MJ Posted September 3, 2001 Report Share Posted September 3, 2001 Selected Turkish Embassy LettersLady Mary Wortley Montagu These excerpts from the Turkish Embassy Letters were made from The Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, vol. 1, ed. by Lord Wharncliffe and W. Moy Thomas (London: Henry G. Bohn, 1861). To the Lady _____, 1 April 1717, Adrianople I am now got into a new world where every thing I see appears to me a change of scene, and I write to your Lady-ship with some content of mind, hoping at least that you will find the charm of novelty in my letters and no longer reproach me that I tell nothing extraordinary. I won't trouble you with a relation of our tedious journey, but I must not omit what I saw remarkable at Sophia, one of the most beautiful towns in the Turkish empire and famous for its hot baths that are resorted to both for diversion and health. I stopped here one day on purpose to see them. Designing to go incognito, I hired a Turkish coach. These voitures are not at all like ours, but much more convenient for the country, the heat being so great that glasses would be very troublesome. They are made a good deal in the manner of the Dutch coaches, having wooden lattices painted and gilded, the inside being painted with baskets and nosegays of flowers, intermixed commonly with little poetical mottoes. They are covered all over with scarlet cloth, lined with silk and very often richly embroidered and fringed. This covering entirely hides the persons in them, but may be thrown back at pleasure and the Ladies peep through the Lattices. They hold four people very conveniently, seated on cushions, but not raised. In one of these covered waggons I went to the bagnio about ten a clock. It was already full of women. It is built of stone in the shape of a dome with no windows but in the roof, which gives light enough. There was five of these domes joined together, the outmost being less than the rest and serving only as a hall where the portress stood at the door. Ladies of quality generally give this Woman the value of a crown or ten shillings, and I did not forget that ceremony. The next room is a very large one, paved with marble, and all round it raised two sofas of marble, one above another. There were four fountains of cold water in this room, falling first into marble basins and then running on the floor in little channels made for that purpose, which carried the same sort of marble sofas, but so hot with steams of sulphur proceeding from the baths joining to it, it was impossible to stay there with one's cloths on. The two other domes were the hot baths, one of which had cocks of cold water turning into it to temper it to what degree of warmth the bathers have a mind to. I was in my travelling habit, which is a riding dress, and certainly appeared very extraordinary to them, yet there was not one of em that shewed the least surprise or impertinent curiosity, but received me with all the obliging civility possible. I know no European court where the ladies would have behaved them selves in so polite a manner to a stranger. I believe in the whole there were two hundred women and yet none of those disdainful smiles or satiric whispers that never fail in our assemblies when any body appears that is not dressed exactly in fashion. They repeated over and over to me, "Uzelle, pek uzelle," which is nothing but, charming, very charming. The first sofas were covered with cushions and rich carpets, on which sat the ladies, and on the second their slaves behind them, but without any distinction of rank by their dress, all being in the state of nature, that is, in plain English, stark naked, without any beauty or defect concealed, yet there was not the least wanton smile or immodest gesture amongst them. They walked and moved with the same majestic grace which Milton describes of our general mother. There were many amongst them as exactly proportioned as ever any goddess was drawn by the pencil of Guido or Titian, and most of their skins shiningly white, only adorned by their beautiful hair divided into many tresses hanging on their shoulders, braided either with pearl or ribbon, perfectly representing the figures of the graces. I was here convinced of the truth of a reflection that I had often made, that if it was the fashion to go naked, the face would be hardly observed. I perceived that the ladies with the finest skins and most delicate shapes had the greatest share of my admiration, though their faces were sometimes less beautiful than those of their companions. To tell you the truth, I had wickedness enough to wish secretly that Mr. Jervas could have been there invisible. I fancy it would have very much improved his art to see so many fine women naked in different postures, some in conversation, some working, others drinking coffee or sherbet, and many negligently lying on their cushions while their slaves (generally pretty girls of seventeen or eighteen) were employed in braiding their hair in several pretty manners. In short, it is the women's coffee house, where all the news of the town is told, scandal invented, etc. They generally take this diversion once a week, and stay there at least four or five hours without getting cold by immediate coming out of the hot bath into the cool room, which