The type of governing official which the Turkish sultans desired to produce through the medium of their palace system of education was the warrior-statesman and loyal Moslem who, at the same time, should be "a man of letters and a gentleman of polished speech, profound courtesy, and honest morals." To this end a student of the Palace School, from the day of his admission until he quitted the Grand Seraglio, was meticulously drilled in the ceremonies of the Moslem religion and Turkish etiquette. A contemporary judgment bears witness to the effectiveness of this social training: "The Turkish nobles, pages, people of the court and palace are reared in a politeness which excels the politeness and urbanity of other nations." The pages [term for "students"] received instruction also, in almost equal proportions, in the liberal arts, in the art of war and physical exercise, and in vocational training -- a combination which seems to have been paralleled only by the samurai, the warrior- scholars of Japan. The liberal arts, in the Turkish, or Islamic, interpretation of the term, embraced the Turkish, Arabic, and Persian languages; Turkish and Persian literatures; Arabic grammar and syntax; a study of the koran and leading commentaries upon it; Moslem theology, jurisprudence, and law; and Turkish history, music, and mathematics. Of the last subject the only branch which is known with certainty to have been taught in the palace schools is arithmetic, although it seems likely that instruction may also have been given in geometry. The great Turkish architect of the sixteenth century, Sinan Bey, who was educated in one of the Janissary barracks in Constantinople, probably that in the Hippodrome, almost certainly received some instruction in geometry as preparation for his later work as an engineer, and it is a well-established fact that the curriculum of the Palace School was much more comprehensive and advanced than that provided for the Janissaries. Rycaut, writing in 1668, maintains that as for
"Other Sciences, as Logick, Physick, Metaphysick, Mathematicks, and other our University Learning, they [the Turks] are wholly ignorant; unless in the latter, as far as Musick is a part of Mathematicks, whereof there is a school apart in the Seraglio. Only some that live in Constantinople have learned some certain rules of Astrology, which they eercise upon all occasions, and busie themselves in Prophesies of future contingences of the Affairs of the Empire, and the unconstant estate of great Ministers, in which their predictions seldom divine grateful or pleasing stories. Neither have the wisest and most active Ministers or Souldiers amongst them, the least inspection into Geography, whereby to be acquainted with the situation of Countreys or disposition of the Globe, though they themselves enjoy the possession of so large a portion of the Universe. Their Seamen, who seldom venture beyond sight of Land (unless they be those of Barbary, who are Renegaoes and practised in the Christian Arts of Navigation) have certainSea-carts ill-framed, and the Capes and headlands so ill laid down, that in their Voyages from Constantinople to Alexandria, the richest place of their Trade, they trust more to their eye and experience, then the direction of their Maps; nor could I ever see any Cart of the black Sea made either by Turk or Greek which could give the least light to a knowing Seaman, so as to encourage him according to the rules of Art, to lay any confidence thereon in his Navigation."
On the other hand, the Abbate Toderini, writing in 1787, when learning had already suffered a decline, says that
" the Turks of Constantinople are very versed in the science of numbers; indeed they are so well instructed in this respect that they astonish European mathematicians. The libraries of Constantinople are filled with books on arithmetic in both Turkish and Arabic. Of algebra, which they use in connection with astrology and divination, treatises are to be found in occasional libraries, and there are also certain young Turks, especially the students of the Valideh Mosque, who employ European textbooks on the subject. The Turks study geometry for the sake of astronomy, navigation, maps and calendars, to which they are devoted. The best edition of Euclid available to them is the Arabic translation of Nassiredn Al-Thussi, a publication of the de Medici Press in 996 A.H. (1557/8)."
This evidence of Toderini is supported by von Hammer, who says that the Turks were not without interest in and knowledge of geography, as shown "by the prowess of such noted seamen as Piale, Torghoud, Salih, who reigned in the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas, and as Piri-Reis, Murad, and Sidi-Ali in the Gulfs of Arabia and Persia," who, "while establishing other claims to fame, at the same time augmented the knowledge of their nation by their geographies and nautical works."
Physical training was begun with gymnastic exercises, and from these progressed to sports of various kinds, cavalry exercises, and other "arts of war." As a result of the systematic and long-continued training which they received, the students of the Palace School are said to have developed amazing strength and agility of body, vigorous health, and unusual skill in arms; to an extraordinary degree they were rendered "fit for the Wars and all active employments." The high standard of physical development which they attained may be judged from the fact that there was no finer army in Europe than the Turkish army during the centuries when the palace system of education was at the height of its efficiency, and that practically all the officers of the regular cavalry, or cavalry of the Sublime Porte, and many of the officers of the feudal cavalry, had been trained in the Palace School.
