Constantinople and the Scenery of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor
TekstJOANNINA, THE CAPITAL OF ALBANIA
W. L. Leitch. J. Cousen.
The city of Joannina, formerly scarcely known in England to have an existence, became, in later times, highly celebrated, as the capital of the extraordinary man, Ali Pasha, and attracted distinguished visitors from every part of Europe. It seems singular, that the security of its site, the fertility of the plains that surround it, and the beauty and natural advantages of its magnificent lake, should not have attracted the notice of either Greeks or Romans, who in succession held rule in Epirus and Albania, in the latter of which it lies. No trace of any city is discernible here before the reign of John Cantacuzene, in the fourteenth century, and no classic ruins ennoble the barbarous remains of the middle ages. It is supposed to be called Joannina from the Christian name of its founder. It is usually written Yannini.
It continued a Byzantine city till the year 1432, when Amurath II. sent a letter and summons to the inhabitants of Joannina, like that of Sennacherib to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. It reminded them of the calamities inflicted by the conqueror on other cities, and warned them to avoid them by a speedy surrender. The terrified Christians at once submitted, and the Mahomedans took possession of it. Their first act was to raze some of the Christian churches to the ground, and their next was a deed in imitation of the rape of the Sabines:−a body of armed men watched the return of the Christian congregation from the place of worship left yet standing; each man seized upon the girl which best pleased him, as she issued from the porch; and the parents, after in vain exclaiming against the violence, were compelled at length to assent to it. The women became reconciled to their lot, and so a Christian and Moslem population amalgamated, like the Romans and Sabines, and lived in harmony together.
In the year 1611, however, an unfortunate attempt was made to expel the Turks. A fanatic bishop dreamed that he saw the sultan rise up on his throne at Constantinople to greet him, and gave out that this portended his reign in Joannina. He collected some followers, and attacked the Turks; but was speedily defeated, and his skin stuffed, and sent to the capital, where the Sultan, excited by curiosity, rose to look at it, and so completed the prediction of his dream. From that time the Christian inhabitants live in more abject subjection to the Turks than in any other part of the empire.
The present population is estimated at 40,000, for whom there are nineteen mosques, five tekés, six Greek churches, and two synagogues. It is distinguished for its schools, and has produced many learned men. It carries on a considerable traffic with Russia, Venice, and Malta, and is famous for its embroidery, cunning skill in ornamenting swords and other weapons, and particularly for its beautiful chiboques.
THE FAVOURITE ODALIQUE
T. Allom. J. Jenkins.
The female inmates of the seraglio are known by the names of Asseki and Odalique. The first is distinguished by having given birth to a son: she has then separate apartments assigned to her, gardens, baths, and even a mosque for her own private devotions. She has a regular income conferred upon her, called Paschmaklik, that is, “the revenue of the sandal.” It is assigned to purchase slippers, and called Turkish pin-money. Whenever a city is taken by the sultan, he generally reserves one street or district of it as a Paschmaklik. An Asseki sometimes builds a mosque from her immense revenue, and thence, from the source from whence the means are derived, it is called the Djami Paschmalk, or “the mosque of the slipper.” The Odalique is a simple favourite, not rendered eminent by any distinction. Between the Asseki and Odalique a jealousy and a mortal animosity exist, which often cause frightful results; and the annals of the seraglio are full of those tales of horror.
The mother of Mahomet IV. made a present to her son of a Georgian slave of great beauty. Zachi, the dominant Asseki, felt those pangs of jealousy so congenial to the place in which she lived, and resolved to get rid of her rival. On one occasion, while the sultan was absent at the chase, in the woods of Belgrade, she sent for her, on the pretext of showing her kindness and respect. The Odalique, though aware of her danger, entered her apartment, and immediately heard behind her that shrill yelp which marks the presence of a mute−the imperfect sound which the executioners of the seraglio utter, when they are about to fulfil the murderous orders they receive. The unfortunate Odalique turned round, and saw him with the bowstring ready: she submitted at once to her inevitable fate, bent her beautiful head to the fatal loop, which immediately closed upon it, and she lay dead at the feet of her rival.
SMYRNA, FROM THE HARBOUR.
