Daily Life In The Ottoman Empire (10 page)

At times before embarking on a military campaign, the
Ottoman government instructed trade and craft guilds in the capital to parade
in front of an imperial pavilion where the sultan could review their march. The
Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi wrote that before invading Iran in 1636, Murad
IV ordered all guilds in Istanbul to march in a parade as he and his ministers
and pages watched from the procession pavilion at the Topkapi Palace. Members
of each guild paraded in their unique attire atop floats or on foot. They
displayed their various crafts and trades, trying to outdo one another as they
entertained the sultan and the large crowds, which consisted of the entire
populace of the city except for those actually marching in the procession.
Every guild had its own unique rallying cry, spiritual and religious leader,
and patron saint. The parade began with the palace staff, followed by
prestigious craftsmen, who were then followed by less prestigious groups such
as the manure collectors and the gravediggers. Even “pickpockets, pimps and
male prostitutes formed themselves into guilds, although they had to be
accompanied by guards.” All trade and daily work was interrupted in the city
for the three days during which the excitement of the procession filled the
capital. These parades reasserted the power and control of the sultan over his
subjects and reminded the populace of the existing social hierarchy, providing
an outlet for tensions that periodically arose between the ruling elite and the
subject classes.

Sultan Mahmud II in procession. Anonymous,
19th century.

Street barbers at work in
Istanbul.

The tradition of military parades, which included craftsmen
and artisans, continued into the 18th century. As late as 1718, the Ottoman
troops heading to war against the Habsburgs assembled in Edirne and
participated in a parade that lasted eight hours, starting at eight in the
morning and ending at four in the afternoon. As the sultan watched from the
window of his palace, the procession began with a man of the cloth, mounted on
a richly decorated camel, reciting verses from a Quran, which was finely bound
and laid on a cushion. He was surrounded by a group of boys dressed in white,
reading verses from Islam’s holy book. They were followed by a man dressed in
green boughs, representing a peasant farmer sowing seed, and several reapers
with ears of corn and scythes in their hands pretending to mow. After they had
passed, a “machine drawn by oxen” appeared with a windmill and several boys
grinding the corn; these were followed by another machine drawn by buffaloes
carrying an oven, and two more boys, one kneading the bread and the other
drawing it out of the oven. These young lads threw little cakes to the cheering
crowd and were accompanied by a team of bakers marching on foot, two by two, in
their best clothes, with cakes, loaves, pastries, and pies on their heads. Once
these had passed, “two buffoons” with “their faces and clothes smeared” with
food began to entertain the people. Meanwhile, craftsmen from various trades
continued the procession with the more respected artisans such as the jewelers
and mercers riding horses. An English lady who watched the entire procession
selected the furriers, with their large machine “set round with skins of
ermines, foxes” and stuffed animals, which “seemed to be alive,” followed by
music and dancers as one of the best displays. At the end of the procession,
the volunteer martyrs who pleaded for permission to die on the battlefield
appeared naked down to the waist. In an expression of their zeal for glory and
martyrdom, some had their arms and heads pierced through with arrows left
sticking in them, with the blood trickling down their faces. Others had slashed
their arms with sharp knives, causing blood to spurt out on to the spectators.

When the army returned from a victorious campaign, military
parades were organized to display the bound and chained enemy captives, as well
as the decapitated heads of their troops. These were flayed and salted, and
then stuffed with hay to be carried on poles, pikes, and lances. In his
Book
of Travels,
Evliya Çelebi recounted the return of Murad IV (1623–1640) from
a successful campaign against Iran:

On the 19th of Rajab 1045 [29 December 1635] the illustrious
emperor made his entry into Istanbul with a splendour and magnificence which no
tongue can describe nor pen illustrate. The populace who poured out of the city
to meet the emperor had been dissatisfied with the Kaymakam Bayram Paşa
[the governor of Istanbul], but, gratified by the sight of their emperor, they
became animated by a new spirit. The windows and roofs of the houses in every
direction were crowded with people, who exclaimed, “The blessing of God be upon
thee, O conqueror! Welcome, Murat! May thy victories be fortunate!” In short,
they recovered their spirits, and joy was manifest in every countenance. The
sultan was dressed in steel armour, and had a threefold aigrette in his turban,
stuck obliquely on one side in the Persian manner: he was mounted on a Noghai
steed, followed by seven led horses of the Arab breed, decked out in
embroidered trappings set with jewels. . . . The conqueror looked with dignity
on both sides of him, like a lion who seized his prey, and saluted the people
as he went on, followed by three thousand pages clad in armour. The people
shouted “God be praised!” as he passed, and threw themselves on their faces to
the ground . . . During this triumphant procession to the saray all the ships .
. . fired salutes, so that the sea seemed in a blaze. The public criers
announced that seven days and seven nights were to be devoted to festivity and
rejoicing.