In the Traditions the Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said that "he who earns is a dearly beloved friend of Allah" (Al-Kaib habibu-llah). Perhaps as a result of this teachingrhaps not less as a provision against the inconstancy of fate in an oriental despotism -- all Turks, with the exception of the Janissaries, no matter how high their stations, were formerly accustomed to learn "some art and occupation according to the capacity of their spirit." In view of the early contact of the Turks with the Chinese, there is interest in Dr. Hu Shih's statement that even today "a Chinese student must learn some useful art." Concerning the wide prevalence of this custom among the Turks, Theodoros Spandouginos wrote in 1519, "There is not any prince or lord so great, even the Emperor himself, that he does not cause his children to be instructed in some art or science, by means of which he could earn a livelihood in case he should fall upon evil days." Some of the sultans excelled in their chosen crafts. Muhammad II, who took an interest in gardens unusual even for a Turk, was himself a skilled gardener, as has already been said, and often worked with the spade, rake, and other tools in the gardens of the Grand Seraglio or other royal palaces: "this same Muhammad was also accustomed to fashion rings for the bow, buckles for the girdle and sheaths for the sword, which things he did merely for passing the time." His grandson and great-grandson, Selim I and Suleiman I, were both skilled goldsmiths; Selim II produced in large quantities the crescents which pilgrims were accustomed to mount upon the staffs which they carried to the Holy Cities; Murad III manufactured arrows, and Ahmed I the type of ivory ring which archers wore upon their thumbs, upon which he is said to have labored assiduously; and so on down to Abd ul-hamid II, several specimens of whose fine Damascene inlaid work may be seen in the Mejidiyeh Kiushk. The arts and crafts which were taught the pages in the four schools of vocational training of the Grand Seraglio were in each case determined by the lines of the palace service to which these schools were attached, or else by the specific services which a page performed for the sultan.
But above all it was the aim of the Turkish sultans to discover and to train youths of exceptional ability for leadership in the state. Of the unusual degree to which individual aptitude or talent was appreciated by the Turks, Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, ambassador from the Holy Roman Empire to the Sublime Porte during the reign of Suleiman the Magnicent and author of one of the most vivid and searching records of that remarkable reign, writes:
" The Turks rejoice greatly when they find an exceptional man as though they had acquired a precious object, and they spare no labor or effort in cultivating him; especially if they discern that he is fit for war. Our plan [that is, in Western Europe] is very different; for if we find a good dog, hawk, or horse, we are greatly delighted, and we spare nothing to bring it to the greatest perfection of its kind. But if a man happens to possess an extraordinary disposition, we do not take like pains; nor do we think that his education is especially our affair; and we receive much pleasure and many kinds of service from the well-trained horse, dog, and hawk; but the Turks much more from a well-educated man in proportion as the nature of a man is more admirable and more excellent than that of the other animals."
The chief means employed to stimulate students to the maximum of effort were a large measure of freedom in the choice of subjects of study, and a system of merit consisting of carefully graded rewards and corresponding punishments. In the third quarter of the seventeenth century, Jean-Claude Flachat observed that "the dispositions and inclinations of the pages were carefully consulted." The course of study within broad lines was almost entirely a matter of choice, the only absolutely prescribed subjects being the Turkish and Arabic languages and the Koran. In addition to the prescription of these two subjects there existed only the one general requirement that a page "should work at something and should work in earnest, drones only not being permitted." In actual fact the pages are said to have devoted day and night to the study of the "sciences," using their recreation time for required physical or manual exercises, or for study. To quote again from Flachat: "The pages apply themselves very seriously to study. They make it their duty to excel, as that is the only means which they have of attaining success. This ambition gives rise among them to a praiseworthy emulation."
The system of merit of the Palace School, which was a replica of the carefully graded rewards of merit underlying the hierarchy of the government, prevailed in the school from its first foundation until the final breaking up of the ancient system of slave government. Promotions from one hall to another, appointments to student offices and later to military and administrative positions, all were based strictly upon the merit system. Busbecq asserts that the workings of this system in the government were paralleled by its workings in the palace system of education:
"No distinction is attached to birth among the Turks; the deference to be paid a man is measured by the position he holds in the public service. There is no fighting for precedence; a man's place is marked out by the duties he discharges. In making his appointments the Sultan pays no regard to any pretensions on the score of wealth or rank, nor does he take into consideration recommendations or popularity; he considers each case on its own merits, and examines carefully into the character, ability, and disposition of the man whose promotion is in question. It is by merit that men rise in the service, a system which ensures that posts should be assigned only to the competent. Each man in Turkey carries in his own hand his ancestry and his position in life, which he may make or mar as he will. Those who receive the highest offices from the Sultan are for the most part the sons of shepherds or herdsmen, and so far as being ashamed of their parentage, they actually glory in it, and consider it a matter of boasting that they owe nothing to the accident of birth; for they do not believe that high qualities are either natural or hereditary, nor do they think that they can be handed down from father to son, but that they are partly the gift of God, and partly the result of good training, great industry, and unwearied zeal; arguing that high qualities do not descend from a father to his son or heir, any more than a talent for music, mathematics, or the like; and that the mind does not derive its origin from the father, so that the son should necessarily be like the father in character, but emanates from heaven, and is thence infused into the human body. Among the Turks, therefore, honours, high posts, and judgeships are the rewards of great ability and good service. If a man be dishonest, or lazy, or careless, he remains at the bottom of the ladder, an object of contempt; for such qualities there are no honours in Turkey!"
