For Jesus

Part Iki [Two] – Haremağası

‘My people are going to learn the principles of democracy, the dictates of truth and the teachings of science. Superstition must go. Let them worship as they will. Every man can follow his own conscience, provided it does not interfere with sane reason or bid him act against the liberty of his fellow men.’

- Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Chapter ۲٥ - Söz

(25 – Remark)

(Istanbul, Turkey, spring 2007)

The author of this story was appraised by a Turkish academic colleague, whilst enjoying dinner with him in an Istanbul restaurant serving delicious traditional local fare, of a comment made by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in an interview with an English journalist. This information was passed whilst a musical piece composed by a major character in this tale was coincidentally being played over the background sound-system.

The relevant comment, uttered almost seventy years previously, had advised that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk considered that the biggest inspiration in his life had been a mountain flower. This remark had, surprisingly and to his discredit, not been reported in the journalist’s eventual account in his London-based newspaper of his interview with the first President of the Turkish Republic. However, a government secretary had written minutes of the actual conversation and this record had been used by a later biographer.

Consequently, the comment was recorded in a Turkish biography of Atatürk, which has not yet been translated into English. Nor, as far as the author of this story is aware, has the remark been reported anywhere else.

Nevertheless, given the reliability of the sources, namely the Presidential archives and the academic diner who had read the biography, the author of this story was confident of the authenticity of the comment. Consequently, intrigued, he embarked upon some research in order to attempt to discover what Atatürk had inferred had been his greatest inspiration.

The relevant investigation of the author of this story subsequently proved fruitless until one day, whilst ironically researching for different causes, he accidentally came across the answer to Atatürk’s riddle in some Ottoman archives.

Chapter ۲٦ - Agha

(26 – Commander)

(Seraglio, Third Court, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, over 210 years previously, 12th of April 1796)

Kodi and his young companions were led by their adult black escorts, who were, like the boys, eunuchs, or ‘haremağası’ in Turkish, of the ‘sandali’, or completely genitally-shaved, type, through the Carriage Gate into the Seraglio. They were allowed to pass by similar emasculated Africans, who were guarding the portal to ensure that no unauthorised person entered the Sultan’s private quarters, as soldiers had no remit and were not allowed inside the third palace court. Even during rebellions, the military had so far, with only one exception, maintained their respect for the sanctity of this private place.

The black eunuchs guarding the Carriage Gate eyed the boys in the passing party with interest, although, of course, not one of a sexual kind. The sentinels instead knew that the new young arrivals were fresh ‘Acemiler’, or ‘recruits’, for their order.

As the party advanced through the Carriage Gate, Kodi noticed an inscription above the entrance. Now that he was amazingly literate in the language of the Porte, the highly intelligent boy was consequently able to read that the portal had been built during the reign of Murat III. He knew from his history lessons that this Sultan had ruled in the 10th century of the Islamic calendar, which corresponds to the 16th of the Christian Gregorian version.

Kodi next discovered that the Carriage Gate led into a domed antechamber, supported on four pendentives and with large built-in cupboards occupying the walls. The simple plainness of these storage facilities was in marked contrast to the decorative opulence of the vaulted ceiling.

As the party progressed further into the Seraglio, a long, narrow, open courtyard was eventually reached. Kodi was later to become very familiar with where the many doors surrounding this enclosure led, not least two of them on the colonnaded left side.

The first of these doors would take Kodi into the small square mosque, or ‘mesjid’, of the palace’s black eunuchs. The boy would be required to worship regularly in this place, whose flat ceiling was decoratively painted, whilst the walls, as was much of those in the outside courtyard, were covered with blue, green and white tiles.

The second of the doors, further down the colonnade, would take Kodi into the four-storeyed living quarters of the black eunuchs, opulent barracks known as the ‘Karaagalar Kogusu’. However, he and his young companions were not immediately led there.

The boys instead had to be content for now with briefly peering through the windows on the left side of the colonnade, which provided a view of the inside of the ground floor of the black eunuchs’ living quarters. As they quickly passed, they noticed that this accommodation comprised a long high-ceilinged chamber with a sofa running down the middle, on both sides of which was a series of other rooms and at the end of which was a tiled fireplace, exotically pointed into a small spire. They could also see the overlooking marble balustrades of some of the rooms on the upper floors.

The boys’ attention was, however, soon deflected by progressing to arriving at another door to the right of the Karaagalar Kogusu. One of their escorts went through this entrance alone before re-emerging soon afterwards to invite the whole party inside.

The boys entered via a tiled antechamber to a similarly decorated opulent suite, where an extremely fat middle-aged black man was lounging on his own couch. Kodi was now aware of many facts about the Yeni Sarayi from his education in Cairo. For example, he knew, despite not yet having seen the place, that the palace’s fourth and most easterly court, situated beyond the third on the edge of the Sarayburnu promontory, was a garden terrace dotted with ornate kiosks. From these pavilions, there were magnificent views of the surrounds, although people inside a particular one of these buildings were generally not too concerned with such sights because the place was used for the ceremonial circumcision of Ottoman princes.

The highly intelligent Kodi also recognised, although he had never met him before, whom the fat black man on the couch had to be. The obese adult, on whose caique the boys had just travelled, was currently effectively the third most senior person in the Porte, after the Sultan and the Grand Vizier and just ahead in status of his white counterpart.

The fat man was the Chief Black Eunuch, or ‘Kızlar Agha’, with his title literally and significantly meaning ‘Commander of the Maidens’, referring to his role in protecting and supervising the Sultan’s women.

Chapter ۲٧ - Görüşme

(27 – Interview)

(Seraglio, Third Court, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, approximately one month later, 10th of May 1796)

Coincidentally on the same day that in Italy a young general named Napoleon Bonaparte won another battle in his Italian Campaign at Lodi, Kodi again found himself in the quarters of the Chief Black Eunuch. However, on this occasion, the boy was alone with the Kizlar Agha.

A month previously, the new arrivals, of whom Kodi had been one, had been formally reviewed by the Chief Black Eunuch. This process had humiliatingly involved the exposure of the boys’ groin areas to ensure that they had indeed been competently nullified. Such debasing inspection would be repeated in future, even after they became adults, albeit at increasingly extended intervals.

The Kizlar Agha had subsequently dismissed from his presence the new arrivals and their escorts, with the latter charged with finding the boys accommodation within the nearby quarters of the black eunuchs. The men would do so on the fourth floor, which was reserved for the ‘Acemiler’, or latest recruits.

The adult eunuchs would also be responsible for inducting the new arrivals into the ways of the Seraglio, judging the boys’ competence and thereby helping to identify their best future roles as they did so. As he always did, the Kizlar Agha invited progress reports.

During his induction, some of the instruction that Kodi had received in Cairo was confirmed when he learnt that the inhabitants of the Seraglio indeed included Selim III’s close family and their generally very large individual households. The biggest and most important of these was that of the ruler’s mother, the ‘Valide Sultan’. The latter was usually charged with ensuring peace and harmony amongst the many women of the harem of her son, for whom she would also frequently act as an unofficial but influential adviser.

The Sultans had no official wives, the nearest to such status being his favourites amongst his very many invariably originally exceptionally beautiful slave concubines, who emanated mainly from the Balkans or the Caucasus. These most favoured women, who were called ‘Kadins’ and were customarily restricted in number to four, were often gifted vast riches and possessed large entourages of female and eunuch servants, sometimes amounting to over a hundred.

Other slave women in the harem, who had not yet been bedded and were therefore essentially maidservants rather than concubines, were termed ‘odalisques’. The biggest wish of most of them was to catch the Sultan’s eye and lose their virginity to him. They thereby hoped to begin to rise in status, which would be considerably boosted by subsequently giving birth to a male child. However, the majority was disappointed, either sadly soliciting no interest at all from the Ottoman ruler or proving to be just one of his many ‘one-night stands’, unproductive in terms of acquiring influence or offspring.

Most Valide Sultans were formidable women. Such an attribute was essential because many had often over the years fought to rise from the obscurity of being an odalisque to being a Kadin and had survived many subsequent intrigues to ensure that their sons above any others succeeded to the throne.

Only black eunuchs were allowed in the Seraglio because of the presence there of the Sultan’s huge harem. These ‘sandali’ servants of ebony hue and African origin were considered more sexually trustworthy than their white counterparts because the latter had only been castrated by means of having their testes removed and their penises were still considered a potential threat or temptation to women.

Consequently, hundreds of black eunuchs guarded and helped run the Seraglio. Meanwhile, their similarly numerous white counterparts looked after other aspects of palace administration, plus much of the Imperial civil service, under the supervision of their ‘Kapi Agha’, literally ‘Commander of the Gate’.

The white eunuchs were originally generally selected from the best of the ‘ghilman’. The latter, for which the singular word is ‘ghulam’, were captured Christian boys.

Many slaves were acquired through border raiding. Amongst the best groups obtaining human merchandise in this manner for the Turks were the Bosnian Muslims, with Hungarians as their regular victims. However, the Crimean Tartars, renowned for their half-shaved heads and eccentric moustaches, earned the greatest notoriety for the shear volumes secured from incursions into Ukraine, Russia and Poland. From there their unfortunate captives were usually driven south through the Caucasus, whilst locals were abducted on the way, to end up on the eastern Mediterranean coast at Jaffa for onward distribution throughout the Ottoman Empire. Up to 10,000 were regularly exported from this Palestinian port every year.

The Turks most prized captured Circassians from the remote and poor mountains of the Caucasus as slaves because they considered both sexes to be especially beautiful and well-proportioned. The people themselves abhorred obesity and took radical steps to avoid such physical disgrace, such as having their children sleep on hard boards to keep them thin and hardy. They were also considered to be intelligent, and thereby capable of absorbing instruction to learn the likes of handy artisan trades, and usefully innovative, whilst maintaining proper modesty and obedient respect for authority.

Polish and Russian men were especially welcomed as slave oarsmen on Turkish galleys. However, the prized attributes of the Circassians in particular caused them in to be valued in the relevant markets at up to four times the price of Germans, Hungarians and Italians, who were considered rather effete and incapable of really hard work.

Circassians became so valued that enterprising merchants eventually established slave-farms in the Caucasus, where fresh stocks were bred from the choicest adult specimens, with many of the girls so produced destined to become odalisques in the harem of the Ottoman Sultan. The local peoples were also so poor and the relevant markets of Constantinople so lucrative that some families even voluntarily sent some of their children to be sold there.

The boys of the ghilman were forcibly converted to Islam, suffering circumcision in the process to meet the requirements of their new Sunni faith, and trained to serve the Ottoman Empire in some capacity. They would initially be stationed across the Bosporus from Constantinople to toil on farms in Asian Anatolia in order to build up physical strength, learn the Turkish language and ways and the doctrines of their new faith. During this period of induction, their personal attributes were carefully assessed.

Those boys considered likely to be better in administration rather than in the military or a trade were later despatched to specialist educational establishments to learn governance. Those identified as having soldiery attributes were sent to the Janissary schools, whilst the rest were taught the skills to become economically important artisans. Some subsequently rose through the ranks of their allocated professions to attain powerful and/or wealthy positions.

When in the 15th century the numbers of relevant captured boys became insufficient to meet the Empire’s needs, Murat II introduced in 1432 what was essentially a boy tax in the Christian Balkan parts of his realm. This levy was called the ‘devşirme’, meaning ‘collection’ in Ottoman Turkish.

The collectors of the ‘devşirme’, guided by parish rolls, chose only the choicest boys from amongst the poor in the countryside, as opposed to town and city. They desired quality but also a lack of current social sophistication, hence the preference for rural as opposed to urban dwellers, because they only wanted recruits whose future character formation could still be moulded.

For the same motive, the collectors of this boy blood-tax also avoided enlisting anyone who already was educated or had a trade or spoke Turkish. They additionally rejected orphans alone, who, in order to survive, might have become wily. For more humanitarian reasons, they generally only recruited from families with more than one son and not at all from widows.

The ‘devşirme’ was only formally abandoned in 1638, after over 200 years. However, some Christian boys continued to be secured, either by capture, purchase or voluntary offering by desperate families, for Ottoman service and some of their schools still existed in Kardelen’s era.

Some of the Christian boys secured for Ottoman service did not, of course, just lose their foreskins because of their forced conversion to Islam. Some also relinquished their testes to become members of the Sultan’s large palace corps of white eunuchs, learning their relevant skills in the elite school for pages, or ‘enderûn’, of the Third Court.

Such boys, destined for castration, might be considered the least fortunate. However, they were selected because they were considered to have superior abilities to the rest in order to qualify to serve the Sultan in person and many rose to positions of significance in Imperial government.

The Sultan’s white eunuchs operated from a base at the Gate of Felicity, hence the title of their Kapi Agha. Nearby within the third court was their enderûn. However, all of the current generation presently studying there were one day to be outshone in their duties by someone of a different skin colour.

The two Chief Eunuchs often vied with each other for influence, with the Kapi Agha historically originally being more powerful than the Kizlar Agha. However, the white order had gradually become somewhat discredited through gaining a reputation for corruption, which eventually allowed their black counterparts, who had more intimate contact with the Sultans and their families, to supplant them in having greater sway at court. This remained the situation at the time of Kodi’s arrival inside the Seraglio.

The current Chief Black Eunuch prided himself on ensuring the efficiency of his order’s running of the Seraglio. After all, his competence in demonstrating such a feat as deputy, or ‘Gulam Agha’, to his late predecessor had earned him his influential post in the first place.

The Gulam Agha actually organised, from his base in the ground floor of the Karaagalar Kogusu, many of the subordinate black eunuchs in their ordinary day-to-day duties. This situation allowed his superior to concentrate on liaising and maintaining the order’s influence with important members of the Imperial family, especially the Sultan himself and his mother.

The Gulam Agha, though, was not responsible for the day-today organisation of the duties of all subordinates. Those allocated to be personal slaves in the households of members of the Imperial family, as opposed to general tasks, usually reported instead only either to their designated superiors in such service or directly to their masters and mistresses. However, the Chief Black Eunuch did maintain a close watch on such situations to ensure that there were no problems.

The Kizlar Agha also invariably personally assumed the responsibility of appointing such black eunuchs to their special positions, often after consultation with the Valide Sultan. The maintenance of the order’s influence with the Imperial family partly rested on ensuring that only loyal and highly capable slaves were allocated to the relevant duties.

The Kizlar Agha naturally took his responsibility for making such appointments very seriously and, as part of the process, required his deputy to identify promising candidates, including from the newest Acemiler. Coincidentally, at this particular time, the Chief Black Eunuch had a special reason to want to learn about the talents of the latest young arrivals.

The Kizlar Agha had an especially important and sensitive appointment to make, one that had to be filled by a black eunuch about 10 years of age. He had not yet found anyone suitable from amongst the current Acemiler, or at least someone who satisfied the seemingly very fussy person to whom the young slave would be allocated.

Previous attempted appointees had, on being dismissed, been variously described by this person as being too “uncongenial”, “dull”, “feeble”, “ignorant” or “stupid”. The Kizlar Agha therefore very carefully scrutinised both the verbal and written reports relating to the latest Acemiler presented to him by his deputy, hoping that someone worthier to fill the relevant position, by not having such faults, could be identified from amongst their number.

The Kizlar Agha’s attention had been particularly drawn to the reports about Kodi. As a consequence, he had now summoned the boy for a personal interview so that he could make a final judgement.

The resultant interview had implications that extend to modern times.

Chapter ۲٨ - Shahzade

(28 – Prince)

(Cifte Kasirlar [Princes’ Quarters], Seraglio, Third Court, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, five days later, 15th of May 1796)

Coincidentally at the same time that in Italy the troops of a young general named Napoleon Bonaparte entered Milan for the first time in his Italian Campaign, Kodi was finally adjudged to be fully prepared to assume his new function. He was ready five days after his fateful interview with the Kizlar Agha, having in the interim received further training to condition him for the important specific role.

Kodi began his new role by being presented to a similarly-aged boy, who was very richly dressed, including wearing a bejewelled turban, and sitting cross-legged on an opulent couch in his own ornate quarters. The young black eunuch had been instructed in what his first duty should be and, after swallowing his pride, he performed the necessary degrading task with perfection.

Kodi had sunk to his knees before the 10 year-old boy and immediately leant further forward to press his forehead on the luxuriant carpet in front of the couch. However, he was not alone in performing this demeaning act of prostration because the Kizlar Agha was doing the same alongside him.

The boy on the couch appeared unimpressed by the actions of the two black eunuchs and so let them remain in position for a while, whilst examining the perfectly manicured nails on his right hand, until he became wearied by the impasse. Such boredom subsequently finally encouraged him to command rather irritably and with a noticeable sigh “Oh, do stand, both of you!”

Both Kodi and the Kizlar Agha were happy to obey but, as they both stood, the younger eunuch, as taught, kept his head bowed, with his eyes focused on the luxuriant carpet below. As he had also adopted this posture on his arrival in these quarters, he had not yet gained a clear sight of the boy on the couch.

Kodi next heard the Kizlar Agha address the boy. “Prince Mahmud,” the Chief Black Eunuch announced, “I have brought another candidate to be your new playmate!”

“But I don’t want another young black eunuch as a playmate,” Prince Mahmud snootily retorted, “as they’re all either too uncongenial, dull, feeble, ignorant or stupid, or a combination of these faults. This one’s undoubtedly the same, so take him away. I’m sure that one of my cousin’s concubines might like to be served by such a thing but I want someone who’s companionable, lively, hardy, informed and intelligent.”

The Kizlar Agha was about to attempt a desperate diplomatic refutation of the Prince’s insulting retort when he was prevented from doing so by hearing the sound of someone else’s voice. The stunned Chief Black Eunuch subsequently glanced sideways to see that Kodi had not only outrageously raised his head to look directly at Mahmud but also equally shockingly had started to address the Sultan’s younger cousin himself.

Both acts were strictly forbidden for someone as junior as an Acemiler unless permission had been granted by the Prince. Such sacrilege of court protocol was punishable by severe means, even by death if Mahmud felt insulted enough, as Kodi himself well knew because he had been carefully instructed in such matters.

The Kizlar Agha barely heard Kodi’s actual words because he had been so profoundly shocked, not least by his own clear miscalculation regarding the new Acemiler, whom he had obviously mistakenly believed would be the best candidate yet to be the Prince’s playmate. Nevertheless, the Chief Black Eunuch did have the presence of mind to grab the apparently mutinous and therefore dangerous boy by the arm in order to drag him away and incarcerate him somewhere whilst his undoubtedly painful immediate destiny was decided.

Unknowing to the Kizlar Agha, however, Kodi’s immediate fate had already been decided by young Prince Mahmud.

Chapter ۲٩ - Resim

(29 – Portrait)

(Baghdad Kiosk, Fourth Court, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, over two months later, 20th of July 1796)

“Please, Lord, attempt to keep as still as possible,” requested Antoine Ignace Melling. The latter was the German-born multi-talented artist who had recently been appointed as one of Selim III’s Imperial architects at the recommendation of the current Sultan’s sister and favoured confidant, Princess, or ‘Sultana’, Hatice.

Princess Hatice was held in such high esteem by her brother, the Sultan, that she was forgiven the normal requirement to live with the rest of the Imperial family in the Seraglio. She was instead allowed her own palaces.

As well as arranging fresh interiors for existing Ottoman palaces and being the architect of new residences entirely, Melling also designed gardens and mazes, plus clothing and jewellery for the Princess. He was additionally sometimes commissioned to paint portraits and on this occasion his model was Mahmud, whose likeness was being recorded to celebrate his 11th birthday.

The portrait was being painted in the opulent domed and colonnaded Baghdad Kiosk in the secluded fourth court of the palace. The pavilion had been built in 1638 on the orders of Murat IV to celebrate a successful military campaign against the eponymous Iraqi city.

As well as having splendid views, the kiosk possessed, amidst the ornately tiled walls, windows that extended almost to the floor. This meant that the pleasant and peaceful pavilion provided ideal light for Melling’s latest commission. However, Prince Mahmud himself was proving to be a difficulty.

After all, Mahmud might be an important Ottoman Prince, second son of the previous Sultan and cousin of the present one, but he was also just a young boy. Such energetic creatures did not enjoy having to keep still for very long and he was no exception, even if he rather liked the idea of having his portrait painted. His handsome face, which was adorned by dark glistening eyes and hair of a similar hue and suggested an exotic mix of Turkish and another nationality, consequently began to frown at being asked to remain motionless.

Such an expression, of course, presented another problem for Melling. He therefore requested of Mahmud “Please, Lord, could you kindly eradicate the frown on your face, as I wouldn’t want posterity to view you displaying such a grimace.” However, the portraitist was only rewarded with a worsening of the princely scowl.

Observing the situation from nearby was the attendant Kizlar Agha, who was in a quandary as to what to do to resolve Melling’s problem, as he could not simply order an important Ottoman Prince to be obedient to the painter’s requests. Previously he would have attempted to entice Mahmud into compliance through highly diplomatic and polite argument. However, on this occasion, and as he had frequently been inclined to do of late in order to ease his life, he instead simply glanced at the young black boy also present.

Noticing the Kizlar Agha turn to him, and fully knowing what the man’s current needful expression meant, this black boy smiled, nodded and went to whisper in Melling’s ear. On hearing what the young eunuch advised, the portraitist at first also grinned before addressing the sulking Prince in order to offer the suggested bribe.

“Lord,” Melling commented in his heavily accented Turkish, “I believe that you have not yet had the pleasure of trying to extract yourself from the maze that I’ve designed and built for your cousin, Princess Hatice, in the gardens of her own palace. I believe that I could persuade the Sultana, and her brother, the Sultan, to allow you to test yourself in the labyrinth as a birthday treat and in thanks for your much welcomed co-operation in allowing me to paint your portrait.”

In response, a pleasant grin replaced the scowl on Mahmud’s face before subsequently co-operatively evolving for the rest of the painting session into the neutral expression required for the formal portrait. The Prince also kept amazingly still, apart from conspiratorially winking at the young black eunuch present.

Later, after Mahmud and his similarly-aged black eunuch had left the Baghdad Kiosk at the conclusion of the painting session in order to return together to the Seraglio, whilst engaged in intense whispered conversation, Melling made a comment to the Kizlar Agha. “You appear to have found a most suitable companion for the Prince,” he remarked.

“Perhaps too suitable!” was the reply. However, the Kizlar Agha uttered this response, to someone he trusted and with whom he enjoyed regular informal confidential chats about court happenings, whilst displaying a broad contented smile, which indicated that he was actually very happy with the situation.

“Did you notice that the Prince winked at his young servant after you offered your bribe?” the Kizlar Agha went on to ask rhetorically in explanation. “I believe that we’ve been the victims of a conspiracy,” the Chief Black Eunuch continued, whilst still maintaining his happy expression, which now suggested delight at the boys’ ingenuity.

“I’m positive, from seeing the wink, that the boys had planned all along to extract that particular bribe from us,” the Kizlar Agha next suggested. “I’m also sure,” he added, “that the idea didn’t come from the Prince, very clever as he undoubtedly is!”

Seeing that his friend, the Kizlar Agha, displayed his own broad contented smile whilst he made these comments, Melling in return remarked “You seem very happy finally to have found a playmate who more than matches the Prince in intellect.” “I am indeed,” the Chief Black Eunuch replied, “because Mahmud wouldn’t accept someone of lesser quality. He needs a companion who can genuinely share his interests and stimulate him and he’s certainly found one.”

“I thought that you were originally encountering difficulty in finding a suitable similarly-aged black eunuch who was acceptable to the Prince,” Melling next correctly commented. “I was,” the Kizlar Agha responded, “and I at first believed that this one would not only be dismissed too but also be beheaded.”

“Oh, why?” asked the intrigued Melling. The Kizlar Agha answered by telling the recently appointed Imperial architect about an incident of unauthorised and unprecedented flouting of court protocol.

