The tradesmen and artisans of Constantinople still maintain guilds, which prevailed elsewhere throughout Europe for centuries until modern methods of commerce and industry caused them to dissolve by making them unnecessary. The primitive condition of affairs in Constantinople, however, makes them of supreme importance, and they are maintained with the greatest energy and exactness. There were formerly about six hundred different guilds, but by consolidation the number has been reduced to two hundred and seventy-five, which are registered at the office of the minister of the interior and represent a membership of two hundred thousand. They are managed very much like the trades unions of the United States, and no artisan, mechanic or skilled workman can obtain employment in Constantinople without carrying a card of membership in some guild. The workmen are graded according to their ability and accomplishments, an idea which it seems to me could be adopted with advantage by the labor unions of the United States, which recognize no difference between skill and incompetence, and demand the same wages for every man regardless of his power of production.
The Turkish guilds are governed by a president and council, and their funds are derived from the revenues of property owned and fixed contributions, which are chiefly expended in charity, in assistance to sick brethren and to the widows and orphans of deceased members. The discipline is good, the organizations are thorough and extensive, and the public have long since adapted themselves to their conditions. The butchers’ guild is said to be the richest, and owns several million dollars’ worth of property; the bakers and carpenters are the most numerous. The subdivision of trades is amusing. There is a guild of the makers of straw-seated stools, who at some time or another seceded from the guild of the makers of straw-seated chairs and organized independently. There is one guild for barbers who have shops, and a separate guild for barbers who go out to serve customers at their homes or places of business and work upon the public streets. These are the most numerous of the barber guilds, because it is the fashion for men to be shaved at their coffee-houses or their homes or offices, and itinerant barbers go about like bootblacks in our cities. Each guild has a patron, usually some notable scriptural patriarch, but I have not been able to ascertain how this happens. Adam is the patron of the bakers; Eve of the women who work in the Turkish baths; Abel is the patron of the shepherds; Cain of the grave-diggers; Enoch of the inkstand-makers; Noah of the shipwrights, which is perfectly natural and proper, and Elijah of the tailors who make fur coats.
The most interesting places in Constantinople are the bazaars of Stamboul, and they are peculiarly Turkish. They cover entire blocks, divided up into sections by narrow streets or corridors, vaulted over so as to protect from the weather the little booths or shops which line them on both sides. These shops consist of a single room, perhaps fifteen by twenty feet in size, seldom larger, without windows or doors. At night the front is closed with heavy wooden shutters held by iron bars. Around the walls of the interior are shelves upon which the stock of the merchant is stored, and it is very limited, scarcely more than samples of many articles in the same line of trade. One dealer will have nothing but silk shawls, another nothing but calico prints, a third nothing but fezzes. The business is all divided and dealers in the same line of goods occupy the same quarter and sit cross-legged in their shops waiting for customers. Several hundred merchants are found in each of the bazaars, who pay a small rental to the government and are under the control of a superintendent appointed by the minister of the interior, who is supposed to keep the alleys clean and preserve order. Ladies of wealth seldom go into the bazaars to trade. Articles which they wish to purchase are sent to their homes.
There are miles and miles of these little shops, through which one may walk for hours without crossing his own path, glittering with diamonds and other precious stones, ivory and mother-of-pearl, costly perfumes, marvelous carvings in ebony and other cabinet woods, embroidered slippers and jackets, jeweled pipes, necklaces, rare brocades, furs and leather, Persian and Indian shawls, Damascus silks, Bokhara table covers, hammered brass and copper, metal pots and vases covered with inscriptions, porcelain of all kinds, and an infinite variety of articles new and old. There is no fixed price for any article, and a dealer would be disappointed if you purchased at the first figure demanded, because it would prevent him from showing his ability at negotiation. Residents tell you that you must not pay more than half the price asked, and must dicker until the merchant comes down to your figure. If he does not do so you must walk away, when he will certainly follow you and tell you that you may have it at your own price.