An additional incentive to merit was provided by scholarships, or allowances, on a differential scale according to rank, for the six halls of the Grand Seraglio and the three affiliated. There was ample precedent for these student scholarships in the early medresehs of Nizam ul-Mulk and others. It is also not unlikely that Muhammad may have known of the "peculiar fancy" of Sultan Firuz Tughlaq "for educating slaves, of whom there were altogether eighteen thousand for whose maintenance and comfort he took special care.... He made suitable provision for the bestowal of stipends and scholarships upon the successful students, and over and above these, every inmate of the madrasah, be he a student, professor, or traveller lodging there, received a fixed daily allowance for his maintenance."
Punishments for failure in the performance of duty or for infringement of regulations were frequent and severe but at the same time were kept within distinct limits. Penalties for ordinary offenses were scolding, fasting, deprivation of the more popular physical exercises, especially boxing, running, and leaping, and also flogging with a long slender lash or stick on the soles of the feet, in an ordinary offense to the number of ten strokes (falaqa). It was expressly forbidden that either officers of the school or outside teachers should administer corporal punishment more than once in one day to the same pupil; anyone who exceeded this limit was dismissed from the school, or, if the offense were flagrant, suffered the loss of one of his hands.
Without question the training of the Palace School during its best period was arduouse and relentless. It was the opinion of Rycaut that
"he who hath run through the several Schools, Orders and degrees of the Seraglio, must needs be an extraordinary mortified man, patient of all labours, services, and injunctions, which are imposed on him with a strictness beyond the discipline that religious novices are acquainted with in Monastries, or the severity of Capuchins, or holy Votaries. But yet methinks these men that have been used all their lives to servitude, and subjection, should have their spirit abased and when licensed from the Seraglio to places of Trust and Government, should be so acquainted how to obey, as to be ignorant how to Rule, and be dazzled with the light of liberty, and overjoyed with the sence of their present condition, and past sufferings, passing from one extream to another, that they should lose their reasons, and forget themselves and others. But in answer hereunto, the Turks affirm, that none know so well how to govern, as those who have learned how to obey; though at first the sence of their freedom may distract them, yet afterwards the discipline, lectures, and morality in their younger years, will begin to operate, and recollect their scattered sences into their due and natural places."
The military decline of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and the consequent change in national policy, especially the increased importance of diplomacy rather than arms as a weapon of defense, made itself felt less in the courses of study of the Palace School than in its code of behavior. The ideal page as described at the beginning of the nineteenth century reflects the fundamental change which had taken place in the methods of government:
" A page must keep silent as the woodcutter Andreas in a Russian peasant's house, and comport himself in general as if honey were on his tongue and oil of almonds on his back. At times he must be blinder than a mole, deafer than a heathcock, more insensible than a polypus; but again at other times he must have the eyes of a Iynx and the ear of a Pomeranian wolf-dog. He must learn to turn his eyes always upon the ground and to keep his arms always crossed over his breast. In proportion as he approaches manhood he must become more circumspect, inclined to make friends of all whom he meets and enemies of none, for even the meanest may often defeat one's ends. He must trust no one, but always suspect the worst, though feigning the contrary.... Mankind is as a rule wicked; self-interest is the mainspring of action, and virtue is mere hypocrisy."
In spite of the transformation in ideal the curriculum seems to have suffered little outward, or formal, change during the three centuries and a half that the Palace School remained the military and political school of the Ottoman state. Instruction in the liberal arts was begun in the preparatory period and continued throughout the course. Particular stress was put upon the study of the Turkish language, which students of the palace schools were required to speak, read, and write fluently and correctly -- no small undertaking, even for a Turk. Three lists of the books in use in the school in the seventeenth century, which offer valuable evidence concerning the curriculum, include no Turkish grammars or books of syntax, which, it was said, "were entirely lacking among the Turks. They say that they have no need of them and that they learn enough by usage and habit of speaking.... There are some Turkish grammars, but all are made by the French and are used only by them." Turkish books which are included in the lists belong chiefly to a genre known as Mulamma, narrative romances, or collections of short tales, characterized by a very ornate style with an unusually large admixture of Arabic and Persian words. It was a very popular form of literature with "the most airy and ingenious spirits" among the palace pages, and it is suggested that "the great difference between the speech of those who were educated in the Saray and of those educated outside, which was derived from the books which they read," probably resulted from the reading of this type of romance. Several of the most popular were a translation of the Arabian Nights into Turkish; the Sayyid Battal or Battal Ghazi, an epic of the struggle of an Arab hero against paganism in behalf of Islam, a story which enjoyed a perennial popularity among Turkish soldiers and Arab peasants; the History of Forty Vizirs (Qirq Wazir), a compilation in prose of Turkish folk tales of different periods; and the Story of Kalila wa-Dimna or the Royal Book (Frumayun Nameh), a book of fables translated from Indian into Pahlevi, thence into Arabic, and from Arabic into Turkish in the reign of Murad III. All of these romances are still in circulation today, a remarkable testimony to the degree to which they were representative of the national spirit and ideals and to the wisdom of their selection. Twelve different styles of calligraphy were taught in the Palace School. Students who specialized in calligraphy usually aspired to secretarial positions. in some one of the various lines of government service, or to the higher offices of government. Rycaut, who was one of the first to make a study of the Turkish polity, says of the calligraphers: "Those others who are of a complexion more melancholick and inclinable to contemplation, proceed with more patience of method, and are more exact in their studies, intending to become Masters of their Pen, and by that means to arrive to honour and office either of Resi [Res] Efendi, or Secretary of State, Lord Treasurer, or Secretary of the Treasury, or Dispensatory." The same authority bears witness to the study of Turkish history and law as follows: "Yet as to the successes and progress of Affairs in their own Dominions, they [the pages] keep most strict Registers and Records, which serve them as Presidents [s] and Rules for the present Government of their Affairs." It was in the Palace School that the majority of the offlcial chroniclers were trained-called palace historians (saray vaqaa-nuvs), inaugurated by Muhammad II and continued by his successors in almost unbroken sequence down to Abd ur-Rahman Sherif Efendi in the present generation.
