NARRATIVE OF TRAVELS
IN
EUROPE, ASIA, AND AFRICA,
IN
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY,
BY
EVLIYÁ EFENDÍ.
TRANSLATED FROM THE TURKISH
BY
THE RITTER JOSEPH VON HAMMER,
F.M R.A.S, &c. &c. &c.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THE ORIENTAL TRANSLATION FUND
OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND;
SOLD BY
PARBURY, ALLEN, & Co., LEADENHALL STREET.
M.DCCC.XXXIV.
LONDON:
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ADVERTISEMENT.
The narrative of an Asiatic traveller, enthusiastically fond of seeing foreign countries, and unwearied in his investigation of their history, condition, and institutions, is in itself so great a singularity, and so deserving of attention, that no apology seems requisite for thus presenting Evliyá Efendí in an English dress: and the name of the Ritter von Hammer, by whom this work was abridged and translated, is a sufficient voucher for its intrinsic merit and the accuracy of the version.
It is requisite to inform the reader, that throughout the work the Asiatic words and proper names are spelt according to the system of orthography adopted by Sir William Jones and Sir Charles Wilkins, which gives to the consonants the sound they have in our own, but to the vowels that which they have in the Italian and German languages; and by assigning to each Arabic character its appropriate Roman letter, enables the Oriental student to transfer the word at once from one mode of writing to the other.
London, 20th Jan. 1834.
[BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR.]
Evliyá, the son of Dervísh Mohammed, chief of the goldsmiths of Constantinople, was born in the reign of Sultán Ahmed I., on the 10th of Moharrem 1020 (A.D. 1611). He records the building of the mosque of Sultán Ahmed, which was begun when he was six years old, and the gate of which was executed under the superintendance of his father, who in his youth had been standard-bearer to Sultán Suleïmán. His grandfather was standard-bearer at the conquest of Constantinople, by Sultán Mohammed, on which occasion the house within the Un-kapán (flour-market), on the ground attached to the mosque of Sághirjílar, was the portion of spoil allotted to him. On this spot he erected one hundred shops, the revenues of which he devoted to the mosque. The administration of the mosque, therefore, remained in the hands of the family. He mentions more than once, as one of his ancestors, the great Sheikh Ahmed Yesov, called the Turk of Turks, a resident of Khorásán, and who sent his disciple, the celebrated Hájí Bektásh,[1] to Sultán Orkhán. Evliyá’s mother was an Abáza, and when a girl, had been sent along with her brother to Sultán Ahmed, who kept the boy as a page, and presented the girl to Mohammed Dervísh, the chief of the goldsmiths. The brother had, or received, the Sultán’s name, with the sirname Melek (angel), and is mentioned in history as the Grand Vezír Melek Ahmed Pashá, in whose suite Evliyá performed a great part of his travels.
Evliyá attended the college of Hámid Efendí, in the quarter of the town called Fíl Yúkúshí, where for seven years he heard the lectures of Akhfash Efendí. His tutor in reading the Korán was Evliyá Mohammed, a learned man, after whom it appears our traveller was named. Distinguished by his acquirements, his melodious voice, and, as it seems, by a fine person, he performed the duty of Móazzin at Ayá Sófíya on the Lailat al Kadr of 1045 (1635), on which occasion, as he himself relates, he attracted the particular attention of Sultán Murád IV. He was then twenty-five years old; and under the care of his master had made such progress in the art of reading the Korán, that he could read the whole in seven hours, and was perfectly versed in the seven modes of reading. His uncle Melek Ahmed was at this time sword-bearer to the Sultán, and it seems that Evliyá was in some degree indebted to his interest for the favour of being immediately admitted as a page of the Kílár-oda. The Sultán was not less pleased with his melodious voice and his witty remarks, which evinced much information, than with his handsome person, in consequence of which he was initiated into all the profligacies of the royal pages, the relation of which, in more than one place, leaves a stain upon his writings. He, however, continued his studies in caligraphy, music, grammar, and the Korán, the latter still under the direction of Evliyá Mohammed, who was then imperial chaplain (Khúnkár Imámí).[2]