There are second-hand dealers in some of the bazaars, and during the month of Ramazan, the Mohammedan Lent, the Turks, who live from hand to mouth, are so much in need of money that they sell their most precious possessions, and careful buyers can pick up wonderful bargains among the second-hand dealers. The ladies of the harems are especially anxious to obtain money at this season to celebrate the approaching feast of Bairam, which corresponds to our Easter, when everybody is supposed to appear in a new dress. When they cannot obtain the money from their husbands they send their servants to the bazaars with jewelry, embroideries, rugs, silver plate and other articles of value, which are sold for almost anything they will bring. On Friday the Turkish stalls in the bazaars are closed, on Saturday all the Jewish stalls, and on Sunday those of the Christians, the Armenians and Greeks.
A certain portion of the bazaars is given up to auction sales, which are very noisy and confusing. It is often impossible for a newcomer to understand what is going on, because the buyers are not contented with shouting their bids once, but keep up an exchange of repartee with the auctioneer as loud as they can yell, which reminds you of the Board of Trade in Chicago. Sometimes in the middle of an auction the hour of prayer will arrive, and the faithful Moslem, who imitates the Pharisees of the Saviour’s time, never neglects his devotions. He will kneel down in the auction-room, in the street or in any other place when he hears the muezzin’s voice, and go through his prayers without regard to publicity.
A friend tells an interesting story about an auction he attended not long ago, in which an English lady was bidding for some rugs. There was a little hush in the confusion, of which she took advantage to ask the auctioneer whether her bid was standing or not. “Yes,” he replied, “yours was the last bid, and I shall knock the carpet down to you in a few moments unless that Moslem who is now saying his prayers offers more.” As Moslem prayers take a long time, the other bidders became impatient and urged the auctioneer to go on. The praying buyer, however, heard the conversation and clutched hold of the rug, but went on bowing his head to the ground and muttering his prayers faster than ever. When he finished he put in another bid, and the carpet was knocked down to him.
VII
MOSQUES AND PALACES
St. Sophia is one of the great churches of the world, ranking next to St. Peter’s at Rome in magnitude, majesty and beauty. Three churches of the same name have stood upon the site of this celebrated sanctuary. The first was built by Constantine the Great, completed by his son and successor, Constantius, and dedicated with great pomp on the 15th of February, 316 A. D. The second, which rose upon the ashes of the first, was built by the Emperor Theodosius and dedicated in 415. It was burned during the sedition in 532, and the present edifice was erected by Justinian the Great, after five years and ten months of labor, and was dedicated on Christmas day of the year 537. Constantinople was then the center of the world and the headquarters of the Christian Church, and it was the ambition of that great emperor to embody in this building an expression of his adoration for and devotion to the omniscient and the omnipotent God, to place before the world a symbol combining all things beautiful, all art—then rescued from paganism—all riches, all human thought and skill as a tribute to the Creator. Justinian sought architects, artists, decorators and workmen in every land, and his biographers say that his authority enabled him to choose the most competent and skillful of all mankind to execute the noblest of human enterprises.
The entire world contributed material. As was the custom in those days, the pagan temples were stripped of their treasures to adorn the sanctuary of the true God. The shrines of Isis and Osiris were despoiled to do it honor; the temple of the Sun at Baalbek, of Diana at Ephesus, of Minerva at Athens, of Phoebus at Delos and of Cybele at Cyzicus were robbed of their pillars and columns and adornments of marble and gold. Solomon’s temple at Jerusalem was searched for architectural glories, and every quarry in the civilized world was seized and made to contribute. The wonderful columns of dark green marble which support the galleries came from the temple of Diana at Ephesus, eight columns of dark red porphyry came from the temple of the Sun at Baalbek, other columns under the galleries were formerly in the temples and the palaces of the Cæsars at Rome. The walls of St. Sophia showed the finest specimens of material and handicraft in existence, and the magnificence and variety surpassed all other structures. Every species of marble, granite and porphyry that was considered of any value in the known world is said to have been represented in the construction, and the decorations were of corresponding magnificence.