The condition of slaves in Turkey is not a hard one. The principle is of course radically wrong, and the initial stage is full of cruelty. But the women are not often ill-treated; and when an occasional case of violence and ill-usage occurs, it excites general indignation among the Moslems. A slave is entitled to her liberty after seven years of bondage, and she generally gets it, and is dowered and married to a freeman, though sometimes a bad master will evade the law by selling her before the seven years have quite expired. But this is a rare case, and the slave system in Turkey is, as a whole, a widely different thing from American slavery.
The only class who suffer much are the negresses. When they are freed and married off it not seldom happens that from their native wildness or other causes they quarrel with their husbands and are turned off to earn their own living as best they may. Their condition then becomes very wretched, and the quarter in which they live is a dismal group of rickety houses, inhabited by a miserable and ragged set of women and children. This is by no means the case with the Abyssinians or the half-castes, who rank higher, and never have to appeal to public charity. But the negresses are hardly worse off than the disabled slaves. If a woman of this class by some accident or age becomes unfit for work, she is looked upon as a burden and very badly cared for.
Turkish slavery is not so bad as it might be: the system is softened by many humane laws, and is marked by a kindly paternal character. Yet it is a blot on the country, and so soon as the harem system and polygamy can be got rid of, it too must go.
CHAPTER V.
THE ARMENIANS AND JEWS IN TURKEY.
Historical Misfortunes of the Armenians—Refugees in Turkey, Russia, Persia—Want of Patriotism—Appearance and Character—Armenian Ladies—American Mission Work—Schools—The Jews of Turkey—Reputed Origin—Classes—Conservatives and Progressives—Jewish Trade—Prejudice against Jews—Alliance with Moslems—Wealth and Indigence—Cause of the Latter—The Jewish Quarter—Education—“L’Alliance Israélite”—Divorce among the Jews merely a Question of the Highest Bidder.
There are few nations that can compete with the Armenians in historical misery. Tossed about between Arsacid, Roman, and Sassanian; fought over by Persian and Byzantine; a common prey to Arabs, Mongols, and Turk, it is a matter for amazement that the nation still exists at all. Up to the fourteenth century the Armenians held persistently to their country; but after its subjection by the Mamluk Sultans of Egypt, the unfortunate inhabitants, seeing no hope of the restoration of their old independence, and despairing of relief from the oppression and spoiling to which they had been exposed for centuries, began to migrate to other countries, to try whether fortune would everywhere be so unkind to them. Some went to Anatolia, others to Egypt, or to Constantinople, where they were kindly received and allowed a Patriarch. Some wandered into Poland, whence they were soon driven out by the determined hostility of the Jesuits, and forced to take refuge in Russia, where they were joined by numbers of their compatriots and formed a colony at Grigoripol. Others went to the Crimea and Astrachan, and many of the Armenians who had first gone to Turkey followed in their steps. The Armenians in Russia were treated with great kindness by Peter the Great and Catherine, and were granted special rights and privileges. A colony of Armenians was settled at New Nakhitchevan on the Don. After more persecutions from the Ottomans, in the sixteenth century, a large number of Armenian refugees set out for Persia. The Shah received them graciously, and settled them in Ispahan. Afterwards, during the war between the Shah and the Sultan, a depopulation of Armenia was attempted, with the view of destroying the Turkish power there. Twelve thousand families were dragged off to Persia, most of whom died on the way. The settlers at Ispahan were at first treated well, but afterwards subjected to such persecution that they were obliged to seek a home in other lands. The portion of Armenia ceded by Persia to Russia, thus acquiring for the first time the necessary conditions of peace and safety, became the refuge of the Armenians who had not already left their native land, but who now, driven beyond endurance by the oppressive rule of the Pashas, crossed the frontier and immediately found themselves possessed of the ordinary privileges of Russian subjects, and able to carry on commercial pursuits, in which the nation excels, in peace and confidence. Thus the Armenian race became scattered over the face of the earth, whilst only a remnant still lives in the land of its ancestors. The Armenians are to be met with all over the East. There are large numbers of them at Constantinople and a few other towns, such as Adrianople, Gallipoli, and Rodosto. In the towns of the interior, however, their number is small.
Ages of Asiatic oppression, varied by few glimpses of prosperity, in the traditional garden of Eden, have obliterated whatever love the Armenians formerly had for their country, which they willingly deserted to seek a home wherever they could find one. When the first cravings of their hearts for peace and security had been satisfied, they settled down in communities, forgot their country and its past history, and assimilated their external forms and customs with those of the nations among whom they lived, with the philosophic nonchalance of the Asiatic. In Armenia, the people who remain, remembering the terrible sufferings their country has gone through, have followed the wise policy of burying in the depths of their hearts any surviving sparks of patriotism or love of liberty; though these hidden sparks may some day be fanned into flame by the introduction of education and by the influence Russia is exerting in the country. So far the Porte may felicitate itself on the success its foreign policy has met with in Armenia. This policy, with its consequences of misery and suffering, is safe only so long as ignorance and stupid docility prevail among the masses; this cannot last forever, and in the face of present events it will not be surprising to hear of troubles breaking out in that direction as well as everywhere else. It is only a question of time. In Turkey, political feeling among the Armenians is still in its infancy; but there must be thinking men among the educated young generation who are watchful of the present and hopeful for the future.
The Armenians as a race are strong, well built, and hardy. With these constitutional advantages they readily take to the mechanical arts; but commerce and banking are their forte, and in these they show great ability and as much honesty as is possible in a country where, of all difficulties, that of following a straight line of conduct is the greatest. They are considered crafty, but at the same time exercise considerable moral influence in the countries they inhabit, especially at Constantinople, where some of the rich Armenians have been very closely connected with the high dignities of the empire. Their fancy for toad-eating is well adapted to please the Turks, who by turns show them regard and contempt. There is an old saying, that no Turk can be happy in the evening without having cracked a few jokes with an Armenian during the day.
The physiognomy of the Armenians is generally dark. Their heads are large, with black, coarse, and abundant hair. Their eyes, overshadowed by long eyelashes and thick eyebrows, meeting over the nose, are black and almond-shaped, but lack the lustre of Greek eyes. The nose, the worst feature of the Armenian face, is large and hooked; the mouth large, with thick lips; the chin prominent. Their bearing would be dignified but for a certain want of grace. Armenians are divided into two classes denominated Kalun and Injé, or coarse and refined. The latter belong to the Roman Catholic creed, and are certainly more advanced than the former, who are far more subservient to the Turks, and keep as much as possible in the background, devoting themselves to the interests of the Porte in general and to their own in particular.
In Armenia the ladies are secluded to the extent of dining and sitting apart from the men, and are said to be very backward in every respect. Their costume very nearly resembles that formerly worn by Turkish women. They display the same disregard to neatness as the latter, without possessing their redeeming point of cleanliness: their heads are specially neglected, and abound in live stock of a most migratory character. My mother once pointed out one of these creatures on the forehead of an Armenian girl, and reprimanded her for her neglect of her person; the girl answered that she did not know that any human being could exist without them!