The Sultan and His PeopleOscanyan, C. (Christopher)
History
The Sultan and His People
Oscanyan, C. (Christopher)
Turkey -- Description and travel; Turkey -- Social life and customs
This, of course, refers to the mass, who, victims as they are to misery
of all sorts, cannot be expected to practice the kindlier virtues which
distinguish those among them to whom a better fate has been allotted.
There was a celebrated Armenian banker, Tcharazly, who, having fallen
under the displeasure of a certain Turkish grandee, was suddenly one
day seized and hung before the door of his own dwelling; his property
confiscated, and his only son cast into prison.
A certain Jewish banker, Shabgee by name, had long been the friend
and neighbor of this family; and now, in the time of their trouble,
he spared nothing for the liberation of the unfortunate young man,
the son of his friend; which, he not only succeeded in obtaining,
but reinstated him in all the honors of which he was the lawful heir.
The Jews are to be found in many villages on the Bosphorus, though
their principal quarter is at Balat, on the Golden Horn. They live
also in other parts of the city, but as may naturally be inferred,
in such places as no one else would inhabit.
Their houses are like bee-hives, literally swarming with human
life; even one single room serves for the only home of several
families--and the streets of their quarters are almost impassable,
from the collection of garbage and all sorts of refuse, which are
indiscriminately thrown from the windows of their dwellings. Their
misery may partly be attributed to their practice of very early
marriages, as before a man is twenty-one years of age he is burdened
with the care and support of a numerous family, which reduces him to
such poverty, that even the meanest economy can scarcely enable him to
support his own existence and that of the helpless beings dependent on
him. The exactions of the Khakhams or priests, which are very great,
help also to impoverish this pitiable people. It is no wonder,
then, that they appear in rags and tatters--and herd together in
styes--yet it is most amusing to see them on a Jewish Sabbath. The
filthy gabardines which they wore in the week, as they exercised
their various callings, being laid aside, and bright and gaudy finery
substituted, in which they strut about the streets, seeming to be other
beings, and to have no relation to the wretches of yesterday. But, of
course, in such a population there will be various grades of misery,
and a few families of wealth are to be found among them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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