His stay in the imperial palace was, however, very short, as he was removed from it previously to the Persian expedition, undertaken the same year (1045) against Eriván, when he was enrolled among the Sipáhís, with a stipend of forty aspres per diem. Whatever importance Evliyá may have attached to the honour of having been for a short time an inmate of the seraglio, it seems to have produced no change in his life, which was that of a traveller all his days. To this vocation, he conceived he had a special call in a dream on the anniversary of his twenty-first birth-day (the 10th of Moharrem). He fancied himself in the mosque of Akhí-Chelebí, where the Prophet appeared to him in full glory, surrounded by all the saints of the Islám. When he wished to pray for the intercession (shifáa’t) of the Prophet, by mistake he asked for travelling (siyáhat), which was granted to him, together with permission to kiss the hands of the Prophet, the four Imáms, and of the saints. His friends the Sheikhs, from whom he requested the interpretation of this dream, assured him that he should enjoy the favour of monarchs, and the good fortune of visiting in his travels the tombs of all the saints and great men whom he had seen. From this moment he formed the resolution of passing his life in travelling, and visiting the tombs of the saints; thus his name Evliyá (saints) became significant, as he was all his life Mohibbi Evliyá, that is, the friend of the saints. This circumstance accounts for the predilection he evinces in visiting the tombs and monuments of the saints, as he often dwells with particular pleasure on the description of places of pilgrimage. Evliyá (the friend of saints), Háfiz (knowing the Korán by heart), and Siyyáh (the traveller), are the names by which he styles himself, although he is more commonly known by the name of Evliyá Chelebí or Efendí; and his work is called Siyyáh Námeh, or the History of the Traveller.
Having received his call by a vision of the Prophet, he commenced his travels by excursions through Constantinople and its environs, his topographical descriptions of which, as to the latter, are perhaps the best extant, and occupy the whole of the first volume. The most valuable portion of it is that towards the end, in which he gives a detailed account of the various corporations of tradesmen, and the rank they held in the solemn processions.
He travelled, as he frequently mentions, for forty-one years, so that he must have completed his travels in the year 1081 (A.D. 1670), when he was sixty-one years of age, and he seems to have devoted the rest of his life to repose, and to the writing of his travels, which extended to all parts of the Ottoman empire, in Europe, Asia, and Africa, except Tunis, Algiers, and Tripolis, which he never visited, and which he therefore passes over in his statistical account of the Ottoman empire. Besides travelling in Rumelia, Anatolia, Syria, and Egypt, he accompanied the Turkish Embassy to Vienna in 1664, as secretary, whence he proceeded to the Netherlands and Sweden, and returned by the Crimea. Though generally employed in diplomatic and financial missions, he was sometimes engaged in battles, and mentions having been present at twenty-two; the first of which was the expedition to Eriván, which took place the same year in which he entered and left the Seraglio (1645). His father, who had been standard-bearer at the siege of Siget (1564), and must at this time have been nearly ninety years of age, was ordered, together with some other veterans who had served under Sultán Suleïmán, to accompany the expedition in litters, merely to encourage the Janissaries. This was Evliyá’s first campaign, but he has left no account of it.
His second journey was to Brousa, in 1640, with the account of which he commences his second volume. This journey he undertook, together with some friends, without his father’s consent, and having visited all the baths, monuments, mosques, and public walks, he returned to Constantinople, where he was well received by his father.
In the beginning of Rebi-ul-evvel he set out on his third journey, which was to Nicomedia. On his return he visited the Princes’ Islands, and arrived at Constantinople a month after he had left it.