“The boy looked up at the Prince,” the Kizlar Agha advised Melling, with shocked awe still evident in his voice, “and declared in perfect court dialect ‘But, Lord, I am not uncongenial, dull, feeble, ignorant or stupid, or a combination of these faults. I am instead, as you desire, companionable, lively, hardy, informed and intelligent and I can prove these attributes if you grant me the opportunity!’”

“Despite my shock,” the Kizlar Agha continued, “I was about to drag the miscreant away to await his just punishment, which I wouldn’t have been surprised to see being adjudged to be execution, when the Prince stopped me. ‘Don’t take the boy away but leave him with me so that I can assess his assertions,’ Mahmud commanded of me, whilst displaying a clearly intrigued expression on his face.”

“Despite my protestations,” the Kizlar Agha added, “and worries about such a eunuch, who clearly had little regard for proprieties, the Prince insisted that I obey him. I’ve since not been able to separate the pair.”

“The eunuch now even sleeps in the Prince’s bedchamber,” the Kizlar Agha informed, “and bathes alongside him, ostensibly as a continuously attendant servant. However, I’m aware of the real truth because, as I’m sure you appreciate, little occurs in the Seraglio without me knowing!”

“The real truth is,” the Kizlar Agha admitted, “that the Prince and his young servant became at their very first meeting instant inseparable intimate friends. The speed of the process was amazing, given Mahmud’s previous rather condescending attitudes, not only to black eunuchs but also to other people in general.”

“I suspect,” the Kizlar Agha confessed, “that the Prince admired the young eunuch’s original unprecedented audacity, which encouraged him to want to know more about the boy. Whatever was discussed in the subsequent private conversation somehow astonishingly quickly converted such early esteem and interest into affection. However, even more astounding has been the swift effect on Mahmud’s own overall disposition, as he has suddenly become very pleasant to everyone!”

“I believe that this remarkable character transformation,” suggested the Kizlar Agha, who was a highly astute person, which was one reason why he had attained his very senior position, “directly arises from the new close friendship. Mahmud was previously extremely haughty and awkward to handle. However, I now think that these traits must actually have stemmed from being very bored with his life in the Seraglio, from where, as you know is the tradition with all Ottoman Princes, he is rarely allowed to leave.”

“The Prince’s very clever new eunuch, though, appears, as I had hoped, to offer constant interest,” the Kizlar Agha advised, “either through intelligent conversation, challenging play or simple amiable companionship. This happy development is undoubtedly helped by the fact that the characters of the two boys, despite their completely different backgrounds and status, seem to complement each other perfectly.”

“The sudden disappearance of the Prince’s previous haughtiness,” the Kizlar Agha went on to conjecture, “and uncooperative attitudes appear linked to the loss of his earlier boredom because of the advent of this close friendship. Today’s sulk was no longer natural but was instead undoubtedly cleverly contrived to extract a certain bribe from us and I can’t help but be happily amused about the success of the boys’ plan.”

“In public,” the Kizlar Agha informed, “all appropriate court decorum is now fully maintained between the pair. However, in private, despite the vast disparity in their mutual status, you wouldn’t know, if you didn’t already and ignored their skin colours, who was the Prince and who was the slave.”

“That’s interesting,” the intrigued Melling commented, “so you must tell me: what is the name of this impressive young black eunuch?”

Chapter ٣٠ - Ad

(30 – Name)

(Cifte Kasirlar [Princes’ Quarters], Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, over two months previously, 15th of May 1796)

After several hours, the Kizlar Agha had been summoned back into Mahmud’s presence, where Kodi had earlier remained. The Chief Black Eunuch, who was still entertaining the idea that his latest young nominee for the position of princely playmate might be instead destined for the palace executioner, was to be amazed at what next happened.

“I’ll retain the service of this boy after all,” the Prince informed the astonished Kizlar Agha on his return in respect of Kodi, who was now standing discreetly to one side of the couch on which his new young master was sitting cross-legged. The Chief Black Eunuch was startled not only by this unexpected decision but also by the broad smile displayed on young Mahmud’s handsome face as he conveyed his command.

Nevertheless, the Kizlar Agha retained enough composure to accept the decision without quibble, as, after all, he had earlier been desperate to assign someone suitable to be the Prince’s playmate. He had also just been contemplating the likely inconvenient loss of one of his precious and apparently most able new young recruits to the executioner’s curved scimitar.

In confirmation of his compliant acceptance, the Kizlar Agha replied to the Prince’s decision by simply saying “Certainly, Lord!” He then asked, in accordance with court protocol in such situations, “And have you yet considered what you would like to name him?”

“I have indeed,” the Prince answered, “and I have made a decision.” Mahmud did not add, because the fact was to remain a secret between the boys, that they had mutually agreed to the rename.

Kodi had already known that court protocol decreed that he would have to lose his original name in favour of one not normally associated with people of the male gender. He also considered Mahmud’s suggestion to be appropriate and preferable to the possible alternatives.

After asking during their first meeting to be told about Kodi’s background and receiving the relevant information, comprehensively and bluntly delivered, the shocked Prince instantly felt deep sorrow and sympathy for the young black eunuch. He subsequently also conjured his renaming suggestion as a way of honouring the boy’s original homeland and his obvious indefatigability in surviving his recent dreadful experiences.

“I should be honoured, Lord, to accept the name that you kindly suggest,” Kodi had responded. He was genuinely flattered by the associated connotations, as well as relieved that he was not to be called certain alternatives.

Kodi’s sense of being flattered was soon later to transform into profound pride and affection because he began to feel truly honoured at receiving his new name from such a person as Mahmud. He therefore never felt inclined to mope about the loss of his original Nuba appellation.

“Good, and now as your first duty for me,” the Prince had subsequently finished their first meeting by requesting of Kodi, “please ask the guarding black eunuch outside the door to summon the Kizlar Agha back. I can then appraise him of my decisions.”

“Certainly, Lord,” replied the newly renamed Kardelen.

Chapter ٣۱ - Oyun Arkadaşı

(31 – Playmate)

(Cifte Kasirlar [Princes’ Quarters], Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, over two months later, 20th of July 1796)

“You’re a genius, Kardelen,” the laughing Mahmud suggested to his young black eunuch companion, as they arrived back in the Prince’s quarters within the Seraglio. “I couldn’t have a better playmate!” he happily added.

“So, Lord, I’m really not too uncongenial, dull, feeble, ignorant or stupid, or a combination of these faults,” Kardelen joked in return. “No,” Mahmud replied in similar jest, “as you are definitely the desired companionable, lively, hardy, informed and intelligent playmate!”

“Your ruse,” Mahmud next commented, “to enable us to leave the Seraglio briefly to meet the challenge of Hatice’s maze worked brilliantly. You must think of more so that we can leave the palace more often, as it’s frustrating being stuck inside here most of the time. The Kizlar Agha has tried his best to keep me occupied with reading and studies, plus plentiful toys and other amusements, including girls for entertainment of a particular kind if I wanted. However, I’ve never been happy and my depression caused me to be surly and unpleasant to everyone until you arrived.”

The remarkable maturity of the conversation in which the two boys were currently indulging was a sign of their respective exceptional intelligences. The rather superior vocabulary used was also testament to the quality of their education and the high-class dialect peculiar to the Ottoman court, which made such speech very difficult for ordinary Turks to understand.

“I knew that the Kizlar Agha was attempting to find me a suitable playmate from amongst the similarly aged black eunuchs in order to try to make me happier,” Mahmud continued, “but truly none of the earlier candidates were suitable. They all quite genuinely seemed to me to be too uncongenial, dull, feeble, ignorant or stupid, or a combination of these faults, for his aim to succeed until you came along, by which time I’d given up expecting someone appropriate.”

“I’m so happy that you stood up to me when I attempted to dismiss you summarily,” Mahmud added, “which was so brave of you. No servant had ever dared to be so blunt previously.”

“Perhaps I was more foolish than brave,” propounded the smiling Kardelen, who was naturally extremely honoured by the appreciation of him inherent in Mahmud’s words, “because you might have reacted quite differently than you did. My rotting head could instead still be displayed outside the Gate of Salutation!”

“Well,” Mahmud melancholically suggested, “a worse fate might result from being confined with me in the Seraglio. I might be an Ottoman Prince but my importance is only one of status not power and that situation could remain for life. The palace might be luxurious but this place is also like a gilded cage to me and I wish that we could escape much more regularly!”

Mahmud had actually used the word ‘cage’ to Kardelen pointedly. Moreover, the black eunuch knew that he had done so.

Mehmet the Conqueror had in the 15th century introduced a terrible fratricidal law. This legislation allowed new Sultans on their succession to execute their brothers and other close male relatives in order to prevent power struggles.

One of the Conqueror’s namesake successors, Mehmet III, had for example, on his own succession in 1595, ordered the execution through strangulation by bow-string of nineteen young sibling Princes after having them all brought individually to him. The eldest, a particularly handsome youth, poignantly begged for mercy.

“My Lord and brother, now also a father to me,” the youth had pleaded, “please do not let my days be ended like this, at my tender age.” His older sibling, Mehmet III, in response displayed apparent grief, tearing at his beard, but nevertheless still sent the Prince to his death, adding all of his sisters too to the ultimate long funeral cortege that subsequently passed sorrowfully through the streets of Constantinople.

The fratricidal law was, however, repealed in 1603 by Mehmet III’s successor, Ahmet I. This more merciful Sultan, who had also been responsible for commissioning Constantinople’s Blue Mosque, instead introduced the practice of incarcerating potential rival Ottoman Princes in luxurious confinement within the Seraglio.

Such Princes, offspring of the many concubines who served previous Sultans and who were therefore frequently half rather than full brothers to each other, were confined, often in numbers unknown to the outside world, in the inner sanctum of the Seraglio. This so-called ‘Kafes’ or ‘Cage’, comprised luxurious apartments in a two-storied building without windows.

Within, those Princes old enough would be sexually entertained by sterile concubines in order to avoid pregnancies, which might result in further unwanted surplus young male Ottomans. The procreation of such fresh members of the dynasty was thereby principally reserved for the Sultan.

Ahmet I was also ultimately responsible for the current plight of Mahmud’s unpleasant elder half-brother, Mustapha. This Prince was also confined to the Cage despite being the previous Sultan’s oldest son by a Kadin named Nuketseza.

Ahmet I had introduced another law that granted the succession as Sultan to the eldest and most capable close male relative instead of just the senior son if the latter is considered unready or unworthy. This legislation had enabled Selim to succeed his uncle, the father of Mustapha and Mahmud, Abdülhamid I, in 1789 in preference to there being a regency for a then young child.

The same law had actually already previously deprived Selim of the throne. When his own father, Mustapha III, had died in 1774, he had only been a 12 year-old and so the previous Sultan’s brother, Abdülhamid I, had instead succeeded.

Mahmud’s own mother was another Kadin of Abdülhamid I named Naksidil. This exceptionally capable woman was still alive and resident in the Seraglio, where she regularly met with her beloved son, for whom she naturally harboured ambitions other than being a caged Prince.

Naksidil was also of unusual ethnic background to have risen from odalisque to Kadin in the service of Abdülhamid I in the Seraglio, not being of Balkan or Caucasian origin. She was instead French, having being captured aboard a ship by Barbary Pirates and ending up being sold as a slave in Constantinople, with her great beauty ensuring that she was purchased for the harem of the then Sultan.

Naksidil had vetted and approved the appointment of Kodi, as he was then known, to be the slave companion of Mahmud. Given her aspirations for her son, she wanted him to have not only an amiable playmate but also a loyal and able servant and she had gathered from the Kizlar Agha’s description that this particular young black eunuch should meet her requirements.

Having later been advised of the manner in which the brave Kodi, renamed Kardelen by Mahmud, had been accepted by the Prince, the highly astute and greatly impressed and amused Naksidil had immediately felt that the choice had been correct. She was never subsequently to have cause to doubt this belief.

Selim III, although pleasant in character and quite liberal and reforming, had after his own succession to the Ottoman throne felt obliged to retain the customary practice of restricting his closest male relatives to the Seraglio. He did so to placate powerful conservative court traditionalists, who hated change, and to prevent a potential rival, such as Mustapha, from garnering their support.

The currently 34 year-old Selim III, being liberal and reforming, wanted change, not only at court but also within his wider Empire. The present Sultan firmly believed that radical reform was desperately needed in order obtain improvements that would boost the prosperity and security of his realm.

The economy was at best stagnant and government suffered from inefficiency and corruption. The Ottoman Empire was also regularly rocked by internal rebellion by over-mighty provincial magnates and was surrounded by rival nations possessing blatant aspirations to conquer territory.

Selim had about four years previously established a committee of reformers with a view to planning change. With their advice, he subsequently promulgated, despite strong opposition from conservative factions, especially amongst the reactionary Islamic hierarchy, or ‘Ulema’, and the Janissary Corps, a series of new policies, collectively known as the ‘Nizam-ı Cedid’.

This so-called ‘New Order’ included overdue reforms of archaic provincial governorships and of land tenure and taxation systems. However, most significant were the military changes.

In addition to new and more modern army and naval schools, Selim III founded an entirely fresh corps of infantry, trained and equipped in western European style. This reforming innovation caused much disgust and resentment in the traditionalist Janissaries, who were deeply protective of their customs and privileges.

The Corps of Janissaries had been founded in 1365 on behalf of Sultan Murat I by Kara Halil Chendereli. The curious white flap that the soldiers subsequently wore on their linen hats commemorated his sleeve, which brushed the heads of the first recruits as he touched them in benediction to confirm their selection.

The Janissaries were originally established on the Egyptian Mamluk model to be an army of slaves, serving the fledgling Empire and in particular protecting the Ottomans themselves as military bodyguards. The Corps, mainly barracked in Constantinople after the capture of the city, was the first standing army in Europe since Roman times and was initially principally formed from captured Christian boys from the Balkans and Caucasus. They were forcibly converted to Islam, being circumcised in the process, and trained in soldiering.

The Janissaries were founded because members of the Corps were considered to be more likely to be utterly loyal to the Sultan than the Turk’s own military units, or ‘ghazis’. The latter had previously formed most of the Ottoman army but owed allegiance also to their potentially rebellious tribal leaders.

The establishment of firm fealty from the Janissaries towards the Ottomans was secured, as with the Mamluks, through early indoctrination and the subsequent granting of privileges. The latter eventually included generous quarterly-paid salaries, shares of wartime booty and pensions, enabling them to enjoy high living standards.

In the Janissary cadet schools, or ‘acemi oğlan’, the boys ate and slept together and had the Corps’ traditions drummed into them. They were especially encouraged to be loyal to their fellows, being required to swear such allegiance on a tray bearing salt, a sword and the Koran.

Graduate Janissaries were originally forbidden to wed, being considered to be married instead to the Corps, which supposedly formed their family and would inherit their assets after death. They were later in 1543 officially attached to the liberal Bektashi Islamic order, of which Kara Halil Chendereli had been a follower and which did not require the veiling of women or proscribe alcohol. Meanwhile, during peacetime, many of the soldiers also took up trades to supplement their military income and to practise full-time after retirement.

Janissaries were splendidly attired in colourful uniforms made mainly in Salonica of top-grade cotton and wool, although in context the word ‘uniform’ could be considered a misnomer because the hues and patterns of coats could vary considerably. Ordinary ranks tended to wear red slippers or boots.

Janissaries were a uniformed standing army with distinctive marching bands, or ‘mehterân’, long before such ideas caught on in western nations. However, the Corps’ soldiers were rarely required to advance in step to music because roads were generally too bad and uneven.

So important became food to Janissaries that ranks were named after the words for certain kitchen jobs in Ottoman Turkish, such as cooks, scullions and water-carriers. The huge cauldrons of the Corps’ companies, or ‘orta’, also became symbolically more important than standards, with any loss warranting the dismissal of the soldiers responsible.

Upturned cauldrons were also sometimes used as drums. Unfortunately, over the centuries they were increasingly utilised angrily in this manner to denote rebellion.

Over the centuries the Janissaries had eventually become overly pampered, powerful and reactionary. Consequently, their supposed loyalty to the Sultans could too easily and readily be undermined by any perceived threat to their aggressively guarded interests, which tempted them with increasing frequency into revolt to safeguard their privileges. The Corps, which now garrisoned cities and towns throughout the Empire, also became highly corrupt.

For example, some Janissary commanders fraudulently enrolled phantom recruits to increase the payroll and divert the surplus into their own pockets. They also sold vacant military posts to artisans and traders facing competition from members of the Corps, who were involved in unfair rival commercial activity and whose own fighting capabilities were now seriously compromised by such predominant interests.

Some of the most corrupt Janissaries were those allocated the duty to tackle fires in cities and towns, including Constantinople, where many buildings were wooden. The relevant Corps members would extort money from citizens desperate to ensure that the soldiers themselves did not deliberately raise such blazes. When such incidents did occur, they also accepted bribes to give priority to saving certain properties, whilst often additionally looting amidst the mayhem.

By the time of Selim III’s reign, the very conservative and corrupt Janissaries had for a long period mainly stemmed from Islamic Turkish volunteers rather than from Christians, the Muslim recruits being eager to gain access to the Corps’ privileges. They also now rarely lived in barracks and were allowed to marry and encourage any sons to follow them into the regiment, turning membership into a family tradition. Their numbers had additionally become unnecessarily bloated to well over 100,000, with the majority collecting their salaries whilst concentrating more on their non-military occupations.

The opposition to Selim III’s reforms, from such influential and powerful interest groups as the Janissaries and Ulema, had not yet completely upset his progressive policies, mainly because he had so far implemented them with slow diplomatic deliberation. After all, deposition of Sultans by aggrieved parties was not uncommon. Of the 36 successors of the revered Osman I, establisher of the Ottoman dynasty in the 13th century, 17 were deposed.

The only time that the sanctity of the Seraglio had been defiled by rebellious military was also perhaps the only occasion when castration formed the means of assassinating a leader. The then ruler, Osman II, was murdered by his own new Grand Vizier, Davut Pasha, who angrily compressed the Sultan’s testes to a pulp. Selim III was naturally keen not to follow in any of his deposed predecessors’ footsteps, perhaps especially those of the one killed through testicular crushing.

Despite only just attaining the 11th anniversary of his birth on this day, Mahmud had already been offered sterile female playmates with whom he could attempt to lose some of his boredom as well as his virginity. However, he had so far declined the invitations, unlike his older brother, the now 16 year-old Mustapha, who was proving to be quite a rake.

Mahmud and Mustapha were, along with their cousin, Sultan Selim III, the sole remaining male Ottomans directly descended from Osman I. However, despite their ancestry, the two half-brothers were not alike in terms of character.

Mustapha was fundamentally an unpleasant youth. Amongst his many disagreeable characteristics was inflexible haughtiness, which originated in a completely unfounded feeling of utter superiority over everyone else, especially his cousin, Selim III, whom he deeply resented for occupying what he considered to be his own rightful role as Sultan. He was also even more vexed at being confined to the Cage.

Another of Mustapha’s disagreeable characteristics, though, was deviousness, which encouraged him, in his current circumstances, to hide his resentments and instead curry favour with his cousin, Selim III. He did so in order to be granted extra privileges, especially a relaxation of the conditions of his confinement and some access to his cousin in an attempt to gain a little political sway. His superficially amiable approach had been so successfully obsequious that the Sultan actually naively acquired a very unsound and unwise liking for the Prince.

Part of Mustapha’s obsequiousness was his apparent support and indeed encouragement for Selim III’s reforming agenda. In fact, the Prince was actually too disinterested and stupid to appreciate the need for such policies, about which he essentially had no proper opinion. His only real interest lay in someday usurping his cousin and he had lately acquired an important ally for his nefarious ambitions, someone who was also greedy for power.

This ally had much more intelligence than Mustapha and had been responsible for suggesting to the Prince that he should privately not only encourage Selim III in his reforms but also advocate more radical change. The confederate actually did not support such policies but instead hoped that the Sultan would go too far in their pursuit, so enraging the powerful reactionary elements in Ottoman society that they revolted and deposed him in favour of his elder cousin.

The ally subsequently anticipated using the acquired influence over the clearly malleable and administratively lazy and incapable Mustapha to be the real power behind the throne. However, the confederate was also astute enough to appreciate that such aims would probably not come quickly to fruition.

The ally instead realised that a long waiting game would first have to be played before the desired objectives were attained. This reality existed not least because a certain coveted powerful position was not yet occupied by the confederate.

Because of Mustapha’s incarceration in the Cage, this important ally, of course, had to be someone with easy access to him in his luxurious prison. This requirement therefore meant that the Prince’s scheming confederate had to be either one of the significant women or black eunuchs resident in the Seraglio.

Mahmud, who was, in stark contrast to Mustapha, naturally very pleasant, especially after the advent of Kardelen into his life, and far more diligent and intelligent, disliked his older half-brother. He had seen the nasty sides to his sibling’s character that were carefully hidden from their cousin, Selim III, and consequently, despite both being similarly largely confined to the Princes’ quarters in the Cage, he tried his best to keep as far away as possible from him.

There was, however, a downside to such self-imposed isolation from Mustapha. Because of his tender age, Mahmud was also much more marginalised from association with Selim III than his maturer elder half-brother, and this situation caused him to be currently unaware of his sibling’s cunning obsequiousness and scheming in relation to his cousin, the Sultan.

Mahmud himself rather naturally harboured personal ambitions for his own future. However, unlike Mustapha, he never ever considered doing anything that might be to the detriment of the current Sultan.

Mahmud was instead presently mainly attempting to live his life and develop into useful adulthood as best as he could in the circumstances. Nevertheless, as he had just suggested to Kardelen, he did hope that some of this process could involve more time outside the Cage.

“Well, Mahmud,” Kardelen replied, whilst displaying a mischievous twinkle in his eyes, “I believe that we might be able to make your wish come true!” In uttering this interesting statement, the young black eunuch was not insulting the Prince by suddenly dropping the addressing of him as ‘Lord’ and instead using his first name.

Kardelen now had been granted very liberal leeway in their private relationship by Mahmud, who had told him that he did not desire a fawning playmate, who was constantly calling him ‘Lord’. The Prince instead wanted a close companion, who would always be loyal and truthful and, if the situation dictated, blunt with his opinions, as well as someone who privately addressed him informally by his proper name, and the young black eunuch fully intended to meet these wishes.

“How can we do that?” a startled and curious Mahmud asked in relation to Kardelen’s latest statement. However, the young black eunuch’s reply was somewhat lacking in detail.

Kardelen, after now smiling mischievously, simply responded teasingly “I’m sorry, Mahmud, but I can’t tell you yet!”

Chapter ٣۲ - Hammam

(32 – Bath)

(Sultan’s Hammam, Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, evening of the same day)

Selim III was sitting on a tiled seat in his currently very warm and steamy palace Turkish bath, or ‘hammam’. The Sultan, who was naked apart from a towel wrapped around his waist, was alone because he had dismissed his attendant black eunuchs, as he wanted to contemplate current matters of state in quiet privacy.

As Selim sat in tranquillity, he closed his eyes and briefly dozed. When he awoke a short time later, he immediately somehow instinctively realised that he was no longer alone and so looked around the steamy surrounds in order to try to see who had interrupted his privacy.

Selim’s weary vision took time to focus in the steamy environment but eventually managed to settle on a small shape on the floor immediately in front of him. The Sultan subsequently rubbed his eyes to ensure that they were not playing tricks on him.

Selim’s eyes had focused on a black boy, attired in a colourful kaftan and slippers, who was performing the act of prostration before him, kneeling motionless, with his forehead resting on the damp tiled floor. The Sultan immediately presumed that the young eunuch must have been sent with a message for him, although such duties were normally only performed by an adult in his intimate service.

