Twenty Years' Residence among the People of Turkey: Bulgarians, Greeks, Albanians, Turks, and Armenians

by Fanny Janet Sandison Blunt

The Greek Government might not be equal at first to the administration of their newly-acquired kingdom, but if united in close alliance with some friendly power and placed under its tutelage, an honest and stable empire might be established with every probability of soon rising into a flourishing condition in the hands of a people whose intelligence, activity, and enterprising spirit give them an incontestable superiority over the other races of Turkey.

The Bulgarians south of the Balkans being, as before said, of a mixed race engrafted upon the Hellenic stock, would not be found to offer any serious opposition. They are closely incorporated with the Greek element in some districts; while in others, where Bulgarian feeling predominates, the people would willingly migrate to Bulgaria proper, as the Hellenized Bulgarians under such an arrangement would draw nearer to Greece; whilst in parts of Macedonia, where Hellenism has the ascendancy, very little difficulty would be met with from the Bulgarian settlements.

My recollections of Bulgarian social life are to a great extent derived from a three months’ stay I made under the hospitable roof of a Bulgarian gentleman, or Chorbadji, as he was called by his own people. He was the most wealthy and influential person in the town of T⸺, where his position as member of the Medjeiss constituted him the chief guardian and advocate of the Bulgarian people of the district. I mention this in order to show the reader that in his house the opportunity of making important observations and of witnessing national characteristics were not wanting. These observations embraced the social features I was allowed to study in the midst of the home and family life both of the educated and thinking Bulgarians and of the peasants who daily flocked to the house of my friend from the towns and villages to submit to him their wrongs and grievances, and, as their national representative, to ask his advice and assistance before proceeding to the local courts.

These levées began sometimes as early as six o’clock in the morning, and lasted until eleven. The Kodja-bashi, or headmen, would come in a body to consult about the affairs of the community, or to represent some grave case pending before the local court of their respective towns; or groups of peasants of both sexes, sometimes representing the population of a whole village, would arrive, at the request of the authorities, to answer some demand made by them, or plead against an act of gross injury or injustice. Whatever the cause that brought them daily under my notice, the picture they presented was extremely curious and interesting, and the pleasure was completed by the privilege I enjoyed of afterwards obtaining a detailed account of the causes and grievances that brought them there. When the interested visitors happened to be elders of their little communities or towns, they were shown into the study of my host. After exchanging salutes and shaking hands, they were offered slatko (preserves) and coffee, and business was at once entered into. At such moments the Bulgarian does not display the heat and excitement that characterizes the Greek, nor fall into the uproarious argument of the Armenians and Jews, nor yet display the finessing wit of the Turk; but steering a middle course between these different modes of action, he stands his ground and perseveres in his argument, until he has either made his case clear or is persuaded to take another view of it. The subjects that most animated the Bulgarians in these assemblies were their national affairs and their dissensions with the Greeks; the secondary ones were the wrongs and grievances they suffered from a bad administration; and although they justly lamented these, and at times bitterly complained of the neglect or incapacity of the Porte to right them in an effective manner and put a stop to acts of injustice committed by their Mohammedan neighbors and the local courts, I at no time noticed any tendency to disloyalty or revolutionary notions, or any disposition to court Russian protection, from which, indeed, the most enlightened and important portion of the nation at that period made decided efforts to keep aloof.

When it was the peasants who gathered at the Chorbadji’s house, their band was led by its Kodja-Bashi, who, acting as spokesman, first entered the big gate, followed by a long train of his brethren. Ranged in a line near the porch, they awaited the coming of the master to explain to him the cause of their visit. Their distinguished-looking patron, pipe in hand, shortly made his appearance at the door, when caps were immediately doffed, and the right hands were laid on the breast and hidden by the shaggy heads bending over them in a salaam, answered by a kindly “Dobro deni” (good morning), followed by the demand “Shto sakaty?” (what do you want?) The peasants, with an embarrassed air, looked at each other, while the Kodja-Bashi proceeded to explain matters. Should his eloquence fall short of the task, one or two others would step out of the ranks and become spokesmen. It was almost painful to see these simple people endeavoring to give a clear and comprehensive account of their case, and trying to understand the advice and directions of the Chorbadji. A half-frightened, surprised look, importing fear or doubt, a shrug of the shoulders, accompanied by the words “Né znam—Né mozhem” (I do not know, I cannot do), was generally the first expression in answer to the eloquence of my friend, who in his repeated efforts to explain matters frequently lost all patience, and would end by exclaiming, “Né biddy magari!” (Don’t be donkeys!)—a remark which had no effect upon the band of rustics further than to send them off, full of gratitude, to do as he had counselled.