Ketánjí Omar Páshá having been appointed to the government of Trebisonde, he made his old friend, Evliyá’s father, his agent at Constantinople, and took Evliyá along with him. They left Constantinople in the beginning of Rebi-ul-ákhir, and proceeded to Trebisonde, coasting by Kefken, Heraclea, Amassera, Sinope, Samsún, and Kherson. From Trebisonde he was ordered to attend the zemburukchís (camel-artillery) of Gonia to the siege of Azov in 1051. He proceeded along the shores of the Black Sea through the country of the Abáza, the history and description of which form the most interesting part of Evliyá’s travels. The fleet destined for Azov reached Anapa shortly after the arrival of Evliyá. He immediately waited upon the commander, Delí Husain Páshá, who received him into his suite, and placed him on board the galley of his kehiyá. They sailed for Azov on the 12th of Sha’bán. Evliyá was present at the siege, which being unsuccessful, was raised, and he accompanied the Tatár Khán’s army, which returned to the Crimea by land. At Bálakláva he embarked for Constantinople, but was wrecked, and escaped with only two slaves out of the many whom he had collected in his travels through Abáza and Mingrelia. He was thrown on the coast of Kilyra, whence he proceeded to Constantinople.
In 1055 (1645) the fleet was fitted out, as was generally rumoured, for an expedition against Malta, and Evliyá embarked on board the ship of the Capudán Páshá, Yúsuf Páshá, in the capacity of Móazzin-báshí.[3] The expedition, however, having touched at the Morea, suddenly turned upon Candia, where Evliyá was present at the reduction of the castle of St. Todero, and the siege of Canea; after which he attended several military excursions to Dalmatia and Sebenico.
On his return to Constantinople he made arrangements for his sixth journey, with Defterdár Zádeh Mohammed Páshá, who was at that time appointed governor of Erzerúm, and whom Evliyá accompanied as clerk of the custom-house at Erzerúm. Their route lay through Nicomedia, Sabanja, Bólí, Túsia, Amásia, Nígísár, and they reached Erzerúm, having made seventy stages. Shortly afterwards the Páshá sent him on a mission to the Khán of Tabríz, with a view to facilitate a commercial intercourse. This was Evliyá’s first journey into Persia. On his way he visited Etchmiazin, Nakhcheván, and Merend; and returned by Aján, Erdebíl, Eriván, Bakú, Derbend, Kákht, the plain of Chaldirán, and the fortress of Akhíska. Ten days after he was again despatched to Eriván, on returning from which he resumed his duties at the custom-house. He was, however, scarcely settled, when the Páshá sent him on a mission to the governor of the Sanjaks of Jánja and Tortúm, in order to collect the troops which had been ordered by a Khatt-i-sheríf. With this commission he visited the towns of Baiburd, Jánja, Isper, Tortúm, Akchekala’, and Gonia, of which latter the Cossacks had at that time taken possession. Evliyá witnessed its reduction, and was the first to proclaim on its walls the faith of the Islám.
The Mingrelians having revolted on the occasion of one of the Cossack inroads, a predatory expedition into Mingrelia was undertaken by Seidí Ahmed Páshá; and Evliyá having over-run the country with his plundering party, returned to Erzerúm, whence, on the 18th of Zilka’da, he set out on his return to Constantinople. His Páshá, Defterdár Zádeh Mohammed, having openly rebelled against the Porte, he followed him from Erzerúm through Kumákh, Erzenján, Shínkara-hisár, Ládík, Merzifún, Koprí, Gumish, Jorúm, and Tokát. He once fell into the hands of robbers, but fortunately effecting his escape, he followed his master to Angora. The inhabitants of this town not permitting the Páshá to shut himself up in the castle, he was again obliged to take the field. His great ally Várvár Páshá, on whose account he had rebelled, though he had beaten and made prisoners several Páshás (amongst whom was Kopreilí, afterwards celebrated as the first Grand Vezír of the family), was at last defeated, and killed by Ibshír Páshá. Defterdár Zádeh Mohammed Páshá, however, managed his affairs so well, that he obtained not only his pardon but a new appointment. Evliyá was with him at Begbázár, when he received the intelligence of his father’s death, and that all his property had fallen to his step-mother and his sisters. On hearing this he took leave of Defterdár Zádeh, and proceeded by Turbelí, Taráklí, and Kíva, to Constantinople, where he arrived at the time of the great revolution, by which Sultán Selím was deposed, and Mohammed IV. raised to the throne. Evliyá’s account of this revolution, and of the principal actors in it, is so much the more interesting, that the chief favourite of Ibrahím, the famous Jinjí Khoajeh, of whose ignorance he makes mention, had been Evliyá’s school-fellow. Evliyá, however, had been well treated by him, and received as an old school-fellow, shortly before his own fall, and that of his royal master, Ibrahím, which happened in the year 1058 (1648).