was very surprising to me. The lady that seemed the most considerable amongst them entreated me to sit by her and would fain have undressed me for the bath. I excused my self with some difficulty, they being all so earnest in persuading me. I was at last forced to open my skirt and shew them my stays, which satisfied em very well, for I saw they believed I was so locked up in that machine that it was not in my own power to open it, which contrivance they attributed to my husband. I was charmed with their civility and beauty and should have been very glad to pass more time with them, but Mr. W[ortley] resolving to pursue his Journey the next morning early, I was in haste to see the ruins of Justinian's church, which did not afford me so agreeable a prospect as I had left, being little more than a heap of stones. Adieu, Madam. I am sure I have now entertained you with an account of such a sight as you never saw in your life and what no book of travels could inform you of. It is no less than death for a man to be found in one of these places. To the Abbot Conti, 1 April 1717, Adrianople You see that I am very exact in keeping the promise you engaged me to make, but I know not whether your curiosity will be satisfied with the accounts I shall give you, though I can assure you that the desire I have to oblige you to the utmost of my power has made me very diligent in my inquiries and observations. It is certain we have but very imperfect relations of the manners and religion of these people, this part of the world being seldom visited but by merchants who mind little but their own affairs, or travelers who make too short a stay to be able to report any thing exactly of their own knowledge. The Turks are too proud to converse familiarly with the merchants etc., who can only pick up some confused informations which are generally false, and they can give no better an account of the ways here than a French refugee lodging in a garret in Greek street could write of the court of England. The journey we have made from Belgrade hither by land cannot possibly be passed by any out of a public character. The desert woods of Servia are the common refuge of thieves who rob fifty in a company, that we had need of all our guards to secure us, and the villages so poor that only force could extort from them necessary provisions. Indeed, the janissaries had no mercy on their poverty, killing all the poultry and sheep they could find without asking who they belonged to, while the wretched owners durst not put in their claim for fear of being beaten. Lambs just fallen, geese and turkeys big with egg: all massacred without distinction! I fancied I heard the complaints of Melibeus for the hope of his flock. When the *****s travel it is yet worse. Those oppressors are not content with eating all that is to be eaten belonging to the peasants; after they have crammed themselves and their numerous retinue, they have the impudence to exact what they call teeth-money, a contribution for the use of their meat. This is a literal known truth, however extravagant it seems, and such is the natural corruption of a military government, their religion not allowing of this barbarity no more than ours does. I had the advantage of lodging three weeks at Belgrade with a principal effendi, that is to say, a scholar. This set of men are equally capable of preferments in the law or the church, those two sciences being cast into one, a lawyer and a priest being the same word. . . . I was going to tell you that an intimate daily conversation with the effendi Achmet-Beg gave me opportunity of knowing their religion and morals in a more particular manner than perhaps any Christian ever did. I explained to him the difference between the religion of England and Rome, and he was pleased to hear there were Christians that did not worship images or adore the Virgin Mary. The ridicule of transubstantiation appeared very strong to him. Upon comparing our creeds together, I am convinced that if our friend Dr. ______ had free liberty of preaching here, it would be very easy to persuade the generality to Christianity, whose notions are already little different from his. . . . . Mohametism is divided into as many sects as Christianity, and the first institution as much neglected and obscured by interpretations. I cannot here forbear reflecting on the natural inclination of mankind to make mysteries and novelties. The Zeidi, Kadari, Jabari, etc. put me in mind of the Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, etc., and are equally zealous against one another. But the most prevailing opinion, if you search into the secret of the effendis, is plain deism, but this is kept from the people, who are amused with a thousand different notions according to the different interests of their preachers. . . . He assured me that if I understood Arabic I should be very well pleased with reading the Alcoran, which is so far from the nonsense we charge it with, it is the purest morality delivered in the very best language. I have since heard impartial Christians speak of it in the same manner, and I don't doubt but all our translations are from copies got from the Greek priests, who would not fail to falsify it with the extremity of malice. No body of men ever were more ignorant