The Arabic and Persian languages and literatures have been well styled "the humanities of Islamic culture." At the height of the inluence of the Palace School a knowledge of Arabic as the key to the Koran and other authoritative sources of the Holy Law (Shariah) was esteemed a "necessary accomplishment of a Pasha, or any great Minister in relation to the better discharge of his office, being thereby enabled to have an inspection into the writings and sentences of the Kadees (Qadis), or other officers of the Law within his jurisdiction, as well as furnished with knowledge and matter of discourse concerning religion." From the first day of their matriculation students were taught the prescribed manner of saying the five daily prayers and of reciting the Koran. During the course of one year they were drilled in the intricacies of the Arabic alphabet and thoroughly instructed in the principles of the grammar and syntax.
The Arabic grammars which were in use when Bobovi was a page in the Palace School were Kitab al-bina, Kitab al-Maqsud, Kitab al-Izzi, and also Marah al- arwah. These deal with accidence. The textbooks dealing with syntax were: the Misbah of al-Mutarrizi, the Ajurrumiya of Ibn Ajurrumi, the Kafiya of Ibn al- Hajib with its commentary by the Persian poet Jami. Their Arabic dictionaries were the Lughat Akhtari of /luslih al-Din Iustafa al-Qarahisari and Subha-i sibyan (The Rosary of Children), of which a manuscript dated as late as A.H. 1256 (1840/1) exists in one of the Suleimaniya medresehs.
When a sufficient acquaintance with the Arabic language had been acquired, the student began the study of commentaries on the loran and of traditions and treatises on Iuslim jurisprudence, theology, and law. The chief commentary on the Koran was that of al-Baidawi (Enwar al-Tanzil), commonly called Tefsr-i Qadi, while the collections of Traditions studied included the Sahih of al-Bukhari, the Sunan of Ibn Majah, and the Sahih of Muslim. Among the treatises on theology and law those in most comnon use were the Shurat al- salat and the Sharia of Sadr al-Sharia, the Multaqa al abhur of Ibrahim al-Halabi, the Muqaddima of Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Shaznawi, the Mukhtasar of Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Quduri, and the Hidaya of Burhan ad-Din Ali al-Marghinani. A student of the Palace School who specialized in the study of the Holy Law usually aspired to become an imam in one of the royal mosques, a position which insured a competency and was a life sinecure; a palace juzkhan, one who can recite a part of the Koran for the repose of the soul of someone who had made legal provision for that purpose; or a haz, a professional reciter of the loran, who can recite the entire book from memory. Those students who specialized in the edicts of the sultans and other ordinances of civil law aimed at some charge of judicature.
The Persian language was the courtly language of the nearer Orient and the key to the literature of chivalry and romance. Rycaut summarizes the reasons for its study by the students of the Palace School as follows:
" It fits them with quaint words and eloquence, becoming the Court of their Prince, and corrects the grossness, and enriches the barrenness of the Turkish tongue, which in itself is void both of expression and sweetness of accent. It teaches them also a handsome and gentle deportment, instructs them in Romances, raises their thoughts to aspire to the generous and virtuous actions they read of in the Persian Novellaries, and endues them with a kind of Platonick love to each other, which is accompanied with a true friendship amongst some few, and with as much gallantry as is exercised in any part of the world."
Students of the Palace School were promoted to the study of Persian as soon as they had attained proficiency in Turkish and Arabic. No mention is made of the use of Persian grammars. The dictionary employed was that of Shahdi, which is written partly in prose and partly in verse. The books most commonly read were the Book of Advice (Pend-Nama) by Ferid ad-Din Attar, the Gulistan and the Bostan of Saadi, and a fourth book with the title of Danisten, which may be the Danishnama-yi Alayi of Avicenna. As exercises in composition students wrote poetry and translated books, with commentaries appended, in both Arabic and Persian. Students who specialized in Persian usually had in view positions either as secretaries or as chancellors.