Despite being slightly annoyed at the disturbance to his steamy reverie and the unusual lack of court seniority of the young intruder, Selim nevertheless patiently acknowledged the boy’s presence by advising him “You may stand.” After the child-eunuch had obeyed, whilst following protocol by still focusing his eyes on the floor, the Sultan subsequently asked “What is your message?”

“Lord of the Horizon, Burgave of the World, Sultan of the Two Continents, Emperor of the Black and White Seas, Shadow of God in this World and the next and Favourite of God on the Two Horizons,” the nervous black boy prefaced his answer in response. In doing so, he was addressing Selim with his official court titles. However, he did not know that the Sultan disliked such formality in private situations, although such ignorance was to prove short-lived.

“There’s no need to be so long-winded, boy,” Selim impatiently interrupted to advise the young black eunuch, being keen to return to his happy private reverie inside the warm steamy hammam, “so just tell me what your message is and then leave.” “Yes, Lord,” was the reply.

Selim, though, did not expect what was said next in continuation of this reply. “Lord,” the boy nervously informed, whilst still staring at the tiled floor, “I actually have no message, only a request.”

Selim was at first instantly shocked and dumbstruck to hear this statement. This early reaction subsequently quickly began to transmute into growing anger and then concern.

No one of such obvious low status as the young black eunuch standing before Selim ever made requests to the Sultan, even on behalf of others of significant standing. The boy’s intrusion into the privacy of the hammam to attempt to do so was unprecedented and completely at odds with court protocol.

As a result, Selim could not now initially believe that the boy was in the hammam to convey any request. The Sultan instead considered that there must be another, possibly far more nefarious, reason, such as assassination.

Consequently, Selim contemplated shouting for the adult black eunuch sentinels, who should be guarding the doors to the bath complex, albeit apparently incompetently, given that the young intruder had seemingly evaded them to gain entrance. However, the Sultan did not subsequently call out.

Selim instead suddenly realised the absurdity of his concern about a possible assassination attempt. The Sultan had rapidly recognised that he would not still be alive if the boy had any such motive for his presence.

The boy had had the opportunity to knife Selim through the heart whilst he had dozed. Instead, the young black eunuch had clearly simply prostrated himself before the Sultan and patiently waited for his presence to be noticed.

Such realisation caused Selim’s anger to abate as speedily as his sudden worry about assassination had arisen. The Sultan’s ire was instead replaced by curiosity.

Consequently, Selim decided to ask the boy what was the request that he wanted to communicate.

Chapter ٣٣ - Top

(33 – Ball)

(Cifte Kasirlar [Princes’ Quarters], Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, next morning)

“What’s that?” asked Mahmud, in respect of the large spherical leather object currently being held by Kardelen. “It’s called a ‘ball’,” the young black eunuch answered, “and it’s a birthday gift for you from Antoine Melling, who says that it’s something with which the boys in his country love playing.”

As Kardelen answered, he tossed the ball to Mahmud, who managed to catch the, for him in his closeted confinement in the Cage, unusual object. He did so despite his reservations about the nature of the leather.

These reservations were anyway soon extinguished by Kardelen’s next piece of information. “Don’t worry,” the young black eunuch advised, whilst observing Mahmud handling the ball with clear unease, “it’s not made from unclean pigskin.”

A clear sense of relief immediately pervaded Mahmud’s handsome face on hearing this disclaimer before being rapidly replaced with obvious interest in the ball, which he turned round in his hands in order to examine more closely. The Prince then began to toss the leather sphere into the air to catch it again on the decent, before finally throwing the interesting item back to Kardelen.

“The ball’s nice,” Mahmud subsequently commented, “but we’ll need more space than I have in my quarters in order to play properly with it.” “I know just the place!” Kardelen responded.

“However,” Kardelen continued, “we’ll need looser clothes than our kaftans to play in and, as it so happens, I’ve secured some shirts and trousers better for the purpose for us to wear. So let’s redress and I’ll take you to the place that I have in mind!”

Mahmud, keen to have some fun with the ball, complied, despite the fact that the clean but rudimentary baggy red attire looked to him only to be suitable for peasant boys and not Ottoman Princes to wear. He nevertheless redressed and, as he did so, he could not help but admire Kardelen’s resourceful preparedness, not knowing that he was soon to become completely amazed at his companion’s inventiveness.

Later after completing their redressing, Mahmud initially believed that Kardelen was leading him to one of the Seraglio’s nearby courtyards or halls. However, after being guided along a myriad of corridors and passageways, the Prince realised that the young black eunuch had a more radical play location in mind.

What amazed Mahmud the most during this walk away from his quarters in the Cage was that Kardelen was leading him not only to areas where he had never before ventured but also to locales, even within the Seraglio, that beforehand had been off-limits to him. His wonderment was increased by the fact that the boys advanced without challenge from the adult black eunuchs guarding various strategic points, who previously would have undoubtedly politely barred his progress into unauthorised places. Nevertheless, the incredulous Prince remained mute about the situation, not wanting to sabotage the exciting development by querying matters.

Kardelen and Mahmud eventually emerged into the palace’s fourth and most easterly court. This section was situated beyond the third on the eastern edge of the Sarayburnu promontory and comprised a garden terrace dotted with ornate pavilions, including the Baghdad Kiosk in which Antoine Melling had begun the Prince’s portrait on the previous day.

Mahmud had, of course, been in the fourth court before but never so informally, with just Kardelen alongside him, and never by means of the route along which his friend had just guided him. The Prince had only ever previously ventured here for official or semi-official reasons, inevitably with a party of closely supervising attendants that befitted such occasions and his standing, and invariably via the customary main gates appropriate to the customs surrounding his status.

Although Kardelen’s route was much quicker, some of the progress to the fourth court had been via plain corridors and passageways that clearly no member of the Ottoman dynasty was intended to use. Even the exit through which the two boys eventually emerged into the garden terrace was so inconspicuous that Mahmud had never previously known that the narrow doorway had existed.

After passing through the door into the large grassy garden terrace beyond, which was bathed in hot summer sunshine and where tall Cypress trees abounded, Mahmud halted and hesitated to go any further. Kardelen, looking behind, saw the Prince stop.

“What’s wrong?” Kardelen asked of Mahmud. “We shouldn’t be here,” the Prince answered, “as I’m not allowed outside the Cage without the permission of the Sultan.”

“I don’t suppose that I’ll be in much bother for being discovered here,” Mahmud added, “as I’ll probably just be verbally reprimanded and returned to the Cage. However, I’m sure that you’ll be in far greater trouble for being my confederate in acting without the Sultan’s permission and I don’t want any harm to befall you!”

In response, Kardelen smiled and said, whilst again tossing the ball to the Prince, “Your concern for my welfare, Mahmud, is very kind. However, neither of us will be in any trouble for being discovered here, as we do have the Sultan’s permission!”

Mahmud knew that Kardelen would never lie to him and so what the boy had just revealed had to be true. The Prince also suddenly realised that knowledge of such authority must already have proficiently spread to the Seraglio’s adult black eunuch guards, which was why he and his friend had managed to reach the garden terrace unchallenged.

Mahmud therefore confined his renewed amazement to enquiring, whilst once more catching the ball, “How on Earth did you manage to obtain such permission?” However, Kardelen did not answer.

Kardelen instead again displayed his mischievous teasing smile and ran away from Mahmud across the garden terrace, whilst shouting “Catch me if you want to know the answer!”

Chapter ٣٤ - Işkence

(34 – Torture)

(Garden Terrace, Fourth Court, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, shortly afterwards)

Kardelen was lying on his back on the grassy surface of the Fourth Court’s garden terrace. Despite his best efforts, he found movement away from this position impossible.

Mahmud, after indeed swiftly catching Kardelen, was sitting on his friend’s stomach, whilst his hands pinned the black boy’s own arms firmly to the ground. “Now confess,” the Prince simultaneously commanded, having been satisfied that his young captive could not escape, “and tell me how you obtained the Sultan’s permission for us to be here!”

“Never!” Kardelen teasingly retorted in defiance. “Then, I must resort to torture!” the grinning Mahmud responded.

“However,” Mahmud added, “I won’t, for now at least, call upon the services of the palace torturer. I’ll instead use these!”

Mahmud’s instruments of torture proved to be his right fingers, which after releasing Kardelen’s left wrist proceeded to tickle the vulnerable underarm of the black boy’s other upper limb. This torment quickly produced the desired result.

“Alright…..alright,” Kardelen managed to splutter between unavoidable hysterical giggles, “I….I….I’ll….c….c….confess!”

Chapter ٣٥ - Itiraf

(35 – Confession)

(Sultan’s Hammam, Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, evening of the previous day)

“You’re either extremely foolhardy,” Selim III suggested to the young black eunuch who had disturbed his bathing, “or selflessly and perhaps sacrificially very brave to come to me in these circumstances, without anyone else’s knowledge or permission, to make your own personal request. You have acted in an unprecedented manner that completely ignores court protocol.”

“I could summon the outside guards,” Selim advised, “and order your immediate execution for your irreverence and impertinence, especially as I believe that this is the second occasion on which you have acted so profanely and disobediently.” On hearing the Sultan’s own confession that he was somehow aware of his previous similar misdemeanour, Kardelen immediately realised that the Ottoman ruler had guessed his identity despite the facts that they had never before met and the boy had not been asked for or given his name.

Kardelen also presumed correctly from Selim’s words that the Kizlar Agha must have informed the Sultan not just about his appointment as companion to Mahmud. The Chief Black Eunuch must additionally have told of the amazing manner in which the boy had gained the Prince’s approval to occupy the position.

Despite still reverently casting his eyes to the tiled floor below, the perceptive Kardelen also now realised that Selim III was currently carefully scrutinising him, presumably both visually and mentally, before deciding what to do about the miscreant young eunuch. The boy, though, did not dare argue in his own defence without first being granted permission to do so.

The current situation was entirely different from when Kardelen had first met Mahmud, whom he had instinctively recognised would react positively to being audaciously confronted with counter-argument. Speaking now without permission to Selim III would surely only add to and compound his perceived misdemeanours in the view of the Sultan and so make the granting of his request even less likely and severe punishment, including possible execution, more probable.

As in his initial meeting with Mahmud, Kardelen appreciated that he was chancing much, including his life, in what he was doing. However, as then, he believed that the risk was worth taking, although for different reasons and with the current situation knowingly more hazardous.

In respect of both situations, the highly astute and intelligent Kardelen had, despite his tender age, actually acted with prior careful mature deliberation. With Mahmud, he had partly used his five days of preparation to ready him for his first audience with the Prince to learn as much as he could about the boy from other black eunuchs, including the Kizlar Agha. The latter had been very co-operative and informative because of his desperation to find a suitable playmate.

After learning more about Mahmud, and despite not yet having met him, Kardelen came to believe that he understood his character from a friendship that he had himself acquired back in his beloved African homeland. The boy concerned then was the son of a particularly snooty chieftain of a village close to his own in the Nuba Mountains, whose father did not like him associating with ordinary children.

Consequently, the boy became rather lonely. This in turn manifested into haughty arrogance until one day Kardelen, then still known as Kodi, challenged him over an insult.

The result was an argument and exchange of abuse and almost blows until Kodi suddenly came to his senses, paused and then began to laugh at the absurdity of what they were shouting. The other boy soon became infected by hilarity as well and started to do the same too and afterwards the pair proved to be the best of friends, meeting secretly to play together, with the chieftain’s son losing all of his earlier haughtiness and arrogance.

Without yet even meeting him, Kardelen, from the tales about Mahmud’s traits that had been described to him, assessed him to be similar to his Nuba friend. He believed that the Prince’s haughty and arrogant front was actually only a symptom of the loneliness of his life in the Cage.

Kardelen also judged that what Mahmud really needed was not a servile young slave as a playmate but someone who would be, at least in private, a true friend of equal standing. He therefore bravely decided to chance disputing the Prince’s initial dismissal of him at their first meeting, considering that such an audacious stance would be the best way forward in order to demonstrate his own credentials.

As could be assessed from the horrified reaction of the Kizlar Agha at the time, the Chief Black Eunuch was not privy to Kardelen’s plan and nor was anyone else. The boy took the risk entirely at his own volition and he did so because of a promise that he had made to himself on his way to Constantinople.

Without being arrogant, Kardelen had promised to himself, when in Cairo he had become aware of where he was destined to go, that he would not be an ordinary slave at the Ottoman court. He would arrive at the Porte having endured much to be there, including losing his homeland and manhood, and he wanted such suffering to result eventually in some great achievement. He thought that, by serving an Ottoman Prince like Mahmud, he might somehow someday achieve his aim.

The chance to serve someone like Mahmud had come unexpectedly early but Kardelen believed that he could not lose the opportunity because another similar one might never come again after being summarily rejected by the Prince. He consequently took his brave gamble because he considered beheading preferable to just being a menial slave for life. Anyway, he also firmly felt that his instincts about the boy were correct and that therefore the risk might not be too great.

Kardelen appreciated that he could subsequently be accused, by anyone who was aware of the motives for his actions, of cleverly manipulating himself into Mahmud’s service simply in order to improve his own status and he would perhaps have to plead guilty to such a charge. However, he would also argue that there were mitigating circumstances.

In Kardelen’s opinion, Mahmud clearly needed an appropriate companion and, again without being personally boastful, the young black eunuch believed that he would be good in the role, especially as he too was seeking a friend within the Seraglio. He also desired a higher status from just being a menial slave not from selfish self-aggrandisement but from a genuine desire somehow someday to help achieve something great, which his instincts suggested that the Prince would want to do too.

As events subsequently unfolded, Kardelen’s instincts about Mahmud had proved correct. The boys, despite their completely different backgrounds, had become genuine close friends.

As Kardelen now stood in the steamy hammam before a much more powerful Ottoman Prince, namely Selim III, he naturally hoped that his instincts about the Sultan would also prove correct. Otherwise, his head might soon be on display outside the palace’s Bâb-üs Selâm, or Gate of Salutation.

Kardelen began to believe that his instincts about Selim III might indeed prove correct when the Sultan, instead of summoning his black eunuch guards, invited the naturally nervous boy to respond to his charges of irreverence and impertinence. The moment had not only been much hoped for but also anticipated in the careful pre-planning.

“Lord,” Kardelen began, as he had rehearsed, “I sincerely apologise for being irreverent and impertinent. I can in honesty do nothing else but plead guilty to both charges and accept whatever punishment you consider appropriate.”

“However,” Kardelen continued, “I also believe that you, Lord, when you were in a similar situation to my master, Prince Mahmud, namely confined to the Cage, would have both admired and welcomed one of your own black eunuchs for trying to secure a degree of greater freedom for you. I think that you would have done so despite, as in this case, not authorising or having any prior notion about any such attempt.”

“You compound your impertinence, boy,” Selim now interrupted to retort. However, he spoke in a soft voice whilst the early anger had disappeared from his bearded face, to be replaced by a slight grin and a fascinated gleam in his eyes, all of which inferred that he was not really annoyed

“You compound your impertinence, boy,” Selim continued, “by suggesting how I might have reacted if any black eunuch in my service had done what you have perpetrated.” However, the Sultan, intrigued by the remarkable exhibition of bravery and mature argument by someone so young and of such lowly status as Kardelen, also added “Nevertheless, you may proceed further with your explanation.”

By now, perceiving Selim’s change in attitude, Kardelen’s confidence had grown considerably, helping him to further his argument, which remained remarkably eloquent for someone so young. The boy did so by commenting “Lord, the degree of greater freedom, which I beg that you allow my master, Prince Mahmud, is not much, just that resulting from the opportunity to play informally in the garden terrace of the Fourth Court!”

Shortly afterwards, Kardelen once more reverently prostrated himself on the damp tiled floor of the steamy hammam before rising, turning and preparing to leave Selim III’s presence. However, before the boy had departed the Sultan shouted for his black eunuch guards.

If Selim had shouted to his guards like this earlier, Kardelen might have feared the worst. However, the boy was more relaxed now and for good reason.

The guards concerned were fit and muscular black eunuchs, armed with sheathed scimitars, and, on entering, their faces displayed no shock at Kardelen’s presence in the hammam. The boy had gained access to Selim III by telling them, not untruthfully, that he needed to see the Sultan on behalf of Prince Mahmud.

The explanation was unusual but not entirely unprecedented. Consequently, the guards had allowed the younger eunuch access, after first carefully and dutifully searching him to ensure that he had no concealed weapons.

“One of you,” Selim III commanded of the guards, “ensure that this boy is escorted safely back to Prince Mahmud’s quarters.” “Yes, Lord,” the more senior replied.

As Kardelen subsequently departed from the steamy hammam in the company of the guards, he heard Selim III make one final comment to him. The remark caused the boy to smile happily.

“I wish,” Selim III advised, whilst grinning even more broadly, “that, when I too was once a boy Prince incarcerated in the Cage, I did indeed have a young black eunuch companion in my service, who was as selflessly loyal, able and brave as you, Kardelen!”

Chapter ٣٦ - Oynamak

(36 – Play)

(Garden Terrace, Fourth Court, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, next morning)

Mahmud and Kardelen were sitting side-by-side in the shade from the hot overhead summer sun provided by an arbour covered by a baldachin. They were now on a marble terrace of the palace’s Fourth Court, located between Murat IV’s Baghdad and Revan Kiosks. Nearby were Ahmet III’s tulip garden and the pavilion in which the holy relics brought from Mecca to Constantinople by Selim I were reverently housed.

Taking advantage of the magnificent view provided from this point, Mahmud and Kardelen were watching the boats on the nearby Bosporus and Golden Horn. The Prince was particularly delighting in the freedom of the moment, being unsupervised and with the sun’s heat nicely tempered by the shade and a pleasant breeze.

“Your brave gall truly amazes me, Kardelen,” Mahmud informed his friend, as his mind contemplated the enormous risk that the black boy had taken to achieve the current moment of relative freedom. “I’d have forbidden you from doing such a thing if I’d have known,” the Prince added, “because of the great danger. I’d have disliked having to view your decapitated head on show outside the Gate of Salutation!”

“That’s why I didn’t tell you of my plan in advance, Mahmud,” Kardelen advised. “I’m not sure that the risk was worth it,” the Prince replied with genuine concern. Having found such a close friend, he never wanted to lose him.

Seeing the current contented expression on Mahmud’s face, though, Kardelen was sure that the risk had been worthwhile. He had been happy to chance his life just to observe the Prince’s obvious present pleasure.

“It would be nice to sample life outside the palace walls too,” Mahmud next remarked, “but being able to play unsupervised here at virtually any daylight time that we want is much better than what I had before. I’ll therefore always be very grateful to you, Kardelen, for making such a situation possible. Now, shall we enjoy another game with the ball?”

Mahmud stood up with the ball in his hand in anticipation of a positive response from Kardelen. However, the young black eunuch instead suggested another game to play, as he too rose.

Shortly afterwards, Mahmud looked to his rear at the easterly walls of the palace. However, he was now outside not inside them, viewing the tall Cypress trees that loomed above the fortifications.

“You said that it’d be nice to sample life outside the palace walls,” a smiling Kardelen observed to Mahmud. “I know,” the astonished Prince replied, “but I didn’t expect the development to happen so soon!”

“I never knew,” Mahmud added, “that that little gate, through which we exited, ever existed. I’m also surprised that the door wasn’t locked.”

“If you carefully scrutinise all of the walls in the outer Courts,” Kardelen informed, “you’ll actually see many similar obscure gates, few of which are locked. They’re used mainly by non-residential palace staff to come and go.”

“Leaving the little gates unsecured,” Kardelen continued, “is apparently not considered a risk. The penalty for unauthorised trespassing in the palace grounds is death and no one therefore expects anybody to bother, especially as things of real value are housed in well-guarded places.”

As Kardelen spoke, Mahmud looked around him at the tall barren rocky outer edges of Seraglio Point on which he was now standing with his friend. “Hmmm,” the Prince subsequently commented, “perhaps sampling life outside the palace walls is not, after all, very interesting and nice.”

“Perhaps, I can change that opinion,” Kardelen suggested in response, whilst glancing downwards at the shoreline far below. Mahmud followed his friend’s stare to see something bobbing about in the blue waters of the Bosporos adjacent to a little jetty.

“What’s that?” asked Mahmud. Kardelen looked at his Prince, and the mischievous grin returned to his face.

“That’s,” Kardelen then answered, “the little rowboat that’ll now take us to the harbourside of Constantinople!”

Chapter ٣٧ - Kaçış

(37 – Escape)

(Seraglio Point, Constantinople, shortly afterwards)

As Kardelen carefully guided Mahmud down a steep and narrow pathway, which descended Seraglio Point in the direction of the little jetty and waiting rowboat, concerned caution again came to the fore in the young Prince’s mind, stimulating him to suggest “We shouldn’t be doing this. The Sultan only gave us permission to play in and explore the garden terrace of the Fourth Court unsupervised and nowhere else.”

“What we’re currently doing, Kardelen,” the worried Mahmud added, “therefore exceeds the permission granted. Such a breach of authorisation could be regarded as treason!”

“But we’re not exceeding the authority granted,” Kardelen retorted, with a hint of insulted indignation in his voice, which nevertheless did not prevent him from excitedly continuing his decent, “and I would never seek to do so.” “Are you telling me,” the incredulous Mahmud responded, “that the Sultan has given us permission to embark on this adventure?”

“Not exactly, Mahmud,” Kardelen answered in a rather conspiratorial manner, “but our actions are in accordance with the permission that the Sultan granted us to play in the garden terrace of the Fourth Court.” “How can that be?” enquired the Prince.

“Well, Mahmud,” Kardelen revealed, “when I met the Sultan I expressed my words most carefully when seeking his permission to allow the requested degree of greater freedom, and I now quote verbatim, ‘resulting from the opportunity to play informally in the garden terrace of the Fourth Court’.” On hearing this explanation, the face of the Prince, who was still following his young black eunuch down the steep edge of the promontory despite his concern, briefly looked puzzled before a broad smile of sudden enlightenment subsequently appeared on his face.

“Of course,” Mahmud then exclaimed to reveal the reason for his change in facial expression, “your clever use of phraseology in your granted request means that we are not restricted to remaining in the garden terrace of the Fourth Court. Instead, interpretation of the words in a certain way allows us, albeit undoubtedly unintentionally on the part of the Sultan, other freedoms too that might stem from our presence there, such as those resulting from us passing through an unlocked door in the walls.”

“Yes,” Kardelen confirmed, “and so our actions can be said to be allowed by the literal words of the verbal permission granted by the Sultan. However, I suppose that we might be accused of breaking the spirit of the agreement, although, having met your cousin, I believe that he would be more amused than annoyed at our enterprise!”

“I think that you’re right,” Mahmud replied, as he excitedly stepped up the pace of his descent towards the waiting rowboat, “and am happy with your clever literal interpretation of the agreement.” “After all,” the Prince added, whilst beginning to laugh, “only the letter of the law would be followed in a court!”

Soon afterwards, two boys were attempting to row a small boat through the choppy waters of the Bosporos, close to the shoreline. Still dressed barefoot in their plain red baggy shirts and trousers, which effectively disguised their true statuses, they initially encountered difficulty in making much progress, which was unsurprising, given that neither had used an oar previously and there were strong currents present.

Nevertheless, the boys were having great fun in learning how to row properly, despite sometimes clumsily falling onto their backs amidst their attempts. On one of these occasions, whilst Mahmud’s legs were sticking upwards into the air, neither he nor the similarly raucously laughing Kardelen was able to move because of the momentary paralysing effect on their bodies of their mutual amused hysterics.

In the event, the boys took a couple of hours to become competent at rowing and, by then, they sensibly realised that they did not have time to progress to Constantinople’s harbourside. They therefore decided that they would leave that particular adventure until the next day.

The boys hoped then to stroll unrecognised in their plain attire through Constantinople’s generally teeming daytime streets.