and more corrupt, yet they differ so little from the Romish Church, I confess there is nothing gives me a greater abhorrence of them whenever they have been their masters, for no other reason than not acknowledging the Pope. . . . To the Countess of [Mar], 1 April 1717, Adrianople I wish to God (dear sister) that you was as regular in letting me have the pleasure of knowing what passes on your side of the globe as I am careful in endeavoring to amuse you by the account of all I see that I think you care to hear of. You content yourself with telling me over and over that the town is very dull. It may possibly be dull to you when every day does not present you with something new, but for me that am in arrear at least two months news, all that seems very stale with you would be fresh and sweet here; pray let me into more particulars. I will try to awaken your gratitude by giving you a full and true relation of the novelties of this place, none of which would surprise you more than a sight of my person as I am now in my Turkish habit, though I believe you would be of my opinion that it is admirably becoming. I intend to send you my picture; in the mean time accept of it here. The first piece of my dress is a pair of drawers, very full, that reach to my shoes and conceal the legs more modestly than your petticoats. They are of a thin rose-coloured damask brocaded with silver flowers, my shoes of white kid leather embroidered with gold. Over this hangs my smock of a fine white silk gauze edged with embroidery. This smock has wide sleeves hanging half way down the arm and is closed at the neck with a diamond button, but the shape and colour of the bosom very well to be distinguished through it. The antery is a waistcoat made close to the shape, of white and gold damask, with very long sleeves falling back and fringed with deep gold fringe, and should have diamond or pearl buttons. My caftan of the same stuff with my drawers is a robe exactly fitted to my shape and reaching to my feet, of abut four fingers broad, which all that can afford have entirely of diamonds or other precious stones. Those that will not be at that expense have it of exquisite embroidery on satin, but it must be fastened before with a clasp of diamonds. The curdee is a loose robe they throw off or put on according to the weather, being of a rich brocade (mine is green and gold) either lined with ermine or sables; the sleeves reach very little below the shoulders. The headdress is composed of a cap called talpock, which is in winter of fine velvet embroidered with pearls or diamonds and in summer of a light shining silver stuff. This is fixed on one side of the head, hanging a little way down with a gold tassel and bound on either with a circle of diamonds (as I have seen several) or a rich embroidered handkerchief. On the other side of the head the hair is laid flat, and here the ladies are at liberty to shew their fancies, some putting flowers, others a plume of heron's feathers, and, in short, what they please, but the most general fashion is a large bouquet of jewels of different coloured rubies, the jessamines of diamonds, jonquils of topazes, etc., so well set and enameled it is hard to imagine any thing of that kind so beautiful. The hair hangs at ifs full length behind, divided into tresses braided with pearl or ribbon, which is always in great quantity. I never saw in my life so many fine heads of hair. I have counted a hundred and ten of these tresses of one ladies, all natural; but it must be owned that every beauty is more common here than with us. It is surprising to see a young woman that is not very handsome. They have naturally the most beautiful complexions in the world and generally large black Eyes. I can assure you with great truth that the court of England (though I believe it the fairest in Christendom) cannot shew so many beauties as are under our protection here. They generally shape their eyebrows, and the Greeks and Turks have a custom of putting round their eyes on the inside a black tincture that, at a distance or by candle-light, adds very much to the blackness of them. I fancy many of our ladies would be overjoyed to know their secret, but it is too visible by day. They dye their nails rose colour; I own I cannot enough accustom my self to this fashion to find any beauty in it. As to their morality or good conduct, I can say like Harlequin, it is just as it is with you, and the Turkish ladies don't commit one sin the less for not being Christians. Now I am a little acquainted with their ways, I cannot forbear admiring either the exemplary discretion or extreme stupidity of all the writers that have given accounts of them. It is very easy to see they have more liberty than we have, no woman of what rank so ever being permitted to go in the streets without two muslins, one that covers her face all but her eyes and another that hides the whole dress of her head and hangs half way down her back; and their shapes are wholly concealed by a thing they call a ferigee, which no woman of any sort appears without. This has straight sleeves that reaches to their fingers ends and it laps all round em, not unlike a riding hood. In winter it is of cloth, and in summer, plain stuff or silk. You may guess how effectually this disguises them, that