ASIA MINOR
T. Allom. J. C. Bentley.
The Bay of Smyrna is one of the largest and deepest in the Levant. At the extremity rises the ancient city, crowning the distant hills, while the modern runs along the low ground below, and seems on a level with the sea. Ships from all nations crowd the water, and their various pennons, floating in the breeze, add to the gaiety of the scene. The French are particularly distinguished. On every fête-day there is kept up a kind of jubilee, and the gala of Paris seems transferred to this port: music resounds from every deck; boats filled with joyous company are continually moving from ship to ship on visits of ceremony; and the explosion of cannon, rebounding in echoes along the distant hills, announce their arrival and departure. In fact, of all the Frank nations, the French seem to consider this harbour as their own; and the Turks submit with a grave toleration to scenes of levity, of which they afterwards complain.
Several natural phenomena confer on this harbour peculiarities not elsewhere observed. Sometimes the power of refraction is so great as altogether to change the aspect and distance of objects. Ships sailing up, see the city as it were just under their bows, when suddenly it disappears; and when it is again perceptible, it is on the distant horizon. From the constant action of the sun on the air, at the extreme end of the harbour, where it is encircled by an amphitheatre of high hills, a considerable degree of rarefaction takes place, and the heated air ascending, leaves a vacuum below into which the colder rushes. This creates a continued current during the day, and causes that Inbat which we have before noticed. This constant and regular trade-wind is peculiarly favourable to the commerce of the port, as ships are wafted by it to their stations with the unerring certainty of steam-boats.
Some artificial works in this bay attest the wisdom and beneficence of one conqueror, and the energetic but barbarous sagacity of another, and still exist as memorials of their labours. The great promontory formerly the ancient Mount Mincas, shuts it up on the south, and considerably retards the navigation of the entrance; but at some distance the bay of Teos enters the land, and approaches so near to that of Smyrna, as to make their union no difficult enterprise. The great conqueror Alexander, therefore, pushed a communication across, so that ships entering the bay of Teos, pushed into that of Smyrna, and so avoided the dangerous navigation round the great promontory. There lies also the islands of Clazomenæ, not far from the shore; and as he had separated the land by a channel, he compensated by bridging the sea, and uniting the island to the main. The remains of both these works attract the curious traveller, and while they attest the activity and skill of the great captain, reproach the indolence and ignorance of the Turks, who, though it would be highly useful to repair them, and facilitate the approach to Smyrna, their great emperors consider such a thing as altogether beyond their comprehension and capability.
In the year 1402 Tamerlane besieged the city, and, in order to prevent all communication by sea, he ordered every soldier to take a stone in his hand, and drop it in the mouth of the harbour,−by this he hoped not only to keep out their allies, but to shut in all who would attempt to escape. The ships in the harbour passed over the mound before it was sufficiently high to obstruct their passage; and the disappointed barbarian caused a thousand prisoners to be decapitated, and with their heads, mixed with stones, erected a tower near the spot, to commemorate his attempt.
THE CASTLE OF ARGYRO-CASTRO, ALBANIA.
TURKEY IN EUROPE
W. L. Leitch. J. Sands.
Among the wild and almost inaccessible mountains of Albania, the traveller is often astonished to enter suddenly on beautiful and fertile plains, where he expected nothing but a continuation of those rugged and sterile rocks, over which he had been painfully and perilously clambering. Of these the magnificent plain of Argyro-Castro is one of the most remarkable. It extends in length more than thirty miles, and varies from six to eight in breadth. It contains nearly one hundred villages, either hanging on the sides of its alpine barriers, or hidden in the recesses of the shadowy glens that cleave their sides. Through the centre winds the limpid stream of the Druno, imparting freshness and fertility to its verdant banks. Vast flocks of sheep whiten the plain below, and picturesque herds of goats hang on the crags above; and the whole scene, instinct as it were with life, gives to the wildness and majestic aspect of nature a singularly beautiful and interesting character.
At one extremity of this place, perched upon the summit of a precipice, stands the town of Argyro-Castro. The rock on which it is built is cleft into various fissures, so that the streets are divided by deep and yawning chasms, which separate it into various districts, and give it a character singularly different from any other town. The houses are of a size and structure superior to those in Albanian towns. They are not contiguous, or in the form of streets, leaning on one another for support. They stand single and independent, sometimes on the summit of a crag, sometimes on the side of a precipice, and sometimes concealed in the fissure of the rock. The greater number, however, are on level ground at the bottoms of ravines, and the street is the natural chasm of the mountain. The sides are lined with fruit-trees, flowing shrubs, and hanging gardens, so that every lane is a romantic mountain-glen. These picturesque streets, however, have their disadvantages. On the sudden solution of snows, or deluges of rain, the torrents from the higher ground rush with fearful impetuosity through them, devastating them from one end to the other, and leaving nothing behind, but torn-up trees, submerged houses, and drowned bodies.