Chapter ٣٨ - Kar

(38 – Snow)

(Garden Terrace, Fourth Court, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, 5 months later, 25th December 1796)

On what in the Christian world was regarded as the birthday of Jesus Christ, Mahmud and Kardelen were again playing in the Garden Terrace of the Fourth Court. However, on this occasion, their surrounds were rather different from normal.

When Kardelen had first emerged from the Seraglio into these surrounds on this day, he had quickly literally stopped in his tracks in amazed disbelief, mingled with some alarm, at the sight. “What has happened to the world, Mahmud,” he subsequently asked in a mix of awe and fright, “for why has everywhere become white?”

Kardelen had, of course, never before seen snow, which did not exist in the lands from where he had come and through which he had travelled to reach Constantinople, although he had been told by Mahmud about the phenomenon in connection to another matter seven months previously. In his current astonished and somewhat scared state, he had temporarily forgotten the information about the subject conveyed by the Prince.

“It’s snow!” Mahmud excitedly advised, as he picked up some of the chilly substance. “Don’t you remember,” the Prince went on to ask, “that I told you about the stuff when discussing your rename?”

Having rolled the snow in his hands into a ball, Mahmud subsequently hurled his created missile at Kardelen, whose handsome face was then accurately but harmlessly splattered with the subject of his recent enquiry.

Chapter ٣٩ - Doğum Günü

(39 – Birthday)

(Baghdad Kiosk, Fourth Court, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, over 1½ years later, 20th of July 1798)

Antione Melling and the Kizlar Agha watched as Mahmud and his ever-attendant young black eunuch, Kardelen, departed from the Baghdad Kiosk, where the multi-talented German artist had just begun another birthday portrait of the Prince. The men subsequently turned to each in order to converse.

“I see that the relationship between Prince Mahmud and Kardelen is as close as ever,” Melling commented. “It certainly is!” the Kizlar Agha contentedly agreed.

“Are they still indulging in their supposedly secret little adventures through their forays into various parts of Constantinople?” asked Melling. “They certainly are,” the Kizlar Agha answered, “whilst apparently being oblivious to being tracked every part of the way.”

“And the Sultan is still happy to allow them to do so?” Melling enquired. “He is,” the Kizlar Agha confirmed, “as long as the knowledge of such forays are confined to a small trusted group of people, namely him, me and the black eunuchs in my personal service who do the tracking.”

“Not even the Gulam Agha is aware,” the Chief Black Eunuch advised. “And yet you’ve told me,” Melling remarked. “We’re close friends and I know that I can trust you to keep the secret,” was the kind response.

“The Sultan remains liberally content to allow Mahmud and Kardelen to enjoy their supposedly secret adventures,” the Kizlar Agha continued, “as long as they remain safe and the political reactionaries at court remain ignorant of their exploits. Selim not only admires the boys’ daring and ingenuity but also wishes that he had done something similar when he too was a young caged prince!”

“Do you really think that two very clever boys like Mahmud and Kardelen don’t know that they’re being tracked whilst they’re enjoying their excursions?” Melling next asked. The Kizlar Agha smiled before answering “Of course they’re aware. They soon spotted what was happening but, as no effort was made to stop what they were doing, they carried on regardless, undoubtedly considering, correctly too, that their ability to do so meant that they had the tacit approval of the Sultan!”

“The boys also appear to have the clever knack of losing their trackers whenever they want,” the Kizlar Agha revealed, “although they generally only do so as a brief tease, afterwards suddenly reappearing whilst displaying broad mischievous smiles. They’ve obviously guessed that the Sultan is genuinely concerned for their safety and so such games must not be overplayed!”

“What do the boys do when they’re in Constantinople?” Melling enquired. “They just roam round,” the Kizlar Agha answered, “taking in the sights, not just of the many splendid mosques and other public buildings and monuments but also of the poorer quarters and the docks. They appear to have an insatiable appetite to experience ordinary everyday life in the city.”

“Such experiences might prove useful for a future Sultan,” Melling suggested. “I agree,” the Kizlar Agha replied, “and Mahmud remains one of only three male descendants of Osman I left and second in line for the succession after his older brother, Mustapha. As you know, Selim still has no sons, despite his many concubines.”

“I also firmly hope,” the Kizlar Agha added, “that, if Selim continues to fail to breed sons, Mahmud does indeed someday succeed his cousin. I’m sure that his older brother, Mustapha, who in my assessment is not only very unpleasant, lazy and stupid but also possibly a bit mad, would be a disaster.”

“In contrast,” the Kizlar Agha commented, “Mahmud exhibits much promise, especially with Kardelen at his side. I now firmly believe that, if the pair remains close and given their respective attributes already, they will become a formidable combination in adulthood. As you know, I have lived in the Seraglio for many years and so have observed the development of a lot of Ottoman Princes at first hand. I truly think that such experiences enable me to make such a prediction accurately.”

“I also believe,” the Kizlar Agha remarked “ that, if the combination does persist and somehow someday Mahmud succeeds to the Ottoman throne, we might acquire the greatest Sultan since Suleiman the Magnificent and before him Mehmet the Conqueror himself. My current master, Selim, is certainly a ruler of much ability and merit but he is also rather timid in tackling the conservatives and enforcing policies. Meanwhile, his younger cousin in my opinion displays even more promise at the same age than he did, along with more grit and determination, with such auspiciousness boosted further by Kardelen’s influence.”

“Your assertion in respect of Mahmud is certainly startling, given that he’s just currently celebrating his thirteenth birthday,” Melling replied. “I know,” the Kizlar Agha responded, “but my instinct is rarely wrong and I have a feeling about the younger Prince’s potential greatness now that he’s linked to an apparent soul-mate who matches and complements him.”

As the astute Kizlar Agha spoke these words, he did not realise precisely how much Kardelen matched Mahmud for, although no one currently knew, including the boy himself, the young black eunuch shared the Prince’s date of birth and both had become 13 year-olds on this day.

Chapter ٤٠ - Piramitler

(40 – Pyramids)

(Cifte Kasirlar [Princes’ Quarters], Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, shortly afterwards)

“Is there any more news about the French incursion into Egypt?” Mahmud asked of Kardelen. The Prince was referring to the reports just arrived in Constantinople about an army under a certain General Napoleon landing nineteen days previously near Alexandria. The country was officially a province of the Turkish Empire, albeit one currently ruled with considerable autonomy by the Mamluks under Ibrahim and Murad Bey.

Napoleon had declared to the local population that he had come to liberate them from the oppressive rule of the Mamluks and to restore the full authority of the Ottoman Sultan. He simultaneously praised Islamic tenets in order to gain popular favour. However, the real French motives for invading Egypt were to protect their national trade interests there and to obstruct one of the main routes to India of their current wartime enemy, the British. They also secretly harboured imperialist ambitions and such true nefarious reasons were well recognised at the Porte.

“Not yet,” Kardelen replied to Mahmud’s question, “for, as I well know having made the voyage from Egypt to Constantinople, news can take days to arrive, depending upon the sea conditions. The French navy might also be successfully blockading our own ships inside their harbours, preventing them from sailing.”

The personal significance of this reply to Kardelen did not lay in the information conveyed but rather in his use of the word ‘our’ to describe Turkish ships. Such usage was symbolic of how quickly he had assimilated to his new role in life and with the people he now served, which was a process aided considerably by his close friendship with Mahmud.

“Do you think that there’ll be a big battle between the French and Mamluks,” Mahmud next enquired, “and, if so, who do you think will win?” “I certainly believe that the local Beys will resist the invasion fiercely,” Kardelen sagely responded, whilst revealing his scholarship in the subject, “not least because Bonaparte has declared his intent to depose them from their positions. However, I fear for their success, despite their undoubted bravery, because they will be facing an army benefiting from modern training, tactics and weapons, led by a general who’s just conquered much of Italy!”

In fact, the French victory at the Battle of the Pyramids, signalling the beginning of the end of the Mamluks in Egypt, took place on the day after the 13th birthdays of both Mahmud and Kardelen.

Chapter ٤۱ - Amiral

(41 – Admiral)

(Cifte Kasirlar [Princes’ Quarters], Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, 12 days later, 1st August 1798)

Mahmud was feeling and looking rather melancholy, having just heard the disastrous news about the calamity at the Battle of the Pyramids. “You were, as usual, completely correct in your assessment of what would happen in Egypt,” the Prince also commented to Kardelen, “where for the first time since the Crusades a Christian army has successfully penetrated into an Islamic heartland!”

“I’ve heard that most of the remnants of the Mamluk army have retreated into Syria,” Mahmud added, “whilst Murad Bey has fled into Upper Egypt to attempt to rally resistance there. The country seems to have been lost to the Ottoman Empire!”

“Not necessarily, Mahmud,” Kardelen intervened to suggest more optimistically, “as you forget the people whom I’m sure will soon be our new allies, the British.” “But what can they do,” the Prince retorted, “as they have no army currently capable of successfully challenging the French in Egypt and their fleet in the Mediterranean is smaller than that of their opponents?”

This intelligent and well-informed conversation between the two boys was testament not just to their mutual cleverness. The debate was also symbolic of the fact that Selim III, disregarding normal custom for potential rival Princes, had allowed Mahmud’s education within the Seraglio, which was unofficially shared with his constant companion, Kardelen, to include affairs of state and military matters.

Selim III, in allowing such tuition, was not only exhibiting his liberal consideration but also being practical. Still being without sons, he fully realised that his younger cousin could someday succeed to the throne and he feared for the future of the Ottoman Empire if he did so ignorant of such important issues.

“Ah, but quality is more important than quantity,” Kardelen wisely suggested in response to Mahmud’s comparison of the sizes of the current British and French Mediterranean fleets, “and not only in respect of the ships and their crews. The attributes of admirals are especially crucial too!”

Just as Kardelen spoke these wise words, a British fleet commanded by Horatio Nelson was destroying that of the French at the Battle of the Nile, seriously and ultimately fatally isolating Napoleon’s armies from their homeland at the other end of the Mediterranean.

Chapter ٤۲ - Müzik

(42 – Music)

(Cifte Kasirlar [Princes’ Quarters], Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, 2⅔ years later, 2nd of April 1801)

“How do I look,” 15 year-old Mahmud asked of the similarly aged Kardelen, who had just helped to dress the Prince in splendid and colourful court apparel. “Marvellous!” the young black eunuch honestly answered, with clear truthful admiration of the Prince’s appearance apparent in his voice.

“I’ll probably be quietly mocked for my lack of beard,” Mahmud suggested, “especially by my half-brother, Mustapha. He’ll say that I look like a eunuch!”

Suddenly realising in horror that what he had just said might be insulting to Kardelen, Mahmud immediately began to attempt to apologise. However, the young black eunuch told him not to be so silly because he felt no affront at all.

“Let him accuse you of resembling me,” Kardelen instead recommended, “but I know for sure that he was a lot older than you currently are when he finally managed to grow a beard. You can therefore truthfully retort that he must therefore have looked like a eunuch for a very long time!”

“Clever Kardelen!” Mahmud commented in satisfaction that he was indeed now armed with a satisfactory retort to any such insult from Mustapha during the imminent court event at which they were due to have a rare meeting. The occasion was a recital by the Sultan, Selim III, of some of his own musical compositions.

Selim III was an excellent musician in the Turkish style, both in terms of playing instruments and composing pieces. The pastime had proved significant in maintaining his own sanity when he too had once been incarcerated as a young and bored Prince in the Cage.

Unfortunately, Selim III’s artistic interests and attributes were another reason why many conservatives strongly disliked him, as they considered such practices beneath the dignity of a Sultan. However, such distaste has not persisted into modern times. Many of his rather excellent works are still publicly played in concert-halls, on television, over the radio and, as the author of this story has discovered, as background music in restaurants.

“By the way, Kardelen,” Mahmud went on to ask in diversionary conversation, designed to hide his nerves at being invited for the first time to one of Selim’s recitals, “is there any further news of our favourite admiral?” “I believe that he’s the second-in-command of a fleet that the British have recently despatched to the Baltic in order to try to encourage some of the reluctant allies of the French there to abandon their economic blockade,” was the answer.

“I suppose that you acquired this information from your usual source, Kardelen,” Mahmud commented. “Of course,” was the next answer.

“How is he?” Mahmud enquired.

Chapter ٤٣ - Sefaret

(43 – Embassy)

(Galata, Constantinople [modern Beyoğlu, Istanbul], Turkey, approximately 5 months previously, 1st November 1800)

Coincidentally on the same day that John Adams became the first US President to live in the Executive Mansion, later to be known as the ‘White House’, Mahmud and Kardelen were engaged on another of their supposedly secret forays into Constantinople. On this occasion, they rowed, with the expertise now accrued through regular practice and the improved strength gained by increasing maturity, across the Golden Horn to Galata on the northern shore. Despite being November, the short trip was not dangerous because the prevailing weather was calm and warm.

Galata, across the Golden Horn from Constantinople, had once been a Genoese trading colony and, with Pera on the hillside above, remained the principal locale for foreign residents, including ambassadors. The British Emissary was no exception, although the current incumbent of the post had disliked the accommodation afforded to him and had decided to build another, based on his own palatial stately home named ‘Broomhall’ back in Scotland.

The current Ambassador’s objective to improve the standard of his residence was to be so successful that the place was to be unofficially called the ‘Inglees Sarai’, or ‘English Palace’. This naming occurred despite the facts that the Emissary was representing the whole of Great Britain and that he himself was Scottish.

Having disembarked anonymously and in their usual kind of disguise on the quayside of Galata, Mahmud and Kardelen, as they generally did, roamed the local streets, taking in the sights and smells, not all pleasant, of life in the crowded quarter. As the now 15 year-old boys did so, they passed an inn, which mainly served foreigners and from which loud singing and music sounded, and peered curiously inside.

Consumption of alcohol was technically proscribed by Islamic tenet but was also frequently subject to many blind eyes by the Turks. Most of the populace was liberal about such issues, being moderate Sunnis.

Inside this particular wine-selling inn in Galata, Mahmud and Kardelen observed that the place was essentially a large hall with a surrounding gallery furnished with many tables and chairs. In the centre of the busy and obviously popular establishment, they also saw that a rather pretty and colourfully-dressed Greek boy with long hair was dancing to the accompaniment of an old man, who was playing a guitar and singing.

The boy barely moved from the spot on which he danced. However, he gyrated his belly, loins and thighs with great energy and lasciviousness, with the peak moments heralded by loud libidinous shouts from his aged accompanist.

Foreign boys were invariably used for such entertainment in contemporary Constantinople. Religious proscription against the consumption of alcohol might be laxly followed but Islamic edicts against Turks, especially females, dancing in such establishments as inns were rigorously imposed.

The boy’s erotic movements appeared to be noisily popular with the imbibing spectators, one of whom nevertheless noticed Mahmud at the doorway and invited him to join him. Judging from the simultaneous lecherous facial expression of the man, who, from his purple trousers and violet slippers, appeared to be Armenian, his motives did not seem platonic. Consequently, the incognito Prince and Kardelen decided to make a swift exit.

The customer, however, misjudged, perhaps as a result of his copious intake of wine, the boys’ action and thought that Mahmud might be waiting for him outside. He was to regret his miscalculation because, as he himself emerged from the inn, the biggest and strongest black man whom he had ever seen confronted him.

The black eunuch, who was part of the furtive small group protectively tracking Mahmud and Kardelen, had been alerted about possible trouble by the boys’ sudden speedy flight from the doorway of the inn. On seeing the Armenian rapidly follow them out, with clear needy lechery pervading his ugly face, the palace servant took instant appropriate action. His victim did not even see the huge fist approaching his bearded chin, which laid him out completely unconscious.

After fleeing the inn, Mahmud and Kardelen were unaware of the action taken by one of their furtive protectors to ensure that they encountered no further bother from the lecherous Armenian. The boys instead concentrated on climbing up the narrow steep streets towards hilltop Pera.

Mahmud and Kardelen eventually came to the tall, round and pointed ancient Genoese Galata Tower, which dominated the skyline of this side of the Golden Horn when viewed from the other. Originally part of the old citadel’s fortifications, the high structure was now officially used by Janissaries to look for outbreaks of fire, which were regular and major problems throughout Constantinople.

The relevant Janissary guard on fire-watch duty at the top of the Galata Tower was supposed to beat a big drum and shout loudly in order to raise the alarm if he spotted any conflagration. However, whether he bothered to do so generally depended on whether payment of his bribes had been kept up to date.

The tower formed part of the crenellated walls that separated Galata from Pera. Mahmud and Kardelen now advanced through the adjacent open gateway into the latter suburb.

Mahmud and Kardelen had been to Pera before but had returned now because they had heard that the new British Ambassador, who had been appointed in the previous year, had built a new palatial residence for himself in the style of his own stately home in Scotland. The boys’ highly intelligent and insatiably curious minds wanted to see the final product.

As Mahmud and Kardelen later walked around the outsides of the small walled estate in which the Inglees Sarai was situated on the side of Pera Hill, they came to a grilled iron gateway, through which they could view the garden. After surveying the scene, the Prince commented in satisfaction to his friend “I see that the embassy might be in an English style but the flowers are all from my family’s Empire.”

Kardelen was about to reply when both he and Mahmud were suddenly startled by voices immediately behind them. The boys turned in response.

The sharp surprise just experienced by Mahmud and Kardelen was then immediately transformed into horrified shock.

Chapter ٤٤ - Burun

(44 – Nose)

(Inglees Sarai [English Palace], Pera, Constantinople [modern Beyoğlu, Istanbul], Turkey, shortly afterwards)

“You have a lovely view from here, Sir,” Mahmud politely commented, as he and Kardelen were led to a little group of chairs surrounding a table in the garden of the British Embassy. Apparently, given the very clement weather, their host wanted to entertain the boys there.

The man, to whom Mahmud had addressed his comment and who was soberly dressed as a typical British gentleman, did not immediately answer because he could not understand the boy’s words, which had, of course, been spoken in Ottoman Turkish. He instead had to await the interpretation from the dragoman also in his company, whose contrastingly exotic colourful attire was made even more vivid by his bright yellow slippers.

In the Ottoman Empire, a dragoman was an official interpreter, who also generally acted as an intermediary between foreigners, including ambassadors, and the Porte. Given their latter role and the fact that they were usually not Turks, their true loyalty was often difficult to ascertain.

The particular dragoman currently attending the host of Mahmud and Kardelen was named Bartholomew Pisani and was, however, unquestionably loyal to the British despite being of Italian extraction. Male members of his family had acted as able interpreters and intermediaries for them inside the Turkish Empire since the reign of Elizabeth I.

Pisani had recently interpreted the words that Mahmud had spoken to Kardelen at the gate in such a discreet manner that the boys had not heard. In fact, they were unaware of the men’s presence behind them until the dragoman more loudly translated an invitation for them to view the garden more closely from inside.

The subsequent horror experienced by Mahmud and Kardelen had been caused by the sight, after turning, of the face of the British gentlemen in the dragoman’s company. His nose was virtually non-existent. Consequently, the boys could not help but initially stare in shocked silence at the resultant grizzly visage.

Fortunately, the British gentleman with the unfortunate facial disfigurement was accustomed to such reactions from people seeing him for the first time and had a standard response in order to try to put them at ease. “Yes, my nose, or the lack of it, is rather disturbing,” he said with good humour, with Pisani simultaneously translating, “but I hope it won’t render you speechless through shock for too long!”

“Instead,” the British gentleman with virtually no nose added, with continued simultaneous translation, “I hope that you’ll accept my invitation to view my garden more closely from inside the gate.” However, both Mahmud and Kardelen did not at first believe that acceptance would be a good idea, given that they did not know the men or their real intentions and that they were themselves masquerading as peasants in order to remain incognito.

“That’s very kind of you, Sir,” Mahmud had therefore replied, having recovered from his shock, “but we must decline, as we should really to be somewhere else.” “Yes,” the British gentleman had immediately agreed, “you probably should.” However, the Prince’s attempted retreat with Kardelen away from the scene was subsequently quickly terminated by the adult’s next words.

“But first,” the British gentleman suggested through the dragoman, “come and enjoy a lemonade with me in my garden, Prince Mahmud!”

Chapter ٤٥ - Büyükelçi

(45 – Ambassador)

(Inglees Sarai [English Palace], Pera, Constantinople [modern Beyoğlu, Istanbul], Turkey, shortly afterwards)

Mahmud and Kardelen were enjoying the splendid hillside view from the garden of the British Embassy whilst awaiting the return of their host, presumably accompanied by the promised lemonades. The scenery encompassed much of the Turkish fleet at anchor in the Golden Horn below, being confined to the safety of the harbour in winter.

When Mahmud was in company, Kardelen would normally have stood reverently but attentively to one side in line with court protocol. However, in their current circumstances, his Prince had insisted that he took a garden seat too.

Mahmud and Kardelen did not have to wait too long for their lemonades or for their host and his dragoman to sit besides them. After taking a sip of his drink, the Prince then asked via the interpreter, Pisani, the question he had been itching to satisfy since he had accepted the invitation to enter the garden.

“How did you know my identity, Ambassador, as I don’t believe that we have met previously?” Mahmud asked of the British Emissary with virtually no nose, which was actually a symptom of an ailment discreetly kept very secret. The man sadly suffered from syphilis, although he would nevertheless live for another forty years.

“There were four clues, Highness,” the British Ambassador answered through his dragoman, “with the first being what you said to your servant at the gate whilst we stood behind you. You referred to your ‘family’s Empire’.”

“Second, Highness,” the Ambassador advised, “was the way in which you actually spoke. My very capable dragoman here suggested to me that no ordinary Turk would use or even understand much of your high-class dialect, which is that only of the Ottoman Court.”

“Third, Highness,” the Ambassador informed, “was the fact that you were accompanied by someone who looks like a young black eunuch. Pisani and I also passed some adult ones, who were apparently keeping a watchful eye on you. Such precious servants are the preserve of the Imperial family.”

“Fourth, Highness,” the Ambassador continued, “despite the attempt at disguising yourself through your plain peasant dress, your status could also be confirmed because of your immaculate grooming. Your hair is simply too clean and too neatly combed and trimmed for a low-class boy, with the real give-away actually being the perfect manicuring of your fingernails!”

“Combining these four clues with an estimate of your age, Highness,” the Ambassador added whilst grinning, “brought me speedily to the conclusion that you could be no one else other than Prince Mahmud, somehow allowed to stroll around Pera incognito.” The young subject of these revelations awarded the Emissary for his excellent observation and swift detection work by in return smilingly commenting “Amazing!”

Mahmud himself subsequently added, to the further satisfaction of the Emissary, which made the man’s friendly grin become even broader, “I compliment you, Ambassador, on your cleverness in coming to such a quick conclusion.” “I hope, though,” the Prince continued, “that I can rely on you to remain very discreet about your discovery or my cousin, Selim, might forbid any more temporary escapes from the Seraglio.”

“I can assure you, Highness,” the Ambassador answered, “that both Pisani and I shall keep your secret meticulously.” Both the Emissary and his dragoman were subsequently kindly to fulfil this vow, with their motivation in doing so aided by securing a return favour from Mahmud.

“Thank you, Ambassador,” Mahmud had replied, with the dragoman still translating, “and, if there’s anything that I can do as a favour in return, please let me know.” Not wanting to miss such an opportunity, given a certain difficulty that he was encountering, the Emissary responded “Well, Highness, there is actually something that you could currently do to help me.”

Having heard about the requested favour, Mahmud answered “I’ll do what I can for you, Ambassador. However, my influence over my cousin, Selim, is virtually non-existent.” “Just like my nose, Highness,” the Emissary smilingly interrupted to jest, causing the Prince and Kardelen to chuckle.

