speak or read about anything but the developments on the other side of the Danube’. As the great Bulgarian historian Professor Marin Drinov, who was working at that time in Kharkov, wrote, Russia was shaken ‘by one of those movements which involve the whole Russian people only at the greatest moments of their historical life.’

Government of Disraeli

The conservative government of Disraeli was benevolently neutral with regard to Turkey during the up-rising, which determined the widespread movement in defence of the Bulgarian people in Britain. More than 250 meetings were held throughout the country and hundreds of telegrams of protest were addressed to the government. The leader of the opposition, Liberal Party William Gladstone, made scores of speeches and published in a mass circulation the booklets ‘The Bulgarian Horrors and the Eastern Question’ and ‘Lessons in Slaughtering’. Relief funds were collected to help the Bulgarian population. Particularly active in this campaign was Lady Strangford, who Lad visited Bulgaria.

The movement in defence of the Bulgarians developed in a number of other countries, too: Romania, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Croatia, Germany. Girar- din’s pamphlet ‘Europe’s Disgrace’, published in France, went through several printings. The brightest minds of the epoch – Darwin, Victor Hugo, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Nekrassov, Dostoyevsky, Mendeleev, Sechenov, Garibaldi and many others spoke ardently in defence of the Bulgarian people. On August 29, L876 the great writer and humanist Victor Hugo pronounced his celebrated speech in the French Parliament, calling upon the governments to take measures to put an end to the sufferings of the heroic Bulgarian people.

Ivailo declared

In the style of mediaeval superstition, Ivailo declared that he had heard a voice from heaven ordering him to save his people from those who looted and tortured them. The peasant volunteers in his army, who had risen to defend their land and homes from the foreign invaders, turned into an insurgent army which captured a number of feudal castles, storehouses for food and arms and was headed for the capital. The tsar, who had not dared come out of Turnovo’s walls while Ivailo’s peasant forces were shedding their blood to repel the Tartars, rallied his army and set out against Ivailo’s ‘rabble’. The latter, steeled in the cruel battles with the Tartar hordes, defeated the army of the Tsar in the very first encounter. The Tsar himself fell in the battle.

The peasant leader entered Turnovo triumphantly, welcomed enthusiastically by the people and with servile homage paid him by the boyars, who were scared to death. A. Crown Council, hastily convened, proclaimed Ivailo Tsar and the widowed Tsarina changed her mourning for a wedding dress. The ‘idyll’ in Turnovo, howevei, did not last long. The Tartar hordes of Nogai again invaded the country from the north and Ivailo had very soon to exchange his royal mantle and the splendour of his court for the hardships of army life.

Byzantine government

In a great number of bloody battles which lasted for over two years, the ‘peasant Tsar’ succeeded in chasing the Tartars away; but while his courageous soldiers were defending their country’s independence, a boyar revolt was coming to a head in the capital. With the help of the cunning Tsarina the boyars had come into contact with the Byzantine government, and asked for help against Ivailo. The Byzantine troops passed the Balkan Range without encountering any resistance, and the boyars themselves opened to them the gates of Turnovo. Ivailo’s army defeated the Byzantines, but mercenaries hired by the boyars attacked him from behind. Ivailo escaped to his previous adversaries – the Tartars – and found his death there. An end was thus put in 1280 to the peasant uprising in Bulgaria.

In spite of its tragic end, Ivailo’s uprising is a fact of great importance not only for Bulgarian, but also for Euro-pean history. It is the earliest known organized peasant anti-feudal uprising of such a scale and scope in Europe, and Ivailo was the first peasant leader in those days who succeeded in seizing state power and in holding it for more than three years. Credit is also due to the Bulgarian peasants who had risen in revolt against feudal exploitation, for having barred with their blood the way of the Tartar hordes to Bulgaria and for having weakened their pressure against the Balkans and Central Europe.

Pleasant impression of the Rouman Capital

Altogether, my brief sojourn m Boduiest gave me a very pleasant impression of the Rouman Capital If I were compelled to choose whether I would reside at Sofia or Bucharest, I might be distracted between my respect for moral qualities and my personal taste for material comfort. But, looking at the question from an altruistic point of view, I am convinced the social development of Bulgaria, as typified by Sofia, is sounder and more promising for the future than that of Romania, as personified by Bucharest.

The Romanians have succeeded in adding another to the Capitals of modem Europe, displaying all the luxury, all the extravagance, all the passion for enjoyment, all the inequalities of wealth, and all the consequent misery, discontent, and rice which form the necessary concomitants of our fin de stick civilization. As yet, the Bulgarians have only created at Sofia a city fitted to be the centre of a peasant State. For themselves— whatever they may have done for strangers—they have chosen the better part

How it came to pass that two States, situated so close to each other as Bulgaria and Romania, coming into existence under such analogous conditions, and having so much in common, should have developed up to now in such different directions, is a question concerning which I had not time or opportunity to arrive at any definite conclusion. Probably the main cause is the fundamental difference of race and character between the two nations.

Whether the Roumans are or arc not, as they boast, the lineal descendants of the old Romans, they are undoubtedly a race of Latin origin and Latin tongue, which, by some strange freak of history, has managed to survive in this No Man’s Land of Eastern Europe. For good or bad the Rouman is a Latin, just as the Magyar is a Tartar and the Serb is a Sclav.

Rouman speaking races

There are Rouman-speaking races, not only on the banks of the Danube, but in Austria, in Turkey, and in Russia; and the patriots of Bucharest do not conceal their ambition of some day or other uniting all the branches of the Rouman nationality into one State and then rendering that State the leading member of some confederation of South-Eastern Europe.