In addition to the tetbooks already mentioned, the pages had at their disposal the resources of the Library of Ahmed III, which stood in the center of the quadrangle of the Palace School. The historian Rashid Efendi says of the history of the books in this library:
" There was a multitude of choice and precious books in the Roal Treasury of the Saray, in part gifts to the government and in part acquired by the government from the beginning of the Ottoman and Paleologus dynasties. The greater part of these were in such a delabrenent that it was impossible for those in the interior of the Saray to use them, so badly ordered were they and so confondus pelmele.... Therefore the sultan [Ahmed III] built the Library and put there the manuscripts which were in the Imperial Treasury."
During the years when the Grand Seraglio was forbidden territory -- an inaccessibility which continued for more than a half century after the palace ceased to be the residence of the sultans -- many attempts were made by scholars to obtain knowledge of the contents of this library, in the hope that survivals from the imperial library of Byzantinium, from that of Matthew Corvinus and others, might be found, but always without success. When access became possible, it was only to find that a large part of the once vast collection had been dissipated, and that the remainder, in so far as the items have been identified, comprised none of the great lost treasures of the past.
In the pursuit of the present study a list of books has been found which is believed to be an accurate copy of the catalogue of the Seraglio library. This list is included in the Sulla litteratura turchesca of the Abbate Toderini, published in Venice in 1787. The Abbate, erudite Jesuit and orientalist, was in Constantinople from October 1781 until May 1786, in the capacity of tutor to the son of Constantino Garzoni, Venetian bailo to the Sublime Porte. Originally interested in collecting coins and manuscripts, he conceived the idea of writing a history of printing in Constantinople with a catalogue appended of those books which had been translated into European languages, and vice versa. From that developed the further idea of including also accounts of the studies of the Turks, their academies and their libraries, and lists of the books in these libraries. To this end he was especially desirous of obtaining a copy of the catalogue which he was told existed of the Arab, Persian, and Turkish books in the library of the Grand Seraglio. Failing after many attempts to enter the palace in disguise, he finally attained his end, as he relates it, in the following manner:
" A seigneur among my friends who is now in Madrid and who is sufficiently connected with Turks of high rank, at the end of forty days procured the catalogue of the Library for me, which was copied by one of the pages in the greatest secrecy, writing a few lines day by day. The undertaking seemed not only difficult, but impossible to persons who know the Serai."
That it is genuine, he continues,
" is shown by the fact that it has no connection with the lists of other libraries in Constantinople, but is of a totally different type, and almost unique, for it does not deal with grammars and dictionaries, etc., which are useless books for the library of a sovereign. Instead there are books on Religion, the Sciences (knowledge), many Histories, books on Moral Philosophy, Politics, Urbanity, many of which are not found in public libraries, but are well suited for the purpose of education of the Emperor, and for the culture of the Serai. In final proof some of these are so rare and so little known even by scholars that the page, if he were not transcribing them, could certainly not devise them."
Toderini adds that he has preserved among his oriental manuscripts the copy of the catalogue made from the original of the Saray, which is in Turkish and in Turkish characters. The translation of the titles, which is also included along with the Turkish text of the catalogue in the Sulla litteratura turchesca, he says, "was made at my request by the learned Signor Cavaliere Cosmo Comidas, Dragoman of the Kingdom of Spain." The catalogue is divided into the following categories: commentaries on the Koran and traditions; books on ]urisprudence, philosophy, logic, astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, medicine, and moral philosophy; and books ascetic or contemplative.
It is thought by some musicologists that the Turks are indebted to the Arabs for their keen appreciation of vocal music, for many of their musical instruments, for the extensive use of wind instruments in the open, and for the theory and the technical nomenclature of their music. Following the conquest of Constantinople, Turkish music is said to have received a second foreign impulse from the Greek composer Caharias, and a third when Murad IV in 1638 took Baghdad and conveyed to his capital Shah Kuli, "the Orpheus of Persia," and four other musicians. Chiefly under the patronage of the sultans it continued to develop until it reached its culminating point under Selim III and Mahmud II, who were themselves performers and composers of some note. Although the first musician of the palace (Sazeruleh Bash) during the reign of Murad IV had been a celebrated musician, in the third quarter of the seventeenth century the Turks still had no knowledge of the system of notation then in vogue in Europe. In 1691 Prince Demetriu Cantemir studied Turkish music and wrote a learned treatise on the subject, making use of notes, it is said, for the first time, but about a century later Toderini says that " the theory of Turkish music, being different beyond expression, the Turks have abandoned notes and again compose and perform, according to their ancient custom."