The present population is estimated at 150,000: the greater and more opulent part are Turks; the rest Albanian Greeks, and Jews. Many of them were lately engaged extensively in commerce, and the town contains a spacious bazaar, well supplied with every species of merchandise; but its prosperity has greatly declined: the ruthless hand of Ali Pasha fell on it, in common with all its neighbouring towns; its inhabitants were massacred, its merchants plundered and scattered, and its prosperity, with its commerce, greatly reduced.
Our illustration presents the castle or fortress of the town impending over its beautiful plain. This fortress is one of the most extensive and important in Albania. It contains the seraglio of the pasha, a mosque, and accommodation for a garrison of 5000 men. To secure it against the effects of famine, the rock is hollowed into subterraneous excavations, which form granaries always filled with corn; and in order to be independent of either wind, water, or other uncertain power, the mill by which it is ground is moved by a machinery of clock-work, invented by an ingenious native, which daily yields an abundant supply of flour. The necessary element of water is conveyed from the neighbouring hills by a lofty aqueduct. The works are defended by eighty pieces of English and French ordnance; so that it may be considered one of the most noble and secure mountain-fortresses in Europe.
TOWN AND CASTLE OF PARAMYTHIA, IN ALBANIA.
TURKEY IN EUROPE
W. L. Leitch. W. Floyd.
More to the south than Joannina, and approaching the Adriatic, are the town and castle of Paramythia. Unlike the former, there are here discovered certain indications of its site having been that of some ancient Greek or Roman city: beautiful specimens of ancient art are daily disinterred, and arches of ponderous and double masonry indicate that its former inhabitants were in a far higher grade of social intelligence than its present possessors. Yet of the ancient city which did occupy this spot, the name has perished, while its remains attest its former existence.
Paramythia, like Argyro-Castro stands at the extremity of a fertile plain, suspended on a rock which overhangs it. The houses, like those of the structure of Albanian towns in general, are all built detached from each other. They indicate, however, the miserable state of insecurity in which the inhabitants live. They resemble so many fortresses closed up on the outside from light and air, pierced only with small loop-holes, from whence is thrust the muzzle of a tophek. They are generally shaded by the spreading branches of the Oriental platanus: this magnificent tree attains to such a gigantic size in the East, as to have been the wonder of antiquity; in the trunk of one tree, 22 people were entertained at supper, and the branches of another overshadowed a whole village. At Paramythia they grow to a magnificent size, and the town is partly covered by their leafy canopies. This luxuriance of vegetation is probably caused by the numerous springs which issue from the hills, and water the roots. Every tree seems to have a pure fountain connected with it. The spacious bazaar of the city is peculiarly marked with this character, shadowed over with a vast canopy of branches, and cooled by many rills of delicious water. Towering above the town is the fortress, reposing on a vast rock, in some places one thousand feet above the plain, and having the town spread over an inclined plain on the side of the mountain just under it The calcareous structure of this rock sometimes gives way, detaching large masses, which overwhelm and crush the houses below on which they fall. The castle is surrounded by an extensive battlemented wall, crowned with turrets. Here it is that the ruins of a former town are most conspicuous. The modern walls are raised on still more ponderous remains of ancient foundations; and the gate-ways of arches yet remain here, of evidently very ancient date.
Our illustration represents the fertile plain below, rich in various productions, full of gardens and shrubs, where the song of the nightingale seldom ceases, and is reported to be particularly sweet and plaintive. High above are the ridges of the great chain of Albanian mountains, which the ancients called Acroceraunian, because their summits were always splintered with thunderbolts; of these sublime hills, five distinct and mighty pinnacles can be traced from hence to the Adriatic. Reposing on the inclined plane of the mountain-side, is the city with its fortress, surrounded with lofty forests of plane-trees, and in front is one of those ancient arches, which indicate the early but unrecorded founder of the city.
THE SULTANA IN HER STATE ARRHUBA.