“I rarely see Selim, Ambassador,” Mahmud eventually explained, “and whenever I do the occasions tend to be formal, without the chance to indulge in private conversation or seek favours.” “I thoroughly understand, Highness,” the Emissary replied, “but, if ever the opportunity does arise, I’d be most grateful if you could bring the subject up. Direct approaches by me to the Porte have so far been unsuccessful in eradicating the impasse.”

“As I’ve said, Highness,” the Ambassador continued, “I only seek access to the Acropolis in Athens for my men so that they can take mouldings of the friezes. However, because of the war with the French and the fact that the site is currently a closely guarded Turkish military facility, the local Governor has refused permission and the Porte has so far declined to overrule him.”

“I suspect, Ambassador, that’s because both the Governor and the Porte are currently afraid of an attack by Napoleon on Athens, which might stir the local Greeks to revolt,” Mahmud commented. “Perhaps, though,” the Prince added, “the strategic situation in the eastern Mediterranean might ease for us when the French are finally evicted from Egypt. Your request might then be looked upon more favourably.”

“Perhaps, Highness!” the Ambassador responded without conviction.

Chapter ٤٦ - Bürokrasi

(46 – Bureaucracy)

(Throne Room, Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, shortly afterwards)

After his supposedly furtive return to the Seraglio from his jaunt in Galata and Pera with Kardelen, Mahmud was summoned to a very rare audience with his cousin, Selim III. The scarcity of such meetings suggested to the Prince that the Sultan had been quickly informed about his encounter with the British Ambassador and he concluded that he was as a result probably in serious trouble.

In the event, Selim III, who was alone apart from his Kizlar Agha, was more concerned about the implications of the encounter with the British Ambassador than angered and consequently quizzed Mahmud on what precisely had happened. The Prince, who had as usual been accompanied to the audience by the ever-attendant Kardelen, answered all questions comprehensively and truthfully.

Selim was relieved for two reasons to discover that what Mahmud had related had matched other accounts of the incident. These reports had emanated not only from the adult black eunuchs detailed to follow the Prince but also from spies amongst the locally recruited domestic servants within the British Embassy.

The first reason for Selim’s relief was that Mahmud had proved to be completely truthful to him, which reinforced some of his opinions about the boy’s honest character. The second related to the fact that the encounter with the Ambassador had clearly been accidental and without diplomatic or political significance, especially as the Emissary had promised not to appraise anyone else about the Prince’s escapades. The Sultan was aware of the code of honour involved in the giving of his word by a British gentleman and was therefore content to accept the worthiness of the pledge.

Selim, though, did feel obliged to let Mahmud at least appear to be reciprocating the courtesy. The Sultan therefore advised the Prince “As for the Ambassador’s request for a favour from you, you can tell him that you have met with me to discuss the issue and I have replied that I shall investigate the matter.”

“The Ambassador will not expect a more positive response at this stage,” Selim continued, with a tone of sadness in his voice, which betrayed his own dissatisfaction at the slow workings of the Porte, “as he’ll know how long the court bureaucracy normally takes to consider such matters. In any case, I agree with the local Governor in not allowing any foreigners, even allies, to traipse over our most important military facility in Athens until the threat of a French attack on the city disappears. As you correctly suggested, Mahmud, in respect of that issue much depends on what next happens in Egypt.”

Selim subsequently made a silent but not unfriendly waving gesture with his hand to Mahmud, which indicated that the audience was over and that the Prince and his eunuch could depart the ornate throne room. However, as the boys bowed and turned to leave, the Sultan spoke again, having reconsidered his earlier instruction.

“On second thoughts, Mahmud,” Selim commanded, as the boys turned back towards him, “don’t tell the Ambassador yourself about my ruling on his request. I think that diplomatic and political expediency would be best served if you didn’t see him again. Send your eunuch instead to convey the message, by the usual secret means.”

“Your eunuch,” Selim added, “can also keep the Ambassador subsequently occasionally appraised of progress. However, in doing so, he’ll have to become accustomed to conveying excuses for the slowness of court bureaucracy!”

Mahmud bowed again and declared “I’m sure, Lord, that Kardelen will be more than capable of maintaining harmonious furtive relations between me and the British Ambassador.” In response, Selim smiled.

“I’m as sure as well,” Selim additionally remarked, “and, like I told your Kardelen once before, I just wish that I too had had a eunuch like him when I was once also a boy-prince, incarcerated in the Cage!”

Chapter ٤٧ - Sabir

(47 – Patience)

(Inglees Sarai [English Palace], Pera, Constantinople [modern Beyoğlu, Istanbul], Turkey, over 4 months later, 8th of March 1801)

Coincidentally on the same day that a 5000-strong British army, commanded by General Ralph Abercromby, landed in Egypt at Abukir and defeated the 2000 entrenched French forces there, led by General Louis Friant, Kardelen again visited Pera. Four days previously, Thomas Jefferson had succeeded John Adams as President of the USA.

Kardelen arrived at the Inglees Sarai alone, having left Mahmud under the inconspicuous but vigilant protection of the trailing adult black eunuchs on the quayside of Galata. As usual, the Prince’s own young emissary was admitted without trouble to see the British Ambassador.

The Ambassador was sitting at his desk in the company of his dragoman, Bartholomew Pisani, reading some correspondence, when Kardelen entered his spacious study. Without allowing his young black visitor to say anything, the Emissary immediately suggested through his interpreter “Don’t tell me, the Porte is still considering my request!”

“I’m afraid that you are again correct, Sir,” Kardelen answered through the dragoman, “and for this situation Prince Mahmud extends further apologies.” “I sometimes wonder how this Empire functions,” the Ambassador retorted in frustration, “given the longwinded bureaucracy!”

“I believe, Sir,” Kardelen smilingly replied, “that there is a Latin saying: ‘Maxima enim patientia virtus’!” However, the dragoman did not immediately translate this response for two reasons.

First, the dragoman was momentarily shocked into silence. He had been utterly stunned that a young black Ottoman eunuch knew both Latin and one of that archaic language’s sayings.

Second, Kardelen had spoken the words so well that the Ambassador, who had been taught Latin at school, was able to recognise the saying. He was therefore able to reply to the boy without the dragoman’s initial intercession.

“Patience is the greatest virtue, Kardelen,” the Ambassador commented, whilst a smile spread to his face too to match that of the black boy, “and so I must indeed learn to be calm and persevering.” “I’m also sure that my reward will indeed someday come,” he added, more in hope than expectation.

“The Qur’an, az-Zumar 10,” Kardelen went on to advise, “states ‘Only those who are patient shall receive their rewards in full!” “I, of course, respect your Holy Book,” the Ambassador replied, “and the wise words of the revered Prophet. I look forward to them coming to fruition.”

“Meanwhile,” the Ambassador correctly suggested, with patience and good humour restored, and his admiration for Kardelen’s scholarship and skills reinforced, “I suppose Prince Mahmud would like some news about his favourite admiral!”

Chapter ٤٨ - Sürpriz

(48 – Surprise)

(Cifte Kasirlar [Princes’ Quarters], Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, almost 1 month later, 2nd of April 1801)

“He’s fine,” the grinning Kardelen replied in response to Mahmud’s question about the British Ambassador, whom he had just met again, “and, as he hadn’t seen you for a while, he was asking after your own wellbeing. I naturally told him that you were healthy but remained a bane in my life!”

“Do I indeed?” Mahmud retorted whilst exhibiting a broad grin on his own face, which indicated his happiness with Kardelen’s teasing jest. “Well,” the Prince subsequently added more seriously, although his smile did not disappear, “I won’t be as much trouble for you in the immediate future!”

“Oh, why?” asked Kardelen, who had immediately become perturbed by what Mahmud might mean and whose own grin had as a result disappeared. “Because,” the Prince answered, whilst maintaining his smile, “the Sultan has agreed to my request, conveyed via the Kizlar Agha, that you be trained in court administrative affairs.”

“But that’s the preserve of the white eunuchs, Mahmud,,” Kardelen protested. “It usually is,” the Prince retorted, “but the Sultan is prepared to make an exception in your case, as he and the Kizlar Agha fully recognise your exceptional abilities. They believe, as I do, that you will be able to serve me better in future if you acquire such training.”

“Accordingly, you’ll attend for part of most days for the immediate future the pages’ school of the young white eunuchs,” advised Mahmud. However, Kardelen did not immediately verbally respond, having suddenly lapsed into seemingly morose silence.

Mahmud instantly sensed Kardelen’s disquiet. The Prince therefore commented, now rather shyly, “I didn’t consult you because I thought that you might welcome the surprise of learning about this opportunity.”

“You’ll be unique for a black eunuch,” Mahmud continued, whilst now being worried that Kardelen did not welcome either the surprise or the opportunity. “Also,” the Prince desperately added, “any expertise that you acquire in court administration could prove invaluable for both of us later!”

Mahmud’s explanation stirred Kardelen towards a return to his normal gregarious nature. “I’m sorry for my initial ingratitude,” he said, “and, of course, you have every right, Lord, to send me anywhere you want.”

“I knew instantly that I was in trouble,” Mahmud interrupted, “and you addressing me as ‘Lord’ for the first time in private since we met is an indication that you’re unhappy with me. It’s therefore me who should be sorry!”

“Are you concerned about the reaction of the white eunuchs,” Mahmud went on to enquire, “and that you might be cold-shouldered or bullied in their pages’ school? I assure you that you won’t be because they well know by treating you so that they’ll raise the wrath of me and the Kizlar Agha and, through us, the Sultan.”

“No, Mahmud,” Kardelen replied, relieving the Prince in the process by addressing him again by his first name, “I’m not afraid of being cold-shouldered or bullied. You must know that I’d go through far worse suffering for you. I just instead don’t like the idea of being away from your side for parts of the day.”

Kardelen’s reply now silenced Mahmud, in whose eyes dampness suddenly formed. The Prince also felt instinctively and compellingly drawn instantly towards hugging his friend.

The two boys subsequently embraced tightly for a while, whilst both attempted to regain their emotional composures. During this period, Mahmud, in a quaking voice, advised “Then….I….I….I’ll….s….s….scrap the….a….a….arrangement.”

Mahmud’s latest announcement, though, immediately caused Kardelen to break their embrace and, with dampness evident in his own eyes, suggest “No, you won’t, as you’re right. Learning court administration could be of great benefit to us both.”

“Oh yes I will!” Mahmud retaliated. Something akin to a western pantomime subsequently ensued.

Mahmud and Kardelen engaged in an exchange of “No, you won’t” and “Oh yes I will” until both eventually burst out laughing at the silliness of the whole argument. However, the tears that now simultaneously flowed copiously down their faces did not just emanate from the humour of the moment.

The tears were the result of a far more complex mix of emotions.

Chapter ٤٩ - Zafer

(49 – Victory)

(Cifte Kasirlar [Princes’ Quarters], Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, shortly afterwards)

“Your face looks perfect,” Kardelen announced, “with no sign of the recent tears shed. You can therefore go to the Sultan’s musical recital without fear of any being detected!”

“Well, let me have a close look at you too,” Mahmud commanded, “because it wouldn’t do to have my attendant eunuch showing signs of recent tears. People might think that I’ve been hurting you in some way.”

“You’ll definitely be hurting me if you don’t let me learn court administration as you planned,” Kardelen retorted in order to try to win the still unfinished debate. In response, Mahmud looked all over the black boy’s face, ostensibly to check for residual signs of recent tears, before ultimately settling his sights on the determined eyes before him.

The determined look on Kardelen’s face finally convinced Mahmud that he could not win the argument other than by simply issuing a command, which he would never do in respect of his closest companion and friend. The Prince therefore indicated his capitulation by declaring “Alright, I surrender. You’re victorious and will start at the pages’ school of the white eunuchs tomorrow, as agreed with the Kizlar Agha!”

Mahmud was rewarded by another dazzling smile on the face of Kardelen, which revealed the black boy’s perfect white teeth. Having settled their argument and as they subsequently prepared to leave the Cage to attend the Sultan’s musical recital, the Prince then changed the subject of their conversation by again referring to their favourite admiral, Horatio Nelson.

“I wonder what he’s doing in the Baltic Sea at this very moment,” Mahmud queried. In fact, the boys’ favourite admiral was simultaneously attempting to look through a telescope with his blind eye so as not to read and have to act upon a withdrawal signal from the nominal commander of his fleet.

Nelson’s action enabled the British fleet to go on instead to win a glorious victory in the Battle of Copenhagen.

Chapter ٥٠ - Enderûn

(50 – School)

(Enderûn, Third Court, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, next morning)

‘Enderûn’ in Ottoman Turkish actually meant ‘innermost’. However, the word had confusingly come to be used in respect of two types of places in the Sultan’s palace, one residential and the other educational.

In the residential context, ‘enderûn’ was often used in reference to the quarters in the Seraglio of the Sultan’s women. In the educational sense, the word was utilised in respect of the elite pages’ school of the white eunuchs located in another part of the Third Court.

To confuse matters even more, the whole of the Third Court, embracing the Seraglio and other amenities, including the pages’ educational facility, was sometimes called the ‘enderûn’. The term was also used for other special boarding schools established as previously described for some of the ghilman.

Kardelen was now about to enter the Ottoman Empire’s most distinguished educational enderûn, where the first of the necessary skills to be acquired was always what might be termed the ‘‘3 Rs’ twice over’. The young white eunuchs in the elite pages’ school were initially instructed not only in reading, writing and arithmetic but also in respect, resourcefulness and reliability.

Other necessary skills to be acquired included those involving personal service for the Sultan outside the Seraglio, inside which he was only attended by his black eunuchs. Duties might include supervising his wardrobe, personal treasury and animals, such as his horses and hunting hawks, as well as organising his daily external activities in general.

The white eunuchs also oversaw the palace catering. They additionally provided administrative support for the Grand Vizier and the ‘Divan Odasi’, or ‘Council of State’.

Kardelen was adjudged already to have acquired the necessary standards in the ‘‘3 Rs’ twice over’. He was also recognised as not requiring skills involving the Sultan’s wardrobe, animals, treasury or external activities or in catering supervision. He was instead only being sent to the enderûn of the white eunuchs for one purpose and consequently he now found himself sitting in a class devoted to matters of palace and state administration.

Such a class was generally only attended by the ablest and oldest white pages, as a concluding step before they graduated into adult bureaucratic roles. The sudden advent now of Kardelen amongst the latest to achieve this grading was unfortunately greatly resented.

Mahmud had promised Kardelen that he would not be bullied or cold-shouldered during his time spent in the enderûn. However, ensuring that such a pledge was kept was actually difficult to do, given the level of resentment, despite the threat that anyone perpetrating such acts would incur the displeasure of the Prince and the Kizlar Agha and, through them, the Sultan himself.

This situation immediately became apparent on Kardelen’s first arrival in class. He was looked at with clear hatred and scorn by the white pupils already present, with those sitting nearest to his chosen seat immediately standing to move further away, as if he was infected with some horrible affliction.

Kardelen naturally felt very uncomfortable at the unpleasant welcome displayed by the white pages. However, he decided to take no action other than to sit patiently and await the arrival of the instructor. He was, after all, here at the behest of Mahmud and he had no intention of disappointing the Prince by abandoning his studies.

Cold-shouldering was obviously beginning and bullying might have commenced too, albeit probably later and outside the classroom. However, fortunately for harmony within the Third Court, a key official was aware of the potential problem and chose to attempt to eradicate any prospect of trouble at the very start of Kardelen’s time inside the enderûn.

All present stood politely on the eventual entry of the adult white eunuch instructor into the classroom before sitting again after being given permission by him to do so. Kardelen, to his further discomfort, could not then fail to notice that the expression on face of the tutor, when he glanced at the black newcomer, appeared as unwelcoming as that of the other pupils.

The tutor’s unwelcoming expression, though, next suddenly transformed into one indicating shock when someone else now entered the classroom. All of the younger white faces present also immediately turned in order to see whom the latecomer was and after doing so instantly displayed noticeable equal surprise. However, Kardelen, because of his discomfort, was too slow in doing the same to be able quickly to identify the person.

By the time that Kardelen had turned his head, all of his fellow pupils had stood up. Some of them thereby blocked his view of the latecomer.

Kardelen was subsequently belatedly about to stand too because the person who had just arrived was clearly someone demanding of such respect. However, he was prevented from doing so by an instruction aimed at him.

“Remain seated, Kardelen,” the smiling latecomer, who had finally appeared into view, instructed, “as I’ve just come to sit alongside you whilst you attend your first lesson here. I’m keen to ensure that you not only learn from your time in the enderûn but also enjoy the company of the white eunuchs.”

The ‘Kapi Agha’, literally ‘Commander of the Gate’ but actually the Chief White Eunuch, then broke all precedence by sitting alongside Kardelen.

Chapter ٥۱ - Teşekkü

(51 – Thanks)

(‘Bâb-üs Saade’ or ‘Gate of Felicity, entrance to the Third Court, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, same evening)

Given their separate bases, rivalries and the demarcation between their Imperial duties, the Kizlar Agha and the Kapi Agha rarely met privately. However, the Chief Black Eunuch currently felt compelled to pay his white counterpart a visit in order to thank him for ensuring that Kardelen’s reception in the enderûn had been good.

The Kapi Agha’s unprecedented action had indeed eradicated any prospect of Kardelen continuing to be cold-shouldered or bullied by the white pages, who recognised what his example was meant to signal to them. They therefore suppressed their resentments and subsequently treated the new black arrival into the enderûn with initial outward friendly politeness and respect, if only to safeguard their own future careers.

The Kizlar Agha felt obliged to convey his thanks to the Kapi Agha because he was sure that the Chief White Eunuch also quietly resented the unprecedented presence of someone like Kardelen in his enderûn. He must therefore have suppressed his own dislike of the situation in order to avoid trouble, which might not just involve bringing the wrath of the Sultan down onto any disobedient bullying and cold-shouldering pages.

Troublesome developments, resulting from Selim III’s acquiescence to Prince Mahmud’s unprecedented request that his black eunuch be formally taught certain elements of palace and state administration, might stir up further dangerous resentment against the Sultan’s innovations amongst conservatives. Consequently, even the Kizlar Agha had at first been uncomfortable about the proposal and, after nevertheless subsequently being persuaded of the merits of the idea, he remained eager to see any resultant problems quickly quashed.

Both the present Kizlar Agha and Kapi Agha owed their positions to Selim and sympathised with his overall reforming motives. They were consequently loyal to the Sultan and did not want to see him encountering further difficulties with conservatives in court and wider society, particularly of a kind that was in their own power to stifle.

The Kizlar Agha therefore considered offering his thanks to the Kapi Agha for stifling any prospective trouble, arising from Kardelen’s advent in the white pages’ enderûn, to be only appropriate and polite. However, both eunuch leaders appreciated that such early intervention might not entirely resolve the problem.

In fact, the prospect of any trouble reviving was actually subsequently resolved by Kardelen himself. His exceptionally gregarious and intelligent character eventually dissolved the suppressed resentment of most white pages and instead won their respect.

Kardelen also gained some true friends amongst the white pages, which, as the status of all of them rose over future years, was a development that was to be of great significance.

Chapter ٥۲ - Mükâfat

(52 – Reward)

(Inglees Sarai [English Palace], Pera, Constantinople [modern Beyoğlu, Istanbul], Turkey, over 3 months later, 6th of July, 1801)

“Thank you for agreeing to see me, Sir,” Kardelen commented to the British Ambassador about three weeks after the French in Egypt had surrendered at Cairo. Without allowing his young black visitor to say anything more, the Emissary immediately suggested through his dragoman, Bartholomew Pisani, “Don’t tell me, the Porte is still considering my request!”

“No, I am not here to convey that message, Sir,” Kardelen answered, “because I instead have a gift for you from Prince Mahmud.” He subsequently handed the surprised Ambassador a scrolled document.

“Thank you, Kardelen,” the Ambassador managed to reply, whilst somehow overcoming his surprise and unrolling the document, which he now noticed was an Imperial ‘firman’, namely an official letter from Sultan Selim III himself. However, not being able to read the Turkish words written in Arabic lettering, he handed the missive to his dragoman to translate.

As the Ambassador subsequently heard the translation, a broad smile came to his sadly disfigured face. The firman, finally secured by Mahmud, gave permission for the Emissary’s workmen to gain access to the Parthenon in Athens.

“I was sceptical at the time,” the Ambassador now commented to Kardelen, “about the importance for my request of the issue. However, your Prince has proved completely correct with his assertion of eight months ago that permission to gain access to the Parthenon in Athens might be allowed me once the French were defeated in Egypt.”

“Prince Mahmud might only reach his 16th birthday in a fortnight, Ambassador,” Kardelen replied, “but his wisdom is mature. He just apologises for the length of time that it’s taken to secure the firman, which he hopes that you will use with due respect to the relevant antiquities of the Parthenon.”

“I certainly intend to do so,” the Ambassador responded, and he probably meant what he said at the time.

Chapter ٥٣ - Yasak

(53 – Prohibition)

(Baghdad Kiosk, Fourth Court, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, two weeks later, 20th of July 1801)

Antione Melling and the Kizlar Agha watched as Mahmud and his ever-attendant young black eunuch, Kardelen, departed from the Baghdad Kiosk, where the multi-talented German artist had just begun yet another birthday portrait of the Prince, five years after the first had been commissioned. The men subsequently turned to each in order to converse.

“I see that the relationship between Prince Mahmud and Kardelen is as close as ever,” Melling again commented. “It certainly is!” the Kizlar Agha agreed but his simultaneous attempted smile was quickly replaced by a pained grimace.

Melling knew that the Kizlar Agha had sadly been unwell for a while. He had been very unhappy to see his friend, the Chief Black Eunuch, lose a lot of his normal cheeriness, as well as much weight, and also be in regular pain.

On noticing the Kizlar Agha’s pained grimace, Melling suggested that the he sat in the chair recently occupied for the initial stages of his 16th birthday portrait by Prince Mahmud. He did so despite knowing that the Chief Black Eunuch would normally decline such an invitation, considering acceptance to rest on the seat concerned to be inappropriate. However, symbolic of his distress and need, on this occasion he obliged the portraitist.

“Can the palace doctors still not diagnose your illness,” the concerned Melling asked, “and at least relieve the pain if not find a cause?” “I’m afraid not,” the Kizlar Agha answered, “and I believe that my ailment is quickly becoming worse. I’m beginning to realise that I might not be of this world for much longer.”

“Oh, don’t say that,” Melling replied, with genuine distress evident in his voice, “as I’m sure that a cause and cure will soon be found.” “Anyway,” he added in order to try to uplift the pair of them from their melancholy by introducing some humour into their grim conversation, “I forbid you to die on me. What would I do without a friend like you in the Porte?”

“I’m sure that you’ll manage,” the Kizlar Agha responded, “especially if you develop a better relationship with my deputy, who’ll undoubtedly succeed me.” However, Melling frowned and retorted “I doubt if that’ll be possible, as I just don’t like him.”

“The Gulam Agha might be administratively highly capable,” Melling added in explanation, “but I think that there’s also something sinister about him. He’s too fawning for my tastes, and I also suspect him of great hidden ambition and deviousness.”

“I now share your negativity towards him,” the Kizlar Agha confessed, “but I can’t fault his organisation of the black eunuchs under his control and I have no evidence for, just vague suspicions about, his inherent character. Without adverse proof, I cannot supplant him from his position, especially as I, perhaps very foolishly, recommended him, because of his clear administrative capabilities, to the Sultan to be my deputy in the first place and he has since gained the confidence of both Selim and his cousin, Prince Mustapha.”

“Well, let’s hope,” Melling next commented, “that the situation never arises when the Gulam Agha has to replace you.” In order to change the conversation to happier themes, he subsequently requested, whilst attempting a smile, “Now, tell me more about the latest adventures of Mahmud and Kardelen.”