The account of the music of the Grand Seraglio given by Albert Bobovi is historically valuable not only as a detailed description of the palace music of the seventeenth century but also as a reflection of Turkish music in general of the same period. The majority of Turks, it is said, were devoted to music, which, as among the Greeks, was considered a part of a liberal education. The art of Turkish music, according to Bobovi, was a combination of the melody, the touch of the performer, and especially his ability to extemporize. Both chamber music and military music were taught in the Palace School. Chamber music consisted largely of vocal music. The length or brevity of the line of a song invariably determined the meter, of which there were twenty-four types in Turkish music. One verse, the measure and cadence of which strongly resemble the Alexandrine, but for which a masculine form of rhyme was invariably employed, was used especially for improvisation, a form of music always especially popular with Turks. There were three types of Turkish songs: lyrical, philosophical, and folk songs. The chansons deleux, or lyric songs, of which there were four subdivisions, the Murebba, Kiar, Nat, and Semay, were written for the most part in Persian and were the songs of the "erudite and civilized." The poet Vasuf (?) Osman Bey (ob. 1240 A.. or 1824/5 A.D.), who was educated as a page in the Palace School, was one of the most famous composers of songs of this type. The second class were the chansons spirituels (sic), or philosophical songs, of which there were three subdivisions, the Tesbih, Ilahi, and Tevliid. The third class consisted of the folk songs, or songs of the common people, called Turku, which were composed in accented syllabic strophes, the strophe numbering two, three, four, lines (usually three) and the line from seven to fifteen syllables, and which treated of war, victory, love (often in the form of dialogue), suffering in the absence of a loved one and other familiar emotions, and humorous themes of Ramazan.
The principal instruments used to accompany the lyrical and philosophical songs, according to Bobovi, were the kemenche, a type of little viol; the santur, or psaltery; the miskal, or bagpipe; the nefir, or Persian bagpipe; the nay, or flute; the ud, or lute; and the tanbur, or sheshtar, or qitara, a lute type with three strings and a very long neck having a large number of frets for marking the tones and semitones, which was played not with the fingers but with a plastrum of tortoise shell, or with a quill. Instruments used to accompany folk songs were for the most part three-stringed, such as the chaghaneh, the thschegour (chugur?), the tanbur, and other simple instruments of the people. The usual instruments used for military music are said to have been suited for the pomp of ceremony rather than for military exercises. These instruments were the buru or trumpet; the davul, or ordinary drum, and a special variety of large bronze drum which, mounted upon a horse, was used to announce the approach of the sultan; the naqareh, consisting of several copper plates which were beaten one against the other; and the kumdurn (qudum?) betcke (sic), dunbalek, and lil (zil?), all of which were varieties of cymbals.
The Conservatory of Music (Meshq Khaneh), which is said to have been especially well furnished and well adapted in every way to teaching purposes, was not a separate unit like the other vocational schools of the Grand Seraglio but a school for all members of the student body. With the exception of a certain number of the masters of military music who were required by the nature of their duties to be constantly present in the palace, and who were lodged in the Hall of the Expeditionary Force, the music masters were nonresident. During the forenoon the building was given over to chamber music, and in the afternoon to military music. Pages who specialized in chamber music were trained in both solo and chorus parts. As palace musicians their duties do not appear to have been onerous; each Tuesday they gave a concert while the sultan's hair was being cut or other rites of his toilet performed. On rare occasions, blindfolded and closely guarded by black eunuchs, they gave concerts for the harem, the harem music as a rule being supplied by the young girl slaves and the black eunuchs.
The guild of military musicians, which numbered three hundred, had their quarters at the Iron Gate, one of the sea gates in the outer wall of the Grand Seraglio. From an early period the military band is reported to have played at the royal palace at the time of the Ikindi, that is, the third prayer of the day, which is said in the middle of the afternoon. Its other functions were to salute the sultan a half hour before dawn and one and a half hours after sunset, and to accompany him when- ever he appeared in public; to sound the reveillon two hours before sunrise, and the curfew two hours after sunset, upon certain towers of the city; to announce the two Bayrams; to serenade the embassies on their principal fete days; and to honor those pages who had completed the course of the Palace School with the title of pasha or beylerbey. In 1612 there are said to have been one hundred and fifty members of the military band. It was the candid opinion of Bobovi that Turkish military music was no more than "a fracas, a great and disagreeable noise." On the other hand the Jewish page Habesci, while conceding that it was without doubt barbarous from the point of view of noise, was of the opinion that "it had enough of sweetness and harmony to make one like it."
As soon as the pages were of an age to endure strenuous physical exercise, no effort was spared to render them strong, agile, and courageous. Initial physical exercises were the lifting and carrying of heavy weights. The apparatus of the first exercise consisted of a pulley and cord fastened against a wall, with a bag attached to the end of the cord, which at first weighed from six to ten oqas [an oqa was equiv. of about 2 3/4 pounds] and was later increased to thirty-five and even forty oqas. A page drew the cord with his right hand while bracing his left against the wall. The second exercise was the lifting and carrying of various kinds of weights in the arms and upon the shoulders. The first weights were the heavy timbers used for firing the furnace of the Bath of the Inner Palace, which the pages carried upon their shoulders. From time to time the size of these timbers and other weights was increased until, it is said, pages in the upper halls were frequently able to carry as much as three hundred and seventy or even three hundred and eighty oqas for a distance of one hundred and fifty, or one hundred and sixty paces. Later iron weights of various kinds were substituted. It is said that the pages were able with one arm to lift weights which ranged from forty to one hundred pounds, and that those which they were able to raise above their heads were " almost unbelievably heavy." For the fifteen pages who stoked the bath furnace (who were almost certainly from the Great Hall) there was a special apparatus consisting of three iron bars
"fasten'd upon great Cramp-Irons over the door that goes into the Baths, and the middlemost of the three, as it is commonly reported, weighs a hundred Okkas, which amount to Three hundred and fifty pounds, Pars weight, an Okka weighing three pounds and a half, or thereabouts. There was heretofore one of these Ichoglans, of so prodigious strength, that the Grand Seignor himself would have the satisfaction of seeing a tryal, whether he could with one hand lift up and turn about that Iron-bar; which he did to the great astonishment of the Prince, and presently after he entertain'd him with another demonstration of the strength of his Arm. Over those three Iron-bars, there hung two Head-pieces of Iron, whereof one was an inch in thickness, and the other about the eighth part of an inch. The same Ichoglan did, in the Grand Seignor's presence, at one blow of a Battle-Axe, cut through the head-piece of an inch thick, and at one blow with a Sabre cleft the other to the middle of it.