Evliyá next attached himself to Silihdár Murtezá Páshá, who was appointed Governor of Damascus, as Moazzin-báshí (an office which, as before mentioned, he had held under Yúsuf Páshá, in the expedition against Canea), and as Imám Mahmil, or priest of the caravan of pilgrims to Mecca. He left Constantinople in the beginning of Sha’bán 1058 (1648).
The third volume commences with an account of his seventh great journey, which was to Damascus. He had scarcely arrived at this place when he was sent by Murtezá Páshá on a mission to Constantinople. This journey was performed very rapidly, and he gives no particular account of it, only mentioning that he met some of the robbers belonging to the party of Kátirjí Oghlí.
He returned with the same despatch to Damascus, whence he set out on his pilgrimage to Mecca, through Egypt. Of this pilgrimage no account is given in our manuscript copy, as it seems he died before he had completed the work. There is no question, however, as to the time at which it was undertaken, since in his account of the reign of Sultán Murád IV. he states that he was just in time, after his return from Mecca through Egypt, to share in the glory of the victory gained by Murtezá Páshá over the Druzes, in the year 1059. Now Evliyá’s account of this expedition commences in the month of Moharrem 1059, from which it may be supposed that he had just returned from Mecca, where the annual ceremonies of the pilgrimage take place in Zilhijeh, the last month of the year.
Evliyá was employed by Murtezá on various missions, the object of which was to collect debts and exact money. On such errands he was sent to Mount Lebanon, Karak, Balbek, Akka, Yaffa, and Haleb, whence he took a journey to Rakka, Roha, Bális, Meraash, Kaisari, and over Mount Arjísh (Argaus) to Ak-seráï, Sívás, Díárbekr, and in the year 1060 (1650) returned to Constantinople by Ainehbázár, Merzifún, Kanghrí, Kastemúni, and Táshkoprí.
He now entered the service of his uncle, Melek Ahmed Páshá, who, after having been Grand Vezír for some time, was removed to the government of Oczakov, and afterwards to that of Silistria, in the year 1061 (1651). Evliyá accompanied him, and this was his ninth journey, reckoning each journey by his return to Constantinople. He travelled over the whole of Rumelia, and made some stay at Adrianople, of which he gives a detailed account, and thus completes his description of the three Ottoman capitals, viz. Constantinople, Brousa, and Adrianople. He left Adrianople with his uncle and patron, Melek Ahmed, who was now raised to the rank of a Vezír of the Cupola at Constantinople; but being unable, notwithstanding his marriage to a Sultána, to maintain his credit in the Ottoman court during these revolutionary times, he was obliged to accept the government of Ván, to which he proceeded with great reluctance. Evliyá, who had been left behind, followed him a few days after, having been despatched by the Sultána, the lady of Melek Ahmed. He travelled through Sívás, Malátía, Díárbekr, Márdín, Sinjár, Míáfarakain, Bedlís, and Akhlát. A considerable portion of his narrative is devoted to the history of the warfare between Melek Ahmed Páshá and the Khán of Tiflís, the latter of whom was beaten and deposed; and his account of the Kurds, and their different tribes, is not less interesting than that in his second volume of the Abázas on the eastern coasts of the Black Sea.