there is no distinguishing the great lady from her slave, and it is impossible for the most jealous husband to know his wife when he meets her, and no man dare either touch or follow a woman in the street. This perpetual masquerade gives them entire liberty of following their Inclinations without danger of discovery. The most usual method of Intrigue is to send an appointment to the lover to meet the lady at a Jew's shop, which are as notoriously convenient as our Indian houses, and yet even those that don't make that use of them do not scruple to go buy pennyworths and tumble over rich goods, which are chiefly to be found amongst that sort of people. The great ladies seldom let their gallants know who they are, and it is so difficult to find it out that they can very seldom guess at her name they have corresponded with above half a year together. You may easily imagine the number of faithful wives very small in a country where they have nothing to fear from their Lovers' Indiscretion, since we see so many that have the courage to expose them selves to that in this world and all the threatened punishment of the next, which is never preached to the Turkish damsels. Neither have they much to apprehend from the resentment of their husbands, those ladies that are rich having all their money in their own hands, which they take with them upon a divorce with an addition which he is obliged to give em. Upon the whole, I look upon the Turkish women as the only free people in the Empire. The very Divan pays a respect to em, and the Grand Signior himself, when a ***** is executed, never violates the privileges of the harem (or women's apartment) which remains unsearched entire to the widow. They are queens of their slave, which the husband has no permission so much as to look upon, except it be an old woman or two that his lady chooses. It is true their law permits them four wives, but there is no instance of a man of quality that makes use of this liberty, or of a woman of rank that would suffer it. When a husband happens to be inconstant (as those things will happen) he keeps his mistress in a house apart and visits her as privately as he can, just as it is with you. Amongst all the great men here I only know the tefterdar (i.e. treasurer) that keeps a number of she slaves for his own use (that is, on his own side of the house, for a slave once given to serve a lady is entirely at her disposal) and he is spoke of as a libertine, or what we should call a rake, and his wife won't see him, though she continues to live in his house. Thus you see, dear sister, the manners of mankind doe not differ so widely as our voyage Writers would make us believe. Perhaps it would be more entertaining to add a few surprising customs of my own invention, but nothing seems to me so agreeable as truth, and I believe nothing so acceptable to you. I conclude with repeating the great Truth of my being, Dear Sister . . . . To [Miss Sarah Chiswell], 1 April 1717, Adrianople . . . A propos of distempers, I am going to tell you a thing that I am sure will make you wish your self here. The small-pox so fatal and so general amongst us is here entirely harmless by the invention of ingrafting (which is the term they give it). There is a set of old women who make it their business to perform the operation. Every autumn in the month of September, when the great heat is abated, people send to one another to know if any of their family has a mind to have the small-pox. They make parties for this purpose, and when they are met (commonly fifteen or sixteen together) the old woman comes with a nutshell full of the matter of the best sort of small-pox and asks what veins you please to have opened. She immediately rips open that you offer to her with a large needle (which gives you no more pain than a common scratch) and puts into the vein as much venom as can lye upon the head of her needle, and after binds up the little wound with a hollow bit of shell, and in this manner opens four or five veins. . . . The children or young patients play together all the rest of the day and are in perfect health till the eighth. Then the fever begins to seize them and they keep their beds two days, very seldom three. They have very rarely above twenty or thirty in their faces, which never mark, and in eight days time they are as well as before the illness. . . . There is no example of any one that has died in it, and you may believe I am very well satisfied of the safety of the experiment since I intend to try it on my dear little son. I am patriot enough to take pains to bring this useful invention into fashion in England, and I should not fail to write to some of our doctors very particularly about it if I knew any one of em that I thought had virtue enough to destroy such a considerable branch of their revenue for the good of mankind, but that distemper is too beneficial to them not to expose to all their resentment the hardy wight that should undertake to put an end to it. Perhaps if I live to return I may, however, have courage to war with them. Upon this occasion, admire the heroism in the heart of your friend, etc. To the Abbot [Conti], 17 May 1717, Adrianople . . . . I observed most of the rich tradesmen were Jews. That people are in incredible power in this country. They