“Are they still using the little rowboat to make occasional supposedly secret forays into Constantinople?” asked Melling. “Sadly, such adventures will from this day cease,” the Kizlar Agha answered.

Before a surprised Melling could ask why, the Kizlar Agha told him. “The Sultan,” the Chief Black Eunuch announced, “considers that Mahmud is no longer a boy, having today attained his 16th birthday, despite the facts that he still cannot grow a beard and amazingly hasn’t yet bedded any of the concubines made available to him. Selim believes that as a man, his little adventures are no longer proper for the dignity of an Ottoman Prince, or at least that is his professed reason for the prohibition.”

“The Sultan has consequently forbidden such adventures from this day,” the Kizlar Agha advised, “although he has compensated for his stance by agreeing to allow Mahmud a greater presence in state ceremony. Despite such recompense, I don’t believe that the Prince is at all happy about the ruling but will nevertheless be compliant.”

“I’m sure that his compliance will stem from Mahmud being fully aware,” the Kizlar Agha speculated, “that he is considered a far greater threat to the positions of both his cousin, Sultan Selim, and his own elder brother, Prince Mustapha, now that he is classified as an adult. Given his intelligence, I also believe that he is cognisant of the fact that, as such, he needs to maintain a low profile and therefore be obedient in sacrificing some of his previous secret boyhood freedoms.”

“I’m equally sure that Prince Mustapha and my own Gulam Agha,” the Chief Black Eunuch suggested, “remain ignorant of those freedoms. Not only has the secret has been kept so well by those loyal servants in the know but also, if Mahmud’s adventures had reached the ears of his brother and my deputy, both the Sultan and I would surely have received protests about the situation.”

“Selim was happy,” the Kizlar Agha informed, “to take the chance of allowing Mahmud’s secret adventures become known to the likes of his potentially jealous elder brother as long as the Prince was a mere boy. However, the Sultan is no longer prepared to take the risk now that he is considered to be a man, which I believe is the actual main reason for the prohibition.”

“Selim doesn’t want to hear protestations from Mustapha,” the Kizlar Agha continued, “that Mahmud’s allowed privileges not extended to him. The Sultan doesn’t want to be in the position of having either to justify such a stance or to grant the elder Prince similar secret prerogatives.”

“The continuation and extension of such privileges,” the Kizlar Agha added, “would make both Princes more readily accessible to dangerous political elements and might also outrage court conservatives, thereby potentially putting the Sultan’s position in peril.” The very thought of the latter development happening would usually make the Chief Black Eunuch wince.

The Kizlar Agha’s sudden wince now was, however, a consequence of another agonising pain searing through his clearly ailing body.

Chapter ٥٤ - ŐIüm

(54 – Death)

(Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, almost 4 months later, 16th of November 1801)

Coincidentally on the same day that the first edition of the New York Evening Post [now New York Post], founded by American Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton, and other Federalist investors, was published, one event of importance to the Ottoman Empire was not reported in the new journal. Nor would the incident ever be mentioned in the newspaper, which remains the oldest to be continually published daily in the USA, although the original proprietors and editors must be turning in their graves at recognition of the present format. The latter is that of an unashamedly reactionary tabloid of highly dubious taste and thoroughly biased record, owned by Rupert Murdoch.

On the 16th of November 1801, the Kizlar Agha died in great agony in his quarters in the Seraglio. The Chief Black Eunuch’s sadly clearly fatal ailment had never been diagnosed and therefore treated properly, mainly because his unidentified illness was not natural.

The evilly ambitious and scheming Gulam Agha had been furtively poisoning his superior over many months, with the secret support of Prince Mustapha and court conservatives, who impatiently wanted an ally to succeed to the very influential and therefore important position of Chief Black Eunuch. They considered that the previous incumbent of the post had been too supportive of both Selim III and the Sultan’s reforming tendencies.

Many others within the Ottoman court, however, were very upset at the loss of the Kizlar Agha. These people included Selim III, Antione Melling and Prince Mahmud and his personal eunuch, Kardelen.

For Selim III and Prince Mahmud and his personal eunuch, Kardelen, though, the death of the Kizlar Agha was ultimately to prove upsetting in more ways than just emotional hurt.

Chapter ٥٥ - Şan

(55 – Glory)

(Cifte Kasirlar [Princes’ Quarters], Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, nearly 4 years later, 21st of October 1805)

“Please keep still, Mahmud,” Kardelen requested of the Prince, “as how can I properly trim your beard neatly if you don’t? Do you want to look like a mongrel dog at the forthcoming audience?”

The now 20 year-old Mahmud had finally managed to grow a manly black beard, as befitted an adult Ottoman Prince. The similarly aged Kardelen’s chin remained smooth, his boyhood genital nullification almost exactly a decade previously apparently forever dispensing with the need for scissors or a razor to keep personal facial hair at bay.

Mahmud grinned on hearing his eunuch’s request. “Smiling doesn’t help me!” Kardelen retorted, although he actually always liked to see such an expression on his beloved Prince’s face.

Having now been completely confined again to the Cage, apart from attendance at certain court ceremonials within the wider palace, for over four years had not been pleasant for Mahmud, despite the luxurious surrounds and pampered existence. Kardelen had attempted his best to rectify this situation by encouraging the Prince to retain his interests in educational studies, intellectual pastimes such as reading and games like chess and, to keep fit, physical exercise within the confines of the Seraglio.

Kardelen’s greatest success in the sphere of physical exercise had actually been to encourage Mahmud finally to make occasional use of the invariably beautiful but sterile concubines made available to him by the new Kizlar Agha. The maturing Prince proved to possess normal heterosexual tastes, although they were not lecherously voracious. Nevertheless, his eunuch considered indulgence of his passions to be useful in helping to keep him fit and allowing him to pass time by giving variety to his days incarcerated in the Cage.

Kardelen’s interest in Mahmud’s welfare was not shared much by the new Kizlar Agha. The Chief Black Eunuch instead largely ignored the younger Prince in favour of fawningly serving Selim III and maintaining obsequious relations with Mustapha, who, because the Sultan remained childless, remained the prospective heir to the Ottoman throne.

After Kardelen had on this day finally managed to trim Mahmud’s black beard to the requisite degree of neatness, the pair, now young men rather than boys, engaged in conversation. “It’s funny, isn’t it?” the Prince said in commencement, whilst thinking of the imminent audience between the Sultan and the French Ambassador that he was being allowed to attend.

“What’s funny?” Kardelen asked. “The recent changes in alliances,” Mahmud answered, “as not long ago we were at war with the French. Now, here we are at peace with them, with the Sultan even appearing to favour their Ambassador, General François Sebastiani, above those of the British and Russians, who have returned to fighting the now Emperor Napoleon!”

“I’ve heard,” Mahmud continued, “that Napoleon now intends to invade Britain with a huge army as soon as he gains control of the seas and that Horatio Nelson is trying his best to avoid this calamity. Despite Selim’s apparent current new friendship with the French, I wish our favourite admiral good fortune in his efforts.”

“I still have affection for the British,” Mahmud added, “acquired from our brief acquaintance with their Ambassador.” The Prince’s attitude might have been different if he had known how the Scottish nobleman, who had ceased to be an ambassador to the Porte a couple of years earlier, was using at the Parthenon in Athens the firman obtained for him.

“I do too,” Karlelen replied, in respect of Mahmud’s revelation that he had a soft spot for the British, although he had actually met very few of their nationality. “However, do you think Nelson will succeed in preventing an invasion of their island?” he added in enquiry.

In fact, at that very moment Admiral Horatio Nelson was being fatally shot by a French naval sniper, although not before he had sent his own fleet gloriously on the way to destroying that of the French and Spanish at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Chapter ٥٦ - Isyan

(56 – Rebellion)

(Kiosk Throne Room, Third Court, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, 8 months later, 20th of June 1806)

The audience with the French Ambassador of eight months previously had taken place in the Third Court of the Imperial palace but not in the Seraglio. None of the Sultan’s vast array of officials and servants, let alone foreigners, was allowed access to the harem except for his concubines, odalisques and black eunuchs. The meeting had therefore instead occurred in a certain opulent kiosk.

Just beyond the Gate of Felicity inside the Third Court was a kiosk accommodating another of the Sultan’s throne rooms. This location, in the garden setting in front of the ornate pavilion housing the library built on the orders of Ahmet III, was where the Ottoman ruler conducted his formal audiences with his officials and foreign ambassadors.

Close by, in the southeast corner of the Third Court, was the enderûn where Kardelen had successfully learnt some of the arts of palace and state administration. He had, of course, also made some white friends of importance to his future.

The kiosk just inside the Gate of Felicity was now, eight months after the audience with the French Ambassador, not the setting for another meeting between Selim III and an emissary. The Sultan was instead receiving urgent news and counsel from his own Grand Vizier, who was as usual splendidly exotically attired, including sporting a heron’s plume on his turban as a symbol of office.

The news was not good. However, this situation did not derive directly from the fact that national allegiances had changed so quirkily that the Ottoman Empire was now an ally of France and involved in conflict against Britain and Russia.

Selim III had been persuaded to change alliances because of the persuasiveness of the French Ambassador, General François Sebastiani, that such a move served Turkish interests. The Sultan had also been dazzled from afar by the crowning as Emperor of France of Napoleon Bonaparte on the 2nd of December 1804, along with his substantial military successes. He was particularly impressed with his great victory over the Austrians and Russians at the Battle of Austerlitz on the first anniversary of his coronation.

To contest the current conflict, the bulk of the militarily active Janissaries had been posted to opposing Tsar Alexander I’s Russian troops on the Danube in Wallachia [modern Rumania]. Selim III had subsequently used the opportunity created by this absence from Constantinople of most capable members of this reactionary corps, who were opposed to all military change, to pursue further army reforms.

Selim III was stimulated into doing so by actually encountering a shortage of troops to send to the frontline. Many members of the Janissary Corps were no longer militarily competent or interested enough to be despatched, having afforded greater concentration to their civilian occupations than army duties.

Selim III had already, in the face of much conservative opposition, increased the size of the new army corps, which he had established to be trained and equipped in modern western ways, to two regiments. The Sultan had been very pleased by the way in which these soldiers had handled themselves at Napoleon’s siege of Acre just over six years previously and their subsequent suppression of brigands and even some Janissaries supporting revolts by dissident provincial governors.

Selim III had instigated the bold initiative of conscripting suitable men to boost the numbers of his new corps instead of relying upon the customary voluntary system. The Sultan even, albeit in retrospect unwisely, included Janissaries in the general levy of the population.

The current news was not good because the Grand Vizier was reporting a rebellion amongst the Janissaries garrisoning Edirne. The city had formerly been called Adrianople, after the Roman Emperor Hadrian, and had been the Ottoman capital immediately prior to the capture of Constantinople.

Edirne, to the west of Constantinople and also on the European mainland, was currently the occasional winter retreat of the Sultans. However, the city was now the scene of a dangerous Janissary rebellion, stimulated by festering resentment at Selim III’s previous military reforms and the, to them, present outrageous transfer of some of the reactionary corps’ youngest and best soldiers to the new units.

The Ottoman official sent to enforce the conscription in Edirne had been assaulted and strangled. A unit of new Anatolian troops sent to the Danubian front under the command of the reforming Pasha of Karamania had also been attacked, not by Russians but by Janissaries, and crushed.

According to the highly concerned Grand Vizier, who had also advocated Selim’s policies for change, there was additionally serious unrest amongst the remaining Janissaries in Constantinople and the rebellion in Edirne appeared to have the worrying support of the ‘Ulema’, or religious establishment, led by the new Grand Mufti. This important Islamic cleric, in contrast to his recently deceased predecessor, openly opposed the Sultan’s reforms and the accession of such a reactionary had substantially helped to change the political climate for the worse.

The shamefaced Grand Vizier additionally reported that a majority of the ‘Divan Odasi’, or ‘Council of State’, had opposed him by exhibiting quiet disagreement to the Sultan’s reforms. Given the current dangerously discordant circumstances, he therefore recommended the suspension of the policies, disbanding of the latest new military units and dismissal of the most outspoken reformers amongst the Imperial advisers in order to placate the rebels.

With the same aim in mind, the Grand Vizier also recommended that the Sultan should accept his own resignation and replace him as head of the Divan Odasi with the Agha, or Commander, of the Janissaries. Selim III was, of course, highly reluctant to accept his chief minister’s counsel.

Nevertheless, Selim III did eventually accept the advice but doing so ultimately did him little good.

Chapter ٥٧ - Gözünü Korkutma

(57 – Intimidation)

(Garden Terrace, Fourth Court, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, over 10 months later, early May 1807)

“Well,” declared 21-year-old Mahmud to Kardelen, “I never thought that I’d see something like this within the Fourth Court, which is normally off-limits to foreigners!” The Prince was referring to the sight of the tent of Napoleon Bonaparte’s Ambassador, General François Sebastiani, pitched in a place that provided a great view over the waters surrounding the promontory and protected by French soldiers.

In order to attempt to intimidate the Turks into ending their alliance with the French, a British fleet, commanded by Admiral Duckworth, had sailed through the Dardanelles into the Sea of Marmara and threatened both to destroy those elements of the Ottoman navy anchored nearby and to bombard Constantinople. However, in clever response, Selim III and his court advisers shrewdly managed to gain time to move their ships out of range and strengthen the city’s defences.

Selim III and his advisers did so by luring the current British Ambassador and Admiral Duckworth into deliberately prolonged negotiations lasting ten days. Meanwhile, General Sebastiani used the time to help the Turks strengthen Constantinople’s defences.

In particular, General Sebastiani, from the prominent command point allowed by Selim III in the Fourth Court of his palace, which also had the benefit of being close to the Sultan and his advisers, expertly positioned modern French and older Turkish ordinance in key strategic positions. This artillery threatened a serious counterattack against the British fleet and, finally realising that he had been out-manoeuvred, Admiral Duckworth eventually reluctantly and humiliatingly retreated, losing two ships in the Dardanelles to fierce bombardment from ancient but huge Ottoman cannon firing massive stone balls.

“I bet Horatio Nelson,” Mahmud suggested to Kardelen on eventually hearing the news of the humiliating British retreat, “wouldn’t have mismanaged the situation as badly as Duckworth. I suppose that it’s therefore lucky for us Ottomans that he died a hero’s death at Trafalgar last year.”

“Nevertheless,” Mahmud added, “I still have affection for the British, despite them proving that, in the wrong hands, their navy is not invincible!”

Chapter ٥٨ - Tahttan Indirme

(58 – Deposition)

(Cifte Kasirlar [Princes’ Quarters], Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, a few weeks later, 29th of May 1807)

A few weeks after the humiliating retreat of the British fleet, and seven days after an American Grand Jury indicted former US Vice-President Aaron Burr for treason for attempting to establish an independent republic in parts of Louisiana and Mexico, Selim III made what was eventually to turn out to be a literally fatal mistake. The Sultan, who was still attempting to promote some reforms despite the fierce opposition, ordered the ‘Yamaks’, the auxiliary levies now charged with guarding the artillery batteries on the Bosporus, to adopt uniforms and equipment of the modern western European style.

The Yamaks, however, preferred mutiny to obeying the order and they marched in revolt to Constantinople’s ancient hippodrome, where they were joined by hundreds of Janissaries. The latter ominously overturned their camp cauldrons in traditional style and beat them like drums to indicate that they would rebelliously no longer accept food from the Sultan.

The rebels gained support from a treacherous local official, a ‘kaimakam’ or sub-governor, Musa Pasha, who was a notorious intriguer. With the help of the new reactionary Grand Mufti, they established a tribunal to judge and condemn the Sultan’s reforming ministers and advisors.

The rebels quickly managed to rouse a riotous Constantinople mob against the reformers, many of whom were rapidly rounded up and murdered either in their own homes or after being taken to the hippodrome. The heads of seventeen important victims were proudly paraded on poles before the gruesome display was finally planted before the walls of the Sultan’s palace.

In terrified response, Selim III decreed the complete abolition of his ‘Nizam-ı Cedid’, or ‘New Order’. However, he was too late to save his throne.

In response to a deputation from the rebels, the Grand Mufti announced that since Selim III had “introduced among Muslims the manners of infidels and shown an intention to suppress the Janissaries, the true defenders of the law and the prophets,” the Sultan should be deposed. Such removal from the throne, the senior religious cleric declared, was in the best interests of Islam and the house of Osman.

The Grand Mufti formalised the deposition of Selim III in a fatwā issued on the 29th of May 1807. New Order regiments were simultaneously disbanded and the mutinous rebel leader appointed to command the Bosporus fortresses.

From their closeted incarceration in the Seraglio’s Princes’ Quarters, nicknamed the ‘Cage’, Mahmud and Kardelen at first knew little about these momentous happenings in the outside world until a great commotion occurred within their luxurious prison. Selim III, meekly accepting his deposition to avoid further bloodshed amongst his clearly outnumbered supporters, had arrived to offer reverence to his currently confined elder cousin, Mustapha, as his successor.

Selim III also advised Mustapha not to make the mistakes that he had perpetrated in attempting to advance reform too fast. He additionally wished his successor a happier reign than his own.

Having been tempted to this scene in the Cage by the accompanying the commotion, Mahmud and Kardelen witnessed this remarkable event and also the even more startling aftermath for, after paying reverence and offering his advice and best wishes, Selim III now attempted to drink poison. The outgoing Sultan had no desire to return to luxurious confinement or be executed by another’s hands.

Selim III’s desire to die was, however, dramatically denied when Mustapha, realising what the cup must contain, dashed the container away from the outgoing Sultan’s lips. He also promised that his life would be spared and that he would be treated with due dignity.

This display of rather uncharacteristic mercy on the part of Mustapha, whose scheming with the current Kızlar Agha for power had finally come to fruition, actually had selfish origins. He did not want to establish another precedent that a deposed Sultan should die in case the same somehow happened to him.

In response to Mustapha’s action and promises, Selim III decided, at 45 and after a reign of 18 years, to forego suicide in favour of returning to the confinement of the Cage. However, he did so not because his fear of death was greater than his abhorrence of renewed incarceration but because he believed that by doing so he might thereby make himself available for recall somehow someday to ruling the Ottoman Empire.

Meanwhile, Selim III’s obnoxious, scheming and actually rather mad 27 year-old successor emerged from the obscurity of the Cage to ascend the Ottoman throne as Mustapha IV.

Chapter ٥٩ - Nasihat

(59 – Advice)

(Cifte Kasirlar [Princes’ Quarters], Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, over 3 months later, 1st of September 1807)

Mahmud reacted diversely to the advent of Selim III in sharing confinement in the Cage with him. He was horrified at the Sultan’s deposition, not least because his own unlikeable and unworthy half-brother had succeeded to the throne. However, he was also pleased now to have the former Sultan’s company.

Mahmud had deliberately kept well out of the obnoxious Mustapha’s way but now often sought the much more affable Selim’s company. The Prince’s attitude was reciprocated by the former Sultan, who found his currently 22 year-old cousin to be a good companion too, being equally pleasant and formidably intelligent.

Much of the time Selim and Mahmud indulged together, invariably with Kardelen in discreet attendance, was spent in discussion about the former Sultan’s reign, including what finally went wrong. Much advice was conveyed during these sessions by the older cousin to the younger about what the latter might do in case he ever succeeded to the throne, which was a distinct possibility given that Mustapha had, like his predecessor, no sons yet.

Selim particularly preached the need for radical reform within the Empire but also outlined the serious difficulties of achieving change, given the powerful reactionary elements in contemporary Turkish society. Mahmud absorbed the former Sultan’s counsel with relish, as too did the discreetly listening Kardelen.

Coincidentally on the day that an American Grand Jury acquitted former US Vice-President Aaron Burr of treason for attempting to establish an independent republic in parts of Louisiana and Mexico, the main topic of conversation between Selim and Mahmud turned to what could be done about the dreadful Janissaries.

Chapter ٦٠ - Cinayet

(60 – Murder)

(Sultan’s Quarters, Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, 11 months later, 28th of July 1808)

The deposed Selim III still had friends and supporters who were seeking to restore him to the Ottoman throne, especially as Mustapha IV was proving to be both clearly lazy and incompetent as a ruler and showing some signs of derangement. The most notable of the former Sultan’s allies was the powerful Mustapha Bayrakdar, Pasha of Rustchuck on the River Danube [modern Rousse, Bulgaria] and overall army commander-in-chief, or ‘Seraskier’.

Mustapha Bayrakdar had originally conservatively been opposed to Selim III’s military reforms. However, having seen at first hand the greater efficiency of the New Order regiments, he eventually converted to their cause. He also owed his successful career to the former Sultan and consequently felt obligated towards him.

Mustapha Bayrakdar had, however, been campaigning, with largely Albanian and Bosnian troops, against the Russians at the time of Selim III’s deposition, which he could therefore at the time do nothing to prevent or reverse. An eventual truce, though, with the enemy finally released his large army to attempt to rectify the situation.

Mustapha Bayrakdar’s frontline military role entitled him to bear the holy black standard of the Prophet, given into the custody of the commander-in-chief when he sets off for war personally by the Sultan. With reinforcements provided by a Vizier in Edirne, equally loyal to Selim III, the Seraskier now led his armies under this sacred banner to Constantinople with the aim of restoring the former ruler to the Ottoman throne.

Mustapha Bayrakdar’s large and capable army, which overawed the now essentially militarily incompetent Janissaries into inaction in response, met little serious resistance until the walls of the New Palace [later renamed Topkapi Palace] in Constantinople were reached, where the guards denied entrance. The Seraskier, who had demanded audience with “the true Sultan Selim”, therefore forced admission with his troops.

Meanwhile, the appalled Mustapha IV, trapped in his palace and advised by the current evil Kızlar Agha, decided that his best hope of not only survival but also retaining his throne lay in murdering both Selim and his own half-brother Mahmud. The idea emanated from the wicked Chief Black Eunuch, whose logic behind the notion was that surely Mustapha Bayrakdar could neither kill nor depose the present Sultan if he was the last survivor of the revered lineage of Osman.

The murders of both Selim and Mahmud would ensure that Mustapha IV indeed attained such special status and the evil Kızlar Agha himself set out with other black eunuchs, with daggers in hand, to perform the deeds personally.

Chapter ٦۱ - Kama

(61 – Dagger)

(Valide Sultan’s Quarters, Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, shortly afterwards)

The evil Kızlar Agha discovered that Selim, who was aware of events through furtive allies within the palace, was visiting his mother, the former Valide Sultan, in her quarters within the Seraglio in order to attempt to provide her with some extra protection. The wicked Chief Black Eunuch and his men immediately attacked their previous ruler with their daggers.

Selim, however, confronted them with brave resistance, having similarly armed himself. A bloody fight with daggers therefore ensued, with a couple of treacherous black eunuchs being fatally wounded.

Selim’s resistance was, however, eventually overwhelmed by the force of numbers opposing him and he was finally disarmed and held. The smirking Kızlar Agha, who had previously cowardly refrained from participating in the earlier bloody fray, then performed the coup-de-grâce by concluding the vicious knife-fight through plunging his dagger into the former Sultan’s heart.

Whilst Selim’s dead body was subsequently irreverently dragged to Mustapha, the evil Kızlar Agha and his surviving black eunuchs went in search of Mahmud.

Chapter ٦۲ - Ceset

(62 – Corpse)

(Kiosk Throne Room, Third Court, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, shortly afterwards)

When Mustapha Bayrakdar and his soldiers, searching and shouting for Selim III, finally fought their way into the Third Court of the palace, they were confronted by a bizarre sight in the Kiosk Throne Room. The enthroned and smirking Mustapha IV awaited them, with the corpse of his predecessor thrown at his feet and expecting that of his half-brother, Mahmud, to arrive at any moment.

“Behold,” some of Mustapha IV’s guards exclaimed to the arriving Mustapha Bayrakdar, whilst pointing at the corpse, “the Sultan you seek!”