Though “the presence of women in public spaces was regarded
with considerable misgivings,” if the sultan ordered, a large terrace was built
to allow women to participate in the festivities organized by the palace. On
his return from a campaign against the Habsburgs in 1596, Mehmed III demanded
the presence of the women from the royal harem. The sultan’s women were also
present at a royal circumcision held with pomp and ceremony in 1720.

The conqueror of Constantinople, Mehmed II, began the
custom of holding state festivals to mark dynastic events, such as the
circumcisions of princes and the weddings of the sultan’s daughters and
sisters. These celebrations provided an opportunity for the palace to
demonstrate its power and for craftsmen to display their goods and encourage
increased consumption, while allowing the urban population a few days of rest
and distraction before they had to return to the repetition and tension of
everyday life. At times of political and economic crisis, particularly after
military defeat at the hands of foreign foes, these dynastic festivities were
celebrated with special pomp and ceremony. To describe and mark these
festivities, poets and writers composed literary works for
surnames
(imperial
festival books).

Ottoman sultans organized royal circumcision festivals.
Lasting from 10 to 55 days, these imperial feasts marked an “occasion during
which royal princes, along with hundreds of the sultan’s subjects’ boys, were
blessed by the ceremony of circumcision.” The festivities on such occasions
included ceremonial receptions, communal feasts, games and competitions, mock
battles, firework displays, and brightly lit ships and watercraft sailing down
the Golden Horn. The participation of performers from Iran and Egypt “and
various displays of exotic animals like elephants and giraffes gave the
ceremonies a more cosmopolitan flavour.” Circuses and “musical performances,
along with displays of
tableaux vivants
in the shape of dragons” were
also “exhibited on the Bosphorus.” Aside from illuminating Istanbul “with
torches and lamps,” the “circumcision feasts included the decoration of public
buildings”; “banquets for various foreign and state dignitaries; and public
displays of animal sacrifices in the course of rich and spectacular
pageantries.”

During the first days of the festivities, the princes
accompanied their royal father to ceremonies that were held outside the capital
where decorations such as
nahils,
or large pyramid-shaped wooden poles “copiously
decorated with real or artificial flowers and fruits, often gilded or
silver-plated,” were displayed. In “its physical form, built with wax and wire,
a
nahil
was covered with fresh flowers and sprouting foliage,” and it
was often “decorated with symbols of birds, plants and animals of various
kinds,” representing “fertility and the renewal of natural virility embodied in
a symbol of erect vitality.”

The
nahil
(derived from the Arabic word for date
palm) was transported from the imperial palace to the ceremonial ground by a
procession that paraded the large wooden pyramid through the streets of
Istanbul and included musicians, performers, and “a number of Janissaries who
would eventually place it beside the yet to be circumcised prince.” After the
prince had been circumcised, the
nahil,
which symbolized “birth, the
blossoming of life, fertility and regeneration,” was returned to the palace. The
so-called “
nahil
-processions were usually performed alongside various
consumption-related activities like the distribution of sweet pastries, sweet
drinks and sherbet, and at times a sacrificial animal would be brought along to
be slaughtered on behalf of the circumcised prince and royal family.” Sheep
were slaughtered to win God’s blessing and favor, rice dishes and
saffron-colored sweets were prepared, and banquets were arranged by various
government officials and court dignitaries, at which musicians played, dancers
performed, and numerous guilds paraded in all their splendor.

During the circumcision festivities, weddings, and victory
parades, several hundred performers converged and entertained the sultan and
the public. Highly talented and famous performers usually received a large sum
of money for a night of entertainment. These “lords of misrule,” who were, for
the most part, Gypsies, Jews, Armenians, and Greeks, and who included dancers,
singers, musicians, mimics, comics, tumblers, jugglers, and fire-eaters,
competed with each other to produce the most voluptuous dances, the funniest
scenes, and the most astounding tricks.

The appointment of a new grand vizier provided another
occasion for festive celebration. Astrologers determined the auspicious hour
for his arrival in the capital. People rented shops to view the parade that the
new minister led. Once the parade had ended, the new grand vizier arrived at
the palace. There, sheep were slaughtered, and the meat distributed among the
poor. Money and gifts were handed to the troops to secure their support. After
arriving in the palace, the sultan dressed his newly appointed chief minister
in a sable robe of honor, stuck several royal jeweled aigrettes into his turban
with his own hand, and uttered the benediction: “Go, may God the exalted be
your Helper.”

3 – GOVERNING AN EMPIRE

The
grand vizier administered the daily affairs of the empire from
divan-i
hümayun,
or the imperial council, which served as the highest deliberative
organ of the Ottoman government. According “to Mehmed II’s law code, the grand
vizier” (
vezir-i azam
or
sadr-i azam
) was “the head of the
viziers and commanders,” who in all matters acted as “the Sultan’s absolute
deputy.” He appointed all officials in both the central and provincial
administration. Starting in the 17th century, the grand vizier’s official residence
or Bab-i Ali (High Gate), called the Sublime Porte by Europeans, was synonymous
with Ottoman government.