have many privileges above the natural Turks themselves, and have formed a very considerable common wealth here, being judged by their own Laws, and have drawn the whole trade of the empire into their hands, partly by the firm union amongst themselves, and prevailing on the idle temper and want of Industry of the Turks. Even ***** has his Jew who is his Homme d'Affaires. He is let into all his secrets and does all his busyness. No bargain is made, no bribe received, no merchandise disposed of but what passes through their hands. They are the physicians, the stewards, and the interpreters of all the great Mem. You may judge how advantageous this is to a people who never fail to make use of the smallest advantages. They have found the secret of making themselves so necessary, they are certain of the protection of the court whichever ministry is in power. Even the English, French and Italian Merchants, who are sensible of their artifices, are however forced to trust their affairs to their negotiation, nothing of trade being managed without em, and the meanest among them is too important to be disobliged since the whole body take care of his interests with as much vigor as they would those of the most considerable of their members. They are many of em vastly rich, but take care to make little publish shew of it, though they live in their houses in the utmost luxury and magnificence. . . . To the Lady _____, 17 June 1717, Belgrade Village I heartily beg your Ladyship's pardon, but I really could not forbear laughing heartily at your letter and the commissions you are pleased to honour me with. You desire me to buy you a Greek slave who is to be mistress of a thousand good qualities. The Greeks are subjects and not slaves. Those who are to be bought in that manner are either such as are taken in war or stole by the Tartars from Russia, Circassia or Georgia, and are such miserable, awkward, poor wretches, you would not think any of them worthy to be your house-maid. It is true that many thousands were taken in the Morea; but they have been most of them redeemed by the charitable contributions of the Christians or ransomed by their own relations at Venice. The fine slaves that wait upon the great ladies, or serve the pleasures of the great men, are all bought at the age of eight or nine years old and educated with great care to accomplish them in singing, dancing, embroidery, etc. They are commonly Circassians, and their patron never sells them except it is as a punishment for some very great fault. If ever they grow weary of them, they either present them to a friend or give them their freedoms. Those that are exposed to sale at the markets are always either guilty of some crime or so entirely worthless that they are of no use at all. I am afraid you'll doubt the truth of this account, which I own is very different from our common notions in England, but it is not less truth for all that. Your whole letter is full of mistakes from one end to to the other. I see you have taken you ideas of Turkey from that worthy author Dumont, who has writ with equal ignorance and confidence. It is a particular pleasure to me here to read the voyages to the Levant, which are generally so far removed from truth and so full of absurdities I am very well diverted with them. They never fail giving you an account of the women, which it is certain they never saw, and talking very wisely of the genius of the men, into whose company they are never admitted, and very often describe mosques, which they dare not peep into. The Turks are very proud, and will not converse with a stranger they are not assured is considerable in his own country. I speak of the men of distinction, for as to the ordinary fellows, you may imagine what ideas their conversation can give of the general genius of the people. To the Countess of _____, I am now preparing to leave Constantinople, and perhaps you will accuse me of hypocrisy when I tell you it is with regret, but I am used to the air and have learnt the Language. I am easy here, and as much as I love travelling, I tremble at the inconveniences attending so great a journey with a numerous family and a little infant hanging at the breast. However, I endeavour upon this occasion to do as I have hitherto done in all the odd turns of my live, turn em, if I can, to my diversion. In order to this, I ramble every day, wrapped up in my ferigee, and asmak, about Constantinople and amuse my self with seeing all that is curious in it. I know you'll expect this declaration should be followed with some account of what I have seen, but I am in no humour to copy what has been writ so often over. To what purpose should I tell you that Constantinople was the ancient Bizantium; that 'tis at present the conquest of a race of people upposed Scythians; that there are five or six thousand mosques in it; that Sancta Sophia was founded by Justinian, etc.? I'll assure you it is not [for] want of learning that I forbear writing all these bring things. I could also, with little trouble, turn over Knolles and Sir Paul Rycaut to give you a list of Turkish emperors, but I will not tell you what you may find in every author that has writ of this country. I am more inclined, out of a true female spirit of contradiction, to tell you the falsehood