Perhaps the reader may be curious to know the details of some of the cases daily brought under my notice. I will mention a few not connected with Turkish oppression and maladministration; for by this time the English public has been pretty well enlightened on that subject. My list will include some rather more original incidents which took place in the community: disputes between all non-Mussulmans are generally settled by the temporal or spiritual chiefs, and seldom brought before the Courts of Justice.

While Greeks and Bulgarians in the heat of controversy were snatching churches and monasteries from each other, the priests and monks who were attached to these sacred foundations found themselves unpleasantly jostled between the two hostile elements. To be a Greek priest or monk and be forced to acknowledge the supremacy of an anathematized and illegal church was a profanation not to be endured; and, on the other hand, to be a Bulgarian and be forced to pray day by day for a detested spiritual head rejected by his nation was an insupportable anomaly. In the midst of the difficulty and confusion at first caused by this state of affairs, some of the good fathers and monks had to remove their quarters and betake themselves to a wandering life, visiting their respective communities and encouraging the people by their exhortations to hold fast to their church and oppose with all their might the claims and usurping tendencies of the others. Among these a Bulgarian monk, more venturous and evidently endowed with a greater amount of imaginative eloquence than the rest, and rejoicing in the title of Spheti Panteleemon, regarded himself as the prophet of the Bulgarian people. This Saint Panteleemon was a man of middle age and middle height, with a jovial face, a cunning look, and an intelligent but restless eye, by no means indicative of an ascetic view of life.

Contrary to the saying that no man is a prophet in his own country, Spheti Panteleemon was acknowledged as such by a considerable class of his people, consisting entirely of the gentle sex, and his success among them was as great as ritualism appears to be in England.

The preaching of this prophet, intended solely for the Bulgarian women, became so pronounced in its tenets, so eloquent in its delivery, and was rendered so impressive by the different means he employed to instil his precepts into the hearts and minds of his hearers, that their number soon increased into a vast congregation, which flocked from all parts of the country to hear the words of their favorite saint. On such occasions, this false prophet, who had managed to usurp possession of a small monastery, would stand forth amid thousands of women, who at his approach would cross themselves and fall down almost to worship him. Spheti Panteleemon, in acknowledgment of this mark of devotion, would raise his voice and rehearse his doctrines to the devotees. These doctrines included strange principles, asserted by their author to be the best and surest way to Paradise; but they scarcely conduced to the satisfaction of the husbands. Women, according to this man, were to be free and independent, and their principal affections were to be bestowed upon their spiritual guide; their earnestness was to be proved by depositing their earthly wealth (consisting chiefly of their silver ornaments) at his feet. The practical Bulgarian husbands, however, were by no means admirers of this new spiritual director, whose sole object appeared to be to rob them of the affections of their wives along with their wealth, and they soon raised their voices against his proceedings. After holding counsel on the subject, they decided to give notice of his doings to the local authorities, and by their influence to have him sent out of the country. The prophet was arrested one fine morning, while addressing a congregation of 500 women, by a body of police, and brought to the prison of the town of S⸺, whilst all the women devoutly followed, weeping, beating their breasts, and clamoring for the release of their saint. The husbands, on the other hand, pleaded their grievances against this disorganizer of society, and proved his dishonesty by displaying to the authorities a quantity of silver trinkets of all descriptions taken from his dwelling, to the great indignation of his devotees. The imagination of some of these ignorant and superstitious peasant women had been so worked upon that they solemnly declared to me that the feet of their prophet never touched the ground, but remained always a distance of two feet above it, and that his sole sustenance was grass. While his fate was still undecided, amidst the wailings of the women, the protests of the husbands, and the embarrassment of the authorities, the fellow got out of the difficulty by declaring himself a “Uniate” and a member of the Church of Rome. This avowal could not fail to excite the interest of the agents of that body: they claimed the stray sheep as redeemed, took him under their immediate protection, but (it is to be hoped) deprived him of his pretended attribute of sanctity and the power of making himself any longer a central object of attraction to the beau sexe.

Another incident was of a nature less sensational but equally repulsive to the feelings and notions of the strict portion of the Bulgarian nation, and had also a monk for its hero. It consisted of an elopement, and if there is one crime that shocks and horrifies orthodox people more than another, it is that of a monk who, taking the vows of celibacy, perjures himself by adopting the respectable life of a married man. Such events are of very rare occurrence, and when they take place cause a great commotion.