The Bulgarians and the Turks in the eyes of OGIER DE BUSBECQ
- by anna
- 30 December, 2014
While researching for my next book – “The European Sultanas” – about the most powerful wives and partners of the Ottoman Sultans, I requested a book by Ogier de Busbecq from the British Library, which proved very interesting. Despite giving me many details about the family life of Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Hürem Sultan, I found this description of Ogier’s travel to Istanbul, which took him through Bulgarian lands. Ogier de Busbecq was an ambassador to Istanbul between the years of 1554 – 1562, and wrote four long letters describing his life in the Empire in great details. I thought this passage may interest some of you, despite the incorrect information and his rather scornful look at the Bulgarians and his negative views on the Turkish nation.
OGIER DE BUSBECQ
From Nish we journeyed to Sofia, both the weather and the road béing tolerably good for the time of year.
Sofia is a fairly large town with a considerable population of natives and foreigners. It was once the capital of the Despots of Bulgaria, and afterwards, if I remember right, of the Despots of Serbia, as long as their dynasty lasted and until it succumbed to the Turkish arms. After leaving Sofia we journeyed for several days through the pleasant, fertile valleys of the Bulgarians.
During this period of our journey we ate bread baked under ashes; the natives call it fugacia (погача). It is sold by girls and women, for there are no bakers in those parts. When they hear of the arrival of strangers from whom they hope to earn something, they hurriedly knead flour, mixed with water but without yeast, and put it under the hot cinders, and then bring the loaves for sale at a low price, still hot from the fire. All kinds of food are quite cheap; a sheep costs 35 aspres (50 aspres make a crown), a cockerel or a pullet one aspre.
I must also describe the women’s dress. They usually wear a single garment, a linen shirt or shift, quite as coarsely woven as our sack-cloth, and ornamented with clumsy and ridiculous embroidery, of which, however, they are inordinately proud. When they saw our shirts, which were of a very fine texture, they expressed their astonishment at our sober taste in wearing garments so plain and so devoid of colour and decoration.
The most unusual features of their attire are their towering head-dresses and bonnets (if they can be so called), which are of a quite extra-ordinary shape. They are made of straw interwoven with threads, and in form are the exact contrary of those of our own peasant women, whose hats reach down to their shoulders and are broadest at the bottom and rise into a pyramid above. In .Bulgaria they are narrowest at the bottom and then rise in a curve over the head to the height of about nine inches. Where they face the sky, they are very wide and open, so that they seem as well adapted to catch the rain and sun as our hats are to keep them off. From top to bottom they are covered with little coins and figures and pieces of glass of different colours; and anything else which glitters, however worthless, is hung on as an ornament. A bonnet of this kind greatly adds to the wearer’s height and also to the stateliness of her carriage, since it is easily dislodged by the slightest jar. So the women carry themselves as you would imagine that Clytemnestra would take the stage, or Hecuba while Troy still flourished.
I was reminded here of the fickleness and uncertainty of what men usually call nobility of birth. Noticing some girls who had an appearance of unusually good breeding, I asked whether they were the daughters of some great family. I was told that they traced their descent from the greatest rulers of the land and even from the royal house itself, but were now married to ploughmen and shepherds. Such is the lowly estate of nobility in the realm of Turkey.
Subsequently I saw elsewhere the descendants of the imperial families of the Cantacuzeni and Palaeologi, living in a humbler position than Dionysius at Corinth, for in Turkey, even among the Turks themselves, no value is attached to anything but personal merit. The house of Othman is the sole exception to this rule, being the only family in which birth confers rank.
It is generally held that, when many nations were migrating of their own accord or under compulsion, the Bulgarians left the river Volga in Scythia and settled
here, and were called Bulgarians, that is Volgarians, after that river. They settled among the Balkan mountains between Sofia and Philippopolis in a naturally strong position which long enabled them to despise the power of the Greek Emperors. They captured in a skirmish and put to death Baldwin the Elder, Count of Flanders, who had seized the throne of the Eastern Empire. They could not, however, resist the might of the Turks, who conquered them and reduced them to a state of miserable servitude. They speak the Illyrian tongue, like the Serbians and Rascians.
Before descending into the plain in which Philippopolis lies, one has to traverse a pass over a very rough mountain ridge, called by the Turks ‘ Capi Derwent ‘, that is, “the Narrow Gate”. In the plain one soon reaches the River Hebrus (Maritza), which rises not far off in the Rhodopean mountains, the summit of which, covered with deep snow, was visible before we had traversed the pass.
Philippopolis is situated on one of three hills, which lie apart from the rest of the mountains and look as if they had been torn away from them. While we were there, we saw rice growing like wheat on wet, marshy ground. The whole plain is studded with tumuli, which, according to the Turkish account, are artificial,
and were set up to commemorate the many battles which they say were fought in this region and mark the tombs of those who fell in the fray.
We followed pretty closely the bank of the Maritza, which flowed for some time on our right, leaving on the left the Balkan range, which extends towards the Black Sea; then crossing the splendid bridge of Mustapha we reached Adrianople, or, as the Turks call it, Endrenee.
This city, before it received the name of Hadrian and was greatly enlarged, was called Oresta. It is situated at the junction of the Maritza, or Hebrus and the smaller rivers Tundja and Arda, which from this point onwards bend their course towards the Aegean Sea. The extent of this city, as enclosed by the ancient walls, is not very great; but it has spacious suburbs, the buildings of which, added by the Turks, greatly increase its size.
We stayed one day in Adrianople and then set out on the last stage of our journey to Constantinople, which was now close at hand, As we passed through this district we everywhere came across quantities of flowers—narcissi, hyacinths, and tulipans, as the Turks call them. We were surprised to find them flowering in mid-winter, scarcely a favourable season. There is an abundance of narcissi and hyacinths in Greece (n), and they possess so wonderful a scent that a large quantity of them causes a headache in those who are unaccustomed to such an odour. The tulip has little or no scent, but it is admired for its beauty and the variety of its colours. The Turks are very fond of flowers, and, though they are otherwise anything but extravagant, they do not hesitate to pay several aspres for a fine blossom. These flowers, although they were gifts, cost me a good deal ; for I had always to pay several aspres in return for them.
In fact, a man who intends to go among the Turks must be prepared, as soon as he has crossed the frontier, to open his purse and never close it till he leaves the country. Meanwhile he must sow money broadcast and pray that it may not prove unfruitful. If there is no other result, it is at any rate the only method of softening the fierce heart of the Turk, who hates all other nations. Money acts like a charm to sooth their otherwise intractable minds. Were it not for this expedient, their country would be as inaccessible to foreigners as those lands which are supposed to be condemned to perpetual solitude by excessive heat or cold.
About half-way between Adrianople and Constantinople is the little town of Tchorlu, famous as the scene of the battle between Selim (n) and his father Bajazet, whence Selim (Suleiman’s father), thanks to his horse Carabuluk (‘ Black Cloud ‘), escaped in safety to his father-in-law, the King of the Crim-Tartars.
Just before we reached Silivri, a small sea-side town on our route, we saw clear traces of an ancient ditch and rampart which are said to have been constructed by the later Greek Emperors from the Sea of Marmora to the Danube, in order to include their territory within a line of defence and secure the estates of the inhabitants of Constantinople from the inroads of the barbarians……