Mohammedan Dissenters
A number of communities whose origin is wrapped in obscurity are found off well-beaten avenues on the Anatolian table-land. A mild, temperate lot, broad-shouldered and open-faced, they have much in common, in spite of diversity of worship and isolation. Racially they present few of the Turki features. Their speech is usually Turkish, but they keep rigidly apart from the Turks. They are Mohammedans in name only. Having secured immunity from the fanaticism of the masters of the land, they have secretly maintained ancestral beliefs to their full extent. When the light of ethnographic research shall have been fully shed on their rites, it is likely that the transition of religious thought from the paganism of Hellenic times to the Christianity of the Byzantine era will be made clear.
To this group belong the inhospitable Tahtajis (known also as Chepmi and, in their westernmost extension in the Aidin vilayet, as Allevis), who are the woodcutters of the upper recesses of the Lycian mountains. A people of almost primitive manners, they form a community of about 5,000 souls. Eastern and western culture swept by their mountain homes, leaving the faintest of traces among them. Having neither priests nor churches they are held in disrepute by the Turks. Similarity with eastern religions can nevertheless be traced in their worship. They wail over the corpses of their dead as do the Egyptians. A vague connection with Iranian ideas is discernible in the belief they hold regarding the incarnation of the devil in the form of a peacock. They cannot be induced to discuss their rites with strangers. In their simple minds faith is all in all, and well accentuates the separatist tendency determined by their rugged mountains.
A more important group, the Kizilbash, present racial characteristics peculiar to the Nordic race, although they too have mingled extensively with the Armenoid natives of the Anatolian mountains over which their settlements are scattered. The name is pure Turkish for “red head,” but cannot be traced to head-gear in Turkey. In Persia however allied communities are known whose members wear scarlet caps. The bends of the Kizil Irmak[224] and of the Yechil Irmak contain their villages.[225] They also have settlements in the highlands which extend from the Taurus to Upper Mesopotamia.
A Turkish-speaking people of peaceful habits, engaged exclusively in the tillage of their lands, submissive to authority, frugal and industrious, such are the Kizilbash in the midst of their Turkish, Kurdish and Armenian neighbors. They are usually on excellent terms with the Christians. But to this day, after centuries of occupation of the valleys of the Sakaria and Halys, they have remained as foreigners among the Turks who colonized their territory long after them. Probably on account of religious divergences the newcomers have always held them in contempt.
It is not unlikely that the Kizilbash are lineal descendants of the Galatae of Asia Minor. This western people entered the peninsula through the notch cut by the valley of the Sakaria—an avenue also chosen by the Phrygians sung by Homer. Later the Cimmerians also followed the same route. All these invasions from the west brought blondness into Turkey—though not of the pure Nordic type, for the roads leading out of northern Europe had their longest stretches in the brunet territory of central and southern Europe. Nevertheless mingling incurred in the course of migration, as well as after settlement, has not obliterated entirely the fair ancestral type. The strongest argument in favor of the relationship between the Galatae and the Kizilbash lies in the identity of the territory occupied by both peoples. The racial distinction between the two lies in the greater admixture of Tatar blood in the Kizilbash of our times. Gradual change of the Galatian of European provenience into the Kizilbash type of Asiatic affinity was accompanied by the replacement of Celtic by Tatar culture.
Galates to the Greeks meant any western barbarian. The term was applied to the foreigners whose coming was always marked by destruction and who, in the third and second centuries B.C., terrorized Thrace before crossing into Asia Minor. Here they introduced Celtic forms of speech which were current in their settlements as late as the fourth century of our era. At that time the language spoken in parts of Anatolia was similar to the dialect of the Traveri, a Celtic tribe on the Moselle whose name has been perpetuated in that of the city of Trèves.[226] Arrian, a native of Bithynia, describing the customs of the Celts gives accounts of usages, such as the worship of the oak, which prevailed in his country and which on investigation are found to have their counterparts in Europe.
In religious thought, the Kizilbash may be classed as the most liberal among the Mohammedans of Turkey. Their interpretation of the Koran exempts them from keeping fasts and allows them the use of wine. They permit their women to go about with a freedom which has never been tolerated among Sunnis. Christian rites, such as the custom of praying over bread and wine, are performed among them. Fragmentary survivals of pagan observances likewise form part of their worship.
The Kizilbash are closely affiliated with the Bektash confraternity, a once powerful Islamic organization which still owns a large number of convents (tekkes) and churches in Turkey. Indiscriminate use of the two names has led to much confusion in the writings of travelers. It seems preferable to restrict the name of Kizilbash to the group of Anatolian people whose mountain origin is amply proven by somatic traits and whose cultural development denotes amalgamation with invaders of the table-land. The term Bektash can then be applied to the form of religion to which this people adheres at present. The connection is probably founded on the ease with which Bektash proselytism drew recruits from among Kizilbash populations. In the light of this distinction the so-called Bektash people of the Lycian mountains are merely a sub-group of the Kizilbash, to whom they are related in part by race, language and religion.
The Balikis, or Belekis, living on the southern fringe of Sasun,[227] are probably also a remnant of the old highland population. The Mohammedanism they profess is tainted with dim reminiscences of Christian worship and was probably adopted as a self-preservatory measure. Religious beliefs weigh lightly however on this community. Its members possess neither church nor mosque. A term of residence among them would probably enable an observer to discover survival of very ancient customs. The passing traveler can do little more than note the unusual freedom with which their women go about unveiled or note the mixture of Arabic, Kurdish and Armenian words in their language.
The Avshars, descended from Persian immigrants mingled with native hill populations, are settled mainly on the eastern slopes of the Anti-Taurus facing the northern end of the Binbogha range.[228] The two elements which are blended in this people are also represented in their religion. The newcomers brought Shiite Mohammedanism and insured the predominance of their views over the relics of the nature cults of the aboriginal groups. Traces of Christian influence are observable in their daily life. Around Cesarea these Avshars give the shape of a cross to the loaves of unleavened bread they bake. In view of the deep-rooted aversion of Mohammedans towards any trace of Christian symbolism, it is evident that we are here in the presence of an old-established usage rather than one adopted in post-Mohammedan times. But in speech, custom and occupation the community differs in no respect from neighboring Turks.
The nomad element of the Anatolian plateau is represented mainly by the Yuruks, whose wanderings range from the northern landward slopes of the Cilician Taurus to the mountainous tract surrounding Mt. Olympus. They are divided into tribes of varying size, some not exceeding twenty tents. Their number is estimated at about 200,000. Roving over barren districts, the members of this group are half-starved human products bred in areas of defective food supply. The men know no other occupation than that of tending their sheep and horses. The women are noted carpet-weavers. Strangers passing within sight of their tent settlements can generally rely on finding the nomad’s proverbial hospitality under their felt roofs.
In common with kindred plateau communities, the Yuruks hold severely aloof from the Turks. But they have adopted Turkish speech, and it is gradually replacing their ancient vernacular. They have sometimes been connected with European gipsies, although the little that is known concerning their history and traditions hardly warrants such an assumption. A promising field for ethnographic research still awaits exploitation among their settlements. They call themselves Mohammedans and circumcise, but have no priests or churches.[229]
The Aptals of the lofty valleys of northern Syria also have nomadic habits and appear to be closely related to the gipsies. Although they claim to be Sunnis they rarely intermarry with settled Mohammedans. Their roaming life carries them from village to village, generally in the capacity of musicians and entertainers. According to their traditions they were expelled from the lower Tigris regions in the ninth century.[230]