Having already given proofs of his abilities in diplomatic affairs when employed by Defterdár Zádeh Mohammed Páshá, on missions to Tabríz and Eriván, and by Murtezá Páshá in his Syrian missions, Evliyá was now entrusted by Melek Ahmed with several missions to the Persian Kháns of Tabríz and Rúmia, with the view of reclaiming seventy thousand sheep, and the liberation of Murtezá Páshá, who was kept a prisoner by the Khán of Dembolí. From Tabríz he went through Hamadán to Baghdád, his description of which, and its environs, of Basra and of the ruins of Kúfa, contains some most important geographical notices. From Basra he travelled to Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, and returned to Baghdád by Basra, Váset, and Kala’i Hasan. In a second excursion he visited Háver, Arbíl, Sheherzor, Amadia, Jezín, Husnkeif, Nisibin, and returned to Baghdád by Hamíd, Mousul, and Tekrít. With the account of these the author concludes his fourth volume; and notwithstanding every endeavour, and the most careful search in all the markets and sales, no more of the work has been discovered. It may, therefore, be taken for granted that he never wrote any continuation of it. The fourth volume ends with the year 1066 (1655), and these four volumes embrace only a period of twenty-six years of the forty-one which Evliyá spent in travelling. Of the events of the remaining fifteen, the following notes may be collected from his own work.
In the year 1070 (1659) Evliyá accompanied the expedition into Moldavia, and assisted at the conquest of Waradin. The Ottoman armies extended their inroads as far as Orsova and Cronstadt in Transylvania, and Evliyá received twenty prisoners as his share of the booty. He then joined his uncle and patron, Melek Ahmed Páshá, then governor of Bosnia, who on the 12th of Rebi-ul-evvel 1071 (1660), was appointed governor of Rúmeili. With him, in the following year, Evliyá made the campaign into Transylvania, which was then disturbed by the pretenders to the crown, Kemeny and Apasty. He was at Saswár when the news arrived of the death of the Grand Vezír, Mohammed Kopreïlí, in 1071 (1660). After the battle of Forgaras he left Transylvania, and took up his winter quarters with Melek Ahmed Páshá at Belgrade. Melek Ahmed was shortly afterwards recalled to Constantinople in order to be married (his first Sultána having died) to Fátima, the daughter of Sultán Ahmed. He died after he had been a Vezír of the Cupola three months; and thus “poor Evliyá” (as he generally calls himself) was left without a protector. He, however, remained in the army, then engaged in the Hungarian war, till the year 1075 (1664), when Kara Mohammed Páshá was sent on an embassy to Vienna, and Evliyá, by the express command of the Sultán, was appointed secretary of the embassy. The ambassador returned in the ensuing year to Constantinople, as may be seen by his own report, published in the Ottoman Annals of Rashíd; but Evliyá having obtained an imperial patent, continued his travels through Germany and the Netherlands, as far as Dunkirk, through Holland, Denmark, and Sweden, and returned through Poland, by Cracovie and Danzig, to the Crimea, after a journey of three years and a half, thus finishing, on the frontiers of Russia, as he himself states, his travels through “the seven climates.”
Although he repeatedly mentions his travels through Europe, it is doubtful whether he ever wrote them; from doing which he was probably prevented by death, when he had completed his fourth volume. It appears that after having travelled for forty years, he spent the remainder of his days in retirement at Adrianople, where he probably died, and where his tomb might be looked for. It also appears that the last ten years of his life were devoted to the writing of his travels, and that he died about the year 1090 at the age of seventy.
This supposition is borne out by his mentioning, in his historical account of the reign of Sultán Mohammed IV., the conquest of Candia which took place in 1089 (1678); and further by his speaking of his fifty years’ experience since he commenced the world, which must refer to the year 1040, when, at the age of twenty, he entered upon his travels; during which he declares he saw the countries of eighteen monarchs, and heard one hundred and forty-seven different languages.
The motto on his seal, which he presented to a Persian Khán of his own name, was: “Evliyá hopes for the intercession of the chief of saints and prophets.”[4]
Judging from the chronographs and verses which he inscribed on several monuments, and the errors into which he frequently falls respecting ancient history, Evliyá must be considered as but an indifferent poet and historian. But in his descriptions of the countries which he visited he is most faithful, and his work must be allowed to be unequalled by any other hitherto known Oriental travels. Independent of the impression made upon him by his dream, that by the blessing of the Prophet he was to visit the tombs of all the saints whom he had seen in their glory, he found that his lot was to travel; and besides the name of Háfiz (knowing the Korán by heart), he well deserved par excellence that of Siyyáh or the traveller.