Each year, during the festivities which accompanied the celebration of the first Bayram, competitive tests in the lifting and carrying of weights were attended by the sultan and the entire personnel of the Palace School. In the course of the tests the military band played and the onlookers acclaimed their favorites with the cry of "Allah, Allah, give him strength." The winner received a purse of five hundred ecus from the sultan and, in certain instances, was promoted to the Hall of the Treasury.
More advanced physical exercises were archery, wrestling, sword practice, and chomaq (chelik chomaq, a game played with a wooden ball attached to a cord) and jerid (dart throwing, the players being on horse-back). The magnificent quivers of the sultans, richly overlaid with diamonds, emeralds, and other precious stones, which now form part of the permanent exhibition of the Imperial Treasury,offer convincing testimony of the high esteem in which archery was held by the Turks as a sport, even after it had ceased to be important as a means of warfare. Murad IV, who performed prodigious feats with the bow and arrow, especially encouraged this sport. Pages of the Palace School received their first instruction with a bow strung with a chain. From practice bows of this type they were promoted to bows strung with sinew, the most advanced of which required very great strength and skill to draw. Yet even with the largest and heaviest of these bows the record of two hundred draws without stopping is said to have been not infrequent at the school matches and tournaments. Several sultans, especially Sultan Ibrahim, greatly enjoyed wrestling as a spectacle and encouraged it among the school sports. The pages anointed their bodies with oil in the customary manner and wrestled nude, except for their shorts (calecons). Before entering the arena, they invariably offered up a special prayer for wrestlers which ran as follows: "Allah! Allah ! For the sake of the Lord of all created beings -- for the sake of Muhammad Mustafa, for the sake of Muhammad Bokhari of Sari Saltiq, for the sake of our sheykh Muhammad who laid hold of the garments and the limbs, let there be a setting-to of hand upon hand, back upon back, and breast upon breast! And for the love of Ali, the Lion of Allah, grant assistance, O Allah!" Another popular exercise was a kind of sword and buckler practice originally introduced from Poland. A page held in his left hand a pad shaped in the form of a shield, and in his right hand a scimitar with which he practised a driving blow calculated to sever the head of a sheep or the foot of a dead camel. Of the energy with which the pages entered into these games it is said by the author of the Serai Enlerum that " they made more noise than all the laqueys of Paris, of which I am able to speak with authority, as I live in Pera close by Galata Saray and I vow to you that I sometimes think that all the devils are shut up in this seminary and that they hold their general chapter there."
Since the majority of the students of the palace schools were destined for the cavalry service, one of the main lines of physical training was fine horsemanship, which was especially encouraged by Suleiman I. Not only did the pages become skilled cavalrymen, but they also excelled in feats of horsemanship. While running their horses at full speed, they would unsaddle and resaddle them without slackening their pace; they would ride standing on the seat of the saddle; they would ride two horses at the same time with one foot on each saddle; two pages while riding at top speed would exchange horses with one another; and they would slide under the bellies of their horses and remount from the other side.