CONSTANTINOPLE
T. Allom. J. Jenkins.
This carriage, peculiarly Turkish, we have already described among the conveyances that thronged the social meetings at the Sweet Waters of Asia. It is here presented as the principal and most conspicuous object of our illustration. The ponderous body of the machine, placed on wheels without springs; the heavy but gilded and gaudy carved-work which covers it; the long-horned oxen which drag it; the singular arches dangling with tassels, to which their tails are generally tied; the dense mass of hair drawn down before, and carefully dyed, like the ladies’ nails, with henna; and the amulets pending over their noses, to guard them from the effects of an evil eye−are here accurately represented. Beside the draught-beasts walks the Greek arrhubagee, leading the docile animals by the horns; and next the carriage is one of the black eunuchs, with his drawn sabre, threatening with instant death the passenger, whose profane eye shall dare to glance at his sacred charge within. It was formerly the indispensable usage, that every arrhuba should be closely covered with silken curtains, so that the inmates were never seen, except when the wind, or the jolting on an uneven road, moved the curtains aside, and revealed for a moment the mysteries of the interior; but recent approximation to European usages has removed this veil, and even open carriages on springs have been seen in the Turkish capital, filled with the secluded females of the harem.
Our illustration represents the Asmé Sultana driving from her palace at Eyoub, through the Valley of the Sweet Waters. Crowds of females line one side of the road; and, with the jealous sense of Turkish propriety, the males, separated from them, line the other. A train of arrhubas follow in the rear, with various ladies of the seraglio.
THE TOMB OF ALI PASHA AND FATIMA, IN THE COURT OF SERAGLIO.
JOANNINA, ALBANIA
J. L. Leitch. H. Adlard.
The wild mountains of Albania had long slumbered in obscurity, and, though in the immediate vicinity of civilized Europe, and in sight of the coast of Italy, had never been visited by the curious traveller, till Ali Pasha, like some lurid meteor, blazed out in this obscure district, and attracted the notice and admiration of the world by his ability, his courage, his crimes, and his success.
This extraordinary man was born in Tepeleni, a small village of Albania, in the year 1741. His ancestors had been distinguished among the wild chieftains of the district, and his mother, a woman of ferocious energy of character, determined that he should not degenerate. He became expert in all manly exercises, and, at a very early age, distinguished himself among the Kleftes, or robbers, of the country. While absent at a wedding, the inhabitants of Gardaki, a neighbouring and rival village, rushed into Tepeleni, and carried off his mother, and sister Shaïnitza, whom they abused. He vowed he would never rest till he stuffed the cushions of his divan with the hair of all the women of Gardaki. This vow he religiously kept; and after exterminating the inhabitants, and razing the village to the ground, the long tresses, which are the pride and ornament of Albanian women, were shorn from their lifeless remains, and the ferocious sister of Ali exulted while she reposed on the cushions which were stuffed with them.
After a career of crime, in which his cruelty and perfidy were as distinguished as his courage and ability, he at length made himself master, under various pretexts, of all the towns and fortresses in the country, and destroyed, with unrelenting cruelty, every rival whom by force or fraud he could get into his power. He was then confirmed by the Turks in the pashalik of all Albania, and he made Joannina his residence, and the capital of his territory. Here he invited all the distinguished travellers in Europe to visit him; and by their reports, his name soon expanded beyond the obscurity of his native mountains.
After enjoying for half a century this celebrity, the Turks became jealous of his power, and determined to depose him. He resisted all their open efforts, and at length fell a victim to a perfidy equal to his own. A pasha paid him a friendly visit, and, after many professions of good will, rose to take his leave, and made him the usual obeisance. Ali returned it, and before he could recover himself, his visitor stabbed him in the back, and his yatagan passed directly through his heart, and out of his breast. Thus perished, at the age of eighty-one “the old lion,” as the Turks denominated him. His head was cut off, and despatched, with his last wife, Vacilesso, to Constantinople, where it was exposed for three days on a silver dish in the courts of the seraglio. The heads of his four sons and grandson were sent after him; and they are all interred, with suitable monuments, outside the walls of Constantinople, and are the first objects seen by travellers after passing the Selyvria gate. The body was embalmed, and buried with that of his first wife, Fatimah or Ermineh, in a mausoleum he had erected for her on the esplanade of the seraglio at Joannina, where it overlooks the lake, as represented in our illustration.