Chapter ٦٣ - Ocak

(63 – Furnace)

(Cifte Kasirlar [Princes’ Quarters], Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, shortly before)

Selim III’s blood-splatted kaftan is now on display in Istanbul’s Topkapi museum. Fortunately for posterity, the garment is not joined by a similarly sanguine one that had been worn by Prince Mahmud on this day.

Mahmud had been forewarned by Selim of current happenings and the former Sultan had suggested, just before he had fatally set off for his mother’s quarters, that the Prince should hide until the tide of events had passed. However, Kardelen’s intervention was required before the young Ottoman followed this wise advice.

Mahmud’s original brave but foolhardy reaction to Selim’s advice was that hiding would be cowardly. However, after becoming aware through the relevant accompanying commotion of the former Sultan’s assassination at the hands of the Kızlar Agha and other black eunuchs and the likely scenario that the Prince would be their next target, Kardelen finally persuaded him to conceal himself.

Kardelen knew that to argue the case for hiding on the grounds of Mahmud’s personal safety would be pointless, as the Prince was no coward. He instead persuaded him by referring to the need to safeguard the Ottoman dynasty and Empire.

“Don’t you see, Mahmud,” Kardelen had suggested in the face of his Prince’s obstinacy, “now that Selim is dead, Mustapha will keep his throne unless you stay alive. Those seeking the restoration of the former Sultan will have no choice but to stick with the present one if you are dead.”

“You now know,” Kardelen argued, “that Mustapha is not only an appalling Sultan but a murderous one too. For the sake of the dynasty and Empire, your duty now is to hide and stay alive so that Selim’s cause also stays alive!”

The clatter of feet swiftly approaching Mahmud’s quarters then announced the imminent arrival of the assassins and the Prince finally made up his mind to accept Kardelen’s advice just in time for them to exit another door before the murderers entered. However, the problem of where to hide safely then confronted their minds.

Not unusually, Kardelen quickly provided a solution. “I know somewhere good to hide,” he had declared, “so follow me!” Mahmud thankfully obeyed but was drawn to ask “Where are you taking me?”

“I’m going to throw you, Mahmud,” Kardelen answered, whilst describing the greatest service that he was ever to fulfil for his Prince, “into a furnace!”

Chapter ٦٤ - Halef

(64 – Successor)

(Kiosk Throne Room, Third Court, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, shortly afterwards)

Mustapha IV now deigned to speak himself to the shocked Mustapha Bayrakdar, who was appalled at the sight of Selim III’s corpse. “My half-brother, Mahmud,” the incumbent Sultan declared, “is also dead and so I am the sole remaining heir to the line of Osman.”

“I do not believe, Seraskier,” Mustapha IV continued haughtily, “that you will therefore continue to seek to depose me. I suggest instead that you and your men should respectfully withdraw so that I can arrange the funerals of my cousin and half-brother.”

Mustapha Bayrakdar, angered but disheartened by the deaths of both Selim and Mahmud and aware of the importance of maintaining the line of Osman for Imperial unity, could think of nothing else but acquiescence to Mustapha IV’s suggestion. He was about to comply reluctantly when a rather dishevelled and dirty young man approached. He was in the company of a black eunuch and a group of fierce Albanian soldiers, who were armed to the teeth and had broken precedence on orders from the Seraskier by entering the Seraglio to search for the former Sultan.

This rather dishevelled and dirty young man, covered in what appeared to be soot, then startlingly began to address the enthroned Sultan directly. “As you can see, Mustapha,” he happily declared, “your assassins did not find me in time and so your announcement of my death is rather premature!

“My loyal servant, Kardelen,” Mahmud informed, “hid me successfully in the currently disused but, as you can see, still somewhat sooty furnace of one of the hammams in the Princes’ Quarters until he located these nice Albanian soldiers belonging to the Seraskier. They kindly took me into their protection and brought me here.”

“I’m sorry to advise you, Mustapha,” Mahmud continued, “that they killed the Kızlar Agha and some of his confederates on the way here because they tried to impede our progress violently.” The Prince then looked at Mustapha Bayrakdar.

“Seraskier,” the soot-covered young man advised Mustapha Bayrakdar, “I am Prince Mahmud and I surrender myself to your custody. Do with me as you see fit for the benefit of the Empire!”

Mustapha Bayrakdar had never before met Mahmud. However, he could instantly perceptively see beyond the surface sooty grime to appreciate from the Prince’s words and demeanour the inherent admirable character beneath.

The smiling Mustapha Bayrakdar replied to Mahmud by saying “Lord, I believe that a return to a hammam but this time for bathing would be recommended before we discuss arrangements for your coronation.” The Seraskier then turned to Mustapha IV and suggested sternly “What are you still doing there? Yield the throne to someone worthier!”

The resistant Sultan Mustapha was subsequently dragged down from his throne by Mustapha Bayrakdar’s victorious Albanians to be returned to reluctant incarceration in the Cage.

Chapter ٦٥ - Kurum

(65 – Soot)

(Sultan’s Hammam, Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, shortly afterwards)

Unlike his half-brother, the deposed Mustapha, Mahmud was not returned to the Cage but was instead allowed to proceed, in the company of Kardelen, under the protection of Albanian guards and as befitted his new status, to the Sultan’s Quarters within the Seraglio. He had rarely ventured into these large opulent suites before and could now hardly believe that they represented his new home.

Mahmud and Kardelen headed immediately for the hammam in the Sultan’s Quarters, into which the former had never previously entered, although the latter had, of course, once bravely done so in order to secure a favour from Selim III. Once inside, the pair quickly undressed.

Kardelen had long since become unconcerned about displaying his nullified groin to Mahmud, whom he had begun personally to bathe and groom since they had first met. The black eunuch always went about such tasks with skilled zest because he was passionate about ensuring that his beloved Prince maintained an impeccable appearance.

On this occasion, the principal task was to remove the soot from Mahmud’s face and hands, accumulated when he had hidden in the inactive furnace of the hammam in the Cage. As Kardelen proceeded carefully to sponge away the dark smudges, he smiled and jokingly commented “Did you know that before you took your clothes off, you could have been mistaken for a black eunuch like me!”

In reply, Mahmud laughed before more seriously remarking “I’d have no objection to being a black eunuch like you because you’re the best person in the whole of the world!” Kardelen’s own attempt to respond to this clearly meant immense compliment was hampered by a sudden lump in his throat and dampness in his eyes.

Astutely recognising Kardelen’s sudden emotional loss of words, Mahmud decided to help his closest servant and friend recover by changing the subject. “How did you know,” he therefore asked, “that the furnace in the Cage might be a good hiding place?”

Mahmud’s tactic worked, with Kardelen’s sudden inability to speak quickly disappearing. “Do you remember when we used to play hide and seek as boys,” he instead answered with pride, “and sometimes you could never find me.”

“Yes, I do,” Mahmud replied, “and you also would never reveal where you’d concealed yourself so successfully because, you said, you might choose to use the hiding place again sometime.” “Well,” Kardelen responded, “I think that you’d now be able to guess where I hid from you!”

“But why did I never notice you smudged with soot?” Mahmud queried before suddenly realising the solution himself. “Of course,” he then said in answer to his own question, whilst studying Kardelen’s flesh, which was of a deep black hue, “it was probably there but I never spotted it because of your similar skin colour.”

Kardelen smiled again on confirming that Mahmud had finally worked out where he had concealed himself in play when they had been boys. He also commented “Fate can be very funny. Who’d have guessed that a childhood game of hide and seek would save our lives?”

“It certainly saved my life,” Mahmud remarked in response, “but I don’t think Mustapha’s assassins were after you.” “You’re right,” Kardelen replied, “but I’d have fought them to the death to prevent them harming you!”

Mahmud’s turn to experience a lump in the throat and dampness in the eyes now arrived.

Chapter ٦٦ - Atama

(66 – Appointment)

(Kiosk Throne Room, Third Court, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, shortly afterwards)

Kardelen helped Mahmud to recover his emotions by now referring to the brave slave girl, whom he had trusted to take the Prince a jug of water and attend him whilst hiding in the furnace. “I hope that Cevri Kalfa,” he said whilst displaying a mischievous smirk and naming her, “was good company.”

“She certainly was,” Mahmud answered before noticing Kardelen’s smirk. He then quickly added “But not in the way your wicked mind appears to be thinking!”

“I found her instead,” Mahmud continued, “to be a good conversationalist. I should also reward her for being so bravely loyal. Do you have any suggestions as to how?”

“I believe,” Kardelen replied, “that the position of Haznedar Usta is currently vacant and the appointment is now in your power to fill.” He was referring to the second most senior female post in the Sultan’s harem, namely that of chief treasurer.

“You’ve obviously already considered the worthiness of rewarding the girl,” Mahmud commented, “and, as usual, demonstrated wise forethought, as well as consideration in sending her to me in the first place.” “I like to be of service,” Kardelen smilingly responded, “and anyway I didn’t know how long you’d have to hide in the hot claustrophobic atmosphere of even an unlit furnace. I couldn’t personally attend you because it was important that I surreptitiously monitored events outside but I also didn’t want you expiring on me.”

“Well, Kardelen,” Mahmud remarked with a similar smile, “thanks to you, I have not only not expired but also now appear to be the Sultan.” He then more seriously said “I hope that I prove worthy of the appointment!”

Shortly afterwards, Mahmud, freshly washed, groomed and redressed in splendid attire befitting a Sultan, returned with Kardelen to the Kiosk Throne Room of the Third Court. By now, Selim III’s corpse had been reverently removed for later entombment, with the blood spilt on the spot where the body had been cast washed away.

Also by now, Mustapha Bayrakdar’s Albanian troops had established full control of the palace, with the deposed Mustapha IV safely incarcerated under heavy guard in the Cage and the surviving regicidal assassins amongst the black eunuchs summarily beheaded. Orders had also been implemented to round up and execute some of the ringleaders of the original successful rebellion against Selim III.

Mustapha Bayrakdar awaited Mahmud’s return to the kiosk, as did all trusted senior palace officials, including the Kapi Agha, or Chief White Eunuch, whose evil black counterpart was, of course, now deceased. The Seraskier then invited the new young Sultan on his arrival to ascend the throne in both senses of the phrase.

Mahmud therefore soon found himself sitting for the first time on the throne of the Osman. He significantly invited Kardelen to stand beside him.

Kardelen obeyed as discreetly as possible. However, everyone present, who was aware of the black eunuch and his background, had no doubt whatsoever that the servant would play a diplomatically quiet but nevertheless significant role in the new administration, given his exceptional abilities and closeness with the incoming Sultan.

Mustapha Bayrakdar opened proceedings by updating Mahmud about events. The Seraskier then suggested that the new Sultan might wish to consider appointing a fresh Grand Vizier to oversee the further restoration of order and establishment of stable government.

Mahmud was naturally very grateful to Mustapha Bayrakdar for what he had done. He was also aware that the Seraskier had much ability and was a supporter, like he himself was, of Selim III’s reforming policies.

Consequently, in his own first act of government, Mahmud had no hesitation in appointing Mustapha Bayrakdar as his initial Grand Vizier. The Pasha immediately and efficiently embarked on formalising the new regime.

The Grand Mufti was later coerced into releasing another fatwā, this time deposing Mustapha IV and proclaiming Mahmud II, eight days after his 23rd birthday, as the new Ottoman ruler.

At nightfall, a spectacular salvo of cannon-fire from the palace celebrated Mahmud II as the latest successor to the throne of Osman.

Chapter ٦٧ - Taç giyme töreni

(67 – Coronation)

(Sultan’s Quarters, Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, a few days later, early August 1808)

Mustapha Bayrakdar also quickly organised Mahmud II’s coronation in traditional style. The new Grand Vizier appreciated that such ritual would help to make the change of Sultan legitimate in the eyes of the people.

First, Mahmud visited the mosque and tomb at Eyup on the upper reaches of the Golden Horn outside the city walls. To the Ottoman Turks, this was the third holiest site in the world after Mecca and Jerusalem.

The site was where Eyup Ensari, the Prophet Mohammed’s slain friend and standard-bearer, had allegedly been interred during the first and failed Arab siege of Constantinople, which took place between 674 and 678 CE. The great Christian city survived for another eight centuries and the burial place was lost until supposedly being miraculously found during the finally successful Ottoman assault on the metropolis in 1453 under the leadership of Mehmet the Conqueror.

Mehmet, who will be a major character in another story in this new occasional series, had a mosque complex, or ‘kulliye’, built on the spot. After his own death, his successors adopted the custom of being girded with the sword of the revered founder of the Ottoman dynasty, Osman, at Eyup Ensari’s rebuilt tomb.

As another part of the coronation process, new Sultans afterwards visited the tomb of the illustrious Mehmet the Conqueror himself within his own kulliye, constructed in Constantinople on the site of the old Byzantine Church of the Holy Apostles. They subsequently ceremonially inspected the mementoes and relics of their ancestors piled in the vaults of their palace.

On the next morning, new Sultans received the homage of the highest Imperial officials at the Gate of Felicity. In the subsequent afternoon, they escorted the body of their predecessors to their designated resting-places, around which the building of another mosque complex might be ordered.

Another couple of days later, the new Sultans ceremonially distributed the customary donative, or ‘bakshish’, to a parade of the Janissary Corps and other household troops, as well as to palace functionaries. They would subsequently traditionally review some of their predecessor’s actions and, in order to demonstrate regard for justice and mercy, amend or revoke a few of the harsher examples. However, in order also to portray toughness as regards law and order, they also often had some malefactors arrested and executed.

The newly enthroned Mahmud II followed all of these practices in line with Mustapha Bayrakdar’s counsel until, at the end of the whole process, he found himself back in the Sultan’s quarters within the Seraglio with Kardelen. His personal black eunuch had discreetly accompanied him throughout the rituals, whilst privately thanking his Nuba gods for the pair’s deliverance from incarceration in the Cage and his master’s elevation to power.

Kardelen firmly believed that Mahmud II could be one of the greatest Sultans, just as a now long-dead Kizlar Agha had once suggested to Antoine Ignace Melling, who had left Constantinople for Paris five years previously. In the French capital, the multi-talented German artist had managed to retain royal patronage by becoming the landscape painter for Napoleon Bonaparte’s wife, the Empress Josephine.

“It appears that I am now the Lord of the Horizon, Burgave of the World, Sultan of the Two Continents, Emperor of the Black and White Seas, Shadow of God in this World and the next and Favourite of God on the Two Horizons,” Mahmud advised Kardelen with pretend snootiness when they were finally alone together. “I’d therefore be obliged if you would address me by my full title when I deign to give you permission to speak to me,” he added.

“I’m afraid, Mahmud,” Kardelen replied before the pair of them burst into raucous laughter, “that, if you insist upon implementation of this command, I’ll have to leave your service to become a rebellious Janissary, banging his upturned cauldron in outrage!”

Chapter ٦٨ - Boğma

(68 – Strangulation)

(Cifte Kasirlar [Princes’ Quarters], Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, over 3 months later, 15th of November 1808)

Mustapha Bayrakdar began his time as the Mahmud II’s first Grand Vizier vigorously, being determined to revive Selim III’s actual and proposed reforms. He quickly re-established the military units of the New Order and reinstated and attempted to advance the other relevant policies for change.

Throughout the process, Mahmud II insisted on full consultation, during which he also invariably quietly sought Kardelen’s sage counsel. However, the pair tended to agree with most of Mustapha Bayrakdar’s proposals.

In an attempt to establish harmony between the various disparate rival factions, including the powerful and often rebellious provincial barons of Anatolia and the Balkans, Mustapha Bayrakdar actually convened a unique consultative assembly of senior officials from all over the Empire. The convention met in the Imperial palace, where the new Grand Vizier gave an inspiring inaugural address, outlining the proposed revived reform programme.

The proposed reforms included a thorough reorganisation of the Janissaries. This revamp was designed to eradicate the longstanding and widespread abuses within the Corps, whose cowed members initially feigned acquiescence along with the Ulema.

Mustapha Bayrakdar also reached an agreement with the provincial barons, of whom he himself was one, as to the delineation between their own local powers and that of the Imperial administration. However, Mahmud and Kardelen disapproved of this particular landmark deal because they believed that the settlement eroded the Sultan’s powers too much, thereby seriously weakening central government.

The motive of Mahmud and Kardelen for disapproving genuinely stemmed not from a selfish desire for the Sultan to be all-powerful but from concern about protecting the Ottoman’s domains. They believed that a weak central government and over-mighty provincial fiefdoms was a recipe for potential disaster, perhaps even the disintegration of the Empire.

Mustapha Bayrakdar, however, succeeded in persuading Mahmud and Kardelen to accept the agreement reluctantly. The Grand Vizier had managed this feat by suggesting that otherwise regular trouble could be stirred up by the provincial barons, which might threaten the Empire’s stability even more.

After the apparent success of the assembly and seeming restoration of harmony within the Empire, Mustapha Bayrakdar eventually felt confident enough to return his Albanian and Bosnian troops back to their frontline positions. However, in doing so, the Grand Vizier was making a grave mistake.

The Janissaries used the opportunity to rise again in revolt, with the aim of restoring Mustapha IV to the throne. Mahmud II and Mustapha Bayrakdar soon found themselves besieged in their own respective palaces, protected only by seriously outnumbered soldiers of the New Order.

Selflessly fearing for Mahmud II’s own safety more than his own, Mustapha Bayrakdar decided to perpetrate what Mustapha IV had once attempted to do to protect himself. Despite the siege of his own residence by many angry and vengeful Janissaries, the Grand Vizier successfully managed to send a brave officer with certain deadly orders to the Sultan’s palace.

As a result of these orders, Mustapha IV was, unknowing to his half-brother, Mahmud II, strangled to death in the Cage.

Chapter ٦٩ - Katliam

(69 – Massacre)

(Kiosk Throne Room, Third Court, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, shortly afterwards)

Mahmud II was again enthroned in the Kiosk Throne Room of the Third Court of his palace, with Kardelen once more standing discreetly at his side. The Sultan had granted an audience to a delegation from the Ulema, sent to mediate a peace.

Mahmud had earlier been horrified to learn that Mustapha had been strangled on the orders of Mustapha Bayrakdar. The new Sultan of barely three months’ standing might have detested his half-brother but he would never have considered committing fratricide even to protect his own life.

Mahmud, though, understood what Mustapha Bayrakdar’s loyal motive had been, namely to make him the last of Osman’s line so that the Janissaries would be unlikely to depose or kill him. However, he also by now knew that he could never dispute the issue with his Grand Vizier.

Mahmud had earlier heard a huge explosion coming from the direction of Mustapha Bayrakdar’s own palace. News had subsequently filtered through that a tower to which the Grand Vizier had fled had spectacularly blown up, a Janissary artillery shell having penetrated to the explosive magazine stored within, massacring the many sheltering inside.

News had, however, filtered out from Mahmud II’s palace to the besieging Janissaries that Mustapha IV, whom they had wanted to restore to the throne, had been strangled. Realising that they consequently had no choice but to allow the current Sultan to remain in place, they therefore encouraged the Ulema delegation to mediate between the sides.

Mahmud, appreciating that his relatively small numbers of New Order guards could not defend him forever against the besieging Janissaries, agreed to parley. Helped by sound advice from Kardelen, he subsequently managed to reach as good a peace agreement as could be attained in the circumstances.

Mahmud II would retain his throne in return for disbanding the New Order troops, abandoning the reforming policies and appointing conservative officials throughout the Imperial government. He was loath to accept such terms but he accepted Kardelen’s sage counsel, whispered in his ear.

This advice suggested “Better to accept than be killed or again incarcerated. Retention of the throne might enable you someday to change your fortunes for the ultimate wellbeing of the Empire, just as the Janissaries have today reversed theirs for their own selfish ends!”

Not long after reaching this agreement, the New Order guards who had so bravely and loyally attempted to protect their Sultan were, in line with the terms of the deal, disarmed and left the palace under guarantee of safe conduct. However, the Janissaries, true to form, again proved treacherous.

The now unarmed New Order guards were massacred by the Janissaries, along with a number of notable civilian officials and citizens who had supported Mahmud II and his late Grand Vizier.

Chapter ٧٠ - Inanç

(70 – Faith)

(Sultan’s Quarters, Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, shortly afterwards)

Mahmud and Kardelen were again alone together in the opulent privacy of the Sultan’s Quarters in the Seraglio. They were now aware of the further treachery of the Janissaries in massacring the New Order guards and some other supporters.

“What do we do now?” asked a deeply depressed and forlorn Mahmud. “The reactionary elements in society have achieved an overwhelming victory,” he added, “for there is no Mustapha Bayrakdar to come to the rescue this time. I am surely Sultan in title only, with my influence inconsequential in the face of a new highly conservative Grand Vizier, Council of State and Ulema, supported by the apparently omnipotent Janissaries, whom I now detest with venom!”

“As I once suggested to a certain British Ambassador,” Kardelen replied, “‘Maxima enim patientia virtus’!” “What does that mean?” asked Mahmud, whose education, as supposedly befitted an Ottoman Prince, had not included any infidel languages. His extremely clever black eunuch, though, was self-taught in Latin and Greek, as he had for interest wanted to read some of ancient Byzantine books and manuscripts kept in the palace archives.

“Patience is the greatest virtue,” Kardelen answered in reply to Mahmud’s question. “But will such a quality,” the Prince glumly responded, “produce any reward in these circumstances?”

“I also went on to quote to the Ambassador the Qur’an, az-Zumar 10,” Kardelen advised, “which, as you know, states ‘Only those who are patient shall receive their rewards in full!” “I sincerely hope that the holy scripture proves correct,” Mahmud replied.

“I have faith,” Kardelen responded with true conviction, “that someday you, Mahmud, will indeed secure your revenge against the Janissaries and the other destructive elements in our society in order to progress the state!”

Chapter ٧۱ - Mermer

(71 – Marble)

(Sultan’s Quarters, Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, nearly 4 years later, 7th of September 1812)

Coincidentally on the same day that the Battle of Borodino, which occurred during the ill-fated French invasion of Russia and was the bloodiest battle of the Napoleonic Wars, was essentially drawn, Mahmud and Kardelen were again alone together in the opulent privacy of the Sultan’s Quarters in the Seraglio. They were discussing disappointing news from Athens, then still part of the Ottoman Empire.

As a result of the news, Mahmud and Kardelen felt seriously let down by a certain nose-less former British Ambassador to the Porte of their acquaintance. He had not only acted differently than originally indicated but also caused the loss to the Greek part of the Ottoman Empire of important heritage.

After bribing the local Governor, the former Ambassador had not just arranged for about half of the surviving Parthenon marble friezes to be copied. He also actually organised their surreptitious export to London, ostensibly to protect them for posterity and where they remain today.

These original friezes from the Parthenon are today kept controversially in the British Museum in London, despite pleas from the government of Greece for their return. They are named after the former Ambassador to the Porte.

The Ambassador’s friezes are now known as his ‘Marbles’ and he, of course, was Lord Elgin.

Chapter ٧۲ - Öç

(72 – Revenge)

(Sultan’s Quarters, Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, over 8 years later, 5th of May 1821)

Coincidentally on the same day that the exiled Napoleon Bonaparte died on the remote southern Atlantic island of St. Helena, Mahmud II was appraised of news from his increasingly independent Wāli, or Governor, of Egypt, Mehmet Ali. The latter Pasha of Albanian extraction had finally destroyed the Mamluks and, although nominally a subordinate of the Sultan, was now effective sole ruler of the country, who would go on in future to found his own royal dynasty that would rule until the deposition of King Farouk in 1952.

Mehmet Ali had decided to invade Sudan in order to increase his domains and access to natural resources, as well as secure plunder, including gold and slaves, many from Kardelen’s beloved homeland of the Nuba Mountains. The Wāli had done so without reference to his nominal suzerain, the Ottoman Sultan, Mahmud II.