The game of jerid, which was played in the jerid field, a large "piazza" situated on the Marmora side of the palace, near the place where once had stood the Nea, or New Church of Basil the Macedonian, was a mock battle in which mounted horsemen threw wooden darts at each other. Although it attained its greatest popularity in the period between Muhammad IV and Mustafa II (1695-1703), it was a prominent feature of royal entertainment in the Hippodrome at least as early as the second half of the sixteenth century. In his state papers, William Harborne, ambassador from Queen Elizabeth to Murad III and first to hold that post, has left an interesting description of a game which he witnessed in the month of July, 1582:
"On Monday 9 [July, 158], after dinner there appeared in the Piazza, the King's falconer, the son of the said Achmet Bassa and many important gentlemen Epages], who skirmished together throwing darts against one another using one, two, three, and four at a time, they were mounted on most beautiful horses splendidly caparaisoned and changed them after every two or three courses, shewing themselves as dexterous and quick at throwing the dart and evading those of the enemy, that they were reputed to be brave knights which was done thus because of the presence of the King and the Sultans. The Son of the Governes of the Sultana Mother, much loved and favored by her also taking part.... Tuesday the I0th, there were no more than 80 horses, beautifully caparaisoned who began skirmishing at midday, and continued till the evening throwing darts in the Romish fashion as was done yesterday but with greater show of wounding one another, those of yesterday being persons of quality having restrained themselves. When night came the usual fireworks were displayed in the presence of the Signore, the other, the son, the wife, and the Sultanas. Wednesday close on a thousand persons paraded round and round the hippodrome with the braying of drums, lutes, flutes, and other instruments in use among them, making a great noise, and one may say singing with great discordance, and after going round the Hippodrome two by two, they left. Then came the Signores wrestlers who naked gave very fine trials of strength and dexterity, each endeavouring to overcome the other, to obtain the victory, there was a prize bestowed by B . . . of thousand aspres. Then having left there appeared certain spahi on horse-back, who skirmished with darts, which took up the rest of the time.... Wednesday the twelfth the morning passed quickly but after dinner a hundred horse appeared and performed in divers ways, besides tilting with darts.... On the following days till the 18th nothing further happened, but at the twenty-fourth hour, the same horse appeared to skirmish and wound each other with darts till evening, when the usual fireworks were displayed for five or six hours continuously."
It is said that Muhammad IV delighted so much in the game that
"every one in hopes of preferment, and in emulation one of the other, endeavoured to be a Master in it, and most are become so dexterous, that they will dart a stick of above three quarters of a yard long with that force, that where it hits, it will endanger breaking a bone. The Grand Signore every day passes his time with seeing his Pages exercised in this sport, in which ordinarily one knocks another from his Horse, and seldom a day passed in which some receive not bruises or desperate wounds. This Sultan doth many times appoint days of combat between the Black Eunuchs and some of his White Pages on Horseback, in this manner with the Gerit; and then happens such a skirmish with such emulation, each side contending for the honour of his colour, race and dignity, with that heat and courage, as if they contended for the Empire; this pastime seldom concluding without some blood."
During the first years of the reign of Mahmud II the game was still played by the pages "during Bayram and at every other possible opportunity, although everyone, old and young, knew that it no longer served the purpose of training for war, and that it was a dangerous game. But because it once had been considered so fine a game, no one dared to say a word against it." Mahmud II abolished it at the same time that he abolished the Janissary corps, "an action which sorely discontented the black eunuchs, who were great advocates of it because it was so good a show."
Of the introduction of vocational training into the curriculum of the Palace School at the end of the preparatory period, Rycaut says: "To the former Lessons of School learning and exercise abroad, are added some other accomplishments of a Trade, handy-craft, or Mystery." The pages of each of the four schools of vocational training specialized in the particular "Mystery" of that school. The pages of the all of the Expeditionary Force, who constituted the military band of the Inner Palace and accompanied the sultan when he was on campaign or traveling, received special training in music, in the arts of laundering, and in the care of the royal accouterments; those of the Hall of the Commissariat were taught to prepare the royal beverages and specifics which were dispensed from the Privy Commissariat, and were the actual cupbearers to the sultan; those of the Hall of the Treasury were charged with set duties in connection with the Imperial Treasury and its contents; while those of the Hall of the Royal Bedchamber performed the offlces of the royal bed-chamber and were also entrusted with the care of the holy relics. Additional vocations in which large numbers of pages were instructed were falconry and attendance upon the bath. Pages to the number of seventy or eighty, of whom the twelve senior ones were drawn from the Hall of the Treasury and the remainder from the Hall of the Commissariat, were trained to accompany the sultan upon his hunting expeditions. Forty pages, taken from different halls at different periods, were attached to the bath of the Palace School, twenty-five as attendants within the bath (dellaklar), and fifteen as stokers of the bath furnace (kulkhanjiler), four of the stokers remaining always on duty in a chamber adjoining the furnace. Besides this common bath, each of the halls had a separate bath, with shifts of pages from the hall in attendance upon it. Twice each day the first officer of the bath (hamamji bashi), who was nominally attached to the Hall of the Expeditionary Force but who was actually inspector-general of the palace baths, made the rounds of the entire school and instructed the attendants in giving baths and in keeping the baths in order. It was also the duty of this officer to inspect the clothing of the bathers in order to see that it was neat, clean, and free from insects of every kind. Shaving, manicuring, and the arrangement of the turban, which were formerly a part of the ceremony of a Turkish bath, were performed not by the pages in attendance upon the bath but by mutes and dwarfs stationed in a chamber between the bath and the small mosque belonging to the Great Hall. At the feast of the first Bayram the bath attendants received for their services each the sum of one thousand aqchas, in addition to their regular allowances as pages.
At the height of the Palace School, the instruction is said to have been excellent. The Italian bailo Ottaviano Bon writes in 1608: "I was told that it was amazing with what diligence and solicitude the students of the Palace School were taught." As the empire declined, and with it learning in general, the quality of the instruction also suffered, but so effective was the practical organization of the school that the palace system of education continued, without apparent diminution of its power, for a much longer time than the slave system of government of which it was the main support.