of a great part of what you find in authors; as, for example, the admirable Mr. Hill, who so gravely asserts that he saw in Sancta Sophia a sweating pillar very balsamic for disordered heads. There is not the least tradition of any such matter, and I suppose it was revealed to him in vision during his wonderful stay in the Egyptian Catacombs, for I am sure he never heard of any such miracle here. It is also very pleasant to observe how tenderly he and all his brethren voyage-writers lament the miserable confinement of the Turkish ladies, who are (perhaps) freer than any Ladies in the universe, and are the only women in the world that lead a life of uninterrupted pleasure, exempt from cares, their whole time being spent in visiting, bathing, or the agreeable amusement of spending money and inventing new fashions. A husband would be thought mad that exacted any degree of economy from his wife, whose expenses are no way limited but by her own fancy. It is his business to get money and hers to spend it, and this noble prerogative extends it self to the very meanest of the sex. * * *I am well acquainted with a Christian woman of quality who made it her choice to live with a Turkish husband, and is a very agreeable sensible Lady. Her story is so extraordinary I cannot forbear relating it, but I promise you it shall be in as few words as I can possibly express it. She is a Spaniard, and was at Naples with her family when that Kingdom was part of the Spanish dominion. Coming from thence in a felucca, accompanied by her brother, they were attacked by the Turkish admiral, boarded and taken; and now, how shall I modestly tell you the rest of her adventure? The same accident happened to her that happened to the fair Lucretia so many years before her, but she was too good a Christian to kill her self as that heathenish Roman did. The Admiral was so much charmed with the beauty and long-suffering of the fair captive that as his first complement he gave immediate liberty to her brother and attendants, who made haste to Spain and in a few months sent the sum of four thousand pounds sterling as a ransom for his sister. The Turk took the money, which he presented to her, and told her she was at Liberty, but the lady very discreetly weighed the different treatment she was likely to find in her native country. Her Catholic relations, as the kindest thing they could do for her in her present circumstances, would certainly confine her to a nunnery for the rest of her days. Her infidel lover was very handsome, very tender, fond of her, and lavished at her feet all the Turkish magnificence. She answered him very resolutely that her liberty was not so precious to her as her honor, that he could not way restore that but by marrying her. She desired him to accept the ransom as her portion and give her the satisfaction of knowing no man could boast of her favours without being her husband. The admiral was transported at this kind offer and sent back the money to her relations, saying he was too happy in her possession. He married her and never took any other wife, and (as she says her self) she never had any reason to repent the choice she made. He left her some years after one of the riches widows in Constantinople, but there is no remaining honourably a single woman, and that consideration has obliged her to marry the present Capitan ***** (i.e. admiral), his successor. I am afraid you'll think that my friend fell in love with her ravisher, but I am willing to take her word for it that she acted wholly on principles of honor, though I think she might be reasonably touched at his generosity, which is very often found amongst the Turks of rank. To the Abbot Conti, 19 May 1718, Constantinople . . . Thus you see, Sir, these people are not so unpolished as we represent them. It is true their magnificence is of a different taste from ours, and perhaps of a better. I am almost of opinion they have a right notion of life; while they consume it in music, gardens, wine, and delicate eating, while we are tormenting our brains with some scheme of politics or studying some science to which we can never attain, or if we do, cannot persuade people to set that value upon it we do our selves. It is certain what we feel and see is properly (if any thing is properly) our own; but the good of fame, the folly of praise, hardly purchased, and when obtained--poor recompense for loss of time and health! We dye, or grow old and decrepit, before we can reap the fruit of our labours. Considering what short lived, weak animals men are, is there any study so beneficial as the study of present pleasure? I dare not pursue this theme; perhaps I have already said too much, but I depend upon the true knowledge you have of my heart. I don't expect from you the insipid railleries I should suffer from another in answer to this letter. You know how to divide the idea of pleasure from that of vice, and they are only mingled in the heads of fools--but I allow you to laugh at me for the sensual declaration that I had rather be a rich effendi with all his ignorance, than Sir Isaac Newton with all his knowledge. I am, Sir, etc. http://www.u.arizona.edu/ic/mcbride/ws200/montltrs.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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