In order, though, to placate any annoyance that his nominal suzerain might acquire over his move, Mehmet Ali decided on the way to perform a favour requested by Mahmud II several years before but upon which he had so far not bothered to act. Now making use of the fact that his troops did not have to go too far out of the way to accomplish the deed, the Wāli ordered the ruthless destruction of a certain Coptic monastery near Aswan.

The monks for whom the place had been home might have had cause to regret the nullification in their monastery of a certain Nuba boy named Kodi a quarter of a century previously, for which incident Mahmud II had sought restitution. However, they would only have been able to do so if they had made the connection with the totally unexpected bloody attack on them and had had time to do so before being brutally hacked to pieces.

Mahmud II had only asked the favour of the peaceful dissolution of the monastery but Mehmet Ali was not the type of person to allow such mercy to a place and people who had obviously somehow upset the Ottoman Sultan.

Chapter ٧٣ - Vâris

(73 – Heir)

(Senior Kadin’s Quarters, Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, nearly 2 years later, 23rd of April 1823)

By the 15th year of his reign, Mahmud II’s favourite Kadin was a Georgian girl now given the Turkish name of Bezm-i Alem. On this day, with Kardelen as usual in close attendance, the Sultan was nervously striding up and down the corridor outside his senior concubine’s quarters within the Seraglio.

Both Mahmud and Kardelen then heard a baby’s cry from within Bezm-i Alem’s quarters. The Sultan’s mother subsequently quickly emerged from the rooms to announce excitedly, whilst displaying a broad smile, “It’s a healthy boy!”

Mahmud II had happily achieved what neither of his predecessors had managed, namely to produce a son and heir, whom he was to name Abdulmecid and who would continue the revered line of Osman.

Chapter ٧٤ - Uğurlu olarak

(74 – Auspiciousness)

(Constantinople, Turkey, over 3 years later, 16th of June 1826)

“I have faith,” Kardelen had said with true conviction, “that someday you, Mahmud, will indeed secure your revenge against the Janissaries and the other destructive elements in our society in order to progress the state!” To be ready for this auspicious moment had taken almost 18 years but the time had finally now arrived.

In the interim, Mahmud II had skilfully significantly transformed his own fortunes. Having lost his senior advisers in the Janissary revolt of 1807, he had had to do so by utilising his own outstanding personal virtues of splendid intelligence, determination, concentration, energy and vision, albeit also with the invaluable help of Kardelen’s sage wisdom always available at his side.

Carefully and patiently and therefore slowly, Mahmud had first gradually crushed the power of the provincial barons by astute but judicial political and military means, thereby restoring strength and credibility to his central government. He had also skilfully managed quietly to infiltrate fresh supporters into key state positions. Finally, he had exploited the by now very serious excesses of the Janissaries, which had become worse than ever, to alienate their support within the Ulema and the general population and allow some new modern military units to be formed once more.

Many Janissaries now exhibited sparse military skill, whilst showing little respect for anyone or anything else, including Islam. They additionally no longer just dominated certain trades but ran them like rackets, forcing suppliers to provide stock at unprofitable prices. They not only continued to extort money from people but also thieved from shops in cities without any fear of prosecution and acted like raping and plundering brigands in the countryside.

There had been reverses during Mahmud II’s reign, such as the increasing independence of Egypt under the rule of the clever and cunning Pasha Mehmet Ali, and the currently serious revolt in Greece, which would soon cause the country to be lost to the Ottomans. However, these events were connected to the inherited inherent weaknesses of the Empire rather than any incompetence on the part of Mahmud II.

In May 1826, Mahmud II at last felt able to seek the destruction of the Janissaries. The Sultan began his campaign by issuing a ‘firman’, or decree, which again imposed radical reforms on the Corps.

Mahmud II fully expected the decree to cause the Janissaries to revolt again after initially feigning acquiescence and they were not to disappoint him. On the 15th of June 1826, many rebellious members of the Corps left their barracks and took to the streets of Constantinople in violent protest but the Sultan’s careful pre-planning was ready to meet the challenge.

Mahmud II, in his palace in front of loyal officials, officers, pashas and members of the Ulema, personally unfurled the holy black standard of the Prophet and urged “Victory or death!” The chant was repeated by all present, with the most vociferous being Kardelen.

The reformed modern military units, equipped with the latest artillery, were quickly deployed at key strategic points in line with the pre-planning. Criers were also despatched onto the streets of Constantinople to call loyal citizens to Mahmud II’s cause. By now heartily sick of the Janissaries, many civilians did indeed respond, seeking arms from the Sultan’s arsenals.

Sensing that the tide of events might be turning against them, and particularly disturbed by the unfolding of the Prophet’s holy standard, the Janissaries sent an officer delegation to the Grand Vizier, who was himself an old soldier but also a reformer, to attempt to negotiate a truce and pardon. They additionally took the protective precaution of sealing off all approaches to their barracks.

The Grand Vizier declined to see the peace delegation. He instead ordered the senior general of the modern artillery units loyal to the Sultan, who was later to be nicknamed ‘Black Hell’ for his role in the bloodshed on this day, to begin shelling a still roaming company of Janissaries. In response to this initial attack, about 4,000 members of the Corps subsequently retreated to and barricaded themselves inside their barracks, which proved fatally unwise for none of them survived the subsequent heavy cannon barrage and resultant fierce fire.

The search was then launched for Janissaries still on the streets and for those who had fled to a suburban forest, where they were smoked out. Many were found and killed, with hundreds of their bodies piled up in the hippodrome. Their overall casualties on this fateful day finally numbered about 10,000.

On the next day, a firman was issued not only abolishing the Janissaries but also ordering the eradication of every vestige of them, with mention of their very name forever forbidden. Loyal Tartar cavalry were also despatched to the provinces with orders for the local governors to enforce the decrees there to the extent of executing or chasing out of the Empire all members of the Corps.

In fact, most survivors remained within the Empire. However, they did so only by recourse to adopting very low profiles and pretending as best they could that they had never been Janissaries.

Mahmud II had at long last achieved his revenge and the bloody but justified incident was later to be termed by him rather mildly as the ‘Auspicious Event’.

Chapter ٧٥ - Tüberküloz

(75 – Tuberculosis)

(Sultan’s Quarters, Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, just over 13 years later, 1st of July 1839)

Kardelen was, as common, at his beloved Mahmud’s side. However, he knew in despair that this occasion would be the last because the Sultan, nineteen days before what would have been his 54th birthday, was dying and his end was near.

Mahmud had contracted tuberculosis, which was then incurable, and was quickly succumbing to the disease to the utter distress of the similarly aged Kardelen, who, in line with the dying Sultan’s command, was personally attending him to the end. However, whilst doing so, the black eunuch was trying his best to conceal his intense grief from his friend, although he found that fighting back the tears and avoiding a deeply anguished quivering in his voice to be extremely difficult.

Mahmud knew that he was near his end and so decided to address Kardelen privately, whilst his loyal black servant kneeled by his bed to hear what he whispered. “I’m not….afraid…of death,” the Sultan declared in a faltering voice, “but….I would have liked…to have lived….longer….although not…for selfish reasons….as I’m unafraid….now to meet and….be judged by…Allah. I instead….regret that I….depart this…Earth…with my work….incomplete….for the much-needed….reform of the Empire….is far from….finished.”

“I therefore….,” Mahmud pleaded, “beg….that you….Kardelen….help….my elder son and….successor….as you have….helped me. You….must see….that he….continues….my work!”

By now, Mahmud happily had another son, Abdülaziz, born on the 9th of February 1830. However, the elder boy, 16 year-old Abdülmecid, remained heir to the Ottoman throne.

“You do not have to beg me, Mahmud,” Kardelen answered in a similarly quiet but much stronger voice, “for you should know that I shall do everything in my power to ensure that your son is a worthy successor to his great father.” In response to this firm and truthful declaration of intent, the Sultan did not at first reply verbally because the very act of speaking was proving very difficult and painful. He instead just managed a smile as he looked at his friend.

Mahmud, though, did shortly afterwards manage to utter “Thank you….Kardelen….for everything!” The Sultan then closed his eyes.

Mahmud II was never subsequently to reopen his eyes for his thanks to Kardelen were the last words he ever spoke, uttered just before he stopped breathing.

Chapter ٧٦ - Tanzimat

(76 - Reorganisation)

(Gülhane [Rose Chamber], Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, just over 4 months later, 3rd of November 1839)

Kardelen was, as described in chapter 2, standing patiently in the ‘Gülhane’, or ‘Rose Chamber’. He was waiting for an imminent immensely important announcement in the distinguished company of an array of the most significant court officials, joined today for the first ever time for such a ceremony by the foreign diplomatic corps.

Whilst waiting, Kardelen had pondered his life so far. He had also reflected on the reason why certain Anatolian mountain flowers, which blossomed in spring, were so special to him.

Kardelen’s reverie, however, was ended when the immensely important announcement, which he had been awaiting, was eventually made. He already knew every word of the declaration because he had composed them.

Kardelen had officially only ever been Mahmud II’s personal slave manservant. For the sake of external appearance in such a conservative court and country, the nullified black eunuch had supposedly attended solely to the Sultan’s menial needs.

In reality, though, and as all people with an intimate knowledge of Mahmud II’s court knew, Kardelen actually played a much more important role. The Sultan considered him to be, as well as his closest friend, his most trusted advisor, albeit one who deliberately in front of others never played this part.

To avoid upsetting officials and with the acquiescence of Mahmud, Kardelen disguised his role by only proffering in private his counsel, which was constantly sought by the Sultan. As once prophesised by a good Kizlar Agha, they proved a formidable pair.

As also prophesised by the good Kizlar Agha, this formidable partnership enabled Mahmud II to be considered by most historians to be the greatest Ottoman Sultan since the death of Suleiman the Magnificent in 1566. However, the issues that he needed to contend with were quite unlike those faced by this mighty predecessor, who presided over an Empire at its zenith, and more difficult.

Mahmud II’s chief task was to try to reverse the serious decline of the Ottoman Empire through reforming the institutions of state in the face of serious reactionary and rebellious opposition from key elements in society, mainly the provincial barons, Janissaries and Ulema. The fact that he only partially succeeded was unsurprising, given the enormity of the job and his tragically early death.

What Mahmud II did achieve, though, significantly arrested the decline of the Ottoman Empire. This success enabled the state to survive under the rule of his sons and grandsons into the 20th century and only be ended by an unwise alliance with the defeated ‘Central Powers’ during the First World War.

After subduing the provincial barons and eliminating the Janissaries, Mahmud II sought enlightened development within his Empire. He wanted a more flexible and liberal society, which was in closer affinity with the rapidly modernising western civilisation of the period.

In the process, Mahmud II accepted, albeit reluctantly, the loss of some Ottoman lands, such as Greece and Egypt, which had proved militarily impossible to hold onto. He instead decided to concentrate his efforts on improving a smaller and hopefully more tenable Empire.

Mahmud II’s idea was to establish a united and strong Ottoman commonwealth, consisting of the remaining Imperial lands. In particular, he sought an Empire that was flexible enough to satisfy the varying desires and needs of the composite disparate peoples and faiths and which would thereby obtain their allegiances. His basic vision was to attain this goal through forming a secular and initially centralised administration, which separated government from religion.

After ridding the Empire of the despicable Janissaries, Mahmud II’s most urgent need had been to establish a completely new army and policing system, modelled on western lines. He proceeded to do so, helped by advice from the Prussians in particular.

Mahmud II had next turned his attention to decreasing the influence of the remaining key reactionary element in society, namely the Ulema. He began to do so by removing the civilian powers previously enjoyed by the Grand Mufti and making his office financially dependent on state support. He also reduced religious property rights and placed secondary schools under secular control.

Mahmud II modernised his own government by streamlining administration, including the eradication of many wasteful sinecures, establishing ministries and personally attending the meetings of his own ‘Divan Odasi’, or ‘Council of State’. A Sultan had not previously done this since the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent, although they had sometimes spied on proceedings through a small curtained metal grill located above where the Grand Vizier sat.

Mahmud II arranged population censuses and land surveys in order to assist efficient military conscription and gathering of taxes, which he also made more equitable. He additionally abolished the last feudal practices of land distribution and made law codes fairer. This latter act deservedly earned him the epithet of ‘Adli’, or ‘the Just’.

Mahmud II set up new higher education establishments, including modern Schools of Military Science and Music, as well as one for medicine and the beginnings of one for foreign languages. He also allowed army and navy cadets and civilian students to go abroad to become acquainted with western ways. Many of those who made use of this opportunity subsequently formed the vanguard of reformers in state institutions.

Mahmud II established embassies in the main European capitals staffed by Turks. This act created a diplomatic corps that was to provide the Empire with many enlightened leaders in the years ahead.

Realising the importance of good communications, Mahmud II established the first Turkish newspaper, which editorially reflected his policies. He also set up a postal service.

Mahmud II attempted to westernise social norms, partly doing so by personal example. For example, he defied precedent by holding receptions at which the Sultan himself mingled amongst and addressed the guests and personally performed and spoke at state ceremonies.

Mahmud II allowed his ministers to sit in his presence and on western-style furniture too. He and they used chairs, tables and desks instead of low divans and cushions on the floor.

Mahmud II’s reforms by example involved dress too. He discouraged long beards, having Kardelen trim his regularly, and encouraged the wearing of western-style trousers, in lieu of the billowing Turkish variety, and of slim tunics and coats in place of voluminous robes, plus boots instead of loose slippers. The red felt fez was also ultimately promoted as the headwear of choice to replace the turban.

How many of these reforms were the ideas of Mahmud II himself or of Kardelen is impossible to determine. However, most of them certainly came from their private conversations rather than from official advisors.

The current immensely important announcement being made in the ‘Gülhane’, or ‘Rose Chamber’, was actually another legacy of the conversations between Mahmud II and Kardelen. Before he died, the late Sultan had wanted to encapsulate a programme for further Imperial reform in a major firman. The decree would outline more radical reorganisation within the Empire.

The death of Mahmud II, however, meant that his 16 year-old son and successor, Abdülmecid I, inherited the task of ‘tanzimat’ or ‘reorganisation’. The new Sultan’s late father had ensured that the boy had received a thoroughly westernised education in the hope that he too would accept the need for the continuation of reform within the Empire.

Mahmud II’s aspirations were happily met, with Abdülmecid I, who, without precedent for a Sultan, was fluent in a foreign language, namely French, being as ardent a promoter of reform as had been his late father. He had additionally inherited not only the proposed ‘Tanzimat’ firman but also Kardelen.

Abdülmecid I had known Kardelen all of his life, for his father’s constant companion would regularly take the trouble to play with him when he had been a young child and chat with him about interesting subjects as he grew older. Eventually, Mahmud II had, when he realised that he was dying, recommended to his elder son that he should accept the black eunuch as his private personal advisor too.

Being fully aware of the black eunuch’s immense abilities, the new young Sultan had no hesitation in accepting his father’s recommendation. Abdülmecid I had also quickly delegated to Kardelen the actual task of authorship of the proposed ‘Tanzimat’ firman.

Kardelen had eventually produced the relevant document with assistance from his now many very senior confidants amongst the white eunuchs. In order to preserve court decorum, they, and not their black friend, personally succeeded in securing the acceptance of the wording of the various planned reform pronouncements from key palace officialdom without mentioning the actual author.

When the Tanzimat firman was eventually pronounced on this day in the ‘Gülhane’, or ‘Rose Chamber’, only a few privileged persons present therefore knew the true identity of the sole author. Most of the others there just presumed that the document being read out was the collaborative work of the palace civil servants.

Kardelen’s work proved to be a remarkable endeavour, embodying in detail Mahmud II’s plans so that they could form the basis for future radical change. The firman included what was basically a charter of rights for all of the Empire’s citizens, be they Muslim or not, and thereby essentially represented the first constitutional document in any Islamic country.

Non-Muslims in particular were to be treated more fairly. For example, their extra tax burdens and prohibition from joining the army were abolished.

Other important measures included further reform and improvement of the army, yet more equability in the levying of taxes and improved provisions for better administration and commercial progress. Part of the latter entailed the creation of a stock exchange.

The first Ottoman paper bank-notes were also to be introduced, a national anthem and flag adopted and the financial and law systems reorganised on French models. A consultative body that was to be a prototype for a future parliament was to be established, as were new academies and universities. In line with Mahmud II’s recognition of the importance of communications, railways were additionally to be constructed.

All these measures were to be introduced gradually over the years ahead and, in order to ensure that the relevant reforms were indeed being implemented, Abdülmecid I regularly toured around his Empire to check progress. Kardelen was invariably in discreet attendance during these visits.

Significantly for the future, one of the later major beneficiaries of the establishment of the new modern educational academies decreed in the Tanzimat firman was to be a certain Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Chapter ٧٧ - Diplomasi

(77 – Diplomacy)

(Dolmabahçe Palace, Constantinople, Turkey, over 13 years later, 8th of July 1853)

As described in chapter 8, on the 6th of September 1795, the Jellaba caravan, which had kidnapped Kodi, reached a certain point on the western bank of the Nile. The place was just north of the river’s officially recognised second cataract and opposite what was the small Nubian village of Wadi Halfa in northern Sudan, on the other eastern side of the mighty river and close to the Egyptian border. Coincidentally on the same day in faraway Paris was born a baby boy named Achille Baraguey d’Hilliers,

Now, almost 58 years later, Kardelen was to meet Achille Baraguey d’Hilliers, who had been appointed as the French Ambassador to the Ottoman court after a distinguished military career. Coincidentally, their encounter took place on the same day that, in faraway Japan, American Commodore Matthew Perry landed at Edo Bay seeking a trade treaty.

Kardelen was as usual discreetly attending Abdülmecid I, with whom the Ambassador had sought an audience. The Sultan had been reluctant to agree to the meeting because he disliked Achille Baraguey d’Hilliers’ rather arrogant approach, which stemmed from him being a military man and not a proper diplomat, but he eventually acquiesced.

The audience took place in Abdülmecid I’s brand new Dolmabahçe Palace on the banks of the Bosporus. The building had been constructed in western style, which the Sultan had considered more appropriate for the modern era than the traditional Yeni Sarayi.

Achille Baraguey d’Hilliers again proved himself haughty at the audience and later an exasperated Abdülmecid I asked Kardelen if there was anything that could be done to rid themselves of this particular Ambassador without upsetting relationships with the French. The black eunuch, who was just twelve days away from his 68th birthday, agreed to see what he could do.

Achille Baraguey d’Hilliers was recalled to France early in the following year, not long after the outbreak of the Crimean War in October 1853 and after an unusually brief tenure as Ambassador to the Porte. Abdülmecid I thanked Kardelen for achieving another quiet success.

Abdülmecid I, though, also had cause later to honour, albeit from a distance, Achille Baraguey d’Hilliers because the former Ambassador subsequently proved to be a far better soldier than diplomat. He enjoyed success during the Crimean War, which pitched the Turks, French and British against the Russians.

Achille Baraguey d’Hilliers was also to be honoured in his homeland, where he became a Marshal and Senator of France.

Chapter ٧٨ - Günlük

(78 – Journal)

(Çankaya Köşkü [Presidential Palace], Ankara, Turkey, over 84 years later, 11th of November 1937)

After the British journalist had left Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s office and the first President of the Turkish Republic was again alone, he opened one of the drawers of his desk. Inside was what he considered to be his most precious possession, a large and thick but ageing and rather battered journal.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was encouraged to refer to the journal again because of what he had just answered intriguingly and mysteriously in reply to the journalist’s question about what he considered had been the biggest inspiration in his life, namely “A mountain flower!” He now opened the book to read once more some of the entries, which were hand-written in the Ottoman Turkish Arabic script.

The journal was essentially a lengthy diary covering many years of the life of an Ottoman servant, including his origins, plus comprehensive background to many events that he was to be involved in. Added detail provided justifications and aspirations for certain actions.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had never known the Ottoman servant who had painstakingly compiled the journal over many years and had been unable to discover anything about him from other sources. Judging from the record that he had left behind, he had clearly deliberately sought obscurity in life and apparently had also achieved this goal in death.

No record of the death of the Ottoman servant had been discovered in the state archives, where a researcher had come across the journal, which in turn eventually found its way into the hands of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk after he had assumed power. He had asked for original documents relating to the reforms of Mahmud II, whom he rightly considered to be a great Sultan and whose work in seeking to transform Turkey into a modern secular state he hoped to finish.

The journal proved to be a fantastic discovery for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk because the book made other documents of the period redundant as far as he was concerned because the ledger was not only a detailed diary but also a comprehensive testament of the work and aims of Mahmud II. The President found this latter element particularly inspiring for what he too was attempting to achieve.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk presumed that the compiler of the journey must have died shortly after the last dated entry, namely early 1881 when the Ottoman servant had reached the ripe old age of 95 but was obviously still lucid. Coincidentally, the President had been born in the same year.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk now looked up in the journal the page that had inspired him to tell the journalist intriguingly and mysteriously that what he considered had been the biggest inspiration in his life had been “A mountain flower!”

Chapter ٧٩ - Vahiy

(79 – Revelation)

(Cifte Kasirlar [Princes’ Quarters], Seraglio, Yeni Sarayi [New Palace, later renamed Topkapi Palace], Constantinople, Turkey, over 140 years previously, 15th of May 1796)

Kodi had already known that court protocol decreed that he would have to lose his original name in favour of one not normally associated with people of the male gender. He also considered Mahmud’s revealed suggestion to be appropriate and preferable to the possible alternatives.

After asking during their first meeting to be told about Kodi’s background and receiving the relevant information, comprehensively and bluntly delivered, the shocked Prince instantly felt deep sorrow and sympathy for the young black eunuch. He subsequently also conjured his renaming suggestion as a way of honouring the boy’s original homeland and his obvious indefatigability in surviving his recent dreadful experiences.

The Ottoman’s black eunuchs were, like the Sultan’s female concubines, commonly named after flowers indigenous to the Empire. “I think that this particular one would be most appropriate,” Mahmud had earlier advised, “even though it’s white rather than black in colour, because this spring flora blossoms on mountains and is considered extremely hardy. In fact, the lovely snowdrop’s name derives from an ability to survive heavy snowfall.”

“The name,” Mahmud added, “actually means ‘one that pierces through the snow’. I believe that it’s appropriate as you too originate in mountains and are obviously very hardy to be able to survive your recent ordeals!”

“I should be honoured, Lord, to accept the name that you kindly suggest,” Kodi responded. He was genuinely flattered by the associated connotations, as well as relieved that he was not to suffer the indignity of being called the likes of ‘Tulip’, which was the floral symbol of the Ottomans.

“However,” Kodi asked, “can you answer one question for me, Lord?” “Certainly,” Mahmud replied, “and what is your enquiry?”

“What, Lord,” Kodi responded, “is ‘snow’?”

Chapter ٨٠ - Bahçe

(80 – Garden)

(Gülhane Park, Istanbul, Turkey, 211 years later, spring 2007)

Shortly after dining with his Turkish academic colleague in Istanbul, the author of this story went for a stroll in the city’s public Gülhane Park, once site of the rose garden in which the ‘Tanzimat’ firman had been announced in front of Sultan Abdülmecid I. He could not then prevent himself from smiling when he saw some hardy crocus-like white spring flowers in abundant bloom.

The author of this story now knew that the flowers had been planted here on the orders of a great Sultan in order to honour his friend, an equally meritorious black eunuch. The writer was not surprised that the hardy and adaptable flora still flourished in the public park.

The author of this story felt compelled to pluck, for proud display at a buttonhole of his coat’s collar, one of the flowers, which he also now knew was called a ‘kardelen’.

THE END

of

‘OTTOMANS 1: THE MOUNTAIN FLOWER’

by Pueros